Jumanji arrived at the location where he had left the Leech Jewels upon the back of the bee.
The area was drowned in a heavy silence—a silence that boded ill.
The feeble movements previously twitching from the bee had ceased entirely. He found it there: a lifeless husk, unmoving. As for the three Leech Jewels, they had vanished completely from the surface. In their stead, three deep, dark hollows pitted the bee's stagnant form.
Jumanji paused, sinking into thought. There was a riddle that had long eluded the understanding of most cultivators: What truly happens when a leech encounters another of its own kind within a single spiritual vessel?
The answer lay hidden within Jumanji's memories and Mahinour's ancient experiences. He murmured very slowly, his voice echoing in the stillness:
"Will it truly succeed... or have I done something unnatural?"
He did not hesitate for long. With a decisive movement, he split the bee's massive carcass in half. The creature's interior was laid bare, and his eyes fell upon a strange sight.
There, he saw something black in color, possessing a hybrid form. Half of it was gelatinous while the other half was molluscoid, looking like a creature whose growth had not yet finished. It appeared utterly still, with no pulse and no trace of stable spiritual energy. The transformation process had stalled midway, frozen in a liminal moment that was neither life nor death.
After further searching and scrutinizing the bee's entrails, Jumanji found that the hybrid entity which had formed was indeed "dead"—a dull, lifeless mass, like the corpse of something never born.
Jumanji paused for a moment, the thread of a thousand years of memories flashing through his mind like lightning. He muttered to himself bitterly:
"Hidden Dusk Leech... a Ninth-Rank Leech!"
Jumanji did not surrender. He continued to scavenge through the bee's spiritual remains until he stumbled upon something peculiar resting directly atop the "heart." It was a small body that seemed completely dormant, extinguished and motionless, like a piece of polished black stone.
Jumanji's eyes ignited with a sudden spark upon seeing this concealed molluscoid being; a glimmer of hope had appeared on the horizon. However, as the seconds ticked by, the leech did not move, nor did it emit any spiritual pulse or response to its surroundings.
In that moment, a silent sort of anxiety crept into Jumanji's depths—a worry he had never felt before. Had the endeavor truly failed? Had the three jewels evaporated and gone to waste in this attempt?
He stood there amidst the remains of the dead bee, unable to discern exactly what had occurred behind the veil of spiritual matter. The silence surrounding the "Dormant Leech" atop the heart was the only answer he possessed.
Jumanji sighed deeply, then averted his gaze, whispering in a calm and balanced tone:
"It is fine... for failure in itself is but another kind of success, and a path to knowing the boundaries of the impossible."
He closed his eyes for a moment, surrendering to reality, then continued as he prepared to leave:
"I tried with all I possessed, but it ends here. I have no more time to waste over a lifeless corpse; there are crops and labors awaiting me across the farm."
Jumanji had resolved to depart and complete his agricultural project. Indeed, he turned his body to leave the area.
But then... suddenly!
A very faint sound reached his ears—a delicate cracking sound, barely audible amidst the oppressive silence. Jumanji froze in his tracks, feeling a chill run down his spine. He turned slowly toward the bee's carcass, and his eyes widened in astonishment; the skin of the "Dormant Leech" atop the heart had begun to crack!
The cracks were fine and small at first, hardly visible to the naked eye, but they began to expand with frantic speed like spiderwebs. Jumanji's eyes shone with a burst of hope, and he rushed back toward the corpse to see what was happening with his own eyes.
Suddenly, the cracks could no longer withstand the internal pressure. They exploded with a staggering spiritual power, releasing a wave of light and heat that forced Jumanji to shield his face from the intense flash!
The "dormancy" had been merely a shell; what was happening now was a birth of a special kind.
As the light gradually cleared, the features of the new entity began to manifest atop the bee's shattered heart. No trace remained of that stagnant stone-like piece; in its place appeared a strange "leech," its form entirely different from its predecessor.
