Chapter 1961: Chapter 1961: The World Of The Bugs

As Zen looked at the jade seal, his heart rate accelerated. He resisted the urge to take it, observing it carefully from a distance.

The huge pillar at the center of the cave extended all the way down into the void and was connected to the bronze wall. This was the only route to the jade seal.

The bronze wall was engraved with ray-like lines and intricate carvings of insects.

“These lines show the time passages to the void surrounding the cave.”

Zen's gaze followed the lines and soon found that one of the lines had no insects on it.

He looked back at the void around the cave and found a corresponding blue line.

'I see. These lines should be the only shortcuts to the bottom of the cave, ' Zen thought to himself.

There must surely be some clues in this world, left for those who desired to obtain the jade seal. And these clues would most likely lead to a shortcut to the bottom of the cave.

However, neither the consummate True Gods nor Zen had the patience to look for the shortcut. Instead, they simply went ahead and barged into the Heavenly Wheel Temple.

Zen, on the other hand, had accidentally created his own shortcut, forging a passage by using the Space-striking Ring.

“It seems like it won't be that easy for Rachelle and the others to reach the bottom using this huge pillar,” Zen said, after having taken a long look at the pillar.

Just as Zen had guessed, a large group of consummate True Gods had affixed the Heavenly Wheel Snake to the pillar. They moved forward along the body of the giant snake which stretched for tens of miles.

One of them was accidentally swept off the pillar by the giant snake's tail and fell onto a light. He was then cut to pieces and consumed by the black insects.

As they advanced along the pillar, they encountered attacks again and again. Even though they had reached the consummation level, these attacks could be lethal if they were not careful enough, so their progress was slow.

After much consideration, Zen was sure the path he had taken was the only true path to the jade seal, so there shouldn't be any other hidden dangers along the way.

He then carefully approached the jade seal and extended his hand towards it.

Sitting behind Zen, Nelly stared at his back, her eyes glazed over, as if in a daze.

She had, up to now, maintained the belief that her position and character entitled her to take this jade seal herself.

Yet, the events that had taken place during the quest for the seal had made her start doubting if her value was sufficient to allow her to possess it.

In particular, the recent actions of her sister, Rachelle, had confused her greatly.

As an especially talented member of the Mu Clan, Rachelle worked hard for her clan. She would stop at nothing to achieve her goal.

Even if she had to sacrifice her own sister, Nelly, she wouldn't hesitate.

If everything went well, however, Nelly would end up like Rachelle.

In her clan on the Floating Island, she was taught by the most powerful True Gods, and she had come to stand out among her peers. And there were strict rules for her to follow, concerning what she could say or do. ṚÁꞐȏꞖĚS̈

She would become a consummate True God one day, earn a massive number of points and raise her clan to a higher level.

Her sister had taken this path. Did she have to take it, too?

Suddenly, a feeling of awareness came over her. It was like a light illuminating a dark room. She realized, in that moment, that all this was meaningless. The whole thing was so pointlessly repetitive. She rose to the top, she fought, she died, and then another replaced her, repeating the never-ending vicious cycle. What was the point of being a cog in a machine? All the aspirations she had had and all the things she thought she had believed in collapsed like a house of playing cards. She felt a great sense of relief.

Her mind became as calm as a still ocean. Despite the uncertainty and danger facing her, she was more at ease now than she had been for years. Seeing Zen slowly approaching the jade seal, she reminded him, “Be careful.”

Hearing her words, Zen nodded.

The moment his finger touched the jade seal, he pulled it back with a gasp, as if he had got an electric shock.

“What's wrong?” Nelly asked, her nervousness mounting once again.

Zen stared at the jade seal in a daze. His face had turned deathly pale. He was so nervous that he began hyperventilating. After what seemed like a long while, he said, “It's so strange. This jade seal...”

There was something else. The moment he had touched the jade seal, a huge swarm of bugs appeared before his eyes.

