Just a Useful Pawn in the Stain Sect

Chapter 122: Chapter 122: Qi-eating Insects

”Spare me, Upper Cultivator! It’s me, it’s me!”

The second time Qin Tianhe dragged Guangming before Lü Yang, Guangming blurted out desperately before his captor could even speak:

”Upper Cultivator, I’m still useful!”

”There are still a dozen or so Monks from the Pure Land left behind. I can deal with them! And besides them, there’s the Dao Court. I can help you fight the Dao Court...”

Guangming was terrified that Lü Yang, lost in a killing frenzy, would cut him down without a second thought. Words tumbled from his mouth with the speed of a sutra chant as he desperately tried to prove his value. But Lü Yang ignored him, shooting him an irritated glance.

”Shut up.”

Before Lü Yang’s words had even faded, Guangming slapped a hand over his mouth. He stopped not only speaking but breathing, terrified of angering the great Demon before him.

Meanwhile, Lü Yang gazed into the distance.

At almost the same moment, Daoist Jiao Long, one of the Direct Disciples, seemed to sense something. He raised his malformed dragon head, his enormous draconic eyes staring intently at the ground.

”Something is coming...”

At his words, the other Direct Disciples instantly grew wary. A moment later, the ground cracked, and a figure with a distinct, armored shell slowly crawled out.

It was a Demon Insect.

It was about the size of a human, its body as pitch-black as spilled ink. Its mouthparts were sharp, and its two compound eyes, a dense, teeming mass, glinted with a cold, sinister light.

”What is this thing... the Demon Race?”

The Stain Sect’s Direct Disciples all looked on with curiosity. Chongming’s first thought was of the Demon Insect’s bloodline—could it be used in Alchemy?

Xu Xin carefully observed the Demon Insect, judging its strength.

Daoist Jiao Long, on the other hand, was considering whether he could transplant the Demon Insect’s sharp mouthparts onto his own body and, if so, where they would fit best.

As for Bi Feiyuan, her thoughts took a more peculiar turn. She deliberately struck a seductive pose toward the Demon Insect, then observed the fluctuations in her Abilities, apparently testing if the creature would react to her. Her interest was so piqued that she even looked as if she wanted to paint its portrait.

The other Stain Sect Disciples, meanwhile, were pointing and chattering about the Demon Insect.

Amidst the crowd’s chatter, the black Demon Insect tilted its head. It then opened its mouthparts and slowly, a voice emerged.

The initial sound was rather garbled.

Soon, however, the voice became clear and deep. ”People from Beyond the Heavens... Get out. Mother... This world does not welcome you!”

The moment it spoke, all other voices fell silent.

Every Stain Sect Disciple, including the five Direct Disciples, stopped talking at once. Nearly a hundred pairs of eyes turned in unison to fixate on the black Demon Insect.

The open wasteland fell deathly silent. This eerie stillness made the black Demon Insect twist its limbs uncomfortably, and it instinctively took a few steps back.

A moment later, Xu Xin laughed.

”I thought it was the Spirit Pet of some Insect-Controlling Cultivator from the Dao Court, but I was wrong... It’s just a native of this Outer Realm. All that speculation was a waste of time.”

”Let’s not waste any more time.”

Daoist Jiao Long, too, looked impatient. ”Hurry up and dissect it. Let’s see what special abilities this native has.”

Bi Feiyuan licked her red lips. ”No need for all that trouble. Just let me have a go at it, and I’ll find out everything.”

Only Chongming put on a superior expression, as if to say, ’I’m a normal person and can’t be bothered with the likes of these other disciples.’ He then backed away from the Demon Insect in disgust.

Seeing that it was being treated like meat on a chopping block, the black Demon Insect’s voice filled with anger. It was about to speak again when Lü Yang, who had been silent the entire time, suddenly turned his gaze upon it.

”SKREEE... SKREE SKREE!?”

The next moment, as if it had seen something utterly terrifying, the once-menacing black Demon Insect let out a sharp shriek and exploded!

However, the Demon Insect did not die. Instead, it transformed into a red cloud.

