355: Chapter 355 Old Friends Reunite, and a Rare Gift is Given in Return!

Lin Xiao looked at those stones.

Then he looked at the Insect Emperor's expectant gaze.

He turned and walked toward The three women, unable to help but complain: "This isn't what we agreed upon. Isn't this just messing with me?"

Jiang Wanwan was equally surprised: "According to the event card's description, after feeding it a Strange Item, at the very least, we should have been able to exchange it for one of the same star rating... How is it that there's nothing here now?"

Tian Xiwei leaned in and whispered: "Could it be that this bug is playing dumb?"

"Is this bug being dishonest, or have we been set up by the event card?" Lin Xiao rubbed his chin.

Yimu, who was standing nearby, heard this but didn't say much.

She turned to face the Insect Emperor, looked up, and spoke, her body emitting a faint blue fluorescent glow.

"The Strange Item that the Lord gave you just now—do you have anything similar? Good things should be shared, you know~"

The Insect Emperor tilted its head.

The movement was massive; from the perspective of the gallery bridge, it looked like a building had suddenly swayed.

It leaned in, its massive cranium almost crossing the entire broken edge of the gallery bridge, with half its face looming over the four of them.

The air current stirred up by the movement whistled past, and the already precarious walls began to shed loose bricks.

Seeing this, Lin Xiao immediately stepped in front of Yimu.

While pulling her behind him, he drew his battle axe with a backhand motion, the blade angled toward the ground.

He then looked up at the Insect Emperor, which was now inches away, and warned: "We agreed that we were here to eat; I don't want to fight here!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the Insect Emperor let out a strange whistling sound.

It didn't sound angry at all; instead, it sounded like... it was laughing?

"Just kidding!"

The Insect Emperor shook its body slightly, and a gust of air sprayed from its mouthparts, blowing the rubble on the gallery bridge all the way to the edge. "After all, no one has chatted with me for a very, very long time. I was bored to death!"

Yimu smiled.

She wasn't the type to laugh out loud.

Therefore, the smile was entirely hidden in the slight curve at the corners of her eyes.

"If it weren't for the Lord, I wouldn't have been able to return to the Heze Royal Court at all, so you cannot be rude."

Yimu said with a smile.

Her tone was much more casual than when she spoke to Lin Xiao, as if she were catching up with an old friend.

Lin Xiao looked at Yimu, then at the Insect Emperor, which was lowering its antennae and rubbing against the edge of the gallery bridge with a hint of grievance, and remained silent for a moment.

"You two... have a pretty good relationship?"

"Of course! Sister Yimu is the person closest to me!"

The Insect Emperor tilted its head, and the moment its voice echoed in everyone's minds, its compound eyes flashed with a peculiar brilliance, as if recalling some very distant, very warm little memory.

"Sister Yimu, she loves to tell stories—secret tales from the south to the north, from the stories of Heze to legends of the deep sea."

"She also loves to nag, constantly repeating the same few things about the Royal Court, the Wishing Well, and the desperate civilians. Back then, as a bug egg, I had no ability to refuse and could only curl up inside the egg and sleep!"

"But those days when she wasn't around were really hard. Fortunately, one hundred years of time isn't considered long for us long-lived species; it passed in the blink of an eye."

Hearing this, Yimu, who had been quite happy, felt the smile on her face falter slightly.

The emotions that had been suppressed for so long seemed to be triggered by the Insect Emperor's words.

Her eyes instantly turned red.

But she forcibly suppressed her sadness and instead smiled even more brightly.

"Sister Yimu, where have you been for such a long time?" the Insect Emperor asked curiously. "I could sense that you were very, very far away, but there was some strange power that made it difficult for me to contact you."

Yimu responded with a smile: "I went to a very, very large ocean, met many beautiful and fun things, and also... met many friends!"

When she said the word "friends," she paused and turned to look at Lin Xiao. "They are all very good people!"

"Wow, I want to see the ocean too!"

The Insect Emperor was also very happy.

It looked at Lin Xiao and his group and said loudly: "Good things should be shared with friends!"

As it spoke, its massive body began to tremble slightly.

Its abdominal cavity contracted rhythmically from the inside out.

Immediately after, thin wisps of fluorescent light spilled out from the gaps in its dark golden elytra, condensing into colorful specks of light in the air.

The Scarab Beetles guarding on both sides moved immediately, crawling with discipline into the crevices at the edge of the pit.

A moment later, they reappeared, carrying trays on their backs, with a few items that had just been expelled from the Insect Emperor's body inside.

The trays were pushed in front of the four of them.

Jiang Wanwan looked down and pursed her lips into a thin line.

Tian Xiwei politely covered her nose and mouth and stepped back half a step.

Both of them looked at Lin Xiao at the same time, the meaning in their eyes identical.

Is this really safe to touch?

Lin Xiao frowned, looking at the three items in the tray that were still stained with a bit of fluorescent light, and remained silent for several seconds.

Then, he gritted his teeth, reached out, and picked up one of them.

The moment his fingertips touched it, an information panel appeared in his field of vision.

Huh?

Unexpectedly, these were actually precious combination-type Strange Items!

[Strange Item · Building Block <Life-Piercing Branch>]

[Effect: To activate this building block, the holder must accumulate three kills of BOSS-level Calamity Creatures. During activation, the damage dealt by BOSS-level Calamity Creatures fighting the holder increases by 30%. Upon successful activation, this Strange Item increases the holder's damage dealt by 20%.]

Kill three BOSS-level Calamity Creatures? The difficulty isn't too high.

I can just find time to farm the eleventh floor of the Rift Space.

But that negative effect—increasing the BOSS's damage by 30%—is indeed quite tricky.

Lin Xiao flipped over the small object, which had an irregular shape and was covered with natural wood grain, and picked up another one.

[Strange Item · Building Block <Unwavering Wall>]

[Effect: To activate this building block, the holder must experience death three times. During activation, the holder enters the [Fragile] state, and damage taken increases by 30%. Upon successful activation, this Strange Item increases the holder's damage reduction effect by 20%.]

Such harsh conditions?

Seeing the effect description, Lin Xiao sighed helplessly in his heart.

In his previous life, he had reincarnated so many times that death was a common occurrence for him, but now it was different.

Now, he only had one life; any carelessness would end the game completely.

And according to the Strange Item's effect, he would need to experience death three times during activation...

This thing should either be saved for later to find a way to cheat, or he should just find someone else to activate it for him.

After all, the Strange Item didn't specify who exactly the holder had to be.

He looked at the third item.

[Strange Item · Building Block <Shadow of Eight Legs>]

[Effect: To activate this building block, the holder must accumulate a total movement speed bonus of 200% in combat. During activation, the holder enters the [Sluggish] state, and movement speed is reduced by 30%. Upon successful activation, this Strange Item increases the holder's movement speed bonus by 30%.]

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