四库影院永久地址www9

Such powerful Corpse Bees, without the restraint of contractual power, could potentially backfire and attack their master, which would be no joke.

Furthermore, based on his experience with taming the Green Silkworms, it should be much easier to form a contract while they were still in their larval state.

The Bee Generals were bona fide Grade Five insects; taming them would not be an easy feat by any means.

And it would require the use of an Advanced Contractual Talisman.

You should know that such a talisman is worth a Hundred Taels of Silver Money.

“Fourth, lead the ant swarm to clean up this battlefield.”

Having fought in this area, it was easy to leave behind many invisible traces.

Having the Termites clean up the battlefield seemed like a good choice.

Qin Niu discovered that the several hundred Myriapods had also all perished.

Could it be that Old Master Huang had signed a master-servant contract with each Myriapod?

It seemed somewhat unrealistic to think about it.

Old Master Huang had released the Myriapods rather casually, probably no different from those four thousand plus Grade Three Army Ants.

They were all expendable cannon fodder.

Since no contracts were signed, how did these Myriapods die?

With Qin Niu’s limited knowledge in insect taming, he could only secretly speculate that Old Master Huang must have done something to them.

After all, the Nine Insect Gang was a gang that specialized in insect taming.

There were many skilled Insect Masters within their ranks.

Old Master Huang, being able to serve as the gang’s Executor, was already part of the upper echelons of the gang. Fuhrther upward, he could be promoted to positions like protector or elder.

Therefore, it was normal for him to possess some powerful insect taming methods.

After cleaning up the scene of the fight, Qin Niu did not return the Termites to their nest.

He only checked that the Ant Queen and the other Termites in the nest were normal, then he directly led the more than two thousand strong Termite Army down the mountain.

This is because Old Master Huang had inquired about Qin Niu’s residence in the village.

There was a good chance that he tampered with his home.

Even though Qin Niu now possessed the cultivation of the acquired second layer, he could still be killed by some powerful insects.

The leather armor was very strong in defense but not impervious to all.

When agitated by energy, the armor could form a Light Cocoon, completely protecting Qin Niu without any blind spots, but some insects specialized in breaking through such cocoons or energy armors.

Insect Masters were feared for a reason.

Even an Insect Master with only the cultivation of a common human of Twofold or Tenfold, when controlling a swarm of Grade Two or Three insects, could easily eliminate an expert of the human Tenfold realm, just as easily as cutting vegetables.

With over two thousand Termites and a Grade Seven Golden Toad on him, Qin Niu could handle the vast majority of dangers.

Moreover, with Old Master Huang dead, it was unlikely that he would have left any dangerous insects in Qin Niu’s home.

“Who exactly sold me out?”

Qin Niu furrowed his brows in thought.

This person must be found and eliminated.

The first person he thought of was Wang Haikun. They had a grudge since Wang Haikun had an arm sliced off by Qin Niu, a deep and bitter hatred.

Given the chance for revenge, he certainly would not be lenient.

When he emerged from the mountains, he found Xie Laizi, who usually crawled on the ground, living a life worse than dogs or pigs, now humming a tune.

“Uncle Xie, you seem quite happy today!”

Qin Niu greeted him indifferently.

“Um… I have come to accept things and realized that it’s better to live happily no matter what.” Xie Laizi’s eyes clearly showed a flash of panic when he saw Qin Niu coming down from the mountains.

Such an obvious change in expression could not escape Qin Niu’s eyes.

“You’re right, Uncle Xie, one should indeed live happily. No one came looking for you yesterday, did they?”

Qin Niu asked, staring at him.

“No, nobody! Not even a dog would dare to come to my shabby house!”

Xie Laizi tried to appear calm, squeezing out a smile in response.

“You’ve got money now, right? You could build a couple of imposing houses!”

Qin Niu said earnestly.

“I… where would I get money from? Master Qin, you jest.”

“Didn’t that noble give you some money?”

Hearing Qin Niu mention this, Xie Laizi’s face changed.

In terms of psychological endurance, he ultimately fell short.

“I don’t know what Master Qin is talking about!”

His eyes no longer dared to meet Qin Niu’s gaze, instead lowering his head and darting his eyes around.

At this point, Qin Niu had an idea of what was going on.

“Fourth, bite him, deal with him using your poison.”

Following Qin Niu’s command, Fourth jumped off his body onto the ground, quickly crawling towards Xie Laizi.

Qin Niu proceeded forward without looking back.

Soon, the sound of Xie Laizi’s pained groans came from behind.

It seemed that Fourth had managed to bite him.

Fourth’s poison was very special, capable of eroding the soul. Its poison was likely to be terrifying against ordinary people or beasts and birds.

This was the first time Qin Niu had asked Fourth to use the Soul Eroding Poison.

The heavens do value all life.

Last time Qin Niu wanted to get rid of Xie Laizi, but Wang Haikun’s strike was too light, only crippling the man and leaving Xie Laizi with a breath of life.

Latter on, Qin Niu did not bother with him again.

Unexpectedly, this scourge sold Qin Niu out again this time.

If he doesn’t kill him now, should he wait until the New Year?

After biting his target, Fourth quickly followed and climbed back onto Qin Niu’s body.

Returning home, Qin Niu was extremely cautious.

He even activated his armor with energy to form a Light Cocoon.

“Fourth, have you discovered any other powerful insects hiding in the house?”

“Not for now.”

“You lead the Termites to conduct a thorough search of the entire house.”

