CHAPTER 80: CHAPTER 80: HARVEST AND CLEANUP

Under the scorching blaze of the Yang Fire Flame, the head of the Demon Insect King slowly turned to ashes, and its divine soul’s aura completely collapsed and dissipated...

An era of the Demon Insect King ended so hastily!

Qi Ping, upon learning of this news outside the cave, let out a long sigh of relief.

The Demon Insect King ultimately met its demise at Yaya’s hands.

However, Qi Ping was not careless, and only after the High-speed Ring-cutting Bee painstakingly cut the demon insect into several pieces, did he transform into an Ink Armor Bee and flew inside.

Inside the cave, seeing the completely dead Demon Insect King, Qi Ping finally felt at ease.

"It’s really dead!"

Looking at the blood-red body of the Demon Insect King, covered in mysterious patterns, Qi Ping felt a deep sense of emotion.

A Demon Insect King, with such formidable renown, had actually died at his hands!

Even though the Demon Insect King was now dead, the oppressive presence emanating from its body remained formidable, even greater than that of the Yang Fire Crow.

No wonder the Demon Insect King was hailed as the natural king of demonic insects, capable of unleashing horrific insect plagues.

Even its larval form, with a realm lower than Yaya’s, and with its body already restricted by the array, was still so formidable.

Qi Ping dared not imagine how powerful it would become if it had escaped and developed for a while, plus the fearsome demonic insects that emerged recently, God knows to what terrifying level its prowess would have escalated.

Qi Ping estimated that if this creature developed for a month, it could bring tens of thousands of demonic insects to annihilate him next time they met...

Fortunately, he was cautious enough, and had done extensive preparations.

The process of exploration and battle was conducted with utmost care, otherwise with the terrifying divine thought power of the Demon Insect King, even the Yang Fire Crow could have its divine soul destroyed instantly if caught off guard, let alone Qi Ping with his small stature.

Thankfully, everything ended well!

Yet Qi Ping always felt that the nurturing of this Demon Insect King, along with the demonic insects emerging from the Secret Realm recently, were very likely orchestrated by someone.

Indeed, Qi Ping’s hunch wasn’t wrong; currently within the Qingtian Realm, the Cyan Origin Sect, the Evil Lovers Alliance, and other forces were all painstakingly investigating the existence of the Demon Insect King.

Qi Ping had been slaying demonic insects extensively recently, and coincidentally prevented the emergence of the Demon Insect King.

Now, multiple forces, including the Cyan Origin Sect, were tirelessly searching for the Demon Insect King, yet none could find its traces, leaving them puzzled in disbelief.

Wasn’t it said that the Demon Insect King would emerge soon? Why was there no sign of it?

They were even scrutinizing every move within the Qingtian Realm, in hopes of finding any trace of the Demon Insect King at the earliest opportunity, as no one knew in which corner of the Qingtian Realm the impending Demon Insect King might be concealed.

Qi Ping was unaware of how many people were put in a frenzy by his actions.

Alas, the unexpected death of the Demon Insect King meant that these forces were bound to find nothing.

In the short term, no one would discover that the Demon Insect King had perished, and no one would believe that in the current demonic insect-ravaged Qingtian Realm, a Demon Insect King would be slain by an ordinary cultivator.

Under normal circumstances, the Demon Insect King, upon emerging by enslaving demonic insects, would need just a brief period to possess the power to sweep across all Foundation Establishments....

...

Qi Ping was unaware of the significant impact his act of slaying the Demon Insect King today would have on the situation in Qingtian Realm. After confirming the Demon Insect King’s death, he now only wished to quickly deal with the scene.

He was a bit worried whether slaying the Demon Insect King might draw out enemies to retaliate.

Therefore, he was prepared to flee at a moment’s notice!

For safety, Yaya turned the entire head of the Demon Insect King to charcoal fragments.

He then swiftly gathered up the Demon Insect King’s body parts and the remnants of the King Level Spirit Insect.

At the same time, he instructed Yaya and the bee swarm to start destroying the Four Extremes Demon Breeding Array from the outside.

The difficulty of destroying the Four Extremes Demon Breeding Array was not high; it merely required destroying the array base from the outside, and even a Tier One intermediate demonic insect had the power to do so from the outside, though it would take a bit more time.

