[On the twenty-third day since entering the desert, your backpack has shrunk to just over 30 pounds. Over the past three days, you've reduced your vigorous, rapid travel, and with the addition of cacti and desert animals you've collected along the way, the food in your backpack hasn't decreased much... just the variety has changed considerably.]
It was evening, and you planned to walk a little further before stopping to rest and spend the night. You would spread out a piece of parchment to sleep on, with a simple warning device consisting of a thin string bell on the outer layer.
[But as you walk, you notice sand scorpions gradually appearing beside you—or more precisely, under your feet. Their arthropods rub against the yellow sand, making a rustling sound. These sand scorpions, some as small as a palm and others even the size of an infant, crawl together in a certain direction.]
These sand scorpions weren't particularly aggressive. You reached out to grab one that was about five or six inches long, but it twisted its body and escaped from between your legs.
"Interesting. I've already reached out my hand and it still hasn't attacked. Is the stinger on its tail just for show?"
[You became interested and followed the sand scorpions in the direction they were marching. After several hundred meters, more and more sand scorpions appeared around you. Some attacked you, but you kicked them away. The rest did not swarm to avenge them.]
Because they have another enemy—desert worms!
Desert worms resemble earthworms but are much thicker. Their bodies are covered by a hard, reddish-black exoskeleton. They move segment by segment, connected by connecting tissues within the segments. They traverse the desert like fish swimming in a clear lake.
[Right now, the desert scorpions are waging a war against the desert worms, a war spanning hundreds or even thousands of meters in radius, involving countless "insectoids"!]
[You see several sand scorpions, each a dozen centimeters long, tearing apart a worm with their sharp pincers. You also see a worm nearly a meter long and as thick as a wrist swallowing a small sand worm whole. Its mouthparts are densely packed with internal spirals, and at least hundreds of sharp teeth work together to crush the sand scorpion in its mouth into pieces in an instant.]
As night fell, both races focused solely on their enemy, and most viewed you as a moving rock. You watched the spectacle peacefully for half an hour by moonlight, gaining much insight but also growing weary, and decided to leave.
Then you suddenly see a large number of sand scorpions crowding into the heart of the battlefield not far away. The scorpions quickly disperse, revealing their object of affection: a giant sand scorpion, including its tail, measuring a full two meters in length!
The giant sand scorpion showed no signs of aging. Waving its massive pincers, even a worm as thick as a wrist looked like a moving spicy snack to it. For a time, this desert tyrant dominated the battlefield!
[You paused, your steps faltering. Such a spectacular insect fight is a rare sight; a normal person might only witness it a few times in their lifetime! How could you give up now?]
[A dozen minutes later, to your excited gaze, a section of the desert ground bulged up with an astonishing amplitude, and beneath the yellow sand, it appeared as if a giant worm was wriggling forward.]
A small area sank into a pit, and then a gigantic worm, as thick as an adult's thigh, emerged halfway out of the pit. Its head, composed entirely of mouthparts, made no sound, but the mere rotation and collision of its thousands of sharp teeth within its ring-shaped oral cavity produced a chilling gurgling sound.
[“A clash of insect kings!” You shout in your heart, “Yay! To witness such a battle is worth staying up all night!”]
The scorpion king raised its pincers and tail, and like a sharp sword, it stabbed out, instantly seizing a two-foot-long worm and lifting it up. With a snap of its pincers, it cut the worm into three pieces, which twitched on the sand, squirting out bodily fluids.
[The Worm King was equally determined. It targeted a foot-long sand scorpion, leaping from the sand and dragging the scorpion into the yellow sand, devouring it completely. As you can see, it was over ten feet long, nearly three and a half meters!]
Seeing the two giant insect kings only thirty or forty meters apart only heightens the anticipation for their passionate clash.
Then... the Scorpion King killed another worm, and the Worm King devoured and strangled a sand scorpion, and the Scorpion King then snapped another scorpion worm in two...
You waited expectantly for half an hour, but the two insect kings kept crushing the weaker ones, and the distance between them not only didn't shorten, but actually seemed to increase slightly.
Yun Shou: "...Those two damn actors!"
Even though he can only see a text simulation, he's still really looking forward to the battle with the Insect King!
You feel cheated; you won't be able to see the battle between the two giant insects. Both adhere to the rule of "kings not meeting," but you don't have to.
A blinding flash of light shot up from the ground, illuminating an area of dozens of meters. You held a gleaming battle blade, and the photosensitive worms burrowed painfully into the sand.
[And you, wielding your longsword, drew a blinding white curtain of light across the desert night, and in an instant, sliced through the worm king, whose head was only a few centimeters buried in the sand!]
The worm's bluish-green blood and fragments of sand scorpions from its body were scattered all over the ground!
[Your hair and cheeks are tinged with green, and with a single stroke you slice the worm king into two hollow, semi-cylindrical pieces, turning back to gaze at the scorpion king...]
The Scorpion King paused for a moment, its legs scratching at the yellow sand. It turned away, then accelerated and fled.
"Hmph, trying to escape?"
[You leap across the scorpion-filled ocean in a single bound, and in the blink of an eye, the Scorpion King is beneath you. With a surge of energy, your flight comes to an abrupt halt, and you plummet downwards with the force of a mountain splitting!]
["Slash at dawn and dawn!"]
At this moment, the area within a ten-meter radius around you is as bright as day. Sand scorpions of all sizes abandon their master and flee. The king of sand scorpions desperately raises its pincers and tail, but it is already certain death!
With a deafening roar, sand billowed like mist. The Scorpion King had been cleaved in two, yet your powerful blade still lingered, sweeping three meters across the sand before disappearing, leaving a deep trench in its wake.
The two leaders of the two desert tribes, seemingly imposing and commanding their respective clans, are ultimately just two giant insects. Any second-rate martial artist could easily defeat them.
After you killed two clan leaders, the remaining sand scorpions were in chaos. Few actively sought revenge, while most of the worms, unable to withstand the radiance of your energy, burrowed into the sand and wriggled beneath the sand layer.
[You didn't leave immediately, but instead dissected its armor and took its flesh on the spot. Although this scorpion king looks ferocious, its body is full of protein, and as a mutated creature far exceeding the average size of its species, eating it will definitely have a foundational enhancement effect!]
[Not only the Scorpion King, you also took some meat from the Worm King, planning to roast it and taste it.]
On your thirtieth day in the desert, you spotted a small canine animal. Excitedly, you followed it, but ultimately failed to leave the desert. Instead, you arrived at a desert tribe. The tribespeople were rough and savage; their first reaction upon seeing you was to raise their spears.
[As the spear was hurled at you, you caught it in one swift motion, crushing the stone spearhead to pieces in your palm!]
[Desert Tribe: "That was our tribe's unique welcoming ceremony. Did you like it?"]
【(?▼Benefit▼)】
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