The Insect Tide Has Arrived
The Elite Legion members clearly cooperated frequently and their teamwork was extremely smooth. They surrounded Gu Ding, blocking all his movement routes, and launched an attack.
Without transforming, Tagore's Combat Strength wasn't much stronger than that of the Elite Legion members, but Bigge was undergoing his tribulation. Once he transformed, his size would change drastically, and his attacks would easily affect Bigge's tribulation range, causing a cumulative effect on Bigge's Heavenly Tribulation.
Under these circumstances, Gu Ding was not comfortable letting Bigge out of his sight, so it was not convenient for him to activate his domain combat. He could only resort to using fire as a second choice.
The azure Destruction Flame erupted once more, this time without mercy, engulfing all sixteen people surrounding him.
The pale blue color spread out, and instantly, screams of agony filled the air as the divine bodies of the sixteen Elite Legion members rapidly disintegrated under the flames. Nearly a third of their divine bodies were completely annihilated in less than half a minute. They urged their divine energy to recover at an extremely rapid pace, but their divine energy was also being consumed at an terrifying rate.
Meanwhile, on Bigge's side, Gu Ding's Destruction Flame formed a ring around the area covered by the Heavenly Tribulation, making it difficult for the Elite Legion to advance. Six members of the Elite Legion attempted to force their way through, but were all infected by the flames. At first, only their arms disintegrated, but within seconds the flames spread to their shoulders. One of them, in his foolishness, severed his own arm, only to find that the flames bypassed the severed arm and wrapped around other parts of his body.
This scene stunned everyone present, because from beginning to end, Gu Ding had only waved his hand. Yet, those suppressed by Gu Ding were a group of military elites with Combat Strength comparable to that of Seven-Star Low-rank God.
Everyone also noticed that although this cyan flame was different from the Black Flame that Gu Ding had used before, it seemed to be a kind of area-of-effect attack as well, based on the current situation.
"This ability is absolutely heaven-defying. It can disintegrate the bodies of the Elite Legion members like this in less than half a minute. Even a five-star Elite Bug beast probably wouldn't last three minutes. If Gu Ding uses this ability to hunt insect beasts, the top spot in Merit Points will undoubtedly be his." An Interstellar Pirate couldn't help but sigh. Those who entered this desert were all at least six-star in Combat Strength; their strength was considerable, and their eyesight was naturally excellent.
"Gu Ding, we were reckless this time. As long as you release them, we'll leave immediately, and the Elite Legion won't bother anyone in your team again." A slightly more mature-looking man from the Elite Legion stepped forward. He appeared to be around twenty-five or twenty-six years old and seemed to hold some position within the squad. "Besides, you gained absolutely nothing from killing our people..."
The young man hesitated for a moment. He didn't say the words, "You'll only be hunted down by the Federal Government Headquarters," because provoking Gu Ding at this time was not a wise move.
"How could there be no benefit?" Gu Ding narrowed his eyes slightly, controlling the flame energy to slow down the rate of erosion. "Kill them, and their tokens will drop, and all their merits will belong to me."
"If you want merit points, I can have them transferred to you." The young man hesitated for a moment, but ultimately chose to back down. The other members glared angrily at Gu Ding, clearly displeased with this extortion.
Gu Ding did indeed weigh the options. The strength of the Federal Government Headquarters was simply too terrifying. If news of his killing of the elite team members were to leak out, it was hard to say whether he could successfully cross the Great Boundary River into the Universe Sea. It should be noted that the Federal Government had a High-rank God guarding the Great Boundary River.
Moreover, to prevent the news from leaking out, he not only had to eliminate the twenty-two people who attacked him and Bigge, but also the remaining thirty-eight military elites. He even needed to silence the Interstellar Pirate and Interstellar Hunter present to be safe. However, Gu Ding wasn't entirely sure if these guys had special means of communication to inform others of what was happening here.
Just as Gu Ding was still pondering these questions, a bolt of lightning suddenly exploded from the clouds in the sky, a bolt as thick as an arm striking vertically towards the spot where Bigge was sitting cross-legged.
Gu Ding immediately clenched his fist, and the azure flames enveloping the twenty-two people dissipated automatically. His attention was now entirely focused on Bigge, who was undergoing his tribulation, and he no longer intended to entangle with the Elite Legion.
In reality, the Elite Legion members were all at the level of Five-Star Low-rank God, and killing a special type of insect beast would only earn them five points. Gu Ding also did a quick calculation; the six teams here combined probably wouldn't even get one-tenth of his points, so there wasn't much need to bother with them.
After Gu Ding's flames dissipated, the remaining members of the Elite Legion immediately led the wounded away. One reason was to avoid provoking Gu Ding again, and the other was that this place would be the first destination of the insect Insect Tide once it erupted; staying here would be suicidal.
