One person: Starting with the Snow Drinking Blade

Nie Lingfeng felt a chill run down his spine.

Xiaoyun's sense of danger has never been wrong. Back in Snow Ridge Town, she was able to sense the awakening of the underground giant in advance, which saved everyone's lives. Now she's saying "there's something bad"—and she's specifically emphasizing "down there" and "it's huge."

This suggests that something far more terrifying than those carrion beetles, the "ripper" mentioned by the bald bear, or even Sato Ittosai on the arena might be lurking deep underground.

While comforting Xiaoyun, he quickly looked around.

This appears to be a vast underground space deeper within the cavern, many times larger than the one above. The flashlight beam shines out only into a void of darkness, unable to illuminate the opposite rock wall.

Above us was a towering dome, hidden in darkness. When the flashlight beam shone directly up, the beam grew thinner and dimmer in the darkness until it disappeared completely—it couldn't reach the top at all.

All around were endless, jagged rock walls and underground lakes. The rock walls were riddled with holes and cracks of all sizes, resembling the skin of some giant beast. The lake's surface was as calm as a mirror, reflecting fluorescent light, but nothing could be seen beneath the surface.

The space was not completely dark.

On the rock walls, by the water, and even on some strangely shaped plants that resembled giant fungi or corals, various fungi and lichens emitting eerie green, pale white, and dark red light grew. They provided light sufficient for vision, but added to the eerie atmosphere—the pale light made people's skin look as bloodless as a dead person, the eerie green light made shadows turn emerald green, and the dark red light seemed to emanate from flesh and blood.

The air was thicker with a damp, rotten, and sweet, fishy smell. The odor was more than twice as strong as before, so strong that it could almost be tasted on the tongue. There was also an indescribable buzzing sound, like countless lives gathering, wriggling, and whispering, sometimes near, sometimes far, sending chills down one's spine, as if something was whispering in a language that humans could not understand.

"Where...where am I?"

Zhang Chulan wrung out his soaked clothes, water gushing down his face. He scanned his surroundings with his flashlight, the beam tracing white streaks in the darkness. His voice was dry, as if his throat were stuffed with cotton.

This place is too big, too strange, it doesn't look like a naturally formed cave at all. Natural caves wouldn't be this orderly—the spatial layout here has a clear sense of layering, as if it were designed by man.

It looks more like... the inside of the abdominal cavity of some kind of giant beast.

"It should be...it should be near the main channel of the underground river, possibly close to...the council's old deep sewage outlet or...experimental wastewater treatment area."

Bald Bear, enduring excruciating pain, spoke in a hoarse voice. His face was contorted with agony, sweat streamed down his forehead, mingling with blood from the corner of his mouth and dripping onto the ground. One leg was completely useless, and he could only support himself on his hands, half-lying down.

His face was filled with despair, like someone who had been sentenced to death and was waiting for execution.

"We're doomed... We've fallen this deep... We're dead... Those things... They're definitely nearby..."

"Shut up!"

Nie Lingfeng gave him a cold look.

That gaze wasn't fierce or ruthless, just calm—a calm that chilled you to the bone. Like a stagnant pool; if you threw a stone in, it wouldn't even make a splash.

Bald Bear immediately fell silent, only painful groans and heavy breathing remained. He dared not speak again.

"Wang Ye, can you determine the location? Can you find the way up?" Nie Lingfeng asked.

Master Wang struggled to his feet, patting the mud off his robe—but it wouldn't come off properly, only getting dirtier. He then set up the Qimen Dunjia formation again, and the illusory image of the Eight Trigrams appeared beneath his feet, slowly rotating.

A moment later, his expression turned even more grim.

"No... the earth's energy is completely disrupted, the magnetic field is reversed, and I can't even tell up from down. My compass needle keeps spinning and won't stop. And..."

He paused, as if carefully discerning the details hidden within the chaotic information.

"I sensed that more than one powerful, chaotic life force was approaching us from all directions... at a steady pace. They weren't moving randomly; they were purposeful."

As if to confirm Wang Ye's words—

The faint buzzing sound all around suddenly became clearer and more intense!

"Buzz—Buzz—Buzz—"

The sound was no longer a faint background noise, but like a swarm of bees buzzing in your ear. No, denser than bees, sharper than mosquitoes. It wasn't just one or two insects chirping; it was the sound of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of insects making the same noise at the same time.

