Chapter 139 Cat and Mouse
In the dungeon, Li, who was studying insect egg specimens, was startled when he saw the runes lighting up on the table.

The magic warning circle he set up was triggered.

Richard frowned and said, “Ulises, did you encounter any difficult bugs when you went out to have fun?”

“Huh? No, those bugs are still so stupid. I can shake them off with just two simple flies.” Ulysses said blankly.

hum!
Another rune lit up on the table.

This means that another warning magic circle has been triggered.

Upon seeing this, Richard packed the things in the crypt into his magic pocket without hesitation and prepared to move out of the crypt.

The crypts he chose were all remote crypts that had been abandoned by black crystal worms, and normally no worms would come here.

Now that the magic circle he set up has been triggered, it means that this place has become unsafe.

Seeing Richard cleaning up the crypt quickly, Ulises suddenly realized, “Huh, another bug has triggered the alarm, right?”

Richard nodded, picked up his staff and prepared to leave the crypt through the tunnel on the other side.

A hiding place naturally cannot have only one passage.

“Gah, I think you’re just too nervous. This underground passage is so complicated, it’s normal for bugs to get lost occasionally. There’s no need to move to a new place every time the alarm is triggered.” Ulises landed on Richard’s shoulder and shouted in a low voice, “And even if they find us by accident, can’t we just take care of them? Why move?”

Every time it moved to a new home, it and Richard would wander around the insect nest for a long time before finding a suitable place to hide.

For safety reasons, Ulysses had to explore the tunnel structure near the hiding place bit by bit, which was a troublesome job.

Hearing Ulises’s shouting, Richard replied calmly:
“We are now inside the insect nest, and we can’t afford to be careless. If we are bitten by those insects, we will be in big trouble.”

“Gah, so what if he bites us? Didn’t we find a good place to escape from the pursuers two years ago? That place is not too far from here.”

Richard shook his head. “I don’t want to go to that damn place unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

……

Two minutes later, an alarm bug cautiously came to the crypt, and after seeing the remaining traces of the wizard’s life in the crypt, it immediately chirped.

Soon, a group of insects came to the dungeon, led by Worm Hart.

“Sir, you are really as good as a god. That wizard monster has indeed been in this place.”

The insect Yinhart didn’t care about the flattery of the other insects, and walked into the dungeon quietly.

From this crypt, he could see that the wizard monster had many of his own characteristics – cautious, calm, and restrained.

The crypt had no decoration, just a platform and a stool.

Chong Yinhart stroked the platform with his upper limbs and soon felt a mark.

According to the Golden Armor Warrior Bug, this mark is called a rune, which is similar to their writing. However, the wizard’s rune has the same magical power as the sacrificial bug. In the rear insect nest, many sacrificial bugs have been trying to learn how to decipher this kind of writing.

On this mark, Chong Yinhart could feel a subtle residual energy, which meant that the mark had just been triggered and the wizard monster had just left.

“Chase, that wizard monster is not far from us! You guys split up and use the surrounding tunnels to reduce the area where this wizard monster can escape as much as possible.”

……

“Gah, boy, we seem to be stuck with bugs.”

In the tunnel, Ulises flew from the back of the tunnel and landed on Richard’s shoulder.

Richard frowned. He was so careful, how could he still be entangled?
“What did you find out?”

“Gah, the tunnels around here basically have traces of bugs. It doesn’t look like a normal movement.”

“you sure?”

“Gah, you still don’t trust my judgment?”

Richard rubbed his brows and said, “That’s going to be troublesome.”

If this large-scale search was a search of all wizards by the Hive, he would be fine. But he was afraid that this search was aimed at him.

As a first-ring wizard, he cannot afford the risk of being targeted by the Hive.

“Forget it, let’s prepare for both situations and go to that place first.”

In a tunnel one kilometer away from Richard, Bughart was leading the warrior bugs to analyze the surrounding tunnel terrain.

The complex structure of the hive is difficult for wizards, but it is also difficult for the bugs.

Even if a bug has physiological advantages, it will take several years to familiarize itself with the tunnel structure near its own settlement. And for communication between settlements, a special kind of bug called a map bug is needed.

“You said that this wizard monster is very familiar with the tunnel, maybe even more familiar with it than you are?” Chong Yinhart said in disbelief.

A native black crystal worm actually said that an alien monster was more familiar with the tunnels of the worm nest than himself.

This is such a bad joke.

“Sir, these wizard monsters have a prop that can easily detect the surrounding tunnel structure and then display it.” The warrior worm explained, “That prop seems to be called a developing crystal ball, and each of these wizard monsters who sneaked in has one.

If they take the time to explore the tunnels of the hive, it’s not impossible that he knows them better than I do.”

Samurai Worm’s defense was well-reasoned, but Worm Hart heard something unusual in it.