He had never seen such an overwhelming number of them.

Zen had flown over the sea of bugs in this world twice, on the back of an eagle. The giant bugs had left a deep impression on both him and Nelly. They had since wondered how these giant bugs could survive in there. What special power did they possess? These were obviously not ordinary bugs. What did they eat?

The number of giant bugs in that sea was already unimaginably large. They gathered closely together, and each of them was over a hundred miles long. They entangled together, forming horribly twisted, contorted shapes. Just one look at them made one's flesh tingle with unease.

The very moment Zen had touched the jade seal, he had felt as if he had entered the mind of every one of those giant bugs.

The sheer number of those giant bugs was far greater than he had thought.

In the center of the sea of bugs, there was a circular abyss, and on the other side of the abyss was a wider open space.

That space appeared in Zen's mind, painted with colorful lines, and the range of these lines was beyond Zen's imagination. It covered an area almost as big as the entire divine land.

On those colorful lines lay countless huge bugs.

These giant black bugs were each over a hundred miles long.

The purple-black colored ones were over a thousand miles long.

The lengths of the purple-golden ones varied from tens of thousands of miles to millions of miles.

Even more horrifying was that the population of the largest type of bugs, the purple-golden ones, had reached hundreds of millions by now. They almost completely covered the lines.

Zen was so shocked by this scene that he decided to release the jade seal.

“Boom!” “Boom!” “Boom!”

At this point, several violent roars tore through the air, and the ground below Zen's and Nelly's feet shook.

Panic was written all over Nelly's face. “My sister is coming!”

Zen squinted into the distance and saw a number of black shadows fighting fiercely with those consummate True Gods. He could also see vaguely the outlines of colorful swords in the shadows' hands, swords made out of time fragments.

Zen nodded, a determined look on his face. He had no choice but to merge with the jade seal as soon as possible.

Gritting his teeth, he grabbed the jade seal with his hand once again, and then sat down with his legs crossed, his eyes closed.

“Bang!”

In an instant, Zen felt his consciousness being sucked in, and he could sense the consciousness of those giant bugs.

The vast army of giant bugs seemed to have but one thought: hunger.

Zen himself was not in need of food. Hence, it was most likely that the intense feeling of hunger originated from the giant bugs' consciousness.

Zen's consciousness constantly drifted between that of the giant bugs. He soon noticed that the vast world of light was abhorrent to him. And in the center of this world of light he came across a slightly smaller bug.

This bug was only a few dozen miles in size. A few pieces of light golden scales were embedded on its brown body. In the place where it was, under the countless intersections of the light lines, a circular wheel of light had formed. The small bug lay right in the center of this wheel of light.

Sensing that this golden bug was different from the others, Zen allowed his consciousness to possess its.

With the help of the jade seal, Zen's consciousness remained unblocked, and the giant bug with golden scales also accepted him. Immediately, he learned all he needed to know about the giant bug.

Before this, Zen only knew the bugs were hungry, nothing more. Now, he had finally obtained all the missing information he had sought for. He understood, now, what these giant bugs ate to survive.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

“I have found the weak point of these shadows! It is the eye ball in the middle of their bodies!”

Several wounds had appeared on Rachelle's white thighs. The swords in the shadows' hands were condensed with the fragments of time. The time cracks in the fragments were invincible. Even those consummate True Gods could bleed to death if they were cut.

Rachelle was not the only one in a precarious position. Walton and Shahn had also sustained injuries since having forced their way in there.

“We will soon reach the bottom of the pillar. Hold on, guys!” As Rachelle spoke, her slender fingers gently brushed the air, and a small bird condensed from the little blood droplets escaping her hand. The little bird then turned into a thin line of blood light and rushed towards one of the shadows.

Along the way, those consummate True Gods had also used a lot of magic weapons in order to come here.

They would soon reach the end of the path, so they were getting more and more impatient.