Chapter 1016: Iron-Carapace Devouring Beetles
Chapter 1016: Iron-Carapace Devouring Beetles
The Abyssal Sea Boat finally ground to a violent halt against the jagged, rust-colored shores of Myriad Refinements Island. The heavy, profound-ironwood hull scraped against the metallic reef, sending a deep shudder through the entire vessel that knocked loose debris across the deck.
The air surrounding the island was entirely devoid of natural moisture. It carried the suffocating, metallic scent of ancient oxidized iron and the dense, oppressive weight of highly concentrated Nether Qi. The sky above was a swirling canvas of grey clouds, offering no sunlight to warm the desolate landscape.
City Lord Hai Kuo stepped off the ramp and onto the metallic soil, his weathered face set into a mask of grim calculation. He did not issue any instructions. A cultivator at the Peak of the Core Formation Realm understood the necessity of silence in unknown territory. His aura remained tightly coiled within his meridians, preserving every drop of his internal reserves as he scanned the towering, rusted plates of armor that formed the artificial topography of the island.
Wang Jian followed closely behind the stunning master alchemist, Mu Lianhua. He kept his shoulders hunched, projecting the fragile, easily exhausted demeanor of an untalented array-tuner. His dark eyes swept over the massive iron cliffs that reached toward the grey sky.
A few paces ahead walked Lin Wanyue. The City Lord’s wife maintained her flawless, aristocratic posture, her elegant purple silk robes fluttering in the harsh, dry wind. Yet, every single step she took was an exercise in profound, agonizing self-control.
Her thick, exceptionally curvy thighs trembled with microscopic spasms. Her massive breasts felt heavy and tender against the restrictive silk, the tight pink nipples permanently hardened from the brutal, half-day marathon of absolute sexual degradation she had endured outside her husband’s meditation chamber. Her womb throbbed with a hollow, desperate ache, the lingering traces of Wang Jian’s Stellar Demonic Yang Qi continuing to burn through her pathways. She had to forcefully bite the inside of her cheek to prevent herself from whimpering as the friction of her silk panties rubbed against her swollen, heavily abused pussy.
"The Nether Qi here is incredibly dense," Daoist Luo Cheng remarked, his deep voice breaking the heavy silence. He rolled his broad shoulders, his metallic skin scraping against his leather armor. "It feels as though the air itself is trying to corrode my meridians. This island has not seen a living soul in centuries."
"It is exactly as the ancient jade slip described," Hai Kuo replied, stepping forward onto a path paved with massive, interlocking iron gears. "I found the map to this place during a fortuitous encounter in a collapsing deep-sea grotto eighty years ago. The remnants of a fallen senior contained the exact coordinates. I have spent decades preparing for the specific formations and traps detailed in that text."
"A fortuitous encounter," Shangguan Wan’er repeated, her pale blue eyes tracking the rusted walls. She walked with a swaying, merchant’s grace, her deep purple dress clinging to her curvy hips. "You are truly blessed by the heavens, City Lord. To stumble upon the complete schematic of the True Monarch’s resting place is a rarity that my Golden Tide Consortium would pay millions of Spirit Stones to acquire."
"Some treasures are not meant to be sold, Merchant," Hai Kuo responded evenly. "They are meant to be claimed."
"Assuming the locks hold true to your jade slip," Hua Yimei added, her mature, sultry voice echoing off the metal walls. Her massive breasts heaved slightly within her sheer crimson robes. "Ancient arrays degrade. The spiritual circuitry might have mutated over the millennia. We must tread carefully."
"I have complete faith in the City Lord’s preparations," Lin Wanyue forced herself to speak, her voice tight. She needed to participate in the conversation to maintain her facade, but the effort of walking while her body felt entirely wrecked was monumental.
Wang Jian deliberately stumbled over a raised iron rivet, lurching forward. He reached out, his large hand slapping heavily against Lin Wanyue’s exceptionally wide, plump buttocks to steady himself.
"Apologies, Madam Lin," Wang Jian stammered, projecting a fearful tone. "My footing is poor on this metal."
