Chapter 00139: Carrying Hook
# Carrying Hook
Chapter 139
Novel: After the Immortals Disappeared
Chapter 139: Carrying Hook
"Rest assured, with me here, your safety is guaranteed! Besides, as long as I am alive, you all have hope to resist Lu Yao."
He Lingchuan immediately perked up his ears: "Oh, how so?"
"My being taken away by the Crocodile God led to the defeat of my troops, and Lu Yao took the opportunity to recruit people."
Wu Shaoyi, whose life and death were tied to the young man before him, gathered his spirits to persuade, "As long as I am alive, they will not be used by Lu Yao."
"And then there's Pei Xinyong; I can convince him to join in dealing with Lu Yao."
Upon hearing this, He Lingchuan no longer hesitated: "Alright, what should we do?"
Next, he followed Wu Shaoyi's instructions and took out a Turtle Pearl to wash it clean.
Despite the giant turtle's impressive size, the Turtle Pearl was only about the size of a chicken egg, and a small one at that.
Once the bloodstains on the surface were cleaned off, it emitted a silvery-white light with a hint of light blue, crystal clear and smooth.
Wasn't this more refined than any Night Illuminating Pearl?
Moreover, the Turtle Pearl had other marvelous uses; for instance, when he tried to hold one in his mouth, he could breathe freely underwater.
He Lingchuan looked at it and sighed, lamenting a few times in his heart, then found a wooden pestle and smashed it into powder with a few thuds.
There were particular rules for smashing pearls to obtain powder; iron tools could not be used.
Then he went to find Rootless Water.
Rootless Water was rainwater that had not touched the ground.
This was easy; it had just rained recently, and any rainwater tank under a roof was half full.
He took a piece of yellow paper talisman handed to him by Wu Shaoyi, burned it to ash, and soaked it in a small half cup of Rootless Water.
After that, he poured the Turtle Pearl powder in, stirring until it was completely dissolved.
Strangely, at this moment, the talisman water was red.
He Lingchuan was unsure if it was due to the cinnabar.
Having done this step, he had to go out into the wild to catch a grasshopper.
Wu Shaoyi specifically instructed that it had to be a female, and its belly could not be too large.
This was no challenge for He Lingchuan; he had lived in the countryside as a child and had caught no fewer than eight hundred grasshoppers.
Moreover, with the wheat just harvested in Xianling Village, the little pests were bouncing around the fields the most.
Time was of the essence, and the sable also went out to help.
It was agile, with sharper eyes, and a lower stance, catching grasshoppers much faster than He Lingchuan.
Before long, they caught a fat and robust Carrying Hook.
Turning it over, they saw its large belly.
It was autumn, and the female insects had matured eggs in their bellies, preparing to find a place to lay them.
The belly was too large to meet the requirements, so they discarded it and searched again.
After searching for seventeen or eighteen, He Lingchuan finally found one that met the standards.
Healthy and vigorous, its lower abdomen was only slightly bulging.
He Lingchuan tossed the green grasshopper into the water cup and secured the lid tightly.
The two of them, along with the sable, fixed their six eyes on it without blinking.
The Carrying Hook fell into the talisman water and instinctively struggled a few times, but after gulping down a mouthful of talisman water, it froze, surprisingly still.
At the same time, the water level in the cup began to drop.
Clearly, it was gulping down the water.
Strangely, the volume of water in the cup was at least two or three times that of the Carrying Hook, yet in the end, it drank it all clean.
Seeing this, Wu Shaoyi breathed a sigh of relief: "Thank goodness, it seems to have worked."
He Lingchuan glanced at him: "Otherwise?"
"There is only one talisman paper, obtained from the Holy Master."
With Hong Xiangqian dead, he could not replicate this secret technique.
Upon hearing this, He Lingchuan became even more interested in Hong Xiangqian.
The rebels called him the Holy Master, and everyone revered him, even the murderous Lu Yao was no exception, and even the Crocodile God from the Northern Demon Nation was willing to be used by him.
This person was also proficient in talismans and spell recordings, which immediately reminded He Lingchuan of Sun Fuping, the Grand Master Sun.
Truly not simple.
The Carrying Hook was not killed by overindulgence; after drinking the water, it entered a state of stillness, only occasionally raising its forelimbs to wash its face and antennae.
But its color changed, gradually shifting from grass green to blood red, and irregular black spots began to grow all over its body.
At the same time, its abdomen became increasingly swollen, looking like an inflated balloon, with the skin stretched thinner and thinner.
The abdomen also became more transparent, and the two could even see the tiny insect eggs inside growing larger and fuller at a visible speed.
In fact, it was these that were stretching the female insect's belly.
Just as it became round to an exaggerated degree, and He Lingchuan suspected it would burst at any moment, the abdomen of the Carrying Hook finally stopped growing.
Normally, grasshoppers would lay their egg cases in the soil, and after some time, the egg cases would hatch into larvae.
But this female insect showed no intention of laying eggs; those strange eggs actually hatched into larvae directly inside its abdomen!
The larval form of grasshoppers was called a Jumping Bug; apart from lacking wings and being smaller, they looked quite similar to the adult.
As soon as they crawled out of their egg cases, they eagerly pounced on their siblings, using their fully developed mouthparts to tear and bite, hungrier than wolves that had gone three days without food.
He Lingchuan felt a chill run down his back.
Grasshoppers were strictly herbivores, feeding on plant leaves and tender stems, but after the female insect drank the talisman water, the larvae inside suddenly changed their diet, not only eating meat but also resorting to cannibalism.
Soon, the number of larvae in the female grasshopper's abdomen rapidly decreased.
After the weak were eaten, it was the turn of the stronger ones to devour each other.
He Lingchuan murmured: "Isn't this just raising Gu?"
Through brutal competition, all the nutrients obtained by the small individuals ultimately belonged to one.
In human society, this behavior has a more grandiose term: zero-sum game.
The deadly struggle between the larvae was very swift; while he was lost in thought, they completed their mutual slaughter, and in the end, two Jumping Bugs emerged victorious.
After devouring the defeated one, the largest Jumping Bug became the final victor.
Its size grew larger, and its skin was red and black, almost identical to the female insect.
During this period, the female insect remained still, not rolling on the ground in pain due to the fierce activity inside her abdomen.
He Lingchuan even saw a hint of maternal affection in its grotesque face.
After the larvae had digested their kin, they also ceased to move.
"The essence of the mother has all transferred to it. If we leave it be, it will grow wings and break free in two hours."
After waiting for so long, Wu Shaoyi's condition worsened; his brow was already shrouded in dark energy, and his gaze was somewhat vacant.
"Now, dig it out!" Wu Shaoyi turned to the sable and said, "It's time; go find everyone, the more, the better."
The sable jumped off the bed, its slender figure disappearing outside the door.
He Lingchuan turned the Carrying Hook out, removed its abdomen, and, following Wu Shaoyi's instructions, smashed the female insect before preparing to stuff it into the captive's mouth.
The mountain bandit had already woken up and shouted upon seeing this: "I’m innocent, don’t harm me!"
"Innocent?" He Lingchuan chuckled, "Then how did the bloodstains on your pant leg come about? Could it be that you were disguised as a man?"
The mountain bandit was taken aback: "This, this, I was just helping to move the corpses..."
He Lingchuan couldn't be bothered to listen to his arguments; he elbowed him in the diaphragm, causing him to lean forward, mouth agape, unable to speak for a long time.
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(End of Chapter)