As the wave of sand drew closer!
"Are those... Corpse Puppet Insects?" Li Xiaoya's eyesight was astonishing. Despite the gray-black mist obscuring his view, he could still see them clearly. The vast white wave, hundreds of feet high, consisted of countless insects dozens of feet long. Their bodies were a ghastly skeletal white, and they looked like maggots magnified dozens of times over, except their legs bore backward-curving hooks. Their eyes gleamed savagely, while countless tentacles and a pair of enormous, blood-red fangs filled their gaping mouths, almost taking up their entire heads...
Li Xiaoya had cultivated for nearly two thousand years. From a distance, a wave of sand made up of so many insects had not looked too bad, but now those ghastly white Corpse Puppet Insects filled his entire field of vision. Even with his vast experience, his scalp tingled, and a hint of nausea rose within him. Of course, as a Great Cultivator of the Heaven-and-Earth Realm, he would hardly let such a trifling sensation affect him...
However!
Li Xiaoya did not attack. He wanted to see whether these Corpse Puppet Insects had actually discovered him or were merely passing through his position by chance...
Rustle, rustle, rustle! The sea of Corpse Puppet Insects charged straight toward him, closing to within a few thousand feet...
Suddenly!
Boom!
Screee, screee, screee! The center of the swarm suddenly seemed to explode with a muffled blast. Countless Corpse Puppet Insects shot into the sky, blotting out the heavens as they spread pairs of translucent wings. The appearance of those wings was bizarre indeed. When Li Xiaoya had examined the insects earlier, he had not seen any wings at all. Only after looking closely did he realize that they were not real wings, but a layer of strange gray spiritual qi.