txolops Chapter 282 The Gold-Eating Insects Are Damaged
Chapter 282 The Gold-Eating Insects Are Damaged
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On Luo Ming's side, the pressure increased sharply! His gold-devouring insects, which were happily hunting, were the first to be attacked by the enraged fire lizards!
"Oh no, I've angered the entire tribe." Luo Ming sighed inwardly. This woman's outburst had dragged him into an even more dangerous situation! He could no longer leisurely collect materials and cultivate spirit insects.
As a roar comparable to that of a Nascent Soul cultivator exploded from the center of the lake, the entire lava lake seemed to be violently stirred by an invisible giant hand! The dark red magma no longer flowed slowly, but instead surged and gushed violently like boiling water.
The intense heat generated increased several times over, causing his magical energy consumption to surge.
The Xuan Yuan Pearl beneath Luo Ming's feet flashed rapidly, and the lifting force it provided became extremely unstable. The pale blue protective shield around him fluctuated violently under the impact of the raging, scorching airflow, and the chill emanating from his Snow Silk Ice Silk Robe was suppressed to within three feet. He immediately steadied himself, his divine sense spreading out like a net, and his expression instantly turned solemn.
In his perception, at least two powerful demonic auras of level six demonic beasts, like cannonballs, broke through the magma from different directions and rushed toward him at high speed! What was even more chilling was that after these two level six auras, there were no less than a dozen slightly weaker, but still firmly level five, fire lizards.
They echoed each other, subtly forming a formation, closing in from all directions and completely sealing off all possible escape routes for Luo Ming!
"I've really stirred up a hornet's nest!" Luo Ming thought with a chill, knowing that the real battle was about to begin and there was no longer any chance of taking shortcuts.
His mind raced, and he issued a command to the swarm of gold-devouring insects scattered in the surrounding magma, which were becoming somewhat agitated after devouring the golden crown, to contract their defenses.
"Buzz—!"
The dark golden insect cloud no longer scattered to hunt, but instead rapidly converged on Luo Ming's body with astonishing efficiency, forming a thick "insect wall" that was constantly rotating and surging within a ten-zhang radius around him.
The dozen or so high-ranking golden-crowned fire lizards that had charged forward suddenly stopped about thirty feet away from the insect wall, without immediately attacking. Their cold, vertical pupils were fixed on Luo Ming, who was enveloped by the insect cloud, and they hissed in a low, threatening manner. The crimson-gold fleshy crowns on their heads flickered with light, as if they were communicating in some way.
These fire lizards were clearly quite intelligent. Faced with this strange swarm of insects they had never seen before, which could easily devour their own kind, they felt an instinctive fear and did not attack rashly.
However, just a few breaths later, the fire lizards seemed to have reached a consensus. The dozen or so fire lizards, including the two level-six leaders, quickly adjusted their positions, forming an irregular circle that subtly surrounded Luo Ming!
The crimson-gold fleshy crowns on their heads burst forth with dazzling golden light at the same moment, and the golden light between them was faintly connected, producing a strange resonance and amplification!
"Not good! Kid, quickly defend with all your might!" In his mind's eye, Tianjing Sanren's voice rang out with unprecedented urgency.
"These beasts are about to unleash their innate combined attack! As social monsters, their abilities resonate with each other, allowing them to temporarily merge their scattered attacks into one, drastically increasing their power! The combined attack of these dozen or so high-level fire lizards... is probably no less powerful than a full-force attack from an early-stage Nascent Soul cultivator!"
"A Nascent Soul cultivator's full-force attack?!" Upon hearing this, Luo Ming's pupils constricted sharply!
In a flash, he made the most instinctive reaction! He slammed his left hand on his storage bag, and a heavy shield that was pitch black, cold to the touch, and carved with a hideous ghost face on the front flew out instantly. It spun around and grew to about ten feet in size, blocking his way!
It was the defensive treasure he obtained from the Nether Tiger—the Ghost Face Shield!
"roar--!!!"
A dozen or so golden-crowned fire lizards roared in unison, their sonic booms causing the magma to churn! The light from their golden crowns condensed to its peak in an instant, and then, a dark golden pillar of molten metal, as thick as a bucket, solid and radiating terrifying heat and sharp, metallic energy, shot forth.
It burst forth from the mouth of one of the strongest fire lizards, shooting straight toward Luo Ming, who was protected by the insect wall and the ghost mask shield, with the speed of tearing through the air and evaporating everything in its path!
Before the attack even arrived, the terrifying pressure had already made Luo Ming's breath catch in his throat, and his protective spiritual light flickered wildly! The Gold-Eating Insect Wall blocking the outermost perimeter bore the brunt of the attack!
"laugh--!"
The moment the dark golden pillar of light made contact with the insect wall, there was no earth-shattering explosion, only a chilling "melting" sound! The infamous Gold-Eating Insects, powerful enough to devour metal, were like a nemesis to this Supreme Yang Geng Metal molten flow that had fused with the source power of more than a dozen high-level fire lizards!
At the edge where the insect cloud met the pillar of light, thousands of gold-devouring insects died instantly in the golden light before they could even scream! Half of their bodies were melted, and a huge gap was blasted open in the insect wall.
However, the imposing beam of light was weakened by more than half, and the remaining small portion of its power slammed into the Ghost Mask Shield. The attack was blocked by the hard material of its ten-thousand-year-old Xuan Yin Iron.
"We lost over a thousand at once!"
Luo Ming stared grimly at the swarm of insects ahead. This was the first time he had suffered such a loss since acquiring the Gold-Eating Insects. However, when he looked at the Golden-Crowned Fire Lizards in the distance, whose momentum had clearly waned, he breathed a sigh of relief.