Lin Wanyue gasped, her spine turning rigid. The sudden, intense physical contact sent a massive jolt of pure Yang Qi straight from his palm directly into her sore pussy. Her inner walls convulsed violently, weeping a fresh stream of slick moisture down her inner thighs. She shot a furious, breathless glare over her shoulder, her cheeks burning crimson.
"Watch where you step, you clumsy fool," Lin Wanyue hissed, her voice trembling with a mixture of aristocratic anger and desperate, hidden arousal.
"Keep your hands to yourself, boy," Luo Cheng grunted, glaring at Wang Jian. "If you fall, hit the ground. Do not drag us down with you."
"Yes, Senior," Wang Jian mumbled, lowering his head and shrinking back behind Mu Lianhua’s voluptuous figure.
They moved deeper inland, navigating through towering canyons formed from massive, overlapping sheets of rusted profound-iron. The oppressive silence of the island was broken only by the crunch of their boots against the metallic gravel and the low hum of their defensive spiritual barriers pushing back the corrosive Nether Qi.
After two hours of tense marching, the narrow canyon opened into a massive, circular basin. The walls surrounding them were sheer, rusted iron cliffs that offered no handholds.
Looming before them, set directly into the side of the far cliff face, was a colossal stone gate. The gate was entirely covered in deeply carved, ancient runic pathways that glowed with a faint, dormant grey light.
"The Five-Elements Heavenly Lock Array," Hai Kuo announced, his eyes gleaming with anticipation. He stepped forward to trace a glowing rune with his thick finger. "The primary seal of the True Monarch’s legacy. It requires absolute, synchronized spiritual pressure from five distinct sources to disengage the internal locking mechanisms."
The group did not need to be told what to do. They had discussed the formation theory extensively on the ship.
Hai Kuo stepped to the central apex of the formation. Luo Cheng moved to the northern node, his skin taking on a dull bronze hue. Shen Mengqi stepped to the eastern node, her midnight-black hair shifting as she summoned her wind-attribute Qi. Hua Yimei took the western node, resting her hands against the cold stone. Lin Wanyue walked to the southern node, taking a deep breath to forcefully ignore the throbbing ache between her thighs, and channeled her Middle-Stage Core Formation water-qi.
Wang Jian and Mu Lianhua stepped back, along with Shangguan Wan’er, providing a clear perimeter in the center of the metallic basin.
Wang Jian watched the intricate, glowing pathways of the ancient array. His brilliant mind, honed by centuries of supremacy, instantly deciphered the underlying structural logic. The array was indeed a lock, but the foundational runes possessed a distinct, aggressive spatial distortion pattern. It was not designed to simply open a door; it was designed to relocate whatever stood in front of it.
The five experts pushed their hands against the stone. They synchronized their breathing, matching the rise and fall of their chests.
Five distinct pillars of highly concentrated Divine Sense slammed into the stone gate simultaneously.
The immediate friction of differing Qi types colliding within the ancient runic matrix generated an overwhelming, suffocating spiritual pressure. The air in the basin distorted, rippling with visible heat. Lin Wanyue gritted her teeth, her massive breasts heaving heavily as she pushed her Divine Sense deeper, struggling to match the incredibly dense, rotating frequency of her husband’s Peak Core Formation aura.
Deep within the stone, massive, heavy mechanical gears began to grind. The sound was deafening, a horrific screech of ancient metal sliding against stone after centuries of dormancy.
The glowing grey runes shifted, pulsing with a steady rhythm. With a final, thunderous crack, the massive stone gate split down the center.
The two halves slowly, agonizingly began to recede into the cliff walls, revealing a dark corridor beyond.
"The path is open," Luo Cheng stated, dropping his hands from the stone, his bronze skin returning to normal.
But the moment the gate fully opened, the glowing grey runes covering the stone violently shifted color, flaring with a blinding, aggressive crimson light.
The ambient spiritual energy of the basin reversed polarity in a fraction of a second.
