Chapter 622

621. Chapter 616: Hunting the Insect King

Whether Xie Kuangren believed it or not, Ding Huan brought him into the Blue Star Sect to heal his wounds.

He knew Xie Kuangren had pulled out such a precious Breakthrough Rune not only to ask for his help against the Insect King, but also to seek Ascension.

The Ascension Grounds had been carved out from the Blue Star Sect, and Ding Huan was its Sect Master.

If Xie Kuangren wanted to Ascend, he had no choice but to beg Ding Huan's favor.

When he himself underwent Tribulation Crossing, Xie Kuangren had ambushed him.

Without proper compensation, Ding Huan would never let it go.

In less than half a day, Xie Kuangren felt his soul sea and meridians gradually repaired, even the shattered Dao patterns swiftly mending.

At this point, even if Xie Kuangren didn't believe, he had to believe.

Indeed, fame does not lie—within mere decades, Ding Huan's power had multiplied a hundredfold, and his healing arts were this formidable.

With such healing, as long as one still drew breath, he could recover swiftly, wouldn't he?

"Thank you, Star Lord." Xie Kuangren exhaled deeply, feeling his Breakthrough Rune had been worth every bit.

Ding Huan pulled out the Divine Flame Sword and handed it to Xie Kuangren: "You wield swords. This blade came from an opponent—I give it to you."

He disliked owing others; the Divine Flame Sword plus the healing debt should balance the Breakthrough Rune.

As for killing the Insect King, that wasn't helping—it was something he himself urgently wanted to do.

"This…"

Xie Kuangren saw the Divine Flame Sword and knew at once it was of higher rank than his own Demon-Slaying Sword.

Ding Huan shoved the Divine Flame Sword into Xie Kuangren's hand: "Wait for me. I'll refine this Breakthrough Rune, then you take me to the Dao Corridor."

"Won't you invite Song Chengdao and the others?" Xie Kuangren momentarily forgot to refuse the Divine Flame Sword.

Ding Huan waved his hand: "No need. I'm enough."

Xie Kuangren couldn't beat that insect, but Ding Huan wasn't afraid.

Even when he was still an Immortal Sovereign, he had used tricks to sever several of the insect's legs.

Now he was at the peak of Immortal Emperor realm, while the Insect King's power remained damaged—did he still need Song Chengdao's help?

"Then alright, I'll wait for you." Seeing Ding Huan's firm tone, Xie Kuangren also felt no need to summon others.

His power was restored now, and with Ding Huan beside him, what was there to fear?

Ding Huan had refined too many primordial treasures already, and this Breakthrough Rune wasn't even complete.

With his current Immortal Emperor power, he spent only a few days to fully refine the Breakthrough Rune.

Then, immediately, he imprinted a half-god starland's heavenly Dao principle onto it.

As long as he didn't enter the Divine Realm, with this half-god starland's heavenly Dao principle, Ding Huan believed he could return to the half-god starland anytime.

…

When Ding Huan returned to the Dao Corridor, he could hardly believe how desolate it had become in such a short time.

After passing several major Xianchengs, most held only a few thousand people.

Some smaller Xianchengs were completely empty—no one inside at all.

Nearly all Dao academies were now abandoned.

Ding Huan could understand—compared to the half-god starland, the Dao Corridor was truly inferior.

Whether in territorial size, completeness of heavenly Dao principles, or ambient Qi, it lagged by two tiers.

The Cosmic Cauldron halted outside a frozen, snowy wasteland.

Xie Kuangren's face grew awkward.

Last time, he had ambushed Ding Huan right here—and been severely wounded by Ding Huan and Zuo Shanwei. If Ding Huan hadn't healed him, his injuries would still have left him incapacitated.

"I understand why this guy hides here," Ding Huan cautiously extended his spiritual sense, forming a rough guess.

"Why?" Xie Kuangren asked instinctively.

"Because space here is weakest—perhaps the Insect King plans to tear open this space and flee at any moment."

Ding Huan said this, but he suspected the Insect King had entered through the same cosmic vortex as he had.

The space here was indeed weak, but he still doubted the Insect King could tear it open.

The Heaven and Earth Qiankun Veil wasn't an ordinary treasure—tearing this space would mean breaking the core of that array.

Ding Huan raised his hand and summoned his longblade.

"Aren't you setting up a trapping and killing Immortal array?" Xie Kuangren reminded him.

He still feared the Insect King.

Back on the Insect Star—now the half-god starland—if not for the fanatical rescue by the Immortal Army, he, Xie Kuangren, would have died in the Insect King's hands.

Ding Huan shook his head: "Setting up an array won't help much against this Insect King. Besides, if I start constructing one, he'll sense it. Better to strike directly with a surprise attack."

"Master Xie, wait here for me—I'll go in alone."

Xie Kuangren had wanted to enter with Ding Huan, but remembered his current power level was far inferior.

At best, he couldn't even wound the Insect King, let alone wipe out all the insects on the half-god starland.

His only possible help was to seal the Dao Corridor if the Insect King tried to flee.

After giving his instructions, Ding Huan crept cautiously into the depths of the ice veins.

He didn't scan with his spiritual sense—given the Insect King's alertness, the moment his spiritual sense touched the Insect King, the Insect King would sense him.

The Insect King was healing here; ambient Qi flowed slowly toward one direction.

Ding Huan now followed the flow of ambient Qi.

His speed was not slow; his aura blended almost entirely with the surrounding ice and snow, moving steadily deeper into the ice veins along the Qi current.

