Chapter 80.1

Bonus chapter—(1/2)

Editor: Kat

Proofreader: Junyans

Wei Xun was holding a gold-plated silver-inlaid skull in his hands. He bypassed the curved grayish-white insect corpses that were scattered everywhere and reached the stone gate.

The second half of the hidden room had collapsed due to the earthquake, including most of the stone gate, which had been completely buried by stones. Even if there was a mechanism, it would have rusted and decayed long ago, and the stone gate could not be opened due to the collapse of the room. The cold wind, which carried hints of a bloody scent, was seeping in through the cracked gap. The gap was only the size of a fist. The swarm and Dog IV-1 could get in, but Wei Xun did not have the ability to shrink his bones.

However, Wei Xun had been prepared for this situation long ago, and when he had been turning the bright flashlight on and off and repeatedly summoning the swarm to attract the audience’s attention, Wei Xun had quietly released the ferret cub. At this moment, it had already dug through the ruins, digging out a hole that Wei Xun could burrow through.

As Xu Yang had detected, behind the stone gate was a long and narrow downward slope. There was a hill-like accumulation of grayish white stiff corpses behind the stone gate. They were the corpses that had probably died due to being hit on their skulls, and they were really akin to stones now. When one stepped on them, they would emit a creaking sound. However, they were neither dirty nor smelly, so Wei Xun could still accept it.

The golden mosquito was still further ahead, and Wei Xun continued to move forward. The path was very steep, but not high. Wei Xun has to lower his shoulders to walk on it. Ordinary people might feel that it was extremely cramped when they entered the space. Coupled with the thin air of the highlands and the dark and endless road, one would feel a huge amount of psychological pressure inside this space.

Dog IV-1 had never been here. He’d mainly explored the dual-cultivation murals and he hadn’t known how to get in with the Insects of Evil guarding this place. When it had fled, it had been panicking. Most of the holes it had forced itself into were dog holes. Hence, it had never walked on the proper pathway.

Wei Xun saw that the rock walls on both sides were all densely packed with tiny cracks, and the same applied for the rock ceiling above his head. He didn’t know if they had been formed naturally or artificially. Wei Xun suspected that the Insects of Evil had crawled in through these cracks, but now they had completely disappeared without a trace.

It was obvious that the last time he’d used a gold-plated silver-inlaid skull, there had still been a handful of the Insects of Evil that had escaped back to the stone gate, but now they had completely disappeared.

The pebble-like insect corpses under his shoes were rarely seen, and Wei Xun found that there were two extra weird and terrifying murals on the rock walls on both sides. Until now, the murals Wei Xun had seen were bright and eye-catching. Most of them depicted scenes of sacrificial ceremonies. Some of them depicted eggs piled up like hills. Humans and animals were held down and their chests were cut open. The blood soaked the eggs, and then the eggs would hatch, with countless insects emerging.

Some depicted a masked Bon warlock holding a bone flute and driving thousands of Insects of Evil to face off with the enemy army, and the enemy army fleeing in panic. Some enemy troops fled into the city, but the city built of earth and stone could not resist the invasion of the Insects of Evil. In the end, there was nothing but emptiness where the insects passed by. Not only did the enemy army become food made of flesh and blood for the Insects of Evil, but even the city disappeared.

There were also painted snow-white peaks and the holy lake. The Insects of Evil crawled between the snow-capped mountains and holy lakes, and the surrounding animals and humans all knelt to the ground and kowtowed to the Insects of Evil. Only the king of Xiangxiong, who was wearing the mask made of the Garuda bird horn, and the gusin holding the bone flute could stand above the insects on the mountain.

Sure enough, Wei Xun made an accurate guess. The ancient Xiangxiong Kingdom should have mastered the method of driving away the Insects of Evil, and they would also use humans and animals as sacrifices. Wei Xun even suspected that the skull in his hand might be a “sacred object” that could once restrain the Insects of Evil.