Shangguan Wan’er’s instincts recognized the catastrophic failure of the spatial coordinates instantly. She raised her Celestial-Tide Abacus, attempting to calculate a stabilization matrix, but the ancient power of the True Monarch was far too absolute.
The solid, metallic ground beneath their feet instantly vanished.
There was no time to summon flying swords or deploy wind arts. The spatial displacement instantly crushed their equilibrium, sending all eight individuals plunging downward into a massive, lower metallic basin entirely open to the grey sky above, yet surrounded by even higher, unscalable iron walls.
The fall lasted for a long, terrifying moment. The air rushed past them, thick with the smell of rust and decaying minerals.
Luo Cheng hit the ground first. His Profound Vajra Flesh Art flared, absorbing the massive physical impact. His heavy boots shattered the rusted iron plates beneath him, sending fragments of metal flying in all directions. Hai Kuo landed heavily nearby, rolling to disperse the momentum, his defensive Qi barrier sparking violently against the harsh terrain.
Wang Jian twisted perfectly in mid-air. He reached out, casually grabbing Lin Wanyue by her thick, curvy waist and Mu Lianhua by her shoulder, pulling both voluptuous women against his chest. He utilized a subtle burst of Stellar Demonic Qi to completely negate their downward velocity, landing silently on the rusted floor while maintaining the illusion of a desperate, flailing fall.
Lin Wanyue gasped, her heavy breasts squishing hard against his chest. For a fleeting second, the intense, scorching heat of his body sent a jolt of pure, addictive pleasure straight to her sore womb, entirely overriding the terror of the fall. She looked up into his dark eyes, her own swirling with a mix of fury and desperate need, before he released her, letting her stumble slightly to complete the act.
Hua Yimei and Shen Mengqi landed gracefully, their respective movement arts allowing them to touch down without injury.
"The array was a false floor," Hai Kuo growled, instantly drawing his Lifebound Magical Treasure from his spiritual sea. A massive, deep-blue polearm materialized in his hands—the Deep-Sea Heavy Trident. The three prongs dripped with highly condensed, freezing water-qi. "My jade slip did not detail a spatial displacement trap at the entrance."
"Ancient texts are often incomplete, City Lord," Shangguan Wan’er noted, dusting off her purple dress. "Or purposely misleading to weed out the weak."
A deafening, horrific sound filled the lower basin. It was not the wind. It was the sound of millions of mandibles scraping against iron, a continuous, oceanic chittering that vibrated deep within their bones.
Shen Mengqi drew her Breeze Sword, her beautiful face turning pale as she looked at the sheer, rusted iron walls surrounding them. "Look up."
Pouring down the sheer, metallic cliffs like a terrifying waterfall of dark steel were millions of insects. They were the size of large hounds, their carapaces gleaming with a dull, heavy luster.
"Iron-Carapace Devouring Beetles," Hai Kuo identified, his grip tightening on his trident. "Sixth and Seventh-Grade beasts. Their shells are highly resistant to physical strikes. They are drawn to the spiritual signatures of our barriers."
The swarm crashed into the floor of the basin.
The physical weight of the insects was catastrophic. It was not a matter of blocking individual bites; it was a matter of surviving a literal tidal wave of heavy metal.
Luo Cheng did not wait. The Peak Core Formation expert stepped to the vanguard. He circulated his Qi, his entire body turning a blinding bronze. He threw a devastating, wide-arcing punch into the leading edge of the swarm.
His bronze fist collided with the insects. The impact shattered the carapaces of a dozen beetles, sending thick, acidic yellow fluid spraying across the iron floor. The physical force crushed their internal organs, but hundreds more instantly climbed over the dead to reach him, their mandibles snapping aggressively at his metallic skin.
"They are too numerous for single strikes!" Luo Cheng shouted, throwing another heavy punch that caved in a beetle’s head.
Mu Lianhua stepped forward, her azure robes fluttering. She slammed her palms together, summoning the Emerald Lotus Flame—a powerful Core Formation beast flame she had refined specifically for public engagements, keeping her true Azure Sky-Heart Flame hidden.
"Blooming Inferno!" Mu Lianhua chanted.
