Biting more than you can chew (2)

The members of Team Seven were left surprised like a deer in the face of headlights. More than a dozen gu masters surrounded them with many more on the way.

"Looks like you guys bit more than you can chew! Did you really think you could defeat all of us when you found our hideout?", said one of Immortal Crane Sect members with a look of amusement.

"That's why I was asking, 'What is the plan?'", said Tie Yue Sen in a loud voice as if he was asking the walls in the cave.

"Hehe. We had a hunch you would follow us. You did a good job hiding your presence from my Misty eye Gu but my seniors have more powerful investigative gu insects than mine. As soon as we told them of our suspicions, they were able to find you immediately.", said Lin Que. She was talking about a Rank 3 Flowing touch Gu used by her senior. It could detect the presence of others based on fluctuations in the air.

"Were these the kids who beat you, Yan Cai? They are just a bunch of Rank 2 gu masters and you couldn't even beat them?", asked Ren Jia, a Rank 3 upper stage gu master, with a derisive look.

Yan Cai also made his way to the front to face his enemies. He immediately noticed that there were only three members in front of them. "Where's that Rank 3 gu master? Where's your leader?"

Ren Jia immediately used Flowing touch Gu to see if there was anyone hiding. He couldn't find anyone hiding. His brows furrowed. He focused his Flowing touch Gu to the highest degree. He could feel faint fluctuations coming from underneath the ground and they were growing larger by the second.

"Shit! He was hiding underground!", exclaimed Ren Jia while preparing his Shock wave Gu to attack.

The other gu masters became vigilant and shot their attacks on Tie Yue Sen and the rest. The ground beneath Team Seven's feet shattered and they all fell down missing most of the attacks. As Tie Yue Sen hazily rose to his feet, he grabbed Gu Guangzhi by his collar and asked, "For the last time, what is the plan?"

Ren Jia came to the sink hole and was about to launch his shock wave attack. "Run!", screamed Gu Guangzhi. All the members of Team Seven picked themselves up and started running in the underground tunnel. Shock wave Gu was a powerful gu belonging to the wind path. The shock wave was about to catch up them when Gu Guangzhi suddenly used Bamboo Swamp Gu to open up a detour in the tunnel. After they rushed into the opening, Gu Guangzhi closed it again with his Turn Rock Gu. The shock wave went past them and went deeper into the tunnels.

Ren Jia and the other gu masters couldn't see that Gu Guangzhi and his team escaped. They were peeking into the tunnel to see if the attack was a success. Suddenly they heard an echo of low screeches coming from the tunnel. Thousands of Herculean dung beetles, each the size of a dog, poured out of the tunnel.

"Shit! How did the beetles get here so fast? Weren't they supposed to be slow?", screamed a gu master in panic.

In the tunnel below, Gu Guangzhi could feel the crawling of the insect beasts. They must've caught on the scent of their queen and increased their pace.

"What took you so long to come? We thought we were going to be dead!", said Tie Yue Sen angrily.

"Hey digging those tunnels and luring those insect beasts wasn't easy. There are several kinds of insect beasts in these caves. It took a lot of effort to dig the tunnels without disturbing the others. I'm too exhausted now so don't even start complaining.", replied Gu Guangzhi.

Meanwhile, the members of the Immortal Crane Sect that had stolen the Herculean dung beetle queens were even more alarmed because all the dung beetles were charging towards them. The Herculean dung beetles usually roll up their excrement into balls and throw them at their prey. They were very sticky and harden quickly so the prey can only cry in despair as the Herculean dung beetles approached them slowly.

The state of the Immortal Crane Sect members was exactly the same. They tried their best to avoid the dung bombs being hurled at them or blasting them away with their own attacks but there were too many dung bombs being aimed at them! None of these gu masters were new to fighting hordes but they were now fighting in the Southern border! Their attacks were weaker and the relentless stream of insects broke the resolve of some members.

"It's too much! I'm leaving this place!", said one gu master as he tried to run away.

"Senior brother, don't leave me! You were the that roped me into this mess.", cried another gu master.

As the defenses dwindled, the insects swarmed the cave. One of the gu masters who was carrying a storage gu with the queen was overrun by the insects. When the insects couldn't find where the scent of the queen was coming from, they started biting the body of the gu master to find their queen. The insects tore the body of the gu master into pieces till they found the storage type gu containing a Herculean dung beetle queen. As they damaged the storage type gu, the Herculean dung beetle queen struggling inside was released.

Seeing this, many other gu masters lost their nerve. They voluntarily released the other queens from their storage type gu to appease the insect beasts. However, they were sorely mistaken. Under the leadership of their queen, they started attacking more ferociously. Dung bombs flew all over the place and the gu masters were covered in piles of dung. Many of them suffocated while being drowned in dung and died on the spot. Only a few gu masters were able to successfully escape.