109: Chapter 109: Following the Mark of Withering and Flourishing, He Rides Alone Straight into the Abyss Mother Nest

Lin Yuan walked all the way to the Star Gate launch zone at the very edge of the Dead Star's surface.

The scene here was completely different from the living area.

Without the protection of the Formation shield, cosmic rays raged across the dark brown rock layers.

Metal launch gantries pointed straight into deep space, with several Star Gates floating outside the Dead Star's orbit.

The Star Gates were extremely far from the surface.

Lin Yuan stood at the edge of the cliff and looked up.

Between the Dead Star and the Star Gates, it was not a vacuum.

It was filled with visible spatial turbulence, with grayish-white fissures repeatedly forming and vanishing in the Void Realm.

Even a deity of the Demigod Realm would be torn directly into pieces if they relied solely on their Physical Body to cross this turbulent region.

Lin Yuan withdrew his gaze and walked toward a row of semi-circular metal buildings at the edge of the cliff.

This was the airship rental station established by the university's Logistics Department.

In front of the fortress window sat a fat man in a Logistics Department uniform, looking down as he trimmed his nails.

“Senior, I'd like to rent an airship,” Lin Yuan said, stepping forward.

The fat man didn't even raise his eyelids as he pointed to the price list nearby. “Single-person anti-spatial interference airship, two hundred thousand faith points one-way.”

“No bargaining, no discounts, and return trip is not included.”

Lin Yuan's eyelid twitched.

Two hundred thousand for a one-way trip, and the return isn't included?

This meant he not only had to pay when going, but also when fighting his way out of the foreign plane.

If he wanted to return to the university, he would have to contact the Logistics Department and pay another one hundred thousand retrieval fee.

“Does Starry Sky University tax you even for breathing?” Lin Yuan couldn't help but complain.

“Junior, those words are incorrect.” The fat man blew away his nail clippings and finally looked up at Lin Yuan, a professional fake smile plastered on his face.

“The spatial turbulence outside can scrape a layer of skin off even a True God's Divine Kingdom.”

“This one hundred thousand faith points buys your life to safely reach the Star Gate. If you think it's expensive, you can try flying over there yourself.”

Lin Yuan didn't waste any more words.

He summoned his star key and transferred one hundred thousand faith points.

“Pleasure doing business.” After checking the bill, the fat man threw over a metal token. “Launch Pad 3, head up yourself. I wish you prosperous divine fortune, and may you return alive to pay the return fee.”

Lin Yuan took the metal token and walked toward Launch Pad 3.

Moored there was a shuttle-shaped airship that could only accommodate one person.

Its exterior was extremely dilapidated, with most of its coating peeled off, revealing the high-density alloy armor underneath.

This thing didn't have any offensive weapons; all its energy was used to maintain the defensive shield and thrusters.

Lin Yuan pulled open the hatch and sat in the pilot's seat.

The hatch closed, and the light inside suddenly dimmed.

There was only a slot and a start lever on the control console.

Lin Yuan inserted his star key into the slot.

“Beep. One-way spatial anchor for Plane 093 detected. Route locked. Preparing for launch.”

A synthesized mechanical voice sounded, and a strong force pushed him back against his seat.

The tail of the airship spewed a long trail of fire as it plunged headfirst into the spatial turbulence above.

The cabin began to bump violently.

Lin Yuan looked out the porthole.

Grayish-white spatial fissures kept lashing against the airship's energy shield, bursting into showers of sparks.

After flying for a full seven or eight minutes, the turbulence finally disappeared.

The airship hovered smoothly in front of a Star Gate glowing with a dark red light.

Inside the Star Gate was a bottomless vortex.

“Warp countdown: Three, two, one.”

The airship rushed into the Star Gate.

A feeling of weightlessness enveloped his entire body.

Lin Yuan closed his eyes, feeling his body being stretched into a line, his consciousness briefly sinking into the chaotic spatial Laws.

After an unknown amount of time, the weightlessness disappeared.

The weightlessness was replaced by a heavy, oppressive gravity.

Lin Yuan opened his eyes.

The airship's hatch popped open automatically, and he stepped out.

The airship rapidly disintegrated behind him, vanishing on the spot.

This was the anti-tracking mechanism of the one-way airship.

He looked around.

