Translator: CinderTL
"Yin Shuo, I didn't expect to see you here," Lan Chen said, her tone tinged with surprise as she stared at Song Wen.
"Fairy Lan Chen, it's been days since we last met, yet you remain as radiant as ever," Song Wen replied, cupping his hands in greeting.
He then turned to Mo Yexue.
"Fellow Daoist Mo..."
Song Wen hesitated, at a loss for words. He had intended to offer some flattery, but Mo Yexue's current appearance left him unsure of what to say.
"Why are you hiding here?" Lan Chen asked.
The Red Silk, under her control, hovered in mid-air, ceasing its attack on Xue Mei.
Song Wen glanced at the Red Silk, which was suspended a hundred zhang away, and felt a pang of unease. The crimson silk, like solidified flames, floated silently in the air, exuding a pressure as immense as a mountain.
"Fellow Daoist Xue Mei and I happened to teleport here. Sensing unusual spiritual energy fluctuations ahead, we decided to hide here temporarily," Song Wen explained.
Lan Chen responded, "You probably noticed that Mo Yexue and I were surrounded by Gold-Eating Ants and knew they were difficult to deal with, so you deliberately avoided us. You were waiting for us to fight it out and then seize the opportunity, weren't you?"
Even though Lan Chen had exposed his true intentions, Song Wen remained composed, his expression unchanged.
"Why would you say that, Fairy? Given our friendship, how could I stand idly by if I saw you in trouble?"
Lan Chen let out a soft, disdainful chuckle, clearly unconvinced by his words.
"If you want to catch up, could you find a more appropriate time?" Mo Yexue's irritated voice interrupted their conversation.
She was busy controlling her flying sword, slashing at the swarm of Gold-Eating Ants that were chasing them.
After their earlier encounter, she dared not be careless again, putting forth her full strength with every move.
The flying sword's ferocity was overwhelming; even the fourth-tier Gold-Eating Ant dared not face its edge.
Seeing an opportunity to escape the awkward situation, Song Wen quickly said, "Fellow Daoist Mo is right. This is not the time for catching up. Dealing with the Gold-Eating Ants is more urgent."
With that, he eagerly activated his Void Breaking Blade, slashing at the Gold-Eating Ants emerging from the ground. At the same time, he called out to Xue Mei to move closer to Lan Chen and Mo Yexue.
With Song Wen and Xue Mei joining the fight, the pressure on Mo Yexue and Lan Chen lessened significantly.
Mo Yexue no longer had to divide her attention to deal with the lower-tier Gold-Eating Ants and could focus entirely on the fourth-tier one.
As a sword cultivator, she was unparalleled in the art of killing.
Her flying sword was renowned as the best in the entire Immortal Cultivation World.
Her sword seemed to possess a spirit of its own, both agile and fierce.
At times, it was domineering and forceful; at others, it was cunning and unpredictable. In an instant, it could change its techniques, making it impossible to anticipate.
The fourth-tier Gold-Eating Ant, intimidated by the sword's sharpness, hid underground, relying on its ability to conceal its aura and burrow quickly to stay hidden.
It occasionally surfaced, spraying a stream of Corrosive Poison Liquid at Mo Yexue before diving back underground, disappearing without a trace.
Although none of the poison liquid hit its target, each time it landed, it exploded into Poison Mist, and the surrounding mist was gradually growing thicker.
The Gold-Eating Ant broke through the rocks again, emerging amidst a pile of rubble.
It was about to spray its poison when a wisp of pink smoke drifted down, infiltrating its head.
The ant froze in place.
Suddenly, a flash of black light appeared.
Mo Yexue's pitch-black flying sword struck the hardest part of the ant's head with a resounding clang.
"Clang!"
After a loud metallic clang resounded.
The flying sword was sent flying back, drawing an arc in the air before regrouping and striking down once more.
On the other hand, the Gold-Eating Ant, after being struck by the flying sword, had a sword mark carved into the top of its head.
The mark was deep, revealing a pale white structure inside.
The Sword Qi carried by the flying sword took the opportunity to invade the ant's head, intending to shred it from within.
Inside the ant's head was a Demon Embryo the size of a thumb.
The Demon Embryo flashed with a fluorescent light, and a surge of Demon Power shattered the Sword Qi, temporarily saving the ant's life.
However, the ant's crisis was far from over.
The immense force from the flying sword had smashed the ant into a pile of rubble.
The rocks shattered, and dust rose into the air.
A dark light reappeared, dispersing the dust and once again striking the ant's head.
Instantly, the ant was split in two, the cut smooth and even.
Mo Yexue raised her hand and shot out a burst of Spiritual Power, pulling the ant's remains towards her.
She cast a spell, imprisoning the ant's soul within the Demon Embryo in its head.
This Gold-Eating Ant had disfigured her, and although she could recover, the rage in her heart was hard to quell. It was clear she intended to torment the ant's soul slowly after returning.
Mo Yexue's actions made Song Wen's eyes gleam.
The ground nearby was littered with the corpses of hundreds of Gold-Eating Ants. Although most were first or second-tier ants with weaker souls, it was still better than nothing.
A surge of Blood Qi erupted from Song Wen's body, flowing across the cavern floor and quickly covering the uneven ground within a radius of several miles with a thick layer of blood plasma.
The essence and souls of the dead ants were instantly devoured by the Blood Sea.
The Blood Sea seeped into every crevice, following the many holes the ants had dug, infiltrating the ground and killing any ants lying in ambush, ready to strike.
In an instant, no more ants broke through the rocks.
"Your Mystic Treasure is quite impressive. Now, we don't have to worry about the ants ambushing us," Mo Yexue said.
Perhaps feeling that her current appearance tarnished her reputation as the top sword cultivator in the Immortal Cultivation World, she took out an iron mask and put it on her face.
Lan Chen glanced at the cavern's ceiling and walls and asked, "Yin Shuo, can you seal the ceiling and walls as well?"
Song Wen nodded, and with a thought, another surge of blood mist erupted from his body.
In an instant, the entire cavern for several miles around the four of them was coated with a thick layer of Blood Sea.
Under the light of the glowing plants in the cavern, the entire space took on a sinister, blood-red glow, eerie and terrifying.
"Impressive," Lan Chen praised, then continued, "Shall the four of us work together to break through the ants' blockade?"
The other three nodded in agreement.
Immediately, the four of them floated into the air.
The surrounding Blood Sea surged along with them, extending forward in front of them and automatically retracting behind them.
When the four of them returned to the spot where Lan Chen and Mo Yexue had been surrounded earlier, Song Wen suddenly shouted, "Be careful, danger above..."
Before he could finish his words, a large hole was torn open in the ceiling's Blood Sea, and a Gold-Eating Ant, as large as a millstone and over ten feet long, leaped down.
This ant was somewhat different from the ones they had encountered before.
Its body was not purely black, but rather a blend of black interwoven with a cold metallic sheen, as if it were entirely covered in a layer of sturdy black metal, giving off an indestructible aura.
(End of the Chapter)
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