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With Soul Power as the source, an intricate and abstruse Charm Divine Glyph was manifested in Lu Ye’s eyes.
As their gazes clashed, the Divine Glyph took effect and impacted the insectoid, leaving a Brand in its mind.
The Fox Mutant had an innate ability to enslave Ju Jia with only one glance.
Certainly, Lu Ye was still far from being able to achieve that, but following Charm’s impact, the spider soon lost control of its mind. It appeared frozen to the spot as its front legs hung in the air.
Presently, Lu Ye was overwhelmed with a strange feeling.
Although he had learned a lot about Charm from the information that the Tree of Glyphs carried, it was his first time using this Divine Glyph. He could feel the spider resisting and struggling. It was as if the two of them had plunged into an invisible battlefield as they contended with each other.
In such a state, both of them had weaker control over their bodies.
Lu Ye was secretly glad that he had chosen an insectoid on its own. Otherwise, if other insectoids attacked him when he was in such a state, he might not have time to react.
This also made him feel wary.
Although a Divine Glyph like Charm was powerful, he had to ensure his safety when activating it. He had to make sure there wouldn’t be any external force harassing him, and it would be best if he had some helpers to protect him.
Insectoids typically had low sentience.
If Lu Ye activated Charm to deal with a cultivator in the same Realm, he could only mentally harass the other party, but it was a lethal weapon against insectoids.
The spider only managed to resist and struggle for five breaths of time before its mind was fully controlled. The power of Charm continued to expand, leaving a Brand in its mind.
The sense of lethargy and frailty swept over Lu Ye once again, making his eyelids feel heavy. It required more energy to activate Charm than Sharp Edge.
He panted and looked at the spider before his eyes.
The other party had put down its front legs, showing no hostility against Lu Ye even though he was right in front of it.
On the other hand, Lu Ye could clearly sense the Brand in the insectoid’s mind. Through the Brand, he could give this insectoid some simple instructions.
As a thought flashed through Lu Ye’s mind, the insectoid started moving under his control.
After giving it a try for a bit, he got the hang of it.
Although he could instruct the spider due to the Brand, and the other party would not resist, it had low sentience, after all. As such, its execution of orders was not accurate. For example, it could never stand on one leg even if Lu Ye ordered it to do so. R̃𝔞ꞐΟ𐌱Ęȿ
Nonetheless, he was already satisfied with the outcome. With such an insectoid by his side, he was now safer when moving around.
He leapt onto the spider’s back and activated Glyphs to conceal his presence and curb his aura. When his figure became invisible, he drove the spider to crawl forward in a particular direction.
Soon, they arrived at an area where there were more than ten insectoids. Lu Ye observed these insectoids for a bit before driving the spider to approach the strongest one among them.
It was an insectoid that was just as large as the spider, and its aura suggested that both of them were equally powerful.
The other party wasn’t vigilant against the spider’s approach. As such, it was unsuspecting when the spider flared up all of a sudden.
The spider’s combat style came as a surprise to Lu Ye. He had only instructed his temporary mount to kill the other party, and the spider had to act impromptu. So, he had no idea how the spider would execute his order.
A spider web was suddenly spat from the spider’s mouth and covered the other party tightly. Following that, the spider charged forward and lifted its front legs before repeatedly pricking the other party, leaving holes in its figure. Green blood streamed out of the insectoid as it hissed in pain. Although it wanted to resist, it was unable to do so as it was restricted by the spider web.
It only struggled for a bit before it collapsed into a puddle of blood as vitality left its body.
Lu Ye had only been watching the good show the entire time while sitting on the spider’s back.
A golden light wafted from the insectoid’s carcass and landed on the back of Lu Ye’s hand.
Certainly, he was pleased with that.
There were two reasons why he didn’t lend the spider a hand earlier. First of all, there wasn’t a need for that. Secondly, he wanted to find out if he could get battle points after the spider killed the insectoid without him making a move.
Fortunately for him, he could still get some battle points even though he had done nothing.
Strictly speaking, Lu Ye was no different from a Beastmaster now, and the spider was the Spirit Beast he controlled.
When Beastmasters drove their Spirit Beasts to kill the enemies, it was a manifestation of their own powers, so it was only natural that they could obtain battle points.
Even though the battle was brief, it had caught the attention of other insectoids. Nonetheless, they only took a look and did nothing. They were puzzled as to why their companions had contended with each other, but they didn’t think too deeply about it.
It was not until the spider killed another insectoid that the rest of them realised something was off.
