Chapter 408: Acknowledging the Master
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The treasure cave hidden inside the small mound of earth was a long, narrow passageway, over thirty feet wide and more than three hundred feet long.
When Ye Chen entered this secret passageway, he found that there were no "Netherworld Ants" moving about at all, he could only see several spheres the size of human heads hanging on the wall at the very end of the passageway, emanating a dark red glow.
Besides those several head-sized spheres with dark red glow, there was an even larger sphere that displayed a mystical golden yellow color!
What surprised Ye Chen even more was that on the walls of this very hidden secret passageway, in addition to the hanging spheres of two colors, there were deep and chaotically scattered battle marks, and on the ground, the desiccated corpses of thousands of Spirit Insects could be seen.
When Ye Chen looked at the thousands of Spirit Insect corpses, he directly discovered that a large portion of them were indeed the corpses of the "Netherworld Ants" he had been searching for.
Even though they were desiccated, one could still make out the general appearance of these fist-sized Netherworld Ants.
These Netherworld Ants were completely black and even had a pair of wings. The natural and mystical patterns on their wings looked like skull totems, mysteriously and eerily so!
What Ye Chen had not expected was, in his search for the "Netherworld Ants," they had already died and desiccated, becoming heaps of carcasses.
Ye Chen then looked at the other Spirit Insect carcasses and saw that, apart from the Netherworld Ant carcasses, the remaining carcasses were all left by another type of Spirit Insect.
This other type of Spirit Insect was much less in number than the Netherworld Ants, but twice as large; more so, one could see that these Spirit Insects were entirely fiery red in color, without wings on their body, but they had two fiery red fangs at the mouth, a type of fire-red giant ant that Ye Chen had never seen before.
Upon seeing the scene before him, Ye Chen came to a realization.
Perhaps it was the great battle between these two types of Spirit Insects that left the secret passageway in such disarray and countless battle scars. It was probably also this great battle of the Spirit Insects that resulted in so many of them dying, leaving behind these thousands of Spirit Insect carcasses.
But what about those spheres on the wall that emitted a dark red glow?
And what about that even larger golden yellow sphere?
Ye Chen's divine senses instantly penetrated into these spheres, and upon immersing his senses, his eyes suddenly widened.
The solitary larger golden yellow sphere contained something that was immensely useful for a Rotating Pill Realm martial artist to make significant progress in the five major laws of the Rotating Pill Realm, a peculiar "ant crystal" produced by the Netherworld Ants — the "Red Sun Crystal"!
Ye Chen could not have expected that although the Netherworld Ants were dead, they had left behind an ample amount of "Red Sun Crystal" here reaching more than a dozen kilograms!
These "Red Sun Crystals" might not be enough for him to use for advancing to the later stages of the Rotating Pill Realm, but they would certainly provide significant assistance!
But even more astonishing to Ye Chen were those several head-sized dark red spheres. Inside these dark red spheres were long, slender black-red insect eggs!
And when Ye Chen sensed these eggs, he could directly feel that life still emanated from within these eggs.
These eggs were still alive!
"Could it be that after the great battle between the 'Netherworld Ants' and the other Species of Spirit Insects, although they all died, some of their eggs were left behind?"
"If that's the case, as long as these eggs hatch, I will still be able to obtain Netherworld Ants, and the newly hatched Netherworld Ants will continue to produce Red Sun Crystals endlessly."
"However, according to the Three-Eyed Skeleton, the eggs of the Netherworld Ants are black in color. These eggs, although similar in shape to the eggs of the Netherworld Ants, are black and red in color. Could it be... a new type of egg resulting from the fusion of two species of ant-like Spirit Insects?!"
Ye Chen's gaze directly shifted to the other carcasses of the fiery red giant ants on the ground, apart from the blackish Netherworld Ant carcasses, as if he had come upon some incredulous thought.
"Can Netherworld Ants actually fuse with other Spirit Ants?!"
With a thought, Ye Chen immediately called out the nine Ice Protectors from the Ice Snow Jade Pendant.
The nine Ice Guardians transformed into figures of Ye Chen's size and all flew out of the Ice Snow Jade Pendant, standing next to Ye Chen.
"Seniors, do you recognize this other kind of Spirit Insect?" Ye Chen pointed at the fist-sized, fiery red ant carcasses on the floor of the passageway and asked the nine Ice Guardians.
