Beast Taming Immortal Clan

Chapter 298 The Thousand-Layered Cricket Plague: The Ultimate Winner [Please Subscribe]

The hatching contract method for demon insect eggs is different from that for demon beasts.

Because there are too many demonic insects and the eggs are too small, if contracts were made one by one, it would take an unknown amount of energy from the cultivators.

Therefore, for convenience, a large number of the same type of demon insect eggs are usually placed on the contract array and contracted together.

This contract formation is somewhat similar to the "Soul Control Blood Formation" used to contract demonic beasts, but it has been modified.

Following the instructions on the insect-repelling technique, Zhou Chun used his own blood as ink to inscribe a contract array on a stone platform.

Then, he placed a total of three hundred "Mysterious Armor Golden Feather" insect eggs on it, opened his mouth and spat out a ball of blood the size of a thumb, which fell onto the stone platform. He then used his divine sense and incantations to make it evenly divide into tiny drops of blood that fell onto each insect egg.

After he activated the contract array, a faint blood-red light immediately enveloped the stone platform.

A moment later, the bloody light dissipated, and the pale yellow insect eggs became faintly connected with Zhou Chun.

Because demonic insects have very low intelligence, cultivators often need to use their divine sense to guide and control them when they want to control them so that the demonic insects can do things according to their own ideas.

In contrast, the stronger a monster is, the more intelligent it tends to be. It can easily understand its master's commands and does not have this weakness.

Having established a connection between himself and the insect eggs on the stone platform, Zhou Chun buried the eggs in the roots of the large trees outside his temporary cave, allowing them to hatch naturally.

They then followed the same method to make contracts with the "Flying Fire Scorpion" eggs and the "Blue Moon Butterfly" eggs.

The Flying Fire Scorpion has relatively few eggs, only 180.

The Blue Moon Butterfly has even fewer eggs, only a mere sixty.

However, for insect cultivators, as long as they have male and female paired demonic insects in hand, the number is not a big problem.

With patient nurturing, the insect population can increase tenfold in less than ten years!

After all, most demonic insects can lay dozens, or even hundreds or thousands of eggs at a time!

After burying the "Flying Fire Scorpion" eggs in dry soil and placing the "Blue Moon Butterfly" eggs on the potted orchids, Zhou Chun waited for them to hatch on their own.

He then began to study insect-repelling techniques.

As mentioned earlier, because of their low intelligence, even though they have a contract with each other that prevents them from devouring their master, it is very difficult to make them understand and quickly execute their master's commands. Only the master can use their divine sense as a guide and assistance.

However, if the number of demonic insects becomes too large, unless the master is a Golden Core cultivator, it is impossible for him to be able to divide his attention among thousands of demonic insects and guide each one at the same time.

Therefore, some techniques are often needed when trying to control the demonic insects again.

For example, you can cultivate some leaders within the swarm of demonic insects who are significantly stronger than the others. Through long-term training, the demonic insects will become accustomed to following the leaders. In this way, the master only needs to direct the leaders to act, which will lead the entire swarm.

Another method involves using special sound wave vibration frequencies to control the demonic insects; different vibration frequencies represent different commands.

This requires a lot of effort to train and guide the insect swarm so that it can form a habitual memory.

Regardless of the insect-repelling technique used, controlling demonic insects will definitely consume more energy for cultivators than controlling demonic beasts.

Therefore, Zhou Chun does not plan to raise too many kinds of demonic insects in the future, so as not to spend too much energy on them.

Meanwhile, while Zhou Chun was diligently studying insect-repelling techniques in the wilderness, Zhou Mingde was accompanying the cultivators of Qinglian Temple to exterminate insects everywhere.

Shan Yangzi seemed to really treat him like a conscript, assigning him tasks no less demanding than those of the Purple Mansion cultivators from Qinglian Temple.

He even personally led him to clean up large swarms of insects on several occasions.

This led Zhou Mingde to suspect that Shanyangzi might be using the demonic insects to get rid of him.

But upon closer examination, it seems unlikely that Sanyoko would be so unwise.

After all, the prescription has already been presented, and Zhou Mingde's credit has been claimed.

Even if he dies at the hands of the demonic insects, the reward that is due to him should definitely be given to the Zhou family.

Otherwise, if word gets out, it will undoubtedly cause great damage to the reputation of Qinglian Temple.