Qin Niu went to the front yard’s fishpond, where the Diamond Ink Turtle was still playing the role of a timid turtle, keeping its head retracted.

It stayed motionless under the rocks at the bottom of the pond.

If a stranger came in, even if they inspected the fish pond carefully, they might not be able to spot its existence.

Being timid has its advantages.

“InkTurtle, come out!”

Qin Niu called out.

It slowly stretched its head out and then crawled from under the rocks, surfacing on the water.

“I’ve brought a new friend for you to meet; this is the Golden Toad.”

Qin Niu signaled for the Golden Toad to hop out of the basket.

But as soon as it appeared, the high-grade aura it emitted immediately frightened the Diamond Ink Turtle into forming a faint ripple of energy on its body. Its head and limbs instantly retracted into its shell, and then it quickly sank to the bottom of the water.

“Look at you being so cowardly, come out!”

Qin Niu scolded it.

This time the little turtle refused to come out, no matter what.

“You’re so useless, to think you are a Diamond Ink Turtle!”

As much as he scolded it, Qin Niu was always kind to his pets and didn’t really do anything to it.

“Golden Toad, from now on you’d better stay in the backyard. Come to the front yard’s fish pond for a bath or whatever.”

Qin Niu looked towards Xiao Nui inside the cattle pen.

It was still in deep sleep.

Strangers would think it was just a normal little water buffalo and probably couldn’t be bothered to take another glance.

After checking on Xiao Nui and finding nothing amiss, Qin Niu’s hanging heart finally settled down.

The main issue is still him not being strong enough.

This was why powerful enemies could barge into his home at will.

Once he has more insects and they reach higher grades, this courtyard would become a forbidden ground.

Without his permission, no one would dare to step even half a step inside.

”Master, there’s something wrong with the well.”

After leading the ant colony to investigate, Fourth signaled to Qin Niu.

Qin Niu approached the well in the backyard, remaining vigilant.

The Ink Blade was already in his hand.

“Are there bugs in it?”

Even after checking, Qin Niu found nothing amiss.

“There’s the scent of poison, a bit like that of a centipede, possibly even more complex.”

Fourth’s most vivid memory was of a centipede.

When the ant colony had just formed, they had encountered an attack by a centipede.

That time, the ant colony suffered heavy losses and deaths.

Fourth had even lost an antenna because of it.

“Someone poisoned my well?”

Qin Niu’s eyebrows twitched.

This Old Master Huang is really not just ordinarily despicable, to stoop so low.

And extremely cunning; the courtyard gate remained intact, nothing in the yard had been touched.

Even the honeybees raised on the top of the grain storage had not been attacked.

Had it not been for Fourth, after Qin Niu had checked inside and outside the house, he would have certainly believed that Old Master Huang had never entered.

And that was precisely where Old Master Huang’s treacherousness lay.

His method was to first make Qin Niu lower his guard, and then poison the place most likely to be overlooked.

It would be very easy to fall prey.

He drew half a bucket of water with a bucket; the water’s color was normal – transparent and clear, and the scent was also normal.

He caught a small fish from the front yard’s fish pond and threw it into the bucket.

The small fish had just entered the water and soon began wildly swimming around in a frenzy.

After just four or five breaths, it turned belly up and was dead beyond any doubt.

Black blood flowed from its mouth, eyes, gills, and excretory orifice in the tail.

The well water’s toxicity was extremely frightening, close to being instantly lethal upon contact with blood.

Qin Niu broke out in a cold sweat.

At that moment, Xiao Qing had heard the commotion and returned from Wang Furen’s place.

Seeing the toad as big as a human head, she seemed somewhat afraid.

“Xiao Qing, did you hear any noise in our house last night?”

“I didn’t hear anything.”

She shook her head.

“Someone poisoned the well. Don’t make a fuss about it. I will clean the well now; you go stay at Miss Wang’s place for one more day. You should be able to come back home tonight,” Qin Niu said to her.

“I wonder which scoundrel did it! Master, let me help you clean it.”

Xiao Qing was very smart and knew that Qin Niu might have stirred up powerful enemies recently.

She had been sent to stay with Miss Wang for almost a month now.

Listening to what her master was implying, it seemed he might have sorted out the trouble.

“This well water is extraordinarily poisoned; I can handle it myself. Other food and utensils in the house also need to be checked. You go to Miss Wang’s place first. I’ll call you back once I’m done cleaning up.”

These past few days, Qin Niu hadn’t slept a single peaceful night.

Now that the powerful enemy had been eliminated, he could finally return to the peaceful and stable life of old.

This incident also served as a wakeup call for him.

As his strength continually increased, he would inevitably come into contact with formidable individuals. Some calamities were simply unavoidable, no matter how much he desired to flee from them.

Unless he lived in complete seclusion.

But that was not realistic.

The best method was to make himself stronger.

He couldn’t help thinking again about the recent severe locust disaster. Could this have something to do with the Nine Insect Gang? Or, was this actually a precursor to the Nine Insect Gang’s move against the Black Tiger Gang?

When the nest is overturned, no egg remains intact.

With crisis looming, he had to seize the time to become stronger.

Fortunately, the Elixir that could precipitate a breakthrough was being concocted, and this time he had also acquired over thirteen thousand silver notes. The Ant Queen had successfully advanced, and with a Grade Seven Golden Toad now in his possession, his strength in every aspect should be able to climb to a higher level.