Chapter 158

The female mage stripped herself bare and slapped desperately to confirm there were no bugs on her body. Only then did she let out a sigh of relief, but just as she let out half of that breath, she suddenly discovered Ang's group—a row of three, one horse, and one dragon, eight eyes looking at her; the 'horse's' eyes were covered.

How to describe this feeling? It was like going to the toilet in pitch darkness and having your butt supported just as you squatted down: There's someone!

The female mage screamed, covering her face with one hand and waving the other.

A scene that horrified Lord Lord Lord Nai Ge Li Si appeared: the hand the female mage waved actually tore open space, dragging out a crescent-shaped Dimensional Slash.

Dimensional Slash, the signature attack magic of spatial mages, possessed invincible power because it cut through the space where the target was located.

If one were really hit by a Dimensional Slash, perhaps only Ang, transformed into the Bonehard Luoke, could withstand it.

But the Dimensional Slash wasn't what horrified Lord Lord Lord Nai Ge Li Si the most. What horrified it was this female mage; she had casually waved her hand and cleaved out a Dimensional Slash. This terrifying strength was at least at the level of a Master Mage.

In this pitch-black underground cave where there wasn't even a ghost, they had actually run head-on into a Master Mage?

These two points were already scary enough, yet immediately, something even more shocking to Lord Lord Lord Nai Ge Li Si happened: the Dimensional Slash didn't leave her hand before the female mage grabbed it violently and crushed it—crushed it...

The female mage covered her face with both hands and bowed in apology: "Sorry, sorry, you were here first. You didn't mean to, it was my rudeness. Apologies, apologies."

While speaking, she took a big step forward, and with a 'whoosh', her bare figure disappeared.

Lord Lord Lord Nai Ge Li Si and Lei Dian looked at each other. Only after their eyes met did Lord Lord Lord Nai Ge Li Si realize it had covered nothing; Lei Dian's eyeballs were as big as horse eyes, and its claws, stretched to the limit, could only cover half...

"Is it good to look at? A bare human," Lord Lord Lord Nai Ge Li Si asked teasingly.

"Not good to look at, not as good as the Tauren auntie," Lei Dian pouted.

"What?! You've seen the Tauren auntie? I'm going to tell your mother; she specifically warned us that we must keep an eye on you and not let you learn bad habits," Lord Lord Lord Nai Ge Li Si widened its eyes.

Lei Dian pouted and said disdainfully: "Do I even need to learn?"

Indeed, there was no need to learn; this dead horse was bad to the core.

A strong spatial fluctuation occurred again. The bare female mage appeared in the original position again, covering her face, and picked up that staff, which was larger than a person, saying: "I lost something."

As soon as the words fell, she disappeared again with a 'whoosh'.

Lord Lord Lord Nai Ge Li Si felt a bit of toothache. In the short tens of seconds from her appearance until now, this female mage had used spatial teleportation four times in a row. When did spatial teleportation become as common as cabbage, or was this female mage's strength so great that she used spatial teleportation like cabbage?

Everyone's gaze finally fell on the pile of mage robes and underwear the female mage had torn off, guessing in their hearts: She'll have to come back in a moment.

Unfortunately, they guessed wrong; two minutes later, the female mage still hadn't returned.

"When she was taking off her clothes, she was shouting 'bugs, bugs.' Could it be that there were bugs on them, and she didn't want them anymore?" Lei Dian speculated.

"It's possible." Lord Lord Lord Nai Ge Li Si flew over, picked up the clothes on the ground, and shook them. Where were there any bugs?

"With this female mage's strength, what bug could crawl onto her?" Lord Lord Lord Nai Ge Li Si said.

As soon as the words fell, Lord Lord Lord Nai Ge Li Si and Lei Dian's eyes lit up simultaneously. The female mage they met here—what bug could it be? Need they ask?

"If she's born afraid of bugs, and those beetles and insects swarm all over her, would she be scared to death? Some people's fear of certain things is innate. My mother especially hates horse lice; whenever horse lice appear in the house, she replaces everything," Lei Dian complained.

