“Ahh!”

“Fuck, how can they ignore our defenses?!”

“No!”

Startled and frightened cries rang out. The Phantom Blood Locusts were a strange kind of insect. While they were also classified as Magical Beasts, they were oddities, equally as famous as the Heaven Devouring Ants.

Even if a more powerful Magical Beast encountered them, they would flee. The Phantom Blood Locust’s mouth contained powerful runes that could tear through armor. A twelfth rank Magical Beast would instantly turn into a skeleton in the face of millions of Phantom Blood Locusts.

As for human experts, unless they had armor on the level of divine items, they wouldn’t even be left with a skeleton.

Once bitten by their pincers, your entire body would stiffen. Your Yuan Spirit would freeze, and that would spell defeat. The Phantom Blood Locusts were nightmares amongst Magical Beasts.

Magical Beasts like the Phantom Blood Locust normally weren’t called Magical Beasts. They were different from other Magical Beasts like centipedes, scorpions, or spiders. That was because they didn’t have crystal cores, and all their energy was concentrated in their mouths. That was an innate kind of terrifying power.

Some people joked that whatever god had made this world had made a mistake and accidentally created a few things that even they themselves didn’t understand.

These Phantom Blood Locusts were one of those existences. Rumors were that they were viewed as an invasive species back in ancient times and were hunted down.

The Phantom Blood Locusts were capable of devouring all life from a world. They bred quickly, and if they were allowed freedom, a world could meet with catastrophe.

In comparison, the Heaven Devouring Ants were a bit better. They were simply very territorial, but as long as you didn’t step into their territory or kill them, they would only start hunting when they were hungry, and their main prey was underground ores. Flesh was just a portion of their diet.

The Heaven Devouring Ants didn’t randomly increase their territory, and they bred slowly. So the Phantom Blood Locusts were far worse, a plague, a nightmare, an apocalyptic catastrophe for a world. Of course, any knowledge of the Phantom Blood Locusts was only within some ancient murals. They were important enough to include in murals because there were several times in human history when the Phantom Blood Locusts had appeared, causing the human race to pay a great price to exterminate them.

As for now? No one had expected there to be so many Phantom Blood Locusts sleeping underground. Like an overturned ant nest, everyone fled.

However, the ground continued to explode, and Phantom Blood Locusts came from every direction. They were extremely fast, and when they spread their wings, countless afterimages would appear. That was where the ‘phantom’ in their name came from.

Most frightening of all, the people had no idea just how many Phantom Blood Locusts were still hidden underground. The ground was constantly splitting open, revealing large caves which they were flying out of.

“Chu Yao, you and Ruyan go in the direction of the exit,” said Long Chen.

“Then what are you going to do?” asked Chu Yao.

“That idiot from the Bloodkill Hall has set his sights on me. He has some kind of secret art concealing his presence. I can only vaguely sense that he is approaching me, but I can’t narrow down his location. I will find some way to draw him out. He’s too dangerous, so I want to eliminate him now.”

Long Chen had sharp senses toward the Bloodkill Hall’s people, so he was never afraid of them. However, this fellow was actually able to block himself from his senses, meaning that he was definitely a terrifying assassin.

Such a person was too dangerous. He wasn’t worried for himself, but he was worried about the assassin targeting others.

Chu Yao was a wood cultivator and had sharp senses toward assassinations. She also had Liu Ruyan. Perhaps that person was unable to do anything to Chu Yao.

However, in a chaotic fight, such a person was too dangerous. He would definitely choose to target soul cultivators like Meng Qi and Xia Chen. So he was worried.

“Then be careful.” Chu Yao nodded, knowing what he was thinking.

“Do you need my help?” Surprisingly Liu Ruyan took the initiative to ask.

“No. The Phantom Blood Locusts are too powerful, and just one bite can be fatal. I would rather you protect Chu Yao. I will handle the Bloodkill Hall’s braggart,” said Long Chen.

BOOM!

Long Chen slashed Evilmoon, and a fierce Saber Qi slashed a line through the Phantom Blood Locusts.

However, even this attack only created a narrow opening. Other Phantom Blood Locusts away from the center weren’t killed and were only knocked away. The path quickly shrank.

The Phantom Blood Locusts were also tough, and they would normally only die if struck by the core of an attack. Any shockwaves or such were unable to kill them.

“Curious…” Long Chen’s expression changed slightly.

“What is it?” asked Chu Yao.

“Where is Ye Lingshan? She came with me, but we split up after I went to look for you. She’s not here.”

