Chapter 8: The Mother Insect (Part 1)
Qi Wu Zhen still hadn’t revealed her altar. With her strength, she could perfectly harness its power without needing to display it. She snapped her fingers, sending out a series of sparks, and waited quietly. Moments later, she waved her hand sharply, and countless virtual talismans descended like a torrential rain.
Streams of heat rose from the ground, along with a strong smell of earth.
Guo Shier asked in confusion, “Is Sister Zhen really going to summon underground fire?” Before his words faded, faint thunder sounds came from beneath the ground. In an instant, numerous Black Armored Bees crawled out of their nest and turned into balls of flame before they could even take off.
Qi Wu Zhen gave a soft command, and two giant fire-red hands appeared on either side of the mountain. The two flaming hands grabbed hold of the mountain’s sides, and Qi Wu Zhen shouted, “Open!”
Boom!
The entire mountain was torn apart by the giant hands and collapsed with a thunderous crash. Immediately afterward, the two hands dug into the remaining mountain mass, forcing open a huge crack.
Screech…
Guo Shier’s altar nearly collapsed—the sound was so horrible it could shatter one’s soul. Eagle Demon and the other two paled. Nan You said, “I hate the sound insects make!”
The ground began to shake violently. Suddenly, a huge head emerged from the cracked ground—it was the head of a Black Armored Bee. Guo Shier said gravely, “It’s the mother insect, the mother of the Black Armored Bees! It’s out!”
The ground was covered with a swarm of Black Armored Bees. Suppressed by Qi Wu Zhen’s powerful soul force, none of them could fly into the air. The mother insect truly was a high-level aberrant talisman insect, slowly crawling out of the ground crack.
Guo Shier and the others watched anxiously. Eagle Demon said, “It seems she has no intention of killing them…”
Qi Wu Zhen suddenly disappeared from her spot and reappeared on top of the mother insect’s head. She slapped its forehead, imprinting a fire-red rune there.
The fire-red rune vanished in an instant, but Guo Shier could see it clearly. He exclaimed in surprise, “Is that a control talisman?”
Nan You said, “It probably is. But… just one control talisman? Can it really control this mother insect?”
The shrill screeching sound arose again. Qi Wu Zhen teleported into the air, casting two spells in quick succession. Thousands of virtual talismans descended and merged into the body of the mother insect.
The black-armored bee mother insect struggled desperately, emitting piercing cries that forced Guo Shier to fly upward. He had already activated all the defenses of the altar, yet even so, it was difficult to withstand such terrifying and shrill sounds. He couldn’t help but say, “If we encounter this black-armored bee mother insect, we don’t even need to fight—its cries alone will drive us crazy.”
After a while, the insect’s cries gradually weakened. Before it could climb out, its body stiffened as it got stuck at the crack’s edge.
Guo Shier asked doubtfully, “Is it dead?”
Eagle Demon replied, “It’s hard to tell…”
Qi Wu Zhen slowly descended and landed on the head of the black-armored bee mother insect. In her hand was a talisman—a palm-sized, fiery red talisman made of some unknown material, emitting a faint red glow.
Qi Wu Zhen gently placed the fiery red talisman on the insect’s forehead, then chanted an incantation. Suddenly, a blinding red light flashed, and in an instant, a ruby-like gem appeared on the insect’s forehead. Qi Wu Zhen gave a light command, “Activate!”
The black-armored bee mother insect trembled violently before slowly crawling out of the crack, letting out a sharp cry that caused all the other bees to tremble as well. Qi Wu Zhen waved her hand and said, “You can come down now.”
Guo Shier retracted the altar and flew down, with the others following and landing on top of the insect.
Eagle Demon asked, “Is it dead?”
Nan You replied, “If it were dead, it wouldn’t move. Can’t you see it’s still moving?”
Eagle Demon said, “That’s not what I meant. I meant…” He didn’t know how to express it and scratched his head. “You know what I mean…”
Nan You bluntly said, “I don’t!”
Guo Shier said, “It’s probably not control after death. Sister Zhen has taken control of the insect’s soul—this is also a way of controlling insects. Hey, Sister Zhen, can a Level 14 Abnormal Talisman Insect be controlled like this too?”
Qi Wu Zhen smiled and said, “It’s very easy. As long as you can suppress its soul and use a control talisman, you can fully control it. Hehe, I need a swarm of black-armored bees, so I controlled the mother insect first. Now these bees can become my assistants.”
Guo Shier said, “Then better not. I can’t possibly suppress the soul of a Level 14 Abnormal Talisman Insect. It’s more likely it’ll suppress me.” Although insect souls are inferior to those of beasts, let alone humans, an insect at Level 14 has a soul so powerful that he couldn’t possibly suppress it.
Qi Wu Zhen smiled slightly and said, “With a swarm of black-armored bees, I can go look for that lone traveler. He’ll definitely be surprised.”
Guo Shier finally understood Qi Wu Zhen’s thoughts. It made sense—given that it was a high-level professional who truly wanted to hide, it wouldn’t be easy to find him, even if Qi Wu Zhen had the strength to surpass the ninth-tier altar. He asked, “Can it be completely controlled?”
Qi Wu Zhen replied, “No problem.” She explained further, “Once these Black Armored Bee Queen insects are controlled, the entire colony can be tamed. Hehe, this Black Armored Bee Queen… has actually controlled over four hundred thousand Black Armored Bees. Although many were killed by me, there are still about two hundred thousand left. By the way, there are some good things underground that you can take.”
Guo Shier was curious, “What good things?”
Qi Wu Zhen said, “There are insect eggs. They aren’t very useful, but they’re extremely delicious.” Having spent some time with Guo Shier, she knew he was a food lover. Eagle Demon and Luo Zhan were similar as well—they were all trained by Guo Shier. Only Nan You had been with them for a shorter time, so many of his habits differed from theirs.
Sure enough, Guo Shier was overjoyed upon hearing this. He said, “I know! Insect eggs from the secret insect species—except for a few that are highly poisonous—most of them are extremely delicious… I’ll go down and look for them!” He flew down the crack, where there were countless winding passages underground. Eagle Demon followed closely behind him.
After a while, Guo Shier found where the insect eggs were.
It was a huge space, with the corpses of countless mutated and aberrant talisman beasts on the ground. The insect eggs were piled densely on top of the carcasses.
When the eggs matured, black larvae would emerge and burrow directly into the flesh of the carcasses. It was unclear what method the Black Armored Bees used, but all the corpses of the aberrant and mutated talisman beasts remained fresh.
Guo Shier and Eagle Demon landed, followed by Qi Wu Zhen, Luo Zhan, and Nan You.
Luo Zhan remarked, “This place is really big…”
Guo Shier picked up an insect egg and exclaimed, “What a beautiful egg.”