Free Web NovelChapter 64: Chapter 64: Shi Lan Was Eaten by the Insect Clan?
Busy fleeing and with no time to check her chip, Shi Lan didn’t know that Mu Tangfeng was able to get out of prison to save her, much less that Yan Huoshui had called in the interstellar pirates.
She could only feel her wrist-chip vibrate several times, indicating a number of new messages.
From behind came the sound of trees toppling one after another. A piercing wind howled past, occasionally punctuated by the coarse sounds of chewing.
Shi Lan hadn’t expected the Insect Clan to be in the mood to eat at a time like this. Perhaps there was simply too little to eat on the Garbage Star, so they were grabbing some vegetation for a snack. But the Insect Clan mainly ate meat now; maybe their appetites had been spoiled. She could even hear the occasional sound of vomiting. Eating, then puking, then eating again—how leisurely of them.
Of course, Shi Lan suspected even more that they were just toying with her, like taking a pet for a walk. They probably thought catching her was too easy and were deliberately making it more difficult for themselves.
’I’m speechless,’ Shi Lan thought, ’but this is a good thing.’ Taking advantage of her small size, she deliberately chose to dart into various nooks and crannies. But as she ran, she soon lost track of where she had fled.
A few times, she caught the foul, fishy stench from right behind her and was nearly devoured by the Insect Clan, her original route unknowingly thrown into disarray.
In her mind, Xiao Du encouraged her, "Master, hold on a little longer. Someone is coming to save you."
The mushroom’s Immunity was very useful. Shi Lan didn’t feel the least bit tired despite all the running. It was just the Insect Clan’s overpowering stench that was making her feel sick. "Xiao Du," she asked, "you just ate that thing. Have we gotten any stronger?"
Xiao Du paused before explaining, "Master, I haven’t finished absorbing it yet. I’ll only know once I’m done."
"Oh, okay."
Shi Lan was disappointed for a moment, but she quickly rallied and continued to flee. She thought about the gun she had purposely brought in her coat, but she couldn’t hold it in her current mushroom form.
She had originally thought she could continue this game of cat and mouse with the Insect Clan, but unfortunately, the chase seemed to have gone on for too long. The two insects were growing impatient and began to speed up.
Shi Lan narrowly escaped the insects’ jaws several times, her heart about to leap out of her mouth.
’If this goes on, I’ll be eaten sooner or later. But I can’t turn back into a human now, either.’
The scent of human flesh was too strong; the Insect Clan would definitely get even more excited. If she were actually eaten then, she’d have to endure the pain.
Shi Lan kept thinking of a way to save herself as she ran. Just then, she spotted a hole in a gully that looked like a rabbit’s burrow.
Her eyes lit up. She immediately dove inside. The pursuing insect couldn’t brake in time and slammed its head hard against the mountain rock in front of it. Clumps of dirt fell from the entrance, instantly obscuring the hole Shi Lan had just entered.
Just as the fallen insect raised its head, the other one, which was right behind, crashed into it.
Instantly, they were seeing stars, dizzy and disoriented.
Once it came to its senses, the insect that had been hit angrily bit the other one, which returned the bite, not to be outdone.
Before they had even caught Shi Lan, the two insects had started infighting. They each tore a large chunk of flesh from the other’s body, and the green blood that flowed out sizzled, creating small pits in the ground.
But just then, they seemed to smell something. Their eyes lit up, and forgetting all about Shi Lan, they turned and flew back the way they came.
Shi Lan, unaware that the insects outside had already left, continued running deeper into the hole without looking back.
The entrance looked small from the outside, but inside was a whole other world. It twisted and turned, with several branching paths.
Shi Lan randomly picked a path. Thanks to Xiao Du absorbing their Spiritual Poison during this time, her transformation duration had successfully increased from 30 minutes to 32. Although it was only a two-minute increase, at least she could see objective growth data, proving that her spiritual power could indeed become stronger.
