Chapter 174: The Changes of the Creation Plate, Taking the Initiative

Fifty mother worms drifted downstream.

During this time, Zhao Ke and the ten Worm Witches produced no fluctuation of vital energy on their bodies for the vast majority of the time, merely steering the spell-boats' direction.

Only when encountering obstacles or running aground would a single, larger fluctuation of vital energy appear on their bodies, using the water vein to reposition the spell-boat and let it drift toward its destination.

The spell-boats' speed was not fast; in a single shichen, they had drifted only twenty li.

Although the speed was slow, it had the advantage of being steady.

Whether it was the spell-boat, the mother worm, or Zhao Ke, the vital-energy fluctuations brought on by their spellcasting were all very small, and the casting traces were extremely concealed, almost impossible to detect.

This was the headache-inducing aspect of Worm Witches — from a great distance, they could strike an enemy without anyone knowing.

The hundred-li-long river took Zhao Ke and the others over five shichen.

When the fifty mother worms reached the outskirts of Cloud City, it happened to be the zi hour.

At this time, the defenses of every aspect were relatively weak.

"Cloud City's boundary marker."

At this moment, a unique life fluctuation emanated from Zhao Ke's body. A hundred li away, on a spell-boat, a fist-sized mother worm with two pairs of compound eyes suddenly rotated its eyes.

At this point, the mother worm had initially awakened, and the Worm Witch Zhao Ke began to control it; the spellcasting fluctuations on his body also grew stronger.

Throughout the entire process, only this moment required Zhao Ke to expend vital energy to cast spells.

Because he needed to control the mother worm to find a suitable environment for laying eggs and breeding.

"Enter Cloud City through the Mei River entrance; you can drift straight to the hinterland. You two, control the mother worms to enter through the Mei River entrance; the rest continue searching for the next tributary."

"Yes."

Zhao Ke and the other Worm Witches cast spells together.

Of the fifty mother worms, ten drifted toward the Mei River ferry.

The other forty entered Cloud City through the next tributary.

In the eyes of the remaining Worm Witches, there was no need to split forces at all — they could simply enter Cloud City through the Mei River entrance.

But just to be safe, Zhao Ke still chose to split the forces.

Splash~

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

They were about to pass through the entrance into the interior.

But just at this moment.

"Splash~"

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

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

"Hmm?"

The two Worm Witches were instantly filled with doubt.

"What's going on?" Zhao Ke asked.

"We may have hit a backflow tide," one Worm Witch answered. "My mother worm's spell-boat is retreating."

"My spell-boat sank, but it should float back up in a moment." The other Worm Witch didn't take it to heart either.

Zhao Ke nodded.

Yet within less than a quarter of an hour, the two Worm Witches' faces grew solemn and heavy.

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

"My spell-boat still hasn't floated back up."

"Mine either."

Zhao Ke immediately gave the order: "See what's going on. If it's a Great Zhou formation, destroy the spell-boat and find a way to send the mother worms in."

"Yes."

The patterns on the two Worm Witches' faces lit up, as if worms were wriggling beneath their skin.

On the compound eyes of the ten mother worms, the appearances of the two Worm Witches were reflected.

At the same time, the spell-boats carrying the ten mother worms accelerated their drifting.

"Splash~"

One of the spell-boats used the water current to accelerate, trying to rush toward the shore.

Yet the water current at this moment seemed to fight against them, wave after wave slapping the deadwood back.

"Whoosh~"

The next moment, this piece of deadwood was completely swallowed into the whirlpool.

"Buzz~"

The Worm Witch's body shuddered, and his entire face turned pale.

The other piece of deadwood had long since sunk to the riverbed, as if stuck in the black mud, and no matter how they cast spells, it could not float back up.

"Buzz~"

The second Worm Witch also lost contact with the mother worm and spell-boat.

"Hmm?"

Zhao Ke looked at the two elders' appearances and immediately knew something had gone wrong.

Sure enough, the next moment the two reported the situation one after another.

They could no longer sense the condition of the spell-boats and mother worms.

"Whirlpools, black mud?"

Zhao Ke was about to ask for details.

But two more Worm Witches groaned at the same time, their situation exactly the same as the previous two.

"Stop!"

"The remaining thirty mother worms and the spell-ship, all of you stay silent and wait, do not advance any further!"

Zhao Ke immediately reacted.

One or two could be called an accident, but four Worm Witches all encountering the same situation proved that Cloud City had extremely sophisticated defensive measures.

"They can actually defend against a Worm Witch's stealth infiltration?"

"Didn't the intelligence say Cloud City was very weak?"

"Young Lord, what do we do?"

Zhao Ke thought for a moment, then stood up: "The Divine Emissary's mission cannot be left unfinished, unless it exceeds a certain level."

"We're too far away, the spell's power has weakened too much, we can't determine what's happening. Let's head downstream along the Canglan River and take a look."

