William was feeling rejuvenated after cultivating and sleeping. The extra Qi not only helping him in his cultivation but also with feeling more at ease since it reminded him of home even if the rest of the forest was a stark reminder that he was far from it.

The day started properly right after another breakfast with some Qi in it. Packing up the things from the camp was easily done. Rigel also made sure to mention that you had too retrieve the center stake first if you wanted to dismantle the barrier that they used.

William didn't have time to properly cultivate after breakfast but he was happy in allowing his body to naturally absorb the Qi from the meat. This wasn't as effective as actively cultivating with it but it had the benefit of being something passive that needed no attention at all. Since some of the Qi would also be absorbed by the body rather than all being used for cultivation it would help with fighting any fatigue that would be built up.

Rigel was guiding them deeper into the forest while explaining what they would find there. The mantis colony had it's territory further into the forest than William had expected.

"The ones we meet yesterday were hunter and scout types, they are usually the only ones who leave the territory of the colony. They are good at stealth but other than that and being faster than the other types there isn't much noteworthy about them. They aren't suited for direct combat, so if the initial ambush fails and they believe that they can't beat their target then they will run away."

This was comforting to William as he remembered the boost that the mantis got while using its wings yesterday, the boost almost rivaled his own movement technique while he was at a higher cultivation realm compared to the mantis. Granted he had just recently entered the Dantian expansion realm so his cultivation wasn't as deep as he would have liked, but he still held a minor realm advantage. If the other types were slower then he would have an easier time controlling the flow of combat.

"We will soon enter the edges of their territory were we will start actually encountering resistance. Their soldier caste will be patrolling the territory in groups of between two and seven. I will deal with most of them in the beginning, allowing you to get used to them before allowing you too fight more at the same time."

Williams heart started to beat faster when he thought of fighting multiple mantises at once. He didn't know whether this was because of worry or excitement.

As Rigel had said, the next encounter was a group of five which were grouped together close enough that they could quickly swarm anything that attacked them.

Unlike the dark brown and lanky look of the hunter type, these mantises were a lighter shade of brown and were shorter, looking more bulky with short stubby wings. Overall they looked better than the hunter types who had an unnerving appearance, at least according to William.

Victor immediately disappeared before Williams eyes. Rigel boosted his speed until he was in the middle of the group before the mantises could react. He let out a single slash that was invisible to Williams eyes, this was all he needed to do too instantly reduce the group of five too a single lone mantis as the rest had been decapitated.

Rifles figure distorted after that. William was still able to see the distortion figure of Rigel as he had focused his attention on him before Rigel started using his stealth technique. Rigel quickly got the appearance of something far away of a hot day, as his appearance started being distorted. William unfortunately had to stop his observation of Rigel as he had to focus on the now very confused mantis.

The mantis might have been confused at first but seeing the corpses of its fellow brothers led it into a rage.

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As the the mantis rushed towards William. William smiled while countering with his own movement forward.

William stabbed with his sword making the mantis dodge by shifting too the left. Transforming the attack from a deadly strike too a glancing blow too the head.

With this strike William could instantly identify a difference between the two types of mantises. The Soldier type was tougher than the hunter type as the sword meet more resistance. Unfortunately for the mantis, the sword was an artifact and had no problem cutting the mantis even with strike.

The mantis payed no mind to the bleeding gash along its head as it continued with its assault.

William shifted his posture to block the attacks from the mantis. The mantis was able to attack once with each scythe arm before William was able to counterattack by kicking its chest. William took note of another difference as the attacks from this mantis was notably slower, allowing William to find the time to counterattack easier.

The mantis was quite heavy but strengthening his legs with Qi was enough to push it back a few meters. This was seemingly enough to hurt it, or at least disorient it as it stopped moving for a second.

This did little to stop it's overall goal of cutting William to ribbons as it quickly started moving again. This newest rush toward William was aided by its wings, giving it a much smaller boost than William expected.

William countered by using his movement technique to change his position to the right of the mantis. William expected it to use it's wings to dodge the blow but this did not happen. Instead the slash found its target and cut off the head of the mantis.

The previous smile on Williams face quickly disappeared.

William decided to change his focus to not dwell on the disappointment. Instead trying to find Rigel, something he couldn't do. Where as previously he saw a distorted appearance, now he couldn't find any clue as to where he was.

Victor of course appeared to Williams right as quickly as he had disappeared previously.

"He's a hunter you know, a good one at that. You won't be able to find him until you have at least learned a good technique to boost your perception."

William didn't want to give up but was forced to as Rigel appeared right behind him after he had spent longer trying to find Rigel than the fight had lasted, not that that was very long.

"If you can't directly find someone that's using a stealth technique then you should focus on the environment around where you suspect that they are. People will still have a effect on their surroundings even if they cloak themselves, as long as they aren't a grand master at stealth."

"So how do I find people who have reached the Grand master rank?"

Rigel simply smiled as he answered.

"An overpowered perception technique, a formation or just bomb their general location and force them to reveal themselves."

William didn't really feel that bombing the surrounding was good advice. But he saw Victor nodding along when Rigel said that so apparently that was a suitable option.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure to train you for any situation later. But for now, we have more insects to exterminate."

Victor took two of the cadavers before nodding to Rigel. Rigel went to one of the mantis corpses before touching it. The corpse started to slowly melt after Rigel touched it. There was no sound or anything to indicate what was happening except slowly slouching meat dripping from its exoskeleton, that was until even that disappeared from sight.

Rigel did the same on one of the other corpses before standing up and smiling to William.

"This is a combination of the forest and poison attribute. It helps disperse the Qi while transforming it to a state that helps the forest absorb it, sadly it's not the most efficient and it leaves nothing physical behind as its all burned up in the process. We will leave one to naturally decompose as more of its Qi can be converted that way, and it's meat can be become nutrients for the surrounding."

They were on their way again after giving William a short break to recover the small amount of Qi that he used during the combat.

They had not been moving for very long before they encountered another group. This was unusual at the edge of the mantises territory according to Rigel, but would become common the deeper they got, until they were close to the center of the territory where they would encountered worker groups every few minutes.

This new group were six soldier mantises. Like the previous group these were grouped up close enough to help each other if it was needed.

Victor disappeared like always. There was no trace of him even when William was fully focused on him as he disappeared. The only thing breaking Williams search for Victor was Rigel asking how many William wanted to deal with.

"Do you want two or three of them."

There was a slight hesitation before William answered. Remembering how easy the former mantis died, William believed that dealing with two might have been safer but dealing with three shouldn't be a major issue.

"I'll take on three of them."