Things on the battlefield were unfolding differently. After surviving the calamity, that silver figure shuttled past the Moonlight Demon warriors like a bolt of lightning, drawing blood wherever it went. In the blink of an eye, dozens of high-ranking warriors had fallen in its hands.
That expert found his speed greatly reduced after being injured by Bluemoon. He chased the silver shadow furiously but was still one step behind its every move. He simply couldn’t catch up to it at all.
The female warrior broke into a frown. She arched her body and shot toward the silvery shadow like a cannonball, slas.h.i.+ng it down midair!
She could no longer hide her cultivation at this point—her five origin vortices lit up brilliantly in Qianye’s True Sight. As he saw it, the purity of her origin power was at an acceptable level, barely enough to break through to the divine champion rank. This meant that her cultivation art was one level lower than the top aristocracy of the empire. However, that slash just now was extremely well-timed and the origin power utilization was close to perfection. It would seem she had reached great success with her combat arts. In terms of technique alone, she stood level with Qianye and Zhao Jundu.
That Moonlight Demon expert was a marquis, equal to a rank sixteen human, but he was far less dazzling in terms of combat techniques.
The silver shadow’s original form was finally revealed after falling to the ground—it was a large insect with sharp forelimbs, shrouded in sparkling silver radiance. The female warrior’s slash had left only a small wound on its body. It flapped its wings a couple of times after being grounded and actually rose back into the air. The durability of its body had already surpa.s.sed ordinary armor alloys.
The silver bug made a sharp turn after taking to the air and flew around the Moonlight Demon expert. Blood splashed out immediately as a large wound appeared on his back. The man retaliated instinctively, but the insect dodged his attack. What it couldn’t dodge were the girl’s sword strikes, which sent it tumbling in three moves.
The insect flew high into the air and beat its wings rapidly, sending an invisible vibration far and wide. The female warrior’s expression changed sharply. “Oh no, it’s summoning an insect horde, retreat!”
The other expert was dissatisfied. “We’re so close!”
“Keimor, do you not understand an order? We’ve already cleaned up this nest. All we need is to come back and launch the final strike. Now, withdraw!”
The lady’s voice was stern. Despite his unwillingness, Keimor could only round up the surviving troops and leave rapidly.
Buzzing sounds echoed through the hall within moments as countless insects flew in from the tunnels and gathered around the nest. Only at this point did that silver bug descend into the nest.
Thousands of insects landed on the nest, moving up and down as they repaired the nest with some sort of secretion from their mouths. The other bugs spread across the battlefield to devour the corpses. They gobbled up everything made of flesh and blood, making no distinction between friend and foe.
No wonder that female warrior was intent on running away. She would’ve drowned in the sea of bugs had she stayed, regardless of her skill in battle. Only someone like Qianye who possessed the oceanic domain and Life Plunder would dare to have designs on the horde.
Qianye was moved as he observed the numerous bugs concentrated in a small area. If he were to charge over and use his domain power and Life Plunder, he could wipe out eighty percent of these critters and harvest enough essence blood to make him a virtuous count.
But he soon struck out this thought. He hadn’t finished digesting the fruits of his battle against the giant rhinoceros and simply had no need for such a large amount of essence blood. Moreover, Life Plunder was a powerful skill against enemies like the giant rhinoceros, so he couldn’t waste it.
Nonetheless, the opportunity in front of him was too good to let go. Qianye reached a conclusion after some thought—he produced two crates of origin grenades and piled the contents up in front of him. Then, with the speed of lightning, over twenty of them formed a beautiful semi-circular array in the air, with ten more forming an internal semi-circle around the hive. Finally, the last few explosives sealed off the top.
In the blink of an eye, dozens of origin grenades formed a perfect encirclement of the nest, leaving no gaps from top to bottom.
The grenades in the outer circle exploded with a loud boom while the inner ones were delayed for a split second. This brief moment’s delay caused the shockwaves from the inner cl.u.s.ter to be bounced back by the external impact, increasing its effect on the nest. In the blink of an eye, the concentrated explosion formed a frightening tornado of flames that rushed toward the cavern ceiling!
Countless insects were shredded to bits in the explosion. Their remains were ignited in the high temperatures of the origin flames and swept away by the rising flames.
The next moment, countless insect bodies fell like pattering rain, and only when the flames had receded did the hive come into view.
At this moment, the outer sh.e.l.l of the hive had been shaved off, revealing the pa.s.sage into the nest. The bugs around it had been wiped out with only a handful of survivors remaining.
With the sh.e.l.l removed, Qianye’s blood core beat erratically once more as he sensed the aura that he so desired.
Having no more hesitations, he leapt into the air and toward the hive.
That silvery insect scuttled out from the hive, but unfortunately, it didn’t get the chance to fly very far. A beam of sword radiance traversed dozens of meters through the air and landed on its body.
Nirvanic Rend!
