Chapter 350: Blind Box Region: Insect Turns to Dragon

Has any brother finished the blind leap? Report your coordinates—where are you?

Before him swirled a dazzling chaos of spatial corridors; Li Zheng, inside the transit pod, asked curiously over the squad channel.

The sound of eating dirt came first.

Broke and Eating Dirt: I'm still inside the spatial corridor—hope I don't land on a Black Tide node, or my blind leap trial might end prematurely.

Family Shared Adoptive Father: Why? What's so scary about the Black Tide? Sure, the landing is random, but the Counter-Tide Army must've surveyed the general zones—even if it's a Black Tide node, those are usually where new malevolent spirits manifest. They wouldn't send us to a King's node, would they?

Broke and Eating Dirt: Foolish—I'm not worried about the Black Tide node's strength. Have you forgotten the God of Wealth? The mission when landing on a malevolent node is to kill malevolent spirits and collect Malevolent Crystals. Wasn't the God of Wealth himself originally acquainted with us while gathering Malevolent Crystals…? The problem is, when we players kill malevolent spirits, we absorb them directly—leaving not even a trace. How do we get Malevolent Crystals?

Killlust Stirred: Hey, you're not wrong—if we hit a Black Tide node, the trial could be instantly failed.

Game Bricklayer: Guys, are you nervous now?

Leopard Head Zero Spend: Not nervous… yeah right. Right now I'm most worried about where those bastards landed. Hope Brother Beneath Di Zhao watches over us and lets them survive the blind leap trial safely.

Fun and Non-Pay: This is the final stage of training camp—everyone push hard. Lots of people are watching the livestream. Don't shame our Liver Emperor squad.

…

Amid idle chatter, a faint glow ignited at the end of the spatial corridor in Li Zheng's eyes, gradually spreading into a blinding silver-white.

The transit pod burst through the light membrane, its engine exhaust leaving three pale blue trails in the air, then pulled downward by invisible force toward the black-fog-shrouded earth below.

As it pierced the thick cloud layer, the pod shuddered violently; the view outside shifted from chaos to clarity.

Ink-green rotting marshes bubbled across the ground; dark purple vines coiled like giant serpents around exposed rock pillars. Distant mountain contours glowed crimson with auroral light, and faintly visible on the cliffs were rusted weapons of various designs embedded in the stone.

Finally, the transit pod smashed into the primordial forest, tangled in vines.

At that moment, Li Zheng violently shoved the control lever.

Hss!

White mist rose as the pod's hatch slowly opened.

Stepping out, Li Zheng immediately opened the world map and found himself at the southernmost tip of the Pale Continent region—only unexplored mist filled the map, with no navigable reference points.

He closed the map and looked up at the sky.

Through gaps in the dense canopy, he saw a heavy, dark cloud layer overhead.

No malevolent moon—proof this wasn't a Black Tide node.

Turning back to the transit pod, his first action was to store it in his spatial sack.

The past is teacher to the future.

The God of Wealth once had his transit pod stolen, causing an unexpected player to earn massive Shou Shou Jili rewards—a sensation on the forums.

He had no intention of making the same mistake.

Looking around, this was a dense forest.

The broken branches of giant trees, snapped by the pod's impact, still trembled slightly, oozing thick ink-green sap from their severed ends. Towering ancient trees overhead formed a canopy so dense it blocked the sun; their gnarled branches twisted and entwined, weaving a nearly impenetrable net above, with only scattered patches of light leaking through, illuminating pale purple spores drifting like fireflies in the air.

The ground was covered in a thick layer of rotting leaves, sinking half a meter underfoot; the air reeked of a foul, pungent odor.

Everywhere his eyes fell, rocks were covered in dark yellow moss.

"Where's everyone?" Li Zheng did not move immediately, but asked over the squad channel.

Instantly, the Liver Emperor squad members flooded him with messages.

Broke and Eating Dirt: Prize guess—I just took this picture of the moon. Look how big and red it is. Where do you think I am? (Explorer wiping tears. jpg)

Fun and Non-Pay: I don't even know where I am. The map's all black. Saw what looks like a small village in the distance—dare not go near, afraid of getting captured and eaten by cannibals. (Explorer suspicious. jpg)

Killlust Stirred: My landing spot's got nice scenery (screenshot). It's a plant-life dominated zone—at least when plant-life dies, there's a corpse to prove it. Planning to switch to a Soul-Extracting Painful Painful Minghun and start killing—should finish the trial requirements quickly.

