Starting as a stray dog, I embarked on a journey of cultivation.

Gou An's journey to Mount Dawu was based on his own deductions.

The true form of that bloodwing flying insect is most likely hiding near this mountain forest.

Hunter Zhang Da was its first host to possess and parasitize. The rocky, steep slope where the body was dumped is the most suspicious and is very likely the location of the demon insect's nest.

By the time he reached the foot of Mount Dawu, it was already late at night.

A cold night wind blew through the mountains, and the forest was filled with an eerie and sinister atmosphere.

Following his memory, Gou An found the steep slope where He Dazhuang had abandoned Zhang Da's body. He leaned down and looked down at the bottom of the slope. There were piles of rocks and thorns, just like what he had seen during the day.

He twitched his nostrils and sniffed the air carefully, and sure enough, he caught a wisp of cold, demonic energy that was the same as the blood-red flying insect from before.

Gou An immediately activated his crude transformation technique, transforming into a dog-headed human with a long sword in his hand, and slowly slid down the steep slope.

Along the way, thorns and brambles grew everywhere. He swung his knife and kept hacking at the vegetation blocking his path, carefully scanning every crevice in the rocks and bushes, searching for any trace of the monster hiding there.

At the bottom of the slope lay a pool of dried, dark red blood, its scent clearly emanating from Zhang Da after his death.

After searching carefully among the surrounding piles of rocks for a long time, Gou An finally found a dark cave entrance deep in the tangled thickets of thorns.

The opening was about the width of a manhole cover, and the outer layer was completely covered by tall grass. If an ordinary person were to pass by, they would hardly notice it, but it could not escape Gou An's keen sense of smell.

Reaching out and parting the layers of weeds, a bottomless, pitch-black cave was revealed before my eyes.

Gou An bent down and sniffed into the cave. The demonic aura unique to the blood-red flying insects rushed towards him, extremely strong.

This must be the lair of that strange, monstrous insect.

Although he had found the right den, Gou An, always cautious, did not rush down into the cave.

He bent down, picked up a pebble from beside his feet, and threw it into the cave.

The rocks kept hitting the cave walls on both sides, tumbling and falling all the way down, and only after a long time did a dull thud be heard when they hit the ground, which showed that the cave was very deep.

He remained uneasy and threw down several more stones to test the waters, but the reaction was almost the same.

After several searches, there was no unusual activity in the cave except for the sound of stones falling. It seems that the flying insect itself is not at home.

With his worries somewhat alleviated, Gou An became bolder and decided to venture into the cave to explore, hoping to find some treasures or opportunities.

He gripped the protruding rock edges of the cave wall with both hands, using the leverage to slowly climb down.

The upper part of the cave entrance is extremely narrow, but after descending a short distance, the passage suddenly opens up, and the deeper you go, the more spacious the cave becomes.

Gou An conjured a ball of Nine-Fragrance Demon Fire at his fingertips and held it in front of him for illumination. Relying on his nimble movements, he steadily descended by stepping on the protrusions of the rock wall.

Until your feet touched the bottom of the cave, the ground was wet and muddy, and the muddy water made your soles sticky.

He conjured several more balls of demonic fire, which hovered in mid-air, their flames illuminating the entire cave.

There are no traces of man-made caves here, so it doesn't look like a monster's cave. It's just a naturally formed underground cave.

Gou An thought to himself that he had probably made a wasted trip. Just as he turned his head, he caught a glimpse of a huge creature curled up on the side of the cave.

"What is it?"

Gou An was startled and suddenly leaped backward to create a safe distance, then focused his attention to take a closer look.

It was a strange insect with an extremely bloated and fat body, half human and half insect, dark red all over, with wrinkled and shriveled skin, exuding an aura of old age and decay. Its appearance was the same as the blood-red flying insect that he had just killed with a single slash.

Needless to say, this is the true form of all the flying insects, and it appears to be a female insect.

"Finally found you." Gou An opened his mouth and pulled out a long sword from the storage space inside his mouth, the tip of the sword pointing directly at the giant mother insect curled up on the ground.

The mother insect sensed his presence, but her thick, bloated flesh twitched slightly without getting up.

Then a weak, hoarse voice slowly drifted out: "You were the one who threw the stone that hit me just now, weren't you?"

"I ran into you in the village, and before I even went to look for you, you came looking for me."

"This is fate, don't you think?" Gou An looked the mother insect up and down, always on guard against her possible tricks.

"You came all this way to find me? Aren't you afraid I'll eat you up?"

As the mother insect finished speaking, she suddenly coughed a few times and spat out green blood from her mouth, which was disgusting.

Seeing this, Gou An merely sneered and said, "Looking at you now, you'd have a hard time eating me!"

The mother insect tried to lift her sharp abdominal legs, but after lifting them, she was too weak to put them down again.

"Consider yourself lucky!" The mother insect's voice was extremely weak, as if she had given up struggling: "I am a dignified eighth-order demon beast. If I hadn't been severely injured by the human cultivators of the Heavenly Star Sect, killing you would have been a matter of moments."

"What a coincidence!" Gou An sneered upon hearing this. "My favorite thing to do is bully the weak and fear the strong."

Although Gou An appeared calm, he did not immediately believe the words of the mother insect in front of him.

After a brief encounter, Gou An was able to smell the other person's scent.

Although it's impossible to directly determine the other party's cultivation level, it's clear that it's not low.

The eighth-tier demon beast might actually possess cultivation.

However, the other party is now not only old but also injured, so he is not a great threat to me.

However, Gou An did not rush forward to make a move, mainly because of one word.

stable!

"Spare my life, and I'll give you something good!" the mother insect suddenly begged.

"Oh?" Gou An became interested and quickly asked, "What is it?"

The mother insect rolled her neck and protruded a blood-red bead from her mouth, its surface covered with a layer of green mucus.

The mother insect wriggled and grew a withered human hand, holding the bead in her palm.

"This is the Blood Essence Pearl I refined. Swallowing it will enhance your demonic power for a short time," the mother insect said. "Take this pearl and leave, just don't interfere with my recovery."

"Your method of healing your injuries is to parasitize living people and devour their flesh and blood?" Gou An asked curiously.

"Isn't this... a normal method?" the mother insect replied, "Human flesh is the sweetest, especially the flesh of human cultivators."

At this point, the mother insect suddenly asked a question.

"You don't actually eat human flesh, do you?"

Upon hearing this, Gou An immediately retorted, "Who said that? My staple food is humans; I can eat a maximum of eight a day!"

The mother insect chuckled and said, "Really? I couldn't smell it!"

"None of your business!" Gou An brandished the knife in his hand. "Throw the bead over here so I can see it. I want to inspect the goods!"

The mother insect had no choice but to throw the bead over.

Gou An caught it and studied it carefully.

I don't know if this thing has the function of "peace and safety" that the mother insect mentioned, but it is definitely not poisonous.

And in terms of texture, it really feels like a treasure, but I don't have time to study its uses right now.

Gou An stuffed the bead into the space in his mouth, but did not choose to leave.

"Aren't you leaving yet?" the mother insect asked in surprise.

Gou An retorted, "You think one bead is enough to buy your life? I'm afraid it's not enough!"