342: The elixir of immortality.

Looking at the brightly lit pier and the working vessels below, Wei Ziqing quickly calculated, "We need to detour down the side of the cliff, then pass through the edge of the village to approach the pier."

"Too slow," Lu Jianchuan countered. "With the detour and stealth, by the time we sneak over, the ship might have already finished loading and sailed away. Besides, passing through the village carries too high a risk of exposure."

"Then what do you plan to do?"

Lu Jianchuan's gaze sharpened as he decided without hesitation, "Go straight down. The fastest path."

Before his voice had even faded, the silver-white biological armor instantly covered his body. Facing the cliff, he hooked his fingers like claws into the rock crevices and braced his feet against protrusions. Like a gecko clinging to the steep rock face, he began to climb and slide down at an astonishing speed!

"So bold?!" Seeing this, Wei Ziqing didn't overthink it further. His Hero Shadow armor, an interwoven streamline of plain white and black, instantly donned itself.

He drew the poisoned bone sword from behind his waist with a backhand, spotted a crack in the rock wall, and precisely plunged the long sword in. Simultaneously, he leaned his body back, using the sword's blade as a fulcrum and a decelerator. His feet tapped repeatedly against the rock wall as he descended rapidly down the near-vertical cliff, the sword's edge striking sparks against the stone!

Lu Jianchuan and Wei Ziqing slid down to the soft sand at the base of the cliff almost simultaneously, their movements light and nearly silent. However, just as they steadied themselves and looked up to observe the pier, both of them froze.

Less than ten meters ahead of them, beside a reef illuminated by the moonlight, stood a figure—a figure that absolutely did not belong to a normal ecosystem.

It was about two hundred and twenty or thirty centimeters tall, a size bulkier than a human. Its overall silhouette vaguely resembled a mantis, but the details were completely transformed.

To solve the support and oxygen exchange challenges brought by its gigantism, its body structure had undergone a fundamental reshaping:

The exoskeleton, originally hard but poorly suited for flexible movement, had partially transformed into an internal support framework closer to that of a vertebrate, encased in tough muscle. Dark-patterned, deep green chitinous plates were retained only at critical points as extra protection.

Regularly arranged respiratory pores on the sides of its body opened and closed slightly, with membrane-like structures inside seemingly performing efficient gas exchange.

Its head remained triangular, its compound eyes reflecting a dim purple light under the moon, and its mouthparts were sharp.

But most striking were still its iconic forelimbs, which had become even more terrifying after evolution. They were no longer slender hunting tools, but two disproportionately large bone blades, like a reaper's scythes!

The bone blades extended from the elbow joints, their edges covered in jagged, hideous protrusions. The blade surfaces shimmered with a cold, hard luster like biological metal. Just hanging there quietly, they emitted a cutting aura that made one's scalp tingle.

At this moment, the humanoid giant mantis was also clearly stunned. Its complex compound eyes clearly reflected the two figures that had suddenly dropped from the sky wearing strange biological armor; this was clearly not within its expected patrol or sentry scope.

Wei Ziqing's reaction speed was beyond reason—instead of assuming a combat stance, he took a step forward and quite naturally extended a hand toward the giant mantis, which was clearly a hostile creature. His tone was even somewhat casually friendly:

"Hello there."

This completely unexpected move caused the Mantis Evolved Form, which had been ready to strike, to visibly pause. A hint of 'bewildered' blankness flashed through its compound eyes.

The opponent's overly 'polite' posture seemed to trigger some basic interactive instinct, or rather, left it momentarily unsure of how to respond.

After a brief hesitation, it actually subconsciously and somewhat clumsily raised a relatively small forelimb appendage used for fine manipulation and touched Wei Ziqing's hand.

(Wei Ziqing withdrew his hand: Why break the Ultra Key?)

"Do you know," Wei Ziqing asked seriously as he withdrew his hand, "what is fuzzy, green, and would kill someone if it fell on them from a tree?"

Mantis Evolved Form: "...???"

It was completely bewildered. The expected battle didn't happen, and instead, the opponent was asking such a nonsensical question? Its neural structure, geared toward combat and hunting logic, clearly couldn't process this information.