Leopard Head Zero Spend: Just stepped out of the pod and I'm still landing—f***… landed right in a monster horde. Gonna run. Guys, talk later.

…

Realizing his brothers had already begun their trials, Li Zheng crouched down and began scanning the energy fluctuations of nearby plants and the soil environment.

To judge the area's energy intensity—and thus the probability of powerful monsters existing.

He pinched a handful of black soil mixed with dead leaves and brought it to his nose for a light sniff.

Besides the earthy smell, there was a faint metallic rust odor. Digging deeper, he found numerous metal fragments beneath the surface.

Scanning the surroundings, he preliminarily judged this had once been an ancient battlefield—soil littered with weapons and armor fragments nearly assimilated by the earth.

But Li Zheng found nothing unusual about it.

War in the Monster World never ceased; every inch of soil drank blood. Discovering an ancient battlefield was perfectly normal.

And the forest beneath his feet had clearly regrown over long centuries after the war ended.

At that moment, the vines behind him suddenly thrashed violently.

Their roots were being dragged—muffled crushing sounds came from beneath the soil, like heavy machinery moving.

Li Zheng spun around instantly; the ring on his finger transformed into a golden battle blade.

Ahead, a monster nearly three meters tall emerged from the forest depths.

It resembled a bipedal rhinoceros, its back covered in layered bone armor, gripping a massive, rusted axe in its hand.

Its left eye was a hollow socket; its right eye burned with a ghostly green malevolent fire. From its throat came a guttural, inhuman growl—each step shook the ground.

Seeing the weapon, Li Zheng frowned.

The battle runes on the axe blade were unmistakably a Counter-Tide Army insignia.

A scan revealed the relevant information in his mind.

【Counter-Tide Warrior—Iron-Spine Beast (Infested by Malevolent Gu Worm)】:

Hunting Level: 82.

Target Description: Originally a soldier of the Counter-Tide Army's 3293rd Division, 7th Brigade, who died in war against the Cixin Clan. His corpse was later infested by the invading Malevolent Gu Worm Clan, which used his remains as a nest. The worm swarm writhed within his bone seams, spawning layered bone armor and a mutated body. His residual combat instincts allowed him to still wield his former favorite axe, becoming a mindless puppet.

…

The parsed information explained to Li Zheng why the creature wielded a Counter-Tide Army standard weapon.

Under the control of the Evil Gu Insect, the Iron-Backed Beast suddenly raised its massive axe, the blade cleaving the air with a howl as it came.

Li Zheng calmly sidestepped, then crouched low and stepped forward, letting his Qi surge from his body; the golden blade in his hand smoothly slashed toward the joint of the opponent's knee, where an old crack marred the bone armor.

Clang!

A crisp sound rang out; amidst flying sparks, the Iron-Backed Beast stumbled half a step, its pupils burning with even fiercer evil fire, as it swung its axe horizontally in a reverse grip.

Using the momentum of his backward leap, Li Zheng spun the golden blade in his palm, reversed his grip on the hilt, and slid to the beast's armpit, riding the inertia of its axe swing.

"Instant kill."

The rune weapon hummed and glowed with Jin Guang, slashing diagonally from below upward.

The blade tip pierced through the armor and skin, precisely severing the opponent's cervical vertebrae.

The Qi exploded instantly, surging into the Iron-Backed Beast's body like a tide, shattering all the Evil Gu Insects within.

The instantly explosive force caused the Iron-Backed Beast's body to swell suddenly by a circle, like an inflated balloon, as thick black qi poured out continuously from within.

This was the life force scattered by the shattered Evil Gu Insects.

After this strike, the massive axe in the Iron-Backed Beast's hand clattered to the ground; its huge body swayed, the evil fire in its eye sockets struggled twice, and finally extinguished.

It remained in a standing posture before crashing down with a boom; the tattered emblem of the Back-Tide Legion on its chest struck a stone upon falling, emitting a faint sound.

A challenger prompt sounded in his mind; Li Zheng waved his hand to disperse the golden blade in his palm, approached the Iron-Backed Beast, squatted down, gently closed the opponent's still-open eyes, then picked up that standard-issue massive axe of the Back-Tide Legion.

