Journey to the West: The Immortal Clan Begins by Feeding Monkeys at Five Elements Mountain

Chapter 216 The Insect Swarm Arrives, the Spirit Chicken Displays its Power

Liu Zian was still out of breath, his words carrying the sound of the wind he had been rushing through.

Jiang Yi simply raised his hand.

"Don't panic."

These two words, though not repeated, immediately suppressed the panic between Liu Zi'an's brows.

For the past few months, Jiang Yi has appeared to be sitting idly under the peach tree, listening to the spring and watching the leaves, but in reality, his mind is like a large net, spread out in all directions.

What they had been secretly waiting for was the sound of the gong at this moment.

Now that disaster has finally struck, he has calmed down.

The atmosphere was the same as before, but his thoughts had already returned to the back of the house in an instant.

After a while.

Three sharp crowings came from behind the courtyard in unison, clear and loud, carrying a menacing aura of roosters that had not yet moved their claws.

That was the response from the three spirit chicken ancestors.

No words were needed; just that one sound was enough to tell that it was time to sharpen their claws.

Jiang Yi withdrew his gaze and looked indifferently at the eaves.

A few sparrows and doves were pecking at grains of rice in the corner of the corridor.

He neither made any hand seals nor uttered any incantations; he simply exhaled a long breath, his breath as light as a spring breeze.

The aura was formless and colorless, passing over the peach leaves without disturbing a single branch.

But the small birds under the eaves suddenly froze.

A moment later, the light in his eyes dimmed, as if he were pulled up by an invisible thread, and he fluttered his wings and flew away.

Without making a sound or circling, it went straight through the wall and courtyard, scattered, and plunged towards the southern horizon.

All of this was done in just a few breaths.

Jiang Yi then snapped out of his reverie and looked at Liu Zian again.

Go to the school and inform Jin'er.

"Have Gujin help those kids grab all their weapons. Keep a close watch on all the four corners of the village where they need to be.

As soon as he finished speaking, Liu Zian bowed in response. When he stood up again, he had already transformed into a green shadow and disappeared beyond the eaves in a few leaps.

The courtyard fell silent again.

Jiang Yi slowly closed his eyes.

The moment a thought arises, the five senses burst forth like arrows released from a bow.

With divine sense guiding those few invisible threads, they caught up with the scouts heading south in an instant.

The sky and earth were upside down, and the view suddenly shifted.

He has become that sparrow flying at the very front.

The wind howled, and the mountains and rivers beneath the feathers receded rapidly.

Houses are like ants, fields are like paintings, the energy flows like the tide, and heaven and earth are in the palm of one's hand.

Before they had traveled forty li, strange phenomena were already visible ahead.

The treetops swayed without wind, startling the grass and trees. Then, birds took flight and beasts ran about, turning the forest into chaos in an instant.

The next moment, the earth suddenly made a muffled sound, as if it was being lifted up from below, and then with a "crack", the soil in the forest cracked open with a hideous gash.

The crack, which was initially as thin as a hair, quickly expanded into a deep trench tens of feet long, as black as ink.

Black energy surged from the bottom, like breathing.

Immediately afterwards, a deep hum came from underground, like a thousand broken drums beating at the same time, making people's hearts go numb.

A thick, black tide suddenly erupted.

That wasn't smoke or fog; it was countless locusts.

They took flight with a roar like a torrential downpour, a force like a raging storm, layer upon layer, instantly obscuring three-tenths of the sky.

The swarms of insects came in overwhelming numbers, and wherever they passed, the greenery faded at a visible speed, turning yellow and peeling away inch by inch until the bare soil was revealed.

Leaves, grass, shrubs... anything with even a shred of life was devoured in an instant.

An old tree that took two people to encircle was bitten down to its bare skeleton after only a few breaths, standing shivering in the wind.

Jiang Yi used the eyes of the sparrow to gaze into the distance.

Even though I had been on guard for the past few months, I couldn't help but feel a tightness in my chest.

