Warning! The evil god's minions are invading the eerie dungeon.

Qi Xie peered into the dark elevator shaft.

The naturally falling steel coils had evenly coated the walls and floor of the elevator shaft with the monster's image.

It was fortunate that this was a freight elevator, with enough space reserved for transporting large goods; otherwise, it would have been inconvenient for him to clear out so many monsters at once.

He snapped his fingers in satisfaction to dispel the "daydream," then turned to look at Chen Mu:

"That's fine."

Chen Mu turned around, his gaze somewhat complicated as he looked at Qi Xie:

"You suddenly disappeared just as night fell. Where did you go?"

"Your eyes are telling me directly that what you really want to say is, 'You're still alive.'"

Qi Xie said calmly.

Chen Muqian chuckled twice.

It's not his fault.

Anyone in such an extremely dangerous situation would assume their teammate is dead if they were missing for so long.

"The dark aura just now triggered a stress reaction in one of my sealed artifacts, which swallowed me into its shadow. It took me a long time to get out."

Qi Xie made up a reason on the spot, and then continued to ask:

"What's going on down there? Where did you get all these monsters from?"

I saw at least a couple hundred of them just from that fleeting glimpse in the elevator.

"There was a noise coming from underground just now..."

Chen Mu quickly and briefly explained the situation of the underground parking garage to Qi Xie.

But before they could utter many words, Qi Xie and he simultaneously realized that something was wrong.

The ground is shaking!!

Qi Xie frowned slightly, quickly took two steps toward the central courtyard, and leaned on the railing to look down.

Their location was on the fourth floor.

This is why Qi Xie heard the noise in the elevator shaft and followed it up.

At this moment, several escape routes on the first floor were overflowing with corpses, their limbs twisted and their bodies covered in wounds, like a torrent of water bursting out of a water-filled balloon.

In just a short while, the first floor was already packed with a dense crowd of people, roughly two or three hundred. Meanwhile, monsters controlled by insects continued to pour out of the escape tunnel, roaring and running wildly as if searching for something.

The tremor just now was the sound of these things rushing around!

At the same time, Qi Xie also noticed that what was emerging was not just humanoid monsters manipulated by insects.

Various food-like insects, such as beetles that resemble biscuits, have also emerged from underground to the surface.

Qi Xie frowned slightly, and combined the information he had obtained from Chen Mu to instantly deduce the truth of the matter.

The key is the strange insects found in this food!

Whatever the eerie creature outside is searching for in the darkness, it certainly wouldn't mind eating a few humans as snacks.

The strange insects that the travelers ate served to mark them with some kind of camouflage, deceiving them into the darkness outside.

No, that's not right either. If you eat these insects alive, you'll almost certainly die. If you want to eat them, you have to kill them first.

So, besides the insects themselves, what truly serves as camouflage is some unknown substance secreted by the insects?

It is those substances that prevent food from spoiling when it comes into contact with air.

Thinking of this, Qi Xie's brows furrowed even more tightly.

He just had a brush with death without even realizing it!

The unknown substance secreted by the strange insect must also contain some kind of strange energy!

For others, eating these things or dead insects is irrelevant; it serves as a form of camouflage.

But he's different!

Having been corrupted and tainted by the evil god for so long, he had long since taken on the form of the evil god.

Just like evil gods, the strange energy they ingest is digested.

Back in the Handkerchief Doll instance, he ate almost a calamity-level mantis to upgrade [Flesh Reforging] to B grade.

So theoretically, he can also eat the monsters that are sacrificed to the evil god... only those monsters with flesh and blood; he can't eat those without a physical form.

There are two reasons why he never ate the food himself but instead chose to sacrifice it to the evil god in exchange for "blessings" to become stronger.

Firstly, the strange flesh and blood did not become delicious because the strange energy was digestible.

On the contrary, their bizarre diet and lifestyle mean that their flesh and blood are practically the key to Nanchi for ordinary people.

Uh.

Although it's still far inferior to the man-eating mushrooms in the snakeskin bag.

The second point is quite simple and unpretentious.

According to biological knowledge, as long as humans eat and digest food, there will inevitably be some nutrients that are not absorbed and are wasted.

The evil god doesn't know, but Qi Xie still fits this description, even though, aside from his cognitive abilities, his relationship with humans is probably not as close as the relationship between humans and pigs.

Therefore, feeding these strange creatures to evil gods in exchange for blessings is the choice that maximizes profits.

In conclusion, although he did eat the food in the dungeon without knowing it, the strange ingredients in it must have been completely digested by him long ago, so how could it still have a disguise effect!

Fortunately, out of caution, he hid in the shadows when night fell.

Otherwise, he would most likely have already been discovered and locked onto by that darkness.

As Qi Xie's expression darkened, Chen Mu's expression also changed.

Several insects and monsters seemed to have already noticed them, who were hiding on the fourth floor and observing.

Countless monsters were rushing towards the fourth floor from the various single-story elevators and escape routes!

"Mr. Lu! They've spotted us! Let's go!"

In his haste, Chen Mu instinctively reached out to pat Qi Xie's shoulder to remind him.

But then, a frantic "malicious warning" screaming in his mind made him stop trying to touch the other person's body.

At this moment, Qi Xie also noticed his movement and turned to look at him.

Chen Mu's pupils contracted.

He saw a thumb-sized afterimage burrowing towards the back of Qi Xie's head.

The eerie insects don't need to climb stairs; they're much faster than those controlled humanoid monsters!

"Behind you..."

Chen Mu's terrified shout was cut off halfway through his throat.

Because Qi Xie didn't even turn his head, relying solely on his hearing, he raised his hand and grabbed the strange insect precisely with his thumb and forefinger.

Qi Xie calmly glanced to the side and saw that he was holding a bug that looked a lot like a Doritos sandwich between his fingers.

The pointed part was gleaming with a cold light, clearly an organ designed to pierce directly into the human body.

……

……