Even after such a long time, there was no sign of her. At first, he had thought that she was hiding, and he had been waiting to receive her at any moment.

However, even when his divine sense swept through the battlefield, he didn’t notice Ye Lingshan. With her power, there were only a handful of individuals capable of threatening her. Her safety shouldn’t be a problem, but she still hadn’t appeared. He didn’t understand.

“Could an accident have befallen her?” asked Chu Yao.

“No, Ye Lingshan is also an expert who killed her way up step by step. She definitely has ways to protect herself. Perhaps she found some kind of special opportunity of her own,” said Long Chen.

He led the two of them through the Phantom Blood Locusts. More and more of them appeared, and Long Chen repeatedly slashed his sword, killing a way through.

Just as Long Chen was attacking, space twisted, and a sword silently pierced toward his back. It was aimed precisely for the most difficult place for Long Chen to block or dodge.

“Hmph, you finally can’t wait any longer?” Long Chen sneered. There was no time to use Evilmoon to block. A golden dragon tooth suddenly appeared in the space beside him.

That Bloodkill Hall’s assassin’s expression changed. He hastily blocked the tooth, but he was blown back. He almost coughed up blood.

While assassinating, his energy was all concentrated within himself to avoid being sensed. Even though he was a powerful Empyrean, he hadn’t unleashed his manifestation, so in a direct clash, assassins were at a disadvantage.

If he summoned his manifestation, then such a huge disturbance was something only a dead person wouldn’t sense. How was he supposed to sneak attack like that?

The Bloodkill Hall had a secret art that allowed their assassins to merge with their manifestations. However, limiting their manifestation’s power like that to keep it hidden meant that they could only use fifty percent of its power.

What the Bloodkill Hall’s experts pursued was assassination arts, not power, and their defensive power was extremely low. So this dragon tooth attack almost made him cough up blood.

“Today, I’ll see if I can beat any piss out of you.” After the dragon tooth attack, Long Chen unleashed a tempest of attacks with Evilmoon.

While Long Chen attacked the Bloodkill Hall’s expert, Liu Ruyan formed hand seals, and willow leaves appeared, wrapping around her and Chu Yao.

Those willow leaves had black and white marks on them. They emitted a sharp aura. When they smashed into the Phantom Blood Locusts, the Phantom Blood Locusts were forced back. It would be difficult to kill them, but forcing a way through them was enough.

Following Long Chen’s directions, they charged out, taking advantage of while the Phantom Blood Locusts had yet to fully fill the surroundings, or they really would be in danger. There were just too many of them.

Some of the Phantom Blood Locusts would manage to latch onto the leaves they smashed into and bite them. Those leaves would immediately wither away into nothingness.

They were practically endless, but fortunately Liu Ruyan also had many leaves to take out. She was entirely able to keep up with this.

Liu Ruyan and Chu Yao charged out, while Long Chen was unleashing waves of Saber Qi to trap the assassin.

That assassin’s expression was icy. With Long Chen sealing his movements, he couldn’t retreat. He could only unleash his manifestation and fight all-out.

What surprised Long Chen was that even without his assassination arts, this Bloodkill Hall expert was still very powerful. His sword arts were sharp and vicious. Even in a head-on battle, Long Chen was unable to suppress him.

Now he knew that the name of the Bloodkill Hall’s three divine emissaries was not for nothing. They were powerful whether in terms of a head-on battle or a hidden assassination.

The thing that gave him the biggest headache was that he couldn’t unleash any stronger moves because those moves took time to cast. The assassin might take advantage of that opening to flee.

To kill a powerful assassin required one to unleash a tempest of attacks that didn’t give them any breathing room. Hence, Long Chen couldn’t let up even the slightest bit, or the assassin would slip away. Next time, it would be even more difficult to catch him.

Saber-light and sword-images repeatedly clashed, unleashing qi waves that blew back the Phantom Blood Locusts.

The surging qi waves shocked the fleeing experts. These two were true experts. They actually dared to ignore the Phantom Blood Locusts filling this space.

It had to be known that for them, just blocking the locusts was already done nervously. They were afraid of being bitten by one and losing their life as a result.

However, Long Chen and this expert of the Bloodkill Hall were fighting intensely while ignoring the Phantom Blood Locusts. Just from that, it was possible to see the difference between them.

Suddenly, a mass of Phantom blood Locusts blew apart. A flame spear pierced through the air at Long Chen.

“Long Chen, I, Huo Lieyun, will make you die a miserable death today for insulting Pill Valley.” That expert from Pill Valley’s Flame Divine Palace suddenly killed his way over, unleashing a frightening attack.