Douluo Continent: Dragon's Journey Across the World

Chapter 173 The Gold-Eating Insect King

Yang Ping'an was shocked. He never expected to find such a large group of Gold-Eating Insects here.

The Gold-Eating Insect is a very good soul beast, but its numbers are extremely rare, and it generally lives in some special metal mines.

However, the Gold-Eating Insect has a major drawback: it grows very slowly and mainly grows by consuming metal, though it occasionally consumes some soul beasts as well.

Due to this characteristic of gold-eating insects, they generally do not grow to a very high age; many can only grow to a thousand years. Even those that have just entered the ten thousand-year stage are already considered the best among gold-eating insects.

Because they need to devour metal, the Gold-Eating Insects are incredibly powerful, capable of lifting objects several times or even dozens of times their own weight. In terms of sheer power amplification, they even surpass the Thousand-Pound Ant.

Moreover, the gold-eating beetle has wings, allowing it to fly briefly, and its mouthparts are extremely sharp, capable of biting through metal, and it can even release a kind of mucus to soften the metal.

From any perspective, the Gold-Eating Insect is a top-grade metal-attribute soul beast and a strength-attribute soul beast, but it is extremely difficult for advanced soul masters to find a Gold-Eating Insect that is more than 10,000 years old.

The sight of this large swarm of Gold-Eating Insects caught Yang Ping'an's eye. Now that they had discovered Gold-Eating Insects that were ten thousand years old, it was clear that there were definitely Gold-Eating Insects of even greater age in the deepest part of this dark compartment, perhaps even a Gold-Eating Insect King.

In particular, although the Gold-Eating Insect is an insect-type soul beast, it is also a flying-type soul beast, which is one of Yang Ping'an's goals.

After all, given the configuration of Shrek's Golden Iron Triangle, the four-eyed owl Flander is indispensable, and the key point is that he provides Luo Sanpao with wings and the ability to fly.

Metal-attribute flying soul beasts are extremely rare, which is one of Yang Ping'an's biggest goals.

After the large number of gold-devouring insects left, Li Gui led Yang Ping'an to continue diving deeper.

After several more waves of gold-devouring insects, the scene before them left Yang Ping'an and Li Gui dumbfounded.

Normally, gold-eating insects are relatively small. A ten-year-old gold-eating insect is only about three inches long, a hundred-year-old gold-eating insect is only six inches long, and it takes a thousand years to reach one foot, or even ten thousand years to reach about two feet.

But this place is actually a huge nest, or even a huge metal mine.

In the very center is a giant gold-devouring worm, measuring a full 1.1 meters in length. It is estimated to be about 33,000 years old, and its entire body is golden. It also has eight short little arms, but its whole body is golden, somewhat similar to the Golden Crocodile King of the past.

Unlike ordinary gold-devouring insects, which only have a pair of wings, this gold-devouring insect actually has six wings on its back. Moreover, the wings have changed from ordinary silver-gray to gold, and the six wings appear extremely powerful, even ethereal, somewhat resembling Tang San's Sea God Eight Wings and Bibi Dong's Six-Winged Purple Light Wings in the original work.

Yang Ping'an and Li Gui exchanged a glance, then quietly transformed into ghostly figures and left the place.

After the two had moved a certain distance apart, they used their claws to cut out a small hole and began to plan something.

Li Gui hesitated for a moment: "Ping An, this Gold-Devouring Insect King is already 33,000 years old, which far exceeds the limit of the fifth spirit ring, and can even be said to exceed the limit of the sixth spirit ring. Your body probably can't absorb it at all."

"Moreover, this Gold-Eating Insect King is obviously very powerful. In terms of strength alone, it is probably no weaker than some 70,000-year-old soul beasts. In particular, its thick golden armor is probably also very powerful in defense."

Yang Ping'an fell silent for a moment, carefully considering the situation of the Gold-Devouring Insect King.

Normally, apart from the Star Dou Great Forest, it's impossible to find such an old Gold-Eating Insect. This Gold-Eating Insect King has probably mutated, and its combat power is likely even more astonishing.

Moreover, besides this Gold-Devouring Insect King, there were several Gold-Devouring Insects that were nearly ten thousand years old, and even more thousand-year-old Gold-Devouring Insects. Even a powerful expert at the Title Douluo level would not dare to make a move easily.

Especially that Gold-Eating Insect King, it definitely possesses the strength of a Soul Douluo, or even stronger. Moreover, for this kind of flying soul beast, if it fails to make a move once, it will probably escape, and it will be difficult to find a second chance to make a move.