At the same time, the slippery ground beneath everyone's feet began to tremble slightly.

It wasn't like an earthquake—not the violent shaking that comes from deep underground and makes you lose your balance. Instead, it was a subtle, high-frequency vibration, like something crawling under your skin.

Countless tiny things are continuously emerging from the cracks in the ground, the silt by the water, and the holes in the rock walls.

"Shh...shh..."

A sickening sound came from all directions, growing closer and louder. It sounded like the crawling of insects, their claws scraping against the rocks—slight, faint, yet dense and ubiquitous.

It feels like countless needles are scraping your bones.

"Look! What's that?!"

Zhang Chulan suddenly shone his flashlight beam onto a rock wall covered in dark red fluorescent moss. The moment the beam hit it, his face turned deathly pale.

The moss on the rock wall, which had been still, suddenly came to life, wriggling and falling off!

No, it's not the moss that's moving.

Beneath the moss, countless tiny insects, each the size of a fingernail, with glossy black carapaces, sharp mouthparts, and compound eyes that gleamed red in the dim light, emerged!

These insects were no ordinary insects. Their carapaces were as if they had been soaked in oil, a glossy black that shimmered with a metallic sheen under the flashlight beam. Their six legs were long and thin, ending in sharp claws that allowed them to traverse smooth rock faces with ease. Their mouthparts resembled two curved sickles, opening and closing with a subtle "click-clack" sound reminiscent of a meat grinder.

Their number is infinite.

They poured out from every crevice in the rock face—from cracks, from holes, from hollows in the stone, from beneath the moss, from every corner you could and couldn't imagine. As if something had disturbed their nest, all the insects simultaneously burst forth, swarming out of their burrows.

They converged into a series of chilling black torrents, cascading down the rock face like waterfalls, flowing along the ground, the water, and even onto each other's bodies, surging toward where they were!

"It's a carrion beetle! Run!"

When Bald Bear saw the insects, he was terrified. Forgetting his broken leg, he scrambled backward, trying to move. He braced himself on his elbows, dragging his broken leg, wriggling on the ground like an injured worm.

"They eat everything! Steel, bones, flesh! Once they get around you, you're reduced to a skeleton in minutes!"

Wow! So many!

Zhang Chulan's face turned green, and his lips trembled. Lightning crackled around him again, white arcs of electricity leaping wildly across his body. He took a deep breath and unleashed a palm strike.

"Thunder Magic - Palm Thunder!"

"boom--!"

A violent bolt of lightning erupted from his palm, like a white pillar of light, blasting into the swarm of insects! Wherever the lightning passed, the insects were instantly charred, exploded, and scattered, like flies struck by a high-voltage electric shock. The smell of burnt flesh filled the air, mixing with the insects' bodily fluids to create a nauseating odor.

A series of crackling sounds filled the air, like someone was frying a large pot of peanuts. A thick layer of charred, smoking insect corpses lay on the ground.

But more insects immediately filled the void.

The insects behind crawl over the corpses of their kind, one after another, endlessly! You kill one, and two more surge in; you kill two, and four more surge in. Their numbers are not addition, but multiplication.

"It's no use! There are too many! We can't kill them all!"

Master Wang Ye also grew anxious, beads of sweat rolling down his forehead. He formed a hand seal, his ten fingers flying, and a cluster of flames rose from his palm.

"The word 'separation' evokes the fleeting light of fireflies!"

A fine spray of sparks, like fireworks, shot from his fingertips and rained down on the swarm of insects. The sparks landed on the insects and instantly ignited, crackling and popping as they burned. The insects curled up and burst open, emitting a burnt, acrid smell—a mixture of charred protein and burning shell.

But the sheer number of insects was terrifying. One swarm would be burned to death, only to be replaced by another, and they would surround the insects from even more directions!

At the water's edge—insects from the water rise densely to the surface, like a layer of black oil film, spreading from the water to the shore.

Insects were falling from the cracks in the rocks overhead—like rain—appearing around them with a "pitter-patter" sound.

In the mud beneath my feet—the mud was bubbling, and with each bubble came an insect crawling out.

