Insect Swarm

Sigdrifa rushed to the front, spreading her Spirit Power Defense Wall to help Bai Xiaowen block the insect swarm.

Fortunately, the passageway was fairly narrow. Sigdrifa fully expanded her spiritual power defense, sealing off the entire three-meter-wide tunnel and giving the insects no chance to slip through and harass Bai Xiaowen.

The white wave crashed against Sigdrifa's Spirit Power Defense Wall like a tidal surge striking a dam.

"Sigdrifa, shrink the Spirit Power Shield immediately! Switch from defense to offense!" Bai Xiaowen shouted.

Bai Xiaowen's eyesight was sharp. At a glance, he saw that these tiny insects looked exactly like the giant ice worms—Ice Leeches—that had appeared on the surface! The only difference was their vastly different size; they could be considered juvenile Ice Leeches.

That meant one thing: these Ice Leech Larvae most likely possessed the same terrifying ability to absorb spiritual power as adult Ice Leeches.

Sure enough, Sigdrifa's Spirit Power Shield became pockmarked in an instant. The massive swarm of Ice Leech Larvae gnawed and absorbed at it, devouring holes of all sizes into the shield.

Sigdrifa broke out in a cold sweat—if Undead Creatures could even sweat. She immediately followed Bai Xiaowen's command, contracting her defense while manifesting a Spirit Matter Weapon. This time, she chose a Horse-Slaying Saber.

The spirit-material saber slashed out, sending a crescent-shaped Saber Qi packed with formidable spiritual power cleaving forward.

However, when the crescent Saber Qi landed amid the swarm of Ice Leech Larvae, it failed to inflict the expected damage. Under the close observation of Bai Xiaowen's Eye of Evolution, the Ice Leech Larvae actually opened their tiny Mouthparts in the face of the incoming spiritual power attack. Countless Mouthparts simultaneously activated their innate ability to absorb energy!

Although there was an enormous gap in energy levels and the Ice Leech Larvae could not absorb all of Sigdrifa's attack power, they could still weaken it by roughly thirty percent. Moreover, as one side waned, the other waxed. They absorbed that thirty percent to strengthen themselves, greatly enhancing their defense against spiritual power attacks.

After all that, Sigdrifa was effectively only able to bring out forty percent of her spiritual power's killing force.

When the Saber Qi fell into the swarm, it killed only a few dozen nearby Ice Leech Larvae. It did not produce the expected result of a single slash sending saber winds sweeping outward and forcing the insect swarm back.

"Master, what should we do?"

Sigdrifa repeatedly swung her saber, driving back the Ice Leech Larvae that pounced at her as she asked. She could no longer coat her normal attacks in spiritual power; she could only use the most basic physical attacks to kill these insects.

Kitz also shrieked repeatedly, swiping with his Sharp Claws to help Bai Xiaowen drive off the larvae.

"Don't panic."

The Kusanagi Sword Soul appeared in Bai Xiaowen's palm. With a light wave, flames spread outward. He intended to test the effect of an Elemental Attack manifested through spiritual power.

Amid the chirping and clamor of the Ice Leech Larvae, they too opened their Mouthparts, attempting to revert this flame attack into the most primal, delectable spiritual power and devour it.

Boom!

The flames engulfed a small section of the swarm. The Ice Leech Larvae within were scorched dry and blackened, collapsing to the ground dead.

"Good. Although these Ice Leech Larvae can devour Elemental Attacks, the total amount they can absorb is greatly reduced, to only around ten percent. So even True Yuan Power Flame weakened by twenty percent can still burn them to death."

Having run the test, Bai Xiaowen had a clear grasp of the situation.

Using flame attacks in such an extremely cold environment consumed too much spiritual power, so Bai Xiaowen raised his hand and summoned Butcher.

Buzz, buzz—

Large clouds of green mist spread from the surface of Pudge the Butcher's body.

Butcher's long-unused Rotten Poison Mist skill displayed its might once more.

Nowadays, Rotten Poison Mist was useless in many battles, but it produced a miraculous effect when used to clear the way here.

One snow-white Ice Leech Larva after another inhaled the poisonous mist, their bodies turning dark green before bursting apart. They could likewise absorb only around ten percent of the energy in the Rotten Poison Mist. In other words, Butcher's Rotten Poison Mist could still inflict roughly eighty percent of its poison damage on them.

Butcher's "Slaughterhouse" skill from the Awakened stage had likewise been upgraded after he became a Corpse Demon Lord. Every time a creature died nearby, he could recover a small amount of Health Value and spiritual power. Though the recovery from any single death was not much, the Ice Leech swarm was simply too vast.

Butcher cleared the path ahead, Bai Xiaowen followed closely behind, while Sigdrifa and Kitz brought up the rear.

The reason Bai Xiaowen chose to be protected by the three Summoned Creatures was to reduce the consumption of his True Yuan Power. His True Yuan Power could only be replenished through Spirit Crystals and Original Spiritual Energy, whereas his summoned creatures' spiritual power could also be restored with the Soul Essence from Visage of the Death God. Comparatively speaking, their spiritual power was not as "valuable."

"Master, there are more and more ice worms the farther down we go." Kitz noticed the trend and exclaimed in astonishment, "What do we do? This Ruins isn't actually an insect nest, is it?"

"It's not that exaggerated." Bai Xiaowen's Spirit Sense range was now immense. He could clearly sense that the stretch occupied by the Ice Leech swarm was less than two kilometers long.

Of course, for many Evolutionists, two kilometers was already an insurmountable chasm. After all, Evolutionists expended energy whenever they cast skills, and the Ice Leech swarm would devour most of the Spirit Power Value behind their attacks.

If they failed to drive them away in time, these Ice Leeches would quickly crawl all over their bodies and absorb every last bit of spiritual power within an Evolutionist.

Once their spiritual power was exhausted, this frigid Ice Cave would swiftly rob an Evolutionist of the ability to move, turning them into an Ice Sculpture—provided the Ice Leech swarm was not interested in flesh and blood. But judging from the sharp little teeth in their Mouthparts, Bai Xiaowen did not think they survived on air alone.

Butcher charged mightily through the passageway, passing chamber after chamber packed with Ice Leech Larvae. Behind him, he left a long dark-green trail—the corpses of poisoned Ice Leech Larvae.

Bai Xiaowen sensed that the pores on Butcher's skin seemed to breathe, extracting certain energy from the corpses of the dead Ice Leech Larvae around him and drawing it in to replenish his expenditure. Clearly, this was the manifestation of Butcher's "Slaughterhouse" skill in the Evolutionist world.

This meant that not only hostile creatures, but even dead allies could be included within Slaughterhouse's recovery range.

After charging for some distance, Butcher's Health Value was still full, while his Spirit Power Value remained above ninety percent. It could be said that his combat strength had suffered virtually no loss.

With such a killing machine clearing the way, Bai Xiaowen and the other three could ride his coattails and still have the leisure to examine the murals along the way and collect the remaining God Seal Black Stones.

Suddenly, Butcher's charging footsteps came to a halt. He had entered a spacious Underground Space through the mouth of the passageway.

"What kind of place is this? Why is not a single insect willing to come down here?" Kitz asked curiously.

The changes in the passageway had already revealed the answer. The closer they came to this Underground Space, the fewer Ice Leech Larvae there were. By the end, only a few scattered ones remained, crawling slowly.

My nostrils feel like they're stuffed with two charcoal sticks—the burnt kind... I've had rhinitis for over a month, and lately I seem to be coming down with a cold too. I've been sneezing nonstop every day, so I've been slacking on updates. I'm truly sorry.