丁香宗和激情五月

Chapter 119: Save the Apocalypse (25)

Since the target had been locked down below, there was no need to aimlessly search in the sky anymore. Presumably, that should be the cleverest of the worm species, the worm queen. It had likely realized how unpopular it was as an invader among humans. To ensure its safety until the invasion succeeded, it must have hidden itself in a safe place. Thus, finding it would not be that easy.

“Let’s rest for today and start a widespread search for the worm queen tomorrow. Since it’s staying quiet, we can create some chaos and problems to force it out,” Ren Zhu suggested, which Yi Xiao found to be a good idea. They stopped their exploration and returned to the camping spot of the nine-person team. By now, Zhao Tianfu and the others had already set up the tents and kindled a fire beside them. A pot of steaming hot noodle soup was likely tonight’s dinner. As Ren Zhu and Yi Xiao returned, Song Qiang, who was adding water to the pot, spoke up:

“It’s clear now how beneficial spatial abilities are. Without Brother Ren’s spatial power, our equipment wouldn’t be so good, and we wouldn’t have such a rich meal. Sigh, I really wish I were a spatial ability user!”

Guo Jian Fei rolled his eyes at his side. “What’s there for you to complain about as a water ability user? Just think about how you can have water to drink all the time. Water abilities offer plenty of control and offensive methods. It’s a good ability that combines support and attack. If you’re not satisfied, why don’t you trade with me? I’ll give you my body enhancement ability, and you give me your water ability.”

Song Qiang immediately made a disdainful face at Guo Jian Fei and gave him a sarcastic eye roll. “Kid, you have a pretty rosy view. Now go gather dry firewood somewhere else! Don’t make trouble.”

Guo Jian Fei shot back with an even larger eye roll. Then he turned to Ren Zhu and asked, “Big Brother, have you found the elusive worm queen’s location?”

Ren Zhu shook his head but then nodded, “We haven’t found it yet. We suspect it might have hidden underground. After all, on the surface, it would be too conspicuous. It’s not suitable for further action tonight. Let’s wait for tomorrow and plan a major operation. Even if we have to force it, we’ll make sure it comes out.”

Guo Jian Fei grinned and rubbed his hands together. “Heh, I just love using violence against enemies. Once we force it out, we’ll beat it so thoroughly that its soul scatters, making sure it dares not lead the worm horde to our turf. Just think of how many innocent humans it has harmed! I feel like exterminating their entire lineage!”

Yi Xiao, in a rare moment, glanced at him and nodded in agreement. “Exterminate their lineage.”

Guo Jian Fei: “…”

After dinner, everyone quickly settled down to rest, gearing up for a full day of action tomorrow. As the moon’s graceful eyebrow rose to its zenith in the sky, not too far from the nine-person team’s campsite, a beautiful butterfly with wings as transparent as crystal leisurely emerged from a small hill. This butterfly seemed to shimmer in the moon’s light, its wings causing a silvery glow as they flapped open. It was a sight to behold.

The butterfly played around in place for a while, seemingly losing interest, and then casually flew in a direction. That direction was where Ren Zhu and the others were. It appeared curious about these unseen humans. It lightly landed on top of a tent, trying to peek through the seams.

Whoosh…

A cold wind blew through, causing the moonlight butterfly to shiver and take flight again. It quickly flew away.

Inside the tent, Ren Zhu was sleeping soundly in Yi Xiao’s arms. Unexpectedly, Yi Xiao, who had been keeping his eyes closed, slowly opened them. His brows furrowed slightly, and after a moment, he spoke, “…?”

Early the next morning, bathed in the morning light, Zhao Daoist, the most diligent, got up. Although it was past 7 a.m. when the winter morning light was visible, he was still the earliest riser, performing a set of fierce Fist techniques passed down by his master. Zhao Daoist promptly roused everyone. Essentially, everyone except the three youngest were up.

“Big Brother, what’s the plan now? Should we split up or stay together? The cunning worm is underground, but we can’t possibly dig up the entire underground, right? If we had an earth elemental ability user among us, we might be able to dig, but currently, we have wind and water but no earth,” Zhao Daoist asked.

