SWDnovel Chapter 89 The Insect Hive
Chapter 89 The Insect Hive
Lin Jingchu's mind raced, and he made a decision in an instant. He stood still, facing the swirling purple cloud of insects.
Zi Yun rushed to his side in the blink of an eye, and Lin Jingchu's heart was in his throat, ready to activate the Silver Scale Armor at any moment. At the same time, his fingers flew into hand seals, opening a gap in the Reversed Five Elements Array.
Fortunately, Ziyun ignored Lin Jingchu, who was right next to her, just like before, and rushed in through the door without hesitation.
The white mist-shrouded formation was instantly tinged with an eerie purple, and a chilling buzzing sound echoed endlessly.
Within the formation, the desperate roar of the cultivator surnamed Zhao could be faintly heard, only to be drowned out by an even more intense gnawing sound.
Meanwhile, the Heavenly Crystal Ants continued to pour into the great formation like a torrent, and the formation space, which was nearly a hundred feet in diameter, was quickly filled with dense purple figures.
Seeing that things had come to this point and there would be no further changes, Lin Jingchu immediately summoned the Azure Wing Boat, which transformed into a streak of azure light and soared into the sky.
He needs to find a safe place to focus on controlling his clone and do something big.
The surging spiritual light from the Azure Wing Boat caused some of the Celestial Crystal Ants to pause slightly, but they ultimately chose to continue their attack on the larger "hard bone" in the formation.
As the Heavenly Crystal Ants continued to pour in, they finally found and dug out the spirit stones that were maintaining the great formation, and instantly drained them of their spiritual power.
The Reversed Five Elements Formation completely failed, and the purple swarm of insects dispersed with a "whoosh." Inside the formation, the cultivator surnamed Zhao had already turned into a skeleton, falling into the surging river below.
……
Deep inside the cave.
Because of the large-scale mobilization of the Sky Crystal Ants, the guards at the entrance of that nest became sparse.
Using the "Hidden Concealment Technique," Lin Jingchu's clone carefully stepped into the ant nest filled with flowing purple light.
This is a huge cave with a diameter of about 100 zhang (approximately 33 meters). The surrounding rock walls are covered with entrances to passages of varying sizes, some only wide enough for an ant to pass through, while others are as wide as the one behind him.
Inside the cave, countless tower-like structures made of transparent or pale purple crystals stand like a forest, becoming taller and denser towards the center.
Lin Jingchu's clone silently activated the "Thousand Forms Technique," and his entire body, flesh and bones, emitted subtle crackling sounds as it began to collapse inward. In a short while, he transformed into the appearance of a short, childlike boy.
If a disciple of the Ancient Sword Sect were to see this, he would probably have to kneel down on the spot—because the one he transformed into was none other than the "Fire Dragon Child".
The spiritual energy fluctuations when the "Thousand Phases Technique" is activated are extremely weak. Coupled with the concealment of the "Hidden Concealment Technique," even the highly perceptive Heavenly Crystal Ants could not detect it.
The child-like clone, with its petite and agile body, moved nimbly among the towering purple crystal towers like a wisp of smoke.
Soon, he arrived at the very center of the cave. There stood a slender crystal tower, ten feet tall, but less than half a foot thick.
The surface of the crystal tower is smooth as a mirror and semi-transparent, through which you can vaguely see crystal ants constantly moving about, as well as some tender white wriggling larvae.
Lin Jingchu's clone quietly channeled his magic power, and his body slowly floated upwards, quickly arriving at the top of the tower.
Through the transparent crystal walls, a sealed crystal chamber could be seen. Inside, a fist-sized Celestial Crystal Ant, its body a deeper purple, resided. It resembled other Celestial Crystal Ants, with two small mandibles, a slender waist, and a full rump, but its body was more delicate and its color purer—it was the queen. Below it, within the crystal chamber, layers upon layers of tiny insect eggs were piled up.
Faced with such a powerful and wondrous insect, ancient cultivators did consider taming it. After discovering that the adult queen ant could not recognize a master, some even set their sights on the larvae.
The ant colony will only convert one of its eggs into a queen egg when it discovers abundant external resources and an opportunity to swarm. Furthermore, after the queen dies, the colony will raise a new queen.
An ancient cultivator once successfully captured a newly hatched Heavenly Crystal Ant queen and implanted a divine soul imprint on her. However, when the queen established her colony, she easily broke through the restriction.
The clone patted the storage bag, and a talisman radiating a blue light flew out.
The talisman is called the Azure Vase.
Moreover, it is not a mirage created from a reflection in a mirror or the moon in the water.
