Lin Xun finally understood why, in the lands outside the divine kingdom, the sky was always shrouded in clouds with no sun in sight, the earth lay barren with only a scant few lives surviving, and why once one flew to a certain height, it was impossible to go any higher…

It turned out the region where the monastery stood was not the surface, but underground.

As divine power continued to spread and seep down, the subterranean space where the monastery lay would also become a forbidden zone for life.

After the upper layers of the underground were completely corroded, even the divine kingdom where he currently resided would not be spared.

The reason the Ancient Nest and War Hatchery had a completely different art style compared to the other buildings was that the Desire Wet Nurse came from another world and was the main god of another civilization.

Lin Xun suddenly thought of a possibility. Could it be that the divine kingdom he was in had originally belonged to Firefly?

After the surface was corroded, the Desire Wet Nurse had occupied a divine kingdom that did not belong to her and moved both the War Hatchery and the Ancient Nest here?

Or perhaps after obtaining new life factors, the Desire Wet Nurse felt that Firefly’s factors were stronger.

So she, together with her children, began evolving and modifying themselves in the direction of insect-people, causing part of the divine kingdom’s architectural style to gradually take on the appearance of the Firefly faction?

Lin Xun recalled the form of the Desire Wet Nurse’s divine image: a voluptuous, mature mother nursing children, with the mother in human form while the children were all plump maggots.

Did that mean the Desire Wet Nurse’s children had already completed their evolutionary transformation, while the Desire Wet Nurse herself retained her original form…

He still had a belly full of doubts, including about the web of consciousness and Hive Consciousness, but Oathbreaker Flanda did not continue explaining to him.

She only told him that not bringing Kim into the nest had been the correct decision.

[…]

[If that semi-finished test subject Kim enters the nest, she will immediately be sensed by the Desire Wet Nurse at the top of the web of consciousness…]

[She, Flanda, is trapped within this cage of a nest, not because she cannot escape, but because she does not dare escape.]

[Because she wanders at the edge of the web of consciousness yet does not exist outside of it, all beings within the web of consciousness cannot escape the Desire Wet Nurse’s gaze.]

[The power granted by Firefly can only cause the Desire Wet Nurse’s gaze to ignore this place, but once the Desire Wet Nurse’s attention is drawn, that terrifying gaze will follow you without pause until the end of your life…]

Lin Xun suddenly felt a chill run through him.

He had sacrificed a Shell at the Fuzzy Feather Altar, drawing the Desire Wet Nurse’s attention and even causing her supreme consciousness to descend.

For the Desire Wet Nurse, did Shells with the Fire-Worshipping prefix count as yet another brand new life factor?

If the answer was yes, then to her, someone like him who possessed several Shells of different prefixes was undoubtedly an even more precious treasure than Firefly.

Would the Desire Wet Nurse give up watching someone of such immense value?

Was he still under the Desire Wet Nurse’s gaze even now?

At this thought, the hairs all over his body stood on end, and his spine felt ice-cold.

[…]

[You bid farewell to Oathbreaker Flanda and leave the Abandoned Ancient Nest…]

Whether or not he was currently under the Desire Wet Nurse’s gaze was something he had no power to change.

He could only follow the process and continue exploring the next location.

[You blow the Summoning Short Flute, and before long the Courier Mole Cricket drills out from the ground and appears before you…]

[Please choose your destination.]

[1. Audience Ravine]

[2. Tentacle City Station]

[3. War Hatchery]

[4. Fuzzy Feather Altar]

[5. Firefly Spirit Temple]

[6. Border Prison]

[7. Crawler Tribe]

Among the known locations, only the Crawler Tribe remained unexplored.

Lin Xun pressed the option and headed for the map deep in the underground.

[…]

[After traveling in the dark for a long time, the shaking subsides, and the flesh membranes on both sides of the Courier Mole Cricket’s abdominal cavity open.]

[There is not a trace of light before your eyes. Your field of vision is filled with absolute darkness.]

[You look around and do not see any familiar luminescent fungi. The darkness is utterly silent. You can only hear the Courier Mole Cricket utter a few abnormal, soft cries.]

[You leave its abdominal cavity. The Courier Mole Cricket cries out once more, then immediately drills into the ground and disappears.]

[From its cries, you actually pick up a hint of fear.]

[Clearly, the Courier Mole Cricket fears this place and fears the Crawler Tribe.]

