The space became blurred, and the figures of Li Yan and Zhao Min appeared on a dilapidated roof below, and bursts of dense rustling sounds came to their ears.
Wherever the two men looked, the yellow sand underground began to rise and bulge, and then a terrifying scene appeared.
Small yellowish bugs crawled out from the sand, and the sand pits they brought out were quickly filled with fine sand.
They are like withered bamboo twigs, only the size of maggots.
There was a pair of small eyes on the top of its head that flashed with ferocity, and its mouth looked as if someone had stabbed it horizontally at the top of its body, making it look extremely ugly and ferocious.
These ugly, hideous little yellow bugs are so densely packed that there are tens of thousands of them. They almost blend in with the yellow sand on the ground. If you don't look closely, you can't tell them apart.
"It's a crossbow worm!"
Zhao Min said softly.
They already knew most of the situation here from the jade slips given by Su Hong. The crossbow worm is the kind of monster that people least want to encounter in the underground secret cave.
They are just like the snow mosquito clan. Their individual combat power can only be considered average, but once they attack in groups, even Jindan cultivators would not want to encounter them.
The attack method of the crossbow worms is very special, with a large number of long-range attacks that catch people off guard. Li Yan and Zhao Min became the target of public criticism as soon as they flew in the air.
However, they had been alert to their surroundings and immediately sensed the danger and avoided the sneak attack.
After losing their target in an instant, the crossbow insects looked around and spotted Li Yan and the other person standing on the roof again.
The crossbow worms suddenly arched their bodies, and the large mouths on the top of their bodies opened, revealing a row of fine and sharp teeth. Yellow rays of light shot towards Li Yan and the others again.
These yellow rays were either straight or slanted, covering a very wide area, but their speed was incredibly fast, breaking through space with sharp lines and arriving in an instant.
Li Yan stretched out his hand and drew a line in front of him, and a black air wall appeared in front of the two of them.
Amid the continuous "Bang, bang, bang..." sounds, Li Yan only felt a force stronger than the last coming from his hands.
"It's really weird!"
Li Yan's eyes flashed with surprise. When he sensed the crisis just now, he could have used the "Feng Chongtian" body skill to take Zhao Min and escape immediately, leaving before these crossbow insects could react.
But he did not do so. As the saying goes, a skilled person is daring. He also wanted to see if the crossbow worm attack described in the jade slip was really that strange.
The yellow light emitted by these crossbow insects was like a series of strong bows and crossbows, with incredible power. Li Yan estimated that each yellow light could penetrate the body of a foundation-building cultivator.
Of course, for Li Yan and Zhao Min, these forces would not cause any harm to them in the short term as they just stood there and let the yellow light hit them.
However, since this monster was marked in the jade slip and listed as something that no Jindan cultivator in the underground secret cave wanted to encounter, it would naturally not be that simple.
But even for the purpose of investigation, Li Yan would not use his body to take it head-on.
He soon discovered the power of the crossbow worm.
Every time a ray of yellow light hits the black air wall, its power will not be resisted and dissipated, but will immediately attach to the air wall.
The same was true for the subsequent yellow light. Because the yellow light came extremely fast and its number was as numerous as arrows in the sky, in just a moment, one side of the black air wall turned golden.
Li Yan felt that the power coming from his hands was increasing at an astonishing speed. In just over a breath of time, it had reached the attack power of a cultivator who had reached the great perfection of the foundation-building stage.
Moreover, this force is becoming stronger and stronger, and it is determined not to stop until the wall of air is broken.
Almost at the same time, the yellow light that did not hit the air wall made the wall of the house under the feet of Li Yan and Zhao Min instantly turn into a broken "sieve".
Rays of yellow light flashed through with the sound of "whoosh...", and thin transparent holes appeared on the wall, and then increased rapidly at a speed that could not be captured by the naked eye.
This instantly connected all the holes, forming bigger holes...
In just over a breath of time, the two-foot-thick bluestone wall under the feet of Li Yan and Zhao Min collapsed with a loud bang, splashing yellow sand all over the sky.
The two of them then floated in the air. The crossbow insects below attacked more fiercely and violently, and the magic power in Li Yan's hands was also increasing.
Of course he was not willing to go on like this, as it would bring him a lot of trouble, so he planned to burst out his strength to disperse the power of the air wall and then roll back.
In this way, they can use this force to block the yellow light in the sky behind them, and they can take the opportunity to escape. He does not want to fight with so many monsters.
At this moment, Zhao Minzhi, who had been scanning the area below with her spiritual sense, suddenly spoke.
"You are attracting the other party's attention like this. Give me ten breaths of time!"
After she finished speaking, without waiting for Li Yan's answer, she stood behind the air wall, stretched out a pair of slender snow-white jade hands, and began to dance like a butterfly among flowers, performing complex spells.
"This should be a magic formula for refining poisonous insects. Senior Sister, are you going to refine these crossbow insects?"
Li Yan is a disciple of the Wuliang Sect. Although he does not know the "Bulifeng" method, he has read related books and can tell at a glance what the magic formula Zhao Min used is.
But what made him uncertain was, could these crossbow worms in front of him also be a kind of Gu worm? Li Yan couldn't tell the difference.
Time passed quickly, and Li Yan could feel that the power shock coming from the air wall was becoming more and more violent, and it was infinitely close to the attack power of the early Jindan stage.
Although there is only one level difference between the Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment and the early stage of Golden Elixir, the attack power of the two is as different as heaven and earth.
According to the jade slips, crossbow worms can be found in many places in the secret cave. They will divide their own territories and form their own groups.
