Chapter 521: Chapter 458: Red Queen Bee

A hole had broken open at the bottom of the beast egg, and a long black needle was sticking out.

Through the eggshell, he could faintly see an insect that looked like a large wasp.

"What kind of Demon Insect is this?"

"A Red Queen Bee."

Zhao Lin understood. Liang Song hadn’t been raising a White Wood Spirit Spider, but a Red Queen Bee.

The White Wood Spirit Spider was the nemesis of almost all Demon Insects. The "almost" was precisely because of the existence of the Red Queen Bee.

The Red Queen Bee was a top-tier Fire Demon Insect that was primarily parasitic, with a particular fondness for laying its eggs inside White Wood Spirit Spiders.

It would first paralyze its host with its venomous stinger, then lay an egg inside its body.

As the egg grew, the host would remain crippled but alive, continuously providing it with blood essence and life force.

The host would only truly die when the Red Queen Bee hatched.

The Red Queen Bee was of the Fire Element, while the White Wood Spirit Spider was of the Wood Element.

Wood feeds Fire. When a Red Queen Bee gestated inside a White Wood Spirit Spider, the resulting individual was even more formidable and even had a chance to evolve to a higher tier.

Liang Song sighed and said with regret, "This White Wood Spirit Spider was too powerful, or perhaps just good at feigning. It wasn’t completely paralyzed."

"Just as the Red Queen Bee was about to hatch, the spider made a final, desperate move and injected its venom into the bee’s egg. The result was mutual destruction."

"Sigh... that Red Queen Bee was a rare variant. It was so hard to find one."

"I blame my own carelessness for not realizing the White Wood Spirit Spider was only feigning death. It’s a one-in-ten-thousand situation, but it just had to happen to me."

"Brother Liang, I think the Red Queen Bee is still alive!"

Zhao Lin released his Divine Sense to check and found that there was still life force within the beast egg.

Liang Song shook his head. "The body is alive, but its soul is already dead."

Zhao Lin also thought it was a pity, but there was nothing he could do. He offered a few words of comfort and prepared to return to his room to rest.

After taking a few steps, an outrageous idea suddenly flashed through his mind. He turned around and asked, "Are you saying this Red Queen Bee has lost its soul and only its physical body remains?"

"Yes."

"Is there a way to place a soul inside it?"

"Huh?"

Liang Song was startled. He frowned in thought for a moment before saying, "Impossible. The soul of a Tier One Demon Beast or Demon Insect can’t be compared to a cultivator’s, and they don’t know how to possess a body."

"What about a cultivator’s soul?" Zhao Lin asked again.

Liang Song jumped in fright. He glanced around and lowered his voice, "Are you crazy? What cultivator would be willing to become a Demon Insect?"

Zhao Lin said calmly, "What if it were a Yin Soul?"

Liang Song was stunned for a moment, a look of confusion in his eyes. "What Yin Soul?"

"A few years ago, I was on a mission..."

Zhao Lin organized his thoughts and explained what had happened to Li Yuanyou—how he had been killed in Yinfeng Valley and had become a Yin Soul.

Back then, he had heard that the only way for Li Yuanyou to leave the Yinfeng Realm was to transfer himself into a soulless body.

The Red Queen Bee was a Fire Demon Insect, exceptionally fierce. One of its innate forms of Magic was the Fire Needle, which could shoot out needles of flame. It would be a great asset against Body Cultivators.

There was another benefit: Demon Insects grew quickly. A few days after hatching, it could already hunt and fight, unlike most Demon Insects which grew slowly and took years, or even decades, to become combat-effective.

Liang Song was stunned for a long time. After a good while, he finally said, "You’re saying... let the Yin Soul inhabit the body of this Red Queen Bee?"

The moment the words left his mouth, even he found the idea inconceivable.

"The idea is audacious, but... it might actually be feasible. Soul transference and body possession normally go against the Celestial Dao, but since this Red Queen Bee’s soul is already gone, that’s not an issue."

"But would he be willing? After all, the difference between being a human and a bee is immense, and a Red Queen Bee’s lifespan is thirty years at most."

"I’m not sure. But if it were me, I’d be willing."

