Chapter 5: Eliminating Mosquitoes (Part 1)

Halechi and Yao Zebusong quickly prepared themselves and brought out their sacred artifacts. The two flew backward, with their bodies turned toward the altar while their faces faced away, but they were at ease, as long as they followed Guo Shier’s altar, which was under the control of the elderly master and would not cause any problems.

Watching the swarms of black-spotted mosquitoes pour in like clouds, even a master like Yao Zebusong felt immense pressure and sensed something ominous. Guo Shier controlled the distance, hoping to achieve a balance where the mosquitoes couldn’t threaten the three of them while still being at a distance suitable for attacking.

The Soul Calming Cauldron rotated slightly above Guo Shier’s head. At this moment, it was only one meter tall and appeared extremely delicate. Its lid was open, with a faint colored light constantly flowing in and out of its mouth. Guo Shier stared at the approaching mosquitoes and casually cast a spell.

It was as if a beam of colored light shattered, releasing countless thin strands of light. These were variations of the colored light emitted by Guo Shier, each strand targeting a different mosquito.

When the light strands touched the mosquitoes, a dazzling flash of light appeared, and in an instant, those mosquitoes disappeared. Guo Shier knew they had been captured by the Soul Calming Cauldron. As soon as they fell in, countless Spirit Beasts rushed at them. This time, hundreds of mosquitoes were swallowed up in the blink of an eye.

It was as if a small gap had been bitten out of the mosquito swarm, but the rest quickly filled it in.

Yao Zebusong cheered loudly. He didn’t intervene but remained on guard. Halechi was nervous; seeing the power of the Soul Calming Cauldron, he couldn’t help but worry. Although hundreds of mosquitoes had disappeared, the swarm still numbered in the millions. The loss of just a few was like a drop of water in a pond—having no real impact on the swarm.

Guo Shier continued to eliminate mosquitoes bit by bit. After a while, tens of thousands of them had vanished.

Yao Zebusong sighed and said, “This is too slow.”

Halechi replied, “It’s not slow. This speed is quite good. If I had such abilities from the start, I wouldn’t have been chased by the mosquito swarm so desperately.”

Guo Shier was experimenting, trying several different methods to capture the mosquitoes. The colored light in the Soul Calming Cauldron was truly magical—anything it touched would be transferred into the cauldron, especially small objects. By “small objects,” he meant creatures or items no larger than ten meters.

He cast another spell, and waves of colorful light surged outward like tides, wave after wave. In an instant, thousands of black-spotted mosquitoes disappeared. Guo Shier felt that his soul energy had been greatly depleted; although this spell wasn’t the most powerful, it still required considerable effort from him.

A few advanced black-spotted mosquitoes charged forward and were sliced apart by Yao Zebusong. Guo Shier then used the opportunity to be drawn into the Soul-Calming Cauldron. He began selectively keeping some of the advanced black-spotted mosquitoes, creating a small area within the cauldron to confine them there.

Capturing thousands of black-spotted mosquitoes at once might seem like a large number, but it was actually nothing compared to the entire swarm. Even with Guo Shier and his companions’ keen eyes, they couldn’t detect any change in the swarm.

The black-spotted mosquitoes weren’t foolish either. The swarm directly in front of them was gradually thinning out, while more mosquitoes appeared on the sides, forming a huge encircling arc.

Guo Shier turned and said, “Let’s speed things up!” The three of them immediately teleported away from the encirclement, then slightly changed direction, waiting for the swarm to approach again.

They continued to gradually reduce the swarm’s size. After half a day of effort, about a hundred thousand black-spotted mosquitoes disappeared.

Halechi said with a bitter smile, “I hate mosquitoes… We just can’t kill them all!” Even after losing a hundred thousand, the entire swarm remained terrifyingly large.

Yao Zebusong said, “Be patient. This is already very good.” He knew this was the best approach—avoiding reckless actions and instead calmly weakening the swarm’s strength bit by bit. With such a large number of black-spotted mosquitoes, it had formed a massive insect horde; even ordinary small hordes rarely reached such numbers.

Three days later, nearly seven hundred thousand black-spotted mosquitoes had disappeared, and the vast swarm had become much thinner. Yet Guo Shier was exhausted like an old dog. Controlling the altar required soul energy, operating the Soul-Calming Cauldron also demanded soul energy, and using the cauldron’s colorful light consumed an even larger amount of soul energy. He was utterly drained.

Yao Zebusong and Halechi, who were guarding on either side, were also extremely tired and highly stressed. They had to constantly fend off approaching black-spotted mosquitoes, bearing a burden not much lighter than Guo Shier’s. The three of them kept fleeing. Guo Shier said, “I fucking want to sleep… Ugh, I’m exhausted!”

It became increasingly difficult to catch the black-spotted mosquitoes. When the colorful light surged, the pursuing mosquitoes scattered like a burst school of fish. As a result, the number of mosquitoes Guo Shier could capture each time dropped from thousands to just a few hundred, which annoyed him greatly.

Originally able to swallow swarms of mosquitoes in large bites, he could now only take small bites, which was unbearable for Guo Shier. He swallowed several Soul Beads to maintain his spiritual strength; all three of them were already exhausted. There were still nearly 300,000 black-spotted mosquitoes left, all of which were strong mutated符worms—those weaker ones had already been captured by Guo Shier. Only the agile, nimble, and strong black-spotted mosquitoes had escaped the colored light traps.

