Chapter 49: King of Insects (Part 6)

"Who is it?"

Wu Bai stopped dead in his tracks, his gaze locked sharply on the landscaped fountain ahead, where a mermaid statue held a water pitcher as if pouring water.

Suddenly, a deafening roar echoed through the air!

A dark green, fiendish monster leaped out from beneath the ground in a continuous stream. The fountain collapsed instantly, water splashing in all directions, turning the aesthetic scene into chaos.

The shadow slowly straightened up behind the blurred curtain of water, and this time Wu Bai finally managed to catch a clear glimpse of its true appearance.

It was a humanoid monster without skin, its entire body covered in a beetle-like exoskeleton coated with a glossy sheen of deep green and grayish-white.

It stood two meters tall, robust yet not bulky, combining both strength and agility, with every muscle evolved toward the pinnacle of perfection.

Its eye sockets were sunken like two dry hollows, with tiny yellowish pupils embedded at the bottom.

Unlike the human upper and lower jaw structure, its mouth was an alien set of mandibles splitting toward the sides of its cheeks, resembling that of a Predator. It grew huge, sharp, yellow fangs that occupied a full half of its face.

At the top of its head were three towering, prominent horns, resembling a supreme crown.

What enraged Wu Bai the most was that the monster was gripping the severed head of a young girl in its hand.

The head's eyes remained wide open in death, filled with terror and despair.

"Human, delicious. Archmage, delicious."

The monster flicked its arm, tossing the head into its terrifying, ghastly maw.

Hardly any chewing motion could be seen as the massive flesh and bone were swallowed down its esophagus, digested by its stomach, and finally expelled from its syringe-like tail as a pale, hollow-eyed skull.

The entire digestion process took less than five seconds.

After being spat out, the skull curved through the air and landed back in the monster's hand.

Finding it rather amusing, it poked and prodded the skull a couple of times before placing it where the mermaid statue's missing water pitcher had been.

Water gushed out through the wide-open mouth of the skull. Viewed from afar, it looked as though the mermaid was holding a human head vomiting up bitter resentment, making even the lifeless statue eerie and evil.

Having finished this, the monster calmly looked over at Wu Bai and spoke fluently in human language: "This is what you call a work of art."

It spread its arms, looking down upon the world with disdain: "I am the King of Insects, the sole ruler of mutants, and the absolute king who reigns over the world!"

The cruelty of the Insect King thoroughly enraged Wu Bai. Veins bulged on his forehead, and aether flickered across his pitch-black armor, radiating an unyielding, do-or-die intent for battle:

"I don't care if you're a king of anything or some other damn thing, I only know one thing—I'm going to turn you into a ghost right now!" Wu Bai shouted sternly.

Pages materialized out of thin air, fluttering in the wind and whipping up a fierce, whistling gale!

Looking closer, those pages were actually made of iron!

---

They were like pieces of sharp, thin steel sheets, coiling, coiling, coiling layer upon layer.

The iron pages twisted into a whirlpool, continuously adhering and concentrating, finally converging into a fiercely shining silver spear!

This was the *Six-Harmony Great Spear*, originating from the martial-arts-ascended "Divine Spear" Li Shuwen.

Perhaps many people had never heard of the *Six-Harmony Great Spear*, but they must have heard of the martial art intimately connected with it—Baji Quan.

An ancient saying goes: With Taiji one can pacify the realm, but with Baji one can settle the cosmos.

Li Shuwen was the grandmaster who refined both spear and fist techniques to their absolute limits.

He might not have been the founder of either martial art, but he was undoubtedly the most illustrious and accomplished master in history.

And this was Wu Bai's Truth.

"Hah." With the spear in hand, he regulated his breath, and aether ignited a wisp of scorching red tassel just below the spearhead.

The purpose of the red tassel was to absorb blood, preventing the gore from flowing down the shaft and affecting the wielder's leverage.

In other words, the moment the spear thrust out, blood would be drawn; and the moment blood was drawn, a life would be lost.

"First Harmony, Solitary Wild Goose Leaves the Flock!"

The voice had not yet arrived when the chilling gleam struck first.

From the Insect King's perspective, it could only catch a slight twitch of the spear shaft, and in the blink of an eye, a piercing silver light lunged right before its eyes, stinging its optic nerves.

Instead of feeling fear, however, it sneered coldly:

"Hmph, *Cotton Empire*."

In a split second, clusters of cotton frantically sprouted from the Insect King's forehead, meeting Wu Bai's fatal strike head-on.

"How can this be?!" Feeling the layer-upon-layer resistance, Wu Bai's heart surged with turbulent waves.

The spear pierced into the seemingly fragile cotton, but it was like thrusting into a quagmire, firmly enveloped by viscous mud, unable to advance an inch.

Cotton blocking cold steel? It sounded like a fantasy.

In reality, however, a dense network composed of multiple layers of tough, long fibers possesses an exceptionally good ability to absorb external impacts.

In the history of Zhongzhou, there was also the concept of cotton armor.

It offered impressive defensive capabilities against bows, crossbows, swords, spears, and even firearms.

Within just a few breaths, a full ninety percent of the force behind the spear had been swallowed up.

The remaining ten percent struck the Insect King's head, but due to its hard exoskeleton, apart from leaving a tiny scratch, it achieved nothing.

---

"Come here!" Seizing the opening, the Insect King lashed out with a claw, but Wu Bai noticed in time, spun around, and kicked it flying several meters away.

The Insect King steadied its stance, brushed off the footprint on its body, and instead of getting angry, laughed: "As expected of the Half-Step Flame Radiance. Not bad, truly not bad."

Wu Bai frowned deeply, thinking to himself: *How does it know my rank? And those cottons just now—*

Striking down an Eight-Segment Candle-Wick with the power of a Ten-Segment Candle-Wick, Wu Bai had expected it to be as easy as pie. This unexpected turn of events forced him to raise his guard.

"Your Truth, I like it very much too." Seeing that Wu Bai had yet to launch another attack, the Insect King smiled indifferently.

It sank its legs slightly, assuming a sprinting posture.

Since the opponent wasn't coming over, it would go over instead.

Gurgle, gurgle—

Transparent mucus secreted from the gaps in its exoskeleton, quickly drenching the Insect King's entire body.

*Children Without Umbrellas Must Run Hard*

Swish!

Its feet lifted, and the dark green figure instantly vanished from the spot, its sheer speed rivaling Wu Bai's!

Wu Bai was slightly startled, but not enough to lose his composure.

"Second Harmony, Pear Blossom Shakes Its Head!"

Knowing full well that he could not let the enemy close in, he whipped the spear shaft, tracing a 360-degree circle on the floor tiles and kicking up a flurry of dust.

Not only did the rashly charging Insect King fail to gain any advantage, but it also nearly had its chest pierced open by the spearhead.

In this exchange, Wu Bai won by a narrow margin.

Yet he felt no joy whatsoever, his frown deepening even further.

"That monster's running posture just now... I seem to have seen it on one of the examinees. Is it my imagination...?"

There was no time for Wu Bai to figure it out as the ground beneath his feet suddenly churned, the violent shaking making it difficult for him to steady his footing.

Targeting this flaw, the Insect King launched a vicious, stealthy attack from behind.