193: Chapter 193 Underground Insect Nest

Where the giant tree had collapsed, a dark red cavern leading to the earth's core lay open, its wet, slippery walls constantly spewing out miasma.

Blood-colored miasma seeped outward along the opening.

The mist was extremely heavy, clinging to the edges of the Rhino Beetle Carapace Shield raised by Zhao Mengmeng and condensing into blackened, poisonous droplets.

"There's no way out. Are we really going to crawl into this bug nest?" Zhao Mengmeng raised her shield horizontally, blocking the oncoming stench of blood.

Lin Ye did not answer.

He lowered his backpack to his knees and peeled open the shockproof layer with one hand.

The dark gold dragon bone nail was intact.

The dormant valley seed was intact.

The fragments of the frost-patterned stone box were securely wedged within the snake scale lining.

He buckled the clasp tight and pulled the shoulder straps taut.

Lin Ye raised his head to look down into the depths of the cave.

"Above us is the horde of Shadow Poison Ants and the swarm of flies. If we go up, we won't even have bones left."

"Going down gives us a chance."

Zhao Mengmeng lowered her gaze to look at her feet.

The carcass of the several-ton Heavy Armor Scythe Rhino Bug had already been eaten away by the black tide, leaving its stark white skeleton exposed to the air.

In half a minute at most, the ant colony would swarm up the tree trunk.

Zhao Mengmeng tightened her armbands.

"If we can get out of here alive today, I'm never believing that crap about 'underground being safer than the sky' ever again."

In the Great Xia Live Stream, the bullet comments were already exploding.

[Is this cave even meant for humans to enter?!]

[The red mist is spraying right in their faces! If you inhale it at this density, wouldn't you mutate on the spot?]

[Things flying in the sky, crawling on the ground, and now they have to drill into the core of the earth? Brother Eye doesn't even get a single minute to catch his breath!]

Lin Ye opened his Left Eye.

On his retina, the surface appearance of the blood mist quickly receded.

The interior of the toxic miasma was filled with dense, dark red lines.

These gossamer threads floated in the mist, and sensing the heat of living humans, they were expanding and straightening out inch by inch.

A light screen popped up in his right eye.

[Parasitic Blood Vine]

Lin Ye lowered his gaze, peering through the endless red light.

Along the right edge of the cave wall, an extremely narrow, dried-up groove wound downward.

Residual dark yellow vine sap remained inside the groove, emitting a faint, safe green glow.

This path, which had once been corroded by acid, became the only safe route through the hive.

Lin Ye closed his Left Eye, cutting off the aching visual nerve.

"Keep close to me. Only step on the yellowish-brown dried groove."

"Don't touch anything floating in the mist."

Zhao Mengmeng raised her shield and leaned in close to his side.

"What's in the mist?"

"Living creatures that will burrow into your blood vessels."

Zhao Mengmeng cursed immediately.

"Even the mosquitoes in this godforsaken place can pinpoint and burrow into a blood vessel!"

Lin Ye reached into his side pocket.

He pulled out a remnant bead of star-flow gold, the brightest in color and completely free of gray spots on its surface.

He opened his Left Eye for a brief moment.

As soon as the remnant bead drew close to the Blood Vines, the surrounding dark red lines recoiled violently.

The pure metal of a high-dimensional civilization naturally suppressed such low-level parasites.

Lin Ye drew his horizontal saber with a backhand motion.

The sand spider tendon bundle was pulled taut, binding the star-flow gold remnant bead securely to the saber's handguard.

He wrapped two more tight loops of thin vines dipped in insect acid around the outer layer.

The moment the blade was raised upright, the dark golden light from the remnant bead expanded half a foot into the darkness.

The churning blood-colored mist was forcibly split open by the golden light.

Zhao Mengmeng stared at the hilt.

"This high-dimensional material can actually be used to repel insects?"

"A temporary borrowing of its light." Lin Ye tightened his grip on the shield with his left arm. "The range is only half a foot. Anything beyond that means death."

The soles of his boots stepped into the cave opening.

The moment his heels touched the ground, the blood-red toxic miasma on both sides immediately surged forward.

Countless dark red Blood Vines thrust out from the mist, aiming straight for Lin Ye's carotid artery and wrists!

Lin Ye twisted his wrist and swept his horizontal saber horizontally.

The half-foot of golden light traced a perfect arc.

The moment the leading Blood Vines touched the golden light, scorched black smoke erupted from their surfaces.

Plop.

Dozens of Blood Vines curled up, charred, and plummeted into the abyss below.

The remaining Blood Vines writhed frantically in midair, making a rustling friction sound as they pressed tightly against the boundary of the golden light.

Zhao Mengmeng pulled her shield inward, pressing herself flat against Lin Ye's back.

"They really retreated."

Lin Ye's footing was incredibly steady.

With every step, his combat boots landed precisely on the dry groove, which was less than two palms wide.

The edges of the groove were entirely made of slippery, pulsating pink flesh walls.

Zhao Mengmeng followed closely, step by step.

She didn't dare let her shield drift outside the coverage of the golden light.

The cave sloped downward.

The surrounding rock had vanished, completely covered by a pulsating pink membrane of flesh.

Thick, black blood vessels crisscrossed beneath the fleshy membrane.

Every few seconds, the entire underground passage would shudder violently with the internal pulsations.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

As the soles of their boots stepped on the dry groove, they could feel the rebound force of the fleshy walls beneath them.

Zhao Mengmeng gripped her bronze rod tightly, the veins on the back of her hands bulging.

"What kind of heart organ is this bottom part connected to?"

"It's a super-large living structure."

