Martial arts have become extinct worldwide, yet I am forced to have a large family.

Chapter 396 Yang Lingling!

"no."

Yang Xian answered crisply and decisively, without the slightest hesitation.

"Why?" Guo Jingyi asked, sounding very puzzled.

"You saved me twice, and I don't even know what my savior looks like? That's just too much!"

"Sister Yang! Can I just take a look?"

"Just one glance!"

Guo Jingyi's voice carried a hint of pleading.

But no matter how much she begged, Yang Xian would never show it to her.

"No means no."

"But……"

"If you ask again, I'll kick you out!"

Guo Jingyi immediately shut up.

It wasn't that Yang Xian was heartless; it was simply that his appearance was unsuitable for display.

For the sake of both of them, they decided not to meet.

"Never mind, let's talk about it another time..."

Guo Jingyi's voice trailed off, and one could hear the disappointment in her voice.

The room fell silent.

Only the jamming device emitted a faint blue light and a faint buzzing sound.

Just then...

A soft, rustling sound came from the cracks in the earthen wall.

"Ding-dong..."

Something's not right!

Guo Jingyi reacted extremely quickly.

The orange mech's left arm instantly rose, the energy of its hand cannon already gathering, the muzzle pointing directly in the direction from which the sound came.

"It looks like something has come in!"

Just then, a palm-sized, pitch-black iron worm crawled out from a crack in the corner of the wall.

Iron-eating worm!

"Don't be nervous, it's not an enemy."

Yang Xian stopped the other person, his voice calm.

Not an enemy?

How could the iron-eating worm not be an enemy?

Guo Jingyi was stunned.

The next second, she saw the white mecha beckon to the iron-devouring worm.

"Lingling, come here."

Upon hearing the sound, the Iron-Eating Insect pounced directly onto the shoulder of the white mecha.

It rubbed against Yang Xian's mecha, making a series of cheerful "didi" sounds.

"Ling...lingling?" Guo Jingyi's hand cannon remained in the aiming position, completely dumbfounded.

"Sister Yang, you even gave the iron-eating worm a name?"

To be precise, it was Yang Xian's mecha core that was controlling the iron-devouring worm.

Since there was no suitable carrier, Yang Xian's mecha core was temporarily stored inside the Iron-Eating Insect to assist in the operation.

Yang Xian named him Yang Lingling.

Yang is his surname, and Ling is a homophone for "zero".

It represents the first truly artificial life form ever created by humankind.

"It really won't bite your mech?"

Guo Jingyi put down her hand cannon and moved closer.

"No, and Lingling is the key to eliminating the Iron-Eating Insects." Yang Xian touched Lingling's carapace with his fingertip.

The little insect immediately rolled over, revealing the pale blue dot on its belly, and its four legs kicked wildly in the air.

"I had Lingling infiltrate the swarm outside and spread a piece of virus code throughout the entire swarm."

"Infected iron-eating worms will treat their own kind as food."

"Let them kill each other?" Guo Jingyi gasped.

"Not only that." Yang Xian held up one finger:

"The virus code also contains a detonation command."

"Once the code has spread to enough individuals, I will send a signal at a specific frequency to attract all the infected bugs to one area, and then detonate them all at once."

The earthen house was silent for several seconds.

Guo Jingyi opened her mouth, her face full of admiration.

"You can do that? That's amazing!"

"The Iron-Eating Insects are something that even the higher-ups in Star City are helpless against."

"The last insect infestation took more than half a year to completely eradicate!"

Virus code, self-destructing...

If it were really that simple, Star City wouldn't be having such a headache over something like this.

Yang Xian is not the one who is truly remarkable.

Lin Ai wrote the virus code and designed the detonation mechanism.

Lin Ai was also the one who repaired Guo Jingyi's mecha.

But there's no need to explain this to others.

The credit belongs to Lin Ai, but it's him who has to stand in the spotlight and endure the hardship.

This is called a reasonable division of labor!

"The spread of the code takes time; the infection rate is only just beginning." Yang Xian snapped out of his thoughts and put Yang Lingling back on his shoulder.

"After a few days, when the infection rate reaches over 90%, I will go out and attract the remaining swarm of insects."

"Take them all in one go!"

Guo Jingyi's eyes lit up: "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Yang Xian glanced at her.

"Staying here and not wandering around is the biggest help you can give!"

------

Two days later.

Star City, Star Research Institute.

Liu Qin sat in her office.

On the communicator screen, a middle-aged man's face was staring at her with a stern expression.

"Chief Liu, I advised you before not to take Yang Xian out of the city."

The man's voice was clearly filled with dissatisfaction.

"You sent a student at the late stage of the third realm to carry out a mission deep in the rift, and now look what's happened, iron-devouring worms have appeared in that rift."

"How am I supposed to explain this to my superiors?"

"That was just a small crack, how could iron-eating worms suddenly appear?" Liu Qin's lips pursed into a straight line.

"Whether it's possible or not, the facts are right in front of us." The man's expression grew even uglier:

"The ten guards sent in by the Guo family have been withdrawn. They have personally confirmed the existence of the Iron-Eating Worms."

"The entrance to that rift is now completely sealed off; not a single insect will be allowed to escape."

Liu Qin believed that with Yang Xian's strength, ordinary third-realm demons posed no threat to him at all.

But the iron-eating worm is different.

That thing is unreasonable. No matter if you are in the third or fifth realm, as long as you are wearing a mecha, you are its food.

If Yang Xian really is...

She dared not think any further.

"Any news about Yang Xian?"

"Not yet." The man shook his head. "The rescue team has been sent in, but the upper limit of that rift is the third realm, and high-level martial artists can't get in at all."

"We need to find someone in the territory of the Iron-Eating Insects..."

He didn't finish his sentence, but the meaning was already quite clear.

The chances are very slim.

Liu Qin's hands were trembling under the table.

"I'll go over there."

"What use were you in the past?" The man frowned. "The upper limit of that rift is the third realm. You, a seventh-realm Martial Emperor, couldn't even step into the entrance."

"I want to go too!"

------

At Star Academy.

"I'm so bored."

"When will Yang Xian be back...?"

Liu Ruyu slumped on the bench, her legs propped up on the armrests, her posture extremely relaxed.

Even though it was class time, the girl couldn't stand being in the classroom for even a second without Yang Xian being there.

She never liked going to class, and she was rarely seen during class, so the teachers were used to it.

Otherwise, on Yang Xian's first day of class, the seat he saw wouldn't have been Lin Ai's, but hers.

"hateful!"

"Ever since the incident of climbing over the wall caused such a stir, those old guys at the academy have upgraded the entire defense system, making it impossible to escape."

Liu Ruyu turned over and stared in the direction of the garden wall.

Two days ago, she walked around the college wall three times, and all the previous loopholes were fixed.

There wasn't even a crack to crawl into.

Just as I was getting annoyed, I heard footsteps coming from the side.

"Little sister, what a coincidence!"

"We meet again."

Her long red hair was particularly eye-catching in the sunlight.

Wei Qianmei was standing next to the bench at some point.

Liu Ruyu lifted the brim of her hat and glanced at her, then immediately put it down.

"What are you doing here? Yang Xian hasn't come back yet."

"Of course I know he's not back." Wei Qianmei glanced at the empty seat next to her on the bench. "Would you mind if I sat next to you?"

"mind!"