Chapter 746 -748: Egg-Hatching Insects, Three Years of Life
“He actually didn’t pursue me? What’s going through that Spirit Emperor’s mind?” Qin Muye had intended to test the Spirit Emperor.
He thought they would have to exchange blows to fathom each other’s depths, but it turned out that the Spirit Emperor did not spar with him, leaving Qin Muye somewhat dejected, as he had deliberately exposed himself for that purpose.
“Forget it, if the test didn’t work out, so be it. I didn’t want to confront him head-on anyway.”
Openly fighting the opponent wasn’t guaranteed to lead to victory, after all, the Spirit Emperor had four 9th Level Spiritual Beasts.
Apart from the Netherworld White Tiger he had seen, there were also the Sky-Spanning Giant Claw, the Fire Phoenix, and the Heavenly Blue Sacred Tree, covering land, sea, air, flora, and fauna, suitable for single combat or warfare, essentially encompassing all aspects.
This Spirit Emperor essentially had no weaknesses.
Naturally, Qin Muye also felt envious of such an all-powerful warrior.
The Spiritual Beasts were capable fighters, but the Spirit Emperor’s strength was not inferior. If anyone thought that the Spirit Emperor, as a Spirit Master, was as feeble as a chicken and sought to behead him, they’d likely be smashed to death by an overwhelming force on the spot.
He could definitely harness the power of those four 9th Level Spiritual Beasts.
Once the power of the four Spiritual Beasts converged upon the Spirit Emperor, being undying was just a basic skill, and on top of that, he could deploy earth-shattering abilities such as the body attributes of Netherworld White Tiger, Sky-Spanning Giant Claw, the life force of Fire Phoenix and Heavenly Blue Sacred Tree and so on. As for mastery of energy, that was, of course, without question.
Otherwise, how could he exert one hundred and fifty percent of his strength?
It couldn’t be that he would rely on the Spirit Emperor cheering from behind.
So a direct confrontation was out of the question, the only option was to resort to underhanded tactics.
For instance, by lowering the World Energy Level, turning 9th Level into 8th Level, similar to the Divine Enthronement plan in the Xuanzhen Realm.
But that matter wasn’t urgent, and he had to wait a bit.
Because first, he had to breed the Mysterious Life Moth.
In terms of difficulty, it certainly wasn’t great; after all, with a complete process and having extrapolated the data, Qin Muye dared not claim a hundred percent success rate, but it was still ninety-nine percent. As for the one hundred percent mentioned in the secret techniques? That was pure nonsense, as the variability between individual caterpillars was there, and things don’t just go as one says.
The insect eggs in his hand were quickly hatched under his catalysis, and a one-centimeter-long black caterpillar crawled out from the egg.
Now it was black, of course; it had to molt once before it could turn green, which would take about two days.
From the hatching to the cocooning stage, the caterpillar needed to molt around six times. The timeframe was not fixed but varied depending on whether the caterpillar ingested enough nutrients during its feeding process.
The hardest part of the Mysterious Life Moth’s evolution and the proficiency level of the Spiritual Beast Technique came exactly from this point. It’s one thing to be mindless, but another altogether is that during the larval stage, the caterpillars are constantly feeding, the nonstop kind.
Therefore, this led to the necessity of feeding during the enhancement of the Spiritual Beast Technique; otherwise, they would suffer a nutritional deficiency, which would directly influence the cocooning process.
These creatures can’t be considered delicate because they are capable of forming a cocoon despite nutritional deficiencies, but there’s a chance they might get trapped and unable to emerge from the cocoon, or even if they do, they could be of inferior quality.
In the wild, this is the way of life, but in the eyes of a Spirit Master, it’s utterly abhorrent, for although they can rapidly form a fighting force, there’s nothing beyond that.
At this stage, the caterpillars actually have no combat ability; only after becoming moths do they possess such ability. Yet the lifespan of a moth isn’t long, and even though the Mysterious Life Moth lives considerably longer than ordinary moths, reaching three years, this is but a fleeting moment for Spirit Masters, unless it’s one of the more powerful moths, like the Mysterious Life Moth.
This led to the fact that although there were many caterpillars, most people who used them were merely transitional.
Qin Muye casually passed a leaf over, and the caterpillar began to feed according to its instincts.
“Before undergoing its first molt, the caterpillar doesn’t possess any Innate Spiritual Beast Technique. It needs further development to exhibit such abilities.”
“Fortunately, bugs grow fast, just like leeks.”
“Well, there might not be as many leeks as bugs, but it’s not easy to pick out a caterpillar with these three innate abilities.”
