Bab 46: The siege begins

After he left the queen's quarters, Bai Yun found an exit he had not used before and left the bee quarters. He tried to be as stealthy as he could, but he was still found out when he was more than halfway through. From then on he had a slightly hard time leaving the hive. But he still managed to do so relatively easily.

Once he left the hive, he quickly found an exit and then left the beast den. When he left the mountain Bai Yun realized that he had left from a different cave than the one he used to enter.

By now the lance he had made was mostly damaged. He threw the object away, and headed towards a river nearby. When he reached there, there were a few insects there, drinking the water. Without a weapon he ended up having to rip them apart with his bare arms.

Once he reached the side of the river, he nearly punched the river in reflex. When he looked at his reflection in the river, he smiled wryly. Not only was he covered in the blood of insects and his own, but some of it was also blue and some red, making it even more hideous. His clothes were ripped in many places, and there were pieces of flesh in his hair.

Bai Yun jumped into the river, and cleaned himself. He then took off his shirt to check his body.

When he saw the results he ended up nearly crying. His body was lean, but there were no muscles to be seen. And he thought that he even saw a tinge of flab in his belly. 'It was only a tinge, that's why I missed it.' Bai Yun hypnotized himself. He then tried to stretch his body, only to stop in pain.

'At least some good came of this excursion.' Bai Yun thought. 'Now I know what I have to fix.'

Since he had not cultivated till he became fourteen, Bai Yun's body had already reached a critical stage. He had passed the optimal time to start training and his body had started to stiffen. And ever since he was reborn, Bai Yun was focused on increasing his cultivation and learning battle techniques, and had completely ignored his body. The thought never even crossed his mind. After all, in his past life he had started cultivation when he was an infant, and had never had to face this mess.

'I ignored the foundations and focused only on the outside.' He thought.

Bai Yun pinched his waist, only to find that between his fingers was fat.

'Mission Priority One: Turn this body into something I can look at in the mirror without crying.' Bai Yun declared in his heart.

Once he was done with this, he changed his clothes, and headed back to the plaza. Due to his various delays, he reached the meeting place about ten minutes late. When he reached there, about ninety people were already there.

"There you are," Zhang Zi said, "I was starting to wonder if you had kicked it."

"Is everyone here?" Bai Yun asked him.

"Three participants died when they went out hunting. We thought that the same happened to you." Zhang Zi said.

"What? How the hell did that happen?" Bai Yun asked.

"Those morons found a precious herb that was being protected by some beasts. They were too greedy and didn't call for reinforcements. The beasts on the other hand, did. By the time we got there, they were already dead. In the end the herb ended up with me and Hui."

Bai Yun shook his head. The situation was getting messier. With ninety five people, the whole problem would only get harder. "What about the teams for the siege? Have they decided on them yet?"

"They are still deliberating. They can't decide on how many people should go. It is not just that some people want to defend or some people want to attack, the problem is that they can't even decide on how many people should be in the attacking team. So they are all still trying to figure it out." Zhang ZI explained.

Bai Yun looked at the group. They were all simply fighting between them. Some people wanted to take a large attacking force and storm the beast den, while some wanted to take a small elite force and leave the rest of them for defense. Gong Ming simply watched all of this transpiring without intervening.

After this went on for a while Bai Yun stepped up. "STOP." He shouted. The entire group turned to him in stunned silence. Zhang Zi, who had almost fallen asleep, woke up with a start.

"Now that I have your attention, do any of you have any idea how it is inside the beast den?" Bai Yun asked.

The group stared at him. "Who the hell do you think you are?" One of them shouted. "If you have something to say, then say it. Else shut up!" Another one continued. The rest of the group quickly followed suit, and threw in a few insults in the mix.

Ignoring the ruckus, Bai Yun continued. "I went inside the bests den just now." The entire group was startled upon hearing this. Zhang Zi grinned upon hearing that, while Gong Ming narrowed his eyes.

"I can tell you one very important thing about it, and that is that the tunnels inside the beast den are too narrow. Only one or two people can fight at the same time in there. Any more, and you will only get in each other's way. So no matter how many people came, we would have to operate as small teams. And since the entire thing is a labyrinth, no one would be able to come to any other's help. Finally, since the tunnels are small and meandering only close combat fighters can function properly. And defensive fighters will simply be surrounded and overwhelmed. So I suggest that only people with great speed, or people with great combat strength need to go." Bai Yun explained.

