Sage of Humanity-Chapter 652 - 650: Insect Race Squad

Rooted in the power of his psyche, complex Bewitchment Divine Runes manifested in Lu Ye's eyes.

With the collision of their gazes as the entry point, the power of the divine runes burst forth, striking against the already not so high spiritual intelligence of the Insect Race before him, implanting a brand in its mind.

The Fox Demon could enslave a Giant Armor with a single glance, thanks to her innate talent.

Lu Ye was far from capable of achieving such a feat, but under the onslaught of the Bewitchment Divine Runes, the Spider Insect Race's psyche instantly lost its defenses, which externally displayed as it freezing on the spot, its raised limbs not falling immediately.

At this moment, Lu Ye experienced a very strange sensation...

Although he had already understood the various aspects of this divine rune through the immense information carried by the leaves of the Talent Tree, this was, after all, his first time casting the Bewitchment Divine Runes.

He could feel the resistance and struggle on the psyche of the Spider Insect Race, as if the consciousness of both man and insect entered an invisible battlefield at that instant, combating each other.

In such a state, both he and the Spider Insect Race had their control over their own bodies drastically reduced.

Lu Ye secretly felt fortunate that he had chosen a solitary Insect Race; otherwise, in such a condition, if other members of the Insect Race were to attack him, he might not have time to react.

It also aroused a sense of vigilance in him.

The Bewitchment Divine Runes were indeed mysterious and unpredictable, but when casting them, one must ensure one's own safety and ensure one would not be disturbed by external forces, or have allies to guard oneself.

The spiritual intelligence of the Insect Race was generally not high.

The Bewitchment Divine Runes that Lu Ye was now invoking, if used against a cultivator of the same strength, at most would only cause the opponent's psyche to tremble, but for the Insect Race, it was a genuine killing weapon.

The struggle and resistance of the Spider Insect Race lasted for less than 5 breaths, its defenses on the psyche were completely breached, the power of the Bewitchment Divine Runes continued to exert its influence, planting a brand within its psyche.

That feeling of fatigue and weakness swept over him once again, making Lu Ye's eyelids feel heavy. The consumption of psyche force by the Bewitchment Divine Runes was much greater than that of the Sharpness Spirit Runes!

He breathed lightly, looking up at the Spider Insect Race in front of him.

The creature's previously raised forelimbs had now been lowered, and even though Lu Ye now stood right in front of it, it showed no hostility whatsoever.

And Lu Ye could clearly sense the brand within the body of the Insect Race; through that brand, he could even issue some simple commands to this Spider Insect Race.

With a slight movement of his psyche, under Lu Ye's control, the Spider Insect Race began to move.

After trying for a moment, Lu Ye had a plan in mind.

Although because of that brand, he could now issue some commands to the Spider Insect Race and it would not resist, the creature's limited spiritual intelligence meant the execution was not very precise. For instance, asking it to strike a "one-legged rooster" pose was simply beyond its capabilities.

But Lu Ye was already very satisfied.

With such an Insect Race under his control, his situation moving forward would be much safer.

He leapt onto the back of the Spider Insect Race, activated the Concealment and Breath-concealing Spirit Runes, and disappeared from sight. Then, under Lu Ye's command, the Spider Insect Race rapidly crawled in a certain direction.

In no time at all, the Spider Insect Race entered an area littered with over a dozen other members of the Insect Race. While quietly observing the strength of these insects, Lu Ye controlled the Spider Insect Race to approach the strongest one.

This was an Insect Race whose size was in no way inferior to the Spider Insect Race's, and from their auras, their strengths seemed fairly comparable as well.

The other showed no guard against the approach of the Spider Insect Race, so when the Spider Insect Race suddenly attacked, the Insect Race had no chance to respond.

The Spider Insect Race's method of fighting brought an unexpected pleasing surprise to Lu Ye. The command he had given to his temporary mount was to kill the other; how exactly to kill was left entirely to the Spider Insect Race's improvisation.

A mass of webbing suddenly shot out from the jaws of the Spider Insect Race, enveloping its enemy securely. Next, the Spider Insect Race charged forward, raising its front limbs high before slamming them down repeatedly, puncturing hole after hole in the other creature's body. Greenish blood flowed, the pained shrieks of the injured creature grew urgent, and while it tried to resist, trapped by the web, it had no room to fight back.

After only a brief struggle, it fell into a pool of blood, its life force ebbing away.

From beginning to end, Lu Ye just sat on the spider's back and watched.

A bit of golden light drifted from the corpse of the dead Insect Race, landing on the back of Lu Ye's hand.

This made him unavoidably joyful.

The reason he had not lent a hand earlier was first because it was not needed, and second, because he wanted to test whether he would gain battle merit if he did not participate in the kill.

The result proved that it was possible.

In the strictest sense, Lu Ye was now equivalent to a cultivator of the beast-taming faction, with the Spider Insect Race being the demon beast he controlled.

For cultivators of the beast-taming faction, when the demon beasts under their command killed an enemy, it naturally also served as a display of their own abilities, and they would indeed gain battle merit for it.

