First foray into the hills

One by one the group started to read about Insect World. The more people read, the more they were scared. But no one could blame them.

When Bai Yun got his hands on the book, he quickly read through the section on the Insect World. There was not too information much about it, as that would not be permitted. He quickly skipped through the various kinds of weak beasts that could be found like ants, bees, hornets, butterflies, beetles, moths and so on.

He quickly read up the information on the beast den, as only that was relevant to him. It would usually be an ant hill or a bee hive. The most important thing was that the entire place was a labyrinth. It would have multiple entrances, and the teams had to traverse the den looking for the central cave. In their paths, there would be many other housing areas for various beasts which they could skip or fight if they needed. Most people would prefer to skip these to save time, as time was the most important factor in the scenario. But some would want to fight, as these places usually contained the precious materials.

The black flag in the central cave was protected by one powerful insect beast. There were four pathways into the cave, and each of these pathways were guarded by one mini boss insect. After this was the labyrinth which fed into the pathways. Thankfully the tracker could help one in leading them by pointing to the general direction of the cave, but it was not too effective as it was a labyrinth after all.

Bai Yun then glanced through the various beasts that could be found inside the beast den as well as the few beasts that took turns being the guardian as well as the cave boss before he passed the book on. As he digested the information given, he pondered on what to do.

Once everyone had read the book, Gong Ming once again took charge of the group. "We have four and a half hours before the siege begins. I suggest that we all go out to hunt for the next three hours and reconvene here at an hour and a half before the siege begins."

Most of the people who heard of this nodded their heads. Then someone asked "But if we all leave and some of the beasts wander in during the siege. Won't they destroy the flag then?"

"It will be fine. Until the siege begins, the flag will be protected by a special energy and won't be destroyed. So we can all leave safely." Gong Ming replied with a smile.

"Then can't we go and destroy the beast's flag now, before the siege had begun?" Someone asked.

"Of course not." Gong Ming explained. "Just like how our flag cannot be destroyed at this time, it is the same for that of the beast's flag. Not only will the main cave be sealed until the siege began, but the labyrinths will also be filled by beasts until then. Going there now would be suicide."

Bai Yun watched as Gong Ming put the group together. He had to accept that Zhang Zi was right. The person in front of him was nothing like the frivolous young man he pretended to be earlier. This person was definitely a chameleon.

Gong Ming moved towards Zhang Zi and asked in a small voice "Can you handle Song Hui?"

"Where is Hui?" Zhang Zi asked, realizing that she was not here.

Gong Ming smiled wryly. "It was almost impossible to curb her. She seemed to have found her life's passion of destroying buildings. She is currently still doing it. I would have left her behind but for the rule that we need to move together. But I am afraid that she will run away or not make it back in time, that is why I am asking you to go with her."

Zhang Zi nodded after thinking about this. They left to find Song Hui, and returned a short while later with her. By then most of the group had already left, and the ones who hadn't were starting to.

Bai Yun quickly left along with the rest of the team. Once outside, they all split up into smaller teams and decided to mostly move alone to find treasures or beasts. The insects in the insect world were rather weak, and any one here could easily handle one of them.

Bai Yun then took out the tracker and headed straight for the beast den. For others, this time was for finding precious materials and some points if they could, but the time held a completely different meaning for Bai Yun. Ne needed to use this time to hunt for points.

It took Bai Yun ten minutes of direct running before he reached what appeared to be a mountain. Along the way, Bai Yun had run into a few insects which gave him another ten points. But he had not even slowed down on the way, cutting them into two while running. Bai Yun stood in the shadow of the forest, and looked at the large brown mountain looming over him. The tracker showed that the beast flag was inside the mountain. It seems as if the den was an ant hill and not a bee hive. Bai Yun sighed in relief. This meant that there would be more ants than other flying insects. If there were a lot of flying insects, then there was no way for the defending team to hold on for long.

