Chapter 368: There

A frugal, hardworking old farmer ran into a sadistic Huang Tong dragon and nearly got swindled to death; luckily he met it on the road, or after crossing a thousand kilometers of desert, he'd have been nothing but a skeleton.

"How dare you be so bold? You dare cross a desert with no one for a thousand li? I remember you don't even have storage bags—where's your supplies? Don't tell me you're carrying all this on your backs?" asked the Huang Tong dragon, still shaken.

The Southern Hedgehog team, nervously seated on the sand sled, nodded in unison.

"Pfft, so how do you get your food? Where's your drinking water?" Nai Ge Li asked.

The Southern Hedgehog team made several druid gestures—druids can condense moisture from the air—but judging by their pitifully low magic, the water they could produce probably wouldn't even be enough to brush their teeth.

"Do you know how long it would take you to cross this uninhabited desert at your current speed?"

They all shook their heads collectively.

Hearing it would take two months to cross the desert and possibly half a year to reach the south, the Southern Hedgehogs were stunned—this money they saved on travel wouldn't even cover half a year's food.

Nai Ge Li grumbled: "Forget it, forget it—we've met, so when you reach the oasis, take the teleportation array to Drake Island, then catch a boat back."

"Met"? Purely because it realized it had tricked the wrong people and feared these honest folk would die on the road.

The village chief looked uneasy and asked cautiously: "How much does it cost?"

Nai Ge Li forced a smile: "No cost—the teleportation array is ours. Free."

Free my ass—the array charges both ways; free on the oasis side, but you pay on Drake's end. But what could it do? It gave it to Luo.

"Oh oh oh, that's great!"

"Wow, Huang Tong Dragon Lord, your family runs the teleportation array? You must be so rich!"

"Yes yes, even your horse is so strong—so rich! Our swamp horses are like donkeys."

The "horse" was indeed absurdly strong—carrying four of Ang, pulling the sand sled, and transporting six Southern Hedgehogs, all while running effortlessly—but the problem was, it wasn't a "horse." It was a god.

But no one would believe it if you said it—riding a "god" while pulling a cart…

Under the speed of the Insect God, the oasis—which would've taken over a month to reach on foot—arrived quickly.

Today's Hope Oasis had become a bustling desert city; with the road completed, nearly all commercial traffic now passed through it, and countless warehouses and shops had been built, bringing in many outsiders.

With more outsiders came inevitable public access to the teleportation array—wealthy people preferred it over carriages and horses.

At this moment, several people were already queued around the teleportation array; seeing Ang's group approach, they didn't care if they knew them or not—they immediately greeted them. Anyone rich enough to use the teleportation array couldn't possibly be a dirt-stained farmer.

So when they saw the Southern Hedgehog farmers approaching, some grew displeased and were about to say something—when suddenly the Dragon Speaker Sha Fei Ya hurried over.

"Lord Nai Ge, what brings you here?" Sha Fei Ya greeted warmly.

"I'm sending a few friends home," Nai Ge Li replied.

"Oh, then please come this way—you go first," Sha Fei Ya said quickly.

The Southern Hedgehog team were all simple, honest farmers; hearing they could cut the line, they felt embarrassed: "That doesn't seem right—we arrived later. Maybe we should wait our turn?"

"No no—the teleportation array was built by Lord Nai Ge's wife. She originally built it for personal use, but seeing many people needed it, she opened it to the public. Who would object? Right? No one objects, do they?" Sha Fei Ya looked around at the queued people.

"No no, you go ahead—we're not in a hurry," everyone hurriedly shook their heads.

These people might not know Nai Ge Li, but how could they not know Dragon Speaker Sha Fei Ya? If even the Dragon Speaker was treating this embryonic dragon warmly, wasn't it likely the child of her guardian dragon?

Nai Ge Li didn't bother with politeness: "Set it to Drake Island—it's close to the southern swamps. You can take a boat from there."

"Got it," Sha Fei Ya replied, personally adjusting the array.