It even subconsciously opened its mouthparts, which were filled with fine sharp teeth, and let out a stiff, raspy voice that was actually human language: "...Wha...t?"

Wei Ziqing revealed the answer with a calm face: "A pool table."

Mantis Evolved Form: "..."

It froze in place, the light in its compound eyes seeming to dim and scramble for a moment.

The absurd combination of the answer and the question, along with the completely incomprehensible logic, dealt a sort of 'mental shock' to its relatively simple and direct thinking mode, or rather, caused its brain to briefly 'crash'.

"Can't figure it out?" Wei Ziqing shook his head 'regretfully.' "Sigh, then just stand here and think about it carefully. Why is it a pool table?" He pointed to a spot nearby.

The Mantis Evolved Form actually nodded ignorantly and subconsciously moved two steps toward the direction Wei Ziqing pointed. Its giant scythe-like forelimbs hung down unconsciously, as if it were truly trying hard to ponder this nonsensical question.

The moment it turned its back to the two of them, Wei Ziqing's wrist flicked almost imperceptibly. A faint cold glint flashed past, lightly grazing the gap in the Mantis Evolved Form's back carapace.

The mantis seemed to sense something and whipped its head around.

Wei Ziqing immediately raised his hand and pointed at the moon, which was half-hidden by clouds overhead. His tone remained natural: "Oh, look, the moonlight tonight is quite beautiful, isn't it?"

The Mantis Evolved Form looked up at the moon, then back at Wei Ziqing's 'sincere' expression, and nodded confusedly once more.

"Yeah, I think so too. Alright, keep thinking. I'm off now." Wei Ziqing waved his hand and turned to signal Lu Jianchuan to leave quickly.

The two walked away quickly. After they had gone about a dozen meters, a heavy 'thud' of a body hitting the ground came from behind them.

Wei Ziqing glanced back at the Mantis Evolved Form lying on the beach, which had completely lost consciousness as the Neuroparalytic Toxin took effect rapidly, and sighed softly:

"The neural structure of insects..."

Lu Jianchuan: "..."

The two did not choose the higher-risk land route through the village. Instead, they turned decisively and slipped silently into the pitch-black seawater under the night sky.

The icy seawater instantly enveloped the armor, but the good sealing of the biological outer layer ensured their movements were unhindered. Like two fish, they swam silently a few feet below the surface toward the freighter at the pier.

Soon, the silhouette of the rust-stained hull appeared in the dim water.

They chose to surface quietly in the shadows near the stern, between the freighter and the pier's trestle, exposing only their heads and shoulders above the water, clinging tightly to the slippery growths on the side of the hull.

The sounds of conversation, footsteps, and the noise of mechanical loading from the deck above became clear.

"...This is the last batch. Count them; that should be about it." A slightly coarse male voice rang out, accompanied by the dull thud of a crate hitting the floor.

"What 'treasures' did you dig out of some Ancient Tomb this time?" Another voice asked with a hint of playfulness; it sounded younger.

"Heh, 'Immortal Pills' for immortality." The coarse voice lowered slightly, filled with mockery. "Look at what this ancient text says... 'Extract the Essence of the Big Dipper, combine it with the Qi of the Earth Veins, refine it through seven rotations to form the pill, using South-Leaving Stone as the catalyst'... It sounds so real. They say it's from the same period as the First Emperor's search for the elixir of life. You damn well better be careful when you're moving it; if you break it, I couldn't afford to pay even if I sold you."

"I know, I know, don't worry," the young voice replied nonchalantly. "Immortality? Only a fool would believe that. But we can't help it if those rich idiots do.

They want it, so we get it. They're happy to give money, and we're happy to take it. As for whether they achieve Immortal Ascension or end up with a ruptured gut after eating it... that's none of our business."

"Mm," the coarse voice acknowledged, then shifted to a warning tone.

"By the way, stay sharp while you're working, especially stay away from those 'big mantises.' Don't show off in front of them.

These bugs... they're incredibly eerie. If you're weak, they won't bother with you. But if you act strong or seem like a threat, they'll really risk their lives against you. It's the classic 'I disdain the weak, but strike hard against the strong.'"

"Understood, I'll just stay out of their way."

The voices faded as the porters seemed to be leaving. The cargo appeared to have finished loading.