Born as an ant, I was summoned to ascend to immortality.

Chapter 21 Breaking Free from the Cage

Zhou Li did not escape.

As long as the Soul Jade is not removed, no matter where Zhou Li flees to, Yuwen Zhao will be able to find him, just like that rainy day at Ziyun Peak.

If he wants to escape this misery, he must kill Yuwen Zhao and destroy the Ling Shu Jade within his body.

For a year, he pretended to comply and lay low, waiting.

At this moment, Yuwen Zhao was completely focused on constructing the Spiritual Pivot, which was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for him.

Zhou Li suppressed his spiritual power to the extreme and moved towards Yuwen Zhao step by step, his speed so slow it was agonizing.

One inch, two inches...

Zhou Li was very patient. He knew he only had one chance. If he failed in his first attack, Yuwen Zhao could subdue him with a mere thought.

One foot, two feet...

Time passed slowly, and finally, he came to be three feet away from Yuwen Zhao.

At this distance, Zhou Li could sever Yuwen Zhao's throat in an instant with a sneak attack, just like Yuwen Zhao had done to Ji Qingshan earlier.

Even Ji Qingshan, a dignified body cultivator, couldn't stop his own jaw teeth, let alone Yuwen Zhao, whose spiritual power was depleted.

Zhou Li stopped what he was doing; he was waiting for an opportunity.

After an unknown amount of time, the five-colored light within the cocoon suddenly receded.

Yuwen Zhao smiled with relief; it was finally done.

At this moment, the spirit-binding crystal has been completely fused into the male spirit body, and the spirit core has been constructed. He can control it freely with just a thought.

Yuwen Zhao let out a long breath, but in that instant when his mind relaxed slightly—

A figure suddenly leaped up!

Zhou Li's speed, which had been building up for a long time, exceeded Yuwen Zhao's expectations. He seemed to only see a dark shadow flash past his neck.

He raised his hand blankly to touch his neck, where he felt a warm, wet patch and a gruesome gash.

Yuwen Zhao opened his mouth, as if to say something, but could only let out a few hissing sounds.

His vision began to blur, and before he was plunged into darkness, the last thing he saw was the ant that had landed on his shoulder.

Then darkness swallowed everything.

Yuwen Zhao's physical body was too weak; Zhou Li ended his life with a single, gentle stroke of his foreleg claws.

There was no earth-shattering battle, no back-and-forth fighting, only this patient, understated claw strike.

But Zhou Li did not stop and quickly drilled deeper into Yuwen Zhao's wound.

Following a mysterious intuition, he touched a warm, smooth piece of jade, smaller than a pigeon egg, milky white in color, with countless fine lines on its surface, like meridians.

Zhou Li opened his upper jaw, bit down on the Ling Shu Jade, and pulled it out with all his might.

As Zhou Li leaped off Yuwen Zhao, his gaze swept over the bloodless face, and a strange feeling welled up inside him.

There was no joy of escaping the cage, only a sense of relief and ease.

"You treated me like a plaything of insects, yet you also gave me the opportunity to cultivate. If it weren't for the Soul Jade, we shouldn't be mortal enemies. You fought insects for half your life, and in the end, you were killed by insects. It can be considered an eye for an eye..."

After a long pause, Zhou Li silently said to himself, "I will kill Yuwen Ji for you."

He then stopped looking at the corpse and turned to look at the Ling Shu Yu that had fallen to the side.

Looking at the incredibly hard Ling Shu Jade, Zhou Li was somewhat perplexed.

It can't be destroyed, it can't be hidden on an ant, and I dare not just throw it away anywhere.

After much deliberation, Zhou Li made a snap decision, tilted his head back, and swallowed it whole. By this time, he was already five inches tall, so he could barely manage to swallow it.

When the Soul Jade entered the abdomen, it was not as domineering as the Spirit Binding Crystal. The Spirit Pivot Jade transformed into a warm and smooth liquid, which slowly traveled along the meridians.

As the jade liquid flowed, deep within Zhou Li's sea of ​​consciousness, the illusory image of a jade pendant gradually solidified. Zhou Li could clearly sense that a mysterious connection was being established between himself and this jade pendant.

