Chapter 3: I Will Rise!

Though Yun Yi hesitated, in the end he still followed after a hard struggle within himself.

As soon as he entered the burrow, he realized he had been tricked.

The larger male mosquito suddenly revealed its true devilish face. It opened its huge mouth and advanced step by step toward Yun Yi, intent on swallowing him whole.

Yun Yi was so frightened that he froze, backing away again and again. Only after a moment did he manage to say, "What are you doing? Eating your own kind?"

The giant mosquito gave a laugh. "Your own kind? Since when are you my kind? I am a magnificent giant mosquito. I am not a herbivore."

At those words, Yun Yi dared not stay. He turned at once and fled.

But how could the giant mosquito let him leave so easily? With a tremor of its wings, it spread them wide, then flapped once or twice and flashed to the burrow entrance.

Seeing this, Yun Yi did not dare press forward. Faced with the giant mosquito, his heart pounded wildly. In comparison, he was no more than a mosquito before an elephant. His chances were slim indeed.

The giant mosquito stared at him coldly, its eyes gleaming with greed. Yun Yi had become its meal. In the next instant, it lunged violently at him.

Yun Yi was startled, but with his fine speed he narrowly escaped disaster.

Yet hiding forever was no solution.

His strength would run out sooner or later. He had to win by surprise.

Before Yun Yi could come up with a good plan, the giant mosquito attacked again and again. Yun Yi relied on his small body to evade each strike, but his strength was already nearing its limit, and his whole body was covered in wounds.

After all, the two of them were not even in the same league.

The giant mosquito paused, still brimming with energy. "Stop dodging. Accept your fate. You are no match for me."

Yun Yi steadied himself and said word by word, "Who lives and who dies is still uncertain!"

Enraged, the giant mosquito beat its wings furiously. The burrow trembled at once, and Yun Yi was shaken so badly that he nearly lost his footing. At that moment, it wore a strange smile.

Seeing the chance had come, the giant mosquito lunged once more, mouth gaping wide.

And yet, in the next instant, Yun Yi, thanks to his much smaller size, slipped away cleanly, circled behind the giant mosquito, and delivered a fierce stab.

The giant mosquito's calm expression twisted abruptly into one of agony. In the end, it said unwillingly, "Impossible... your proboscis..."

Before it could finish, the giant mosquito died.

Yun Yi, having survived, gradually found himself spent as well. He toppled out of the nest, then closed his eyes and fell unconscious.

When he woke, it was already the afternoon of the next day.

"Growl, growl!"

That familiar sound once again awakened the sleeping Yun Yi.

He had no intention of feasting on the giant mosquito's corpse. It was far too disgusting.

Starving, Yun Yi had no choice but to set out once more in search of food.

Along a mountain path in the wild, half a day passed, and he saw not a person, not a mosquito, not even a single living creature.

That was a little odd.

Then Yun Yi suddenly remembered what many mosquitoes in the Red-Eyed clan had said the day before.

"Am I so hungry I have gone stupid? I can eat plants!" Yun Yi thought.

With that in mind, he decided to try. After all, there was no harm in testing it.

Besides, the wilderness lacked nothing so much as wildflowers.

So Yun Yi decided to use the ability he had been born with and sense heat through his antennae.

He closed his eyes and concentrated, and at once waves of invisible radiation spread outward. It was similar to infrared detection, able to perceive changes in the surrounding temperature.

Before long, joy lit his face.

He had found something to eat.

In the next moment, Yun Yi flew straight over. Beneath him stretched a sea of blossoms: wild oleanders. Looking at them, Yun Yi smiled with relief.

Now he could eat his fill.

He chose a low, bright red oleander at random and settled onto it, then began to feed.

After a few sips, Yun Yi lifted his head to look at the flower. He had originally thought he could not feed on nectar, but after trying it, he found the taste was actually rather good, much better than blood.

However, it seemed to have no real effect. There was no change in his body at all.

It did nothing more than fill his stomach.

Still, Yun Yi did not mind. He did not want to remain merely a blood-sucking mosquito. He wanted to cultivate.

After thinking for a moment, Yun Yi prepared to take a few more sips, then find a good place and search for others of his kind.

Just as he lowered his head, he suddenly heard mosquitoes flying in from all directions, their buzzing loud as thunder.

It instantly seized his attention.

Yun Yi stopped what he was doing and turned to look. Not far away, a cluster of dozens of mosquitoes had gathered a few inches above the flowers, as though discussing something.

As soon as he saw them, he felt a strange sense of familiarity. Looking down at his own body again, he noticed six legs, white stripes along his abdomen, and a small frame.

Ah. So this was what he looked like when he had once intentionally studied his reflection on the lake.

His own kind.

Yun Yi turned halfway around and hesitated.

He was a little afraid that what had happened with the giant mosquito would repeat itself. The memory still chilled him.

