Chapter 368: A Taste of the Void

The hardworking, thrifty, honest old farmer ran into a mischievous Huang Tong Dragon and almost got scammed to death. Luckily they met on the road, otherwise after walking over a thousand kilometers of desert, they'd surely have become a pile of bones.

"I say, how dare you be so bold? Walking through a thousand-li uninhabited desert? I don't think you folks have storage bags, do you? Where's your supplies? Don't tell me it's just whatever you're carrying on your backs?" the Huang Tong Dragon asked, still shaken.

The Southern Hedgehog-men team sitting nervously on the sand-sled nodded in unison.

"Pfft, then where does your food come from? Drinking water?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si asked.

The Southern Hedgehog-men team made a few druid hand signs. Druids can condense moisture from the air, but looking at their pitiful magic power, the moisture they condense probably isn't even enough to brush their teeth.

"Then do you know, at your current speed, how long it'll take to get out of this uninhabited desert?"

A collective head shake.

When they heard getting out of the desert would take two months, and reaching the south might take half a year, the Southern Hedgehog-men were all dumbfounded. The travel expenses they'd saved probably wouldn't even cover half a year's worth of food.

Lord Nai Ge Li Si said irritably: "Fine, fine, since we've met, when we reach the oasis you can take the teleportation array, teleport to Drake Island and then take a boat back."

What "since we've met" — purely realizing he'd conned the wrong people, afraid these honest folks would die on the road.

The village chief's face showed difficulty, and he asked carefully: "How much will it cost?"

Lord Nai Ge Li Si forced a smile: "No charge, the teleportation array is run by our family, it's free."

Free my ass, the teleportation array charges both ways. The oasis side is free, but the Drake side still charges. But what can you do? He paid.

"Oh oh oh, that's wonderful."

"Wow, Lord Huang Tong Dragon, your family runs a teleportation array? You're really rich."

"Yeah yeah, even the horse is so strong, so rich. The horses in our swamp are like donkeys."

The 'horse' really was unreasonably sturdy — carrying Seeing Ange and three others, dragging the sand-sled, with six Southern Hedgehog-men on board, running with complete ease. But the problem was this wasn't a 'horse' — it was a god.

But even if he said so, no one would believe it — riding a 'god' and pulling a cart...

At the Insect God's speed, the oasis that would've taken over a month on foot was reached very quickly.

Today's Hope Oasis has already become a bustling desert city. Because the roads have been built, almost all commercial traffic transfers through Hope Oasis. A large number of warehouses and shops have been built here, and there are many more outsiders.

With more outsiders, the teleportation array inevitably has to be opened to the public. Compared to carriages and horses, rich people still prefer using the teleportation array.

At this moment, several people were already queuing around the teleportation array. Seeing Seeing Ange's group arrive, regardless of whether they knew them, they hurriedly greeted them — anyone rich enough to use the teleportation array definitely wouldn't be some barefoot farmer.

So seeing a few old farmers from the Southern Hedgehog-men team walk over, some people were a bit unhappy. Just as they were about to say something, they saw the Dragon Speaker Sophia scampering over.

"Lord Nai Ge, how come you're here?" Sophia greeted warmly.

"Sending a few friends home," Lord Nai Ge Li Si replied.

"Oh, then please come this way, you first," Sophia hurriedly said.

The Southern Hedgehog-men team were all honest, simple-minded farmers. Hearing about cutting in line, they felt a bit embarrassed: "That wouldn't be right, we came late. How about we queue for a bit?"

"No need, no need. The teleportation array was all built by Lord Nai Ge's wife. Originally it was kept for personal use, but seeing many people had this need, it was opened to the public. How could anyone possibly have an objection? Right? No one has any objection, right?" Sophia looked around at the people in line.

"No, no, you go first, we're not in a hurry." A bunch of people shook their heads hurriedly.

These people might not know Lord Nai Ge Li Si, but how could they not know the Dragon Speaker Sophia? An embryonic dragon that even the Dragon Speaker treats so warmly — could it be the child of the Dragon Speaker's guardian divine dragon?

Lord Nai Ge Li Si didn't stand on ceremony, and said to Sophia: "Set it for Drake Island, it's not far from the Southern Swamp there, they can take a boat to get there."

"Okay," Sophia replied, and personally started adjusting it.

At this moment, the Southern Hedgehog-men's village chief said carefully: "Lord Nai Ge, after teleporting to Drake Island we still need to take a boat. How about we teleport directly to South Swamp Town in the swamp?"

"Pfft, there's a teleportation array near your place?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si nearly spat out a mouthful of old blood.

The village chief nodded.

"Why didn't you say so earlier!"

