Nine Transformations of the True Spirit.

On the flat plains, lush farmland stretches out, crisscrossed by paths, creating a tranquil and peaceful scene.

Each plot of farmland is about several acres in size, surrounded by a tall bone fence, the top of which is covered with dense spikes, reaching a height of three zhang (approximately 10 meters), making it extremely difficult to climb over.

In the farmland, there grows a strange plant with stems about three feet long, covered with dark blue fruits the size of human heads.

These fruits resemble winter melons, have a bluish sheen, and emit a smell that is neither entirely foul nor entirely sweet, making one want to vomit.

In some fields where the fruit is clearly ripe and plentiful, a tall, strange beast roams.

This strange beast resembles a deer, standing about ten feet tall, with two enormous antlers on its head, and its dark blue body covered with trembling, fat flesh.

Their four legs are exceptionally thick and strong. They leisurely move among the plants, lower their heads and open their mouths wide, revealing a mouthful of fine, sharp teeth, like short daggers.

It can easily bite off a deep blue fruit, then chew it slowly and it takes a long time to swallow a whole fruit.

Around these deer-like beasts stood several strange humanoid creatures, about seven feet tall, much taller than humans, but still shorter than the generally robust demon race after their transformation.

Although these humanoid creatures also walk upright, they are quite different from humans, resembling mantises, with two huge, dark red compound eyes that look particularly terrifying.

Their bodies were slightly hunched, and their dark green skin was covered with a layer of dark gray, as if it were covered with a layer of dust, obscuring the light they originally emitted.

The two arthropod arms are covered with sharp barbs, and the palms have only three sharp fingers.

Her legs were slender and long, her lower body was wrapped in animal skin, and her upper body was dressed in a simple animal skin tunic.

Its mouthparts opened and closed repeatedly, making rustling sounds, as if it were talking to its companions, but there was no change in tone, and its face did not show any expression, which looked quite strange.

Two pairs of pale green, transparent membranous wings extend from their backs, thin yet strong. Every now and then, a mantis-man will open its membranous wings, fly into the sky, circle the farmland once, and then land.

Whether it was these mantis-men, the obese deer-beasts, or the plants bearing deep blue fruit, they were all surrounded by a faint aura of death.

Among them, the death aura surrounding the mantis man was the purest, having transformed into a dark gray energy comparable to that of a Qi Refining cultivator or a first-level demon beast.

Around the farmland were scattered buildings, haphazardly constructed from wood and bones, simple and crude, with mantis-men going in and out.

These shack-like buildings are densely packed and chaotic, but at the center are dozens of trees that are over ten feet tall, with thick branches that are at least ten feet wide, hanging oval-shaped houses.

These egg-shaped houses appear to be naturally formed, with a circular door at the center, adorned with exquisite patterns, and their emerald green shells also tinged with a gray hue.

Many mantis-men flew out of these wooden eggs. They were much taller than the mantis-men living in those huts, and the death aura surrounding them was much purer and more concentrated. The aura they emitted was comparable to that of a Foundation Establishment cultivator or a level two or higher demon beast.

There were even a few mantis-men with the strongest aura, their bodies shrouded in a faint black death aura, their strength no less than that of a Core Formation cultivator or a level 5 demon beast.

High in the distant sky, Chen Yuan and his four companions stood suspended in mid-air, their figures hidden behind the pervasive death aura, looking down at the earth below and taking in this strange sight.

Qi Yan, the demon general, said, "I didn't expect that there would still be intelligent alien races remaining in this fragment of the interface. It seems that this interface was broken not long ago, and there should be quite a few treasures left behind."

Yanhuang Demon General laughed and said, "These mantis aliens are intelligent, so we can learn about the situation of this world from them, which saves us a lot of trouble."

The Demon General Gui Xiao stroked his beard and sighed, "It's a pity that these mantis aliens seem to be based on death energy. I wonder if they can adapt to the environment of the Burning Demon Realm."

"Otherwise, we can subdue them all and sell them to other demon generals. Although they are far inferior to human slaves, they are still a decent form of slavery."

"I previously discovered ape-like creatures in that fragment of the interface with a few fellow Daoists. They were quite clever and capable of handling some miscellaneous tasks, which earned us a considerable amount of spirit stones."

The Iron-Winged Demon General's eyes flashed with a sharp light: "Whether we can or not, we'll know once we try. When we return, we'll bring a few mantis aliens back to the Burning Demon Realm."

"If I survive, I will divide up the mantis race in this world and exchange them for some top-grade spirit stones."

The Demon General Gui Xiao nodded slightly: "That's all we can do. It's just a pity that my demon race cannot take human form before undergoing tribulation, which is very inconvenient. Otherwise, we wouldn't need to keep these ugly alien slaves in our cave."