The creature screamed sharply as a part of its body was slashed open. Despite the st.u.r.diness of its body, it couldn’t do much against the Nirvanic Rend that had swung out from East Peak.
Qianye’s stretched his body after wounding the silver bug and made a beeline for the hive, unleas.h.i.+ng another Nirvanic Rend on the way.
The creature did its utmost to roll about mid-air and barely managed to avoid the vitals, but the attack still left a wound on its body. Its body sank downward at this point and no amount of flapping could stop the downward momentum.
Qianye didn’t add another slash but, instead, raised East Peak and dropped down from beside the nest, almost like a falling star. The blade cut through the nest from top to bottom and hacked it open!
The hive produced a creaking noise as it opened up from the middle. The interior chamber was over a meter tall, just enough for a person to crouch his way in. There were numerous incubation chambers scattered inside the nest, but most of them had already hatched, leaving behind empty sh.e.l.ls everywhere. It would seem the hive had expended its entire reserve fighting power during the battle.
At the base of the hive was a small pond of faint silvery liquid. It would seem that this was the silvery insect’s chamber.
Qianye jumped right into the pond. Green smoke began to rise from his robes as the liquid splashed onto him. Apparently, it contained powerful corrosive properties that even an expert’s combat robes couldn’t withstand. Qianye paid no heed to this because his body was much stronger than his attire. As expected, the fluid burned through his trousers but could do nothing to his skin.
The pond wasn’t deep and only rose to his knees. Qianye walked over to the center and saw a ball of silver sitting quietly—this was the object that had invoked a strong desire in the dark golden blood energy.
Qianye’s hands sank as he picked up the silver sphere. Qianye was shocked—this silver ball was merely the size of his fist, but it weighed hundreds of kilograms.
The ball wasn’t solid, rather it was soft and silky in the hand. It felt somewhat like gelatin, but then again, it also felt like mercury. A stinging sensation came from his palms, almost as though he was being p.r.i.c.ked by many fine needles.
s.h.i.+fting the ball to his right hand, he noticed that his left hand was covered in a layer of silver. This argent sphere’s corrosive powers were countless times stronger than the liquid in the pond, so much so that even Qianye couldn’t resist it.
It was metal yet not metal. Qianye had never seen such a material before, but it was definitely this thing that had produced a powerful desire in the dark golden blood energy.
Before Qianye could finish studying his prize, he felt a sudden chill from behind, and the intense killing intent caused his hair to flutter.
Qianye slashed backward without a second thought! This attack made no motion to defend himself and only targeted the incoming a.s.sailant, relying on his powerful vampiric const.i.tution to exchange injuries.
The ambusher exclaimed in surprise, not expecting Qianye to use a suicidal method. She had no choice but to pull back her blade and block. As the two swords came into contact, her edge made a deft turn to deflect Qianye’s East Peak and then pierced toward his heart!
At this moment, Qianye had already turned around and realized that it was the female warrior from before. Her weapon was now pointed at Qianye’s waist and the mirage of a large blade emerged on her sword. Apparently, this was a powerful killing move.
Qianye didn’t even look at the incoming strike as he brought East Peak swinging onto her head. Even if the girl’s sword could stab right through him, the attack from above would split her into two.
The female warrior flashed away for over ten meters, putting a considerable distance between them. She was extremely decisive in pulling back after her failed ambush.
“Put down the Earth Dragon’s blood and I’ll spare you!”
Qianye tossed the ball in his hand. “Spare me? Why should I believe you?”
The female warrior replied, “I’m Claudia, the only daughter of Mask, the leader of the Moonlight Demons. If I say you’ll be spared, then you will leave this cavern alive.”
Claudia was about as tall as Qianye with a handsome face, brows like swords, and an expression filled with sharp killing intent. Qianye looked rather relaxed, but in truth, he had already ranked this opponent among those he couldn’t underestimate. During their exchange just now, it felt like East Peak had sunk into a marsh—every movement was difficult and there was a constant force driving the blade in a different direction. If it wasn’t for his powerful const.i.tution and strength, he would’ve revealed an opening and consequently fall into a disadvantage.
But he was able to hide his serious thoughts even under Claudia’s killing intent. Her fingers were trembling slightly. She felt Qianye’s power erupt like a volcano as their swords came into contact; her arms went numb and blood and qi were thrown into turmoil. If it wasn’t for her decisive retreat, she had doubts about whether she could still hold her blade after two more blows.
Qianye sized the girl up from head to toe. “Why must I hand you this item?”
“Put down the Earth Dragon’s blood. A lowly human like you is not worthy of it!” A stern voice echoed through the hall. The Moonlight Demon expert Keimor had also returned.
Following his appearance, a large number of warriors rushed out of the cave and surrounded the platform Qianye was on.
Without waiting for Qianye to speak, Keimor let out a sinister laugh and shouted, “Don’t waste words with him, kill him now!” Then, he raised his gun and opened fire!