Chapter 41: Blood Spirit Crystal

As soon as Qu Yi was drawn into the nest of the Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes, he quickly activated the Wind Binding Formation to completely enclose himself, preventing him from being attacked and killed by them upon landing.

Upon touching the ground, Qu Yi swiftly brought out the Wild Fire Formation and activated it. Surrounded by flames, the Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes dared not approach any further.

Yet, the situation remained extremely dangerous. Outside the Wild Fire Formation, there were no fewer than 50,000 Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes, forming a dense sea of blood-red insects whose buzzing sound was almost deafening.

Though this overwhelming collective sound attack posed a huge challenge, it was not a problem for Qu Yi, as the Spirit God within his soul isolated him from these sounds.

Calm and aware that he was not in immediate danger, Qu Yi carefully observed his surroundings. Most importantly, he relied on the Spirit God’s consciousness to explore deeper into the nest.

He had fallen from above into a vertical circular hole about a hundred meters deep, with himself currently at the bottom. There, a horizontal circular passage stretched for about ten meters before splitting into nine smaller circular paths. All nine paths were filled with numerous Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes. In one of these paths, deep within, two mosquitoes emitted the aura of those in the late Golden Core stage.

The King of Blood Mosquitoes—its strength was at the late Golden Core stage!

Confirming that he had located the King of Blood Mosquitoes, Qu Yi began to think about how to approach it and capture it.

“Qu Yi, you idiot! Use the Hidden Dust Formation! We can wipe out all these Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes at once,” the Spirit God’s voice suddenly rang out.

“That’s right!” Qu Yi wasn’t annoyed by the scolding but rather surprised.

Instantly, he took out two Hidden Dust Formation discs and activated one of them.

Once activated, the Hidden Dust Formation covered the Wild Fire Formation, causing Qu Yi’s body—and even the flaming Wild Fire Formation—to disappear from the bottom of the hole.

Those with a cultivation level below the Nascent Soul stage could not detect what was inside the Hidden Dust Formation.

Most of the Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes surrounding Qu Yi were at the Foundation Establishment stage, with only dozens at the Golden Core stage. Upon realizing Qu Yi had disappeared, they became panicked and flew around chaotically throughout the bottom of the hole. Naturally, many of them flew into the Hidden Dust Formation.

Inside the Hidden Dust Formation, the Wild Fire Formation remained active. The Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes that entered in chaos were burned to death by Qu Yi’s controlled flames, with thousands of them perishing in one go.

The Golden Core-stage Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes had grown and begun to develop intelligence. They quickly noticed that the number of Foundation-stage Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes at the bottom of the circular hole was drastically decreasing, realizing that this area was extremely dangerous for them. Thus, under the command of the Golden Core-stage Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes, all of them swiftly flew away and dispersed into the nine passages.

Only after seeing that all the Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes had left did Qu Yi remove the Wild Fire Formation from the Hidden Dust Formation.

“Instrument God, what should I do now to get close to the Blood Mosquito King?” Qu Yi asked anxiously.

Although he was safe now, as long as the Blood Mosquito King remained alive, those Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes would still linger in the nine passages, putting him in danger. He couldn’t keep using low-grade spirit stones to maintain the Hidden Dust Formation forever.

“Idiot! I already told you—the Hidden Dust Formation!” The Instrument God’s voice suddenly rose in pitch, tinged with annoyance.

Hearing this, Qu Yi was speechless. The Hidden Dust Formation only concealed one’s aura; it couldn’t move. How could he get to the Blood Mosquito King’s side?

“Instrument God, please show me the way. How can I use the Hidden Dust Formation to reach the Blood Mosquito King?” Qu Yi’s head was pounding as he still hadn’t figured it out and had no choice but to ask, his face red.

“Idiot, idiot… idiot!” The Instrument God repeated it dozens of times, clearly furious. Finally, it sighed and said, “How many Hidden Dust Formations do you have?”

With that, Qu Yi’s mind cleared instantly. He realized he had been stuck in a wrong way of thinking and finally understood what the Instrument God meant.

The range covered by a Hidden Dust Formation depended on the number of spirit stones placed inside it. Currently, Qu Yi had only used a hundred low-grade spirit stones, covering an area of about fifty meters.

Within one Hidden Dust Formation, Qu Yi took out another and set it up 49 meters away from where the stones were placed in the formation circle, then quickly removed the first one.

Since his body was inside the new Hidden Dust Formation when removing the first one, his aura wouldn’t leak, so the Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes wouldn’t detect him.

By constantly switching between Hidden Dust Formations, Qu Yi could keep moving forward and reach the passage where the Blood Mosquito King was.

…

Qu Yi arrived in the passage where the Blood Mosquito King was. The Hidden Dust Formation covered the entire passage. Naturally, the Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes outside the passage noticed that the aura of the Blood Mosquito King was gone. The two Blood Mosquito Kings also realized in panic that they could no longer sense the auras of the other Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes.

Buzz!

