Soul-Seizing Formation

After making a rough circuit of the ant nest, Heavenly Insect gained a fairly detailed initial understanding of these Black Nether Ants.

There seemed to be more than ten thousand Black Nether Ants inside the nest, with quite a few more outside gathering food and hunting spirit beasts. All told, the entire colony should have numbered nearly twenty thousand.

No wonder the area for nearly a hundred li around was a dead, silent wasteland. These Black Nether Ants must have eaten everything clean.

As for the volcanic crater where the Nine Nether Sparrow resided, it was forbidden ground for every spirit beast in the Black Nether Abyss, cutting these Black Nether Ants off from the outside world.

"Let's see how strong the ant queen is..."

Every ant nest had a powerful ant queen. All the soldier ants, worker ants, and the rest could be considered her offspring.

An ant queen was usually a tier stronger than ordinary soldier ants. By that reckoning, this colony's queen should have been a high-level spirit beast, which would make subduing the colony even harder for Heavenly Insect.

After passing through the maze-like tunnels, the soldier ant Heavenly Insect controlled finally discovered the queen in an enormous underground chamber at the deepest point within the mountain.

Unlike the ants Heavenly Insect had seen in his previous life, this Black Nether Ant queen had no wings. Rather than an ant, she looked more like an enormous dragonfly nymph, with a swollen abdomen making up two-thirds of her body. Looking closely, he could even make out the shapes of densely packed ant eggs inside it.

Outside, Heavenly Insect could not help grimacing at the sight. He had never expected the queen to look like this.

In terms of her tier alone, she was indeed a high-level spirit beast, but nothing about her appearance suggested much fighting power. In other words, she was simply a breeding machine!

"This actually works out pretty well for me..."

Judging by the experience Heavenly Insect had inherited from the original owner of his body, colonies of this kind were the easiest to mutate or strengthen. He only needed to provide the queen with the right conditions, and she could produce the corresponding kinds of offspring. That was far simpler than strengthening an entire population directly, as he had to do with Devouring Spirit Bees.

"In that case, it's time I got moving..."

Withdrawing his spiritual awareness, Heavenly Insect left the soldier ant in the nest to continue serving as his spy while he began searching for a suitable place to subdue the colony.

With a colony this large, he naturally could not use the same method he had just used on that soldier ant. Quite apart from whether he could withstand the drain, their sheer numbers meant he probably could not subdue them all even if given several months.

Naturally, the Spirit Insect Tribe had its own methods for dealing with such enormous swarms.

The Soul-Seizing Formation was another secret formation art passed down by the Spirit Insect Tribe, specifically designed to deal with insect swarms. It was highly effective; its only drawbacks were that it required a spacious location and had to be set up beforehand.

The materials Heavenly Insect had asked Mu Feng to prepare included everything needed to arrange the Soul-Seizing Formation. All he had to do now was find a suitable location and set it up.

Such a place was not difficult to find. Before long, Heavenly Insect discovered a huge hollow west of the ant nest. He released several hundred Devouring Spirit Bees to keep watch around it, then began working his way around the hollow.

Two hours later, Heavenly Insect finally finished all the preparations, his head drenched in sweat and most of the spiritual energy in his body depleted.

After spending half a day recovering, Heavenly Insect took out a bottle of Spirit Insect Liquid he had concocted and tossed it straight into the center of the hollow.

The porcelain bottle shattered against the hard rock, spilling black spirit liquid across the ground. A peculiar scent then drifted on the wind into the ant nest.

The next instant, the formerly quiet nest erupted into turmoil. Countless Black Nether Ants charged out in a frenzy, following the scent into the hollow.

Heavenly Insect was not surprised in the slightest. He knew perfectly well how irresistible his Spirit Insect Liquid was to these wild spirit insects.

Once more than a thousand Black Nether Ants had crowded densely into the hollow, a smile appeared on Heavenly Insect's face. His hands flashed through a series of seals as he roared inwardly, Soul-Seizing Formation, rise!

At his movements, nine pillars of spiritual light instantly surged up around the hollow. With those pillars as its anchors, a huge dome of spiritual light rapidly took shape, enveloping the entire hollow.

