The Might of the Insects

Chapter 23: The Might of the Insects

"Cousin! What's wrong?" The girl, who had been watching Bai Shu closely, saw his face suddenly twist as his whole body began to tremble. She was instantly overcome with alarm.

Bai Shu didn't answer. Instead, he frantically reached down and lifted the hem of his robe. Beneath it, the white trousers he wore had turned completely bloodred.

"Thud!" Bai Shu lost his balance and fell to the ground. Pained cries spilled continuously from his mouth, and sweat covered his face.

"What did you do to my cousin?" The girl's earlier carefree expression was gone. Staring at Luo Mu in terror, she shouted her question.

At the same time, she couldn't help tightening her grip on the silk handkerchief artifact, betraying her anxiety.

Though the girl's cultivation was a whole level higher than Luo Mu's, she was only a girl. Now that something had happened to Bai Shu, the one she relied on, she had already lost her composure and was so flustered she didn't know what to do.

"What did I do to your cousin? Just keep watching and you'll find out." Luo Mu gave a cold smile and spoke in an indifferent tone.

Bai Shu's screams rang out without pause. The girl tried several times to attack Luo Mu, but her own cowardice stopped her in her tracks. She could only watch Bai Shu writhe in pain on the ground, not knowing what to do.

A moment later, an ant as white as jade crawled out from Bai Shu's neck. Wherever it passed, Bai Shu's ghastly white bones were exposed!

This white ant was none other than Luo Mu's White Jade Ant!

Bai Shu's body stopped struggling and curled up on the ground, motionless. He made no attempt to resist as the White Jade Ant rapidly devoured his corpse.

Because in that brief span of time, five White Jade Ants had eaten everything on Bai Shu's body except his head!

"Ah!" The girl could no longer hide her fear. After a scream, she turned and tried to flee. Luo Mu felt far too sinister to her. Though he was only at the third layer of Qi Refining Stage, she suddenly felt a sense of danger unlike any she had ever known.

The white ants, whose origins were impossible to discern, made her feel even more chilled to the bone. She had a feeling that if she didn't leave at once, she would surely die here!

The girl was young and beautiful. How could she be willing to throw away her life at such a tender age? Even if her cousin here was dead or alive, she still had plenty of other cousins in the family. She didn't need to worry about being left without support. The urgent thing was to get away and save her own skin before making any other plans!

Husband and wife were birds of the same forest, but when disaster struck, each flew away on their own! That saying was perfectly embodied by the girl. Though the two weren't married, they had already done nearly everything a married couple would do!

"Trying to run? Isn't it a little too late?" The moment the girl turned, Luo Mu's cold, emotionless voice came from behind her. Her fear only grew, and she hurried her steps. At the same time, she slapped a hand against her Storage Bag, preparing to release her Flying Artifact so she could escape faster.

Before she could take out the Flying Artifact, she suddenly felt something cold around her neck, as if something had wormed its way into her collar. She instinctively reached up to grab it, and something slippery slid into her hand. The girl looked down and was instantly horrified. Her hair stood on end, and her face turned deathly pale!

In her hand was a long snake as thick as an infant's arm!

Its body was speckled with plum-blossom patterns and looked quite pretty, but the girl had no courage to admire it. Its beady eyes glinted coldly as it stared at her, and its gaping maw revealed rows of gleaming white fangs!

In her panic, the girl screamed and flung the snake away, then immediately tried to run.

But the moment she moved her feet, she stumbled over something. She steadied herself and looked down to see the ground already covered with snakes! What's more, every one of them was the same kind as the one she had just thrown away!

The instant the girl lost her composure, the snakes all leaped up and lunged at her!

The girl was indeed a fourth-layer Qi Refining Stage cultivator, but she was still a woman, and terribly young at that. Having barely experienced anything in life, she immediately lost her head when faced with this situation.

If they had been ordinary snakes, it would have been fine. After her initial fear, she was confident she had the strength to smash them to pieces! But she could tell at a glance that these were no ordinary snakes—they were genuine first-grade demon beasts! And there were thirteen of them!

The girl knew she didn't have what it took to face thirteen first-grade demon beasts alone. But it was already too late to escape.

The thirteen snakes surged at her all at once, winding tightly around her. She couldn't move her limbs at all. Then she felt a sharp pain in her chest, and her consciousness gradually blurred.

?

Luo Mu wiped the blood from his dagger and put it away in his Storage Bag. Looking at the girl lying in a pool of blood before him, he remained calm, betraying not the slightest emotion.

Just as the girl had tried to flee, the thirteen Plum Blossom Snakes that had received Luo Mu's orders rushed over and happened upon her. The outcome was only to be expected: the girl was easily stopped by the snakes.

Luo Mu charged in at that moment and finished her off with a stab!

Poison Fang was a mid-grade artifact, incredibly sharp. On top of that, it was infused with Luo Mu's unique Poison Spirit Power. The girl had no chance of resisting. The moment Poison Fang pierced her chest, the Poison Spirit Power flowed into her meridians, and within moments, she had stopped breathing—dead beyond any doubt.

Who knew whether she had died from the poison or from the grievous wound to her heart!

It was Luo Mu's first time killing someone, and he felt a little uneasy. But he quickly suppressed the feeling. If he didn't kill them, they would kill him.

Luo Mu cherished his own life. To keep himself from being harmed, they had to die!

With the girl's death, the light barrier restraining the three Octagonal Spikes vanished as well. Newly freed, the Octagonal Spikes excitedly clambered over Luo Mu's body, acting exceedingly affectionate.

Luo Mu smiled faintly and recalled the three Octagonal Spikes. The thirteen Plum Blossom Snakes still coiled tightly around the girl's corpse were also returned to his Spirit Beast Bag.

Finally, Luo Mu turned his gaze toward Bai Shu's corpse. But there was no trace of Bai Shu left. Apart from the tattered clothes the White Jade Ants had chewed up, not even a scrap of bone remained, let alone a corpse.

Watching the five White Jade Ants crawl around on Bai Shu's clothes, still hungry for more, Luo Mu's mouth twitched. He cursed them as gluttons. They hadn't even left a single bone behind!

Shaking his head, Luo Mu ordered the five White Jade Ants to dispose of the girl's corpse as well, then slowly walked over to Bai Shu's clothes.

A Storage Bag tumbled out from the clothing. Luo Mu was overjoyed, a smile appearing on his face before he could help himself. He didn't care much that the two of them were dead, but he had been coveting their Storage Bags and certainly wasn't about to leave them behind.

With a flick of his finger, a small fireball appeared and landed on Bai Shu's clothes. In just a short while, the clothes had turned to ash. A breeze swept through, leaving not the slightest trace that Bai Shu had ever been here.

Luo Mu didn't care that the two of them were dead, and he didn't know who they were either. Still, to be safe and avoid unnecessary trouble, he carefully burned their clothes so he wouldn't bring disaster upon himself.

Judging by their clothes and the fact that they had reached the fourth and fifth layers of Qi Refining Stage at such a young age, Luo Mu was certain they were members of some family. As a lone Rogue Cultivator, he had no business provoking a cultivation family at present. So it was essential that he clean up the scene!

After dealing with Bai Shu, Luo Mu walked over to the girl's corpse. The girl was no longer beautiful and dazzling as she had been when she first appeared. Like Bai Shu, not a single bone remained. The White Jade Ants had long since devoured her completely.

Once again, Luo Mu squatted down and searched through her clothes with both hands. Within a few breaths, a smile appeared on his face.

The girl's Storage Bag was in his hand!

Luo Mu took the Storage Bag without the slightest hesitation, then set about destroying the corpse again. He had already done it once, so this time the work came easily.

After he had taken care of everything, Luo Mu smiled and contentedly patted the two Storage Bags tucked against his chest. He hadn't yet checked what they contained, but judging by how full they looked, he guessed there was quite a lot inside.

Still, to be safe, Luo Mu didn't dare flaunt the two Storage Bags by hanging them from his waist. Instead, he carefully hid them against his chest. Once he returned home and dealt with everything inside them, he would immediately destroy the bags.

The cultivation world was full of all kinds of secret arts. For all he knew, the elders of their family had placed some kind of restriction on the two Storage Bags. Luo Mu didn't want to be hunted down every day over a pair of bags.

Before leaving, Luo Mu turned his gaze toward the root of the whole affair: the fourth-grade, high-tier poisonous herb, Soul-Falling Grass. A Soul-Falling Grass was certainly precious, but compared to his life, Luo Mu valued the latter more. Bai Shu and the girl had lost their lives because of this Soul-Falling Grass.

Luo Mu shook his head. He didn't dwell on it, much less feel any burden over Bai Shu and the girl's deaths. The cultivation world was one where the strong preyed on the weak. Anyone who set foot on the path of cultivation had to be prepared to be killed by another cultivator at any moment.

Night had fallen. Luo Mu uprooted the Soul-Falling Grass, then wasted no time lingering there. He summoned his Flying Artifact and headed toward Dragon Gate Town.