83: Hellish aerial combat! A devastating attack from the air force!

The world behind the door held no magnificent treasures. There was only a spiral stone staircase extending downward, endless and bottomless.

The air here smelled fishy and sweet, so cloying that it made one's scalp tingle.

"Ugh..." After descending just two steps, Lin Keke braced herself against the wall and began to retch, almost vomiting up her bile.

As soon as her hand touched the golden wall, she recoiled as if she had been electrocuted.

"It's sticky? It's stringy?!"

By the faint, cold light, the group finally saw the wall's true appearance. The surface was coated in a thick, translucent, yellowish-brown grease that was still slowly flowing.

"It's corpse oil." Chen Du used the tip of his long blade to gently flick it, and the mucus stretched into a thin, dark yellow thread. As the blade tip trembled, it emitted a pungent, putrid stench. He sneered, "It was brewed with great care. It seems there is an endless supply of raw materials here."

"Stop it..." Little Ai's face turned deathly pale, and she gripped the exposed spine of Mao Mao tightly.

Just then, the stone steps beneath their feet suddenly spasmed violently as if they were alive!

Rumble—! The dull sound of machinery was like the grinding of teeth in hell.

The golden walls on both sides, coated in sticky corpse oil, squeezed inward without warning! The corpse oil on the walls splattered everywhere, as if countless vengeful spirits were drooling with excitement, waiting for a meal.

"Help me!!" Not far ahead, a few straggling independent players let out desperate screams. They ran around like headless flies, but this maze was alive!

Bang! A dull thud. The unlucky one who ran the slowest was instantly crushed into meat paste by the closing walls. Blood mixed with internal organs slid down the corpse oil on the walls, becoming lubricant for this massive machine.

"This is... the Flesh Maze." Xia Lai gritted her teeth, raising and then lowering her shield. "There's no way to get through this! The walls are too thick!"

Every path was changing. What was a way out one second became a dead end the next. The ceiling above was also slowly descending. Countless sharp metal spikes protruded from above, like a set of iron teeth about to close.

"Go back?" Li Yaozhi looked back, and her heart sank. The path they had come from was already sealed off by a massive stone slab.

"Captain! What should we do!" An Nuonuo was so scared that tears welled up in her eyes. "Are we going to become meat patties? I don't want to become a hamburger patty!"

Chen Du didn't speak. He was observing. These seemingly chaotic killing mechanisms actually had a strange rhythm. It was as if... someone was playing a symphony of death from behind the scenes.

Looking towards the source of those threads—his gaze locked onto a shadow near the ceiling above the maze. "Found you." A sneer curled Chen Du's lips. "A bunch of rats hiding in the gutter."

There, crouched on several stone pillars, were a dozen figures in gray robes. They had no facial features. Their faces were as smooth as a freshly peeled egg. This group of monsters was waving their long, slender fingers, controlling the movement of the walls below through invisible threads. Every twitch of their fingers was accompanied by the screams of the players below.

Blood-red characters appeared on the sacrifice notebook: [Target confirmed: Faceless Divine Attendant.] [Evaluation: The wall builders of the Divine Kingdom; they enjoy the pleasure of crushing flesh into paste.] [Note: They share a mental link; moving one affects them all.]

Chen Du withdrew his gaze and wrapped his arm around An Nuonuo's slender waist.

"Ah? Captain?" An Nuonuo was stunned, and before she could react, she was lifted up by Chen Du.

"Hold on tight, little rabbit." Chen Du chuckled, and his other hand grabbed at the air. A pair of cyan, transparent wings of light flowing with wind elemental energy burst open behind him! [Swiftwind Wings], activate!

"Rise—!!" Air currents swirled wildly! In the shocked gaze of the team members, Chen Du flew into the air, holding An Nuonuo!

"Waaaaah—!!" An Nuonuo screamed in terror, her legs instinctively wrapping around Chen Du's waist. This posture was full of survival instinct... but from behind, it looked extremely intimate; even a slight movement allowed them to feel each other's body heat.

"Don't move around! Your thighs are clamping too tight!" Chen Du hovered beautifully in the air, dodging a spike that stabbed down. He gave the loli in his arms a slap on her springy bottom in annoyance. "Take it easy."

"Woooo... It's too high! I'm afraid of heights, Captain!" An Nuonuo buried her face in Chen Du's chest, not daring to open her eyes. Below was a dozens-of-meters-deep meat grinder; falling would definitely turn her into dumpling filling.

"If you don't want to die, open your eyes!" Chen Du's voice remained clear and calm amidst the wind. "Since there's no path on the ground, we'll carve one from the sky!" "See those bald eggs?" "Aim your cannon at them." "I'll handle the flying, you handle the bombing. Understand?"

