Chapter 122: The Insect Queen

A terrifying behemoth hovered above him, its ink-black wings stretching over ten meters, with a wingspan nearing forty meters.

*Caw!*

With a single sweep of its wing, it sliced through the Harpy like a razor, cleaving the creature in two before it dissipated into countless fragments.

"The fourth one!"

Clark tumbled from the air, lying on his back and staring blankly at the giant beast above. He groaned, a murmur escaping his lips as he finally realized what kind of opponent he had provoked. An adversary possessing four Ultimate-tier totems, including a rare psychic-type identical to his own primary totem! If he had known this, he would never have come here; he would have fled as far as possible and alerted the Dean immediately.

But it was too late. He felt a violent jolt in his mind; the Ultimate-tier totem he kept in the underground space had been slain, and his protective spiritual aura suffered a fatal weakening.

*Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!*

Black feathers rained down like a storm. Upon contact with him or the ground, each feather exploded into even more spikes, instantly piercing him through. No, it was a living dismemberment—his entire body riddled with countless spikes until he was reduced to a pile of mangled flesh!

A top-tier expert of Molent, the leader of the five giants of the Enforcement Squad, had fallen on this desolate, deserted island.

The black Anos Divine Eagle flapped its wings and soared toward the firmament, the gust from its broad wings creating a miniature storm that sent the trees swaying violently. A group of Spirit Masters battling insects in the forest felt as though some massive creature had passed overhead, but when they looked up, they saw nothing.

...

In the underground chamber, Shair knelt on the ground, his eyes cold. If the Iron-Feather Eagle had not achieved its Ultimate evolution, the enemy would have truly escaped. Fortunately, he had intercepted him at the last moment, preventing a future disaster. Clark’s two Ultimate totems, along with the man himself, had provided him with 96 evolution points—far exceeding the amount yielded by Yolanda, whose forced evolution clearly lacked the same potential.

Yet, his brow remained furrowed. The intense pain that had radiated from his soul earlier had nearly caused him to faint.

"White Spirit!"

A translucent interface appeared. Shair’s brow knit tightly as he realized what had happened: the 3D image of Roddy had vanished! This meant the man had used some method to completely sever the master-servant bond between them—likely by utilizing a Source Artifact provided by the Emperor or some other high-ranking figure upon his return to the Grom Imperial Capital.

A Source Artifact!

This was something entirely beyond his control. In the future plotlines, Shair had seen various Children of Destiny wielding such weapons, yet he had never been able to discern their specific capabilities; he was essentially blind to them. According to books in the Academy library, Source Artifacts were remnants that fell from the Gate of Origin. They contained the fundamental power of the world and possessed various incredible abilities. For instance, the Source Artifact Bruce had wielded could project a totem’s most probable future form from the flow of time to obliterate an enemy, allowing a mere Tier 2 Spirit Master to contend with Catastrophe-level divine beasts!

To him, Source Artifacts were the embodiment of world laws, representing specific manifestations of those laws.

The Gate of Origin...

Shair stopped dwelling on it. He stood up and walked over to Erin and Lan, who were lying unconscious on the ground. After a brief examination, he found they were only suffering from psychic trauma and were in no immediate danger, so he set them aside for the moment.

He then walked to the side of the Moon Child, which also lay on the ground, and placed a hand on its body. Evolution points flowed rapidly, transforming into pure energy that poured into the creature. Although it could no longer evolve through points, now that it had become a true totem creature, Shair could restore it by consuming points. The cost depended on the severity of the injury; this time, it had only suffered a psychic attack, and 3 points were enough to fully restore it.

Following his command, the Moon Child shook its head and resumed its role as a terrifying excavator, clearing away the collapsed path.

*Meow~*

Firefly led the way, leaping along the rock wall until they reached the mountain of flesh at the center. Shair followed behind the Moon Child and entered, smiling as he said, "Submit to me, or die. You have no other choice."

This was the Queen Insect that Clark had obtained from unknown origins. After consuming vast resources and being influenced by the special energy of the Life Tree’s offspring, it had successfully propagated this massive swarm of mutated insect progeny. The Queen resembled a giant ant, shaped like a silkworm cocoon, shimmering with a purple luster and covered in folds like a barrel-waist. However, its size was immense—nearly thirty meters long. Its thickest middle section had a diameter of nearly ten meters; it was truly a mountain of flesh.

At its tail, it continued to discharge purple eggs, each the size of a basketball. Thousands already littered the ground, filling the massive nest space. Originally, there had been transport insects to move the eggs to incubators, but after Shair slaughtered the vast majority of them, the Queen had no one left to help. Even so, it did not stop laying eggs—it was a genuine egg-laying machine!

The Queen emitted a pulse of psychic fear. As a creature with powerful psychic abilities, its intelligence was not low; otherwise, it could not have commanded so many insects. But faced with Shair’s overwhelming pressure and the two Ultimate-tier totems lurking nearby, it had no choice but to submit.

The Moon Child stood to the side, cracking its knuckles; if the creature dared to resist, it would happily jump in to help it bleed and get some exercise. Not to mention Firefly, the psychic-type Ultimate, whose psychic pressure was far beyond the Queen’s own, leaving it without a single thought of resistance.

Multicolor light swirled. This massive Queen was actually all bark and no bite, for it was only an Evolved-tier creature and had not completed its Ultimate evolution. The insects it birthed could at most reach the peak of the Evolved tier; they could never rival Ultimate-tier creatures, which was why they had been so easily slaughtered by Shair’s totems.

However, its sheer size had caused most of the source crystals on Shair’s person to crumble into dust, leaving only two or three as a reserve.

After subjugating the creature, Shair stared at the 3D image on the virtual panel, his eyes gleaming. "An unexpected windfall! Now, there are no more obstacles to my plan for a totem army!"

"Mutated Queen Insect: Special Totem, Evolved. Can be upgraded. Evolution success rate: 12%. Cost: 26 evolution points."
"Abilities: Egg-laying, Psychic Link, Consumption."

Beyond the psychic ability that could threaten a Tier 2 Spirit Master, this Queen had no combat power of its own. It was merely an egg-laying machine that needed to cultivate countless insects to serve as its minions.

"Now, let’s see what you can evolve into!"

With a thought, Shair pressed the "+" button, and his evolution points began to vanish like flowing water...