Somewhere in the Destruction Realm Abyss, a flash of silver light revealed Gustavo's figure. Because he left the Mother Nest directly through spatial teleportation, ripples appeared in the surrounding dimensions.
"Hmm, the causal relationship is a bit vague, but we can roughly determine the direction. Let's go find the Thousand-Eyed Race and see what benefits we can gain from this."
Looking back at the colossal mother nest that had already occupied the entire continent and expanded more than ten times, Gustavo turned and headed towards a certain area of Destruction Realm Abyss. Compared to this place, it was much farther from the Core Zone, and its safety would be somewhat improved.
However, these conclusions are based on the Destruction Realm Abyss before the arrival of the Void Insect Clan. Now, it's hard to say. After all, the Zerg themselves represent danger, and Gustavo doesn't believe that this terrifying war race is here for a vacation in the Destruction Realm Abyss.
After activating the Devouring Divine Realm and shrinking its range, Gustavo amplified the effects of the Law of Space, temporarily allowing them to occupy a secondary position among the many laws within the Divine Realm. In an instant, the effect of Void travel was greatly amplified. Gustavo was like a nimble fish, and with each flick of his tail and shake of his head, he could flash a great distance. Before long, he was far away from the coverage of the influence of the Vera Brood Nest and arrived in an unknown area.
In his perception, a floating island made of obsidian-like crystals seemed to have caught Gustavo's trail and turned to rush towards him.
Rumble~!!
The Berserk Void Energy whipped up a continuous storm. Gustavo narrowed his eyes, choosing not to dodge but instead going on high alert.
Soon, the crystalline floating island flew over, accompanied by the ear-piercing hiss of the swarm. A densely packed army of Zerg emerged from it, led by a giant serpent-like intelligent Zerg creature with an aura comparable to True God. Its vertical pupils radiated a chilling murderous aura as it eyed Gustavo with predatory intent, as if it were eyeing a delicious prey.
Gustavo was also watching the Zerg force, his eyes flickering as relevant intelligence surfaced in his mind.
"The main body consists of the Zerg's basic units, the Void Hunter, whose carapaces can mimic environmental colors and whose mouths can spew high-frequency bone spikes or elemental cannons. The elite units are the Realm-Rending Devourer, skilled in long-range attacks, adept at disintegrating material defenses; their offensive power is not to be underestimated, and they can also conduct coordinated attacks under the command of a Zerg overlord. As for that crystalline floating island, it should be a Zerg hive warship, captained by a True God- level intelligent Zerg—a fully-fledged Zerg combat force..."
At this point, Gustavo was completely certain that the Void Insect Clan had definitely reached some kind of alliance with the Ancestral Tree of Destruction; otherwise, it would have been impossible for such a vast Destruction Realm Abyss to encounter a powerful Zerg combat force so soon after leaving the influence zone of the Vera Brood Nest.
It's highly likely that it's the current Destruction Realm Abyss, where Zerg forces are active in various places, increasing the chances of encountering each other.
The fact that the Void Insect Clan were allowed to flood into the Destruction Realm Abyss on such a large scale, and that the Zerg Queen was even allowed to enter, suggests that the two sides must have formed an alliance.
"Who dares to trespass into the military restricted area of my Void Insect Clan?!"
The serpent-like Zerg leader took the initiative, immediately accusing Gustavo of a serious crime, which made him roll his eyes.
Having no intention of arguing with these Zerg forces, Gustavo simply pulled out the feather pass that Vera had given him, held it in his hand, and waved it around.
"Your Majesty the Empress!"
The moment it saw the feather, this True God- level intelligent insectoid immediately abandoned its hostility, bowed to the feather, and became extremely friendly.
"Are you Her Majesty's collaborator? Do you require my military escort?"
"That won't be necessary. Her Majesty the Queen has entrusted me with some private matters, so I can't bring too many troops." Gustavo put on a show of pretentious power, displaying his authority quite impressively.
The Zerg leader paid no attention to this. He personally led his troops to escort Gustavo a distance before watching him leave. Only then did he continue to pilot the Zerg hive warship around, hunting down unfortunate adventurers, especially those without any background, whose fates were all miserable.
Gustavo continued onward, and whenever he encountered hostile Zerg forces, he would show his Feather Pass, and his path would immediately become unobstructed.
Although Vera is quite unconventional among the Zerg queens, with rather weak combat capabilities and few fighting units under her command, her status remains undeniable; she is, after all, a queen.
Other Void Insect Clan, unless they are the Queen, must treat Vera with utmost respect. Even some combat-type Voidlings stronger Vera cannot break this ironclad rule.
The rigid hierarchy within the War Race of the Absolute Order side is evident.
