The Yagu Dynasty-that was the destination Yi Tian had originally planned.
Since he could hunt enemies inside dungeons, he certainly couldn't pass up the Other Races.
As he spoke, he stepped out of the secret realm and instructed Alice:
"Wait for my summons."
Outside, Jiang Yuan Shuang and Bai Qiu Li were watching the secret realm entrance anxiously.
Yi Tian entering the secret realm meant the stakes had risen again. If he failed to come out, it would be far worse than losing a medium secret realm!
Fortunately, the dusky purple entrance gradually returned to normal, and the lockdown was lifted.
Ye Xiu, Jiang Che, and the others emerged from the secret realm unharmed, along with several dozen members of the extraction team!
"Thank goodness!" Bai Qiu Li and Jiang Yuan Shuang breathed sighs of relief.
Amid her delight, the latter sounded somewhat surprised. "Qiu Li, that young Boss of yours really is capable!"
Bai Qiu Li paused. To be honest, she had rarely seen Yi Tian fight and had no way to judge his true strength.
Still, judging by the few times she had seen him in action, his abilities were indeed mysterious...
She nodded dazedly in agreement.
Elsewhere.
Wei Yuan gazed toward the secret realm from afar.
The parasite possessing the driver urged him, "Stop wasting time, sir. There won't be any miracles... huh?!"
Before it finished speaking, the parasite's expression changed in shock.
The auras of hundreds of its fellow void insects coming from the secret realm had vanished without a trace!
"What happened?! Did they all retreat?"
The parasite was bewildered. The possibility that they had died never even crossed its mind.
This was a tier 2 secret realm, after all, with levels capped below 25. The two level 40 elite void insects they had sent in already possessed overwhelming combat power!
How could anything go wrong against a group of Great Xia class holders numbering no more than five?
Besides, hundreds of void insects couldn't possibly die that quickly!
The parasite flew into a rage. "Damn it! How dare they defy Her Majesty the Insect Mother's orders and retreat without permission!"
Sensing that the auras of the Other Races inside the secret realm had disappeared, Wei Yuan smiled in relief.
"Yi Tian really is someone who can work miracles."
The next moment, he reached toward the parasite and clenched his hand. Vast astral power formed an invisible hand that crushed the parasite's strand of mental consciousness to pieces.
"Tell your Insect Mother that if you dare enter Great Xia again, I'll come knocking and return the favor!"
"Aaaaargh!!"
"Aaaaargh!!"
The parasite's gray-green true body let out an agonized shriek.
Parasites possessed their hosts by remotely projecting a strand of mental consciousness through a void insect, then seizing the body of someone with a weak mind.
Although their true bodies were safe, the destruction of that mental consciousness would inflict unbearably painful backlash on them.
It was on a stretch of land corroded to a grayish black. A black, web-like barrier covered the sky, while countless densely packed, nauseating insect eggs hatched beneath the ruined walls around it.
This was the devastated Han Country.
The traces of humanity remaining in the ruins were mercilessly trampled by the insects: collapsed high-rises, shattered vehicles...
Not a trace of human life remained. This tiny country had become a nest for the Void Insect Race, with grotesquely twisted insects crawling over the fallen buildings.
Ignoring its mental agony, the parasite angrily rushed to the Insect Mother's nest, intending to demand why the void insects had suddenly "withdrawn."
Yet the moment it arrived, the silence in the nest sent an inexplicable chill through it.
And the answer it received shook it even more deeply!
"Of the hundreds of void insects sent to Great Xia, not a single one returned? They all died?!"
"I'm the only survivor?!"
It couldn't believe it-didn't dare believe it. The chill inside left it trembling with belated fear.
It had thought its comrades had abandoned it. Who could have imagined that every last one of them had died instead?
At that moment, the Insect Mother's low, commanding voice came from the darkness within her nest:
"Great Xia... truly is different from Han Country."
When the Void Insect Race conquered Han Country, they had never suffered a setback like this. Their very first move had cost them hundreds of void insects!
And they hadn't gained the slightest benefit. Those losses had been for nothing!
After taking Han Country so easily, the Void Insect Race experienced defeat at the hands of the Human Race for the first time.
"There is indeed a reason Great Xia possesses such vast territory..."
The Insect Mother's voice gradually rose into a roar. "But we of the Void Insect Race also need more territory!"
The tiny expanse of Han Country was nowhere near enough to satisfy them.
"Great Xia..."
"The dragonkin of Yagu seem to be their enemies!"
The Insect Mother's deep, hollow voice sounded from the darkness once more. "Find the Yagu Dynasty. Join forces with them to annex Great Xia."
The secret realm crisis had been resolved, but Wei Yuan was intensely curious about how Yi Tian had thwarted the void insect invasion.
Wei Yuan sought Yi Tian out for a private talk. The Void Insect Race's methods were bizarre, and many countries had fallen victim to them. A preventive measure that worked once and for all would remove a major source of worry for Great Xia.
However, Yi Tian shook his head. "I don't have a way to prevent void insect invasions."
"My method is to enter the dungeon directly and eliminate all the void insects."
Entering the dungeon directly sounded simple, but Wei Yuan knew this was another special ability unique to Yi Tian!
Still, he was relieved. Although they couldn't prevent an invasion yet, with Yi Tian around, they at least had a way to deal with the void insects for now.
"Looks like I'll have to ask the research institute to work on large-scale barrier techniques. Ideally, we should stop the Void Insect Race before they can invade."
Yi Tian was only one person, after all. Great Xia couldn't rely entirely on him and do nothing itself.
After saying that, Wei Yuan added solemnly, "Still, we owe you a great deal this time."
Today, at least, without Yi Tian's intervention, Great Xia would have had no good way to respond. They might well have had to abandon a medium secret realm.
Yi Tian smiled back. He happened to have a favor to ask as well:
"Wei, could you take me into a dungeon belonging to the Yagu Dynasty?"
"Any dungeon under their control will do!"
Wei Yuan froze. Enter a Yagu Dynasty dungeon?
This was the first time he had heard such a strange request-to willingly enter a dungeon belonging to an enemy faction of the Other Races!
Still, Wei Yuan knew Yi Tian wouldn't ask without a reason. He must have had a purpose.
After a moment's thought, he nodded. "All right. I'll take you."
Before you continue