Starting with rogue ninjas, building the insect kingdom.

Chapter 233 Great Moth, Do You Want to Become the Ancestor of the Holy Land?

Meanwhile, Yahiko and his two companions set off for Takigakure Village with great confidence to find Kakuzu, hoping to find the answer to ending the war and bringing about reconciliation.

On the other hand, Aburame Shisei's cultivation of ice and fire dual-type fairy insects is also nearing its end.

The first insect to crawl into the ice cave began to spin a cocoon. Ice crystals spread outward from its body, layer upon layer, eventually solidifying into an ice cocoon the size of a fist.

The other insects, seeing this, were alarmed!

They desperately squeezed deeper into the ice cave. Some formed cocoons on the spot, while others continued to venture deeper, seeking even colder places.

The same was true on the lava side. The first insect to fall into the lava was completely encased in the molten rock, transforming into a crimson cocoon. Other insects followed suit, each seeking a spot to spin their own cocoons.

After all, if you fall behind even slightly, you'll fall behind at every step, and failure means complete elimination.

Some insects perished during the process. Some insects ran out of chakra halfway through spinning their cocoons, causing the cocoons to rupture and killing them.

This is a brutal process of survival of the fittest; if you don't wipe out your own kind, you will be wiped out by them. No insect dares to slack off, and no insect dares to challenge the established order.

Yu Nu Zhicheng observed quietly, without interfering. How far they could go depended entirely on themselves.

Three days later.

Only seven ice cocoons remained deep within the ice cave, and only five fire cocoons remained in the magma; the rest had all turned into ice shards and ashes.

Aburame Zhicheng then appeared, walked to the ice cave, looked at the ice cocoon and the fire cocoon in the magma, and nodded in satisfaction.

"See, that's it."

He raised his hand and waved it, collecting all the ice cocoons and fire cocoons into the culture dish, activating primordial energy to adjust the internal environment.

He had previously harvested nearly 50,000 years' worth of primordial energy, so he was truly well-off and had no worries about food or drink.

Therefore, he did not save any effort in the manufacturing environment this time. The petri dish was divided into upper and lower sections, imitating the structure of the underground palace, which is cold above and hot below.

Before activating time acceleration, he poured the remaining two bottles of Hero's Water and one bottle of nectar from the giant tree into petri dishes.

Primal energy was injected, and time acceleration officially began.

After finishing all this, Aburame Shisei turned around and saw the giant moth squatting in the corner of the laboratory.

Its enormous body made the space feel extremely cramped. Its huge compound eyes stared intently at the petri dish, full of curiosity and a hint of grievance. It gently touched the petri dish with its antennae: What about me? Where is my place?

Yu Nu Zhicheng chuckled, walked over, and patted its big head: "Don't worry, I won't forget you."

With a wave of his hand, he collected the moth into a spatial cell. As he became more proficient, his control over space grew more and more adept, and he was now able to infuse primal energy into the spatial cells.

The giant moth cautiously approached and touched the halo of light with its antennae. Immediately, its eyes lit up, and it opened its mouth and swallowed it whole.

As the energy entered its body, a faint fluorescent glow appeared on its surface. It felt so comfortable that it trembled slightly, and the scales on its wings fell off in a soft rustling.

"Digest it slowly, don't overdo it," Yu Nu Zhicheng advised.

The giant moth nodded vigorously, curled up, and began to absorb energy.

Just then, a gigantic body passed through layers of underground palace and landed at the laboratory entrance.

The newcomer was none other than the Seven-Tails, which had flown all the way from the Land of Waterfalls in one go.

"Shisei Aburame!"

As soon as the Seven-Tails saw him, it excitedly pounced forward, its massive body almost squeezing the cave floor out of shape.

"I heard you're back! You must have collected a lot of that energy this time, right? Here, let me have a bite, just one bite!"

Aburame Shisei looked at it helplessly: "Aren't you going to participate in the battle?"

The Seven-Tails scoffed, "It's just Sunagakure. It's not my turn to get involved yet. You haven't participated either, have you? In your opinion, their fighting is just a minor skirmish."

Aburame Shisei did not deny it, but simply raised his hand and waved it into the cultivation dish space.

The Seven-Tailed Fox is an energy body by nature, and can freely enter and exit the energy pool without any additional adjustments.

Upon entering the space, it excitedly pounced on the energy pool, diving in to greedily ingest the energy.

Shisei Aburame watched from the outside, a slight twitch at the corner of his mouth. "They're tailed beasts, for goodness' sake, can't they at least maintain some semblance of decorum?"

The primordial energy in the energy pool was decreasing at a visible rate, and the aura of the Seven-Tails was becoming increasingly powerful, absorbing energy at a rate as fast as a bottomless pit.

It took a full quarter of an hour for the Seven-Tails to finally stop, after a third of its energy pool had been depleted.

It climbed out of the pool, burping, but looked somewhat dejected.

"What's wrong?"

Looking at the faint glow emanating from her body, Nanami said sullenly, "I think... I'm stuck."

"Is it stuck?"

"It's so close, but I just can't seem to get past it." Seven-tailed Fox curled its tail and scratched its head. "Even though I've absorbed so much energy, I still haven't undergone the final transformation. It always feels like I'm just one step away."

Aburame Shisei looked at it thoughtfully. The aura of the Seven-Tails was more than ten times stronger than before, but it still did not make a qualitative breakthrough and remained at the original level.

"Perhaps the time isn't right yet," Aburame Shisei thought for a moment, then comforted her, "Don't rush, let's go back first. Maybe after a good night's sleep, things will be different when we wake up."

Seven-Tails tilted her head to look at him, half-believing, half-doubting: "Really?"

"Really," Aburame Shigeaki said firmly, "You need time to calm down."

Nanami was persuaded, though still unwilling, she nodded and said, "Alright, maybe you're right. I'll be going now."

Aburame Shisei waved his hand and sent it out of the space. The seven-tailed creature looked back, flapped its wings and transformed into a stream of light, leaving through the passage it had come from.

After seeing off the Seven-Tails, Shisei Aburame looked back at the petri dish. At this moment, five hundred years had passed in the accelerated time within the petri dish.

Many pupae died in their shells due to accelerated time, and only three successfully absorbed natural energy: one of ice attribute, one of fire attribute, and the last one even found balance in an extreme environment and transformed into one without any attribute.

Aburame Zhicheng sensed carefully and realized that although they had completed their transformation into celestial beasts, they were still not strong enough to break free from their cocoons.

That final hurdle doesn't seem to be something that can be overcome simply by relying on energy.

What else is missing?

Aburame Zhicheng seemed lost in thought, his gaze inadvertently sweeping over the large moth in the corner.

The moth had just been released and had already digested its primal energy. It was squatting there, staring blankly at the petri dish, its eyes filled with confusion and curiosity, as if it didn't understand why its owner kept staring at the cocoons.

As You Nuzhicheng looked at it, he suddenly remembered something: when Xiaoqing was born, she still needed a mother to incubate her.

Now that the Ice and Fire Moths are about to take shape, perhaps they also need an incubator?

His gaze toward the giant moth gradually became meaningful. The giant moth felt a chill run down its spine and instinctively shrank back.

It's not very intelligent, but its survival instinct is extremely strong. There's something wrong with the way its owner looks at it.

"Great Moth," he said with a smile, "I'm giving you a glorious task."

Giant moth: "..."

Looking at its owner's smile, its sluggish brain vaguely understood something for the first time.

It's male; males don't incubate eggs.

Unfortunately, it can't speak human language.