After hearing the order from their captain, the rest of the mercenaries took out their weapons and stayed alert while keeping their eyes on the incoming bug warrior.

'Swoosh'

However, suddenly, the bug warrior disappeared into thin air, making everyone, including captain Kale, frown.

"Everyone, into the formation."

Seeing that the bug warrior disappeared, Captain Kale hurriedly ordered his subordinates once again.

'Swoosh'

'Swoosh'

Soon, everyone moved here and there before forming a lotus formation.

The weakest member of the team took the center of the formation as she has awakened a couple of skills relating to healing. So, everyone protected her.

The outer edges of the formation are occupied members with the highest defense were standing with massive shields in front of them.

Along with three other master realm cultivators, Captain Kale continuously swapped positions from one place to another.

From the outside, no one can say the difference between the four cultivators because all four of them were moving at an incredible speed.

"I am going to kill all of you."

Compared to a few minutes back, the bug warrior became muddle-headed, and his thinking was very poor.

However, he still jumped into the middle of the formation, hoping to kill all four master realm cultivators.

It was very easy to say that the lotus-shaped formation seemed too stable and since the main aim of any formation is to attack or defend. But still, the bug warrior jumped into the formation, which was just like committing suicide.

'Slash'

'Puchi'

'Kacha'

Just as the bug warrior jumped into the formation to kill the master realm cultivators, four out of his six hands were chopped off by Captain Kale and the other three master realm cultivators.

"Let's kill it."

They didn't give any time for the bug warrior to groan in pain as Captain Kale shouted.

'Puchi'

Exactly at the same time, four short swords pierced through the body of the bug warrior.

'Thud'

With a helpless look in his eyes, the bug warrior fell to the ground.

Even though the bug warrior knew he would die today, he wanted to kill as many humans as possible.

However, he greatly underestimated the battle prowess of Captain Kale and his subordinates, who didn't even give any time for him to retaliate.

"Captain Kale, I will go and breakthrough to the grandmaster realm. Until then, acts as the temporary city master."

As for Master Valen, he didn't dare to break through to the grandmaster realm fearing that the bug warrior might attack him.

After seeing that Captain Kale and his subordinates successfully killed the bug warrior, Master Valen heaved a sigh of relief. He hurriedly appointed Captain Kale as a temporary city master while he disappeared into his room.

"Everyone, check the bodies of these bug warriors, and if there are any valuables, collect them."

Since Captain Kale knew about Master Valen, he didn't say anything and gave an order to his subordinates before entering the city.

"Yes, captain."

Everyone nodded their heads and started working on the dead bodies of the bug warriors.

"Is it over just like that?"

As for Henrick, who was observing from a distance, he was shocked by how easily Captain Kale and his subordinates killed a grandmaster realm bug warrior.

'I need to collect the dead bodies first.'

Before Captain Kale entered the city, he picked up the rank 5 artifact 'The golden umbrella' with him. So, Henrick didn't have any plans for it.

However, other than bug cores, he could still use the dead bodies of the bug warriors to get a mysterious fruit.

So, without wasting any time, he went directly towards the group of mercenaries, who were collecting the bug cores from the bug warriors' dead bodies.

"Hello...my name is Henrick."

He didn't allow the fire vine to consume the dead bodies; instead, he introduced himself.

"Huh?"

When they saw a single-handed young man introducing himself, everyone looked at him with a frown.

However, the team's healer looked at Henrick with pity for losing a high arm at such a young age and introduced herself.

"Hello...My name is Grace."

She looked around the same age as Hernick with brown coloured hair until her shoulders.

Apart from all these things, she looked extremely beautiful.

"You guys are very strong."

Henrick said with an awed expression on his face making Grace and others smile lightly.

"It's all thanks to the formation. As long as we are inside the formation, all our skills receive a great boost."

With a slight smile on her face, Grace replied to him.

That's right!

Without the formation, they can kill a peak master realm cultivator with great difficulty; however, they were able to kill a grandmaster realm cultivator within a few seconds because of the formation.

"How did your expedition go?"

Soon, the 200 plus soldiers walked towards them after handing the bodies of their fellow soldiers to the dead soldiers's family members.

They were unable to see the sight of mourning of the family members of the dead soldiers, but still, they tried best in calming them before coming back to collect the bug cores.

Actually, they wanted to support them; however, Captain Kale ordered them to help the mercenaries collect the valuables from the dead bug warriors.

Just like Henrick, they wanted to talk with the mercenaries. So, he asked about the expedition.

After every expedition, the mercenaries would sell some good items that they got from their expeditions.

"It went well; however, we have finished collecting all the bug cores before the next invasion comes."

A huge mercenary replied to the soldiers as he urged them to collect the bug cores.

"Nice to meet you, Henrick. Let's talk after we finish this work."

Grace and a few other mercenaries who took pity on him said to Henrick before going back to their work.

Even though they had never seen Henrick before in the city, they didn't think much because the city master of the Valen city had a special skill to detect anyone with malicious intentions towards the city or its citizens.

Master Valen was very strict when it came to malicious intentions. No matter how small it is, he will either try to remove those malicious intentions and if it is not possible, then he would simply kill them.

That is the only reason why the city was so peaceful.

Not only Valen city and the remaining 48 cities in this world follow the same technique.

"Okay."

Henrick also nodded his head and went to collect the dead bodies of the bug warriors.

Soon, everyone started collecting the bug cores while leaving the dead bodies of the bug warriors behind.

As for Henrick, he would store the bug cores and dead bodies of the bug warriors separately.

Even though everyone was surprised by Henrick's actions, they didn't say anything as the dead bodies of the bug warriors were of no use to them.

After one hour.

Soon, all the bug cores from the dead bodies of the bug warriors were collected; however, one-tenth of the bodies went into Henrick's inventory.

"Henrick, what are you going to do with the dead bodies of the bug warriors."

Grace asked Henrick with a curious look on her face.

"I have a few beasts back at home; they like to eat these things. So, I thought they would like this one. Moreover, they were all strong, and it will nourish their bodies."

What Henrick said was half-truth because these bodies will help the little fox and little wolf a lot in their growth,

So, they wanted to take some bodies for them.

As for the remaining bodies, it will, of course, enter into the fire vine's stomach.

"Let's rest. There will be another wave of bug warriors coming soon. So, let's increase our strength with these bug cores."

One of the soldiers said with a serious look on his face.

Today is the worst day of his life.

In the first wave of bug warriors' invasion, he lost three childhood friends who served in the army along with him, but they were under another commander.

In the second wave, he lost two of his best friends who fought many life and death battles against the beast hordes right in front of him.

After today, he really understood the value of having power.

If he had the power, he would not have lost three of his childhood friends.

If he had the power, he would not have lost two of his life and death friends.

So, he was more eager to increase his strength to kill the bug warriors in the next wave of invasion.

"Let's go. I hope Master Valen breaks into the grandmaster realm."

Another soldier said with a bitter look on his face.

Just like the earlier soldier, he also lost some good friends. So, they wanted to collect the bug cores as soon as possible to cultivate and increase their strength.

Soon, everyone started moving towards the city gates.

"You guys go; I will take care of these bodies."

As for Henrick, he didn't go with them; instead, he looked at the dead bodies of the bug warriors with shining eyes.

No one bothered about Henrick because everyone was already tired of all the fighting.

Mercenaries were even more tired as they were on an expedition for more than a month now, and for the past one month, they haven't slept properly.

So, they decided to take some rest until the next wave of the bug invasion comes.

'Ivy, come out.'

Henrick called out his fire vine from his dantian.