A massive wave of emerald fire erupted from her palms, washing over the descending tidal wave of beetles. The heat was immense. The air warped and distorted. The leading thousands of Iron-Carapace Devouring Beetles screeched, their heavy metal shells glowing red-hot before melting into slag. The smell of burning insect flesh and melting iron filled the basin.
But the swarm was endless. The sheer volume of the insects threatened to suffocate the flames entirely.
Shangguan Wan’er raised her Celestial-Tide Abacus. Her fingers flew across the beads. "Tidal Wall Partition!"
She erected layered walls of localized, highly pressurized water to shield their flank. The beetles slammed into the water barriers, their heavy carapaces grinding against the surface, slowly chewing through the spiritual energy.
Hua Yimei summoned her Crimson Phoenix Zither. She dragged her fingers across the strings, unleashing a series of sharp, highly concentrated sonic blades. The sound waves bypassed the heavy carapaces entirely, vibrating the internal organs of the beetles until they ruptured, causing hundreds of insects to drop dead in their tracks.
Shen Mengqi moved with cold, flawless precision. Her Breeze Sword flashed in the dim light. She did not waste energy on wide, sweeping strikes. She executed perfect, localized thrusts, piercing directly through the joints of the falling beetles, her footwork carrying her gracefully through the chaotic swarm.
Wang Jian remained firmly positioned behind Mu Lianhua’s voluptuous figure. To the casual observer, he was cowering, letting the powerful alchemist protect him with her flames.
In reality, Wang Jian was flawlessly managing the entire battlefield.
He extended microscopic, entirely invisible threads of his Stellar Demonic Qi throughout the chaotic basin. When a cluster of Iron-Carapace Devouring Beetles broke through the flames and plummeted directly toward Shangguan Wan’er’s blind spot, Wang Jian subtly shifted a thread of his Demonic Qi, altering the air pressure just enough to deflect the falling insects away from her.
Hai Kuo swung his Deep-Sea Heavy Trident. He did not use flashy techniques. He relied on the absolute, crushing weight of his Lifebound Magical Treasure. Every swing of the trident smashed through dozens of beetles, sending shattered carapaces and yellow blood flying through the air. The freezing water-qi radiating from the weapon froze the insects upon impact, making their shells brittle before the heavy prongs shattered them.
"Maintain the perimeter!" Hai Kuo yelled, thrusting his trident forward, impaling three beetles simultaneously. "Do not let them separate us!"
Suddenly, a massive, booming laugh echoed from the opposite end of the metallic basin.
"A magnificent struggle, City Lord! But you are merely tenderizing the meat for the true predators!"
Another group of cultivators had survived a similar fall, emerging from a separate false floor that emptied into the same open basin.
At their head stood a tall, gaunt man wielding a massive, deeply curved scythe that dripped with a foul, corrosive crimson energy. He wore robes of dark red, and his aura radiated the unmistakable, coppery scent of the Azure Blood Sect. He was a Peak Core Formation expert, his presence commanding absolute dread.
"Daoist Xue Ren," Hai Kuo growled, instantly recognizing the infamous blood-cultivator. "Blood-Scythe. What are you doing here?"
"I am here for the True Monarch’s legacy, Hai Kuo," Xue Ren laughed, spinning his massive scythe, severing the heads of three diving beetles without looking.
Hai Kuo’s grip tightened on his trident. "That is impossible. The jade slip containing the map and the coordinates was a singular artifact. I secured it eighty years ago."
"You are a fool, City Lord," Xue Ren sneered, taking a step forward, his red robes trailing behind him. "The True Monarch was not a simpleton. He did not leave a single map. My sect discovered a copy in a buried blood-tomb decades ago. We have been waiting for the exact planetary alignment to weaken the outer barriers. It seems your fortuitous encounter was merely one of many invitations."
Behind Xue Ren stood four equally dangerous cultivators, all wearing the dark red robes of the Azure Blood Sect.