Ren Zhu munched on a meat bun as he said, “We’ll stay together. Later, a few of you will pair up with the two people over there. Stand in different directions, using psychic abilities, wind abilities, heightened senses, and the special techniques of a Daoist Zhao to sense any movement of living creatures underground or around. Remember, no matter what you see or sense, as long as it’s alive, let me know.”

The team quickly organized into groups as he instructed. Yi Xiao then suggested using their current location as the center and having others move 500 meters outward to observe the surroundings from four different directions. After setting up and activating their abilities to their maximum extent, Ren Zhu activated his upgraded “Ominous Premonition of the Classroom Teacher,” or simply “Classroom Teacher’s Premonition,” skill. He calmly sensed the surroundings.

Yi Xiao took a deep breath and then levitated in the air. He gestured towards Ren Zhu, and Ren Zhu floated to his side. Yi Xiao clenched his right fist and, the next moment, unleashed a powerful strike on the ground below. Accompanied by a tremendous roar, the once solid ground quaked violently, and a massive crater with a diameter of fifty meters formed, accompanied by horrifying crevices that snaked out like rapidly expanding snakes.

The eight people stationed 500 meters away were nearly scared out of their wits by the sudden disturbance. Fortunately, they quickly realized that this wasn’t a natural earthquake but a terrible artificial attack.

With no time to talk, everyone used their respective abilities to investigate the unusual conditions within a kilometer radius. Among them was Ren Zhu, who had been in a deep, meditative state like sleep. Soon, the explorers in the east, south, and north directions all exclaimed simultaneously, and Ren Zhu opened his eyes, his gaze sharp and bright.

“I’ve found something over here!” Zhou Yun shouted.

“I’ve found something too!” Mao Gan Cao’s expression turned serious.

“I found something, but… it might not be what we’re looking for. A group of worms resembling ants seems to be exhibiting strong psychic activity underground,” Zhao Daoist frowned, appearing somewhat puzzled about what he had discovered.

Only Liu Mingqing and Song Qiang hadn’t found anything, and these two seemed a bit embarrassed. However, Ren Zhu quickly reassured them, “It’s true that you haven’t sensed anything. I haven’t detected any psychic fluctuations from your positions.”

“So, where’s the problem exactly? I felt a group of creatures resembling grey-furred rabbits running away about eight hundred meters to the east,” Zhou Yun spoke up.

“That possibility should be relatively small, right? Even if this area is desolate, there should still be native creatures around. Uncle Liu, you can levitate and look towards the east; you should be able to see those creatures from there,” Jin Yu offered a clever suggestion.

Liu Mingqing followed his advice and turned his gaze to the east before nodding, “There’s a group of gray-furred, rabbit-like animals running around.”

“So, Sister Yun’s discovery is incorrect. Then, my feeling probably isn’t right either, right? I sensed a group of creatures resembling ants, but with such strong psychic activity, do ants really possess such power? Maybe it’s not accurate,” Mao Gan Cao said, sounding unsure. “Ants shouldn’t have such strong psychic energy, right?”

“Could it be a group of small worms?!” Zhao Tianfu exclaimed. However, he was immediately disgusted by the image he had conjured up, and the others’ faces didn’t look too good either. Ren Zhu frowned slightly, “We’ll go take a look over there later. It seems there might be something amiss.”

“But Zhao Tianfu, what did you discover? What did you find?” Ren Zhu ignored the rest and turned his head directly toward Zhao Tianfu. After a moment’s pause, Zhao Tianfu said, “I found something strange, but the likelihood of it being the worm queen is quite low. During the earthquake, I saw a very beautiful butterfly in the north. If it were an ordinary butterfly, it wouldn’t have surprised me, but this butterfly seemed to carry a bit of a sinister aura…”

“Spiritual aura? A butterfly spirit?!” Guo Jian Fei and Jin Yu’s eyes lit up.

Zhao Daoist chuckled at them, “I know what you’re thinking, but let go of those fantasies. Even if it is a true butterfly spirit, it would take thousands of years for it to transform into the beautiful butterfly women you’re imagining. Perhaps it just had some unusual encounter that triggered its awakening.”

“Oh, that butterfly is very beautiful? I really want to see it!” Zhou Yun, despite being quite tough, still couldn’t resist the allure of beautiful things.

