Ultragene Warlord

"These pupae are far more impressive than I expected."

"They're no ordinary treasure."

Li Feng, on the other hand, was a wet blanket. "Don't be so excited just yet. See this? The pupae have been damaged from Fang Yi's attack. However, Fang Yi wasn't targeting them, and they have surprising defense in their own right. The Stargod Seal also served to protect them. These three factors all contributed to their preservation."

Yang Ze scowled. "Fang Yi, couldn't you have held back a bit?"

Fang Yi rolled his eyes. "Do you think I could have, after seeing that fight for yourself?"

If Fang Yi had done so, Xing You could well have been the cultivator standing before them instead.

Zhang Lie headed over and asked, "That said, what happened to all of you after you entered the world of the official tournament?"

"We were very unlucky."

Fang Yi explained what had happened since entering the world.

"I was going to meet up with you and Captain via the tracker bee soulshard, Yang Ze, but I encountered the Stargods while passing through the rock forest. Remember how I eliminated some fellow called Xing Yu during the qualifiers?"

Zhang Lie nodded. "So they came causing trouble for you?"

Yang Ze raised a hand. "I headed over the moment after coincidentally hearing the sounds of fighting. I saw Fang Yi in the midst of a fight and immediately went to help, only to encounter a competitor I faced during the qualifiers myself. Because there were so many people, Fang Yi and I decided to split up."

Fang Yi continued, "Then, I and the Stargods headed into this domain and encountered the birth of the bug monarch. I rushed into the midst of the fighting to escape from the Stargods. They gave up after being unable to catch me and left in pursuit of the bug monarch instead."

After Fang Yi escaped, despite his annoyance with the Stargods, he chose to wait until he met up with Zhang Lie before exacting his revenge—only to end up in the midst of the fight over the bug monarch.

"The bug monarch's birth led to a lot of commotion. Thirteen pupae appeared in all. Other cultivators stole six, while the Stargods claimed seven for themselves."

Zhang Lie was shocked. "The Stargods are so weak. How did they manage to claim seven?"

Yang Ze grinned. "Weak in comparison to whom? No one would compare to you, Captain, and they're still decently challenging opponents for the rest of us. Compared to the other competitors, however, the Stargods aren't weak and have strength in numbers. It's nothing surprising."

Fang Yi continued, "I'm not finished! After the Stargods managed to snatch seven of the pupae, they naturally roused the dissatisfaction of the other competitors. Those competitors banded together to fight the Stargods, and I joined in in order to take revenge. I stole the pupae from the Stargods and was then chased and surrounded by them. You saw me at the end of my rope."

Zhang Lie asked curiously, "Who claimed the other six pupae?"

Fang Yi replied, "Three different cultivators took them. They were working separately. Apparently, one was from the Hall of Immortals, another used the same techniques as the cultivator Yang Ze fought against in the qualifiers, and the last one was a veiled woman."

Yang Ze frowned. "I feel like we've encountered them somewhere before."

Li Feng nodded. "They sound familiar."

Yang Ze rubbed his palms greedily. "Forget about them. Let's see what's in the pupae that we claimed. Who knows? A bug emperor might emerge!"

Fang Yi rolled his eyes. "You think it'd be that easy?"

Yang Ze picked a pupa at random. "Who knows? I might get lucky."

The pupa, to which a Stargod Seal had been affixed, was very easy to break open.

A flash of blue light appeared. A blue bug lay within the pupa, only about as long as Yang Ze's arm. It radiated blue light all over its body, which formed the image of a sea dragon around it.

That image was made of illusory light and hung in the void, mysterious and powerful.

Yang Ze frowned. "Just a bug monarch?"

The blue bug seemed rather weak.

Li Feng shook his head. "It looks like you aren't that lucky, after all. It's weaker than the bug monarch that Fang Yi consumed."

Yang Ze frowned. "I won't take responsibility for this. It's likely because Fang Yi's attack struck it. Even though the pupae were protected by the Stargod Seal, you've all seen how destructive Fang Yi's techniques are. It's likely that this bug monarch was crippled from that attack."

"In other words, you were unlucky. Watch this." Li Feng picked up a pupa of his own.

Silver light flashed. Within the pupa was a silver bug monarch, also about the size of Li Feng's arm, but it radiated silver light in the image of a dragon.

That image was made of illusory light and hung in the void, mysterious and powerful.

It was comparable to the one that Fang Yi had swallowed, and better than Yang Ze's.

Yang Ze smirked. "It looks like you aren't particularly lucky, either."

Li Feng scowled as Fang Yi opened a pupa of his own.

Blue light flashed. Wind surrounded the bug that appeared from within the pupa. It was about the size of Fang Yi's arm, but was speckled with purple, gold, silver, and blue light, forming the image of what seemed simultaneously like a dragon and a tiger in the air.

That image was made of illusory light and hung in the void, mysterious and powerful, crackling with lightning.

Zhang Lie considered it. "What a pity. It's only one step away from becoming a bug emperor."

Yang Ze shrugged. "It's no loss to us. After all, we won't stay in this world for long, and anything we can claim now is a boon."

Fang Yi handed a pupa to Zhang Lie. "Open one too, Captain."

"Very well!"

As Zhang Lie broke open the pupa, a dragon's howl could be heard from the sky. A black dragon rose into the heavens. A flaming qilin appeared, a golden tiger howled, a phoenix danced across the sky... All manner of omens unfolded, shocking the cultivators present.

The skies turned dark as day transformed into night. The ground shook. Lava quaked and erupted from the ground. The entire world turned fiery-red. Then, lightning flashed and the stars began to fall. Wind swept across the land, and a phoenix cried out.

Within the pupa was a small bug, again about the size of Zhang Lie's arm, but it was speckled with black, yellow, red, blue, purple, gold, silver, and green light. The light formed a phantasmagoria of images—a swimming fish, a small black serpent, a golden tiger, and so on.

The scene left everyone in shock.

Yang Ze exclaimed in surprise, "Captain, that's a bug emperor for sure, a bug emperor!"

Although he had never seen a bug emperor for himself, nor heard anyone describe one, he was certain that what Zhang Lie had found was a bug emperor.

How else could the various phenomena that unfolded be explained?