Throughout the entire Blood Mosquito Nest, loud noises resounded, with sound waves bursting out of the nest and reaching the circular opening connecting to the outside, signaling to the members of the four sects that something unusual was going on inside the nest. Above the abyss outside the cave, representatives from the Immortal Cloud Sect, Fire Moon Gate, Xuan Yang Temple, and Jade Host Sect noticed the anomaly inside, but each of them looked at the others, calculating their next move, with none daring to enter the Blood Mosquito Nest first. Qu Yi had already reached the deepest part of the Blood Mosquito King’s passage and, through the Hidden Dust Array, saw the figures of two Blood Mosquito Kings. The Blood Mosquito Kings were over two meters long, their entire bodies covered in hard shells resembling blood crystals, while their wings were completely transparent. This was the Blood Mosquito King’s palace, with a ceiling height of fifty meters, surrounded by blood-red stone crystals that emitted a bright white light, making the entire hall extremely bright. Inside the hall, there were only two Blood Mosquito Kings, one male and one female, who were currently fused together, seemingly engaged in some special activity. Next to the Blood Mosquito Kings in the hall was a five-meter-long blood pool, from which square blood-colored crystals the size of fists had been formed. Only two of these crystals were visible in the center of the pool, but it was easy to imagine that there were many more hidden within. “Qu Yi, I never expected that these two Blood Mosquito Kings are giving birth right now. The male Blood Mosquito King is helping the female regulate her energy. It seems we didn’t encounter any attacks from them because they are in this critical birthing phase. Also, have you seen the crystals in the pool? Those are Blood Spirit Crystals. They’re similar to spirit stones and can help demonic beasts advance in rank, but they have no effect on human cultivators,” said the Artifact God happily. It turned out that when these Blood Mosquitoes went out to hunt, they would attack various demonic beasts in the Abyss of Ten Thousand Demons, draining their essence and blood before returning to the nest to pour it into the blood pool. The Blood Mosquito Kings would stay in this pool, absorbing the essence and blood to produce Blood Spirit Crystals, which they then excreted. Judging from the size of the pool, it seemed these two Blood Mosquito Kings had lived in this nest for at least a thousand years, and the number of Blood Spirit Crystals they had produced must be enormous. “Artifact God, what did you say? The Blood Mosquito Kings are giving birth? Haha, this is heaven’s blessing! Then they don’t have time to attack me now,” said Qu Yi excitedly.

After saying that, Qu Yi activated another Hidden Dust Array, covering the entire blood pool. Now that both Hidden Dust Arrays were active, they blocked the passages as well as the entire Blood Mosquito King’s palace.

Qu Yi went to the edge of the blood pool, took out the Wind Binding Array, and summoned a strong wind that sucked out all the essence from the pool, revealing all the Blood Spirit Crystals inside.

“Haha, what luck! What fortune! These Blood Spirit Crystals must be worth at least ten thousand!” Qu Yi laughed uncontrollably, utterly elated.

Though he was laughing, Qu Yi didn’t forget his task. Soon, the Dimensional Sphere emerged from his soul and flew toward the Blood Spirit Crystals in the pool. As it moved, the Blood Spirit Crystals were all collected by the Artifact God into the Dimensional Sphere.

Once the Blood Spirit Crystals were taken, Qu Yi immediately dismissed the Hidden Dust Array and returned to his original one. Naturally, the two Blood Mosquito Kings were aware of the changes in the blood pool.

Buzz! Buzz!

The two Blood Mosquito Kings emitted angry sounds but didn’t separate, as childbirth had reached a critical stage and no mistakes were allowed. Their voices actually penetrated the Hidden Dust Array and reached the Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes in the nine passages.

Buzz!

At that moment, all the Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes went wild and rushed into the passage where the Blood Mosquito Kings were, then continuously poured into their palace.

Inside the Hidden Dust Array, Qu Yi watched as many Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes entered but dared not use the array to attack them again, allowing these frenzied insects to flood into the Blood Mosquito King’s palace.

Nearly a hundred thousand Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes packed into the palace, surrounding the Blood Mosquito Kings.

The disturbance in the Blood-Sucking Mosquito Nest sent another message to the people from the four factions outside. The eight Yuan Ying-stage cultivators also realized that something was amiss inside the nest.

“Everyone, how about the eight of us enter the Blood-Sucking Mosquito Nest together?” Huai Qing spoke up.

Originally, none of the eight Yuan Ying-stage cultivators wanted to be the first to enter. If anything went wrong, they might face attacks from the others—it would be too dangerous. So, they decided to enter together, sharing the risk.

“Good, I agree!” Han Yue Shangren said.

“I agree too!” Dong Zhen Shangren immediately supported it.

Soon, the other five also agreed.

The eight Yuan Ying-stage cultivators quickly flew into the circular hole and reached its bottom. Naturally, their spiritual senses quickly detected the abnormalities in the Blood Mosquito King’s palace.

At this moment, guided by the reminder from the Artifact God, Qu Yi placed a medium-grade spirit stone inside the Hidden Dust Formation. He then controlled the formation to reduce its coverage area, hiding it in an inconspicuous spot within the palace, blending it in with the entire cave wall. Suddenly, the two Blood Mosquito Kings began to buzz loudly! Soon after, all the Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes became excited, flapping their wings rapidly in the crowded palace. The female Blood Mosquito King was about to give birth!