Insects were everywhere, oozing from every crevice. They surged in like a tide, coming from all directions, growing ever closer and denser. The black torrent shimmered eerily in the fluorescent light, like a living carpet being spread out.

Chen Duo also released more Gu worms.

Her Gu worms and these carrion-eating ironclad beetles were locked in a fierce struggle—the silver Gu worms and the black ironclad beetles intertwined, biting, devouring, and crushing each other. Silver bodily fluids and black blood mingled, forming puddles of viscous, foul-smelling liquid on the ground.

However, her number of Gu worms was limited, and faced with this surging swarm, she was quickly overwhelmed and swallowed up. One by one, the silver Gu worms were swallowed by the black torrent and could no longer be seen.

"Retreat to the higher ground over there!"

Nie Lingfeng pointed to a relatively dry, large rock platform that protruded from the water not far away.

The platform was about half the size of a basketball court, rising about one meter above the water. Surrounded by water on three sides, it connected to the land on only one side, forming a natural peninsula shape. The platform's surface was relatively flat, with little moss, suggesting it had been artificially prepared previously.

It is easy to defend but difficult to attack.

No one dared to delay and immediately rushed towards the platform!

Nie Lingfeng, carrying Xiaoyun, moved with lightning speed. His feet didn't slip at all on the wet ground; each step was steady and fast. He broke through the encirclement before the swarm of insects closed in and landed on the platform first.

Wang Ye, Zhang Lingyu, and Feng Baobao followed closely behind. Wang Ye threw wind blades behind him as he ran, slicing the pursuing insects in half. Zhang Lingyu's black lightning left charred marks behind him; any insects that touched it were instantly corroded into a pool of black liquid. Feng Baobao didn't look back, but the insects inexplicably avoided her path—it was her "momentum" at work; their instincts told them that this woman was untouchable.

While manipulating her Gu worms to fend off the swarm behind her, Chen Duo also retreated. Her Gu worms formed a silver defensive line behind her, temporarily blocking the onslaught of the insect tide. As she retreated onto the platform, the defensive line was breached by the insect swarm, and the silver fragments were swallowed by the black tide.

Zhang Chulan brought up the rear. He continuously used lightning magic to clear away the pursuing insects, throwing palm lightning bolts backward as he retreated. "Boom, boom, boom—" Lightning exploded repeatedly in the darkness, illuminating the swarm of insects behind him—a boundless, surging, black ocean. He scrambled onto the platform, nearly tripping over the stones at the edge, but Feng Baobao reached out and pulled him back.

The bald bear also wanted to climb over.

But his leg was broken, and his movements were slow. He used both hands to support himself on the ground, dragging his broken leg, moving with difficulty like a wounded worm. His fingers dug bloody marks into the ground, and his nails were torn open, but he didn't care about the pain—because the swarm of worms behind him was less than two meters away.

"Help...help me!"

He desperately reached out his hand, which trembled in the air, his fingertips pointing toward the platform.

Feng Baobao glanced at it.

No hesitation.

She flashed to the edge of the platform. She bent down, reached out, and grabbed Bald Bear by the collar—not by the hand, but by the collar itself, lifting him up like a chick.

The bald bear, weighing over 200 pounds, felt as light as a rag doll in her hands. With a casual flick of her wrist, the bald bear arced through the air and crashed onto the platform with a "bang," seeing stars, its teeth breaking its lip, and blood trickling from the corner of its mouth.

But at least we're safe for now.

He lay on the edge of the platform, panting heavily, like a fish pulled ashore. Looking down at the swarm of insects spreading like a black carpet, trying to climb onto the platform, he was still shaken, sweat mixed with blood streaming down his face.

The platform temporarily blocked the direct impact of the insect swarm.

But the insects weren't stupid. They began climbing up from the water's surface and the rock walls. The insects in the water climbed up the platform's stone walls, one on top of the other, stacking higher and higher like a human pyramid. The insects on the rock walls circled around the side of the platform, stretching along the rock wall like a black ribbon.

The water below the platform was no longer visible—it was covered by a thick layer of black insects, like a layer of asphalt. On the rock walls at the edge of the platform, the insects were densely packed together, their shells rubbing against each other, making a "rustling" sound, as if something was constantly scraping your eardrums.

"This can't go on!"