The warrior bug felt powerless while he was defending himself, which was not a good sign. “Warrior, raise your head,” Bughart ordered.

The warrior bug did as it was told.

Chong Yinhart looked at him, and a glimmer of light flashed from the black crystal between his eyebrows.

“Tell me, warrior. Is there any fear in your heart?”

“Sir, I…” The warrior bug wanted to answer no, but when the words came to his lips, they turned into yes.

“My Lord, we are so far away from these wizard monsters.”

“That’s not an excuse!” The tentacles of the insect Inhart lashed fiercely at the warrior insect. “You should be thankful that I saw through your thoughts! If it were any other priest, you would immediately become a shell for the Mother Goddess’s cannon!”

The warrior worm’s body trembled and he lowered his head without saying a word.

“Warriors, look at me.” Chong Yinhart flapped his wings and flew into the air, with a holy light shining on his body.

“I know many of you are already scared, but I want to tell you, we will never fail!
We have fought wars with dragons in the sky and with crypt spiders underground. We have failed countless times in these wars, but in the end, we have always won!
No matter how terrifying those wizard monsters are, we, the Black Crystal Zerg, will eventually win this war under the leadership of the Queen Zerg God!”

The words of Chong Yinhart were powerful, and with the holy light on its body, it looked like the arrival of the Queen Insect God.

The warrior bugs fell to their knees, tears of regret dripping from their eyes.

The great black crystal worms had defeated so many enemies in the past, and this was their proud history. With such a proud history, how could they be timid?

They will definitely win.

Falling from the sky, Insect Hart looked at the reaction of the insects with satisfaction.

There must not be even the slightest hint of defeatism in the military.

“Now, go capture that wandering wizard monster and sacrifice it to the Queen Insect God!”

……

“Catch that wizard monster!”

The warrior bug wearing black armor made a sharp explosion. Behind him, a group of warrior bugs were flapping their wings and running rapidly along the tunnel.

Looking at the scene in front of him, Richard’s expression remained unchanged, and he swung the staff in his hand to release a black fireball.

boom!
Black flames filled half of the tunnel. A magic barrier appeared in front of Richard to block the flames, but the insects were in a miserable state. The stench of burnt flesh and shells quickly filled the air.

But Richard had no time to admire the miserable plight of the insects. He glanced at the crystal ball in his hand and continued to fly close to the ground along the tunnel.

Richard’s current situation is not very optimistic. In the tunnel system near him, hundreds of insects are searching for him, including rare insects such as spider knights and sacrificial insects.

Especially the sacrificial insects. These insects can determine Richard’s approximate location based on the vague answers given by the world’s will, completely eliminating Richard’s idea of ​​hiding in the shadows.

Fortunately, there were not many sacrificial insects in the team chasing him, and Richard was able to deal with the insects by relying on the complex tunnel system.

In front, a dark shadow rushed out and stopped precisely beside Richard.

“Gah, there are bugs ahead too. They took a shortcut and went ahead of us. We can’t take this road.”

Ulises’ voice was urgent, not at all leisurely as usual, which made Richard feel depressed.

“Are we surrounded?”

Richard looked at the crystal ball in his hand, which contained the three-dimensional map of the insect nest tunnels he had recorded over the years. From the map, he could see that there were not many paths he could take now, and most of them were dead ends.

A huge encirclement has trapped him tightly inside.

“Gah, what should we do? Fight our way out? Or…” Ulises asked.
Richard looked at the huge blank space at the edge of the map and sighed slightly.

He wanted to break out, but he had to have the ability to do so.

He is now in the insect nest, the hometown of the black crystal insects. If it were possible for a first-ring wizard like him to be domineering, the wizards would have flattened him long ago.

“It seems that’s the only place we can go.”

The sound of insects chirping could be heard in the tunnel. Richard put away the crystal ball, turned around and flew towards a tunnel on the far left of the fork in the road.

Dozens of seconds later, Chongyinhart and his bugs arrived at the entrance of the tunnel where Richard turned. There were three forks in front of him, and there was no trace of the wizard monster’s movement on each fork.

Logically, we should divide our troops into three groups at this time.

But Chong Yinhart did not divide his troops. Instead, he picked up a mushroom from the ground and threw it on the ground. The mushroom rolled on the ground for a few times and finally pointed to the tunnel where Richard was marching.

“Go to this tunnel.” Chong Yinhart gave the order.

“This tunnel?” The warrior worm at the side said hesitantly, “Sir, if the wizard monster is familiar with the tunnel, then he should not go through this tunnel.”

“Huh? Why?” Chong Yinhart asked puzzledly.

“Sir, although there are several forks in this tunnel, they are all dead ends. If you don’t take the forks, this tunnel will only lead to one place.”

“Where?”

The warrior worm trembled twice, as if it thought of something horrible.

“My Lord, this path leads directly to… the Origin Sea Abyss.”

(End of this chapter)