Chapter 126: Innate

Within the dungeon, Yun Qing, disregarding the depletion of her Qi-replenishing pills and the durability of her mosquito swatter, successfully escorted three villagers to their designated locations within an hour.

Currently, only one villager remained. This time, however, she did not intend to escort the fourth villager immediately. Instead, she chose to fulfill the promise Ye Xiaolang had made earlier: to exterminate every single soul-corpse within this place.

…

Inside the hive, after battling the Mother Insect for half an hour, Wei Yi and Fang Rui had finally pushed the creature into a frenzy. It had finally stirred from its self-produced nest of comfort; these humans who had disrupted its production deserved to become its sustenance. It was time to get serious.

Amidst a silent roar, four wings as thin as cicada wings sprouted from the Mother Insect's back. Its movements became incredibly agile, requiring both men to focus their entire spiritual perception just to track its shadow.

Although Yun Qing had dispersed the Mother Insect’s intelligent soul, and Fang Rui’s spirit plants had absorbed a portion of its strength, the two of them were still losing ground against the enraged creature.

"Bang!" A claw from the Mother Insect struck Wei Yi. His protective magic treasure activated automatically, but the immense force sent him flying, nearly dislodging the jade pendant hanging from his belt.

Wei Yi roared in anger, "I respected you as an opponent, but striking the jade pendant gifted to me by Luoluo is a death wish!"

Luoluo was the beauty Wei Yi had heroically saved during his journey.

With a flick of his mind, Wei Yi retrieved a talisman treasure from his storage ring, inserted a high-grade spirit stone, and activated it. A small sword shot out from the talisman, moving with such speed that even the Mother Insect could not perceive it.

Driven by survival instinct, the creature raised two legs to shield its head, but the talisman sword pierced through its legs, its head, and finally its body, before dissipating.

The Mother Insect’s aura vanished completely; it was dead beyond any doubt.

Wei Yi thought to himself, "A pity. If we could have fought a little longer, I might have reached the threshold of Foundation Establishment. Next time, I must not be so impulsive in killing my opponent."

Fang Rui’s eyes narrowed slightly. Wei Yi’s background was clearly extraordinary. He was extravagant enough to use spirit talismans, possessed a protective magic treasure during the Qi Refining stage, could use high-grade spirit stones at will, and even wielded a one-time-use talisman treasure.

Though, he possessed such things as well.

"Brother Wei, impressive skills. How shall we handle the carcass of this Mother Insect?"

"Let's take it back to the caravan. Old Jing and the others have such poor weapons; we can forge a few for them. As it happens, we shall remain in Rizhao Town for a while; I believe I am ready for Foundation Establishment."

"What a coincidence; I am also approaching the Foundation Establishment stage."

The two collected the Mother Insect’s remains, used fire spells to incinerate everything in the hive, and then departed using movement techniques to seek out Leader Jing and the others.

…

At the very moment the Mother Insect died, someone felt a sharp pain in their spiritual sense. "Who? Who has ruined my plans? None of you will escape!"

…

Yun Qing, who was in the midst of clearing out the soul-corpses, received a system notification:

"An unknown entity's hatred toward you has increased by 100."

…

"An unknown entity's hatred toward you has increased to suspicion."

"An unknown entity's hatred toward you has increased to hatred."

System prompt: Hatred value increased by 1000.

Seeing this notification, the joy Yun Qing felt from her harvest of experience points and silver suddenly soured.

Who was this "unknown entity," and why did they hate her?

She had no idea who hated her, and perhaps the person who hated her didn't know who she was either. Liuliu was not in the dungeon, so there were no answers for the time being.

When the hatred value increased by 1000, and the source was two or more realms above her, the system would reward ten times the favorability or hatred value. The fact that this was capped at a ten-fold reward made it impossible for her to accurately gauge the opponent's cultivation level.

Who could hate her? Was it Qin Yan? Or Bai Wuyou?

When Yun Qing suspected those two, the names on her hatred list remained unchanged, which meant it was highly unlikely to be them.

