Chen Gensheng shifted the four hands at his rear, bracing them against the cold stone to hoist his body up.

  He raised his foremost pair—the largest and most robust of the six—to his face. He spread the fingers wide, then slowly clenched them into fists.

  Do I look repulsive?

  "Why?" Yinhuo Die asked, her gaze drifting from his grotesque human hands to his void-black carapace.

  "When you devour those cultivators, taking their flesh and spiritual essence is enough. Why must you also steal their speech, their scripts, and their techniques?"

  Gensheng was genuinely confused. Learning the ways of humans allows for better camouflage and more efficient hunting. What is wrong with that?

  "You used my drop of essence blood in the wrong place," she continued, her voice dripping with disappointment. "That blood was meant to temper your insectoid frame, to slough off your mortal husk and bring your roots closer to the Great Dao. But your mind was filled with the obsession of being human."

  "The overbearing medicinal power of my blood followed your delusions. It catalyzed your six legs into these... abominations. An insect's body performing human deeds; an insect's mind coveting human thoughts."

  "Look at yourself. What kind of thing have you become?"

  Her words were like blades, dissecting the new reality Gensheng had just built for himself. He looked down at his six hands, capable of intricate manipulation, and then at his head and thorax, which remained purely cockroach.

  So this is what she meant by 'repulsive to both man and ghost.'

  He was no longer a pure insect, yet he was certainly not human.

  "Was I... truly wrong?"

  For the first time, a chill of doubt rose from the depths of Gensheng’s heart.

  Yinhuo Die turned and walked toward the cave entrance. "You aren't 'wrong.' You are just stupid."

  "To discard the foundation of an insect's body to learn the dregs of the human race... your foundation is ruined."

  Her silhouette vanished into the faint light of the entrance, leaving one final sentence echoing in the cavern: "In the future, do not contact me. And do not mention my name."

  Gensheng raised his foremost pair of hands.

  With a flick of his mind, he channeled his meager Qi into the storage bag hanging at his waist. His fingers closed around a Spirit Stone, pulling it into his palm to begin absorbing the pure energy within.

  The Qi surged through the meridians of his arms and into his body twice as fast as it did when he converted consumed flesh.

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  Gensheng stopped. He looked at his first pair of hands, then at the four hands supporting his weight. He raised all six before his eyes.

  I can hold six spirit stones at once. I can form a mudra with one hand while the other five wield different magical tools.

  This... is 'dregs'?

  An anonymous fury ignited in his gut, burning hot enough to sear his insides. It was utterly ridiculous!

  That Yinhuo Die had cultivated a flawless human skin for herself, yet she had the gall to criticize him for his human aspirations? What hypocrisy!

  Bullshit!

  She stood on her high horse, light-heartedly preaching that the insect body was the 'true vessel' of the Dao. Then why didn't she stay in that limb-less, shriveled husk forever?

  Ugh.

  She only said that because she had the advantage of that Hundred Solutions manual. But he, Chen Gensheng, had nothing. He had to gnaw, eat, and crawl his way forward.

  He had learned their language, their spells, and their wisdom from the corpses of humans. He had fused that power into his own body, growing six hands capable of wielding artifacts and casting spells.

  Was this not a path? A path perhaps even stronger than her "Self-Transformation"?

  An insect's hardy body, a human's versatile wit. With both, would I not be invincible?

  He wasn't wrong. He was absolutely, definitively right. Yinhuo Die wasn't just critical; she was afraid. Was she afraid that his path would eventually surpass her family's tattered manual?

  A sense of relief washed over him. 'Do not contact me.' Fine. Perfect.

  "From this day forth, our paths diverge," he hissed into the empty cave. "Once I have devoured every cultivator under heaven and attained the Supreme Dao, I will find you. Then, we shall see who the 'repulsive failure' truly is."

  He refocused on his own status.

  Fifth Level of Qi Condensation.

  It had taken a dozen laborers and a drop of essence blood to get this far. Too slow.

  He couldn't stay in the Laborer Courtyard anymore; the search was tightening. Besides, laborers were weak in both cultivation and vitality—eating more of them yielded diminishing returns.

  He began to sift through the stolen memories of the dead. Amidst the mundane daily chores, one fragment stood out.

  The Outer Sect Library.

  A place dedicated to storing basic cultivation methods and jade slips of spells. Though they were common techniques, to Gensheng, it was a treasure trove. He needed real spells. Not the fragmented, half-remembered mudras he had scavenged from dead brains.

  He stood up, his six hands bracing against the floor as he adapted to his new body. He rummaged through his storage bag, finding a set of relatively clean laborer robes.

  Using four hands to tear the cloth and the other two to wrap it crudely around his frame, he concealed his non-human torso. Done, he crawled toward the cave entrance.

  Just as he reached the light of the moon, voices drifted in on the night wind.

  "...Senior Brother Liu, are you sure it's around here?"

  "Quiet. The Sect's Tracking Butterfly vanished right here."

  The second voice was much steadier. "That monster is cunning. It has killed thirteen of our Outer Sect brothers. The supervisor has given a death order: bring back the insect, dead or alive."

  "But... it's pitch black. What if—"

  "Fear nothing! The three of us are all experts in the Qi Condensation stage. I even brought the Demon-Binding Net gifted by my Master. If it dares to show its face, I'll ensure it never returns!"

  Chen Gensheng froze. He peered through the cracks of the cave entrance.

  Three cultivators in Outer Sect robes were searching toward the cave in a triangular formation, weapons drawn. The leader held a shimmering silver net.

  The five plates on Gensheng’s abdomen vibrated slightly.

  Delivering a pillow just as I grow sleepy.

  "Perfect. I'll use the three of you to test just how useful these six hands really are."

  He crouched low, merging perfectly with the shadows of the cave. His first hand on the left gripped a rock the size of a human head. His second hand on the right flickered—a basic Sharp Metal Mantra began to take shape.