I created the myth of the Great Old Ones.

First came thunder, like the roar of a giant, echoing across the sky and causing the buildings in the industrial park ruins to tremble.

The rain started to fall.

First, one drop, then two drops, the size of peas, gradually fell from the sky. However, due to the temperature, these raindrops evaporated before they could even touch the ground.

However, as evaporation proceeds, the surrounding temperature gradually decreases.

Boom—

A bolt of lightning flashed through the dark clouds, followed by a deafening roar of thunder.

A thundercloud covered the entire industrial park. Overhead, the power of nature was on full display, and another bolt of lightning struck, hitting the highest rocket launch platform.

Trembling lightning snaked down from the top of the tower to the ground, followed by a deafening roar.

Even after the lightning disappeared, wisps of bright, dazzling electricity continued to spread across the charred metal frame.

In the distance, Shuangxin and the others, riding camel-insects, stared in disbelief at this scene.

In reality, they had never seen a real downpour.

Within the dark, gloomy clouds, thunder roared and flashed, its sound echoing across the vast desert like the roar of a giant dragon, piercing the very soul.

For these post-cataclysmic wasteland dwellers, the torrential rain was like a miracle from the gods.

Shuangxin seemed to have thought of something, and her heart wavered. She knew very well that this rainstorm was definitely not accidental, but Lu Ban's doing. However, how would he fight against the swarm of insects and close the wormhole in this rainstorm? Shuangxin's imagination was not enough to imagine such an answer.

Further away, in the future city.

Lin seemed to sense something; she closed her eyes, as if calculating.

A moment later, the robot girl opened her eyes.

"Extremely bad weather has occurred near the industrial park. Shuangxin and the others have not returned yet and may encounter trouble."

That's her judgment.

In the very center of the commercial street, a towering platform set up by robots for a bonfire party stood. Lin glanced at it, as if hesitating.

……

"If the torrential rains continue here, is it possible for the wasteland to return to its original state?"

Lu Ban tucked the radio into his pocket and walked toward the space below the rocket launch platform.

At the same time, he took out the can of cat food from his bag.

Suddenly, Lu Ban felt as if someone was beside him.

He turned his head and saw a beautiful woman in a white dress, but with a blank expression, standing next to him.

"...It's you again?"

Lu Ban quickly recognized that this was the projection of the Queen Insect he had encountered in the Nameless City.

Perhaps this queen insect was born from the consumption of this girl's consciousness.

It's no wonder it wanted to have insects with Lu Ban. For a creature that has absorbed human consciousness, the instinct of life is to absorb stronger genes, modify itself, and evolve gloriously.

And Lu Ban can grow grass and breathe in water, who wouldn't love that?

Another possibility, Lu Ban guessed, was that the queen insect sensed his presence and traveled a long distance to this vicinity.

In this mission, it's not Lu Ban chasing the bugs, but rather the bugs chasing him.

If you can see this illusion, it means the other person is not far away.

Bolts of lightning exploded from above, striking the buildings in the ruins and causing those already decaying structures to collapse completely.

At the same time, some insects were also hit.

In the blink of an eye, the insects turned into charred remains and fell from the sky. Sometimes, the swarms of insects gathered on the ground were also blown apart by a thunderclap, leaving only a scene filled with the stench of burning.

After all, this is only a [small-scale natural disaster generator], and it cannot completely control natural disasters. Lu Ban can only rely on it to block a portion of the insect swarm.

Seeing the girl who was an illusion of insects beside him, Lu Ban thought for a moment and opened the cat food can.

As soon as Lu Ban opened the can of food, he heard a kitten's cute but fierce meow.

Hearing that voice, Lu Ban put it, his heart melted.

The kitten immediately jumped out, then timidly stumbled to the corner of the wall, licking its paws to clean its face.

Upon seeing the cat, Lu Ban's heart suddenly calmed down, as if he had become a pure and innocent kindergarten child, with only the cat in his eyes.

Meanwhile, the insect girl standing not far from Lu Ban also noticed the cat.

Her blank expression remained unchanged, but her dark eyes, devoid of white, kept staring at it.

"You stay here and keep these bugs away. I'll be right back."

