It was true that the spirit-immortal stones were treasures, and that he didn't have an endless supply. He only had... about a million of them.

As soon as the beetle-form young woman spit out the mist and backed up to avoid the incoming beetles, Meng Hao laughed coldly. As he hovered in midair, he waved his right hand, sending two more spirit-immortal stones flying out in the young woman’s direction, cutting off her path of escape. As soon as the spirit-immortal stones appeared, the black beetles went crazy.

Ma.s.sive amounts of beetles flew up into the air, at least 40-50,000 of them. They filled the sky and covered the land as they shot toward the young woman.

Her eyes went wide as she saw the ma.s.s of frenzied insects. By now, she was thoroughly convinced that these treasures had to be extremely rare, so, gritting her teeth, she once again fell into retreat. In her attempts to evade the black beetles, she was even forced to use greater teleportation.

“I just can’t believe that he has many more of those things!” she thought to herself, taking a deep breath. Although she began to laugh coldly, she was actually quite shocked by the black stones.

Next, Meng Hao began to throw out more spirit-immortal stones. This time, he threw out five. As they fell, the young woman's body flickered with light as she just barely managed to escape.

The land shook as vast amounts of black beetles flew up in all directions and then charged in the young woman’s direction.

Although her heart was pounding, the young woman looked over at Meng Hao, a cold smile twisting her lips.

“How many more could you possibly have?!”

Meng Hao answered by tossing out ten more spirit-immortal stones, instantly putting the young woman in a very bad position. However, she remained convinced that Meng Hao couldn't possibly have many of the stones left.

“Just wait until you run out of those things. With all these bugs around, you’ll be the one to meet a dismal fate!” Gritting her teeth, the young woman continued to tell herself that all she had to do was hold on a bit longer, and then she would win. After all, she could easily conceal her aura from the beetles, whereas Meng Hao would be incapable of doing so.

Because of that, she was certain that all she had to do was endure the commotion caused by the spirit-immortal stones, and she could secure victory.

“He's going to run out soon! He definitely doesn’t have more than a few dozen left!” She clenched her jaw as she constantly was forced to evade the crazed beetles. However, because of the sheer number of bugs in the area, she was soon completely bedraggled.

Meng Hao hovered in midair, the area around him completely devoid of black beetles. He looked down at the shocking amount of bugs down below, and the teleporting young woman, and then waved his hand, causing five more stones to fly out. Then five more. And another five....

Over the s.p.a.ce of only a few breaths of time, Meng Hao threw out more than 40 spirit-immortal stones. Each one incited a virtual riot among the black beetles, and caused the young woman’s face to fall even more.

“Impossible! How could he still have more!?” The young woman anxiously evaded the bugs; to her, the spirit-immortal stones were exactly like weapons, shooting toward her across the lands. She had actually considered trying to grab them and put them in her bag of holding, but the crazed looks of the black beetles caused her to hesitate. She was worried that if she grabbed one, the beetles might very well rip her to shreds.

All she could do was evade. As for Meng Hao, though, as he continued to throw out the spirit-immortal stones, he was essentially controlling the black beetles, forcing them to chase down the young woman with deadly intent.

“Dammit! Dammit!!” she thought, terrified and beginning to feel regret that she had so rashly tried to drive Meng Hao away. If they had cooperated, then she wouldn't be in any danger whatsoever.

Time pa.s.sed.... 10 more stones. 20. 30. 40.... Blood oozed out of the young woman’s mouth as she continuously evaded the black beetles. By now, she was glaring up angrily at Meng Hao as he continued to chuck spirit-immortal stones at her. His supply seemed endless, to the point where her confidence was beginning to waver.

“Just how many of those stones does he have!?!?” As she watched the seemingly endless amount of spirit-immortal stones being thrown at her, her scalp gradually began to grow numb. That was especially true when the available places to teleport to in escape grew fewer and fewer. Soon, her eyes began to widen with disbelief and astonishment.

“Impossible!!!” she cried hoa.r.s.ely. She almost didn’t dare to believe what she was seeing, which was 300 spirit-immortal stones flying through the air toward her like arrows.

“I've got plenty of these spirit stones!” Meng Hao cried out, sounding very overbearing. Inwardly, he was quite proud that he was so rich as to be able to use spirit-immortal stones to smash his opponent. It was a very domineering feeling.

Although it had been a bit impulsive to throw out more than 300 of the stones, the current volley filled the sky as they shot toward the young woman. As a result, the ground shook, and innumerable black beetles flew out. There were some who were similar to the Immortal Realm or the Ancient Realm. Terrifying ripples spread out in all directions as more than 100,000 beetles filled the sky!!

The young woman was terrified and shocked. Never in her wildest imaginings could she have envisioned an object which would provoke this kind of reaction from the Ghost Eye Beetles, nor a situation in which Meng Hao... would have so many of them!!

Hundreds of spirit-immortal stones spun through the air. 100,000 black beetles were in a complete frenzy, roaring, their eyes bright red. They even fought amongst themselves as they charged toward the young woman, who was now certain that she was about to be ripped to pieces by the shocking onslaught.

But then she clenched her jaw tight, and her eyes shone with determination. As the black beetles bore down on her, she was suddenly surrounded by mist. In the blink of an eye, she transformed from being a black beetle into a cultivator. Then, she waved her hand toward the lands beneath her, launching a violent attack.

