“Second Auntie, your spirit beast is a cat—does it feel any different from contracting a bug?”
In the village, Fa Ge stood with his hands on his hips, watching Second Auntie emerge from the fading contract light. He immediately asked with great curiosity.
It wasn’t just him—quite a few villagers gathered around, equally curious. The fact was, twelve people in their village had successfully contracted spirit beasts, but all of them had contracted bugs. Second Auntie was the only one who had contracted a mutant cat.
Still immersed in the power the contract had brought her, Second Auntie’s air of an expert promptly vanished at the question. She reached up and touched her hair. “How would I know what’s different? I never contracted a bug.”
That left Fa Ge embarrassed. He’d been so caught up in killing bugs that he’d lost his mind. He hadn’t even thought of that. Still, recalling the scene of Second Auntie contracting the mutant cat—the same intricate, magnificent array, the same glowing light—it really didn’t look any different from contracting a bug.
The village chief couldn’t stand it anymore and said gruffly, “Enough with the curiosity, everyone. Hurry up and clean the battlefield. Separate the edible parts. We still need to divide the meat once we’re done.”
At the mention of dividing the meat, everyone erupted in cheers.
They were all gathered in the village square. The entire square was piled high with various mutant bugs. In the middle lay two interstellar multi-legged insects.
But of course, while some rejoiced, others grieved.
This time, the village hadn’t been the main target of the interstellar insect race. Still, over a dozen people had died. Half of them were middle-aged men and women who had volunteered to protect their children. The other half were ordinary casualties.
Those who had lost loved ones were now gathered on the other side. The village chief was discussing funeral arrangements with them.
When Qin Sang and Xu Lin returned, this was exactly the scene that greeted them.
The two exchanged a glance and silently split up. Xu Lin went to help the village chief, while Qin Sang walked over to Fa Ge.
Fa Ge’s face lit up with surprise at the sight of Qin Sang. “You’re back! Where’s Da Linzi?”
Over the past few days, Fa Ge had been in touch with Xu Lin from time to time and knew how fierce the fighting had been on their end. He’d been worried all along. Now that he saw them back safe and sound, he was visibly relieved.
Qin Sang pointed toward Xu Lin. “He’s fine, don’t worry. How are things in the village?”
Fa Ge gave her a rough rundown of what had happened in the village over the past few days. After hearing him out, Qin Sang was deeply moved. She chatted with Second Auntie for a bit and, like everyone else, asked what her spirit beast space was like.
“What’s it like? Just like that. Like they said on the news—a new space right next to the storage space. Mine is a volcanic region.”
Qin Sang immediately asked, “The mutant cat you contracted is fire-attribute, right?”
Second Auntie nodded repeatedly. “Exactly! If the news hadn’t already said that different attribute spirit beasts awaken different attribute spirit beast spaces, I really would have been startled.”
Qin Sang could understand Second Auntie’s reaction. After all, at her age, suddenly having a volcanic space inside her body would indeed be alarming.
“Then Second Auntie, can your spirit beast space store supplies?”
Second Auntie nodded. “Yes, just like they said on the news. But my space is full of volcanoes everywhere. Anything I put in there would burn up easily…”
Qin Sang paused at that, then quickly caught on. Right—metal, earth, and wood attribute spirit beasts were fine. But water and fire attributes could produce spirit beast spaces with extreme geographical conditions.
The terrain of a spirit beast space had a lot to do with the spirit beast’s attribute and its natural environment.
“Your situation is pretty unique. The authorities will probably send someone to talk to you.”
Second Auntie waved her hand dismissively. “No problem. Sharing my experience will give others a reference if they ever contract a mutant cat.”
After that, the village spent several more days on cleanup work—burying the deceased, sorting the spoils, repairing and reinforcing houses, reporting spirit beast contracts to the authorities, and so on.
By the time things truly settled down, it was already the end of December.
——
That day, the weather remained scorching hot. Once again, interstellar insects descended through the black cracks in the sky.
But after a full month of training, the number of spirit beast masters across the country had surpassed one hundred thousand. Other countries and regions had also begun to see spirit beast masters emerge one after another.
By the way, “spirit beast master” refers to humans who have signed spirit beast contracts with mutant creatures. This term was officially designated by the authorities. Breakthroughs had also been made in research on the interstellar insect race.
For instance, the reason native insects had become so aggressive was that spatial passages had opened between Blue Star and the insect world. These passages might have existed for a long time, but had only erupted recently.
Through these passages, the violent energy of the insect world had been pouring into Blue Star.
The first to be affected were the native insects of the same species.
Un-evolved native insects had relatively simple biological structures and were highly susceptible to influence. So, as energy began to revive, these insects, tainted by the brutal energy of the insect world, naturally evolved toward violence and aggression.
As for whether native insects could evolve in a positive direction?
Theoretically, yes—but no one had encountered such a case yet.
Now that the relationship between the interstellar insect race and native insects was understood, and with people having become spirit beast masters, humanity was no longer so helpless in the face of interstellar insect invasions.
Sure enough, when the Academy of Sciences detected energy fluctuations from the spatial fissures in the sky, the alarm was immediately sounded.
Official teams mobilized.