A blurred legion numerical code was carved on the axe handle; it felt heavy in his hand.

This weapon was severely damaged and would be of little use kept in hand.

The Consignment Gold Merchant Guild could not meet the integrity standards, so he chose to sacrifice it on the spot to Beneath Di Zhao, gaining 828 points of Shou Shou Jili.

With the battle ended, he had gained a preliminary understanding of the situation in this area.

It was obvious that this place had once been a battlefield between the Back-Tide Legion and alien races, but now it had been occupied by the descending power, the Evil Gu Insect Clan.

In the analysis introduction, this creature was somewhat similar to the Soul Beasts created by the Soul Return Clan.

But in terms of mechanism, they differed by more than a little.

Soul Beasts perfectly inherit everything of the host except for irregular abilities, including proficiency in using those abilities.

But the Evil Gu Insects can only utilize the life intensity and life structure of the dead; combat talents, killing techniques, and the like cannot be extracted.

This race is preliminarily judged to have a weak mechanism, but its clan strength cannot yet be determined.

The core of the Blind Leap Trial is hunting, then acquiring spoils; Li Zheng decided to target the Evil Gu Insects for hunting from now on.

Reaching down to pick up a piece of energy residue left after refining on the ground, he continued exploring deeper into the dense forest.

Although the device carried with him could record the hunting process.

The most critical part was still submitting the spoils of the hunt.

The Blind Leap Trial only looks at the result, not the process; the spoils are the key to completing the trial.

In the subsequent exploration, Li Zheng encountered attacks from multiple creatures controlled by the Evil Gu Insect Clan.

Among them were Back-Tide veterans, and also the remains of Benevolent Heart Clan warriors who had fought against Back-Tide warriors back then.

There were even twisted sutured bodies where the remains of Back-Tide veterans and Benevolent Heart warriors were stitched together.

Feeling curious, after killing one of the sutured bodies, Li Zheng looked toward the Guidance Water Sphere and asked curiously:

"Brother Guidance, what exactly are these Evil Gu Insects? Are they a clan, or pet beasts controlled by some clan?"

Facing the question, the Guidance Water Sphere opened its eyes:

【You can understand them as beings similar to the Battle Insect Clan, but this clan has multiple controllers; each controller breeds and controls a batch of Evil Gu Insects.】

After speaking, the Guidance raised a hand to release a light screen, pointing at the dark red, thread-like twisted worms in the image and continuing:

【These creatures are as thin as wandering threads, able to easily pierce tendons and corrode bones; their survival mode is a form of alternative parasitism, not obtaining nutrients from the host, but weaving dead flesh and blood, re-stitching them into killing puppets.】

【Dead life forms, as long as the remains exist, will become their materials.】

【For example, the broken spines of Back-Tide veterans will be forcibly straightened by the Evil Gu Insects; rotting muscles will be tightened again under the control of the insect swarm; even if joints are shattered, the Evil Gu Insects can still use threads to replace tendons, allowing corpses to grip the weapons they held in life.】

【This race actually takes a shortcut to growth, evolving a symbiotic mode; they do not need to consider cultivation systems, life structure optimization, and other issues; they only need to seek the flesh and blood of the strong to combine powerful puppet lives; even species with different life structures can be precisely spliced by them, fusing two completely different life characteristics to birth grotesque monsters.】

【Simply put, living flesh and blood are like spirit ore, spirit plants, and other materials in the eyes of the Evil Gu Insect Clan; the equipment crafted from them are puppet sutured bodies; the higher the intensity of the target's remains, the higher the quality of the puppet crafted; skipping the step of self-life optimization, they have walked a different shortcut to becoming stronger, but essentially, aside from rapid growth, this evolutionary method is full of shortcomings, far inferior to the Soul Beast system of the Soul Return Clan.】

After understanding the details, Li Zheng nodded in realization.

During the battle just now, he felt that these controlled puppets showed no stiffness in their movements during combat.

After listening to the Guidance's explanation, he roughly understood.

One can understand the Evil Gu Insects as warriors controlling mechas, with flesh and blood being the materials for building the mechas.

And the Evil Gu Insect swarms are experts in this regard; any flesh and blood material can perfectly exert its strength in their hands.