After hearing Zhao Daoist’s words, Ren Zhu furrowed his brow slightly, but he quickly let it go. “Let’s go check out the southern area first. See if that’s where the worm queen’s nest is.”

Under Mao Gan Cao’s lead, the group quickly arrived at a location with fluctuating spiritual energy. However, neither Mao Gan Cao nor Zhou Yun seemed prepared to go any further. In fact, they even had rocket-powered aircraft ready, planning to take off immediately if they saw anything disgusting swarming around.

Seeing Mao Gan Cao’s behavior, Guo Jian Fei couldn’t help but mock, “Scaredy-cat! While? Sister Yun’s a girl, it’s somewhat understandable that she dislikes disgusting things. But you, as a grown man, how can you be such a wimp? It’s just a bunch of worms! What’s there to be afraid of?”

Mao Gan Cao didn’t bother responding, “If you dare, don’t back off even a bit when we move forward later! If you shout, you’re my grandson, got it?”

“Haha, you wimp! But what if I don’t shout? Will you be my grandson?”

Mao Gan Cao firmly refused, “No.”

“Pah! Then I won’t either!”

As the two bantered back and forth, Jin Yu directly shot a few metal spikes into the area, rapidly creating several deep pits in the ground. Then, a terrifying scene unfolded!

As if attacking a beehive, from the deep pits, numerous reddish-brown worms emerged in a swarming mass, emitting piercing cries. The appearance of these worms was extremely peculiar, but that didn’t stop everyone from recognizing their identity as extraterrestrial creatures—based on their incredibly repulsive appearance, it was absolutely impossible for them to have originated from Earth. In other words, there were no such hideous worms on Earth.

With slender tails, eight legs, and the front two legs resembling mantis arms, their triangular heads featured sinister and villainous expressions. Their screeches even carried disorienting sonic attacks. These were without a doubt the alien worms.

“Ah ah ah ah ah!! Why are they so disgusting?! Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah! These worms are crawling on me, so disgusting, so disgusting, so disgusting! Fireball, fireball, fireball! Water, water, water! Hurry and kill them, kill them! I feel like they’re going to bite me or parasitize me. Boss, help me!” Guo Jian Fei’s face turned green the moment he saw the worms. He had never witnessed a scene as skin-crawling as this! It was a million times more repulsive than a group of termites or ants!

These extraterrestrial larvae were probably not fully mature yet, so their attack power wasn’t very strong. However, even so, the sight of countless worms swarming out of the ground and rushing at them while emitting piercing cries made the entire nine-person team go pale with fright! If it weren’t for Yi Xiao coldly snorting and directly stomping on all the alien worms that emerged on the surface, relying only on Zhao Tianfu and the others, they would have been completely engulfed by this sea of worms. Even Ren Zhu’s complexion turned pale, and in this situation, he didn’t even have time to use his abilities. He was almost bitten to death.

“I’m here. I’m fine,” Yi Xiao grabbed Ren Zhu’s hand directly.

Ren Zhu returned his grip with a particularly strong one, thinking that fortunately, in this world, he had a partner too. Otherwise, considering the difficulty of this mission, he probably wouldn’t survive.

Just as everyone had relaxed slightly, an extremely angry scream suddenly erupted from underground. The sound seemed silent, yet it shattered their defensive barriers directly. Everyone took a big step back, looking at the trembling ground with the alertness of facing a major enemy. Needless to say, once they killed the small ones, the worm queen, who had lost her offspring, would definitely appear in anger and try to eliminate these detestable enemies.

Amid the intense shaking, Ren Zhu and the others finally saw the enormous worm emerging from the ground. This worm was roughly the size of a Northeast tiger, and its appearance was remarkably similar to its offspring’s. However, compared to them, its multicolored tail was sharp and spiked, undoubtedly poisonous. Its two mantis-like front claws shimmered with a dark purple light. Yet, the most horrifying aspect was its face. If the faces of the other worm species resembled distorted human villainous faces, this worm’s face… closely resembled that of a human.

If one had to describe it, its face looked like a well-sculpted snake spirit’s face, complete with fox-like eyes and a pointed nose.

“………………” So ugly!