The next instant, the two creatures, which had been reproductively isolated and were not even the same species...
Mated.
The male Blackgold Moth wriggled its plump abdomen, seemingly intent on pouring every drop of its essence into the cockroach.
Yet the cockroach thrashed wildly, its pointed head twisting and its antennae whipping about, as though it were in terrible pain.
The instant the two touched, the cockroach in Lin Ke's hand abruptly burst, splattering juices all over his hand.
"It failed?" Lin Ke frowned.
But he immediately realized why.
Too fragile!
Cockroaches might be called Xiao Qiang, but they were still ordinary insects, not spirit insects endowed with spirituality.
Although Lin Ke's Niwan Palace possessed a fusion function, that did not mean it could fuse absolutely anything.
This cockroach could only be considered mortal grade, whereas spirit insects were all spirit grade.
The Blackgold Moth might be unremarkable, but it was still a low-grade spirit insect. Its essence was not something an ordinary Mortal Grade creature could withstand.
In other words, the Blackgold Moth's essence had literally scalded the cockroach to death!
"This is trouble..."
Lin Ke looked at the other insects.
If none of them could withstand it, he would have to find another way.
So Lin Ke carefully supported the Blackgold Moth and brought over the largest, strongest rhinoceros beetle.
The rhinoceros beetle kept jabbing him with its horn and clawing at him with its legs, but he still forced the rear ends of the two insects together.
"Hiss!!!"
The rhinoceros beetle struggled desperately, letting out a despairing hiss before exploding, spraying brown and green fluids everywhere.
Another one scalded to death by the Blackgold Moth's essence!
Despite mating twice in succession, the Blackgold Moth showed no sign of exhaustion. Instead, having entered the Niwan Palace, it seemed exceptionally lively.
Lin Ke tried several more after that, but every attempt ended in failure.
Just when he thought this attempt was over, the Blackgold Moth's rear end touched that of the bee he had caught.
He had held little hope to begin with. After all, only queen bees truly possessed reproductive capacity; ordinary bees had their reproductive functions suppressed by pheromones.
Besides, the bee in his hand was quite ordinary and small, with nothing distinctive about it.
Yet now, after he pinched the bee's rear end and brought it over... the two actually joined together in perfect harmony.
Most importantly, the bee did not resist. Instead, it cooperated readily.
A few seconds later, their abdomens separated.
The mighty Spirit Grade Blackgold Moth became an empty husk the instant they parted, as though it had been sucked dry.
Meanwhile, waves of Spirit Power radiated from the bee.
The next instant, the bee struggled free of Lin Ke's palm and swiftly flew to the ground.
Then, using its mouthparts, it carried some of the mysterious soil from the Niwan Palace beneath Lin Ke's feet onto a cage and swiftly began building a honeycomb cell.
Lin Ke watched the process curiously from the side.
Clearly, the two had mated successfully.
Yet the father had died outright in the process, while the mother's frantic haste to build a honeycomb also seemed like the final flare of life before death.
Could every fusion consume both the father and the mother? Lin Ke wondered.
Just then, the honeycomb cell was completed.
Without even waiting for the cell to dry, the bee immediately inserted its abdomen into it. Its wings beat furiously with a buzzing sound, and its Spirit Power began to surge.
Then, at a certain moment, the bee stopped moving. All its Spirit Power receded, and its body crumbled directly into fine dust, vanishing just like the paternal Blackgold Silkworm.
Lin Ke had silently observed the entire process from the side. After the bee died, what lay at the bottom of the honeycomb cell became clearly visible.
An egg.
A smile appeared on Lin Ke's face as he looked at the pale yellow egg.
Now all he had to do was wait for it to hatch!
"Phew..."
Lin Ke withdrew his consciousness from the Niwan Palace and slowly exhaled, easing the tension born of his excitement and anticipation.
"Wait, this is..."
The next instant, he noticed another change in his body, and his gaze shifted.
"Three years..."
"After the Mysterious Bead burst, even the three years of Spirit Power cultivation the original owner poured into it came back..."
The original owner had possessed considerable talent.
Yet despite bearing the name of a genius, he had stagnated for three years before establishing his Dao Foundation.
He had failed to advance even an inch beyond the ninth layer of Qi Refining, and later had even regressed to the first layer of Qi Refining.