"Nai Aili is the same. There were several times when I didn't stop her, and she would have sprayed dragon breath on herself. Do you know? She drove her Dragon Speaker to worship Ang just to learn the Purification Art to purify small bugs for her," Lord Lord Lord Nai Ge Li Si said while sighing, gathering the mage robes together. They would return them to that female mage if they met her again someday.

Upon gathering and squeezing them, it felt some things. Taking them out to look, they were two books and a bag. One was "Notes of a 'Neurotic' Spatial Mage," the other was "Applied Magic Canon of a Spatial Mage," and the bag was a magical spatial bag.

"It can't be such a coincidence, can it?" Lord Lord Lord Nai Ge Li Si muttered in an incredible tone, flipping open the "Applied Magic Canon" while speaking.

The thin 'Magic Canon,' half a finger thick, turned into a tome two palms thick the moment it was opened. Its weight also became the weight a tome should have, falling directly from Lord Lord Lord Nai Ge Li Si's hand.

After falling to the ground, the cover closed, and it turned back into a thin booklet half a finger thick.

Lord Lord Lord Nai Ge Li Si clicked its tongue: "Using spatial compression techniques on a book? This is too extravagant, isn't it?"

Picking it up, it flew back with a flutter and placed the book on Lei Dian's back to flip through it.

"Are you treating me as a bookshelf? Besides, Nai Aili, how did she get by before there was the Purification Art? Should I also cultivate a divine arts practitioner who knows the Purification Art and send them to my mother?" Lei Dian said.

"She was big before, so she couldn't see small bugs. Now that her size is small, she can see normal small bugs, so she can't stand it more and more," Lord Lord Lord Nai Ge Li Si said while flipping open the book pages, and the booklet swelled into a tome.

Lord Lord Lord Nai Ge Li Si immediately flipped to the index page, then searched by page number, and soon found what it wanted—Teleportation Scrolls from Beginner to Mastery.

Opening that magical spatial bag, good heavens, a full bag of blank magic scrolls, two of which were already copied and inserted at the bag's opening; one could grab them by reaching out without even looking.

Obviously, to be able to quickly insert and remove scrolls, the spatial bag had no magic lock, which just happened to benefit Ang and the others.

"Alright, we can copy teleportation scrolls now. Thanks to that female mage, thanks to the Goddess of Luck." Such a result really made Lord Lord Lord Nai Ge Li Si laugh and cry at the same time.

It had just been thinking that it would be great if there were teleportation scrolls, and look, blank scrolls were delivered to their door immediately, and fearing they wouldn't copy them accurately, it even came with a Spatial Magic Canon.

Lord Lord Lord Nai Ge Li Si couldn't help but flip open the second book, "Notes of a 'Neurotic' Spatial Mage." Notes like this were very private, equivalent to a mage's diary. Originally, out of politeness, Lord Lord Lord Nai Ge Li Si didn't intend to read them.

But the problem was, this title was too alluring. Why was it called "Notes of a 'Neurotic' Spatial Mage"? Was this mage named 'Neurotic'? Or was this mage currently acting neurotic?

Flipping through and reading two pages, Lord Lord Lord Nai Ge Li Si immediately closed it and cursed: "Neurotic."

"What did it write?" Lei Dian couldn't help but ask curiously.

"Didn't understand, some neurotic-looking lines and numbers," Lord Lord Lord Nai Ge Li Si said awkwardly.

Lei Dian pouted: "You call people neurotic just because you don't understand, pfft."

"It wasn't me who said it, it was she who said it herself," Lord Lord Lord Nai Ge Li Si showed the name on the book page, deeply feeling that this name was aptly chosen:

"Ang, keep it safe. Return it to that little girl someday. We won't be polite about using her blank scrolls; consider it payment for keeping the book for her."

"Oh." Ang took it and put it into the Palace of Rest.

