As soon as the aura was disrupted, the surrounding black beetles buzzed into action. Even the few that had been following Meng Hao before suddenly turned ferocious, and flew straight toward him.
Meng Hao’s face fell. He had never imagined that the young woman would use tactics like this. Now that he clearly had the aura of a cultivator, and could no longer conceal himself, Meng Hao had no choice but to fly away.
As he did, the ground began to quake as tens of thousands of black beetles flew up, stared dead at him, and then charged toward him, causing a droning sound to fill the air.
The young woman in beetle-form backed up quickly, her eyes gleaming with a pleased look. Inwardly, she was laughing coldly.
Meng Hao eyed the young woman coldly. The properties of the smoke just now had left him shocked; it clearly had the ability to dissolve the effects of his transformation.
“So,” he thought, “it was because you already had a magical technique that could interfere with my transformation that you attacked so decisively. You really want to kick me out of this place, huh…?
“Well, then. Let’s just see who can kick the other person out first!” Laughing coldly as the black beetles closed in on him, Meng Hao made a grasping motion. Instantly, a spirit-immortal stone flew out of his ring of holding, which he then tossed in the young woman’s direction.
As the black stone whistled through the air toward her, the young woman stared in shock. A moment later, it landed right in front of her.
At the same time that the spirit-immortal stone appeared, its aura surged out, sending the black beetles into a mad frenzy. Rumbling filled the air as the beetles that had been chasing Meng Hao roared viciously, then changed directions. There were also many other black beetles from other locations on the land mass that began to charge toward the spirit-immortal stone, eyes bright red.
The young woman’s face fell. She could never have predicted that Meng Hao would be able to use a tactic like this to turn the tables on her. Although her aura was not something that would stir up the beetles, because of the black stone in front of her, she was now the center of a huge maelstrom.
“What kind of stone is that!?” she thought. “It’s driving the Ghost Eye Beetles crazy! Well, it must be some kind of treasure, which means he can’t have very many of them. At the most, he might have a handful. All I have to do is evade these crazy beetles for a bit, and wait until he goes broke!” The young woman clenched her teeth, backed up, and spit out another glob of smoke, which then surrounded her.