On the twenty-third day of entering the desert, your backpack has shrunk to just over 30 pounds. Over the past three days, you've reduced your heavy travels, and supplemented with the cacti and desert animals you've collected along the way. The food in your backpack has barely decreased... except for the variety.
It's evening, and you're about to stop and rest for the night. You'll spread out some brown paper to sleep on, and a simple warning device, a thin bell, will be set on the outside.
As you walk, you notice sand scorpions gradually appearing beside you—or, more accurately, beneath your feet. Their legs rub against the yellow sand, making a rustling sound. Some are as small as a palm, while others are as big as babies. They crawl together in a certain direction.
[These sand scorpions don't have a strong desire to attack. You reach out to grab a five or six-inch sand scorpion, but it twists its body and escapes from under your crotch.]
"Interesting! I reached out my hand but it didn't attack. Are the needles on the scorpion's tail just for show?"
You became interested and followed the sand scorpions, walking in the direction they were marching. After a few hundred meters, more and more sand scorpions appeared around you. Some attacked you, but you kicked them away, and the others didn't rush over to avenge them.
[Because they have another enemy—the desert worm! ]
Desert worms resemble earthworms, but are much thicker. Their bodies are covered in a hard, reddish-black shell. They wriggle segment by segment, relying on the connective tissue between the segments. They move through the sand sea like fish swimming in a green lake.
[Right now, the Desert Scorpions are engaged in a war with the Desert Worms, a war that stretches hundreds of thousands of meters in radius, with countless tens of thousands of "Zerg" participating!]
You see several sand scorpions, over ten centimeters long, tearing apart a worm with their claws. You also see a worm nearly a meter long, as thick as a wrist, swallowing a small sand scorpion in one gulp. Its mouthparts are densely packed with spirals, and at least hundreds of sharp teeth work together to crush the sand scorpion into pieces in an instant.
It was already late, and both tribes were only targeting their enemies. Most of them regarded you as a moving rock. You watched the show peacefully for half an hour in the moonlight, gaining a great deal of experience but also growing tired of it, so you prepared to leave.
Then, you suddenly see a large number of sand scorpions crowding into the heart of the battlefield not far away. These sand scorpions quickly disperse, revealing the object they were crowding around: a giant sand scorpion, its body a full two meters long, including its tail!
The giant sand scorpion showed no signs of aging. It brandished its massive claws, and a worm as thick as a wrist seemed nothing more than a moving stick of spicy food before it. For a moment, this desert tyrant dominated the battlefield!
You paused as you were about to leave. Such a spectacular insect fight is rare; a normal person wouldn't see it more than once in their lifetime! How could you just give up like this?
[A dozen minutes later, as you excitedly watch, the desert floor arches up dramatically, and a giant worm seems to be wriggling beneath the yellow sand.]
A small area sank into a pit, and then, a giant worm, as thick as an adult's thigh, half emerged from the sand pit. Its head, covered entirely with mouthparts, made no sound, but the mere movement and collision of its thousands of fangs within its ringed mouth produced a chilling, gurgling sound.
"Insect King Showdown!" You shout inwardly, "Great! Seeing this kind of battle is worth staying up all night!"
The Scorpion King raised its claws and tail, and its scorpion stabbed out like a sharp sword, instantly piercing a two-foot-long worm and lifting it up. With a clamp of its claws, it cut the worm into three pieces. The three worms twitched on the sand and sprayed out body fluids.
The Worm King wasn't one to be outdone. It aimed at a foot-long sand scorpion, leaping up from the sand sea and dragging it down into the yellow sand, devouring it completely. You can see its length: about a little over ten feet, nearly three and a half meters!
[Seeing the two insect kings only thirty or forty meters apart, you increasingly anticipate their passionate clash.]
[Then... the Scorpion King killed another worm, and the Worm King devoured and strangled another sand scorpion, and the Scorpion King pinched off another scorpion worm...]
You waited in anticipation for half an hour, the two insect kings continuing to bully the weaklings, and the distance between them not only didn't shrink, but actually grew slightly.
Yun Shou: "...two damned bastards!"
Even though he could only see the text simulation, he was still looking forward to the battle between the Insect Kings, right?!
You feel cheated. You won't be able to see the battle between the Insect Kings. These two giant insects follow the principle of "kings don't meet kings," but you don't.
A brilliant blade of light rises from the ground, illuminating an area of dozens of meters. You hold a brilliantly radiant sword in your hand, and the light-sensitive worms burrow painfully into the sand.
[And you lifted your long sword, creating a blazing white curtain of light across the desert at night. In an instant, you sliced through the worm king, whose head was only a few centimeters buried in the sand!]
[The worm's turquoise blood and the sand scorpion fragments inside it spilled all over the ground!]
[Your hair and cheeks are stained green. With one stroke, you cut the Worm King into two hollow semi-cylinders. As you turn to look at the Scorpion King...]
The Scorpion King was silent for a moment, scratching its scorpion legs in the yellow sand. It turned around, then increased its speed and fled at a rapid pace.
「Hmph, you want to escape?」
You leap in one leap, crossing the sea of scorpions and worms. In the blink of an eye, the Scorpion King is beneath you. With a surge of energy, your soaring momentum immediately stops, and you plummet downwards with the force of a mountain splitting a thousand pounds!
["Slash at dawn and dawn!"]
[At this moment, the ten-meter radius below you is as bright as daylight. Sand scorpions, both large and small, abandon their masters and flee. The Sand Scorpion King desperately raises his claws and tail, but he is already doomed!]
With a loud bang, yellow sand flew up like fog. The Scorpion King had been cut in half by you, but the flash of your sword energy lingered, sweeping across the sand for another three meters before disappearing, leaving a gully in the sand.
The leaders of the two desert tribes may seem majestic and command an entire tribe, but in the final analysis, they are just two giant insects. Any second-rate warrior can easily defeat them.
After you killed two of the tribe's leaders, the remaining sand scorpions fell into chaos. Few actively sought revenge on you, and most of the worms, unable to withstand the brilliance of your energy, burrowed into the sand, wriggling beneath it.
You didn't leave immediately, but instead cut open its shell and took its flesh. Although this scorpion king looks ferocious, its body is full of rich protein. And since it has mutated to a size far exceeding the average for its species, eating it will definitely have a beneficial effect on your foundation!
[Not only the Scorpion King, you also took some meat from the Worm King. Prepare to roast it and taste it.]
On the 30th day of entering the desert, you discovered a small canine-like animal. You excitedly followed it, but ultimately did not leave the desert. Instead, you came to a desert tribe. The people in the tribe were rough and savage, and the first thing they did when they saw you was raise their spears.
[Facing the spear thrown at you, you grabbed it and crushed the stone spearhead in your palm!]
Desert Tribe: "That was our tribe's unique welcome ceremony. Did you enjoy it?"