Time rewound seven days prior.
Yang Hong had spent five consecutive days defending on Mount Panshi, killing eighteen ninth-tier Scarlet Fire Locusts. He hadn't encountered a single eighth or seventh-tier one.
The entire area outside the formation on Mount Panshi was covered by first to third-tier Scarlet Fire Locusts. After five days of gestation, the newly hatched locusts possessed the ability to gnaw at formations.
If they were allowed to continue, the formation on Mount Panshi would likely be depleted of spiritual energy and magical power within a day.
At that point, it would become nothing more than insect fodder.
The insect repellent had also lost its efficacy after five days of dilution.
"Success! Success! Sect Leader, I succeeded! I've developed the ninth-tier insect repellent!
Hahaha— I'm truly a genius— Hahaha—"
Just as Yang Hong was contemplating a retreat, Zhong Chengfeng's excited voice reached him.
"Really? That's wonderful!
Give it to me, I'll go test its effects."
"The effects will be excellent."
With time pressing, Yang Hong wasted no words. He snatched the storage bag from Zhong Chengfeng's hand and vanished using an earth遁 (earth escape) technique.
He reappeared 328 li to the west. This was the westernmost edge of the insect tide; beyond this point, no Scarlet Fire Locusts could be seen.
Taking out a fiery red pill from the storage bag, he crushed it. A peculiar meaty fragrance instantly wafted out.
Squeak squeak~ squeak squeak~
The swarm, which had been charging in an orderly fashion towards the Zikun Mountain Range, suddenly paused. Then, it erupted into a chaotic, frenzied charge towards Yang Hong's location.
"It's even more effective! The seventh-tier repellent only made the Scarlet Fire Locusts go mad after they ate it, but this ninth-tier repellent makes them surge madly just by its scent spreading."
Seeing that the ninth-tier [Insect Repellent] was indeed effective, Yang Hong was overjoyed.
He stopped using escape techniques. Instead, he took out a pre-prepared third-tier fierce tiger, sprinkled three ninth-tier insect repellents on it, and then used his flying sword to drag it through the air, darting around.
The ninth-tier insect repellent's allure to Scarlet Fire Locusts was unparalleled, but its diffusion range was limited to a radius of twenty-seven li.
To ensure all Scarlet Fire Locusts within the Qingfeng Mountain area were lured away, Yang Hong spent six hours circling, only making a rapid retreat westward when he was almost surrounded by locusts from all sides.
He continued westward at a steady pace, dragging a nearly thousand-li-long red torrent into the desert.
"Should be enough here?"
After flying thousands of li into the desert, Yang Hong dared not venture further. The Scarlet Fire Locust swarm behind him had begun to disperse after being led on such a long chase.
A third-tier Scarlet Fire Locust, lacking intelligence, was still foolishly following. However, fourth-tier and above locusts possessed a degree of intelligence and seemed to have received some command, beginning to retreat and scatter.
Therefore, Yang Hong decided to stop at this location!
Jumping off his flying sword, Yang Hong casually released the dazed tiger. He then crushed over ten ninth-tier insect repellents and with a sword thrust to the tiger's rear, made it yelp and dart away.
Subsequently, Yang Hong's hands moved rapidly, throwing out over a thousand formation plates, filling the area within 200 zhang of him with various formations.
However, these formations were not grand ones, but rather small second and third-tier formations. The formation plates were spoils from his earlier battles, and he decided to clear out some inventory today.
By the time Yang Hong finished setting up the formation plates, the sky-covering swarm of Scarlet Fire Locusts had arrived.
He personally watched as the third-tier tiger was overtaken by the Scarlet Fire Locusts, and within ten breaths, it was gnawed down to nothing but bone.
"Even though I've seen it several times, every time I witness the speed at which the Scarlet Fire Locusts devour their prey, I find it terrifying and disgusting.
Will it be even more disgusting from now on?"
