Chapter 719

Chapter 719: Ground Worm Causing Trouble

Ying Continent

In a monster breeding farm, a guard is being eaten by a giant worm. The defense robot is on the ground, flickering with electricity. The worm spat out the robot after trying to eat it, but found it not tasty and so spit it out.

Inside the farm, there are thousands of pig-like monsters, they are extremely frightened and are roaring loudly, trying to scare off the enemy by gathering together.

However, the giant worm is not scared off and keeps advancing. Suddenly, its poisonous tail hooks a pig and drags it towards its mouth to eat it. The pig is almost paralyzed by the venom in the worm’s tail hook.

Some brave pig monsters launch attacks. These pigs were domesticated from real wild pig demons by the farm owner, retaining some ferocity but with their fangs removed.

The pig demons try to push the worm with their snouts, but they are unable to budge it. When they try to bite, their teeth shatter, unable to harm the worm.

Over an hour later, a police airship arrives first. The flying ships of Ying Continent cannot be independently produced due to restrictions on certain materials, mostly imported from Huaxia. They are only available at the city level, in very limited quantities. It has been two hours since the farm’s distress call.

"It’s a ground worm from Penglai Continent."

"It’s huge, three to four times larger than in the data, over thirty meters long."

"The county-level police are almost finished."

"Weapons activated, prepare to attack."

Inside the aircraft, a few officers looked at the data that came up on the scan, all of them were shocked. The ground worm on the scene was much larger than the information they had, not only was its body much longer, but it also emitted a golden light all over.

The cannon muzzle opened, the aircraft opened fire, and the bullets flowed out like a tide, all hitting a ground worm accurately. However, these bullets with a caliber of over twenty millimeters could not penetrate the defense of the Demon Insect.

"Our aircraft is too weak."

"Those cursed Huaxia people, they sold us old model aircraft at a high price…"

"Those above are also cursed, they said last year that they would upgrade the aircraft, but there has been no action for over a year."

"Stop quarreling, the machine guns are ineffective, switch to the main gun, increase altitude first."

Inside the aircraft, a few people were cursing. Their aircraft was quite old, almost the first or second generation of products from the Huaxia side, while their side had already deployed the seventh generation.

Soon, the aircraft extended a gun barrel, and the main gun started firing. The main gun had a caliber of sixty millimeters and was equipped with armor-piercing shells, with considerable power.

"Boom"

With a loud blast, a ground worm was hit directly, causing a large hole in its center where green liquid sprayed out. The ground worm writhed in pain.

"Continue"

They saw the smoking liquid on the ground and knew it was highly corrosive.

Several more blasts hit the ground worm, causing it to collapse and writhe on the ground. It wasn’t clear if it was dead, but the aircraft had run out of ammunition.

"Be careful"

The aircraft’s repeated attacks angered the ground worms, with many trying to drag the aircraft down using their tails. However, the distance was too great for them to reach, so some ground worms sprayed liquid at the aircraft, causing it to rise again.

"Captain, energy levels are critical, we need to retreat or we’ll be in danger of crashing."

"Let’s go, inform the local authorities and advise them not to engage in battle recklessly. The Demon Insect is too powerful this time. Notify the military to intervene."

The captain said that the heartland of Ying Continent is often attacked by scattered demon beasts all year round, so the police are usually the first to respond, instead of always relying on the military. But this time, the police suffered a big loss.

The flying machine flew away, and the surrounding police were in disarray without needing to be reminded. There were not just one, but dozens of Demon Insects, their tail hooks piercing through even armored vehicles.

Residents were evacuating in large numbers, including Lu Xuan. He followed the crowd, running towards a distance, with a Demon Insect wreaking havoc behind them.

"These Demon Insects generally possess strength between the golden core and Nascent Soul levels, so powerful."

Sensing the presence of the Demon Insects, Lu Xuan was also somewhat frightened. He didn’t act recklessly, not since the explosion at the laboratory over ten years ago.

In these more than ten years, he didn’t use many resources, but his cultivation had risen from the fourth layer of Qi Refining to the early stage of golden core, a very fast speed. His progress was comparable to the top geniuses of Ying Continent, yet his resource consumption was a hundred times less.

However, Lu Xuan didn’t reveal his true strength. He still needed to hide, as time was on his side. With his current cultivation speed, he would eventually become a powerful figure.

······

The news of dozens of ground worms rampaging eventually reached Li Qing’s hands because Ying Continent was unable to handle the situation. The strength of the ground worms generally ranged around the third and fourth tiers. They couldn’t shapeshift, but they could burrow underground and were constantly heading towards crowded areas, posing a significant challenge to Ying Continent’s technological weapons.