"Brothers," Xue Ren called out, his eyes locking onto Hai Kuo’s group. "The beetles are merely a nuisance. The City Lord possesses a vast treasury, and his women are exceptionally beautiful. We will take their heads and claim the legacy for ourselves."
"Understood, Senior Brother," replied a scarred man wielding twin jagged daggers. This was Xue Hai.
"Their blood will nourish my arts," added a woman with pale skin and blood-red lips, holding a whip forged from spines. This was Xue Mei.
Two other men, Xue Li and Xue Feng, drew heavy, serrated broadswords, their auras flaring with violent crimson light.
The basin descended into absolute, three-way chaos.
Xue Ren lunged forward, ignoring the swarm raining down from the cliffs, aiming directly for Hai Kuo.
Luo Cheng stepped up to intercept.
"Blood-Scythe Art: Crimson Crescent!" Xue Ren roared, swinging his massive weapon in a devastating horizontal arc. The blade left a trailing afterimage of thick, corrosive blood-qi.
Luo Cheng did not dodge. He crossed his thick, bronze-skinned arms in front of his chest.
The massive scythe collided with Luo Cheng’s forearms. The physical impact was monumental. The sound was like a massive temple bell being struck by a siege ram. The sheer, overwhelming momentum of the strike sent severe, agonizing tremors directly through Luo Cheng’s bones. He was forced to slide backward, his heavy boots carving deep, screeching grooves into the iron floor.
The corrosive blood-qi of the scythe hissed violently against Luo Cheng’s metallic skin, attempting to eat through his physical tempering.
"Your flesh is hard, Iron-Bone!" Xue Ren mocked, pressing the attack, bringing the scythe down in a vertical chop. "But my blade will carve right to the marrow!"
Luo Cheng threw a heavy punch, deflecting the scythe shaft. "Your words are bigger than your strength, Blood-Scythe!"
Hai Kuo did not remain idle. He saw Xue Li and Xue Feng charging toward him. He gripped his Deep-Sea Heavy Trident with both hands.
"Abyssal Ocean Art: Crushing Leviathan Wave!" Hai Kuo chanted.
He swung the heavy trident in a wide circle. A massive torrent of incredibly dense, freezing water-qi erupted from the prongs. It formed a towering, physical wave of dark water that crashed forward, carrying the weight of a collapsed building.
Xue Li and Xue Feng raised their broadswords, attempting to cleave the wave, but the sheer physical force slammed into them, throwing them backward and freezing the blood-qi protecting their bodies.
Lin Wanyue stood by her husband’s side. She raised her Azure Tides Heavenly Sword, her massive breasts heaving heavily as she parried a lethal thrust from Xue Hai’s twin daggers. The physical exertion strained her sore muscles, her thick thighs burning as she shifted her weight to deflect the blow.
"You move sluggishly, City Lord’s wife!" Xue Hai taunted, his daggers blurring in a rapid flurry of strikes. "Has the journey drained your stamina? Or are you simply weak?"
"I am strong enough to sever your tongue!" Lin Wanyue retorted, swinging her sword in a tight arc, forcing Xue Hai to step back to avoid losing an arm.
Shen Mengqi intercepted Xue Mei. The Fairy of the Silver Gale moved with cold, flawless precision. Xue Mei lashed out with her spine-whip, the weapon coated in acidic blood, aiming for Shen Mengqi’s face.
Shen Mengqi did not retreat. She stepped inside the arc of the whip. Her Breeze Sword flashed in the dim light. She executed a perfect, localized thrust, piercing directly through the joints of a falling beetle and burying her blade three inches into Xue Mei’s shoulder, forcing the blood-cultivator to retreat with a hiss of pain.
"You are fast, Fairy," Xue Mei spat, clutching her bleeding shoulder. "But my blood will rot your blade!"
"Your blood is filth," Shen Mengqi replied coldly, her midnight-black hair shifting as she prepared another strike.
Shangguan Wan’er and Hua Yimei remained on the defensive, continuously battling the endless swarm of Iron-Carapace Devouring Beetles that threatened to overrun them while the others engaged the Azure Blood Sect.
