Chapter 309: The Lord of the Insect Nest

Science Fiction Novel

Luo Feng's Life-Death Eye opened between his brows. This complete bloodline, burning with black flames, appeared multi-layered under his observation. Countless mystic patterns combined within each layer, and then these numerous layers perfectly integrated to form a complete whole, creating this bloodline that was born to transcend its confines.

"Such a combination can transcend the confines?" Luo Feng watched, captivated and dazzled. Before him, merely a low-level Primal Chaos life-form bloodline from the early God-Emperor stage unveiled the secret to transcending limitations.

"My previous proposed enhancement schemes had too many deficiencies."

"My home planet, Earth, once said, 'Take nature as your teacher!' My current study of the 'Primal Chaos creature bloodline' born of nature is surely another form of taking nature as my teacher," Luo Feng thought with devotion.

"Setting aside the complete fusion of life and death, just the methods of combination are so numerous."

"I need to extract them one by one," Luo Feng murmured, deeply engrossed.

The first method of combination... The second method of combination... Fully extracting each method was incredibly difficult. It required comprehending the essence of their combination from countless mystic patterns to finally deduce the applicable combining methods.

During his comprehension process, Luo Feng also consumed some auxiliary cultivation treasures, significantly enhancing his thought processing speed. After all, a God-Emperor's thinking speed was still too slow for fully grasping the profound mysteries of these transcendence-enabling combinations.

Even so, it took Luo Feng over an epoch to thoroughly comprehend this early God-Emperor stage 'Nirvana Flame Serpent bloodline'. "Although I've extracted many life-death combination methods, I still lack the most fundamental 'perfect unity'," Luo Feng mused. Countless combination methods still required perfect unity to truly transcend their confines.

"This is already the weakest life-form that can transcend its confines," Luo Feng sighed inwardly. "I still can't grasp its essence. Indeed, among naturally born Primal Chaos life-forms, those at the early God-Emperor stage are the weakest." He continued, "Still, this single Primal Chaos bloodline has already granted me immense gains."

Luo Feng was quite satisfied. From just this weakest bloodline, he had extracted no fewer than nineteen life-death combination methods.

If these combination methods were applied to his own Life-Death Dao, his strength would naturally advance significantly. "No rush to integrate them into the Life-Death Dao; first, I'll accumulate more knowledge."

"The second bloodline is the Shadow Hunter bloodline from the early God-Emperor stage. I had previously attempted to mentally complete it based on twelve fragmented materials, but that scheme was clearly incorrect." Luo Feng pondered re-completing it based on the nineteen newly comprehended life combination methods.

It took him a full million years to complete it to his satisfaction. Only then did he begin to observe the early God-Emperor Shadow Hunter bloodline with his Life-Death Eye. "Hmm?"

"It's about sixty to seventy percent similar," Luo Feng exclaimed with joy.

While the first bloodline's completion was crude and full of flaws, the second bloodline's completion already resembled a blueprint for a perfect solution.

"The direction is correct," Luo Feng grew even more excited. As he carefully observed the Shadow Hunter bloodline, with ample cultivation resources at his disposal, Luo Feng felt he was constantly progressing. At this moment, only one factor limited his cultivation speed: his comprehension rate. A God-Emperor's thinking speed was still too slow. If he were a higher-level Primal Chaos life-form, his comprehension speed would likely be ten thousand times faster, or more. "Slowly, slowly," he reminded himself.

"If the speed is slow, just spend more time." Luo Feng was increasingly grateful to Palace Master Yuan Xiang. Yuan Xiang's gift of 5 billion Primal Chaos Crystals was immensely helpful; perhaps Palace Master Yuan Xiang had considered this when providing such a large sum. This vast fortune, if not spent extravagantly and with normal expenses, was more than enough for a God-Emperor to cultivate lavishly.

