Molting the Mortal Coil

Don’t I already know this? What is the ancestor thinking?

As if the Ancestor could sense his confusion that voice spoke again to explain, “That is the true Insect Immortal Index of the Chong Clan. It is far more powerful than the one passed down in our Lang Clan. Only the core members of the Chong Clan and the current head of a Branch Family are allowed to learn it. Since you’re the only one left in the Lang Clan, you qualify. The other two items are a storage ring and a beast bag. Bind them with a drop of blood and then send your consciousness inside.”

Sage was surprised! A stronger version of the Insect Immortal Index? The true version? What did that mean? Finding a slight aversion to talk of his blood, he flipped open the book and turned over the first introductory page and started to look for differences. He was flabbergasted.

The first technique: ‘Merge’. The cultivator can form a symbiotic bond with a Spirit Insect, creating a mental link and allowing them to control the insect as well as store it within their own body. This was the same as usual, but there was another level of the technique listed. At this last level the cultivator could swap places with their Insect. Storing themselves inside the insect’s body whenever they wished. In addition, and most terrifyingly, they could step up the link to another level and truly combine their bodies into one.

The second technique: ‘Mutate’. The cultivator can draw out the essence of a creature and use it to breed with another creature that isn’t similar at all. Insects, arachnids, worms, small reptiles, and the other creatures in the ‘chong’ grouping are all candidates. It if was creepy and venomous it was essentially a candidate for this. This was the same as usual, though the limitations on crossing species were even more lax than before. Two males or females could be crossed and even those that were only vaguely ‘chong’ were usable. Finally, the most ridiculous thing was ‘Mutate’ didn’t even require breeding! With the true Insect Immortal Index, the cultivator can simply use their qi to induce a Spirit Insect to transform. They would enter a pupa and undergo a metamorphosis with the cultivator’s guidance. Afterward they would emerge transformed and possessing new traits.

The third technique: ‘Mature’. The cultivator uses their own qi to accelerate the incubation and growth period of a Spirit Insect. They can hatch their eggs, shorten pupa times, and grow them to adults in a fraction of the usual times. The true Insect Immortal Index took this even a step further. Not only could it help them to reach adult size it could push them even larger! Without even needing to reach purer qi quality from a higher rank, like the Colossal Iron Mantis, but any Spirit Insect could simply grow larger and larger. Yet, that wasn’t even the strongest feature of the true ‘Mature’. The Spirit Insect could actually be aged, not just in their physical maturity but in the same way that a Demonic Beast can.

Demonic Beasts are different from Spirit Animals. Spirit Animals are just like the animals from Earth, except they consume spirit plants, other spirit animals, and natural treasures in order to gain qi and become more powerful. Demonic Beasts on the other hand are basically monsters, with forms and shapes from out of the storybooks like dragons, unicorns, manticores, and thousands of other terrifying things. They simply breath in the qi of the world like cultivators do, slowly getting more powerful over time. Eventually they even gain intelligence as high as a human and later even transform into a human form!

The true form of ‘Mature’ let the Spirit Insect act like a Demonic Beast, turning it into essentially a Demonic Insect. It could grow more powerful by aging into an evolved form, gaining intelligence and even later taking human form! What an astounding cheat move!

I wonder if some of the Chong Clan members are actually just Demonic Insects that took human form. That would be really scary to have to fight a giant spider as smart as a person!

The true Insect Immortal Index was simply too amazing. No wonder the Chong Clan was a major provincial power. Shaking his head with amazement at the power of of these improved techniques, Sage chuckled as he realized there was still another section in the manual. The two supporting techniques of the Insect Immortal Index also had improvements.

Ki Feeding. It let the cultivator feed Spirit Insects with their qi, rather than requiring them to consume spirit plants or other spirit insects. Spirit Plants would draw nourishment from the heavens and earth, and even special light or water sources. This technique uses the cultivator’s qi to act as a stand in for the spirit plant, gathering and bundling up the energy of heaven and earth to mimic a spirit plant and feed the insect. This true version went a step further. Not only could it be used to feed them the basic energy of heaven and earth, with practice different types of Spirit Plants and Spirit Insects could be emulated. Different types of food could have different nourishing effects. For example, a cultivator with fire based qi could infuse that into the Ki Feeding and simulate fire typed plants, strengthening fire type Spirit Insects! The possibilities were endless, but the difficulty with high levels of this technique was astounding. The cultivator would need to be intimately familiar with the herbs they wished to replicate, having to copy the structure, aura, energy density, and many other specific careful details.

Hive Body. This technique seems simple but is in fact extremely profound. A high level array is inscribed inside the cultivator’s body that creates spaces within their body. These spaces are like the tunnels of an ant hill, creating places for the insects to live that are larger on the inside than the outside. Given their requirements for air and qi, this creates a number of holes on the cultivator’s body that keeps them connected to the outside world and gives them a way to enter and exit. The special Lang Clan version of Hive Body actually allowed the practitioner to open up a second space directly inside their dantian, a place on the lower belly within the body where qi is stored. This second space is much larger than the normal Hive Body and doesn’t need to be exposed to the outer world, since the Lang Clan only stores their Linked Spirit Insect which no longer needs air and can be fed qi by the cultivator.

