After driving away the potential competitor, Jiang Kai quickly headed to the destination.
A few minutes later, when Jiang Kai was floating above the ground, looking at the silent earth, he suddenly frowned again.
"This isn't right, I'm a ghost now, the Gold-Swallowing Insect Beasts don't seem to be able to sense me, they don't come out at all!"
Then Jiang Kai thought again, if the Gold-Swallowing Insect Beasts don't come out, he could go down instead!
After hesitating for a moment, Jiang Kai charged straight down at the ground.
Sure enough, his body directly passed through the ground, heading downward all the way.
Others would have some difficulty digging to find the Gold-Swallowing Insect Beasts, but Jiang Kai could penetrate the lower layers, which instead became his advantage.
After traveling about several dozen meters, Jiang Kai, through the soil layers, discovered that there was actually a complex nest underground.
"It's the insect nest!" Jiang Kai looked at the interconnected tunnels in front of him and couldn't help but sigh.
The Gold-Swallowing Insect Beasts are huge in size, so their tunnels are also quite spacious, and the passages are connected with each other, complex and crisscrossed.
With the help of the light from the Divine Might Aura, Jiang Kai's visibility was decent.
At this point, Jiang Kai also didn't know which direction to go. He thought for a moment and frowned, saying, "If I go down each path slowly one by one, it'll be less efficient than before, wasting the time I have in ghost form."
"It would be best if there's a way to lure them over."
After a short thought, Jiang Kai took out his long sword, Violet Lightning Phantom Light, held the hilt, and began knocking continuously on the wall of the cave.
The knocking sound was very dull and couldn't travel far, but if the Gold-Swallowing Insect Beasts could sense ground vibrations from dozens of meters above, Jiang Kai believed they would definitely sense the sound here.
While knocking on the wall, Jiang Kai inserted the quenched Chasing Life into the Divine Might Aura and also adjusted the position of the Divine Might Aura to form a ring of fire around himself.
"Don't know if I can find that war-general-level Gold-Swallowing Insect Beast..." Jiang Kai was muttering, when suddenly, he felt the ground shaking violently.
The vibration came from all directions, making it impossible to distinguish directions, with earth and stones constantly falling from above...
"How many of them are coming!" Jiang Kai widened his eyes. He hadn't knocked the wall that hard, but the result... it seemed the seriousness of the situation had exceeded his imagination.
At this moment, Jiang Kai no longer had the Wheel of Fate, so he didn't dare to be careless and activated the Ghost Eye Focus.
Boom boom boom boom... The sound of the vibrations was already deafening, pressing forward like mountains and seas.
......
In an unknown map, a military team of nearly two thousand people was camping.
Although they were numerous, the camp was very orderly, personnel well-organized, with sentries on duty and some people resting.
In the camp, four or five middle-aged men were sitting around the bonfire.
"Old Wang, how much of this area's map is left to be drawn?" One of the men looked toward the companion on his left.
"Commander Lü, the terrain has all been mapped, it's just that the Gold-Swallowing Insect Beasts part is a bit troublesome," the man said.
Commander Lü nodded, "I know, the situation over there is different from what we've encountered before. The territories of other wild beasts in the maps are all clearly visible, but the Gold-Swallowing Insect Beasts' nest is underground..."
Another tall woman followed up, saying, "Yeah, once someone invades the insect nest, those bugs go completely crazy!"
Old Wang added, "And the nest is very deep. Usually, before we even dig to the nest, a large number of Gold-Swallowing Insect Beasts come... sigh, this place is really hard to handle!"
Commander Lü nodded along, "I know, it's indeed difficult. But if we can't figure out the location of the insect nest, then when civilians enter this area in the future, the consequences will be unimaginable!"
"Tomorrow, let's get ready and dig the insect nest!"
"Yes!"
Although the mission had been issued, the mood among the camp leaders wasn't high. The commander's decision also meant many soldiers would die in tomorrow's mission.
Some always say that dying on Ghost Star is no big deal.
But anyone who has truly experienced the 100% real death process knows that dying in battle is definitely not a pleasant thing.
Otherwise, each major city's landing base wouldn't have a dedicated psychological counseling center.
Moreover, there's the system punishment: losing experience, equipment, attributes. The higher your level, the harsher the punishment!
While everyone was discussing tomorrow's tactical arrangements, suddenly, they all felt the ground beneath them shake violently.
"An earthquake?" someone exclaimed in surprise.
Those who had been asleep woke up in a daze, confused and at a loss.
Before long, a soldier rushed from the woods and came to Commander Lü and the others. "Reporting to the commander, about twenty kilometers southwest, a large-scale ground collapse has occurred!"
Commander Lü and the others were shocked, looking at each other. "What's going on?"
Camp Leader Wang frowned deeply, "That place isn't far from Mount Tai Road, it's the territory of the Gold-Swallowing Insect Beasts. Could it be that a wanderer accidentally entered their nest?"