However, a thousand years have passed, and the Xiangxiong Dynasty had been destroyed long ago. No one would feed these Insects of Evil, and they should have gradually become extinct. However, why were they still living as a swarm here, and why were there so many of them? Northern Tibet was desolate, and there were no other villages around except Wenbunan Village. The wild animals and plants here wouldn’t be sufficient for the huge insect swarm to feed on.

“Don’t they eat flesh and blood?”

Wei Xun remembered that the Insects of Evil had been controlled so that they would fight the dynasty’s enemies. The swarm attacked the cities and conquered the land, and wherever they went, as the murals depicted, even the cities disappeared. An inexplicable idea popped up in Wei Xun’s mind.

In fact, did these insects mainly eat stones?

Were they such simple-minded creatures that were easy to raise?

However, if they really ate stones, then it would barely make sense as to why they could live in these mountains for thousands of years.

At the end of the path, Wei Xun stood in front of the last mural. This mural depicted the Insects of Evil burrowing into the mountain. There was a huge, bottomless cave in the mountain. In the depths of the cave, the image of a woman was drawn. Although she had a beautiful face and appeared solemn and majestic, she had a human’s face and an insect’s body. There were countless Insects of Evil surrounding her, carrying many oval-shaped things.

“There really is a mother of the swarm!”

Wei Xun stared at the woman with the human’s face and insect’s body in the mural and took several glances at the mural.

“Although it is very likely that the people of ancient Xiangxiong exaggerated this and deified the mother of the swarm, but——”

Wei Xun was a little excited. Reminiscing about the past, when he would be bored while recovering at home, during moments when his interest was perked, he would tell Bingbing “Transform!” more than a dozen times. However, Bingbing didn’t respond. It merely came over to rub itself against him.

Now, he could point at the black insect and utter, “Transform!” If he commanded so, maybe the mother of the swarm would pop out?

Wei Xun couldn’t help speeding up his pace, walking forward while communicating with the golden mosquito.

Clack.

A cracking sound of broken bones came from under his feet.

Wei Xun lowered his head and saw that he had smashed the bones of some animal. These bones were full of cracks, and they were so fragile that they became bone powder after being crushed. Similar white bones densely packed the area, covering the entire platform.

A gloomy and cold wind whistled by, bringing a stale and sweet stench. The view from the pathway ahead was wide open, and a small, unfenced platform extended out from the pathway. Wei Xun pushed aside the broken bones with his feet and found that there were gold and silver things that were glittering under the bone fragments. They appeared to be gold grains that were as fine as sand.

The people of ancient Xiangxiong had used bison horns filled with golden sand to sacrifice to the gods. At this moment, the golden sand hidden under the bones had covered the entire platform. In addition to the golden sand, there were countless precious gems, gold, and bronze artifacts. Put together, the sight of these beautiful treasures could cause one to be unable to catch their breath.

Wei Xun had a hunch as he passed the dizzying gold jewelry. He walked to the edge of the platform and looked down. Standing here, he could see that this platform was more like a cliff, because below it was a huge underground cavern that one couldn’t see the end of.

Wei Xun turned on the flashlight that could emit a strong light, and the white beam tore through the darkness, as if the darkness had solidified. The flashlight provided by the Travel Services was of excellent quality, with a strong focus and an effective range of more than 500 meters, but it still couldn’t illuminate the end. The bright light column gradually faded, and finally completely disappeared in the dark.

That was to say, the diameter of the giant hole was more than 500 meters, and it might even reach a kilometer long. This terrifying underground cave might hollow the entire mountain. The hole was straight throughout, with no trace of human excavation at all. There were countless honeycomb-shaped holes on the square rock walls, the small ones only as thick as the pad of one’s finger, but the big ones as big as a yak.

Wei Xun now believed that the Insects of Evil ate stones, and even this giant hole may have been hollowed out by generation after generation of the Insects of Evil, who had worked for thousands of years. This was because Wei Xun saw a stone beam extending from the side of the cave. It extended to about a quarter of the hole and looked like it was suspended in mid-air.

