Bugs

As she saw Hao Xifeng leaving, Xu Yue couldn't help but close her eye and begin meditating.

Unlike nearly all other cultivators, as Xu Yue meditated, she did not her guide her qi around her body in a set technique, merely allowing it to roam free around her body purely based on instinct.

After thinking about it for a few moments, Xu Yue couldn't help but get up and open her eyes.

"I haven't done this in a long time," mumbled Xu Yue as she took the sword from her waist before taking a deep breath.

Suddenly, Xu Yue's sword slashed down, but surprisingly, there was no heaven-shaking might, no world-destroying power being emitted by the sword.

Merely a moment later, Xu Yue raised her sword before slashing her sword once again.

This way, seconds turned into minutes, minutes turned into hours, hours into days, and without even realizing it, Xu Yue continued slashing her sword for several years.

...

Suddenly, Ling Chen, whose body was fully engulfed by extremely hot lava, opened his eyes, no, what was around Ling Chen could not even be said to be lava anymore, as the temperature had risen so high that the very nature of the substance around him continuously changed.

The temperature was so high in fact, that if one was not careful, even one's soul, which was completely immaterial, would be instantly burned to ashes.

After opening his eyes, Ling Chen began flying upwards, ignoring the extremely high heat around him.

'I need to find places with the other five elements,' thought Ling Chen, not wanting to risk upsetting the five elemental balance in his body by refining it this way even more.

Days of going through rock at extremely high speed later, Ling Chen once again arrived at the surface.

The moment Ling Chen exited the underground, his spiritual sense extended outwards, passing through millions of li in a few moments before continuing to expand.

Seeing that there was no one of importance around him, a map of the three thousand regions suddenly appeared in his mind.

"The ocean region should be a good place," mumbled Ling Chen as he suddenly shot into the distance at high speed, faster than most flying ships.

A few moments after Ling Chen left the area, several tiny bugs suddenly walked into the hole he created when he exited the earth.

Minutes later, thousands if not tens of thousands of these tiny bugs began completely covering the sides of the hole.

Even though this had happened nobody was there to see it, and even if someone had seen this, they would pay no attention to bugs which even a mortal can easily crush under his foot.

...

Several years later,

Looking at the endless ocean before him, Ling Chen couldn't help but smile.

This region should do,' thought Ling Chen as he suddenly dived into the water before beginning to swim deeper, much much deeper.

Even though he swam at an incredibly fast speed, it still took Ling Chen several hours to arrive at the bottom of the sea, the sea floor.

Since the top side of the Ocean Region looks exactly the same wherever one was, the bottom of the Ocean was in fact what was shown on most maps.

As soon as Ling Chen arrived at the bottom of the sea, he scanned his surroundings before quickly swimming in one certain direction.

Of course, at the speed he was traveling at, it is much more accurate to say Ling Chen was flying underwater rather than swimming.

Several more years later,

'This is it,' thought Ling Chen as a large hole in the ocean floor suddenly appeared in the distance, causing him to suddenly speed up before arriving at it.

Standing on the side of the several Li wide hole, Ling Chen suddenly looked into it.

But even though Ling Chen sent his spiritual sense tens of millions of Li downwards, he still did not reach the end of this hole, and at the same time, the temperature inside of the hole remained constant, unlike nearly all other places.

"If it wasn't for the Five Treasure Pagoda, I wouldn't have even known such a place existed," mumbled Ling Chen as he prepared to jump into the hole when suddenly, something caught his attention.

Looking at the small insignificant bug that was slowly crawling toward his foot, Ling Chen's eyes couldn't help but narrow.

Suddenly, a sharp claw suddenly slashed at Ling Chen, but rather thankfully, Ling Che moved his head sideways before disappearing, completely dodging it.

Merely a moment later, Ling Chen's fist suddenly launched itself at the extremely large bug in front of him, but extremely surprisingly, the bug managed to almost completely dodge the fist, but even so, the small graze of Ling Chen's fist caused the bug to suddenly be smashed to pieces.

But even though he had won the fight, the frown on Ling Chen's face instead deepened.

'To be at the Minor Trancendance realm and to be able to almost dodge my fist, were these prepared especially against me?' thought Ling Chen, while at the same time thinking about another issue.

"So who is the one controlling things in the shadows?" asked Ling Chen as he looked at the wave of bugs coming towards him.

Suddenly, five different auras suddenly converged in Ling Chen's fist, creating a grey aura that coated Ling Chen's fist.

But rather surprisingly, the aura suddenly dissipated from his fist and into the air as a certain moment from the fight he had just had popped up in Ling Chen's mind.

Then, merely a moment later, the world turned grey as every bug stopped in its tracks.

Without any warning, the bugs suddenly began turning into ash without resistance and without any struggle, as Ling Chen decided not to drag this fight on.

Even so, Ling Chen looked at the hole below him before sighing, and shaking his head before deciding not to go inside.

...

A middle-aged man stood in the air, looking at Ling Chen, who had just killed the bugs.

'The Inheritor of Immortal Li Liang is much stronger than expected,' thought the middle-aged man before disappearing.