Molting the Mortal Coil

Chapter 797: Seclusion

Inside the Universe Ring, Sage used the innate talent of the Twin Ringed Soul Serpent to condense an egg that was essentially a clone of his own body. This egg created through the Soul Spawn technique was not viable on its own, and only if Sages soul transferred into it would it incubate and hatch. As long as his soul could escape the technique was akin to having an extra life. It was quite a powerful survival tool, though the downside was quite fierce as well as his cultivation would revert back to the start. Or at least these two things were true when he was at a lower rank.

Now that Sage was a Nascent Soul, his enemies would be very aware of his Soul attempting to escape and would also have methods to deal with it. So even if his Nascent Soul was many times more powerful than his soul in the past, it was no longer such a great escape route. On the plus side, if he ever did have to use Soul Spawn, his Nascent Soul was the encapsulation of his cultivation and he would merely have to grow and restructure his new body to properly contain it. He was pretty sure he wouldnt have to start completely from scratch anymore.

Sage wasnt planning on dying. The egg he created was actually sent into the Inner World where Sages Soul Clone was waiting to receive it. Surprisingly, there wasnt just one egg in front of him, but three. Hed been thinking about this decision for a while and had already made a few preparations for it. The reason he had held back for so long was that he was reluctant to diverge too much from the body of his Clan. As long as his Soul Clone was similar to them, he could help them research and improve upon their unique techniques. The problem was that his body in the outer world was drastically different and hampering his speed of improvement.

By choosing to make his two bodies more similar, hed improve faster, but would no longer be a key researcher for the Lang Clan. If he invented techniques in the future theyd have to adapt them to their bodies, just as Sage would have to change anything the Lang Clan created to match his new body. To that end, he intended for his new body to be as similar to the Jade Sky Mantis as possible to facilitate that sharing.

Sage had always been reluctant to experiment with metamorphosis as each time he performed the technique he would spend years locked in transformation. So much time and energy would be expended, so he was not eager to take such a risk unless the rewards were sufficiently lucrative.

That was all in the past, before Sage had a Soul Clone. Now that the Soul Clone had its own independent body and Qi Cultivation, it met the requirements to perform the Insect Immortal Index itself and merge with others. With the power of the Inner World, Sage began to experiment with new bodies and bloodlines.

The other eggs he was holding were from the Jade Sky Mantis, but infused with the essence of two other creatures. Using the miraculous power of Mutate from the True Insect Immortal Index, he could take an egg and infuse the power of another creature as if that creature was the eggs father. For these two mantis eggs, one of them contained the essence of Elder Manji, the Cloud Swallowing Thunder Eel that was the Guardian of the Thundercloud Sect. The other egg was from an even stranger source, Dou Bao. Or at least that was the name of the last body the old bastard had possessed. Sage used the Jinxi Ancestor with this egg in order to get access to the Golden Cicada. The Jinxi had always had some sort of golden cricket as their insect, but it had always been a smokescreen for the Jinxi Ancestors true Demonic Insect.

Sage hatched this egg with the bloodline of Golden Cicada and Jade Sky Mantis. Then he fused with it and activated his Chrysalis technique to gain control of his metamorphosis. This method was much slower than using Merge on its own, but it also helped him remain as the dominant personality and also to guide the changes to his body. Sage entered that strange mental space where he could feel a connection to different bloodlines and heritages, but he ignored them in favor of the two brightest spots that were actually quite similar. A Jade Sky Mantis and a half-Jade Sky Mantis. He focused upon that half with a golden countenance and pulled as much of it as possible out for him to assimilate.

The resultant mutation that climbed out of the cocoon had the head of a mantis, except squashed and widened. A torso, or thorax, that looked much like a cricket, and then a short squat rear, or abdomen. Its two front limbs were elongated and had two large forearm blades like a mantis. It looked much like a cicada, with the head and arms of a mantis. Along with its gold exoskeleton, there was no doubt that this was the combination of a Golden Cicada and a mantis.

While searching the bloodline, Sage found out that the Golden Cicada had a hidden ancestral memory. Its normal offspring or combinations would not receive these memories, and only under certain special conditions would they be passed down. These memories contained the secrets of the Golden Cicada, explaining its abilities and also a single technique, Brood Master. This technique ensured that those who received it were the natural masters of all other Golden Cicadas.

The Golden Cicada egg, after being implanted inside a cultivator, acts as a foundation for their core. A rank 3 cultivator will immediately advance into rank 4 and rank 4 cultivators will be pushed to the peak. It can also be used at rank 1 and 2, but there arent as many benefits, the power it contains is too great for them, so it sits dormant until they reach the middle of rank 4 at which point it awakens and pushes them to the peak. In any case, these are only the side benefits as the real purpose is to save ones life. If a cultivator that has fully bonded to a Golden Cicada egg dies, the egg hatches and the nymph form remains. This nymph can then find another living body and crawl into the stomach. Then this nymph transforms into an adult Golden Cicada and enters that body's Spiritual Sea. From there it can battle the spirit of the body for control. If it fails, the Golden Cicada dies, but if it succeeds the cultivator takes over the new body. The Golden Cicada leaves an egg inside the new bodys dantian and then it fades away, leaving the cultivators soul to bind to the new egg.

It was quite similar to the Twin Ringed Soul Serpent in that the soul could survive past the destruction of the body and there was a method to be reborn, though both had the downside of having to start cultivation over again from scratch. The biggest difference was that the Golden Cicada was far more cruel in that it took someone over rather than relying on a clone egg. Additionally, since the soul was inside a nymph body it was far more resilient. The Twin Ringed Soul Serpent in soul form was very much a yin spirit. It could be destroyed by sunlight quite quickly and would suffer in places of great yang Qi. This detriment created a tendency for Twin Ringed Soul Serpents to live in places of yin Qi: cold, dark, gloomy, and bleak environments.

Yet all of this was just the surface benefits of the Golden Cicada. The secret technique of the Brood Master was extremely insidious. With this technique, any other Golden Cicada can be controlled from a distance. Only those who also know the Brood Master technique can resist this control. While in its egg form, the Golden Cicada couldnt really do much, but it was also bonded to a cultivators dantian. All the egg had to do was disrupt the cultivators flow of Qi and it made them into an easy target. Anyone who had access to Brood Master would become the rulers of all others who had the Golden Cicada.

With such an ability, why would the Jinxi Ancestor be hiding the Golden Cicada? Wouldnt he want everyone in his clan to have it? Why stop there, wouldnt he give them out for free in the streets?