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In a sense, this strange insectoid was completely harmless to cultivators without the ability to infect and control its host.
Lu Ye looked down and examined the insectoid he had captured closely. He discovered that it looked almost the same as the cicada-like parasite he had extracted from Amber before. The only difference was that it was gold in color as if it was forged from actual gold.
“Insectoid King!” He muttered to himself.
“Excuse me?” Zhou Hai asked with a frown.
“This is the Insectoid King!”
No one seemed to get what he was talking about, the Ninth-Order Cloud River Realm cultivators even less so. They had never encountered an “Insectoid King” despite having experienced many Hidden Realms and fought even more insectoids in the Cloud River Battlefield. They knew that the insectoids were monsters that only knew slaughter and destruction, but they didn’t know there was such a thing as an “Insectoid King” until now.
“How did you know that?” Xia Qianqian voiced her puzzlement.
“I felt something during the short period it tried to control me…” Lu Ye tried very hard to recall the memory before saying slowly, “You know, I believe Myriad Beasts Domain would be saved if we killed it!”
That caught everyone’s attention immediately. Zhou Hai asked, “What do you mean?”
Lu Ye took a moment to process the information he received from the golden parasite before explaining, “None of the insectoids in the Myriad Beasts Domain, except the Insectoid King, have a mind of their own. They are all being controlled by the Insectoid King. If it dies, then the rest of the insectoids will die’ with it. Their empty shells might still live inside the Spirit Beasts’ bodies, but wouldn’t affect their minds anymore…”
When the Insectoid King was inside his body, he had sensed a plethora of auras on the surface. They obviously belonged to the insectoids hiding inside the Spirit Beasts’ bodies. He had also sensed millions and millions of life energies in the direction of Bilandia.
The connection worked both ways. Lu Ye was pretty sure that Amber had sensed the Insectoid King back when an insectoid had tried to seize control of its body.
“Are you absolutely sure that killing the Insectoid King would cause all other insectoids to cease functioning?” Kitty Shen asked uncertainly.
She had been wondering how their diminished group was going to escape from the army of Spirit Beasts waiting for them outside, not to mention the ocean of Spirit Beasts assaulting Bilandia. Considering their condition, it seemed extremely unlikely that they would be able to make it out alive, much less save Bilandia and consequently the world.
If what Lu Ye said was true though, then killing the Insectoid King would solve all of their problems.
“Let’s find out, shall we?” Lu Ye said before tightening his grip. The Insectoid King let out one final screech before popping like a balloon and spilling golden liquid all over the place. Lu Ye burned it all with his Fire Attribute Spiritual Power.
As if on cue, the crazed Spirit Beasts on the surface suddenly stopped pawing at the earth and calmed down. The scarlet, crazed gleam in their eyes swiftly faded as well.
The Spirit Beasts at the Black Tortoise Sect weren’t the only ones that had calmed down. At Bilandia, the despairing cultivators were moments away from making their last stand when the Spirit Beasts that were attacking them from every direction retreated like tidewater. The survivors slowly gathered together on the broken walls as they watched the retreating horde while basking in unadulterated relief and joy.
No one knew why the Spirit Beasts had retreated suddenly. The Jiu Zhou cultivators were the only ones who figured out that someone had probably solved the root of the problem.
Back at the Black Tortoise Sect, the group were currently trekking through the tunnels and making their way back to the surface. The insectoid nest had started withering as soon as Niu Meng was dead, and the flesh wall that sealed the exit earlier was no exception.
The group was desperate to leave the insectoid nest, not just because it was the source of many a trauma, but also because it was still covered in poisonous mist. No one was willing to linger in that Heavens-forsaken place for even a second longer.
They didn’t dare to head back to the surface immediately though. Despite all the antidotes they had consumed, the poison was still eating away at their bodies. Their bodies were sore, their limbs felt weak, and their Spiritual Power was stuttering like there was rust inside their veins.
At this rate, they would have to return to the Cloud River Battlefield and find a medicine cultivator to cleanse all the toxins in their bodies properly. Otherwise, it was unlikely that they would recover quickly.
In the darkened tunnels, Lu Ye was recuperating after consuming a Healing Pill. He had sent Yi Yi away to scout the surface. Unlike the cultivators in Bilandia, they still did not know if Lu Ye’s assumption was true. If he was wrong, then they were going to have to fight their way out.
No one wanted to fight the Spirit Beasts if at all possible. Not only were they seriously hurt, they were unable to unleash even half of their strength due to the poison.
Suddenly, Pang Dahai broke the silence with a low chuckle. “Hey guys. This is just a suggestion, but you should take a look at your identity passes!”
Judging from the delight in his voice, it must be good news. Everyone did as he said immediately.
When Lu Ye checked his identity pass, he was shocked to find that his Battle Points had skyrocketed to almost thirty thousand!
Since the Heavens were the ones tallying the Battle Points, he could trust that he wasn’t seeing things. At the beginning, Lu Ye had killed many Spirit Beasts with his wards at the valley. However, that battle had only earned him a little over three thousand Battle Points. During the defense of Bilandia, his tally blew past the five thousandth mark, not just because he had killed a lot of Spirit Beasts, but also because he earned a sizable sum for repairing Howling Thunder.
The trip to the Black Tortoise Sect was worth five times that amount or almost twenty five thousand Battle Points! His contribution in Niu Meng’s death clearly made up the bulk of the reward. His killing of the Insectoid King must have given him a lot of Battle Points as well, not to mention the discovery of the hidden ability of this breed of Insectoids…
In any case, thirty thousand Battle Points represented a massive amount of wealth to a Second-Order Cloud River Realm cultivator like Lu Ye. If he remembered correctly, Bilandia’s quartermaster department offered a Gold Amulet at the cheap, cheap price of sixteen thousand and two hundred Battle Points. This meant that he almost had enough Battle Points to purchase two Gold Amulets in one go!
