Wei Zhao stared at the thing, his brows knitting tightly. True, the Brain-Eating Bug stood on the same tier as the Water Lily Guardian, but given the choice he would pick the Water Lily Guardian a hundred times over. Even if he could not pull it directly into the jade pendant's space, he would still rather have the Water Lily Guardian.

Because the Water Lily Guardian relied on technique, and even a nearly unsolvable, convoluted method like Mirror Flower, Water Moon could always be picked apart by Wei Zhao's breadth of vision and insight—he could always find the flaw, always find the counter. The Brain-Eating Bug was different. This thing plainly lived off its body; to call its flesh the strongest of its tier would not be an exaggeration in the least.

If it were only at the Foundation Establishment great-circle stage, that would be one thing—Wei Zhao's methods would be enough to crush it head-on. But the trouble was that it was at least at the Gold Core great-circle stage, giving it absolute rank suppression over Wei Zhao. And in that situation it just had to be a body-path entity with the most tenacious vitality and the most formidable defense—simply flawless.

Last time Wei Zhao had needed no fewer than two true-qi bombs to deal with it, and in the end he had not even singed a single hair on it. That said everything.

With Wei Zhao's current attack power, he could not even manage the most basic break in its defense against the Brain-Eating Bug. How was he supposed to fight that?

Seeing Wei Zhao's uncertain expression, the Brain-Eating Bug suddenly laughed. Though it had some interest in Duanmu Yu for her One Leaf Falls, Autumn Knows display, it clearly valued Wei Zhao more; its attention had been fixed on Wei Zhao from first to last. "You won't be slipping out of my grasp this time. I never make the same mistake twice."

"Is that so? You're sure you can keep up with my speed?" Wei Zhao's tone turned faintly amused at that. Against the Brain-Eating Bug he had no confidence in other respects, but where speed was concerned he was absolutely certain—this was faster than his own true body, after all. However strong the Brain-Eating Bug might be, it could hardly outstrip a cultivator of the Xuan Ascension stage, could it?

"No need for that. I'll just grab this woman here, and you won't dare run." Having learned its lesson this time, the Brain-Eating Bug was plainly far more cunning and sly. Last time, if it had seized Leng Leng and the others as hostages, Wei Zhao would never have dared flee; it was only its own arrogance that had let Wei Zhao slip through the gap.

"Heh. Just a bug, and yet you read people rather well." Wei Zhao could not help laughing.

"Heh heh, we don't read people with our eyes—we smell them. Every one of you has a different scent; different human nature, different scent. Human nature can be faked, but the scent in your bones cannot." The Brain-Eating Bug boasted smugly.

"Is that so? Well, that's a lesson learned." Wei Zhao nodded, taking it in. This time the Brain-Eating Bug really had him pinned. If he had not had much contact with Duanmu Yu before this, it would not have mattered much—he could have turned a blind eye and let it go. But matters had reached this point; he could not simply ignore it. If Duanmu Yu could not get away, he would inevitably have to stay and keep maneuvering to the end.

"Don't mention it. Otherwise, you'd best be sensible about it. Rest assured, it's rare to come across a human expert as special as you—I won't let you just vanish for nothing. I'll take you as my main body. From now on, you are me and I am you—we are one!" the Brain-Eating Bug said excitedly.

"You and I as one?" Wei Zhao's face turned strange at that. In his heart he thought: if it really came to that, it was hardly certain who would swallow whom! Even if the Brain-Eating Bug had a formidable brain-eating talent, his own primordial-spirit level was no mere ornament. When the time came, it would be hard to say.

"How about it? If you cooperate willingly, I can spare you a great deal of unnecessary pain!" The Brain-Eating Bug kept coaxing patiently. It was not wasting its breath out of boredom—it was afraid that once the fight started, it might accidentally damage Wei Zhao's brain. Such things happened often, and once a brain was ruined, it could no longer eat it.

"You don't actually think my brain's gone bad, do you?" Wei Zhao looked at it as though at an idiot. Him tying his own hands and letting it devour his brain—it had really dreamed that up!

"Not satisfied? Then I'll retreat another step—I can leave you a tiny bit of consciousness, sharing one main body with me. That should do, shouldn't it?" The Brain-Eating Bug kept haggling. It was plain that it was determined to have Wei Zhao's body; were it not afraid of damaging him, its habitual brutality would long since have brought a claw down on him—why would it be so long-winded?

"One question. Since your current flesh body is so magnificent and lively, at least a thousand or ten thousand times stronger than mine, why must you still take me as your main body?" Wei Zhao could not help asking out of curiosity. In his view, the other's form was far more domineering than a human's—its whole body was one great killing weapon, and in a fight it would surely hold every advantage. If possible, he would not even mind trading with it—though the main body would still have to be human, of course; if even his main body turned into a bug, that he could not accept.

"Heh heh, no harm in telling you. You humans may have frail bodies, but you are the lords of all creation. However strong other species may be, they are bound by their racial talents and have only one possibility. You humans start low, but you have countless possibilities. Pair that with my brain-eating talent and it would be an invincible existence! Besides, a spirit beast that has risen in tier ultimately needs a human body to be presentable; otherwise the other spirit beasts will laugh at it." The Brain-Eating Bug explained tirelessly.

"So that's how it is." Wei Zhao suddenly understood.

No wonder this thing was dead set on capturing him. It seemed that however heaven-defying its brain-eating talent was, it too had limits. Perhaps there was a cap on the species it could devour, and the vast majority of spirit beasts had only one racial talent, with those possessing two or more being exceedingly rare. So each time it devoured one, it gained only one more skill.

Humans were different. The various cultivation methods and martial techniques numbered in the millions; with the Brain-Eating Bug's ability, it could even make all of them its own—and without having to cultivate them from scratch. Devour them, and they were ready-made. The very thought of such a state sent a chill down one's spine.

Thinking of it that way, no wonder the Brain-Eating Bug was dead set on capturing Wei Zhao. Even if its brain-eating ability could directly seize another's cultivation methods and martial techniques, to truly bring them forth still required a main body of exceptional talent. Otherwise, if the main body's aptitude was insufficient, no matter how powerful the methods and techniques, being unable to display them would all come to nothing.