Chapter 6: Confronting the Enemy (Part 2)

The mutated centipede could no longer bear the pressure and launched an attack first. It flapped its wings, lifting its body slightly before slamming it hard into the Dark-Winged Demon Scorpion. Guo Shier quickly activated his flight talisman, causing the large tree beneath him to shatter and collapse instantly—hit by the mutated centipede’s body.

Guo Shier was shocked by the centipede’s tough body, and he hesitated to use his sword, seeking its weak point. He knew his blade would struggle to penetrate the centipede’s hard exoskeleton.

Each of those small scorpions was as big as a washbasin. They quickly moved around the centipede and simultaneously grabbed its legs with their pincers, restricting its movement. The Dark-Winged Demon Scorpion suddenly thrust its two pincers forward, clamping around the sides of the centipede’s head. Immediately afterward, its thick tail lashed out like lightning, with its sharp stinger piercing forward.

Crack!
The stinger sank deep into the centipede’s jaw. Guo Shier felt a chill run down his spine as he clearly saw the scorpion venom pouring into the centipede’s body. Then, the Dark-Winged Demon Scorpion flapped its wings and retreated quickly, while the small scorpions scattered. Guo Shier was stunned for a moment before also retreating swiftly.

The Dark-Winged Demon Scorpion’s attack was devastating; it all happened in just a few seconds.

The mutated centipede began to thrash violently. The venom of ancient scorpions was extraordinary—once injected into a body, even a centipede as venomous as a mutated talisman worm could withstand it.

With a loud roar, the thrashing mutated centipede knocked down all the trees around it and even shattered a boulder, letting out painful screeches.

Guo Shier retracted his sword talisman. He knew the mutated centipede was done for. For the first time, he realized just how powerful his ancient worm talisman was, and he felt secretly pleased. Using this Dark-Winged Demon Scorpion, he could easily kill a mutated talisman worm—something he hadn’t expected. He only didn’t know what level this scorpion was. Judging from its current strength, he thought it must be quite high-ranked.

The Dark-Winged Demon Scorpion lay not far away, staring greedily at the thrashing centipede. Guo Shier could even see greed in its eyes.

Guo Shier anxiously watched the sky. The first light of dawn was appearing on the horizon; it was almost morning.

The mutated centipede’s resilience surprised Guo Shier. Even now, it continued to thrash frantically. The Dark-Winged Demon Scorpion waited patiently, while the small scorpions wandered around, staying at a distance from the frenzied centipede. They too stared greedily, waiting for the moment the mutated centipede would fall.

After an entire hour of struggle, the mutated centipede began to convulse. Guo Shier felt a surge of hope, realizing the centipede was dying. Gradually, the centipede grew weaker and weaker. The Dark-Winged Scorpion remained motionless, waiting. A few more minutes passed, and the centipede started biting wildly.

Guo Shier gasped in shock—this was terrifying. Anything bitten by the mutated centipede would instantly shatter, whether it was stones on the ground or hard tree trunks.

Finally, the mutated centipede stopped moving. Guo Shier let out a long sigh of relief. It was already daylight, and he worried that he wouldn’t have time to dissect the mutated centipede.

Once the centipede was motionless, the Dark-Winged Scorpion rushed over like lightning, along with the smaller scorpions. It quickly turned the centipede over, exposing the needle-like wounds on its underside, and tore open a large gap with its fangs. Guo Shier didn’t stop it.

The Dark-Winged Scorpion only made a large cut before moving along the centipede’s abdomen. The smaller scorpions gathered around the wound and crawled in one after another. It then tore another opening in the centipede’s abdomen and began feasting frantically.

Guo Shier glanced at the sky and gritted his teeth, thinking, “I can only delay it for an hour; any longer and it might become dangerous.” He ran to the head of the mutated centipede and started disassembling it, focusing on collecting its two sharp fangs. As for the blood, he had no choice but to give up. The venom of ancient scorpions was deadly, and the centipede’s blood was already filled with venom—purifying it would be useless.

Hundreds of small scorpions, along with the ancient scorpion, quickly devoured the mutated centipede’s flesh completely. Still unsatisfied, they began gnawing on its hard shell, producing a crunching sound. In less than an hour, the beautiful mutated centipede was gone, not a trace left behind.

Guo Shier couldn’t help but exclaim, “Damn, so thorough and eco-friendly!”

The Dark-Winged Scorpion flapped its wings, and the smaller scorpions climbed onto its back, returning to their tiny crevices, only their backs showing.

Guo Shier suddenly noticed something different about the Dark-Winged Scorpion—the talismanic patterns on its body were clearer, and its colors had become more vivid, as if it had evolved. He was shocked—could this ancient scorpion advance by hunting talisman insects? That was incredible.

