A Bitter Battle with White Bone Bugs

Song Wen opened his mouth, and a hair-raising scene unfolded.

Great swarms of tiny grey insects vibrated their wings and poured from his mouth, a dense, writhing cloud that made the skin crawl.

The appearance of over sixty Black-bellied Beetle Gu instantly relieved the pressure on Song Wen, and the White Bone Bugs surrounding him began to rapidly thin out.

While the White Bone Bugs were not particularly massive, they were still significantly larger than the Beetle Gu.

However, the Beetle Gu held a distinct advantage due to their diminutive size. The White Bone Bugs relied entirely on physical biting and possessed no techniques, making it difficult for them to strike the small, agile flyers.

Though the Beetle Gu also lacked techniques, their tiny forms allowed them to easily target and exploit the weaknesses in the White Bone Bugs' abdomens.

To avoid overexerting his mental strength, Song Wen issued a general attack command to the Black-bellied Beetle Gu and then left them to their own devices.

He focused his attention on the more formidable threats. The Black-bellied Beetle Gu were still relatively weak, making it difficult for them to kill the White Bone Bugs at the sixth layer of Qi Condensation.

A bloody mist rose from Song Wen's body.

The blood-burning secret technique-the Blood Sacrifice Technique!

This was his first time using this technique against an enemy.

His aura erupted violently, instantly shattering the ceiling of the mid-stage Qi Condensation Realm. His cultivation surged to the seventh layer of Qi Condensation and showed faint signs of pushing toward the eighth layer.

Cloaked in bloody mist, his bone-cleaving knife slashed down upon a sixth-layer White Bone Bug.

"Thud!"

The White Bone Bug was knocked backward. A crack split its rigid bone shell, and the immense impact penetrated the fracture, tearing through its internal organs and shredding its vitals.

However, a large notch was also chipped out of the blade, causing Song Wen a pang of distress.

This bone-cleaving knife had been his companion for over two years and served him well during his duties in the Corpse Dismemberment Cave. He had not expected it to break here today.

Song Wen slipped the blade into his Storage Bag, intending to see if it could be repaired once he returned.

By now, he noticed his corpse puppet was reaching its limit. Its body had been gnawed to tatters by the White Bone Bugs and looked ready to collapse at any moment. He had no choice but to recall it into his corpse-nourishing bag.

The sudden eruption of blood energy from Song Wen's body drew the attention of all the nearby White Bone Bugs.

Relying on the explosive power of the Blood Sacrifice Technique and the powerful physique forged by the Corpse King Blood Refining Art and the Myriad Poisons Chaos Body, he used his sharp fingernails as weapons and engaged the White Bone Bugs in brutal hand-to-hand combat.

Within half a quarter of an hour, Song Wen had slaughtered most of the insects in his immediate vicinity.

The remaining White Bone Bugs could no longer restrict his movements, giving him the perfect opportunity to break away.

During the melee, he noticed a peculiar phenomenon. After killing a White Bone Bug, a Black-bellied Beetle Gu would burrow into the carcass and consume a rice-grain-sized transparent crystal within the flesh.

Seeing them actively seek out these crystals, Song Wen surmised that they were beneficial to the evolution of his Gu insects. He took the opportunity to sweep a large number of White Bone Bug carcasses into his Storage Bag for future cultivation.

He had no idea what the transparent crystals actually were, but he was certain they were not monster cores.

Beetle Gu at the Qi Condensation stage could never condense the inner cores unique to third-order Demon Beasts.

The fierce battle had not left his swarm unscathed either; over ten Black-bellied Beetle Gu had perished under the mandibles of the White Bone Bugs.

Suddenly, two sixth-layer White Bone Bugs leaped high into the air, snapping viciously at Song Wen.

Song Wen hooked his hands into claws and channeled his full strength to strike back.

His fingers tore five clean holes through each of their bodies, killing them on the spot.

Yet his hands trembled and his fingers throbbed with severe pain as the massive force of the two insects forced him backward step after step.

Right then, another sixth-layer White Bone Bug lunged forward, hurtling straight toward his chest.

Unable to pull his hands back in time to defend, Song Wen hastily summoned the Ghost Head Shield to block the strike.

Though the shield intercepted the blow, the sheer force transmitted through the artifact sent the already retreating Song Wen flying through the air.

Rather than injuring him, the impact flung him clear of the White Bone Bugs' encirclement.

Instantly, the blood mist around his body thickened once more.

The blood-burning secret technique-the Blood Escape Technique!

If the other disciples of the Corpse Demon Sect ever found out that someone was utilizing both the Blood Sacrifice Technique and the Blood Escape Technique simultaneously, they would surely call him a fool or a lunatic.

This was truly playing with his life. No matter how much essence blood a cultivator possessed, burning it at this rate would normally leave them dead from exhaustion within a dozen breaths.

Song Wen could already feel his vitality draining rapidly. Fighting at full capacity under the Blood Sacrifice Technique consumed his essence blood far quicker than anticipated.

He pulled a jade bottle from his Storage Bag and emptied it down his throat.

The bottle contained refined essence blood he had stolen from the Corpse Dismemberment Cave. Before setting out on this journey, he had prepared ten such bottles for himself.

After downing three bottles in rapid succession, the depleted essence blood in his body was fully restored.

Song Wen ordered his remaining Beetle Gu to form a defensive wall against the pursuing insects. Snatching a brief opening, he executed the Blood Escape Technique to flash past the swarm before recalling his Gu insects.

Once past the main cluster, only scattered White Bone Bugs remained ahead.

With the Blood Sacrifice Technique still active, his cultivation hovered near the peak of the seventh layer of Qi Condensation. Operating the Blood Escape Technique under these conditions made him more than twice as fast as using the movement technique alone.

To push his speed to the absolute limit, he also slapped a Swift Movement Talisman onto his body.

Moving like a streak of light, Song Wen relied on his extreme velocity to weave past the sporadic attacks of the isolated bugs, refusing to let himself be dragged into a fight.

Soon, he caught sight of Xuan Ye ahead, as well as Zi Yi and Lao Chun further in front. Zi Yi and Lao Chun were already nearing the fork in the cavern tunnels.

Yet all three of them were still heavily beset by swarms of White Bone Bugs.

Song Wen hugged the cavern wall and advanced at maximum speed. To the utter shock of Xuan Ye and Zi Yi, he tore past them at a terrifying velocity that almost rivaled a cultivator at the ninth layer of Qi Condensation.

Whenever a stray White Bone Bug managed to lunge at him, he completely ignored it, relying on his powerful physical body and the Purple Qilin Armor beneath his robes to shrug off the blows.

Seeing Song Wen burst through the fork in the tunnel and head straight toward the location of the Empty Cicada Wood, Zi Yi panicked. If one person escaped, the remaining cultivators would have to shoulder more of the pressure from the White Bone Bugs.

"I must break out quickly. At the very least, I have to get through before Xuan Ye!"

Zi Yi pushed her mental strength to the limit, driving her corpse puppet to exert its maximum strength.

However, controlling a ninth-layer Qi Condensation corpse puppet with her current cultivation drained her spiritual energy at an alarming rate. She had less than thirty percent of her spiritual power left.

"Senior Sister, why don't you escape on your own? I'll stay behind to hold off the White Bone Bugs!" Lao Chun suddenly called out.

Zi Yi shook her head and replied decisively, "No. We came here together, and we leave together!"

Sensing his Senior Sister's genuine concern, Lao Chun felt a sudden surge of adrenaline. His fighting spirit flared to life.

"Alright, Senior Sister! Let's charge out together!"

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