[You recall what Kim once told you: the Crawler Tribe is located in the extremely deep underground and is extremely dangerous…]

[You gather true essence into your eyes. Very soon, you can see through the darkness and take in the underground space you are in.]

[This underground space is not large. With a single sweep of your gaze, you can see everything.]

[Not a single blade of grass grows in the underground space. Beneath your feet, the ground is covered in charred black marks. At the end of the nearby rock wall, there is a pitch-black cave entrance embedded.]

[You move forward and arrive at the cave entrance. Looking inside, there is no light and no sound.]

[Will you enter the Crawler Tribe?]

[You step into the cave…]

[The passage inside the cave extends downward at a slanting angle toward the depths of the underground. The surrounding rock walls are also covered in mottled scorch marks.]

[The ground beneath your feet is paved with rocks of various sizes that crunch underfoot.]

[The cave is eerily silent. You can only hear the sound of your own footsteps on the rocks echoing again and again…]

[You follow the passage forward for a short distance and soon encounter a fork ahead.]

[Two forked passages lie before you, one to the left and one to the right. After carefully observing, you cannot tell any difference between the two passages.]

[Which forked passage will you take?]

Lin Xun raised an eyebrow, knowing that the Crawler Tribe was most likely a massive labyrinth.

He followed his usual method and began recording each fork option he encountered.

[You proceed along the left passage, stepping on the rocks as you venture deeper into the cave…]

[Not far ahead, you once again see two forked passages to your left and right.]

[Which forked passage will you take?]

[Just as you are about to choose the left fork again, you suddenly hear a dense rustling sound coming from far down the right passage.]

[Very soon, you see countless red dots appearing at the end of the right passage. Each red dot is the size of a fist…]

[You gather true essence into your eyes and discover that these are not red dots but a swarm of gigantic crawling bugs resembling cockroaches.]

[They have no insect-person features and are purely insect-like giant monsters. This is a manifestation of the other path of Ascension.]

[The Ascended Tribe Crawlers seem to have long sensed your presence. Their shrill screeches echo through the passage as they swarm forward, crushing against one another as they lunge at you…]

[Facing the tide-like wave of monsters, you hold your breath and focus, true essence surging throughout your body as you form the sword seal with your hands…]

[The Star-Shifting Celestial Sword suddenly grows from a three-foot blade into a giant sword filling the entire passage!]

[Weapon Trait One Sword Chills Fourteen Prefectures activates!]

[The giant sword pierces through the passage with unstoppable force. Wherever the blade passes, not a single crawler can withstand it. All of them are cut cleanly in two.]

[The fierce sword qi stirred up by the giant blade fills the entire cave passage. As it crisscrosses, countless crawlers die screaming…]

[You have defeated the Ascended Tribe Crawlers. Your experience value increases slightly.]

[You have defeated the Ascended Tribe Crawlers. Your experience value increases slightly.]

[You have defeated…]

Lines of dense text flooded the screen, and occasionally a line of Spirit Essence drops would pop up.

These Crawlers were fragile and weak. Their strength was quite low; there were simply more of them.

With his Weapon Trait, Lin Xun could convert a single-target attack into an area attack, so he naturally did not fear these small fry. Even without the Weapon Trait, he could use the President’s mage Shell and cast spells to deal with a group of monsters.

He quickly cleared the passage and wiped out all the monsters.

“They are just stacking monsters. What is so dangerous about this?”

Because the Crawlers’ Shells lacked sufficient Compatibility, he could not Possess them. Lin Xun was not going to give up the Warden’s vessel to parasitize these small-fry monsters’ Shells either.

He continued exploring the cave…

Just as he had predicted, the Crawler Tribe was indeed a massive labyrinth.

Every time he encountered a fork, Lin Xun recorded the choices he made. Even using brute-force methods, he could eventually crack the labyrinth. In the worst-case scenario, he could retrace his steps to the entrance of the labyrinth, so there was no way he would truly get lost.

But as he continued forward fork after fork, he gradually realized that this labyrinth seemed to have no exit.

The reason was simple: he had always chosen the left passage and had been traveling for nearly two hours without reaching an end.

Along the way, he had run into more than twenty fork options. It was as if the Crawler Tribe had no end.

Lin Xun suddenly thought of another possibility: if the entire labyrinth was ring-shaped and connected end to end, then taking the wrong route could lead him back to places he had already passed through.

If he failed to choose the correct path in one go, he would be doomed to wander in circles within the labyrinth forever.

He frowned. If that were the case, he would have to leave marks at every passage entrance.