The root cause was the bead the original owner had obtained.
Now, however, not only had the mysterious bead returned all three years' worth of spiritual energy, it had also opened his Niwan Palace.
Opening the Niwan Palace for someone in the Qi Refining Stage was certainly no simple feat.
It was like giving an infant the powerful arms of a burly man, or even granting that infant the knowledge and intellect of Zhuge Liang and Einstein.
This was a qualitative leap!
Finally, after opening his Niwan Palace, it had even returned every bit of Spirit Power the original owner had poured into it. That was truly astonishing.
Unfortunately, the original owner had borne the suffering and the toil, while Lin Ke was the one who reaped the rewards.
The next day, Lin Ke rose early. After finishing his cultivation, he went to the wooden house at the foot of the mountain.
A group of mortal women were there, removing silk from the shuttles and processing it.
This silk was what he needed for his assignment.
His task here was to hand over at least two pounds of silk every month.
Previous disciples had only been required to submit half a pound, but after someone assigned Lin Ke here, the quota became two pounds a month.
Just then, a voice came from afar:
"Haha, my dear junior brother Lin Ke! Yesterday, I heard you'd been promoted to this place. As your senior brother, I was overjoyed, so I came especially to send you a bell-a fitting funeral gift!"
As the words fell, a battered old bell dropped from the sky and crashed down in front of Lin Ke:
"As it happens, your senior sister and I are in love and will soon become Dao companions. That's double the happiness."
Become Dao companions?
In love?
Lin Ke felt nothing inwardly, yet an inexplicable fury rose instinctively within his body.
This was the original owner's rage.
The man calling himself his senior brother was precisely the one who had assigned him to the Green Mulberry Garden!
Lin Ke suppressed that inexplicable anger and said flatly, "Li Le, there are no outsiders here. You don't need to pretend to be some gracious gentleman in front of me."
"Oh?" Li Le raised an eyebrow.
He was handsome to begin with, but as his expression shifted, traces of murderous malice emerged between his brows.
"Don't assume I have no other way to deal with you just because sect rules forbid us from killing one another." Li Le's expression turned cold:
"I specifically asked the higher-ups to transfer you here. This place produces half a pound of silk a month at most. I'd like to see where you'll find the remaining half pound."
"Once you fail this sect assignment and fall into my hands, I'll make that senior sister of yours kneel and beg me to marry her!"
"You're thinking too small." Lin Ke laughed. "If you killed me right now, I'd actually think a little more highly of you."
There was a faint edge of mockery in Lin Ke's words.
Li Le sneered:
"Heh. If I killed you, your senior sister would no longer have a weakness."
With that, he gave Lin Ke a contemptuous glance, then turned and flew away without looking back.
"Li Le..." Lin Ke stood where he was, slowly turning the name over in his mouth, his gaze deep and still as water.
Unfortunately, he was no match for Li Le, who was in the Dao Foundation Stage, and sect rules also prohibited disciples from fighting to the death. But in any case, a gentleman takes his revenge, even if it takes ten years.
Still, a gentleman could wait ten years to take his revenge.
He would remember this grudge!
"Phew..."
Lin Ke let out a deep breath, then turned his gaze toward the servants kneeling before him.
Every one of the women trembled like chaff in a sieve, their faces ashen.
Mortals were merely expendable supplies to cultivators.
Having overheard the inside details of a dispute between sect disciples, how could they possibly be allowed to live?
"Get up. Don't tell anyone what happened today." Lin Ke briefly regulated his breathing, then stood and headed up the mountain.
He had no time to concern himself with the farmers of the Green Mulberry Garden.
Right now, two things were critically important to him.
One was the Sect Grand Tournament, and the other was his sect assignment!
The Sect Grand Tournament needed no explanation. With his senior brother's status as an inner disciple in the Foundation Establishment realm, he could easily arrange for a Qi Refining expert to "accidentally" cripple Lin Ke.
Killing him was unlikely, but accidentally injuring or crippling someone during a match was perfectly normal.
If Lin Ke also failed to complete his sect assignment, that would only pile frost atop the snow.
When the time came, a crippled Lin Ke would be expelled from the sect. In the vast Poison Tempering Mountains, he would inevitably become meat at the bottom of the food chain, left for others to chew up and devour.
Fortunately, he had the Niwan Palace!
Before you continue