Chapter 108

Death-sleep Cicada, this kind of spirit insect, is very special.

It is said that they almost have an infinitely long lifespan.

Whenever their lifespan is exhausted or they suffer a fatal injury and are near death, they form a cicada cocoon and enter death-sleep.

And each death-sleep lasts extremely long, possibly tens of years, hundreds of years, thousands of years, or even ten thousand years.

Of course, these are descriptions from the Insect Canon; whether the Death-sleep Cicada truly has such a near-infinite lifespan remains to be determined.

After all, no one can actually have such a long lifespan to verify and give a true answer.

But one thing is certain: it is precisely because of this special nature that it has managed to survive.

Yunhe, who had been blasted away, hadn't even landed when he felt another huge force coming from behind; startled, he could only barely gather his magical power, forming a phantom of golden scale armor behind him.

Boom!!

Once again flung into the air, feeling the tearing pain from within, Yunhe instead became calm.

Even if one doesn't know what kind of spirit insect it is, one would still panic and be at a loss; but upon realizing that the withered-tree-like cicada is a Death-sleep Cicada, one is not so panicked.

Yunhe's thought moved, and his divine sense spread out.

The naked eye cannot catch the Death-sleep Cicada, but divine sense can barely manage it.

Buzz—

At the same time, under his control, a swarm of Red-ring Gold-spotted Bees hovered in the air, forming a giant hand that caught him, who should have been unable to control his body while still airborne.

The next moment.

The hand formed by the Red-ring Gold-spotted Bees quickly clenched, forming a fist that tightly wrapped him up.

The Red-ring Gold-spotted Bees surrounded him tightly, leaving no gaps.

'Indeed.'

This Death-sleep Cicada must have been given some command; its attack target is only cultivators approaching this medicinal field, not spirit insects.

Otherwise, it would not attack the many Red-ring Gold-spotted Bees, yet it singled him out.

If my guess is wrong, then the only option is to hide underground using the Earth Escape Technique and think of another plan.

Watching the Death-sleep Cicada hovering in midair, its withered wings constantly vibrating, its form flickering unpredictably and almost impossible to lock onto, Yunhe, having gained a chance to breathe, had his eyes flash.

'Has it undergone two death-sleeps?'

On the cicada's abdomen, that withered abdomen like a dry branch bears two shallow rings, indicating that the cicada has undergone two death-sleeps.

The strength of the Death-sleep Cicada depends on the number of death-sleeps it has undergone.

Each death-sleep is not just a long slumber but also an internal-to-external transformation; undergoing two death-sleeps means it possesses strength comparable to a Second-tier Beast.

Originally, there would certainly not be only this single line of defense in this medicinal field, but evidently the other spirit insects or demonic beasts have long since turned into loess over the ages, leaving only this cicada alive.

'Its speed even rivals that of a Core Formation cultivator, but its destructive power is somewhat lacking.'

Thinking, Yunhe took out a pair of Wu hook-like spiritual artifacts from his storage ring; they were found in the storage bags of the two slain demonic cultivators and are barely low-grade spiritual artifacts.

Originally he still wanted to find a chance later to exchange for some Spirit Stones, but now.

After simply sacrificing and refining this pair of Wu hooks, he threw them at the bee swarm.

And when the Death-sleep Cicada saw the Wu hooks, especially sensing the magical power on them, it seemed to have found its target again.

It immediately launched an attack on the Wu hooks.

The 'ding-ding' sound rang incessantly in the ears.

Although this pair of Wu hooks seems not great in Yunhe's view, the material is still decent; yet under the Death-sleep Cicada's attack, they quickly became damaged, wobbly and unstable to control.

Clack—

In no time, this pair of low-grade spiritual artifacts became scrap iron.

Yunhe, having witnessed the whole process, narrowed his eyes.

He again took out a pair of sickles and threw them at the bee swarm.

Just like the Wu hooks before, this pair of sickles, which can barely compare to mid-grade spiritual artifacts when used properly, also became utterly shattered under the Death-sleep Cicada's extremely rapid consecutive attacks.

Afterward.

Yunhe then threw out two more spiritual artifacts useless to him, which gradually became damaged under the Death-sleep Cicada's extremely rapid attack.

But correspondingly.

The Death-sleep Cicada's speed finally slowed, and the efficiency with which it damaged Spiritual Artifacts also dropped considerably.

