Stop it, Taoist, Your Fight almost Ruins the DAO!

Dark swamp.

A creature resembling a giant mole cricket, over ten meters in length, attacked Yi Chen and others before it painfully fell into the soft mud, its body exuding a dark green blood. When this blood came into contact with the mud, it emitted a piercing hissing noise and produced a wisp of white smoke.

"Everyone be careful, don't engage in close combat with this creature. Its blood has extremely strong corrosive properties." With a beckoning gesture, He Gongzi retracted the golden net covering the corpse of the insect and cautiously warned the crowd.

The group, seeing this, had a lingering fear and nodded in agreement.

By then, a light rain had started to fall from the sky.

After nearly a day of arduous trekking, under the leadership of He Gongzi, the group finally made it past the swamp and came to a dark black tree.

This was a tree that had been struck down, wide enough to require three people to encircle it, with slanted branches stretching towards the sky like the hands of a starving ghost.

The top still bore the marks of being struck by lightning, with parts already charred.

It was now night, and the thickly glowing moss cast the tree in an even more sinister light, while the raindrops from the sky grew heavier.

After much comparison, He Gongzi couldn't help but show an excited expression on his face.

"My friends, we have arrived at the Heavenly Dragon Cave."

As soon as these words fell, the shock was evident on the faces of the woman in the black dress and the two dark-faced men, who said in unison, "Big Brother He, is this the Heavenly Dragon Cave? Where is the entrance?"

The three spoke in unison, but Yi Chen could hear a different implication in their tone, causing him to take a closer look at the trio.

By then, he had already confirmed that He Gongzi was definitely not benevolent. Although the man concealed it well, the faint malice he occasionally radiated did not escape Yi Chen's notice.

However, Yi Chen was unconcerned, as the story of Li Zhuang serving human flesh was not uncommon in any world.

Moreover, after more than a day's interaction, and considering the recent emotional fluctuations of the woman in the black dress, Yi Chen had a new calculation in his mind.

"I thought I was the only wolf in the team. Could it be there are others?" Yi Chen's eyes flashed with a hint of doubt.

He had long noticed that the three of them seemed preoccupied and unsettled throughout the journey.

"Esteemed brothers, the Heavenly Dragon Cave is both far off in the distant sky and yet right before our eyes," He Gongzi said with a smile brimming with hidden meaning, pointing towards the tree without a crown before them.

The mysterious entrance to the Heavenly Dragon Cave was actually at the top of a decapitated tree—without He Gongzi pointing it out, who could have detected it given the suppression of spiritual sense in this place?

Under He Gongzi's urging, everyone filed into the opening at the base of the tree crown.

Beneath the tree crown lay a hidden world, deep and unknowable when gazed upon from the outside.

After more than ten seconds of free fall, Yi Chen finally landed on firm ground.

Before him was a descending slope extending downwards, flanked by narrow rock walls bearing marks of human carving.

Engraved upon them were numerous Buddhist motifs: cloud patterns, flying apsaras, Buddhas, lotuses, and the Eight Classes of Deities.

He Gongzi summoned a strange fist-sized firefly with four wings from his spirit beast bag, causing a diffuse blue light to radiate, accompanied by the dense buzzing sound of its fluttering wings, and the insect immediately shot toward the depth of the cave opening.

Yi Chen, who had devoted a third of his attention to the woman in the black dress and the two dark-faced men, noticed that upon entering the cave, the woman inadvertently touched the pearl hairpin on her head, and the reticent dark-faced man, Bo Jian, subtly rubbed a crystal ring in his hand.

Perhaps sensing some reluctance from the group behind him, He Gongzi abruptly turned around, his face bathed in the eerie green light of the firefly insect, casting a mysterious and enigmatic pallor: Continue reading on My Virtual Library Empire

"Let's go, everyone, why aren't we moving?"

"Boundless riches lie just ahead; my esteemed brothers, could we allow our work to be wasted at the last step?"

The atmosphere within the cave became somewhat eerie, with only the clear sound of buzzing wings audible as the group began to proceed down the sloped path under He Gongzi's urging.

