Chapter 101: Gold-eating Demon Insect
The Desolate Mountain Wolf Pack surrounded the Iron-Eating Armored Lizard and continuously launched attacks.
Desolate Mountain Wolves are also a type of wolf Feral Beast in this mountainous area, with yellowish fur, bright red eyes, and a body shape like a yellow ox.
They opened their bloody maws and bit toward the Iron-Eating Armored Lizard, their terrifying biting force enough to pierce tree roots.
However, such powerful attacks landing on the Iron-Eating Armored Lizard were like hitting a steel plate.
The scales were unscathed, only producing powerless clanging sounds.
The Iron-Eating Armored Lizard shook its body slightly, then steadied itself, and its huge beast claws swatted over.
The Desolate Mountain Wolf that bit toward it was directly swept flying several meters, kicking up a cloud of dust.
The other Desolate Mountain Wolves were not deterred by this attack and quickly pounced forward amid the Wolf King’s roars.
They attacked various parts of the Iron-Eating Armored Lizard from different directions, trying to find weak spots in its scale armor like iron sheets.
But the Iron-Eating Armored Lizard was extremely ferocious, opening its bloody maw full of sharp teeth and biting over.
The Desolate Mountain Wolf couldn’t dodge in time and was directly bitten in two.
The Wolf King, with a body shape like a yellow ox, pounced forward, its sharp teeth gathering Demonic Essence, sharp as if embedded with blades.
This strike was incomparably swift and fierce.
The Iron-Eating Armored Lizard sensed the threat of the attack, shook its head, and charged over.
Under the moonlight, beyond its originally dark green scales, Demonic Essence condensed into a special Demonic Pattern.
The Desolate Mountain Wolf King bit down, actually only forcing the Iron-Eating Armored Lizard back a few steps, but looking at the pattern again, it only trembled slightly without being broken.
The Iron-Eating Armored Lizard seized the opportunity and pounced over, its entire massive body pinning the Desolate Mountain Wolf King beneath it.
The other Desolate Mountain Wolves came to rescue, but the Iron-Eating Armored Lizard remained unmoved.
With the Demonic Pattern’s enhancement, its defense was even stronger, and before its Demonic Essence was exhausted, it wasn’t worried about these Desolate Mountain Wolves’ attacks at all.
Soon, amid the Iron-Eating Armored Lizard’s tearing bites, the Desolate Mountain Wolf King, whose defense was more than one level weaker, was bitten until it was covered in wounds.
Beyond struggling desperately, the Desolate Mountain Wolf King wanted to make one final desperate fight.
Demonic Essence gathered frantically, wanting to bite through the Iron-Eating Armored Lizard’s throat with this.
But the next moment, the Iron-Eating Armored Lizard’s beast claw pressed down on its lower jaw, its bloody maw bit and tore, ripping off half its head.
Crunch crunch
The Iron-Eating Armored Lizard chewed with large bites, the hard skull in its mouth full of dense fine teeth as fragile as a cookie.
The remaining Desolate Mountain Wolves whimpered and didn’t dare stay any longer, scattering in all directions.
The Desolate Mountain Wolf King was only a First-order Perfection Feral Beast, and the remaining Desolate Mountain Wolves were somewhat lacking.
After losing their organization, they naturally couldn’t oppose a monster like the Iron-Eating Armored Lizard.
The Iron-Eating Armored Lizard devoured flesh and blood in large mouthfuls, appearing extremely ferocious under the moonlight’s light and shadow.
“Whoosh”
The Iron-Eating Armored Lizard was preparing to enjoy its spoils, but the next moment, a white figure rushed out fiercely and spat out over a dozen White Bone Poison Centipede Nails.
The Iron-Eating Armored Lizard used its scales to block, producing clanging sounds, but under such a sudden assault, how could it completely defend.
Pfft, a White Bone Poison Centipede Nail sank into its eye socket.
The intense pain made the Iron-Eating Armored Lizard frantically slap the surrounding ground, kicking up large amounts of dust.
It charged out from the dust straight toward the White Bone Poison Centipede and killed over.
