Amidst the scorching and rampaging of the Sun-Fire Flame, the Demon Insect King's head slowly crumbled into ash, and its soul presence completely collapsed and dissipated. A King of a generation had fallen just like that!
Outside the cavern, Qi Ping let out a massive sigh of relief upon hearing the news. The Demon Insect King had finally died at Yaya's hands. However, he did not let down his guard. He had the Ring-cutter Bees laboriously slice the insect into several pieces before he transformed into an Ink-Armor Bee and flew inside.
Once in the grotto, seeing the undeniably dead King, Qi Ping finally felt completely at ease. 'It's truly dead!'
Looking at the blood-red carcass covered in mysterious patterns, Qi Ping felt a wave of emotion. A world-renowned Demon Insect King had died by his hand! And even in death, the pressure from the corpse remained powerful—far heavier than the pressure from the Sun-Fire Crow.
No wonder the Demon Insect King was called a natural ruler, capable of birthing a horrifying demon insect calamity. Even a newborn whose realm was lower than Yaya's and whose body was pinned by an array had been this formidable. Qi Ping couldn't imagine how powerful it would have been if it had escaped and developed for a while, especially with all those terrifying insects that had escaped earlier. He estimated that within a month, it could have returned with an army of tens of thousands to kill him in an instant.
He was glad he had been cautious enough and made so many preparations. The scouting and battle processes had been handled with extreme care. Otherwise, given the terror of the King's mental power, Yaya might have had its soul destroyed in an instant of carelessness, let alone Qi Ping with his own frail frame.
Fortunately, the outcome was favorable! However, Qi Ping had a nagging feeling that the birth of this King and the emergence of the secret realm demon insects were likely orchestrated by someone.
In truth, his feeling was correct. Throughout the Qingtian Domain, the Qingyuan Sect, the Evil Devotee Alliance, and other factions were spending all their efforts trying to find the Demon Insect King. Qi Ping's constant slaying of demon insects had coincidentally prevented the King from emerging. Now, multiple factions, including the Qingyuan Sect, were running themselves ragged but could find no trace of the King, leaving them all in a state of utter confusion. Hadn't it been agreed that the King would emerge soon? Why was there no sign of it?
They were watching every corner of the Qingtian Domain, hoping to find the King's trail first, as no one knew exactly where it was hiding. Qi Ping had no idea his actions had left so many people in such a state of anxiety.
With the King now dead, these factions were destined to find nothing. No one would believe that in a domain overrun by demon insects, the King had been killed by an ordinary cultivator. Normally, once the King emerged and began enslaving demon insects, it would soon possess the strength to sweep away all Foundation Establishment practitioners.
Qi Ping didn't know the impact his actions would have on the domain's power struggle; now that the King was dead, he just wanted to clean up the scene as quickly as possible. He worried that the kill might attract the enemies who had set the array, so he was already prepared to flee at a moment's notice.
For safety, Yaya burned the King's entire head into charred fragments. Qi Ping then collected the corpse pieces and the remains of the King-grade spirit insect. At the same time, he had Yaya and the bee swarm begin destroying the Four Saints Array from the outside.
Destroying the array wasn't difficult; one just had to demolish the array foundations. Even middle-stage first-rank insects had the strength for it, it would just take more time. With Yaya and the swarm acting together, it only took a moment for the Four Saints Array to be completely dismantled. The four Spirit-Origin Stone Pillars, which were only slightly smaller than Qi Ping himself, were pulled out by Yaya.
The altar was also broken into several pieces by Yaya so they could be packed into a storage bag. The storage bag had been taken away by the bees earlier, but Qi Ping had already sent a Ring-cutter Bee to retrieve it before coming inside. The storage bag he had looted from the late-stage Qi Refinement black-robed cultivator had a relatively large space, enough to hold everything from the grotto.
Besides these treasures, there were two other unusual items left nearby. The first was a strip of cloth with writing on it. Qi Ping didn't touch it personally; he stayed far away and had two bees use stones to unfold it, ensuring he didn't touch the cloth itself.
When it was opened, there was only one line: "Enjoy the final gift this Venerable has brought to you—Venerable Tianchi."
"It is indeed a good gift; my animal companions and I shall gratefully accept it." Qi Ping felt no goodwill toward this "Venerable Tianchi" who was nurturing a Demon Insect King. If he hadn't accidentally stopped it, the King's cruelty and cunning would have left few survivors in Qingshi County. His friend Nan, Wang Shan (who had likely gone to the three major families), and the thin man Li Peng... even Qi Ping himself might have died here.
'Four Spirit-Origin Stone Pillars and a Demon Insect King's corpse; these are indeed excellent gifts!' Qi Ping had not only disrupted the plan of a "Venerable" but had also gained two precious treasures that would be of great use, especially the King's corpse, which couldn't be bought for any amount of spirit stones.
He felt quite satisfied, though a trace of worry lingered. "Venerable" was a title usually reserved for Nascent Soul cultivators in the Qingtian Domain. Qi Ping didn't know if that old monster was still alive or if he could sense the situation here. While it was likely the man was long since reduced to ashes, Qi Ping still wanted to pack up and leave as quickly as possible.
After instructing Yaya to burn the cloth, Qi Ping looked at the other item. It was a strange-shaped jade pendant with a mysterious aura. It looked like one-fourth of a full pendant, and the insect-shaped pattern on it was incomplete. Clearly, it was worth a fortune and contained a great secret. However, Qi Ping had no intention of keeping it on his person; such things were the most dangerous.
"Send two High-speed Ring-cutter Bees to take this pendant and hide it in an inconspicuous cave in the Cloud-Mist Mountains. Then, send four more bees to follow them; two will be responsible for remembering the location, and the other two will stay there as guards. As for the two bees that actually touched the pendant, have them immediately flee out of the Qingtian Domain."
Doing this ensured that, much like the strange "Devotion" token, the item was under his control at a hidden location without the risk of carrying it. The bees that remembered the locations were kept with the Queen Bee and wouldn't participate in dangerous battles; their only mission was to remember the hiding spots. If their lifespans were near the end, they would pass the location information down to younger bees.
Once these arrangements were made, the Ring-cutter Bee arrived with the storage bag. Qi Ping transformed back into his human form, used his spiritual energy to pack everything that bore traces of the grotto, and then transformed back into a bee. He led the swarm and Yaya away at high speed, leaving only a few bees to restore the excavated hole to its original state and destroy any traces of the cavern and the digging.
The exterior had to be restored to look exactly like any other flower-planting spot; no one could be allowed to see anything special here. Although the evidence of the array and the King had been wiped out, and an ordinary person wouldn't find anything even if they went inside, Qi Ping still felt that being as steady as possible was best.