Nine Transformations of the True Spirit.

For the Green Mantis nobles, the flesh and blood of the deer beast was enough to keep them alive.

However, as the death energy within their bodies gradually becomes more mixed and thinner, their strength will also decline, and over time, they will become no different from those low-level green mantises.

As a result, they could no longer live on the giant tree, and the other green mantis nobles would not let them go either, so it was no different from death.

On the walls surrounding this egg-shaped house hung more than a dozen enormous beast heads, now just skeletons, all of which were ferocious beasts that Zhi Jinfeng had hunted in the past.

The pure death energy contained within their flesh and blood allows Zhi Jinfeng to maintain his strength and even advance further.

This is a tradition of the Green Mantis Clan; the heads of strange beasts are also hung in the egg houses of the other elders to demonstrate their powerful strength.

In a few days, the Green Mantis Nobles of this Mantis Village will venture into the wilderness to hunt exotic beasts. Today's sparring match is preparation for this hunt.

Unfortunately, they encountered Chen Yuan and his group of five who had entered this fragment of the interface, and were unable to continue their journey.

In Zhi Jinfeng's memory, besides this Green Mantis Village, there are two other villages within a radius of 30,000 miles, with the number of Green Mantis people in each village roughly the same as in this village.

The Green Mantis Clan is by no means a kind race. They must devour flesh and blood containing death energy in order to survive; otherwise, they will be corrupted by the death energy and die a violent death.

However, they cannot directly consume plants, the beasts in the wilderness are exceptionally fierce, and the number of herding deer is limited, making it impossible to supply all the Green Mantis Clan.

Those low-level green mantises on the ground don't even dare to fly freely in the air, just to reduce their energy consumption, eat less flesh and blood, and live longer.

Even so, the deer's flesh and blood were still insufficient, which is why they appeared so weak and powerless.

Every year, some weaker members of the Green Mantis clan die because they don't absorb enough death energy.

When Zhi Jinfeng was born, the village of Lvlang had more than four thousand residents.

Decades later, only 3,500 people remained, a decrease of more than 500, making survival increasingly difficult for the lower-level green beetles.

According to the customs of the Green Mantis Clan, when a Green Mantis dies, it should be buried under a giant tree.

But in order to survive, these lowly green mantises didn't even spare the corpses of their own kind, devouring them all.

Although these green mantises died from insufficient blood energy, some death energy still remained in their bodies, which was even purer than that of deer beasts. How could such lowly green mantises, struggling between life and death, give up?

To this day, only the Green Mantis aristocracy still retains the custom of burial.

But this is by no means because they have a higher moral standard, but because Green Mantis nobles rarely die of old age. Most of them die in the hunt, are devoured by strange beasts, and their corpses are never left behind.

Such a harsh environment has made every Green Mantis a cold and cruel person by nature, and different Green Mantis villages are also hostile to each other.

If any of these three villages within a radius of 30,000 li were to weaken even slightly, they would be immediately annexed by the other two villages.

Thirty-eight years ago, more than 20,000 miles away, a village suffered an accident during a hunt, with several elders losing their lives and their strength plummeting.

They were besieged by three other villages, who killed all the green mantis nobles in the village and divided up the strong, lower-ranking green mantises and the deer beasts kept in the village.

If it weren't for this grand feast, the Green Mantis Village would have declined even further.

As for whether there are more Green Mantis villages or even larger settlements of the Green Mantis tribe in more distant places, Zhi Jinfeng has no idea.

The Green Mantises have transparent membranous wings on their backs, which allow them to fly in the sky, but this also consumes a lot of energy.

Only the strongest among the Green Mantis nobles can fly thousands or tens of thousands of miles, but they also need to protect their villages and participate in hunting, making it almost impossible for them to travel far alone.

They don't need to travel far. The Green Mantis Clan can survive by consuming flesh and blood containing death energy. They also don't need any external tools to hunt strange beasts in the wilderness; their two blade arms are the sharpest weapons.

The Green Mantis Aristocrats, including the Weaver Claw, spend all their time purifying the death energy within their bodies and studying how to use it, at most taking a little time to teach the young Green Mantises.

They never leave the village except to go hunting in the wilderness.

However, in this vast world, not all Green Mantis tribe members hide in villages.

The village's records state that a few decades before Zhi Jinfeng was born, a green mantis came to the village, claiming to have traveled from an extremely distant place.

But this green mantis was very special. It did not contain any death energy, and its whole body was emerald green. Its aura was completely different from that of the green mantises in the village.

Death energy is the source of power for the Green Mantis, but it is also a deadly poison. Every Green Mantis longs to be able to survive without relying on death energy.