However, before they could start copying scrolls, rumble, rumble, the stone gate behind them trembled and slowly opened.

Just as the stone gate opened a crack, countless bugs surged out like a tide, flying or crawling toward Ang's group.

Lord Lord Lord Nai Ge Li Si gasped, suddenly understanding a bit why that formidable female mage had screamed and stripped herself bare. Seeing the scene before it, Lord Lord Lord Nai Ge Li Si also felt its scalp tingle: "That mage didn't poke a bug nest, did she?"

Ang stepped down hard, leaving footprints, and the halo instantly blocked the stone gate. Anything that surged out from the stone gate was directly within the range of the Speed-Death Halo, and the lives of the beetles and insects were accelerated.

They, who could have lived for two or three days, couldn't help but turn over and kick their legs after crawling only three or five meters in the halo, dying instantly. Although the flying insects were fast, their lifespans were even shorter than those of the beetles, and they still fell down 'flutter, flutter' after flying three or five meters.

In the blink of an eye, a large pile of bug corpses accumulated in the semicircular area of three or five meters at the stone gate exit, soon blocking the gate.

"The corpses... are blocking it?" On the stairs inside the stone gate, a cloaked figure muttered in astonishment.

He discovered that the bugs he was driving were actually blocked inside the stone gate and were dying on a large scale: "How are they dying? Even if they stop and don't move, they can't be killed this fast, and they're even letting the corpses block the gate? Eat the corpses!"

He wasn't seen controlling them, but those bugs began to gnaw on the corpses of their kin. However, this couldn't slow down the speed at which the bugs died because this wasn't magic that could be blocked, but a halo with a range of influence. Even if the corpses blocked the bugs inside the stone gate, the bugs inside would still be affected by the halo.

Only until they left the range of the halo's influence were these bugs unaffected. They separated from the dead bugs by a clear line; on that side of the line were bug corpses, and on this side were living bugs.

Realizing something, the cloaked figure trembled all over: "This, this is life acceleration? This is life acceleration? Is this the legendary life acceleration?"

The cloaked figure was pleasantly surprised, excitedly taking out a winged beetle, which was the so-called Wing Emperor, though his Wing Emperor was as big as an open palm.

Placing the Wing Emperor on the ground, the cloaked figure walked into the range of the halo and raked out those bug corpses to feed the Wing Emperor.

The cloaked figure seemed unaffected by the halo; looking at his shriveled palms, he was clearly also a lich.

Seeing the Wing Emperor had gnawed enough, the cloaked figure whistled. The Wing Emperor immediately crawled toward him. Because the cloaked figure was standing in the range of the halo, the Wing Emperor entered the range of the halo as it approached him, and the Wing Emperor's appearance changed visibly to the naked eye.

This change led the Wing Emperor to pounce on the bugs like mad, gnawing on the bug corpses with all its might.

While gnawing, the Wing Emperor suddenly twisted its head.

Other animals twist their heads and their bodies twist along with them, but the Wing Emperor didn't. It twisted its head, but its body didn't move, so it simply twisted its upper body off its body, splitting into two.

The body split into two halves quickly grew the missing half, becoming two Wing Emperors.

The cloaked figure had already left the range of the halo at this time and suddenly whistled.

The two Wing Emperors immediately turned around and moved toward him, leaving the range of the halo.

Leaving the range of the halo, the changes on the Wing Emperors stopped, and the newly grown parts slowly hardened into carapaces, no longer as brittle and soft as when they had just grown.

After stopping for a while, the cloaked figure guided them into the halo range again, letting them crazily gnaw on the bug corpses. Both Wing Emperors grew rapidly, visible to the naked eye, until they were the size of watermelons. They twisted their heads again and twisted themselves into four halves.

Four Wing Emperors were formed. The cloaked figure guided them out, let them grow sturdy, then guided them back in to eat and gnaw to grow their bodies.

