Within the Bone Abyss, a swarm of maggots eroded the path.

Under the guidance of the Bone Spirit Guardian, Nightmare stepped into the true passage leading to the heart of the Bone Burial Abyss.

Unlike the path paved with skeletons before, this passage seemed to be carved inside countless giant bones; the ceiling was made of interlaced ribs, the sides were spinal columns emitting a ghostly light, and the floor was made of polished, flat bone plates covered with fine bone patterns.

The Death Qi and forbidden power permeating the air were even denser, forming wisps of grayish-black mist that flowed slowly.

When these mists touched the Starfall Demonic Flame surrounding Nightmare, they emitted a faint "hissing" sound and were burned away, but they were endless, showing the harshness of the environment here.

"These Death Qi and forbidden powers, after eons of accumulation, are no longer something an ordinary Cultivator can resist."

The will of the Bone Spirit Guardian guided the way from the front; its main body did not fully follow, but instead separated a wisp of core Soul fire attached to a floating finger bone to guide Nightmare.

"Only because your dao seed and Demonic Flame are special can you be unharmed. If an ordinary Nascent Soul Cultivator were to arrive here, their vitality would be stolen and they would turn into dry bones in less than half a quarter of an hour."

Nightmare nodded silently; he could feel that although his dao seed was still absorbing the Power of the Stars (most of the bones here contained residual Power of the Stars) in this environment, it also needed to divert a portion of its power to resist the erosion of Death Qi and forbidden power.

And those grayish-black mists vaguely gave him a sense of unease.

The passage was not straight, but wound downwards with a steep slope.

What he saw along the way was shocking.

On the bone walls on both sides, the bones that should have been complete and sturdy appeared with large areas of damage and holes.

The edges of those holes were irregular, as if they had been gnawed out bit by bit by something.

Many bones had lost their original jade-like or metallic luster, becoming grayish-white and fragile, likely turning into powder with a light touch.

The faint starlight and Dao rhyme originally remaining on the bones were almost gone in these gnawed areas.

"This is the 'masterpiece' of the Dao-Eroding Maggots."

The will fluctuation of the Bone Spirit Guardian carried obvious disgust and pity.

"They are ubiquitous, feeding on the power of the ten thousand Daos. The Power of the Stars, Death Qi, Evil Qi, and even the original Dao rhyme remaining in the bones of ancient Cultivators are all their food."

"The bones gnawed by them lose all spirituality, are no longer sturdy, and will eventually turn into dust completely."

Nightmare reached out to touch a hollowed-out rib; his fingertips felt a rough and brittle texture, completely different from the moist and hard texture of the intact bones next to it.

He probed with his Divine Sense, and sure enough, the inside was empty, without even the slightest residual energy.

"How many of them are there?" Nightmare asked in a deep voice.

"Countless," the Bone Spirit Guardian replied.

"Like maggots attached to bones, they are spread all over the lower layers of the Bone Burial Abyss."

"I need to guard the core of the abyss entrance to prevent foreign enemies from invading, and I also need to maintain the stability of the Seal on the entity at the bottom of the abyss, so I cannot clear them out with full force."

"I can only clean up the areas near the altar and key passages regularly. Now, they seem to have a tendency to spread to deeper places."

As they were speaking, a faint, dense "rustling" sound came from the corner of the passage ahead, as if countless tiny feet were crawling on bone.

Nightmare's eyes narrowed, and he stopped.

The Bone Spirit Guardian's Soul fire also suddenly brightened: "Be careful, it's a swarm of Dao-Eroding Maggots!"

As soon as the words fell, a grayish-white "tide" surged out from the corner!

It was a torrent composed of countless fist-sized, translucent worms with dark energy flowing inside!

They were crowded together, layer upon layer, instantly filling the passage ahead, and surged towards Nightmare at an extremely fast speed!

Wherever they passed, the already fragile bone walls on both sides of the passage made a teeth-grinding "crackling" sound, being gnawed for more debris.

These Dao-Eroding Maggots were slightly different from the ones encountered in the altar cave before; their bodies seemed larger, their color was more grayish-white, and between the opening and closing of their mouthparts, one could see tiny teeth with corrosive halos.

Most notably, in this grayish-white tide, there were dozens of individuals the size of a washbasin, dark silver in color, with a tiny crystal protrusion on their heads!

"Elite Dao-Eroding Maggots!" the Bone Spirit Guardian warned.

"They have condensed 'Dao-Eroding crystal cores' in their bodies, have a stronger ability to devour Dao power, and can to some extent resist pure flame burning! Be careful, they will actively attack targets containing powerful Dao power, such as your dao seed!"

Sure enough, those dozens of dark silver Elite Dao-Eroding Maggots were particularly eye-catching in the insect tide; they seemed to sense the pure and powerful energy fluctuations emitted by the dao seed and Starfall Demonic Flame on Nightmare, issued excited hisses, suddenly accelerated, broke away from the vanguard of the insect tide, and took the lead in ejecting towards Nightmare!

They spat out grayish-white energy threads with strong corrosive and devouring characteristics from their mouthparts!

"Good timing!" A fierce look flashed in Nightmare's eyes, and he advanced instead of retreating.

The Dao-Eroding Maggot tide must be cleared, otherwise he could not safely obtain the star dao fruit.

Coincidentally, he also wanted to try out his newly mastered power; against this kind of gregarious enemy with a huge number, what method was the most effective?

He quickly formed Seals with both hands, and the surging Starfall Demonic Flame around him suddenly expanded, no longer limited to protecting his body, but centered on him, forming a dark flame Domain with a diameter of over ten zhang!

"Meteor Burning Heaven Formation!"

With his low shout, within the flame Domain, countless complex Formation patterns outlined by Demonic Flame and Star Power lit up instantly on the ground and in the air!