As Sage read further, he realized the Lang Clan Hive Body was actually a partial version of the true Insect Immortal Index Hive Body instead of a lower level one like the standard Hive Body. The true Hive Body not only opened a space in the Dantian, but a network of tunnels that coincided with all of the meridians. The meridians of cultivators were somewhat mysterious. Just like how blood vessels carry blood through the body, the meridians are what carries qi. The problem is, not many are truly knowledgeable about them. Most Ki Cultivation arts were the efforts of the previous generations explaining a method to breathe in the qi of the heaven and earth, and then how exactly to circulate that energy through one’s meridians. Different techniques had very different levels of efficiency and throughout the countless generations there was no telling just how many different methods there were.

The true Hive Body created a living area for Spirit Insects within the dantian and the meridians of a cultivator’s body. This got rid of the need, and vulnerability, of large exit holes on a cultivator’s body. In addition, and most powerfully, the Spirit Insects could directly affect and be affected by the cultivator’s qi. For example, fire attuned qi would nourish fire element spirit insects simply by storing them in the body. Or, the opposite might be true. Fire element spirit insects could, over time, attune the cultivator’s qi to fire! There was a few examples listed, the last of which was astounding. If Spirit Insects that emit their own qi were to be stored, they can be commanded to pour their energy into the cultivator, thereby increasing his energy! The possibilities were endless.

Sage spent quite some time reading the true version of the Insect Immortal Index. After that he even started to learn the more advanced version of the techniques before he remembered the other two items he was given!

Following the instructions the Great Ancestor had given, Sage bit his finger and then dripped a drop of blood onto the ‘Beast Bag’. Watching carefully the dark leather seemed to immediately absorb his blood like magic. Amazed, Sage watched as nothing else happened.

What does it mean to ‘send your consciousness’ into it?

Sage pondered the riddle for a moment, wondering what that instruction meant. At the instant he thought about what was inside the bag, he felt himself being drawn into it. The world seemed to disappear and he was now looking at a cubic area, about ten feet wide, twenty feet long, and ten feet tall. The ‘walls’ seemed to be absolute darkness and no matter how hard he tried he could never actually touch them. He was simply slowed down, stopped from moving any further by an invisible force that squeezed around him from every direction. As he looked at his hand he realized that he could see his own body. Staring closer he noticed it was partly transparent.

Is this what he meant by ‘consciousness’? I can tell I’m not really in here, but all my senses seem to work and I can even move and touch stuff.

Deciding not to dwell on how it all worked right now, he started to explore the room. The room was basically just shelves stacked full of cages and containers of all kinds. Looking closer, Sage realized that they were mostly Insect Cages of all sizes.

Wow. So not only does this bag have a big space inside it, you can even keep the shrinking insect cages inside it? Awesome.

He went around looking in all the cages and found them empty. With nothing else popping out at him, Sage realized he had no idea how to leave this place. Just as he was wondering if there was a door, he realized he was already back in his own body. All his senses had returned to normal as soon as he thought about leaving. Finding it way easier than he guessed, Sage let out a laugh.

“Haha, this is too great! You’re the best, Great Ancestor!”

Unable to stop himself he gloated to the Ancestor before realizing what he did and quickly bowing in apology. Not wanting to get killed by the old guys before he even got to use the new toys. Hearing nothing further from the Ancestor in the stone casket, Sage thanked them again and spilled some blood onto the ‘Storage Ring’. Thinking of going inside it, he was again inside another place. This one was much larger, a room with a twenty foot high ceiling and a hundred feet long and wide. Within it, he was amazed to find all sorts of food, plants, and deceased insects sitting on shelves and cabinets.

The Great Ancestor has been down there for who knows how long… this storage ring must be like a magic fridge.

Inspecting the food, he carefully smelled some of the vegetables and found them crisp and healthy. Taking a bite, he was surprised at how fresh it tasted. This internal room was a treasure! It preserved things perfectly!

It’s not stopping time, right? Isn’t that crazy hard to do? I’ll have to ask someone how these things work.

The room seemed pretty packed full of stuff, but Sage realized all he had to do was thinking about something in the room and he was immediately in front of it holding it. Amazed at another marvel he started to sort through the room. Not sure what even half the things inside it were for, he was impressed to find a small fortune. One of the cabinets had a few drawers filled with gold, silver and copper coins. Another was filled with Spirit Stones. Spirit Stones were the currency of cultivators, and they contained the energy of heaven and earth. They had many uses, acting like batteries for many kinds of magical tools, helping a cultivator recover their qi faster, and it was said the high level ones helped with increasing cultivation level.

I don’t really know how much this is all worth but I’m suddenly rich!

There was plenty of other things in the ring but Sage had no idea what most of them were. Deciding to leave it all for later he quickly moved all of his insects from their makeshift cages into the Beast Bag and returned to studying the true Insect Immortal Index.