Chapter 1065: The Rise of the Apocalyptic Black Tide
Ultimately, the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance had grievously misjudged the sheer number of Dao One Worms that might exist beneath Shilin Province.
The subterranean caverns were a labyrinth, a twisting maze of passages that didn't just span an area nearly the size of Shilin Province itself.
They also continued to expand, burrowing deeper and deeper into the earth.
Even Li Fan, who now commanded the entire swarm, had yet to fully grasp the true immensity of Shilin Province's Hundred Stone Grotto-Heaven.
It was thanks to this impossibly vast breeding ground that the Dao One Worms could multiply with such astonishing speed.
In less than a month, they could devour every last shred of spiritual energy in an entire province.
"A single sheet of paper is flimsy, easily torn. But stack enough of them together, and they can stop an entire army!"
"And you, alone... how could you ever hope to kill them all?"
Sensing the number of Dao One Worms not just holding steady but actually increasing under the relentless slaughter of Golden Sword Immortal Venerable, Li Fan allowed a cryptic smile to grace his lips.
"Hah... hah..."
Gazing at another subterranean cavern he had just scoured clean, Golden Sword Immortal Venerable finally felt a prickle of exhaustion.
He hadn't stopped for a single moment. His myriad golden swords had crisscrossed the darkness, lighting up one cavern after another, leaving behind only carpets of insectoid corpses.
How many of the black insects had he slaughtered?
A billion? Ten billion?
Even for a Dao Integration cultivator like himself, such an effort had nearly drained his spiritual reserves dry.
Perhaps it was because he was so deep underground, or because the sheer number of black insects was simply too overwhelming.
The spiritual energy here was exceptionally thin, making it impossible to absorb any to replenish himself.
Left with no alternative, Golden Sword Immortal Venerable had to rely on absorbing the spirit stones he carried to slowly restore his power.
"I haven't been this hard-pressed in many years."
Golden Sword Immortal Venerable sank to the cavern floor, a weary sigh escaping him.
His mind drifted back to the past, to his days as a young Foundation Establishment cultivator exploring ancient sect ruins with his companions.
Suddenly, he shot to his feet, his expression turning grave.
He had finally identified the source of the strange, nagging feeling that had been with him ever since he'd entered the Hundred Stone Grotto-Heaven.
It was a warning from his spiritual sense, a primal instinct he hadn't felt in a very long time.
Three hundred years ago, that same keen intuition had allowed him to become the sole survivor of an ill-fated expedition.
But after cheating death that day, his path had been smooth, free of any real calamity. He had almost forgotten what this sense of imminent danger felt like.
Until today. After all these years, that prescient alarm was ringing once more!
"This..."
Golden Sword Immortal Venerable's heart began to pound uncontrollably in his chest.
His mind raced, and in an instant, he made a decision.
Casting aside any thought of rest, his body transformed into a streak of golden light, hurtling deeper into the subterranean maze.
He had to see for himself just how vast this Hundred Stone Grotto-Heaven truly was!
Three days later.
Golden Sword Immortal Venerable's face was ashen.
At his speed, three days was enough time to circumnavigate the entire territory of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance several times over.
And yet, he still hadn't reached the end of the Hundred Stone Grotto-Heaven.
It was like an abyss, a bottomless ocean that seemed to stretch on into infinity.
A shudder ran through Golden Sword Immortal Venerable as a terrifying image flooded his mind: the caverns, packed to bursting with black insects, spilling out into the world like a monstrous, surging tide.
"A catastrophe," he whispered. "This is a catastrophe."
"I can't let this happen. I must report this to the Alliance headquarters immediately."
Golden Sword Immortal Venerable hastily retrieved a communication talisman, intending to contact the Alliance headquarters.
But, perhaps because he was too deep underground, he couldn't establish a connection.
The sense of foreboding in Golden Sword Immortal Venerable's heart grew even stronger.
Pushing his speed to its absolute limit, he raced to escape the subterranean labyrinth.
But for some unknown reason, the black insects, which had previously been content to quietly feed on spiritual energy, suddenly surged toward him in a frenzy.
They were trying to block his escape.
For the first time, Golden Sword Immortal Venerable truly understood what it meant to fight for every inch.
Holding nothing back, he unleashed every golden sword he had refined, and they materialized at once, forming a whirling vortex around him.
The storm of blades pulverized any insect that dared to block his path, grinding them to dust.
With indomitable momentum, Golden Sword Immortal Venerable began his rapid ascent from the depths.
The stark change in the insects' behavior only confirmed his suspicions—there was a conspiracy at work here.
If he didn't stop this, and quickly, the consequences would reach far beyond Shilin Province. The entire Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance, perhaps even the whole of the Xuanhuang Realm, could be facing disaster!
"Who," he seethed, "is plotting such an audacious, monstrous act!"
Fear and fury warring within him, Golden Sword Immortal Venerable pushed his speed even further.
When he finally burst through the last barrier of insects and saw the sky once more.
He was about to send his urgent report to the Alliance headquarters when a sudden sensation made him freeze in place.
Golden Sword Immortal Venerable looked up, raising his left hand toward the sky.
"Is... is that the wind?"
A faint breeze stirred between heaven and earth, seemingly from nowhere.
Then the breeze swelled, growing stronger and more violent by the second.
Its howling roar became like rolling thunder.
The clear, sunlit sky was swallowed by thick, dark clouds in the blink of an eye.
As shadows enveloped the land, every cultivator in Shilin Province was gripped by a heart-stopping sense of impending doom.
"Whoosh!"
A demonic gale howled past, so fierce that even Golden Sword Immortal Venerable struggled to keep his footing.
The gale vanished as quickly as it came, but its implications sent a deathly chill through the Dao Integration cultivator's heart.
Then he seemed to hear another sound on the wind, something faint and dense.
But he could sense no trace of an actual breeze.
While he was still puzzled, a black wave of innumerable flying insects erupted from below.
Riding the wind, they surged out of the Hundred Stone Grotto-Heaven.
They soared into the sky, a world-ending storm cloud spreading unstoppably across the provinces of the Xuanhuang Realm.
Faced with this immeasurable tide of black insects, Golden Sword Immortal Venerable's protective spiritual barrier was like a fragile sapling in a hurricane, threatening to shatter at any moment.
Horror-struck, Golden Sword Immortal Venerable could no longer even entertain the thought of stopping the catastrophe.
All he could do was struggle to ensure his own survival.
The black insects pouring from the caverns seemed infinite. As far as his eyes could see, there was nothing else.
Engulfed in this living nightmare of a black tide, even moving or breathing became an impossible luxury.
He wasn't even their target; he was merely something to be trampled in the path of their great migration.
Swept away by the boundless, raging sea of insects, the mighty Dao Integration cultivator began to lose consciousness.
"It's over..."
In the final moment before darkness took him, Golden Sword Immortal Venerable's first thought was not for his own life.
Instead, it was of the inevitable reckoning he would face from the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance once this plague was finally dealt with.
"Damn it all. If I'd known it would come to this, I never would've taken this cursed assignment."
His physical form slowly faded, finally coalescing into a single golden longsword seemingly forged from thousands of smaller blades, which fell to the ground with a resounding clang.
Indeed, the black insects, for all their numbers, could at most exhaust a Dao Integration cultivator to the point of temporary unconsciousness.
Killing one, however, was still beyond their power.
But...
Li Fan's figure materialized from within the black tide.
He bent down, picked up the golden longsword, a faint smile playing on his lips.
Then, with a casual wave of his hand, he layered tens of thousands of restrictive formations upon it.
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