Although their low sentience made sure that they could only act instinctively, they were able to sense danger.
From their perspective, this companion of theirs must be out of its mind. Although it was a mystery as to why it started attacking its companions all of a sudden, all of them would be killed if they did not stop it.
Therefore, after the second insectoid was killed, the rest of them surrounded the spider.
When Lu Ye saw that while sitting on the spider’s back, he knew he had to do something.
After his temporary mount killed the first insectoid and the rest of them did nothing, Lu Ye initially thought he could just sit back and enjoy the reward by letting the spider kill the rest of the insectoids.
Now, it seemed that it was just his wishful thinking.
He revealed himself and unsheathed his Inviolable Saber. When he leapt away from the spider, he instructed his mount to kill all of them.
To make sure he wouldn’t consume too much Soul Power, he didn’t activate Divine Glyphs again this time. Since the strongest insectoid in this area was already dead, the rest of them were only in the Cloud River Realm. Given Lu Ye’s current power, it wasn’t hard for him to destroy them.
It only took him a few moments before the battle ended.
After that, he immediately leapt back onto the spider’s back and concealed his presence.
He could hear some rustling noise from a distance. Nearby insectoids had heard the noise and were coming over to look into the matter.
Nevertheless, they could only see many carcasses lying on the ground while a spider stood there on its own.
Considering their low sentience, they were unable to know that the spider had been enslaved, making it a traitor. Seeing that there was no anomaly, they stopped making noise and gnawed at those carcasses that used to be their companions.
Just then, Lu Ye drove the spider to leave this area.
He was not in a hurry to acquire more battle points, for he knew he had to be well-prepared first. Now, he only had one insectoid working for him. If he had more of such insectoids, he would be more efficient in gaining battle points, and he would make fewer mistakes too.
By then, he could move towards the City Lord’s Mansion while killing the insectoids.
He didn’t know how many insectoids he could enslave given the strength of his soul, but he could feel there was a limit to it.
That was because after he took control of the spider, he felt a sense of burden in his mind all of a sudden, and the intensity of the burden was directly correlated to the insectoid’s power.
In other words, the stronger the insectoids, the smaller the number of slaves he could get.
This was to be expected. In Fox Immortal Valley back then, the Fox Mutant could only control a limited number of cultivators. Otherwise, she wouldn’t go finding fault with the Berserk Giant Ape from time to time.
If she could control an infinite number of slaves, she could keep gathering more people together until it had come to a point where the Berserk Giant Ape was no longer able to resist before she got her revenge.
The Fox Mutant had an innate ability to enslave around 100 cultivators. Lu Ye reckoned that he could never do that. As for how many slaves he could control, he had to give it a try to know.
In the Lost City of Xianyuan, most of the insectoids moved around in groups, so there was rarely any one of them that was on its own. Even if an insectoid was alone, it might not meet Lu Ye’s requirements.
Moreover, these insectoids mostly stayed in their respective areas. Unless they had to run after the enemies, they wouldn’t leave their places.
There was no doubt the spider Lu Ye had enslaved was odd as it crawled along the streets on its own.
Fortunately, this solitude didn’t last for a long time. An hour later, the spider had a companion.
It was an insectoid that looked like a hound with sensitive olfactory organs. Although it was much smaller than the spider, it wasn’t any weaker.
Lu Ye had to take some risks when enslaving the spider, but it was much safer to subdue the hound-like insectoid.
The spider web restricted the insectoid to its spot. Lu Ye only had to meet eyes with it and activate Charm before leaving a Brand in its mind.
As time passed, his squad grew bigger. Half a day later, the spider eventually had six companions. Besides the hound-like insectoid, the rest of them came in different shapes, though they all looked hideous.
He also contended with some insectoids and earned a lot of battle points during the process.
By now, he could feel that having seven slaves was his limit. The heavy burden on his mind meant that he couldn’t enslave even more insectoids. If he forced himself to do that, his soul might suffer some damage.
Activating Charm Divine Glyph required a lot of Soul Power. During the process of enslaving the insectoids, he consumed two drops of Soul Cleansing Water to replenish his Soul Power.
Although it was painful to have to use Soul Cleansing Water, he knew it was worth it in order to carry out his plan. Even if he didn’t manage to enter the City Lord’s Mansion and acquire more Soul Cleansing Water in the end, the battle points obtained from killing the insectoids were more than enough to make up for his losses.
Now that his insectoid squad had been established, it was time to make the next move.
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