Chapter 57

Under the strong light, countless green eyes glimmered in the dark stone room, making it seem incredibly eerie.

Su Jiu's entire scalp tingled.

Numerous fist-sized strange insects stared intently at Su Jiu.

Su Jiu had been observing the large statue and hadn't noticed the surroundings, so he didn't know when so many strange insects had appeared.

Why were they called strange insects?

These fist-sized creatures were round and plump.

Of course, being round and plump didn't mean they were cute. At this moment, in Su Jiu's eyes, they were only terrifying and disgusting.

These fist-sized insects had the typical insect features, six legs, each about the size of a finger.

They looked like an enlarged version of a beetle, with a layer of shiny black carapace on their backs.

Their green, oily eyes and the green liquid dripping from their mouths.

Su Jiu was momentarily stunned.

The room was densely packed with these strange insects.

There were probably over a thousand of them.

Regardless of their combat strength, the sheer number of them was enough to make Su Jiu's scalp tingle.

Su Jiu was completely stunned for a moment.

"So many strange insects, with such fierce gazes, am I going to meet my end here today?" Su Jiu thought to himself.

Indeed, although Su Jiu was not an ordinary person but a feng shui master with the cultivation of the Qi Nourishing Realm, he would likely not have a good outcome surrounded by these strange insects.

Soon, Su Jiu regained his composure.

His pupils instantly constricted.

These strange insects seemed to be afraid of something?

Su Jiu deduced this from their eyes.

Could it be the Sun-Shielding Spider?

Thinking of this, Su Jiu immediately used his consciousness to control a Sun-Shielding Spider to charge forward.

However, the Sun-Shielding Spider was instantly bitten to death by one of the strange insects, which moved at an incredible speed.

"This speed..." Su Jiu's scalp tingled again.

The speed of the strange insect was too fast, and it instantly killed the Sun-Shielding Spider.

"If they're not afraid of the Sun-Shielding Spider, what are they afraid of?" Su Jiu wondered.

The spacious stone room had nothing in it except for the altar and the statue behind him.

Wait, something flashed through Su Jiu's mind.

Could it be the statue?

This thought instantly popped into Su Jiu's mind.

It had been nearly two minutes since he first noticed the strange insects, but they hadn't attacked him.

Su Jiu observed carefully and found that the strange insects had formed a circle around him.

They were about fifteen to sixteen meters away from him.

The circle was relatively round, with a radius of fifteen to sixteen meters, centered on the statue.

Initially, since the statue was just an inanimate object, Su Jiu hadn't thought about this aspect.

But at this moment, this discovery made Su Jiu's tense heart relax.

Finding the reason meant he was temporarily safe.

With so many strange insects, if a battle were to break out, he would be at a complete disadvantage.

He hadn't expected such a situation to occur in this ancient tomb.

Although Su Jiu was temporarily out of danger, being surrounded by so many strange insects was not a good situation. He couldn't stay here forever. He needed to continue exploring the ancient tomb, solve the feng shui issues, and eventually return to reality and the surface.

Clearly, the current situation was not optimistic.

The insects had no intention of retreating.

They continued to surround Su Jiu.

Su Jiu began to ponder what these insects were.

Only by understanding the enemy could he find a solution.

Su Jiu quickly recalled the information in his mind.

Indeed, his mind contained the records of the golden compass. The information on the golden compass was not extensive, only a hundred or so characters, but when Su Jiu's consciousness touched one of these characters, more knowledge would appear.

It was as if these characters were a table of contents, and entering one of them was like opening a thick book.

Su Jiu flipped through the characters one by one.

Time passed minute by minute.

Both sides seemed to be in a stalemate.

The scene before him deeply shocked Su Jiu. The intelligence displayed by these strange insects was what truly frightened him.

While searching his memory, Su Jiu kept a close eye on the surrounding insects.

The golden compass contained countless memories about feng shui.

Su Jiu had known this for a long time, but he had never had the time to check it thoroughly. Even when he did, it was just a cursory glance. This time, Su Jiu carefully reviewed each item.

Finally, after several dozen minutes, Su Jiu took a deep breath.

He found the information about the strange insects.

These strange insects were called Corpse-Guarding Insects.

The Corpse-Guarding Insects originated from the Yanhuang period, from the lineage of shamans.

As for who trained these insects, Su Jiu couldn't find any relevant information.

However, Su Jiu found detailed information about these insects in the golden compass.