"Uh, you didn't ask either..." the village chief replied weakly.

"Seeing you so poor, I thought your place was really remote," Lord Nai Ge Li Si said, speechless.

Seeing how these guys even wanted to save on travel expenses, Lord Nai Ge Li Si had assumed their home was very remote. Who would've thought there'd be a teleportation array?

The village chief laughed sheepishly: "Not at our place. South Swamp Town, about a hundred kilometers or so, next to the swamp. Once we get there we can walk home."

Lord Nai Ge Li Si sighed inwardly. A hundred kilometers, and it's still a swamp — a few old farmers who only know a bit of water-condensing magic, and they want to walk back.

But what can you do? Even if you stuffed money into their hands, they'd rather save it. Because for them, walking a few hundred kilometers might not even earn a few magic crystals. Isn't it better to work a bit harder, save the money, and buy things for their families?

Lord Nai Ge Li Si couldn't be bothered to say anything, because saying it would be useless. Fine, I'll help you one more time.

Thinking of this, Lord Nai Ge Li Si extended his little short claw and tapped each of their foreheads: "A basic druid secret technique. Hope it's useful to you."

As the God of Knowledge, Lord Nai Ge Li Si's knowledge reserves are no joke. He can teach Seeing Ange Purification, so naturally he can teach others druid secret arts.

But his knowledge reserves are too outdated, and he can only teach by the book, instilling it in. Whether others can comprehend it depends on each person's aptitude.

The Southern Hedgehog-men excitedly knelt down: "Thank you, my lord, you've been too good to us, thank you, my lord!"

Lord Nai Ge Li Si didn't realize what he'd done. He only felt a bit guilty about nearly tricking them to death in the desert, so he made this compensation.

A basic druid secret technique is too basic, not worth much — but that's from the perspective of a Huang Tong Dragon.

For these human farmers from remote, impoverished places, where classes have long been solidified and there's a lack of upward mobility channels, this could very well be the foundation for getting rich and achieving class advancement.

They themselves also practiced druid secret arts, but it wasn't systematic, just bits and pieces, with no room for growth.

But a complete basic secret technique fills in the missing parts. It's equivalent to having studied at a proper druid academy. After solidifying the foundation, the room for growth becomes much greater.

With their devout kowtowing, Lord Nai Ge Li Si noticed over a dozen soul flames drift into his body. Each farmer had contributed nearly three or more soul flames — their faith was extremely strong.

"Uh, this works too? Then what if I set up a stall outside Stellar Academy, and for those who believe in me, I'll instill knowledge in them — whichever subject they can't do, I'll instill that one. Wonder if it'd work? Just a bit tiring though, forget it, forget it."

A few thoughts flickered through Lord Nai Ge Li Si's soul, and he quickly gave up. A typical lazy god who wants to reap the harvest but fears the toil, wanting believers to come to him while lying down.

He waved his hand, brushed off the farmers' gratitude, and activated the teleportation array to send them back. But who would've thought, just as the teleportation array activated, a teleportation ripple impatiently spread out — something had been teleported over from the other side.

Over a dozen humans screamed and scrambled out of the teleportation array.

"Help! There's a monster, help..." The scream cut off abruptly as a spike pierced through this human's chest.

Seeing that spike clearly, Lord Nai Ge Li Si was shocked: "There's really a monster? What is this thing? A giant flea?"

Something even the God of Knowledge doesn't recognize can only be described as a monster.

The moment the teleportation array connected, the other side teleported over without waiting — this kind of behavior is very reckless, because you have no idea what the receiving end on the other side is like.

What if the teleportation array is very small, and this many people teleport over — wouldn't the people on the outer edge be sliced into pieces?

Unless driven to the end of the road, no one would recklessly teleport blindly like this; clearly, these people have already been driven to the end of the road.

Yet despite that, the thing that drove them to the end of the road followed them over.

A creature two meters tall, with two long legs and four segmented limbs on its upper body, like an enlarged flea, teleported over along with them and killed one of the unlucky ones on the spot.

After killing one human, it ignored everyone else, bit down on the fallen unlucky one's hand on its own, chewed off the arm, then the flea-monster opened its mouth and spat out a pile of black stuff.

When it tried to bite the unlucky one again, a wave of fireballs blew its head apart and burned its whole body to charcoal.

The little angel anxiously: "Ao!"

Seeing Ange scratched his head helplessly and replied: "Ao."

The refugees who had teleported over were intercepted by Safia and her people; Lord Nai Ge Li Si was questioning them: "Who are you people? What happened? What was that monster?"

The refugees spoke over each other: "We're from South Swamp Town. We don't know what happened either — a lot of monsters suddenly burst out of the swamp, killing everyone they saw, eating every crop they saw, and even spitting into the fields — that kind of black stuff."

