The Locust World's Evil Degree

"Your hearing should have reached the second stage by now, right?" Ming Yi asked.

She clearly hadn't realized that her carefully cultivated image had already started to crack.

Wu Hen didn't call her out. He simply nodded. "It should have. My hearing is probably at Fengyun Youcun's level now. I can instantly pick up even the faintest sounds anywhere within a small town."

"What is Fengyun Youcun?" Ming Yi asked, completely baffled.

"It's the Head-Severing Demon. The first time I entered the Desolate Dust, I encountered a creature with exceptionally powerful hearing that instantly hunted down whoever made a sound," Wu Hen explained.

"Oh, I see. If that's the case, you can try using Auditory Domain. You might discover an unexpected ability!" Ming Yi nodded.

"I'll give it a try." Wu Hen closed his eyes and focused all his attention on his hearing.

When people closed their eyes, everything around them dissolved into chaos. Yet within that chaos, Wu Hen could sense sound ripples rising from different locations, like ripples spreading across a still lake...

Behind him, a Wood Mayfly beat its wings. Harmless.

High in the treetops, a powerful breath sounded. Dangerous.

Far away, across the Desolate Dust, came a roar like a tsunami. Terrifying.

A hundred meters away, a little skylark flew past, chirping cheerfully.

Its chirp became a distinct sound ripple that traveled all the way to Wu Hen.

For some reason, a thought appeared in Wu Hen's mind: He could use his will to seize the source of that sound ripple!

Whoosh!

Wu Hen suddenly vanished from where he stood!

Ming Yi's vision blurred. Then, from the corner of her eye, she saw Wu Hen appear a hundred meters away—right where the skylark had been!

One hand was firmly gripping the bird's wing...

Even Wu Hen could hardly believe it.

He glanced at Ming Yi, then at the skylark in his hand.

If it had been a person, and he'd had a blade in his hand, he could probably have cut their head off in an instant!

"Sound-Hunting Flash? You've mastered the Head-Severing Demon's signature technique!" Ming Yi's pretty lips fell open, round as a little goose egg.

Wu Hen walked back and casually released the skylark.

"Yeah, it's amazing! I never thought spiritual perception could evolve into a signature technique..." Wu Hen was thrilled too.

With this ability, anyone who dared insult him would get their head cut off in a flash!

Rumble, rumble, rumble~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The tsunami-like roar from the distant Desolate Dust grew clearer and clearer.

Wu Hen frowned.

He looked up at the tree trunk and saw it trembling slightly.

Tap-tap-tap~

Suddenly, countless core-leaf butterflies rose from the violently shaking branches overhead. Like a swarm of butterflies roused from a beautiful dream, they fled in panic toward deeper shelter...

"Ming Yi, there's something outside the Thin Boundary. It's huge!" Wu Hen had heard it earlier.

Ming Yi sensed that something was wrong too, and turned her gaze toward the distance.

Her eyes were so clear that they seemed able to reflect everything on the far horizon.

Her gaze shifted, her lashes trembled, and tension soon spread across her face.

"This is bad. An Evil Degree is spreading in. I have to get to the Thin Boundary!" Ming Yi said.

As she spoke, Ming Yi took a Green Cicada from her pocket.

It was the same green mechanical cicada. She gently tossed it into the air, where it quickly transformed into a magnificent mechanical eagle.

"Take me with you!"

"Then hold on tight!"

Ming Yi leaped up and grabbed the mechanical eagle.

Wu Hen jumped up too. He could either wrap his arms around Ming Yi's waist or grab the eagle's other claw. In the end, he chose the mechanical claw.

The mechanical eagle flew toward the Thin Boundary.

The Pure Land of Five-Colored Soil was shrinking bit by bit. One enormous, deathly desolate dune after another moved across the horizon, steadily swallowing the Five-Colored Soil and squeezing the Thin Boundary smaller.

The Thin Boundary was like a vast Heaven-Earth Dome Screen, enveloping the Nuwa Divine Terminal and the Five-Colored Soil beneath it. It screened out the strange breath of the outside world while also scattering the soil's multicolored radiance like a dome.

But now, this special Thin Boundary around the Pure Land was smashed apart with ease. It was as if a huge void had appeared on the horizon, exposing the boundless darkness and strangeness of the Otherworld Desolate Dust!

Soon, Evil Breath flooded into the Five-Colored Soil. When it brushed past people with weak wills, they would stop for no apparent reason and stare at the shattered boundary.

It was as though they saw something dazzling and irresistible in the broken area. In a short time, they became as feverish as believers and rushed toward the unknown dunes!

As if there were some kind of god in the depths of those dunes, waiting for them to come worship!

"The Nuwa Divine Terminal is too weak," Ming Yi sighed softly.

Even the people who had already entered the Pure Land had their convictions twisted. Under the protection of the Nuwa Divine Terminal, how many of those frenzied people who charged into the dunes would survive? An Evil Degree like this devoured people without even spitting out their bones!