In ancient times, tomb robbers were rampant. Although the builders of ancient tombs tried their best to protect them, they ultimately couldn't withstand the methods of the tomb robbers.

It was said that in ancient times, a shaman became a noble and, to prevent his tomb from being robbed, trained a special insect—the Corpse-Guarding Insect.

These insects were placed in the tomb passages.

The Corpse-Guarding Insects had special endurance.

They were bloodthirsty but did not need to feed on flesh and blood.

They could survive by eating a special mineral.

These insects had extremely strong vitality and could enter a hibernation state, surviving for decades or even a century without moving.

Moreover, they reproduced easily and had no special requirements.

Su Jiu recalled the information in his mind.

These insects, the Corpse-Guarding Insects, would not die easily even if cut in half. They were extremely resilient.

They were well-suited to dark, damp environments.

Seeing this, Su Jiu was deeply moved. He hadn't expected such insects to exist.

This was a great shock to Su Jiu.

However, these insects were not without weaknesses.

According to the golden compass, these insects feared fire.

But Su Jiu knew it wasn't just that.

From the earlier situation, these Corpse-Guarding Insects were naturally bloodthirsty.

With a living person like himself here, they had been in a stalemate without attacking, clearly fearing the statue behind him.

The statue was just an inanimate object. What exactly were these insects afraid of?

Could they be afraid of the person depicted in the statue?

This thought flashed through Su Jiu's mind, but he quickly dismissed it.

The Corpse-Guarding Insects seemed magical, but Su Jiu didn't believe that insects could have such intelligence.

He immediately ruled this out.

Regardless of that.

Since the Corpse-Guarding Insects feared fire, he would use fire.

He couldn't stay here and waste time with these insects.

With a solution in mind, Su Jiu immediately took action.

Fire was simple. He had a large number of talismans in his pocket.

The most numerous were probably the Fireball Talismans.

Su Jiu took out a talisman from his pocket.

With a surge of mental energy, he waved his right hand, and the talisman in his hand instantly turned into a fireball, flying toward the insects.

"Boom!" The fireball moved quickly and exploded in the insect cluster, producing a dull sound.

The sudden fireball caused a commotion among the insects.

The Corpse-Guarding Insects, which had been facing off with Su Jiu, immediately became agitated.

"So, they fear fire for this reason." Su Jiu muttered, looking at the scene.

When the fireball landed on the Corpse-Guarding Insects, the green, sticky liquid on their bodies ignited like gasoline.

Su Jiu instantly understood why the golden compass recorded that the Corpse-Guarding Insects feared fire.

His heart relaxed.

It seemed these Corpse-Guarding Insects weren't much of a threat.

Just as this thought crossed his mind, an unexpected situation occurred.

In an instant, several burning Corpse-Guarding Insects, like jumping fleas, leaped toward Su Jiu. More shockingly, they spewed green liquid from their mouths, which ignited and sprayed toward Su Jiu like a flamethrower.

The flames instantly illuminated the stone room.

"Damn, are they trying to take me down with them?" Su Jiu was momentarily stunned and dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding the insects.

The leaping Corpse-Guarding Insects missed Su Jiu and landed on the ground, writhing for a moment before turning into a pile of flames and burning out.

This scene instantly alarmed Su Jiu.

Fortunately.

He had only used one Fireball Talisman.

Only a few Corpse-Guarding Insects were burned.

If he had acted a bit faster and used more talismans, burning more insects, the consequences would have been...

Thinking of this, Su Jiu broke out in a cold sweat.

Just a few Corpse-Guarding Insects had made him flustered. If it had been as he imagined, could he have dodged?

Su Jiu knew the answer clearly.

Looking at the Corpse-Guarding Insects, which had calmed down after the commotion, he felt a sense of frustration.

The Corpse-Guarding Insects feared fire and were extremely vulnerable to his Fireball Talismans.

But even if one talisman could kill several insects, the sheer number of them, at least a thousand, was daunting.

Especially after what had just happened, Su Jiu didn't dare to move recklessly.

The stone room fell silent again.

Su Jiu fell into deep thought.

The insects were once again facing off with him.

The Corpse-Guarding Insects seemed to be surrounding him but had no intention of attacking.

But Su Jiu knew they were only afraid of the statue behind him.

The few doomed Corpse-Guarding Insects had directly attacked him, which clearly showed this.

"Wait... What did I just think of?" Su Jiu suddenly had a thought and muttered.