Survival of the Nation: My luck was a tiny bit worse.

Marcus grunted and tapped the scorpion's shell.

"It's harder than I expected, but very lightweight."

Marcus's expression was very serious.

"If it can be smelted and processed, it can be used to make lightweight armor or bunker frames. However, the residual abyssal energy in these shells is too high, so they need to be purified first. The venom sacs also have value; the venom inside can be processed into weapon coatings."

Marcus pushed up his homemade glasses, a hint of smugness in his expression, feeling incredibly proud of his usefulness.

"Write this down and bring the sample with you on the way back."

Leng Ruolan began surveying the scene. "Which direction did the scorpions come from?"

Ou Yun squatted down and inspected the area, then pointed towards the depths of the stone pillars: "Hmm... these all come from the west. But these scorpion tracks look very fresh; it feels like they just passed through here recently?"

So it doesn't seem like they came specifically to ambush them, but more like... they just happened to be passing by and were bumped into.

"So that means there are more scorpions to the west?"

Leng Ruolan's expression was somewhat serious. "I feel there's a higher possibility of a scorpion's nest. Or perhaps there's a more advanced abyssal creature... driving them away?"

All three possibilities are in the same direction.

Ou Yun looked around twice. "Let's go take a look."

*

They continued walking westward through the stone pillars for about half an hour.

The surrounding environment is becoming increasingly desolate.

The loess on the ground turned dark brown, and the deeper you went, the larger the area of ​​dark brown became, eventually almost merging into one.

The smell of sulfur in the air had become stronger, mixed with a faint, pungent stench of rotting flesh.

"The temperature has risen again."

Alexander wiped the sweat from his face. "It must be at least forty degrees Celsius, right?"

"Forty-two degrees."

Marcus looked at the homemade thermometer in his hand. "And the humidity is still dropping. This kind of environment will require a huge amount of water."

"Oh, that's alright."

Is there a demand for water resources?

That's like a gift delivered right to our doorstep.

"I have at least half a month's worth of drinking water stored in my spatial ring."

But Ou Yun still politely declined, saying, "It's still chilled."

"Iced?"

"Yes, before I set off, I asked Brother Chen to help me put all the ice from the two large ice cellars into my spatial ring."

Marcus remained silent for a moment.

"To be honest, the quality of life for your Dragon Kingdom athletes in the forbidden area..."

He didn't even know how to describe it for a moment.

Is it better than the real world?

The real world is nothing!

You'll get used to it.

Alexander patted him on the shoulder. "I had the same expression when I first arrived."

The group walked for another hour.

The stone pillars in front of us came to an abrupt end.

Instead, there was an extremely vast basin—or more accurately, a huge circular depression with a diameter of at least two kilometers.

The edge of the depression is a steep rock wall, the surface of which is covered with a dense network of holes, each hole as tall as a person.

At the bottom of the depression was a thick layer of purple mist, which slowly churned at the bottom of the basin, and occasionally something could be seen moving within the mist.

Ou Yun glanced at it, scratched his head, and said, "Isn't this a rip-off of that Gu-breeding basin in the forest area?"

"Bigger than that."

Leng Ruolan walked to the edge of the basin and looked down. "And it's even deeper. You can't see the bottom."

"Look at those holes."

Douglas pointed to the opposite rock face, "Those holes aren't natural. They're too evenly distributed, the spacing is almost identical—they're man-made, or they're some kind of creature's nest."

"nest?"

Alexander gasped. "You mean there are things living in those caves?"

"I suppose so. There's no such thing as a baseless rumor in forbidden areas. All the unease has a source."

"Not necessarily. With so many caves here, does that mean every single one of them has a monster living inside?"

"Brother, can you please shut up—"

The voice just fell.

Two points of eerie purple light suddenly appeared from a hole in the opposite rock wall. The light flickered for a moment, then went dark again.

Then came the second hole, the third, the fourth—hundreds and thousands of holes simultaneously lit up with those eerie purple lights.

Bathed in purple mist, the opposite rock wall resembled a gigantic monster covered in eyes.

"Holy shit!"

Everyone was stunned.

"Brother, you rascal!"

"I knew it!"

Leng Ruolan immediately gave the order.

"Withdraw from the stone pillars, quickly!"

But it was too late.

Something began to emerge from those holes—black, fist-sized, beetle-like creatures.

Their numbers were countless, pouring out from every hole and surging down the rock walls like a black tide towards the bottom of the basin.

The insects gathered at the bottom of the basin and then began to tear at and devour each other.

Just like the monsters in the basin of the forest area—insects that devour their own kind grow larger, and purple patterns appear on their carapaces.

The more it devours, the bigger and stronger it becomes.

In less than five minutes, a worm-like monster, as large as the giant scorpion they had just hunted, appeared at the bottom of the basin.

And it continues to devour and grow larger.

"This is the breeding of poisonous insects in the forbidden area."

Leng Ruolan's voice was cold. "That pillar in the forest area is a Gu-breeding factory. This is the source of raw materials for Gu breeding."

"Will they come out?"

"It hasn't come out yet. But if there's an external stimulus—"

Ou Yun looked at the Abyss Sword in his hand.

The charging indicator on the sword is still lit up: [Current charging: 3%].

He then looked at the insect-shaped monster at the bottom of the basin, which was still growing larger.

Then he made a decision that went against his ancestors' wishes—

I want to give it a try.

"Try what?"

Ou Yun took a deep breath and looked down at the vast expanse of darkness.

"Hey bug! Come here!"

He shouted.

The echo reverberated through the basin, spreading layer by layer downwards.

"Come here!"

Come here!

Come on!

"what!"

At the bottom of the basin, the insects that were devouring each other suddenly stopped moving.

Countless pairs of dark purple eyes of varying sizes turned in unison to the edge of the basin.

Then, the largest insect-shaped monster raised its head and let out a deafening roar in the direction of Ou Yun.

"roar--!!"

The sound was so loud that everyone standing in the circle above was pushed back a step by the sound waves, their ears ringing.

"Test complete."

Then President Ou gave Leng Ruolan a thumbs up, "They will definitely come out."

"Big brother."

"Um?"

"I love you (grass) (mud) (horse)."