Its body was far larger than the White Bone Poison Centipede, and in this frenzied state, it clearly intended to tear the White Bone Poison Centipede apart.
However, the White Bone Poison Centipede was extremely fast and had already opened up distance while maneuvering.
It opened its ferocious mouthparts and directly spat out rolling black mist.
The Iron-Eating Armored Lizard was enveloped by this poisonous mist, caught off guard, feeling its roaring throat and eyes burning with intense pain.
Its body went berserk, trying to sweep the White Bone Poison Centipede with such attacks.
The White Bone Poison Centipede maneuvered, continuously firing White Bone Poison Centipede Nails, striking the Iron-Eating Armored Lizard’s weak spots.
“If it seizes the initiative, the White Bone Poison Centipede is not much inferior to a First-order Perfection Feral Beast. In terms of methods, it can be considered on par.”
Su Yan knew that under the sneak attack, the White Bone Poison Centipede had already secured victory.
But such commotion could easily attract other Feral Beasts and delay things.
Thus, the Red Armored Mad Scorpion and Blood Locust rushed into the battle.
As the black mist just dissipated, the Red Armored Mad Scorpion’s huge Claws smashed directly onto the Iron-Eating Armored Lizard.
The heavy blow made the already poisoned Iron-Eating Armored Lizard crash heavily to the ground.
The Blood Locust pounced down, its sharp tail stinger piercing into its body, and Insect Eggs instantly parasitized.
The Iron-Eating Armored Lizard frantically swung its thick tail, swatting the Blood Locust flying.
The Red Armored Mad Scorpion pounced again, its Claws clamping onto this tail.
Enormous strength erupted, directly snapping the entire tail.
Blood spurted out, dyeing half of the Iron-Eating Armored Lizard’s body red.
The Red Armored Mad Scorpion entangled the Iron-Eating Armored Lizard, relying on its immense strength and defensive power to suppress it dead.
At this time, the Insect Eggs hatched, drilling holes in the Iron-Eating Armored Lizard’s skin and flesh, continuously tearing and biting.
Toxin continuously spread, and under internal and external troubles, the Iron-Eating Armored Lizard finally whimpered and fell, no longer making a sound.
The battle ended, and only then did Su Yan arrive in front of the Iron-Eating Armored Lizard.
Its huge body, seen up close, gave an overwhelming sense of oppression.
“No wonder Spirit Nurturing Realm Martial Artists are unwilling to hunt this kind of Feral Beast.”
Its Copper Skin Iron Bones defense was extremely strong, making it too troublesome to deal with.
One misstep, and you’d get injured; even if the hunt succeeded, the earnings would all go to medical fees.
Not to mention wasting time, some injuries might not be curable by First-order Pills.
Leaving behind ailments would be a huge loss.
After random thoughts, Su Yan released the Jade Beetle perched on his shoulder.
“Eat it.”
The Jade Beetle was only palm-sized, like a jade ornament; even with its mystical nature, truly devouring such prey was still unlikely.
After all, the size difference was dozens or even a hundred times.
However, Su Yan had long discovered that the process of devouring molting material wasn’t physical swallowing, but absorption and conversion.
The Jade Beetle attached to the Iron-Eating Armored Lizard and devoured its flesh and blood, Bones in large bites.
Every time it chewed into its abdomen, it immediately converted it into special energy that merged into its body.
The devouring speed was extremely fast; Su Yan waited about two quarters of an hour, and the massive Iron-Eating Armored Lizard was completely absorbed by the Jade Beetle.
At this time, the Jade Beetle had completed devouring all the molting material, accumulating enough molting material in its body.
It began.
With a thought from Su Yan, Insect Patterns floated on the Fierce Insect Cauldron, then converged into light shining on the Jade Beetle as before.
The light gathered into a Cocoon, like a White Jade Stone Fetus, fist-sized as a human head, resembling a bright moon fallen to the ground outside the moonlight.
Su Yan sensed the Jade Beetle undergoing Metamorphosis.
He looked at the three Insect Tamers beside him and gave orders.
