A Fighting Bug That Doesn't Fight Won't Live to See Tomorrow

[Day 23 in the Great Desert. Your pack has been reduced to over thirty jin. These past three days, you've cut down on long, forceful strides, and with the cacti and desert animals you've gathered along the way, the food in your pack has barely diminished... though the variety has certainly changed.]

[It's dusk now. You plan to walk a bit further before stopping to rest for the night. When you do, you'll spread out the kraft paper to sleep on, and set up a simple alarm system with thin string and bells around the perimeter.]

[But as you walk, you notice beside you—more accurately, beneath your feet—sand scorpions beginning to appear. Their jointed legs scrape against the yellow sand, producing a rustling sound. These scorpions, ranging from palm-sized to some as large as an infant, all crawl in the same direction.]

[This swarm shows little aggression. You reach out to grab a scorpion about five or six cun in size, but it twists its body and slips away right between your legs.]

["Interesting. I stuck my hand right out, and it still didn't attack. Is that stinger on its tail just for show?"]

[Intrigued, you follow the scorpions in their direction of march. After a few hundred meters, the scorpions around you grow denser. Some launch attacks at you, but you kick them away with a single blow, and the rest don't swarm in to avenge their kin.]

[Because they have another enemy—Desert Worms!]

[Desert Worms resemble earthworms but are much thicker. Their bodies are covered in a hard, reddish-black shell, segmented and moving by the connective tissue between each joint. They glide through the sea of sand like fish in Green Lake.]

[And now, the desert scorpions and desert worms are locked in a war spanning hundreds to thousands of meters in every direction, with who knows how many tens of thousands of Insectoid Race members throwing themselves into the fray!]

[You watch as several scorpions, a dozen or so centimeters long, tear open a worm with their sharp pincers. You also see a worm nearly a meter long and as thick as a wrist swallow a small scorpion whole. Its mouthparts are a dense inner spiral, with at least hundreds of teeth working in unison, instantly crushing the scorpion in its mouth into fragments.]

[The sky has darkened. The two tribes have eyes only for their enemies, and most treat you like a moving rock. Under the moonlight, you watch the spectacle for half a shichen, gaining plenty of insight but also growing bored. You decide to leave.]

[Then, suddenly, you see a crowd of scorpions not far away, squeezing together as they rush into the heart of the battlefield. The group quickly scatters, revealing the one they were shielding: a giant sand scorpion, tail included, a full two meters in length!]

[The Giant Sand Scorpion shows no sign of age. It swings its massive pincers, and even a wrist-thick worm is just a moving Spicy Stick before it. In an instant, this desert tyrant dominates the battlefield!]

[Your steps, which were about to carry you away, halt. A bug fight this spectacular is rare—an ordinary person might not see one in a lifetime! How could you give up now?]

[Over a dozen minutes later, under your excited gaze, a section of desert ground bulges to an astonishing degree. Something massive seems to be writhing beneath the yellow sand.]

[A small area collapses into a pit, and then a giant worm, as thick as an adult's thigh, emerges halfway from the sand pit. Its head, entirely composed of mouthparts, makes no sound, but the thousands of sharp teeth rotating and grinding within its ring-shaped oral cavity produce a bone-chilling clicking noise.]

["A Worm King showdown!" you cheer inwardly. To witness a battle like this, staying up all night is totally worth it!]

[The Scorpion King raises its pincers and lifts its tail. Its stinger shoots out like a lightning bolt, instantly piercing a two-foot-long worm and hoisting it up. With a snap of its pincers, it clips the worm into three segments. The three pieces twitch on the sand, spraying bodily fluids.]

[The Worm King, not to be outdone, targets a one-foot-long scorpion. Its body leaps from the sea of sand, dragging the scorpion into the yellow sand and devouring it clean. You gauge its length at about one zhang, close to three and a half meters!]

[Seeing the two insect kings barely thirty or forty meters apart, you grow even more eager for their explosive clash.]

[Then... the Scorpion King kills another worm, and the Worm King swallows and shreds another scorpion, and the Scorpion King clips another worm in two...]

[You wait half an hour with bated breath. The two kings just keep slaughtering the small fry, and the distance between them doesn't shrink—it actually seems to grow.]

Yun Shou: "...Two damn actors!"

Even though he can only see the text simulation, he was looking forward to the insect king battle too, wasn't he?!

[You feel cheated. The insect king showdown isn't happening. These two giant bugs both follow the rule of 'king does not meet king'—but you don't.]

[A blazing blade of light rises from the ground, illuminating dozens of meters around. You hold a war saber radiating brilliance. The light-sensitive worms writhe in pain and burrow into the sand.]

[You lift the long saber, pulling a blazing white curtain of light across the night desert. In an instant, you slice clean through the Worm King, whose head has barely buried itself a few centimeters into the sand!]

[The worm's greenish-blue blood and the scorpion fragments inside it spill all over the ground!]

[Your hair tips and cheeks are stained green-blue. One slash splits the Worm King into two hollow half-cylinders. As you turn your gaze to the Scorpion King...]

[The Scorpion King pauses. Its legs scratch at the yellow sand. Then it turns around and bolts away at full speed.]

["Hmph, trying to escape?"]

[You leap in a single bound, crossing the sea of scorpions and worms. In the blink of an eye, the Scorpion King is beneath you. Force Qi surges as you halt your forward momentum mid-air, then drop like a thousand jin, splitting the mountain with your descent!]

["Sunlit Dawn Slash!"]

[In that moment, the ten meters around you blaze bright as day. The scorpions, large and small, abandon their king and flee. The Scorpion King raises its pincers and tail in despair, but it's already a dead thing!]

[A thunderous boom. Yellow sand sprays like fog. The Scorpion King is cleaved cleanly in two. Your Force Qi blade-light doesn't dissipate, skimming another three meters across the sand before fading, leaving a trench in the yellow earth.]

[The lords of two desert tribes, seemingly majestic and commanding their kin, are at the end of the day just two big bugs. Any random Second-rate Martial Artist could take them both down.]

[After you kill the two tribe leaders, the remaining scorpions fall into chaos. Few bother to seek revenge. The worms, mostly unable to bear the radiance of your Force Qi, burrow into the sand, writhing beneath the surface.]

[You don't leave immediately. Instead, you field-dress the carapace and take the meat. The Scorpion King may look ferocious, but its body is packed with protein. And as a mutant far exceeding its species' average size, eating it will surely grant a foundational boost!]

[You also take some meat from the Worm King, planning to roast it and taste the flavor.]

[Day 30 in the desert. You spot a small canine beast. Excited, you follow it, but in the end, it doesn't lead you out of the desert. Instead, it brings you to a Desert Tribe. The people here are rough and savage. The moment they see you, they raise their spears.]

[Facing the thrown spear, you catch it with one hand. The stone spearhead crushes to dust in your palm!]

[Desert Tribe: "That was our tribe's special welcome ritual. Like it?"]

I notice you haven't provided the actual Chinese text that needs to be translated. Could you please share the text you'd like me to work on?