Yang Ping'an thought for a while before speaking: "Uncle Li Gui, if I remember correctly, the Death Spider King especially likes to eat insect-type soul beasts, especially the Gold-Eating Insect. There should be quite a few Death Spider Kings in the core area of ​​the Star Dou Great Forest."

Li Gui nodded: "That's true. Back in the core area of ​​the Star Dou Great Forest, I did see the Death Spider King, and it was over 50,000 years old. However, we are still quite far from the Death Spider King here."

Yang Ping'an shook his head: "No, we were being chased by the Gale Demon Wolves earlier, and we didn't care about the road at that time. We should have been heading towards the core area. I guess we are in the core area now, otherwise there wouldn't be such powerful soul beasts here."

"Moreover, according to my estimation, the Death Spider King is at most a hundred kilometers away from here, or even closer."

Li Gui looked puzzled: "Ping An, according to you, you want to lure the Death Spider King to deal with this Gold-Devouring Insect King. However, I have some doubts about whether the Death Spider King, which is at the 50,000-year level, can defeat this Gold-Devouring Insect King."

Yang Ping'an was also somewhat indifferent: "We don't care about that. No matter who wins, the Death Spider King or the Gold Devouring Insect King, we just want to be the fishermen. It would be best if they were both severely injured, so that we could capture two top-tier soul beasts in one fell swoop."

After careful consideration, Li Gui felt that the plan was indeed feasible. At the very least, they needed to lure a soul beast to deal with the Gold-Eating Insect King first.

After some planning, Yang Ping'an began digging a hole in the ground. This hole couldn't be too small, otherwise the Death Spider King wouldn't be able to enter.

Li Gui, on the other hand, transformed into a ghostly figure and captured more than ten thousand-year-old Gold-Eating Insect Kings.

Two days passed quickly, and the cave was finally dug out. Except for a thin layer of stones at the bottom, the top had been hollowed out, and there was a large hole about four meters in diameter, which was large enough for some top-level soul beasts to enter.

However, when the two arrived on the ground, the life force in the air was indeed much stronger than in the mixed zone, confirming that this was indeed the core area of ​​the Star Dou Great Forest.

Li Gui said with a serious face, "Ping An, this is indeed the outer perimeter of the core area of ​​the Star Dou Great Forest. It is estimated to be only about 150 kilometers away from the Lake of Life. In terms of danger, it far exceeds the mixed zone. Even a Title Douluo could perish here."

Yang Ping'an's face also became extremely serious. The core area of ​​the Star Dou Great Forest was far beyond what a mere Quasi-Soul King like himself could enter. Normally, it would be impossible to wander around inside unless one was at the Soul Saint or even Soul Douluo level.

Next, Yang Ping'an and Li Gui quickly searched the core area and, as expected, found the powerful Death Spider King 60 kilometers away. Of course, they also encountered many soul beasts over 50,000 years old during this time, but these soul beasts were probably not very interested in insect-type soul beasts. Even if they threw a thousand-year-old gold-devouring worm at them, it would not be taken seriously.

However, when the two entered the territory of the Death Spider King, they immediately felt a chill run down their spines. It seemed that the Death Spider King had sensed the aura of the Gold-Eating Insects and therefore harbored great hatred towards Yang Ping'an and Li Gui.

Without a word, Li Gui transformed into a ghostly figure, grabbed Yang Ping'an, and flew away at lightning speed. At the same time, he casually tossed aside a thousand-year-old gold-devouring worm and even fabricated traces of a battle.

The two ran wildly, dropping a gold-devouring worm every few kilometers, and trying to keep their distance from the Death Spider King as much as possible.

When the two arrived at the pit, they placed all the remaining gold-devouring insects into it, and then the two of them disappeared into the dark river as ghostly figures.

With a tremendous roar, the earth trembled noticeably, and even the underground river began to collapse. Clearly, the Death Spider King had entered the cave and crushed the last thin layer of stone.

With a tremor, Li Gui led Yang Ping'an away from the underground river, but remained hidden in the shadows in the distance, just like a shadow.

Just as Yang Ping'an had predicted, after the Death Spider King devoured a large number of Gold-Eating Insects, it finally met the Gold-Eating Insect King.

The moment the two insect kings met, they immediately engaged in a fierce battle, like needles clashing against wheat awns.

In particular, when the Gold-Eating Insect King saw its subjects being devoured, its eyes turned bloodshot, clearly a sign of extreme rage. It immediately summoned countless Gold-Eating Insects to gang up on the Death Spider King, but the Death Spider King was not afraid at all. Instead, it became even more excited in the face of this rare feast.

(End of this chapter)