Luo Feng's gaze swept over the bloodlines laid out around him. There were 323 types of early God-Emperor stage bloodlines, 257 types of mid-God-Emperor stage bloodlines, and 152 types of late God-Emperor stage bloodlines. Although the purchase of these first three types seemed substantial, it was still quite easy for Luo Feng's wealth to bear. The total cost was 830 million Primal Chaos Crystals.

He purchased 36 types of peak God-Emperor stage bloodlines, costing a total of 1.92 billion Primal Chaos Crystals. These were what Luo Feng cared about most because they represented low-level Primal Chaos life-forms having exploited their bloodlines to the limit, and the profound mysteries of these bloodlines were sufficiently rich. Since low-level Primal Chaos life-forms at the peak God-Emperor stage containing life-death aspects were extremely hard to find in the Nine Rivers Sacred Realm, their bloodlines were scarce. Elder Xing Yi had specially procured and sent a batch of these bloodlines from the Dark Sacred Realm for this purpose, with over a dozen sets of corresponding materials for each bloodline.

Luo Feng also bought some this time, and the missing materials cost him a considerable sum. Including the bloodlines, he spent a total of 2.83 billion Primal Chaos Crystals, and this was after Elder Xing Yi had done his best to reduce the prices.

"Fortunately, a single corpse of a low-level Primal Chaos life-form can yield many bloodline extracts, so the price is still within my acceptable range," Luo Feng mused. In the Origin Continent, the Primal Chaos bloodline creatures cultivated by the ancestors of the two nations were not beings that had transcended their confines, and they were significantly inferior in terms of existence, vitality, and other aspects. The bloodline extraction techniques of the two nations' ancestors were also quite rudimentary, with only a few bloodline extracts obtainable from a single creature.

However, in the Nine Rivers Sacred Realm, the utilization of a low-level Primal Chaos life-form's corpse was pushed to the absolute limit; any waste or loss meant Primal Chaos Crystals. Simply by extracting the entire blood volume, ten or even more complete bloodline extracts could be obtained. Important large bones, hooves, and claws could further be used for crafting artifacts, concocting medicines, or even refining puppets.

"Whether in the Nine Rivers Sacred Realm or the Dark Sacred Realm, there are too many powerful individuals, and trade competition is incredibly fierce. All technologies have been developed to near their limits, so the biggest cost for various treasures sold is the material cost," Luo Feng secretly noted. A peak God-Emperor grade weapon, if it was just a common one requiring fewer materials, might cost only a million Primal Chaos Crystals. A more complex peak God-Emperor grade sword-ship might cost two to three million Primal Chaos Crystals.

Only vast formations, especially mobile ones, would typically exceed 5 million Primal Chaos Crystals in price.

"In the Dark Sacred Realm, there are too many half-Primal Chaos level Dao Comprehenders, so the prices of these weapons and secret treasures can't go very high," Luo Feng mused. Truly rare items, such as some secret treasures exchanged from the Infinite Space Treasury—like the Indestructible Heart—were incomparably precious. Materials from World-level Primal Chaos life-forms, being impossible to hunt, were extremely expensive for each piece.

As for treasures in the Infinite Space that cost over 100,000 reward points, those were all items that aided in transcending the confines. Things like the Life-Death Eye, which Senior Yuan and others crafted in limited quantities, were priceless treasures, even prohibited from being taken out of the source world. If a cultivator died, such treasures would be reclaimed by the Infinite Space. For instance, the Life-Death Eye had many previous users.

Nine Rivers Sacred Realm, Rain-Ripple City

Inside a massive cave dwelling.

A colossal spherical creature was coiled. Its surface occasionally revealed various faces: resentful, mad, sleeping, laughing, indifferent... These diverse expressions further influenced the surrounding area. Low-level Primal Chaos life-forms often infiltrated cities, but no infiltrator ever dared to approach this colossal nest.

This was the Lord of the Swarm, a rather bizarre life-form whose strength rivaled that of three regional powers.