In the local area, there are many cultivators, but there are no masters. The masters are all on the front lines, fighting against the northern demon clan.

The strength of the northern demon clan in the Ying Continent is greater than that of the human clan. If it weren’t for Li Qing and the others desperately resisting, the Ying Continent would have fallen long ago.

"Master, these ground worms are very powerful, not only do they have strong defense, but they also have super recovery abilities. This is a third-level ground worm. It was injured by a 60mm armor-piercing shell, but a few days later, its injuries were almost healed."

"Moreover, they are very clever. After a few skirmishes with the military, once they sense danger, they hide underground. Our conventional weapons pose much less threat to them…"

"Master, let me take people to deal with the ground worms. We can’t ignore these Demon Insects. The rear area must remain stable."

An elder also spoke up, admitting that they used to look down on humans. But in the Ying Continent, they had gotten over this prejudice.

The Ying Continent is not as powerful as the demon clan and relies on technology to survive. The technological weapons are made by the humans of the Ying Continent, and they know that if chaos breaks out in the rear, the front line will not be safe.

"No, I will go personally, but not right now."

"Master, why not?"

"Because Luoshui City has many industries owned by Huaxia, it is the biggest industrial base of Huaxia in Ying Continent, so we need to be friends with Huaxia to benefit from this."

Li Qing pointed at the map and said. Huaxia has a lot of interests in Ying Continent, and many industries in Ying Continent are controlled by Huaxia. Every cooperation with Huaxia comes at a great cost.

So Li Qing wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to make a strong move against Huaxia, which is more important than the losses in the future.

After hearing this, everyone looked at each other, thinking that Li Qing was taking a huge risk this time, and what if it backfired and made ground worms stronger?

"Leader, this is very dangerous."

"I know, but we are too restricted by Huaxia. They won’t even share technology from decades ago with us, and they have been sanctioning our technology. If we don’t seize this opportunity to gain some benefits, we will just end up working for Huaxia in the future."

Li Qing explained that the market in Ying Continent is open to Huaxia, leading to the suppression of technology in Ying Continent by Huaxia.

For example, in a certain technology, Huaxia doesn’t share their core technology with them. If Ying Continent tries to develop it independently, Huaxia will suppress it by selling at low prices. The development of many technologies relies on market feedback and support. Without market benefits, related industries cannot develop and lack the motivation to innovate.

Ying Continent has considered countermeasures, but it is not feasible because they have too many dependencies on Huaxia. They are unable to come up with effective countermeasures, as Huaxia can easily control them.

A few people heard Li Qing’s words and remembered the frustration of trading with Huaxia. They fell silent, indicating their agreement.

·······

In Luoshui City, Luo Daming was anxiously waiting in his office. Before long, the phone rang. He answered immediately, but after listening to the caller, he angrily smashed the phone.

"Luo Daming, what’s wrong?"

"Luo Daming…"

"Luo Daming"

Several executives approached and asked what was going on. Luo Daming was an executive CEO of Liuhe Group, the highest-ranking officer of Liuhe Group in Ying Continent.

"Damn it, there are no experts supporting us in Ying Continent. They only sent local police and military forces, but they are no match for the Demon Insect."

"Oh, how could this happen?"

"Here in Luoshui City, we bring in a lot of taxes every year. How dare they…"

"The leaders in Ying Continent must be crazy, if Luoshui City falls, the industries in the southeast of Ying Continent will suffer greatly."

"Our company, Liuhe Group, has its drone headquarters in Luoshui City. Ying Continent heavily relies on war drones every year. Aren’t they afraid of our retaliation?"

Several executives were shocked. They couldn’t understand why Ying Continent was acting so foolishly. With several large Shen Continent corporations headquartered in Luoshui City, providing millions of jobs and generating billions of taxes annually, the impact of Luoshui City falling would be disastrous for the industries in the southeast of Ying Continent. What were they thinking?

"It’s just a zero-sum game. They are gambling on whether it’s us who can afford the losses, or they can’t."

"Mr. Luo, what should we do now?"

"Stay calm. I will contact others from the big corporations to put pressure on Ying Continent together and see what they come up with."

Luo Daming said, it was clear to him that behind these foolish actions was the ambitious desire of Ying Continent, seeking benefits.

If Ying Continent’s demands are reasonable, the few companies can deal with it. But if they go too far, he can’t make the decision alone and will have to report it. Hopefully, they can resolve everything in time. If Luoshui City falls before they finish negotiations, the losses will be huge. He might even lose his position as CEO.