At this moment, Yi Chen was eighty percent certain that Lian Hong and the two dark-faced men definitely had their own issues, yet he was not the least bit anxious, silently following the group forward.

The further they went down, the wider the inclined passage became. After cautiously treading through the underground for nearly half an hour, they suddenly heard a dense rustling sound from the cave ahead.

The noise grew louder and more intensive as it approached.

Illuminated by the glow of the firefly-like creatures, the group soon laid eyes on the source of the attack—giant mantises, the same kind they had encountered before.

There was a vast, seemingly endless number of them, among which many carried peculiar purple stripes on their shells, causing Yi Chen's gaze to sharpen instantly.

These strange mantises were creatures he recognized from Lin Yueshen's memories, and ultimately, it was by the ambush of such bizarre creatures that Lin Yueshen met his end.

"Yueshen, I have a bad feeling about this. Stay close to me later and don't charge too far ahead," said Bo Jian, the chubby man with the round face, abandoning his previous playful tone for a serious voice as he transmitted his message to Yi Chen.

"Understood," Yi Chen responded, sparing with his words.

The countless insects charged at the group with a momentum that seemed to come straight out of a sci-fi space opera, but Yi Chen was naturally unphased.

If there were no stronger creatures than these, then they wouldn't even be enough to scrape off his dead skin.

In a word, tough!

However, in order to conceal his true capabilities, he still held Lin Yueshen's long spear in his hand.

"Don't be afraid, everyone. I came prepared."

The young master called Crane did not seem the least bit surprised by the emergence of many giant insects. He took out a red gourd with a pained expression, its surface laced with strange purple patterns.

"Ground fire lava flame, it's actually ground fire lava flame! Big brother Crane is indeed well-prepared," exclaimed the woman in the black dress, her eyes shimmering as she fixed her sultry gaze on the gourd in Crane's hand.

Ground fire lava flame was a one-time magical relic capable of releasing a massive burst of intense fire. It was expensive and had limited uses, but here it was perfectly suited for the situation.

"Indeed, it is this item. My fellow brothers and sisters, step back!"

Crane formed a hand seal, and the red gourd with purple patterns floated up. The stopper dropped to the ground, and a stream of deep red flame poured out like lava toward the front.

Instantly, the air was filled with the scent of roasting meat. Even the purple-striped mantises hidden among the ordinary insects only managed to endure a few more breaths.

Amidst the sweeping flames, after suffering heavy casualties in the first wave, the remaining insects seemed to receive some sort of command and began to climb on top of one another, rolling towards the group in balls of bugs.

After shaking off the charred corpses on the outer layer, the insects inside that could still move struggled to continue their assault on the group.

Thanks to the clearing effect of the ground fire lava flame, the remaining giant insects posed no more threat. With everyone's coordinated effort and Crane leading, the line of defense held steadfast.

"Phew, it's a good thing big brother came prepared. Otherwise, considering how slowly mana recovers in the Extinction Ruins, just a few more attacks like that and we'd be drained," said Lian Hong, patting her chest in relief, expressing her lingering fear.

"As long as I can ensure the safety of my fellow brothers and sisters, any price is worth it," Crane responded with a smile, though his eyes flickered with an inscrutable light.

The team continued on.

Yi Chen casually speared a still-kicking purple-striped mantis, killing it effortlessly. Unfortunately, there were no Deep Red Points in their eyelids, indicating that these mantises held no secrets, merely beasts of burden. He then abandoned the idea of continuing to dispatch them along the way.

In that moment, he followed close behind the group, but his thoughts wandered far and beyond.

"From the 'black little potato' I encountered in the desolate wasteland when I first arrived, to the giant and purple-striped mantises, and then the giant bug that resembled a cicada in the swamp, what exactly happened in the Extinction Ruins to harbor such an array of bizarre creatures?"@@novelbin@@

"Were those mutated insects naturally formed, or man-made?"

Previously, when Yi Chen dissected a few of the giant bugs with his spear in the forest, he discovered that their internal structures were completely distorted, with each one having differently positioned organs.

The truth was elusive and obscure, and Yi Chen had no choice but to bury his doubts deep within his heart.

Continuing their journey, they soon arrived at a circular hall supported by eight stone pillars.