Wu Hen hadn't expected that even at the foot of the Nuwa Divine Tree, they still couldn't resist the invasion of the Otherworld Desolate Dust.

He wanted to know what kind of dune Evil Degree had broken into the human Pure Land...

When they reached the Thin Boundary, Wu Hen and Ming Yi could only stand on the Five-Colored Soil.

Less than three kilometers ahead lay dunes as enormous as ghost ships. But with his improved visual acuity, Wu Hen was horrified to realize that his vision had deceived him earlier!

The tiny particles piled into those moving ghost-ship dunes weren't sand at all. They were Otherworld Locusts, each no bigger than a grain of sand!

The dunes weren't dunes, either. They were swarms of hundreds of millions of locusts piled into hills!

The Five-Colored Soil wasn't being covered.

It was being devoured by this endless range of locust hills!

Wu Hen felt a chill run down his spine...

He remembered how, not long ago, his host body had nearly stepped into the Heavenly Sand Earth Desert. Back then, his vision hadn't been as sharp as it was now, and he had truly thought it was a desolate desert. He'd had no idea it was a vast locust kingdom!

Their Nuwa Divine Terminal was walking through an Insect World Evil Desert like this!

"Sacred Fire! Hurry and light the Sacred Fire!"

"We can't let the Insect World spread any farther!"

Not far away, a man in a ceremonial robe issued an order loudly from the air.

The Sacred Fire looked more like an ancient totem pile. Wu Hen saw a group of people gathering Five-Colored Stones from the soil. They stacked them into one stone tower after another, then kindled a special flame at the top!

The flames glowed golden, bright enough to cover an entire area.

When Evil Breath passed through the golden glow of the Sacred Fire, it immediately dispersed.

The gigantic locust kingdom crawling toward them also stopped when it reached the Sacred Fire stone piles...

However, the golden glow had clear boundaries, and both the Five-Colored Stones and the Sacred Fire were in short supply. Against the enormous locust-covered hills, this barrier didn't do much.

With no other choice, the people could only keep retreating.

The Five-Colored Soil was being devoured in huge swathes. Some special locusts had even flown into the Nuwa Divine Tree and begun devouring the core-leaf butterflies!

If core-leaf butterflies represented the people in a home, did the swathes being devoured mean that a terrible disaster was taking shape in that home as well?

In an instant, Wu Hen thought of the great disasters that had claimed countless lives in his home in recent years.

And the thunderstorm disaster that had mysteriously disappeared not long ago...

It seemed that the thunderstorm calamity in his home had vanished completely after he captured Xiao Yi!

Could it be that the thunderstorm disaster in his home had been caused by Xiao Yi and the Nuwa Divine Terminal being in the same Desolate Dust world?

"Order Guardians, what are you waiting for? Go find out what's causing the Evil Insects to run rampant!" A haughty voice rang out. It belonged to a high-ranking leader with a thick beard and a white hat.

"If we go in now, aren't you just sending us to our deaths?" asked a one-eyed female Order Guardian.

"This is your duty!" the white-hatted leader said forcefully.

Order Guardians and Guardians of Order had already gathered on the battlefield, but there were fewer than a thousand of them.

Wu Hen was surprised. Were there really so few Awakened in the vast Nuwa Divine Terminal?

Or were many of them still out exploring the Desolate Dust?

"Wu Hen, come over here."

Ming Yi led Wu Hen toward the position nearest one of the dunes. Around six or seven people stood by the foremost Sacred Fire Stone Tower.

Wu Hen spotted the man who had visited his home with Ming Yi earlier. He seemed to be the leader of this team.

"Welcome aboard." Team Leader Qin Sheng gave a brief greeting and said nothing more.

"Joining the Order Guardians now? Your application can wait until later. You might even live a few more days," said a tall, thin man with a pale face.

"It's fine. Let him stay here. We'll go in," Ming Yi said.

After all, Wu Hen wasn't an official member yet. Even a team of Awakened would face a death rate of over sixty or seventy percent if they entered this terrifying locust world.

Wu Hen was hesitating too. This was even more terrifying than Zai Wu's Evil Soil. Finding a way to get out alive would be a serious problem.

However, Wu Hen's right hand didn't feel the same way.

Whoosh!

Xiao Yi made the decision for Wu Hen and shot his hand high into the air.

At the sight of Wu Hen's inexplicably raised hand, Ming Yi's teammates looked at him with surprise and admiration.

"Well, well. Ming Yi's new guy has guts, at least!"

"Other Awakened are keeping their distance from us Order Guardians. Looks like the only real men are the ones willing to join us!"

Wu Hen was at a loss.

With his hand raised so high, he could only put it as tactfully as possible. "I'll go in with my seniors. That's the only way to learn anything useful."

Xiao Yi, you'd better not be tricking me.

There must be a big catch in there that you're willing to reveal yourself for!

For the superprotein, let's make this a big one!!

Recommended: Check out the new book by the great urban fiction author Lao Shi!