The instant the formation closed around them, the Black Nether Ants that had been driven wild by the Spirit Insect Liquid fell into a stupor. Just like that earlier soldier ant, their consciousness had been scrambled by the formation, leaving every one of them unable to control its body.

Heavenly Insect breathed a sigh of relief at the sight, but he dared not slacken for a moment. More Black Nether Ants were still charging toward the hollow, only to be blocked by the formation and left milling restlessly outside.

He had to subdue every Black Nether Ant inside before the agitated swarm outside destroyed the formation, then let the next batch in. He did not have much time.

Taking a deep breath, Heavenly Insect concentrated and swept both hands rapidly through the air. Strands of spiritual light swiftly condensed with his movements, following the paths of his hands to form a large, intricate spiritual rune in midair...

The instant the rune took shape, it flew above the suppressed Black Nether Ants inside the formation, then burst apart into motes of spiritual light that sank into their bodies.

A spiritual rune mark appeared on every Black Nether Ant touched by those motes, identical in shape to the rune Heavenly Insect had just created.

"Good, next batch!"

Heavenly Insect shouted inwardly, then took out another Spirit Insect Pouch and gathered up the Black Nether Ants. He opened the formation to admit the swarm outside, repeating the process over and over...

One bottle of Spirit Insect Liquid could attract roughly three or four waves of Black Nether Ants before evaporating completely. Heavenly Insect would then take out another bottle and smash it to keep luring them over.

A single bottle of Spirit Insect Liquid cost around a hundred thousand spirit stones to make, and that was only the cost of the ingredients. Mu Feng had supplied ten sets of ingredients, and Heavenly Insect had successfully concocted nine bottles. This colony of Black Nether Ants alone had consumed five...

Truth be told, Heavenly Insect's heart ached quite a bit. He was penniless, after all, and even these supplies had been earned through his own work.

As for the rune Heavenly Insect had just used, it was an Insect-Control Spirit Talisman, a standard means of insect control among Insect Masters. The Spirit Insect Tribe had improved its version to allow spirit insects to be subdued on a massive scale like this, something accessible only to those who possessed a truly complete Insect Master inheritance.

Compared with the earlier Blood Talisman, this spirit talisman was clearly faster and more convenient, with a modest energy cost. However, it could not allow an Insect Master to share consciousness or establish a mental connection with spirit insects as a Blood Talisman could. Each had its own strengths and weaknesses; he simply needed to choose different methods for different targets.

Thanks to the queen's peculiar nature, the subjugation went smoothly, without any scares or danger. Still, even with his advance preparations, subduing so many Black Nether Ants in such a short time left Heavenly Insect utterly exhausted.

Watching the sky gradually darken, Heavenly Insect decided to spend the night resting outside the ant nest.

This was Black Nether Ant territory, after all. Even high-level spirit beasts normally dared not approach, so he had no need to worry about safety.

What surprised Heavenly Insect, however, was that the soldier ant he controlled with the Blood Talisman brought him quite a few valuable items from inside the nest...

There was a spiritual sword of High-grade Spirit Artifact quality, along with various sabers, spears, swords, and halberds, though most of those were only low-grade Spirit Artifacts.

These had all been left behind by humans who had ventured into the Black Nether Abyss. As for the humans themselves, they had long since become food for the Black Nether Ants.

There were also ordinary weapons and armor, but since they were not Spirit Artifacts, the fiery aura of these mutated Black Nether Ants had corroded them into piles of scrap metal. Heavenly Insect naturally had no use for those.

At market prices, a High-grade Spirit Artifact cost over a million spirit stones, while even a low-grade Spirit Artifact cost a few tens of thousands. These Spirit Artifacts alone were enough for Heavenly Insect to recoup his expenses.

A quick calculation meant he had effectively obtained an entire colony of Black Nether Ants for free...

That thought instantly put Heavenly Insect in an excellent mood!

After a night's rest, Heavenly Insect felt that all his fatigue from the previous day had vanished, leaving him brimming with energy once more. Next, he needed to venture into the heart of the Black Nether Abyss and search for traces of the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm.

According to the information in the scroll he remembered, the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm was most likely hiding somewhere in the Black Nether Abyss. However, the creature was exceedingly cunning. While it lacked strength, it would conceal its whereabouts extremely well. Only after transforming into a cicada would it venture out to throw its weight around.