When the elders of Green Mantis Village saw this peculiar green mantis, they immediately asked it for a way to become immune to the corrosive effects of death energy.

The green mantis did not immediately agree, but advised the elder not to rely on the power of death energy anymore. At most, he should eat the flesh and blood of deer beasts to avoid being corroded by death energy, but he should never actively purify the death energy in his body.

But the village elders are able to serve as elders, surpassing the other green mantises and ruling the entire village, precisely because the death energy within their bodies is purer and their use of death energy is more exquisite. Why would they voluntarily give up this power?

They wanted to obtain the method by which the peculiar green mantis was immune to the death aura, not to get rid of the death aura itself.

The beasts in the wilderness were too ferocious, and the village elders were all as sharp as a woven blade, their strength comparable to that of a cultivator in the early stage of Core Formation.

Hunting a beast of the same level can sustain the strength of several elders for up to a year. After that, they must return to the wilderness to hunt beasts again.

However, those wild beasts can directly absorb death energy, and the death energy in their bodies is purer than that of the Green Mantis Clan, and they have a stronger control over death energy.

Every hunt for such a powerful beast is extremely risky, and elders often die during the hunt.

If they were to encounter an even more powerful beast, the Green Mantis tribe participating in the hunt might be completely wiped out, and the village would decline and be divided up by other Green Mantis villages.

Those elders only wanted a way to maintain their strength without consuming the flesh and blood of strange beasts.

In this way, they no longer need to risk going into the wilderness to hunt, and can stay in the village to cultivate.

By ordering other green mantises to hunt exotic beasts, or even using the flesh and blood of domesticated deer, they can increase their strength.

This was the ambition of every elder, even every green mantis noble. Even though they were rejected by that peculiar green mantis, they did not give up and instead pretended to agree.

But the peculiar green mantis seemed to have seen through the elders' thoughts and did not immediately reveal this secret method.

Instead, they were first required to stop consuming the flesh and blood of strange beasts. Only when the death energy within their bodies became as mixed and thin as that of low-level green mantises would they reveal everything.

These green mantis elders naturally wouldn't agree. On the surface, they appeared hesitant, claiming they needed to consider it for a few days. In reality, they were trying to lull the green mantis into a false sense of security, and then gather the green mantis nobles under cover of night to ambush and kill him, in order to seize the method of immunity to deathly energy from him.

But what shocked the elders was that this peculiar green mantis not only had a strange appearance, but its strength was also extremely astonishing.

They were no match for it. Even after gathering all the green mantis nobles in the village, they were still easily defeated by this peculiar green mantis. Just when they were in despair and thought that the entire village would be slaughtered according to the custom of the green mantis clan, this peculiar green mantis spared them.

He simply asked them to reconsider. If they could truly become independent of death energy, he would pass down a method to be immune to its corrosive effects.

The elders were overjoyed. All they craved was strength. If they could be like this peculiar green mantis, avoiding the erosion of death energy and maintaining their strength, they would naturally be more than willing.

However, they only had one request: that the peculiar green mantis reveal the method first, and then they would gradually break free from their dependence on the death aura.

The strength of the Green Mantis Noble comes entirely from the death energy. When the death energy in its body becomes mixed and thin, its strength will decrease until it is the same as that of a low-level Green Mantis.

Will those lowly green mantises, who toil all day long, herding deer and beasts, and even having to devour the corpses of their own kind to survive, still submit to them?

The peculiar green beetle neither granted their request nor forced them to break free from their dependence on the death aura.

It drifted away, saying it would return someday. If the death energy within the green mantis nobles in the village became as mixed and thin as that of the lower-ranking green mantises, it would pass down a secret method to avoid being corrupted by death energy.

The village elders were very disappointed. They feared the strength of the strange green mantis, but they were unwilling to give up their powerful strength and their status as elders, even if they could only rule a small village.

Even after the strange green mantis left, they continued to purify the death energy within their bodies, researching methods for utilizing it, and anxiously awaiting the mantis's return.

But more than a decade has passed, and these elders are nearing the end of their lives, yet the peculiar green mantis has still not appeared.

They recorded this event, but only the elders were allowed to read it, lest it cause panic among the village's green mantis nobles.

In their ancient texts, they instructed the succeeding elders that the peculiar green mantis was extremely powerful, far surpassing the elders themselves, and that if it were to reappear one day, they must never be its enemy.

After Zhi Jinfeng became an elder, he read through all the village's books and was worried for a while after learning about this matter.

However, the peculiar green mantis never appeared, so Zhi Jinfeng was relieved. He purified the death energy every day and went into the wilderness to hunt strange beasts every year.

Day after day, it had long forgotten about the matter, treating it merely as a legend.