As Bai Yun watched, he saw caves in the side of the mountain, through which various ants and termites were coming out and going in. There were also some bees flying out every now and then. After he watched for a while he realized each of the caves was usually only used by a single insect race. He had a variety of choices to choose from, and after thinking about this he chose to head to a cave that was used by bees.

The reason he chose that cave was twofold. The bees in the insect world were known for making a special kind of honey that could help strengthen a person's physique. If there was enough of it, it might even be possible to reach the fourth stage of skin sewing for Bai Yun.

Bai Yun walked up to the cave directly. On the way, all the beasts that saw him, directly attacked him, but there were only a few of them and all of them were only at the first circle stage. Bai Yun dealt with them easily, and reached the mouth of the cave.

The cave he was in was a short jump down. Even though there seemed to be light in there, it was darker than the outside. He could hear a faint buzzing noise reverberating from inside the cave.

Bai Yun took a deep breath and then jumped straight into the cave.

The cave was only a few feet tall. He quickly fell to the bottom and found himself inside a tunnel. The tunnel was a few meters wide, wide enough for someone to walk and fight, but not enough to be surrounded in all sides. Once inside, he realized that his sight was not affected too much, probably something that the organizers had arranged.

He chose a random direction and started to walk. The cacophony of noises around him, of which buzzing was the loudest, drowned out all the other noises around him. He could not even hear his own footsteps. He frowned as he realized that this meant that the den was a great place for ambushes.

Bai Yun had taken only a few steps when his god sense throbbed in a warning. He swung his sword in a great arc behind him, directly bisecting the bee that was behind him. But the momentum of the bee was too much and he had to duck out of the way of the dead bee. As he did so, the blood of the bee splashed onto him, making it the first time since he started the gold test that some blood splashed on him.

Bai Yun frowned as he looked at the dead bee. He was not able to hear the bee approaching and had only been able to notice it due to the god sense. He was not sure how many people would be able to hold on under the assault later.

Bai Yun had only taken a few more steps, when he stopped once again. The tunnel he was on was twisting quite a lot, and as he watched, a few bees appeared in front of him. They stopped for a second upon seeing him, following which they attacked him with increased vigor.

Bai Yun frowned, and he immediately used simple sword to block the attacks that were coming at him. He did not have the strength to kill each of these bees in a single swing, as if he made a large motion, the other bees would slip in and attack him. It took Bai Yun about a minute to kill off all the bees in the group.

The number of bees that he had faced in such a short time was quite great. Even if the number of bees in the den before the siege was much greater than during, he was still troubled by it. He started to wonder how many of the attacking team would manage to survive.

Bai Yun turned around the corner and stopped when he came face to face with a few bees. Bai Yun was just about to face them when his eyes widened. He threw himself to the side, resulting in him colliding with the wall of the narrow tunnel. Two bees had passed right through where he was standing a minute ago. He had missed them until the last moment as they had attacked from behind.

Bai Yun realized with a start that he was surrounded by bees. As he looked, he saw quite a few bees surrounding. Most importantly the tunnel widened out into a room in front of him. The other side of the wall did not look like rock, but a beehive. Many bees were flying out of the various holes in the hive. There was even a large hole which seemed to be two meters wide in front of him.

But he had no time to appreciate this. The bees had attacked him without a pause. Bai Yun started to defend himself against the bees. Since each of the bees were only a little larger than a foot in size, and they could all fly, nearly a dozen of them were attacking him in each instant. The only reason he was still able to hold on was due to the simple sword. But he could only push the bees out of the way and not harm them, as he did not have the time to gather the strength to attack.

Bai Yun started to move as he defended himself. With each step that he took, he would make half a turn so as to defend against the attacks that were coming from behind. This manner of turning and walking caused him to meander aimlessly through the room.

As he looked, his entire perception was soon dyed in bees. Thankfully the tunnel was not too tall or he might also have had to deal with attacks from above. After a while, Bai Yun started to think that he was back in hell.

He threw that thought away after a moment.

Hell was nicer.

He had to agree with Gong Ming that coming here was suicide.