He did not know how many Battle Points the others earned, but he could not imagine them earning less than him. The Ninth-Order cultivators had been crucial in the slaying of Niu Meng, and Zhou Hai and Pang Dahai even more so. Without Zhou Hai, they might not have had the strength to slay Niu Meng even after he was separated from his Chosen Beast. As for Pang Dahai, he was the one who held Niu Meng at bay and kept their casualties to a minimum.
Now that he thought about it, Niu Meng was worth almost one or even two hundred Battle Points in total. The Battle Points were then split among the group based on their contribution.
All the desperation and bitterness they had suffered while fighting against Niu Meng transformed into pure joy in that moment. Not even the darkness could conceal the wide grins on everyone’s faces.
Unfortunately, only eight of them had survived the trip. The battle against Niu Meng was so dangerous that they lost half of their combat cultivators and one body-tempering cultivator. Not even the female ghost cultivator had lived until the end.
Risk and reward were two sides of the same coin, and it was inevitable that a cultivator would encounter a life-threatening crisis once in a while.
Suddenly, Pang Dahai exclaimed in surprise, “Is it just me, or are we missing a head?”
Lu Ye looked around and discovered that he was right. He quickly realized that the missing person was none other than Lan Ziyi.
The discovery surprised him a little. He thought he had hidden his intentions pretty well, but it would seem that the woman was smarter than he gave her credit for. She had left the group and hid herself long before he noticed her absence.
In this Cultivation World, Lu Ye had no problems playing the role the Heavens had bestowed upon him and cooperating with Lan Ziyi—not that his intention mattered where the Heavens were involved. Plus, the Heavens had made her his attendant. The arrangement was more beneficial to him than it was to her no matter how he looked at it.
However, Lu Ye had not forgotten for even a second that they were enemies. Back in the Spirit Creek Battlefield, he had fought her to defend his title as the champion of the Scroll of Supremacy and just barely defeated her. Having experienced her strength and potential first hand, he had no doubt she would grow to become a great threat to the Grand Sky Coalition in the future. That was why he had been waiting for a suitable opportunity to kill her this whole time. He was sure that Lan Ziyi had been thinking the same thing.
The reason he hadn’t acted on his thoughts wasn’t just because that opportunity hadn’t arrived, but also because he did not know everyone’s affiliation besides Pang Dahai. If he tried to kill Lan Ziyi in front of the group, there was a high chance the attempt would end in failure.
It was a different story now. Lan Ziyi was poisoned and much weaker than normal. Lu Ye was seriously injured, but he could unleash most of his strength because he wasn’t poisoned.
If he could find the right opening, he was fairly certain he would be able to kill Lan Ziyi in one strike. The others would try to interfere and save her, but Pang Dahai should be able to hold them off until the deed was done.
He didn’t think that Lan Ziyi would nip his plan in the bud.
It was a shame, but there was nothing he could do about it. At the same time, he was impressed with the woman’s decisiveness. She was clearly aware that she shouldn’t get anywhere close to Lu Ye in her current condition.
Lan Ziyi’s disappearance didn’t cause too many ripples. Even Pang Dahai, the guy who mentioned her disappearance in the first place, simply left the matter at that.
Most of them were veterans who had survived in the Cloud River Battlefield for a very, very long time. It was obvious to them that Lan Ziyi was hiding because she was wary of someone in the group. There was no need to say it out loud and sour the mood, not to mention that they weren’t out of the woods yet.
It was at this moment Lu Ye received a message from Yi Yi. As he predicted, the Spirit Beasts above the Black Tortoise Sect had left the area. She even observed a lone Spirit Beast for a moment and confirmed that it had indeed returned to normal.
Lu Ye asked, “How do you leave a Hidden Realm like this?”
Pang Dahai answered, “Normally, a Divine Opportunity Column appears at a specific location if the crisis was resolved… in this case, I think the Divine Opportunity Column will appear in Bilandia, though you’ll have to search around a little to find it. Bilandia is a massive city after all.”
Lu Ye raised an eyebrow. “We didn’t obtain the city lord’s permission before leaving Bilandia. If what the Great Elder said is true, then we’ve probably been branded as traitors of humanity and barred from Bilandia forever.”
Pang Dahai chuckled. “That is why it’s going to be slightly troublesome to return to Bilandia.”
The fat man didn’t look panicked in the slightest though. He had probably experienced something similar in the past.
“We can’t not go back though. The quartermaster department is in Bilandia…” Lu Ye groaned while rubbing his forehead.
“It doesn’t matter. If you want to exchange your Battle Points at the quartermaster department, that’s okay. If you want to perform the transaction after returning to the Cloud River Battlefield, that is fine as well.”
“Huh? Please explain.”
“Let me put it this way. Battle Points are a currency that you can only earn from some Hidden Realms, and in a sense are even more valuable than Contribution Points. All you need to do is to access a Divine Opportunity Column, connect to the Vault of Providence, and spend your Battle Points there.
“By the way, you should know that Battle Points can be exchanged for anything Contribution Points can, but not vice versa. The Amulets are one such example. It’s because everything you exchanged really comes from the Vault of Providence; from the Heavens themselves!”
Lu Ye tipped his head gratefully at Pang Dahai. He could appreciate the convenience of the setup if nothing else. It also made him realize how incredible the Heavens were all over again.
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