Battling the Bug King!!

*Splash!!* The instant Li Guanqi broke through the water's surface, he surged his power to its absolute limit. Sword Ruins, sword intent, Dragon Transformation, Demon King Physique!! Gripping swords in both hands, he soared high into the air in barely the span of a breath. With a flick of his sleeve, he swept all of the Soul-Nourishing Nectar into his storage pouch. Seeing this, the creature instantly let out a furious, piercing shriek from its mouthparts!! *Skreee!!* The deafening shriek unleashed a shrill sonic wave rippling outward in all directions with the creature at its center. In an instant, the entire cavern shook violently. Loose boulders cascaded down, plunging into the pool with heavy, echoing splashes. Li Guanqi swayed, the Rakshasa Ghost Mask upon his face threatening to peel away as his aura fluctuated wildly. His sea of consciousness stung sharply as waves of sound battered it from without. His divine sense churned, and the Dao platform within his sea of consciousness showed faint signs of fracturing. His heart tightened. Blood trickling from his nose and mouth, Li Guanqi forced his focus sharp and swung both swords in a rapid backhand counter! "Red Lotus: World's End!" "Eight Desolations: Extinction!!" *Boom! Boom!!* Two terrifying sword rays slashed out in tandem, their dreadful might warping the surrounding space violently. Amid the strain, pitch-black fissures as fine as strands of hair cracked open. The dreadful sword rays flashed and vanished, and the entire mountain began to collapse with a roar!! The sword rays slammed into the pale-golden bug, blasting it backward and embedding it deep into the rock wall. Yet Li Guanqi distinctly heard two violent detonations ring out. Using the recoil of that impact, Li Guanqi pulled back and retreated without hesitation! Transforming into a streak of lightning, he darted toward the cavern's exit. Along the way, falling rocks showered down like rain. Li Guanqi weaved and dodged, shattering obstinate boulders with slashes of his blade. Three breaths later, he burst out of the cave! Though on high alert, no ambush met him. It turned out the earlier swarms of Black Armor Bone-Eroding Bugs had practically emptied the entire valley... And the Soul-Guiding Butterflies had slain many cultivators as well. Were it not for that, the creatures would never have amassed so much power. Covering hundreds of zhang in a single flash, Li Guanqi let out a long breath, delight beaming across his features!! With such a vast amount of Soul-Nourishing Nectar, reviving his master would require at most a single jade bottle's worth. This was nothing short of an absolute windfall!! An astronomical sum beyond imagination!! According to his knowledge, Soul-Nourishing Nectar was a pinnacle immortal treasure that reached the third rank, seventh tier!! If put up for auction, it would likely throw an entire province into turmoil as major factions fought over it. Yet before his joy could linger, a strange whistle of displaced air tore behind him! Li Guanqi swept backward with his mind's eye, only to discover the bug had somehow materialized barely a zhang behind him!!! His eyes widened in sheer disbelief. Behind him, the mountain was collapsing, and deafening roars echoed throughout the valley. *Spatial traversal!!!* Li Guanqi suddenly recalled what Pengluo had told him—the Bug King very likely possessed such an ability!! He could distinctly see the creature's razor-sharp mouthparts and the fury burning in its gaze. Across the bone-patterned jade disk on its back were two deep grooves left by his earlier strikes, though neither wound was fatal. As Li Guanqi glanced back, their gazes locked... The bug unhinged its massive mouthparts and, right before his eyes, tore the space between them apart and swallowed it whole!!! In that very instant, the bug flashed directly before Li Guanqi's face!!! By pure instinct, Li Guanqi leaned backward to dodge. Catching sight of the six pairs of limbs on its belly, he prepared to raise his blade and strike at its underbelly. Yet in the next breath, the creature cunningly flipped its body over, locking eyes with him once more! *Damn it, it's that smart?!* The bug dove straight down at Li Guanqi's head! Its speed was terrifyingly swift. Before he could react, the creature slammed directly into the space between his brows!! *Thud!!* The sheer force sent Li Guanqi tumbling through the air in head-over-heels spins, a fierce agony radiating from between his brows. Beneath the mask, the skin split open and blood flowed freely, leaving his head swimming. The bug was stunned as well, its mouthparts chewing on a fingernail-sized fragment of crimson. Li Guanqi's aura destabilized instantly. Steadying his posture, he reached up to touch the mask. He found that a small notch had been bitten right out of it!! A sharp sting pricked his face as the threadlike tendrils of the Rakshasa Ghost Mask dug deeper, drawing upon a bit of his essence blood to restore the gap... Li Guanqi cursed inwardly. The bug was bizarre, but the mask upon his face was equally bizarre! With no time to ponder, he sensed the oncoming rush of the creature's aura and slashed out twice with a backhand strike!! *Clang! Clang!!!* Sparks scattered in all directions. The bug was knocked back by the two strikes. Li Guanqi glanced down at Red Lotus and Xue Ming, breathing a sigh of relief upon seeing they were unharmed. Yet he understood that given Red Lotus's current durability, it could easily be gnawed by the creature. On second thought, he sheathed the Xue Ming Sword! Gripping Red Lotus tightly with his left hand, the tip of the blade flared with a brilliant crimson radiance!! As the sword spirit's true tip fragment, he had never seen anything it could not cut through!! The next breath, a faint golden blur shot toward him. Anticipating the strike, Li Guanqi sidestepped, his eyes locked onto the bug's trajectory. Dragon scales coated his left arm, his speed pushed to its absolute limit. The tip of Red Lotus thrust straight into the joint of the bug's wings!! *Riiiip!!!* A burst of fire flared, and the bug wobbled, plunging more than a dozen zhang!! A pair of translucent, pale-golden wings sheared off and tumbled down. With a flick of his wrist, Li Guanqi swept the wings into his grasp. A piercing shriek rang out! Not far away, the bug glared furiously at Li Guanqi as the space within a zhang around it was twisted into a swirling, pitch-black vortex of fissures!!! Li Guanqi swallowed hard. Only True Immortal realm cultivators were capable of tearing space even slightly. The strength of this bug could not be underestimated. The longer it remained awake, the stronger it would become! Those earlier Black Armor Bone-Eroding Bugs had likely all been spawned by it. Yet he could not retreat now. To run... was death! Exhaling a breath of turbid air, his blood roaring within his veins, Li Guanqi pushed his focus to its absolute peak, bracing himself to face the beast. *Skreeee!!!!* A shrill screech tore through the air, and Li Guanqi instantly shut off his five senses! The moment his divine sense spread outward, the sonic wave shredded it. Immediately after, the bug turned into a streak of golden light, hurtling toward Li Guanqi. Its mouthparts tore a pitch-black spatial rift through the air along its path. Exhaling softly, Li Guanqi channeled his roaring immortal primal energy entirely into the Red Lotus Sword. In its Revelation form, Red Lotus combined with the power of the Sword Ruins, bursting forth with an incomparable sharpness. "Red Lotus: Dao Fall!!"