Chapter 958: The Heavenly Melody Divine Insect Becomes the Heavenly Ear

The sky gradually darkened; when the market outside the gate disbanded and the chirping of insects rose within the Medicine King Temple.

The Insect King feigned a need to relieve himself and slipped quietly to the back hall, finding Hua the Physician of the Three Emperors Assembly and asking: “Do you know the Profound Truth Sect’s intentions are hostile?”

Hua the Physician frowned, yet saw the Insect King standing there carelessly, slack and loose, radiating a third of brute arrogance.

Suddenly he glared, but before he could point his finger at the Insect King’s nose, the Insect King laughed: “Back when I didn’t have these ears, I roamed the streets—I’m a veteran of the Green Skin Guild!”

“After I gained these divine ears, most secrets in Zhigucheng could no longer hide from me.”

“That belly-baring Buddha in your temple—others may not know its origins, but to me, it’s no mystery at all!”

Hua the Physician asked: “What do you mean?”

“That young man seeking revenge planned this in advance. That Silk Puppet buried itself in my ear and used my head as a fighting basin—I’m not letting this slide! And none of my insects can defeat that Silk Puppet. It’s a demonic insect!”

“But as the saying goes: within seven paces of a poison, there’s always an antidote. Your Medicine King Temple holds one divine insect!”

The Insect King stared into Hua the Physician’s eyes, then rose and walked away, circling the temple twice before standing before the golden statue of the Fat Maitreya.

He gazed at the statue, pressed his ear against Maitreya’s belly, and declared firmly: “The sound comes from here. I heard it clearly when I lived in Zhigucheng, but the Green Skin Guild’s rules forbade me from entering.”

“When we handed over the Belly-Baring Buddha Ancestor to you, we said: any member who has paid homage to the Ancestor may use any means necessary to reclaim the Ancestor’s remains from you.”

“Even if a cricket had been born inside.”

The Insect King sighed: “So, if you won’t help me now, I’m finished!”

Hua the Physician glanced at the Maitreya statue, then suddenly pulled open its belly. The golden skin peeled away, revealing the exposed internal organs—slightly dried and shrunken, their flesh a grayish-pink, desiccated hue.

Yet the shapes and structures of the organs remained intact.

The Insect King clasped his hands in reverence to the Ancestor, then stared intently—he had lost his hearing and could no longer sense insects, so he could only look with his eyes.

He stared for a long time but found no trace of the insect infestation.

Hua the Physician watched him nervously: “You mustn’t touch it! This is your own Ancestor!”

The Insect King bit his lip: “Then there’s only one way!”

He pursed his lips and emitted a high-pitched, silent whistle. Instantly, searing pain shot through his ears; a strange insect chirp echoed in his left ear—wings parting like plucked strings. Inside the golden Buddha, the desiccated corpse responded with a chime like a bronze bell.

Both looked up to see a tiny, jet-black snake slithering out of the Buddha’s ear canal, its head crowned with a cricket no larger than a fingernail.

The cricket was entirely blood-red, whole and intact, bristling with murderous intent as it bit down on the snake’s head.

The black snake writhed and twisted, finally shaking off the blood insect. The Insect King, swift as lightning, covered it instantly with a jar. The black snake then slithered back into the Buddha’s belly and vanished.

The Insect King saw Hua the Physician staring blankly at the Buddha, as if hesitating whether to pull out the snake.

He laughed: “What you see isn’t what it is. You see a snake—but it might be some artifact transformed from our Ancestor’s body. Best not to disturb it.”

Hua the Physician shuddered and followed the Insect King back to the others.

The Insect King flung back his robe and boldly declared: "That piss? I felt so damn good taking it!"

The Blood Tooth Guardian of the Profound Truth Sect merely smiled gently.

The Insect King pulled out the jar, tapped its blue-and-white porcelain wall, and a long insect chirp rang out—silencing every voice, large or small, in the side hall.

“Boy, do you know what insect this is?”