Besides, the credit for the medicine offering has already been taken by Shanyangzi and Qinglian Temple. It is neither reasonable nor morally right for them to risk harming a cultivator at the Purple Mansion stage for the sake of a small gain.

Therefore, later on, Zhou Mingde was more inclined to believe that Shanyangzi wanted to use this to warn him.

As for the reason for the warning, it was because he had previously arranged a backup plan to target and defend against Yamayoko.

Therefore, Zhou Mingde could only remind himself to be careful and cautious every time he went on a mission, prioritizing his own safety above all else.

He was ultimately not a member of the Qinglian Temple. Shanyangzi could assign him tasks to maintain a unified narrative, but he certainly couldn't assign him a task that required him to eliminate a certain number of demonic insects.

Time passed slowly, and half a year quickly went by.

In the past six months, the number of demonic insects wiped out by cultivators within the Rong Kingdom alone has reached hundreds of millions.

However, the number of demonic insects spawned by the swarm in the past six months has increased even more!

Despite the continuous efforts of human cultivators to clean up the area, after half a year, most of Rong Kingdom was severely damaged by the insect swarm, and countless mortals, livestock, and plants were devoured by the insects.

Dozens of cultivation clans and independent cultivator strongholds in Rong Kingdom were wiped out by the insect swarm, and the number of cultivators who died in the insect plague totaled several thousand.

This situation shocked many cultivators who participated in the cleanup of the demonic insects, filling them with worry.

Keep in mind that this was the result of these cultivators cleaning day and night.

But they were ultimately just cultivators, not iron puppets, tireless and thirstless.

It's only been half a year, and they're already tired of it. If this continues, how many people will still be able to keep up with the task of clearing out the insect swarms within Rong Kingdom?

However, once there aren't so many cultivators cleaning up day and night, given the insect swarm's rate of reproduction and expansion, it's likely that within three months, the entire Rong Kingdom will follow in the footsteps of the Yang Kingdom and turn into scorched earth!

Just when many cultivators were pessimistic about the future, a piece of news emerged that greatly boosted their spirits and gave them a glimmer of hope.

The news was personally revealed by "Master Ziyan," who had joined forces to kill the Insect King, and there was absolutely no falsehood in it.

According to this late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, a poison capable of wiping out the insect swarm on a large scale has been developed, and a large stockpile has been produced.

Next, once the approximate locations of each insect swarm's nests are determined, teams can be deployed with poison to carry out targeted and precise elimination!

The news was undoubtedly a shot in the arm for all the cultivators fighting on the front lines, instantly revitalizing their weary minds.

Before long, cultivators from many powerful forces were divided into small teams, each carrying a fixed amount of poison to clear out the insect swarms near various insect nests.

They would first lure the swarm out with food. If that didn't work, they would have the Purple Mansion stage cultivators in the group use the Mountain-Splitting Earth Technique to attack the insect nest, enraging the swarm to come out and attack them.

Once the swarm emerges, they will use magic to catalyze the diluted poison into a mist that will envelop and cover the swarm.

These water droplets are not imbued with any magical power and have no offensive capabilities themselves, so the insect swarm does not treat them as any kind of magic for defense.

Once the water mist comes into contact with the demon insects, the poison will quickly take effect, causing great harm to the insects.

At this point, even with the insect king leading the swarm, the demonic insects could no longer exert the same powerful combat strength as before.

What would normally require several Purple Mansion stage cultivators and dozens of Foundation Establishment stage cultivators to eliminate the swarm can now be easily wiped out with less than a third of the previous strength.

As for the larvae and eggs inside the insect nest, all that is needed is to open a passage leading to the nest and deliver the toxic mist formed from the poisonous water, which will then eliminate the entire nest.

There might still be some that slip through the net, but as long as we arrange for some people to monitor the insect nests nearby and promptly report and eliminate those that escaped, there shouldn't be any problems.

In this way, with the help of poison, the insect plague that had ravaged two countries was largely eradicated in less than a month.

The reason why the fire wasn't completely extinguished was because the amount of poison prepared was insufficient.

But it didn't matter anymore; the remaining swarms were no longer capable of posing a threat to Nascent Soul cultivators as they had before.

The Nascent Soul and Golden Core cultivators personally took action, using various methods to search the heavens and the earth, and quickly found all the insect nests hidden in various places, and then destroyed them by hand.

Once all the demonic insect nests that could be found in the open had been destroyed, the insect plague was essentially eradicated.

