“This…… what kind of cursed thing is this?!” Lu Qiancha clenched her stomach, suppressing the nausea churning within as her spirit sense locked tightly onto the eerily writhing insect swarm.
She continued her investigation.
The plump peach’s luscious flesh had been rapidly devoured, leaving only a gelatinous, murky translucent substance formed from the secretions of the insects inside.
At that moment, the Village Chief’s shriveled throat rasped out a voice: “Er Zhuang, you and the others, divide the peaches and let everyone partake in the Mountain God’s blessing.”
“Yes.”
Several men below immediately responded and hurried forward, distributing the peaches from the altar to everyone present.
The moment the villagers received the peaches, they seemed to go mad.
Their eyes bulged, saliva dripped as they shoved the peaches into their mouths with desperate greed. The brutal sounds of gnawing and ravenous swallowing instantly replaced the previous silence.
Their gluttonous demeanor was as if they were fighting not for fruit, but for the last lifeline to survival.
A peach exuding the same sweet fragrance was also pressed into Lu Qiancha and Shangguan Yunzhu’s hands.
To the touch, it felt no different from a normal peach.
Their fingertips brushed lightly as their gazes met — in each other’s eyes shone clear horror and disgust.
“Two fairies…”
The Village Chief dragged out his words in a strange, slimy tone, twisting his head at an unnatural angle as he stared fixedly at the untouched peaches in their hands.
“This Sacred Peach is the supreme blessing granted by the Mountain God. Why do you two refuse to partake?”
“They seem about to turn hostile. What do we do?” Shangguan Yunzhu’s voice was tense like a taut string as she whispered to Lu Qiancha.
Lu Qiancha’s eyes instantly turned icy, her judgment made in a flash: “Capture the ringleader first—subdue the Village Chief.”
“Got it!”
Before the words fell, Shangguan Yunzhu’s figure surged forward like a sudden thunderclap.
“Clang—!”
A clear sword chime sliced through the air.
A crimson sword aura, like a fierce dragon released from its sheath, tore through the air, trailing exploding sparks as it lunged straight for the Village Chief.
But just as it was about to pierce him, the sword aura trembled violently and abruptly transformed into a roaring, scorching invisible wave.
Boom—!!
The Village Chief’s gaunt body was blasted like a kite with its string cut, flying hard into the rough stone wall of the Shanshen Temple. Stones shattered and tumbled down.
Lu Qiancha’s lips twitched at the force. Was this an attempt to capture him or a death blow…?
Without hesitation, Lu Qiancha activated her movement technique, weaving and dodging. Her figure flashed like a ghostly blue specter.
The Binding Immortal Rope in her claw shimmered with golden light—
Shhhh.
Sudden change.
Beneath the tattered clothes shredded by the impact, the Village Chief’s once shriveled, darkened skin turned fiery red, as if scalded by boiling oil.
An intense, dangerous swelling erupted from within.
Not good, he’s going to self-detonate?!
Alarm bells screamed wildly in Lu Qiancha’s mind! The Demon Cube hummed in her claw as streams of light converged—her claw snapped shut.
“Whoosh!”
A soft sound, leaving only rippling purple spatial waves behind.
Lu Qiancha had vanished.
At the same time, Shangguan Yunzhu retreated swiftly, Red Flame Sword Energy swirling around her, warily locking onto the now grotesquely deformed corpse on the ground.
Bang!!
Amid the heavy, thunderous explosion,
the Village Chief’s swollen crimson body burst open like a massive pus-filled abscess.
Buzz—
Countless strange flying insects, palm-sized, black with yellow markings and glowing green spots, spilled forth like an ink explosion.
Accompanied by a nauseating stench of rot and a rain of severed limbs and gore, they instantly transformed into an overwhelming, sky-darkening cloud of filth. The hissing of their wings was deafening.
Lu Qiancha’s figure silently reappeared on a giant boulder atop the mountain, her cold gaze piercing through the swirling insect storm.
“Tsk,” she curled her lips in a frosty smile, “treating humans like insect pupae?”
Having witnessed this bizarre method of birth firsthand, combined with the previously devouring mutant insects and the brainwashed villagers… a chilling chain of clues instantly connected in Lu Qiancha’s mind.
What exactly was this so-called Taoyuan Village running on…
At this moment, she already understood about seventy to eighty percent.
But now was not the time for pondering. Lu Qiancha’s eyes flashed sharply as she locked onto the dense insect tide below that blotted out the sky.
Without hesitation, a gleam flickered from her claws as she withdrew a suspicious cloudy milky liquid from her Storage Bag.
This potion was a Special Insecticide Lu Qiancha developed during summer, unable to endure the constant buzzing of mosquitoes any longer.
Its toxicity was mild, not even guaranteed to kill Qi Refining cultivators, focusing instead on environmental friendliness.
But it had a secret trick—
A sly smile curled on Lu Qiancha’s lips as she vigorously shook the bottle. The murky liquid inside churned with dense bubbles.
“Take this!”
She released the bottle with a flick of her claw, sending it flying in a perfect arc into the roiling insect sea below.
Bang—crash!
The bottle shattered precisely on the ground.
At the same time—
Boom!
A thick, pungent pale white smoke erupted like volcanic ash, instantly rising and spreading.
It was as if the entire mountain range had been forcibly wrapped in a filthy white sash. In moments, it devoured the swirling insect cloud completely.
The miraculous effect was immediate.
The once fierce and noisy insect swarm instantly seemed petrified.
Countless insects writhed, spun, and rolled madly.
Like a downpour of black rain, they plummeted helplessly from the sky, crashing en masse without resistance. In the blink of an eye, a thick layer blanketed the smoke-covered area, their fates unknown.
“Hmph.” Lu Qiancha stood atop the mountain peak, nodding with satisfaction.
Though the child was weak, its area of effect was vast, and its duration maxed out.
Other than the drawback of sticking to food and causing diarrhea, it had no flaws.
Thinking back to the past…
This potion had not only failed to repel mosquitoes but had inadvertently… tainted every spring, wild fruit, and dried Spirit Valley within a mile of Tianquanfeng with its unique scent.
It had infuriated her master to the point of almost pulling her ears off…
But now,
gazing at the utterly paralyzed insect cloud below,
a satisfied light flickered in Lu Qiancha’s blue eyes.
Its moment of glory, though late, had finally arrived.
With the battle going well, she was about to press the advantage and toss a few more bottles of the Special Insecticide to completely clear the field—
But at that moment, the unexpected happened.
Rumble rumble rumble
The rocky ground beneath her suddenly trembled violently, as if a sleeping earth dragon had been awakened. A massive fissure burst open less than thirty feet ahead.
Rocks scattered and waves of earth surged.
A gigantic creature, emitting a nauseating stench of rot and earthiness, broke through the buried soil and fiercely burst into the sky.
It resembled a giant moth, enlarged to the size of half a house. Its body was covered in crimson armor plates.
Its mandibles were terrifying and grotesque, layered with rows of white, razor-sharp teeth, each gleaming with deadly cold light.