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墨書 Inktalez
"This is the Earth Dragon Formation!" Zhengyang said slowly after a moment of thought.
"Damn! This is ruthless! Not only do they want us dead, but they want us completely dead... No wonder I've been seeing dark energy rising from the Dread Palace lately!" Big Mouth Lee's forehead was covered in cold sweat.
The Book of Changes states: "Clouds follow the dragon, winds follow the tiger!" This means that living beings carry a certain essence. For example, otters always arrange their catches neatly and offer them in worship, which is known as the Otter Festival. On nights of the full moon, weasels worship the moon to absorb its essence, referred to as Yellow Weasel Worships the Moon. Additionally, when snakes are about to eat, they stand upright to measure their height against their prey; if they surpass it, they strike without hesitation, known as Lengthy Worm Measuring Its Height. The Earth Dragon Formation operates on a similar principle.
The Earth Dragon, having lived underground for so long, is guided entirely by the balance of yin and yang. To put it plainly, a person is like a magnet; the Earth Dragon can sense the radiation of this magnet and estimate its size. If it can encircle its target with its body, it will strike without hesitation. If the target exceeds its size, the Earth Dragon will flee... Once it manages to surround someone, no matter how many people there are, they will be drained of blood and die!
"How could they target me? There are several living people over there; why me?" I cursed inwardly. However, when its head finally came into view, I could see two glowing green eyes. Those weren't eyes at all; they were merely two glowing patches... This was absurd; how could such markings intimidate anyone? It turned out that the Earth Dragon was indeed blind!
The Earth Dragon drew three circles, seemingly gauging my size. Sure enough, I felt it coil around me—cold and slippery with a pungent earthy smell—but it didn't bite down. Although earthworms lack teeth, they possess highly developed mouths that suck in food using surrounding muscles and have lips to aid in feeding. What was its plan as it coiled around my legs?
Before long, it reached my abdomen. "What the hell? Is it going to eviscerate me? No way! If this continues, I'll end up as a ghost with my belly cut open." Cold sweat poured down my back as I thought to myself, "Damn it! Every time it's me who gets targeted; this time I might really be done for!"
In any case, death can be heavy as a mountain or light as a feather. Dying like this would make me lighter than a feather; I'd become the first person in history to die at the hands of an earthworm—how ridiculous! I decided to act instantly and stab at the Earth Dragon; if worse came to worst, I'd take it down with me! Just as its bristles pierced my abdomen, I felt an initial itch followed by waves of swelling pain that I could barely endure!
"Alright! We can take it down now!"
The itch and pain were unbearable—worse than fire ants biting me. Just as I was about to explode with rage, Zhengyang suddenly spoke up. If it weren't for Zhengyang being so impressive, I wouldn't have waited this long. As the saying goes: if you don't kill the snake outright, you invite trouble upon yourself. Either land a fatal blow or die an untimely death!
At that critical moment, I suddenly sat up straight. The creature clearly sensed this and recoiled slightly. It must have thought: "I eat people but have never encountered someone so bold!" The Earth Dragon actually pulled its bristles out of me; I yelped in pain. It stood upright and grinned menacingly.
But what caught my attention was its abdomen. While earthworms have many hearts, if their body is severed, they cannot reattach. That mass of flesh was still within our control! Seizing this opportunity, if I could slice through its body... Haha! I was so clever...
Seeing its posture made me realize that if I didn't act now, I'd be wasting a golden opportunity! So I steeled myself and summoned all my strength for a furious shout. Drawing my dagger from my boot with a flash of light, I aimed for the Earth Dragon's waist.
"Damn! This thing is huge!" The blade sank deep into its body and disappeared entirely within its form; however, it felt like my knife had sunk into quicksand—I couldn't pull it out!
In an instant, the Earth Dragon thrashed violently, coiling around me again and striking at my head with its cold and soft body. I felt dizzy from the impact but still clung tightly to that dagger without letting go. Perhaps this stubbornness moved heaven itself.
A surge of heat welled up from my Dantian, gathering at the Baihui Acupoint, a warm current spreading throughout my body in an instant. A powerful force surged through me once more, that familiar sensation returning. It was the same power I had felt when I defeated the Sand Hammer. Ha! Earth Dragon, you are finished...
"What a strong Killing Intent!" Big Mouth Lee exclaimed, his eyes wide as he crossed his arms and stood aside to watch. Damn it, he acted like he was an outsider.
That was a side note; at that moment, I had no idea that my Spirit Yang Body had such an effect! If I had known earlier, would I still have waited to unleash my Killing Intent?
Then a wave of dark energy surged into my head, and my vision blurred as I seemed to lose consciousness. I raised my dagger and struck at the Earth Dragon. With each slash, wounds opened up, dark green blood splattering everywhere in clumps. The cold blood drenched my head and face!
"Damn! When you go wild, it's terrifying..." Big Mouth Lee gasped. Instinctively, I continued to hack away with another seventy or eighty strikes until my body convulsed from exhaustion and I finally stopped. "This Earth Dragon must have lived for at least two or three hundred years; encountering such a fierce opponent is just bad luck for you!" Big Mouth Lee mocked as he bowed three times to the Earth Dragon.
