Black Nether Ants

Mu Feng did not charge over with the entire group. Only he, Zhou Ye, and Mu Chen entered the seemingly dangerous volcanic crater.

The three did not act rashly after entering the crater. Instead, they scanned their surroundings, searching for traces of the Nine Nether Sparrow.

The bottom of the crater was not particularly spacious, and they soon searched the whole area. Yet they still found nothing, deepening the doubt in their eyes.

Could the information on that copper fragment be false?

Mu Chen pursed his lips and looked around. Without realizing it, he had reached the center of the crater floor, where several enormous black rocks lay scattered, washed out by the volcano.

He examined the huge black rocks but could make nothing of them, and sighed inwardly in frustration.

Just as he was about to turn away, his steps abruptly halted. His hand clenched inside his sleeve, and the ancient copper fragment appeared in his palm...

At that moment, the copper fragment was actually giving off a faint warmth.

This copper fragment... could it sense the Nine Nether Sparrow's location?

With that thought, Mu Chen hurriedly called Mu Feng and Zhou Ye over, and the three began examining the black rocks one by one.

At last, Mu Chen stopped before one of the black rocks. When he placed his palm against it, the copper fragment in his other hand grew exceptionally hot.

"This is it!"

Mu Chen was overjoyed, and Mu Feng and Zhou Ye hurried over.

The black rock before them stood over a hundred feet tall. A few scattered holes marked its surface, but perhaps because lava had once scoured it, the enormous rock looked unusually smooth.

"Could the Nine Nether Sparrow be inside this rock?" Zhou Ye asked in confusion.

Neither Mu Feng nor his son knew how to answer. After a moment's consideration, Mu Feng said decisively, "Whether she is or not, let's crack this black rock open and take a look!"

As he spoke, crimson spiritual energy gathered around his hand, and he slammed a heavy punch into the rock's surface.

Under that punch, the massive rock shook continuously, shards rapidly falling away. Then, before their eyes, a streak of dense black light shot from a crack in the rock.

Once the enormous rock had completely shattered, Mu Chen saw a mass of ink-black light quietly rise and hover above the crater floor.

The mass of light floated there, and within it seemed to be a huge black egg roughly ten feet across.

The egg was smooth and pitch-black, its shell covered in markings that were barely visible yet exceptionally obscure and mysterious.

On closer inspection, those markings resembled a mysterious black bird spreading its wings to shelter the egg.

"This is..."

Mu Chen stared at the enormous black egg gleaming with light. He froze for a moment, then delight flooded his eyes.

In the images he had seen on the copper fragment, the Nine Nether Sparrow seemed to have transformed into a black egg at the very end and fallen here...

Could this be that very egg?

For a moment, all three were overjoyed.

If the Nine Nether Sparrow had still been in her adult form, even grievous injuries would not have made her easy to capture.

But if she was only an egg, things would be much simpler!

Unfortunately, their excitement did not last long. Perhaps Mu Feng's attack had awakened her, for something within the previously quiet black egg seemed to activate. Rings of black light surrounded it, and it slowly began rising toward the sky above the crater.

While Mu Chen and the others entered the crater, Heavenly Insect had not been idle either. He secretly directed the Soul Devouring Bee Swarm to scatter and scout in every direction throughout the Black Nether Abyss.

According to his memories, his body's original owner had gone to immense lengths to travel hundreds of millions of miles from the Spirit Insect Tribe to the Northern Spiritual Realm,

and it certainly had not been for the Nine Nether Sparrow! Encountering her during her tribulation had merely been a coincidence. His true purpose had been to search for an extraordinary insect!

In his memories, after Heavenly Insect's parents died, he had received a scroll they had left him. It contained information about an ancient extraordinary insect-the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm!

Even within the Spirit Insect Tribe, this precious extraordinary insect existed only in legend.

It was said that the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm was only the size of a thumb and could live as a parasite in a person's heart, feeding on their heart's blood. During that time, it could release an exceptionally unique power that transformed its host from the bones outward, improved their aptitude, and even accelerated their absorption of spiritual energy. It could truly be called a rare and priceless treasure!

Yet in the Spirit Insect Tribe's ancient records, Heavenly Insect's parents had accidentally discovered that its supposed help in transforming its host and improving their aptitude was nothing more than a facade...