He was still wondering whether he should go up and greet them when a buzzing sound sounded by his ear.

Yun Yi froze. He was no fool. Having lived as a mosquito for several days, he already understood some of their habits.

The "buzzing" sound of a mosquito did not come from its mouth, but from the vibration of its wings in flight.

In other words, the hum he had heard was clearly not his own. There was only one possibility: another mosquito.

And it was right beside him.

Following the sound, Yun Yi looked over, and sure enough, a white-striped tiger mosquito with a somewhat larger abdomen, evidently a female, was flapping toward him.

What did it want?

For a moment, Yun Yi did not understand.

The female mosquito landed directly in front of him and advanced step by step. By then Yun Yi had already begun to suspect something, though only faintly.

Only a faint suspicion.

Who would have thought?

Seeing Yun Yi retreat again and again, not giving her the slightest dignity, the female mosquito immediately cried out, "Stop right there. Don't go!"

In the world of mosquitoes, females held the authority. Males had little to say.

That authority came not only because they could bear offspring, but because they were generally larger than males.

Hearing this, Yun Yi chose to ignore her.

Though he was still a virgin, as a man, how could he be afraid?

He had to stand tall.

Seeing this, the female mosquito liked him even more. At first she had been drawn to Yun Yi because he was larger than an ordinary male mosquito; she had not expected him to be so manly as well.

She grew even more frenzied.

In the next instant, the female mosquito's abdomen began twitching several times faster. It was already obvious.

No way. Could it be that she wanted to?

Guessing she might be about to do something too indecent to mention, Yun Yi could not help but feel a wave of disgust. It was revolting.

But if it came to a fight, he was not afraid. One or two opponents, he could certainly beat. Yet if the female mosquito called over her companions for help...

Then Yun Yi would only be in for a beating, and in the end he might even be gang-violated. Thinking of that, his heart sank.

Just as the female mosquito and Yun Yi were left with only a sliver of distance between them, close enough to touch his body, Yun Yi could no longer care about anything else and had already prepared for battle.

If there was a fight, then let there be a fight.

As long as she made the first move—

At the critical moment, a deep voice halted the female mosquito's next action, and Yun Yi himself also froze.

From the sound of it, this should have been an elder of the female mosquito's clan. Otherwise, she would never have listened.

"What do you think you're doing, Xiao Li?"

The newcomer was a male white-striped tiger mosquito, considerably smaller than the female mosquito, but with a more imposing air and a little older in age.

"Dad, why are you stopping me? I want to have children with him!" The female mosquito's confidence faded at the sight of the older male mosquito, and her voice took on a pleading note.

Yun Yi seized the chance to study them both.

The older male mosquito could tell what the female mosquito meant between the lines, and said, "Xiao Li, Dad knows you're in such a hurry because you want Dad to see your children as soon as possible. But that still depends on whether the other party is willing."

Indeed.

Generally speaking, a female mosquito's life cycle could last as long as one hundred days, while a male mosquito lived only about thirty.

Hearing this, Xiao Li turned back and said domineeringly, "Are you willing?"

She showed Yun Yi absolutely no face.

What kind of moral blackmail was this? Yun Yi had no intention of accepting it.

He firmly shook his head.

Seeing that soft words would not work, Xiao Li decided to force the issue. For the sake of letting her father see his grandchildren born, Xiao Li was willing to risk everything. She was ruthless indeed.

Xiao Li suddenly lunged forward. Yun Yi took a defensive stance, though he did not want to hurt her. It was filial devotion, after all. It would be enough to make her back down.

Xiao Li moved in, one leg striking straight toward Yun Yi's abdomen, but then she stopped.

It turned out that just before that, a figure had appeared in front of Yun Yi: Xiao Li's father. Seeing this, Xiao Li withdrew.

However, Xiao Li's father looked even weaker now.

His breathing was heavy.

Xiao Li did not notice, but Yun Yi saw it clearly.

Then Xiao Li's father turned to Yun Yi and said softly, "Young man, why are you gathering nectar alone? Where is your clan?"

Of course Yun Yi could not say he was human, so he quickly made up an excuse to brush it off.

"We got separated."

"Oh." Xiao Li's father gave a nod, then after a brief pause said, "How about this, young man? Come with us."

Yun Yi was about to refuse and say he was sorry.

"What's the matter with that? We're all of the same kind."

In the end, after Xiao Li's father's repeated invitations, Yun Yi finally agreed to go along.

When he arrived at Xiao Li's clan nest, it was a pond in the deep mountains, dry all around. Still, if it were not so, Xiao Li's clan would not have needed to go out looking for food.

Who would have thought?

As soon as Yun Yi arrived, the little pond changed entirely.

The flowers and grasses suddenly flourished.

This scene was seen by Xiao Li's father, and he remembered it in his heart.

Over the next several days, he lived quite well.

Xiao Li's father and the clan elders treated him very kindly.