"Something is approaching." He said and reached for his sword.

Unfortunately, no matter how much he tried, he couldn’t remove it from its sheath.

"Use the long-leaf blade grass." Shen Xu urged, pulling a grass near him.

Instantaneously, the grass turned into a long blade with a wooden hilt.

"This..." Mo Ling muttered, looking at the sword in Shen Xu’s hand.

"The long-leaf blade grass can turn into a sword when it’s pulled from the ground. However, the sword is not as good as a true weapon, but it’s not too inferior." The double explained, and Mo Ling nodded while pulling out some grass.

Beside them, Zhen Yuan also pulled out a grass and simultaneously sealed his cultivation.

Soon after, at least one hundred insects crawled toward them, eating everything on their path.

"What kind of insects are these?" Mo Ling asked, but Shen Xu shook his head.

"I don’t know." He said.

"They are striped glutton locusts." Zhen Yuan said with a solemn expression.

However, neither Shen Xu nor Mo Ling had ever heard of striped glutton locusts and could only look at Zhen Yuan with confused eyes.

"Ayuan, I have never heard of such monsters." Shen Xu said, and Zhen Yuan nodded.

"It’s not surprising." He said and quickly continued.

"Striped glutton locusts are forbidden monsters. They are among the top ten most dangerous monsters in the universe."

"Are they so powerful?" Mo Ling asked, looking at the insects with doubtful eyes.

"It’s not that they are particularly powerful." Zhen Yuan said and began explaining.

"They are, in fact, not very strong. However, they reproduce easily and eat everything that has qi. They are forbidden because they have at several times almost eaten cultivators and continents to extinction."

Mo Ling and Shen Xu were shocked when they heard this.

However, it wasn’t hard to imagine.

After all, even powerful cultivators would find it difficult to resist countless insects that were determined to eat them and the world around them.

"It explains why our cultivation is sealed, and this place has no qi." Shen Xu said, and Zhen Yuan nodded before speaking.

"Our cultivation may be sealed, but we are cultivators after all, and there is no way to completely remove the qi in our bodies." He said.

"You mean that the striped glutton locusts will always be able to find us because of the qi in our bodies?" Shen Xu asked, and Zhen Yuan nodded.

"There is no way to hide. We can’t even hide inside a formation because they will just eat through it. Our only option is to keep fighting until we can leave the secret realm." He explained.

Hearing this, Mo Ling and Shen Xu turned solemn.

After all, fighting nonstop for one thousand years was not a small matter.

Most importantly, their storage rings couldn’t be opened, so they could only make do with the resources that they had packed in their bags.

"I now understand why this place has such a high death rate." Shen Xu said, and Mo Ling nodded.

Striped glutton locusts looked like ordinary locusts.

However, they had white and black stripes that made them look like insect zebras. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

At this time, the locusts were rushing towards the three with their antennas raised and their mouths open.

"Grab more blades." Zhen Yuan reminded, pointing at the long-leaf blade reeds.

"You are right. We may not be able to find more when we leave this place." Shen Xu said and began pulling out the grasses.

An incense stick passed in the blink of an eye, and before they knew it, the locusts were right in front of them.

"I forgot to ask..., do striped glutton locusts have a weakness?" Shen Xu asked.

"Their leg joints and underbelly." Zhen Yuan immediately answered, and the other two nodded.

Soon after, Mo Ling rushed forward and began fighting.

At a glance, most of the locusts were two metres long with one pair of black wings and another pair of white wings.

’They would be good-looking if they weren’t so horrifying.’ The double thought and also rushed forward.

Because the three could normally use swords, using the blades transformed from the reeds wasn’t so difficult.

At this time, Shen Xu raised his weapon and brought it down on the locust’s left hind leg.

Seeing the attack, the locust flapped its wings and dodged before flying towards Shen Xu with its front legs outstretched.

’I can’t let it grab me.’ Shen Xu thought but didn’t dodge.

Instead, he moved inwards, and when his body was just below the locust, he aimed his weapon at its right hind leg-joint and swung.

A moment later, the blade hit the joint, and the locust howled.

However, the damage was less than Shen Xu expected, and he couldn’t help but be exasperated.

"It’s annoying that I can’t use my strength." He muttered, but didn’t waste time before launching the second attack.

In this way, he struck seven times before the locust finally lost its jumping ability.

After that, he used his sword to flip the locust and ruthlessly stabbed it in the underbelly, killing it in an instant.

"Ayuan, are they edible? Do they have a demon core?" Shen Xu shouted as he rushed towards another opponent.

"We can’t eat them, but the locusts are cannibals. Burn the corpses and collect the demon cores." Zhen Yuan shouted, and the double nodded.

"Got it."

With that, he reached into his left sleeve and removed a flint.

A moment later, he lit the flint and threw it at the locust that he had just killed.

Five days passed in the blink of an eye.

During that time, Zhen Yuan, Shen Xu, and Mo Ling fought the one hundred locusts and finally managed to kill them.

However, the victory came at a cost.

Although none were heavily injured, they were exhausted, and their clothes were in tatters from being gnawed by the striped glutton locusts.

"I would have brought ordinary mortal clothes if I knew this would happen." Shen Xu said, looking at the remnants of his once proud protective robe.