Chapter 89: Hunger-Eater (Second Update)

The Captains of the Purification Bureau, at first seeing these insects, felt it was like a storm of black-yellow hail, but upon approaching, they turned pale in horror; each one was three feet long, not hail but meteorites!

Boom, boom, boom...

Great craters were smashed into the ground, and a large portion struck the Captains directly; after knocking them down heavily, a swarm quickly crawled over, pouncing, biting, and tearing, causing the Captains to scream in agony and perish one after another!

The locusts used saw-like long legs to slice the corpses apart, each dragging a piece aside to devour it greedily!

"Damn it!" Yan Lao cursed angrily, pressing the Dog-Head Guillotine down with all his might; countless white bones shattered, scattering into flying phosphor flames, and dozens of old ghosts screamed once before vanishing into thin air.

Yan Lao raised the guillotine again, shouting: "Who dares to lurk here!"

The Locust Matriarch, hands clasped behind her back, was walking down from the cliff but suddenly stopped.

A hint of apprehension appeared in her eyes.

"Having the children assist in battle is enough." She stopped halfway.

Lord Qin cursed the old evil spirit for being as timid as a mouse, and while beating the drum, he drew out another blade.

With a snap, the blade swept away the arrow stuck in the scorpion's tail, and the tail began to spin again.

The drum was struck by the sword hilt, spider legs moved swiftly, and Lord Qin chased straight after Xu Yuan.

Yet the sword hilt seemed to melt, covering Lord Qin's entire hand.

Even though Lord Qin's fate pattern is heavy, this collection of artificer-cultivator creations was still becoming somewhat unmanageable.

But before he could reach Xu Yuan, Lord Qin sensed something was wrong.

First, the Locust Matriarch's countless descendants quickly devoured the corpses of the Captains they had previously slain, then began gnawing on each other without distinguishing friend from foe!

Several hundred even swarmed up and ate two of Lord Qin's subordinates!

Some were even biting their own legs!

Then, Lord Qin himself was flooded with a intense hunger, wishing he could devour the sword and drum in his hands in one bite!

"What is happening?!"

Inside the war chariot, Xu Yuan released that layer of skin and poured water from a waterskin onto it.

This time out, Xu Yuan carried at least two waterskins with him, precisely because of this layer of skin.

But with only two skins of water, the intensity of the "Hunger-Eater" trickery was not yet great.

Those locusts could not withstand it, but cultivators like Lord Qin could still endure.

Just as Xu Yuan was planning to find a way to get a few more waterskins, Lord Qin had already made a decisive decision: "Retreat!"

The spider legs quickly retreated, then clanged as they reassembled, transforming once more into iron wings, taking flight and soaring dozens of zhang away.

Ceng Si and the others immediately followed in the retreat.

Since they had held the upper hand all along, they could naturally withdraw from the battle calmly.

Lord Qin felt his objective had been achieved.

This battle had already killed more than ten Captains of the Purification Bureau.

The old ghosts of the Ten-Thousand-Person Pit had all been slain, the Locust Matriarch refused to act personally, her descendants were devouring each other, and the situation had already turned unfavorable.

If they did not leave now, Seeing Fu Jingyu would be carrying the Dog-Head Guillotine to execute him.

Lu Zhengyan, suppressing the intense hunger, picked up his bow and arrow again, drew it fully, aimed at Lord Qin, and shot an arrow with a whoosh.

Pfft!

At a distance of a hundred zhang, the arrow struck Lord Qin in the ribs.

Lord Qin stumbled in mid-air, spilling a spray of fresh blood, yet still flew away without looking back.

Xu Yuan wrung the skin dry, and the "Hunger-Eater" effect faded.

The locusts, no longer under the influence of the trickery, looked around... their brothers and sisters were already half-eaten in their mouths, so why waste it? Eat them all.

Xu Yuan emerged from the war chariot, signaled to everyone, and together they remained silent, carrying several mutilated corpses as they slowly retreated, moving out of the locusts' range.

Da Fu wobbled back from the side, a large locust still clamped in his mouth.

The locust was not yet dead, but struggling in Da Fu's mouth, it could not break free.

Xu Yuan was somewhat surprised; with the battle erupting suddenly, he had no energy to attend to Da Fu and did not know where the creature had hidden, but now, seeing it, the beast was still entirely snow-white, not only unharmed but with its belly swollen a size larger, likely having eaten more than one locust.

Xu Yuan glared at him with his eyes, ordering him to drop the insect immediately.

Da Fu was not disobedient; he simply hadn't seen, for the locust was too large, and with Da Fu holding it in his mouth, it blocked his eyes.

After returning to Xu Yuan's side, he exerted a bit of force and swallowed the insect whole.

Xu Yuan saw a lump on the creature's slender neck, nearly as large as its own body; the lump on the upper half of the neck moved a few times before slowly sinking into its stomach.

"How can you swallow that?" Xu Yuan shook his head in silent wonder.

The Locust Matriarch stood halfway up the mountain, her wings trembling with rage.

This time, hundreds of her descendants were lost.

To show off her power before Lord Qin, she had sent only the first generation of offspring, each one three feet long.

She had long ceased giving birth, for each birth would drain a portion of her own power.

Therefore, for this generation of offspring, every one that died was one less.

It caused her immense heartache.

Yet she dared not urge her descendants to tear apart this group from the Purification Bureau to vent her anger; that trickery was truly sinister, and provoking them again might result in all her descendants being buried here.

If even a strange entity finds it sinister, then it is truly sinister.

Xu Yuan led everyone back across the Lin Zi of the Debt-Collecting Ghosts, returning once more to the town's boundaries.

Yan Lao glanced at everyone, nearly shedding tears of old age.

When entering the mountain, there were exactly thirty Captains; now only fourteen remained, and all bore wounds.

Four corpses were recovered, all mutilated, bearing marks of locust gnawing.

The losses this time were severe!

Although in terms of results, this battle could be counted as a victory for the Purification Bureau, it was a pyrrhic one.

Fu Jingyu looked up at the sky and let out a long sigh, ordering, "Cremate them."

The corpses cannot be left behind, especially those gnawed on by evil spirits.

They will surely become reanimated corpses tonight.

Several lightly wounded Captains gathered some firewood and cremated their comrades outside the town.

Then they were packed separately into jars, with names pasted on them.

They must be taken back to their hometowns and handed over to their relatives.

Everyone returned to Zhao's Fur Shop again; the Captains helped each other bandage their wounds.

Xu Yuan and the other three went upstairs, closed the door, and Yan Lao, unable to contain his rage, said, "Who are these people? Once found out, their entire families will be exterminated!"

Lu Zhengyan pondered, "Are they Chen Liangxuan's men? But the old lord ordered people to watch the county town gates long ago, and no suspicious persons were found entering the city."

Fu Jingyu said, "Besides Chen Liangxuan's men, who else would be our enemy?"

Xu Yuan said, "It must be them! Qiao Zi'an colluded with the strange entities in the mountains; these people arrived and immediately mixed with the Locust Hag. It is certain."

Pausing for a moment, Xu Yuan added, "The problem now is, how do we investigate next?"

That ghost who faked an accident by sneaking into the woods, and the dead man's money suddenly blown into one's arms by the wind, were obviously the work of the evil spirits in the mountains.

The Locust Hag has countless descendants; once one enters the mountains, they will be discovered, and then the evil spirits will be summoned to surround and kill.

The group fell silent; they were unfamiliar with Ghost Wushan and truly could not think of any strategy.

The only one they could rely on was Xu Yuan.

(End of this chapter)