The group advanced slowly and cautiously, spreading their Divine Sense to its fullest extent and sweeping the surrounding rock walls warily, afraid that terrifying beasts or venomous insects might ambush them from the darkness at any moment.
"Senior Brother Gong! Look up!" A young disciple stopped dead, his voice filled with alarm as he pointed at the cavern ceiling.
Everyone looked up at once.
Countless black-shelled venomous insects covered the ceiling in dense clusters. Before, they had been vicious and bloodthirsty, swarming forward like a tide to devour flesh and blood whenever they sensed a living person.
Now, however, the insects seemed to be fleeing in panic, burrowing in groups through cracks and holes in the rock walls into deeper, darker crevices. They ignored the cultivators passing below, showing not the slightest intention of attacking.
Senior Brother Gong, who led the group, felt his pupils contract sharply as alarm bells rang in his heart. "Something's wrong! These are the same insects that attacked us before. Now they can't get away from us fast enough. Something must have happened inside!"
He took a deep breath, suppressed the unease surging within him, and raised a hand to signal everyone to continue investigating.
Yet as they proceeded, none of the venomous insect ambushes they had anticipated occurred.
The passage was quiet, their progress far too smooth, as though the deadly cavern that had only just been claiming lives had turned into an ordinary underground tunnel overnight.
The bone-piercing chill that had once saturated the entire cavern, freezing cultivators until their souls trembled, had now dissipated completely. Not even a trace remained.
Without that chill to draw them in and nourish them, the venomous insects that depended on it naturally had no desire to stay. They scattered and migrated, seeking cold, gloomy corners better