The moment he finished, the people in the elite team camp started to gloat, while the other camp started to look annoyed. "Well then how many people do you propose go for the attack?" One of them asked.

"Honestly, just Zhang Zi and I are enough. Everyone else would only get in the way." Zhang ZI started to laugh upon hearing this. "Well said." He said while holding his stomach in laughter. Bai Yun wondered whether he had said some magical words, as the entire crowd seemed to be antagonistic towards him now.

"Now, now." Gong Ming finally stepped in. "Let us not look ungentlemanly by fighting. First I must thank Young master Long Tian in his great undertaking of scouting the beast den to provide us with valuable intel." Saying so, he gave Bai Yun a bow, causing others to clap unenthusiastically.

"Now then, let us continue the discussion of how we are going to conduct the raid shall we" Saying so, Gong Ming easily took charge of the situation, leading them back into a civilized discussion.

As he watched Gong Ming operate, Bai Yun felt goosebumps. Honestly, Bai Yun was impressed by how he waited until the whole situation had stabilized before smoothly taking charge.

Bai Yun then left them to their talk and went to the flag to exchange for things that he needed. He currently had over a thousand achievement points by now. The first thing that he did was to exchange for a sword worth three hundred and thirty points. There were better swords that he could have exchanged for, but he decided to buy a few other things also.

After this Bai Yun exchanged for a bow that was worth two hundred and eighty points, along with twenty arrows, each costing ten points each. With this Bia Yun had already spend eight hundred and ten points. He then also bought two qi replenishing pills and two healing pills. By now his points was starting to dry up, and he did not have much left. After some deliberation, he chose an antidote priced at seventy points in case of an emergency leaving him with only three points left.

When Bai Yun went back to the camp, he found that they had finished their discussion. After asking Zhang Zi about it, he learned that they had finally chosen on four more teams to go with them. But one of those teams had two of their team mates killed earlier, so they only had two people left in their team. So a total of sixteen people would be in the attacking team. The remaining seventy nine people would be staying back to defend the plaza.

"Don't worry," Zhang Zi declared, "I will definitely end the undefeated streak of Insect World."

As they started to set off, a new problem emerged. Song Hui decided that she wanted to go with Zhang Zi to have some fun. This created a new headache, as meant that all three of the strongest individuals would have to go together due to the rules. To add insult to injury, Song Hui's whip would be completely useless in the narrow tunnels.

In the end Zhang Zi had to trick her to calm her down. He told her that the reason only sixteen people were going to the den was because it was extremely easy and that was why they needed her to stay and defend the plaza. Hearing this Song Hui pledged to do so very happily.

Once the group got ready, they decided to set off for the beast den. But instead of heading directly for the beast den, they took a longer route around, in order to avoid the beast tide.

Once they were a good distance away from the base, and a short distance from the mountain, the group decided to rest until the fighting began. The group set up camp on a hill from where they could watch the beast den.

Bai Yun used this time to rest and meditate. His qi reserves were running low, and he did not want to waste a qi replenishing pill so soon. And it was also not possible to take too many of them one after the other lest your qi become impure. Bai Yun climbed up a tree, hid himself in its branches and proceed to meditate.

While he did so, most of the others were not content with wasting this time. They went and checked the nearby area to find any precious material that maybe there.

After an hour had passed, Bai Yun had recovered eighty percent of his strength. He opened his eyes and stared. A rumble passed through the ground.

Under the watchful eyes of the assault group, countless number of insect beasts rushed out of the beast den. As they watched they saw a large number and variety of insects rushing out of the den, and heading straight for the city. When the people there saw this, they were scared out of their minds.

"Thank God I am not part of the defending team." One of them said.

"No need to thank anyone. We are going into their home, where we will be surrounded by the insects. I don't think either of us will be in a better position." Zhang Zi responded. Hearing this the rest of the team fell silent.

After five minutes the beast shad left the den. By now the entire group had started to feel the weight of their responsibility. Bai Yun watched them silently. He waited for five minutes and then jumped down from the tree.

"Well then. Lets get going. Its not like anything is going to change if we just sit around here." He said while moving towards the beast den.