Picking up the refined residue left on the ground, he continued exploring deeper into the dense forest.

The Blind Leap Trial is undoubtedly a lonely journey.

But for Li Zheng, he could converse via the team chat channel, and with over a hundred million players and tourists accompanying him in the live broadcast room, he felt no loneliness at all.

Occasionally, he would glance at the popularity danmu in the live broadcast room to interact.

Ahead lay a relatively open forest area; sunlight filtered through the gaps in the branches and leaves, casting mottled shadows on the ground.

Here, Li Zheng smelled a foul odor.

It did not smell like rotting leaves, nor like metallic rust, but rather like the bitter-clear scent of some grass and trees after being crushed.

Pushing aside the vines blocking the path, he discovered a half-withered medicinal herb growing beside a broken, incomplete shield; dark brown stains clung to its leaves; upon closer inspection, they looked like dried bloodstains.

A scan revealed that this was actually a fifth-tier spirit plant.

Li Zheng immediately beamed with joy.

The joy of exploration lies precisely here; the unknown path ahead always yields unknown surprises.

This is also the unique happiness of players.

Exploration for other races is fraught with trepidation, but for them players, it is filled with anticipation.

He acted decisively, yanking the herb out by the roots and tossing it straight into his spatial pack for storage.

Following the direction the herbs grew, he pressed deeper, and the broken metal objects on the ground grew denser and denser.

He also found a palm-sized metal tag on the ground, engraved with the words "Reverse Tide 3293 Legion - Frenzy Python Battle Formation," with half a broken chain still hanging from its edge — clearly an identity tag once worn at the waist by a Reverse Tide soldier.

The mist among the trees gradually thickened, carrying a faint sweet, fishy scent.

Seeing Li Zheng stopped, pricking up his ears to listen carefully. Apart from his own breathing, there was an extremely faint "shhh-shhh" sound, as if something were crawling among the vines.

He walked slowly toward the source of the sound, pushed aside an old tree tangled with vines, and the view suddenly opened up before him.

A sunken valley appeared before his eyes, its walls studded with densely packed arrowheads, some of the shafts still wrapped with faded cloth strips.

Half a foot of black mud pooled at the bottom of the valley; stepping on it, one could hear the faint crunch of bones breaking.

In the livestream, some detail-oriented players fired off a barrage at this moment, noting that the mud here was likely a layer of corpses — layer upon layer of bones half-buried in the earth.

Even what looked like dirt might well be the transformed remains of soldiers from that era.

One could see just how horrific a war this place had once endured.

Gazing into the distance, one could see many stitched-together lifeforms controlled by evil gu-worms wandering about.

According to the guide's explanation, this behavior was not aimless wandering but a form of compatibility training used by the evil gu-worm race.

Constantly familiarizing themselves with the skill, until achieving "unity of man and machine."

Seeing Li Zheng looked up toward the east side of the valley, where the vines grew especially thick; zooming in, one could see something grayish-brown standing behind the vines.

Coming closer, he released his gang qi, shaped his fingers into blades, and with a wave sliced through the vines blocking his path.

He discovered that behind the vines stood a row of upright stone slabs, with blurred inscriptions carved on them.

On the topmost stone slab, a crooked character "Evil" was carved into the corner.

In the mud before the stone slabs was thrust a broken sword; the cloth wrapped around its hilt had faded, but one could still tell it was a standard-issue weapon used by Reverse Tide soldiers. Before the broken sword was also placed a skull with only bone remaining.

What exact race the other party was, Seeing Li Zheng could not tell.

Although he had been in Reverse Tide for over two years, he had only been exposed to a part of Reverse Tide's vast system.

The region he was in belonged to the Reverse Tide 138th Legion, under the command of the "Floating Pagoda" Legion Commander, and in the future he would also head to the 138th Legion to fight.

Including the 2,500 Reverse Tide training camps from the first through fifth cohorts, they were all new recruit training bases for the 138th Legion.

The alien-race trainees he had come into contact with were only a drop in the ocean of Reverse Tide Legion's vast system; there were still far too many races he had never seen.

He gripped the sword hilt and pulled outward; the blade dragged out a string of clinging bones, among them a single finger bone still tightly clutching the bronze ring on the scabbard.