CHAPTER 278 IT IS A SECRET! (PART TWO)

"Commander Marin, thank you very much for coming to help us this time. If you have no more business

here, I think you and your army can leave now. I am sorry that I am too busy to see you off. After all, we

just went through a fierce battle and have a lot of things to settle before we can rest," Commander Sun

said lightly. Inside, he was panicked as he prayed that she would cause no trouble and leave. He

cupped one hand in the other before his chest in greeting to Marin. Then, he turned away immediately

without waiting for any response and left with hurried steps.

Marin narrowed her eyes at Commander Sun. His actions confirmed that he had hidden something

from her. She turned towards her soldiers and called out to a spirit manipulator, plans already gathering

in her head. She discretely whispered her orders in his ear and watched him leave in obedience.

Afterward, she ordered her own army in preparation to leave. It might be difficult to accept, but it was

true that she did not have any outright reason to stay in this camp.

Marin and his men were almost out of the northeast military camp when the spirit manipulator she had

sent out came back. He looked bewildered as he walked to Marin and whispered a few words to his

commander.

After listening to the report of the spirit manipulator, Marin was visibly taken aback. She stared at her

subordinate in surprise, as she looked for confirmation that he told her the truth.

"Are you sure what you heard was true?" Marin asked with great surprise. "How accurate are your

sources?"

"Yes, I am sure. I have confirmed it already and asked a few more people who gave me the same

answers. In fact, the entire northern sky military camp agrees on this. However, they are under orders

to keep this a secret," the spirit manipulator answered. He exuded confidence in his answers and did

not hesitate, even as his commander stared him down.

"I see," Marin bit her lip as she thought how to proceed. "I expect your full loyalty. This should be kept

confidential. No one else is allowed to know of this. Are we clear?" Marin reminded the spirit

manipulator.

He nodded obediently without hesitation. With a respectful bow, he left and joined his own forces.

With the information she had obtained, Marin led her troops back to the northeast military camp. She

seemed to be somewhat absent-minded as she rode with her men. Her thoughts were full of what the This material belongs to .

spirit manipulator reported to her earlier. After a long while, her eyes finally cleared as she brought

herself back to the present. 'It seems that I need to have a long talk with him as soon as possible, ' she

thought. Her eyes narrowed severely, as she willed their horses to run faster.

Meanwhile, Rocky had returned to the place where he kept the Dark Heaven Insects. His own trophy,

the Dark Heaven Insect Queen was kept there as well. Despite the fierce battle, he still had energy and

the victory sung in his veins.

He could still remember the way he was able to join forces with the queen. Rocky trembled with

excitement as he reminisced how he and the Dark Heaven Insect Queen killed the timber spirit

manipulator at the Heavenly Stage. Despite this, he was aware it was only temporary cooperation.

Rocky knew that he did not have the queen's trust. On the way back, the Dark Heaven Insect Queen

made trouble. It even slipped away from him from time to time. Thankfully, in the end, it was still too

difficult for it to resist the temptation of Rocky's magical saliva, and was lured back by him.

Rocky sighed in relief as he lured the queen to the nest where he kept his other Dark Heaven Insects.

He used the Centipede-snake's venom to immobilize it as a precaution. He needed to make sure the

queen did not take the other insects in the nest to escape. If that happened, he would be heart-broken.

After all, so much of his time and effort had been spent to capture them alive.

As soon as the queen went into the nest, it calmed down as if it was in its own home. The other three

Dark Heaven Insects saw the queen and let out several weird screams. Rocky was unsure if it was in

greeting or in excitement. With a bit of awe, the insects quickly gave the best position in the nest to the

queen and all sat around it. It seemed that they had recognized it as their leader. The strong influence

of the queen on the other three insects was obvious to anyone who would look.

"With such a beautiful queen in your company, you three should be happy now!" Rocky smiled to

himself as he watched his insects. "Remember, you also need to work hard in the future and produce

some Dark Heaven Eggs for me, all right? Don't forget your real job just because you see a beauty."

Rocky looked contentedly at the three Dark Heaven Insects who surrounded the queen. The corner of

his mouth curled into a smile and he soon climbed out of the nest.

Only after he had settled his insects did Rocky let himself feel the exhaustion that weighted his

shoulders. The continuous battles with the Dark Heaven Insect Queen and the timber spirit manipulator

at the Heavenly Stage totally exhausted him. After a bit of hesitation, he returned to the abandoned

house and had a few hours to himself for secret cultivation. After a few more hours' rest, Rocky finally

felt that he was refreshed again.

Now that he had caught the rare Dark Heaven Insect Queen, Rocky would no longer have to rush

around to capture the Dark Heaven Insects. As long as he could breed the queen well, it would

produce more insects for him. Rocky smiled dreamily as he thought that maybe in the near future, he

would be able to own a spirit-manipulated beast army formed by the Dark Heaven Insects. If he had

such an army, he would be envied by all the people of the Wild Spirit Land.

The dreamy smile was wiped from his face as he thought of how naive this idea was. Rocky knew that

it was not easy to carry out. He was aware that the hatching rate of the eggs produced by the queen

was extremely low. Improvement of the hatching rate was possible but only if a comprehensive study of

the queen was conducted first. The spirit-manipulated beasts were rather different from the genetic

beasts, thus their biological structures were vastly different. Even worse, the body structures of the

spirit-manipulated beasts were far more complicated than the genetic beasts'. Another thing that he

needed to remedy was that he had no knowledge of how long and how frequent the queen produced

eggs. Thus, he probably should focus on the study of the queen before anything else.