19: Chapter 19 The Empress was stunned; it could summon insects?!

Soon, Gu Yuexi and Chu Sheng arrived at the Black Forest outside Jiangcheng.

Once they stepped into the forest, the air changed—it became humid and fresh, mixed with the fragrance of soil and plants.

Of course, there was also a faint, lingering scent of the musky odor belonging to demonic beasts.

Perched on Gu Yuexi's shoulder, Chu Sheng curiously sized up this brand-new environment.

"Whoa, this place is not bad at all. With such beautiful mountains and clear waters, it's practically a natural oxygen bar!"

He was in a great mood, especially because his [Blood Food Tracking] skill felt like a fish back in water after entering the forest; the number of life signals within his perception range was so high it dazzled him.

Although most of them were insignificant small animals, he could occasionally sense one or two relatively powerful auras of blood energy. In his eyes, those were just like the "field bosses" marked on a map, full of temptation.

"Empress, what are we eating today? How about I show you the way? A hundred meters that way, there's an unlucky Grade 1 Initial-stage rabbit that looks quite plump!" Chu Sheng transmitted his thoughts, eager to try.

However, Gu Yuexi completely ignored him.

Her cold, clear eyes were carefully observing the traces on the ground.

As a former Beast-Taming Empress, she knew the habits of demonic beasts like the back of her hand; tracking prey was simply an instinct carved into her bones.

"The footprints are fresh and the soil is damp; they were left within the last half hour."

"The hoof prints are chaotic and uneven in depth, with more than ten of them—it's a herd of Iron-Hide Pigs."

"The direction they are heading... is the water source upstream."

Gu Yuexi quickly made her judgment in her mind, then, without a word, she strode out with her long legs and stealthily moved in that direction.

Her movements were as light as a civet cat as she wove through the complex woodland without making a single unnecessary sound, to the point where even Chu Sheng on her shoulder couldn't feel much jolting.

"Damn, that's professional!"

Chu Sheng watched in amazement, his admiration for this Empress growing a little more.

It seems those who are reborn are just different; her professional skills are top-notch!

Following her, there's definitely meat to eat!

After sneaking for about ten minutes, Gu Yuexi stopped behind a bush, parted the dense branches and leaves, and looked ahead.

She saw a large group of dark creatures gathered in a clearing not far ahead.

Those guys looked similar to domestic pigs, but they were a size larger, their bodies covered in a layer of black, rock-like hard skin, and two tusks protruded from their mouths, glinting with cold light.

It was their mission target—Iron-Hide Pigs!

Chu Sheng also stretched his neck to look, his eyes lighting up instantly.

[Iron-Hide Pig, no bloodline, Grade 1 Initial-stage demonic beast, Blood Energy value approximately 185 points.]

[Iron-Hide Pig, no bloodline, Grade 1 Initial-stage demonic beast, Blood Energy value approximately 192 points.]

[Iron-Hide Pig King, no bloodline, Grade 1 Late-stage demonic beast, Blood Energy value approximately 395 points!]

Good heavens!

They're all walking blood bags!

And a whole herd of them at that!

Chu Sheng was drooling, especially at the Pig King, which was clearly a size larger than the other pigs and looked fat and gluttonous; in his eyes, it was simply a luxurious surf-and-turf feast!

"So many pigs, we've hit the jackpot!" Chu Sheng rubbed his front legs excitedly.

However, Gu Yuexi's brows furrowed slightly.

"There are too many, fifteen in total, and there's also a Grade 1 Late-stage Pig King."

She analyzed silently in her heart.

"With my Grade 1 Mid-stage strength, one-on-one, taking down three Grade 1 Initial-stage Iron-Hide Pigs wouldn't be a problem, but if I'm besieged by the herd, even for me, it would be a dead end."

Charging in head-on definitely wouldn't work.

She had to find a way to lure them away and defeat them one by one!

But how to lure them? Use sound? It would easily alert the entire herd.

Use food? Where would she find that much food?

For a moment, even the experienced Beast-Taming Empress fell into deep thought.

Meanwhile, Chu Sheng on her shoulder heard her inner thoughts clearly, and he was immediately displeased.

"Hey, Empress, you don't get it, do you?"

"What's with all this 'luring them away'? How troublesome! To deal with brainless guys like these, I have a more direct method!"

Chu Sheng chuckled in his heart; he couldn't wait to start a killing spree... no, a feasting spree!

Without even greeting Gu Yuexi, he moved his mind and released all five hundred of those "misfit troops" from the [Insect Swarm Space] all at once!

Bzzzz—! Whoosh—!

The next second, Gu Yuexi felt the space around her darken. Before she could react, she saw a massive, dark cloud of insects—consisting of flies, moths, cockroaches, and stink bugs—appear out of thin air and rush towards the herd of Iron-Hide Pigs, blotting out the sky!

"Attention, everyone! Target, the third one on the left! Use mental contamination attacks on me! Annoy it to death!"

Chu Sheng gave the order!

Those five hundred insects, like a suicide squad that had received a unified command, precisely locked onto an Iron-Hide Pig at the edge of the herd.

Flies and moths circled frantically above its head, making a "buzzing" noise, occasionally diving into its eyes and nostrils.

Cockroaches and stink bugs crawled up its legs, burrowing into the gaps of its hide armor, using their tiny short legs to scratch frantically inside!

"Grunt??"

The Iron-Hide Pig, which had been leisurely rooting the ground with its nose, was suddenly subjected to this all-encompassing, no-blind-spot "three-dimensional harassment" and was instantly dumbfounded.

It shook its head irritably and stomped its hooves on the ground, trying to drive away these annoying little things.

But the number of insects was simply too high!

Drive one batch away, and another batch comes; they were endless and impossible to defend against!

"Grunt! Grunting!!"

The Iron-Hide Pig was so annoyed it squealed, rolling around wildly on the spot, but it was to no avail.

Finally, as if it couldn't take it anymore, it let out an angry roar, broke away from the herd, and charged toward a pond not far away, looking like it wanted to jump in and take a bath to drown these insects.

This sudden scene left Gu Yuexi, who was watching from the side, completely stunned.

For the first time, a blank expression appeared on her beautiful face, which usually resembled an eternal iceberg.

"What... what is going on?"

She looked blankly at the vast cloud of insects, then at the Iron-Hide Pig fleeing in panic, her mind completely blank.

Where did so many insects come from?

And how could they be so organized and disciplined, specifically targeting one pig?

A familiar scene suddenly flashed in her mind—yesterday in the classroom, that sudden "insect disaster"!

She turned her head abruptly and looked at the "culprit" on her shoulder, who was leisurely grooming its wings, with an expression as if she had seen a ghost.

"No... it couldn't be, right?"

A guess that she herself felt was absolutely absurd uncontrollably popped into her mind.

"Could it be... that it did this?"

How is that possible?!

This isn't scientific!

As a mosquito, how could it control so many different types of insects?!

It isn't even a demonic beast, how could it possess this ability similar to "Swarm Will"?!

Gu Yuexi felt that her worldview had once again been severely impacted.