"Commander, let's go take a look!"
Commander Lü nodded, "Old Wang, take a company over there to investigate. The others, cautiously advance toward the incident area!"
The rumbling sound around was deafening. Jiang Kai steadied his breathing, holding the Violet Lightning Phantom Light, on full alert.
Before long, from the spot where Jiang Kai had knocked the wall, a black shadow directly burst through the wall and pounced!
Jiang Kai never expected that this guy didn't follow the usual path, but launched a sudden attack!
The tunnel diameter was less than three meters—at such close range, let alone dodging, there wasn't even time to react.
Jiang Kai only saw a huge mouth full of sharp teeth lunging straight at his face!
"Good timing!" Jiang Kai shouted in a low voice.
The Divine Might Aura spun rapidly. After launching Chasing Life forward, before the giant bug even had time to close its mouth, its entire body was directly sliced in half!
At the same time, its remains were instantly engulfed in flames!
[Congratulations on killing a 21-year Gold-Swallowing Insect Beast, gained 840 experience points, obtained Gold-Swallowing Insect Beast's stomach sac…]
Before the system message finished, another loud bang came from behind Jiang Kai, and another Gold-Swallowing Insect Beast burst out from the wall.
But in the next second, it also died under Jiang Kai's homemade blade armor.
After instantly killing two Gold-Swallowing Insect Beasts, Jiang Kai didn't even have time to catch his breath—the real attack had just begun.
Gold-Swallowing Insect Beasts surged toward Jiang Kai from all directions like a tidal wave.
The Divine Might Aura spun rapidly, and amid bursts of firelight, the Gold-Swallowing Insect Beasts turned to ashes one by one, leaving only a toxin sac.
"Too many! It must be because I broke into their nest, so they're all charging over one after another."
The enemies had charged into the insect swarm. To protect the swarm, they were launching such a frenzied assault!
Jiang Kai's recall speed for Chasing Life couldn't keep up with these frenzied insects' pace anymore.
Just then, the stone wall above Jiang Kai suddenly collapsed, and a Gold-Swallowing Insect Beast darted out at high speed and swallowed Jiang Kai in one bite!
But a moment later, an orange glow faintly appeared at its neck, then grew redder and more obvious, and in the next moment, its body suddenly turned into a fireball and exploded into pieces!
Jiang Kai escaped again from the Gold-Swallowing Insect Beast's mouth!
That insect had seized the moment when Jiang Kai was about to launch Chasing Life again to swallow him.
However, when those sharp and dense teeth bit down, Jiang Kai found himself completely unharmed!
Those teeth passed through his body but caused no damage.
"Is ghost transformation equivalent to permanent intangibility?!"
With this escape experience, Jiang Kai felt more reassured.
Don't even mention these ordinary Gold-Swallowing Insect Beasts—whether it's elites, war-generals, even commanders or kings—if they don't have means against spirit bodies, Jiang Kai could kill them all!
"Since I can ignore their physical damage, I don't need to aim for instant kills either."
"Resetting Chasing Life's attack attribute is too slow, just quenching it will do!"
Thinking of this, Jiang Kai no longer recalled Chasing Life; he only needed to keep it in a quenched state.
The insects, in order to protect the swarm, charged forward wave after wave toward the intruder.
The number of wild beasts in the unknown area far exceeded that of the explored zones. The Gold-Swallowing Insect Beasts swarmed in like a tide.
But for Jiang Kai, these bugs were just madly refreshing sources of experience and stomach sacs…
Jiang Kai was currently Level 7 of Tier 3. To level up again, he needed over 400,000 experience, much more than before.
A single Gold-Swallowing Insect Beast gives about 600–900 experience. Jiang Kai needed to kill over 600 to level up again.
However, in just half an hour, Jiang Kai rose to Level 8 of Tier 3!
"Good grief, thank goodness I have ghost form. Otherwise, if I rushed down here rashly, even with a substitute, I wouldn't last half an hour!"
Yesterday, Jiang Kai also killed more than 100 Gold-Swallowing Insect Beasts, but the ones in the nest were bigger, and more importantly, the attack efficiency was too high—bugs often burst out from several directions at once.
If it weren't for the homemade blade armor, Jiang Kai absolutely couldn't withstand such a ferocious assault.
After forty minutes, Jiang Kai's kill count had already surpassed 800!
Only at this point did the number of Gold-Swallowing Insect Beasts slowly start to drop.
About ten minutes later, the assault of the Gold-Swallowing Insect Beasts finally neared its end; not many were charging out anymore.
Jiang Kai finally breathed a sigh of relief, "Finally done! The experience gain is insane—I'm already nearly a third into Level 9 of Tier 3!"
It seemed the ordinary bugs had almost all been dealt with. Jiang Kai packed up the stomach sacs and then examined the surroundings.
"This passage had the most bugs coming out—there's a chance it leads to the main nest."
Thinking that, Jiang Kai drifted along that tunnel and entered.
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