354: Chapter 349 Thousand-Machine Poisonous Insects

The wall of poison had just been erected when Su Hongling could no longer contain herself.

She slammed her great sword onto the ground, rolled up her sleeves, and prepared to charge into the swarm of insects.

"Hong Ling." Su Lin only had time to call out two words.

It was too late.

The girl had already charged out, her great sword whistling as she swung it, sweeping horizontally toward the densest cluster of insects.

The shockwave from the sword wind was dozens of zhang wide. Logically speaking, this sweep should have been enough to crush that cluster of insects into pulp.

But those insects didn't wait for the blade to get close; they flickered, and in unison, they drilled into the Void Realm.

The sword wind swept through empty air.

The next instant, they emerged from behind Su Hongling, stinging her neck and arms indiscriminately.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch!" Su Hongling danced around, grimacing while waving her sword wildly. "You little bastards! So you can teleport, huh? If you've got guts, stop hiding!"

Su Lin supported his forehead, standing behind the wall of poison and watching this scene, feeling his temples throb.

He knew it.

Letting this girl take the lead was no different from unleashing a big bear to catch flies. The bear might have great strength, but the flies wouldn't engage it head-on.

"Second Senior Sister, I told you so." Chu Weiwei stood beside Su Lin, adding salt to the wound in a leisurely manner. "Brute force is useless against them. With that sword strike of yours, you couldn't even touch their shadows."

"Then you come and do it!" Su Hongling, covered in bumps from the stings, roared back in exasperation.

"What's the rush? Weiwei is coming right now."

Chu Weiwei walked forward with a smile and gently brought her hands together in front of her.

There were no exaggerated movements, nor any earth-shattering momentum. She simply opened her mouth and blew a breath.

A wisp of extremely faint pink mist drifted out with her breath, silently permeating more than half of the great hall.

Those insects that were stinging Su Hongling had originally been as slippery as loaches, but as soon as they touched this pink mist, their bodies stiffened.

They wanted to drill into the Void Realm to escape, but discovered they couldn't mobilize that thread of Space Law at all.

"This is called Spirit-Locking Powder." Chu Weiwei lifted her chin proudly. "It's specifically for sealing their little spatial tricks. They can teleport, right? Well, Weiwei will make it so they can't."

Having lost the escape method they relied on for survival, the insects instantly transformed from overlords of the sky into fish on a chopping block.

Seeing the opportunity had arrived, Su Hongling immediately perked up.

"You wretch, Chu the Third, why didn't you do that sooner!" She swung her great sword, smashing wildly at the frozen swarm of insects. "Watch this!"

This time, as the sword wind swept past, the insects could no longer dodge.

With a series of crisp cracking sounds, swarms of insects were smashed into powder, and green juices splattered all over the ground.

"Refreshing!" Su Hongling grew more energetic the more she fought; the strength she had been suppressing the entire way finally found a place to vent. "It should have been like this from the start!"

Su Lin watched this bizarre coordination of one releasing poison and the other swinging a sword, and shook his head helplessly.

The two of them usually pecked at each other like fighting cocks, but when it came time to fight, their coordination was surprisingly tacit.

One was responsible for locking, the other for smashing; it was an assembly line operation with frighteningly high efficiency.

"Revered Master, look over there." Mu Qingxue's cold, clear voice came.

She hadn't made a move the whole time, her pale blue eyes fixed on the open stone door deep within the great hall.

Su Lin followed her gaze, his pupils slightly constricting.

In the pitch-black Void Realm behind the stone door, those eerie green little eyes had not only not decreased, but were actually increasing in number.

The batch that had surged out just now appeared to be merely the vanguard.

"This nest of insects is truly prolific," Su Lin couldn't help but remark.

He had originally thought that this was all that had been released, and that once they were killed, it would be over. It turned out that what was contained inside this bead was likely the entire nest of the insect race. If they kept pouring out endlessly, relying solely on Chu Weiwei's poison powder would inevitably lead to running out sooner or later.

"It looks like we have to wipe out that nest," Su Lin's gaze darkened.

"Leave the nest to me," Ye You suddenly spoke up.

She had been quietly huddled in the corner the whole time. Her dark green vertical pupils were now fixed intently on the stone door, and she licked her lips with the tip of her tongue.

"They smell much more fragrant than that big whale."

Su Lin: "..."

So in your eyes, this dense swarm of insects is a flowing feast.

"Go ahead." Su Lin sighed, too lazy to correct her twisted view of food. "Be careful; who knows what else is hidden behind that stone door."

"Mm." Ye You nodded, and her figure instantly vanished.

The next moment, she had already appeared in front of the stone door.

