As the Yellow Dragon Sect continued to scheme regarding the City Protection Tablet, Qin Shilei and Zhang Xiaoli found themselves surrounded by a formidable force of scythe beetles.
"Brother Qin, could these silver scythe beetles be a more powerful kind of bug?" Zhang Xiaoli asked, casting an Oak Shield around them.
Around them, one to two thousand scythe beetles were slowly closing in, with over a dozen of them being the silver variety.
"I'll go test them. Be careful," Qin Shilei said, charging towards a silver scythe beetle with his Blood Soul sword.
Afterimages flashed, and the ordinary green beetles along his path were cleaved to the ground with a single sword strike.
"Hiss!"
The silver beetle, upon seeing Qin Shilei's movement, also turned into a streak of lightning and charged forward.
Sparks flew.
The blood-red Blood Soul clashed with the opponent's silver forelimbs dozens of times in an instant, igniting countless sparks.
"They're actually Silver-ranked exotic beasts," Qin Shilei muttered in surprise.
Furthermore, their chitinous defense was astonishing, and their speed and reaction time were only slightly inferior to his own.
With over a dozen silver beetles of such strength appearing here, it was no wonder he was taken aback.
Currently, there were only a mere five Silver-ranked experts on the leaderboards.
Qin Shilei was at Silver Three-star, while An Qian and Zhang Xiaoli were both only at Silver One-star. Caesar the Great and Steve had also successfully advanced to the Silver realm yesterday.
Suddenly, the silver beetle's two sharp forelimbs flashed with silver light, unleashing two scythe-like energy waves that rapidly struck towards Qin Shilei.
Qin Shilei's Blood Soul also shimmered with silver light, and a sword aura then cleaved towards the energy waves.
After shattering both energy waves with a single blow, the sword still had enough force to strike the beetle's forelimb, leaving a sword mark an inch deep.
Shadow Step!
Qin Shilei's speed increased by a third. He circled the beetle, unleashing dozens of sword strikes, each targeting the beetle's joints.
In less than ten seconds, the beetle's six limbs were all dismembered.
Then, he brought his sword down fiercely towards the beetle's neck.
The silver beetle could only watch helplessly as Qin Shilei cleaved its head off with three consecutive strikes.
At this moment, seven or eight of the silver beetles began to rapidly advance towards him on their four limbs.
The remaining beetles, meanwhile, moved to surround Zhang Xiaoli.
Countless vibrant flowers and verdant leaves continuously fluttered around Zhang Xiaoli, slicing the beetles into pieces.
Teleport!
Qin Shilei blinked to Zhang Xiaoli's side, embraced her, and then teleported away from their original position.
Before leaving, he tossed more than a dozen high-energy bombs into the surroundings.
Although the bombs didn't kill the beetles, they churned up the earth, sending dirt flying everywhere.
The dust stirred up by the explosions obscured the sky, completely hiding Qin Shilei's departure.
By the time the dust settled, Qin Shilei and Zhang Xiaoli were already hundreds of meters away, having escaped the beetle encirclement.
Qin Shilei released Zhang Xiaoli and cautioned, "Those silver beetles possess Silver-ranked strength and their attacks are astonishing. If you encounter them alone, be sure to prevent them from getting close."
Zhang Xiaoli frowned slightly. "These creatures from another world are so powerful. If they were to appear in our human settlements, how could we possibly resist?"
Qin Shilei's brow furrowed. "The only good news for now is that we haven't found any flying beetles."
He paused, then added, "Cheng Zu definitely has ulterior motives. If I didn't possess the miraculous skill of teleportation, a moment of carelessness just now could have resulted in us being completely surrounded by those beetles. Once more beetles are drawn into a fight, even the strongest individual would be exhausted and die."
Zhang Xiaoli said worriedly, "Should we go back? Maybe there are no mutant corn here after all."
Rumble!
Suddenly, the sound of helicopter engines echoed from the distant sky.