The White Bone Poison Centipede and Red Armored Mad Scorpion stood guard around, while the Blood Locust led the Blood Bee Swarm into the surrounding forest to hunt Feral Beasts for the Jade Beetle to replenish energy after Metamorphosis.
Time passed bit by bit; Su Yan didn’t know how long to wait and swallowed a Five Aggregates Pill and a True Essence Pill.
Then his body moved slightly, sitting cross-legged; True Essence gradually flowed out from his body, Spiritual Power wrapped around it, transforming into the form of an Insect-shaped Fierce Ape.
The True Intent phantom appeared; the Insect-shaped White Ape opened to the moon, inhaling and exhaling surrounding Vital Energy, which was converted through the phantom and gradually merged into Su Yan’s body, bit by bit turning into True Essence.
During this inhalation process, strands of Vital Energy fused into the phantom, gradually making the Insect-shaped White Ape more solid bit by bit.
About two hours passed, and the sky had gradually brightened.
The Cocoon formed by the Jade Beetle was now slowly trembling.
A faint cracking sound rang out, and a tiny crack began to appear.
With the trembling, cracks multiplied; the Jade Beetle gestating within also began to move, breaking through the Cocoon.
【Jade Beetle devours molting material Iron-Eating Armored Lizard Skeleton, Gold-Silver Marrow, and Metamorphoses into Gold-Eating Demon Insect】
【Gold-Eating Demon Insect 1/100（Nascent Stage）】
Its body length was just one foot, translucent like jade glass all over, with golden patterns encircling it, faint light flowing, like a jade blade.
Its form flickered in and out of visibility; the naked eye could see a layer of demonic patterns emerging around it, its aura increasingly cold and powerful.
It turned out that the Jade Armor Skill had more than doubled in strength, adding even more power when cast on its main body.
“The sharpness of gold-eating, eating one part increases one part firmness, strengthens one part sharpness, can reverse and rebound enemy force, break enemy armor…”
Su Yan’s face showed joy; in his perception, the Gold-Eating Demon Insect had improved far beyond a little compared to the Jade Beetle before Metamorphosis.
The original Jade Beetle’s abilities were all in the Jade Armor, providing defense buffs to himself and attached teammates.
But in attack methods, it was indeed much weaker; even ramming and biting had no special characteristics.
But now, with even stronger defense and Rebounding Force, though just emerging, it meant that defense now included some attack methods.
Beyond defense, the Gold-Eating Demon Insect could condense Geng Metal Qi into blades as attack methods.
One attack and one defense; this gave the originally auxiliary Jade Beetle many more possibilities.
“Find a Feral Beast to test it, but first let it eat its fill.”
The Feral Beasts hunted by the Blood Locust were now placed before it.
The Gold-Eating Demon Insect quickly devoured the Cocoon clean, its body becoming like watery White Jade, its aura even stronger, and its carapace even tougher.
Su Yan drove the Gold-Eating Demon Insect to devour the flesh and blood, but suddenly discovered that after devouring only the Feral Beast’s Spine and brain marrow, its actions slowed slightly.
The replenished energy was far inferior to that from the Cocoon fragments.
“Could it be that even food priority has changed.”
Su Yan suddenly thought of a situation: when it was still in the Jade Beetle stage, the growth from devouring flesh and blood differed in intensity from devouring rare metals.
Now it seemed that with Metamorphosis, this priority had advanced further.
He took out Gu Changfeng’s Thick-backed Tiger Head Saber from the Insect Realm Space.
The Thick-backed Tiger Head Saber was a First-order High-grade Sharp Weapon, infused with Qi and Blood and True Essence to unleash Blade Qi; it was a product forged by Tian Feng Weapon Shop.
During forging, it incorporated many ranked metals, naturally a fine creation.
Hum
As soon as the Thick-backed Tiger Head Saber appeared, it emitted a trembling hum.
Under Su Yan’s command, the Gold-Eating Demon Insect pounced directly, its sharp mouthparts crunching into the thick blade back.
The originally extremely hard Thick-backed Tiger Head Saber was bitten open like a brittle cookie, exposing an obvious notch before Su Yan.