She did not go in, but instead spread her arms. Countless thick, dark green vines surged wildly from behind her, like a dark green tsunami, pouring directly into that pitch-black stone door.

The vines were covered in dense suction cups and sharp teeth. Wherever they passed, those insects, along with their eggs, were all frantically devoured and shredded.

A series of scalp-tingling chewing sounds came from behind the stone door.

"Fourth's way of eating is scary to watch," Su Hongling couldn't help but shiver while smashing insects.

"You have the nerve to talk about her?" Luo Ximei floated over, waving her folding fan, her white-gold heterochromatic eyes full of amusement as she watched the show. "You're covered in more bumps than her eating style is ugly."

"Stop talking coolly from the sidelines!" Su Hongling glared at her. "If you've got the ability, come down and fight a couple of rounds! You're just busy fanning yourself and posing."

"Why would this Venerable one need to do it personally?" Luo Ximei smiled lazily. "With you and the Third as two meat grinders here, this Venerable one only needs to be responsible for enjoying the view."

Su Hongling was left speechless, choked up, and could only vent her anger on the insects, swinging her sword even more fiercely.

Su Lin stood on the side, watching his disciples each performing their duties, while he himself became the most idle one.

He even felt like finding a place to sit down and have a cup of tea.

This feeling was very strange. From the Lower Realm to Heaven Beyond Heaven, he, as their Revered Master, was becoming more and more like a hands-off manager. The dirty and tiring work was all snatched up by his disciples; he would occasionally offer a word or two of guidance, and the rest of the time he was purely a spectator.

He didn't know if this was a success or a failure of education.

"Revered Master." Gu Qiuyue had approached his side at some point, her golden eyes flashing with shrewd light.

"Can these insect corpses be collected?"

Su Lin turned to look at her: "What are you trying to do again?"

"Just think about it." Gu Qiuyue rubbed her hands, that merchant face of hers appearing again. "These insects naturally control Space Law; there must be a trace of that Law remaining in their corpses. If we could collect them and refine it out, that would be top-tier Artifact Refining Materials."

"Here in Heaven Beyond Heaven, you're still thinking about Artifact Refining?" Su Lin raised an eyebrow. "Who are you going to sell what you refine to?"

Gu Qiuyue was stunned by the question. She opened her mouth, and after a long while, squeezed out a sentence: "Keep it for my own use."

"..." Su Lin was completely speechless.

This girl's brain, she probably would never be able to get rid of that greedy habit for the rest of her life. Everywhere she went, she was thinking about hoarding goods.

"Suit yourself." Su Lin waved his hand. "If you want to pick them up, then pick them up, just don't let it delay the important business."

Having received permission, Gu Qiuyue immediately took out several specially made Storage Pouches and happily began picking up insect corpses all over the ground.

That earnest attitude was just like someone picking up eggs in their own backyard.

Su Lin watched her money-grubbing appearance, then looked at Su Hongling smashing insects, Chu Weiwei releasing poison, Ye You swallowing insects, and Luo Ximei watching the show while fanning herself, and felt that this scene was absurdly cute.

A group of Golden Immortal powerhouses were all busy enjoying themselves over a nest of insects.

Cold Moon walked to Su Lin's side, that purple-gold Phoenix robe of hers still appearing unblemished amidst the pervasive poisonous miasma.

"Revered Master." She spoke softly. "Although these insects are troublesome, they are ultimately just a minor irritation. What this disciple is worried about is the origin of this palace."

Su Lin withdrew his gaze, his expression becoming serious. "You've noticed it too?"

"Mm." Cold Moon nodded, her golden eyes gazing at those rows of painful stone statues. "The power to petrify living things without letting them die is definitely not an ordinary method. The owner who built this palace likely has unfathomable cultivation."

"Moreover," Cold Moon paused, "although this place is abandoned, the lingering traces of that power are still there. This disciple always feels that deep within this palace, there is something hidden that we haven't seen yet."

Su Lin was silent for a moment. Cold Moon was right.

This palace exuded an indescribable eeriness. That Restriction that devoured Divine Sense, those painful stone statues, and that red bead sealing the swarm of insects. Every single thing seemed to be deliberately hiding something.

"Once we finish cleaning up these insects, we will explore deeper," Su Lin said slowly. "Caution is paramount."

Just as the two were conversing, the chewing sounds from behind the stone door suddenly stopped.

Ye You retracted her vines and walked out from the stone door.

Her dark green vertical pupils shone with a satisfied light, and her small hands rubbed her flat lower abdomen.

"I'm full," she said muffledly. "There are no more insects inside."

"You ate them all?" Su Hongling stopped swinging her sword, her eyes widening. "That huge nest, you ate it all?"

"Mm." Ye You nodded, taking it for granted.

