Within Hana's Soul Hall Domain, the sound of the ancient serpent chant reverberated clearly within the void. In the middle of the hall, Hana's translucent body suspended in midair in a lotus position. She was murmuring the chants diligently while closing her eyes. She placed both of her hands on each knee as her long untied voluminous hair billowed like dancing snakes even with the absence of air. The red 'star' was currently merged within her, as she emitted a faint red light around her astral body.

Hana was immersed in her own world, mouthing the peculiar chants with Kuro ceaselessly, while savoring their effects. The comfortable effect of the chants was akin to the feeling after a good two-hour body massage from a professional masseuse; invigorating and calming.

Besides the physical effects she noticed, she had not perceived anything else. Being doubtful, she had already asked her doted Kuro last night. Kuro convinced her that the chant did have an effect on her soul. Only, no obvious signs could be seen outwardly.

Although she was skeptical, she kept on persisting though it did feel like she was playing and making merry rather than doing something serious. It left a rather helpless feeling inside her worrying heart, thinking she might have done something wrong and was somehow not performing the cultivation routine correctly.

Suddenly, the outermost red light illuminating her astral body undulated vigorously like waves roiling and crashing. The scattering light enveloping Hana slowly moved and converged at her forehead, bringing together the faint red light from her entire body, as they concentrated into a loosely-shaped glowing ruby-red orb at the center of her brow. Once all the red light accumulated into a ruby-colored orb, it started to spin slowly. As Hana's astral body was bereft of the red light, the natural multicolored pastel-colored faint light slowly showed itself again.

As the red ruby orb of light spun steadily, it released a thick light into Hana's eyes! 

"Urgh!" An involuntary grunt was released as she felt her eyes had been scorched! It was painful! However, the pain subsided almost immediately until she wondered whether she was imagining it or not. She slowly opened her closed eyes. 

...

Hana was awakened from her cultivation to see the surrounding of the cave-dwelling, albeit from a lower elevation. The fire was very low, but she was seeing the surrounding very clearly. The low embers were extremely bright for her eyes but they didn't hurt her sight. 

She quickly sat and turned around. However, her sight hadn't changed at all, as it stayed stationary at the same place. Only now did she realized that she was seeing their cave-dwelling from Kuro's angle as she remembered her doted one nestled under her neck before she went to sleep before. She finally knew she had succeeded this time. 

Congratulations, Mommy. You did it! A pleasing androgynous voice entered her mind. Shiro was looking at their mommy with a smiling expression. Both of Hana's irises had turned ruby-red as they showed a vacant impression; they looked exactly like Kuro’s pulsating red eyes when he was performing the Soul-link arts. Nonetheless, deep inside, he was feeling down and jealous. He knew the connection between his elder brother and Mom had deepened again, at a level he couldn't catch up in the near future. 

Mom, to use your own sight, sever the connection between us just by thinking about it. Kuro's voice added.

Hana willed for the termination of the soul-link. She could feel a thread connecting her and Kuro was cut off and she felt quite light-headed. Now, she knew what it meant to truly be connected to her pet at the soul-level. Their previous bond was actually at a very rudimentary level as compared to the current level of connection.

After a few seconds, she quickly gained her bearing and her sight returned. The surrounding was actually very dim. From there, she realized the advantage of her pet's sight. It was very useful in dark places! She tried to reconnect the soul-link again and share Kuro's sight. After trying a few time, it worked! The trio happily cheered together!

And now, should we start on the second phase of our plan? Kuro happily queried.

Sure. Please return to the site to scout the surroundings, Ku-chan. Oh, don't forget to steal, err.. borrow some mushrooms if there's any. Hana cleared her throat and chuckled bashfully. 

...

Hana was sitting in a lotus position while stuffing herself with some curry-flavored instant noodles topped with cubed spiritual lightning mushrooms. The deliciousness of the meal had not distracted her at all, although Shiro was watching her hand movement intently with every mouthful of springy noodles. His eyes were full of longing, but he didn’t make any sound as he didn’t want to disturb her.

Hana’s ruby-red eyes were vacant as she was focusing on the images from the other side; she was watching Kuro's movement within the darkened forest. She had readied a pen and a notebook should she need to jot down anything. It was just like watching a video attached to a tagged animal in a documentary channel. However, this time, the graphic's quality was way better than HD. Even in the darkest nook and cranny, she was still able to see what was there; as if she was the one slithering throughout the forest herself. It was so thrilling and fun!!!

Kuro was extremely fast. His movement was akin to flashes of silent lightning as he moved amongst the trees. Sometimes he was flying, while at other times, he was slithering. Hana noticed that Kuro slithered faster than flying. Looking at how the scenery changed, Hana estimated that it could go as fast as 80 km/h, whereas while he was flying, he was just around 50 km/h.

