Accidentally obtaining a treasure like the Ice Flower put Yang Kai in a magnificent mood.
The thing was useless to him personally, but it could be exchanged for a massive amount of cultivation resources — especially the Origin Crystals he was currently short on. If he could find a decent auction house to consign those three Ice Fruits, Yang Kai estimated he wouldn't need to worry about Origin Crystals for a good while.
The bottom of the cliff was no place to linger, so after pocketing the Ice Flower, Yang Kai prepared to withdraw.
But at that moment, a sharp, piercing shriek suddenly rang out in his ear. Immediately after, a ribbon-like streak of snow-white light shot toward him from nearby, howling like a thunderclap, its momentum savage and piercing.
Yang Kai's pupils contracted. A tremendous sense of crisis surged through his heart, and in the blink of an eye he vanished from where he stood.
Hssss...
The snow-white radiance struck empty air, plowing a massive trench into the ground. Shards of ice and rock flew in every direction, the destructive force terrifying to behold.
"Who?!" Yang Kai's first instinct was that someone had been hiding at the bottom of the Ice Cliff, ambushing him. That sudden attack gave off the feel of a Sword Dao secret art, and that snow-white light was unmistakably a sword beam imbued with a frigid ice intent!
But the moment the word left his mouth, something felt off. This was the bottom of the Ice Cliff. He had cheated his way down here using the Void secret art. If someone truly lay hidden in a place like this, how terrifying would their strength have to be?
Would a powerhouse of that level really need to resort to ambushes against him?
He quickly turned his gaze toward the source of the attack.
One look, and he nearly jumped out of his skin.
Another snow-white sword beam was hurtling toward him head-on, wrapped in an ice intent so cold it could freeze the soul. The power of Law erupted in all directions, splintering through the void — unstoppable!
Impossible to block! Yang Kai's mind reached that judgment in an instant, and he executed another Flash Movement, dodging from his position.
Down here at the cliff bottom, he had to constantly contend with the suppression of the Emperor Might and the frigid ice intent while maintaining his Void secret art — only that would keep him from being crushed to death. Now, with such a violent attack suddenly coming at him, Yang Kai was genuinely scrambling to keep up.
After evading the second strike, Yang Kai finally stole a moment to look carefully at the source of the attack.
When he made out exactly what was assaulting him, his eyes nearly bulged out of his skull. His heart shook violently, and he blurted in disbelief: "How is this possible?!"
His attacker was no person, but a creature that looked like an insect. The thing resembled a massive dung beetle, its back covered in a thick shell. It should have been a dark green color, but perhaps because it had spent too long at the bottom of this cliff, its entire body had taken on a crystalline, snow-white sheen.
"A Spirit-Eating Demon Insect? No way..." Yang Kai could hardly believe his own eyes.
The Spirit-Eating Demon Insect was not unique to the Star Boundary — it existed in the Star Fields as well, so Yang Kai recognized this peculiar creature. Spirit-Eating Demon Insects devoured everything. Anything that contained even a trace of spiritual energy could become their food.
Artifacts, armor, a cultivator's physical body, Saint Crystals — the list went on. And their gnawing ignored all defenses; they could even consume ancient restrictions of tremendous power.
Back in the Star Boundary, there was a legend about a cultivation star where an ancient seal had imprisoned a vicious entity. It was a swarm of Spirit-Eating Demon Insects that had gnawed through the energy of that ancient seal, setting the creature free and plunging the cultivation star into a reign of carnage and bloodshed, with countless dead.
Of course, it was merely a legend — impossible to verify one way or another. But where there was no wind, there was no wave. The Spirit-Eating Demon Insect's notorious danger was well deserved.
Fortunately, these creatures grew extremely slowly. Cultivators were well aware of the threat they posed, so upon discovering one, they would do everything in their power to kill it.
Yang Kai had seen Spirit-Eating Demon Insects before and recognized them immediately.
But... the ones he had seen before were caterpillar-sized at most, utterly incapable of posing any real threat to a cultivator.
This snow-white Spirit-Eating Demon Insect, on the other hand, stood two men tall. It looked powerful and imposing, and its menacing appearance alone exerted tremendous pressure on Yang Kai.
"The Insect Queen?" Yang Kai's expression darkened.
Spirit-Eating Demon Insects were not always diminutive. Their social structure bore some resemblance to ants — among a colony, there existed a single queen, and all the other insects obeyed the queen's command.
The one before him was undoubtedly the Insect Queen!
What was most absurd was that this snow-white Insect Queen had two massive pincers at the front of its body, and one of those pincers was condensing a longsword forged from pure energy, shimmering with a pale white glow.
Yang Kai was practically dumbstruck.
For a colossal Insect Queen to appear at the bottom of this Ice Cliff was already bizarre enough. But for it to independently condense an energy sword?
What in the world was going on?
And those two identical attacks — both of which had felt exactly like Sword Dao secret arts — had clearly been slashed out by this Insect Queen.
Even Yang Kai, who had weathered countless storms and possessed no small amount of experience, found his mind struggling to keep up. Everything before his eyes had completely overturned his common sense, shattered his understanding of the world, and left him grasping for any reasonable explanation.
The intelligence of Spirit-Eating Demon Insects was exceedingly low. Even after tens of thousands of years of growth, they could never evolve to the point of wielding Sword Dao secret arts.
Yet judging by the intent contained within those two sword beams, this creature's attainment in the Sword Dao was far from trivial. Those two strikes had absolutely carried the bearing of a master.