Chapter 171

Fifty mother insects drifted downstream.

During this period, Zhaoke and the ten Insect Witches did not produce any Yuan Qi fluctuations on their bodies for the vast majority of the time, just simply controlling the direction of the magic boats.

Only when encountering obstacles or running aground would a higher Yuan Qi fluctuation appear on their bodies, using the water veins to readjust the position of the magic boats and drift toward the destination.

The speed of the magic boats was not fast, drifting only 20 miles in one hour.

Although the speed was slow, it was steady.

Whether it was the magic boats, the mother insects, or Zhaoke, the Yuan Qi fluctuations brought by their spell-casting were very small, and the traces of spell-casting were extremely hidden, almost impossible to be detected.

This is the troublesome part of Insect Witches—from far away, they can strike the enemy without anyone knowing.

Zhaoke and his men spent over five hours on the hundred-mile-long river.

When the fifty mother insects arrived outside Yuncheng, it was exactly the hour of the Rat (11 PM - 1 AM).

At this time, defenses in all aspects were relatively weak.

"Yuncheng's boundary marker."

Zhaoke's body now radiated a unique life fluctuation. A hundred miles away, on a magic boat, a mother insect about the size of a fist with two pairs of compound eyes suddenly turned its eyes.

At this time, the mother insect initially woke up, and the Insect Witch Zhaoke began to control the mother insect. The spell-casting fluctuation on his body also became stronger.

Throughout the process, only at this moment did Zhaoke need to consume Yuan Qi to cast spells.

Because he needed to control the mother insect to find a suitable environment to lay eggs and reproduce.

"Entering Yuncheng territory from the Mei River entrance can drift directly to the hinterland. You two, control the mother insects to enter from the Mei River entrance, and the others continue to look for the next tributary."

"Yes."

Zhaoke and the other Human Witches cast spells together.

Fifty mother insects, ten of which drifted toward the Mei River ferry.

The other forty drifted toward the next tributary to enter Yuncheng.

In the eyes of the other Insect Witches, there was no need to split forces at all; they could just enter Yuncheng directly from the Mei River entrance.

But just in case, Zhaoke still chose to split the forces.

Splash~

At the Mei River entrance, two pieces of wood drifted over.

Just about to pass through the entrance and enter the territory.

But just at this moment.

"Splash~"

The water flow suddenly slowed down, and two whirlpools appeared in the river.

The two pieces of dead wood were instantly pulled toward the center of the whirlpools.

"Hmm?"

Two Insect Witches were suddenly confused.

"What's going on?" Zhaoke asked.

"Maybe we hit a backflow tide," one Insect Witch replied. "My mother insect magic boat is retreating."

"My magic boat sank, but it should float up in a while," the other Insect Witch didn't take it to heart either.

Zhaoke nodded.

However, in less than a quarter of an hour, the two Insect Witches looked solemn.

"Young Master, there seems to be a problem."

"My magic boat hasn't floated up yet."

"Mine neither."

Zhaoke immediately ordered: "See what's going on. If it's a Great Zhou magic array, destroy the magic boat and find a way to send the mother insects in."

"Yes."

The patterns on the faces of the two Insect Witches lit up, as if insects were wriggling under their skin.

On the compound eyes of the ten mother insects, the appearance of the two Insect Witches was reflected.

At the same time, the magic boats carrying the ten mother insects accelerated their drifting speed.

"Splash~"

One of the magic boats used the water flow to accelerate, wanting to rush to the shore.

However, the water flow at this time seemed to be working against it, slapping the dead wood back wave after wave.

"Whoosh~"

The next moment, this piece of dead wood completely sank into the whirlpool.

"Hum~"

The Insect Witch's body shivered, and his face turned pale.

The other piece of dead wood sank to the bottom of the river early, as if it had fallen into black silt, and no matter how he cast spells, it wouldn't float up.

"Hum~"

The second Insect Witch also lost contact with the mother insect and the magic boat.

"Hmm?"

Zhaoke looked at the appearance of the two elders and immediately knew that something had gone wrong.

Sure enough, the next moment, both of them reported the situation.

They could no longer perceive the situation of the magic boats and mother insects.

"Whirlpools, black silt?"

Zhaoke was about to ask for details.

However, two more Insect Witches groaned, and the situation was exactly the same as the previous two.

"Stop!"

"The remaining thirty mother insects and magic boats, all stay silent and wait, do not advance any further!"

Zhaoke reacted immediately.

One or two could be called an accident, but if four Insect Witches encountered the same situation, it proved that Yuncheng had extremely brilliant defensive means.

"Actually able to defend against the lurking of Insect Witches?"

"Didn't the intelligence say that Yuncheng is very weak?"

"Young Master, what should we do?"

Zhaoke thought for a while and stood up: "The Envoy's task cannot be left uncompleted, unless it exceeds a certain level."