Qin Yan was dead; of course, it wasn't him. What lived now was merely a soul summoned into Qin Yan’s body using forbidden arts. He likely didn't even go by the name Qin Yan, which was why his name did not appear.

That was highly probable!

Still, this reaction was a bit slow. She had been purging Qin Yan’s soul for nearly three hours now.

System prompt: "Detected excessive hatred value. The 'Monster Siege on Cave Dwelling' event has been upgraded to Level 1 Elite."

"Detected excessive hatred value. The 'Monster Siege on Cave Dwelling' event has been upgraded to Level 2."

"Detected excessive hatred value. The 'Monster Siege on Cave Dwelling' event has been upgraded to Level 2 Elite."

"The Monster Siege will begin in three hours. A boss will appear during the Level 2 Elite siege. Please prepare yourself."

"Damn it!" Yun Qing cursed under her breath. It was coming so fast, and she was still just shy of reaching level 40.

Having cleared the soul-corpses on the map, Yun Qing found the final NPC and escorted them to a safe zone, triggering the system prompt for completing the dungeon:

"Congratulations, you have successfully located and rescued the trapped villagers. Rewards: Combat XP +15,000; Crafting XP +8,000; Gathering XP +8,000. You have successfully slain all soul-corpses in the dungeon. Achievement unlocked: 'Leave No One Behind.' Reward: Achievement Point +1, Skill Point +1."

"Congratulations, your Combat level has reached 40."

"Congratulations, your Character level has reached 40."

Having finished the dungeon, Yun Qing was forcibly teleported out by an irresistible force.

…

The moment she was teleported out, she received another system prompt:

"Received: Low-grade Spirit Stone x10, Mosquito Queen’s Poison Claw x1."

Yun Qing surveyed her surroundings. She appeared inside the hive, but the Mother Insect was gone. The water, walls, and ground were covered in traces of battle and scorch marks. Not only was the Mother Insect gone, but even the eggs and the mosquito nutrient fluid had vanished entirely.

The Mother Insect was dead!

Thinking of the spirit stones and the Poison Claw she had just received, Yun Qing recalled that before entering the dungeon, she had 'traded' a blow with the Mother Insect using her greatsword, shaving off a single point of its health and ruining her weapon in the process.

She hadn't expected that the Mother Insect would die later. The items she just received must have been the loot collected by Liuliu. Because she had been inside the dungeon, she couldn't receive the drops until she exited.

Yun Qing inspected the weapon she had just obtained.

Mosquito Queen’s Poison Claw: High-grade Spirit Artifact, Attack 320, Durability 35/35, Poison-attribute attack, 10% chance to inflict Poison status on the enemy. Activating with spiritual power releases the Mosquito Queen’s aura, causing swarms of mosquitoes to submit.

A spirit artifact, and a high-grade one at that—this was a weapon suitable for the Foundation Establishment stage.

Yun Qing, who had not yet reached the Qi Refining stage, could not refine it and could only use it as a sturdy, ordinary weapon. The poison effect should still trigger.

She had no spiritual power, so she certainly couldn't force the mosquito swarms to submit.

Even if she did have spiritual power, she wouldn't want such subjects anyway.

Who had killed the Mother Insect? Yun Qing asked in her mind, "Liuliu, do you know how the Mother Insect died?"

"Since you weren't here, I had to stay in the system space. I didn't see how it died."

"Then how were you able to pick up the items?"

"As soon as you appeared, I appeared too. The Mother Insect must have died recently, and its drops hadn't refreshed yet, so I was able to collect them."

Reflecting on the notification of the hatred value she had received earlier, she realized the mastermind must have sensed the Mother Insect's death. Some people were naturally intelligent and possessed keen perception; he must have used some method to hold a grudge against her even across the boundaries of a dungeon.

She would have to be more careful in her future actions.

"Liuliu, look at my hatred value and the hatred list. Why would this happen? Also, what level is a 'Level 2 Elite,' and with the Monster Siege starting in three hours, how should I prepare?"

"Eh!" Liuliu sounded puzzled after checking.

"Is something wrong?"