After Muskmelon recovered from a puddle back into "a whole one," they had the Ancient Wyverian youth take the cage and ride the cable car, quickly arriving inside Logan's nest—which had been expanded several times, or rather, the palace that strongly reflected the Ancient Tree Fire Wyvern clan's aesthetics.
During this period, because the life aura of his own dragon egg was becoming more and more active, Logan had already consciously reduced the time he spent going out, and Aki was guarding the dragon egg without leaving its side, with food all supplied by the cats.
Therefore, when the Ancient Wyverian prophet and the others arrived, Logan happened to be in the nest.
At first, when Logan heard that they had come because of the silver butterfly inside the cage, he felt no ripple in his heart.
This world was like this: even large creatures such as monsters, with life energy involved, possessed considerable mutability and environmental adaptability, so there was no need to even mention insects, which already had strong environmental adaptability.
So, when he heard that an insect had appeared that fed on Terastal branch buds, Logan did not feel anything unusual, and even wondered whether such a small matter really needed to be brought to him.
But as he listened to the Ancient Wyverian youth's explanation and the vivid description from that cat about what had happened, Logan finally became a bit interested and signaled for them to continue.
"First of all, just from this insect's current behavior, it definitely has a significant effect on the Grimalkynes. As for whether there will be side effects, we will have to wait for future observation. What I am currently thinking about is another possible way to use this insect."
The Ancient Wyverian prophet's dull voice slowly rang out, unhurriedly stating his thoughts one by one.
"At present, among more than one thousand Grimalkynes of the Ancient Tree Fire Wyvern clan, there are only six Palicoes, and there are only two Wyverian hunters. Among them, apart from Captain Tonkotsu, the other Palicoes basically all focus on light weapons. Besides the light bowgun and heavy bowgun, which indeed are not suitable for Grimalkyne body size, the only weapon we have not mastered is the one called Insect Glaive. After all, the normal Kinsects' body size is indeed a bit too large for Palicoes."
"This insect is so unusual. It carries high-temperature crystalline scale powder on its own, and its size happens to be just right for the Grimalkynes to raise and use. If it also performs well in physical strength and elemental resistance, perhaps we could try taming this insect and see whether we can develop Kinsects unique to the Ancient Tree."
It had to be said, the Ancient Wyverian prophet's suggestion was indeed not bad. Raising Kinsects was simply not easy—but that phrase, Kinsects unique to the Ancient Tree, truly did poke at Logan's soft spot.
Thinking it over carefully, since the Research Commission was frantically repaying debts right now, there would not be any extra matters on the Ancient Tree side in the short term, and raising Kinsects would not hinder the progress of the various ongoing projects on the Ancient Tree.
Since the Ancient Wyverian prophet had taken the initiative to bring it up, he likely already had some ideas in mind. They might as well let him try it; there would be no problem anyway.
Having made the decision, Logan let out a low growl to show his agreement.
But just at that moment, the insect sleeping inside the cage seemed to be startled awake by Logan's voice. Its folded wings opened and fluttered slightly. It flew one circle inside the cage, as if confirming the surrounding environment.
Finally, it turned the front side of its head toward Logan. Its tiny eyes gradually became feverish, and its whole body turned restless.
With the buzzing of its beating wings, a large amount of blue scale powder burst out. The moment the cage was coated in the powder, the metal frame instantly turned red-hot, and then—right in front of the wide eyes of the Ancient Wyverian prophet—the metal cage was directly melted through.
Only then did he understand what exactly that "high temperature" described by the Ancient Wyverian youth and Muskmelon truly meant.
"Meow!"
"Protect Boss, meow!"
A chorus of meows rang out as the Fire Wyvern Guard Team cats stationed around them rushed toward the insect at extreme speed. After pulling the Ancient Wyverian prophet and the others back, they drew their weapons and launched attacks at the insect.
However, this insect was unusually agile. It easily dodged the cats' attacks, flew up high, and stared straight at Logan, as if making a final confirmation.
Just as the cats pulled out boomerangs, preparing to knock it down, the insect traced an arc with its body and shot out of Logan's nest at high speed.
"Quick, after it, we can't let this dangerous little thing get away, meow!!"
The Fire Wyvern Grimalkyne guards reacted at once, calling for their companions and chasing after it.
The danger it spoke of was not referring to any threat to Logan. After all, in their eyes, Logan had never been defeated, a "god" who had saved the Ancient Tree from fire and water multiple times. Although the high temperature this insect had just displayed was indeed impressive, it simply did not amount to anything in Logan's eyes.
Therefore, what the cats were worried about was that this insect had already shown destructive power enough to threaten that dragon egg deep within Logan's nest. In addition, because the insect's body was small, they could not allow such a dangerous insect that could slip into the nest the moment one let their guard down to appear on the top layer of the Ancient Tree.
Unfortunately, the insect flew incredibly fast. As soon as the cats rushed out, they only saw the insect's figure shuttling among the dense branches, and in no time it disappeared from their sight.
"Keep searching. No matter what, we have to find the insect's nest, meow!"
These were extraordinary times, calling for extraordinary measures. Even though the insect had not shown much hostility, for the cats during this period, they did not mind assuming the worst of it.
Better to kill a thousand by mistake than let a single one slip through!!
Just as the cats, following the guidance of the young ancient Wyverian, arrived at the trunk passage where the insect had first been discovered…
At a hollow in the trunk on a lower level from that location, large patches of Terastal branches and buds were growing. Relying only on the thin strands of sunlight that leaked in, they illuminated the entire hollow, making it look like a secret realm of crystal plants.
At this moment, the mutated Qurio that had returned from Logan's nest was crouched on a leaf, rubbing its wings together and producing bursts of low-frequency sound.
Because its mouth had mutated from its original tubular shape into the beak-like form it now had, its original sound-producing organs had degenerated along with it. Instead, like other multi-winged insects, it now relied on the low-frequency sounds produced by rubbing its wings to communicate.
Right now, directly in front of this mutated Qurio was a large mutated Qurio with a wingspan of a full forty centimeters and a body length that had also reached fifteen centimeters.
It was the mother of all the mutated Qurio currently on the Ancient Tree, that is, the Qurio larva from back then that had almost died.
Unlike the other mutated Qurio, its exoskeleton color was deeper, and its body was also less transparent. On its huge pair of wings, the crystallized parts were no longer limited to just the wing edges; even along the wing patterns, crystallization like sharp gems had appeared.
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