It isn’t easy for a caterpillar with three innate Spiritual Beast Techniques to exist. First, its potential is already determined in the insect eggs, and second, whether it can absorb enough nutrition in the two days of its first molting.
If there’s enough nutrition, it can naturally evolve, but without it, even a caterpillar with potential will automatically degrade due to insufficient nutrients.
In just a few minutes, the caterpillar in Qin Muye’s hands had chewed through a leaf several times its size, yet it seemed still unsatisfied as it crawled on his hand.
Qin Muye casually stuffed another leaf towards it, and the black caterpillar naturally started munching again.
“Their value is too low. If it were higher, maybe they would be bred on a large scale. Not to mention, everybody having an Aerial Moth would be enough to form an elite combat force.”
An Aerial Moth is a moth that a caterpillar evolves into without using any resources, possessing an innate Spiritual Beast Technique known as Qi Slash which can control airflow to form a slashing attack. It’s a Spiritual Beast of both the Insect Dao and Qi Dao, but its strength… isn’t very impressive.
While it’s called Qi Slash, the actual power isn’t great, since the creature itself is quite weak, limiting the strength it can release.
However, it’s excellent for use in the Lower Three Realms of the Mortal Realm, where it can be used for rapid combat familiarization. Anything above that and one would need to switch to a different Spiritual Beast.
“If not for its lifespan and resource limitations, this caterpillar would be great for widespread use.”
Images of the caterpillar’s evolutionary forms, like the Cold Moon Moth, the Black Fire Moth, and the Light-Flow Moth, floated through Qin Muye’s mind. The combat abilities they formed varied due to the different resources used for their evolution.
However, aside from the Cosmo Moth with its Cosmic Dao attribute, the lifespans of the other moths, with attributes like Ice Dao, Fire Dao, and Light Dao, remained at three years despite increased combat prowess. Even with excellent training, the three-year lifespan rendered it all meaningless once it passed, as their efforts would have been in vain.
Of course, there might be other evolutionary types that can break this limitation, but there is no record of them in the Great Spirit Dynasty or other noble families.
For example, the Cosmo Moth’s evolutionary type, while documented in some noble families, only had its name recorded without any detailed information about the secret techniques—it likely had been lost. If not for having fallen into Qin Muye’s hands, it might never have seen the light of day until the protagonist came along.
After simply storing the caterpillar away, Qin Muye then began to contemplate setting up a suitable laboratory.
“Two days’ time should be enough to establish the laboratory and connect the two realms.”
“Looking at the situation with the Spirit Emperor, his perception doesn’t seem to be as sharp as that of the Sect Masters of the Three Sects in the Xuanzhen Realm. Could this be due to an overly reliant use of Spiritual Beasts leading to the degeneration of his system?”
Back in the Xuanzhen Realm, if a Sect Master of the Three Sects had intended to find him, they would have sensed Qin Muye’s location immediately. Qin Muye could also use reverse shielding to create a blank area, preventing others from detecting his actions.
Indeed, Qin Muye possessed a perception ability similar to those of the Sect Masters of the Three Sects.
But in the Spirit Realm, the Spirit Emperor did not have such strong perception abilities. It wasn’t until Qin Muye deliberately exposed himself to test the other side that they became aware of his presence.
“This must be a disadvantage of Spirit Masters. Overreliance on Spiritual Beasts may lead to certain deficiencies, which, although compensated for after becoming an Immortal, still far underperform compared to cultivators.”
It’s normal to have shortcomings. No system is perfect. Even Qin Muye had to adopt strengths from various systems to overcome weaknesses and become so powerful.
“Decapitating a 9th Level Spirit Master may not work, but it depends on who does the cutting. Ordinary 9th Levels can’t manage, but if one of the Sect Masters of the Three Sects made a move against the Spirit Emperor, and someone could hold off the four Spiritual Beasts for just a moment, they might not kill the Spirit Emperor instantly, but victory could be decided within three moves.”
Life and Death indeed come quickly. It’s impossible to fight for thousands or tens of thousands of years unless it’s an evenly matched battle intentionally drawn out. Otherwise, if one can’t win, can’t they still escape?
However, deciding the outcome doesn’t equate to killing the Spirit Emperor. To truly cause the Spirit Emperor’s death would require much more effort and prove far more difficult than merely defeating him.
“Moreover, the Spirit Emperor doesn’t seem to know about the Xuanzhen Realm, so who exactly sent this thing over?” Qin Muye mused as he looked at the black cyclops he had sealed, preventing it from transmitting signals outward.
This creature was also a Spiritual Beast, but what type it was, he was not yet sure.