The Insect Mother with Full Dodge Points

Seeing all this, Lu Qiancha’s heart instantly sank to the bottom.

‘We’re doomed!’

This insect mother…

Its speed was ghostly, and it moved through the air as if it were flat ground.

—It was precisely the type she was currently least adept at dealing with.

Throw potions? She couldn’t hit it!

Hurl a spear? It wouldn’t connect!

She cursed herself inwardly: ‘Why didn’t I learn a few more martial techniques that can lock onto high-speed targets?’

Sighing softly, she resigned herself to her fate.

It seemed she was of no use here.

So what could she do?

Hire a substitute.

Lu Qiancha unhesitatingly cast a pleading gaze at the bright red figure beside her.

Shangguan Yunzhu understood immediately, the corners of her lips curling up slightly as she offered a reassuring, gentle smile.

The next moment, her eyes became as sharp as ice.

Her fingers formed a seal with rapid movements.

Clang clang clang clang—

Dozens of surrounding crimson flying swords erupted with a sharp sword cry.

Like a meteor shower, they rained down on the ferocious larva that had just risen from the pool of blood.

Splurt splurt splurt splurt…

It didn’t even have time to scream.

The scarlet larva was instantly riddled with thousands of holes, like a tattered cloth bag.

In the roaring flames that followed, its sinful life came to an end.

“Che!”

The insect mother’s compound eyes locked onto Shangguan Yunzhu, and it let out a piercing, enraged shriek.

Its massive body transformed into a yellow and black afterimage, wrapped in a foul, fishy wind, as it tore through the air and lunged forward.

At this moment, its demonic power, at the mid-stage of the Spirit Transformation realm, erupted, wrapped in the chaotic power of incense vows it had absorbed.

The two forces were crudely mixed and wrapped around its body—as if a layer of early-stage Void Refining armor had been forcefully added to its already formidable body.

It savagely amplified its speed and power.

Though there was no technique to speak of, this primitive attack mode of “one force to defeat ten techniques” made Shangguan Yunzhu feel a pressure like a mountain.

Constructing a defensive net of swords was the limit of her ability; the high-speed flying swords simply couldn’t catch up to the insect mother’s ghostly figure, and she could only passively block the storm-like impacts.

“Catch!”

At the critical moment, Lu Qiancha’s voice cut through the air.

A small, dark blue potion bottle sliced through the turbulent, scorching flames and was accurately drawn into Shangguan Yunzhu’s palm.

“What’s this?”

“Speed potion. Just drink it.”

Lu Qiancha transmitted the message rapidly.

Shangguan Yunzhu didn’t hesitate, tilting her head back and pouring the cool liquid down her throat.

One breath.

A strange, clear stream rushed into her spiritual platform.

The world before her suddenly “slowed down.”

The ghostly afterimage of the insect mother.

In her eyes, it instantly became clear and sluggish.

The trajectory of every dodge was revealed as if in slow motion.

“And this.”

Lu Qiancha threw another bottle of potion, this one burning with an orange-yellow flame.

Shangguan Yunzhu caught it again and, without hesitation, drank it all down.

Boom—!

The potion entered her stomach like igniting a dormant volcano within her.

Her spiritual power was instantly purified and condensed.

The mana flowing from her fingertips seemed to have a life of its own, and her control precision soared.

Her power was amplified by a full forty percent.

Her confidence skyrocketed.

Shangguan Yunzhu’s gaze was as sharp as a blade.

Her fingertips traced profound patterns in the void as she shouted clearly, “Phoenix Feather Thousand Blades, Ten Thousand Edges Pay Homage to the Origin!”

Voom—

The countless sword shadows circling her body suddenly came to a halt.

The sword tips pointed downward, humming and vibrating, as the surging intent of the flaming swords gathered madly.

“One Flame Burns the Heavens, Breaking the Nine Heavens!”

Ten thousand swords cried out in unison, as if paying homage to a monarch.

“Cinnabar Heart Burns to Ash, Sword Breaks the Long Sky!”

All the flying swords suddenly converged inward.

A scorching, crimson-gold light instantly swallowed everything.

“Lone Swan Pierces the World, Breaking the Firmament!”

Shangguan Yunzhu made a grasping motion with her jade-like hand and slashed forward into the air.

“Screee—!!!”

A sky-shattering phoenix cry, capable of piercing metal and splitting stone, resounded through the clouds.

Within the brilliant light, a giant flaming phoenix, with wings that blotted out the sun and formed entirely of Nirvana’s true flames, spread its wings and cried out.

Its magnificent power burned the eight desolate lands.

The giant phoenix transformed into a crimson-gold meteor that tore through space.

It collided violently with the lunging insect mother!

“Scree—che!”

The insect mother let out a heart-wrenching, mournful cry.

The heaven-burning flames instantly swept over its entire body.

It was like a piece of burning fluff, flapping its wings madly to try and shake off the flames, but it only made the fire burn even more fiercely.

A few breaths later—

Boom!

