Entering the insect nest, Lu Zhong saw the infected giant honey bugs, which were piled up in huge numbers.
It can be seen from the dissected corpse of the insect that the body of the insect is covered with white mycelium, and the body is stiff and long. Although it is not completely dead at this moment, it has completely lost its ability to move.
At this time, no matter what the insect queen ordered, she would not move.
At the same time, a small milky white flower grew on the top of the head.
The scene in front of him made Lu Zhong couldn't help but look weird. After all, no matter how you looked at it, this strange disease looked like a giant honey worm that had been eaten away and parasitized by fungus, and then turned into a "Cordyceps".
According to the observations of the deacons, there are two stages in the onset of strange diseases.
The first symptom of any infected giant honey bug is that the body becomes rigid. At this stage, the ability to move will gradually weaken, and at the same time, hyphae will begin to grow in the body. As the blood and flesh in the body are absorbed by the hyphae, the vitality of the giant honey bug will decrease. From then on it came to an end.
After the honey worm dies, it will enter the second stage. At this time, the hyphae in the body will burst out, draining the last trace of nutrients from the body of the worm, and then a small flower will grow.
"Have you found relevant records?" Lu Zhong turned his head and looked at Su Caocao.
The latter shook his head and replied respectfully: "Back to Master, I have personally read all the classics and found no relevant records."
"What's its function?" Lu Zhong pointed to the little flower.
Based on his previous business operations, he guessed that this "Cordyceps" should be of some use, and in the vision of Tianluo Secret Child Technique, the small flower exuded extremely rich aura.
In terms of purity, it is no less than a third-level elixir.
It’s just that there are fewer of them.
"Concerning this point, my disciple has ordered the alchemists of the Alchemy Palace to start urgent research. It is expected that the results will be available soon." Su Cao said.
Lu Zhong felt satisfied after hearing this.
It's good to have a sensible apprentice, so you don't have to worry about everything.
In this situation, if he were the protagonist, he would have to run around again and work in person for a long time. He would not be as relaxed and comfortable as him.
The topic returns to strange diseases.
Although the final product of this disease is like a spiritual creature that is useful to monks, it is tantamount to annihilation for the giant honey insect swarm.
If it is allowed to continue to spread, the result will inevitably be the demise of the insect swarm.
This is absolutely unacceptable to Lu Zhong.
Regarding this point, according to Su Cao Cao's report, she and the deacon in charge of the insect nest have conducted investigations, but the cause has not been found. The strange disease seems to have appeared out of thin air.
"It seems that I still have to take action personally." Lu Zhong thought calmly.
After understanding the situation, he urged Su Caocao and others to find a solution as soon as possible, but he did not get angry and still had a calm expression.
When people look at it, they feel that the city is deep.
Of course, none of the derelict monks should be spared.
All of them were thrown into the bitter mines.
That night, Lu Zhong quietly came to the insect nest.
With the help of the gray fog space, he began to review the scene.
According to the files submitted by the deacons, the strange disease first appeared half a month ago, but Lu Zhong, based on his previous life experience, guessed that the real time of appearance was definitely before that.
All the way back.
Sure enough, the first case was three months ago.
Seeing the results of Hui Shuo, Lu Zhong overturned his previous guess.
Then he looked back on the life of the sick beetle, and he figured out the origin of the strange disease.
Lu Zhong originally thought that the appearance of the strange disease was caused by external forces, either the fault of Changchun Valley or the sneaky behavior of the Taoist sect, but the truth was unexpected.
The mycelium actually comes from the giant honey worm itself.
According to observations, this kind of hyphae exists in the body of every large honey worm.
"Trouble!" Lu Zhong frowned.
"What is the cause of the disease? This has never happened before. Is it because the insect queen is about to break through to the fourth level? It seems... it does not seem to be impossible."
After all, judging from the current situation, the queen shows no signs of illness.
Other large honey bugs in the swarm, whether they are soldiers or workers, and regardless of whether isolation measures are taken, even if they are isolated from the egg stage, they cannot prevent the disease.
"There is a high probability that the problem occurs here." Lu Zhong guessed.
With the help of scene review, the cause of the disease was clarified.
Then the next thing will be easier to handle.
In the astonished eyes of the disciples on duty, Lu Zhong appeared, and with the words "Disciple has seen the ancestor", he picked a piece of "Cordyceps Flower".
He casually waved his hand and asked the disciples to stand up.
Immediately, he flashed and teleported directly to the bottom of the insect nest, where the insect queen was.
"Master!"
"Ancestor!"
As the core of the insect swarm, the delivery room where the queen is located is undoubtedly the top priority of a series of protections, especially when the occurrence of strange diseases is most likely caused by foreign enemies.
