1novels Chapter 124 First Entry into the Far North
Chapter 124 First Entry into the Far North
In the biting cold wind, Aburame Shisei fluttered his four pairs of dragonfly wings, hovering above the vast glaciers of the northern border of the Snow Country.
His pale blue magic robe shimmered with a soft glow in the wind and snow. He closed his compound eyes slightly, his senses spreading in all directions with the wind.
Soon, he detected the call of the insect swarm on the snowy glacier, but the aura here was exceptionally weak compared to insect nests in other places.
Not to mention compared to the insect swarms of the Land of Waterfalls, even the insects that roam freely in the wild in the Land of Grass are far more abundant.
With a gentle flap of its wings, Yu Nu Zhicheng transformed into a streak of blue light and landed a moment later at the entrance of a cave covered in ice and snow.
There were obvious signs of snow being cleared from the cave entrance, and several large rocks were piled up for camouflage.
He reached out and brushed away the snow, stepping into the cave, which was deeper than he had expected, winding downwards.
The deeper you go, the slightly warmer it gets, but it's still bitterly cold.
A thin layer of ice covered the stone wall, reflecting a faint glow in the darkness. Those were the familiar glowworms, only they were few in number and their light was dim.
Judging from the situation, these insect pets are barely adapting to the environment, and they may all die soon.
Yu Nu Zhicheng continued deeper into the cave, where the bottom was a hollow space about thirty feet in diameter.
He stopped and looked around—this was the so-called insect nest, a simple single-layer structure far from the three or four layers he had imagined.
However, this was within reason and still within his acceptable range. He had even prepared for the worst: all the insects would freeze to death, and the insect nest would be completely unsuccessful.
After all, only by considering the worst-case scenario can one avoid losing composure when truly facing disappointment.
Upon close observation, Yu Nuzhicheng observed that the edges of the insect nest were reinforced with a mixture of frozen soil and some kind of sticky substance, and the structure was simple and rough.
Inside the nest chamber, a sparse swarm of insects crawled slowly. The vast majority of them were grayish-white beetles with thick shells and sharp mouthparts, gnawing at the ice wall. They were a variant of the ice-eating beetle that could devour solid ice.
They are slow-growing, sluggish, and only half the size of normal carrion insects.
Apart from these hundreds of ice-eating insects, there was no other insect in the entire nest. There were no earth-building insects responsible for building the nest, no ration insects responsible for supplying the nest... almost nothing.
Of course, it is not entirely empty.
He examined it carefully and soon discovered another kind of soft, limp insect: plump and slender, covered in fat, with no carapace or muscle inside, looking quite like an ice silkworm.
Moreover, he couldn't sense any chakra connected to him within these insects. Clearly, they weren't a swarm he had cultivated.
These insects may seem lazy, but that also proves their intelligence – they will pick up the scraps left by the decaying insects to fill their bellies, or even eat the excrement of the other insects directly, without having to forage for food on their own.
Dozens of ice silkworms sensed someone intruding and immediately became alert, clumsily crawling deeper into the area with their plump bodies. But before they could get far, they were caught by You Nu Zhicheng.
"You think you can get away with this? There's no such thing as a free lunch. Since you're so eager to pledge your allegiance to me, I'll reluctantly accept you." Aburame Shisei smiled slightly.
Before the ice silkworms could react, You Nu Zhicheng had already bitten his fingertip and inscribed a spirit contract on them. From this day forward, they would be spirit beasts with an owner.
He put all the ice silkworms into the petri dish space, intending to cultivate them slowly when he had time later.
These insects are quite intelligent and are very likely to condense their own chakra without external replenishment. Before long, they will be able to transform from ninja insects into evolved summoning beasts.
In addition, Yu Nu Zhicheng also collected some native insects from the ice field into petri dishes and dug up some spiky insects on the spot, intending to accelerate their cultivation.
He knew in his heart that some energy could not be held back in the end, and even if he did not use it now, sooner or later a behemoth would set its sights on him.
That big guy had previously sworn that he had never killed anyone and had no interest in humans unless provoked.
But now, its huge compound eyes are always fixed on the battlefield, and anyone who invades its territory or even glances at it is considered to have offended it.
Just then, a rustling sound of footsteps came from the entrance of the cave.
A boy wrapped in thick animal hides and carrying a bamboo basket stumbled in.
He was about fourteen or fifteen years old, his cheeks were red from the cold, his left eye was wrapped in a thick bandage, but his right eye was surprisingly bright.
As he ran, he shouted, "Little bugs, I caught two snow hares today! I can give you an extra meal. You mustn't starve to death, you must wait until..."
The words came to an abrupt halt.
The boy stood frozen at the cave entrance, his right eye fixed on the blue figure standing in the center of the insect nest.
The figure had its back to him, its four pairs of translucent wings trembling gently in the dim light, and its soft antennae swaying slightly on its forehead.
Aburame Shisei turned his head to look at the young ninja, then deactivated Sage Mode, retracted his wings, and shrunk a dragonfly to rest quietly on his shoulder.
The bamboo basket in the boy's hand fell to the ground with a clatter.
At this moment, he finally saw the person's face clearly, and his voice trembled: "M...Master?"
Aburame Shisei said calmly, "It's me. You must be Hirashimonosawa."
"It's me! Hirashimo no Sawa, a Chunin from Takigakure, greets you, sir!"
The boy suddenly knelt down, his voice trembling with excitement: "My lord! You've finally come! We...we thought..."
"Stand up and speak."
Aburame Shisei raised his hand, and a gentle breeze lifted the boy up before asking, "Where are Seiche and Seiji? Why are you the only one left here?"
Hirashino Sawa stood up, his right eye already red. He took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself down, before recounting his experiences over the past few months in fits and starts.
"We almost got exposed from the very beginning..."
"The three of us disguised ourselves as merchants and entered a border town of the Snow Country, but our awkward behavior and lack of knowledge about the customs of the Snow Country quickly aroused the suspicion of the local guards."
When the snow ninja came to question us, we tried to use illusion magic to deceive them, but our nervousness exposed our flaws.
The Snow Ninja's armor is strange; it can amplify their chakra and resist genjutsu... We can't beat them, so we can only run.
During our escape, we got lost in a blizzard, contracted snow blindness, and nearly froze to death in the mountains. In despair, Seiji suggested using the cocoon technique to forcibly induce the birth of parasitic worms within our bodies, which barely allowed us to survive.
But most of the insects died... only those that could gnaw on the ice survived. We relied on them to dig this burrow and hunt ice insects under the snow to eat, which allowed us to survive the coldest period.
Hirashino Sawa lowered his voice, a sense of shame rising within him, feeling that he had let down the adults' expectations.