Those effects did exist, and were even more astonishing than the legends claimed, but the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm deliberately produced them only to hasten its own growth.

Only when its host grew stronger could they provide more abundant nourishment for its growth, allowing the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm to develop faster.

This seemed like a mutually beneficial relationship, but once the host's advancement reached a bottleneck or slowed, leaving it unable to obtain steadily increasing nourishment, the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm would directly drain the host's life force to make up the difference, until the host became a withered skeleton...

Even if its host could keep supplying sufficient nourishment, once the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm matured, it would begin spinning a cocoon and evolving. Its host would then become its finest bodyguard and nourishment for its evolution!

It was no precious divine insect at all, but a bloodthirsty demonic insect through and through!

And that was indeed the truth.

After forming a cocoon, the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm would turn into a cicada, gaining a new name: the Six-Winged Golden Cicada!

The legendary primordial vicious insect, the Six-Winged Golden Cicada!

This terrifying beast existed only in legend and was famed for its six wings, each resembling a throwing knife.

The legendary Six-Winged Golden Cicada was greedy by nature. Though it possessed supreme intelligence, it fed on the living beings of the Great Thousand World, and its appetite was a bottomless pit. Its shell was also immensely hard, impervious to blades, spears, water, and fire, and untouched by all arts. It had virtually no weaknesses.

The Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm took a thousand years to mature before shedding its shell and becoming a Six-Winged Golden Cicada. It then shed its shell once every thousand years, repeating the cycle nine times before reaching its complete form. Its strength rivaled a Saint Grade Heavenly Sovereign's, making it even more terrifying than supreme Divine Beasts such as dragons and phoenixes.

Its only weakness was probably that, whenever it formed a cocoon, its body became frail and vulnerable to a single blow.

Ancient texts recorded a Six-Winged Golden Cicada that had shed its shell nine times and appeared in the ancient Great Thousand World. There was no evil it had not committed, and it had devoured numerous ancient races, including humans and Divine Beasts. Yet no one could do anything about it.

In the end, an Earthly Sovereign expert happened upon the Six-Winged Golden Cicada while it was cocooning. Believing death inevitable, he unleashed a desperate, life-risking blow and killed the vicious creature. He then used its shell to forge a suit of armor on the level of a peerless sacred artifact, utterly indestructible.

That Earthly Sovereign eventually relied on it to advance to Heavenly Sovereign, earning himself the name Golden Cicada Emperor in the Great Thousand World...

Although Heavenly Insect came from the Spirit Insect Tribe's Heavenly Meridian, his parents had merely been ordinary people. The original Heavenly Insect had possessed mediocre aptitude too, or he would not have remained in the Divine Soul Realm even after several decades.

Indeed, his body's original owner had been far from young. However, after his physical body was reconstructed, the current Heavenly Insect had effectively been reborn, leaving him looking only sixteen or seventeen.

After his parents died, the original owner had been left with no choice but to stake his life on a gamble to survive within the tribe. Following the clues in the scroll they had left behind, he had come in search of the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm...

For an ordinary person, becoming the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm's host would surely end badly. But the Spirit Insect Tribe was renowned for controlling insects, so Heavenly Insect had intended to see whether he could tame it. If he truly succeeded, he would not only have a chance to become the greatest member of the Spirit Insect Tribe, but also claim a place for himself in the Great Thousand World.

Perhaps this was what it meant to seek riches and honor amid danger. After all, no matter how he looked at it, the gamble was worth taking!

"Unfortunately, I still can't determine exactly where that Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm is!" Heavenly Insect felt a slight pang of regret.

After directing the Devouring Spirit Bees to search the surrounding hundreds of miles without finding any valuable information, Heavenly Insect prepared to give up.

What he had not expected was that some of the Soul Devouring Bee Swarm he had sent out would actually get lucky and bring back information he currently needed...

"A hundred and fifty miles southeast, a Black Nether Ant Nest? That's certainly worth exploring..."

Black Nether Ants were low-grade spirit insects native to the Black Nether Abyss. Individually, they were about as strong as Devouring Spirit Bees, and likewise lived together in swarms.

Even high-grade Spirit Beasts avoided places inhabited by Black Nether Ants. Large nests in particular often housed tens of thousands of them, leaving not a blade of grass wherever they passed. They were much like the army ants Heavenly Insect had seen in films and television in his previous life.

