The Second Kingdom (V)
Xia's factory wasn't hard to find. They followed the flow of nutrient solution through the veins of the giant leaves and quickly found the convergence point. It was hidden within a large nodule on the trunk. New insects were constantly flying in and out, and fully armed players were guarding the entrance.
Liang Qing glanced at the badge of the guard at the door. His rank was not high, but there was no need for them to alert the enemy at this moment.
"We actually have enough weapons." Alan stared at the door, his expression of eagerness for battle was particularly obvious.
Liang Qing held him down. "You can, but it's not necessary. There won't be many players inside. I guess the number of players on both sides is 50-50. Right now, Party A only has a slight advantage in numbers, and not all of them are working for Xiya."
"Are you worried about alarming the insect formation below?" Nie Yun asked.
Liang Qing nodded and pointed downwards. "There are so many bugs. It's impossible for just a few of us, or even just a few of us, to completely eliminate them."
"We've been in the game for so long, but we haven't seen any other Party Bs... Where are they hiding?" Shi Xiaofeng muttered.
Liang Qing's eyes lit up. Yes, the other parties must have hidden themselves.
Who wouldn't hide when they get into a life-threatening dungeon like this? They'd either passively accept attacks or wait to starve to death due to lack of ammunition and food... unless...
Liang Qing blinked: "Let's go! Let's go back to where we first came!"
With the Meganeura dragonfly's help, the return journey was much easier than the life-or-death struggle they'd come from. The four of them sat on the dragonfly's broad back, letting it carry them downward. They passed through the dark swarm of insects, across the endless green cliffs, and sank to the base of the tree trunk at a speed close to free fall.
"There! We came out from there!" Shi Xiaofeng pointed out one of the countless cave entrances. The reason was simple: in the lower right corner of the cave entrance, Nie Yun had placed a diaper that Liang Baobao had used.
The giant dragonfly obediently stayed at the entrance of the cave and put the four people down.
"You are finally reunited, Liang Qing, do you owe me a thank you?" A sudden voice sounded from behind.
A sharp whistling sound pierced Liang Qing's ears. She turned to see a two-meter-long black arrow hurtling straight toward them. With swift action, Liang Qing nudged the giant dragonfly. The giant dragonfly and Liang Qing were already connected. With a flick of her wings, the powerful gust of air deflected the arrow.
The arrow pierced the ground less than thirty centimeters from her wings, and the yellow liquid on the arrowhead melted part of the ground.
The arrow was coated with a strong acid similar to that in an ant's mouth. This arrow would kill either the Meganeura dragonfly or them.
Shi Xiaofeng cursed, and he, Alan, and Nie Yunduan fired their guns in Xiya's direction. Xiya sneered, her golden wings instantly spread out, and with a few light leaps, she easily dodged the fire attack and retreated to a safe distance.
Behind her, an attacking formation of six Party A players suddenly appeared. Each piloted a bumblebee. Liang Qing noticed that their badges were all gilded with the rank of "Army Commander." The Indian woman ranked 89th was merely a division commander, while these Army Commanders might even be ranked in the top 50 of the system's rankings.
Xiaya already knew about Liang Qing's series of actions after her communicator was stolen. In a rage, she brought her most elite men and fought with the mentality of annihilating them all.
"Put away your weapons, leave the cave, and leave this to me." After Liang Qing said this, he quickly rode on the giant dragonfly.
In just a few minutes, the hornets had already fired countless stingers in their direction, their bulging tails seeming to contain an inexhaustible ammunition depot.
These, like Xiya, were truly troublesome. The giant dragonfly flapped its wings, creating a powerful airflow that deflected most of the stingers, allowing Shi Xiaofeng and the others to escape. Liang Qing pulled out his mortar and launched the first round of attack.
"We have separated once, and this time we will definitely not leave you alone to resist all this." Shi Xiaofeng raised his gun with red eyes and shot at the abdomen of the nearest bumblebee.
But his bullets had no effect at all—the Wasp Formation Xia had brought with her was completely armored with bulletproof alloy. Only the tiniest cracks remained at the metal joints, making it practically invulnerable from a distance.
"You..." Liang Qing was so angry that he turned around and glared at them.
Nie Yun placed Liang Baobao near the entrance of his cave and fastened him with a safety harness. He turned around and joined the battle with Allen: "We can't expect you to protect us forever. That's not fair!"
Liang Qing was looking for a breakthrough in the sky, and the three people were organizing intensive firepower on the ground to cover her and Qingting.
"You guys are so tough, but also so stupid and ridiculous." Xia was not interested in dealing with the three players below who had no real rankings. Her only target was Liang Qing.
