Chapter 236: Chapter 236: Exotic Spiritual Insect Ranking

PFFT!

Lv Hao spat out a mouthful of blood, his face pale and his expression slack. In just a dozen breaths, the very foundation he relied on—the Corpse-eating Insects under his control—had completely vanished.

He couldn’t believe it. But at this point, his disbelief was useless. In his senses, his Corpse-eating Insects had indeed been almost entirely wiped out. There was no other possibility.

The image before him flickered, and Ye Xuan’s group reappeared. In the projection, Ye Xuan’s gaze pierced through the mirror-like surface, a hint of mockery in his eyes.

Around Ye Xuan, only a few hundred scattered Corpse-eating Insects remained, trapped within a small Array. In stark contrast, not a single person beside Ye Xuan was injured.

"You brat! What have you done to my precious Corpse-eating Insects?" Lv Hao could no longer remain calm. He roared from his room, his voice echoing out through the surveillance Array.

"What do you think?"

Ye Xuan’s voice was faint but laced with sarcasm from within the Array.

Around him, Ouyang Xiaoshan and the others stared at Ye Xuan, completely dumbfounded.

A moment ago, Ye Xuan had suddenly tossed out a few array flags, then produced a jade box from his Storage Ring. The instant he opened it, a tiny black insect, no bigger than a sesame seed, flew out. As soon as the black insect appeared, the Corpse-eating Insects that had been madly besieging them froze as if they had met their natural predator, too terrified to even move.

The little black insect, however, zipped through the body of one Corpse-eating Insect after another at an unimaginable speed. Every Corpse-eating Insect it passed through instantly turned to ash and vanished, along with the corpse qi inside them.

Not a single one of the Corpse-eating Insects could withstand a single encounter with the tiny black insect. In just a dozen breaths, the once dense and seemingly endless swarm was devoured, including the several that had reached Tier Four.

Finally, the little black insect seemed to be full. It transformed back into a streak of black light and returned to Ye Xuan’s jade box.

It wasn’t just Lv Hao, who hadn’t seen what happened. Even Ouyang Xiaoshan and the others, who had witnessed it all firsthand, were utterly stunned, with no idea what had just transpired.

"Impossible! No one in this world could kill all of my precious Corpse-eating Insects in a dozen breaths, not even a Tier Six Martial Venerable! Tell me honestly, where did my babies go?" Lv Hao’s furious voice echoed from the void.

"Nothing is impossible. They’re just mere Corpse-eating Insects. Did you think they were Heaven-Devouring Worms, ranked at the top of some ’Exotic Spirit Insect List’?" Ye Xuan scoffed, his tone dismissive.

What Ye Xuan had used to kill the Corpse-eating Insects was precisely the Heart-Eating Worm he had extracted from Monarch Zhao Jing.

The Heart-Eating Worm’s ranking on the Ten Thousand Demons List wasn’t exceptionally high—only around twentieth—but compared to the Corpse-eating Insects, it was far more powerful.

As fellow insect-type Demon Beasts, the Heart-Eating Worm was the natural nemesis of the Corpse-eating Insects.

Therefore, while Ouyang Xiaoshan and the others were fighting earlier, Ye Xuan had been continuously refining the Heart-Eating Worm. After sensing the aura of the Corpse-eating Insects, the Heart-Eating Worm—which had fallen into a deep slumber after consuming a large amount of Yin Kui Wood—had awakened. Under Ye Xuan’s command, it had unleashed a massacre.

But even without the Heart-Eating Worm, Ye Xuan had other ways to exterminate all these Corpse-eating Insects; it just would have been a bit more troublesome.

Ye Xuan couldn’t be bothered to waste any more words with Wei Hong and the others. He grabbed the captive Wei Guang, shook him awake, and held him up towards the hundred or so surviving Corpse-eating Insects trapped in the Array. "Governor Wei Hong," he said coldly, "I know you’re nearby. Given your actions in Tianxu Province, I’m giving you one last chance. Come out and surrender obediently, and I can grant you the mercy of leaving your corpse intact. Otherwise, I’m throwing your precious son into this Array. I imagine that after witnessing the power of these Corpse-eating Insects, you know exactly what will happen."

"You dare!"

Before Ye Xuan could even finish, Governor Wei Hong’s ferocious roar echoed out.

"Just watch me." Ye Xuan gave a cold smile, dangling Wei Guang above the Corpse-eating Insects.

Ye Xuan felt not a shred of tolerance for Wei Guang and Wei Hong. For their own gain, these men not only treated the lives of the province’s citizens like dirt and acted tyrannically, but they had also unscrupulously slaughtered the servants in their own mansion. And for what? Just to use them as fodder for these Corpse-eating Insects, to increase their power, and to kill him.

Such actions were far beyond the limits of what Ye Xuan could tolerate.

