Soaring the Heavens

Even though something like the Soul Concealing Paste was very useful, it had a flaw; it would lose its effect after a while and it could even be washed off. So to Miao Yi, who felt that he could not let others see his cultivation, could do naught but apply some on himself from time to time, feeling as though he was a woman applying make-up whilst looking at a mirror.

Not knowing if it was two joyous occasions arriving at his door or not, Qian’Er had once again run to the door of his silent quarters, “Cave Master, something is happening again!”

Miao Yi waved his hand, the water mirror dropped into the pool and disappeared as he left.

At the astronomical platform, he could see the dark eggs were currently rolling around on the jade plate; they were crashing back and forth making it look as though it was a lot of fun. The hair strands that were stabbed into the eggs were already gone, it had all been gobbled up by the little guys inside.

From time to time, it could be distinctly seen that something was scratching against the outer shell of the dark eggs.

Not to mention Miao Yi, even Qian’Er and Xue’Er could see that whatever was inside, was soon going to be born.

The two girls watched with wide eyes and expressions full of curiosity, as they wanted to know what would hatch out of the things that the Cave Master treated like a treasure.

During this period of time, the two of them had gone through a lot of trouble keeping watch over these things.

They had taken turns getting a beating from the wind, rain and sun without daring to leave for even half a step, which was why the two of them were quite tanned now, but it seemed as though they had more vigour now than they used to.

Running up to the astronomical platform in one breath without even panting, there was also more energy in their eyes; clearly it had to do with the fact that they had started cultivating.

Miao Yi watched with his hands behind his back, he was very interested to find out what the Hell Mantises would look like after hatching.

He could feel the things inside was giving him a very clear signal, there was only a single conscious thought, and that was to come outside.

Miao Yi wanted to help them come out but Lao Bai had already instructed him, he could not help them, they had to come out themselves.

He could only suppress his anxiety and wait.

This time, he waited at the astronomical platform for the whole day.

It was only on the next morning when the sun had just ascended over the horizon, that a few ‘pu pu’ sounds could be heard, a few of the dark eggs that were rolling around were broken through from the inside by some sharp object.

The little guys that had broke through the outer shell of the dark eggs looked as though they understood how to exert their strength, using their tiny sickles to pierce outwards and continue widening the hole.

Whilst staring at the sight, Miao Yi had a sudden epiphany, he now vaguely understood why Lao Bai had instructed him to let them come out on their own; if they didn’t experience this, for the moment, he wouldn’t know how he was going to teach the little guys inside how to use their own weapons.

Very soon, the other dark eggs were all broken with a pop one after the other.

The first few that had broken through the dark egg’s outer shell had already come out, they appeared to be brown mantids; their figures looked thin and fragile as they were slowly shaking themselves, and yet even though they were just born, they were almost the same sizes as normal adult mantids.

When the little guys came out, they immediately bit at the dark egg’s outer shell, it seemed as though they were really savoring it.

“Aren’t they supposed to be black?” Miao Yi mumbled as he held his chin.

When he thought about the Hell Mantises in the Boundless Secular World with their deep, black carapace as though they were wearing armor, it made for an imposing sight. Yet the little guys in front of his eyes right now not only looked thin and weak, but their color looked ugly as well, it seemed as though they were no different than the mantids in the mountain forests.

“They’re mantids!” Xue’Er gasped in surprise, as she and Qian’Er looked at each other.

From both of their expressions, one could tell after so much effort and having only managed to hatch these mantids, they were clearly a little disappointed, having thought that it was some sort of rare treasure.

This was truly not something he could take pride in, so Miao Yi felt a little awkward and smiled, “Hehe, these are not normal mantids, these are mantids raised by Immortals!”

Qian’Er and Xue’Er looked at each other and giggled, they had already begun cultivating and realised many things from Yan Xiu. They already knew that the so-called Immortals were simply cultivators, and that the Cave Master was still trying to use that to trick them, thinking they were still ignorant.

The sight of a swarm of over a hundred mantids on the plate making rustling noises as they ate the dark eggs’ outer shells was truly spectacular.

Those that had finished first slowly shook their wings and opened them; after getting used to beating their wings for a while, they slowly spread them open and flew up.

One, two, three and four continued to fly up one after the other until eventually the hundred-mantis swarm was circling around over Miao Yi’s head making buzzing sounds.

Qian’Er and Xue’Er looked at Miao Yi curiously; it was strange, these mantids seemed to recognise the Cave Master even though they were just born!

What they didn’t know was that Miao Yi was being pestered until he was starting to get a headache, the two girls might not be able to feel anything, but he could feel that these little guys were transmitting a kind of feeling towards him..... They wanted to eat!

What’s more is that the swarm of mantids was continuously transmitting this feeling towards him, there was a sudden wave of fatigue on an emotional level, similar to that felt by people when children are crying for milk.

‘What to feed them?’ Miao Yi was speechless, it seems he had forgotten to ask Lao Bai this, and Lao Bai also hadn’t mentioned it to him.

Miao Yi who was still lost in thought, was suddenly shocked, because he realised these little guys seemed to have set their sights on Qian’Er and Xue’Er, they actually treated these two living people as food!

Just born and they already wanted to eat people, how could this be, did they want to become demons?

Miao Yi lifted his head and glared, stopping these little runts from having any thoughts of misdeed.

But as it turned out there were some that desired to court death, a dozen birds just happened to fly past, and having suddenly discovered the flying bugs, one immediately dived in looking to hunt.

Miao Yi was surprised, he was about to invoke his arts and scare them off, but who would have thought that another occurrence would shock him even more.

’Swish!’ - The hundred-mantis swarm suddenly charged out! That speed was not normal, it didn’t even seem like these little guys were just newly born.

The flock of birds that came to hunt could not even fly away in time, they were almost instantly subdued in the air by the swarm of mantids.

Miao Yi squinted his eyes and saw the mantids thrust their tiny sickles down, the birds that were flapping in the air immediately froze and were unable to move, as if they were nailed down, before dropping to the ground.

Something that would make one’s hair stand on end soon unfolded on the floor of the astronomical platform. The hundred-mantis swarm was ravenously biting into the flock of a dozen birds, the area in which it occurred might have seemed small, but it was truly bloody.

Qian’Er and Xue’Er slowly widened their eyes and mouths with an expression of incredulity.

The sounds of snapping and cracking bones made Miao Yi slowly suck in a breath of cold air.

Without much effort, all that was left on the ground were a dozen or so bloodstains. These horrifying little guys wouldn’t even let go of the birds’ bones and feathers, they devoured the flock of birds without even leaving so much as a scrap.

After eating their fill of flesh and blood, the little guys seemed like they were satisfied; they stopped making noise and stopped pestering. One after another, they all stood on the ground on four limbs, supporting their round bellies and shaking their small feelers; using the mouthparts that they had used for biting to to clean up the bloodstains on their sickles, it looked like they were licking the blood!

Once they had finished cleaning up the bloodstains on their bodies, the little guys lifted their heads up to look at the sun in the sky, it seems as though they didn’t really like the sunlight. One after the other, they spread out their wings and flew over to land on Miao Yi’s body, crawling inside his clothes and quickly disappearing without a trace.

However, the sight of them crawling under his clothes could still be seen.