The Immortal Venerable Hall in the Shinobi World, the Ten Family Courtyard.
The joy of Tian Yu's successful advancement to the Saint Level hadn't lasted long before a barely perceptible hint of doubt and seriousness crept into her gentle brows. She tilted her head slightly, her gaze seemingly piercing through the roof and reaching into the boundless depths of the starry sky.
" Yu'er, what's wrong? Are you feeling unwell after your breakthrough?" The observant Tian Yueqing noticed her unusual behavior immediately and asked with concern.
Tian Yu snapped out of her daze, gently shook her head, and a reassuring smile returned to her lips, "Mother, it's nothing, it's just... I just broke through, and my senses seem unusually sharp. It's like... something in the far, far reaches of the universe is calling to me. It's very vague, and I can't quite describe the feeling."
Tsunade patted Ame-no -Tian Yu on the shoulder with a hearty laugh, "Hahaha, it must be an illusion caused by just mastering the power of Saint! Don't think too much about it, today is a joyous day! We have to celebrate properly, the Shinobi World has gained another Heavenly Dao Saint, this is a tremendous good thing! Come on, come on, it's on me today, all the Yakiniku Q can eat!"
Jiraiya, standing to the side, winked and said, "That's right, that's right, Ame-no -Tian Yu, you're now the 'Supreme Saint' of our Shinobi World! Come on, let's celebrate! And let me do some research on the Saint Level..." Before he could finish speaking, Tsunade punched him on the head and dragged him away.
The crowd laughed and ushered Tian Yu outside. The atmosphere became lively again. Only a very few people with keen minds, such as Shikamaru Nara, noticed Tian Yu's occasional absent-minded profile and secretly made a note of it.
"A distant call... I hope it's just an illusion." Shikamaru looked up at the clear sky, sensing that some trouble might be brewing.
Meanwhile, deep within the universe, lies a vast and unimaginably expansive star field.
The Xingchen here mostly exhibit an unnatural, overly intense green hue. If someone were to observe these planets up close, they would witness a chilling sight—the planetary surfaces are completely covered by all sorts of bizarre vegetation, which resembles some kind of fungal carpet. Upon this carpet lies an endless sea of insects!
Tiny insects, as fine as dust, coalesce into moving sandstorms; large insects, towering like mountains, can tear the earth apart with a single stroke of their limbs, their mouthparts capable of swallowing mountains whole. Even more chilling is that these insects constantly kill and devour each other. Weaker insects nibble on the fungal carpet plants, then are preyed upon by slightly larger insects, while the even larger insects become snacks for the mountain-like behemoths. It is a naked, cruel, and utterly ruthless chain of evolution, a kind of breeding system. Countless such Insect Race planets constitute the basic unit of this deathly starfield.
At the center of all the Insect Race planets lies a green planet of unimaginable size. The stars around it appear dwarfed in comparison. The trees and vegetation on the planet reach heights of tens of thousands of meters, like colossal pillars supporting the sky. And the Zerg that inhabit this planet are even more terrifying in size—thousands of giant, Saint Level male Zerg, comparable in size to ordinary planets, slowly patrol the planet's surface and interstellar space like moving continental plates. The aura they emit is enough to make an entire ordinary star system tremble.
At the heart of this forest, guarded by thousands of planetary-level sacred insects, lies an even more ancient and profound forest. In the center of the forest, eight giant insects of various shapes and sizes lie prostrate on the ground. Although they are not as large as the planetary-level sacred insects outside, roughly the size of mountains, the pressure emanating from them is more refined and noble, carrying a sense of oppression from the source of life.
They are:
Insect One: A female beetle with a thick, fortress-like shell that gleams with a cold, metallic light.
• Insect Two: A soft-bodied insect mother with a soft body covered in strange patterns and capable of secreting terrifying acid.
• Insect Three: A scaled beetle mother covered with fine, tough scales, resembling a giant dragon but with an insect's head.
