Chapter 10: The Birth of the Spirit Insect

A large bulge slowly swelled up on his left arm, and beneath the bulge, Zhang Nuo felt as if something was tearing at his flesh; the heart-piercing pain caused cold sweat to seep from his temples.

The bulge on his skin grew larger and larger, and in the blink of an eye, it was the size of a fist; that immense pain was truly unbearable. However, in order not to attract anyone's attention, Zhang Nuo gritted his teeth hard, refusing to make a single sound.

"Bang!"

With a muffled sound, the bulge on Zhang Nuo's arm suddenly burst open, and at the very moment of the rupture, a Golden Light shot out from within, flowing out along with blood.

Too busy to look at the state of his arm, Zhang Nuo's gaze was fixed intently on the Golden Light that had shot out; the Golden Light circled in mid-air before landing back on Zhang Nuo's bed. Slowly, the Golden Light dissipated, revealing a thumb-sized golden beetle!

This beetle was covered in a golden luster and had six legs; on its golden back, there were tiny, scattered white spots. The pair of mandibles in its mouth were making a slight "swish-swish" sound.

Zhang Nuo stared in a daze; the thing that had crawled out of his left arm was actually a bug, and it looked completely unremarkable.

Could this be the legendary "Mysterious Heaven Spirit Insect"? The Spirit Insect that countless people had sacrificed their lives for, desperate to snatch away? Zhang Nuo's mind was a blank; he could not yet accept this fact!

The golden beetle's body moved slightly, and its head turned toward Zhang Nuo; several rays of light flashed in succession within its insect eyes, and suddenly, it felt as if some kind of information had appeared in Zhang Nuo's mind.

"Mysterious Heaven Gold-Devouring Insect!"

Very quickly, this term appeared in Zhang Nuo's mind, and it seemed that he had established some kind of mental connection with the insect before him. Zhang Nuo could even fully sense the insect's joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness.

In truth, Zhang Nuo did not yet know that he had already completed the master-binding with this "Mysterious Heaven Gold-Devouring Insect"; the cocoon of the "Mysterious Heaven Spirit Insect" had been inside his body, absorbing his blood to grow, and for four years, it had been a part of his body. His blood flowed within the insect's body, and in the Spirit Insect's subconscious, it had long since regarded Zhang Nuo as its master, so the Spirit Insect that broke out of its cocoon today would naturally not regard anyone else as its master.

Even if this "Mysterious Heaven Gold-Devouring Insect" were snatched away by someone else in the future, it would never recognize another as its master, because the blood within the Spirit Insect's body was Zhang Nuo's; the entire Spirit Insect was like flesh that had fallen from his own body, which was why the Hongfa Nanzhi had been so anxious to obtain the cocoon in the first place.

As long as the Spirit Insect is active, once it is planted in a person's body, it will immediately absorb that person's vital blood to grow, thereby recognizing the person as its master in the Spirit Insect's subconscious. To put it more clearly, even if the Spirit Insect were planted on a pig, once the Spirit Insect broke out of its cocoon, it would believe that the pig was its master.

Once the master-binding is successful, there is absolutely no way to change it!

The golden shell on the back of the "Mysterious Heaven Gold-Devouring Insect" opened slightly, revealing a pair of small wings as thin as silkworm wings beneath the shell; as they flapped, they emitted a "buzzing" sound, and the Spirit Insect took flight amidst this noise.

It circled above Zhang Nuo's head for a long time before finally landing in his hand; looking down at the "Mysterious Heaven Gold-Devouring Insect," he truly could not understand what great use such a small thing could have.

Recalling the words Zhu Tong spoke before he died, Zhang Nuo still carefully put the "Mysterious Heaven Gold-Devouring Insect" away, not daring to show it to anyone else; at this moment, the wound on his arm was still bleeding, so he tore off a strip of clothing to simply bandage the wound, forced himself to steady his mind, and recalled every detail since he first saw the cocoon.

Zhang Nuo wanted to search his memory for clues about the bug, but after a long time, he was disappointed! His memory regarding the "Mysterious Heaven Gold-Devouring Insect" was only that little bit.

With a long sigh, Zhang Nuo simply stopped thinking about the bug; after sitting cross-legged, he began to cultivate again. This time, he miraculously discovered that his body seemed to have undergone some kind of change; after meditating for several hours, he did not feel tired at all, which was vastly different from before.

Ending his cultivation, Zhang Nuo was so pleasantly surprised he could have jumped up; he could now be certain that his lack of energy before was entirely due to the cocoon in his left arm. Now that the cocoon had finished hatching, his vital blood would no longer be absorbed.

Just at this moment, a trace of Divine Sense fluctuation from the "Mysterious Heaven Gold-Devouring Insect" suddenly reached Zhang Nuo's mind; after carefully reading it, he was once again rendered speechless.

It turned out that the information the bug had just transmitted was that it was hungry, and the thing it wanted to eat was extremely peculiar, which left Zhang Nuo unable to recover for a long time.

At this moment, the "Mysterious Heaven Gold-Devouring Insect" seemed to grow impatient, crawling out of Zhang Nuo's embrace on its own, looking as if it were about to fly away with a flutter of its wings.

Fortunately, Zhang Nuo was quick-handed and sharp-eyed, grabbing it back in one go and saying to the bug in a low voice:

"From now on, you are not allowed to fly around without my permission!"

This sentence was truly effective; the "Mysterious Heaven Gold-Devouring Insect" acted like a child who had done something wrong, hiding in Zhang Nuo's palm without moving, its insect eyes filled with a look of supplication.