Lu Mingchao stopped sending poison into the bug's nest on the third day.
She believed that none of the ordinary Steel Red Bugs in the nest would still be alive after a Foundation Building cultivator had continuously introduced poison into the nest for three days.
The Steel Red Bugs were fire-element demonic beasts. The fog, which harbored water-element spiritual energy, already countered it naturally, not to mention that the fog also contained a corrosive poison that was produced by the Cloud-Gathering Poison Conversion Cup.
In fact, none of the bugs had crawled out of the nest by the sixteenth hour of her introducing the poison. She had only continued to send in the poison as a precaution.
However, they did not see the bug queen die. That was always a threat.
Before she left for this mission, her elder brother and seventh brother had told her that she had to make sure that the job was done meticulously.
That was their father's request.
Thus, she started to instruct the cultivators of the clan to expand the entrance of the nest.
They had to find the bug queen, dead or alive.
The earth-element cultivator she brought along finally had his purpose.
He was not strong, being at the seventh or eighth tier of the Qi Refining Stage. However, aside from him, even a Foundation Building cultivator like Lu Mingchao, who did not use Earth Elemental Techniques, would not be able to do much in such a situation.
However, they had a lot of time. There were no major threats around them. Even though demonic beasts were roaming in the wilderness, where they were at was not desolate. They were still within the borders of Feiyun State, which meant that there was not much of a problem.
The nest got increasingly larger as they dug.
The space inside the nest was much larger than the area outside. However, as they dug into the nest, Lu Mingchao had to find a way to collect the poison that she had introduced into the nest. Their progress was slow.
They spent seven days before they finally found the bug queen within the nest.
The bug queen of the Steel Red Bugs was a creature whose abilities had reached Level Two. However, it was not born for battle. Its function was to mainly give birth to hordes of bugs. Its battle capabilities were weak, and it was rather immobile.
They found the bug queen deep within the nest. From how the bug queen looked, it seemed like it had tried to wiggle its body to leave the nest after it sensed the fatal threat. There were a large number of Steel Red Bugs around it that acted as its guards.
Unfortunately, they did not manage to escape. Along the way, the Steel Red Bugs guarding the bug queen had been poisoned to death. The bug queen also fell victim and lost its ability to move.
However, upon further examination, Lu Mingchao realized that even though the bug queen was immobile and the poison fog had largely corroded its body, there was still a weak spiritual strength reaction coming from its body.
That meant that the bug queen was not dead.
As a Level Two demonic beast, its body was still rather hard. They could not kill it completely just by using the corrosive poison for a few days.
Besides Lu Mingchao, Lu Mingling also noticed this. He quickly lifted the magic sword in his hands. He intended to summon a bolt of lightning to finish off the bug queen that was already on the verge of death.
However, Lu Mingchao stopped him.
"Grandaunt?"
Lu Minchao was Lu Mingling's grandaunt.
"If I am not wrong, a bug-type demonic beast like the Steel Red Bug requires two sources of food. The first is fresh meat, and the second is their habit of consuming steel. They have a potent fire poison within their bodies and need to eat steel to allow the fire poison to infiltrate the steel. Only then could they expel the excess fire poison from their bodies. The steel they excrete is regarded as valuable forging materials."
"You mean that we should bring this bug queen back with us?"
"Yes." Lu Mingchao nodded and said, "If we can save this bug queen and control it, we can nurture a new horde of Steel Red Bugs and rear them. That way, the clan would have another source of income."
Lu Mingling nodded after he understood her intentions. However, he soon knitted his brows and said, "But… This bug queen has already sustained such heavy injuries. I wonder if it would still be alive if we bring it back to the mountain."
"Let's try our best."
After she spoke, she released the Broken Yin Water Rope and used the mantra of the Water Binding Incantation as a foundation to activate the ropelike magic equipment. She tied the immobile, semiconscious bug queen up and took it along with her.
Five years ago, she had used this Water Binding Incantation to bring the Horse King of the herd of Water-Spirit Horses back to Yuyan Mountain. That time, she had exhausted almost all of her spiritual strength and only recovered after she recuperated for a month.
This time, the mission was even more arduous.
This area was a thousand miles away from Yuyan Mountain. A Foundation Building cultivator would have to fly for a full day even if they were not burdened with anything. Lu Mingchao did not have a good flying sword. She could not reach that speed with a Level One flying sword.
She had to drag along the bug queen and lead four Qi Refining cultivators, which meant that she had to walk back to Yuyan Mountain. It would take days for them to return home even though they were cultivators.
However, her abilities were stronger than they were before. The development of her Spiritual Roots had enhanced the core of her abilities. She had also reached the fifth tier of the Foundation Building Stage, which allowed her to control more spiritual strength. The Broken Yin Water Rope, as a Level Two magic equipment, also greatly reduced the energy needed to cast the Water Binding Incantation.
Due to many factors, she ultimately managed to drag the bug queen back to Yuyan Mountain. Even though she was fatigued, she was not as downtrodden as she was when she dragged the Horse King back years ago. She should be able to recover after recuperating for a few days. It would not affect her training.
The bug queen she brought back to the clan attracted the attention of many people.
A Level Two demonic beast was not a common sight. This was a rare chance for people to expand their horizons. Most people would not miss the chance to take a look.
The body of the bug queen was large. If there were no accidents, the creature could stay in a permanent nest forever. If they had to move the nest due to any special circumstances, then the other bugs in the nest would carve out a path and expand the entrance of the nest to help the bug queen move. The bug mother had to be large to incubate a massive horde of bugs, and only then could it spawn a sufficient amount of eggs at one go.
This bug queen was about the size of a cow. Furthermore, it had a strange appearance.
Many clan members came to observe the creature. Several of them were mortals who had never once stepped foot on the path of cultivation.
Wenen and Weiwen were among the group of people.
"Brother Wenen, that thing is so scary." Weiwen, who was two years younger than Lu Wenen, had not stepped into the Qi Refining Stage.
Considering the clan's future, the clan members hoped that the two children from the "Wen" generation who had the most potential interacted more with each other and developed a good relationship when they were young. Thus, they deliberately arranged for the two children to stay close to each other.
They have interacted with each other for one month. They trained together and played together when they relaxed occasionally. The two of them became familiar with each other.
When he heard his sister's words, Lu Wenen patted on her little head in a comforting way. He then said, a little proud, "This was captured by our great-grandmother. I heard from my grandmother that this large bug would belong to our clan in the future!"
"This belongs to our clan?" Weiwen tilted her head and asked, "Then, do we have to protect it?"
"Yes," Lu Wenen said. "We have to protect everything that belongs to our clan."