Chapter 327: The Dragon-Transformed Worm Mother |
Jiang Chen extended his spiritual sense into the Square Inch Ring, checking on the state of the Dragon-Transformed Meridian-Reversing Worm Mother.
Eight days had passed since its capture.
The creature was now visibly gaunt, its colossal body having shrunk considerably. It thrashed restlessly, a picture of frantic energy. As it crawled, its fleshy, once-plump form rippled with a grotesque elasticity.
It seemed to be searching for a place to build a new nest, but the barren, sterile space offered nothing. It had grown so agitated that it had begun to emit a series of high-pitched, desperate clicks.
No nest. No drones. No egg sacs.
For a creature like the Dragon-Transformed Meridian-Reversing Worm Mother, this was a state of absolute vulnerability.
Unfortunately for it, the interior of the Square Inch Ring was a void, devoid of a single wisp of Spirit Qi or Earth Vein energy. It was nothing more than an expansive, empty prison.
After a moment of observation, Jiang Chen decided the time was right. It was ready to be tamed.
He withdrew his focus to the world outside and forced a single, gleaming drop of essence blood from the tip of his right middle finger. He then channeled the Myriad Insects Secret Record, deliberately throwing the Wood Spirit Qi in his dantian into a state of violent, unstable chaos.
The entire process was flawless, encountering no resistance. After all, Jiang Chen had already mastered the complete Myriad Insects Secret Record, refining its techniques to offer him almost pure benefit with negligible drawbacks.
Soon, a dark green Reverse Spirit Seed pulsed quietly in his dantian.
Jiang Chen willed it forth. It appeared in his palm instantly. The Reverse Spirit Seed was no larger than a grain of rice, its dark green surface etched with writhing black veins. It felt cool and hard to the touch, yet a faint, rhythmic pulse throbbed from within, the undeniable beat of a nascent life.
With a thought, Jiang Chen teleported the Dragon-Transformed Meridian-Reversing Worm Mother from the Square Inch Ring.
In a flash of displaced air, a creature dozens of feet long materialized before him.
*Woof! Woof! Woof!*
Da Huang, reacting first, instantly bared its fangs, a low growl rumbling in its chest. Gege froze, its eyes locked on the monstrosity as if facing a predator of unimaginable power. The flock of pearl-feathered chickens scattered in a panic, not daring to remain for a second longer. Even the creatures in the pond—the Light Spirit Turtles and the dozens of Red-Tailed Carp—vanished into the murky depths of the mud.
The oppressive, primal terror radiating from the Dragon-Transformed Meridian-Reversing Worm Mother saturated the air.
If Da Huang and Gege hadn’t grown up by Jiang Chen’s side, absorbing the ambient Spirit Qi from his breakthroughs and slowly evolving beyond mere spirit beasts, their first instinct would have been the same: to flee for their lives.
The moment it was free, the Dragon-Transformed Meridian-Reversing Worm Mother rapidly surveyed its new surroundings. Realizing it had escaped its prison and feeling the familiar, nourishing presence of Earth Vein energy once more, its multifaceted eyes, once dull and listless, now blazed with a savage, predatory light.
Freedom. Sustenance. It would devour the human before it and every living thing in this yard.
Sensing the spike of killing intent, Jiang Chen didn’t hesitate. He flicked his wrist, sending the Reverse Spirit Seed arcing through the air.
The Dragon-Transformed Meridian-Reversing Worm Mother, poised to strike, froze. The aura emanating from the seed washed over it, and the colossal insect grew unnaturally still.
The seed, which had been pulsing slowly, began to throb faster and faster. In response, a tremor ran through the worm mother’s massive body. Its ferocious gaze softened, replaced by something akin to recognition.
Then, the dark green seed dissolved into light, sinking into the creature’s flesh and reforming as a sigil branded upon its forehead.
