HCB Chapter 404 Turned into an Insect
Chapter 404 Turned into an Insect
When Lezhi pulled the leaf beetle out of the ditch, it was a little confused. The next second, Lezhi held it up to the mouth of the conch.
Is this feeding it? The leaf beetle hesitated for a second, then followed Lezhi's finger and moved into the conch shell.
This scene stunned Lezhi. He had only intended to show the leaf-bearing insect the house it might temporarily live in, but he didn't expect the leaf-bearing insect to crawl into the conch shell on its own. Wait, no, through the conch shell's entrance, he noticed that the leaf-bearing insect seemed to be gnawing on the conch shell's meat. Lezhi seemed to have seen something amazing and immediately exclaimed in surprise.
"It's eating sea snails. Aren't leaf beetles herbivores?"
"Oh, that's normal." Miaoyin glanced down and replied calmly, "The leaf-eating insects are omnivorous. They usually eat vegetables because they are weak and can't beat other insects, so they can only eat vegetables. This conch is barely alive and can't fight back. It's a rare opportunity to eat meat, so of course it won't miss it."
The leaf beetle, engrossed in its meal, was too busy eating to enjoy such a rare opportunity. Lezhi, however, was speechless. For some reason, he sensed that the leaf beetle was very happy, as if it had been struck by a windfall.
“It seems quite happy…” Lezhi murmured, no longer as paranoid as before. Remembering Lechu’s words that he should learn to trust, he truthfully expressed his feelings.
Hearing Lezhi's words, Miaoyin raised her eyebrows without thinking much of it, only feeling that Lezhi was still a child at heart. "Of course I'm happy to eat a big meal. Alright, regardless of whether the leaf insect is satisfied with this house or not, at least it is satisfied with the food that came with the house. This conch is for you. If it doesn't like it, I'll help you find another one."
Seeing Lezhi catch the conch shell, Miaoyin, who felt she had helped, smiled and left, intending to show it off to Jilin.
Lezhi, left alone on the shore, now focused all his attention on the situation of the leaf beetle.
There is quite a bit of edible meat in the conch, especially compared to the body of the leaf beetle. However, the leaf beetle's appetite seems to be considerable; in just a short while, it has devoured nearly a third of the conch.
Mollusks seem to share a common characteristic: as long as they are not seriously injured, they still have the ability to fight back.
The giant conch's attack came unexpectedly. The leaf beetle probably didn't expect that after eating for so long, it still hadn't managed to hurt the conch's vitals. Its last-ditch counterattack was incredibly fierce. By the time the leaf beetle noticed, it was too late to dodge. Its instincts prompted it to emit a silent roar that the tree spirits couldn't detect.
"hiss……"
Lezhi, who shouldn't have heard the chirping of the leaf beetle, was unaware of what had happened. He only felt a sharp pain in his forehead, as if a needle had pierced it quickly. The somewhat chaotic corner in his mind suddenly became clear, as if a protective membrane had been punctured.
"Help! Help! Help!"
The faint cry for help seemed to echo in his ears, and his consciousness followed the distress message, successfully locating it on the leaf-bearing insect.
He was deeply shocked, but the situation was critical, and there was no time for Yuezhi to think too much.
From the perspective of the leaf beetle, the conch's enormous mouth with sharp teeth is almost in front of it. It looks like the leaf beetle is about to be bitten off, as its head is its Achilles' heel; without its head, it will die.
To deal with this little thing, Lezhi didn't even need to mobilize his energy. A voice in his mind told him that if he wanted to, he could kill it with a single thought.
The moment the thought arose, the conch didn't even have a chance to react; its soft body collapsed in the next instant, and it died completely.
From the brink of disaster to a narrow escape, the leaf beetle reacted faster than Lezhi had imagined. Once it was certain that the conch was completely dead, it immediately went forward and took two bites to calm its frightened heart.
Seemingly knowing that it was Lezhi who had just made the move, it painstakingly rummaged through the conch meat until it finally found what it was looking for. Its soft body enveloped the object, and it slowly wriggled to the mouth of the conch to show it to Lezhi.