Upon seeing the thousands of Spirit Insect carcasses on the ground, as well as the numerous battle scars on the walls of the passageway, and then noticing the skull-sized, black and red luminous spheres hanging on the walls, the Ice Guardians knew what Ye Chen was asking about.
The nine Ice Guardians all looked closely at the fiery red ants.
Among them, Bing Shisan, who knew of the "Netherworld Ant" and "Warmsun Sand," spoke first, "It is said that Netherworld Ants never cohabit with other ant species, for they are Yin Attribute Spirit Insects, inherently possessing extraordinary combat strength, especially a mysterious restraint against Divine Soul Power. Other Spirit Insects dare not provoke the Netherworld Ants without good reason."
"What are these red ants? Despite being outnumbered by the Netherworld Ants, they actually managed to kill so many!"
Bing Shisan could not identify the origins of these fiery red giant ants.
However, at that moment, Bing Shiyi and Bing Shier exchanged glances, as if they had just recalled something.
Bing Shiyi said directly, "These fiery red ants are very likely what Bing Shier and I once heard of, the 'Flame Ants'! It is rumored that even 'True Flame Fire' can be produced within the Flame Ants' bodies, extremely Supreme Yang! It's said that merely approaching a martial artist, the Flame Ants could make them feel as though they are being scorched by endless true fire, unbearably hot. The venom unleashed by a swarm of adult Flame Ants is even potent enough to kill a powerful Spirit Beast in the late Heavenly Saint stage."
Bing Shier also nodded and said, "Your Highness Ye Chen, the 'Flame Ants' are a rare and extraordinary insect, probably even more formidable than the Netherworld Ants! In this passageway, despite their smaller numbers, they have killed even more Netherworld Ants!"
"Flame Ants are of Supreme Yang, and Netherworld Ants are of Supreme Yin. Two Spirit Insects of utterly opposite attributes are fighting here, leaving behind dozens of eggs, possibly involving secrets of Spirit Insects that we are unaware of. Judging by the appearance of these eggs, they are very likely a new kind of insect egg produced by the fusion of the two types of Spirit Insects. If these new eggs can successfully hatch into new Spirit Insects, it is unpredictable what kind of new Spirit Insect, having both the attributes of Flame Ants and Netherworld Ants, will appear!"
"If they undergo a peculiar metamorphosis, they might turn out to be even more extraordinary than the Flame Ants and Netherworld Ants!"
Spirit Insects are a species distinct from both Demons and human Martial Artists.
The nine Ice Guardians also knew little about Spirit Insects, but with their discerning eyes, they could sense the uniqueness of these new eggs left by the two extraordinary Spirit Insects.
Bing Shiyi even said to Ye Chen, "Your Highness Ye Chen, these new insect eggs, while the Spirit Insects have not hatched, are best suited for establishing a master. Once you become their master, the Spirit Insects will be at your command. If these Spirit Insects undergo peculiar changes in the future, it could be a significant aid to you!"
"Even if there are no peculiar changes, you can always release the bond, without any loss."
Ye Chen nodded.
In this first Treasure Cave, he had originally come to capture "Netherworld Ants," but had not expected to encounter this situation, which also took Ye Chen by surprise.
Fortunately, there were still about ten kilograms of "Red Sun Crystals" to be used, which would help in his attempt to break from the mid-phase to the late-phase of the Rotating Pill Realm.
As for the "Netherworld Ants" themselves, although the Netherworld Ants had all died, the potentially hybrid insect eggs from the fusion of "Netherworld Ants" and "Flame Ants" were an unexpected gain.
"Just as Bing Shiyi suggested, let's establish a bond with these Spirit Insects to see what kind of form they will take once hatched from these eggs."
During his cultivation in the Taixuan Sect, Ye Chen had learned the methods to tame and bond with Spirit Insects and Spirit Beasts.
Having decided to bond with these new insect eggs, Ye Chen no longer hesitated and followed the techniques to infuse his divine consciousness into the several dozens of black and red insect eggs within the black and red spheres, beginning the bonding ritual.
Half an hour later, Ye Chen moved and flew out of this secret cave, returning to the small mound of dirt above ground.
By then, the dozens of black and red spheres in the passageway, as well as the golden spheres containing the "Red Sun Crystals," had all vanished without a trace.
Even the thousands of Spirit Insect carcasses on the ground had disappeared without a trace.