Lord of the Earth

"Damn it, what the hell is this?!"

Even with Qianxia's current strong foundation, many outstanding individuals still showed some change in expression when faced with this extraordinary scene.

The overwhelming swarm of colorful, ferocious insects, each exuding a genuine divine aura, their buzzing wings creating a terrifying noise that strikes straight to the soul.

Most importantly, the "fusion" characteristic exhibited by these insects has overturned everyone's understanding of living beings—

The ten insects merged and their aura instantly soared to the peak of the first level of the divine realm;

The aggregate formed by the fusion of one hundred insects already possesses the formidable combat power of a newly ascended top-tier deity;

Now, the enormous "insect demon" before us, formed by the frenzied gathering and twisting of ten thousand insects, exudes a terrifying ferocity that has reached the level of an unparalleled god!
It roared, and the sound waves rippled through the space, even crushing the withered peach trees into dust!
Li Ling, wielding the battle axe inherited from Wu Gang, roared and unleashed a cleaving axe beam that tore through the void. Gan Ning, piloting his brocade sailboat, stirred up towering waves in an attempt to imprison it. Zhang Liao's icy spear froze a vast expanse of space...

Several top-tier deities joined forces to attack, bombarding the insect demon with various powerful divine laws, exploding it into clusters of colorful liquid and insect corpses, but they could not stop its advance.

The insect demon's body was composed of a flowing swarm of insects, which could gather and disperse at will, and any damaged areas were quickly filled by other insects.

Even a mighty general like Lu Zhishen, whose strength was unparalleled, swung his heavy monk's staff, which was imbued with the golden light of the Demon-Subduing Sword, and smashed it down. However, he only felt as if he had hit a mountain of constantly wriggling insects. It had little effect. Instead, the staff was quickly eaten away by the insects after it was deeply embedded in their bodies.

On the spot, a top-tier divine weapon was destroyed!
"Jia Xu!"

Summer's gaze sharpened.

He knew that ordinary attack methods might be able to kill, but would be difficult to quickly eliminate the creatures in front of him.

"Chen is here!"

Jia Xu had been preparing for a long time. Upon receiving the order, he immediately stepped forward and respectfully presented a bronze pot with both hands, its shape simple and ancient.

As soon as the pot appeared, a suppressive aura specifically targeting demons and monsters spread out, causing even the rampant swarms of insect demons to stir slightly.

【Demon Refining Pot (Mysterious Yellow)】

[Type] Rare and Wonderful Objects

【characteristic】

Demon Refining (can refine non-human races and demons into various materials)

Demon Taming (In the Eternal Land, its ability is further sublimated. It can not only transform the power of captured demons into pure spiritual energy for the holder to cultivate and use, but also, according to the holder's wishes, endow the user with parts of the demon's special abilities, including but not limited to its talents, supernatural powers, and characteristics.)
The World Within the Pot (The Demon Refining Pot also possesses a special space that can accommodate countless demons. These demons are nourished by the power of chaos within the pot, constantly evolving and their power increasing accordingly, which in turn is fed back to the holder.)
The power of the Bixie (a remnant soul of an ancient divine beast, the Bixie, is sealed within the Demon Refining Pot; it can be summoned to intimidate all demons).
[Description] This treasure was forged by the gods of the ancient imperial court. It possesses the terrifying power to imprison and refine all demons in the world, and to draw upon their power.

"Let the treasure show its power!"

Jia Xu let out a low shout and poured all his divine power into the Demon Refining Pot.

The pot body suddenly emitted a hazy, clear light, and the spout, aimed at the mass of insects, instantly transformed into a massive vortex that seemed capable of swallowing the heavens and the earth!
"Roar--!"

A majestic, solemn phantom of the ancient divine beast Bi'an, symbolizing justice and punishment, emerged from the mouth of the pot, letting out a roar that terrified all demons!
The ferocious swarm of myriad insect demonic shadows visibly faltered under the oppressive aura of the divine beast specifically designed to subdue demons, and the innate suction of the Demon Refining Pot. Countless insects emitted sharp screechs intertwined with fear and rage...

The powerful suction force, like an invisible giant hand, firmly locked onto the insect demon, dragging it little by little towards the mouth of the pot.

The insect demon struggled frantically, splitting into dozens of streams of insects that lashed and gnawed at the Demon Refining Pot like tentacles, but were purified by the clear light naturally emanating from the pot.

However, the body of the Demon Refining Pot itself began to tremble violently, its clear light flickering uncertainly.

Clearly, even using a supreme treasure of the "Xuanhuang" level to suppress this aggregate of ten thousand insects, which has reached the level of "peerless deity," is nearing its limit!
"I'm here to lend Lord Jia a hand!"

With a wave of his feather fan, Zhuge Liang's "Eight Trigrams Formation" instantly expanded, with wind rising, clouds hanging, dragons flying, tigers spreading... all sorts of changes descending, forcibly binding the insect demon's movements and weakening its struggling power.

Wu Song, Zhang Liao, Gan Ning, Lu Zhishen and other powerful figures seized the opportunity and unleashed their strongest attacks once again. Brilliant divine powers and fierce martial arts techniques bombarded the weakened body of the insect demon like a storm, blasting countless insect corpses apart!

