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This was hardly surprising. Soul-Devouring Insects were the natural bane of all spiritual soul forces. Aside from being feared of the bizarre energy that was Divine Sense Fire, there was virtually nothing in existence that could kill them.
The Soul-Devouring Insects Yang Kai possessed had originally harbored certain drawbacks, but as the insects themselves matured, those flaws had long since vanished.
To exterminate these Soul-Devouring Insects, one would need to possess Divine Sense Fire to suppress them, just as Yang Kai did. Apart from that, there was simply no other way.
Moreover, Yang Kai had no idea whether his Divine Sense Fire would even still be effective against them at this point.
The reason he could still command these Soul-Devouring Insects to serve him was largely thanks to the Warm Divine Lotus.
Such bizarre creatures — how could the giant serpent and the Purple Civet not fear them?
When the black cloud dove downward, the giant serpent, in a panic, opened its massive jaws and spat out a billow of emerald-green mist that surged back toward the insect cloud. In an instant, a foul, putrid stench spread in all directions.
"Soul Sense Poison!" Yang Kai exclaimed in astonishment.
This giant serpent had either stumbled upon some great fortune or was simply born with this ability — it could imbue its own soul force with potent toxicity. It was clearly attempting to use this peculiar soul power to deal with the Soul-Devouring Insects.
Furthermore, it had no intention of sticking around. After exhaling that cloud of poison, it completely disregarded both Yang Kai and the Purple Civet, turning tail to flee!
But it had clearly underestimated the bizarre nature of the Soul-Devouring Insects.
The pitch-black insect cloud and the emerald-green poison cloud collided and made contact. Before the naked eye, the green hue rapidly vanished. In no more than three breaths' time, all that remained on the scene was the deep black of the insect cloud.
It appeared as though every last wisp of the poison cloud had been devoured by the Soul-Devouring Insects.
The poison cloud was also formed from soul force, making it nothing more than a delectable feast for the Soul-Devouring Insects.
Having consumed the poison cloud, the insect swarm wasted no more time. It surged directly toward the giant serpent. In the blink of an eye, it had wrapped itself tightly around the creature's head.
With the insect cloud covering its eyes, the giant serpent was rendered completely blind. Its enormous body began thrashing and crashing about in every direction, resembling a headless fly — its movements utterly devoid of any pattern or logic.
Yang Kai watched quietly for a moment and couldn't help but furrow his brow.
He had discovered that the Soul-Devouring Insects, which had always been unstoppable, seemed to have no effective way of dealing with this particular giant serpent.
The serpent's entire body was covered in tightly overlapping scales. Even as tiny as the Soul-Devouring Insects were, they couldn't breach that scaly armor to devour the creature's flesh beneath.
At this rate, the Soul-Devouring Insects likely wouldn't be able to finish off the giant serpent — unless they could break through its defenses first.
A thought flickered through Yang Kai's mind, and his eyes lit up. He immediately issued a new command to the Soul-Devouring Insects.
Controlling the Soul-Devouring Insects was not as effortless as commanding the Stone Puppet Xiao Xiao. The former possessed no intelligence whatsoever, whereas Xiao Xiao, though not particularly bright, could at least understand the meaning of Yang Kai's instructions.
Comparing the two, commanding the former undoubtedly required far more effort and concentration.
Fortunately, the insect cloud was still obedient enough. Yang Kai spent only a small amount of effort to guide them into the giant serpent's body through its mouth and nostrils.
After several dozen breaths, the pitch-black insect cloud had vanished entirely. All that remained was a buzzing sound emanating from within the serpent's belly.
The giant serpent now appeared to be enduring some manner of unspeakable torture and unbearable agony, rolling ceaselessly across the ground and crashing through countless trees.
But this attack from within its own body was something it had absolutely no way of counteracting. All it could do was await the arrival of death!
In its death throes, the giant serpent seemed unwilling to simply lie down and perish. Wave after wave of soul force shockwaves blasted outward in every direction with reckless abandon, striking indiscriminately. Yang Kai watched with a chill running down his spine, not daring to draw too close.
As time wore on, the glow emanating from the giant serpent's body flickered constantly, alternating between bright and dim, while its struggling and thrashing gradually grew weaker.
At last, at one particular moment, the giant serpent reared its head rigidly upward before collapsing softly to the ground. The light across its body dimmed in that same instant, fading into nothing.
Yang Kai stood where he was, his expression calm and indifferent, waiting quietly.
Before long, a hole suddenly burst open somewhere on the serpent's body. From that opening, countless Soul-Devouring Insects swarmed out and flew back toward Yang Kai, returning to the folds of his sleeve.
Only then did Yang Kai approach, crouching down to examine the remnant serpent skin. This layer of skin was as thin as a cicada's wing, covered in scales. He couldn't tell what exactly it was made of — it was not only incredibly tough, but even the Soul-Devouring Insects had shown no interest in consuming it.
That was why, after devouring all the giant serpent's essence, the insects had simply flown out.
If he could take this material back with him, perhaps he could forge it into some noteworthy soul-defense Artifact…
With that thought in mind, Yang Kai reached out and rapped his knuckles against the layer of serpent skin. But what he never expected was that at his very touch, the skin crumbled apart — as fragile as ancient, rotting wood, disintegrating completely.
This outcome left him momentarily stunned.
He secretly surmised that the giant serpent's formidable defensive power must have been due to some peculiar energy that had been reinforcing it.