Subsequently, Zhou Qi stood in the center of the hovering platform, the hem of his dark robe gently fluttering with the energy flow, the silver runes embroidered on the corners of his clothes shimmering under the cold blue light, like flowing star trails.

He lowered his gaze to Ke Si, who was being held down on the metal platform by two Mingling Devils—this four-tailed Ironblood Bugman was trembling violently.

Green bodily fluid oozed from the gaps in his carapace, forming tiny chains of beads on the platform, each droplet shimmering with mother-of-pearl iridescence under the blue light, as if some life totem on the verge of breaking.

When his Mental Power enveloped Ke Si's skull like a spiderweb, a subtle tremor suddenly ran through his fingertips, like touching an iron chain rusted for a thousand years in the deep sea.

That was an ancient Soul-level restriction issuing a warning, each vibration of the chain carrying the texture of peeling rust, transmitted into Zhou Qi's perception through his Mental Energy tendrils.

His consciousness transformed into thousands of silver threads probing into Ke Si's neural labyrinth, Zhou Qi's perception like an explorer diving into the Amazon River, shuttling between synapses intertwined like coral reefs.

He touched an energy field that was both familiar and strange: it was not a Mental Imprint imposed by Mind Control Demon Bug, but rather a life shackle closer to a Bloodline curse.

He gently twirled his fingertips, a wisp of Mental Energy slicing through the scabbed wound like a surgical knife, and was startled to find that Ke Si's Soul outline had a crescent-shaped defect.

The edges retained tooth marks similar to biological gnawing—the curvature of the tooth marks was as precise as the masterpiece of some precision instrument, and the tips of the teeth even retained extremely subtle bioelectric signals, like the life imprint left by some creature when gnawing.

"Interesting," Zhou Qi murmured, his pupils slightly contracting under the energy light.

In the shadow of that Soul gap, a life form smaller than a dust mite formed a strange balance with the Mind Control Demon Bug' tentacles.

Its surface was covered with thousands of cilia, each unconsciously twitching, much like tube worms feeding on sulfur at deep-sea hydrothermal vents, capturing faint energy fluctuations in the darkness.

When his Mental Power tried to pinch it like tweezers, Ke Si suddenly let out a shriek that sounded like tearing metal—his entire body arched like a shrimp, his six limbs scratching streaks of sparks on the platform.

The carapace developed spiderweb-like cracks from the intense pain, and green blood seeped through the cracks, spreading into gruesome patterns on the platform, like a totem of some ancient tribe, the tiny particles splashed when the blood hit the ground shimmering in the blue light, like shattered emeralds.

The miniature organism was disturbed, its cilia instantly bristling like a hedgehog, releasing a Mental pulse mixed with the smell of rust and decaying leaves.

Zhou Qi flipped his wrist, condensing a translucent Mental Power cage, which fell precisely like a butterfly net.

Amidst Ke Si's almost unconscious convulsions, he peeled the organism from the Soul fissure and suspended it above his palm.

It resembled a mite magnified a hundredfold, with a twisted black nerve chain coiled within its translucent body, like a meticulously woven obsidian chain.

Under the illumination of Mental Energy, it glowed faintly, and between the links, there was a faint, reversed shimmer similar to the Iron-Blooded Queen's runes, each shimmer like a fleeting meteor in the night sky.

Zhou Qi thought for a moment, then directly proceeded to enhance it.

Evolution Points surged from Zhou Qi's fingertips like stardust, injecting into this tiny life form.

During the enhancement process, the organism's form began to change strangely: the cilia degenerated into streamlined carapaces, with fine indentations appearing on the surface, like pebbles scoured by water for millions of years, each indentation recording the traces of time; the internal nerve chain gradually crystallized, like an obsidian chain repeatedly polished by a craftsman, with fine, reversed runes appearing on each link.

As Evolution Points were injected, the runes changed from dim to a faint blue, sparkling like the night sky, and the arrangement and combination of the runes constantly shifted, as if enacting some ancient code.

"Ding, consumed 100,000 Evolution Points, Black Wire Worm enhanced to First-Order."

The moment the energy was injected, the cilia on the organism's surface contracted into tiny suckers, beginning to pulsate rhythmically, each pulsation causing faint ripples in the surrounding Mental Energy field.

"Ding, consumed 1,000 Evolution Points, Black Wire Worm enhanced to First-Order Black Wire Worm. Congratulations to the host for obtaining Elementary intimacy with the First-Order Black Wire Worm."

......

"Ding, consumed 16,000 Evolution Points, Black Wire Worm enhanced to Five-Order Black Wire Worm. Congratulations to the host for obtaining undying loyalty from the Five-Order Black Wire Worm."

The Five-Order Black Wire Worm was placed by Zhou Qi in a specially made quartz vessel, its size still like a mustard seed, yet emitting stable Mental fluctuations.

Zhou Qi leaned in to observe, finding that its carapace surface displayed patterns completely reversed from the Iron-Blooded Queen's runes, like a cipher in a mirror, each pattern vibrating slightly, as if whispering ancient secrets; and its internal nerve chain was resonating with the outside world at a frequency of hundreds of times per second, each pulsation causing subtle ripples in the air around the vessel, with distorted light and shadows faintly visible within the ripples, like characters of some unknown language.

Immediately, Zhou Qi opened the Familiar panel:

Apostle: Five-Order Black Wire Worm

Rank: Advanced Life Form

Race: Black Wire Worm

Gene: Advanced Black Wire Worm Gene

Life Essence: Carbon-based organism

Talents:

Five-Star Talent:

Wisdom Enlightenment: Uses nano-level tendrils to pierce neural nodes, optimizing brain cell connection efficiency, and can catalyze neural regeneration during the host's sleep, enhancing logical thinking and environmental analysis capabilities, and can even guide the host to develop basic tool-use awareness and further optimize it.

Four-Star Talent:

Shackle Decryption: Can analyze and decrypt various life shackles or Thought Imprints within the host's body.

Energy Siphon: Can draw psionic energy from strong emotional fluctuations such as fear and ecstasy in the host; for every unit drawn, it can increase its own Soul strength by one layer.

Three-Star Talent:

Soul Symbiosis: Shares pain and basic emotional perception with the host; when the host develops a strong desire for knowledge, it can simultaneously enhance the activity of its own nerve chain.

Nano Parasitism: Can infiltrate synaptic gaps, difficult to detect by conventional Mental scans, and can establish temporary signal channels between host neurons to transmit faint thoughts, and can even simulate some of the host's neural signals to interfere with external perception and alter some commands.

Life Strength: 3

"A parasite that can enhance intelligence..."

Zhou Qi gently tapped the body of the Five-Order Black Wire Worm with his fingertip, and its body surface rippled, like a stone thrown into a lake.

As the ripples spread to the edges, they resonated with the confinement runes on the surrounding laboratory walls, emitting a faint "humming" sound.

He recalled Ke Si's fear when he escaped, which transcended the Ironblood Bugman's instinct—that was not fear of death, but resistance to meaningless sacrifice.