The sky was gray, with no sun, only thick, fleshy clouds.

Beneath his feet was a layer of dark purple fleshy membrane.

As far as the eye could see, there was no plant life.

Only a few bone hives, tens of thousands of meters high, stood in the distance.

This was Plane 093.

The territory of the [Abyssal Armor Bone Locusts].

Lin Yuan did not summon his vassals.

Before figuring out the location of the royal larvae here, waging war with great fanfare would be the most foolish approach.

With a thought, Divine Fire flowed in his palm.

His exclusive divine art, the [Wither-Bloom Mark].

Lin Yuan applied the “Wither” mark in reverse onto himself.

Instantly, his physical vital signs were forcibly suppressed to their lowest point.

His heart rate slowed down, his blood flow decelerated, and even the heat he emitted was completely enveloped by Death Qi.

Then, Lin Yuan mobilized his latent comprehension of the Laws within his Divine Domain.

A layer of grayish-black eerie light rippled across the surface of his body.

In the blink of an eye, Lin Yuan transformed into a faint, indistinct shadow, completely blending into this plane.

Unless there was a True God-level Mental Energy conducting a carpet search, it would be extremely difficult to detect his presence.

Stepping on the fleshy membrane and using the protruding bone spikes on the surface as cover, Lin Yuan crept toward the nearest bone hive.

Before he had even advanced two kilometers,

Lin Yuan suddenly stopped in his tracks.

Within his mental Sea of Consciousness, he captured an extremely weak fluctuation of a Divine Domain coming from not far ahead.

There was someone.

And more than one.

Leaning behind a bone pillar, Lin Yuan looked through his grayish-black shadow toward a depression ahead.

Four people were lying there, three men and one woman.

They wore uniform Starry Sky University combat suits, covered in a layer of optical stealth camouflage.

At the same time, an aura-shielding formation compass spun slowly in their center.

They were seniors.

Lin Yuan made his judgment.

Starry Sky University had no team restrictions. To reduce risks, it was normal for upperclassmen to form teams to conquer foreign planes.

Since they were hiding here, they clearly intended to sneak in secretly as well.

Lin Yuan glanced at the direction they were heading; it deviated slightly from his target hive.

He had no intention of showing himself to say hello.

At Starry Sky University, trust between strangers was zero.

Peaceful competition and mutual non-interference was the best choice.

Lin Yuan composed himself, preparing to bypass these people and continue advancing from the side.

Just as Lin Yuan moved,

inside the depression, the short-haired senior sister who was coordinating in the center frowned.

On the scanning radar in front of her, a red dot representing an unknown energy signature flickered.

“Captain, ten o'clock direction, someone's there,” the short-haired senior sister whispered, her fingers tapping rapidly on her terminal.

“Less than a thousand meters from us. Their concealment method is extremely advanced; I almost missed it.”

The one addressed as captain was a young man with a scar on his face.

His name was Chen Feng.

Hearing the report, a sharp glint flashed in Chen Feng's eyes.

The other two male team members also tensed their muscles, the Divine Power within their bodies ready to erupt.

On this foreign plane, encountering other teams was often even more dangerous than encountering the foreign races.

They had seen too much of the “dog-eat-dog” business during their sophomore year.

“Can you lock onto their identity?” Chen Feng stared in the ten o'clock direction but saw nothing.

“I'm analyzing the waveband now.” Cold sweat dripped from the short-haired senior sister's forehead. “The target's Divine Power fluctuations are very strange, carrying a strong sense of dead silence.”

“Wait...”

The short-haired senior sister stared at the final analysis result on the radar and froze.

“What's wrong? Is it some junior year madman?” Chen Feng gripped his blade tighter.

“No,” the short-haired senior sister breathed a sigh of relief, her tone turning somewhat strange.

“The radar identified the underlying waveband of the target's star key. It's a freshman, the kind who just enrolled.”

As soon as she said this, most of the tense atmosphere in the depression dissipated.

Chen Feng's shoulders slumped, and his grip on the blade loosened.

“A freshman? Alone?” A tall, thin team member nearby lowered his voice, his tone filled with disbelief.

“Is there water in this batch of freshmen's brains? On the very first day of school, he ran to Plane 093 all by himself? Does he even know what kind of place this is?”

