109: Chapter 109 You want to challenge me?

The moment the transaction was concluded,

the Shaggai Insect in Xie Feng's mind slowly crawled out and began absorbing the memories of the other one.

This was knowledge he didn't have in his past life—could the Shaggai Insect's memory-absorption method actually be used on its own kind?

"Hissss... This isn't good. Its intelligence has already been transmitted, and now all the Insects from Shaggai here are going to make a move!"

As the mental fluctuation transmitted into his mind, the hollow-carved wooden doors of the main entrance of the Hall of Supreme Harmony were blasted open by a piercing insect screech.

Dark brown carapace fragments continuously crawled out from the gaps in the cyan-gold bricks of the plaza outside the hall. Dozens of Shaggai Insects crawled out from the drainage culverts, the depths of dry wells, and the beam crevices of abandoned side halls throughout the imperial city, converging into a constantly writhing, dark brown tide in the plaza.

Spacetime Gates unfolded one after another in the back, and surviving Shaggai Insects scrambled to crawl out from them.

Their compound eyes gleamed with a faint, grayish-white cold light under the sunlight, and when their mouthparts opened, they emitted extremely sharp and dense hissing sounds. That sound didn't enter through the ears; it drilled directly into the depths of the skull through spiritual perception.

Exposed, the Shaggai Insects naturally panicked and grew desperate.

They were determined to take Xie Feng away, drag him back to Severn Valley, and sacrifice him, believing that this would surely attract the gaze of the Lord of All Things.

At least, that was what they thought.

Most of the court officials inside the hall were still able to maintain their composure, but the fingers of a few young civil officials were already trembling.

Emperor Zhou Weixi stood up from the dragon throne, straightened his twelve-tasseled crown, and began calling out names one by one.

Duke Yong received the order, turned, strode out of the hall, and drew the old sword at his waist that had been with him for decades.

He even turned back to offer a slight apology to Xie Feng.

The duke thought he had misunderstood Xie Feng, and since Xie Feng had helped the imperial city break such a conspiracy, the old duke felt a bit embarrassed now.

Xie Feng was also rather embarrassed, because this trouble seemed to have been brought by himself, but he couldn't say it. If he did, the duke would split him alive.

Several Ministers of the Six Ministries were called out one by one and assigned their respective duties: the Ministry of Revenue was responsible for allocating Spirit Stones and potion supplies; the Ministry of Works was responsible for temporarily deploying barrier runes at critical nodes; the Ministry of Personnel was responsible for checking the parasitic status of personnel in various ministries.

Several princes and princesses stood near the back of the military officials' ranks, and Emperor Zhou Weixi glanced at them.

The Second Prince received the order to lead the Left Camp of the Imperial Guards to clear out the scattered Shaggai Insects on the periphery, while the Fifth Princess received the order to lead the Right Camp of the Imperial Guards to cooperate with the Ministry of Works in guarding the gates leading outside the palace.

Third Princess was also among them, and her assigned task was to ensure the safety of the civil official faction.

The young imperial family members bowed to receive their orders and turned to leave the hall, the sound of clashing armor gradually fading away at the hall entrance.

Everyone knew where they should stand and what they should do.

Duke Yong drew his sword at the entrance of the hall. A layer of extremely deep and steady dark golden light patterns surged on the blade, resonating with the Spiritual Qi of the city-protecting grand formation's base. The first Shaggai Insect that rushed up the steps in front of the hall was sliced in half by his sword, its insect blood splashing on the cyan-gold bricks with an extremely harsh corrosive sound.

The Imperial Guards poured out from the corridors on both sides of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, forming a square formation. The saber array spread across the plaza, and the dark golden saber light pushed the Shaggai Insect swarm outward layer by layer.

The hand of Emperor Zhou Weixi hanging outside his cuff didn't tremble at all.

He turned around, walked down from the dragon throne, and came before Xie Feng: "You will now go down the secret passage behind the dragon throne, rendezvous with Dr. Wenren, go to Shituolin Swamp, and ensure that nothing goes wrong there."

