Chapter 149: Eat the Seedlings, Kill Them!

The Speedy Death Aura accelerates the entire life cycle; long-lived creatures like Anthony of An Dong absorb high-nutrient substances while rapidly growing, becoming a middle-aged man of forty within just a few days.

Crops with a single-season harvest completed their entire brief lives in three hours, leaving behind abundant fruit.

For insects whose lifespans lasted only days, the moment Ange activated the aura, they faced annihilation.

Their entire life cycle was accelerated to its limit—so short they couldn't even fly to the villagers, bite through skin, gnaw flesh, or lay eggs; they simply fell from the air, twitched their legs, and died.

Countless insects swarmed through the sky, falling in a steady rain, and soon the air was completely clear.

Beetles underground frantically struggled to rise, then also twitched, flipped over, and died.

"Can the Speedy Death Aura be used like this? That's incredibly clever—how did you think of it?" Nagelis asked in astonishment.

Ange glanced at it, puzzled, as if wondering why it would ask such a thing: "Every time I activate it, insects die."

"Oh, right, right," Nagelis said aloud, while internally cursing: Who would notice insects dying? You're the one growing vegetables, not me.

As insects fell in a steady rain, John and the villagers were stunned.

"W-what's happening? Why are they all falling?"

"Poisoned?"

"Uh, look at my blisters—I accidentally brushed against the campfire while running, and now they've formed, popped, and healed…"

"Don't you all feel a little hungry?"

"Not just a little—it's starving. Didn't we just finish a full meal?"

"There's more food—eat quickly."

"Hey, bride, your belly? Why's it swollen? Did you eat too much?"

"What? Pregnant? Married today, showing pregnancy today?"

When Ange turned off the aura, one of the brides' bellies had swollen to the size of a three- or four-month pregnancy; when asked, she revealed she was two months along—her parents nearly beat the groom to death.

As for why a two-month pregnancy looked like three or four months, Nagelis explained it was due to the divine technique's influence, and chuckled: "This is a blessing from the gods."

To completely eradicate these insects and beetles, Ange accelerated the cycle for two full months—absolute, utter death for creatures whose lifespans were only two or three days.

The corpses of the desert bandits had been stripped to bare skeletons by insects and beetles, except for one: Domit, killed by the hooded figure's hand-thrust.

Ange walked up to him, raised his scythe to strike—when Domit's corpse suddenly leapt up and bolted away.

Each step made his flesh bounce Duang Duang, as if his skin were filled entirely with liquid.

Ange glanced back at one of the hooded figures' severed limbs—they were all liches, their soul flames in their chests—but one fragment's soul had vanished; clearly, they'd transferred their soul into Domit's corpse by some unknown method.

Ange's scythe swept across it, pulling out the soul.

Domit's corpse lurched forward a few steps like a human-shaped bag filled with fluid, then collapsed with a wet *plop*—the "bag" ruptured, spilling a mound of black, translucent eggs with a single white dot each.

Each egg was barely a millimeter wide, millions upon millions of them, pooling across the ground like liquid, making Nagelis's scales bristle.

"This bandit's corpse was used as an egg incubator? One batch can produce tens of millions, even billions of eggs—once released, they immediately form a massive swarm. Good heavens, thanks to the Speedy Death Aura—this incubation would've taken one or two months. If we'd just buried his body without noticing, in a month or two, tens of millions of beetles would've crawled out."

"The Speedy Death Aura accelerated the process, letting us spot the problem immediately. Good heavens—if we'd missed it and buried the body, in two months every villager nearby would've died. No, no—nothing can be left, not even the insect corpses. Ange, burn every single insect corpse. Leave none."

Ange cast the Burned Field spell, binding fire elements to the insect corpses, letting them smolder slowly—this method was thorough, unlike Fireball, which would've blown the corpses apart.

When Ange burned the field, he did it this way—even the insect eggs buried in the soil were completely incinerated.

Soon, the insect corpses were reduced to pools of black ash.

While Ange burned the insects, Nagelis found fine soil and had Nai Aili and Bai Hou spit into it, mixing the mud.

Luo Ge peered over curiously: "Is this what they call Dragon Saliva Soil? Mixed into mud, it has elemental affinity and can be molded into magical sculptures?"

"Yes, sharp eye. Our dragonkind are treasures from head to toe—nothing is useless." Nagelis said proudly.

"Right, so that's why High Bone took you—why capture something useless? You've spat out a lot of saliva over the years, haven't you?" Luo Ge said casually.

Ouch… Nagelis's heart lurched. Though it hadn't spat much saliva over the years, it had definitely defecated plenty—where did all that go?

Unconsciously, its gaze turned to Ange: "I get it now… why the farmland has remained fertile for over a thousand years…"

They shaped the mixed mud into a hollow sphere, placed a few insect eggs inside, sealed it with mud, and told Ange: "Ange, sense the water elements in the mud shell? Draw them out—but don't touch the eggs inside."

"Oh." Ange reached out, and tiny droplets were sucked out, condensing on the mud sphere's surface, then floated to his palm. As the water elements were removed, the freshly mixed mud dried rapidly.

Drying the mud shell had many methods—burning or sun-drying—but the hollow interior held eggs; high heat would burn them to ash, and sun-drying took too long—so removing water elements was the most convenient.

"Tsk tsk tsk—such control, not using it for engraving scrolls is a waste. Here, these magic arrays—etch them onto the mud sphere's surface." Nagelis said, transmitting several magic arrays to Ange via soul.

Under Ange's gaze, the mud sphere's surface was engraved with precise, clear lines and edges—as if stamped from a mold.

As the final stroke was completed, the mud sphere hummed, sending out a ripple of elemental energy.

Nagelis handed the sphere to Ange: "Until the magic arrays fail, these eggs will remain sealed. Store them safely—later, send them to Bruce and the World Tree. Let them study this creature—it's no ordinary pest. If they spread, they'll devour the entire Material Plane."

Ange stored the mud sphere in the Palace of Rest, then used magic to burn the remaining insect eggs into ash.

After burning them, Ange stared blankly at the ash of the insect eggs, then turned to look at the ash of the beetles and flying insects, tilting his head.

"Aow!" The little zombie suddenly cried out from afar—when they went to check, they saw it chasing a lone escaped beetle.

All other beetles had crawled or burrowed in the ground, but this one was different—it flew, moving in short bursts, pausing between flights, until it reached Ange's saltwater magic rice field, landing on a seedling and crunching it.

This beetle didn't just eat meat—it ate plants too?

After munching for a while, the beetle split in half—its head grew a tail, its tail grew a head, and right before everyone's eyes, it became two. But the one that grew from the tail had no wings.

"Even eating plants lets it grow? This thing is monstrous!" Nagelis blurted out involuntarily.

Beside him, Ange's head suddenly burst into soul flame. He spoke, each word deliberate: "Eat the seedlings? Kill them! Hemertos."

When the bandits were being eaten, Ange hadn't been this furious.