In Shilin Province, the very first change the cultivators noticed was that the spiritual energy between heaven and earth seemed to have grown somewhat thinner.
This was no trivial matter. Upon receiving reports from cultivators, Shilin Immortal City immediately dispatched investigators.
According to the survey measurements, it was not mere collective delusion.
Rather, the concentration of spiritual energy across all of Shilin Province had genuinely dropped compared to before.
Although the decline was not substantial, it still sent a ripple of anxiety through the province's cultivators.
Furthermore, because this anomaly seemed confined solely to Shilin Province and lacked precedent, the local cultivators had no choice but to investigate the cause themselves.
The findings were startling.
Within Shilin Province's Baishi Grotto-Heaven—a colossal underground cavern complex on the province's border—tiny black insects had somehow appeared at an unknown time.
Teeming and densely packed, these insects had colonized nearly the entire underground cavern.
They voraciously swallowed and absorbed the spiritual energy between heaven and earth, multiplying and proliferating at a terrifying rate.
The sight of black insects filling every corner of one's vision chilled the heart of nearly every cultivator who witnessed it.
Having identified the source of the anomaly, the cultivators of Shilin Province quickly formulated a response.
They organized contingents to head into Baishi Grotto-Heaven and carry out a massive cull of the black insects.
They initially assumed that with cultivators' power to move mountains and overturn seas, eradicating these bugs would be effortless.
Yet the severity of the situation far exceeded their imagination.
First and foremost was the black insects' sheer, unbelievable vitality.
Because they fed on spiritual energy, whenever cultivators bombarded them with spiritual power, a portion of the blast was devoured upon impact, weakening the strike.
Consequently, the more black insects gathered, the stronger their resistance against spiritual techniques became.
Given their density in the underground Baishi Grotto-Heaven, even a Nascent Soul cultivator's strikes failed to make a ripple. Instead, if trapped, they would be swarmed and drained dry of spiritual energy until they died a miserable death.
And how many Soul Formation cultivators were there in Shilin Province? Confronted with a subterranean sea of black insects, even ten or twenty Soul Formation cultivators were a mere drop in the bucket.
Reasonably speaking, a situation like this could only be resolved by a Dao Integration cultivator stepping in.
Unfortunately, the Dao Integration cultivator stationed in Shilin Province had departed some time ago for reasons unknown and had yet to return.
Messages sent their way vanished like stones dropped into the ocean, yielding no reply.
Thus, shortly after it began, Shilin Province's extermination campaign ground to an impasse.
The only slight solace for the cultivators of Shilin Province was that the black insects showed no signs of abandoning their subterranean depths to expand outward.
Even so, living above such a terrifying swarm left everyone tossing and turning at night.
Left with no other recourse, Shilin Immortal City had to appeal to Alliance Headquarters for aid.
***
Deep within the subterranean Baishi Grotto-Heaven.
The phantom projection of Dharma Transmitter Zhou gazed upon the black insects crawling all over the cavern walls, a flicker of apprehension flashing in her eyes.
She had personally watched these creatures proliferate from a solitary specimen to this staggering scale.
At first, she had paid little heed to Li Fan's claim that it posed "only a slight danger."
Now, however, she avoided the place like the plague, unwilling to even set foot here in person.
"Fellow Daoist, will this thing truly not spiral out of control?" she asked, her face overcast.
Li Fan stroked the Dao-One Mother Worm resting in his palm and smiled. "Relax. The Xuanhuang Realm is our shared home. Without absolute certainty, how could our Federation ever deploy it so recklessly?
"Every single black insect was birthed by the Dao-One Mother Worm in my hand. Their lives are entirely tied to hers. So long as she is slain, the plague of insects will collapse on its own."
As if sensing the killing intent in Li Fan's heart, the plump mother worm rolled over in place and nudged restlessly against his palm.
Dharma Transmitter Zhou stared at the mother worm for a long while before giving a slight nod.
"Within an estimated month, Shilin Province's spiritual energy concentration will drop to rock bottom. The resulting spiritual energy vacuum will whip up massive spiritual energy storms across neighboring provinces. At that point, we will lift the Spirit-Sealing Barrier.
"Riding along those storms, the black insects will spread across the entire Xuanhuang Realm in very short order."
Before Li Fan, an illusory projection materialized, simulating the unfolding catastrophe.
"The entire process shouldn't take more than seven days.
"By the time the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals reports through their chain of command, deliberates at every tier, and finally makes a decision... it will already be far too late.
"Cultivators of the Xuanhuang Realm will be thrust into a sudden Age of Dharma Decline."
Li Fan spoke with a touch of excitement, laying out the entire plan once more for Dharma Transmitter Zhou.
Dharma Transmitter Zhou narrowed her eyes. For reasons she couldn't explain, a sudden foreboding welled within her heart.
Yet a colossal organization like the Myriad Realms Association would surely have no reason to let the Xuanhuang Realm actually be destroyed. Everything ought to be under control.
Dharma Transmitter Zhou relaxed slightly.
"Though terrifying, these black insects can at best catch them off guard. Once the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals responds en masse, exterminating them won't be overly difficult."
Li Fan knew she spoke the truth. Smiling slightly, he said, "All we need is that window of opportunity.
"If it were merely an insect swarm, Dharma Transmitter Jiang would certainly never show his face in person.
"However, if the spiritual energy mutates after being restored, threatening the lives of all cultivators, he will have no choice but to appear."
Dharma Transmitter Zhou nodded. "That mutated spiritual energy does indeed disorder the mind. Even with my mental fortitude, after absorbing a small amount, I could barely suppress the urge to have a brutal brawl with Huang.
"If it spreads throughout the Xuanhuang Realm..."
Dharma Transmitter Zhou could already envision a world drenched in blood.
"Using merely two kinds of small insects to pose such a massive threat to the world. Your Myriad Realms Association..." Dharma Transmitter Zhou's phantom stared at Li Fan with an inscrutable expression.
"A threat? Hardly, hardly," Li Fan shook his head in prompt denial.
"The moment Jiang steps forward, I will trigger the clues I planted in advance to lure him here. When that happens, the rest is up to you.
"As for the Xuanhuang Realm's spiritual energy, there is no need to worry.
"When the black insects die, the devoured spiritual energy will be returned to heaven and earth. Everything will go back to square one," Li Fan said calmly.
Dharma Transmitter Zhou had verified this herself, so she raised no objection.
What she didn't know, however, was that beyond what he openly shared, Li Fan had concealed a great deal more.
For instance, there were actually two Dao-One Mother Worms.
Only if both perished simultaneously would this mutated Dao-One Worm species truly be wiped out.
And while it was true that the Dao-One Worms would return the vast majority of their spiritual energy upon death,
a small fraction would be funneled into the mother worm's body to nourish her.
Furthermore...
Spiritual energy was to the Xuanhuang Realm what blood was to a human body.
If all the blood in a body were replaced in a short span of time,
what kind of transformation the Xuanhuang Realm would undergo was truly hard to say.
Chapter 1063