Reaching under the leaf-eating insect, Lezhi pulled out a conch bead that was almost larger than the insect's body. He was surprised partly because there was such a beautiful bead inside the conch shell, and partly because he could still understand what the leaf-eating insect was trying to express.
"For me."
Seeing the deep pink bead he had offered rolling in Lezhi's palm, the leaf beetle's body writhed even more violently, and its fragmented thoughts gradually became coherent. Before long, it was able to communicate with Lezhi almost without any obstacles.
Although I've gotten used to being able to communicate with all sorts of creatures, from the initial furballs to the later contracted plants, and then to the turtles, adding an insect now doesn't seem like a big deal.
But things can't be calculated that way.
As the leaf beetles were driven to feed, Lezhi began to seriously perceive his newly developed abilities.
At this moment, he was like a radio that had switched on to receive a new frequency. In the air, in the water, and even on the island's land, countless messages flickered, like stars in the sky, but without the unreachability of stars. He could reach out and touch them if he wanted to.
The brightest star closest to him was clearly in the direction where the tortoise was now.
No further evidence was needed; Lezhi already understood that these stars, some bright and some dim, represented individual insectoid creatures.
He, a tree spirit, is actually able to capture information about the insectoid race; this is becoming increasingly bizarre.
Slowly opening his closed eyelids, he stared blankly at the seemingly calm water. The twinkling stars in his mind could not affect him unless Lezhi deliberately touched them.
But their very existence is an influence.
Could it be because he swallowed the energy of the insect queen in the Endless Abyss that was corrupted by the shadow that he suddenly became aware of the insect race?
Otherwise, how can we explain it? Only he can understand the turtle's words, his bottomless appetite after he regains consciousness, and the fact that he suddenly devours the energy of his clansmen when healing the shadow. All of these things seem perfectly reasonable.
He twitched his nostrils slightly, exhaling a breath of stale air from his nasal cavity, his half-closed eyes revealing an undisguised complexity.
Having found a reasonable explanation, many of her previous questions were answered, but Lezhi was not happy at all.
Just when I was finally trying to learn to be honest, it seems I have another reason to hide things.
Is he really just a tree spirit?
…………
"Lezhi, as you requested, this is where all the Shadow Disease patients of the Hanhai Clan are located. Are you... sure you want to do this? Or should we take it slow? You just arrived and haven't even had a chance to rest..."
Ji Lin's attempt to dissuade him was interrupted by Le Zhi shaking her head. "It's alright. Clan Chief Ji Lin knows that no matter how many patients there are, it's all the same to me."
Mushrooms can produce hundreds of millions of spores at a time. Those that cannot be parasitized will automatically lose their activity in a short period of time. Once parasitized successfully, Lezhi doesn't need to do anything. The mushrooms will take care of the rest. Lezhi only needs to control the mushrooms. So, it doesn't really matter to him how many people he treats at once.
“Clan Chief Ji Lin, since Le Zhi has said so, let’s do as he says,” Cang Jin said.
He was also trying to ease the tension.
Ever since they set off after having hotpot lunch that day, Lezhi had been behaving strangely. It was then that the aquatic creatures realized that once that delicate little face became expressionless, the originally gentle and soft person would immediately transform into someone unapproachable, someone who would make people tremble with fear at the mere sight of her.
He's even more terrifying than Lei Xiu; at least he won't kill with his eyes unless you provoke Lei Xiu.
But when Lezhi is expressionless, especially when he stares at you with emotionless eyes, the feeling is no less than psychological torture.
This made the journey over the next few days exceptionally efficient and quiet.
Apart from Gui and Lei Xiu, almost no one dared to approach Le Zhi. The two clan leaders were willing to risk it out, but unless they had a compelling reason to go, they didn't want to invite trouble upon themselves.
It is human nature to seek advantage and avoid harm, and even a clan leader is no exception.
Ji Lin was anxious because he thought Le Zhi would leave immediately after healing these people, so he suggested that Le Zhi take it slow. However, Le Zhi shut him down with a single sentence. Now that Cang Jin came out to smooth things over, Ji Lin knew that Le Zhi's decision was not to be changed and could only compromise.