The talisman seals away a portion of the power of a Core Formation magic weapon. This "Azure Bottle" talisman still has seven uses remaining, and even if Lin Jingchu exhausts his magic power, he cannot replicate it.
The "Blazing Sun Banner" talisman, which only had one more use left, was barely enough, but Lin Jingchu was worried that it wouldn't be powerful enough.
After unleashing the talisman, the clone didn't dare to stop, his fingers forming hand seals. He was going to use a secret technique to unleash all the sealed power of the talisman at once.
As magical power surged in, the "Hidden Concealment Technique" immediately failed. The Queen of the Crystal Ants in the crystal chamber instantly discovered this uninvited guest.
Its pale purple crystalline body suddenly burst out with dazzling purple light, and the entire Sky Crystal Ant in the insect hive instantly went berserk, frantically rushing towards the child who suddenly appeared!
However, before the purple storm could even get close, it was blocked by layers of magical shields that appeared out of nowhere.
A delicate, nine-story pagoda floated above the clone's head.
The Celestial Crystal Ants gnawed through one layer of the shield, and the pagoda immediately generated a new one. However, the Celestial Crystal Ants were too fast at devouring the shield; the pagoda couldn't generate a new one in time, and all nine layers of shields were destroyed in the blink of an eye!
Just as the ant swarm was about to overwhelm the clone, another layer of silver, scale-like spiritual shield appeared, once again keeping the ant swarm outside.
When the Heavenly Crystal Ants had completely devoured the silver scale spirit shield, the "Azure Bottle" talisman was finally fully activated!
The talisman vanished in a burst of light, leaving behind a delicate, translucent jade bottle with a slender neck and a large belly.
The next moment, a torrent of green hair gushed from the mouth of the palm-sized jade bottle, like a sudden burst of green rain, instantly piercing and cutting through countless crystal ants in the surrounding area.
As the ant colony swept and cut through the hair-like strands of green silk, it was as if a purple crystal rain was falling.
However, the number of Celestial Ants in the nest was simply too great. Under the queen's control, they frantically swarmed and gnawed at the blue silk. The purple wave and the blue wave collided violently.
Although this black hair seemed endless, it could only barely hold its own against the swarm of Heavenly Crystal Ants.
But that was enough. Lin Jingchu's clone fixed his gaze on the queen ant, who had taken advantage of the chaos to fly out of the crystal room and was about to escape to the entrance of a passage at the edge of the cave.
The clone pointed at it from afar, and a portion of the green silk instantly gathered, like a sharp green spear, piercing through the sea of insects, opening up into a large net, instantly wrapping the fist-sized queen ant into a green silk cocoon.
The cocoon trembled violently, and purple light flashed wildly inside, clearly indicating that the queen ant was struggling desperately.
The Tianjing ant colony also frantically pounced on the green cocoon, attempting to bite through it and rescue the queen ant.
How could Lin Jingchu allow them to have their way? A massive surge of green silk rushed forth, enveloping the outer layer of Celestial Crystal Ants. Then, even more Celestial Crystal Ants swarmed in…
The two sides wrapped each other up, stretching the cocoon, which was originally only the size of a human head, to a size of over ten feet in diameter.
Suddenly, the ant swarm became noticeably chaotic, ceasing its attack on the green cocoon and instead frantically attacking Lin Jingchu's clone.
Lin Jingchu's clone also gave up resisting, letting the Heavenly Crystal Ants engulf his figure.
Inside the green cocoon, the queen ant had been completely torn apart by those sharp green silk threads.
Without continuous magical support, the "Azure Bottle" was quickly surrounded and devoured by the swarming ants, and disappeared after its spiritual power was exhausted.
The celestial crystal ants that had absorbed the spiritual power of the "Azure Bottle" merged into the ten-zhang-tall crystal tower.
The crystal tower's spiritual light surged violently, and finally all the energy converged and poured into one of the ordinary, translucent white insect eggs. The insect egg glowed slightly, and a faint purple halo appeared on its surface.
……
In the cave behind the waterfall, the swarm of crystal ants, which were gnawing at the fallen rocks and trying to open up a passage, suddenly paused, then abandoned their target, took flight with a whoosh, rushed out of the cave, and began to frantically search for and attack any creatures and objects rich in spiritual energy within their sight.
Large swathes of purple insect clouds also emerged from several hidden mountain crevices and fissures in the surrounding area, instantly turning the surrounding area upside down and disrupting the peace.
The disheveled, sinister-looking man and his only remaining junior brother, who had just crawled out of a crack in the ground, were terrified by the sight. They quickly suppressed their aura and fled into the distance without looking back.