I said that such a powerful attack would come at a price.
"go!"
A fierce glint flashed in Luo Ming's eyes. Suppressing the pain of losing the insect swarm, he seized this fleeting opportunity to counterattack and unhesitatingly urged the remaining nearly ten thousand berserk Gold-Eating Insects to launch the fiercest counterattack!
"Buzz—!!!"
The dark golden cloud of insects emitted an almost frantic buzzing sound. Instead of coalescing into a wall, it instantly split and dispersed, transforming into more than a dozen more refined and swift golden arrows. Like living golden lightning, they shot with unparalleled precision at the dozen or so high-level golden-crowned fire lizards whose auras were clearly weakened and whose movements were slightly sluggish due to the use of their combined attack!
Among them, the two level-six fire lizards suffered the most concentrated attacks, with three insect arrows each striking different vital points.
"Hiss!!"
The fire lizards were clearly caught off guard by their prey's swift and devastating counterattack after suffering heavy losses, and were momentarily thrown into disarray. Under their leader's command, the lower-ranking fire lizards around them frantically spewed golden pillars of fire in an attempt to intercept and disperse the terrifying insects.
However, the golden pillar of fire emitted by a single golden-crowned fire lizard was far less powerful than the combined attack.
"Hiss..."
The golden pillars of fire struck the gold-devouring insects on the outer edge of the swarm, mostly only causing their carapaces to turn slightly red and their bodies to sway a few times in the air, slowing them down slightly, but they could not cause any substantial penetrating or burning damage!
Only a very small number of Gold-Eating Insects that are struck head-on by consecutive golden fire pillars from the Level 5 Fire Lizard will die. But this loss is negligible compared to the total number of insects and their current ferocious aura!
Despite the sparse firepower, the swarm of insects broke through the low-level fire lizards' blockade in an instant and crashed heavily into their respective targets!
"Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!"
The sounds of gnawing filled the air, making one's teeth ache! The seemingly incredibly tough, thick, grayish-brown scales on the level-five golden-crowned fire lizards were easily torn apart like fragile leather by the all-consuming mouthparts of the Gold-Eating Insects!
The dark golden swarm of insects gnawed at the body like maggots, frantically burrowing and gnawing once it attached itself! The fire lizard let out a mournful and painful hiss, desperately rolling and thrashing about, trying to shake off the swarm of insects or burn them off with its innate demonic fire.
However, these gold-devouring insects are exceptionally fierce. Their resistance to fire seems to have increased after they devoured the golden crown. Once they bite down, they hold on tightly and frantically devour flesh and demonic power!
The level 6 fire lizard has a stronger defense and struggles more violently. The lava and demonic fire it unleashes are more powerful and can indeed continuously shake off and burn the attached gold-devouring insects.
However, the number of gold-devouring insects attacking them was also greater, and the gold-devouring insects seemed to know how to cooperate. Some of them fearlessly attracted and exhausted the demonic power and attention of the creatures, while others specifically sought out weak points such as gaps in their scales, eyes, ears, noses and mouths to burrow into! Even more extreme, some directly pounced on the crimson-gold fleshy crowns on their heads, whose light had dimmed considerably!
A fierce battle unfolded above the lava lake! Dark golden swarms of insects clashed with crimson monsters, their hisses, gnawing, and explosions filling the air. Luo Ming steadied himself, manipulated the Xuan Yuan Pearl, and focused most of his attention on precisely directing the insect swarm's attack focus and target switching, striving to eliminate these high-level threats as quickly as possible and at the lowest cost.
In just a short while, the battle turned into an overwhelming situation!
The dozen or so level-five fire lizards, under the frenzied attack of the swarm of insects, had been devoured and riddled with holes. Their auras rapidly weakened and disappeared, and their massive bodies fell into the lava incompletely. Only their crimson-gold fleshy crowns, which had not yet been completely eaten away, were left behind. With a thought, Luo Ming commanded the swarm of insects to carefully peel them off and bring them back.
Although some of their crests have been gnawed away, the core remains intact and is still quite valuable.
The two level-six fire lizards, though ferocious, were already at their limit under the combined effects of the insect swarm tactics, the subtle elemental advantage, and Luo Ming's targeted command. One of them, riddled with insect arrows, sank into the lake with a mournful howl after being pierced through its body. Seeing the situation was dire, the other tried to break free of the swarm and flee towards the depths of the lake!
"Trying to escape!" Luo Ming snorted coldly, not allowing it to get away. His mind raced, and the remaining Gold-Eating Insects no longer scattered, but suddenly abandoned their other targets, like a swarm of locusts smelling blood, all rushing towards this last level-six fire lizard!
The battle ended quickly. All of the dozen or so high-level fire lizards were wiped out! The area around the lava lake was temporarily cleared, with only a few low-level fire lizards remaining in the distance, hissing in fear and不敢近近 (不敢近近 - a phrase implying they dared not approach).
Although Luo Ming's situation seemed perilous, relying on the Gold-Eating Insects' fearlessness, he managed to wipe out the high-level fire lizards that were besieging him in a very short time and at a relatively low cost, and successfully seized valuable spoils, including two level-six gold crowns.
This made him value the Gold-Eating Insect even more. The strength this insect displayed in dealing with an environment where it was besieged by a large number of enemies was unmatched by other spirit beasts. After all, he couldn't bear to let spirit beasts like the Fat Sun Bird expend their energy in such an environment.
After clearing out the high-level fire lizards in his area, Luo Ming turned to look at the other two battlefields, pondering his next move.