Ruins Exploration!

The next day, Batu Sa brought Bai Sheng and Silver Wolf to a massive ruin.

The ruin was enormous, seemingly built from sandstone. It looked like a pyramid, albeit one with a sci-fi aesthetic.

Standing at the entrance, Batu Sa still asked nervously:

"Are you two... really able to handle this?"

Bai Sheng confidently patted Batu Sa's solid shoulder and assured him:

"Don't worry. Since we signed the contract, it's our duty to solve your problem. Relax, we're the best fighters in the Biological Research Department."

Batu Sa had wanted members of the tribe to come help, but Bai Sheng refused.

After opening the ruin's battered, heavy gate, the two entered.

"Who taught you how to bullshit people like that?"

Silver Wolf asked.

Sure enough, her judgment back then had been right.

She had noticed it when they played games before. This brat was wicked to the core—he littered the entire map with traps during a game. With a heart that black, he obviously played the Deer Hunter!

Bai Sheng chuckled and said:

"Can't be helped. I had to learn somehow. If I'd been soft-hearted and easy to push around, that dog emperor would've had me killed long ago."

That was no exaggeration. Only Bai Sheng's Spirit Puppet Talent could free Pandora. In other words, Bai Sheng was the key to freeing Pandora. But when he had awakened Pandora from her slumber, Bai Sheng had kept his guard up and lied to the dog emperor, telling him that Pandora could only be awakened once he came of age.

Otherwise, if the dog emperor had learned that Pandora had already been freed, he would probably have found some excuse to execute him. Why would he have let Bai Sheng live until adulthood?

"Didn't you escape anyway? It's fine, just a minor problem. If it really comes down to it, I'll hack Kasantiya's network systems and turn them into a bunch of headless flies in minutes."

Silver Wolf said. To her, hacking a planet's defense systems was as easy as playing around—it just meant pressing a few more keys.

Bai Sheng shook his head, his gaze firm as he said:

"I've suffered for so many years. I want to pay it back personally. Thank you, Silver Wolf."

Bai Sheng welcomed Silver Wolf's help. Nearly all of Kasantiya's puppets were electronic now. With Silver Wolf around, killing the dog emperor would be much easier when the time came!

"No problem. Let's clear this dungeon already. I still need to watch next month's game launch event."

"Let's go!"

Holding Pandora, Bai Sheng charged deeper inside. Silver Wolf followed behind, using Prometheus to construct a holographic map of the entire ruin.

A massive blue projection appeared on Prometheus. The ruin had three levels: two above ground and one underground. Its paths crisscrossed in every direction, like an Insect Nest.

Bai Sheng had seen structures like this when fighting Stingworms back then. It was definitely an Insect Nest.

"I sent you the locations where the Stellaron might be. Let's split up and see who finds it first."

Looking at the fork ahead, Bai Sheng said:

"Sure. Men go left, women go right. I'll take the left—hey, hey! Silver Wolf, we haven't even said go yet!"

Seeing that Silver Wolf had already disappeared, Bai Sheng hurried toward the left fork.

In the pitch-black ruin, Bai Sheng's eyes gave off a faint golden glow.

"What a pain! It'd be great if I had a puppet!"

Golden Eyes! This was one of Bai Sheng's abilities. In game terms, it was like giving him a buff for night vision and identifying enemy weaknesses.

However, this ability consumed the Path Energy in Bai Sheng's body. Fortunately, it did not use much, so keeping it active for a month or two was no problem.

When he arrived at the first location, Bai Sheng found no trace of the Stellaron. Instead, there were quite a few of the Scythe Bugs Batu Sa had mentioned.

"So this really is an Insect Nest!"

Bai Sheng grumbled. The passageways outside were littered with fur and bones from unknown animals.

And it seemed that he had wandered into their hatchery.

The room appeared enormous, but the floor was covered in slime and eggshells from creatures he could not identify. Looking at the densely packed white insect eggs in the center, Bai Sheng felt his scalp tingle.

Disgusting!!!

He still could not accept this kind of thing!

Just as the deeply repulsed Bai Sheng was about to leave, he heard Pandora's voice:

"Kid, these insect eggs are the abandoned offspring of the Path of Propagation!"

At that, Bai Sheng was wide awake!

The Path of Propagation—how wonderful! He loved these insect eggs!

Without any unnecessary movement, Bai Sheng raised Pandora behind him as Path Energy surged endlessly from his body.

"Full Moon!"

A blackish-purple slash swept across the insect eggs. Neat cuts appeared on tens of thousands of eggs, and thick slime flowed from the shells, mixed with green fluid.

Bai Sheng watched the larvae struggling continuously within the eggs.

Bai Sheng realized that these bugs seemed inferior to Stingworms. The newborn larvae needed time to develop, rather than being like Stingworms, which could crawl out of their eggs one second and join the battle the next.

He couldn't help but complain:

"Seriously, couldn't you just die quietly?"

After firing off another Full Moon, the bugs were finally gone. The soul fragments that drifted out of them were all absorbed by Pandora. Looking again at the pitch-black Scythe Blade, there wasn't a trace of blood on it—it was spotless.

Seeing that Pandora had absorbed nearly all the souls, Bai Sheng held Pandora diagonally in front of himself.

"Clang!"

The sound of hard objects colliding rang out.

Bai Sheng turned and smiled.

"I knew it. With so many eggs here, how could there be no guard? You little bastard, you hid yourself well!"

It was a Scythe Bug. It resembled a praying mantis, only much larger. It had six pairs of compound eyes, hard and powerful forelimbs, and a grayish-black body that blended rather well into the surroundings.

Bai Sheng assumed his stance and fired a Full Moon, its pitch-black slash colliding with the powerful forelimbs of the Scythe Bug guarding the eggs.

"We both use scythes. Let's see whether I take you down first, or you chop me to death first."

With that, Bai Sheng clashed with the Scythe Bug again.

After a flurry of clanging blows, Bai Sheng glanced at the locator. Damn, Silver Wolf had already made it to the second marked point.

"I'm done playing with you, little toy of the 〔Path of Propagation〕! Die!"

He kicked the Scythe Bug away. Then, the purple crystals on Pandora began to flash, and three phantoms emerged behind him. Each phantom held a scythe.

"Full Moon!"

The phantoms behind him were crescent shadows formed from scythes. They could assist the main body, sending high-coverage circular black slashes in every direction.

In an instant, the Scythe Bug, as large as two people, was cut into several pieces by countless flashes of blades. It went completely still.

"Trash!"

Bai Sheng said disdainfully as he headed toward the next target point.

Along the way, quite a few more Scythe Bugs rushed out to block his path, but Bai Sheng simply farmed them like ordinary mobs.

All along the way, aside from skeletons that had been gnawed clean, there were only the corpses of Scythe Bugs, dead beyond any doubt.