The Insect King fixed his gaze on the youth.

“In Zhigucheng, insect-fighters are many. Since the previous dynasty, people have compiled extra insect catalogs beyond the standard ones. One category is called Coffin Insects—born in graveyards of the dead, they prioritize ferocity, cunning, and ruthlessness, especially excelling in combat. This insect, when unearthed, has a head like blood amber, black face and blood-red fangs, golden silk threads on its headcap, silver forehead lines, white spots and blue patterns on its fire-pot neck, golden wings and golden fur, six legs of pale yellow, and a tail tip long as a needle, covered in black hairs. It appears only in autumn graves—and that’s the Blood Tooth!”

“This insect is a ghost insect. Once exposed to light, it will fight until death.”

“But above the Blood Tooth in the Odd Insect Catalog lies another: the Netherblood Ghost. Entirely blood-red, its antennae, fangs, body, and tail are all crimson. It haunts only the seven orifices of a certain monstrous corpse—the Blood Corpse—feeding on its brain. Since ancient times, insect fighters never fight ghost or demonic insects. But since you’ve burrowed your Silk Puppet into my skull, this Netherblood Ghost is what I’ve prepared for you!”

The Insect King sneered: “Boy, if I lose this duel, I die. But if you lose, you put this Netherblood Ghost into your own ear canal!”

The youth nodded.

The Insect King opened the jar. The blood-red cricket bore a ghostly face on its wings—hence its name, Netherblood Ghost.

He pressed the jar against his right ear. The Netherblood Ghost, familiar with the path, slithered into his ear canal. Instantly, the Insect King’s face twisted in pain; a trail of blood dripped from his right ear.

The Netherblood Ghost had torn open his eardrum, drank his blood greedily, then burrowed deeper to seek out the Silk Puppet.

The Insect King gritted his teeth, pressed his lips tight, and sent a silent, invisible insect whistle through a tiny hole in his mouth. The Blood Tooth Guardian of the Profound Truth Sect merely withdrew an ancient qin from his pouch and plucked a single note with his right pinky—a hoarse, aged sound.

The Insect King’s legs jerked violently; his body flipped midair, spinning three full circles before crashing heavily to the ground, screaming.

“Aaaahhh!”

His eyes bulged; both hands clamped desperately over his ears.

His mouth gaped wide, but his screams turned silent. Two strange insects crawled out of his hidden ear canals, lunging onto his tongue. The Netherblood Ghost spread its wings; its ghostly face contorted as if screaming in agony. A piercing insect cry erupted from the Insect King’s mouth.

Meanwhile, the Silk Puppet—a tiny insect no bigger than a sesame seed—darted behind the Netherblood Ghost and bit its lower abdomen.

The Insect King bit down hard—on his own tongue. A bloody chunk fell away. He spat blood, rolled on the ground, clutching his ears.

The two insects crawled out from his tear ducts, battling atop his eyeballs. As the fight grew fiercer, they burrowed into his eyeballs.

Soon, the Insect King’s eyes swelled with blood; faint insect shapes could be seen moving inside his pupils. He rolled uncontrollably on the ground, chilling every onlooker. Dou Da Bi Bao turned back to the Profound Truth Sect and shouted: “Gentlemen, mercy where mercy is due!”

Hua the Physician was deeply uneasy.

At that moment, the Blood Tooth finally ceased his qin music and said to the group: “The outcome is decided. Whether he lives now depends on you.”

Physicians from the Three Emperors Assembly and the foreign doctors crowded forward to examine the Insect King.

The Blood Tooth Guardian of the Profound Truth Sect said calmly: “He cannot control the Netherblood Ghost. When the fight grew fierce, the Netherblood Ghost fed on his brain to replenish its strength to battle the Silk Puppet. Now that the blood ghost is defeated, it has retreated into his brain to recover. To save him, you must extract the insect…”

Xilin curiously shone a silver lamp into the Insect King’s ear canal and saw the torn eardrum. After discussing with the nearby physician, he said: “We can drip mercury into his ear!”

