During the refinement process, the Gu Insect unexpectedly devoured its master!
The Wine Worm inherited the formidable will of Hua Jiu Xing Zhe. Now it invaded Fang Yuan's Empty Orifice, furiously turning upon him.
This powerful wave of willpower crashed downward from above, hammering toward the Bronze Yuan Sea at the bottom of the Empty Orifice.
The Bronze Yuan Sea churned in response, sending up great surges. Under Fang Yuan's will, massive amounts of True Essence surged against the heavens, converging together to form a towering torrent that fiercely met the Wine Worm's will head-on.
The two forces were on the verge of colliding violently at the center of the Empty Orifice. But at that very moment, in the blank space between them, a faint phantom of a Gu Insect materialized.
It was a cicada.
The cicada was not large. If Moonlight Gu was a crescent-shaped blue crystal, then this cicada resembled a delicate work of art crafted by a master artisan from brown wood and leaves.
Its head and abdomen were brownish-yellow, their surfaces marked with tree-ring-like patterns, as if bearing witness to the passage of years.
The wings on its back were broad and wide, semi-transparent, like two overlapping leaves. Both wings bore veins, strikingly similar in pattern. These veins resembled the typical network of leaf venation—a thick central stem running down the middle, with a web of finer veins branching outward from it on both sides.
The Spring Autumn Cicada!
It had been startled.
Like a great beast that normally slumbered deep within a cave, suddenly jolted awake, only to discover that its territory had been invaded.
Who dares trespass on my domain!
As though its dignity had been violated, the Spring Autumn Cicada grew furious, releasing a burst of aura.
The aura was faint, and yet so overwhelmingly powerful. It was like a vast celestial river, surging forward in rolling torrents, its waves so grand they could sweep across ten thousand miles of verdant mountains and drown the endless desert beneath the sky!
Compared to this aura, the Wine Worm's will was like an ant gazing upon an elephant!
The aura radiated outward in all directions, like an invisible, apocalyptic tsunami. The Wine Worm's invading will had no power to resist whatsoever—it was swallowed whole and utterly devoured the instant it met that tide.
Fang Yuan's chest tightened.
He desperately urged the onrushing Bronze True Essence upward, but when it met this aura, it was like a wave crashing into the Heavenly Mountains. The True Essence that had gathered into a unified surge instantly disintegrated, scattering into rain that fell back down onto the surface of the True Essence sea.
Splash. Splash.
Waves rolled across the surface of the True Essence sea, one after another, as though a torrential downpour had struck, adding further to the chaos.
But after a few breaths, the Spring Autumn Cicada's aura settled downward, pressing upon the Yuan Sea.
Boom!
Fang Yuan heard what seemed like a resonant hum. In an instant, the violently churning Yuan Sea froze perfectly still.
The Spring Autumn Cicada's aura pinned down the entire Yuan Sea, as though an invisible mountain had been placed upon it. Not a single ripple could rise on the surface—it was as calm as a mirror.
Or like a sheet of paper covered in creases, suddenly pressed flat and smoothed by the immeasurably vast hand of a giant conjured from that aura.
This was simply unparalleled power!
Fang Yuan felt as though an invisible mountain weighed upon his heart, as if he were Sun Wukong pinned beneath the Five Elements Mountain. He could not mobilize even a shred of True Essence.
And yet, though he was shocked, he was not afraid. Instead, a surge of intense joy welled up within him.
"I never imagined the Spring Autumn Cicada would follow me through rebirth! So it wasn't a single-use consumable Gu—it can be reused."
The Spring Autumn Cicada's grade was as high as the Sixth Transformation. It was the first Sixth Transformation Gu Insect Fang Yuan had ever owned in his previous life, and also the last. To refine it, he had employed every method and resource at his disposal, expended tremendous effort, and spent a full thirty years of preparation before finally succeeding by the slimmest of margins.
But not long after his success, before the Spring Autumn Cicada had even warmed in his grasp, every major power of the Righteous Path sensed the threat Fang Yuan posed. They united in assault and killed him.
After his rebirth, Fang Yuan had not found the Spring Autumn Cicada and assumed it had perished. But in truth, it had lodged itself within his body, and fallen into slumber.