In the twenty-sixth yer of the Endless Abyss, there was a bck swamp filled with with purple mist that stretched for thousands of kilometers. In addition to the green bubbles that popped up from time to time, there would often be poisonous purple slimes jumping and rolling around in the swamp.
Every few days, these purple slimes would be attracted by a strange smell, and would follow it until they reached a huge tumor growing in the swamp. The slimes would take the initiative to throw themselves into a gaping hole in the tumor, which would then digest and absorb them.
This tumor wasn't some simple life form; it was a special building that the Swarm Druids had built hundreds of years earlier.
In a room inside the tumor-shaped building, the half-demon druid Festantine was still studying the insects and insect beasts that he'd been studying for decades.
Ever since the Swarm Druids had defected to the Abyss to become subordinates of Abyss Lord Ogan, the Swarm Druids had set aside their original roles, instead becoming something simir to alchemists.
They'd successfully combined the complex and varied insect bloodline with the bloodlines of demons, developed demon nests, and cultivated a rge number of new insect demons.
However, this inheritance, which had been abandoned by the Swarm Druids for hundreds of years, had been picked up and studied again by more than a dozen Swarm Druids a hundred years ago.
Festantine was the youngest and most promising half-demon druid among them. He was very adept at modifying insect beasts.
Although insects were weak, they were more likely to reach the limit of their species compared to other life forms. As long as an insect's body didn't contain the bloodline of any magical or extraordinary creatures, it could easily hear the Voice of the World and have a power gifted to it by the world.
The chances of these weak insects hearing the Voice of the World was nearly a thousand times that of other races.
After decades of careful research, Festantine's methods of breeding insect beasts had become more and more mature.
Now, he only needed to modify about a thousand insects to make one with pure insect blood reach its species limit, undergo additional [Pupation] or [Molting and Growth] to become an insect beast, then listen to the Voice of the World and gain a power gifted by the world.
Over the past few decades, Festantine had sacrificed billions of ordinary insects to successfully cultivate thousands of pure insect beasts.
These pure insect beasts possessed various abilities. However, because they hadn't been modified by adding the blood of an extraordinary life form, they were still weak, so Festantine continued to study and modify them.
He found that these insects with pure insect bloodlines had extraordinary potential.
And twenty years ago, when Ying had brought back two insect beasts from the main world for the first time, Festantine had made new discoveries about the insect beasts that had listened to the Voice of the World.
The powers that the world had bestowed upon the two insect beasts that Ying had captured from the main world had been more peculiar than the powers of the insect beasts that he had modified himself.
In the following years, the numerous insect beasts that Ying had brought back from the main world had also been the same. These insect beasts had possessed more peculiar abilities than the insect beasts that Festantine had transformed, and there had also been more variation in the strength of their abilities.
Festantine felt that if he continued to study like this, he could even figure out the rules regarding how abilities were gifted by the world. This was something that the goddess of nature who they'd once believed in had never been willing to teach them...
However, half a year ago, Ying, one of the insects that Festantine had experimented on with the most success, had suddenly disappeared and escaped his control.
In desperation, he'd had to send out demon insect No. 17, an insect that had been integrated with demon blood and had then signed a [Demon Blood Contract] with him, as a substitute.
Even without the integration of demon blood, No. 17 was his strongest insect beast. After integrating with the demon blood, its strength had improved even further.
He believed that it shouldn't be a problem for No. 17 to go to the main world to capture insect beasts. It would also be difficult for it to die even if it encountered danger.
Festantine recalled the scene of No. 17's birth. He'd used a secret technique to make millions of insects kill and devour each other. No. 17 had been the only survivor of the experiment.
...
The building that resembled a huge tumor had unique meatballs inside that emitted a faint red glow. Festantine used the faint light produced by one of these meatballs to read the documents that had been left behind by the Swarm Druids again.
Long ago, when the Swarm Druids had still lived in the main world, they'd bred insect beasts by giving them the blood of extraordinary creatures.
The bloodline of insects had great potential and was very versatile. It could easily merge with the bloodlines of extraordinary creatures, and it was even possible to give birth to insect beasts that were more powerful than the original extraordinary creatures.
However, all insect beasts born in this way would lose their ability to reproduce, and their lifespan wouldn't be very long. They'd live for a few years at the shortest and a few decades at the longest.
Most of the records in the literature were about different methods of fusing an extraordinary life form's blood with ordinary insect blood. Other records were specution on how to restore extraordinary insect beasts' fertility and extend their lifespan.
Some records had also documented conflicts between Swarm Druids and Nature Druids. After all, the methods Swarm Druids had used to modify other life forms had clearly vioted the teachings of the druids.
The Swarm Druids had finally rebelled against the Druid Cn and migrated to the Abyss rgely for this reason.
After setting aside the materials describing the history of the Swarm Druids, Festantine continued to read the materials on how to prolong the lives of insect beasts.
He'd given these documents a casual read before, but he'd recently been pnning to read them again more carefully. Maybe he could find some clues regarding the Voice of the World.
...
While reading the books and documents, Festantine heard footsteps coming from afar. He put down the books and bowed to his teacher, Nandes.
Although creatures in the Abyss were generally chaotic, the Swarm Druids who had surrendered to Abyss Lord Ogan still followed their own code.
As for whether they were as evil as described by the Nature Druids in the main world, they themselves didn't know.
"Festantine, show me the detailed information of insect beasts numbers 839 and 952 that you studied."
Nandes walked past his disciple, flipped through a book on the table, then put it back down.
"Yes, teacher."
Festantine moved to the densely packed bookshelf at the side, looking for the insect beast information that he'd previously recorded.
Nandes was the Swarm Druid that Festantine admired the most. It was Nandes who had initiated the study of pure insect beasts instead of studying demon insect nests and insect demons as they'd done a hundred years earlier.
It was also at that time that Festantine had followed his teacher, leaving the city that had been built by the Swarm Druids to come here.
However, around seventy years ago, Festantine had noticed that his teacher's temperament had changed inexplicably, but he couldn't describe exactly how it had changed.
Since then, Festantine had unconsciously created some distance with his teacher.
After watching his teacher walk away, Festantine sat down and continued reading documents. Suddenly, he had a new inspiration.
Most of the rooms in the huge tumor cultivated various insects. As usual, Festantine made two rounds through the insect rooms. He eventually selected and collected tens of thousands of bees and began a new experiment.
