Escape, must escape immediately.
Qin Shilei made a decision in an instant.
Lightning Escape!
He once again turned into a bolt of lightning and charged out in a random direction.
The Phantom remained in place to hold off the Worm Emperor.
Emerging from the Lightning Escape, Qin Shilei felt intense battle fluctuations coming from behind.
Waves of thunderous roars echoed from afar.
Qin Shilei dared not hide nearby.
Nor did he choose to release his faster pet, Little Strong, as its massive size would make it easier to be discovered.
He flew rapidly through the forest.
Thirty seconds later, he once again used his cooled-down Lightning Escape to flee further away.
Alternating between flying and Lightning Escape, he changed direction several times.
In just five minutes, Qin Shilei had already traveled sixty to seventy kilometers from his original location.
Suddenly, his connection with the Phantom was severed.
The Phantom had likely been shattered and disappeared.
Cannot keep running.
Qin Shilei had this realization instantly.
He quickly dug a hole in a nearby mountain, hid inside, and then blocked the entrance.
He took out several high-grade crystal cores and began to absorb them rapidly.
Less than ten minutes after Qin Shilei hid, the Worm Emperor arrived nearby.
"I know you are nearby, you cannot escape."
"Come out and accept your death!"
"You despicable heretic, for daring to injure the great Lord Barton, I will skin you alive."
"I can smell you, I will find you soon."
"If you swear allegiance to me, I will spare your life. Come out quickly."
The Worm Emperor's hoarse voice echoed nearby intermittently.
Accompanying its voice were bursts of colossal impact sounds.
Clearly, the Worm Emperor could not find Qin Shilei and was venting its rage by destroying the surroundings.
Half an hour later, the Worm Emperor's voice finally disappeared.
However, before Qin Shilei could emerge from the mountain cave, faint, chaotic noises could be heard from outside again.
He immediately had a bad premonition but dared not act rashly.
Qin Shilei could not have imagined that outside the cave, within a hundred-kilometer radius, countless worms were rapidly hopping about.
These worms had been summoned by the Worm Emperor to search for Qin Shilei.
Under such a dense, carpet-like search, Qin Shilei's recently dug, uncamouflaged cave was quickly discovered by a worm.
It was a bronze-level worm, and it repeatedly slammed against the blocked entrance.
Qin Shilei peered through a tiny crack in the cave entrance and saw that it was just a weak worm.
He constantly pondered in his mind how to escape or defeat the Worm Emperor.
His Stealth Array had been used for the last time, making a silent departure impossible.
Although Lightning Escape was fast, its range was only ten kilometers, which wouldn't be enough to escape the astonishingly fast Worm Emperor.
His pet would have little effect against a platinum-tier peak Worm Emperor.
After much thought, he could not find a foolproof method.
At this moment, the worm outside had already broken through the blocked entrance. Upon seeing Qin Shilei, it attempted to shout for its companions.
"Die, you unlucky bastard."
Qin Shilei thrust his sword into the creature's mouth.
Stepping out of the cave he had just dug, he looked around and saw countless fleshy worms hopping in the forest.
He quickly found a direction with the fewest worms and shot forward using Lightning Escape.
These ordinary worms only felt a flash of lightning pass overhead, never imagining it was the person their Worm Emperor was searching for.
However, the surge of energy from Qin Shilei's Lightning Escape was detected by the Worm Emperor dozens of kilometers away.
It quickly pursued him along that fluctuation.
In a chase, Qin Shilei was caught up by the Worm Emperor after only running seventy to eighty kilometers.
Perhaps fearing Qin Shilei would freeze it again, the Worm Emperor first encased itself in a thick layer of earth-elemental armor.
"Why don't you keep hiding!" the Worm Emperor roared with laughter.
"Do you believe I'll release my pet, the Platinum-tier peak Phantom Sound Butterfly Emperor, and freeze you into an ice sculpture?" Qin Shilei said calmly.
"Hmph, laughable."
The Worm Emperor sneered, "You, a mere gold-tier weakling, claiming to have a royal-tier pet. Who are you trying to fool?"
Though it spoke with disbelief, it became alert.
Without further ado, it charged at Qin Shilei.
Simultaneously, countless watermelon-sized meteors, summoned by the Worm Emperor, rained down from the sky towards Qin Shilei.
Teleportation!
Qin Shilei flashed several hundred meters away, evading the meteor shower.
However, as soon as he reappeared, the Worm Emperor rapidly charged at him again.
After several consecutive teleports, the Worm Emperor persistently stayed close behind him.
While teleportation was not overly taxing, Qin Shilei's energy was less than half remaining, making it impossible to use indefinitely.
Just as Qin Shilei was contemplating how to escape, a powerful suction force suddenly emanated from behind him.
The suction was so strong that even the four-star gold Qin Shilei was instantly pulled backward several tens of meters.
Teleportation!
Qin Shilei's mind raced, intending to escape the suction range once more.
However, the usually reliable teleportation inexplicably failed.
Perhaps the suction force caused spatial distortion, or for some other reason.
Qin Shilei saw his vision darken and was instantly pulled into the Worm Emperor's body.
A foul, stench filled the air.
Then, numerous highly corrosive gastric juices surged towards him.
A silver light flashed, and Qin Shilei quickly formed a lightning armor around himself.
Teleportation!
Qin Shilei remained in place, not leaving.
He could only rely on the external lightning to observe his surroundings.
To Qin Shilei's surprise, he was suspended in a dark space, about thirty to forty meters in diameter.
Beneath his feet was a pool from which a dark brown liquid periodically erupted and surged towards him.
Under the corrosive effects of this liquid, his internal energy was rapidly being depleted.
"Didn't I get sucked into the Worm Emperor's body? How did I end up here?"
Qin Shilei was utterly bewildered.
He flew towards the darkness on the right but was blocked by a transparent wall.
He raised his Giant Que Sword and fiercely struck the transparent wall.
Boom!
It was like striking hard metal, causing the Giant Que Sword to rebound.
Devouring Thunder!
Furious heavenly lightning raged around, but besides splashing countless droplets from the pool below, it had no effect.
Qin Shilei then tried several other attacks but could do nothing against the transparent wall.
Instead, his internal energy, after a frantic output and the corrosive effect of the liquid below, was nearing exhaustion.
Qin Shilei had no choice but to grab the crystal source hanging at his waist and begin absorbing it directly.
After consuming half the spiritual energy from the crystal source, his internal energy not only recovered to fullness, but his cultivation also smoothly advanced to five-star gold.
However, even with the advancement, it offered no help to his current predicament.
If he remained trapped here, he would eventually be depleted of energy and die.
A thought flashed through Qin Shilei's mind, and he activated his Perceptive Violet Eyes to examine the place.
The Worm's Stomach, a small space refined by the Worm Emperor by chance, possessing the function of refining food and trapping enemies.