The mark itself transformed. It swelled from the size of a rice grain to that of a thumbnail. Its color deepened from a simple green to a lustrous, abyssal jade. The black veins sharpened, taking on the segmented, chitinous pattern of an insect’s underbelly, pulsing with a faint, sickly light in time with the worm mother’s alien respirations.
The Dragon-Transformed Meridian-Reversing Worm Mother was a type of Reverse Spirit Insect. Its body was suffused with Reverse Spirit Turbid Qi. This was the very reason the seed’s creation demanded a foundation of chaotic Spirit Qi—to resonate with the creature’s own nature.
Now, with the Reverse Spirit Seed as a medium, a symbiotic cycle connected Jiang Chen and the worm mother. It provided two primary effects.
First, it converted Jiang Chen’s Spirit Qi into a form of Reverse Spirit Qi that the worms could absorb, marking him not just as an ally, but as a being of profound kinship.
Second, it acted as a filter. The seed could draw the impure energies and residual dregs from the Earth Vein that the worms consumed, purify them, and channel them back to Jiang Chen as usable Spirit Qi. It was, in essence, a living, mobile Spirit Gathering Array.
But that wasn’t the crucial part.
Jiang Chen hadn’t just learned a single chapter; he had mastered the *complete* Myriad Insects Secret Record. Anyone else would have had to tame the worm mother through a long, methodical process, slowly building trust.
But Jiang Chen was an exception. His fully mastered technique bypassed the tedious process entirely, instantly forging the highest possible bond: symbiosis.
This was a deep, fundamental binding. He could not only perceive the worm mother’s condition but could even influence the efficiency and speed of its egg sac incubation.
A flood of detailed information appeared in his mind.
**[Dragon-Transformed Meridian-Reversing Worm Mother]**
**Intimacy Level:** Symbiosis
**Loyalty Level:** Acknowledgment
**Current Realm:** Hundred-Year Cultivation
**Remaining Lifespan:** 320 Years
**Abilities:**
* Can produce 1 to 5 egg sacs daily (dependent on Spirit Qi and Earth Vein concentration).
* Larvae are born with Reverse Spirit Turbid Qi, allowing them to feed on spirit veins for sustenance.
* The Mother’s Reverse Spirit Turbid Qi is infused with dragon breath, enabling it to corrode spirit plants, dissolve shields, and inflict a brief mental shock with draconic pressure.
* Autonomously seeks out spirit veins to devour impure Spirit Qi and Earth Vein toxins for growth, feeding purified Spirit Qi back to its master via the Reverse Spirit Seed.
* At its current cultivation, it can command its swarm via low-frequency clicks, controlling up to 500 larvae or 100 adult Meridian-Reversing Worms simultaneously.
**Special Effect 1: Dragon Transformation**
* Activates a draconic state. Carapace markings glow brilliant gold, body size doubles, and egg sac production temporarily increases to 1 every two hours.
**Weaknesses:**
* Vulnerable to pure Yang Spirit Qi.
* Extremely fragile during oviposition. An attack can trigger premature expulsion of egg sacs, incapacitating the Mother with excruciating pain.
* Dragon Transformation requires nourishment from residual spirit vein energy. Prolonged periods in a spirit-null environment will cause its draconic markings to fade, reducing its abilities by 30% and lowering egg sac production to 1 per day.
Jiang Chen processed the flood of information, a slow, deep breath escaping his lips. A rare spirit insect, indeed. This was an understatement.
Potential was the measure of a creature’s ultimate ceiling for growth, with 10 being the theoretical maximum. The sheer terror of this creature’s potential was laid bare. In a few short years, it would likely evolve from Spirit Grade to Treasure Grade, enhancing all its abilities even further.
Through the Reverse Spirit Seed and the Myriad Insects Secret Record, Jiang Chen now shared a mental link with the worm mother. For the foreseeable future, betrayal was not a concern.
Just then, a clear, instinctual message flooded his mind from the symbiotic link.
Jiang Chen’s eyes shot wide open. “What? You want to lead me to the nest of the Spirit-Eroding Fungus King?!”