The surging black tide possessed a power reminiscent of a natural disaster.

He clicked his tongue in amazement.

This scale, this density.

Let alone fighting, even if you just let it stand still and let yourself kill wave after wave, you'd probably die of exhaustion halfway through.

What's even more chilling are the strange creatures in that sea of ​​insects.

Some were as big as calves, with carapaces that gleamed with an iron-blue light. With just a slight bow of their heads, they could smash a tree that could be embraced by two people into dust.
Some spewed yellow sand, and the wind rose with it, carrying millions of mortal insects like waves crashing on the shore. Wherever they passed, even the ground was torn away by three inches.

Jiang Yi watched quietly, his mind racing, secretly making his own assessment.

These strange creatures are not particularly difficult to deal with in a one-on-one fight.

However, they come in swarms, with millions of ordinary insects acting as lookouts behind them, making them impossible to guard against.

A long sigh escaped my lips.

With his current strength, it wouldn't be difficult for him to simply leave after dusting himself off, if he only cared about his wife, children, and elderly parents.

However, preserving the foundation of these two villages is not so easy.

Jiang Yi's divine thought resided in the body of a bird, hidden very deeply.

However, among the swarm of insects, there seem to be some outliers who are skilled in this art.

The thought had barely formed when a thin line suddenly emerged from the dark sea of ​​insects.

It was so fast that it was almost invisible, leaving only a fleeting afterimage in the eyes.

It was a black locust, of ordinary size, except for its compound eyes, which were red like two drops of blood.

The next instant, before the sparrow could even utter a mournful cry, it was heard to "poof" in mid-air and turned into a cloud of blood mist.

Under the peach tree in the backyard, Jiang Yi's vision suddenly darkened.

The wisp of divine thought attached to the sparrow was crushed by a cold and violent aura.

He frowned slightly, swayed gently, and then regained his balance.

The remaining three doves, startled and their hearts pounding, tried to flap their wings and flee.

With a thought, Jiang Yi forcefully suppressed them, allowing them to rise slightly and hang far behind, no longer daring to approach.

Through those three pairs of frightened bird eyes, they saw that the black tide had already swept over the mountains and forests, rolling outwards into the surrounding fields.

The swarm of insects moved close to the ground, as if being ground by an invisible millstone.

Wherever it passed, grass and trees turned to dust, living things turned to ash, and even the moisture in the ground was sucked away, leaving only the desolate yellow sand and gravel.

At first, Jiang Yi thought that these beasts were just acting on instinct.

But after looking at it for a while, I gradually felt a chill in my heart.

The locusts on the ground were indeed chaotic, like boiling porridge churning, without any order.

But when he probed deeper with his divine sense, he sensed movement underground.

Those more powerful auras were not acting blindly.

They slowly wriggle along some predetermined pattern, as if guided by will or direction.

Those veins were clearly the earth's energy within this hundred-mile radius.

Whenever that dark aura swept by, the inherent spiritual energy within the earth's veins would melt away in an instant, like snow meeting the blazing sun, leaving no trace.

Jiang Yi's heart sank.
These insects are not only gnawing at plants...

They are actually devouring the very essence of this world!

Thinking of this, Jiang Yi felt a sudden chill.

Within this area of ​​several hundred miles, the most abundant spiritual energy, besides the back mountain, is this corner of my own courtyard.

Nourished by the spring's energy for many years, its spiritual essence has long since dissipated, like a lamp in the darkness, impossible to conceal.

as predicted.

The previously scattered and disorderly swarm of insects underground suddenly seemed to be drawn together by some invisible force, and its momentum gradually tightened.

Under the influence of spiritual awareness, millions of subtle energies converged in one direction.

That direction led directly to Liangjie Village.

The balance of power between the enemy and ourselves is now clear.

Jiang Yi turned his gaze to the back of the courtyard, without saying a word, only letting his mind sink.

In an instant, the backyard, which had been filled with the sounds of roosters crowing and dogs barking, fell silent.

