Chapter 2263: Human-faced Worm

Just a few dozen yards from the paved path, Xielian and Grand Ancestor Lvshi's expressions subtly shifted as they too discovered something.

After the four bypassed several stone towers and flew only about two hundred yards, their view suddenly widened, revealing a massive, seven to eight zhang wide pit directly ahead.

Around the colossal pit, seven or eight half-collapsed stone towers lay haphazardly, and the nearby ground was crisscrossed with countless grooves and sword marks, as if a fierce battle had just raged there not long ago.

In the center of the colossal pit lay a charred, blackened insect corpse; from its size and form, only a small portion of its remains were left.

Even though the creature was dismembered, its remaining gruesome appearance still made Xielian, Grand Ancestor Lvshi, and the others gasp.

The body of the insect corpse was similar to a typical Ming insect, covered in a smooth, glossy carapace. However, on its slender neck was an extremely grotesque male head. Although only a small portion of it remained, its eyes, ears, nose, and other facial features were all intact, and it was topped with messy, wild-grass-like green hair.

The insect corpse lay half-prostrate and motionless on the ground. There were no traces of blood nearby, indicating it had been dead there for quite some time.

“This must be the true offspring of the Mother of Ming Insects; it's truly unsettling to look at!” Xielian remarked, her face slightly pale, as she gazed at the insect's remains.

“Hmph, it must be true,” Grand Ancestor Lvshi scoffed, then turned to Han Li and asked, “I didn't expect these fierce insects to look like this. From this, it's clear that the Mother of Ming Insects is likely even more repulsive and terrifying. Does Fellow Daoist Han agree?”

“Perhaps,” Han Li replied with a faint chuckle. “Before I’ve seen the Mother of Fierce Insects with my own eyes, I can’t make a definitive judgment.” He then suddenly flicked his sleeve towards the massive pit.

With a sudden push from an invisible force, the prostrate insect corpse rolled over, turning belly-up.

Xielian's heart stirred as she focused her gaze, and her beautiful face subtly changed once more.

On the corpse's abdomen, there were clearly a dozen or so incomplete limbs. Some were quite sharp and covered in coarse black bristles, identical to those of typical insects.

Other partial limbs, however, had soft, pale skin and were strikingly similar to human hands, though their ends were not five-fingered. Instead, they divided into three segmented, finger-like digits: one thick and two slender.

Grand Ancestor Lvshi’s face twitched several times upon seeing this, then he raised a hand.

With a muffled thud!

Immediately, a hazy blue fireball appeared in his palm. With a slight curl of his fingers, it transformed into a streak of light and flew towards the insect corpse.

Though the fireball emitted no heat, the nearby void shimmered indistinctly. Clearly, the blue flame possessed immense power, far beyond ordinary true flames.

With a whoosh, as soon as the fireball touched the insect’s remains, it immediately ignited into raging flames.

A moment later, Grand Ancestor Lvshi performed another hand seal and pointed into the void towards the insect corpse.

With a muffled sound, the blue flames instantly vanished, revealing the insect corpse beneath once more.

Aside from being slightly blacker than before, the remains showed no significant change on their surface, with no signs of truly melting.

Grand Ancestor Lvshi’s heart tightened, and his expression turned grim.

Xielian’s expression became even more troubled.

As for Daoist Crab, his eyes flickered slightly, but his face remained completely expressionless.

“How intriguing. Let me give it a try as well!” Han Li chuckled lightly.

No sooner had he spoken than a clear, metallic ping rang out as he flicked his finger.

With a whoosh through the air!

Three hazy green sword-lights shot out in a string from his fingertip, and with a sweep, they struck the insect corpse.

Three similar thudding sounds echoed, yet the results of the three sword-lights striking the insect corpse were vastly different.

The first sword-light, upon striking the corpse, immediately bounced off with a flash of light.

The second, however, cut open a section of the insect’s carapace.

The third sword-light flashed and vanished, but effortlessly split the insect corpse in half down the middle.

Upon witnessing this, both Xielian and Grand Ancestor Lvshi couldn't help but show a trace of surprise in their eyes.

Han Li stroked his chin, a pensive expression on his face.

Xielian pondered for a moment, then directly asked, “Brother Han, the power of those three sword-lights just now wasn’t the same, was it? Otherwise, how could there have been such different results?”

“Their power was indeed different!” Han Li replied calmly, seemingly with no intention of hiding anything. “The first sword-light only contained fifty percent of my magic power. The second contained one hundred percent. As for the third, I directly integrated a flying sword linked to my mind into the sword-light, which is why that single strike was effective.”

Xielian and Grand Ancestor Lvshi naturally didn't know that, aside from the last sword-light genuinely integrating a Green Bamboo Bee Cloud Sword as he stated, Han Li’s claims about the percentage of magic power infused into the first two sword-lights were based on the average amount of magic power possessed by a Mahayana cultivator.

Given that his true essence far surpassed that of an ordinary Mahayana cultivator, the first sword-light had only contained twenty percent of his magic power, and the second merely forty or fifty percent.