Several hours later, Ding Huan stopped—he felt the Insect King was recovering its power less than a kilometer away.

He couldn't advance any further. If he pushed on, he'd definitely be detected—that was his intuition.

Ding Huan took a deep breath, his Heart Escape technique activated in an instant, and the next moment his long blade swept up an endless surge of icy killing momentum as it slashed down.

Almost the instant Ding Huan's long blade fell, the Worm King sensed it and frantically shot away.

Because Ding Huan hadn't extended his domain, when the Worm King burst out there wasn't the slightest restraint on it.

And Ding Huan's blade momentum hadn't even been deployed either, so he couldn't lock down the Worm King's movements either.

The Worm King's body clearly dodged Ding Huan's slash as it burst out, but somehow the angle of Ding Huan's blade suddenly shifted—and it turned out to be exactly the direction the Worm King was fleeing toward.

Ding Huan was repeating his old trick.

He had calculated that no matter how fast his slash was, the Worm King would sense it.

Given the Worm King's strength, once it sensed it, it could dodge a hundred percent of the time.

Since that was the case, the only way he could succeed in a sneak attack was to bet that the Worm King's brain wasn't that sharp.

So he calculated the most likely direction the Worm King would flee after his slash came down.

Then, halfway through the blade's momentum, he shifted it toward another direction.

Very few people could execute this move.

Because his first slash was also a real strike.

Only a genuine real strike could make the Worm King feel the threat of death and flee.

Switching the angle of a real-strike slash mid-instant and continuing to bring it down as a real strike—without a powerful divine sense and immortal essence, it simply couldn't be done.

Crack!

A crisp shattering sound burst forth—Ding Huan's slash severed the rear small half of the Worm King's body.

The Worm King let out a shrill, miserable shriek, then charged toward the depths of the ice vein.

Ding Huan's slash was fast enough, yet it only severed the Worm King's tail plus a small section of its body.

The Worm King's speed really was that fast.

Ding Huan raised his hand and swept up the half-section of the Worm King's body, then gave chase. But in just that instant of collecting the worm corpse, the Worm King had already escaped over a hundred thousand miles.

Ding Huan thought to himself, this was even after it was heavily wounded—if this worm hadn't been seriously injured, how fast would it be?

Seeing that Ding Huan had already succeeded and was now pursuing the worm, Xie Kuangren was overjoyed and quickly followed behind.

But after just a dozen or so breaths, Ding Huan sensed something was wrong.

This worm had actually found the cosmic vortex he'd been unable to locate all along.

Back then, when he'd controlled the Cosmic Cauldron to enter this ice vein through a cosmic vortex, he just couldn't find where this cosmic vortex was.

He had never imagined that this cosmic vortex was actually a hidden void restriction.

Old Ji really is useless—even a worm discovered this void restriction.

The void restriction was easily torn open by the worm, which charged straight in.

Ding Huan didn't know whether this cosmic vortex was the same one he'd entered through. Since the worm had charged in after it, he charged in without the slightest hesitation.

If he didn't kill this worm, he wouldn't even be able to sleep.

He now understood this worm's grudge-bearing nature—hiding in the depths of this ice vein, it was clearly bent on wiping out all the human cultivators of the Grand Dao Corridor and the Half-God Continent.

Otherwise, in the vast cosmos, where couldn't it find a place to heal?

It was only that the worm feared him and hadn't come out.

Once this worm escaped, it was certain that after it recovered, it would still come back here.

Was it easy for him to establish a legacy?

How could he let it be ruined by a single worm?

When Xie Kuangren arrived, the void restriction hadn't yet recovered.

Only then did he realize there was actually a cosmic vortex here.

This cosmic vortex clearly wasn't a space the Heavenly Dao Qiankun Shield could protect.

Sighing, Xie Kuangren didn't follow them in.

As long as Ding Huan had a Boundary-Breaking Talisman on him when he charged in, he could return to the Half-God Continent at any time.

If he followed in, getting back would be extremely difficult.

Xie Kuangren decided to hand the affairs of the Grand Dao Corridor over to someone else, then prepare to wait at the Half-God Continent for a while.

If after waiting a while Ding Huan still hadn't returned, he'd ascend to the God Realm first.

The worm's speed was extreme.

Ding Huan also discovered that void escape was definitely this worm's innate divine ability.

This guy's speed in void escape really was too fast.

Ding Huan's Heart Escape was also first-rate in speed, yet he was still being gradually pulled away.

Fortunately, Ding Huan's Heart Escape was also being slowly perfected through this constant pursuit, and soon he was once again closing in on the Worm King.

This chase-and-flee lasted several months, and Ding Huan could see he was almost in range to strike at the Worm King.

Yet the worm's speed actually increased once again.

Ding Huan saw it very clearly with his divine sense.

The Worm King's physical body had fully recovered—only its strength had weakened another notch.

This made Ding Huan even more determined not to let this worm escape.

This Worm King had existed on the Half-God Continent for who knew how many years—even he had a pile of treasures for restoring his physical body.

The heaven-and-earth immortal materials on the Worm King for restoring its body could probably be described as pile upon pile.

Ding Huan continued to perfect his Heart Escape.

After the Worm King pulled some distance from Ding Huan, under Ding Huan's pursuit that spared no immortal essence or divine sense, it wasn't pulled any further behind.

Seeing that the Worm King's speed had not increased any further, Ding Huan felt greatly reassured.

His escape art was constantly being refined; if this continued, he would eventually catch up to the Worm King.