A wisp of extremely faint Geng Metal Qi sank into the Gold-Eating Demon Insect’s body.
Its originally somewhat depleted aura immediately turned around.
Su Yan’s eyes brightened slightly: ‘Not like a pure clash of hardness; there’s restraint.’
During the biting, the patterns around the Gold-Eating Demon Insect lit up slightly; this was the root of breaking gold more easily.
“Try something else.”
Su Yan took out the remaining Black Cloud Steel and Blood-Strengthening Pill and gave them to the Gold-Eating Demon Insect to devour.
As the Gold-Eating Demon Insect devoured everything, it soon completed energy replenishment, truly finishing the entire Metamorphosis process.
Insect Patterns swirled around its body like golden tattoos, containing special energy.
“Sharp Weapon > Special Metal ≥ Pills, Spirit Herb > Flesh and Blood. Feeding priority under equal rarity, and now a channel to fence stolen goods.”
Su Yan had taken down quite a few Martial Artists in Miasma Valley, and most of their weapons had fallen into his hands.
Martial Artists who could participate in the Miasma Valley mountain defense battle were more or less not short of silver.
At least, what they held were First-order Low-grade Sharp Weapons.
So-called Sharp Weapons were a weapon rank division; First-order and Second-order were Sharp Weapon grade, with higher grades beyond.
It was just that Su Yan hadn’t probed this from Tian Feng Weapon Shop people.
Sharp Weapons were sharp because they incorporated ranked metals, forged with exquisite techniques to cut hair and sever metal, indestructible, for Martial Artists to use.
Such weapons ranking above many resources clearly meant that forged and used weapons gained a bit of Geng Metal Qi.
Of the over a dozen weapons in Su Yan’s hands, he couldn’t use many; the rest could serve as food for the Gold-Eating Demon Insect.
Moreover, the more people he took down in the future, the more he would harvest.
Fashionably speaking, when running dungeons, weapons would grow in the jungle, free loot.
Putting away the temporarily unusable Feral Beast Blood and flesh, Su Yan led the Gold-Eating Demon Insect quickly into the forest.
At night in the Desolate Mountains area, Feral Beasts roamed extremely actively.
Without Su Yan spending much effort searching, a Boar Pig with pitch-black mane and exposed tusks discovered their tracks.
The Boar Pig charged over, its rush like a tank.
Shrubs were constantly snapped, trampled into a path by it.
The Gold-Eating Demon Insect turned into a streak of light and rushed directly in front.
Originally individuals with a huge size disparity collided; Insect Patterns floated, and the Boar Pig’s momentum suddenly halted.
The powerful impact’s Rebounding Force made the Boar Pig feel its head numb.
The Gold-Eating Demon Insect was knocked back about a meter, then spun in mid-air, wings slicing out golden blades left and right.
A whooshing sound rang out; the Gold-Eating Demon Insect shot into the Boar Pig’s head like a Flying Knife, shattering its brain.
The huge-bodied Boar Pig crashed to the ground; the Gold-Eating Demon Insect then flew out, circling around Su Yan.
Su Yan grinned; with the Gold-Eating Demon Insect’s abilities, it meant he had more methods.
Moreover, it was a form of ranged attack, using insects as shield and blade.
Buzz buzz buzz
The Blood Locust and Blood Bees surged from the Shrubs; his expression changed slightly.
While scouting the environment, the Blood Locust had discovered human activity.
“In the middle of the night, moving in the Desolate Mountains—not even hunters would do this; go check it out.”
Su Yan came out because of the Insect Tamer’s Metamorphosis, but others coming out ‘hunting’ late at night—were Feral Beasts not full from midnight snacks?
He keenly sensed something was wrong and immediately hurried in that direction, wanting to see what was happening.
He moved swiftly and nimbly, soon arriving at the direction the Blood Locust had detected people.
At first glance, amid the forest trees, seven or eight black-clad Martial Artists with cowhide bags at their waists moved quickly.
He looked closely and immediately showed a subtle expression: “This movement and pace seem like Little Mountain Association people; are they heading to Ancient Forest Mountain?”