If he chose the wrong path and circled back to somewhere he had already passed, he would know and would not be as clueless as he was now.

Once all the wrong answers were eliminated, the remaining one would be the correct choice.

Though clumsy, it was still the best option at the moment.

He searched through the Inventory and soon found an item he could use to make marks.

[Luminous Trail Powder (Item): A vial of multicolored fluorescent powder. After use, your footsteps will leave a trail of rainbow-colored light for a short period, allowing you to retrace your path and return home.]

The three bottles of Luminous Trail Powder gifted to him by old acquaintance Bennett had originally been items used to find one’s way back to the clinic in the mist.

He had only used one bottle when fighting the final boss, the Star Bone Sacred Beast, and now had two left, just right for use as markers.

Lin Xun planned to return to the starting point of the labyrinth, flying swiftly through the passages on his sword while using the item so that footprints would be left behind. That way, he would know if he passed any routes he had taken before.

He turned around and headed back toward the entrance of the labyrinth…

This time, in order to save time, Lin Xun used sword flight, rapidly traversing the passages according to the options he had recorded.

But even after reversing every recorded choice, he still had not seen the starting point of the labyrinth.

“This is wrong.”

In theory, with Y-shaped forks, as long as you turned around and reversed every choice you had previously made, you would return to the starting point.

He had previously gone left all the way. Now he only needed to go right all the way.

Yet after finishing all recorded reverse choices, he still saw two more forked passages before him, one to the left and one to the right.

In his imagination, at this point he should have seen a single passage that, upon being traversed, would lead him back to the cave entrance.

“What the hell?”

Lin Xun had a vague feeling that this labyrinth he had encountered was rather sinister.

Unwilling to accept it, he continued along the right passage to return. After passing another dozen forks… he finally realized he was lost.

Even if there were places in the labyrinth that connected end to end, he should still be able to retrace his steps along his recorded choices.

The current situation could no longer be explained by common sense.

Lin Xun took a deep breath and used the item Luminous Trail Powder.

[You have used Luminous Trail Powder!]

[With each step you take, the ground is left with five-colored footprints. The faintly glowing prints stand out sharply in the dark, oppressive cave.]

[With a thought, you form the sword seal with your hands. True essence surges within you, and the Star-Shifting Celestial Sword floats in midair.]

[With your hands behind your back, you step onto the flying sword. The sword turns into a streak of sword light, shooting rapidly through the passage.]

[Wherever the sword light passes, it leaves behind a fine five-colored luminescent sword trail…]

The speed of sword flight was extremely fast, and fork options appeared one after another before his eyes.

Left and right forks appeared non-stop, along with the message: ‘Which forked passage will you take?’

Now that he had turned around and was going in the opposite direction, Lin Xun abandoned his previous, patterned choices and instead chose left or right at random.

After traveling for a while, he indeed saw the luminescent sword trails he had left earlier.

However, what he saw this time was completely different from what he had expected.

[You fly on your sword and soon pass through the passage to reach the next fork.]

[At the entrance of the left passage, there is a faint five-colored sword mark. The firefly-like sword mark extends into the depths of the passage.]

[But the right passage is just like the left. It also has a five-colored sword mark!]

[Which forked passage will you take?]

“Damn it, this is really weird!”

At each left-right fork, Lin Xun could only choose one entrance at that spot.

Even if he returned to a passage he had previously traversed, he would only see a single luminescent trail. It was absolutely impossible for there to be two separate, identical sword marks that were not connected to each other.

“Could it be that Crawlers hidden in the dark secretly moved the luminescent powder to alter the footprints and mislead me?”

“Impossible. The sword trail is a unique mark left by the flying sword itself. In this world filled with insect-people, it is absolutely impossible to counterfeit.”

Lin Xun frowned and pondered for a long time.

After ruling out all impossibilities, he finally arrived at an extremely sinister conclusion.

“This labyrinth is probably… alive!”

[You think it over again and again and finally realize that the Crawler Tribe you have entered is not an ordinary labyrinth.]

[At the end of your rope, apostle, what will you do next?]

[1. Disheartened, you decide to smash your head into the rock wall and end your own life to gain new life, thereby returning to the Resting Page.]

[2. Persistent, you decide to keep searching for an exit within the labyrinth. You believe that if you spend your entire lifetime, you will eventually find a way out.]

[3. Seeking another path, you decide to attack the labyrinth’s rock walls. Perhaps opening a new passage will allow you to escape this moving labyrinth.]

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep