Chapter 1063: Dao One Devours Heaven and Earth
In Shilin Province, the first sign of trouble was one that only cultivators could perceive: the spiritual energy that saturated the world had begun to thin.
This was no trivial matter. Upon receiving reports from its cultivators, the Shilin Immortal City immediately dispatched investigators.
The results of their measurements confirmed the cultivators' fears—this was no collective illusion.
The concentration of spiritual energy throughout all of Shilin Province had, indeed, dropped.
Though the drop was not yet significant, a wave of apprehension swept through the province's cultivators.
The phenomenon appeared to be confined to Shilin Province alone, leaving them with no precedents to consult. The local cultivators had no choice but to investigate the cause themselves.
The results were staggering.
Deep within the Hundred Stone Grotto-Heaven, a vast network of subterranean caverns on the province's border, a species of small, black insect had emerged at some unknown point in time.
These insects swarmed in unimaginable numbers, a dense, writhing mass that had already overrun nearly the entire cave system.
The sight of the black insects choking the caverns, a tide of darkness that filled one's entire field of vision, sent a chill down the spine of every cultivator who witnessed it.
Having identified the source of the anomaly, the cultivators of Shilin Province were quick to respond.
They organized an expedition into the Hundred Stone Grotto-Heaven to carry out a large-scale extermination of the black insects.
They initially believed that with their power to move mountains and part seas, annihilating a swarm of mere insects would be a simple task.
But the severity of the situation far exceeded their wildest imaginings.
To begin with, the insects possessed an almost unbelievable vitality.
They fed on spiritual energy, which meant that whenever a cultivator's spiritual attack struck them, a portion of its power was devoured, slightly weakening the blow.
This created a terrifying cumulative effect: the greater the number of insects, the stronger their collective "resistance" to spiritual techniques became.
Given the sheer density of the swarm in the Hundred Stone Grotto-Heaven, even an attack from a Nascent Soul cultivator was like a pebble tossed into an ocean—it barely made a ripple. Worse, any cultivator who became surrounded was swiftly drained of their spiritual energy, dying a horrific death.
And how many Soul Transformation cultivators did Shilin Province have? Facing an ocean of subterranean insects, even a dozen or two of such powerful experts were but a drop in the bucket.
Logically, a crisis of this magnitude could only be resolved by a Dao Integration cultivator.
Unfortunately, the Dao Integration cultivator who presided over Shilin Province had departed for unknown reasons some time ago and had yet to return.
All communications sent to them vanished without a trace, like a stone sinking into the ocean.
Thus, the extermination campaign in Shilin Province ground to a halt shortly after it began, trapped in an impossible predicament.
The only small comfort for the cultivators of Shilin Province was that the black insects showed no signs of leaving their subterranean home to expand outward.
Nevertheless, the knowledge that such a terrifying horde festered beneath their feet left everyone unable to eat or sleep in peace.
With no other options, the Shilin Immortal City had no choice but to appeal to the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance headquarters for aid.
Deep within the Hundred Stone Grotto-Heaven.
The phantasmal form of Dharma Transmitter Zhou surveyed the black insects crawling over every inch of the cavern walls, a flicker of apprehension in her eyes.
She had watched with her own eyes as this swarm grew from a single insect to its current, terrifying scale.
Initially, she had paid little heed to Li Fan's casual remark about them being "a little bit of a nuisance."
Now, however, she couldn't get far enough away, not even daring to appear here in her true body.
"Fellow Daoist, are you certain this... thing won't get out of control?" she asked, her expression grim.
Li Fan gently stroked the Dao One mother-bug nestled in his palm and smiled. "Relax. The Xuanhuang Realm is our shared home. Do you think the Federation of All Worlds would deploy something like this without absolute confidence in our ability to control it?"
"Every single one of these black insects was born from this Dao One mother-bug in my hand," he explained. "Their very lives are tied to her. If she dies, the plague will collapse on its own."
As if sensing the killing intent in Li Fan's thoughts, the plump mother-bug rolled over and nudged his palm restlessly with its body.
Dharma Transmitter Zhou stared at the mother-bug for a long moment before finally giving a slight nod.
"Within a month, the spiritual energy concentration in Shilin Province is expected to hit rock bottom. The resulting vacuum will trigger massive spiritual energy storms in the neighboring provinces. That is when we will lift the Spirit-Sealing Barrier."
"Riding those storms, the black insects will spread across the entire Xuanhuang Realm in an astonishingly short amount of time."
An illusory projection of light and shadow materialized before Li Fan, simulating the impending cataclysm.
"The entire process is projected to take no more than seven days."
"By the time the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance works its way through its layers of bureaucracy—reports, meetings, resolutions—it will be far too late."
"At that time, the cultivators of the Xuanhuang Realm will be facing the sudden onset of an age of spiritual decay."
A hint of excitement laced Li Fan's voice as he once again laid out the entire plan for Dharma Transmitter Zhou.
Dharma Transmitter Zhou's eyes narrowed. For reasons she couldn't quite pinpoint, a premonition of disaster suddenly bloomed in her heart.
Still, she reasoned, a massive organization like the Federation of All Worlds would have no reason to allow the Xuanhuang Realm to be truly destroyed. Surely, everything was under control.
Dharma Transmitter Zhou felt a measure of reassurance.
"These insects are horrifying, but their greatest advantage is the element of surprise," she mused. "Once the cultivators of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance rally, exterminating the swarm shouldn't prove too difficult."
Li Fan knew she was right. He smiled faintly. "All we need," he said, "is that window of chaos."
"If this were merely an insect plague, Dharma Transmitter Jiang would certainly never show his face."
"But if the spiritual energy becomes mutated after it returns, threatening the life of every cultivator in the realm... he might have no choice but to appear."
Dharma Transmitter Zhou nodded. "That tainted spiritual energy certainly has a way of unsettling the mind. Even with my disposition, after absorbing just a small amount, I found it difficult to suppress the urge to have a vicious fight with Huang."
"If that were to spread throughout the Xuanhuang Realm..."
She could already envision a world drenched in blood.
"To threaten the entire world with just two species of insect... Your Federation of All Worlds..." The phantasm of Dharma Transmitter Zhou stared at Li Fan, her expression unreadable.
"A threat? Not at all, not at all," Li Fan denied with a decisive shake of his head.
"The moment Jiang appears, I will activate the clues I've already planted to lure him here. After that, he's all yours."
"As for the matter of the Xuanhuang Realm's spiritual energy, you needn't worry."
"Once the insects are dead, the spiritual energy they consumed will return to the world. Everything will go back to the way it was," Li Fan stated calmly.
Dharma Transmitter Zhou had verified this herself, so she raised no objections.
What she didn't know, however, was that Li Fan had concealed a great many things beyond the information he had shared.
For instance, there were not one, but two Dao One mother-bugs.
And only if both were killed simultaneously would the mutated Dao One swarm truly perish.
And while it was true that the Dao One insects returned most of the spiritual energy upon death...
...a small portion was always siphoned off and transferred to the mother-bug as sustenance.
And for another...
Spiritual energy was to the Xuanhuang Realm what blood was to a human body.
And to have one's entire blood supply replaced in such a short time...
...well, what sort of changes that might bring upon the Xuanhuang Realm was truly anyone's guess.
Comments