Ding—

After the Death-sleep Cicada knocked down a ring-shaped Spiritual Artifact, its formerly erratic figure disappeared, and it instead hovered steadily in midair, seeming somewhat exhausted.

Seeing this, Yunhe put away the middle-grade Spirit Stone he had been holding, waved his hand, and walked out from the bee swarm.

Just as he had expected, although this Death-sleep Cicada was extraordinarily fast, the drawback of its insufficient spiritual intelligence as a spirit insect was also very obvious; without a cultivator's command, its own strength could hardly be exerted, and even though he was willing to spend lavishly, it was still drained of its Spiritual Power.

Even if the spiritual energy here were normal, its recovery speed could not keep up with the consumption, let alone the fact that the spiritual energy in this place is abnormal and hard to absorb.

Watching Yunhe walk out with a smile on his face, the Death-sleep Cicada instinctively sensed danger, but before it could act, it was surrounded by a swarm of Red-ring Gold-spotted Bees.

For a moment, it looked blankly at the surrounding bees, not knowing whether to advance or retreat.

"If we cripple it half to death now, will it immediately enter its third death-sleep?"

A thought suddenly sprang into Yunhe's mind.

But he quickly shook his head.

"The Death-sleep Cicada has merely never been seen dying of old age; that does not mean it is truly immortal."

According to the "Insect Canon".

After each death-sleep, the Death-sleep Cicada's body becomes withered and yellow like rotting wood, as it is now; but as time passes, its body gradually regains fullness, ultimately becoming round and jade-green.

Only upon reaching that state does it store enough energy internally to sustain a prolonged death-sleep.

After all, death-sleep is merely one way this spirit insect evolves, only somewhat unique.

The death-sleep cicada is now completely obedient; Yunhe's gaze slipped through the gap in the bee swarm and landed on it.

At the same moment, the death-sleep cicada's gaze also seemed to fall upon Yunhe.

A person and a cicada glanced at each other.

Yet it caused Yunhe to suddenly space out for a moment.

After coming to his senses, surprise flickered in his eyes.

"Is it an illusion? Why did I just read in its eyes a feeling of having seen through life and death, seen through the mortal world, as if life and death had ceased to exist?"

Buddha-nature?

That fleeting moment just now.

He felt that what he faced was not a spirit insect, but an enlightened monk.

This instinctive feeling made Yunhe himself find it funny.

But he couldn't laugh.

Because he noticed that in the death-sleep cicada's dull yellow compound eyes seemed to contain spiritual light, and also seemed to be golden light.

This does not match the description of the death-sleep cicada in the Heavenly Insect Compendium.

The Heavenly Insect Compendium says this insect is a naturally occurring aberration with simple spiritual intelligence, and because of its death-sleep trait, although special, it has little cultivation value.

After taking another deep look at Yunhe, it seemed to show a sense of relief from having completed its task.

Its withered, yellow, shriveled body slowly curled up, stopped vibrating its wings, turned into a dry twig, and fell from midair.

After a brief hesitation, Yunhe cast the Levitation Technique to catch it.

After confirming it had indeed fallen into a coma with no abnormalities, Yunhe stored it in his spirit insect pouch, planning to study it later when he had time.

Leaving aside other factors, based solely on its speed, if refined and tamed, it could at least become an unexpected killing move in battle.

Spirit insects controlled by a cultivator and those without a cultivator exert completely different effects.

He rubbed his brow.

The death-sleep cicada's gaze just now left him unable to let go for a long time.

"I was startled by a cicada."

He gave a self-deprecating smile, barely suppressing that strange feeling, and turned his attention to a large tree not far away.

He walked up close.

The faint sandalwood fragrance drifting in the air involuntarily refreshed his spirit again.

He walked around the tree once.

A leaf drifted down slowly from the tree; after a brief hesitation, Yunhe reached out to catch it.

Abruptly.

He seemed to have realized something, released the leaf, and pulled out a Jade Slip from his storage ring.

It was exactly the Jade Slip that Huaxin had given him earlier, written by Shengbanzi; from it he found the Divine Tree Ranking, skipped over the top-ranked Five Great Divine Trees, and quickly located the content corresponding to the tree before his eyes.

After a while.