"Too far away, the power of the magic is weakened too much, and we can't determine what the situation is. Let's go down the Canglan River and take a look."

One of the elderly Insect Witches advised: "Young Master, is it too risky? We are not Force Witches. If we suddenly encounter Great Zhou soldiers, we will easily be killed."

Zhaoke said: "Not completing the Envoy's task within a month is more painful than death. I am the Young Master of the Hana tribe, perhaps I can avoid punishment, but half of you will be taken to sacrifice to the insects."

The ten Insect Witches were silent. The Sacred Mountain has invested heavily in the cultivation of Insect Witches over the years, and the resources given exceed those of other types of Witches. These are not given for nothing.

Zhaoke: "Hatch two flying mother locusts to monitor the movement around us when we advance. Let's be careful, it should still be fine."

"Yes."

Yuncheng, Mei River entrance.

Ling Yuan greeted the Mechanists to control the dragon boat's triple hoist to lift a black box out of the water.

"Whoosh~"

Zhao Xing and Xia Jing descended from the sky in an Arrow-Fish flying boat.

"Master Ling, what's going on?"

Seeing the two descend, Ling Yuan trotted over to welcome them: "Lord Zhao, Lord Xia, this subordinate received a report from the night-duty official that the Water-Clearing Origin Array at the Mei River had an anomaly at the third quarter of the hour of the Rat, so I rushed over immediately."

"The array box captured some strange things, but this subordinate cannot recognize what they are."

"Let me see." Zhao Xing walked more than ten meters forward.

At this time, the black box was lifted out.

Two pieces of dead wood were constantly bumping around in the black box.

However, the interior of the Water-Clearing Origin Array's base was a complete maze; once inside, you couldn't get out.

No matter how it bumped, it couldn't break through the restraint.

Seeing this piece of dead wood, Zhao Xing's eyes became solemn: "Be careful when opening it."

Seeing this, Xia Jing asked: "What is this?"

He had also never seen the methods of Insect Witches.

Zhao Xing pointed to the dead wood and said: "The mother insect magic nest of an Insect Witch, using fourth-tier Kite Mulberry wood, contains at least ten mother insects! Can't tell what type yet."

"What?!" Xia Jing was startled. "So many?"

During the breakout drill, Xia Jing had a deep impression of the Insect Witch methods of the Southern Barbarian tribe—countless fist-sized insects flying densely in the air, killing them endlessly, it was simply a nightmare.

But he had only seen the formed insect disaster and had never seen the mother insects.

"Click, click, click~"

After the two pieces of wood were released, they immediately burst open.

"Whoosh~"

Two water droplets appeared at Zhao Xing's fingertips, expanding rapidly. The moment the dead wood burst, it enveloped all its fragments.

"Freeze!"

Two water clusters floated in the air, solidifying everything inside.

"It's blood-sucking mother locusts," Xia Jing took a deep breath. "And ten of them."

"My lord, what's the origin of these insects?" Ling Yuan asked suspiciously. In the water cluster, strange insects were wriggling.

Its head had a pair of thread-like antennae, compound eyes, and sharp mouthparts.

Near the antennae in front of the head, there were also three simple eyes arranged in an inverted triangle.

Zhao Xing pointed to one of the mother insects and said: "Blood-sucking mother locust, the thorax is divided into three segments, eight legs, and each of the mesothorax and metathorax has a pair of wings: at the second and third segments of the thorax, there is a pair of spiracles that can absorb the Yuan Qi of heaven and earth."

"The abdomen, like the head and thorax, is very hard. General third-tier divine weapons cannot cut through it."

"This head is the mother insect, and the part protruding backward at the end of its abdomen is the ovipositor."

"A single blood-sucking mother locust can produce tens of millions of blood-sucking locusts in a very short time."

"They feed on the blood of livestock, and their mouthparts are poisonous. Adult blood-sucking locusts have toxins that can easily paralyze ranked Warriors."

The faces of the surrounding officials turned pale. Ling Yuan asked cautiously: "Do they, do they eat people?"

Zhao Xing said lightly: "To blood-sucking locusts, humans are of course better to eat than livestock."

Everyone couldn't help but shiver.

"Don't panic, the overtime you worked before wasn't in vain. The fact that these mother locusts are caught now is an example."

"As long as they don't gain momentum, individual blood-sucking locusts are still easy to kill."

Zhao Xing waved his hand gently, and the nest in the water cluster, including the mother insects, were all crushed into fragments.

Just at this moment, a flying boat came over and reported the anomaly at another tributary entrance.

Zhao Xing and Xia Jing took the Arrow-Fish flying boat to rush over.

Soon they discovered the second type of mother insect.

"This is a sword-poison mother locust."

"It seems that there is an Insect Witch carrying out a natural disaster strike on Yuncheng."

"It should be the Ten Locust Disasters."