The surface of the Lord of the Swarm was covered with dense, countless holes, through which cultivators frequently flew in and out of its core region.

"Master, in the past epoch, our elixir sales have dropped by nearly half," an elder reported respectfully. "How could they drop so much?" a beautiful female figure sitting there asked, somewhat surprised. Having cultivated for long ages, her resources originated from multiple sources, such as the entire operations of the Lord of the Swarm's faction, theft, plunder, and so on; naturally, the Lord of the Swarm received a share of all income.

Elixir sales alone, and just within a single epoch, meant little to her. But if this trend continued, she would start to feel the pinch. "The Elixir Tower has significantly increased its output in the past epoch. Their elixirs of the same grade are cheaper than ours, and some forces within the city are directly making large-scale purchases from the Elixir Tower, so our sales have naturally declined," the elder reported.

"Evergreen Tower Lord is so bold?" the woman asked, surprised. "Who gave him the courage?" "During your seclusion, Master, a newly ascended Elder-level powerhouse named Luo Feng appeared in Rain-Ripple City, and he has joined the Elixir Tower," the elder reported.

The woman nodded slightly and immediately began reviewing the latest intelligence on Rain-Ripple City. Only after reading it did she understand the situation.

"A new powerhouse can suppress Sky Crane?" the woman's eyes turned cold. "Knowing the conflict between the Elixir Tower and me, yet he still dares to intervene?" "Just continue with normal sales; you don't need to concern yourself with other matters," the woman instructed.

"You may leave."

"Yes," the elder dutifully departed.

The woman sat, gazing distantly in the direction of the Elixir Tower.

"Open confrontation is not suitable within the city, so I'll send a mental avatar to meet this God-Emperor Luo Feng." The woman remained still, but from the massive Lord of the Swarm, an invisible mental force flew out. After this mental force departed, the surface of the Lord of the Swarm returned to calmness, no longer displaying various faces.

*Whoosh!*

The mental force transformed into the woman's likeness, moving through the air above Rain-Ripple City, yet ordinary means could not detect her.

"Hmm?" Among Rain-Ripple City's myriad colorful defense systems, three of them briefly detected the woman's figure.

"It's the Lord of the Swarm." "Why is she deploying a mental avatar?" The defense systems overseen by three Elders detected the Lord of the Swarm's mental avatar, but they didn't pry further. After all, the Lord of the Swarm was an Elder of Rain-Ripple City, and operating an avatar within the city was perfectly legal.

"Arrived." In just a moment, the Lord of the Swarm's mental avatar reached the front of the Elixir Tower. She looked up at the vast complex of buildings before her.

Within the Elixir Tower complex, two Elder-level beings resided long-term: one was Evergreen Tower Lord, and the other was naturally Luo Feng. Luo Feng was currently sensing the formations he had arranged within the Elixir Tower.

"These 36 layers of Life-Death Formations were all refined by different senior cultivators, each having their own profound understanding of life-death combinations," Luo Feng observed. "There were some aspects I didn't fully grasp before, but after comprehending the Primal Chaos bloodlines, I can understand these formations much more now," Luo Feng thought.

"In fact, some of the life-death combinations within the formations are somewhat repetitive and crude. Although these seniors had other fortuitous encounters, none possessed the Life-Death Eye. Even if they acquired Primal Chaos bloodlines, they couldn't observe the complete picture of a bloodline; they could only observe fragments and then deduce and comprehend based on those observations." "Hmm?"

Luo Feng suddenly detected a strange, chilling fluctuation. It was very faint, but with just a brief contact, Luo Feng felt a great sense of terror. His Blazing Essence Art was constantly in operation, naturally resisting this cold intrusion.

"Who's there?" With a single thought from Luo Feng, the power of the 36-layered formation immediately surged. Simultaneously, Luo Feng's imitation Life-Death Eye also perceived a mental female figure standing before the main entrance of the Elixir Tower.

End of Chapter.