As long as we continue to produce poison and arrange more people to patrol and monitor, eliminating any discovered insects, it will be difficult for the demonic insects to cause any more trouble.

After all, the reason these demonic insects were able to cause such a ruckus was because they weren't taken seriously enough at first, which led to the birth of their race's king.

Now that the human cultivators have killed the Insect King and extinguished the main force of the insect plague, and are on high alert for the remaining demonic insects, it will be difficult for the insect plague to recur.

It was only after the Nascent Soul stage cultivators discussed the matter that they finally determined the name of the demonic insect that caused the plague.

Based on the source of the poison formula used to kill the demonic insects, the insects were eventually named "Thousand-Extinction Ant-Cricket," and this insect plague was also known as the "Thousand-Extinction Ant-Cricket Plague."

After the insect plague was eradicated, the inventor of the poison formula, which had intrigued countless cultivators, was also revealed.

According to the final announcement, the inventor of the poison formula was "Fufeng Zhenren," a Nascent Soul cultivator from the Yang Kingdom.

Indeed, after discussions among the Nascent Soul stage cultivators, "Master Fufeng" became the inventor of the poison formula.

The reason for this is twofold. Firstly, this "Master Fufeng" has a great reputation. With his mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivation and expertise in alchemy, he has always been extremely famous in Yang Kingdom and surrounding countries. It is easier for people to believe and feel at ease that he invented the poison formula.

Secondly, the insect plague originated in Yang Kingdom and brought about its destruction, while also severely affecting half of Rong Kingdom, causing cultivators from neighboring countries to have a very bad impression of the cultivation world in Yang Kingdom.

Many cultivators believe that the cultivators of Yang Kingdom were too foolish and short-sighted, which allowed the "Thousand-Destroying Ants" to grow and become a plague.

Therefore, having the "Master Fufeng" of Yang Kingdom invent a poison formula to eradicate the insect plague would undoubtedly serve as a way to make amends in the minds of those cultivators and reduce their malice towards the cultivators of Yang Kingdom.

Thirdly, "Master Fufeng" himself is willing to take this title and is willing to pay a sufficient price for it!

For some reason, when Zhou Mingde heard that the inventor of the poison formula was "Master Fufeng", he felt a sense of schadenfreude.

He knew long ago that such a significant achievement as ending the insect plague could not possibly fall to a nobody like him, even if he was the one who provided the poison formula.

However, he originally thought that Shanyangzi might have a chance to win this honor and be remembered in history.

Now that Shan Yangzi has no chance, Zhou Mingde felt much better.

Of course, he himself would not show any of this. Instead, he looked astonished and went to Shanyangzi to inquire about the situation.

At this moment, Yamayoko's mood was naturally extremely depressed and complicated.

Although giving up the title brought him more benefits, it was clearly not his original intention.

Therefore, when faced with Zhou Mingde's probing, he said rather irritably, "Why are you asking so many questions, Fellow Daoist Zhou? Since it's a decision made by our seniors, we juniors can only obey!"

The resentment in his words was obvious to everyone.

Seeing this, Zhou Mingde was secretly delighted.

But with a worried look on her face, she whispered, "What about the reward we agreed on..."

"Don't worry, since we promised you, we definitely won't go back on our word. However, the seniors are still discussing the specifics with our sect's patriarch, so please be patient, Fellow Daoist Zhou!"

Shan Yangzi glanced at him, then gently waved his hand in response.

His impatient demeanor made Zhou Mingde dare not say anything more.

He could only reply immediately, "Then when do you plan to return to Jing Kingdom, senior? To be honest, I've been away from home for a long time and I'm really worried about the younger generation in my family. I just want to return to the family as soon as possible to let them know I'm safe!"

Upon hearing this, Yamayoko narrowed his eyes and scrutinized him from head to toe.

After a moment, he said to him calmly, "If you want to go back on your own, then do so. Now that the insect plague has been eradicated, I will not stop you!"

"Thank you for your understanding, senior. I wish you all your dreams come true and everything goes smoothly!"

After Zhou Mingde finished speaking, he bowed deeply to him again and then left.

A few days later, Zhou Mingde, who had returned to Dayun Kingdom, led Zhou Jiapeng and the others on their journey back to Jing Kingdom.

Zhou Chun also set off from another route to meet him at the agreed-upon location.

(End of this chapter)