Su Hongling looked at her slender figure, then looked back at the originally pitch-black swarm of insects behind the stone door, and silently swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

This girl's stomach must be a bottomless pit.

As the insect nest was wiped out by Ye You, the insects in the great hall had also been cleaned up by Su Hongling and Chu Weiwei.

That scalp-tingling buzzing sound gradually disappeared, and the entire palace returned to dead silence.

Only the insect corpses and green juices all over the floor remained, proving the existence of the absurd battle that had just taken place.

"Phew, it's finally quiet." Su Hongling carried her great sword on her shoulder and wiped the sweat from her face. "Old Man, these little things are really annoying. Next time we encounter these teleporting things, I'm not taking the lead."

"If you don't take the lead, who will?" Su Lin asked in return.

"Let the Fourth do it." Su Hongling pointed at Ye You, who was squatting on the ground still seemingly unsatisfied. "She eats them one by one; it's much more useful than this sword of mine."

Ye You raised her head and nodded seriously. "That's fine. They are delicious."

Su Lin: "..."

Fine. In the future, if we encounter enemies that are edible, it seems we really can just hand them over to Ye You, this biochemical turret.

Chu Weiwei put away her poison powder and squatted on the ground, carefully examining the corpses of those insects.

"Revered Master, these insect corpses are indeed useful." She picked up a translucent insect remnant like she was presenting a treasure. "Although the remaining Space Law inside is weak, if refined, it can be used to concoct a very special escape drug. After drinking it, one can ignore spatial blocks for a short period of time."

"You certainly know how to make use of waste." Su Lin nodded.

"Of course, Weiwei is a Medicine Immortal after all." Chu Weiwei smiled proudly and carefully collected the insect corpses into a jade bottle.

Gu Qiuyue glanced over from the side, a trace of unwillingness flashing in her golden eyes.

"Third, don't pick up too many." She protected her Storage Pouch. "I want these insect corpses too."

"Sixth Senior Sister, what are you picking these up for?" Chu Weiwei tilted her head. "You don't know how to refine medicine."

"I'm keeping them to trade with you later." Gu Qiuyue said righteously.

"..." Chu Weiwei was choked up by her rogue logic.

Su Lin watched his two disciples arguing back and forth over a few dead insects, and only felt a headache.

These girls, they really could find something to argue about wherever they went.

"Stop arguing, both of you." Su Lin spoke up to interrupt. "There are so many corpses on the ground, half for each, alright?"

Only then did the two stop sulkily and began to divide the insect corpses like they were splitting loot.

Su Lin couldn't be bothered to look at their mercenary appearance and turned to walk toward the open stone door deep in the great hall.

The insect nest had been wiped out; behind that stone door should be hidden the true secret of this palace.

"All of you, follow me." Su Lin ordered without looking back. "Don't be greedy for those dead insects; there might be better things inside."

Hearing the words "better things," Gu Qiuyue and Chu Weiwei instantly stopped fighting, their eyes lighting up in unison, and they scrambled to follow him.

Su Lin: "..."

Just as Su Lin was about to lift his foot to cross that stone door, a chaotic sound of conversation suddenly came.

The sound came from afar and drew near, accompanied by hushed conversations, echoing exceptionally clearly in the empty hall.

Su Lin's footsteps paused, and he turned his head back.

Several figures were cautiously sneaking in.

Leading them was a tall, thin man in a green shirt, holding a Magical Artifact resembling a bronze mirror in his hand, his expression solemn as he probed the surroundings.

Behind him followed three people, all with Golden Immortal cultivation, their auras restrained very cautiously, just like a group of poachers who had broken into a predator's lair.

"Big Brother." A short, fat man following at the very back swallowed a mouthful of saliva, his voice trembling severely. "The Thousand-Mechanism Poison Insects in this area are quite formidable; can we really handle them?"

"That's right." A sharp-chinned Cultivator next to him also chimed in, his eyes constantly darting toward the painful stone statues all around. "I heard this thing naturally controls Space Law, and one sting can melt through a Golden Immortal's Protective Aura. A few years ago, that Immortal Master Chixiao from the Northern Desert, who was known as a Golden Immortal at Perfection, fell into the hands of this nest of insects and didn't even have bones left."

The leading man in the green shirt waved his hand, signaling the others to be quiet.

"What are you afraid of?" His voice was pressed very low, revealing a bit of certainty in his determination. "Precisely because it is formidable, the Space-Devouring Mother Bead that Seals it is valuable."

"The four of us joining forces, plus this Magical Artifact for suppressing insects, we'll stabilize the insect nest first, and while they haven't poured out of the nest, we'll grab the Mother Bead and leave. This trip will be enough for us to eat and use for ten thousand years."