One of the older Worm Witches advised: "Young Lord, isn't this too risky? We're not combat witches. If we suddenly encounter Great Zhou soldiers, we'll easily be killed."

Zhao Ke said: "Failing to complete the Divine Emissary's mission within a month is worse than death. I am the young lord of the Hana tribe, so I might be exempted from punishment, but half of you will be taken to be offered to the worms."

The ten Worm Witches fell silent. In recent years, Shenshan had invested heavily in cultivating Worm Witches, giving them far more resources than other types of witches—and none of that came free.

Zhao Ke: "Hatch two flying mother locusts to monitor the surroundings as we advance. If we're careful, there won't be a problem."

"Yes."

Cloud City, Mei River entrance.

Ling Yuan directed the mechanism masters to operate the dragon-boat's triple hoist, lifting a black chest out of the water.

"Whoosh~"

Zhao Xing and Xia Jing descended from the sky aboard an Arrowfish flying boat.

"Lord Ling, what's going on?"

Seeing the two of them disembark, Ling Yuan immediately jogged over to greet them: "Lord Zhao, Lord Xia, this subordinate received a report from the night-duty official that the Water-Clear Essence Array at the Mei River suddenly fluctuated at the third quarter of the Zi hour, so I rushed over at the first opportunity."

"The formation's cage captured some strange things, but this subordinate cannot identify what they are."

"Let me take a look." Zhao Xing walked over a dozen meters forward.

At this moment, the black cage had been lifted out.

Two segments of dead wood were thrashing about wildly inside the black cage.

But the interior of the Water-Clear Essence Array's suppression base was a complete maze—once inside, there was no getting out.

No matter how it thrashed, it could not break free of its bonds.

Seeing this segment of dead wood, Zhao Xing's expression immediately grew solemn: "Be careful when you open it."

Xia Jing asked upon seeing this: "What is it?"

He had never seen a Worm Witch's methods before either.

Zhao Xing pointed at the dead wood and said: "A Worm Witch's mother-worm nest, made from fourth-rank Yuan Mulberry wood. Inside there are at least no fewer than ten mother worms! What type they are, I can't tell yet."

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

During the breakout exercise, Xia Jing had been deeply impressed by the Southern Barbarians' Worm Witch methods—countless fist-sized insects flying in dense swarms through the air, endless and impossible to kill, simply a nightmare.

But he had only ever seen a fully formed locust plague, never a mother worm.

"Crack crack crack~"

Once the two segments of wood were released, they immediately burst apart.

"Whoosh~"

Two water droplets appeared at Zhao Xing's fingertips, rapidly expanding. The instant the dead wood exploded, they enveloped all of its fragments.

"Hold!"

Two masses of water floated in the air, freezing everything inside them solid.

"They're Blood-Sucking Mother Locusts." Xia Jing drew a deep breath. "And there are ten of them."

"My lord, what's the background of these insects?" Ling Yuan asked in confusion. Inside the water mass, strange insects could be seen wriggling.

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

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

Zhao Xing pointed at one of the mother worms and said: "Blood-Sucking Mother Locust. The thorax is divided into three segments, with eight legs. The mesothorax and metathorax each have a pair of wings. On the second and third segments of the thorax, there is a pair of spiracles on each, which can absorb the Heaven and Earth Essence."

"The abdomen, like the head and thorax, has very hard segments—ordinary third-rank divine weapons can't hack through them."

"This one is a mother worm. At the rear end of its abdomen, what protrudes backward is the ovipositor."

"A single Blood-Sucking Mother Locust can produce tens of millions of Blood-Sucking Locusts in an extremely short time."

"They feed on livestock blood, their mouthparts carry venom, and the toxin of an adult Blood-Sucking Locust can easily paralyze a Ranked martial artist."

The surrounding officials turned pale. Ling Yuan asked cautiously: "Do they… eat people?"

Zhao Xing said calmly: "To a Blood-Sucking Locust, humans are of course tastier than livestock."

Everyone couldn't help but shiver.

"No need to panic. The extra shifts you all pulled weren't for nothing—these mother locusts being captured now is proof of that."

"As long as they don't swarm, individual Blood-Sucking Locusts are still easy to kill."

Zhao Xing gave a light wave of his hand, and the nest and mother worms inside the water mass were all crushed into fragments.

Just then, a flying boat arrived and reported an abnormal situation at another tributary entrance.

Zhao Xing and Xia Jing boarded the Arrowfish flying boat and hurried over.

They quickly discovered a second type of mother worm.

"These are Sword-Venom Mother Locusts."

"It seems a Worm Witch is carrying out a Heavenly Calamity strike against Cloud City."

"It should be the Ten Plagues of Locusts."