"Father! Master Lv Hao, save me!" Wei Guang shrieked in terror, staring at Ye Xuan with horrified eyes. "You can’t kill me! If you do, Master Lv Hao won’t let you go! Master Lv Hao is from a powerful sect outside the Thirteen Nations Alliance! If you offend him, you’re all dead! Not just you—the entire Liuyun Kingdom will be destroyed because of this! Let me go!" 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"Let go of Guang’er!" Wei Hong’s enraged voice came again, fraught with anxiety, yet with no hint of compromise.

"I don’t give a damn about your Master Lv Hao or whatever ’master’ he is. If you don’t want him to die a horrible death, then come out and surrender. I’ll count to three. If you’re not out by then, I won’t be so polite."

"One!"

"Two!"

Ye Xuan counted slowly.

"Stop!" Wei Hong roared.

"It seems you don’t want him to live." Ye Xuan shook his head and coldly tossed Wei Guang into the Array trapping the Corpse-eating Insects. In the blink of an eye, the hundred-odd insects swarmed over Wei Guang, crawling into his body through his seven orifices. Amidst horrific screams, Wei Guang rapidly withered into a desiccated corpse. His eyes, in his final moments, were filled with terror and venomous hatred, like a restless ghost unable to find peace.

"No!" Wei Hong let out a blood-curdling shriek, a roar filled with unparalleled malice. "You brat! You actually killed Guang’er! I’ll kill you! I will kill you! I’ll slaughter your entire family! Every last one of the Ye family will die! All of you will die!"

"Don’t worry, you’ll die long before we do. I won’t destroy these Corpse-eating Insects. I’ll save them for you to enjoy."

Ye Xuan snorted, his face devoid of pity. For people like the Wei family, this was the only appropriate method. Simply killing them would be letting them off too easy.

"Since you won’t come out, I’ll come find you. And then, I’ll eliminate you degenerates one by one."

With a cold smile, Ye Xuan strode forward. Array flags suddenly appeared in his hand, and he swiftly tossed them into the mist before him.

"Haha! You want to kill us? Do you really think you can break this Mist Array?" Lv Hao’s vicious voice rang out, but he stopped mid-sentence. His eyes were wide with shock as he stared ahead, an expression of utter disbelief on his face.

He watched as, after Ye Xuan threw out a large number of array flags, the mist that had blanketed the area began to quietly dissipate in the mirrored image. The surroundings gradually cleared. At the same time, he felt the control points of the Mist Array that he commanded disappearing one after another, slipping from his grasp. He was instantly horrified. ’This is bad!’ he thought. ’His skill with Arrays is this powerful? He can even break a Tier Six Array?’

He couldn’t imagine how such a young man could possess such profound attainments in the art of Arrays.

In the blink of an eye, the Mist Array that had enveloped the City Lord’s Mansion completely ceased to function. Everything around them became clear to Ye Xuan and his group.

"Go!" Ye Xuan shouted, leading the group as they charged toward a courtyard not far ahead. He could sense that the fluctuations from Wei Hong and the others had originated from there.

During that time, Ye Xuan hadn’t been wasting a moment. He had been analyzing the entire layout of the Mist Array. Although it was a Tier Six Array, a Venerable-grade Array, it wasn’t something he couldn’t crack. In that time, he had gained a crystal-clear understanding of the array’s layout and its key points. With a wave of his array flags, he had instantly broken the entire formation.

Seeing Ye Xuan charge directly toward his location without hesitation, Governor Wei Hong, who had just been roaring with rage, was suddenly thrown into a panic. "Master Lv Hao, what do we do now?"

"What can we do? We fight our way out, of course! They may have many experts, but we have numbers on our side too. With me here, are we supposed to be afraid of him even without the Array? Didn’t you want to avenge your son? Now is the perfect opportunity." Lv Hao snorted. His words calmed Governor Wei Hong’s heart, and a flame of determination ignited in his eyes. He turned to the elite Martial Artists of the Wei family around him, saying something to rally their morale.

At the same time, Ye Xuan’s group charged in. Knowing Ye Xuan’s intentions, Ouyang Xiaoshan didn’t waste a word, raising his blade and slashing down. The brilliant saber light carved a long trench into the courtyard.

BOOM!

A deafening roar erupted as dozens of armored Martial Artists charged out of the courtyard. The aura of every single one was terrifying; they were all experts at or above the Earth Martial Artist level. Nearly ten of them had reached Tier Four or higher. The strongest among them was Fang Tianhong, who had previously been injured and forced to flee. Now, however, he showed no signs of injury; his wounds had clearly healed in the time that had passed.

This group of experts was composed of the powerhouses Governor Wei Hong had cultivated over many years, all of whom were fanatically loyal to him. At this critical moment, they all unleashed their full combat strength.

"Form up!"

A cold voice rang out, and the dozens of men swiftly formed a battle formation. An invisible Soul Power spread across the battlefield, enveloping them all and causing their collective aura to nearly double in an instant.