Chapter Summaries

Heavenly Insect asked Domain Lord Tian Yuan to help him compete for one of the Twelve Branches’ places in the coming Insect World opening, and Tian Yuan agreed to recommend him. Heavenly Insect cultivated the first cycle of the Golden Cicada Rebirth Art and prepared to face the body tribulation.

• Tian Yuan offered Heavenly Insect a request, and Heavenly Insect asked for help gaining a chance to compete for an Insect World place.
• Tian Yuan warned that Heavenly Insect needed to pass the body tribulation to compete with the other candidates, and Heavenly Insect revealed another supreme-level spirit insect.
• Tian Yuan agreed to recommend Heavenly Insect and arranged for him to cultivate at the Domain Lord’s Manor, while Heavenly Insect nominated Demon Butterfly as Flying Spirit City’s new city lord.
• Heavenly Insect spent more than half a month cultivating the Golden Cicada Rebirth Art and completed its first cycle, shedding a golden outer shell and regrowing his hair.
• Heavenly Insect began cultivating again to trigger the body tribulation, unsure what ordeal his strengthened body would face.

Heavenly Insect endured a month-long Body Tribulation and emerged with extraordinary physical strength just before the Twelve Branches' competition. Tian Yuan took him by teleportation array to Flowing Moon Heaven, where Heavenly Insect arrived ready to learn about his opponents and explore the clan grounds.

• Heavenly Insect triggered the Body Tribulation, and Golden Cicada supplied spiritual energy as the blood fire painfully tempered his body.
• Tian Yuan learned that Heavenly Insect's tribulation was underway and worried he would miss the competition, which was only days away.
• After a month, Heavenly Insect emerged with physical strength that astonished Tian Yuan, and he refused to rest before traveling to the competition.
• Heavenly Insect postponed refining the Ancient Sword Butterfly form of his Flying Insect Method and resolved to learn about the Twelve Branches' opponents.
• Tian Yuan and Heavenly Insect used a teleportation array to reach Flowing Moon Heaven, the Twelve Branches' vast floating clan grounds.

Heavenly Insect arrived in Flowing Moon Heaven with Tian Yuan, met Tian Zhe, and received a chance to compete for a place in the Insect World. The contest began with 172 contestants, and Meridian Lord Tian Qiu announced that only sixteen would advance to fight for ten places.

• Tian Yuan used his father's elder's token to lead Heavenly Insect through the gate and into the Twelfth Branch's territory.
• Tian Yuan introduced Heavenly Insect to his father, Tian Zhe, who recommended him for the contest and promised him the Dragon Centipede Sword.
• After three days, the contest began, and Heavenly Insect saw Young Master Tianwu and the other leading contestants arrive with their powerful spirit insects.
• Tian Qiu announced that five contestants would earn places directly in the elimination round, while eleven others would compete for the remaining five places.
• Tian Qiu ordered the battlefield opened in the Flowing Moon Realm, where the elimination round would take place.

Heavenly Insect entered the Flowing Moon Realm to collect spirit cores and encountered Tian Yu being attacked by three participants. After rescuing her, he learned of a vast spirit body gathering site that might contain a Spirit King, and prepared to pursue it with her.

• Heavenly Insect entered the Flowing Moon Realm and began hunting spirit bodies for their cores.
• Heavenly Insect killed a Heaven Transformation Realm Spirit Soldier, then decided its core was too weak to be worth targeting.
• Heavenly Insect found three participants attacking Tian Yu and learned they wanted her to reveal a spirit body gathering site.
• Heavenly Insect knocked the three attackers unconscious with his physical strength and proposed that he and Tian Yu hunt together.
• Tian Yu revealed that the gathering site held thousands of spirit bodies, including more than a hundred Spirit Generals near its outskirts, and Heavenly Insect suspected a Spirit King led them.

Heavenly Insect and Tian Yu reached a vast Gathering Point and encountered four rival teams led by Divine Soul Tribulation experts. After Heavenly Insect defeated Tian Xi with one sword strike, the teams agreed to cooperate in attacking the spirit entities, and Heavenly Insect proved exceptionally effective against the advancing Spirit Soldiers.

• Heavenly Insect and Tian Yu found a huge spirit entity Gathering Point and watched as four powerful teams arrived.
• Tian Que proposed sharing the Spirit Cores, while Tian Xi demanded that Heavenly Insect and Tian Yu serve as cannon fodder.
• Heavenly Insect challenged the teams to withstand one sword strike and cut through Tian Xi’s defense, forcing him to accept the pair as equals.
• The teams began attacking the Gathering Point together, and Tian Que warned them to stay close while fighting the swarming Spirit Soldiers.
• Heavenly Insect used the Six-Eyed Blade Mantis to trap and kill large numbers of Spirit Soldiers, while the Nine Revolutions Black-Whiskered Mosquito devoured another mass of them.

Heavenly Insect and Tian Yu cleared the Spirit Soldiers on the outskirts, then joined Tian Que’s team in battling Spirit Generals. After negotiating a reward of four thousand Spirit Cores, Heavenly Insect set off with Tian Que to hunt a Spirit King while the other teams raced to break free of their own battles.