Zhao Lin put himself in that position. ’If I were a Yin Soul, trapped all day in the perpetual darkness of the Yinfeng Realm, I’d rather just be dead.’

’Becoming a Demon Insect, even if it only meant living for twenty or thirty years, would be better than that.’

Thinking of this, he asked, "How much longer can this Red Queen Bee live?"

Liang Song said, "Ten days at most. Its consciousness is gone. The physical body alone can’t survive for long."

"There’s no time to lose. I’ll head to Yinfeng Valley tomorrow. Could I trouble Brother Liang to teach me the art of beast taming?"

"Alright."

Liang Song agreed and explained the incantation and process for forming a binding pact with the Red Queen Bee to Zhao Lin.

The way of beast taming was tedious and complex, with the main difficulties lying in raising and controlling the beast.

Since the Red Queen Bee had already lost its soul, these issues didn’t apply. Zhao Lin mastered the technique quickly.

「The next day.」

Zhao Lin went to the Merit Hall in Dongfu County and accepted the Yinfeng Valley mission from Steward Wang.

Steward Wang was quite surprised. Zhao Lin had come in yesterday asking to see purple-level missions, yet today he was accepting a white-level one. He chuckled and said, "Fair enough. It’s always better to be safe than sorry."

Zhao Lin didn’t explain. After accepting the mission, he returned to the marketplace.

Compared to the first time he’d taken a mission in Yinfeng Valley, Zhao Lin was now fully equipped. He only bought a few Three Yang Pills to counteract the yin energy in the Yinfeng Realm and brought some Spirit Rice before setting off.

Liang Song gave Zhao Lin a beast-taming pouch to carry the corpse of the White Wood Spirit Spider.

"Thank you for everything, Brother Liang. Old Gu will watch the shop while I’m gone. I’ll be back in a few days."

After saying a few more words, Zhao Lin left the marketplace and headed for Qiuyang County, where Yinfeng Valley was located.

「In just half a day, he arrived in Qiuyang County.」

Zhao Lin first made a trip to the Patrol Hall to ask about Li Yuanyou’s current situation.

The Hall Master of the Qiuyang County Patrol Hall was still Zhao Mufeng. He stared at Zhao Lin for a moment, his face filled with shock. "I remember you! You’re Zhao Lin! I haven’t seen you in a few years, and you’ve already reached the Qi Refining Ninth Layer!"

Zhao Lin smiled in response. "You have a good memory, Master Zhao."

Zhao Mufeng sighed with emotion and asked, "Has Younger Brother Zhao come to Yinfeng Valley to gather Yinfeng Grass?"

"That’s right. But I’d also like to ask about something. How is Li Yuanyou doing now?"

"Li Yuanyou... you mean the cultivator who turned into a Yin Soul?"

"Yes."

Zhao Mufeng let out a soft sigh. "He’s still the same, just wandering the Yinfeng Realm. We sent people to protect him at first, but he didn’t appreciate it and told us to leave."

"We guarded him for two months, but when we saw that no one came to claim him, we stopped bothering. We’re just letting him fend for himself now. To be honest, for someone in his state, there’s no difference between being alive and being dead."

Zhao Lin nodded, knowing that he was telling the truth. ’But as long as Li Yuanyou is still alive, that’s all that matters.’

After some idle chat, he took his leave from the Patrol Hall.

He rested for a night at an inn. The next day, he went to the vessel station and took a Spiritual Vessel to Yinfeng Valley.

In truth, with Zhao Lin’s current strength, he could fly through the clouds at a speed rivaling that of an ordinary Spiritual Vessel. However, he was worried that the Earth Dark Sect or the Li and Tao families might send people to cause trouble, so he chose to act with caution.

Upon entering Yinfeng Valley, he switched to a World Shuttle Vessel to enter the Yinfeng Realm.

After landing, he headed for the cave where he had previously slain the Ghost Cultivator.

The location was hidden and rarely visited. Zhao Lin guessed Li Yuanyou might be hiding inside.

Returning to this familiar place, Zhao Lin knew the way well.

As he traveled, he gathered some Yinfeng Grass along the way. His main purpose was to find Li Yuanyou, but since he was officially on a Spirit Grass collection mission, he had to at least make a show of it.

About two hours later, he arrived in front of the cave.

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