Xia swooped down, raising a special spear and thrusting it at Liang Qing and the giant dragonfly. Her speed was so great, and the giant dragonfly's size made it impossible to dodge at close range. Liang Qing immediately stood up from the dragonfly's back, pulled a nunchaku from her Qiankun bag, and when the spear was about to reach her heart, she used the nunchaku to entangle it.
Xiya tightened her grip, and Liang Qing did the same. A silent tug-of-war ensued, one of them flying in mid-air while the other stepped on the giant dragonfly's back.
Liang Qing admitted that Xiya's strength was no less than his own. Having long wielded cold weapons, Xiya's physique was top-tier. Liang Qing clasped the base of the nunchaku with both hands, his body swaying slightly during the prolonged standoff.
At the same time, the Meganeura dragonfly was still suffering from the attack of the hornet's stinger, so Shi Xiaofeng and his team simply attracted the firepower of the thermal weapons of the Party A players on the back of the hornet.
She switched from her original soaring flying method that utilized air buoyancy to using only muscle strength to quickly flash her wings to assist Liang Qing. Liang Qing understood that if she continued like this for a short while, the dragonfly's physical strength would be quickly exhausted.
Time is running out.
Xia Ya seemed to have seen through Liang Qing's mind. With a sneer on her lips, she let go without any warning or sign - this trick was taught by Liang Qing. When dealing with spiders, the inertia after the confrontation was used to directly stab the knife into the spider's body.
Liang Qing had guessed what Xiya was thinking the moment she stared at her trembling arms. Liang Qing almost laughed out loud; her trembling acting skills were a true testament to Nie Yun.
The moment before Xia let go, Liang Qing adjusted the center of gravity of the nunchaku to another direction. As soon as Xia let go, the spear and the nunchaku rushed directly towards her golden wings.
As Shia screamed, the spear pierced a hole through her beautiful golden wings. The uneven air pressure on her wings caused Shia, already nearing her limit, to stumble. The giant dragonfly flapped its wings again, and Shia, unable to maintain her balance, plummeted into the abyss.
"Well done, old buddy." Liang Qing couldn't help but praise it out loud.
The giant dragonfly was unusually silent. A heavy thought crossed Liang Qing's mind, and she leaned over to look down. At some point, three wasp stingers had pierced the dragonfly's abdomen.
She is still holding on.
"Stop! Let's go back to the cave entrance! You can't use any more force!" Liang Qing ordered.
Dragonfly: I can still hold on. You continue to do your thing.
Liang Qing still insisted, and Qingting added: The venom of these great-grandsons will not easily take my life in a short time.
Liang Qing: ...
She gritted her teeth and looked at the swarm of wasps. Six of them were circling in the air in a V-shape. With their all-metal bodies serving as cover, almost no one among the six players had been injured in the fierce battle.
Liang Qing: Can you go any higher?
Dragonfly immediately replied: Yes.
Liang Qing: Go up, we’ll go around behind them.
Dragonfly: Okay.
In a split second, the dragonfly flapped its massive wings again, the air currents momentarily disorienting the wasp formation, leaving the six players unable to even open their eyes. Liang Qing circled directly into the blind spot of the stinger's attack. She carefully observed the wasp's flaws and pulled out the electronic bee Shi Xiaofeng had left with her from her Qiankun bag. There weren't many left, but it should be enough...
A few seconds later, the "V"-shaped wasp formation suddenly became messy. The wasp at the top, which was as big as a medium-sized ship, suddenly turned its tail and shot out two stingers that hit the body of the wasp next to it.
The stinger easily pierced Shi Xiaofeng and his team's alloy body, which their bullets couldn't penetrate, and the venom took effect almost instantly. The wasp, which was still buzzing, convulsed all over, and the player on its back fell directly from the turbulence.
Then the wasp screamed, and its whole body contracted, turning into a lifeless black dot and falling straight down.
After losing two teammates at once, the other four were not mentally prepared at all. They almost immediately broke their formation to check what happened.
Shi Xiaofeng, who had been waiting for an opportunity, seized it almost immediately: "Hit! Break their arms, the right arms!"
Allen and Nie Yun immediately understood and unleashed a barrage of fire, instantly severing the arms of two of the Party A players. The instant the bioelectric current in their arms was disconnected, the wasps seemed to awaken from their controlled mechanical state. Almost instantly, their animal instincts returned, throwing the two screaming, bleeding players off their backs and frantically attacking each other with their stingers.
In less than three minutes, the previously tightly coordinated Wasp formation was completely defeated. The Wasp formation was tragically killed in the internecine attacks, with six players either crippled or falling to their deaths.
At the moment the danger was temporarily over, the giant dragonfly, unable to hold on, suddenly tilted its body and fell directly into a nearby cave...
Two minutes later, Liang Qing was the first to return to the cave entrance. Liang Baobao, quietly sucking on his pacifier, sat in his safety harness, looking like a well-behaved one-year-old boy.