With everyone working together, the Demon Refining Pot shone brightly, and its suction power increased dramatically.

Finally, the struggling "myriad insect demon shadows" were completely pulled off the ground and sucked into the pot!

"Buzz!"

The lid slammed shut, and the pot vibrated violently for a while before gradually calming down.

Jia Xu let out a long sigh of relief, almost collapsing from exhaustion. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, still shaken.

"Fortunately, we have the Demon-Refining Pot, a wondrous object capable of subduing strange demons..."

Many people looked with lingering fear at the peach orchard where the peaches were still bursting open.

This insect is too strange. It can not only devour flesh and blood, but also erode divine power and annihilate the soul. Once it invades the body, even gods will not escape the fate of being destroyed in both body and soul!
However, this brief respite was short-lived.

"Buzzing—"

A deeper, more intense, and seemingly more terrifying rumbling sound, capable of stirring the deepest fears in people's hearts, came from the very core of the peach grove!
"Oh no! Something even bigger is coming!"

Qi Jiguang's expression was more solemn than ever before, and he gripped his battle sword tightly.

Under the horrified gazes of everyone, peach trees burst open one by one, and swarms of colorful insects rose into the sky, their sheer number seemingly painting the entire sky with a suffocating and eerie hue!
They were no longer small, tentative mergings, but instead began a frenzied, efficient, and chilling convergence in the sky, like billions of iron filings being attracted by an invisible giant magnet, rapidly fusing into a larger, more solid, and terrifying aggregate with an irregular, polyhedral shape.

On its surface, countless insects opened their compound eyes simultaneously, their cold, greedy, and emotionless gazes sweeping down like real objects, causing many weaker deities to feel a stinging pain in their souls, almost to the point of collapse!
"It's not over yet! They're still merging!"

Jia Xu's voice trembled slightly, a tremor he himself was unaware of.

Even this cunning and ruthless strategist, a veteran of Qianxia, ​​felt a deep chill at this moment.

"Twelve hundred peach trees, even if each tree only bears a few dozen fruits, that's still a terrifying number of tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands! Once fully merged, their strength..."

As if to confirm his worst-case scenario, even more insects surged forth from every corner of the peach grove, like rivers flowing into the sea, relentlessly merging into the enormous aggregate. Ten thousand, twenty thousand, fifty thousand, eighty thousand… The aggregate expanded at a visible rate, its oppressive power increasing exponentially, causing the surrounding space to distort and crack!
The moment when 100,000 ferocious insects completed their final fusion—

"boom!!!"

An indescribable, terrifying pressure, seemingly from the primordial chaos, descended with overwhelming force, like the Big Bang at the beginning of the universe, sweeping across the heavens and earth!

The space emitted a painful groan of unbearable strain, and fine black cracks spread rapidly in all directions from the aggregate as the center, like a spider web!
It was no longer a simple aggregate, but transformed into a world-destroying demonic shadow, hundreds of miles tall, with an indistinct form, yet exuding an aura of endless destruction, tyranny, and chaos!
The energy level emanating from him clearly and undeniably places him in the realm of "quasi-gods"!

Everyone in Qianxia, ​​including top experts like Wu Song and Zhuge Liang, felt their breath catch in their throats, and the flow of their divine power became sluggish, as if they were sinking into an invisible quagmire!

"I understand!"

As summer arrives, he is blessed with the nation's destiny. The endless rules and runes in his eyes flow, collide, and deduce like a galaxy, forcibly discerning the essence of his enemies with the vision of a "quasi-god".

“These insects are not creatures born of nature! They are a unified whole, an ‘incarnation’ of a powerful being at the level of a ‘quasi-god’!”

“Previously, they were in an extremely sophisticated sealed state, fused with the peaches of immortality, almost absolutely still, perfectly concealed, even I could hardly detect them. Once the seal is broken, they can quickly reclaim their power by devouring living beings and merging with each other! What's even more troublesome is that because they themselves are not individuals with independent and complete 'true spirits,' they have exploited a loophole in the current rules of the Eternal Land, thus enabling this kind of 'quasi-true god' power!”

This conclusion weighed heavily on Xia Tian's mind; a being who could truly demonstrate the power of a "quasi-god".

Even Qianxia would probably find it difficult to cope!

"Your Majesty, the Demon Refining Pot has reached its limit. The space within the pot is in turmoil and cannot devour such a powerful being in the short term!"

Jia Xu hurriedly replied, his face pale.

"Boom!"

The "quasi-true god" insect demon, formed by the fusion of 100,000 ferocious insects, seemed to have adapted to its own power, letting out a roar that tore through the sky, and launched an attack!

It simply raised its indistinct giant arm, made up of countless insects, and threw a punch towards the densest part of the crowd!
There were no fancy techniques, no complicated changes of laws, only the purest, most savage, and most direct power. Wherever the fist passed, the space within tens of thousands of miles shattered inch by inch like fragile glass, forming a dark torrent of destruction that swept everything and annihilated all things!

"Block it!"

Within the ranks, Lin Chong, Lu Zhishen, Gan Ning, Li Ling, and several top experts from the Cao Wei camp, including Xu Chu and Zhang Liao, roared simultaneously, squeezing out all their divine power. Various powerful supernatural abilities, martial skills, and innate laws erupted without reservation, converging into a dazzling seven-colored pillar of light that contained the indomitable will of the group, and bravely met the destructive torrent!
"Rumble--"

The moment the two forces collided was like two ancient stars colliding head-on!

The blinding light engulfed everything, temporarily blinding everyone.

A deafening roar, powerful enough to tear apart the soul, erupted violently; an extremely violent energy storm, like a primordial beast unleashed, spread wildly in all directions for tens of thousands of miles...

Gan Ning and the others groaned in unison, their divine weapons wailing, and brilliant golden divine blood spilled from their mouths. Their bodies flew backward uncontrollably like kites with broken strings.

Even when Qianxia and the others joined forces and exerted all their strength, they could only barely deflect and neutralize part of the force of the opponent's casual punch.

The aftershocks of that destructive torrent, still carrying the power to crush everything, rushed fiercely towards Qianxia's formation!

At the critical moment, Zhuge Liang waved his feather fan repeatedly, his robes billowing, and his innate divine power, the "Eight Trigrams Formation," spun rapidly at an unprecedented speed. The eight trigrams—Qian, Kun, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Li, Gen, and Dui—rotated in turn, forcibly shifting the universe and dispersing and guiding the remaining terrifying impact into the surrounding void.

In addition, Shao Siming led the Yin-Yang School disciples to form an array. With a clear shout, a huge, mysterious Tai Chi diagram phantom, flowing with Yin and Yang energies, appeared in front of the array. The Yin-Yang fish slowly rotated, emitting the Daoist charm of resolving all things and returning to the origin.

It continuously dissipates and neutralizes the raging divine power!
Under the combined defense of the two formations, the aftershock of this quasi-god's attack, which was enough to severely injure or even annihilate a legion of gods, was finally held back with difficulty.

However, Zhuge Liang and Shao Siming, who were in charge of the formation, looked visibly exhausted.

"Form the 'Heavenly Dipper and Earthly Fiends Formation'!"

Summer's voice reached the ears of every outstanding individual possessing the "Heavenly and Earthly Stars' Inheritance".

"Order!"

Wu Song, Lin Chong, Lu Zhishen, Gongsun Sheng, and the other 108 evil spirits responded in unison, their voices shaking the heavens!

In an instant, beams of dazzling starlight descended from the sky, ignoring the barrier of the Jade Pool Palace and precisely enveloping each of the Star Fiends!
The blazing power of the sun, the majestic power of the Heavenly Star, and the ethereal radiance of the moon, the Earthly Fiend Star, intertwine to form a vast realm of stars.

A massive starlight curtain suddenly rose up, like an inverted glass bowl, temporarily blocking the surging insect horde!
Countless ferocious insects, like moths to a flame, frantically crashed against the starlight curtain, stirring up violent ripples and producing a chilling, dense sound of impact and friction. Starlight and insect corpses were constantly annihilated...

"A complete quasi-true god, is that really so terrifying? It's just too terrifying!"

Everyone breathed heavily, still shaken, watching nervously as the dense, surging, multicolored sea of ​​insects surged wildly outside the light screen, and the shadow of the insect demon, radiating the pressure of a quasi-true god, raised its arm again, brewing an even more terrifying attack.

The joy brought by the discovery of Yaochi Palace had long been completely overshadowed by this sudden insect plague.

"The gap between quasi-true gods may be even greater than the gap between gods and supreme gods... The power of this insect demon far surpasses that skeletal incarnation of the 'Golden Crow Prince'!"

"Moreover, it is very likely that it has a different background, and is not simply a quasi-god..."

Summer's expression was as somber as iron.

Looking beyond the light screen at this legendary temple of the Queen Mother of the West, the hidden secrets and dangers lie even higher above the Guanghan Palace.

“However, if we had encountered such a calamity at the beginning of our exploration, I, Qianxia, ​​would have had no choice but to retreat... But now, after ten years of accumulation, I, Qianxia, ​​am confident enough to face the might of this 'quasi-true god'!”

Facing the near-true god-like insect demon who led an endless sea of ​​insects and whose violent hissing echoed throughout the "Peach Garden," Xia Tian's eyes showed no fear, but instead ignited a fierce fighting spirit!

He took a step forward, crossing the starlight barrier, and faced the terrifying demonic shadow alone.

A flash of light appeared in his hand, and the Sun-Shooting Divine Bow, which had once shot down the Golden Crow Prince and was stained with ancient glory and evil aura, was now in his grasp!

Although the bowstring was not fully drawn, a trace of the supreme sharpness, destruction, and evil-slaying aura of the ancient sun-shooting artifact had already spread out, as if a sleeping ancient beast had opened its eyes!
This aura caused the raging "Shadow of Insect Demons" to pause, and a hint of fear appeared in its countless previously frenzied compound eyes! (End of Chapter)