Just like this, repeating over and over, half an hour later, there were eight more beetles beside the cloaked figure, with wings, hands resembling scythes, a pair of jointed legs, and half a person's height, resembling mantises.

If Lord Lord Lord Nai Ge Li Si knew that the cloaked figure was actually using the Speed-Death Halo to accelerate the cultivation of beetles, it would have long ago let Ang withdraw the halo.

This halo, which was almost a fatal nemesis to beetles, could actually be used to accelerate cultivation if used well, just like how something clearly called a 'Speed-Death' Halo could be used to grow food.

Looking at the scythe-like jointed limb on the upper body of one of the mantis beetles, the cloaked figure took out an iron plate and dragged it across the serrated scythe blade. With a 'hiss', a one-finger-thick iron plate was actually sawed with a mark, sawing off a small half of the iron plate.

"Hahaha!" The cloaked figure laughed loudly, throwing this iron plate imprinted with 'Supreme Chaos' to the side, excitedly muttering: "Even a one-finger-thick iron plate can be sawed; no matter how thick the iron-skinned canned food is, it can't stop it. As long as this characteristic is inherited, my bug army will be an invincible tide of death!"

Pausing, the cloaked figure looked at the stairs, his eyes glowing as he muttered: "But no characteristic can compare to life acceleration. Who exactly is casting life acceleration? If I can obtain this power, even He Mo Er Tuo Si will have to submit to me!"

These cloaked insect-driving warriors should theoretically all be followers of He Mo Er Tuo Si, yet now there was such a blasphemous thought—daring to shout for He Mo Er Tuo Si to submit to him?

This kind of rebellious thought was almost equivalent to a little zombie shouting at Ang, wanting to dig up his field; not being slapped to death on the spot was considered a good temper.

However, the cloaked figure wasn't slapped to death; instead, the 'aura' on his body suddenly became a little stronger.

Other people's aura refers to characteristics like smell, soul fluctuations, and magic fluctuations, but the cloaked figure's 'aura' was pheromones. The suddenly strong pheromones made all the bugs beside him restless, including those eight mantis beetles.

"Must capture that guy who can cast life acceleration. Charge, kill them, I'll clear the way for you." Saying this, the cloaked figure reached out both hands and began to dig at the blocked stairs.

Digging away the bug corpses was a tiring job and would be accelerated by the halo. He wasn't willing to let the newly cultivated mantis beetles consume their lives to dig. He prepared to dig it open himself first, then let the mantis beetles carry the life acceleration to rush out and tear the enemy into pieces.

However, while digging, the cloaked figure suddenly felt a void in front of him. Behind the bug corpses appeared a little zombie carrying two hoes; he was digging, and the little zombie was also digging, almost digging down here.

The cloaked figure was startled, rolled backward, pointed at the little zombie, and shouted: "Kill!"

Eight mantis beetles pounced up.

But before this, the little zombie had already crawled and rolled upward, shouting 'ao ao' as it ran.

When the eight mantis beetles followed the little zombie out of the stone gate, what greeted them were rows of explosive fireballs. They were already densely packed in the pitch-black cave, like torches filling the sky.

With a violent flash of fire, when the cloaked figure rushed up, he only saw the incomplete silhouettes of the eight mantis beetles being swallowed by the flames.

The cloaked figure was stiff all over, at a loss. He discovered that he seemed to have underestimated the enemy's strength; these people might not only know life acceleration, but their conventional combat power was also very strong.

Burning the eight mantis beetles into ashes, Ang's gaze turned to the cloaked figure, and a row of explosive fireballs appeared in front of him again.

The cloaked figure made a prompt decision, plopped down on his knees: "Don't kill me, I'll agree to whatever you want. I'll take you to whoever you want to find, I'll help you raise bugs if you want bugs, I'll do the work if you want to rob money, I'll take action if you want to kill people, don't kill me!"

The cloaked figure's shout stunned even Lord Lord Lord Nai Ge Li Si: "You shouted that so smoothly, have you practiced?"