Qin Shilei pondered for a moment, then rode Xiao Qiang to the Qing County area. He searched for a long time before finding a Golden Realm beetle.
He then returned to the exit of the space rift in Changzhou City with this Golden Beetle.
"Chihuo, have this Golden Beetle guard this place. As soon as you see any bugs coming, kill them."
"Alright, Master." Chihuo immediately turned and instructed the Golden Beetle.
If this space rift continued to expand and a Golden Realm bug managed to crawl through, this Golden Beetle might not be able to stop it.
The safest approach was to station a Golden Bug, leading a swarm of insects, at the entrance of the space rift.
This was because Qin Shilei had learned from Chihuo that bugs in the bug world generally would not attack a swarm led by a Golden Realm Bug King.
For now, they could only rely on this Golden Beetle, along with tens of thousands of scythe beetles and nearly ten silver beetles it had gathered nearby, to temporarily hold the position.
Qin Shilei turned and flew back towards Changzhou City.
Changzhou City, the City Lord's Mansion.
"It's been so long, and the guy named Qin hasn't returned. Do you think he ran off with those two purple items?"
"He probably wouldn't. He's the number one person on Blue Star; he wouldn't tarnish his reputation for mere purple items, would he?"
"Then what do you think? Did he go into the bug world and get eaten by an alien beast, and won't be able to come back?"
"Don't jinx it with your crow's mouth. If he dies, what will happen to the bugs outside the city?"
While Feng Yuxin's subordinates were discussing amongst themselves, a young man hurried in from outside.
"City Lord, Qin Shilei is back. He's currently requesting Commander Xie to organize personnel to go out of the city."
Feng Yuxin's face immediately relaxed. He instructed, "None of us who have seen Qin Shilei are to appear before him, to avoid any accidents."
"Understood." Everyone replied in unison.
Outside the city, Qin Shilei sat on Xiao Qiang's back, watching the seventy to eighty thousand evolvers below with a somewhat bored expression, as they gleefully slaughtered the bugs that dared not resist.
Chihuo was in the center of the crowd, gnawing on a pile of clawed beasts.
After more than half an hour.
A person came to a spot below Qin Shilei and shouted, "Mr. Qin, the spoils of war have been collected. Do you want to come and collect them now?"
"Okay."
Qin Shilei, who had been feeling drowsy, immediately perked up.
He flew to the center of the battlefield, near Chihuo, where two small mountains had been piled up.
One was a pile of bug corpses, and the other was a pile of treasure chests dropped by the bugs.
With a wave of his hand, both the treasure chests and the bug corpses were stored in his Qiankun Ring.
"Not bad, not bad. Having tens of thousands of people working for me for free is truly comfortable!"
Having harvested these tens of thousands of spoils of war, Qin Shilei's frustration from being chased in the bug world vanished instantly.
He returned to Xiao Qiang's back and held a crystal core in each hand, absorbing them.
Three days passed quickly.
To resolve the crisis of the bug siege, the evolvers of Changzhou City worked like donkeys in a production team, madly slaughtering the bugs controlled by Chihuo.
Even at night, they fought under torchlight.
Under such frenzied slaughter, ninety percent of the bugs outside the city were killed.
A total of over eighteen million bugs were eliminated.
As long as Qin Shilei went back and extracted the crystal cores from these bug heads, he would harvest over eighteen million Level 2 or higher crystal cores.
Absorbing one Level 2 crystal core could increase his experience by about 4-5 points. In conversion, Qin Shilei would gain at least over seventy million experience points.
Currently, it took him nearly six million experience points to level up.
Once he absorbed all these crystal cores, he would most likely reach the peak of the Golden Realm.
"Alas, having too many crystal cores is also a problem; I can't absorb them all."
Qin Shilei lamented softly.
"#￥%##%” Xie Haitao, standing nearby, immediately cursed Qin Shilei in his heart for showing off.
In reality, Qin Shilei was not showing off at all.
What was currently limiting his advancement speed was not the lack of crystal cores, but the slow speed of absorbing them.
Even if he absorbed one crystal core per second, and spent all his time in a month absorbing crystal cores, he could only absorb a little over two million.
To absorb all eighteen million crystal cores, he would need over seven months of non-stop work.
If he used six to eight hours a day to absorb crystal cores, it would take two to three years.
During such a long period, the spatial rifts would likely undergo significant changes, and the two Platinum peak bug emperors could also come to Blue Star through the spatial rifts.
Even more powerful bugs might arrive on Blue Star.
What would Qin Shilei use to deal with these invaders then?
Xie Haitao was unaware of Qin Shilei's worries.
Seeing Qin Shilei frowning occasionally, he asked, "Mr. Qin, is there any further trouble with the bugs outside the city? Why don't you stay another day and help us completely resolve this hidden danger?"
"We agreed on three days at the beginning, so it'll be three days," Qin Shilei refused outright.
Hearing this, Xie Haitao had no choice but to give up and then said politely, "Thank you for your hard work these three days, Mr. Qin. I have already prepared a banquet at the mansion and would like to invite Mr. Qin to join us for a late-night meal."
Qin Shilei also felt a bit hungry, so he nodded in agreement, "Alright, let's go."
After speaking, he took Xie Haitao and jumped onto Xiao Qiang's back, flying towards the mansion he remembered.
Thanks to Xiao Qiang's speed, they were inside Changzhou City within a few breaths.
It was dark, and Qin Shilei momentarily mistook the direction. Xie Haitao, however, was dizzy from the speed and, with his eyes half-closed, didn't notice anything amiss.
He just kept flying towards the brightest part of the city.
Soon, they arrived above a cluster of villas with a plaque bearing the City Lord's Mansion.
Qin Shilei saw the plaque but thought it was Xie Haitao's actual residence, so he took Xie Haitao and flew straight down.
As soon as he landed in front of the brightly lit villa, a woman who heard the commotion ran out.
"It's you." Qin Shilei instantly recognized her as Zhu Shan, with whom he had a prior encounter in Beian City.
Zhu Shan was momentarily stunned, not expecting Xie Haitao to bring Qin Shilei here.
She quickly suppressed her confusion and smiled, "Why has Mr. Qin also come to Changzhou City?"
Qin Shilei replied expressionlessly, "I've been in Changzhou City for three days. Don't you know?"
"Heh heh." Zhu Shan chuckled to cover her surprise, "I've been staying in the city absorbing crystal cores and leveling up these days, so I didn't notice Mr. Qin had been in Changzhou for three days."
"Zhu Shan, who is it?" Perhaps seeing Zhu Shan had been out for too long, someone inside called out.
Qin Shilei found the voice somewhat familiar. After a moment of thought, he realized with a start, "So Sect Leader Feng is the true master of Changzhou City!"
With that, he walked straight into the villa.
Seated in the villa's hall was Feng Yuxin of the Heavenly Demon Sect.