These Formation patterns rotated and connected rapidly, inducing the flames within the Domain to rise violently, turning into countless rotating flame tornadoes with star phantoms growing and dying inside, and crashed head-on towards the surging insect tide!

This was not a simple flame burning, but an area-of-effect attack that combined the power of the Formation, the shock of the Power of the Stars, and the destructive characteristics of the Demonic Flame!

Boom, boom, boom, boom—!

The flame tornadoes rushed into the insect tide like hot oil poured into snow.

The ordinary grayish-white Dao-Eroding Maggots let out shrill hisses the moment they touched the edge of the flame tornadoes, their bodies quickly scorched, carbonized, and then turned into fly ash!

The restraining effect of the Starfall Demonic Flame on their evil nature was extremely significant.

However, those dozens of dark silver Elite Dao-Eroding Maggots showed different resilience.

The dark silver carapace on their bodies seemed to be able to reflect and disperse part of the flame energy, and the grayish-white energy threads they spat out could even briefly entangle and mutually corrode with the Demonic Flame on the periphery of the flame tornadoes.

Although they were still burned with squeaking sounds and their carapaces cracked, they did not die immediately, but instead rushed towards Nightmare's main body even more fiercely, with their mouthparts wide open, aiming at Nightmare's Dantian position (where the dao seed was located), attempting a "targeted gnawing"!

"Humph, courting death!" Nightmare snorted coldly, his mind moving slightly.

Inside the flame Domain, several smaller flame tornadoes suddenly closed up, turning into several giant flame hands made entirely of Starfall Demonic Flame, precisely grabbing the few Elite Dao-Eroding Maggots that rushed the fastest!

At the same time, the Bone Spirit Guardian was not idle.

On the floating finger bone, the ghostly blue Soul fire shone brightly, and an invisible, intangible, yet Soul-striking fluctuation spread forward in a fan shape!

"Bone Spirit Soul-Suppressing Wave!"

This fluctuation did not cause much physical damage, but it had a miraculous effect on evil things like Dao-Eroding Maggots that relied on weak instincts and devouring desires to act!

Wherever the fluctuation passed, a large number of ordinary Dao-Eroding Maggots suddenly stiffened, as if they had lost their instructions, and stood still.

Even those Elite Dao-Eroding Maggots had their sprinting speed significantly slowed down, and the fierce light flickering in their eye sockets (if those could be called eye sockets) became scattered.

Taking this opportunity, the giant flame hands controlled by Nightmare closed tightly!

"Puchi! Puchi!"

With a few muffled sounds, the three Elite Dao-Eroding Maggots caught by the giant flame hands let out short and sharp hisses before being squeezed to death by the terrifying Demonic Flame and the Power of the Stars!

Fragments of dark silver carapaces and grayish-white body fluids splashed everywhere, but they were quickly purified and evaporated in the Demonic Flame.

Three crystals, about the size of a fingernail, in the shape of irregular polyhedrons, with grayish-silver energy flowing slowly inside, fell from the exploded insect corpses and were drawn by Nightmare's spiritual power and taken into his hand.

They felt cold and extremely hard to the touch; upon careful sensing, one could discover that they contained a strange energy with strong "corrosion" and "transformation" implications, but this energy was confined within the crystal core and was relatively stable.

[Ding! Obtained special Materials: Dao-Eroding crystal core x3.]

[Dao-Eroding crystal core: The core condensed in the body of an Elite Dao-Eroding Maggot, containing pure "Dao-Eroding" Law fragments.]

[Can be absorbed and refined by the dao seed; there is a probability of improving the "devouring" and "transformation" efficiency of the dao seed for various types of energy, and strengthening the star attribute.]

[Warning: The refining process needs to be cautious, as it may cause temporary discomfort to the dao seed.]

The System's prompt confirmed what the Bone Spirit Guardian said.

The remaining Elite Dao-Eroding Maggots, seeing their companions die instantly, had their ferocity suppressed by fear, hissing and retreating one after another, re-submerging into the grayish-white insect tide behind.

After the effect of the Bone Spirit Guardian's Soul-Suppressing Wave passed, the massive insect tide surged again, but the vanguard was firmly blocked by Nightmare's "Meteor Burning Heaven Formation," suffering heavy casualties.

Nightmare maintained the Formation, steadily advancing.

The flame tornadoes were like a meat grinder, clearing the Dao-Eroding Maggots along the way in large swathes.

The Bone Spirit Guardian assisted from the side, occasionally releasing Soul-Suppressing Waves to interfere with the insect tide, or condensing bone spears to snipe the missing Elite individuals.

This was a war of attrition.

The Dao-Eroding Maggots seemed endless, pouring out continuously from the depths of the passage.

Nightmare's spiritual power was continuously consumed, but his Foundation, newly broken through to the Peak of the Late Nascent Soul Stage, was solid, and coupled with the dao seed autonomously absorbing the surrounding Power of the Stars for replenishment, he could still support it.

The restraining effect of the Starfall Demonic Flame on the Dao-Eroding Maggots also greatly reduced consumption.

Advancing like this for about the time it takes to burn an incense stick, he had cleared no less than ten thousand Dao-Eroding Maggots, killed more than a dozen Elite individuals, and obtained five more Dao-Eroding crystal cores.

The insect tide ahead finally seemed to become sparse, and the "rustling" sound coming from the depths of the passage gradually weakened.

"We are almost at the end of the core passage," the Bone Spirit Guardian said.

"That is one of their main gathering and breeding grounds. If we clear that area, the road to the Star Palace will be preliminarily opened."

Nightmare nodded, Demonic Flame rising in his eyes, and continued to urge the Formation, like a moving flame fortress, crushing towards the end of the passage.