Chapter 534: There Must Be Repercussions

"My people have made their move!"

Qiao Sen didn't respond, nor did he engage in covert probing or verbal sparring with Ao Yulie; he directly changed the subject.

Things having come to this pass, even tearing faces openly on the spot wouldn't matter.

But he didn't do so for the time being; a mule on the wasteland wasn't worth trading insults with — normally speaking, such a person didn't even have the qualifications to speak with him.

Killing him wasn't because of anger.

It was merely to wipe away the dust stained on his clothes; that's right, just like that.

The style factor had to be high.

Following Qiao Sen's words, Fu Yuan Wukong and the others were suddenly attacked; the attack didn't come from the sky, nor did it emerge from the few rare cover spots on either side.

It came from underground!

The ground caved in, and a gigantic worm drilled out from underground; its massive body slammed straight into the vehicle convoy of the underlings behind Fu Yuan Wukong and the other three.

Decent-quality vehicles were flipped over in an instant by the worm, rolling on the ground, twisted out of shape.

A few other vehicles had better luck, merely undergoing lateral translation without rolling over.

But the people inside the vehicles were also knocked dizzy, unable to tell east from west, north from south.

"What's the situation!"

"Wasteland Worm!"

Fu Yuan Wukong and the others were startled.

Having mixed on the wasteland for quite some time, they recognized this kind of bug.

Wasteland Worm, a special creature on the wasteland, massive in size, mostly between ten and twenty meters, a rare few reaching thirty meters, even forty meters.

They live underground year-round, rarely appearing on the surface.

No eyes; they rely on hearing and "thermal sensing" to distinguish surrounding things.

The head portion is a giant blood-maw, inside which are spiral teeth like a meat grinder.

Named worm, but actually pitch-black all over, wrapped in a thick carapace on the outside, extremely hard.

Ordinary firearms' bullets hitting it can hardly penetrate; one must fire multiple shots at the exact same spot to succeed.

Wasteland Worms are very timid; living deep underground year-round, they dislike sunlight, only occasionally "surfacing."

And at the slightest stir, they'll drill back underground.

For humans, the threat is very small — except for two situations.

One is when a settlement happens to be right next to a worm nest; when worms dig tunnels, they're very likely to affect the settlement.

The other is encountering the extremely rare berserk worms.

No one knows why worms go berserk? Major powers have researched it, yet haven't found the reason.

Only know that once berserk, they'll crazily attack humans, fighting to the death, extremely terrifying.

Truth be told, if not for worms going berserk and attacking humans, everyone's understanding of Wasteland Worms might not be as extensive as it is now.

Now, the four people including Fu Yuan Wukong naturally thought their luck was bad, that they'd run into a berserk worm.

Ao Yulie, however, asked: "You can control this kind of bug?"

Qiao Sen thought for a bit, then still answered his question — probably feeling that since they were going to die anyway, he might as well be magnanimous and satisfy his curiosity.

The habit of talking too much is hard to change.

After all, explaining the ins and outs before an enemy, watching their faces full of shock and despair, is also a rather pleasant thing.

In the end, he still couldn't hold back.

"Merely a tiny bit of beast-taming technique." Qiao Sen's voice carried a trace of pride.

"Oh, so it's a beast-taming method." Ao Yulie said; he'd thought it was some kind of manufactured mechanical flesh-and-blood creature. "Then I'll make my move."

"Fine too."

Qiao Sen replied.

Letting him serve some use before death is also good.

Ao Yulie held his gun, squinting one eye to aim, and pulled the trigger.

A crisp gunshot reverberated.

This Wasteland Worm, over thirty meters in body length, shuddered slightly; a shattered hole appeared on its outer shell, green blood flowing out, remarkably harmonious.

The weapon Ao Yulie used naturally had formidable power; piercing its defense with one shot was no problem.

"What are you doing!"

Qiao Sen's roar rang out in the earpiece.

"Ah, missed." Ao Yulie feigned nonchalance. "Next time definitely a one-shot headshot."

Saying that, he fired another shot.

Indeed a direct hit to the head, only this head was the Wasteland Worm's head, not the heads of Fu Yuan Wukong and them or those lucky surviving underlings.

The first shot was actually fine; although blood flowed out, that tiny hole was negligible for the worm's massive body, and even stimulated its ferocity.

But this second shot targeted a vital spot like the head; the worm suffered severe damage, its powerful vitality keeping it from dying, yet it thrashed wildly on the ground.

Kicking up large amounts of dust.

The reactions of Fu Yuan Wukong and the other three weren't slow either; it didn't matter which righteous person was helping them — at this moment, making a move was the right thing.

Zhongyuan Bajie made a ball-holding gesture with both hands at his sides; a faint golden light sphere condensed in his hands, then he released it in a wave-motion stance.

However, the light sphere didn't form an energy beam like the Turtle School Qigong, but turned into countless fine, dense golden "fine needles."

Like falling rain, they stabbed toward the worm.