Coming back to my senses, I finally saw the Earth Dragon clearly. It had been chopped into hundreds of pieces, its severed limbs writhing as if they were countless chunks of flesh—utterly disgusting. The flesh floated in dark green liquid like swarming maggots. I retched and quickly left that cursed place!
...
To our surprise, after we had moved a few steps away, we heard a sound like a swarm of bombers approaching. Turning around, we were horrified to see the ground covered with palm-sized Dung Beetles feasting on the Earth Dragon's remains; within mere seconds, there was nothing left... Where did these creatures come from?
Dung Beetles are commonly known as Dung Beetles in nature and usually grow no larger than a thumb. Yet this group of Dung Beetles was palm-sized. Desert Dung Beetles have exceptional survival abilities and can even be used to make gunpowder.
According to "Notes from the Grass Hut," when General Agui led troops to pacify Ili and hunt down bandits, he captured a Mahachin in the mountains. When asked how he survived, the man said he lived by hunting. Agui was suspicious; having been surrounded for so long, where did he get gunpowder? The man calmly replied, "I dry out Dung Beetles under the sun and mix them with deer blood; it can be used as a substitute for gunpowder—just slightly weaker than sulfur!" A Mongolian chief also claimed that if you put dried Dung Beetles into a gun barrel, it could shoot twenty steps farther than usual. Ji Xiaolan found this hard to believe.
In fact, this can be explained using the principles of the five elements. The stomach belongs to earth, and dung also belongs to earth. Wood overcomes earth; thus, Dung Beetles belong to wood. Wood represents the Azure Dragon in the east and the White Tiger in the west. Dung Beetles accumulate filth and should belong to Old Yin. However, in the desert, dung is scorched by Yang Qi, losing its yin impurities. Additionally, Dung Beetles have deep-set eyes and high noses resembling Qiang Hu warriors; their black shells give them a warrior-like appearance, hence their title as generals among Dung Beetles. Therefore, they become weak Yang; deer blood is pure Yang and too aggressive; when mixed with powdered Dung Beetles, they harmonize yin and yang similarly to gunpowder.
Among the large Dung Beetles were over a hundred palm-sized ones mixed with several that were as large as washbasins...
When I saw this, my mind buzzed—I could hardly believe my eyes! Doubtful at first, I looked closer and was immediately soul-shattered; those were indeed Dung Beetle Kings!
My legs went weak as I stumbled back a few steps. Then I saw two, three, four more shiny black Dung Beetles emerging from underground. Led by one Dung Beetle King, they seemed ready to charge at me.
Zhengyang, Big Mouth Lee, Bald Qiang, and Dong Tong all hurriedly retreated. Uncorrupted Bones also shrank back, trembling in fear. It was alarming that it was afraid of these insects; this was not a good sign. Suddenly, several palm-sized Dung Beetles took to the air, seemingly acting as a reconnaissance team, probing towards us.
We grabbed whatever weapons we had and swung at the Dung Beetles with all our might. But they were just insects; a single strike from our wooden sticks crushed them! Cold sweat drenched my back; something felt very wrong here. Had we stumbled into the Dung Beetles' nest?
"Run!" Dong Tong shouted sharply, her eyes sharper than those of ordinary people. She had already noticed that the ground was bubbling as if boiling. Countless black Dung Beetles, about the size of ants, surged forth like a tidal wave breaching a dam… Soon after, more emerged—Dung Beetles the size of fingernails, erasers, plastic cups, beer bottles, fists, bowls, large plates, basin-sized ones, and even those as big as washbasins.
"What the hell are you waiting for? Run!" Big Mouth Lee yelled at me when he saw I was still frozen in place. He turned and grabbed my arm, pulling me into a frantic sprint. I glanced back at Dong Tong and the others; they had already reached the front while a buzzing sound filled the air behind us, like an army of air and ground forces advancing together…
Suddenly, a Dung Beetle King flew past my forehead and collided painfully with me before landing on Dong Tong's back. Thankfully, her clothes were sturdy. As she reached to flick it off, I shouted, "Don't! That thing is poisonous!" She quickly withdrew her hand in fright. I saw that the Dung Beetle was about the size of a basin and immediately pulled out my dagger to dislodge it.
Bald Qiang unexpectedly drew his gun and began shooting at it; it worked effectively. He cleared a path through a swarm of Dung Beetles, leaving their bodies scattered across the ground. The remaining Dung Beetles crawled over their fallen comrades without hesitation, continuing their advance.
The creatures weren't moving very fast, but we dared not slacken our pace. In an instant of distraction, several Dung Beetles climbed onto us. I swatted them away with my stick while many others were crushed under our advancing feet! A drop of their fluid splattered onto my exposed skin like fire burning me; soon red spots appeared. I couldn't care less about the pain as I dashed deeper into the cave…
The buzzing sound grew closer behind us; we knew these Dung Beetles would not let us escape easily. They swarmed towards us like a cloud of black smoke.
"Follow me! I know where to find something that can deal with these bugs!" Dong Tong suddenly spoke up…
We frantically followed Dong Tong into an open area resembling a gorge. As soon as we stepped into that space, the swarm of black smoke seemed to go wild, ignoring us entirely as they rushed inward…
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