She now had about seven or eight minutes of transformation time left. She had to get out of this cave, or she would suffocate inside before the Insect Clan even got a chance to eat her.
「Three minutes later.」
Shi Lan saw a flock of Gugu Beasts in the cave. They looked like chickens but were twice the size.
She understood now. This was a Gugu Beast nest, not a rabbit’s burrow.
Seeing a green mushroom enter their territory, the flock of Gugu Beasts curiously drew closer to study it with their pea-sized eyes.
Two of them even pecked Shi Lan on the head without warning.
Shi Lan jumped to startle them. The Gugu Beasts flapped their wings in fright and scattered into different tunnels, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
Hahaha.
Shi Lan couldn’t help but laugh, the tension in her heart instantly easing.
’After all, when it comes to encountering the Insect Clan, you get used to it after the first time. Aside from the genuine thrill of the chase, it wasn’t so bad.’ frёewebnoѵēl.com
She continued forward, following the tunnel one of the Gugu Beasts had fled into, and two minutes later, she successfully spotted an exit.
Shi Lan didn’t rush out. She heard quite a commotion outside, so she cautiously hid in the shadows to peek.
Then she discovered that Black Star had suddenly filled with people.
And these people were fighting the same insects that had been chasing her. As for the other insect connected to the big-bellied one, it was nowhere in sight.
She peered outside more carefully. Just then, she saw Mu Tangfeng’s figure descend from the sky.
The stunningly beautiful Bird of Paradise spread its wide wings. The red, flame-shaped marking on his forehead glowed crimson in the night, and his magnificent tail feathers danced behind him like ribbons, tracing elegant lines through the air.
Having seen it so many times, Shi Lan was intimately familiar with Mu Tangfeng’s beast form. After all, only he possessed that gaze, so arrogant that it looked down on everything.
As if remembering something, she immediately opened her chip to check her messages. They had indeed said Mu Tangfeng was coming to save her. As for the other group of people, they were the reinforcements Yan Huoshui had called.
Shi Lan sent a message to report she was safe, her mind filled with questions.
’Why was Mu Tangfeng able to get out of prison? Weren’t they specifically built for them, impossible to open from the inside no matter what?’
The fact that Mu Tangfeng could leave the prison had always been a tacitly understood secret among the inmates, one they never breathed a word of. If it were discovered, the prison’s defenses would be upgraded and made even stricter, and no one would be able to exploit the loophole again.
But now, for Shi Lan’s sake, they could no longer care about this secret.
Compared to seeing her in danger, they would rather stay locked in their cells forever.
At that moment, because the real-time tracker showed Shi Lan’s position was right in this area, Mu Tangfeng scanned his surroundings but saw no one. Looking at the two insects before him, his heart lurched, and his eyes blazed with fury and anxiety.
The mushroom dangling from his talons wanted to tell him something, but Mu Tangfeng, currently consumed by a storm of fear, worry, and other complex emotions, had completely forgotten about it, to say nothing of the vibrations from his chip.
The little mushroom tumbled from his talons.
It hopped frantically on the ground, but it was too small. Mu Tangfeng, lost in the heat of battle, didn’t notice it at all. In the end, it had no choice but to hop its way toward the cave entrance where Shi Lan was hiding.
Xiao Du told her this was the heroic mushroom that had called for reinforcements for her. Shi Lan gave its cap a rewarding pat. Xiao Du got a little jealous and immediately retracted this offshoot of itself.
"Master, if you’re going to pat something, pat me. I’m the one who told it to get help."
Shi Lan wanted to laugh. "Aren’t you two the same entity?"
Xiao Du was not pleased. "I don’t care. I’m Master’s real favorite."
"Alright, alright, you’re right."
After placating Xiao Du, Shi Lan slipped out of the cave under the cover of night. To avoid being seen, she found a spot away from the crowd and transformed back into her human form.
Meanwhile, Mu Tangfeng, who was already seeing red, didn’t notice at all that the tracker’s position had moved again.
’All he could think was that Shi Lan had been eaten by the Insect Clan.’
