The Disaster Abyss Land still had that familiar stench and was filled with an air that made one extremely uneasy.
Lin Huang and the rest chose to return by their original route.
Under Tu Tong and Lan Ling’s guidance, the five of them entered the Gluttons’ territory first.
Compared to before, the five of them progressed through the area more than a few times faster now.
Within less than an hour, they had navigated through the Gluttons’ territory.
However, in this short one hour, Lin Huang killed over 200 Gluttons. His efficiency in slaughtering them was certainly no lower than in the beginning when he spent a full day doing so.
After going through the Gluttons’ territory, they continued on their original route from before, passed through the territories of the Greeds, Jealousies, and Furies one after the other.
The number of god rules that Lin Huang had plundered increased steadily.
Over four hours later, the five of them finally left the Disaster Abyss Land.
Following the route in her memory, Lan Ling soon located the Demonic Bug Maze the five of them had entered when they first arrived in the Abyss.
Tu Tong and Lan Ling’s expressions were somewhat uneasy as they stared at the Demonic Bug Maze from a distance.
Nobody in the Abyss would willingly take the initiative to enter the Demonic Bug Maze.
One reason was that there were many Bug Tribe beasts within the Maze. One could exhaust oneself to death just by fighting them.
Another reason was that as soon as one entered the Maze, it was extremely difficult to find an exit and come out alive.
Fortunately, Lin Huang and the rest did not need to locate an exit. All they had to do was to find the coordinates that the five of them had been teleported to inside the Demonic Bug Maze.
There were many dimensional weak points in the Abyss that connected to various other worlds.
Virtuoso had also recorded down many dimensional weak points just in case. However, the problem was that something had happened to the coordinates when they were teleported in. As a result, they had been sent to an area outside the map that Virtuoso was familiar with.
Apart from the dimensional weak point the five of them had entered through, they had no idea at all where another weak point like that might exist. Even if they discovered another dimensional weak point, they would not dare to use it, as they had no idea what kind of world that particular weak point might lead to.
Therefore, their only option was to return to the spot where they had entered.
That spot just happened to be the Demonic Bug Maze ahead of them.
This time, they did not forcibly break in.
The Demonic Bug Maze was different from other places in that the sheer number of creatures alone would be sufficient to exhaust them all to death from the fighting.
Moreover, the Demonic Bug Maze’s internal structure was extremely complex. If they alerted the enemy and were pursued by the Bug Tribe, it would be difficult for them to find the initial coordinates if they happened to panic and go down the wrong tunnel.
Based on the plan they discussed along the way, the five of them used Virtuoso’s illusion to camouflage themselves as five Bladefoot Worms.
The Bladefoot Worms were fairly ordinary patrol groups in the Demonic Bug Maze.
“My illusion has a limited effect on ninth-rank Heavenly Gods. Let’s hope we’re lucky,” Virtuoso warned them beforehand.
After the five had finished camouflaging themselves, they headed into the Maze’s entrance one by one.
“We’re quite lucky.” Tu Tong sighed with relief when he realized that there were no bug beasts around.
“This way.” Lan Lin made certain of their direction and rapidly led the team forward.
Despite their sense of urgency, the five of them did not dare to reveal any flaws that might give them away. They could only move ahead slowly at the Bladefoot Worm’s normal patrol speed.
Over half an hour went by; so far everything had gone smoothly.
They ran into some bugs along the way, and they even passed by a few of the bugs’ gathering areas, but they were not discovered.
However, when they encountered a decaying giant beetle, Virtuoso suggested that they hide inside it.
Along the way, they could not guarantee that the group would not bump into bug beasts with powerful psychic powers that might expose their disguise. It would be safer to hide within the decaying giant beetle’s body.
The five had no objections to this suggestion. Actually, the five of them remembered that they had also hidden in a decaying giant beetle’s body over a month ago when they had just entered the Demonic Bug Maze.
This poor decaying giant beetle suffered the same fate as its predecessor.
After Virtuoso had taken control of the creature via their illusion skills, Lin Huang cut an opening on its abdomen. The five of them blocked their sense of smell and enveloped themselves in Divine Telekinesis. They then wriggled into the beetle’s body one after the other, retracting their auras as much as they could.
Under Virtuoso’s control, the decaying giant beetle turned around and slowly moved in the direction from which the five of them had come.
These decaying giant beetles were not particularly welcome in the Maze.
They possessed low intelligence, and they moved very slowly. An intense rotten stench emanated from their bodies, and they were poisonous as well. Basically, no bugs were willing to get close to them.
The Demonic Bug Maze accepted the decaying giant beetles’ presence because they would eat the trash the other bugs left behind. They were the scavengers of the entire Maze.
They would wander among the various Bug Tribes daily in search of food remnants.
No matter where the decaying giant beetle went, all the bugs would not find anything unusual about that.