And civilian hunting teams also mobilized. These civilian groups were, of course, after the interstellar insects. After all, the carcasses of interstellar insects were valuable. Though the energy cores contained violent energy, they could be used to strengthen one’s own spirit beast. The bodies could be broken down into various useful parts and eventually processed into weapons and equipment.
In just one month, the authorities had already rolled out quite a few equipment pieces made from insect parts—both from native insects and interstellar ones.
Qin Sang had also bought a large chopping knife made from an interstellar mantis scythe, for close-quarters combat.
“Sang Sang, the interstellar insects are here again. Want to team up and hunt together?”
Qin Sang had just stepped out of her house when Fa Ge greeted her with the invitation.
“Yeah, but has the village arranged for people to stay and guard it?”
Fa Ge: “All set. Second Auntie is willing to guard the village. Uncle Village Chief and several uncles and aunties have pretty strong spirit beast abilities. Us youngsters can head out and explore with peace of mind.”
Not far away, the village chief, who was arranging for the non-combatants to take shelter, heard this and bellowed: “A Fa, if you don’t want to go out, then get your team on patrol right now…”
Hearing that, Fa Ge immediately made funny faces at Qin Sang.
Qin Sang shook her head with an amused smile. “Stop showing off. My parents are staying in the village to help too.”
Father Qin and Mother Qin had made rapid progress in their abilities during this time. However, Father Qin hadn’t contracted any additional spirit beasts. Mother Qin, on the other hand, had contracted a mutant silkworm a few days ago.
After agreeing on their plan, Qin Sang headed out of the village. They wouldn’t go far—just to the highway outside the village.
There were fewer buildings there, so they wouldn’t have to hold back during fights.
Attracting the attention of the interstellar insects was simple. Just like when hunting mutant bugs before—release one’s full energy, and the interstellar insects would come right over.
These disgusting creatures, after all, were invading for the sake of energy.
Qin Sang had learned from Grandpa Goose that Blue Star had entered a period of energy revival. Originally, this revival was protected by a barrier that kept all energy trapped within Blue Star, preventing it from leaking out and attracting outside enemies.
However, the emergence of the Loess Secret Realm had created a vulnerability in the spatial passage, allowing the energy revival’s presence to leak out. The insect race, which roamed the stars in search of energy, were like hyenas—the moment they caught the scent, the Insect Mother immediately opened a spatial passage between Blue Star and the insect world.
Of course, that passage wasn’t fully opened in the end. That was why those mottled black spatial fissures now dotted the sky.
Qin Sang had learned all this from Grandpa Goose after the battle.
But she wasn’t surprised at all. Her earlier discussions and guesses with Xu Lin had more or less arrived at the same conclusion.
Naturally, she had passed this theory on to the authorities through Xu Lin.
With so many capable people in the official organizations, pooling their wisdom would surely lead to better solutions.
For now, waiting every day for the interstellar insects to attack was a rather passive approach.
Qin Sang had heard that some bold figures within the Management Bureau were already planning a counteroffensive into the insect world.
Well, it was a grand plan. But at this stage, humanity’s strength was still somewhat lacking.
As Qin Sang’s mind wandered, the spatial fissure above was pried open. One after another, interstellar insects—some familiar, some never seen before—crawled out through the cracks.
Fa Ge arrived from behind with a few young villagers. Seeing this, he let out a few expletives. Then he quickly directed the young men to draw their weapons and prepare for battle.
He turned to Qin Sang with a fawning look.
Qin Sang nodded with a smile.
This time they’d come out not only to keep the battlefield away from the village, but also to train the younger generation.
Among the village’s youth, there weren’t many spirit beast masters—only eight, excluding Qin Sang and Xu Lin. The middle-aged actually made up the majority.
These young people had previous combat experience with native bugs. But that experience was somewhat insufficient against the interstellar insect race.
“Here they come…”
Qin Sang pulled the Dragon’s Roar Bow from her spatial storage and began shooting at the several interstellar insects flying toward them.
Fa Ge immediately shouted for everyone to get to work.
Before long, their area was littered with insect corpses, human blood, and various building debris.
Qin Sang didn’t kill all the incoming interstellar insects. She let two slip through to Fa Ge’s group so they could practice fighting in coordination. Only when she saw someone in mortal danger did she step in to help.
This kind of combat scenario was playing out in many places.
Ever since word spread that only by courageously fighting alongside spirit beast insects from the Loess Secret Realm could one earn their contract, many people had come forward to battle.
“Success or death” had become everyone’s motto.
Their battle ended quickly, and no spirit beast insects had been attracted.
Qin Sang overheard a young man lamenting that he hadn’t been able to contract another insect.
She looked directly at the speaker. “Contracting spirit beasts isn’t that simple. It’s best to build a deep rapport with your first spirit beast before even considering a second.”
Qin Sang felt that spirit beast insects had their own set of principles. If you angered them, even if you’d already formed a contract, things could go wrong.
That was just her intuition.
Of course, upon hearing Qin Sang’s words, the young man scratched his head in embarrassment.
Qin Sang smiled and said nothing more. She was about to call everyone to get ready again when she suddenly noticed the sky growing darker and darker.
It was around ten in the morning—the sun was blazing hot. For the sky to suddenly darken like this was very strange.
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