Who let him join the Sword Sect?!

Everyone who's played games in a dorm knows that the most annoying thing isn't being bad at the game, but having a bunch of backseat gamers pointing fingers while you're trying to execute your moves.

That's exactly the situation Female Hero Li found herself in.

She was frantically trying to catch insects in the mountains, while Zhang Ze and the others were being armchair experts.

"Sister Qi, should we head back and get some help?" suggested the Junior Sister.

"Let's call Li Jue and Xia Yan over. Xia Yan's Medicine King Valley specializes in plant-based strategies, and plants are countered by insects, so lure them first. Then release Li Jue's Spirit Pet, Bai Xiao; flying-type birds counter insects, it's foolproof." This was Zhang Ze, mixing things up.

"Just throw a Thousand Mechanism Thunder at them and stun all these bugs." This was Lily, who always resorted to Thousand Mechanism Thunder when in doubt.

Even though the suggestions were well-intentioned and not malicious, they were really annoying.

"Silence!"

After a light exclamation, there was immediate silence from over there.

It's not hard to create miracles with brute force and wipe out all these little bugs. The Beast Taming Sect might be Body Cultivators, but they also have plenty of AoE cultivation techniques.

However, capturing them alive was a bit trickier.

These little bugs, though small, are incredibly tough and extremely sensitive but immune to Spiritual Qi.

A horde of nearly demonic immunity little insects...

The tricky part is that these bugs move so quickly, the moment they sense even a hint of danger, they scatter and regroup elsewhere.

The Three Wolves Slaying Immortal Sword Array of Hei Qu was of no use at all. Its wide and sweeping sword moves only plowed the surrounding ground, without capturing a single bug.

The only one caught was by pure hand speed from Li Yueqi, who grabbed it amidst the chaos without using any cultivation technique.

But there were at least hundreds of these bugs here; unless you call for help, catching them one by one would take forever.

Fortunately, these bugs were quite united. To rescue their captured brother by Li Yueqi, the rest didn't flee but kept buzzing around her.

But brotherhood must eventually break.

The bugs are weak to fire.

As Li Yueqi cast a spell, conjuring three firewalls as if setting the mountain ablaze, the bugs decisively abandoned their captured brother and flew away towards the cave that had been deliberately left open.

As they passed by Hei Qu, they even snagged some wolf fur.

But just as they were about to escape into the cave, blending into the darkness, an invisible net blocked them all.

A dense spider web.

These quirky bugs became immobile as soon as they stuck to the web, with a paralyzing toxin slowly seeping into their bodies through the web.

The long-absent Qinghe drifted over like smoke from a distance, looking satisfied with his work and didn't forget to taunt Hei Qu.

"Stupid dog."

When all the bugs were completely immobilized, Li Yueqi stepped forward, took out a specially made Beast Taming Ring and absorbed all the bugs into it.

After everything was taken care of, Li Yueqi immediately disconnected from the Thousand Mechanism Magical Artifact.

Zhang Ze and the others' chatter became audible again.

"Wow, Qinghe, you're amazing!" praised the Junior Sister.

"Hei Qu, your sword moves are so cool." Lily provided emotional support with a special focus on canine species, praising Hei Qu.

"Hero, you worked hard. By the way, Qinghe, where did you spin the web from?" Zhang Ze asked, with a somewhat unusual focus.

Qinghe remained silent for a long time.

"Pervert!"

At this point, it should have been over, but Li Yueqi is a responsible person, and the appearance of these bugs was clearly no coincidence. It definitely had something to do with the cave ahead; she couldn't ignore it.

And indeed, once they entered the cave, they discovered something unusual. Just not far down the cave, there was a gap that could fit one person. Although the outside of the cave and Jishan showed no changes, a section of the mountain's interior had collapsed.

Inside the mountain, a narrow gorge had formed, and a chilling breeze with moisture blew up from below, with the faint sound of flowing water if one listened closely.

The walls of this gorge were filled with numerous tiny indentations of identical shape, extending downwards. The size matched the bugs, indicating that these cold-loving nocturnal insects rested here after dark.

Qinghe controlled several Thousand Mechanism Magical Artifacts to float down and illuminate the depths of the gorge.

"I'll go down and take a look."

Just as Li Yueqi was about to gently descend with Spiritual Qi, Zhang Ze's voice came again, "Hero, there's something I've been meaning to say."

"Say it."

"Could you do us another favor? There might be some little monsters down there." Zhang Ze said.

"Sigh."

Hearing Li Yueqi's sigh, Zhang Ze felt a bit overbearing, but he genuinely was curious about the thing below.

Whether it was due to live streaming or the familial closeness of the Beast Taming Sect and Thousand Mechanism Pavilion, after capturing all the bugs, a system notification for task completion popped up.

Surprisingly, the reward was yet another key, identical to the previous ones.

Information about the bugs was updated accordingly.

One more detail was added.

[The bugs live in groups, symbiotic with Ying Ru]

Since Ying Ru was mentioned, the annoying system had another mission tied to Ying Ru.

[Ying Ru, with a bull's head and wings, sounds like a mandarin duck, symbiotic with bugs, lives by pursuing water]

...

In the Jishan gorge.

Li Yueqi stood over the Dark River, surrounded by an inexplicable gray mist. Apart from the sound of water, she could also hear faint laughter, feeling an eerie presence.

Obviously, something was hidden near this Dark River, and it had already noticed her.

This time, Zhang Ze and the others learned their lesson; they didn't backseat drive and distract Li Yueqi. They tried to keep quiet, but occasionally, the sound of sipping tea could be heard.