"What's wrong with these two mountain peaks?" The old man surnamed Lu glanced at the two towering mountains but failed to spot anything unusual. He asked, somewhat puzzled.
"If we set out from here and head toward either mountain, both routes converge at the same point — the lair of that Fire Toad Beast. However, the peak on the left is home to a brood of the legendary 'Flying Purple-Patterned Scorpions.' There are only a dozen or so, but each one is extraordinarily ferocious. The moment we pass through that area, there's an eight or nine in ten chance we'll disturb them. When that happens, the trouble will be enormous." After hesitating for quite a while, Marquis Nanlong finally revealed the reason.
"Purple-Patterned Scorpions? The same venomous insects that appeared once in the Kingdom of Wangshui and wiped out the entire Lanhai Sect in one go?" Lu Weiying was startled and cried out involuntarily.
Upon hearing the words "Flying Purple-Patterned Scorpions," Han Li's expression changed dramatically, and his heart shook.
"Correct. Those very venomous insects. Moreover, the flying scorpions here seem to be even more formidable than the one that appeared in the Kingdom of Wangshui. Each has lived for tens of thousands of years, and their bodies have turned a deep dark purple." Marquis Nanlong sighed and continued.
"Friend Nanlong, surely you're joking. Scorpions of this caliber — how could we possibly provoke them? If there were only two or three, perhaps the three of us could take them down with some care. But with more than a dozen? Walking into that would be walking straight to our deaths!" Lu Weiying could no longer contain himself. He glared at Marquis Nanlong and spoke without courtesy.
"I see you're suggesting we take the other route. But that route is even more dangerous. Between here and the other peak, there lies a zone riddled with countless invisible spatial rifts. There are far too many of them for us to detour around, and we cannot identify the location of each one. To attempt a passage through that zone — the dangers involved, I need not spell them out. Both of you friends surely understand." Marquis Nanlong's expression turned helpless.
Lu Weiying was struck speechless.
Spatial rifts — and invisible ones at that! This was certainly no safer than facing a dozen Purple-Patterned Scorpions.
Just as the old man stood frozen, Han Li caught the mention of invisible rifts and gazed into the distance. His eyes flickered.
"It seems that back then, Lord Cangkun took the route with the spatial rifts. After all, he possessed the divine ability to sense their existence." Han Li, who had remained silent until now, spoke in a low voice. No hint of joy or sorrow could be heard in his tone.
Marquis Nanlong was momentarily taken aback upon hearing this, but quickly said with a bitter smile:
"Friend Han is correct. That is precisely what makes this so hopeless for us. We do not possess Lord Cangkun's former divine abilities to navigate those rifts safely. All things considered, I still think our chances are better if we fight the Purple-Patterned Scorpions."
"Absolutely not. We must not provoke the Purple-Patterned Scorpions. You two only know about the incident in the Kingdom of Wangshui from hearsay. When I was young, I personally represented the Heavenly Pole Sect in the campaign to exterminate the Purple-Patterned Scorpions. Their terrifying nature far exceeds anything you can imagine. Provoking more than a dozen of them would be nothing short of suicide." The old man surnamed Lu shook his head vigorously, rejecting the suggestion outright.
Lu Weiying's intense fear of the Purple-Patterned Scorpions caught Marquis Nanlong completely off guard.
His earlier confidence that the three of them could join forces and battle the flying scorpions began to waver, and a look of hesitation crept onto his face.
At that moment, Han Li furrowed his brow tightly as information about the Purple-Patterned Scorpions from the Insect Compendium surfaced in his mind.
The Flying Purple-Patterned Scorpion was ranked fourteenth on the Insect Compendium — nearly right behind the Gold Devouring Beetles among the ancient wondrous insects. That ranking had been highly praised by the Spirit Controller Sect cultivator who had ultimately died at Han Li's hands. Had it not been for the fact that these flying scorpions produced very few offspring, making it difficult to gain a numerical advantage, they might well have ranked even higher than the Gold Devouring Beetles.
Though they lacked the Gold Devouring Beetles' unique ability to devour anything, their bodies were nearly as hard, equally resistant to swords and spirit treasures. They grew wings on their backs that let them move as swift as the wind, and they carried a potent venom. These attributes alone were more than enough to place them at such a lofty position on the Insect Compendium.
And the Purple-Patterned Scorpions on the peak ahead — who knew how many tens of thousands of years they had dwelled within Devilfall Valley. They had already advanced to their final dark purple mature form. Their terrifying power could well be imagined.
Still, from the way Marquis Nanlong spoke, he seemed to know only half the story about how dangerous these insects truly were. It was the old man surnamed Lu who appeared to have suffered a grievous encounter with them before, looking rather like a man who turned pale at the mere mention of tigers.
Watching Marquis Nanlong's somber expression, Han Li sneered inwardly.
They had already come all this way, and only now did this Marquis Nanlong decide to bring up the Purple-Patterned Scorpions? His intentions were unlikely to be good. It was almost as if he were digging a pit and expecting them to jump in.
After all, now that they were this deep in, neither Han Li nor the old man surnamed Lu would turn back and risk nothing after coming so far. The only choice was to grit their teeth and resolve this together.
They certainly couldn't come all this way only to fall short at the final step!
With this thought, Han Li sank into contemplation, reviewing everything he knew about the Purple-Patterned Scorpions, searching for anything that might be useful. After all, taking the other route would expose his ability to see through all spatial rifts — his greatest trump card within Devilfall Valley. He would not reveal it to anyone unless absolutely necessary.
While Han Li bowed his head in thought, the old man surnamed Lu stood with a dark expression, a trace of anxiety visible in his eyes. Marquis Nanlong gazed from afar at the peak where the Purple-Patterned Scorpions dwelled, his expression alternating between dark and light.
The three of them seemed locked in a stalemate, neither able to advance nor retreat.
No one knew how long the silence lasted before Han Li's expression shifted. He raised his head, and a faint smile appeared on his face.
Though both Marquis Nanlong and the old man surnamed Lu appeared somewhat distracted, they were secretly watching each other's every move — and the moment Han Li made any unusual gesture,