Mortal: Fairy Song Yu has issued you a task.

Chapter 86 Sky Crystal Ant

Just as everyone was surprised by the sound and was about to go inside to investigate, the man surnamed He rushed out of the dark passageway in a panic!

"Run—!" he shouted, throwing several talismans backward without looking back.

With a deafening roar, a large number of rocks crashed down, instantly blocking the passage leading deep into the cave.

"What happened? Where is Senior Sister Zhang?" Liu Yu asked anxiously.

The man surnamed He was deathly pale, his steps faltering as he managed to utter only three words: "Celestial Crystal Ants!"

Before he finished speaking, he swept past the crowd like a startled swan and rushed straight towards the cave entrance.

Upon hearing the words "Crystal Ants," Liu Yu's pretty face drained of color. Without even thinking, she turned and rushed out of the cave!

The man surnamed Xu also gasped and started running at almost the same time as Liu Yu.

next moment--

"Crack," "Crack"... a dense, subtle gnawing sound came from behind the passage blocked by fallen rocks.

The rocks blocking the road suddenly cracked open, creating a huge hole. A surge of purple water gushed out from the hole; it was a swarm of countless flying ants the size of rice grains.

The swarm of insects crashed into the cyan shield at the cave entrance, and their bodies immediately emitted an eerie white light. The cyan light barrier emitted a dense hissing sound and melted away rapidly, like ice and snow meeting fire.

The "Azure Mist Formation," which even late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators struggled to break quickly, began to dim at a visible speed.

Lin Jingchu, who had originally intended to retrieve the array artifact, decisively abandoned the idea and rushed out of the water curtain with Liu Yu and the others.

The group dared not stop for a moment, concealing their auras and speeding for over a hundred miles. Only after confirming that no insect swarm was chasing them did they stop at the edge of a small rocky hill. Everyone was still shaken and their breathing was slightly disordered.

Liu Yu frowned and pressed on, "Senior Brother He, Senior Sister Zhang, she..."

The man surnamed He still looked pale, his face filled with lingering fear and grief.

"Junior Sister Zhang's Blue Flame Spark sensed spiritual energy deep within the cave, so the two of us ventured deeper to investigate. Unexpectedly, we stepped into the ambush zone of the Heavenly Crystal Ants. These insects are transparent when they are in hiding and can shield themselves from divine sense. By the time I realized something was wrong and tried to quietly retreat, it was already too late."

His voice was hoarse: "Junior Sister Zhang... was almost instantly swallowed up by the swarm of insects. I only managed to escape by using my level-three spirit pet, the Water Spirit Turtle, as bait."

Upon hearing this, Liu Yu and the man surnamed Xu felt a pang of sadness. A fellow disciple in the mid-Foundation Establishment stage had perished so silently.

The man surnamed Xu sighed deeply and whispered words of comfort: "Senior Brother He, please accept my condolences. Who would have thought that this secret realm contained the 'Heavenly Crystal Ant,' a rare insect that had disappeared since ancient times? The fearsome reputation of this insect is only mentioned sporadically in the records of our Spirit Control Sect. Anyone else would probably only discover it when they are deeply surrounded."

The man surnamed He was still shaken: "Judging from their appearance, they are still the initial group. If it is as described in ancient books... we have absolutely no chance of survival."

The atmosphere became heavy and oppressive. Lin Jingchu, however, had a slight thought and secretly memorized the location of the waterfall cave.

The group dared not linger. After a thorough search, they finally settled in a natural rock hollow in the middle of a cliff. The place offered a wide view, had a hidden entrance, and was easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Nothing went wrong this time. Several hours later, Lin Jingchu, who was sitting cross-legged, finished refining.

He opened his palm, revealing ten thumb-sized jade talismans that gleamed faintly. "These are replicas of sensory talismans. After a little consecration, I'll have my spirit pet wear them. If it gets within ten miles of the exit, it might be able to sense it."

"Perhaps?" Liu Yu took a talisman, her brows furrowing slightly.

Lin Jingchu, now disguised as a burly man, scratched the back of his head with a simple and honest expression: "That jade tablet was made by ancient cultivators, and it's extremely profound. I can't fathom its secrets. I can only barely replicate these based on the bronze tablet, and the results are really hard to say."

