Chapter 195: Chapter 167: Blazing Fire Lotus, Leap of Life
When Han Ning heard this, his first reaction wasn’t surprise, but confusion.
"Aren’t all insects supposed to be the Queen’s Descendants? Why would she eat Insect-men and other insects?"
"I’m not entirely sure. Lord Taman never actually saw the Queen either, but he did make an observation. Every Insect Master Family that broke away from an Ancestor Family to develop on its own would, after reaching a certain size, experience some strange ’hardships’ at some point. Then, they would mysteriously vanish from the view of the wider Insect Tribes."
"In reality, it’s related to the Queen feeding?"
"Correct. Once an Insect Master’s Soul Beast reaches the Lord Level, they’ll receive an invitation from the Five Ancestor Families. They’re invited to what the Insect-men consider their holy land to have an audience with the Queen."
"Without exception, the families of any Insect Master who has met the Queen will gradually weaken over the next three to five years, eventually disappearing from the continent."
"Lord Taman also went to meet the Queen once, but his notes and diary entries only cover the days leading up to his audience. As for how he obtained the All-Encompassing Spiritual Silkworm and managed to offend the Five Ancestor Families, not even Nia knows."
"So you’re saying that even before meeting the Queen, the Taman Insect Master had already deduced there was something strange about her?"
"He probably wasn’t the only one. Some of the other Insect Master Families that had grown to a similar scale as the Yinsaike Race had also noticed something was amiss. That might be one of the reasons the Burning Fire Race wanted to escape..." Lena replied.
Considering Han Ning had just returned and was exhausted, Dean Wu didn’t let the meeting run too long. They all just chatted about their experiences over the past eight or nine days. Afterward, they inspected the waist pouches of the Burning Fire Race that had been dug out from the rubble of Trembling Peak.
To their surprise, they found a large number of Beast Hide Scrolls inscribed with the Insect-man script, as well as various materials for raising Soul Beasts.
...
「The next day.」
Having spent just one night back at the academy, Han Ning informed Dean Wu of his plans and immediately set off again. He headed for a volcano located even further northwest of the academy, a great distance from the Earth Flame Forbidden Land.
This time, he didn’t even choose a location within the Earth Flame Forbidden Land. Instead, he planned to travel to a relatively small place called Flame Cliff Valley, which was over 1,000 kilometers from the Forbidden Land and nearly 2,000 kilometers from the academy.
Flame Cliff Valley was located in the foothills of the Jade Mountain Range. The environment was harsh and resources were scarce, so even Insect Masters rarely ventured there.
Egg Pancake’s evolution required it to bathe in an underground Magma Lake. The Earth Flame Forbidden Land, with its numerous dormant volcanoes, would have been a perfect spot. But after the recent incident, Han Ning refused to go anywhere near the place.
Before setting out, he took more than thirty Earth and Fire Attribute Soul Beast Crystal Stones from the waist pouches left behind by the Burning Fire Race. Each stone was at the Extraordinary Level. He also gathered some supplementary Earth and Fire materials needed to create the Evolution Potion, just in case anything went wrong during Egg Pancake’s evolution.
Compared to the Extraordinary Level Crystal Stones, the supplementary materials were relatively inexpensive. The Burning Fire Race’s pouches had plenty, so with a few prompts from his panel, Han Ning gathered everything he needed for the potion with almost no effort.
The finished potion would only be effective for five hours, so Han Ning had no choice but to bring all the raw materials with him. He mounted the massive Gale Butterfly and flew toward Flame Cliff Valley.
To avoid any trouble, Han Ning even magically altered the Gale Butterfly’s appearance, concealing its Ancestor Family traits to make it look like a more common type of butterfly.
The Gale Butterfly’s flight speed was a clear step up from the Blood Bee’s, capable of reaching over 400 kilometers per hour.
As it flew, its wings were wreathed in a translucent breeze. Each beat of its broad wings propelled it a great distance.
...
Nearly eight hours later, deep in the stifling underground heat, Han Ning finally found a small Magma Lake churning with scalding-hot magma.
The Magma Lake was only a few hundred square meters in area. The surrounding rock walls were a dark, brownish-black. Fist-sized bubbles of magma constantly rose from the bottom and burst, releasing wisps of acrid, green smoke.
Han Ning walked over a hundred meters away from the Magma Lake and sat down inside a hastily carved underground tunnel.
Yin Yi and a few Puppet Ancestor Insects were responsible for scouting the surrounding area.
Egg Pancake obediently lay down beside him, quietly watching its master.
"Chirp..."
The clever Egg Pancake knew it was about to evolve, and a look of nervousness couldn’t help but cross its face.
"Egg Pancake, just a moment. Relax." Han Ning caught its expression and couldn’t help but smile. He took out a can of meat and handed it over to calm its nerves.
"Chirp-chirp~" Egg Pancake nodded, expertly opened the can, and licked the contents clean in two seconds.
’It took two seconds. Normally, it’s finished in one. Still a little distracted.’
Han Ning stroked Egg Pancake’s head, then focused his thoughts and took out the necessary materials from his waist pouch.
The process was called creating an Evolution Potion, and the steps weren’t actually that difficult. The hardest part, if there was one, was refining the flesh of the Golden Flame Rock Dragon into high-potency essence blood.
But for an expert in manipulating flesh and blood—the All-Encompassing Spiritual Silkworm—this was no difficult task.
Han Ning took out enough of the flesh for Egg Pancake’s evolution and spread it across the ground. Then, a dense cluster of purple tendrils shot from his fingertips, each one piercing into the raw meat.