Liang Qing leaned over and looked at Liang Baobao with a smile: "I'm back, are you scared?"
Liang Baobao glanced at her and shook his head coolly.
"How come you're so great? Do you want me to hug you?" Liang Qing praised, bent down and touched his head.
Liang Baobao frowned, tilted his round head, and dodged Liang Qing's hand. Then, the pacifier suddenly emitted a red light, accompanied by the little t cub's scream. Without any psychological preparation, "Liang Qing" found himself unable to move.
Shi Xiaofeng, Nie Yun and Allen were less than ten meters away from the cave entrance. When they heard Liang Baobao's cry, they almost immediately turned back.
Then they saw a startling scene—Liang Qing was bent over, frozen in a strange posture, with a strange smile on her face.
"It's Xia." At the cave entrance, another Liang Qing landed gracefully. Her arms were bound with giant dragonfly wings.
Nie Yun was the first to react - Baobao must have recognized the fake Liang Qing, which is why he used the magic pacifier to trigger the self-protection mechanism.
Xia was just a little bit away from snatching Bao Bao away.
"Tie him up." Liang Qing stepped forward and picked up Bao Bao.
Bao Bao opened his arms almost the moment Liang Qing approached, then pressed his soft body against Liang Qing's chest, mumbling something as if complaining to Liang Qing for making him wait so long.
The countdown for the pacifier to freeze was almost over. Shi Xiaofeng gritted his teeth and glared at the fake Liang Qing that Xiya had transformed into: "Should we throw her away?"
Liang Qing shook his head: "No, I have a use for her."
She suddenly looked up at the sky and saw six beautiful red dragonflies flying towards them. Although these dragonflies were only dolls compared to the giant dragonflies, they were still as big as a coffee table.
Liang Qing took the wings of the giant dragonfly from her arms and placed them neatly on the ground. She half-knelt and lowered her head reverently.
The little dragonflies had initially flown over excitedly, but when they got closer, they realized that the object on the ground wasn't their mother, but rather a part of her body. They became wildly excited. Liang Qing remained in her original position, and the other three, though unaware of what she was doing, remained silent.
After a while, the dragonflies fell silent, flying slowly and sadly above their heads.
Behind him, the bound Xia had returned to her normal self: "Can you communicate with them?"
Liang Qing had finished what he wanted to say, and slowly stood up and looked at Xiya: "Thanks to you."
"Survival of the fittest in nature happens every day. What's the difference between one dragonfly dying and two? But you killed six of our people. You must be very proud of yourself." Xia knew that the game was over and her eyes were full of hatred for Liang Qing.
"What you said is nothing more than putting yourself in the role of the only spiritual creature." Liang Qing walked over and took away Xia's communicator, weapons and metal sensors.
She pointed at the small dragonflies above her head and said, "You captured them and tried to lure out the Meganeura dragonflies. Then you transformed the Meganeura dragonflies into super weapons to hunt other Party B players. So, you are the direct murderer of their mother."
"Don't you like imprisoning bugs? I'll let you experience what it feels like to be imprisoned by bugs."
Liang Qing deliberately said what he had said to Qingting: "Keep a close eye on her. If she shows any signs of trying to escape or break free, you can do whatever you want with her."
They left Shia on the edge of the cliff, the offspring of the giant dragonfly circling rapidly above her head, forming a nearly impenetrable web. The dragonflies' wings looked as thin as a cicada's wings, but they were as hard and sharp as a blade. If Shia resisted, they could slit her throat in an instant.
Xiya stopped Liang Qing and said, "Hey, why don't you ask me why I wanted to take that child away?"
Liang Qing: "Why should I understand the bad guys' motives?"
Shia: ...
"Liang Qing, I advise you to give up that brat for your own sake." Xiya stared at Liang Qing.
Liang Qing turned his head and looked at her: "Do you know him?"
"I've heard some rumors about him from other players. He's unknown." Xia obviously wanted to continue, but she stopped.
Shi Xiaofeng spoke aggressively: "I see you also feel it's quite ominous."
Nie Yun added: "It's bad luck."
Shia: ...
Liang Qing laughed: "He doesn't know that you risked your life to snatch it?"
"...There's only one baby-bonded character in the entire game. It's said he's the key to leaving." Xia looked closely at Liang Qing's face, which showed no flaws. She wasn't sure if Liang Qing knew this information in advance.
She continued to mediate: "If you are willing, I can exchange identities with you. I will be his guardian, and in return, you will get all my assets and special skills."
Liang Qing simply and directly refused: "Not interested."
After that, Liang Qing ignored her and took Shi Xiaofeng and the others away from the Green Cliff. They passed through the dark cave entrance and walked for a long time before finally returning to where the game started.
The black pipe still stands, and now it has a different meaning to them - it is the result left by generations of Party B players.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
