Lu Qing returned to the cave.
The boulder blocking the entrance had been moved aside.
It seemed Dazhuang had successfully advanced.
He called out twice and quickly got a response.
“Boss, you’re back. Over here...”
He followed the voice and found Dazhuang crouching low a short distance away, seemingly observing something.
Dazhuang had now grown to fifty centimeters long, and his two Blade Legs had turned red.
“What are you looking at so intently?”
Dazhuang beckoned with a Blade Leg without even turning his head. “Come here, there’s something fun!”
Lu Qing walked over.On the ground, a large male aphid was mounted on a female green caterpillar, giving in to its primal urges!
He stared in shock.
An aphid and a green caterpillar?
They both belonged to the Insect Race, but they were two completely different species!
He had only ever joked about cross-species action, but these two were actually doing it!
“Boss, I feel like I’m looking at your future.”
Huh?
“My future, my ass!”
These two bottom-tier bugs couldn’t possibly possess complex thoughts.
“What exactly is going on here?”
Dazhuang chuckled and pointed at a red, nine-petaled flower on the ground.
“After I woke up, I was bored, so I casually fed this big aphid some petals. I didn’t expect that it would start getting restless after eating them. A green caterpillar just happened to be passing by...”
Lu Qing’s eyes lit up.
This stuff was that potent!
It was practically a natural aphrodisiac!
“Where did you pick it?”
Dazhuang pointed south. “Over there. There are a lot more.”
Lu Qing headed over and found the flowers.
He counted them carefully.
Twenty-three plants, not even counting the ones still in their seedling stage.
The flower’s effects were miraculous. Would the branches and leaves work too?
Lu Qing caught an aphid to test it out.
He found they were just as effective.
The entire plant—roots, flowers, branches, and leaves—all shared the same properties. In fact, the roots had the strongest effect.
Good stuff!
How could such a good thing not have a name?
Lu Qing thought for a moment.
‘Red Spring Grass.’
While Lu Qing was uprooting all the Red Spring Grass, Dazhuang snickered off to the side.
Just as Lu Qing turned his head to say something, Dazhuang beat him to it.
“Say no more, I understand! It’s to spice things up in the future...”
“You don’t understand squat. Come here and help.”
...
Fresh plants would easily rot if left directly inside the cave, so Lu Qing laid them out on the rocks outside to dry in the sun.
Once dried, they could be preserved well and might just come in handy in the future.
...
The Ant Nest had been destroyed.
Those captive meat caterpillars had thus become ownerless property.
Lu Qing took Dazhuang over for a trip.
He tried eating one, only to discover that the meat caterpillars were no longer of any use to him.
Dazhuang, on the other hand, once again ate to his heart’s content.
What Lu Qing needed to consider next were Experience packs!
This region was already quite barren, and the species useful for raising his grade had basically all been eaten.
It was time to consider expanding his dietary territory.
...
Inside the cave.
Dazhuang brought up a place.
“According to the Arrow Sparrows, there is a Peach Garden fifty miles away. The Insect Race thrives there. Almost every species is present, and there’s food everywhere, but it’s also extremely dangerous.”
The Arrow Sparrows were naturally describing it from their own perspective.
Ordinary Arrow Sparrows were mostly Third Grade and Fourth Grade. Coupled with their natural suppression of the Insect Race, if a place made them feel endangered, it had to be swarming with Fifth Grade entities!
For a Seventh Grade being like Lu Qing, Fourth Grade food was already useless, but Fifth Grade could still provide some growth.
“It is indeed a good place. We’ll set off for it tomorrow!”
Dazhuang immediately grew excited.
“Why wait for tomorrow? We can go right now... Huh? Boss, do you smell a really fragrant scent?”
As he spoke, his antennae twitched up and down.
Lu Qing also smelled a very fragrant scent.
It was a very unique aroma, somewhat different from a straightforward fragrance.
Lu Qing couldn’t put his finger on what exactly the difference was.
But upon smelling it, he felt as if a primal force capable of triggering his deepest urges was brewing inside his body.
If he didn’t vent this primal force, he would grow increasingly uncomfortable.
“Boss, why do you look so pretty to me right now...”
Fuck!
Lu Qing kicked him straight out of the cave.
Then, he stepped outside.
On the ground outside lay a Mantis.
A section of this Mantis’s wings was snapped off, and its four crawling legs had been reduced to two and a half.
There were three gashes on its abdomen, oozing green blood.
Lord Caiyi!
Looking at Caiyi’s miserable state, Lu Qing marveled. She was truly tough to kill!
To think she had actually managed to escape a simultaneous siege from Iron-Beaked Birds, Arrow Sparrows, Sabertooth Pigs, Great Strength Ants, and numerous other species.
He also instantly understood what that fragrance was all about.
Judging by the time, Caiyi’s Female Pheromone must have reached its absolute peak.
This was likely a manifestation of her Female Pheromone overflowing!
No wonder he and Dazhuang had both developed primal urges.
“Oh, isn’t this the Lord? What happened? How did you end up looking like this?”
Caiyi hadn’t been idle these past two days either. While fleeing for her life, she had investigated the reason behind the encirclement.
She discovered that all the species involved in the siege had come because a Mantis was stirring up trouble under her banner.
Caiyi had finally pieced the events together and realized that the one causing trouble and framing her was none other than Lu Qing!
Coupled with the fact that her Female Pheromone had reached its peak, she had come straight here for revenge!
When she saw Lu Qing appear, she was genuinely startled!
Previously, both she and Lu Qing had been at the Sixth Grade. Because females were inherently stronger than males, his body had been much smaller than hers!
Yet now, he was actually a full size larger than she was.
“You... you’re actually at the Seventh Grade!”
In her eyes, this was utterly inconceivable.
The first time she heard of him, he was Fifth Grade. The first time they met, he was Sixth Grade. It had only been a few days, yet he had already reached the Seventh Grade!
Even for a female Mantis with natural inherent advantages, advancing a single grade was incredibly difficult.
She herself had been stuck at the Sixth Grade for seven whole years!
Male Mantises were far weaker in comparison, so they went without saying.
But why was this male able to continuously raise his grade in such a short period of time?
And the one next to him!
The last time she saw him, he was only at the Fourth Grade.
Good heavens, now he was actually at the Fifth Grade!
This made no sense!
It made absolutely no sense.
It completely shattered the very definition of a male Mantis.
Lu Qing fluttered his wings. “Good eye. I am indeed at the Seventh Grade!”
“Impossible! Males are weak... How could you possibly break through in such a short time! I’ve been stuck at the Sixth Grade for seven whole years!”
“Haha. Eat well, sleep soundly, and naturally your strength shoots right up.”
“Oh, right. I’ve already taken revenge for our Mantis Race. Not only did I severely wound the Iron-Beaked Birds, I also wiped out the Great Strength Ant Nest. Tsk tsk, I must say, the Ant Queen’s taste was truly exquisite—red lips and white juices!”
Whether from envy or hatred, Caiyi’s eyes turned red!
“I knew you were the one behind this!”
Her tone instantly softened, even carrying a hint of a smile. “However... this works too!”
“Paying a massive price has finally brought a reward!”