Seeing the Bug Warriors fleeing in a wretched rout, Little Li still couldn't believe it… For Bug Warriors to be running like this, plainly, the Xihai Park settlement had met with some irresistible force.

Otherwise, why would Bug Warriors flee?

But disbelieve it though he might, he could only rein in his shock and join the roundup of the fleeing Bug Warriors.

Fighting was already breaking out all across the dense forest.

To escape, these Bug Warriors unleashed their maximum combat strength. One two-core Bug Warrior charged a Pest-Killer Squad member, his Mushroom-weapon greatblade slashing down viciously amid the sparks of friction-lit fire, his whole body wide open — a life-for-a-life style of attack.

Ordinarily, a Pest-Killer Squad member could choose to skirmish, avoid the critical exchange, then kill him on the counter.

But this member wasn't quite prepared — he'd never expected the other party to trade life for life at first contact — and it gave him a flicker of hesitation. That flicker cost him the initiative.

To lose the initiative in a life-or-death struggle can be fatal.

Understanding this, the squad member's face went ashen in an instant. He wanted to resist, to seize back the initiative, but it was already beyond saving.

"Am I going to lose?"

The squad member's heart filled with unwillingness. He'd imagined he would die gloriously, facing death without flinching like a hero. But now that death was truly upon him, the terror of that instant left him wanting only to cry for mercy.

Only, there wasn't even time to cry for mercy.

All he could do was parry with everything he had.

Seeing the ashen, awaiting-death look on the squad member's face, the two-core Bug Warrior felt a surge of smugness. Kill this one man, and with no one to stop him he could make his escape — and with his standing as a two-core Bug Warrior, fleeing to one of the other settlements would still earn him a place of importance, days of enjoyment yet to come.

"Hold on! Zhuangzi!"

Chen Xiuni's alarmed cry carried over — she'd seen her…