Chapter 596 - Questioning the Sky and the Ground (1/2)

“Which bird are you to dare to peck at me?” After realizing that something was odd, a flash of green light appeared from the great green insect’s body and formed into a cover around the insect.

With a loud “clang”, the crimson-mantled bird’s beak bent out of shape…

“That hurts so much!” The crimson-mantled bird had no idea that its attempts to peck an insect would be blocked by the itsect itself…

This one move was enough to hurt the bird until it jumped around in pain, no longer standing steadily on both feet. A woodpecker always pecked at great speed, so if it were struck back, the impact would be tremendous as well.

“Hmph, you’re scared now huh? Then don’t come bother me when I’m looking for the old ginseng’s roots anymore.” Chong Daqing ignored the bird that had appeared suddenly, and continued to dig away at the soil.

The Crimson-mantled Woodpecker was in so much that tears flowed freely from its eyes; the outside world was truly a dangerous place!

Ever since it became a woodpecker of Basin-level, its beak had become even harder than before.

A single peck from its beak would be able to reduce stones into dust and dent metal, yet it never expected that it would be defeated at the likes of a fat insect.

Unbelievable!

Its tears rolled down its face and fell onto the ground, soaking into the soil.

The old ginseng with its abundance of leaves suddenly swayed a couple of times, and one of its rootlets broke off abruptly…

A single drop of white liquid shot out and into the Crimson-mantled Woodpecker’s beak.

It was currently in agonizing pain, so why would it notice this happening?

However, a few moments later, it felt that its beak no longer hurt. Besides that, it also tasted something sweet in its beak…

It was the sweetness of a ginseng.

Then, its entire body suddenly shook once, and a rush of energy rose from its body up into the sky…

At the same time, the entire arcane realm seemed like it shook faintly too.

“I’ve achieved a breakthrough?!” The Crimson-mantled Woodpecker was stunned as if it could not believe what had just happened.

In mythology, Zhang Guolao 1 had divinized after eating a thousand-year-oldfleeceflower root 2 .

In reality, a woodpecker had drank a single drop of ginseng essence that allowed it to breakthrough into Pond-level…

The difference was astounding.

The old ginseng was still a bit away from being a thousand-year-old plant, but the main point was that it had spent its first 500 years growing in a bad environment and not absorbing vitality at all.

It spent the rest of its life growing in the Draconic Arcane Realm, which was overflowing with vitality, so it just might gain the same effects the fleeceflower root had. After all, both plants had the same foundations. After a while, the Crimson-mantled Woodpecker seemed to have regained consciousness; it shook its beak and instinctively pecked away at mid-air.

This action prompted a slight and almost undetectable fluctuation, which spread throughout the entire arcane realm in an instant.

“There are so many trees here, yet there’s only one insect. That’s so strange. Do trees here not have insects?” exclaimed the Crimson-mantled Woodpecker.

“Nonsense, you’re definitely new here, so you don’t know anything. The only insect that can enter this place is me, the one and only Daqing. I was granted this privilege by the Great Azure Dragon. I’m eating a bit of this old ginseng’s roots because it was what the Great Azure Dragon owed me as payment. I’m no insect that steals food.” Chong Daqing’s upper half popped up from within the soil, and it spoke with its front limbs around its waist.

When the crimson-mantled bird heard the strong insect speak, it immediately flew up into mid-air in flight.

After just advancing to Pond-level, the bird finally realized just how powerful this great green insect was. The insect’s aura ran deep—it was actually a powerful powerhouse.

If the bird was a pond, then the insect was a great ocean.

“Rich-man Host, it was just as you guessed. This woodpecker is quite amazing after advancing to Pond-level. Because it achieved this breakthrough in my arcane realm, when it first communicated with the world, I had realized its true talent. As I expected, it was extraordinary, outrageous even. It just might be able to catch that parasite,” revealed the System in shock.

“Hiss…” Fang Ning was shocked as well; the System rarely commented on people, and even when it did, it rarely went to this extent.

“What exactly are its true talents?” asked Fang Ning hastily.

“Questioning the sky and the ground, listening to their voices, diagnosing their illnesses, and destroying all insects under the sky…”

“Ugh, where is that from? Such imposing words don’t usually come out from your mouth,” said Fang Ning in disbelief

“Look at you. Every time I speak before a battle, when have I never been impressive?” questioned the System.

“Haha, I still don’t believe you. You’ve always been a big fan of copy and paste,” Fang Ning was too lazy to focus on the details so he continued in a rush, “If that’s the case though, just have it quickly catch that hateful parasite. We can’t allow it to mess around as it pleases anymore, the longer it stays alive, the more trouble it breeds. Its actions are practically destroying our foundations and sabotaging our plans to be wealthy.”

“Are things so serious? It’s very dangerous, but it’s harmless to us. We’re all people with high qualifications in cultivation, so there’s no need to worry about being infected by it,” scoffed the System.

“You’re so naïve. It’ll be killing a lot of ordinary people, and when they’re all dead, we’ll be losing an endless source of labor. Without labor, our wealth will be like water without a source and a tree without roots.” Once Fang Ning heard the System’s words, he grumbled in exasperation.

“Oh, oh, I see! Since this parasite is going to harm the world so much, I’ll have to annihilate it as soon as possible,” declared the System.

“You should speak like that in front of outsiders. Why act in front of me?” deadpanned Fang Ning.

“I learnt it from you just now. If I don’t play things up, how would you understand my importance?” asked the System boldly.