Yanhuang Demon General laughed heartily: "If Fellow Daoist Guixiao doesn't like these alien slaves, then just buy more human slaves."

"Once we thoroughly search this fragment of the interface, you could easily buy dozens of beautiful female human cultivators."

Ghost Demon General smiled slightly: "I am getting old and only hope to break through the bottleneck and advance to the rank of high-level demon general like Fellow Daoist Beiming. I have no other requests."

Chen Yuan glanced at Yan Huang Demon General and said, "How to deal with these mantis aliens can be discussed later. The most urgent task is to find out the situation of this interface fragment."

Qi Yan Demon General nodded in agreement: "That's right. We should first capture all the mantis aliens in this settlement, and then use the Soul Searching Technique to find out what treasures are hidden in this fragment of the interface."

After saying that, he was about to descend with his escape light, but Chen Yuan stopped him: "Fellow Daoist Qiyan, please wait. We are newcomers here, so it is best to be cautious and not make too much noise."

"These mantis aliens, like the white bone giant lizard, can all use death energy, so there might be beings whose cultivation is comparable to ours."

"And they are quite intelligent. Although the five of us are not afraid, they will definitely be more difficult to deal with than the giant skeletal lizard."

"We might as well secretly capture a few mantis aliens first to find out the situation. If there are no mantis aliens that can threaten us, then it won't be too late to launch a large-scale sweep."

Ghost Demon General agreed, "Fellow Daoist Beiming is absolutely right. We should act secretly first to avoid alerting the enemy."

Fellow Daoist Qiyan readily agreed: "We will follow Fellow Daoist Beiming's advice. These mantis aliens are all herding exotic beasts, and there are too many people around."

"I wonder what mysteries they possess in their hands regarding this deathly aura, and whether they can detect our presence."

"However, with such enormous eyes, they probably aren't good at operating in the dark. We might as well wait a while until they disperse and rest before making our move."

Everyone nodded in agreement, fell silent, and looked down at the land below.

They traveled along the way, searching for living creatures and treasures, but their speed was slow, and it took them two days.

Within this fragment of the interface, love also cycles through day and night. The dark red sun on the horizon sets and rises every seven hours, and the world dims, just like the night in the Demon Burning Realm.

When that time comes, these mantis-men will likely return to their shack-like houses, which will be the perfect opportunity for them to strike.

Several hours later, the dark red blood sun slowly sank into the earth, and the world dimmed.

The mantis-men indeed drove the fat deer away from the farmland, along the wide roads between the fields, back to their huts. Around the huts was a large open space, surrounded by a high fence made of bones.

The mantises drove the deer into the enclosure, then returned to their huts, and the settlement became quiet.

However, what's strange is that these mantis-men, despite having membranous wings on their backs, mostly walk on the ground.

Only the mantis-men who live in their egg houses in the trees can fly away at will.

However, thanks to their two long and slender legs, these mantis-men walk extremely fast and can leap several meters in a single bound, only slightly slower than when flying in the air.

However, very few mantis-men jump; they simply walk slowly on the ground, appearing listless and weak, as if their bodies are extremely frail.

Those mantis-men who live in trees are not only taller, but also extremely agile, and far more energetic than the mantis-men in the huts.

While the mantis-men on the ground were herding deer in the fields, these mantis-men flew around, going in and out of different egg houses, seemingly socializing with each other, quite leisurely.

Many mantis people gathered on a wide tree branch, sparring with each other, seemingly engaging in a martial arts competition.

There are also many short mantis-men, only half the height of normal mantis-men, who are probably still young and learning martial arts from adult mantis-men.

When these mantis-men fight each other, they don't use any external objects. They rely solely on their extremely sharp arms, as if wielding two fine swords. When they collide, they produce a crisp sound of metal striking metal, and the metal is exceptionally hard.

They are slender and extremely fast, leaping several meters in a single bound. They can also use their two pairs of membranous wings to fly and maneuver, turning into two afterimages when they fight, leaving people breathless.

Several mantis-men with exceptionally strong auras, approaching those of Core Formation cultivators or level-five demonic beasts, could condense death energy to attack enemies, just like the skull dragon, or transform into death energy armor to protect themselves. However, they had no other means of combat and were rather crude.

Once the dark red sun had completely sunk beneath the earth, plunging the world into darkness, the mantises ceased their contest and stopped teaching the young mantises martial arts, returning to their respective egg houses.

Chen Yuan and his group of five descended from the sky with a beam of light, without alerting the other mantis people, and arrived at the top of a giant tree in the very center.