The refugees pointed at the clump of black stuff the monster had just spat out.

The hedgehog-person village chief hurriedly asked: "Just South Swamp Town? What about Hedgehog Village? Are there monsters there?"

The refugees shook their heads: "I don't know, but these monsters eat everything they see. If South Swamp Town gets eaten clean, they should head deeper into the swamp."

The village chief immediately grew anxious, turned to Lord Nai Ge Li Si and said: "my lord, we need to go back — please send us back, alright?"

Lord Nai Ge Li Si said irritably: "What are you going back for? To deliver food? Wait a moment — we haven't figured anything out yet."

After saying that, he turned to Seeing Ange and asked: "Does it feel familiar?"

Seeing Ange nodded, walked over to the monster's corpse and looked at it for a few moments, then turned back and beckoned to the big black horse.

The big black horse was naturally Hermel — it wasn't actually a horse. It walked over, sniffed, and shook its head: "Don't recognize it."

It said 'don't recognize it,' not 'it isn't' — Seeing Ange lightly stomped down a footprint.

With his growing mastery of the Undead Aura, Seeing Ange could already control the aura's range and acceleration frequency. This stomp only covered an area about ten-plus meters in diameter, without affecting the onlookers in the distance.

Before long, the clump of black stuff that had been spat out began to move slowly, and countless small bugs hatched out — that whole clump turned out to be eggs.

"It's clearly bugs, and you still say you don't recognize them? This rotten stuff again — I really don't want to fight bugs anymore." Lord Nai Ge Li Si pointed at Hermel and cursed.

Hermel paused for a moment before responding slowly: "It's not mine…"

"Not yours? Then is it Ma Disi's? When did it run down to the southern swamp to lay eggs?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si said in surprise.

Hermel was stunned for a moment before saying: "Not its either…"

"What do you mean?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si's heart couldn't help but sink.

In theory, every bug on this plane originates from Hermel or Ma Disi — and Ma Disi itself also originates from Hermel.

Every Exorcist graduate receives a bug egg upon graduation. Whether nurturing, evolving, or mutating, everything is based on the original bug egg. Only when Ma Disi became the new Bug God did bugs finally have a second lineage.

But the second lineage also mutated out of the first one, with countless connections between them. Hermel not admitting it would be one thing — but he actually said it wasn't Ma Disi's either?

If it's not his, and not Ma Disi's either, then where did these bugs burst out from? Could there be a third Bug God?

While Lord Nai Ge Li Si was thinking, the hatched bugs had already begun fighting and devouring each other, growing rapidly. In no time, from a pile of tiny bugs invisible to the naked eye, they devoured each other until only one flea-monster the size of a small dog remained.

Then this flea-monster pounced over to the headless corpse of the big flea-monster and started gnawing at it furiously.

"Have you noticed — these bugs are evolving toward body size rather than simply evolving in numbers?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si said.

Seeing Ange nodded.

Just then, the big flea-monster's corpse also changed — countless tiny bugs hatched out from inside it and joined the process of fighting and devouring each other.

The small flea-monster stopped eating the corpse and began gnawing on the grown small bugs, one bite each, one bite each.

The small flea-monster had the first-mover advantage — none of the later small bugs could grow bigger than it, and in the end they were all devoured by it.

This small flea-monster also gradually grew to two meters tall, slightly smaller in build than the dead big flea, identical in appearance, as if it had been reborn — except that some mass was lost in the process, such as the head Seeing Ange had blasted off.

"This nutrient utilization rate is a bit outrageous," Lord Nai Ge Li Si muttered.

After nonchalantly finishing gnawing everything nearby, the flea-monster finally raised its head. Its gaze fell on the nearest Hermel, and it immediately let out a strange cry and kicked off hard with both legs.

The flea-monster had a pair of powerful thighs — its kick launched it like a cannon shell, and it ferociously pounced… pounced right into Hermel's mouth…

Just when everyone was horrified that the strapping big black horse was about to be bitten to death by the flea-monster, the big black horse suddenly opened its mouth wide — its mouth split open starting from the lips and all the way down its neck, becoming a mouth even bigger than the flea-monster.

Inside were densely packed sharp teeth — it bit down on the flea-monster in one bite and started crunching it up.

The watching crowd was so scared their hair stood on end, and they screamed: "Monster!!" This strapping, beautiful big black horse looked even more like a monster than the flea-monster!!

After chewing a few times, Hermel suddenly blinked its eyes and said: "There's a taste of the Void."

ps: It's not bugs — borrowing a meme. You'll definitely never guess what it is.