At that moment, the Southern Hedgehog village chief ventured cautiously: "Lord Nai Ge, if we teleport to Drake Island, we still need to take a boat—could we teleport directly to Nanzhao Town in the swamp?"

"Pfft!" Nai Ge Li nearly spat blood. "You have a teleportation array near your place?"

The chief nodded.

"Why didn't you say so earlier?!"

"Uh… you didn't ask…" the chief replied weakly.

"I thought you were so poor, I assumed your home was remote," Nai Ge Li said, speechless.

Seeing how these guys saved every coin on travel, Nai Ge Li had assumed their home was isolated—never imagining they had a teleportation array.

The chief chuckled awkwardly: "Not our home—Nanzhao Town. About a hundred kilometers away, beside the swamp. Once we get there, we can walk home."

Nai Ge Li sighed inwardly—a hundred kilometers, through a swamp, for a few old farmers who could barely do water condensation spells.

But what could it do? It had already shoved money into their hands, and they'd rather save it—they knew that even walking hundreds of kilometers wouldn't earn them many magic crystals, and saving a little meant more for their families.

Nai Ge Li gave up speaking—it wouldn't help anyway. Fine, I'll help you one more time.

Thinking this, Nai Ge Li extended its tiny claw and tapped each forehead: "A basic druid secret technique. I hope it helps you."

As the God of Knowledge, Nai Ge Li's knowledge reserves were no joke—it could teach Ang purification arts, so it could certainly teach others druid techniques.

But its knowledge was outdated, and it only recited texts mechanically—once implanted, whether they understood it depended entirely on their own insight.

The Southern Hedgehogs knelt down in excitement: "Thank you, Lord! You're too kind to us! Thank you, Lord!"

Nai Ge Li didn't realize what it had done—it merely felt guilty for nearly tricking them to death in the desert and offered this as compensation.

The basic druid technique was too rudimentary to hold value—from a Huang Tong dragon's perspective.

But for these human farmers, whose social class was long-frozen, with no upward mobility, and who came from remote, impoverished lands, this might be the very foundation for wealth and class ascent.

They themselves practiced druid techniques, but haphazardly, fragmented, with no real growth potential.

Yet this complete basic technique filled the missing gaps—equivalent to attending a proper druid academy, solidifying their foundation and vastly expanding their growth potential.

As they bowed in devout reverence, Nai Ge Li noticed over a dozen soul flames drifting into its body—each farmer offered at least three soul flames, their faith intensely strong.

"Huh… this works too? Should I set up a stall at the Star College gate? Anyone who believes in me gets a knowledge dump—whatever subject they're weak in, I'll just pour it in? Maybe it'd work? But it's too tiring. Forget it."

A few thoughts flickered through Nai Ge Li's soul, then it abandoned the idea—a classic lazy god wanting rewards without effort, hoping believers would just show up on their own.

It waved its hand, brushed off the farmers' gratitude, and activated the teleportation array—only for an immediate teleportation surge to ripple outward as something arrived from the other end.

Dozens of humans screamed, scrambling out of the teleportation array in panic.

"Help! There's a monster! Help—" The scream cut off as a spike pierced the man's chest.

Seeing the spike, Nai Ge Li was stunned: "A real monster? What is this? A giant flea?"

If even the God of Knowledge didn't recognize it, it could only be called a monster.

The moment the teleportation array connected, they rushed through without checking the receiving end—that's incredibly reckless.

What if the array was small? All these people teleporting in at once—wouldn't those on the edges get sliced in half?

Only those truly cornered would be so reckless—clearly, these people had no other choice.

Yet despite that, whatever had driven them to desperation followed them through.

A two-meter-tall creature with two long legs and four upper limbs, resembling a giant flea, teleported in simultaneously—and instantly killed one unlucky human.

After killing one, it ignored the others, biting down on the fallen man's arm, gnawing it off, then spitting out a pile of black matter.

As it tried to bite again, a barrage of fireballs exploded its head, reducing its body to charred carbon.

The little angel cried anxiously: "Ao!"

Ang scratched his head helplessly and replied: "Ao."

The fleeing crowd was held back by Sha Fei Ya and her team; Nai Ge Li was questioning them: "Who are you? What happened? What is that monster?"