Xia Jing looked at these mother insects and said with lingering fear: "Fortunately, you had the foresight. If these things were allowed to flow into Yuncheng, I'm afraid all our previous efforts would be in vain."

Zhao Xing shook his head: "It's far from over. Only two types of the Ten Locust Disasters have appeared now, and we've blocked them, so he certainly won't give up."

"What do you mean?"

"To control the mother locusts, an Insect Witch must not be too far away," Zhao Xing looked at the sky. "Sitting and waiting for death is not a solution. Brother Xia, immediately dispatch all the personnel of the Warrior Office and take the flying boats to hide in my clouds."

"Follow my clouds in a while, find him, and kill him!"

Xia Jing nodded: "Good, I'll go call people immediately. When are we leaving?"

Zhao Xing thought: "Two quarter-hours later. Brother Xia, after you and I return to the city, we still have to do one thing."

"If the Southern Barbarians want to train troops, it's impossible to dispatch only one tribe."

"It's useless for us in Yuncheng to defend alone; we must notify other counties, otherwise once the Insect Witch gains momentum, we will only be beaten passively."

"You and I will jointly report to the prefecture and state the harm of the Insect Witch."

"Not only that, we must also notify the counties and commanderies around Yuncheng."

"Your connections are wider and your words are more convincing."

"Even if they don't believe it, as long as those of us from the Ten Suns Grotto-Heaven can take precautions, it will be enough to minimize the losses."

"Good." Xia Jing nodded and immediately left by flying boat.

Zhao Xing took out the Earth Mirror and sent messages to all the Agronomists he knew in the Ten Suns Grotto-Heaven.

Shiyong, Zhuang Ziqing, Feng Qi, Cai Jin, Jiang Tianming... as long as they were in the friend list, he sent them all.

Although they were competing with each other, telling them how to deal with it was also beneficial to his own actions.

Otherwise, if Yuncheng was guarded well but others collapsed, it would still affect him.

"Sending this private message after the first encounter with an Insect Witch is the most appropriate time."

"I am one step ahead, and this one step is enough."

Zhao Xing put away the Earth Mirror, then glanced at the sky and left quickly.

Military Realm, inside the high tower.

At this time, an Earth Mirror was showing the actions of Zhao Xing and Xia Jing by the river.

In front of the Earth Mirror, King Tianyan, King Rahu, and King Lingde were watching this scene.

Two Commandery Princes and one Prince of the Blood—this is the configuration for the Military Realm to monitor the performance of new recruits in each army.

Only such heavyweight powerhouses could make the screening fair. King Tianyan, King Rahu, and King Lingde did not directly participate in this conquest of the Nine Heavens Response Bureau. Without any conflict of interest, they could withstand pressure from all sides and prevent back-door dealings.

King Lingde pointed to the Earth Mirror and said: "The natural disaster strike of the Insect Witch on Yuncheng was discovered by him, and he even sent a warning to others. Zhao Xing's vigilance is very high. He not only had the Heavenly Workshop set up magic arrays to deal with Insect Witches, but also defenses to deal with other types of disasters."

King Rahu shook his head: "It's not entirely so. He completed his first two tasks relatively quickly, arrived in Yuncheng early, and quickly cleared away hidden dangers, giving him more sufficient time to gather all his strength to prevent disasters in Yuncheng."

"The tasks of the Military Realm are all deduced based on the Creation Disk. Being this one step faster, he has already maintained an advantage. He is not only faster than Shiyong and Zhuang Ziqing in the Ten Suns Grotto-Heaven, but the reservists of the other four major Grotto-Heavens are not faster than him either."

"Hmm?" King Tianyan suddenly made a sound of doubt.

"King Tianyan, what's wrong?" King Rahu and King Lingde both looked over.

King Tianyan thought: "Just now, the war deduction trend of the Creation Disk suddenly changed."

"For a moment, the word 'Insect Witch' frequently appeared in the great war of pacifying the barbarians, reaching a peak before the war."

King Rahu's eyes narrowed: "Do you mean that the appearance of this change is related to Zhao Xing and Xia Jing's report and their sending private messages to others through the Earth Mirror?"

King Tianyan shook his head: "Not necessarily. It only appeared for a peak moment, and the Military Realm has long been on guard against Insect Witches... Let the people of the Heavenly Mystery Hall worry about this. Exhausting the source of creation is not my job."

King Rahu and King Lingde nodded. Great Zhou cut a knife on the deduction-type cultivation path, but that was to forbid others from learning. The royal family raised a group of people, and this group of people was called "Fate Officials." This mysterious group had an agency in the Military Realm called the Heavenly Mystery Hall.

"Look, Zhao Xing and Xia Jing have already set off." King Tianyan's gaze fell on the Earth Mirror. "They are only twenty miles away from the Southern Barbarian Insect Witch."