With the viper queen still held in the very middle, unable to move, he moved in the direction of one of the tunnels in the opposite direction and began issuing calls.

After a few minutes, droves of ants began emerging from all over the place. All of them stood at the very edge of the place, clearly terrified of the violent animal now held captive there.

He looked at the eight awakened ants, and boasted, "See, what do you make of that?" He said. "Didn't I catch that despicable worm just a few minutes after I said I would do so..."

However, after noticing their difficult expressions, he swiftly transformed into the Fire God Ant, and explained, "It's me, don't mind the details."

Although they knew it was him even before he transformed through their shared connections, it was just too hard to believe. That was why now that they had seen his transformation, they were both relieved, but at the same time even more shocked.

He looked at all of the ants and said, "Don't worry, she won't be able to harm you." As a way to give them an example, he flew in her direction and landed above the chains holding her neck.

Needless to say, the viper queen became even more enraged at that, and so his footing was very unstable prompting him to just hover slightly above her.

"Come, come." He ordered. He wanted to really show this monster who he had been dreaming about killing for days that it was over for her.

Following his orders a lot of ants began approaching the viper queen climbing and playing on top of her. Some of them even tried to bite her, but their mandibles threatened to break apart at her hard scales.

The joyous of them all was Lei Yan without a shadow of a doubt. He transformed into his mosquito form before the viper's furious gaze, shocking her out of her wits.

Seeing that he bellowed with laughter, "See this?!" He said. "I am also that mosquito that brought you here." Shaking his head sarcastically he continued, "Your biggest mistake was not eating me that first day you little freaking worm." And he continued laughing like a maniac.

The viper's struggle became even more violent, but Lei Yan could see that she was losing her energy at a fast rate. With her Qi being constrained by the golden chains' magic, her physical body would sooner or later give out.

'The discs still have around 79% of energy,' He pondered. 'That will do... I think.'

After a while, from the same tunnel Lei Yan first used to enter here a new group of creatures soon emerged.

The rest of his subordinates, and naturally the three humans they brought along with them. Still in his mosquito form, he was perched above the still struggling viper and he didn't go to meet them directly.

The first thing all of them saw the moment they entered was naturally the vicious-looking viper that could hardly move, and so as constrained as she looked to be, all of them looked scared, unwilling to approach.

However, Junior nudged them along saying, "Just move, she can't touch you."

Lu Peng swiftly glanced in his direction, his expression indiscernible. He knew that this was the exact golden dragonfly species he had been looking for this whole, and yet it wasn't exactly the same one.

Upon approaching the viper and seeing the lone mosquito on top of it, he had a bad feeling. And true to his expectations, and more so outside of his wild imagination, it transformed from a mosquito into a majestic golden dragonfly. His eyes and mouth widened in fear, afraid of what the dragonfly had in store for him.

With a low chuckle, Lei Yan joked, "Thank god you still recognize me then." He glanced at his daughter and continued, "You can't go around messing up an insect's life and forget about it, right?"

Lu Peng stepped forward and shielded his daughter behind him, "She didn't do anything." He said, voice hoarse and unwilling. "I am the one you have an issue with."

"Issue I have." Lei Yan replied as he hovered and approached them. "But I could have just left this little worm to melt your faces off, in terms of pain she had me beat. Yet, I still saved you, so the question remains. Why?"

Seeing that all the three gulped with hands violently shaking in nerves, he chuckled once again, "Or a better question would be, what would I do with three crippled people who can't even win against a mosquito." Saying that he pointed with his forelegs to all of the Body Forging mosquitoes he had called back. There were his four awakened offspring and the other six unawakened.

The ants had also all stopped playing around and everyone surrounded the three humans in a circle, a move that further terrified the three in their current vulnerable states.

The viper had also slightly calmed down, and Lei Yan knew that she was listening to everything they were saying.