After spending several days traversing a vast territory, Gustavo's causal perception finally became clear, which invigorated him. He immediately sped forward, heading in the direction he sensed, and soon arrived at an area shrouded in a Space-Time Mist.
Looking around, the shattered dimensional layer resembled the edge of broken glass, jagged yet incredibly sharp and dangerous. Coupled with the surging Space-Time and temporal waves, anyone without the strength of True God who rashly entered would only face certain death.
Gustavo's strength was certainly not in question. After sensing for a moment, he rushed in headfirst. After experiencing some minor but annoying dangers, he arrived at a ruin with extremely rich elemental energy.
The dilapidated yet majestic buildings were scattered haphazardly, with mysterious elemental runes carved everywhere. Gustavo casually grabbed a handful, and the dense elements condensed into a loose crystal, attracting a group of adorable elemental sprites who scrambled to eat it.
Gustavo casually tossed the elemental crystals to the sprites, then Concealment himself and headed towards the direction where his senses were becoming increasingly clear. About ten minutes later, he arrived before a gray-black spatial vortex with a diameter of tens of thousands of miles. After examining it for a few moments, he thought to himself, "Void portal. It looks like it's in the style of the magic faction. I wonder where it leads."
The Astral Realm has unified spatial rules, but due to different regions and varying levels of development, the spatial technology systems developed by different civilizations, forces, and races are also unique.
Civilizations or powerful beings on the magical side often use runes to interpret the Law of Space. The core of this Void portal is actually an array composed of Magic Runes. Gustavo saw through its essence at a glance, not because he had particularly good eyesight, but simply because he had seen it so many times that it had become an instinctive reaction.
With a single step, Gustavo stepped into the Void vortex. In an instant, Void Energy mixed with Law of Space surged through his body. His body first felt light, and then, in a flash, he appeared in a magnificent and luxurious palace. Projections depicting Epic- style pictures came into view on all four sides, and the edges were decorated with many rare and precious treasures. The exquisite and artistic atmosphere showed that the original owner was a person of good taste.
"Hmm... Based on causal intuition, the Thousand-Eyed Race should be within these four projections, or more specifically, within this gilded furnace-shaped projection."
Gustavo's eyes flashed, and he quickly locked onto his target.
Following his gaze, a spherical furnace projection composed of twelve floating gilded rune rings came into view. In the center of the furnace, a pale flame that seemed to never go out floated. Through the hollowed-out holes, one could see that liquid flame runes flowed down the inner wall of the furnace, bursting out sparks of fire.
"This thing looks a lot like some kind of test. Is that Divine Path Configuration hidden inside? No, that's not right. It's a four-sided projection, it shouldn't just be hidden in this one projection. It's highly likely that you have to pass all the tests to obtain the remaining half of the Divine Path Configuration..."
Based on previous intelligence and his own experience, Gustavo quickly pieced together the basic facts.
Gustavo learned about Eliduo's role from the Thousand-Eyed Race a few months ago. This Orange-type person was originally a member of a small family in a low-level Astral Realm civilization, and her civilization was under the jurisdiction of the Water Mirror Civilization.
Later, by chance, Eliduo obtained a great opportunity, which included half of Divine Path Configuration and a large amount of resources. With this opportunity, Eliduo stumbled and struggled to cultivate to the realm of True God, but her talent had reached its limit. Even if the upper limit of her inheritance was very high, it was all in vain if she was not good enough.
Eliduo was unwilling to give up, so she began to study how to further utilize the Divine Path Configuration. No one knows what kind of trick she did, but she actually integrated half of the Divine Path Configuration into her own body. However, the aura that was leaked was discovered by the Water Mirror Race.
Meanwhile, the Thousand-Eyed Race's spy, planted within the Water Mirror Race, learned of this intelligence and reported it to the higher-ups, thus initiating a struggle between the two sides for Eliduo.
The Thousand-Eyed Race wiped out Eliduo's entire clan and turned them into a positioning device to determine her location and hunt her down.
The Water Mirror Race wasn't that brutal, but as the leader of the civilization to which the Eliduo family belonged, after a large-scale investigation, they discovered a lost bloodline of the Eliduo family. Using this, they also developed a positioning device, thus entering into a competition with the Thousand-Eyed Race to seize Eliduo.
What followed was a long period of battle royale, until they arrived on the Planet Illinois, where Gustavo intervened.
After looking around, Gustavo scoffed inwardly, "What a bunch of useless idiots. They failed the four-sided projection test on just one side, what a waste of the opportunity I gave them to get the first move."
"Fine, since that's the case, keeping you all won't be of much use. As long as the Strange Light Bearer are alive, that's enough..."