Lu Ban meowed at the cat, trying to pull his mind away from it, suppressing the urge to hug and cuddle it, and ran downstairs.

Downstairs, Lu Ban quickly spotted the wormhole with its gravitational lensing effect.

Lu Ban lifted the crowbar and inserted it.

The crowbar immediately twisted, but Lu Ban's sense of touch told him that the crowbar was still straight.

After a few seconds of thought, Lu Ban approached the wormhole without hesitation. He saw his limbs twisting like ink dissolving in water.

Immediately, Lu Ban felt a pull from the wormhole, and when he came to his senses, he found himself standing on a barren piece of land.

"...This place is quite dangerous."

What Lu Ban saw was a ground paved with steel.

The steel was not man-made, but formed by the cooling and solidification of various metallic elements; the planet itself was a giant lump of iron.

With almost no oxygen in the air, Lu Ban quickly suffocated.

He looked around; there was nothing on the ground, but the real anomaly was in the sky.

When Lu Ban noticed that thing, he looked up.

The planet has a thin atmosphere, which is why the starry sky is so bright and clear.

In that deep, dark, and colorful night sky, there lies a colossal creation.

No, that is not creation.

Lu Ban saw an open eye.

The eyes, even from the ground, were the size of a washbasin, and unlike human pupils, they shone brightly like stars.

Beyond the eyes, there was no facial features, just twisted and writhing mud.

Above the mud, there are even more eyes.

Eyes, mouth, viscous body—this enormous monster occupied most of the night sky, filling it with a suffocating sense of oppression.

Around the monster were countless other silt, large and small, clustered or scattered.

Lu Ban also saw that there was more spacetime distortion in this wormhole.

Surrounding that enormous, possibly galaxy-wide monster, there are many more planets orbiting.

From time to time, black, glue-like viscous fluid drips from this motionless, gigantic mud monster. This fluid then begins to differentiate and multiply in the void, transforming into new entities.

In the instant his brain was boiling like fire, swelling and shattering between the crevices of his brain, turning into ashes, he immediately realized what was happening.

This is the mother of those mud monsters, the gods, the rulers of the past.

All those rituals were meant to open wormholes around it, allowing the fragments shed by the Great Old Ones to reach other realms.

Lu Ban's eyes turned bloodshot, and his brain exploded with a bang, like an egg being heated in a microwave.

Chapter 505 Body of Steel

The raging storm in the distance was like a nightmare, and Shuangxin could only flee as fast as she could.

Soon, she saw the future city ahead, but along with it came a raging sandstorm.

The speed of the sandstorm had long exceeded human limits. The violent vortex, stretching for more than ten kilometers, swallowed up Future City. The terrifying storm even changed the terrain, creating a rift-like passage that led directly to Future City.

Shuangxin hesitated. With a sandstorm in front and a storm behind, they had no way to find Lu Ban or save the robots.

They can't do anything.

Rustling.

At that moment, outside the storm, a chilling sound came from the horizon.

"It's a swarm of insects!"

The singer first saw those writhing monsters.

The swarm of insects surged toward them as if chasing a storm. Shuangxin wasn't sure if it was a swarm, but she soon realized that they were already surrounded.

A tremor ran from behind her, and Shuangxin felt a sudden, inexplicable panic. She turned her head and looked at the ruins of the industrial park, where lightning flashed and thunder roared.

"We can't escape. There are too many insect swarms here, far too many."

He had never seen anything like it before, and his voice trembled, as if he had been completely overwhelmed by fear.

Yes, who can remain calm when surrounded by these nightmarish insects?

Moreover, this is an unprecedented situation.

In an instant, the swarm of insects covered the sky.

Ahead, the sandstorm seemed to be gradually passing through Future City. It could be vaguely seen that the solar panels on the houses had been completely blown off, revealing the pitted and uneven roofs.

Shuangxin's heart skipped a beat, and a feeling of despair welled up inside her.

"The only place without insect swarms is Future City, so we can only leave from there."

The singer said it with difficulty.

Those swarms of insects might chase the three of them to the City of the Future, where they would devour all the robots.

But if they stayed here, the three of them would surely become food for the insects.

"Their energy harvesting equipment is broken; they can't maintain it for long, and it will eventually stop operating!"

The singer offered words of advice.