"I have a rough idea." Dong Rui truly lived up to his status as a top specialist; in just this short time, he already had an initial countermeasure. "First, get me a dozen or so of those strange cicadas. I need to run more experiments."
"Isn't that a trivial matter?"
He Lingchuan went to make the request to Elder Dao, and over the next six or seven days, Mount Rong disciples were constantly delivering live specimens to Dong Rui.
Never mind a dozen; they had easily brought several dozen.
It was just that these monsters had very short lifespans to begin with; if they did not lay eggs, they would perish overnight.
Qiu Hu was the most diligent of them all, running back and forth; his squad alone delivered seventeen or eighteen. Knowing that He Lingchuan and his companions were willing to help, the way Qiu Hu looked at He Lingchuan had softened considerably.
"Are you all right?" The wounds on him had been inflicted by He Lingchuan's own hand. Although they were only superficial flesh wounds, an ordinary person would still need ten days to half a month of bed rest before they could walk around outside. Yet Qiu Hu had spent only a single night in bed before he was up and running all over the place.
What happened to severe blood loss? It made no scientific sense.
He Lingchuan guessed that this fellow's miraculous recovery was inseparable from the demon spirit bonded to him.
Fierce in a fight and tough as nails—the more he looked at him, the more he liked him. He really wanted to recruit this man.
"I'm fine. I only lead the squad; I don't join the fighting." Qiu Hu glanced down at the wounds on his chest. "Once, I was gravely wounded and chased through a marsh by enemies for three days and three nights, hiding in the muck for over a dozen shichen. Wounds like these are nothing."
Marshes were rife with mosquitoes, insects, and poisonous fungi. Even a healthy person could easily fall ill with infections there, let alone someone gravely wounded. He Lingchuan asked, "What happened after that?"
Qiu Hu replied deadpan, "I turned around and killed them."
He didn't mention a single word about the hardships, peril, or pain in between.
The soul-snatching mirror gave a whistle. "His wounds have basically scabbed over, with only two places split. You've got good eyes—this fellow is stronger than an ox and built to take a real pounding!"
The damned mirror was getting more and more vulgar. He Lingchuan ignored it.
Having nothing better to do anyway, He Lingchuan simply went hunting with them.
He discovered that while Qiu Hu truly wasn't good at socializing, he was very sharp and independent when executing tasks. For instance, in exterminating the cicadas, though he was more anxious than anyone else, he never acted rashly. His squad suffered the fewest combat casualties, yet captured the most live cicadas.
He also told He Lingchuan that this cicada plague had entered from the northeast of Mount Rong and continued spreading west, but the Mount Rong Sect had held the line with grim determination. Up until now, the northeast, east, and south were the worst-hit areas; the plague had not yet spread to the west.
Therefore, the current fight was truly a race against time. Mount Rong dearly hoped to settle the matter in a few decisive campaigns and completely eradicate the source of the cicada plague from their territory.
This was not only a good opportunity for He Lingchuan to observe the Mount Rong disciples, but also a process for Qiu Hu to observe him.
After all, if Qiu Hu were to join He Lingchuan's banner, phrased nicely it was entering his service, but put plainly, it was risking his life for him.
He had to be prudent.
With He Lingchuan joining in, the squad's efficiency in hunting cicadas increased dramatically.
He was naturally approachable and his cultivation was formidable. After a few days, the Mount Rong disciples were basically on familiar terms with him.
Naturally, He Lingchuan focused his attention on Qiu Hu and extended an invitation to him face-to-face.
This was a show of respect to Qiu Hu.
Yet no matter how amiable and pleasant He Lingchuan was, Qiu Hu remained unmoved, replying with the same words:
"Until my debts of kindness and vengeance are repaid, what face do I have to pursue my own future?"
He Lingchuan smiled. "Saying that means you're definitely coming with me."
This Young Master He certainly had immense confidence. Qiu Hu also took on a solemn expression. "If you can eradicate Mount Rong's cicada plague, I will go with you. From then on, I won't hesitate to go through fire and water for you—a gentleman's word!"
...
Two days later, Dong Rui summoned He Lingchuan and Elder Dao over. "I've got results!"
Mount Rong had specially set aside a cave abode to serve as his laboratory. As soon as He Lingchuan walked in, it felt as if he had returned to the lab in the Demon Nest: severed limbs and broken appendages everywhere, bizarre and freakishly mutated cicadas in every corner...
It was practically a massive slaughterhouse for cicadas.
The Mount Rong disciples who followed them in were seeing such a scene for the first time; their faces paled, and they all felt sick to their stomachs. Only Qiu Hu was unusually excited, glancing left and right, touching this and tugging that.
"Look at this, look at this!" Dong Rui led them to a corner, where something was covered with a cloth.
Unveiling required a sense of ritual.
"Elder Dao, please do the honors."
Elder Dao didn't decline. He pulled off the gray cloth with a swift sweep, revealing an oval crystal case beneath it with a living creature enclosed inside.
"...You asked me for a case meant for storing medicinal herbs just to lock that thing inside?"
Inside the crystal case was just a single seventy-year cicada. Glossy and gleaming all over, its bulk was twice the size of those they had seen before, about six chi long—taller than an adult man.
Yet its appearance was extraordinarily bizarre: it lacked wings, its forelegs were shriveled, and its abdomen accounted for two-thirds of its total length, swollen round and taut as though it would burst at the slightest poke.
With a physique like that, it truly lived up to the phrase "pot-bellied"!
Everyone couldn't help drawing in a sharp breath. Elder Dao frowned. "Wh-what kind of monstrosity is this?"
Long accustomed to the bizarre looks other people gave him, Dong Rui remained full of pride. "This is the seventy-year cicada queen I just bred!"
"Cicada... queen?" Did this weirdo think there weren't enough varieties of seventy-year cicadas already, that he had to personally invent another one?
"Bees have queens, ants have queens. Cicadas aren't naturally social creatures, so they don't have queens. But through my tireless efforts over the past few days—" Dong Rui swept a hand toward the crystal case, "now they do!"
Everyone stood dumbfounded. He Lingchuan couldn't bear to watch any longer and gave a soft cough. "Hurry up and explain: how do we use this thing?"
"Oh. It's early spring right now, so the cicadas' growth is still relatively slow. Once late spring and high summer arrive, the real trouble begins," Dong Rui said solemnly. "You've been hunting seventy-year cicadas for more than two months, yet you haven't wiped them out, because chasing after them to catch them will always leave fish that slip through the net."
Qiu Hu nodded. "Right!"
"So we need to switch tactics and make them come to us of their own accord."
Qiu Hu pointed at the cicada queen inside the crystal case. "Using this?"
"When these bugs mate and court, they release a certain scent that humans can't smell." But Zhu Daniang could.
This wasn't difficult for He Lingchuan to understand; wasn't what Dong Rui described just pheromones?
"When I created this cicada queen, I greatly enhanced its scent. Once exposed in the open wilderness, it should be able to attract every male within thirty li." Dong Rui grinned. "You just need to prepare and wait for them to throw themselves into the trap."
A Mount Rong disciple asked, "Only male cicadas? Then what about the females?"
"Once the males arrive in large numbers, the females will follow along too." Why do swarms of cicadas gather in great numbers? Because they all cluster where the pheromone concentration is thickest for mass mating. "This cicada queen can live for about three days. When it dies, I'll concoct a few more."
Qiu Hu couldn't hold back. "Let's do it right now."
No one had any objections.
As luck would have it, today was clear and sunny, with strong winds.
For this first large-scale test, Elder Dao personally led over two hundred disciples, selecting an open woodland in the east.
Chapter 758