Perhaps during the era of the Xiangxiong Kingdom, the cave was only a quarter of its current size, and the stone beam was the “bridge” across the cave, but now no one could cross this terrifying cave unless they had wings.

Wei Xun was standing on the edge of the cliff at this moment, and one step forward was the abyss. He stared at the bottomless hole with slightly dilated pupils, as if he was in a trance.

Nietzsche had written <<Beyond Good and Evil>>. In it, he wrote, “when you stare into the abyss, the abyss also stares back.” Looking at this bottomless underground hole for a long time, a huge, terrifying sense of oppression hit him from the darkness, as if looking at it for a long time would make people fall into a trance. They would be tempted by the darkness, and jump down involuntarily.

While Wei Xun stood still and seemed absent-minded, danger quietly approached from a deep hole in the rock wall above his head.

[Your esteemed self has observed the resentment of the mother of the Insects of Evil. Resentment level: B class]

[Task progress: 4%]

[Your esteemed self has observed the resentment of the Insect of Evil. Resentment level:—]

[Your esteemed self has observed the resentment of the Insect of Evil. Resentment level:—]

[Your esteemed self has observed the resentment of the Insect of Evil. Resentment level:—]

.

[Task progress: 14%]

Goodness. Wei Xun was stunned by these prompts!

One must know that the Insects of Evil were real insects, unlike the spiteful ghost Pingping, the zombified flying foxes, and so on, who had great resentment themselves. It stood to reason that creatures like insects should have no emotions, let alone resentment. Just like when Wei Xun had used the skull to fool the swarm repeatedly and they had no hint of resentment.

What the hell did the golden mosquito do, and how did the golden mosquito make them resent him??

What shocked Wei Xun even more was the increase in the progress of that task. It was incredible!

One must know that this was a task he had received in Intoxicating Xiangxi, and it was an unknown title task. Furthermore, it was extremely difficult to increase the progress of the task. The spiteful ghost Pingping’s A-level resentment could only increase it by 1%, Wu Laoliu’s B-level resentment could only increase it by 0.5%, and the zombified flying foxes commanders’ C-level resentment was even worse, as they only provided him with 0.25%. However, it was better than nothing.

The resentment of the Insects of Evil was even lower. They were insects after all, and the resentment level was simply ‘—’, which meant it was negligible. Because it was too low, it was not even counted, and even the progress of the task did not increase.

But just now, there were thousands of prompts swiping past Wei Xun’s vision, and Wei Xun was completely stunned. When he took a look at the progress of the task, it went up by a full 10%!

Was it due to the huge number of insects? Was this why quantitative changes led to qualitative changes?

Wei Xun realized what had happened now!

Previously, he had pondered when this task would be completed, and thought it would be completed in the year of the monkey and the month of the horse. Now, it seemed that whether he wanted to quickly improve his strength or speed up the completion of the task, he couldn’t do it alone, no matter how strong he was.

To complete the task, he could simply gather a whole nest of resentment!

Wei Xun seemed to have opened the door to the new world. The corners of his mouth curved up slightly, and in the next moment he suddenly raised his hand without warning to disrupt the plan of the attackers.

“Roar!”

[What is that?!]

[What the hell is this monster!]

In the livestream room, the audience who were passionately discussing the hole and the vanishing insects were taken aback. They saw a pale and twisted human corpse clinging to the rock wall like a gecko above Wei Xun’s head. With nowhere to hide under the strong light, it tried in vain to block the front of its body from the beam of light with its forearm, letting out a hoarse and terrifying roar.

However, it was highly adaptive. Within a few seconds, it was no longer affected by the beam of strong light. It roared like a beast as it rushed towards Wei Xun. There was a strange bronze mask on its face. Vermilion paint had been used to outline the facial features on the mask. Reflected by the strong light, the mask appeared extremely strange and terrifying, like a ghost descending down on someone to capture their soul. The monster rushed in front of Wei Xun in an instant.

[Danger!]

[Wei Xun is in danger!!!!]