He retracted the Dark-Wing Scorpion. When it returned to the ancient insect talisman within its soul’s core talisman, Guo Shier clearly sensed that the ancient insect talisman had changed significantly, becoming even more powerful and ferocious. This proved that a mutated insect talisman could strengthen the Dark-Wing Scorpion. Guo Shier understood that if this ancient insect talisman remained in Lan Tianbao’s hands, even if a mutated insect talisman was killed, it would not be possible for the Dark-Wing Scorpion to consume it, as such mutated insect talismans were extremely precious treasures to the people of the Insect Talisman Sect.

Guo Shier glanced around briefly and sighed inwardly. He had no time to cover up the traces of the battle, so he could only activate his flight talisman and leave quickly, staying close to the ground.

In the distance, traces of hunting vehicles could already be seen. Guo Shier knew the farther he got from the battle site, the better.

Less than two hours after leaving, three hunting vehicles arrived in a triangular formation and flew swiftly overhead. Moments later, they returned and hovered above the devastated forest, with one of the vehicles slowly descending.

A few people from the Fuye family stepped out of the vehicle and examined the area carefully. One of them said, “It seems the kid stayed here last night… He must have encountered something powerful. Amazing. In this secret realm, the most common things are mutated insect talismans. It seems he ran into one.”

An old man, who remained silent, crouched down and dug in the soil with his hands. Soon, he found a palm-sized centipede shell. He sniffed it, examined the talismanic patterns on it, and tried to break it, but the shell didn’t budge at all. He then touched the edge of the shell with his fingers. After a while, he said, “A mutated centipede… At least a level-four mutated insect talisman. Maybe even level five… Impressive…”

A young man holding a talisman spear asked, “How could a child kill a level-four mutated insect talisman? That’s impossible! Even if he were a junior grand talisman master, he couldn’t be that skilled.”

The old man shook his head and said, “It wasn’t him who killed it. He just has a powerful insect talisman.”

The young man wondered, “How do you know that?”

The old man scolded, “I always teach you to observe carefully. Such obvious traces are left here, and you still ask why? Do you use your brain to think about nonsense? Stop acting like an idiot!”

The young man turned red with embarrassment but didn’t dare retort, only forcing a smile. Another person asked, “What kind of insect talisman could have such great power?”

The old man raised the remaining shell in his hand and said, “This is the shell left after being eaten by the mutated sigil worm. Just look at the edges—this means that worm was eaten… With that little guy’s strength, he didn’t have time to dismantle such a huge mutated centipede.”

The young man couldn’t hold back anymore and asked, “Why a huge mutated centipede?”

The old man took a deep breath and said, “Look at the traces left behind. All those broken trees and rocks—surely you didn’t break them… Look at that trench… It’s clearly left by the mutated centipede. If that sigil worm were small, how could it have left such large traces?”

If Guo Shier were here, he would surely admire this old man greatly, as he could analyze the situation with almost perfect accuracy from the traces left behind.

The old man said, “Send a signal right away to gather people. Use this spot as the starting point for the search and expand outward. Hehe, I believe he can’t run far. The distance from the altar to here is about the distance he can cover in a day. We’ll definitely catch him this time.”

The young man nodded and shot a sigil message into the air.

Another person said, “I’ll go to the hunting vehicle to contact the nearby ones.”

The old man smiled and said, “Good. Finally, some good news. Get everyone here. We can’t give that little guy too much time… An interesting little guy. If we can catch him… Hehe.” Seeing the fierce light in his eyes, the young man beside him couldn’t help but shiver.

Numerous hunting vehicles flew toward where the old man was.

…

Guo Shier didn’t set any confusion arrays. He flew straight close to the ground, increasing his speed to the maximum. Along the way, he saw several hunting vehicles flying overhead, leaving faint traces. After a quick analysis, he realized that the direction the vehicles were heading was the place where he had stayed the previous night.

By observing the trajectories of the hunting vehicles, Guo Shier immediately understood the Fuye family’s intentions and guessed the old man’s plans. So he didn’t bother hiding his whereabouts and just kept flying forward as fast as possible. He knew the hunting vehicles were faster than him, but he had an advantage of having run for over two hours first. Plus, it would take them at least an hour to gather all the vehicles before they could set off. With these three hours, he could cover a great distance.

Guo Shier used all his strength to activate his flight sigil, pushing his speed to the extreme. Since he was flying very low, the airflow blew the weeds and dead branches on the ground to the sides, creating a faint flight trail, which settled down after a short while.

Hundreds of miles away from Guo Shier, hunting vehicles quickly started up and headed in all directions.