"Don't say it's impossible. It really is that one." Evan Yang said with a smile, transmitting his voice.
"But it was clearly taken away by someone else. How could it be in your hands? Are you connected to that person somehow?" Ye Chen asked suspiciously.
Seeing Ye Chen still didn't believe him, Evan briefly explained the strange person's story. When Ye Chen heard that the odd man inside Evan's Tower was the one who took away the Ancestor of Ten Thousand Insects, her expression turned incredulous.
"Don't just stand there, hurry up. We've got a month, and with its help, we can get a lot." Evan, although he hadn't found any Immortal artifacts this time, refused to give up, especially since the Ancestor of Ten Thousand Insects liked this powder.
After Evan explained, Ye Chen was stirred up and excited. To avoid drawing attention, the two of them kept a low profile.
So over the next few days, they used the Ancestor of Ten Thousand Insects to find thousands of stones. Each one could sell for a lot, but Evan fed them all to the Ancestor instead.
"Isn't that a bit too extravagant?" Ye Chen clicked her tongue every time she saw Evan feed the stones to the Ancestor of Ten Thousand Insects.
"It's thanks to it, anyway. Besides, we don't really need that many crystal sources." Evan had plenty of ways to get crystal sources, but these stones could benefit the Ancestor of Ten Thousand Insects, so he didn't mind letting it have them.
Ye Chen saw the logic in that. Over the past few days, she'd witnessed the Ancestor of Ten Thousand Insects' power and gradually lost her fear of it.
So in the days that followed, the two started searching like crazy again. Evan could rely on the Ancestor of Ten Thousand Insects to find stones hidden in cracks that even divine sense couldn't detect.
Twenty days passed quickly. Just as Evan was wondering why he hadn't found a single Immortal artifact, he discovered, with the help of the Ancestor of Ten Thousand Insects, a cluster of five stone-shell gems together. Four contained only the same pungent powder, but the last one made Evan ecstatic—it held a piece of clothing.
"I finally see an Immortal artifact!" Ye Chen asked skeptically, her eyes lighting up as she watched Evan take something out of the stone-shell gem.
"This should be a man's battle armor," Evan muttered after a quick inspection.
"It probably is. Hurry up and try it on!" Ye Chen said excitedly.
"There are so many people around. Better store it away for now and refine it later when we have time," Evan replied cautiously.
"Makes sense." Ye Chen nodded in agreement.
Just then, Evan heard a series of screams.
"Looks like someone's in trouble over there," Evan muttered, then sent a sound transmission to Ye Chen. Curious, Ye Chen followed Evan's directions and looked that way.
The two saw a group of people not far away, being attacked by unknown creatures.
"What are those?" They saw winged creatures, looking like small bees, chasing the group. Whenever one touched a person, it would drain their blood until they died.
Evan and Ye Chen both frowned, realizing these creatures were extremely vicious.
At that moment, the Ancestor of Ten Thousand Insects in Evan's hand began to move, as if it had sensed something.
"What's wrong?" Ye Chen asked curiously, noticing the Ancestor of Ten Thousand Insects moving in Evan's hand.
"Not sure, but it seems really interested in these bugs," Evan frowned.
"Should we go take a look?" Ye Chen suggested.
"It's dangerous over there. You should enter the Tower first—I'll check it out." Evan was worried about Ye Chen, so he had her enter the Sky-Piercing Tower.
Seeing Evan's serious expression, Ye Chen followed his instructions and entered the Tower.
Meanwhile, Evan was already moving toward the group with the Ancestor of Ten Thousand Insects.
The fleeing group quickly noticed Evan and rushed forward, pleading, "Senior, please save us!"
The swarm of bugs flew over from behind. Evan activated his divine sense and controlled nine daggers, swiftly slashing down the dozen bugs that had followed.
Everyone was shocked. They had tried everything but couldn't kill the bugs, mainly because their defenses were so strong. Yet Evan had dealt with them easily, even with rusty daggers, making everyone immediately see him as a true expert.
Evan didn't say anything to them at first. He collected the bug corpses, then turned and asked, "Why were you being chased by them?"
"There was a tree hole up ahead. We thought there might be a stone-shell gem inside, but ended up digging out a swarm of these vampires!" one person said with a trembling voice.
"I see. You can leave now," Evan said after sweeping the area with his divine sense and confirming there was a large tree with a big hole not far away.
The survivors quickly thanked Evan and left.
"This is the first time I've seen such a deadly situation. I wonder what these bugs are and why the Ancestor of Ten Thousand Insects is so interested in them." Evan glanced curiously at the Ancestor, then placed the bug corpses before it.
Just like a gluttonous bug, the Ancestor of Ten Thousand Insects devoured the dozen bug corpses in one gulp.