The worm's hard carapace was instantly bristling with golden fine needles, and these needles kept drilling inward.

Most snapped and vanished along with the worm's thrashing; a small portion pierced into the worm's body, wreaking havoc for a while before vanishing.

This is a combination of the abilities and skills of a Destiny Figure; it can be called ruthless and vicious.

That giant worm soon reached the end of its life; although a centipede does not stiffen even in death, it posed no further threat to the four journeyers.

"You're courting death!"

Ao Yulie heard Qiao Sen's furious roar beside his ear; at the same time, the ground he was crouching on caved in, and an underground worm opened its bloody maw and bit at him.

The instant the ground collapsed, Ao Yulie leaped up, dodged the worm, and landed — his movements extremely suave: "Kill me? Heh, I'm coming for you now; wash your neck clean and wait."

Saying that, he took out his earphones and threw them at the worm, which swallowed them in one gulp.

"Bastard!"

Watching the dot representing Ao Yulie's position on the screen vanish quickly, inside the hidden command post, Qiao Sen slammed his fist on the table.

That damn wasteland mule!

If this mission fails because of that man, tearing him into ten thousand pieces won't be enough.

"Send people — find that mule for me! I'll make him wish he were dead!"

Qiao Sen's low roar reverberated inside the command post.

A strange expression flashed across the faces of the people inside; they understood why Qiao Sen was so angry, and they also knew he was settling a private grudge under the guise of official business.

Even so, they faithfully went to carry out the order — who made Qiao Sen the overall commander of this operation?

The Red Lotus Society hides in the dark; the hierarchy between superiors and subordinates is extremely strict — only thus can the organization's "cohesion" be guaranteed, at least to a certain extent.

But before anyone could accept the order and leave, the door of the hidden mobile command post was pushed open.

Ao Yulie stood at the doorway: "Surprised or not? Unexpected or not?"

Qiao Sen was startled.

Leaving aside that concealment is what the Red Lotus Society excels at most, this mobile command post is hard to discover.

Just the distance alone — it's a full two kilometers from the incident site, with a rift valley in between.

To go around would take at least several hours.

This guy's signal only just disappeared; how could he appear here?

Did he fly over?

"As a chess piece," Ao Yulie said, "you need the awareness of a chess piece; don't really treat yourself as the player, thinking you can give orders."

Qiao Sen's face instantly turned deathly pale, yet his gaze involuntarily shifted to the side.

"Then what are you? Are you the player?" A person who had been sitting in the corner of the room, unremarkable, slowly stood up.

This person's originally ordinary features changed; fine dense scales emerged near both cheeks, and both eyes turned into dark yellow vertical pupils.

As he spoke, deep in his throat, the tip of his tongue had a slight fork.

A half-human, half-snake appearance, emitting a fierce and sinister aura — that is the aura belonging to a yao!

However this aura is very faint; let alone a yao spirit, even a minor yao would be a stretch.

Ao Yulie narrowed his eyes; rather than saying this guy is a yao, it's more like a human mixed with yao bloodline, forming a half-yao.

Moreover, not the kind of half-yao descended from Xue Nian's bloodline inheritance.

More like a half-yao "artificially" created through acquired means.

Unstable aside, while gaining some power, he also paid no small price; Ao Yulie could assert this person would live ten years at most.

But the wasteland is originally a place where morning does not guarantee evening; even in large settlements, the average lifespan is pitifully low.

Trading lifespan for power is not an incomprehensible choice.

"Me? I'm actually just a spectator." Ao Yulie said "can't fight" with an extremely clear-headed and detached air.

Giving people the feeling of a "bystander expert."

Too bad the half-yao didn't buy it; flicking his snake tongue, he let out a low hiss with a "hiss-hiss" sound: "Then go die!"

His body lunged at Ao Yulie in a serpentine trajectory.

Ao Yulie gave a light laugh; his eyes turned into golden vertical pupils, looking at that half-yao.

The half-yao's body instantly froze; a fear from instinct completely seized control of his body, rendering him unable to move, even wanting to kneel and kowtow in worship.

Dragon Might — to the vast majority of snakes, it is Heavenly Might.

"Come, tell your master behind you: unable to capture the journeyers, let them keep sending people — the stronger the better, best if he comes personally." Ao Yulie ordered with a smile.

By the way, a wind blade erased Qiao Sen's life.

The other side.

The team secretly following from the Great Sun Courtyard, sometimes hunting, sometimes helping.

Were also frantically sending distress signals.

Tang Luo and Nezha occupied the magpie's nest.

"This tech isn't bad." Nezha examined the plane's interior environment and said, "You think Anan and them will show up?"

"They will."

Tang Luo said, "We sincerely invited them; although it's in the name of the 'Red Lotus Society', constant longing is sure to bring a response."

As they spoke, Nezha suddenly looked outside, his gaze seemingly piercing through the metal skin, seeing something.

"Look, here they come." Tang Luo said with a smile.