Serpent Ancestor

In the blink of an eye, a dense swarm of white insects approached.

Xu Hei looked closely and discovered that these white insects were not of a single type but consisted of multiple species.

Some had wings on their backs and needle-like mouthparts, resembling mosquitoes; others were like mantises, with multiple pairs of blade-like forelimbs; and some had stingers on their tails, resembling wasps.

Regardless of the species, they were all milky white, similar to spirit stones.

With a wave of his hand, Xu Hei summoned a large swarm of Spirit-Eating Ants, which transformed into a tornado, colliding head-on with the insect swarm.

Compared to the white insect swarm, Xu Hei’s Spirit-Eating Ants were pitifully small, like a stream facing the sea.

However, at the moment of contact, a large number of white insects were swallowed by the storm, like moths to a flame, unable to break through.

”Spirit-Eating Ants capable of dealing with Divine Transformation stage cultivators are indeed not something these little insects can contend with,” Xu Hei thought to himself.

The opposing swarm was vast in number, but lacking in quality, unable to breach the Spirit-Eating Ants’ defense.

In contrast, the Spirit-Eating Ants could swallow large swathes with a single gulp, remaining unresponsive to attacks. Gradually, their abdomens swelled, like mosquitoes after a blood meal.They couldn’t eat it all, simply couldn’t!

However, Xu Hei noticed something unusual. The attacks of these white insects were quite organized, sometimes transforming into flying swords, sometimes merging into shields, and sometimes becoming beast heads.

Xu Hei quickly extended his divine sense to check if there was a master controlling them from the shadows, but found nothing, as if it were the insects’ instinct.

This greatly surprised Xu Hei.

However, the white insects’ transformations were merely superficial, intimidating in appearance but useless in reality, dispersing upon impact, so Xu Hei didn’t delve further.

Before long, the Spirit-Eating Ants Xu Hei released were full and bloated, even slowing down their devouring.

There were simply too many.

”Retreat for now.”

Xu Hei collected the Spirit-Eating Ants and quickly retreated, fleeing into the distance.

From afar, the spiritual vein’s location appeared as an endless white storm sweeping towards them, impossible to count the number of spirit insects.

Can you count how many grains of sand are in a desert?

Within Xu Hei’s divine sense, these white spirit insects were like grains of sand in the desert.

With a teleportation, Xu Hei vanished in the blink of an eye, and the insects, having lost their target, gradually returned to the spiritual vein, calming down.

...

Thirty thousand miles away, in a vast underground space.

Xu Hei stopped and sent his divine sense into the Insect Emperor’s ring.

After devouring, the Spirit-Eating Ants had fallen into a slumber, their bodies slowly changing, a situation never encountered before when devouring cultivators.

”These insects are truly a great tonic, I won’t let them go,” Xu Hei thought to himself.

He planned to wait until the Spirit-Eating Ants had fully digested before returning to devour more, until they were all consumed.

After waiting for about two days, most of the Spirit-Eating Ants awoke, with only a few dozen still in slumber.

Xu Hei returned to the spiritual vein’s location and broke through the restriction.

As expected, the white insect army came rushing again, and Xu Hei once more deployed the Spirit-Eating Ants to confront them.

Once the Spirit-Eating Ants were full, Xu Hei quickly left, not lingering.

After the Spirit-Eating Ants digested, Xu Hei returned once more to devour the swarm.

This cycle repeated for half a month.

The insect swarm on the surface of the spiritual vein visibly shrank, even though there were billions of insects, they couldn’t withstand Xu Hei’s consumption.

And the remaining insects, under Xu Hei’s spiritual power pressure, couldn’t get close to him at all.

At this moment, most of the Spirit-Eating Ants in the Insect Emperor’s ring were in slumber.

With each devouring, more Spirit-Eating Ants fell into slumber, which, according to Bai Zhi, indicated a mutation.

The mutated Spirit-Eating Ants might develop various incredible abilities.

This time, Xu Hei broke through the insect swarm and drove straight in. After a sweep with his divine sense, he successfully discovered the queen hidden within the spiritual vein.

The queen had not yet developed intelligence, merely a plump, fleshy insect, producing a mountain of eggs at its tail, hidden within the spiritual vein, growing by absorbing spiritual qi. Once hatched, they would burrow out of the vein and attach to the surface.

Xu Hei entered the spiritual vein, collected all the eggs, and placed the queen into the Insect Emperor’s ring, handing it over to Bai Zhi for handling.

Then, Xu Hei continued to explore along the spiritual vein and discovered five similar queens, collecting them all.

”These various forms of Insect Emperors couldn’t have appeared here for no reason; someone must have brought them here,” Xu Hei pondered.

This top-grade spiritual vein had been mostly consumed over countless years, and the remaining part, after being cut, should yield many top-grade spirit stones.

But for a Divine Transformation cultivator, top-grade spirit stones were of little use.

Afterward, he would notify the Divine Puppet Sect to send people to excavate.

Xu Hei continued his search within the spiritual vein and soon arrived at the head of the vein, resembling a dragon’s head.

The spiritual qi here was noticeably denser than elsewhere.

”Hmm?”

Xu Hei stopped, his gaze fixed ahead, discovering that his divine sense couldn’t penetrate the area, as if an invisible barrier isolated the space.

Finally found it!

If he wasn’t mistaken, this should be the hiding place of the insect master, though after so many years, the master should have long perished.

Xu Hei didn’t let his guard down. He donned the silk armor, unfolded the Night Demon Wings, concealing his aura to the minimum, then approached and stopped before the barrier.

Xu Hei drew the Star-Moon Sword and slashed forward, creating a rift in the space.

Suddenly, a fierce wind gushed out, likely triggering some restriction.

However, this restriction had been set for too long, its power clearly not at its peak. Xu Hei was prepared, and with the Rock Crystal Guardian activated, he easily withstood it.

”The power of this fierce wind indicates its master must have been a Divine Transformation cultivator,” Xu Hei thought.

Fortunately, he was also at the Divine Transformation stage; if he were only at the Elemental Infant stage, he would have suffered greatly.

Xu Hei entered the spatial rift, and the scene before him rapidly changed, bringing him to a sealed stone chamber.

In the center of the chamber sat a pale golden human skeleton, similar to Huangfu Duanlong’s remains from years ago, but with a noticeably higher cultivation level.

At the same time, the skeleton was much older, with empty eye sockets devoid of any lingering will, indicating that this senior had completely passed on, entering reincarnation, if such a thing existed.

After a thorough search, Xu Hei’s divine sense locked onto three ribs of the skeleton, and with a gesture, the ribs flew over, landing in Xu Hei’s hand.

From the first rib, a wealth of information surged forth, entering Xu Hei’s mind.

Among it was a complex and varied cultivation technique.

”Heavenly Silkworm Scripture,” Xu Hei’s eyes flashed as he thought, ”This should be an insect cultivation technique, capable of commanding insect swarms, though its grade seems inferior to the Heavenly Demon Technique.”