Guo Shier gritted his teeth and said, “We can’t keep going like this. I plan to dive into the swarm. What do you think?”

Yao Zebusong pondered for a moment before saying, “With your sacrificial treasure, it’s indeed possible. How do you plan to kill them?”

Guo Shier replied, “You two draw the mosquitoes away, while I land on the ground. Some of them should attack me…” He continued, “That way, I can capture them in large numbers.”

Yao Zebusong nodded. “That’s a good idea. Halechi, you too draw some mosquitoes away to ease Shier’s burden. Let’s try to deal with these mosquitoes in three attempts. Damn it, if this goes on, I’m going to die of exhaustion.”

Halechi nodded. “Okay, I’m dying too from these damned mosquitoes.” His resentment was greater than anyone else’s.

Yao Zebusong turned and swung his sword, slicing through the air before flying away. A large group of mosquitoes immediately split apart and chased after him. With a dark expression, Halechi said, “It’s my turn!” He also used his sacrificial treasure, and with a loud noise, dozens of mosquitoes were shattered into flesh and blood. He flew in another direction.

Another group of mosquitoes separated from the swarm and chased after Halechi. There were still about 150,000 mosquitoes left. Yao Zebusong and Halechi had drawn away roughly half of them. Guo Shier breathed a sigh of relief—being able to divert so many black-spotted mosquitoes satisfied him greatly.

Guo Shier slapped the altar and descended toward a huge sand dune.

The nine-layered altar resembled a pagoda, descending vertically onto the sand dune. With a loud crash, the dune exploded, and the altar pierced deep into it, only one layer visible. Countless tentacles of ancient Xibin emerged from around this layer of the altar, waving in the air. A defensive light shield soon appeared—this was the defense emitted by the Umbrella Pagoda Sacrificial Treasure.

The Soul Stabilizing Cauldron suddenly grew to ten meters tall, with streams of colored light bursting from its mouth. The swarm of mosquitoes in the sky charged forward. Guo Shier shouted, “Elder Shuai, help me!”

Elder Shuai poked his head out and said, “No problem. Just control the Soul Stabilizing Cauldron; let me handle the defense!”

Guo Shier said, “Good!” Swaths of colorful light rolled out and struck the black-spotted mosquitoes, which disappeared in groups—thousands of them taken away in an instant. The Soul Calming Cauldron seemed to be boiling over as the entire herd of Spirit Beasts went wild. Hundreds of thousands of black-spotted mosquitoes, with only a few trapped in a corner by Guo Shier, were all devoured, allowing many Spirit Beasts to advance in level. A thick layer of dried corpses of the black-spotted mosquitoes covered the ground inside the cauldron, their flesh and souls completely consumed.

The black-spotted mosquitoes charged fearlessly, and Guo Shier shouted, “Rotate!” The colorful light spun rapidly, capturing every mosquito that touched it and sending them all into the Soul Calming Cauldron. Some mosquitoes attacked from the sides but were entangled by the tentacles of Gu Xi Bi. This creature was also bizarre—it could extract the souls of black-spotted mosquitoes on its own.

In moments, the area around the altar was covered with the corpses of black-spotted mosquitoes, all killed by Gu Xi Bi.

Yao Zebusong was followed by seven or eight hundred thousand black-spotted mosquitoes. Only then did he fully realize how troublesome these mosquitoes were. When he swung his sword, the swarm scattered, allowing him to kill barely a few. Although the black-spotted mosquitoes were large, the blade light emitted by the Sacrificial Treasure was even greater, making them seem insignificant in comparison. Moreover, they were incredibly fast and had excellent endurance, capable of chasing three high-level professionals for days—indicating their remarkable stamina.

After repeated battles, Yao Zebusong managed to kill only a few hundred mosquitoes, which left him very frustrated. Eventually, he had to use talisman fire to burn them, achieving some success—killing at least several thousand. However, the consumption of talisman fire pained him greatly, as it was difficult to collect and wasteful to use in combat.

Halechi had an even harder time. He tried to attack as well but found that the only way to achieve better results was to stop moving, wait for the mosquitoes to attack, and then strike back. But he didn’t dare to stop; he wasn’t confident enough to face the mosquitoes coming from all directions. So he could only obediently lead the swarm in circles.

The black-spotted mosquitoes emitted a buzzing sound as they flew into the colorful light one after another. Guo Shier could clearly sense their anger, but he had already reached the ninth level of the altar, a state of perfected soul, undisturbed by such anger. He calmly directed the Soul Calming Cauldron to capture large numbers of mosquitoes.

In a short while, almost 150,000 black-spotted mosquitoes were left. Guo Shier roared, “Halechi!”

Halechi let out a howl and flew over with a swarm of mosquitoes. It flew past Guo Shier’s side, with the swarm of mosquitoes following closely behind. Guo Shier smiled and said, “Perfect timing!”
This time, tens of thousands of spotted mosquitoes were captured, and the remaining ones suddenly scattered in panic, fleeing far away. Guo Shier was slightly surprised; he hadn’t expected such fierce spotted mosquitoes to retreat in the end.