Even so, the formidable physical body of this insect corpse left Xielian and Grand Ancestor Lvshi somewhat awestruck.

“This insect is not only unafraid of Fellow Daoist Lvshi’s true flames, but it can even largely counteract Fellow Daoist Han’s sword-lights. This direct descendant of the Mother of Ming Insects is far more terrifying than we initially imagined. If we truly encounter them further in, do the three of you have any good strategies to deal with them?” Xielian’s beautiful face fluctuated with uncertainty for a moment before she asked with great apprehension.

“What’s there to be afraid of?” Grand Ancestor Lvshi scoffed in reply. “This insect isn’t unkillable. If we truly encounter them, we’ll simply use our respective divine abilities. I refuse to believe that the four of us, working together, can’t handle a mere insect.”

“If it’s just one or two, then naturally it’s nothing,” Xielian sighed. “But what if we encounter seven or eight, a dozen, or even more of these fierce insects? Can Fellow Daoist Lvshi still be so confident?”

“A dozen? That’s quite unlikely!” Grand Ancestor Lvshi, who had been feigning disdain, stiffened slightly.

“Hehe, the chances of encountering so many are indeed not very high,” Han Li said, shaking his head after a moment of contemplation. “If the Mother of Ming Insects truly had the ability to produce so many formidable offspring in one go, it would have likely broken out of the ancient seal long ago. How could it have been suppressed here for so many years?”

“I hope it’s truly as the two fellow Daoists imagine,” Xielian said, nodding with a bitter smile. “Otherwise, these fierce insects will be a huge problem. Judging from the situation here, this one was likely killed by fellow Daoists from the previous group who entered the underground palace. But for some reason, they left immediately, seemingly in a great hurry. I wonder if there are more of these fierce insects ahead.”

“In any case, we’re already here; it’s naturally impossible to retreat now,” Han Li said calmly. “We’ve already wasted a lot of time here, so let’s continue on our way. If we, due to our actions, delay Fellow Daoist Baohua and their matters, that would be truly terrible.” After speaking, he turned and floated away in the direction they had come.

After his tests revealed that this fierce insect posed no significant threat to him, he naturally no longer gave it much thought.

Daoist Crab followed closely without a word.

Xielian and Grand Ancestor Lvshi were both somewhat surprised to see Han Li leave so decisively.

However, after exchanging glances, they conceded that Han Li’s words made sense, and followed with differing expressions.

Among the four Mahayana cultivators, Daoist Crab fully obeyed Han Li's commands, and Han Li had just demonstrated spiritual sense far superior to the others.

Therefore, even if Xielian and Grand Ancestor Lvshi harbored other thoughts, they found themselves compelled to defer to Han Li’s leadership on the surface.

Not long after, the four returned to the original path and continued forward along the route marked on the map.

This time, Han Li and the others passed through several areas of the underground palace without incident, seeing no further trace of fierce insects.

This brought a sense of relief to both Xielian and Grand Ancestor Lvshi.

Even as Mahayana cultivators, they certainly didn’t wish to truly confront fierce insects like the one they had just seen.

At this moment, the four arrived in an extraordinarily vast garden. On both sides were dazzling silver low-lying flowering trees, covered with palm-sized, fuzzy, intensely beautiful silver flowers. Strangely, they emitted no scent at all. Initially, Grand Ancestor Lvshi was somewhat wary of these silver flowering trees, but when Xielian casually told him that they were a unique plant of the Demon Realm, only useful for refining some low-grade elixirs and serving no other special purpose, the Mahayana cultivator from another realm finally felt at ease.

“Brother Han, according to the map, the Forbidden Hall ahead should be the location of the formation’s core,” Xielian said with a light chuckle as the group neared the garden’s exit, vaguely spotting a small grayish-white hall in that direction. “Once we repair it, this mission will be complete.”

“Indeed, it’s not far now,” Han Li nodded, replying without a change in expression. “It seems our journey has been quite smooth. I wonder if the other groups of fellow Daoists have been as fortunate.”

For some reason, ever since he arrived at this garden, Han Li had a strange feeling of being constantly watched, even though he hadn’t detected anything unusual.

Given the strength of his current spiritual sense, the fact that he hadn’t discovered the other party’s presence was almost impossible.

This indicated either that the other party truly possessed some heaven-defying divine ability capable of evading his spiritual scan, or that it was merely an illusion he was experiencing due to the influence of various restrictions and sealing forces within the underground palace.

However, given Han Li’s cautious nature, he naturally became extremely vigilant at this moment. Yet, as soon as he reached the garden’s exit, this strange feeling vanished without a trace, as if it had never occurred.

This left Han Li utterly bewildered; he truly couldn’t make sense of it.

Meanwhile, in a dark underground cave in the deepest part of the underground palace, a blurry figure suddenly let out a low, sinister chuckle: “The Divine Refining Art… cultivated to the second layer… The Divine Refining Art! Someone from the lower realms can cultivate this secret art! Haha, Heaven does not abandon me… My arduous struggle here for so many years has not been in vain…”

The laughter was faint and indistinct at first, but gradually grew clearer and more frenzied, making anyone who heard it shiver involuntarily!