Martial Ascent to Divinity

Above the vast sea, Zhou Leng, disguised as Zhu Shiji, sped across the water while reviewing offline intelligence.

Currently, most Martial Saints from various countries have left their own nation and started searching for Ancient Beast blood across the world.

Shared intelligence among Martial Saints shows that most can sense Ancient Beast blood at a distance of around 1000 meters.

If their realm is slightly higher, they might extend the range by another hundred or two meters, but some people’s sensing range is slightly farther.

Zhou Leng recalled his own sensing distance, at least 5000 meters.

After running for a while and sensing nothing, he dove into the sea.

According to intelligence, human Martial Saints are ultimately not Sea Sirens; their speed underwater is limited, and True Qi consumption is extremely high, which leads most Martial Saints to search on the surface of the shallow sea.

Only a few weaker Martial Saints, determined to breakthrough, decide to search slowly in the deep sea.

In the deep, dark waters, Zhou Leng kept moving forward.

While sensing Ancient Beast blood, he cultivated simultaneously.

He sequentially activated Great Sun Divine Skill, Undying Star Body, and Star Phoenix Rejuvenation Technique.

After advancing to a Martial Saint, the cultivation progress of Undying Star Body accelerated noticeably.

The first stage of Undying Star Body requires cultivating the content of ten Divine Texts; upon absorbing Ancient Beast blood, three have already been condensed.

At this progress rate, the Peak Martial Saint stage could complete all cultivation of Crossing Body.

At that time, Zhou Leng would cross the starry sky, enter a star, and leverage the sun’s power to fully star-transform, laying the foundation for Ascension to Divinity as a true stellar mighty being.

Underwater, Zhou Leng maintained a high speed of 15 Mach and relied on powerful Martial Saint abilities to control his Power.

Otherwise, the dissipated Power would be enough to kill all nearby marine life.

Half an hour later, Zhou Leng’s eyes lit up, changing direction and heading straight for a seabed.

Soon, he saw a rocky seabed emitting a bloody glow.

Reaching out his hand, he grabbed the blood-colored orb and swallowed it, absorbing while moving forward.

In this way, Zhou Leng continued to search the vast sea.

Occasionally encountering other Martial Saints, they would nod politely upon seeing Zhu Shiji, then leave.

Over five days, he found 5 orbs, totaling 9.

No gains in the next two days.

Perhaps, the stock of Blue Star is already dwindling.

It’s time to check other worlds.

Zhou Leng left the seabed and returned to Dragon Country to read news and intelligence.

The appearance of Ancient Beast blood stirred a treasure-hunting frenzy across the Ten Realms.

Whether Blue Star or any of the Ten Realms, ordinary Martial Artists might get lucky, find Ancient Beast blood, and then sell it to Martial Saint Demigods, earning a fortune.

In Demon Spirit World, Ancient Beast blood even appeared in auctions, causing fierce competition.

More crazily, were the battles in the two interconnected worlds.

The Giant Dragon World and the Dwarf Beastman World, these two worlds’ races have started wars to snatch Ancient Beast blood.

Many Demigods even fought fiercely, caring less about finding Ancient Beast blood but engaging in wild battles instead.

As for Demon Purgatory, all Ancient Beast blood exists only in the first layer of Endless Battlefield, leading to a flood of Demon Demigods.

The wars among them are even more brutal than those between Giant Dragons, Giants, Dwarves, and Beastmen.

Past grievances accumulated, new animosities from previous Celestial Tier Trials on the first layer, competition over Ancient Beast blood, and finally, the slaughter and plunder from Blood of Tyranny, all turned Endless Battlefield into a chaotic mess.

The hatred demons hold for other demons far surpasses their hatred for other races.

Demon Purgatory has the largest number of Demigods across the Ten Realms, which leads to the most Ancient Beast blood falling into Endless Battlefield.

Zhou Leng felt somewhat envious but after thinking, decided to wait for now, consider checking Demon Purgatory only if he can’t find any more.

As intelligence continued increasing, Zhou Leng gained a better understanding of Ancient Beast blood distribution.

Tree-man World has the fewest Ancient Beast blood due to the death of old Demigods, and neither race is actively competing for it.

Currently, Giant Insect Race and Tree-man Race altogether possess a dozen or so New Demigods.

A chaotic battle rages between Giant Dragon and Giant World; both sides are fiercer, no need to visit.

Beastman and Dwarf World too, due to battles, has fewer Demigods searching, letting ordinary Beastmen and Dwarves search everywhere.

Zhou Leng thought it over, first heading to Demon Spirit World’s special envoy center, purchasing energy detection devices, capable of detecting all energies.

Ancient Beast blood energy is already input but the detection range is only 500 meters, suitable only for non-Demigod use.

Zhou Leng bought a large batch and secretly infiltrated Tree-man World.

Contacted Demigod Tree-man of Tree-man World, obtaining new Ant Queen information.

With the death of the old Ant Queen, the strongest giant insect of Giant Insect Race automatically evolves into Ant Queen.

To speed up Ant Queen evolution, Giant Insects feed every Ancient Beast blood they find to the Queen.

Zhou Leng quietly infiltrated near the Queen’s nest, secretly placing detectors in hidden locations.

Sufficient amounts to ensure Ancient Beast blood entering the Queen’s nest from any direction will be detected.

Having set up detectors, Zhou Leng began searching in Tree-man World.

Following a mapped route, he ran swiftly.

During his run, he spotted a tall giant ant nest, two hundred meters high, like a mountain lying on the plain.

Instinctively glancing at the map.

This place felt familiar.