He transformed into the two-meter tall Ant with exquisite wings, and an even more breathtaking horn and exoskeleton. The Fire Spirit emerged once again, and like a friendly loyal dog, it approached the three humans before it and began circling around them. However, detecting Lei Yan's targeted unfriendly focus on them, it increased its heat by a considerable degree that the three could barely hold on and began sweating buckets.

"Look," He said looking at the father-daughter duo specifically. "You have wronged me, but I am willing to bury the hatchets and start a new page with you. Heck, I can even give you your cultivation back, what do you say?"

Hearing the offer, Lu Peng looked suspicious. Was there such a good thing in the world?

"What is the condition?" He finally asked after thinking it over.

"A Heavenly Oath," Lei Yan replied directly. "You may have my interest but definitely not my trust. So, what do you say?"

"And you," He said, turning to look at the man they brought along with them. "We don't have any grudges between us, so you can walk away and my subordinates will help you to the Green Gateway."

"I can?" Shen Wen asked with a voice dripping in desperate hope.

"Sure you can," Lei Yan clicked his mandibles as he chuckled. 'But will you?' He thought.

True to this expectation, the man had a difficult expression on his face. One second he would step back, and in the other forward. In the end, he asked, "Can you give me my cultivation back?"

"Of course!" Lei Yan replied jovially. "But there is a condition."

"I know," She Wen said, "Heavenly Oath, I'll do it."

"No," Lei Yan added. "Something else."

Gazing at the three's impatient expressions as they awaited his words, he finally said with a serious voice, "You will become an insect."

Needless to say, all of their mouths simultaneously parted wide open. Witnessing that the Ant wasn't joking, their expressions became somber as they pondered over the implications of such an issue.

Shen Wen was the first to say, "Fine. I'll do it."

Lei Yan didn't say anything and just let the silence stretch as the other two kept thinking it over, and once he also got their confirmation he said, "Don't worry, you'll remain human." Glancing above the duo, he gestured for Red Shadow to come with his eyes.

The beautiful red-haired woman swiftly reached the empty area between the two parties, and after getting the lord's cue, the human began to gradually evaporate until what remained of her were but clothes. Then under those white pieces of clothing, a Red Dragonfly emerged, shocking the three, and the listening viper even more.

Naturally, all of the three heaved huge sighs of relief when they saw this, after all, they of all people understood how uncanny that transformation was because they had interacted with that red-haired woman the whole way here.

"Alrightyy then," Lei Yan declared after witnessing their relieved expressions. "Since all of you have agreed, then let's begin."

The three already aware of how to do a heavenly oath, began at the same time. And before Lei Yan's eyes, appeared three contracts. After a few minutes of slight adjustments, they all signed and the eerily unfamiliar energies gripped the three's hearts. If they were to breach it in any way, death would come to them swifter than a bolt of lightning.

"Let's begin, shall we?" Lei Yan gently teased as he looked at how they were all so nervous and clutching the hems of their clothes. "Don't worry, it's painless."

As a show of favoritism, he approached Shen Wen the first. Putting his right foreleg above the man's forehead, he launched the system function process and let it do its magic.

A swirling cloud of unfathomable Qi enveloped the young man, and soon enough his bigger stature began to diminish until he became a knee-height sky-blue creature. After the cloud dispersed into nothingness, everyone watched with bated breath this new creature that stood before them.

An exquisite mantis shrimp with iridescent scales shimmering in hues of azure and violet, its carapace adorned with intricate patterns resembling ancient runes. Its eyes, multifaceted and gleaming like polished gems, scanned the surroundings with an unmoving face and twitching legs. Delicate yet formidable, its slender limbs were tipped with razor-sharp claws, capable of delivering lightning-fast strikes with lethal precision. He now looked like a creature of legends, embodying the beauty and ferocity of the ocean.

As if startled by it all, Shen Wen immediately transformed into human form, and witnessing his own naked state he swiftly grabbed his clothes and covered his private parts.

"Low-stage Foundation Establishment," Lei Yan commented, slightly disappointed as he was hoping for High Foundation Establishment warriors, that's why he went through all of this trouble in the first place. "So..." He said. "Do you like it?"