Ku-chan, when you're near, slow down a little. I can't see properly when you're too fast. Make a big sweep 360 degrees for me to have a look. To the current Hana, Kuro and Shiro's telepathic conversations were already so clear like they were speaking in front of her. It was partly due to the daily dosage of the mind cleansing spiritual fruit delivered daily by Markisah and partly due to her own increased soul power from her cultivation efforts. Her continual consumption of other spiritual herbs did increase her constitution to withstand the mental burden. Due to that, she had no problems conversing with especially Kuro from a long distance after a few tries.

Roger that, Mommy. Kuro replied curtly while keeping his vigilance. 

Kuro stealthily approached the previous Lightning mushroom field. At the moment, a lot of the matured mushrooms had been harvested. The ones left were young ones with similar tombstone-like shaped. Nearly a hundred orange Elemental Fiends were crawling the areas; some were cutting the gigantic mature mushrooms with umbrella-like caps using their pincers, while some others were ferrying them into an opening which looked like a miniature cave. There were some standing guard and patrolling around. These Elemental Fiends were in the shades of either white, black or deep red, with a slightly larger build. Looking at the slightly tensed atmosphere, it seemed that the aftermath of their previous intrusion was still lingering. 

Kuro scanned underground with his spiritual sense and shared what he saw in his mind with Hana. Underneath the soil, she could see the whole nest! It was made of multiple layers of the underground labyrinth in the form of x-ray vision! Hana gasped loudly in astonishment. Partly from the new form of vision, which seemed not to originate from Kuro's eyes, as she could only detect it within the shared telepathic channel. She realized that she could act as an intermediary and will it to share the same vision with Shiro by her side. Another part was the extensiveness of the nest; it was simply huge and complex!

The gigantic termite's underground mound was made of more than thirty layers, with each layer comprised of a naturally occurring labyrinthine network from the presence of hundreds of tunnels and deposit pockets. The shape of the mound was akin to the top segment of a sand clock; a small opening at the top where it immediately widened, then gradually reduced in size at the end. At the last level, she could see three pools crowded by a small number of insects with a slightly different morphology than the multicolored termites on the surface. Finally, beside the pools, she saw a large space harboring a slug-like insect the size of a small trailer and gaped!

Is..is that the Queen? After a while, she asked nervously.

Yeah, I think so, Mommy. Why? Are we scrapping the plan? I can still fetch you a few of the fire attributed Elemental Fiends after I destroy this nest. How about it? A slight hopefulness bloomed in Kuro's heart. Although the Elemental Fiends were just pseudo-spiritual beasts, they can kill a Noble under a minute when thousands of them swarmed! He had heard about it before. Although he was not scared to lay waste to this new nest which had intruded his territory, he didn't want anything to happen to Hana. To truly subjugate the whole Elemental Fiend swarm, Hana herself needed to be present to perform the soul-binding ritual with the Queen of the nest, like all other times. Similarly, the would-be slave needed to be willing, especially when Hana didn't have the strength equivalent or above the Elemental Fiend Queen.

Hana totally disregarded Kuro’s suggestion. At the moment, a few of these gigantic termites would not be enough for her to perform her own plan in the near future. At times, the aunty’s stubbornness could rivaled the old croons.

There's something wrong. I can see that this Queen has wing buds, or is it vestigial wings? Hana pondered inwardly.

Ku-chan, check properly for extensions. We must make sure whether the Queen here is the secondary or tertiary queen and this nest is just a satellite nest with an extension to the main nest, or whether the Queen is a new one who had evolved from an alate. She had read a few articles about termites before. It was for the sake of her mom, Ma'am Shaza. The house she grew up in was partially made from wood, but there was an infestation of termites once. She had studied a little before calling the pest control last time. If these 'Elemental Fiends' were truly ‘big-a**’ termites, they should have the same behavior. Termites have a main queen with two other secondary and tertiary queen as a backup should the main queen dies. When the condition was right and the nest had expended well, the main queen would release alates, reproductive termite swarmers to find a new location to start a new nest. However, if that was the secondary queen, that means, there were one more queen somewhere and the main one from a distant main nest totaling up to three! While attacking the nest, they could be pincered by two other queens if they were not careful.

Kuro sighed as he realized Hana wasn’t going to back down and accept his suggestion. He replied resignedly. I think this is a new Queen, Mommy. The extent of the nest is a little smaller than I imagine. I think there should only be around tens of thousands of them, whereas a mature nest would have hundreds of thousands to nearing a million. Additionally, this location is actually my territory; around a hundred years ago before I went into cultivation-hibernation, this nest is still not here. Kuro explained as a matter-of-factly.

I see! Hana felt delighted. It'll be easier like this. However, just to be safe, do check a couple of times at the surroundings to make sure the nest is isolated.

Roger that, Mom.

...