As the red cloud roiled, a piercing buzz filled the air. A closer look revealed that the cloud was made of thousands of Demon Insects, each no bigger than a grain of rice!

Immediately after, the Demon Insects swarmed forward!

On pure instinct, Daoist Jiao Long raised his dragon head and spewed a torrent of Demon Fire, engulfing dozens of the Demon Insects in an attempt to burn them to cinders.

But soon, Daoist Jiao Long frowned.

”Something’s not right...”

Before he had finished speaking, the Demon Fire flickered and died as if it were being devoured. The Demon Insects swarmed out from it, now several times more numerous than before!

Instantly, the other Direct Disciples and even the regular Stain Sect Disciples attacked, unleashing Abilities and Artifacts. To their astonishment, while their attacks did kill some of the Demon Insects, the swarm seemed to devour the power of their assaults and multiply, their numbers growing even larger!

In a flash, the Demon Insects had carved a path straight to Lü Yang.

”...Interesting.”

Seeing this, Lü Yang raised an eyebrow. His gaze swept over them, and in an instant, the entire ferocious swarm of Demon Insects dropped dead.

CLATTERING, they fell like rain.

Lü Yang casually picked one up, rubbing it between his fingertips as he examined it. ’This insect... it actually has a Position? No, that’s not right. It doesn’t feel like it earned this through cultivation.’

The next moment, Lü Yang looked up at the sky again. Perhaps because Progenitor Tingyou had improved the Yama Hall, allowing Guardian Su Nu to use the Power of Shixiu within the Myriad-Soul Banner to recover her peak strength, Lü Yang could now keenly sense an intense malice under her blessing.

This malice did not come from others, but from this Heaven and Earth.

The flowers, birds, fish, insects, and even the Spiritual Qi of this world all harbored an intense malice toward him and the other Stain Sect Disciples.

It was just that now, this malice was being suppressed by three even greater Mighty Powers.

Otherwise, ”outsiders” like them shouldn’t even be able to refine the Spiritual Qi in this world. Rashly attempting to do so through breathing exercises would likely poison them.

’Perfected Lords...’

Without a doubt, the culprits forcing this world to stand by and watch outsiders come and go as they pleased, despite its loathing, were the three Perfected Lords.

But even so, this Heaven and Earth still had some power to resist.

The Position bestowed upon this Demon Insect was a result of that resistance. And this was only a fraction of it. The true Child of Destiny must be the Insect King of this swarm.

”This is... a Qi-eating Insect?”

Just then, Progenitor Tingyou’s voice suddenly sounded. ”I thought this insect had long been extinct. I never expected to see it again today.”

Lü Yang asked in surprise, ”You recognize it, Progenitor?”

”Of course.”

Progenitor Tingyou’s tone held a hint of reproach. ”As a successor to our Wu Ghost Sect, you mean to tell me you haven’t read the books we passed down?”

”The Qi-eating Insect, as the name suggests, can devour the Qi of Heaven and Earth. They are an Extraterrestrial Alien Species from Ancient Times.

A swarm once fell into the hands of a Great Perfected from Overseas, a cultivator at the Late Phase of Foundation Establishment. He nurtured them, eventually refining 1.29 billion of the Demon Insects. When his Qi moved them, they blotted out the sun. No Perfected could stand against him!”

”That Great Perfected from Overseas caused quite a stir back then.”

”With 1.29 billion Qi-eating Insects, he even refined an Array Map to command them. He proclaimed he would do the impossible—challenge a Perfected Lord while only at the Foundation Establishment stage...”

At this, even Progenitor Tingyou sounded impressed. ”I have to admit, the Overseas regions are barren. The cultivators there really don’t know their place.”

Lü Yang’s curiosity was piqued. ”And then what? Did he really go?”

”He really went.”

Progenitor Tingyou shook his head. ”He went to the West. A Bodhisattva from the Pure Land there found his insect swarm too noisy and annihilated him and all his bugs with a single palm strike.”

There was no suspense at all.

Even so, Lü Yang understood just how terrifying these Qi-eating Insects could be.

He might have been obliterated by a single palm strike from a being at the Perfected Lord level, but the fact that it took a Perfected Lord to deal with him was a testament to his power.