"You even eat corpses?" Evan exclaimed in shock as he saw the Ancestor devour the bug corpses.
At that moment, the Ancestor of Ten Thousand Insects began to change, growing even larger.
"No way, you actually get bigger after eating these?" Evan said in surprise.
The Ancestor conveyed its meaning to Evan—it wanted to eat more, and urged Evan to catch more bugs from the tree hole.
Evan sighed helplessly, "Fine, I'll get you some more. Luckily, they're not that strong."
With that, Evan headed toward the tree hole.
Just a few steps away from the entrance, a dense swarm of bugs burst out all at once.
"So many!" Evan was shocked by the sheer number, quickly taking out flying needles and moving at high speed, but it was impossible to fend off so many.
Evan unleashed both Sacred Flame and Ice-fire Sacred Flame. As soon as the dual flames appeared, any bug close to Evan dropped—some were burned black, others frozen solid.
It wasn't until Evan's foot was half-buried under bug corpses that the tree hole finally stopped spewing out insects.
Evan glanced at the pile and said, "Alright, this should be enough." He placed the Ancestor of Ten Thousand Insects down.
Sure enough, the Ancestor moved so fast that even Evan could hardly believe it. He watched as it devoured the bugs with a furious munching, clearing the ground in no time. The Ancestor swelled up to the thickness of an arm, like a bug stuffed to bursting.
"Tsk tsk, you're so fat now. Can you still find those stone-shell gems?" Evan said speechlessly.
The Ancestor flowed back onto Evan's hand.
"Looks like it's still fine." Seeing the Ancestor move as quickly as before, Evan smiled and tucked it into his clothes, then decided to check what was inside the tree hole that had spawned so many strange bugs.
Evan probed the entrance several times to make sure nothing else was inside, then reached in and started digging. Soon, he pulled out a pile of remains.
"Ugh, what a mess. It's all just this stuff," Evan muttered, then kept digging.
Soon he uncovered something different—a nest-like structure.
In one corner of the nest was a rhombus-shaped pink crystal.
"What's this?" Evan asked skeptically.
Just then, the Ancestor of Ten Thousand Insects crawled out and stared at the pink crystal.
"You want it?" Evan asked, puzzled.
The Ancestor conveyed its desire to Evan—it wanted the crystal to cultivate its offspring.
Evan took out his Space Ring. Inside were Luna the Jade Rabbit, the golden-furred mouse, and another area full of insects—some already at the Soul-Gathering Realm—all bred from Evan's blood by the Ancestor of Ten Thousand Insects.
Evan placed the pink crystal inside the ring, and the insects immediately swarmed it, devouring it crazily as if it were highly beneficial.
Soon the pink crystal disappeared, and Evan watched as the insects began to mutate—some even grew tails, pink in color, with tiny mouths at the tip.
"Seriously?" Evan exclaimed. The Ancestor then explained to him what the tails were for.
"No way, really?" Evan was shocked after hearing the Ancestor's explanation.
It turned out the crystal triggered mutations in the insects—their tails could suck blood, just like the bugs outside.
Evan was relieved that these insects were all under his control.
Just as Evan finished storing the Ancestor and prepared to leave, a man appeared, smiling and said, "What was that thing you just had?"
"Nothing important," Evan replied, unwilling to let anyone know about the Ancestor of Ten Thousand Insects.
"Kid, you should know that even late Soul-Gathering experts aren't that strong here. If you let me see your thing and hand over the stone-shell gems you've found, I'll guarantee your safety—and at the end, I'll give you a few gems so you won't come here for nothing." The man smiled.
"Finally ran into one," Evan sighed.
He'd thought he wouldn't encounter any robbers these days, but today he did. This was the valley's specialty: early on, everyone searched hard, but in the last few days, looting began—after all, the spoils were much greater then.
After all, these stone-shell gems weren't something you could get just by wishing—it's all luck. So snatching the fruits of others' labor at the last moment was the favorite pastime of these scoundrels.
The man heard Evan's words and asked skeptically, "What do you mean, kid?"
"Nothing much. I'm just saying, don't provoke me—or if you die, don't blame me," Evan said, ignoring him and turning to leave.
But the man wouldn't let him go. With a flash, he tried to ambush Evan from behind, but Evan dodged and landed beside him, smashing down with a punch.
"Ah!" The man's right hand was instantly crippled.
"I told you not to provoke me. I gave you a chance, but you didn't cherish it—so don't blame me." Evan coldly snorted at the Soul-Gathering Great Perfection expert.
The man hadn't expected Evan to be so domineering, and hurriedly fled in one direction.
Evan wasn't about to let him escape. With a flash, he quickly caught up and, under the man's stunned gaze, punched him in the back.
"Pff." The man was sent flying, crashing into a mountain. By now, the surrounding people were drawn over by the commotion.