The defense here has reached its peak and can no longer be described as an "iron wall".
Therefore, at this moment, He Luo, who is the direct descendant of Nascent Soul, is building the foundation with three direct descendants of the Bihai Sect, and is on duty here day and night.
Although they were surprised when they saw Lu Zhong appear, they still saluted.
With a slight nod, Lu Zhong asked them to stand up and turned his attention to the insect queen.
Perhaps because it didn't have to fight on its own, after the insect broke through to the third level, its size increased from the original size of one hundred feet to nearly two hundred feet as its strength continued to increase.
It looks like a lying jade mountain.
It can be seen from its aura that this insect has reached the peak of the third level, which is equivalent to the strength level of the Immortal Cultivator's False Infant Realm.
The next step is to overcome the catastrophe of transformation.
"Is it possible that it is really going to start going through a catastrophe?" This speculation flashed in Lu Zhong's mind.
He slowly came to the Queen of Insects and looked at the big bloody mouth the size of a house. His face was still expressionless. When the Queen of Insects discovered the arrival of its master, she let out a low cry.
Lu Zhong felt as if a puppy was trying to please him.
"Do you need this?"
He took out the Cordyceps flower and asked the queen.
Immediately, the insect queen felt strong emotions.
The huge body squirmed for a while, obviously wanting to pounce on him, but in the end he was still afraid of Lu Zhong's strength and let out a series of flattering lows again.
Seeing this, Lu Zhong threw the Cordyceps flower into the queen's mouth.
Immediately, the insect queen ate the little flower and let out a cry of joy. At the same time, its body also began to change, and it began to squirm and make bursts of thunderous sounds.
One... two... ten!
"Look, the insect queen has become smaller!" A deacon suddenly shouted.
Not only him, but all the monks present discovered this situation.
Lu Zhong has naturally discovered it too.
As early as when he fed the first Cordyceps flower, he had been paying close attention to the queen and was keenly aware of this function of the Cordyceps flower. Moreover, the function of the Cordyceps Flower is obviously not only to make the Queen of Worms smaller, but also to strengthen its body.
"Pass my order to gather all the Cordyceps flowers and feed them to the Queen." Lu Zhong ordered.
"Yes!" Upon hearing this, the disciples immediately took action.
As Cordyceps flowers were fed in one after another, the queen's size shrank further and further, and soon she was only less than a hundred feet long. However, the momentum of shrinkage did not slow down at all, and there was a faint tendency to accelerate.
At the same time, the uninfected honey bugs all flocked to the delivery room.
However, there are layers of magic formations separating them, and they are all blocked out.
"Let them in!" Lu Zhong said.
Judging from the current situation, the spread of strange diseases and the abnormal movements of the insect swarm are obviously caused by the advancement of the insect queen, so there is no need to keep the big honey bugs out.
He wanted to see what would happen next.
At this time, Yu Feng'er also rushed over after hearing the news, followed by Su Caocao.
Yu Feng'er looked surprised when she saw the rapidly changing insect queen.
"Husband, what is this?"
"We're about to break through," Lu Zhong replied.
"Breaking through, doesn't it mean that we have to overcome the catastrophe of transformation?" Hearing this, Yu Feng'er frowned, and his face was suddenly covered with worry. According to the records in the classics, the catastrophe of the transformation of a monster is much more difficult than the six-day catastrophe of cultivating an immortal.
Once the tribulation fails, the insect queen will only die.
"The insect swarm doesn't have a queen yet, husband... why don't you let it stop breaking through?"
"That's a problem!" Lu Zhong then realized that he was so focused on the changes in the insect queen that he had forgotten the most important point.
At this moment, his eyebrows flashed and he chuckled.
"What, what's wrong?" Yu Feng'er was puzzled.
"Madam, as expected, the greatest instinct of living beings is to reproduce offspring!" Lu Zhong looked at the body of the insect queen. At this moment, he had used the Tianluo Secret Boy to find that there was an extra life inside.
If nothing unexpected happens, it must be the new insect queen.
On the side, Yu Feng'er, whose cheeks were red and hot, followed her husband's gaze and looked at the Queen of Insects, and finally realized that Lu Zhong was not teasing her just now.
Seeing that no one noticed this episode, she pretended that nothing happened and continued to watch the situation develop.
Lu Zhong, the only one who noticed this, just smiled slightly in his heart.
Soon, the queen, who had devoured a large amount of Cordyceps flowers, shrunk to the size of ten feet, which seemed to have reached its limit. After that, no matter how much the disciples fed her, she did not continue to shrink.
At this moment, the Queen of Insects started chirping.
The swarm of insects that had gathered in the delivery room swarmed in at this time. When they rushed in front of the insect queen, they all raised their mouthparts and began to spray out streams of red liquid.
