Chapter 1603: Little Brother, Hold On! Lin Qianxue Prepares to Fight to the Death!

Beneath the deep blue sky, the sea of insects was like ink.

Xu Jingming was surrounded on all sides.

The Ninefold Lei Yu Spear whirled like a dragon, black thunderlight exploding through the insect horde.

He was drenched in blood.

Though most of it was insect blood, the scorch marks on his battle armor were undeniably real.

The spear's motion would suddenly strike sharply, piercing through three blade-fang insects at once.

Then it would barely parry the scythe-like claws of the Rippers, his body staggering backward.

"This human is more resilient than I imagined."

Hovering high above, Helia slightly furrowed her brows, a flicker of confusion passing through her deep blue compound eyes.

She had already sent out two waves of insect warriors—twenty thousand in total!

These insect warriors were diverse in type and coordinated flawlessly.

Even an ordinary Eternal First-Stage deity could be taken down by them.

Yet this human's aura was clearly fading, as if he would collapse in the next second.

Yet he always barely managed to hold on, even killing a few in counterattacks.

"Looks like I'll need to increase the pressure further," Helia mused.

She lifted her jade hand, and the insect sigil on her forehead blazed with blinding light!

"Hum—!"

The void tore open again.

This time, the insect portal was larger, dark and profound as the gaping maw of an abyss!

"Come forth, my elite guard legion."

As her cold voice fell, monstrous figures stepped out from the portal.

They were three times the size of ordinary blade-fang insects, standing twenty meters tall.

Their carapaces were dark gold, shimmering with a metallic luster.

Their forelimb scythes stretched five meters long, edges lined with razor-sharp serrations.

Their compound eyes glowed blood-red, their auras unmistakably reaching Cosmic Ninth Stage!

Exactly two hundred of them!

They marched out in formation, steps perfectly synchronized, carapaces clashing with crisp, metallic clangs.

A vast torrent of murderous aura coalesced into solid black clouds, staining half the sky dark gold.

"Two hundred Cosmic Ninth Stage beings?!"

In the heart of the insect horde, Xu Jingming caught sight of this with the corner of his eye—and barely held back a laugh.

One could only say, no wonder she was the first powerhouse of the insect race.

The quantity and quality of these insect warriors were simply insane!

He forcibly suppressed the curve of his lips.

Yet his face wore an expression of despair and terror, his voice hoarse as he shouted:

"Helia! You've been hiding this many elite guard insects! This isn't fair!"

"Fair?" Helia hovered high above.

Her six-meter-tall crystalline body glowed with a sacred aura under the starlight, yet her voice was as cold as ice frozen for ten thousand years:

"In insect warfare, there is only victory or death."

She pointed a jade finger: "Tear him apart."

"Roar—!!!"

The two hundred elite guard insects roared in unison, their sonic waves warping the air!

They stomped their four legs, and the ground exploded beneath them.

They surged toward Xu Jingming as two hundred golden afterimages!

Wherever they passed, even other insect warriors scrambled to avoid them, as if fearing these sovereigns of their own kind!

"Heh, still pretending you're not a masochist."

In his consciousness, the succubus little girl Vera swayed her heart-shaped tail, muttering softly:

"Who would be this happy seeing so many insect warriors?"

She glanced at the monstrous insect warriors outside.

Suddenly her face froze, as a possibility occurred to her.

"This guy… isn't some kind of tentacle fetishist, is he?"

Vera couldn't help shuddering, hugging her tiny body.

"So perverted! That's such a twisted taste!"

Xu Jingming had no idea what Vera was imagining.

Otherwise, he would've used the Soul-Eating Mark to let her experience firsthand what "master's care" truly meant.

At this moment, his entire focus was immersed in the thrill of harvesting.

"Ding! Killed Cosmic Eighth Stage Blade-Fang Insect, Source Points +1.2 million!"