It was not the first time that Lin Huang’s group had hidden in a decaying giant beetle’s body; they found it much easier this time around.
It was still the same familiar stench and the same familiar sticky feeling.
Now that they were in a familiar place, Lin Huang even had an absurd thought cross his mind. ‘If not for the intense stench of decay, the corrosive toxin, the infectious Abyssal energy particles, and the stickiness, this fellow could actually be considered quite a good mode of transport. At least it walks steadily; it doesn’t jolt at all.’
All five members of the group fell silent for a long time in the decaying giant beetle’s abdomen.
Apart from Lan Ling, who would speak occasionally as she pointed out the way, the rest did not say a word.
In an environment like this, everyone lost their desire to converse. All they wanted was to arrive at their destination as soon as possible so that they could get out of these filthy conditions.
“What plans do the rest of you have after we get out of here?” Lin Huang could not help breaking the silence as he sensed the atmosphere was rather oppressive.
“Go into closed-door cultivation to refine the castellan’s seal, then elevate to heavenly god-level.” Virtuoso’s answer was simple.
Seeing that Virtuoso did not plan to say anything more, Tu Tong was the next to take up the subject. “I’ll go into closed-door cultivation so I can break through to heavenly god-level as soon as possible.”
“Me too.” From where she was off to one side, Lan Ling gave an even simpler answer.
“I’ve been rather enlightened, this trip into the Abyss,” Saber9 glanced at Lin Huang as he said this, “I’m preparing to go into closed-door cultivation for a while to digest things. I’ll think about elevating my combat strength only after that.”
“Do you still plan on remaining with Death Sickle?” Virtuoso suddenly asked Lin Huang.
“I think Death Sickle is pretty good,” Lin Huang answered with a smile, “They have resources, and they’re reliable. I don’t have to worry about anything.”
“Are you interested in visiting the Club to look around?” Virtuoso used voice transmission to ask this.
Lin Huang was startled when he heard that. Immediately, he asked through voice transmission, “Does the Club have a branch in the great world?”
“Of course it does. There are branches in all the worlds where there are Club members.” After saying this, Virtuoso seemed to feel that they had not been cautious enough, so they added, “There are a handful of worlds that have only one or two members, so there aren’t any branches there. The number is too low.”
“How many members does the branch in the great world have?” Lin Huang asked.
“Including you and I, there are five who are presently still alive,” Virtuoso went on to explain, “There are two who are like you—they’re locals. There’s one who is like me, a reincarnated being’s clone.”
“What are their combat strengths like?” Lin Huang probed a bit further.
“Apart from both of us, they’re all Lords.” Virtuoso’s answer made Lin Huang fall silent.
After a moment of consideration, Lin Huang shook his head. “For now, I won’t contact the other three yet.”
He could not be certain whether or not there were spies from the Raiders among those three.
In reality, although he had developed a sort of friendship with Virtuoso from their trip into the Abyss, he had yet to trust Virtuoso completely and exclude them from being a Raider.
Furthermore, before he had sufficient ability to protect himself, he did not wish to reveal himself and attract the Raiders’ attention, especially lord-level Raiders.
“Very well, I can understand that.” Virtuoso seemed to see through Lin Huang’s caution. “If you don’t personally meet them, however, I can’t reveal their identities to you. I hope you can understand why.”
“I understand.” Lin Huang nodded.
The voice transmission conversation between the two only took a moment. Saber9 and the rest did not notice anything.
Now that Lin Huang had initiated things, all five of them engaged in desultory, somewhat forced conversation.
After approximately two hours or more, there had been some scares along the way, but nothing had happened. Finally, the decaying giant beetle brought the five of them to the spot they had set coordinates for when they initially entered the Abyss.
After Virtuoso had alerted everyone, all five of them exited the decaying giant beetle’s body one by one.
Virtuoso remained cautious and did not remove the illusion that camouflaged the five of them as Bladefoot Worms.
They glanced at the decaying giant beetle; in the end, they did not kill it. Instead, they let Virtuoso wipe its memory and send it on its way.
Not long after the decaying giant beetle had left, Virtuoso brought out a space-time flying shuttle the size of a human palm and rapidly performed complicated hand seals.
A moment later, the space-time flying shuttle tore open a Dimensional Whirlpool in the void.
At almost the same time, the entire Demonic Bug Maze began to vibrate intensely. A terrifying aura rose at alarming speed from deep under the ground.
“The Bug Queen has awakened?!”
Lin Huang and the others immediately stepped into the Dimensional Whirlpool without hesitation, fearing it might already be too late.
The instant the Dimensional Whirlpool closed, a sharp claw pierced through the layers of space and landed right on the spot where the Whirlpool had vanished.
Right after that, a shriek of pure rage echoed through the entire Demonic Bug Maze.