The massive insect body was completely reduced to a giant, charred husk, which crashed heavily to the ground with thick smoke.

“Watch me!”

Seeing this, Lu Qiancha kicked it while it was down, throwing the two bottles of ink-black liquid in her hand.

Sizzle—!!

A harsh corrosive sound, accompanied by billowing green smoke, rose up.

The charred insect corpse, like a block of snow meeting a hot iron, visibly dissolved at a rapid rate.

In the blink of an eye, it had turned into a pool of foul-smelling, thick black pus, which slowly seeped into the cracks in the ground.

In its place, only a demon core, a bead that emitted a soft, milky-white light, and a simple, ancient storage ring covered in the rust of ages remained.

“…Did it… drop loot?”

Lu Qiancha tilted her little head, her blue eyes filled with surprise and doubt.

Slaying demons and devils and leaving behind a pile of corpses was the norm, but this kind of operation, similar to dropping a treasure chest on the spot, was a first for her.

Her innocent blue eyes blinked, and her spiritual sense carefully rolled up the white bead, the ring, and the demon core.

After cleaning them with a water condensation spell, she placed the two unexpected treasures and one demon core in her palm to examine them.

Shangguan Yunzhu recalled her sky-full of spiritual swords and landed gracefully at her side.

“Here, you killed it, the spoils of war are yours,” Lu Qiancha said generously, handing over the demon core, bead, and ring.

“Where… did these come from?”

Shangguan Yunzhu looked at the bead and ring in confusion.

She had been so focused on fighting just now that she hadn’t paid any attention to where the insect corpse had fallen.

“They were probably… hidden inside the insect’s stomach? But I washed them clean with spiritual water.”

Lu Qiancha speculated.

“Eww—!”

Shangguan Yunzhu’s face was instantly filled with disgust, and she even subconsciously took a small step back.

“Things from inside an insect’s stomach… no matter how you wash them, they still feel like they have a certain… smell! It’s so disgusting!”

“Then if you don’t want them, they’re mine?”

Lu Qiancha’s blue eyes sparkled as she prepared to put the items away.

Shangguan Yunzhu looked at her, her eyes filled with the helpless and worried expression of “my child is picking up random things to play with.”

“Little Qiancha… you don’t find this thing dirty?”

“…I do find it a little disgusting,” Lu Qiancha wrinkled her little nose honestly, but her paws honestly pulled the items back a little.

“The demon core can be exchanged for spirit stones, and there might be good things in the ring. I don’t know what the white bead is, but what if it’s also something good? In any case, we can’t waste them!”

She had been scared by poverty for too long; her desire for spirit stones had overcome her disgust for insects.

“…Then can’t you just wipe the imprint off the ring, take out the things inside, and throw the ring far away?”

Shangguan Yunzhu gently supported her forehead.

She suddenly thought of the environment on Tianquan Peak…

A hint of pity for Lu Qiancha unconsciously appeared in her eyes.

‘Little Qiancha must have had a very hard life…’

“Oh! That’s right!”

Lu Qiancha nodded in realization.

She immediately sent her spiritual power towards the ancient ring in her paw.

The moment her spiritual power touched the ring—

The milky-white bead lying quietly beside it, without any warning, turned into a stream of milky-white light.

“Waah!”

Lu Qiancha’s paw trembled in fright!

The ring fell to the ground.

“What’s going on?!”

Shangguan Yunzhu’s expression changed drastically, and she stepped forward like an arrow.

Her fingertips touched Lu Qiancha’s wrist, and her spiritual sense instantly entered her body.

She “saw” the white light flowing rapidly along Lu Qiancha’s meridians, instantly traveling through her entire body’s major and minor heavenly cycles.

Finally—

With a pop, it settled steadily in Lu Qiancha’s Dantian’s sea of qi.

Lu Qiancha quickly sat down cross-legged and focused, looking inward at her Dantian.

Her spiritual sense carefully touched the quietly floating white bead—

Voom.

A vast and clear stream of information instantly flooded her sea of consciousness.

“I’ll force it out for you!”

Shangguan Yunzhu was frantic, her spiritual power on the verge of forcibly rushing in.

“Wait! Yunzhu! There’s no need…”

Lu Qiancha suddenly opened her eyes, her expression… extremely strange, her gaze turning towards the half-destroyed Mountain God temple in the distance.

“Hm? What’s going on with that bead?”

Shangguan Yunzhu asked with a frown.

Lu Qiancha took a deep breath, her gaze turning to Shangguan Yunzhu with a complex expression as she said faintly, “That bead is the ‘Mountain God’s Command Token’ issued by the underworld to the local mountain god. Just now, when my spiritual power made contact, it’s as if I…”

She paused with difficulty, a wry smile on her face.

“…as if I voluntarily claimed the position and was promoted on the spot.”

“Huh?!”

Shangguan Yunzhu’s amber pupils instantly quaked.

The expression on her face seemed to have frozen into a big question mark and an exclamation point.