The other Interstellar Pirate and Interstellar Hunter also chose to leave quickly, as they weren't particularly interested in watching Bigge's tribulation. Besides, there were no Strange Treasure here, so there was no need to stay any longer. Most importantly, they had learned about the Hive from Gu Ding and the Elite Legion, and this place was indeed too close to it to be safe.
Only Lyon, before leaving, reminded Gu Ding, "Gu Ding, once the Insect Tide breaks out, Bigge definitely won't survive. You and this cat still have a chance to escape..."
"We'll be fine, Bigge will be fine too." Gu Ding clearly had no intention of leaving. Instead, he sat down cross-legged and waited for Bigge to complete his tribulation.
Seeing that Gu Ding was determined, Lyon stopped trying to dissuade him, flicked his sleeves, and soared into the air, quickly leaving the area.
At this moment, Bigge finally opened his eyes, seemingly casually raising his sword, a semi-transparent blade of light shooting skyward. It collided with the lightning bolt, and both instantly vanished. Gu Ding also noticed that Bigge's sword had not yet been drawn from its sheath. "After these two days of fighting, Bigge seems to have become stronger again."
"The insect beasts in the hive have begun to awaken..." The Sea Emperor was referring to something else. "Although the first wave of the Heavenly Tribulation attack wasn't very strong, the insect race is inherently quite sensitive to the power of lightning. The moment the shockwave reached them, some insect beasts reacted."
"Sea Emperor, let Lily and the others hide in the plaza first," Gu Ding was more worried about Liliath and the others than about himself. After all, he had the ability to kill groups of enemies with fire, and could easily wipe out even Elite Bug beasts.
On the other side, Liliath and her three companions, who had received the Sea Emperor's hint, were somewhat speechless.
"Insect Tide? What on earth did Gu Ding and the others do?" Liliath said angrily, having been having a great time playing with the insects. It turned out that while these insects were physically powerful, most of them had extremely weak mental strength, dozens of times weaker than humans of the same cultivation level. This allowed Liliath, whose mental strength was comparable to Two-Star Low-rank God, to easily cast illusions on the two-star insects, causing them to kill each other.
"Go back to the plaza. If Insect Tide really breaks out, staying here with our strength is suicide." Dokter was more inclined to believe Gu Ding and the Sea Emperor's advice. "You've all seen how difficult it is to deal with two-star insects, let alone the stronger three-star and four-star ones. Once Insect Tide breaks out, there will be hundreds of thousands of insect beasts, including a large number of Five-Star Soldier Rank, and even special types and elites. Even if only one comes, we will have a hard time dealing with it."
"Yes, Lily, let's go back to the square and wait for Gu Ding's news!" Elsa also felt that Gu Ding wouldn't be making things up without reason.
Robert then took direct action, slaughtering all the remaining insectoid beasts in front of him. "Let's go back, let's not waste any more time."
The four of them then ran towards the square.
Meanwhile, on Gu Ding's side, the third Heavenly Tribulation had already struck.
At this point, Bigge's longsword was finally drawn, its blade flashing briefly but brilliantly once again colliding with the lightning. The powerful impact sent another shockwave of energy radiating outwards.
The Sea Emperor was constantly monitoring the changes within the insect hive, thinking, "These insect beasts have finally awakened..."
As he spoke, he projected an image of an insect hive.
Inside the insect hive, the insect beasts slowly opened their eyes under the impact of the energy shockwaves. Although they were still in a half-asleep state, they had clearly regained consciousness. This scene was not good news for Gu Ding and the others.
As expected, after the fourth wave of Heavenly Tribulation subsided, the insect beasts were stimulated once again and became fully alert. A few even left the cave and quickly headed towards Gu Ding's location to regroup.
Then, the fifth and sixth waves of Heavenly Tribulation descended, Bigge easily weathered them. However, the insect hive was in chaos. All the insect beasts had awakened and even entered a strange state of excitement. After gathering, they flew towards Gu Ding's location in a mighty torrent, numbering over 630,000.
Seeing the insect beast emerge from the cave, Gu Ding frowned slightly. "How long will it take them to get here?"
"At the current low speed of flight, they will arrive in no more than twelve minutes," Sea Emperor gave a fairly precise answer.
"Twelve minutes..." Gu Ding knew that Bigge would not be able to complete his tribulation in that time; he still had three more Heavenly Tribulation to overcome.
"Boom!" The seventh wave of Heavenly Tribulation finally descended.
Bigge looked up at the sky, placed one hand on the two-star divine weapon, drew his sword again, stomped his feet on the ground, and swung his sword!
"Boom!" The translucent Blade Force collided with the lightning once again, creating a strong energy fluctuation, like ripples spreading out of a pebble thrown into a stream.
Sensing the energy fluctuations, the massive swarm of insects increased its flight speed.
Meanwhile, Gu Ding also welcomed the first batch of insect beasts that flew out of the cave. This could be considered the vanguard of the Insect Tide, consisting of twenty-three five-star Elite Bug beasts... (To be continued...)