The largest egg houses, almost half an acre in size, are suspended here. They are connected to branches by an extremely thick wooden handle, and the round doors are tightly closed, so other mantis people dare not approach them easily.

Several mantis-men, whose aura was comparable to that of a Core Formation cultivator, lived in this enormous egg-shaped house.

Each of the five chose an egg-shaped house. Chen Yuan quietly spread his divine sense, set up a barrier, and released a trace of sealing power to seal the space around the egg-shaped house, in order to prevent the mantis people inside from mastering a method similar to teleportation.

He used his divine sense to scan the area again, and found that there were no restrictions around the egg house. He then teleported directly into the egg house.

The egg house wasn't dark; several bright yellow stones hung around it, emitting a soft glow that illuminated the interior.

A mantis-man is flapping its wings and hovering in front of a bone round table embedded in the wall of an egg house, flipping through a book made of animal hide.

Upon seeing Chen Yuan suddenly appear, it shuddered, opened its mouth and let out a sharp cry, raised its two blade-like arms, and flapped its wings to rush over.

The pale black death energy swirling around him condensed on his sword arm, transforming into two death energy blades that extended three feet and slashed towards Chen Yuan's head. In the air, they turned into two afterimages, moving as fast as lightning.

However, under Chen Yuan's divine sense, the mantis man's movements had nowhere to hide.

He remained still, raised his hand and grabbed a blade arm. Neither the deathly blade nor the sharp barbs could harm him in the slightest. With a gentle exertion, he broke it off, spilling emerald green blood.

Another blade arm slashed towards Chen Yuan's neck, but Chen Yuan blocked it with his right hand, and with a slight exertion, he severed the blade arm.

The mantis-man let out a shrill cry, seemingly in great pain, and immediately retreated.

But Chen Yuan moved faster, releasing his sword arm and grabbing the mantis man's slender neck. His divine sense surged forth and flowed into the mantis man's body.

The mantis-man's body stiffened, its two pairs of membranous wings drooped limply, and its ferocious mouthparts slowly closed, leaving it powerless to resist.

Chen Yuan frowned. This mantis-man also had a soul within its body, but it was shrouded in a layer of deathly aura, exuding a sense of desolation, as if it was about to die.

He used his soul-searching technique to peruse the mantis man's memories, and only withdrew his consciousness a quarter of an hour later.

The mantis-man survived, but after the soul search, its memory was shattered, and it lost all its intelligence, becoming a mentally challenged being.

It flapped its wings blankly, its mouthparts opening and closing repeatedly, making rustling sounds.

Chen Yuan saw the life of this mantis-man in his memories and could already understand the mantis-man's language, but what it said was incoherent and meaningless.

These mantis people call themselves the "Green Mantis Clan." The Green Mantis whose soul was searched by Chen Yuan is named Zhi Jinfeng, and he is an elder of this Green Mantis Village.

The Green Mantis clan generally has a short lifespan, only about eighty years. Zhi Jinfeng is sixty-seven years old this year, making him one of the oldest elders in this Green Mantis village.

The oldest legend of the Green Mantis Clan can only be traced back a thousand years, when the world was already like this.

This interface has been broken for at least a thousand years, or even longer, and there are no records of the legends of the Green Mantis Clan.

Living atop giant trees, the green mantis, which knows how to wield death energy, is the aristocrat among green mantises.

Among them, the best are like Zhi Jinfeng, whose strength is comparable to a cultivator in the early stage of Core Formation or a level 5 demon beast. He serves as an elder of Green Mantis Village and, together with several other elders, rules over the thousands of Green Mantises in the village.

Those low-level green mantises on the ground cannot use death energy. Their strength is only equivalent to a Qi Refining stage cultivator or a level one demon beast. They can only live in simple huts and herd fat deer.

These are the livestock that the Green Mantis Clan relies on for survival. For the Green Mantis Clan, the deathly aura wandering in the world is both their source of power and their most deadly poison.

Although the green mantis can utilize death energy, it cannot absorb it; it can only obtain death energy from the flesh and blood of strange beasts.

If a green mantis does not absorb enough death energy, it will die immediately.

However, the beasts in the wilderness were too ferocious. These deer-like beasts were a type of beast that the Green Mantis clan had domesticated long ago. They were docile, grew rapidly, and were extremely fat, making them very suitable for raising and herding.

However, the flesh and blood of the deer beast can only keep the lower-level green mantises alive. The purer the death energy in a green mantis's body and the stronger it is, the more death energy it needs to absorb.

The deathly aura contained within the deer-like beasts was too complex and too thin; they had to hunt even more powerful beasts to survive. (End of Chapter)