"Ding! Killed Cosmic Ninth Stage Guard Insect, Source Points +7.8 million!"

"..."

System alerts rang out like a downpour, the Source Points number on the interface spiking wildly!

In just this short time, it had surged by over five hundred million!

"If I kill all these insectoid warriors, I wonder how many Source Points I'll harvest in the end..."

Xu Jingming's eyes glinted faintly as he swung the Ninefold Lei Yu Spear faster.

But this time, he revealed slightly more of his true strength.

Yet on the surface, he still appeared utterly battered.

Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth; his body staggered, as if he would collapse at any moment from exhaustion.

"Good. This human is definitely dead now."

High above, Haley's sapphire compound eyes flickered with a hint of satisfaction.

She could feel the human's aura rapidly weakening, his spear techniques growing increasingly chaotic.

After two hundred Guard Insects joined the encirclement, the battle had tilted utterly.

Twenty kilometers away.

A brilliant blue lightning bolt tore through the sky.

Lin Qianxue had pushed her speed to its absolute limit!

Her straight, slender jade legs, wrapped in lightning, seemed to become two streaks of lightning themselves.

Three minutes!

Only three minutes.

She had crossed two thousand kilometers and reached the battlefield's edge!

"That's... Haley, the strongest of the insectoids!"

Lin Qianxue abruptly halted, hovering midair.

Her pale golden eyes instantly locked onto the six-meter-tall glassy figure high above.

The moment she recognized who it was, her face drained of color.

Insectoids were inherently unbeatable at the same level, and Haley was the strongest among them in this invasion!

Even if she had confidence in her own strength, facing this insectoid champion meant certain defeat!

"Where's my junior brother? Where is he?"

Lin Qianxue's gaze snapped toward the center of the insect sea.

In the next instant,

her pupils contracted, her heart gripped as if by an invisible hand!

There, at the heart of the insect sea, Xu Jingming was drenched in blood.

His face was as pale as paper, blood continuously oozing from his lips.

His spear movements had grown sluggish; each parry seemed to drain every ounce of his strength.

Most terrifying of all, the black thunder encircling him had dimmed to near extinction, and the crimson killing aura had thinned to mist.

Around Xu Jingming stretched an endless, dense sea of insects!

"Junior brother!"

Lin Qianxue cried out in horror, her stunning face utterly pale.

"Hold on! I'm coming!"

She did not hesitate for a moment.

She flipped her hand and pulled from her space ring a pill the size of a dragon's eye.

Its entire body glowed pure white like jade, yet nine blood-red patterns flowed and writhed across its surface as if alive.

The instant the pill appeared,

the surrounding air rippled, and an overwhelmingly violent energy surge erupted outward!

Ji Ling Dan!

An SS1-grade pill that burns the origin of the Life Core upon ingestion.

It causes power to explode several-fold within a short time, enough to kill enemies across multiple minor realms!

But its side effects were terrifyingly hopeless.

After the explosion, the Life Core might shatter completely, causing a fall in realm.

Or, if less severe, it would suffer irreversible cracks, dooming the user to never break through to the Immortal Stage!

This was a forbidden pill, absolutely prohibited unless in absolute desperation!

Yet now, Lin Qianxue showed no hesitation.

She raised her slender hand, placed the Ji Ling Dan into her mouth, and swallowed it back with a tilt of her neck!

"Gulps."

The instant the pill entered her belly,

Boom—!!!

Vast, oceanic energy exploded violently, transforming into countless scorching torrents that surged through every limb and vein!

"Ugh—!"

Lin Qianxue groaned, her delicate body trembling violently.

She felt her Life Core being cast into a furnace.

Every inch burned, cracked, and reformed!

Her black hair whipped wildly without wind; the brilliant blue lightning around her surged violently.

Its color shifted from brilliant blue to deep blue, then finally transformed into deep purple!

Simultaneously, her original peak Cosmic realm aura

began surging upward in an unnaturally unstable manner.