Xie Feng struck the cold crystal blind staff against the ground. "Your Majesty, what about the Shaggai Insects outside?"

"No need to worry, I have left a contingency. Their target is you, right?"

Emperor Zhou Weixi interrupted Xie Feng's words.

"Since there is a target, things are easy.

You go down now. I have already sealed off all the outer paths leading to Shituolin Swamp, leaving only this one behind the dragon throne. If they want to capture you, they must all head here to challenge Me.

In the Hall of Supreme Harmony, I will not lose!

But Shituolin Swamp cannot suffer any accidents either. To prevent them from tampering with the Seal, you go down and work with the Ministry of Works to ensure the safety of Shituolin Swamp. I will have Elder Zhou go with you."

Xie Feng did not say another word, turned around, and pushed open the extremely narrow secret door on the side of the dragon throne.

The cold crystal blind staff tapped against the stone steps, walking down step by step.

Xu Liujing followed right beside him, the cuffs of his moon-white robe tightly bound, holding new rune stones just requisitioned from the warehouse in his hand.

The insect chirping coming from the plaza outside the hall was layer by layer absorbed, isolated, and suppressed to an extremely low level by the rock walls on both sides of the stone steps. When reaching the end of the stone steps, only a very vague buzzing sound remained, and what followed was the muffled sound of the boundless skeletal swamp at the bottom of the Seal slowly writhing beneath the sealing barrier.

Several Cultivators from the Ministry of Works' sealing team were already waiting for him on the sealing walkway.

Wenren Jingming stood at the very front of the walkway, scanning the rune nodes modified by the Ministry of Works yesterday one by one with a rune detection board.

Seeing Xie Feng walk out of the passage, the expression on his face visibly relaxed with a sigh of relief.

"I have already found the three nodes that the Ministry of Works illegally engraved and modified at that time. The sealing barrier has been continuously leaking from here. If we don't repair it quickly, the skeletal layer of Shituolin Swamp might spread outward along the leakage points."

Xie Feng struck his blind staff against the edge of the walkway. His spiritual perception spread out, sweeping across those tampered rune nodes, confirming the range and depth of the leakage.

Although he didn't know how to repair it, Xie Feng knew the characters.

Working together, Xie Feng interpreted the abstract Chinese characters on the stone tablet, then informed Dr. Wenren and Xu Liujing, with the assistance of the Ministry of Works, and they began repairing the damaged Seal.

I must say, although the ancestors were abstract, their foundation in sealing was still rock-solid.

After these strange memes were interpreted through the Nine Provinces language, they sounded like the Bible to the ears of the Ministry of Works.

They actually relied on these rotten memes to comprehend completely different sealing methods, furiously repaired Shituolin Swamp, and it actually worked!

"This ancestor is truly a master player."

Just as Xie Feng sighed, the Shaggai Insect in his mind suddenly chimed in.

"Your memories are so strange. What on earth is protecting them? And why do they feel so different from ordinary human memories?"

Xie Feng guessed that it must be Yog-Sothoth exerting its great hand. He had to admit that throughout his entire body, only Yog-Sothoth and the King of Volcanoes were good guys.

As the Ministry of Works' maintenance team exerted their efforts, the Seal below gradually stabilized.

Meanwhile, the Hall of Supreme Harmony above had turned into a complete melee.

With the arrival of the Cultivators parasitized by the Shaggai, the intensity of the battlefield skyrocketed.

The strength of the parasitized Cultivators was exceptionally high. They could wield Cultivation Techniques and Spiritual Qi while also utilizing the technology of the Insects from Shaggai, making it difficult for the court officials and the Imperial Guards inside the hall to resist them on their own.

The emperor, however, was completely unfazed.

"Entering the hall without imperial approval, and failing to bow upon seeing the monarch—that means you intend to assassinate the sovereign."

Emperor Zhou Weixi flashed a grin.

"Guards, where are you? Execute these scoundrels on the spot without mercy!"

At this command, several elderly eunuchs wearing embroidered Qilin patterns and old men wearing four-clawed dragons slowly appeared.

"As you command!"