The Lihuo Locust might not have superior burrowing skills, but their devouring talent is undoubtedly exceptional.
They can gnaw through hard spirit iron ore with their jagged mandibles. As this ore is consumed, their mandibles become sharper, their claws and teeth more formidable, and their shells more resilient.
More importantly, whether it be spirit grass, spirit wood, spirit stones, or spirit iron, anything ingested by the Lihuo Locust is immediately converted into nourishment for their growth, allowing them to rapidly mature and evolve!
After initially adapting to the cold, the Lihuo Locust even began to consume the ice itself. Gradually, a portion of them succumbed to the freezing temperatures.
These Lihuo Locusts that perished from the cold immediately became food for their brethren.
For these insects, their fallen kin were sustenance!
The frozen Lihuo Locusts would pass on the meager amount of icy power and resistance they had just absorbed to the next generation.
On the summit of Purple Kun Mountain, the immortal cultivators watched the insect tide with their divine senses. After an ambush, several sects urgently deployed monitoring formations that amplified divine senses, specifically to track the movements of the insect swarm.
They naturally witnessed the Lihuo Locusts evolving their ice resistance through mutual consumption.
"Old man Jinlong, what do you propose we do? If these locusts continue to evolve, we might see the emergence of Kuishui Locusts." Patriarch Chaoyang's face was so grim it looked like water could drip from it as he observed the events unfolding in the special secret realm.
As far back as ten thousand years ago, cultivators from the Lihuo Desert had traveled immense distances to invite cultivators from the Yurou Plains to join them in eliminating the pests. However, for ten millennia, the cultivators of the Yurou cultivation world had been suppressing dissent, harboring ambitions to absorb the Lihuo cultivation world, and had never offered aid. Moreover, they had deliberately inflated prices for cultivation resources. Now, the Lihuo Locusts had fully grown and begun to diversify their evolution, making them incredibly difficult to eradicate. It was a perfect example of nurturing a tiger only to have it turn on you.
"What else can we do? If we don't want our roots severed, we can only fight! Organize cultivators of the seventh, eighth, and ninth ranks into tight formations and push them back. We old fellows must also prepare ourselves." Patriarch Jinlong wore a bitter expression as well. They had been too arrogant, underestimating the Lihuo Locusts' capabilities; they had also been too selfish, allowing the situation to spiral out of control.
"My Chaoyang Sect has seventeen Loose Immortals above the Fourth Tribulation. They will all be deployed. I suggest fellow Daoists also organize all Loose Immortals above the Fourth Tribulation. Only Loose Immortals above the Fourth Tribulation can contend with ninth-rank Lihuo Locusts!"
"My Laotao Sect has nine members who will all participate."
"We will participate too!"
All the sect leaders understood the need to act quickly and mend the situation. They dispatched their strongest forces!
One hundred and eight Loose Immortals above the Fourth Tribulation, supported by three hundred and sixty ninth-rank Mahayana cultivators, formed the profound ice formation. The extreme cold, nearing absolute zero, froze all the Lihuo Locusts in their path into ice sculptures before shattering them into powder! Guided by the monitoring formations on the mountaintop, they could accurately locate all the Lihuo Locusts hidden underground, even ninth-rank locusts buried a thousand zhang deep.
For a time, the tide of battle seemed to have turned. However, the Purple Kun Mountain range was too vast, and the Lihuo Locusts were too numerous. Eradicating them in a short period was destined to be impossible.
Buzzing~ Buzzing~
As the Profound Ice Formation advanced to the mountainside, the Lihuo Locusts launched another frenzied assault! All Lihuo Locusts from the fourth rank upwards emerged from the ground, breaking free from the ice and snow's confinement, and converged upon the Profound Ice Formation formed by the Loose Immortals! The Lihuo Locusts, dispersed across millions of miles of the mountain range, received unified command and were all mobilized to encircle the Profound Ice Formation!
Suddenly, a red tide surged across the snow-covered mountains. Wherever it passed, not only the snow disappeared, but even the green trees and black stones vanished, leaving behind only yellow soil and gravel!
"Excellent! Gather all available cultivators and form an even larger Profound Ice Formation to fight the Lihuo Locusts to the death!"
"Quickly contact the nearby cultivation worlds and request reinforcements; continue to send pleas for help to the Ten Great Immortal Sects and the Buddhist sects!"
Upon seeing the Lihuo Locusts gather and attack, the overlords on the summit of Purple Kun Mountain actually smiled with relief. As long as they were drawn into a concentrated assault, human formations and artifacts could be utilized to their fullest potential.
However, while the overlords were distracted by the Lihuo Locusts flying in the sky, they failed to notice two groups of Lihuo Locusts advancing in opposite directions on the ground and underground.
...
As the human race's fixed and mobile Profound Ice Formations were perfected and began to exert their might, to the northeast of Qingfeng Mountain, beneath a peculiar peak ten thousand zhang high and only a hundred miles wide, over ten thousand Lihuo Locusts were amassing.
One or two thousand Lihuo Locusts were insignificant amidst the vast swarm numbering in the hundreds of billions. But the gathering of over ten thousand ninth-rank Lihuo Locusts held a different significance. Furthermore, so many ninth-rank locusts were not gnawing at the peculiar peak; instead, they had excavated a colossal cave beneath it. A massive cave, a hundred zhang wide, ran straight towards the other side of the Purple Kun Mountain range.
Outside, the Lihuo Locusts surging towards the Profound Ice Formation in the sky were primarily of the fourth to sixth rank. The entire swarm from the Lihuo Desert converged, numbering in the trillions! With these mid-tier locusts sacrificing themselves one after another, the human cultivators could not advance their lines even a single step. Instead, due to the consumption of their magic power, they were slowly retreating deeper into the Purple Kun Mountain range. As the saying goes, "Many ants can bite an elephant to death!" especially when they are intelligent, unified demon insects! Fortunately, human cultivators could also be reinforced through teleportation arrays, allowing them to stalemate the Lihuo Locusts.
The human cultivators also discovered a peculiar phenomenon: on the ground, seventh and eighth-rank locusts were consuming the corpses of their fallen brethren, continuously growing stronger. However, these locusts, upon reaching the ninth rank, would immediately withdraw from the battlefield and disappear.
Six days passed. The last Lihuo Locust dancing in the sky was frozen into powder.
"Hahaha~ Victory~ We have won!"
"Hooray~ Long live~ Long live humanity!"
"Insignificant insects, daring to provoke humanity, shall be annihilated!"
The entire Purple Kun Mountain range echoed with the excited cheers of the human race! Every human cultivator's face bore a look of tired pride. However, the elders on the summit of Purple Kun Mountain remained worried. They had been monitoring the battlefield, but they noticed that as the battle progressed, no ninth-rank locusts appeared on the battlefield! Even eighth-rank locusts gradually retreated from the battlefield; they retreated, not that they were killed!
At this moment, a world-shattering piece of news arrived from the Yurou Plains.
"What! Lihuo Locusts have appeared in the Liao Kingdom?"
"What! Ninth-rank locusts have appeared in the Yurou Plains?"
"Quick! The army is retreating! Head to the Liao Kingdom!"
Only then did those elders understand where the ninth-rank locusts had gone! This news rapidly spread throughout the Yurou Plains, the entire Dongli Province, and across the Taiyuan Continent. The teleportation arrays in the Yurou Plains flashed incessantly. The cultivation worlds beyond the plains were truly terrified now and began to mobilize forces to provide support! However, by this time, the Liao Kingdom had already completely fallen. All life, whether human or demonic, had been devoured by the Lihuo Locusts! A terrifying existence was being gestured into being!