So at this moment, with the combined efforts of the Yang Fire Crow and the bee swarm, the Four Extremes Demon-Defying Array was entirely destroyed within minutes, and the four Spiritual Origin Stone Pillars, only slightly smaller than Qi Ping, were pulled out by Yaya.

The altar was also broken into several pieces by Yaya, making it easier to pack into the Storage Bag later.

The Storage Bag had originally been taken by the bee swarm, but before entering, Qi Ping had already arranged for the High-speed Ring-cutting Bee to retrieve the Storage Bag.

The Storage Bag, obtained from the hand of a late-stage Qi Refining black-robed cultivator, was quite spacious and could accommodate everything inside the cave.

Aside from these, there were two rather extraordinary items inside the cave, casually placed next to it.

The first item was a piece of cloth with writing on it.

Qi Ping did not handle this item directly. Instead, he flew away and had two bees use rocks to unfold it, avoiding direct contact with the cloth itself.

Once the cloth was unfolded, there was only one line of text: "Enjoy the last gift I bring to you — Celestial Pool Venerable..."

"Indeed, a quite a good gift; my animal companions and I will gladly accept it..."

Qi Ping had no particular fondness for this Celestial Pool Venerable who nurtured the Demon Insect King.

Had he not unexpectedly thwarted the emergence of the Demon Insect King, given its abilities and its brutish, cunning nature, none in Qingshi County would have stood a chance to escape.

Qi Ping’s friend Sister Nan, possibly the Wang Mountain of the three main families, the almost drained skinny Li Peng from the evil male cultivator... including Qi Ping himself, might all have died here.

"Four Spiritual Origin Stone Pillars and the Demon Insect King’s body indeed make for a very nice gift!"

At this moment, Qi Ping not only destroyed the Celestial Pool Venerable’s plan but also acquired two treasures of significant use to himself, especially the Demon Insect King’s body, which couldn’t be bought with spirit stones.

Regarding this, Qi Ping felt extremely pleased.

Yet, there was a lingering concern: in the Qingtian Realm, a Venerable title usually referred to a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator.

Qi Ping didn’t know whether that Nascent Soul old freak was still alive or could perceive the situation here.

Though it was likely that not even ashes remained, Qi Ping still wanted to clean up here quickly and leave as soon as possible.

After instructing Yaya to burn the cloth, Qi Ping focused on the other object.

It was a mysteriously-atmospheric peculiar Jade Pendant, seemingly a quarter piece of a Jade Pendant, with an incomplete insect pattern on it.

It was quite clear this peculiar Jade Pendant was extraordinarily valuable and harbored great secrets.

However, Qi Ping had no intention of holding onto it; such things were incredibly dangerous.

Therefore, he gave instructions:

"Dispatch two High-speed Ring-cutting Bees to move this Jade Pendant to an inconspicuous underground cave in the Cloud Mist Mountain Range to hide it, then send four bees to follow; two to remember the spot, two to guard it, and the two that touched the Jade Pendant should immediately flee out of Qingtian Realm..."

This strategy ensured that the Jade Pendant, much like that peculiar Token engraved with the word "Lover," was controlled in a secret location known only to him and removed the risk of carrying it around.

The bees that remembered the Token’s location were specifically arranged with the Bee King not to participate in dangerous battles; their future task was to remember the spots where Qi Ping buried the items.

If their lifespan was nearing its end, they should timely pass the location information of the Jade Pendant and Token to the younger bees.

Just as Qi Ping completed these tasks, the outgoing High-speed Ring-cutting Bee had returned with the Storage Bag.

Thus, Qi Ping reverted to his human form and used his spiritual power to pack all the items with traces in the cave into the Storage Bag.

After completing all of these, Qi Ping once again transformed into a bee, swiftly departing with the Storage Bag, the bee swarm, and Yaya, leaving behind some bees to restore the excavated cave to its original state, doing their best to obliterate or remove any traces in or around the cave.

Especially the exterior, it had to be restored to appear like other floral planting areas, with absolutely no discernible specificity...

Although the traces of the Four Extremes Demon Breeding Array and the Demon Insect King’s existence inside the cave had all been erased, with nothing visible to the layman, Qi Ping thought it was better to err on the side of caution.....