Yunhe slowly lowered the Jade Slip, and his gaze toward the tree before him changed somewhat.

He murmured: "Tree of Enlightenment, Bodhi Tree."

This tree is actually a Bodhi Tree!

Finally his gaze settled on the dark red fruit resembling an eye, and surprise rose in his eyes.

"In other words, this is a Bodhi seed?!"

At this moment Yunhe felt fortunate that he had not rashly gone to pick that fruit.

He took a deep breath.

He suppressed the excitement in his heart.

He took out a wooden small knife from his storage ring, and without using spiritual power, he carefully cut off the fruit together with half a section of its root and stem.

It fell into the prepared wooden box.

Clatter——

As soon as the fruit was plucked,

the entire Bodhi tree withered and shriveled at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Finally, under Yunhe's gaze, it turned into bits of yellow wood chips that vanished without a trace in the passing breeze.

Then, after a faint light flashed from the fruit inside the wooden box, its luster converged and dimmed, revealing three ring-like patterns, as if layers were wrapped around something.

"Three-Calamity Bodhi Seed"

Yunhe muttered softly.

According to the Divine Tree Ranking, the highest grade of Bodhi seed is nine calamities, a heavenly earthly spiritual treasure that is nearly impossible to encounter; to date, no one in the cultivation world has ever encountered a nine-calamity Bodhi seed.

Even the notion of nine calamities is merely Shengbanzi's speculation.

But to Yunhe, whether it be nine, six, three calamities, or even lacking one calamity, it would still be a priceless treasure.

"Bodhi seed" is a rare "object for comprehending the Dao"; it is said to greatly enhance a cultivator's comprehension, and if it became known that he possessed a "Three-Calamity Bodhi Seed," even some Late Jie Dan Stage cultivators might harbor murderous intent.

If it were a "Six-Calamity Bodhi Seed," even those reclusive Nascent Soul old monsters might not be able to restrain themselves.

He affixed a seal talisman, completely sealing the wooden box.

"This Heavenly Insect Sect truly deserves its reputation as a former Nascent Soul sect; despite enduring ten thousand years of temporal erosion, it remains a blessed land."

"Well, aside from being unable to absorb spiritual qi, for now I still don't know how to get out."

Yunhe sighed, carefully putting away the wooden box.

After the Bodhi tree dissipated, the shed of the death-sleep cicada also fell to the ground.

Looking at that cicada shed, Yunhe drifted off slightly.

【If. if said, without the death-sleep cicada clinging onto it and absorbing nutrients, would the resulting bodhi seed be six calamities, or even nine calamities?】

But upon further thought,

How does the death-sleep cicada absorb nutrients when it enters death-sleep?

Based on the principle of not wasting, I also collected the cicada's shed.

「Next」

He closed his eyes and pondered for a moment.

「Besides the main hall, I also need to visit the Treasure Tower and the Technique Tower。」

Wei Ming's detailed markings saved him a lot of time searching.

Boom!!!

Just as Yunhe was preparing to leave,

A tremendous boom made him startle.

Even he felt the ground beneath his feet tremble slightly.

Immediately after, a surging aura of decay burst forth from the direction of the main hall.

The sky, originally hazy and illusory, was now covered with a layer of grayish-white.

Watching that dim, rising hue, Yunhe's expression stiffened, and the corner of his eye twitched.

【How come I feel that I can't separate myself from that deathly qi, yin qi, ghost qi, and all that ghostly stuff?】

Boom—

The vibrations appeared again, but this time they did not come from the distant main hall; instead, they came from the ground beneath his feet.

The next second.

The ground split open.

A skeleton, nothing but white bones, with only a vague outline of a wolf-like demonic beast, crawled out of the earth; in its eye sockets burned a grayish-white flame that flickered.

Afterward.

More ground loosened, and one after another, skeletons, shells, even tattered remains that could no longer stand—creatures that had died who knows how many years ago—crawled out one by one.

If you look closely, you can see that on these skeletons and shells sits a tiny bug, finer than a hair, faintly exuding a decaying aura, merging with the surrounding polluted spiritual energy.

To be honest.

This sudden change made Yunhe feel not only creeped out, but also a jolt of heart-pounding alarm.

Because his spiritual sense told him.

Each of these corpses that emerged looked none too strong, yet they each seemed to pose a threat to him!

——————

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(End of chapter)