Just as Qin Shilei and Zhang Xiaoli thought the two helicopters were simply flying past, they noticed the two aircraft circling over the cornfield.
Zhang Xiaoli guessed, "Brother Qin, do you think they are also looking for mutant corn?"
Qin Shilei nodded. "Very likely. Let's chase after them."
The two helicopters seemed to have pinpointed their destination and flew directly towards the northeast corner of the cornfield.
Qin Shilei and Zhang Xiaoli also quickly rushed towards that direction on foot.
As for the beetles they encountered along the way, they avoided them if possible, and if not, Qin Shilei would swiftly deal with them.
"Brother Qin, they're about to land."
They watched as the helicopters lowered a rope ladder, and over a dozen people rapidly slid down to the ground.
By the time Qin Shilei and Zhang Xiaoli arrived nearby, all the people had landed, and the helicopters had departed in two different directions.
As Qin Shilei grew closer to the spot where the people had landed, he felt the spiritual energy in the surroundings becoming increasingly dense.
He immediately had a premonition that the mutant corn they had been searching for was likely not far ahead.
Pushing aside the corn stalks taller than a person, they emerged.
What appeared before Qin Shilei's eyes was a cornfield ravaged by beetles.
This cornfield was seven to eight mu in size, yet not a single corn stalk remained standing.
The dozen or so men and women who had just descended were currently surrounded by dozens of beetles, struggling to resist.
"Boss, these damn bugs are too strong. I don't think we can hold them off," Zeng Deyuan said worriedly.
"The helicopters have already lured away most of the bugs. Let's finish this quickly." Han Hongyu turned to someone beside him and instructed, "Xiao Liu, hurry and look for any ripe mutant corn."
"Understood, Boss." The person called Xiao Liu immediately bent down and began searching among the surrounding corn stalks.
The rest of the group drew their weapons and faced the encroaching scythe beetles.
Zhang Xiaoli, who had just stepped into the cornfield, stopped and asked, "Brother Qin, should we help?"
Qin Shilei shook his head. "Those people are all Black Iron realm experts. Let's watch for now."
"Alright," Zhang Xiaoli replied, and then also bent down to examine the fallen corn seedlings on the ground.
A short while later, she exclaimed in surprise, "These corn seedlings are rich in wood elemental energy. They must be mutant corn."
After saying this, she quickly began searching the surroundings for ripe corn seeds.
The arrival of Qin Shilei and Zhang Xiaoli also drew the attention of Han Hongyu's group.
"Boss, could those two also be here for mutant corn?" Zeng Deyuan asked, chopping a beetle in half with his axe.
"Perhaps they are from the Yellow Dragon Sect. Everyone be vigilant. If they find any ripe mutant corn, we will seize it."
Han Hongyu speared a beetle away with his spear.
"Damn scoundrels, taking advantage of us to attract the beetles here and picking up the scraps," Zeng Deyuan grumbled, blocking the beetle's scythe forelimb with his saber.
"Let's move towards them and let the beetles deal with them."
Han Hongyu's eyes darted around as he commanded, "Liu Dong, you go with Xiao Liu to search for ripe mutant corn as well."
With that, they began to defend against the beetles' attacks while slowly moving towards Qin Shilei.
Qin Shilei watched as Han Hongyu's group approached and then smiled faintly. "Hello there, are you here to help us deal with the beetles behind us?"
"You are such kind people. We'll have to trouble you then."
With that, he pulled Zhang Xiaoli and skirted around to the other side of the cornfield.
Just then, forty to fifty scythe beetles emerged from the spot where Qin Shilei had been standing.
These beetles had clearly been attracted by the noise Qin Shilei and Zhang Xiaoli had made as they ran over.
Han Hongyu and his group's faces instantly changed.
They were already struggling to cope with the few dozen beetles. Now, with an additional forty to fifty scythe beetles, they were likely to suffer casualties very soon.