Lin Ye's steps suddenly halted.

On the edge of the dry groove ahead, three hemispherical, ash-gray round stones protruded from the fleshy wall.

Their surfaces were covered in dry soil, blending perfectly with the surrounding environment.

Zhao Mengmeng was just about to pull back her shield and squeeze past sideways.

Lin Ye raised his horizontal saber vertically, blocking her right in front of her breastplate.

"Don't touch them."

He suddenly opened his Left Eye.

Inside the three ash-gray stones, a crimson light was churning frantically.

[Mimic Chrysalis]

Lin Ye raised his right arm.

The Abyss Thorn shot out two extremely thin secondary threads, bypassing the pupae along the edge of the fleshy wall to hook onto a loose piece of bone behind them.

He gave his wrist a slight flick.

The piece of bone rolled toward the edge of the chrysalises, clattering against their stony skin.

Crack!

The three ash-gray stones burst open at the same time.

Dozens of pale, slender mouthparts shot out from within, crushing the bone fragment into powder in the blink of an eye!

Immediately after, a large amount of thick, white liquid erupted from inside the chrysalises.

The white liquid splashed onto the surrounding fleshy walls, producing a sizzling, corrosive sound.

A layer of cold sweat broke out on Zhao Mengmeng's back.

"They look exactly like stones just to wait for people to get close?"

Lin Ye hugged the outermost edge of the dry groove to bypass the white liquid.

"The hive hates it most when living humans take the front door."

The bullet comments in the Great Xia Live Stream flooded the screen once again.

[Those were bugs just now?! I didn't even blink, and they clearly looked like three protruding rocks!]

[If this were in reality, even a tiny scratch on the thigh would probably melt a person on the spot!]

[How on earth does Brother Eye distinguish between rocks and insect eggs in the dark?!]

[This is what you call micro-managed hazard avoidance! If you put contestants from other countries in here, they definitely wouldn't survive the first corner!]

After advancing twenty meters.

The dry groove beneath their feet broke off without warning.

A nearly vertical slope of fleshy wall appeared beneath their feet.

The slope was covered in thick, slippery fluid, and hundreds of Parasitic Blood Vines were interwoven in midair, completely blocking the only way out.

Zhao Mengmeng tentatively extended the lower edge of her shield by half an inch.

Over a dozen Blood Vines immediately shot forward, clinging tightly to the outer surface of the shield.

Lin Ye pressed the hilt of his saber forward.

As the golden light approached, the Blood Vines began to smoke and fell off.

Zhao Mengmeng quickly pulled her shield back.

"There's no path left. How do we go down this slide?"

Lin Ye's vision locked onto the right side of the slope.

There was a thick, old vine root split open by strong acid, its interior showing a faint green vitality.

"Stick to the withered vine root on the right and slide straight down."

Lin Ye raised his right arm.

The main thread of the Abyss Thorn shot through the air, anchoring itself firmly into the hardened bone ridge overhead.

"I'll go first."

Holding the horizontal saber high with his left hand, the golden light strictly guarded the half-foot space around him.

Lin Ye leaped down, sliding along the old vine root.

The heat of a living human body caused the Blood Vines on the slope to become agitated.

The red lines thrust out from the slope in droves, chasing and snapping at him frantically.

However, as they neared the half-foot boundary of the golden light, they combusted and charred one after another.

The soles of his boots landed heavily on a large, protruding bone platform.

Lin Ye stabilized his stance, the Nano-wire pulling taut.

"Come down."

Zhao Mengmeng hooked onto the Abyss Thorn's secondary line and slid down rapidly.

Midway down, a thick, horizontally growing Blood Vine bypassed the blind spot of the golden light and swiftly coiled toward her lower leg.

With a fierce expression, Zhao Mengmeng raised the Rhino Beetle Carapace Shield and slammed it violently against the base of the vine!

Bang！

The Blood Vine was forcibly smashed off its trajectory.

Lin Ye followed up with a sweep of his horizontal saber, the golden light slicing it in half.

The two landed steadily on the bone platform.

The blood mist settled, revealing their surroundings.

Before them was a subterranean cavity of flesh and blood.

The dome was woven entirely from pulsating blood vessels, the black roots of the giant tree, and translucent bone plates.

Right in the center of the cavity lay a giant breeding pool with a diameter of a hundred meters.

Thick green liquid churned inside the pool.

Sheets of insect eggs floated on the surface of the liquid.

Through the translucent bottom of the pool, a thirty-meter-long giant beast's spine lay quietly dormant in the depths, with an alluring dark golden starlight flowing between the gaps in the bones.

Zhao Mengmeng clearly saw the living creature in the center of the pool, and the veins on the back of her hand holding the staff bulged.

"What tier of giant monster is this..."

Right in the middle of the breeding pool.

A grayish-white giant insect, over ten meters long, was crouching on the skull of the giant beast.

It had no facial features, and its abdomen was pierced by a dense cluster of fluid-transmitting tubes.

On its broad back, dozens of three-meter-long white bone spines stood upright.

At the tip of each spine, a deadly red light pulsed.

A light screen suddenly appeared in his right eye.

[Explosive Bone Louse]

[High-Tier Hive Guardian]

Lin Ye lowered his center of gravity, his left hand pressing down firmly on Zhao Mengmeng's shoulder armor.

The grayish-white giant insect stopped sucking the bone marrow.

The dozens of white bone spines on its back rotated in unison, locking onto the bone platform where the two were standing.

"Don't make a sound." Lin Ye's knuckles pressed hard against the hilt of his saber.

"It hunts using vibrations and echolocation."

The entire underground hive fell into dead silence.