This was an immense, towering tree.
Its height was unknowable, its breadth boundless.
Every leaf on the tree seemed like a world unto itself.
Beneath the shadow of a relatively small leaf, Dongguan appeared.
"Where am I?"
He sent his consciousness into the Mental Space, made a brief record, then decided to explore.
Before he had walked far along a leaf vein, a shelled creature appeared before him.
"An insect?"
The creature resembled a locust overall, but stood a hundred meters tall. A red gleam flashed through its compound eyes, and its originally grayish-brown shell turned green.
Its two forelimbs swung like long blades, slicing through the spatial defense Dongguan had maintained all along.
Dongguan could only dodge.
"That power..."
The insectlike ferocious beast reminded him of Kui Luo, whom he had encountered aboard the Tomb Ship.
Only, Kui Luo had possessed tremendous strength, while this creature had a pair of exceptionally sharp forelimbs.
Their power was immense, surpassing his Peak Supreme Treasure, the Tribulation-Shattering Blade.
"These things are on par with Strange Objects, and they grow right out of its body."
Fortunately, this beastlike creature was not very intelligent.
After a battle, Dongguan took advantage of its inability to adapt and successfully killed it.
"These forelimbs..." Dongguan detached its two forelimbs, worked on them a little, and used them as simple weapons.
"They qualify as Strange Objects, too. A matching pair, at that."
This encounter made him more cautious during his subsequent exploration.
Yet that Insect Beast was not particularly strong within this ecosystem.
Some of the dangers he encountered afterward forced him to flee. Even injuries and the depletion of the reserves in his World Ring were unavoidable.
"What on earth is going on?"
Dongguan was deeply puzzled. After encountering the ancient temple, he had fallen into this