Watching as the hive was intercepted, Lin Huang, who had been hiding deep within it, was relieved.
He had genuinely been worried earlier that the hive would flee, which would be the equivalent of him failing to keep his appointment with Nine Snake’s team. The crux of the matter was that they might make trouble for Death Sickle if they were stood up.
This was what Lin Huang did not wish to see happen at all.
Naturally, he did not know that as a grade-7 organization, Death Sickle was protected by Royal in this great world. If the matter was not a direct conflict, Royal would expel the Raiders if they were to take action against Death Sickle.
Lin Huang had cut ties with Death Sickle in name by faking his death previously.
The conflict between him and the Raiders could be said to have little connection with Death Sickle.
That was why Scarlet Fox and the rest had mounted guard at Death Sickle, but they had not forced Buried Heaven’s group to hand Lin Huang over to them.
If not for Lin Huang contacting Buried Heaven of his own volition and Scarlet Fox finding out, the Raiders might have needed to take a great many more twists and turns to find him.
Deep in the hive, Lin Huang had been observing the changes in the outside world through Divine Telekinesis. However, he was unable to probe the state of things inside the hive.
Now that their escape plan had failed, the Queen Mothers in the Ten Thousand Bug Maze were in despair.
The Divine Magic Winged Bug’s bug formation outside had amassed practically all the forces of the entire hive.
Currently, only the old and the weak, the Queen Mothers, a small number of young Bug Queens, and many unhatched eggs remained in the hive.
The Divine Magic Winged Bug’s defeat in battle was the equivalent of the entire hive’s defeat.
If they wanted the hive’s legacy to live on, their only recourse was to escape.
However, that solution was now a dead end.
The space tunnel that the hive opened up had now been destroyed by Scarlet Fox and Silver.
It was no longer just the two upper-rank Lords—even the short, burly, bald man and the other five middle-rank Lords were watching the hive now. They were standing guard in case of any unexpected moves.
Escape was definitely not possible now.
Not too far off, the Divine Magic Winged Bug had been taken captive by Nine Snake. However, it was still resisting stubbornly.
Any discerning person could tell that it would not be able to last long.
The bug formation itself was a method that gained its immense strength through putting pressure on the participants in the bug formation. The more powerful the bug formation, the heavier the burden on the host in the core.
In one respect, all of the bug beasts that participated in the bug formation would have constant pressure applied to the Divine Power, God’s soul, god rules, sequence powers, and even Odyl within their bodies.
On the other hand, the longer the bug formation lasted, the more the damage inflicted on the God’s soul and the physical body of the host in the core.
As a result, the formation could only be sustained for a limited amount of time.
Now that it was imprisoned by the snake tail, the Divine Magic Winged Bug could not even dodge anymore.
It could do nothing except forcefully resist the snake tail’s continuous shrinking and strangling.
However, each time it resisted, this would result in the death of many bug beasts in the bug formation. This was caused by the Odyl shockwaves that were beyond what the bug formation could bear.
This also resulted in a decline of the Divine Magic Winged Bug’s ability.
The middle-rank lord-level Bug Queen controlling the core was coming under more and more pressure.
A scant few moments after being imprisoned by the snake tail, the entire bug formation was already at the point of collapse and could fall apart at any time.
Nine Snake remained expressionless from beginning to end. As far as he was concerned, he was merely defeating a bunch of hillbilly bug beasts. It was no cause for happiness.
From the very beginning, he had not taken these bug beasts seriously.
If not for Scarlet Fox and Silver’s consecutive defeats, he would not have wished to take a hand at all.
Lin Huang watched Nine Snake’s one-sided subjugation of the Divine Magic Winged Bug from faraway. He had already begun counting down to the moment when he would show himself.
After all, there were eleven lord-level bug beasts in the Divine Magic Winged Bug’s bug formation. Among them were at least ten Supreme God rank-5 Bug Queens. Lin Huang even suspected that the middle-rank lord-level Bug Queen might be Pseudo Pure Spirit rank-5.5.
He was not about to let Nine Snake have these creatures.
Ever since Xiao Hei had released authorization, card fragments no longer dropped whenever Lin Huang killed monsters. As long as he agreed, Xiao Hei could consolidate complete Monster Cards right away.
As far as Lin Huang was concerned, the eleven Bug Tribe Lords were already his. Naturally, he was not about to let Nine Snake kill them.
However, Nine Snake did not know what Lin Huang was thinking. He only wanted to dispose of the Divine Magic Winged Bug as soon as possible, then kill Lin Huang and bring his body back to the universe. That would signal the successful completion of his mission this time as an investigator who had arrived in this great world.
After his snake tail imprisoned the Divine Magic Winged Bug, he began using it to violently strangle the Bug.
He could even distinctly sense that the Divine Magic Winged Bug’s bug formation was weakening drastically.
Practically within the time it took for a few breaths, it plummeted to initial-stage upper-rank lord-level.
In another few more breaths, the Divine Magic Winged Bug’s combat strength nosedived significantly again, dropping to middle-rank lord-level.
Almost at the same time, the bug formation rapidly began to collapse.
Nine Snake felt a slight frisson of happiness. ‘It’s finally going to end!’
Once the bug formation was crushed, it would be much easier for him to kill this horde of bug beasts.
However, blood-red lightning bolts abruptly lit up the sky. They filled the heavens; in almost an instant, they had reached the area where he was.
Shock flashed through Nine Snake’s eyes. Simultaneously he abandoned the bug beasts and beat a frantic retreat.
A second later, the area where he was standing was deluged by endless blood-red lightning bolts.
Scarlet Fox, Silver, and the others stared at the blood-red lightning bolts with utterly shocked expressions.
They could distinctly sense how terrifying the lightning bolts were. If those lightning bolts were to swallow them up, there might not even be dregs remaining.
More terrifying was the fact that from start to finish, they had not even seen where this attack originated from.
Even Nine Snake was frowning hard. He had spread his Divine Telekinesis earlier but had not found anything at all.
His gaze finally landed on the hive.
There was no powerful aura within the periphery of the dozens of surrounding star zones. In that case, the individual who had attacked was most likely in the hive that was right in front of them.
As to whether it was Lin Huang hiding in the hive or other beings within it, he was not very sure yet.
However, an instant later, he sensed that the auras of the bug beasts which formed the bug formation were rapidly being obliterated.
Nine Snake swiftly came to a conclusion and his gaze grew even keener as he stared at the hive.
“Lin Huang, are you brave enough to come out and face me in battle?”
His voice rumbled like thunder and spread toward the hive.
Scarlet Fox and the rest looked utterly confused.
“It was Lin Huang who attacked?!”
Currently, Lin Huang was indulging in the joy of having obtained the bug beasts’ cards.
After using a dimensional secret technique and his Divine Telekinesis flying daggers to kill all the bug beasts that formed the Divine Magic Winged Bug, he had Xiao Hei consolidate eleven complete Bug Tribe Lord Monster Cards.
As he had expected, of the eleven Bug Queens, the ten lower-rank Lords were Supreme God rank-5, and the middle-rank Lord was Pseudo Pure Spirit rank-5.5.
He was thrilled to have obtained eleven Bug Tribe fighters out of the blue—ones he could immediately utilize, even.
When he heard Nine Snake’s deliberately provoking comment, he was not angry at all.
“The show that all of you put on was even more interesting than what I had imagined. I was so engrossed in watching that I didn’t really have the heart to interrupt things.” At the same time that this voice was heard, Lin Huang’s figure slowly materialized outside the hive. With a faint smile, he looked at Nine Snake and his team.