Just approaching, sharp screeching came from the giant ant nest, countless giant ants swarmed out, charging teeth-bared.

"Get lost!"

Zhou Leng roared, unleashing a mighty Power, causing a pale white Qi wave to surge.

Countless flying ants soared backward, landing with a thud.

The giant ants on the ground retreated in layers like dead leaves pushed by ocean waves, scattering apart.

Zhou Leng charged into the giant ant nest unhindered, making his way easily to the ant queen’s hall.

A somewhat familiar figure appeared deep in the ant queen’s hall.

Countless giant ants surrounded her, baring their teeth at Zhou Leng aggressively.

Contrarily, the ant queen, who had already ascended to Grandmaster, trembled slightly, fear filling her eyes.

"Hello, we meet again. You’ve ascended to Grandmaster, it seems my assistance was significant." Zhou Leng spoke in Tree-man language.

"Hiss... Great Demigod..." The ant queen lowered her head, remaining silent.

The giant ants paused, then all bowed their heads, crouching on the ground motionless.

"You’ve survived this long, thanks to your cunning. Same old rule, Weak Water Three Thousand, I only draw one thousand five."

Zhou Leng walked to the ant queen’s side, pointed a finger to pierce a hole, and used the demonized bottle to absorb.

"Don’t worry, I’ve got plenty of experience, it won’t hurt much." Zhou Leng said.

The ant queen said nothing.

Glug... glug...

Time slowly passed, and the radiant insect juice flowed continuously.

"By the way, after the mother insect died, what happened to the Insect Race? Tell me..."

The ant queen explained everything, without hiding anything.

After the insect-tree war, the Giant Insect Race suffered just like the Tree-man Race.

All demigods of the Giant Insect Race perished at that time, their current strength barely matches a middle-rank demigod in Demon Purgatory.

The Celestial Calamity Army has disbanded, the Celestial Calamity God is missing, and the other lords of Demon Purgatory no longer pay attention to the giant insects.

Giant insects have become disposable rags, used and discarded.

Without support from Demon Purgatory and suffering heavy losses, the Giant Insect Race restrained their ferocity, began developing in secret, no longer provoking Tree-men.

What the ant queen said was more detailed than the Tree-men’s intelligence, and she even described the new mother insect’s contention process.

Those top Grandmaster Insects had a bloody battle; the victorious insect queen ascended as the mother insect, devouring the flesh of all participants to become a demigod.

The ant queen even clearly disclosed all intelligence about the new mother insect.

"Oh? So, the new mother insect can’t move currently?"

"The mother insect actually can’t move at all times, only during critical moments, it consumes power to transform, but that needs time."

Zhou Leng and the ant queen chatted slowly.

When half of the radiant insect juice disappeared, the ant queen’s belly flattened considerably.

"Hmm... wait a minute, if I remember correctly, the mother insect’s radiant insect juice is called Radiant Mother Liquid, right?"

"Ah?" The ant queen looked at Zhou Leng, dumbfounded.

You squeeze me dry, and yet you want to mess with the mother insect?

Not a real insect!

The more Zhou Leng thought, the brighter his eyes grew.

After a while, he stared at the ant queen and said: "Are you interested in becoming the mother insect?"

"Ah?" Once again, the ant queen’s mouth hung open, the huge snow-white belly behind began rapidly convulsing, its surface blushing pink.

The weather turned bright.

"Anyway, your Giant Insect Race is doomed, the Celestial Calamity Envoy has lost interest in you, Demon Purgatory ignores you, instead of life-and-death battles with Tree-men, why not live differently? For instance, I support you to become the mother insect, you provide me Radiant Mother Liquid and resources of the Giant Insect Race, I guarantee Tree-men won’t bother you, how about it?"

"Ah?"

The ant queen had never considered such a thing for giant insects.

But, the temptation to become the mother insect was too great.

And this person might actually make it happen, because not long ago, he was just Innate, and in a few years, he ascended to demigod.

Especially the unique pressure from his being, heavy beyond any other demigod.

Only felt on that tier of life like the old mother insect.

Zhou Leng nodded, saying: "If you disagree, I’ll find the next insect queen. I’m sure other queens would be willing."

He turned around to leave.

The ant queen’s entire white belly blushed red, panicked, she opened her mouth: "I never said I disagree! I want to be the mother insect!"

"Oh? You’ve figured it out?"

The ant queen forced an extremely ugly smile: "From today onwards, I’m Your Majesty’s retainer."

"Hmm..."

Zhou Leng glanced at the ant queen, her body was even larger than before, previously resembling several oil tankers, now like a collapsed building, with a length approaching one hundred meters.

The front half was small, only more than ten meters, with a black shell, a fierce ant head.

The rear half was a snow-white big belly, used to store insect juice and lay eggs.

"From now on, I’ll call you... Ma Dabai. Next, let’s plan a method to take the mother insect. The key issue is, if I take down the mother insect, how can you ensure you’ll ascend as the mother insect? Should I kill all insect queens for you?"

Ma Dabai’s entire body bristled, hurriedly said: "Just let me consume the mother insect’s corpse, I will automatically succeed as the new mother insect, no need to kill all insect queens."

"So then, how can I be sure you won’t turn against me after ascending mother insect?"

"Our Giant Insect Race’s reputation surpasses any others bar Dragon Country’s Martial Artists."

"I can’t argue with that... How about this, I’ve killed some Demons before, and I’ve got plenty of contracts, shall we sign several?" Zhou Leng asked.

"A-alright..." Ma Dabai stammered.

Thought it might pass, but the other is so clever, yet so ruthless, better sign the contract.