• Heavenly Insect slaughtered Spirit Soldiers and collected 2,526 Spirit Cores, while Tian Yu gathered 875.
• Tian Yu explained that the other teams used prepared heaven-grade spirit insects as expendable sacrifices to fight Spirit Generals.
• Heavenly Insect joined Tian Que’s besieged team, helped break the encirclement, and accepted Spirit Cores for his assistance.
• Tian Que offered to hunt a Spirit King with Heavenly Insect and agreed to pay him 4,000 Spirit Cores if they succeeded.
• Tian Xi, Tian Qi, and Tian Ling ordered their teams to sacrifice more spirit insects and force their way out before Tian Que reached the Spirit King.

Heavenly Insect and Tian Que led their group in a battle against a powerful Spirit King, only for its dying roar to awaken a second Spirit King in the form of an Armored Back Dragon Centipede. When Tian Que ordered a retreat, Heavenly Insect stopped holding back and unleashed his full strength against the new threat.

• Heavenly Insect revealed that the Six-Eyed Blade Mantis was a sovereign spirit insect, and Tian Que answered by summoning his sovereign Soul-Eating Spider King.
• The group attacked the Spirit King, and Heavenly Insect used the Six-Eyed Blade Mantis's illusion rays and his sword to wound its forehead.
• The Spirit King roared as its body began to crack, awakening a second Spirit King that emerged from a collapsed black-stone hill as an Armored Back Dragon Centipede.
• Heavenly Insect discovered a blood-colored stone inside the dragon centipede Spirit King's body and pierced it, while Tian Que ordered the group to retreat.
• Heavenly Insect summoned his Ancient Sword Butterfly, used spirit possession, and gathered immense sword energy into his blade as the battle continued.

Heavenly Insect killed the Dragon Centipede Spirit King, took its core, and finished the elimination round with 18,750 points. The Spirit Ranking Stele placed him fourth, securing him a direct place in the Insect World alongside Tian Wu, Tian Cong, Tian Qin, and Tian Huo.

• Heavenly Insect split the Dragon Centipede Spirit King with a sword strike and took its Spirit King Core while Tian Que's battered group fled.
• Heavenly Insect gave Tian Yu a thousand spirit cores as payment for her help, then went his own way and resumed hunting.
• Heavenly Insect's score climbed above 18,000 before the elimination round ended, and the contestants gathered to check the Spirit Ranking Stele.
• The contestants discovered Heavenly Insect had placed fourth with 18,750 points, despite being at the Body Tribulation stage.
• The rankings settled with Tian Wu first, Tian Cong second, Tian Qin third, Heavenly Insect fourth, and Tian Huo fifth; all five earned direct places in the Insect World.

Heavenly Insect’s fourth-place finish drew Tian Huo’s hostility, while Tian Yu revealed that Heavenly Insect possessed an Ancient Sword Butterfly. A Spirit Venerable stopped their clash, ended the elimination tournament, and began refining the competitors’ Spirit Cores to strengthen them before sending them onward.

• Tian Que loudly congratulated Heavenly Insect on taking fourth place, provoking Tian Huo to attack him with an oppressive aura.
• Heavenly Insect blocked Tian Huo with his sword qi, and Tian Wu, Tian Qin, and Tian Cong discussed his mysterious strength.
• Tian Yu told Tian Wu’s group about her journey with Heavenly Insect and identified his hidden trump card as an Ancient Sword Butterfly.
• A Spirit Venerable descended into the plaza, suppressed Heavenly Insect and Tian Huo, and declared the elimination tournament over.
• The Spirit Venerable refined the ranked competitors’ Spirit Cores into spirit liquid and guided it into their bodies before they left through the teleportation array.
• When Heavenly Insect received his spirit liquid, he found its energy purer and easier to merge with his own than the energy Golden Cicada had refined.

Elder Tian Zhe explained how the Twelfth Branch had lost expedition places and urged Heavenly Insect to help the team escape its reputation as the weakest branch. After advancing his cultivation and joining the other nine team members at the Scripture Pavilion, Heavenly Insect reunited with Tian Yu and faced hostility from several teammates as a dragon-shaped guardian addressed them.

• Elder Tian Zhe told Heavenly Insect that the Twelfth Branch had only ten Insect World places after ranking last in the previous expedition, and urged him to help the team avoid the bottom three.
• Elder Tian Zhe promised Heavenly Insect a Ten-Tailed Flying Spirit Centipede, a chance to choose a divine art, resources, and materials for the centipede's evolution.
• Heavenly Insect overcame his Spiritual Energy Tribulation, strengthening his spiritual arts and the sword aura wielded through the Ancient Sword Butterfly.
• Heavenly Insect arrived at the Scripture Pavilion and found Tian Yu with Tian Wu; Tian Yu introduced him to their teammates and urged the group to work together.
• Tian Huo, Tian Ming, and Tian Cong regarded Heavenly Insect with hostility, while a dragon-shaped creature on the pavilion doors spoke to the assembled team.