• Insect Four: A multi-eyed insect mother with countless compound eyes and sharp mouthparts, appearing ferocious and terrifying.
· Insect Five: The Blade Insect Mother, with segments like blades and a deadly stinger at the tail.
• Insect Six: A mimicry insect mother that can blend into the environment and is almost invisible.
• Insect Seven: A winged insect mother with four pairs of wings on her back, as thin as cicada wings, yet shimmering with a halo of spatial ripples.
• Insect Eight: A spiritual insect mother surrounded by spiritual fluctuations that can directly affect the soul.
Above them, at the very center, was a colossal insect completely enveloped in dark golden scales. Its form was even closer to perfection, and as its dark golden pupils opened and closed, it seemed as if the scenes of the creation and destruction of the universe flowed within them. It was the sole and supreme ruler of the Starry Sky Insect Race — the Starry Sky Insect God!
In this known universe, the only being that the Insect God could be somewhat wary of was the Ōtsutsuki Homeworld God of Ōtsutsuki home planet and almost never moved. However, the Insect God himself preferred to roam across star systems, so the terrifying reputation of the Starry Sky Insect Race was far more widespread and fearsome than that of the Ōtsutsuki Clan.
At this moment, the Insect God's dark golden pupils slowly turned, gazing towards a distant starry sky. Its spiritual fluctuations resounded in the minds of all the Saint Level Mother Insects, carrying an undeniable majesty:
" Insect Seven, can you sense it? Insect Nine has been born. Go, go and guide her back to the insect hive."
The winged insect queen, known as " Insect Seven," bowed her head respectfully and responded spiritually, "Yes, Sovereign Mother Goddess. The ninth sister of the Starry Sky Insect Race has finally appeared, and the new insect tide tour should begin. This time, we will ensure that more starfields remember the majesty of our race!"
"Go." The Insect God's mental fluctuations subsided, and he returned to silence.
As Insect Seven vibrated its four pairs of thin wings, an invisible spatial force rippled outwards. Its enormous figure vanished from its original spot in an instant, and the next moment, it appeared in the outer space of the central planet.
At its summons, hundreds of planet-sized Saint Level male insects ceased their patrols and, like the most loyal soldiers, gathered behind it. Further away, on countless Insect Race planets, as if receiving a unified command, dense Starry Sky Insect Race of various shapes and sizes soared into the sky like locusts, piercing the atmosphere and converging into streams of green torrents that surged into the enormous spacetime tunnel opened up by Insect Seven and the Saint Level male insects.
This Insect Race army, numbering in the billions, ranges in size from dust to mountains. Their swarms move across the starry sky, appearing from afar like a dazzling yet deadly green meteor shower, but up close a deathly torrent of fangs and carapaces that would drive anyone with trypophobia mad. Wherever they pass, starlight is obscured. If they discover a habitable planet along their path, it is instantly transformed into a new Insect Race breeding ground. All native life, whether animal or plant, is devoured in a very short time, leaving only a desolate green fungal carpet.
In the universe, some highly perceptive Saint Level beings sensed something at this moment, looking in terror toward the direction of the spreading insect swarm, silently praying that this destructive torrent would not pass through their homes.
Even the powerful and arrogant Ōtsutsuki Clan dispatched their elite God Tree fleet to attempt a sniper attack. Various powerful Dōjutsu and energy cannons exploded within the insect swarm, annihilating countless low-level Insect Race. However, this was merely a drop in the ocean compared to the massive insect swarm. The swarm's speed barely slowed; instead, it engulfed and devoured the Ōtsutsuki fleet, turning it into nourishment for their march. This sniping attack was like a few pebbles thrown into a torrent, only slightly delaying, but utterly unable to stop it.
All of this remained unknown to the Shinobi World on the other side of the universe. Only the vague feeling in Tian Yu's heart seemed to become slightly clearer with the passage of time, carrying an indescribable attraction and... unease originating from the depths of her bloodline.