As Yang Hong muttered to himself, his hands continued to work, crushing and tossing insect repellents. At first, he threw them just outside the formation, then slowly, using the [True Essence Grand Seal] technique, he dragged them to be deployed further west.
Countless Scarlet Fire Locusts descended into frenzied cannibalism. Even the fourth-tier locusts stopped their retreat and charged down.
Gag~ gag~
Even though Yang Hong had witnessed all sorts of terrifying scenes, he was still nauseated by the cruelty and madness of the Scarlet Fire Locusts.
First-tier locusts swarmed over the bodies of second and third-tier locusts, gnawing at them madly, disregarding their inherent pressure. Even if they couldn't pierce the armor of the third-tier locusts, they would tear off their soft wings and false feathers.
Third-tier locusts devoured first-tier locusts at a rate of two or three per mouthful, incessantly consuming their own kind. Soon, they began to emit a red glow, initiating evolution.
At this moment, fourth-tier locusts, which had been waiting, immediately charged forward and devoured the evolving brethren.
And when the fourth-tier locusts, having consumed enough of their kin, became immobile due to evolution, they were then torn apart and devoured by lower-tier kin!
This cycle repeated endlessly.
Watching the scene of frenzied self-destruction, Yang Hong fell into a daze akin to enlightenment.
"It truly is~ truly breathtaking!"
Breathtaking it was, but after the shock subsided, Yang Hong still threw out all the ninth-tier insect repellents, intensifying the Scarlet Fire Locusts' slaughter and making it even more brutal!
The brutal slaughter, however, also allowed the Scarlet Fire Locusts to evolve rapidly. Within just an hour, fifth-tier Scarlet Fire Locusts were born!
Fifth-tier Scarlet Fire Locusts were difficult to kill. Instead, they could slaughter lower-tier locusts with their size and strength, growing rapidly.
Within two hours, sixth-tier locusts were born; within five hours, seventh-tier locusts were born.
Seventh-tier Scarlet Fire Locusts were even more terrifying. They possessed special racial abilities, capable of devouring everything within an area with a single gulp.
Lower-tier locusts were no match for seventh-tier locusts. If they were allowed to continue devouring like this, they would quickly consume all the lower-tier locusts!
However~ Yang Hong did not let the seventh-tier locusts continue their slaughter. He intervened in time, killed the seventh-tier locusts, and before other locusts could devour them, he collected their corpses.
These were new medicinal materials.
After grasping the general timeline, Yang Hong used earth遁 to return to Mount Panshi. He sent the materials to Zhong Chengfeng for continuous refinement, while he was responsible for spreading insect repellent within this formation area and killing seventh-tier Scarlet Fire Locusts.
Yang Hong had been focused on the seventh-tier locusts and had failed to notice a special type of locust. Upon evolving to the sixth tier, its carapace would turn black, and it would possess considerable intelligence.
This special type of locust was the one that chirped and attacked with spiritual sense, the Scarlet Fire Locust.
However, after consuming the insect repellent, the sixth-tier chirping locusts seemed even more cunning and brutal.
They no longer circled Yang Hong in the areas where he applied the insect repellent. Instead, they followed the path of the locust swarm back to the outskirts of the Zikun Mountain Range.
"Insect mountains" covered by formation shields gradually revealed the blue sky beneath the jaws of black, chirping locusts.
One or two insect mountains were enough to allow a sixth-tier black chirping locust to evolve to the ninth tier!
These special locusts, originally limited to the sixth tier by genes and bloodline, underwent a massive transformation upon reaching the ninth tier.
With a body thirty feet tall, two heads, four legs, six arms, and eight wings, they resembled terrifying demons.
Furthermore, the two heads of the chirping locusts possessed human-like facial features!
Fortunately, their crimson compound eyes were fixed on the Scarlet Fire Locusts. They only hunted Scarlet Fire Locusts and ignored human cultivators even when they were exposed before them!
Had Yang Hong, unknowingly, created a biological weapon specifically designed to hunt Scarlet Fire Locusts?