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The battle that erupted here, although brief and intense, also attracted the attention of other Insect Race members. However, most of them merely glanced in this direction, puzzled as to why their comrades were killing each other but unable to come up with any further thoughts.

It wasn't until the Spider Insect Race killed another member of the Insect Race that the remaining members realized something was wrong.

While they were not highly intelligent, acting mostly on instinct, they could at least perceive imminent danger.

From their perspective, their comrade seemed to have gone mad. Although they did not understand why it was attacking its fellows, they knew that if they didn't stop it, they would all die.

Thus, after the spider killed the second Insect Race member, the other Insect Race members gathered around it.

Sitting on the spider's back, Lu Ye realized he couldn't just sit back and relax anymore.

Originally seeing his temporary mount kill one of the Insect Race without eliciting any reaction from the others, he thought he could comfortably reap the benefits, letting this temporary mount kill off all the Insect Race members within the vicinity.

But now it seemed his hopes were too optimistic.

Revealing his figure and drawing the Boulder Mountain Saber, Lu Ye charged out to battle while giving a simple command to the Spider Insect Race: Annihilate them all!

To save the power of his own psyche, Lu Ye did not stimulate the divine runes this time. Since the strongest of the Insect Race in the area were already dead, the rest comparable to the Cloud River Realm were not troublesome for Lu Ye to kill.

Shortly after, the battle subsided.

Lu Ye then flashed back to sit atop the Spider Insect Race, concealing his presence.

Rustling noises reached his ears as nearby Insect Race members, attracted by the commotion of the battle, came to investigate.

What they saw were only the corpses of the Insect Race strewn about, and a lone Spider Insect Race towering defiantly on the battlefield.

With their limited spiritual intelligence, it was beyond the Insect Race to realize this spider had been enslaved and turned traitor. Seeing no anomalies, the noisy scene gradually quieted down as they began consuming the corpses of their kin.

At this moment, the Spider Insect Race, under Lu Ye's control, had already left the battlefield.

He was not in a hurry to earn more battle merits. The saying 'A sharpened knife does not hinder the work of chopping wood' held true. As he had only one Insect Race under his command, if he could acquire a few more, the efficiency at which he could gain battle merits would be higher and the margin for error greater.

Then, he could move towards the City Lord's Residence while killing the Insect Race along the way.

Lu Ye was not sure how many Insect Race members he could enslave with his current psyche power, but he could feel there was a limit to it.

When he had enslaved the Spider Insect Race, a vague burden had appeared on his psyche. The intensity of this burden was directly related to the strength of the enslaved Insect Race.

In other words, the stronger the Insect Race, the fewer he could enslave.

This was within his expectations. Previously, in Fox Fairy Valley, the Fox Demon could only enslave a limited number of cultivators; otherwise, she wouldn't constantly seek out the Berserk Giant Ape for trouble.

If she truly had unlimited enslaving capability, she could have continuously accumulated forces under her command until the Berserk Giant Ape was no longer a match for her and then seek her revenge.

The Fox Demon could enslave nearly a hundred cultivators because of her unique talents. Lu Ye humbly admitted he could not achieve that level; how many he could actually enslave still required experimentation.

In Xianyuan City, most Insect Race moved in groups. It was rare to find one alone, and even rarer to find one that met Lu Ye's requirements for enslavement.

Moreover, these Insect Race generally stayed within certain areas and seldom left unless pursuing an enemy.

The Spider Insect Race enslaved by Lu Ye was undoubtedly an anomaly, moving solo through the streets.

Fortunately, this loneliness did not last long. In just half a Shichen later, it had gained a companion.

It was a Hound Insect Race with an exceptionally keen sense of smell, resembling a hunting dog. Although much smaller in size than the Spider Insect Race, its strength was by no means inferior.

Enslaving the Spider Insect Race had involved some risks for Lu Ye. However, enslaving the Hound Insect Race was much safer.

The web restrained the adversary in place, and Lu Ye only had to appear, make eye contact with it, and activate the Bewitchment Divine Runes to implant a brand within its mind.

Time passed, his squad continued to grow, and by midday, six more companions had joined the Spider Insect Race, each of the Insect Race having unique and fearsome appearances beyond the first Hound Insect Race.

During this time, there were several battles that garnered Lu Ye a decent amount of battle merits.

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Lu Ye felt that seven Insect Race were already his limit; the burden on his psyche was heavy, and enslaving more would likely cause damage to his psyche if forced.

The use of the Bewitchment Divine Runes severely drained his psyche's strength. During the enslavement of these Insect Race, he consumed two drops of Soul Cleansing Water to replenish his depleted psyche force.

Although it was painful to use such precious resources, it was ultimately worth it relative to his plan. Even if he didn't manage to enter the City Lord's Residence to obtain more Soul Cleansing Water, the battle merits from killing enemies with these Insect Race would be enough to compensate for his losses.

Now that the Insect Race squad was assembled, it was time for the next step.

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