Each tribe is ruled by a crossbow worm king. About 30% of the crossbow worms that appeared before were second-level monsters, but more were first-level monsters.
In Li Yan's consciousness, there was a second-level peak monster under the yellow sand, emitting invisible sound waves. These were not sonic attacks, but fell on the crossbow insects on the surface.
This made the crossbow insects on the surface become extremely ferocious, and the "arrows" in their mouths shot out like rain locusts, shooting across the sky and earth.
According to records, the highest level of a crossbow worm in Qingqing Continent can only reach the third level of a monster, and it has to devour its own kind to help it grow. This promotion process is quite long.
There can only be one crossbow king in a crossbow swarm.
It will kill the other crossbow insects before they break through to the third level, and then kill and devour them to help itself reach the third level.
Otherwise, with the terrifying reproductive ability of crossbow worms, they would have already become an extremely large population in the continent, causing a disaster like locusts.
Some more intelligent crossbow worms will immediately challenge the strongest in the tribe after reaching the second level. The outcome is either they will defeat the opponent and devour it, or they will be devoured by it.
Those crossbow bugs that did not immediately challenge the strongest usually only submitted briefly. Even if they were gathering strength in secret, they would not escape alone.
Therefore, the life of the crossbow worm is very strange, it is a cycle of devouring and being devoured.
The crossbow worm king in a tribe will not easily kill the crossbow worms in the tribe. It will wait for the opponent to gradually become stronger, so that the essence and blood of the opponent can better help it improve its realm.
The group of crossbow insects that Li Yan and his team encountered had not yet produced a third-level monster, which could be seen from their accumulated attack power.
At most, they can only reach the early stage of the Golden Core, which is related to their overall strength...
Li Yan quickly recalled the description of the crossbow worm in the jade slip in his mind.
At this time, seven breaths had passed since Zhao Min opened her mouth, and Zhao Min's seal-making speed was so fast that only a shadow of her hands was left.
In just a few breaths, a lot of sweat oozed out of her forehead. It can be seen that performing this technique is quite strenuous for Zhao Min.
What should be wasted more is the power of spiritual consciousness.
When the ten breaths were up, a strange syllable came out of her mouth. Although the sound was not loud, it was extremely clear.
At this moment, the crossbow worms below felt as if a string in their brains was plucked by someone. They all became dazed for a moment and even lost the ability to think for a short period of time.
Suddenly, there was a very short gap in the yellow light in the sky. Zhao Min was waiting for this fleeting moment.
She clasped the fingers of her hands together, forming fists, with only her two index fingers stretched straight out and pressed against each other.
She had already circled to the edge of the black air wall by moving sideways, stretched out her arms forward, and pointed out with two jade-like fingers as white as scallions. A thin blood-red line that could only be seen by spiritual consciousness flashed across her fingertips.
The blood-red line instantly spanned more than ten miles and then sank into the yellow sand.
That large area of yellow sand had been motionless for a long time. Compared with the yellow light attack from Li Yan's side, it was completely two different worlds.
Just as the blood-red thread plunged into the yellow sand, the originally calm earth suddenly began to stir like a yellow dragon.
Then a painful roar came from the ground, and a yellow shadow flew out from the flying yellow sand.
The yellow shadow was about one foot in size, and was a yellow maggot that was several times larger than the crossbow worm in front of Li Yan and the others.
It also has a pair of small eyes on its head, and its large mouth, which is spread horizontally below its eyes, is cracked open, emitting sharp hissing sounds, with pain revealed in its eyes.
Judging from the pressure emanating from it, its strength has reached the peak state of a second-level monster. It should be the crossbow king of this crossbow insect clan.
The Crossbow Worm King kept thrashing its body in the yellow sand. Several times, the pain in its eyes was suppressed, and was replaced by an even more ferocious and fierce look.
It immediately stared at Zhao Min who was high in the distance, and the next moment it was about to pounce on Zhao Min.
But there seemed to be an infinitely thin thread on Zhao Min's outstretched fingers. Once she found that the Crossbow Worm King had regained consciousness a little, she chanted the spell more rapidly and kept winding her fingers.
Pain suddenly rose in the eyes of the Crossbow Worm King again, and his face showed a human-like expression of alternating pain and confusion.
Beads of sweat were rolling down Zhao Min's smooth forehead, and her face turned pale.
Obviously, even with her current level of cultivation, it would be extremely difficult to subdue a demon beast that was almost at the third level.
And just as the crossbow worm king flew out of the ground, the attacks of those crossbow worms slowed down a little and then became more crazy.
Li Yan saw that Zhao Min's ritual to refine the crossbow worm king was not going smoothly, and he called out in his heart.
"Zikun!"
In an instant, a young man in purple suddenly appeared in the void. A small purple flag in his hand circled above his head, casting a large amount of purple light.
In just a blink of an eye, a bright purple light appeared ten feet in front of Li Yan, and then quickly disappeared.
The yellow light attacking from the sky seemed to be blocked by an invisible barrier.
More than ten feet in front of Li Yan and his men, balls of dazzling yellow light exploded, and they could no longer attack the black wall of air held up by Li Yan.
It was the "Great Dragon Elephant Formation" that had not been used for a long time!
After the Purple God Dragon Elephant gained physical form, it personally controlled the "Great Dragon Elephant Formation", and its power was more than three times greater than before.
All the yellow attacking light was swallowed up by the formation as soon as it covered the surface of the formation. Although the yellow light in the formation still had a strange superimposed power, it could not shake it at all.
At this time, Li Yan exhaled and exerted force with both hands, and the black air wall was pushed backwards by him.
After flying thousands of feet away, it exploded with a loud "bang!"