It was a molluscoid creature overflowing with a deep, enchanting violet hue, possessing two fluid tails that moved gracefully as if swimming through the air. Most peculiar were the two horns protruding from its head, resembling a deer's antlers in their detail, lending it a legendary and majestic aura.
Jumanji stood rooted to the spot, watching this unique creature as it radiated a faint violet light, sending out calm and rhythmic spiritual pulses into the surroundings. After a few moments of awe, his features relaxed, and a wide smile of satisfaction spread across his face. He whispered with confidence:
"It succeeded, then..."
In that moment, Jumanji realized the truth: that ugly, lifeless molluscoid shape he had seen initially was not a failure; it was nothing more than a temporary "cocoon." A hard spiritual shell protecting the grand transformation of this creature, born just now from the womb of death.
It was no longer just a Ninth-Rank Leech, but a spiritual mutation born from the evolution of the Leech Essence. The entity Jumanji had planned for with such precision and patience had finally manifested: the Seventh-Rank "Night Dusk Leech"!
Though this process required sacrificing the life of another being and seizing its soul, Jumanji felt not a shred of regret. He knew with certainty that in this cruel world, there is no ascension without offerings; everything complements the other in the bitter cycle of survival.
Jumanji bowed with dignity and extended his hand toward the glowing violet creature. As soon as the leech settled onto his wrist, Jumanji felt a subtle pressure increase around his feet, as if gravity had begun to recognize him as a new center of mass.
The leech began to crawl over his palm and up his arm, touching his skin with an intimacy as if it were a pet returning to its master. This connection was not strange; this leech was not only born from the bee's womb but had matured within Jumanji's own "Spiritual Farm," making it an inseparable part of his energetic being and entirely submissive to his will.
Jumanji stroked the small, deer-like horns and felt the flow of cold violet energy through his pores. The gambling phase was over, and the phase of sovereignty had begun. With this leech, the rules of the game would never be the same.
Jumanji felt an overwhelming ecstasy surging through his veins as he watched the small violet creature, then murmured with determination:
"Very well... let us go now. It is time for you to become a Spiritual Fetus, and it is also time to develop this farm."
Jumanji was aware of a secret unknown to the vast majority of cultivators: the process of developing a farm using a legendary leech like this is not merely an increase in power, but a re-authoring of the place's essence. Even though this Leech Essence appeared within the fold of a Third-Rank tribe, none of its elders or geniuses would have dared to imagine how to use it or decode its true capabilities.
This was entirely logical in the world of cultivators; there are thousands of types of "leeches," most of which remain fluctuating between the Essence and the Lower Ninth Rank without ever finding the correct path for evolution. There are cultivators who spend their lives trying to reach the Eighth or Seventh Rank, but they lack the wisdom and the circumstances to make the leech transcend its natural limits.
The established truth is that it is not necessary for every "leech" to possess an upward path from the Ninth Rank to the First; most are dead ends. But Jumanji, with his time-defying experience, knew this path, transforming that leech from a seed into a legend that would begin to grow from the heart of his spiritual farm, changing the inherited rules of power in this harsh world.
The Seventh-Rank "Night Dusk Leech"... a legendary creature that followed, in its essence, the "Path of the Weight Sect."
Jumanji contemplated the violet energy of the leech as it began to blend with his being, whispering in a firm tone:
"The Weight Sect... I think I shall take this path now."
The choice of this path was not random. The Weight Sect is considered one of the rarest and deadliest spiritual sects, granting its practitioner the ability to manipulate mass and gravity, turning every simple strike into a collision rivaling the fall of mountains.
Jumanji realized that possessing a Seventh-Rank leech at this early stage, and by following this specific approach, would make him a force to be reckoned with—capable of crushing bones and pulverizing armor no matter its hardness.
It was the missing piece of his puzzle. While others were preoccupied with speed or traditional elements, Jumanji decided on sovereignty through absolute weight. With this leech, which would now settle as a fetus in the heart of his farm, he would write his first pages in the history of this cruel world.
End of Chapter