It was hard to say what divine ability she used to attack, but it caused an enormous tree to materialize beneath her.

It was fully 3,000 meters tall and conical, with the tip being located at the very bottom. As she waved her palm down, the tree began to descend. In the blink of an eye, it slammed into the land below like a gigantic nail, piercing down into the ground.

Ma.s.sive rumbling could be heard as the gigantic nail-like tree sank down into the ground.

Next, a piercing howl could be heard coming from down below, as everything seemed to collapse. Countless medicinal plants were destroyed as the roar echoed out, shaking everything in the vicinity within the Ruins of Immortality.

Meng Hao’s scalp went numb as he saw the lands below transform into a gargantuan black beetle. Apparently, the nail-like tree had stabbed directly into its body, causing to emit an ear-piercing howl.

Without the slightest hesitation, Meng Hao flew high up into the starry sky. As for the 100,000 black beetles, the howl seemed to drive them to their senses. They all turned, ignoring the young woman and flying directly toward the huge nail-like tree.

The pink-robed young woman’s face was ashen, and she was gasping for breath as she chose to do just what Meng Hao had done: fly away.

Two beams of light shot away off into the distance as the enraged howl echoed out. The intensity of the roar as it pierced into Meng Hao’s ears actually injured him. Blood sprayed from his mouth, and his cultivation base began to tremble wildly, forcing him to stabilize it.

The young woman staggered a bit, blood spraying from her mouth. Her eyes were filled with terror as she looked back at the medicinal plant garden land ma.s.s and muttered something.

As for what exactly she had muttered, Meng Hao couldn't hear.

His heart was pounding as he sped along. The young woman, aware that she had provoked a disaster, also sped along, face pale.

The sound of the howl echoed about, causing innumerable ripples to spread out. The land shook, and cracking sounds could be heard. Huge fissures spread out in all directions, each one of them hundreds of meters wide, filled with mysterious, glowing light.

There were also wisps of mist that rose up from the fissures, as well as frost that spread out across the ground.

At the same time, a droning sound could be heard, which grew stronger and more intense by the moment. Within a few breaths of time, innumerable black beetles flew up out of the fissures, turning the army of 100,000 beetles into an army of hundreds of thousands.

They seemed to blot out the sky above. They flew out, roaring, transforming into a sea of insects that resembled a gigantic, pitch-black hand that shot toward Meng Hao and the young woman.

From the look of things... the beetles wouldn’t stop until the two of them were dead.

When Meng Hao saw the vast amounts of black beetles flying out of the fissures, his scalp went numb.

“This is all your fault!” he yelled angrily. “I was just harvesting some plants! Why’d you have to try to hog everything! If you hadn't, they wouldn't be chasing us right now!”

“This is just what I wanted!” she replied, sounding a bit sarcastic. “What are you gonna do about it? I want the Ghost Eye Beetles to chase me, if you’ve got a problem with that, then go tell them about it!”

Meng Hao was extremely angry. As far as he was concerned, this young woman was being completely unreasonable. He snorted coldly as golden light flickered around him. His Immortal meridians exploded with power, 123 of them, emanating one hundred percent of their possible Immortal power as he transformed into a golden roc. Flapping his wings, he picked up speed, shooting off into the distance.

The young woman also used some unknown technique that caused her to blur as she increased her speed.

The two of them whistled through the air. Although they were no longer on the medicinal plant garden land ma.s.s, the black beetles were still chasing them madly. Not only were the beetles not slowing down, more and more joined their numbers.

A sea of insects like this, a tide of beasts, was something that would cause any cultivator who saw it to be shocked to the extreme.

Rumbling filled the air as Meng Hao and the young woman sped onward. The black beetles seemed to have no plans to let them go, and continued to give chase, their roars echoing out in all directions.

Meng Hao gritted his teeth and changed directions. When that happened, the sea of insects split, with one group following him and the other following the pink-garbed young woman.

However, as soon as Meng Hao changed directions, the young woman’s eyes flickered. Her body blurred even more, becoming nearly transparent. Suddenly, the beetles behind her seemed to lose track of her aura, then changed directions and buzzed through the air toward Meng Hao.

“You wanna fight with me? You're too inexperienced! From the moment I, Su Yan, awoke on the Eighth Mountain, no one’s ever gotten the better of me! Now that I’m pa.s.sing through the Ninth Mountain, there’s no way I’ll break my record!” She looked extremely pleased with herself as the hundreds of thousands of black beetles chased Meng Hao. Eyes flickering, she chose not to depart, but to follow along. [1. Su Yan's name in Chinese is 蘇焉 sū yān. Su is a surname which means "awaken" or "revive." Yan means "beautiful" or "capativating." Interestingly, the character "su" is also used when she says the word "awoke," making for an interesting character contrast/combination in that pa.s.sage. Furthermore, it's the same surname as Su Ming, the main character of another of Er Gen's novels, Beseech the Devil]

“Once he’s on the verge of defeat, if I threaten him a bit more, he’ll definitely hand over the medicinal plants he harvested earlier, to save his life. Plus those black stones. I can definitely extort those out of him!” Su Yan smiled resplendently. She was actually very beautiful, which was accentuated when she smiled. However, there was also a bit of crafty intelligence to her.

That was especially the case because of the beauty mark next to her mouth, which made her even more entrancing.