If he could subdue a swarm of Black Nether Ants as well, his own strength would increase considerably, making his exploration of the Black Nether Abyss safer.

Of course, his most pressing task was to prepare first. At the very least, he needed a Spirit Insect Pouch, bait for trapping spirit insects, Spirit Liquid for raising them, and many other basic supplies ready in advance.

Otherwise, how would he carry away such a huge swarm of Black Nether Ants? Have them fly through the sky alongside the Devouring Spirit Bees? Apart from the Ant Queen, none of these Black Nether Ants could fly...

While Heavenly Insect was considering what he needed to do next...

Bzzz.

Above the black volcanic crater, a mysterious black egg hovered in the air. At that moment, exceptionally obscure patterns of light slowly began glowing on its surface.

As those patterns emerged, everyone could feel the fluctuations of spiritual energy between heaven and earth suddenly turn extremely violent.

Mu Feng, his son, and Zhou Ye had already rushed out of the crater. Everyone from the Mu Domain stared at the change overhead in terror.

"Be careful."

Mu Feng said in a low voice, "If anything goes wrong, retreat immediately. We'll give up on the Nine Nether Sparrow."

Mu Chen nodded lightly, his gaze fixed on the black egg in the sky. Suddenly, a voice sounded beside his ear.

"So it's the Nine Nether Sparrow..."

Mu Chen jolted in alarm, then turned and met Heavenly Insect's deep, quiet gaze.

"Brother Heavenly Insect, do you know what's happening to the Nine Nether Sparrow?"

Heavenly Insect glanced at the youth, the corner of his mouth lifting. "I do know a little..."

"Judging by what the Nine Nether Sparrow is doing, I'm afraid she intends to continue undergoing her tribulation..."

"Her tribulation?" Both Mu Feng and his son's expressions changed. "The Nine Nether Sparrow still wants to evolve?!"

Heavenly Insect nodded slightly, then looked at Mu Feng and the others. "Domain Lord Mu, I think we should retreat farther away. I'm afraid something drastic is about to happen here!"

Before Heavenly Insect could finish, everyone suddenly noticed the sky overhead rapidly darkening. It showed faint signs of turning from day to night, and their expressions changed.

Screech!

As the darkness spread, a clear cry suddenly rang out between heaven and earth. Waves of sound rippled outward, eventually vanishing beyond the limits of their sight.

"Retreat! Hurry, retreat!"

Mu Feng immediately roared and led the people of the Mu Domain in a frantic retreat.

At the same time, everyone distinctly felt the ground beneath their feet shaking, as though thousands of troops and horses were charging across it.

Roar!

Amid furious roars, countless Spirit Beasts rushed out of the Black Nether Abyss. Dozens of high-grade Spirit Beasts were even leading the charge!

The sight struck terror into the hearts of everyone from the Mu Domain, and countless people began scrambling like mad toward the distant mountain cliffs.

If that beast tide struck them, even someone in the Divine Soul Realm would probably be trampled into a bloody pulp!

"What in the world is happening?!" Mu Feng roared, his heart trembling, after rushing up a mountain to escape the danger for the moment. But no one answered him.

Only after a while did Heavenly Insect say quietly, "Can't you see it yet? These Spirit Beasts are all sacrifices for the Nine Nether Sparrow's tribulation..."

As though to confirm his words, the black egg in the sky released another piercing bird cry.

Screech!

Another black sound wave quietly rippled outward with that clear cry. It spread as gently as flowing water, finally washing over the herd charging madly toward them.

Mu Chen drew a sharp breath, horror flooding his dark eyes.

He saw every Spirit Beast touched by that black sound wave, whether high-grade or low-grade, freeze in an instant. Then their flesh and blood peeled away, leaving stark white skeletons standing in the Black Basin, still posed in mid-stride.

So this was how the bones they had seen earlier had appeared...

Now, when they looked at the Black Nether Abyss again, it seemed in every way like the Nine Nether Sparrow's pasture. All the Spirit Beasts here were livestock she had raised, solely to provide her with sufficient spiritual energy when this very moment arrived!

Even the copper fragments that outsiders obtained had been deliberately planted by her. She used them to lure greedy humans here, then took the spiritual energy within their bodies as well.