Chapter 39

In the deep and quiet stone staircase, only Qin Yu's footsteps echoed at this moment. It must be said that such a scene is a great test of one's mental endurance. If it were any coward, they would either break down or not have the courage to continue walking. From a psychological perspective, when a person is in the dark, they are more likely to blend into the darkness rather than disrupt it.

After walking in the dark for more than half an hour, a glimmer of light appeared ahead, and Qin Yu was overjoyed. Walking in the darkness was extremely oppressive, and he had to be on guard against potential unknown dangers. His nerves had been taut the entire time he was on the stone staircase.

Qin Yu quickened his pace toward the light. It was a turning point, and the light came from a pearl-like object embedded in the rock wall at the turn.

"This is fluorite," Qin Yu carefully examined the pearl on the rock wall and recognized the material.

Fluorite is a crystalline mineral, often with a rhombic shape. Its mineral composition emits light. In ancient times, it was quite common, and many poor families would find a few pieces of fluorite to use as candles.

Starting from the turn, a fluorite was embedded in the rock wall every few dozen meters. Qin Yu guessed that the Ent people used them for lighting, which also made his journey easier.

With the light, his speed increased significantly. After passing about ten fluorite points, Qin Yu finally finished the entire stone staircase and arrived at the flat ground at the bottom.

The area was lined with fluorite, making the entire space as bright as daylight. A huge stone sculpture stood in the center.

"Is this the statue of the Thousand-legged Deity?"

Seeing the massive statue, this thought flashed through Qin Yu's mind. The statue's head was adorned with a golden crown, and the face was somewhat blurred, with only two large green eyes looking forward. From the head down, the statue's body twisted into a thousand arms, densely layered, each one twice as thick as Qin Yu's thigh.

The Ent people worshiped the thousand-legged insect, and this statue was likely the totem of the Thousand-legged Deity they worshiped. As he approached the statue, Qin Yu noticed something peculiar. The massive statue seemed to be broken, as if someone had cut it in half with an axe, leaving a neat break at the lower half.

Just as he was about to observe it more closely, a series of rustling sounds came from the distance, chaotic and seemingly from many creatures crawling toward him.

"Could this be the lair of those giant thousand-legged insects?" Qin Yu immediately thought of this. The crawling sounds were likely from the thousand-legged insects, and the possibility was high. He did not dare to stay any longer and began to look for a place to hide in the corners.

The chaotic crawling sounds came from all directions, clearly from more than one creature. If they discovered him, Qin Yu did not think he could escape from so many giant thousand-legged insects.

As Qin Yu anxiously scanned the surroundings, his eyes suddenly lit up. There was a stone door near the western wall. Without hesitation, he ran to the west and pushed the stone door, which actually moved, creating a crack. He quickly slipped inside and carefully closed the door, leaving only a small gap.

Not long after Qin Yu closed the stone door, green, massive figures crawled out of the darkness from all sides, heading toward the central statue.

"So many giant thousand-legged insects, damn, the Ent people must specialize in raising insects."

There were thirty-two giant thousand-legged insects, each as large as a crocodile. The number left Qin Yu in awe, his mouth wide open. Fortunately, he had hidden quickly; if he had been surrounded, he would have been doomed.

The thirty-two giant thousand-legged insects stopped in front of the giant statue, forming a square formation, four rows deep, looking very neat.

"Screech!" A shrill cry came from the leading giant thousand-legged insect, and instantly, over thirty thousand-legged insects cried out together. Each insect raised its body, like humans worshiping their ancestors, moving up and down continuously.

The shrill cries and the synchronized body movements deeply impressed Qin Yu. The behavior of these thousand-legged insects was astonishing.

"Screech!"

Suddenly, another cry came from a distant corner, and another thousand-legged insect crawled out. Unlike the others, this one moved slowly and had no green eyes.

"Isn't this the thousand-legged insect whose eyes I dug out?"

The eyeless thousand-legged insect seemed to want to join the group, but after crawling a few steps, the other thousand-legged insects began to cry out, their voices sharper and more excited and angry than before.

The thirty-two thousand-legged insects surrounded the eyeless one, continuously crying out, as if communicating. Initially, their voices were sharp, but later they became low roars. Finally, all the thousand-legged insects cleared a path, allowing the eyeless one to crawl to the statue of the Thousand-legged Deity.

"Screech!" The eyeless thousand-legged insect cried out mournfully, looking around, as if hesitating.

"Screech!" Seeing the eyeless thousand-legged insect's hesitation, the surrounding thousand-legged insects all cried out. One of the larger ones even struck the eyeless one's head with its foot, opening its ugly mouth and roaring at it.

The eyeless thousand-legged insect lowered its head, lying prostrate under the statue of the Thousand-legged Deity, emitting a rapid, low roar, its body trembling uncontrollably. Soon, its legs began to fall off, and green liquid flowed from various parts of its body, quickly covering the ground. The surrounding thousand-legged insects watched intently, some even extending their tongues to lick the green liquid that flowed near them.

In a short while, the eyeless thousand-legged insect stopped moving, lying still as if dead. The surrounding thousand-legged insects let out excited cries, their legs beating the ground in unison, the sound like drumbeats.

"This rhythm is strange!" Qin Yu, hiding behind the stone door, felt his heart rate gradually increase, as if it would burst out of his chest, his face turning red.

Fortunately, before his heart burst, the thousand-legged insects stopped beating the ground. Qin Yu quickly looked and saw a hole appear in the head of the eyeless thousand-legged insect, green liquid oozing out. Then, a red creature emerged from the hole.

Seeing the red creature, Qin Yu's pupils contracted. Wasn't this the red creature in the jade dish? Li Long's organization valued this creature so much, and he never expected it to be inside the thousand-legged insect.

The red creature turned its body and looked around, finally focusing on the statue of the Thousand-legged Deity. It let out a joyful cry and shot toward the statue's face, crawling into its mouth and disappearing.

As the red creature entered the statue's mouth, Qin Yu witnessed an incredible scene. The lower half of the statue of the Thousand-legged Deity slowly grew a pair of legs, which wiggled slightly before turning back into stone, as if they were originally part of the statue's base.

"Stone Rebirth!" Qin Yu's pupils dilated, and he couldn't help but whisper. This was a secret technique recorded in the Zhuge Inner Canon, extremely complex and very evil.

Stone Rebirth, as the name suggests, involves petrifying one's body to maintain its functions and then waking up at a future time to gain a second life.

The reason this secret technique is considered evil is that it requires a continuous supply of life energy. Petrifying the body can only slow down the aging process and the loss of vitality, but to reverse aging, it needs to absorb a vast amount of life energy. If a human wanted to successfully achieve Stone Rebirth, they would need a thousand times their own life energy, meaning a thousand people would have to transfer all their vitality to them.

"This red creature is providing life energy to the Thousand-legged Deity. Could Li Long's organization be trying to revive the Thousand-legged Deity?"

After a brief moment of surprise, Qin Yu began to think. If Li Long's organization was trying to revive the Thousand-legged Deity, they should have come here before. If they could come here, they would also have the ability to enter and exit the Nine Stars and Three Talents Array safely, and they wouldn't need to set up a trap to lure Mo Yingxin here.

Since they are not trying to revive the Thousand-legged Deity, the mysterious organization must be interested in the red creature for other reasons, perhaps because it provides a vast amount of life energy to the Thousand-legged Deity and has other unknown functions.