The man surnamed He carefully examined the talisman in his hand and said in a deep voice, "Something is better than nothing. Without further ado, let's split up. Junior Brother Xu and I will go explore that large lake. Junior Sister Liu, you and the two Fellow Daoists Zhang each choose a river to explore, what do you say?"

"I'm going to that river from before," Lin Jingchu suddenly said.

Liu Yu looked at him in surprise. She knew that they had just encountered the Heavenly Crystal Ants at the waterfall in that river.

Facing Liu Yu's gaze, the honest-looking man in gray seemed a little shy, turned his head slightly, and said in a deep voice, "I... I have a family secret technique for concealment, which may be able to avoid those strange insects."

Zhang Feiyu immediately retorted angrily, "Nonsense! How can I let you go on such a dangerous journey? I'll go to the river myself!"

"I'll go instead."

"No! I'm the uncle, and I'm the one who makes the decisions!"

Liu Yu watched the two "uncle and nephew" arguing incessantly and chuckled inwardly. This kid was really naive. But it was good that way; she didn't want to go near the waterfall again.

Her eyes sparkled, and she softly parted her lips: "Junior Brother Zhang, you must be careful."

Finally, after everyone had assigned their tasks to explore the waters, the cultivator surnamed He took out several talismans: "These are exquisite transmission talismans from the Myriad Wonders Temple. Once activated, they are extremely discreet and difficult for anyone to detect."

……

The old man, who was Lin Jingchu's clone, rode on the blue jade board, concealing all his aura, and traveled upstream along the winding river.

Along the way, although the talisman in his hand had no effect, he still encountered several level-one demonic beasts. Since this was not the time to hunt demons, he carefully avoided them all.

When the deafening waterfall came into view again, his gaze sharpened, he put away the jade tablet, and landed on the bank. The next moment, his figure vanished silently, like water vapor merging into the air.

The clone, using the "Hidden Concealment Technique," moved like an invisible ghost, slowly drifting through the water curtain and re-entering the cave.

The cave was silent, with no sign of the purple swarm of insects, as if the terrifying scene from before was just an illusion.

The clone scanned the area and found that the array plate and array flag of the "Azure Mist Array" were still there, but the spirit stones that were originally filled into the array eyes were gone. It seems that the Heavenly Crystal Ants prefer spiritual power.

Ignoring the array artifacts, the clone quietly slipped into the collapsed passage created by the swarm of insects and continued its descent into the depths of the cave.

The passage twists and turns downwards, the rock walls are slippery, and the air is filled with moisture, which is perfect for the concealment effect of the "Hidden Concealment Technique".

As the clone moved forward in silence, a faint, deep blue light quietly shone from the bottom of its right eye.

The "Ming and Qing Dynasty Spiritual Eye (Fake)" quietly activated. Under this special vision, the rocks within a few feet in front, the stalactites hanging from the cave ceiling, and the boulders halfway through the cave all became as if they were transparent.

However, in the seemingly empty passageway walls and the stalagmites hanging overhead, he "saw" many tiny, rice-grain-sized specks of light that were impossible to see through, sparsely distributed like dim stars, either embedded in the rock or attached to the surface.

It was a Transparent Crystal Ant in its dormant state.

The clone carefully avoided these "stars" and continued deeper. Not far along, halfway through the passage, it saw an empty tortoise shell, about ten feet in size, lying upside down on the ground. The shell was covered with fine, gnawed marks.

Far away on another riverbank, Lin Jingchu, who had set up several protective and concealment arrays and was sitting cross-legged within them, focused on controlling his clone, "saw" the tortoise shell through his clone and immediately understood.

This is the place where the two disciples of the Yuling Sect were attacked.

The clone carefully searched the surrounding area and soon found a skeleton draped in tattered white clothes, with several magical artifacts, devoid of any spiritual energy, scattered beside it. It was the remains of the female cultivator surnamed Zhang. And surprisingly, a perfectly intact storage bag was still hanging from her waist.

"I didn't expect to have such an unexpected gain." Lin Jingchu was overjoyed and quickly manipulated his clone to remove the storage bag.

With a quick probe of his divine sense, he pulled out a jade slip from his bag—the Ranking of Strange Insects.