“He was probably scammed by those black-hearted merchants in the trading street,” another team member sneered.

“Thinking he could come here to pick up scraps just because he bought a one-way key. He probably doesn't even know the characteristics of the [Abyssal Armor Bone Locusts], truly treating this place like a beginner's village.”

They were sophomores.

In the entire sophomore year, their team's strength was in the lower-middle tier.

Precisely because of their lack of strength, they were forced to come to this thankless bug nest to reap some minor benefits.

They had been lying here for three hours.

They didn't even dare to disturb a single patrol bug on the outermost perimeter, for fear of triggering a swarm riot.

Now, they actually saw a freshman strutting his way in stealthily.

“Captain, should we contact him?” The short-haired senior sister looked at Chen Feng.

“After all, we're from the same school. If we let him wander around blindly like this, what if he alerts the swarm and drags us down too?”

Chen Feng stared in the direction Lin Yuan had vanished, pondering for a moment.

“Leave him be.” Chen Feng shook his head, his eyes cold.

“He's just an ignorant, fearless freshman. The bugs in this place don't listen to reason.”

He paused, then continued, “He's sneaking in right now relying on some concealment method, but he'll definitely try to hunt the outer bugs in a moment.”

“As long as he dares to make a move, even if he only kills one, the swarm of the entire plane will lock onto him.”

“When that time comes, he will realize that Starry Sky University's academic credits aren't that easy to earn.”

“Once he's surrounded by the sea of bugs and suffers enough, he will naturally use the survival function of his star key to forcefully escape the plane.”

Chen Feng glanced at his three teammates, his tone carrying a bit of sophomore pride:

“We went through a lot of trouble to map out this safe route. There's no need to take on the risk of cooperation for the sake of a freshman.”

“Moreover, if our sophomore team still needs to recruit a freshman to make progress, how could we hold our heads up in our grade if word got out?”

Hearing this, the other three nodded in agreement.

Indeed, they might be weak, but they still had the bottom line of sophomores.

If they were looked down upon by a junior who had just enrolled, it would feel worse than death.

“Everyone, back to your positions, continue hiding.”

“Once that kid causes trouble and draws the bugs' attention in this area away, we will take the opportunity to slip into that sub-hive,” Chen Feng ordered.

The four of them lowered their bodies again, completely enveloped by the faint glow of the formation compass.

On the other side,

Lin Yuan knew nothing of the sophomore team's schemes, nor did he care.

He was walking across the disgusting fleshy membrane with a highly rhythmic pace.

His stealth was going very smoothly.

He had already crossed the outermost defensive line and was approaching the edge of the bone hive.

Along the way, he saw many giant locusts with massive bodies covered in gray bone armor wandering around.

These were the adult forms of the Abyssal Armor Bone Locusts.

The aura they emitted generally reached the Silver or even Gold tier.

Lin Yuan did not make a move against these adults.

His target was a Royal Larva.

Only the royal family possessed a conceptual trait like [Swarm Dominator].

Ahead was a dark purple muddy swamp.

Bubbles constantly rose from the surface of the swamp, emitting an even stronger sour, putrid smell.

This was the hive's waste disposal area, and also the blind spot most easily overlooked.

Lin Yuan prepared to cross this swamp and sneak in through the waste outlet at the bottom of the hive.

Controlling the [Wither-Bloom Mark], he dispersed his own weight into the grayish-black shadow.

Stepping on the surface of the mud, he didn't cause a single ripple.

One step, two steps, three steps.

An extremely perfect infiltration.

Just as Lin Yuan was about to step out of the muddy swamp and onto the solid ground,

his right foot came down.

The sole of his foot made contact with something soft, its color completely identical to the mud.

This object did not have any energy fluctuations.

No heartbeat.

No aura of the Laws.

It was like a lump of dead, rotting meat, perfectly blending into the background of this swamp.

But the moment Lin Yuan stepped on it,

“Squish.”

A squelching sound, so faint that even Lin Yuan himself almost missed it, came from beneath his foot.

Lin Yuan's movements froze.

In his mind, the image of the trading street vendor smoking a cigarette with a cunning grin flashed by.

“Once you're inside, if you step on and kill even a single lowliest larva, the hundreds of millions of bugs in the entire plane will instantly sense your presence...”