Xia Jing looked at the mother insects, a little fearful in hindsight: "Fortunately you had the foresight. If these things had been allowed to flow into Yuncheng, all our earlier efforts would have been wasted."

Zhao Xing shook his head: "It's far from over. Only two of the Ten Plagues of Locusts have appeared so far. Since we intercepted them, he won't give up."

"What do you mean?"

"The Worm Shaman can't be too far from the mother locusts to control them." Zhao Xing looked at the sky: "Sitting and waiting for death isn't an option. Brother Xia, mobilize every member of the Martial Bureau immediately and board a flying boat to hide inside my cloud."

"Follow my cloud in a moment. Find him, kill him!"

Xia Jing nodded: "Good, I'll go gather people right away. When do we depart?"

Zhao Xing thought for a moment: "In two quarter-hours, Brother Xia. After we return to the city, there's one more thing we need to do first."

"If the Southern Man are training troops, they can't possibly have sent out only one tribe."

"It's no use for just our Yuncheng to hold. We have to notify the other commanderies and counties too. Otherwise, once the Worm Shaman gains momentum, we'll still just be taking passive beatings."

"We'll submit a joint report to Fucheng, detailing the harm of the Worm Shaman."

"Not just that — we also need to notify the counties and commanderies around Yuncheng."

"Your connections are wider, and your words carry more weight."

"Even if the higher-ups don't believe it, as long as people from our Shiyang Grotto-Heaven can mount a proper defense, it'll be enough to minimize the losses."

"Good." Xia Jing nodded and immediately departed on a flying boat.

Zhao Xing, for his part, took out his Earth Mirror and sent a message to every Agricultural Official he knew in Shiyang Grotto-Heaven.

Shi Yong, Zhuang Ziqing, Feng Qi, Cai Jin, Jiang Tianming… everyone on his friends list received one.

Although there was competition between them, telling them the countermeasures would also benefit his own operation.

Otherwise, even if Yuncheng held firm, the collapse of others would still affect him.

"Sending this private message right after the first encounter with the Worm Shaman is the most appropriate timing."

"I'm ahead by this one step. As long as I have this step, it's already enough."

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

The Soldier Realm, inside Gao Ta.

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

Before the Earth Mirror, King Tianyan Wang, Luo Hou Wang, and Ling De Wang watched the scene.

Two Commandery Princes and one Prince of the Blood — this was the configuration for the Soldier Realm's oversight of the new recruits' performance.

Only heavyweights of this caliber could ensure the screening was fair. King Tianyan Wang, Luo Hou Wang, and Ling De Wang were not directly participating in this Nine Heavens Response Yuan Prefecture campaign either; with no vested interest, they could withstand pressure from all sides and cut off any backdoor dealings.

Ling De Wang pointed at the Earth Mirror: "The Worm Shaman's natural-disaster strike on Yuncheng was detected by him, and he even sent warnings to the others. Zhao Xing is very alert. He didn't just have the workshop set up formations against the Worm Shaman — there are also defenses against other types of disasters."

Luo Hou Wang shook his head: "It's not entirely that. His first two ring missions were completed quickly. He reached Yuncheng ahead of time and swiftly cleared the hidden dangers, giving him more ample time to gather all his forces for Yuncheng's prevention and control."

"The Soldier Realm's missions are all derived from deductions by the Creation Disk. Being one step ahead already gives him the advantage. He's not just faster than Shi Yong and Zhuang Ziqing from Shiyang Grotto-Heaven — none of the reserves from the other four Grotto-Heavens are faster than him either."

"Hmm?" King Tianyan Wang suddenly let out a sound of puzzlement.

"King Tianyan Wang, what's wrong?" Luo Hou Wang and Ling De Wang both looked over.

King Tianyan Wang thought for a moment: "Just now, the war-deduction trajectory of the Creation Disk suddenly underwent some changes."

"For an instant, the term 'Worm Shaman' appeared with extreme frequency in the Great Pacification Campaign, reaching a pre-war peak."

Luo Hou Wang's gaze sharpened: "You mean this change is related to Zhao Xing and Xia Jing's report, and the private messages they sent to others via Earth Mirror?"

King Tianyan Wang shook his head: "Not necessarily. It was only a momentary peak, and the Worm Shaman is something the Soldier Realm has long been wary of… let the people of the Heavenly Mechanism Hall worry about this. Exhausting the source of creation — that's not my business."

Luo Hou Wang and Ling De Wang nodded. The Great Zhou had slashed at deduction-type cultivation paths, but that only forbade others from learning them. The Imperial Family kept a group of people, known as 'Fate Officials.' This mysterious group had an institution within the Soldier Realm called the Heavenly Mechanism Hall.

"Look, Zhao Xing and Xia Jing have already set out." King Tianyan Wang's gaze fell on the Earth Mirror. "They are only twenty li from the Southern Man tribe's Worm Shaman."