Mira's eyes sparkled as she finally found what she was looking for.
The room in front of her was filled with an abundance of energy-rich items. Most of them were corpses of various creatures, but among those corpses, Mira found what allowed for the rapid growth of the Nightbringer ants.
'Spirit Worms!' Mira shouted inwardly.
According to her knowledge, Spirit Worms are a species that have little to no combat power. While they can still cultivate, they don't actually gain much strength from having a higher cultivation.
However, Spirit Worms play a large role in the cultivation world, especially regarding the creatures that live underground. Their job is to improve the quality of the ground. They eat the stone, dirt, clay, etc., underground and excrete a version of it with fewer impurities and more Qi infused with it.
That being said, the higher a Spirit Worm's cultivation, the more impurities it can extract, and the more Qi is infused with the ground.
Doing this can bring many benefits to the creatures living deep underground as Spirit Worms enrich the environment they live in and facilitate the growth of various kinds of treasures, minerals, plants, beasts, and so on.
Most creatures that live underground refrain from hunting and killing Spirit Worms because not only are they harmless, but they improve the quality of their 'home'.
However, that's not to say that hunting Spirit Worms isn't lucrative because it very much is.
Spirit Worms, like every other beast, insect, etc., form a Beast Core after becoming a Rank 6 Spirit Worm. However, most of their Qi is actually still stored in their body to help clear out the impurities of the things they eat, fill it with Qi, then excrete it.
So, eating a bite out of a Spirit Worm is like eating Spirit Stones; perhaps it's even better and more efficient than using Spirit Stones since you don't have to actually extract the Qi from a Spirit Worm's body.
Thus, seeing a large pile of 'fresh' Spirit Worm corpses, Mira felt both excited and disgruntled. Normally, she wasn't one to care about the environment and only cared about her own desires, but even she would be reluctant to kill a Spirit Worm.
Their entire existence revolves around improving the world! Although they are born that way and don't know how to do anything else, it's rare to see such selfless beings who spend their entire lives doing their best to improve the earth's condition for another's benefit.
'It seems no matter what world you're in, ants are always a scourge.' Mira thought to herself, feeling even better that she had eradicated this colony of ants.
Still, even though Mira wouldn't go out of her way to kill Spirit Worms, since they're already dead, she might as well take them.
"It's better for me to have it than someone else. This amount of meat should be more than enough for me to break through a few stages. Hahaha~" Mira chuckled as she stored all the Spirit Worm Corpses. Most of them were Rank 6 Spirit Worms, but she noticed a few of them were Rank 7.
After collecting all the Spirit Worms, Mira walked around and stored the rest of the corpses. Although they aren't nearly as valuable as Spirit Worms, she should still be able to sell them.
Unfortunately, corpses filled up most of this room, but there was one thing that had caught Mira's attention ever since she first entered.
In the corner was a small sapling, not much more than a meter tall. On this sapling were two fruits. At a glance, these fruits looked entirely black, but upon closer inspection, they looked more like the night sky.
There were many microscopic multicolored dots all over the fruits, but aside from that, they also had large silver stars on them.
One of the fruits has 2 stars, and the other has 3. The fruit with 2 stars was bigger and seemed like it would be ready to eat soon. On the other hand, the one with 3 stars seemed like it would need a while until it was ripe.
Mira had never seen or heard of a fruit like this. Luckily, the Guardian decided to chime in.
"Well, aren't you lucky? No, I guess it's the ants who were lucky or maybe that little fool everyone called Number Two who was lucky, and you just got dragged along. To think these ants not only found and killed a large amount of Spirit Worms, but they even found an Earthly Star Fruit! You should definitely store that in the Infinity Garden." The Guardian said.
"Earthly Star Fruit?" Mira questioned.
"It's a very rare fruit and can almost be considered a natural treasure. In order for it to grow, its seeds need to be soaked in the energy of the stars above for hundreds of years. Then, once the seeds have been saturated, they need to be planted deep underground in a nutrition-rich environment."
"These fruits that are born are filled to the brim with a rich and dense Qi. There's also a chance a beast can evolve their bloodline to the next level by eating one of these fruits. However, the chances of success vary depending on their current bloodline and the number of stars shown on the fruit. From the looks of it, that Nightbringer Ant Queen must've eaten one, causing her bloodline to mutate. Fortunately for you, it hadn't fully evolved its bloodline to the next level, or else you might've had a harder time." The Guardian explained, and Mira had already stored it in her Infinity Garden.
"So, what'll happen if I eat one of the fruits? Will I also have a chance at evolving my bloodline?" Mira asked curiously, but she wasn't all that hopeful.
And just like she thought, the Guardian immediately dismissed that idea.
"Nonsense! How can your bloodline evolve so easily? You already have the bloodline of a 9-tailed fox with a few characteristics from the Phoenix and the Golden Empyrean Winged-Wolf races! Even if you had a Nine Star Earthly Star fruit, you still wouldn't be able to evolve. For that, you'd need items beyond mortal limits. Anyways, enough about that. If you were to eat that fruit, although you wouldn't evolve, you'd still be able to absorb all the Qi that's accumulated inside it. It should still be very beneficial to you."
Mira nodded her head and looked forward to when those fruits will ripen.
After storing the Earthly Star Fruits, Mira looted the rest of the place, but aside from those two things, there wasn't anything else that caught her attention.
However, Mira wasn't going to leave just yet. She needed to make sure she thoroughly plundered everything!
So, over the next few hours, Mira scoured the rest of the colony but could not find anything as great as the Spirit Worms or Earthly Star Fruit.
After doing all that, she decided to head back to the Ant Queen's chambers to break through!
Or at least that was her original plan until the Guardian chimed in again, this time sounding frustrated.
"Oi! When are you going to enter the F.LD.I.L and utilize The Abyssal Battle Ladder? You do remember it resets after every minor Realm, right? You already missed the chance to use it and collect a large number of points when you were at the Peak of the Foundation Realm, don't miss the chance to earn a bunch of points now as well!"
"Oh, right, that was a thing," Mira muttered, finally remembering the benefits of The Abyssal Battle Ladder.
"So, I can use the points I earn from The Abyssal Battle Ladder to buy whatever I want from the F.LD.I.L, right?" Mira asked.
"Right. However, the items available to you are limited by how far you've gone on the Abyssal Torment Steps. The farther you progress, the more and better items you'll have access to." The Guardian answered.
"I see. That's actually quite helpful. Well, I'm not one to give up on free loot(points), so I'll do that before consuming this Spirit Worm meat and breaking through to the next stage."
Mira made her own little cave in the side of the wall, just big enough for her to sit in, then covered it up so nothing will disturb her while she's in the F.LD.I.L.
With a thought, Mira's body flashed into the F.LD.I.L and appeared in front of the area where The Abyssal Battle Ladder will take place.
"It's about damn time you've entered this place! I know you're busy and whatnot, but you should understand that nothing in the Firmament of Limitless Death and Infinite Life is useless and is more than meets the eye. The Abyssal Battle Ladder isn't just about gathering points to buy stuff with. In truth, that's only part of it. Now, go fight and do your best not to die!"