The nearby physician produced an extremely fine steel wire, its tip a tiny clamp that could open and close by pulling the wire.

“Poison the insect with mercury, then open the skull and clamp out the corpse.”

“No!” Hua the Physician stopped him. “The Netherblood Ghost is a divine insect—its vitality is immense. If mercury fails to kill it, it will only go mad and burrow deeper into the Insect King’s brain.”

The foreign physician looked up at him. Hua the Physician shifted his gaze and asked: “Could we lure the Netherblood Ghost out with food or provocation?”

“The Netherblood Ghost’s food is his brain!” The Crow tossed out.

“Then what’s your solution?” Hua the Physician asked the Crow.

The Crow replied coolly: “Crickets are sound insects. When a sound moves heaven and earth—like heavenly music—it will surely draw them out. When I captured this Silk Puppet, I used the qin music I learned from the Sect Master.”

“But after being defeated, the Netherblood Ghost has lost its fighting spirit. My qin music cannot lure it out.”

“Only by taking him to Zhigucheng tonight—if the moonlight is right—will the Sect Master play his qin by the riverbank. That music will surely intoxicate the Netherblood Ghost and make it crawl out.”

Hua the Physician and Xilin both frowned deeply—they had never imagined the Profound Truth Sect’s cure would be like this!

The Crow glanced at them: “Do you know why the Netherblood Ghost lost? The Netherblood Ghost is born from the eardrum of a monstrous corpse—it is a divine insect. The Silk Puppet is merely a strange demonic insect that feeds on its own kind. But the Silk Puppet excels at mimicking the sounds of its kind to lure them to their doom. When I captured this insect, I happened to bring it to hear the Sect Master’s qin music—and it memorized three notes.”

“That’s why the Blood Tooth played the qin to lure it into imitation—and that’s why the Netherblood Ghost lost…”

The Silk Puppet mimicked Qian Chen’s qin music—Qian Chen’s music, known as the Xi Yi Divine Thunder, could shatter ghosts and gods with even a fraction of its spiritual essence.

Fortunately, the Netherblood Ghost was merely a cricket. Had it been a true ghost, it would have been obliterated the moment the qin sounded!

The Crow nodded to them, then returned to the Profound Truth Sect and fell silent.

The doctors conferred for a while. Though they had long accepted the world’s strange and bizarre illnesses,

this rare affliction and its bizarre cure, unfolding before their eyes, left them dizzy, as if drunk.

Among the Profound Truth Sect, the Blood Tooth asked quietly: “Director, do you think they’ll follow your advice to treat him?”

“To save him, there is no other way.”

The Blood Tooth paused, then raised his head: “When the Silk Puppet and the Netherblood Ghost consume the Insect King’s cochlea and hear the Sect Master’s qin music, they will transform into true Heavenly Melody Divine Insects. Such rare insects can cure all deafness. Place them in a deaf person’s ear, and they will restore hearing—and without a teacher, they will naturally master all music in the world.”

“Thus, our sect gains another pair of divine ears, and our grand plan grows one step closer to completion.”

“But I have one question… what becomes of the Insect King?”

The Crow glanced at him: “He lost a pair of marvelous ears. Isn’t that enough?”

“How can a pair of ears compare to one’s parents?” The Blood Tooth’s gaze burned.

“But how much of your father’s fate was his own fault, and how much was our sect’s doing?” The Crow countered.

The Blood Tooth fell silent. After a long while, he said: “Revenge doesn’t need reason.”

“If you wish to seek revenge again, do it yourself—it has nothing to do with our sect!” The Crow said. “Our sect’s grand undertaking now is to raise the Jiazi Pillar, to save the world. You know the past was but a phantom in the dying embers. Will you still drown in it?”

“If you don’t treat illusion as truth, why would the Director cling to saving the world?”

The Blood Tooth said: “Aren’t we all drowning in this vivid illusion?”

The Crow said nothing…