Chen Du steadied himself, his wings of light vibrating slightly, keeping the two of them hovering directly above the maze. This was the only safe zone and an excellent shooting position.

An Nuonuo opened her eyes tremblingly. When she saw the monsters crawling on the pillars like spiders, her fear dissipated a little. "O-okay!" She took a deep breath and adjusted her posture. To maintain balance, she had to wrap her arms around Chen Du's neck, pressing her entire upper body against him. The [Air Cannon] on her right hand began to charge, emitting a buzzing sound.

"Careful, they've spotted us!" Chen Du suddenly barked, and the wind wings behind him jolted violently. Several pitch-black bone spikes flew past An Nuonuo's scalp! Although that Faceless Divine Attendant had no facial features, its reaction was extremely fast; it raised its hand and condensed a gray barrier in front of it.

"Fire! Don't give it a chance to breathe!" Chen Du performed an incredibly tricky roll in the air, maneuvering An Nuonuo into the best shooting position.

"Shatter for me!!" An Nuonuo screamed, channeling her energy, pouring all the fright she had just felt into this shot. Bang—!! The highly compressed Air Cannon slammed into the barrier! After less than half a second of stalemate, the barrier shattered! The air bullet, with its momentum undiminished, blasted that egg-smooth head into a rotten watermelon!

There was no red blood, only a pool of black liquid splattered on the stone pillar. With its death, the two walls that were rapidly closing below suddenly stopped. A half-meter-wide gap remained in the middle.

"It works!" On the ground, Xia Lai waved her hand crossbow excitedly. "Well done! Nuonuo, keep going! Crack them open!"

"Hehehe, I'm going to turn them all into rotten watermelons!" Having succeeded with one hit, An Nuonuo's confidence exploded. Fear? Nonexistent! In the Captain's arms, she was an invincible turret!

"Hold on tight, don't get thrown off!" The cyan wings of light behind him flared up. The two turned into a streak of cyan lightning, dancing a dance of death amidst a dense rain of poison needles. Left turn, hard stop, dive! The intense G-force meant An Nuonuo could only cling to Chen Du like a little koala. But the cannon fire in her hands didn't stop. "Biu! Biu! Biu!" Each shot from the Air Cannon was accompanied by the trembling of her delicate body, precisely taking a life each time. Black liquid dripped from the ceiling like rain.

"This is just... too unfair, right?" At the other end of the maze, Jack was lying miserably on a moving stone slab, covered in mud and blood. His left arm had been grazed by a mechanical barb, the skin and flesh torn open; it looked painful just to see. Scarlett's high heels had long since flown off, and her red dress had been torn into rags. His team had used every ounce of strength they had to avoid the traps. But when they looked up, they saw Chen Du holding a girl, flying around in the sky. Not only was he unscathed, but he was also farming monsters on the side! Is this even the same game?

"FxxK!!" "Damn it... that's a flight-type item! This kind of rarity..." Jack rolled around miserably to avoid poison needles while staring at Chen Du in the sky. "Is this guy here to survive or to go on vacation?!" "Stop looking! Just survive first!" Scarlett was so jealous that her fingernails were almost digging into her palms. "Once we get inside, I'm going to rip his wings off alive!" "And that woman, I'm going to tear her mouth apart!" Although Tanaka Koji was dead, his words were correct. This Chinese man had nothing but good things that made people envious!

"Stop howling!" Chen Du's voice came from above. "If you have time to be jealous, you'd be better off running a few more steps. Beauty, the wall behind your butt is about to move again." Jack and Scarlett looked back. Sure enough, the wall full of spikes behind them was slowly closing in. "Sh*t! Run!" The number one powerhouse of North America was currently scurrying through the maze with his team like a drowned dog. He was probably cursing Chen Du's ancestors for eighteen generations in his mind.

Five minutes were up. The cyan wings of light behind him began to flicker and turned transparent. "Time to wrap up." Chen Du glanced at the ceiling. The Faceless Divine Attendants in this area had been cleared out. The maze mechanisms around the women stopped completely, and a safe passage leading deeper was revealed. He retracted his wings and landed slowly with An Nuonuo.

"Phew... my, my legs are jelly..." As soon as her feet touched the ground, An Nuonuo slid down like a noodle. It had been too thrilling; her heart was still pounding in her throat. Chen Du supported her waist, letting her lean against him. He used his fingers to gently smooth out her bangs, which had been messed up by the wind, and teased, "Weren't you very fierce when you were firing the cannon just now? Why did you turn back into a little rabbit as soon as you hit the ground?" An Nuonuo's face flushed red, and she was so tired that she buried her head in her chest.