A chilling aura seeped out quietly from the depths of the mountains and forests.

The roosters that had been strolling freely now all crouched low, their feathers slightly spread, and short, sharp clucking sounds rose and fell, carrying a hint of menacing rhythm. The swarm of insects was moving faster than expected.

The light dimmed slightly, and then a fine buzzing sound came from afar, like a thousand needles pricking the heart.

In less than an hour, the dark shadow on the horizon had already approached within several miles.

In the woods and fields south of the village, locusts can already be seen in twos and threes, some resting and some leaping, like scouts exploring the way.

Looking further into the distance, the dark clouds loomed overhead, rolling like ink, carrying a faint, trembling sound, so dense that there was almost no gap to penetrate.

The sound seemed tangible, grinding against one's mind inch by inch, causing the heavens and earth to tremble slightly.

Jiang Yi stood at the entrance to the back mountain and simply let out a soft breath.

The order was given, and then everything was done without a sound.

Suddenly, the woods in the backyard stirred, and three figures emerged from the leaves with lightning speed, without even making a sound.

Golden Feather, Red Feather, and Green Feather—three legendary rooster ancestors.

Gold is as sharp as a knife, red is as fierce as fire, and blue is as still as a pine tree.

The three birds all had cold eyes, their feathers shimmering, and their claws like cold iron.

Each of them then led more than ten of their own kind of chickens, their plumage bright and their spirits full, standing proudly like generals in formation.

Further back were the miscellaneous cultivators, dozens of them. Although their postures were somewhat disordered, each of them had a resolute expression, as if they also understood that today's battle was either life or death.

This hastily assembled "chicken army" did not utter a single crow.

It was unusually quiet, yet incredibly fast.

In the blink of an eye, they had already split up and dispersed into the village.

The Golden Feather Ancestor guards the main road leading to the outside world at the eastern entrance of the town.
The Crimson Feather Ancestor stood guard over the Southern Ridge, with his back to the wind, staring into the depths of the mountains and forests;

The Azure Feather Ancestor led the remaining followers to stretch across the northern field ridges for several miles.

Only the western entrance, leading to the back mountain, was wide open and completely unguarded, not even a wandering chick was on guard.

It was not Jiang Yi's oversight.

If a swarm of insects could really break in from that side...

Then there's no need to guard it anymore.

Wash the neck clean, and lay it out for execution; that would be a swift and decisive move.

A vague thought even crossed Jiang Yi's mind.

If the swarm of insects were truly intelligent and arrogant, seeing this formation with three sides sealed off and only one entrance left, wouldn't they think they were clever and attack from the "weakest" west side?
If that's really the case, then it would truly be... a time of great fortune for the world.

But the way of Heaven is simply not to go along with human wishes.

As the dark cloud reached the edge of the village, it spread out slowly, like ink splashed onto paper.

Instead of attacking one side directly, it swept in from three sides, densely covering Liangjie Village.

The wind rises, the sky darkens, and the chirping of insects is like a tidal wave, as if the world itself has been swallowed up by darkness.

The buzzing sound had become less like a sound and more like a real, oppressive force, pressing down from the sky to people's hearts, making their chests feel like they were about to burst.

Just then, a loud cry suddenly came from the east of the village.

That's Ancestor Golden Feather.

Head held high, neck craned.

"Oh!!!"

A sharp whistle pierced the air.

That resounding crash, like the clash of metal, carried an innate power that surged from the depths of his bloodline.

After the first cry, a hundred more followed.

From both the north and south, the Crimson Feather and Azure Feather tribes responded simultaneously.
Then more than a hundred birds of various kinds sang in unison.

In the blink of an eye, the entire Liangjie Village was enveloped by the layers upon layers of rooster crows.

Clear, powerful, and earth-shaking.

Its momentum, like spring thunder breaking through the ice, actually suppressed the surging eerie flames of the insect swarm by a significant portion.

The power of their natural enemy is no exaggeration.

The black wave suddenly stopped.

The locusts at the forefront suddenly felt a chill run down their spines, and an instinctive fear rose from their very bones.

The former wanted to retreat, while the latter still charged forward; one retreated and the other pushed, and chaos ensued.

Countless wings clashed, rustling like rain.

Several strange demonic insects huddled among them, their bodies covered in iron shells that gleamed with a cold light, yet they were restless and their compound eyes flashed with surprise and doubt.

But that chaos lasted only a moment.

Deep within the swarm of insects, an invisible ripple suddenly spread outwards.

An unseen will resonates within it.

Though still shaken, the locusts raised their heads again, their ferocity rekindled, and, despite their deep-seated fear, swarmed forward once more.

The buzzing resumed, sharp and piercing, with a hint of madness in it.

It was as if even that fear had been forced into becoming an obsession.

This scene naturally caught Jiang Yi's eye.

He frowned slightly.

Chickens are enemies of insects; this has been true since ancient times.

The cry of the spirit birds just now shook the mountains and rivers, and even the demonic insects among them began to retreat.

But now, they are able to withstand the fear etched into their blood and charge forward again.

Jiang Yi's thoughts shifted slightly, and he felt a chill run down his spine.

It was as if an invisible hand was pushing them hard from behind.

It was as if some deeper, stranger will had given these locusts, a death sentence they had no choice but to obey.

Before Jiang Yi could even begin to think, the Kuroshio had already crashed into the reef.

There was no roar, only a series of fine, rapid "plop" sounds, so dense they were almost continuous.

The moment the black swarm of insects came into contact with the five-colored spirit bird, blood splattered everywhere.

The pheasant is ultimately its natural enemy.

Every peck and scratch carries deadly intent.

Ordinary insects are as light as grass ash when they encounter it.

The direct descendants of those three clans were especially affected.

Golden feathers, as sharp as iron, sliced ​​a demonic insect in two in the blink of an eye.
With crimson feathers like fire, claws and beaks came down together, flames surged, and three or four demonic insects were entangled into a ball;
As for Qingyu, its figure appeared and disappeared intermittently, targeting compound eyes and limbs with deadly accuracy before gracefully departing.

However, such battles are not just about skill.

The swarm of insects was endless, rising and falling like ocean waves.

One wave breaks, and ten more rise.

A nimble rooster might be able to kill ten mortal insects in a single breath, but in the blink of an eye, hundreds of insects will swarm onto its wings.

Sharp teeth gnawed and tore, blood and flesh flying everywhere.

Their fearlessness in the face of death is what makes these beasts so terrifying.

Finally, a mixed-feathered spirit chicken, after pecking out the compound eye of a demonic locust, slowed down slightly.

In that instant, it was attacked by seven or eight demonic locusts and countless mortal insects.

The shadowy figure merged and separated, leaving only a pool of blood and mud on the ground, along with a few scattered feathers.

Amidst the fierce shouts of battle, dozens of figures suddenly sprang out from under the eaves and corners of houses in the village.

The group of young and strong men from the ancient and modern gang.

They formed groups of three or five, standing in formation, their movements surprisingly methodical.

Long weapons were in front, short weapons were behind; the former thrust and smashed, while the latter were used to fill gaps and make up for any remaining gaps.

Even more astute and quick-witted ones would draw their bows and arrows, seeking out the largest and most monstrous insects in the swarm, their arrows piercing the wind with each swift, accurate strike.

Human figures darted about, and roosters crowed loudly, effectively suppressing the swarm of insects that had been attacking from three sides outside the village.

However, neither humans nor chickens could laugh at the current situation.

The black tide continued to roll on, stretching as far as the eye could see, seemingly endless.

What is killed is merely a ripple.

People get tired, and chickens get weary.

The insect swarms were almost continuous.

You can hold on like this for a while, but not forever.

There will come a moment when the overwhelming sea of ​​insects will gradually wear away their life force and drown them in silence.

(End of this chapter)