Crossing the true dragon realm, and you call me Little Locke?

"Imagine a colony of ants the size of a horse, but the ants are wearing armor."

"All sorts of nesting creatures contribute their roles to nature: bees pollinate flowers, termites use wood to make soil."

"And the ground beetle? They only bring slaughter and destruction to society." — Duncan

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To see these notorious pests appear in one's territory.

Shuoyang's eyes darkened, and his colorful beard fluttered.

These monsters, which resemble hybrids of ants and aliens, are not particularly strong individually, but their reproductive and swarming abilities are extremely absurd.

Like army ants, they rely on their massive numbers to follow heat sources and devour all living things with high heat along the way.

The only way to stop these things is to kill them.

They use the smell of the corpses of their own kind as a warning of danger zones, thus avoiding locations where many of their kind have died.

Therefore, if enough are killed, they will instinctively fear this area.

However, the most troublesome problem with their appearance is not actually the underground passages they represent, but the underground passages they represent.

These monsters are the tunnel diggers between the Underdark and the surface world.

Although they live in dark areas, they dig sturdy enough tunnels that can be used for a long time to hunt on the surface.

Other inhabitants and monsters in the Underdark also take advantage of this characteristic.

By tracking and driving them away, and seizing the tunnels they have dug, they can kill and plunder on the surface world.

Therefore, the appearance of the earth thorn beetle means that they have at least dug a passage from the Dark Region to the Muyun Mountains.

Therefore, Shuoyang dared not be negligent, after all, the long ears on the ground were already troublesome enough.

Not to mention their even more disgusting underground relatives.

He launched a dive, his dragon might crashing down like a heavy hammer.

Apart from the sprite, the Woodworm, which was born from his magical radiation, all the other Spiny Worms were overwhelmed and crushed.

Then Shuoyang descended with a hurricane, directly spewing dragon breath to burn three ground spike insects to death, and swatting one ground spike insect to death with his claws.

After leaving only a relatively small ground thorn beetle, he put away his Dragon Might.

The young ground beetle was also frightened and fled in panic.

Upon seeing this, the woodworm perked up.

It immediately breathed fire from its nose, intending to launch a pursuit and burn the ground thorn beetle to death.

However, the flames it spewed out were blocked by Shuoyang raising its tail.

"Don't worry," Shuoyang reassured the woodworm.

Because it was conceived through its own magical radiation, this woodworm is just like the other spirits in the mountains.

She was very close to him and almost always listened to his every word.

So Shuoyang took a Poké Ball from under the scales, first capturing the little fire/grass type creature, and then completing the mission.

He then leaped after the ground worm.

With the dragon's extraordinary eyesight, he followed the ground worm from a distance, hanging behind it.

Before long, the ground beetle escaped into a cave.

Fearing he would lose them, Shuoyang sped up to catch up, looking at the deep cave that was only two or three meters high.

He stopped at the cave entrance, hesitating for a brief moment.

In the end, he gritted his teeth, transformed into a two-meter-long giant lizard, and followed them inside.

Although he lost the extraordinary senses of dragons due to the change in his form.

But the monitor lizard that has transformed also possesses dark vision and an extremely sensitive sense of smell.

So he followed the scent, descending through the intricate network of caves.

After chasing it for quite a while, winding and turning, they finally caught up with the fleeing young ground thorn beetle.

It had already found its own kind, a group of over a hundred adult ground beetles.

These adult ground beetles all gathered in a large underground cavity.

They are digging outwards to create tunnels, and have already dug more than ten tunnels.

The young ground beetle carefully avoided the other adult ground beetles and hurriedly ran to an adult ground beetle that was more than three meters tall.

It hissed and occasionally smacked the ground with its sharp, pointed feet.

Like the winter wolves, these monsters also possess a certain level of intelligence; they even have their own language.

To Shuoyang, it sounded like a series of noisy hissing sounds.

However, communication between those ground thorn insects went very smoothly.

"Hiss~ Hiss!?" (You said there was a dragon.)

Upon hearing the young ground worm's report, the lord of the ground worm's nest changed color drastically.

It tapped the rock formations somewhat impatiently, hissing, hissing? (How big is it?)

"Hiss~, hiss hiss hiss!" (Very loud)

The young man, a thorn beetle, gestured.

It tapped a thumb-sized pebble on the ground, pointed at the lord of the ground spike insect's nest, and hissed. (You)

Then he pointed to a millstone-sized rock nearby, "Hiss~ Hiss!" (Dragon)

Upon seeing this proportion, the Spikeweed Lord was stunned.

It is smarter than other ground beetles, so it is well aware of the difference in size and the resulting difference in strength.

But looking at the already dug tunnel, it felt somewhat unwilling.

After all, it took them more than two months to dig this tunnel.

During this time, they got lost countless times, and there were more than twenty interconnected underground caverns alone.

They have now eaten all the living creatures in those underground cavities.

Returning to the original route and opening up a new passage to other places is almost impossible.

If they cannot forage on the surface, they will be trapped here and starve to death.

Therefore, the Spikeweed Lord was caught in a dilemma and didn't know what to do.

As for Shuoyang, after observing the underground cavity, he was also in a bit of a dilemma.

The reason is simple: the underground cave is not big enough.

If he were to reveal his true form here and fight the swarm of earth spike insects, he would most likely be buried alive in the mud.

But if he doesn't reveal his true form, he can't defeat his opponent.

After all, those were hundreds of thorn beetles, not hundreds of goblins.

Even if he were to become a dragonborn capable of breathing fire, he would still be torn to shreds by these things.

Therefore, after hesitating for a moment, he finally decided to play it safe.

I'm going back to accept the mission reward first.

Then, through the mother's connections, they might be able to hire a bronze dragon to help.

This metal dragon is a master at digging, and it also possesses spells like stone walking and stone shaping. It also has a particular fondness for eating insects and poisonous creatures.

They can be described as professional dragon warriors who clear out these ground spike insects and seal up underground passages.

Having made up his mind, Shuoyang began to stealthily and cautiously turn back.

After walking around in circles for a while, he looked at the three-way intersection in front of him.

He suddenly felt a little confused. "Which way did I just come from?"

It turns out that because they had been chasing too fast and were in a transformed state, they didn't have the super strong ability to recognize and remember routes that a true dragon possesses.

So after making several turns, Shuoyang got lost.

He was dumbfounded when he saw that the passageways in front of him were all narrow.

Although the giant lizard that Shuoyang transformed into had a keen sense of smell and extraordinary perception, it was only in pursuit.

Because of his attack, the ground worms are too scared to come out.

Without them to guide him, who would he be following now?