"The swarm is ignoring the blood-cultivators!" Hua Yimei yelled, her fingers bleeding as she plucked the strings of her zither, unleashing continuous sonic waves. "They must be using a repelling incense!"
"Then we wash the scent away!" Shangguan Wan’er declared. She slid the beads of her Celestial-Tide Abacus rapidly. "Tidal Purge!"
A massive wave of pure, pressurized water erupted from the abacus, sweeping across the battlefield. It slammed into the Azure Blood Sect disciples, washing away the pungent, coppery powder they had applied to their robes. Instantly, the devouring beetles turned their attention, swarming toward Xue Hai and Xue Li, forcing them to break off their attacks on Lin Wanyue and Hai Kuo to defend themselves.
"Clever woman!" Xue Ren roared, swinging his scythe at Luo Cheng, forcing the bronze-skinned cultivator to his knees. "But tricks will not save you!"
Wang Jian remained perfectly positioned in the chaos. He observed every single clash, his mind processing the physical weight and the momentum of the combatants.
When a stray blast of corrosive blood-qi from Xue Hai threatened to strike Lin Wanyue’s exhausted flank, Wang Jian "accidentally" stumbled backward, his hand pressing heavily against her exceptionally wide, plump buttocks.
The sudden, intense physical contact sent a massive jolt of pure Yang Qi straight into her sore pussy, causing Lin Wanyue to gasp and involuntarily buckle her knees. Her sudden shift in elevation caused the lethal blood-qi blast to sail harmlessly over her head, shattering against the iron wall.
She shot Wang Jian a furious, breathless glare, her cheeks burning crimson, entirely aware that he was manipulating her physical reactions to save her life while simultaneously humiliating her in the middle of a life-and-death battle. Wang Jian merely offered a terrified, apologetic look, playing his role perfectly.
The battle ground on, the physical toll mounting heavily on all sides.
The air in the basin was suffocatingly hot, thick with the stench of boiling insect flesh, corrosive blood, and vaporized water.
Hai Kuo thrust his trident, impaling Xue Feng through the shoulder, but Xue Li countered with a heavy broadsword strike that shattered a portion of Hai Kuo’s defensive barrier, leaving a shallow cut on the City Lord’s arm.
Luo Cheng’s bronze skin was covered in deep, jagged gouges from Xue Ren’s scythe. The blood-cultivator was relentless, his strikes carrying the weight of a falling mountain.
"Your defenses are failing, Hai Kuo!" Xue Ren laughed, kicking a dead beetle out of his path. "Submit the women to us, and we might leave your corpses intact!"
"I will mount your head on my mansion gates, Blood-Scythe!" Hai Kuo roared in return, swinging his Deep-Sea Heavy Trident in a massive arc that forced Xue Ren to leap backward.
The sheer, chaotic violence of the ongoing battle began to take an environmental toll. The continuous physical impacts of the Lifebound Magical Treasures, the massive waves of water, the intense heat of Mu Lianhua’s flames, and the endless weight of millions of dead iron-carapace beetles proved too much for the ancient infrastructure.
The rusted iron plates forming the floor of the lower basin had been corroded by centuries of Nether Qi. They were never designed to withstand the concentrated, destructive power of Peak Core Formation experts fighting a prolonged war.
A deafening, catastrophic groan of tearing metal echoed through the basin.
"The floor is compromising!" Shangguan Wan’er screamed, feeling the spatial anchors beneath her boots completely shatter.
Before anyone could summon a flying artifact or channel a levitation art, the entire floor of the basin violently cracked. Massive fissures spread across the iron plates like a spiderweb.
With a horrific screech of twisting metal, the floor completely collapsed inward.
Hai Kuo, Luo Cheng, Xue Ren, Wang Jian, and all the women plummeted downward, entirely at the mercy of gravity. They were swallowed by the suffocating darkness as the ruins of the basin crashed down around them. The sheer, chaotic violence of the collapse sent them tumbling in different trajectories, physically separating the warring factions and shattering their defensive formations into the pitch-black abyss of the true subterranean labyrinth.