Even more strangely, as the jade pendant solidified, a semi-transparent phantom of a spirit core quietly emerged.

Zhou Li was all too familiar with the appearance of Ling Shu; it was the very method Yuwen Zhao used to control Zhou Li each time.

How the Spirit Pivot is activated, how the Spirit Network extends, and how it resonates with the Soul Stone... Zhou Li could even simulate these things in his sea of ​​consciousness when he closed his eyes and concentrated.

The so-called Spirit Pivot is the core of the Soul Jade Control Technique. After a cultivator fuses with the Spirit Pivot Jade, they can construct a spiritual power hub within the body of a being fused with the Spirit Binding Crystal, and use the Spirit Pivot to control its words and actions.

At this moment, the Spirit Pivot Jade has been refined by Zhou Li, and this Spirit Pivot of Yuwen Zhao is like a part of Zhou Li himself, which he can control at will.

As Zhou Li sensed the spirit, a strange sense of familiarity welled up in his heart.

For the past six months, every time he was manipulated by Yuwen Zhao to participate in the game of chess and insects, he could sense the fluctuations of the spiritual pivot.

Over time, from unfamiliarity to familiarity, from vagueness to clarity, the trajectory of the Spiritual Pivot had long since formed a complete map in his mind.

With a slight thought, Zhou Li tried to gently touch a spiritual meridian in the Ling Shu.

He was then astonished to discover that the index finger of the male spirit in the cocoon not far away had slightly bent.

Zhou Li was stunned.

He tried again, this time touching another spiritual channel.

Inside the cocoon, the spirit's entire right arm gently rose and then slowly fell back down.

An indescribable surge of joy welled up in Zhou Li's heart, and he finally understood what had happened.

Before his death, Yuwen Zhao had already constructed the Spirit Pivot within this spiritual body, and after refining the Spirit Pivot Jade, he inherited control of this Spirit Pivot.

In other words...

Zhou Li focused his mind on the Ling Shu and activated it with all his might.

Inside the silkworm cocoon, the Five Elements Spiritual Body, which had been dormant for countless years, slowly opened its eyes.

As Zhou Li's thoughts were poured into them, those empty eyes gradually regained their luster.

Zhou Li tried to get the spirit to stand up. At first, the movements were a little stiff, but they quickly became smooth and natural.

Looking at his jade-like hands and touching his warm face, Zhou Li realized that he could see what the other saw and feel what the other felt, just like another body without any barriers.

This Soul Jade is so magical, it's like an extension of my own soul.

Zhou Li was overwhelmed with emotion. Since arriving in this world, he had finally acquired a human body. After five years of crawling on all six legs, Zhou Li had almost forgotten what it felt like to stand on two legs.

He then assumed the posture of five hearts facing the sky and attempted to circulate the Qi-guiding technique in his spirit body.

Suddenly, a gust of wind arose from the cave, and five different types of spiritual energy rapidly gathered around Zhou Li.

This is the terrifying aspect of the Five Elements Spiritual Body. Ordinary cultivators mostly have a single spiritual root and can only cultivate a single spiritual attribute, while the Five Elements Spiritual Body can cultivate all five elements simultaneously, and the five elements generate each other, resulting in extremely rapid progress.

It was at this moment that Zhou Li realized that his ant body had a metal spiritual root and that he possessed metal-elemental spiritual energy. No wonder there were dark gold patterns on his shell.

As this spiritual energy gradually gathered in the spiritual body's meridians, it seemed to be blocked by something and then dispersed.

Zhou Li suddenly realized: "This is the mysterious barrier that my senior brother mentioned. The human body is different from the ant body. There are many obstructions in the meridians. Only by opening them can one cultivate."

That matter is not urgent; the most pressing thing is to leave this place first.

There was something even more urgent. Zhou Li realized that his spirit body was completely naked, so he quickly composed himself, took off Yuwen Zhao's clothes, and put them on.

Today's changes were too sudden.

He went from a lowly ant barely surviving to a cultivator with a five-elemental spiritual body. The transition between life and death felt like a dream, and he needed time to think carefully about where he should go from here.

Just then, he heard a voice, filled with sorrow and anger, chilling to the bone, demand: "Who are you?"