The refugees chattered: "We're from Nanzhao Town. We don't know what happened—monsters suddenly burst out of the swamp, killing people and eating crops, and even spitting into the fields—that black stuff."

The refugees pointed to the black pile the monster had spat out.

The Hedgehog village chief hurriedly asked: "Only Nanzhao Town? What about the Hedgehog Village? Any monsters there?"

The refugees shook their heads: "I don't know—but these monsters eat anything. If Nanzhao Town's gone, they'll probably head deeper into the swamp."

The chief panicked: "Lord, we need to go back! Please teleport us back!"

Nai Ge Li snapped: "Go back to do what? Deliver food? Wait. We don't even know what's going on."

Then it turned to Ang: "Does this feel familiar?"

Ang nodded, walked over to the monster's corpse, studied it briefly, then waved to the black horse.

The black horse was, of course, He Mo Er—it wasn't a horse. It came over, sniffed, then shook its head: "Don't recognize it."

It said "don't recognize," not "isn't." Ang gently stepped down, leaving a footprint.

With mastery over the Undying Aura, Ang could now control its range and activation frequency—this step covered only a ten-meter radius, sparing the distant onlookers.

Soon, the black pile began to stir—countless tiny insects hatched. Turns out, it was all eggs.

"They're insects, and you say you don't recognize them? Again with this crap—I don't want to fight bugs again!" Nai Ge Li scolded He Mo Er.

He Mo Er blinked, then slowly replied: "Not mine…"

"Not yours? Then is it Ma Disi's? When did it go to the southern swamps to lay eggs?" Nai Ge Li exclaimed.

He Mo Er paused, then said: "Not its either…"

"What does that mean?" Nai Ge Li's heart sank.

Theoretically, all insects in this realm originated from He Mo Er or Ma Disi—even Ma Disi itself descended from He Mo Er.

Every insect master graduated with a single insect egg; all breeding, evolution, mutation, was based on that original egg—until Ma Disi became the new Insect God, giving insects a second lineage.

But even the second lineage was a mutation of the first, deeply connected. He Mo Er refusing to acknowledge it was one thing—but now claiming it wasn't Ma Disi's either?

If not He Mo Er's, not Ma Disi's—where did these insects come from? Was there a third Insect God?

As Nai Ge Li pondered, the hatched insects began killing each other, devouring one another, growing rapidly—soon, from countless microscopic bugs, only one flea-like creature remained, the size of a puppy.

Then it lunged at the headless giant flea corpse and began gnawing.

"Notice how these insects are evolving toward size, not just quantity?" Nai Ge Li said.

Ang nodded.

At that moment, the giant flea corpse also changed—countless tiny insects hatched from within, joining the slaughter and consumption.

The small flea stopped eating the corpse and began devouring the larger insects—swallowing one after another.

The small flea had the advantage—it consumed every later insect before any could grow larger than itself, absorbing them all.

The small flea gradually grew to two meters tall—slightly smaller than the dead giant, identical in appearance, as if reborn, though it had lost some mass, like the head Ang had blown off.

"This nutrient efficiency is insane," Nai Ge Li muttered.

After nonchalantly devouring everything beside it, the flea beast finally lifted its head, its gaze landing on nearby Heimer, upon which it let out a strange shriek and kicked its legs violently.

The flea beast had powerful hind legs; its kick shot forward like a cannonball—and plunged straight into Heimer's mouth…

Just as everyone panicked, fearing the muscular black stallion would be devoured by the flea beast, the black stallion suddenly opened its mouth wide—the lips split open, tearing down its neck into a mouth larger than the flea beast itself.

Inside were dense rows of sharp teeth, which clamped down on the flea beast and began crunching it with a crunching sound.

The onlookers' hair stood on end in terror as they screamed: "Monster!!" This muscular, beautiful black stallion was even more monstrous than the flea beast!!

After chewing a few times, Heimer suddenly blinked and said: "It tastes like the Void."

PS: Not a bug. Just borrowing a meme—you won't guess what it is.