"Oh, so I suppose I should be thanking you for the honor?" Wei Zhao said with a half-smile.

"You're welcome." The brain-eating insect was nothing if not blunt. After a moment's pause it added, "That's about long enough. I'm making my move."

Without waiting for any response from Wei Zhao, the creature's body abruptly swelled out to enormous length. Its wings remained on its back, but the body had become a colossal serpent, bearing at first glance a distinct resemblance to the Red-Scaled Snake.

Nor was that all—four razor-sharp claws sprouted from its serpentine body. What manner of mighty spirit beast it had originally been was impossible to say, but a single glance was enough to set the heart quaking.

"What a monster!" Wei Zhao exclaimed at the sight. Let that image develop any further, he reckoned, and the thing would practically become a knockoff dragon.

Marvel though he might, Wei Zhao's hands were anything but slow. Taking advantage of the brief pause, he had already condensed another true-qi dan-fire bomb. Even knowing it could not kill the creature, it was all he could do—after all, it was the most powerful means at his disposal.

"Again? You really don't know when to quit!" This time the brain-eating insect did not use the Ancient Goumang clan's Shadow Shedding to evade. Instead it met the attack head-on, one claw swatting the bomb out of existence on the spot—overbearing and domineering beyond all measure.

"That fierce?" Wei Zhao's eyelid twitched. He had known his opponent was no ordinary creature, but he had never imagined it could be strong to this degree. Even if that true-qi dan-fire bomb had not reached its absolute limit, its power was certainly nothing to be sneered at.

In the end, after the true-qi dan-fire bomb detonated, the brain-eating insect's body bore a few more charred wounds. Its injuries were somewhat worse than before, but still nowhere near grave enough to touch sinew or bone. Instead the pain only stoked its savagery, and with a screech it lunged forward to swallow Wei Zhao alive.

Unfortunately for it, Wei Zhao gave it no such chance. The very instant the bomb had detonated, he had already ridden the shockwave a good distance away. His chosen direction, of course, was the exact opposite of Leng Leng and the others—otherwise, dragging things out this long would have been pointless.

"Fast little thing, aren't you? Pity you ran into me!" The brain-eating insect watched Wei Zhao dwindle into a tiny black speck in the distance, smiled, and with a flick of its back-wings gave immediate chase.

The brain-eating insect was swift—but compared with Wei Zhao, it fell far short. Even with Wei Zhao fleeing along the ground while it flew through the air, it could do no more than barely keep him in sight; closing the distance was no easy matter.

"This thing's speed isn't half bad," Wei Zhao said, glancing back at the creature in the sky. So he said, but his expression was entirely relaxed. Whatever else might be true, in speed he had absolute confidence. If he wished it, he could shake the creature off in a matter of minutes—because at this moment he was only using the Super Butterfly Microstep. The Super Limit Butterfly Microstep had yet to be revealed.

To Wei Zhao, shaking off his pursuer too early would be no favor to anyone, for it would very likely shift the danger onto Leng Leng and the others. Since he had every confidence of escaping when he chose, keeping the brain-eating insect on the hook as he was now was the best of all options.

Still, this was not entirely without risk. Judging by the strength the brain-eating insect had just displayed, Wei Zhao would sooner die than cross hands with it at close range—one misstep and it would be death or injury. And if some other formidable spirit beast were drawn in during the flight, the consequences hardly bore thinking about.

While Wei Zhao was doing his sums, the brain-eating insect was doing sums of its own. It was no fool; in fact it had already seen through Wei Zhao's intentions. It knew he was holding strength in reserve and could accelerate at any moment to shake it off—yet still it remained utterly confident.

For in its understanding, the true qi of any human cultivator was severely limited. Fleeing for his life as Wei Zhao was, he would inevitably burn through his true qi at a tremendous rate; and once it was all but spent, he would naturally become a fish on its chopping block, an arrow at the end of its flight.

Moreover, it had a secret weapon of its own. It had no fear at all that Wei Zhao could truly escape its grasp—no matter how far he fled, it would work. It would always know his position.

Man and beast kept this up for a whole night. By the time the sky had brightened fully, the brain-eating insect finally sensed something amiss and could not help muttering to itself, "What's with this human? Where does he get so much true qi?"

It would never in a thousand years have guessed that Wei Zhao carried a cheat of an item like the jade pendant space. In a pure contest of endurance, he stood on invincible ground from the start. Just as now: Wei Zhao was still bursting with vigor, while the brain-eating insect was beginning to find the pace hard to bear. Strong as it was, it could not withstand a whole night of relentless pursuit.

At that very moment, Wei Zhao's speed ahead suddenly leaped by a wide margin, and in the blink of an eye he shot out of the brain-eating insect's range of perception.

"Heh heh, so he's finally started fleeing in earnest. Looks like this human's true qi is just about spent." Far from alarmed, the brain-eating insect smiled in triumph. "Run as fast as you like—you'll never escape my web of traces!"

Web of Traces—the innate ability of the Thousand-Eyed Wolf Spider, now one of the brain-eating insect's own powers as well. So long as it left upon its target a single thread of spider silk, too fine to be perceived, then no matter where the target fled afterward, there was no shaking off its pursuit.

This thread was fine to the utmost extreme—invisible not only to the naked eye, but even difficult for divine sense to distinguish. The reason the brain-eating insect had been so obliging earlier, when Wei Zhao deliberately stalled for time with talk, was precisely to turn the delay to its own account and plant the silk upon him.

As the brain-eating insect itself had said, it was exceedingly particular about its food—and once it fixed its eyes on a target, that target was doomed. For it would resort to every conceivable means, leaving no defense possible. To be precise, there was no defending against it at all.

Wei Zhao had indeed failed to notice the thread upon his person. The thing was simply too fine and too light; even his divine sense could scarcely detect it. Unless one had been on guard beforehand and conducted a full, dedicated sweep, even an immortal would fall victim.

Possessed of such a superb tracking method, the brain-eating insect could naturally sit back and wait, rod in hand. However fast and far Wei Zhao fled, before its Web of Traces it was nothing but futile struggling.

All the brain-eating insect had to do now was simple: keep pace and follow Wei Zhao from afar, and make sure he did not fall into the clutches of some other mighty spirit beast. Of course, given its status and strength, even if that did happen it would pose little problem—it could simply intercept the prize midway, and at worst eat that spirit beast along with him. (To be continued~^~)