However, Chen Yuan was quite interested in this record after seeing it in Zhi Jinfeng's memory, and he landed.

The scenery inside the Tight-knit Egg House is quite strange, but since the Green Mantis Clan also has human form, many of the furnishings are similar to those of humans.

However, the Green Mantises have wings on their backs and are used to flying in the air, so all the furniture is embedded in the walls, and there are no chairs.

Zhi Jinfeng's bed was a gray-green net woven from a fine vine, and like everything else in this fragment of the interface, it was tinged with gray.

The village's animal hide books were all displayed on a wooden shelf, which was also made of bones.

The Green Mantises do not like metal objects; all the furniture in the egg house is made of bones.

Chen Yuan took out the book that recorded the peculiar green mantis, read it carefully, and found that it was exactly the same as Zhi Jinfeng's memory.

He put down the books, ignored the now-demented Zhi Jinfeng, and teleported outside the egg house.

The other four demon generals were already waiting at the top of the giant tree. When they saw Chen Yuan appear, they all looked over.

Qi Yan Yao Shuai laughed and said, "It seems that Fellow Daoist Bei Ming has gained quite a lot."

Chen Yuan said, "When I was searching the soul, I saw something quite interesting."

"I then personally perused the Green Mantis Clan's records and took some time to review them. I apologize for keeping you all waiting."

A glint flashed in the eyes of the demon general, and he stroked his beard, saying, "Could it be that peculiar green mantis that traveled here decades ago?"

Chen Yuan nodded: "Indeed, it seems that you fellow Daoists have also witnessed this matter. I originally thought that the beings in this fragment of the interface all depended on death energy for survival, but after searching their souls, I realized that this was not the case."

"It should be noted that although those strange beasts also absorb death energy by devouring plants and the flesh and blood of other strange beasts, they can also absorb death energy directly from heaven and earth, but at a much slower speed."

"These green beetles cannot directly absorb the death energy, and may even be corroded by it and die, which shows that they are not from the same source as the death energy."

"That green mantis had no death energy in its body, but its strength was not weak. It also advised the village elders to get rid of their dependence on death energy, as if this death energy was harmful to the green mantis clan."

"If we can find out the reason behind it, it should be of great help to our exploration of this interface fragment."

Ironwing Demon General nodded in agreement: "Fellow Daoist Beiming is absolutely right. These Green Mantis Clan members cannot survive without death energy, yet they can use death energy to enhance their strength, which is truly strange."

"When I was searching their souls, I paid special attention to their methods of using death energy, which were quite similar to the cultivation methods of the human race in the spirit world."

"It's just that the method of mobilizing magical power and true essence has changed to controlling death energy, and it's extremely rudimentary."

"It's not even as basic as the most rudimentary human cultivation techniques; it can only be described as a rudimentary form of a cultivation technique."

Yanhuang Yaoshuai said, "The oldest legend in this village can only be traced back a little over a thousand years. Beyond that, there is a blank, which is quite strange."

Qi Yan Yao Shuai frowned: "These elders are still a bit weak. This fragment of the interface is a million miles wide. It is nothing to us, but it is boundless to the Green Mantis Clan."

"There are three villages within a radius of ten thousand miles, and there must be even larger settlements of the Green Mantis Clan further away."

"There might even be Green Mantis Clan members comparable to Demon Generals or even Demon Commanders. They should know why the Green Mantis Clan relies on death energy, yet is also subject to its corruption."

The demon general said, "These Green Mantises often venture deep into the wilderness to hunt strange beasts, devour their flesh and blood, and absorb their death energy."

"The black crystals condensed within that giant skeletal lizard were a hundred times more concentrated and pure than the death energy contained in the flesh and blood of the strange beast."

"If there were a Green Mantis Clan member comparable to a Demon General, they might know of the existence of this skeletal beast, which would save us a lot of trouble."

Everyone nodded in agreement and immediately decided to leave this place, delve deeper into the interface fragments, and find a larger settlement of the Green Mantis Clan.

To prevent anyone from keeping the treasure for themselves, they did not separate. Instead, they went to the other two Green Mantis villages, captured the elders, and used the Soul Searching Technique.

The elders of this village were unaware of the existence of other Green Mantis settlements, but the elders of other villages might be aware of them.

Sure enough, an elder from the third village had traveled more than 30,000 li twenty years ago and had reached two of the Green Mantis Villages.

One of the villages is inhabited by tens of thousands of Green Mantis Clan members. The village's chief elder is said to be far more powerful than the other elders, and according to the elder's description, he seems to have strength comparable to a demon general.

The group immediately activated their escape lights and soared into the air, flying towards the village. (End of Chapter)