"It's spiritual honey mixed with insect blood!" Yu Feng'er said in surprise.
As the spiritual honey spurted out, one after another the big honey bugs collapsed from exhaustion. But the swarm of insects continued to move forward, constantly spitting spiritual honey towards the insect queen, even if it was at the cost of their own lives.
Soon, a "palace" quietly took shape.
Seeing this, Lu Zhong finally understood the intention of the Insect Queen, and guessed in his heart: "It turns out that the breakthrough is not immediate, but it should go through a 'cocooning' stage."
I don’t know what it was that finally emerged from the cocoon?
Seeing that the insect swarm had calmed down after the cocoon was formed, Lu Zhong issued an order, declaring that from now on, the insect nest would be the forbidden area of the Bihai Sect, and everyone would evacuate immediately.
And he himself was prepared to protect it himself.
"As a master, it's time to fulfill your obligations."
…
About the function of Cordyceps flower.
After painstaking research by the alchemists of the Alchemy Palace, the results came out quickly.
According to the practice in the world of immortality, this substance is defined as a type of elixir. Because the spiritual energy contained in the medicine is very pure, it is classified as a "third-level elixir".
It was named "Cordyceps".
Unlike the spiritual honey that can improve one's cultivation, Cordyceps has a very good effect, as shown in the Queen of Insects, which can purify and strengthen the physical body.
It is not an exaggeration to say that it is the "sacred medicine for refining the body".
Lu Zhong used the Secret Formation of Creation to specially transform a small bottle of spiritual liquid and tried it. To his surprise, he discovered that this spiritual liquid could allow his semi-pure spiritual body to continue to transform.
In addition, cordyceps also has the effect of regenerating broken limbs.
A monk in the Qi refining stage only needs to take one flower to regrow the defective parts of the body.
Obviously, if these cordyceps are sold, a large number of spiritual stones will be harvested. After all, spiritual objects that can regenerate severed limbs have always been marketable and priceless in the world of immortality.
But Lu Zhong didn't plan to sell it outside.
He kept part of the Cordyceps in the sect's treasury as a welfare for Bihai Sect disciples, and gave some to Shui Ni and Yu Feng'er to strengthen their bodies. He planned to keep the remaining Cordyceps for his own use.
The improvement of one's own strength is the most important.
As for the sect, it is just a tool for him to achieve this goal.
While guarding the insect queen, he also drank spiritual liquid to refine his body.
Time passed like this little by little.
In the blink of an eye, half a year has passed.
The day when the Temple of Ten Thousand Witches is getting closer and closer, the situation in the Southern Barbarians is also beginning to have an undercurrent, and the shadow of the Middle-earth forces appears behind many events.
It didn’t take much to think about it, but they were definitely eyeing the “Ten Thousand Witches Palace” as a possible piece of meat.
At this time when the rain is about to come.
Lu Zhong is still in retreat.
The effect of the spiritual fluid refined from Cordyceps sinensis is truly extraordinary. It suddenly increased the transformation progress of his pure spirit body by a large margin.
What this brings about is an overall improvement in physical fitness.
At this moment, he was physically stronger than the dragon.
However, he was just one step away from a physical breakthrough.
Depressing things happen.
The cordyceps flowers have run out.
Lu Zhong did the math and found that even with the ones sent out, it was still not enough for the transformation of the pure spirit body, and there was still a huge gap left.
"what is this?"
Shaking his head, he moved his gaze to the side of the cocoon.
Based on observations over the past few days, the insect queen has almost completed her transformation, and her aura has reached its peak. It is expected that the day when she will break out of her cocoon will be during this period.
At this moment, Lu Zhong narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Oh, there is really something worthy of disaster!"
The reason why he personally guards the Insect Queen is to guard against the possibility of powerful monsters or monks coming to deal with the disaster.
I didn't expect this to actually happen.
At this moment, a figure walked into the insect nest as if there was no one around.
"If Master Dao hadn't seen it with his own eyes, I really wouldn't have believed that in a remote place like Nanman, a place where birds don't poop, there would actually be jade worms!"
The fat monk, dressed as a Taoist priest in white robes, thought to himself.
When he saw the mountain of insect corpses inside the insect nest, his dark face was suddenly filled with shock, and he was so shocked that he could not speak for a while.
"This, this! What do I see? Queen Jade Qiong is about to advance to the next level!"
The fat Taoist priest knew exactly what it meant for the insect queen to advance to the next level. His breathing became rapid, and his eyes began to move around, obviously planning something.
"Hmph, how can such an opportunity be possessed by a barbarian?"
This is obviously a mismatch of virtue.
"It should belong to Master Dao!"