The clone immediately placed the jade slip on its forehead, immersed itself in its divine sense, and rapidly read the information.

"It's like a pillow being delivered just when you're sleepy," Lin Jingchu thought to himself.

This list, mentioned in the original work, is a catalog of strange insects compiled by an unknown Core Formation cultivator from the Yuling Sect based on ancient classics and his own observations. It includes and comments on thousands of strange insects from heaven and earth.

"Tianjing Ant" is ranked ninth on this list.

The jade slip records that this insect's crystallized body is indestructible, possessing terrifying resistance to all kinds of spiritual energy and magic, and can even devour others. Moreover, it can evolve based on the spiritual objects it devours, no wonder Liu Yu fled desperately upon hearing its name.

"What a pity..." Lin Jingchu sighed inwardly. "According to the jade slip, these Heavenly Crystal Ants cannot recognize a master. Because they possess the innate divine ability of 'Shared Network,' the queen ant uses this to rule the colony, and their consciousness is completely integrated. Cultivators simply cannot imprint their divine sense on the queen ant."

With a sigh, a thought flashed through his mind: "Perhaps... I could give the 'Soul Splitting Technique' I obtained earlier a try?" However, this matter required careful consideration.

The clone put down the storage bag and jade slip; the purpose of this trip was not to scavenge.

He continued to venture deeper into the cavern, more than a hundred feet in, where the surrounding rock walls and the air were filled with increasingly dense "stars" the size of grains of rice.

Finally, the Crystal Ants ceased to be transparent and elusive, reverting to their original translucent pale purple color, and began to fly around.

The clones nearly collided head-on several times, only managing to avoid them with extreme caution.

"We can't go any deeper." The clone stopped and looked towards the end of the passage. There was a much larger, more spacious cave entrance, with a faint purple glow swirling around it.

The clone decisively turned back, casually picking up the storage bag along the way as it returned to the cave entrance, only to find the main body already waiting there.

The clone handed over the "found" storage bag, then turned back and stepped into the shadows of the cave once more.

According to the records of the Strange Insect Ranking, the queen of the Heavenly Crystal Ant possesses considerable intelligence, so Lin Jingchu suddenly had an idea to test it out.

This time, the clone no longer concealed itself, but rushed along the passage, even stepping on the lurking Sky Crystal Ants.

This arrogant act instantly enraged the ant colony. Before the clone could penetrate deeper, a purple light flashed on several rock walls, and dozens of Celestial Crystal Ants took flight, swooping down like purple lightning.

The clone neither dodged nor avoided, letting them bite it. Just as the insect mandibles touched its body, the clone "poof"ed and vanished into specks of spiritual light, leaving only a group of bewildered purple flying ants spinning in place.

At the cave entrance, Lin Jingchu, his face expressionless, once again used the Mirror Flower Water Moon Technique. As soon as the new clone appeared, it didn't hesitate to rush into the depths of darkness again.

If the Mirror Flower Water Moon Technique only replicates the original body without adding any magical artifacts or spiritual objects, it does not consume much mana, less than half a percent each time.

Lin Jingchu took out a bottle of elixirs to restore his mana, swallowed most of them, and sat cross-legged to regulate his breathing and recover his mana. At the same time, he pondered how to completely conceal the aura of the spirit stone at the core of the magic array.

While pondering, the newly dispatched clone was once again annihilated by the Heavenly Crystal Ants. Lin Jingchu then launched another clone, continuing its "reckless" charge into the depths of the cave.

Once, twice, three times...

At first, the ant colony would gather and attack, but gradually, fewer and fewer Sky Crystal Ants came out. In the end, not even a single one bothered to fly over and bite the clone.

Seeing this, the clone flicked a Crystal Ant clinging to the rock wall away with its fingertip. The tiny ant tumbled a few times in the air before flapping its wings and flying back to its original spot.

The ant colony had completely ignored Lin Jingchu's clone.

Just as the clone ventured deep into the enormous opening, attempting to step inside and explore, the Heavenly Crystal Ants finally couldn't hold back any longer and swarmed forward again, biting it into a scattering of spiritual light.

Lin Jingchu revealed a bright smile, took out the dragon-patterned jade pendant, and murmured to himself:

"I hope the Demon Flame Sect will like this 'gift' I've prepared for them."