"Although the core of the Black Nether Abyss isn't very large, its terrain is even more complex. Many places even have passages leading deep underground, and those places often harbor terrifyingly powerful high-level spirit beasts, or even Heavenly Beasts. I'll have to be careful, then more careful still."

Before setting out, Heavenly Insect repeatedly reminded himself of this.

Still, with the Black Nether Ant colony scouting ahead and the flying Devouring Spirit Bees assisting, their sweeping search above and below should greatly improve his chances of finding even the faintest clues.

Moreover, the Black Nether Ant colony alone could handle ordinary high-level spirit beasts, further ensuring Heavenly Insect's safety.

As he advanced, Heavenly Insect encountered quite a few high-level spirit beasts. After the Black Nether Ants devoured them, they left him materials such as claws, fangs, scales, and armored hides, as well as the even more valuable spirit beast essences...

Ordinary low-level and mid-level spirit beast essences were not worth much, and few people chose to refine them. High-level spirit beast essences were another matter. In a remote place like the Northern Spiritual Realm, a single high-level spirit beast essence was something everyone sought.

At the Northern Spiritual Academy, where Mu Chen currently studied, the instructors had only refined ordinary high-level spirit beast essences, some of which were even ranked outside the top several hundred...

One Thunder Moon Wolf essence Heavenly Insect obtained ranked one hundred and eighty-seventh on the Myriad Beasts Record Earth Ranking. Out in the wider world, people would probably scramble madly to buy it.

Of course, unless he was desperately short of money, Heavenly Insect would not sell these high-level spirit beast essences. He still needed them to concoct special spirit liquids of various attributes to strengthen spirit insects, or even promote their evolution and mutation.

This expedition also served as a chance for Heavenly Insect to gather materials for himself along the way. Even if he failed to find the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm, at least he would not return empty-handed.

A month passed in this fashion, but apart from adding more materials to his collection, Heavenly Insect found no useful information.

He had searched the entire core region of the Black Nether Abyss three times over. Forget digging three feet into the earth-he had dug more than thirty feet down, yet still found nothing.

Heavenly Insect had begun to wonder whether the information in his memories was wrong. Could the location recorded in the scroll have referred to somewhere other than this Northern Spiritual Realm and Black Nether Abyss?

Unfortunately, when the original owner of his body had burned to death, everything he carried had been destroyed as well. Even the scroll inside the Cosmic Bracelet had not survived, so checking it again was now impossible.

Yet Heavenly Insect could not bear to give up just like that. This was the Six-Winged Golden Cicada, a primordial ferocious insect that had rivaled Saint Grade Heavenly Sovereigns in ancient times!

Just as Heavenly Insect was preparing to search one final time, he entered an underground passage he had previously considered the least likely place to find anything. As he walked, his keen ears suddenly caught a faint rustling from within the stone wall...

"Huh?!" Heavenly Insect jolted in surprise, then listened carefully, but heard nothing more. It was as though everything just now had been an auditory hallucination.

Heavenly Insect did not believe he had imagined it, however. As the saying went, details decided success or failure. Perhaps his earlier searches had not been thorough enough in the details, causing him to overlook important information.

After a moment's thought, Heavenly Insect bit the tip of his tongue and spat out a mouthful of blood essence. Spiritual energy swiftly gathered between his hands as he used the blood essence to construct a special Blood Talisman, which instantly sank through the stone wall...

The Perception Art was one of the methods every Insect Master needed to master for finding spirit insects. After all, spirit insects differed from spirit beasts. Certain special spirit insects possessed powerful concealment abilities and could not be found with the naked eye alone.

Because members of the Spirit Insect Tribe possessed an innate affinity for spirit insects, they could use their own blood essence to enhance this perception to a truly astonishing degree. Heavenly Insect normally avoided this method, however. Biting his tongue hurt quite a bit, and it also consumed blood essence...

Sure enough, after using the special Perception Art, Heavenly Insect immediately discovered the truth behind the stone wall. He sensed a great many spirit insects several hundred meters beyond it, seemingly in an insect nest hidden deep underground.

Although it was not information directly concerning the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm, the spirit insects inside such a mysterious nest were surely extraordinary. For a Spirit Insect Master, this was also a rare piece of good news.