A dangerous glint flashed in Gustavo's emerald spider eyes. A Black Hole emerged from behind him, and the Divine Law he had obtained from the Thousand-Faced Fool, Jax, began to activate, creating an avatar that fell into the furnace projection.
"Divine Law like the Thousand Faces Divine Law, which can create clones with a presence similar to the original body, are indeed useful for exploring ruins; at the very least, they can help avoid many dangers."
Gustavo chuckled as he watched the Thousand Faces clone disappear into the furnace projection, waiting quietly.
Inside the projection, pale flames raged, forming Tier One Tier One Flame Stairway. These staircases were covered with runes, and one had to step on the correct rune pedal for each step. If one chose the wrong one, one would be attacked by the sudden appearance of Soul-Burning Fire. Even a True God could be burned alive if he was not careful.
Therefore, the Thousand-Eyed Race was extremely cautious. Even though they were anxious about the passage of time and afraid that the Water Mirror Race would bring the powerful members of the Floating Light Civilization to pursue them, they still dared not act rashly.
After all, this ruin could very well be a relic left behind by Main God, and who knows what terrible dangers it might conceal? We must preserve our strength as much as possible.
"Damn it, once that Void vortex is opened, it can't be closed. Otherwise, we wouldn't be in such a hurry and could have easily passed through the level." Theseus the Strange Light Bearer snorted in frustration.
Octavian, the World-Burning One, stood beside him with a somber expression, remaining silent as he exchanged glances, calculating where to step next so as not to ignite the Soul-Burning Fire.
They had already traversed more than half of the Flame Stairway. The higher they climbed, the more terrifying the Soul-Burning Fire would become if they were to make a wrong step. Even now, as Middle God, Octavian the World-Scorcher dared not underestimate it in the slightest.
Octavian, engrossed in his deductions, failed to notice that his companion, Theseus the Strange Light Bearer, who had just finished complaining, suddenly lowered his head, his eyes revealing a dense network of spiderweb-like causal lines. These lines wove an impenetrable net, dragging the Strange Light Bearer's frantically struggling and groaning soul into Bottomless Abyss Bottom of the Abyss, where a gaping maw full of fangs awaited menacingly.
At the bottom of the Flame Stairway, Gustavo's clone did not ascend the steps but stood there. His role was clear: to act as a signal relay station, to determine the rules of this place in detail, and to gather information from various sources so that Gustavo could make the most accurate judgment.
Outside the projection, Gustavo nodded thoughtfully. "So this is the kind of test it is, Magic Runes? Not too difficult. Hmm... let the Strange Light Bearer confuse them first."
In a flash of thought, Gustavo made a decision. At the same time, within the furnace projection, Theseus the Strange Light Bearer raised his head, feigning thought for a moment before exclaiming with sudden realization, "So that's how it is! I get it!!"
What is that?
Theseus, what are you saying?
The two Lower God of the Thousand-Eyed Race beside Theseus, the Strange Light Bearer, turned their heads in bewilderment, looking at their companion who was laughing maniacally. Their first thought was that Theseus had been driven mad by the complex Magic Runes.
But the next second, the worldviews of the three Thousand-Eyed Race True God, including the two Lower God and the Middle God Octavian, were greatly shocked.
Strange Light Bearer Theseus like a completely different person, striding up the steps and quickly catching up with Octavio, standing shoulder to shoulder with him.
"What's wrong with you?" Octavian was also bewildered.
The other two Lower God were even more conflicted. "We were both bad students, how did you suddenly rise to the top?"
Faced with his companion's shock, Strange Light Bearer Theseus calmly, "After some deduction, I discovered that the runes on this Flame Stairway are very similar to a Rune Array recorded in an ancient magical book I read before. After tentatively climbing a few steps, I finally confirmed my guess."
"Is that so? In other words, this isn't a result you deduced yourself, but rather something you copied from an ancient magical book?" Octavian had been somewhat skeptical, breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this. So it wasn't that I was incompetent; this guy had simply looked at the reference answer.
That solves the problem!
The other two Lower God also breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness, at least we weren't the ones who were stupid.
"Hehe, although I didn't deduce the answer myself, it still proves that I'm more knowledgeable, doesn't it?" Theseus the Strange Light Bearer chuckled proudly. Octavian slapped him irritably and said, "Alright, hurry up and lead us through the checkpoint. Once we leave the Destruction Realm Abyss and the mission is complete, I will naturally report to Lord Malakai and give you an extra reward."
"That's exactly what I was waiting for." Theseus, the Strange Light Bearer Theseus, smiled upon hearing this, and then led the other three up the remaining fiery steps.
At first, Octavian and his two companions were very cautious and careful, but after climbing more than a dozen steps without incident, it proved that Theseus had not boasted. So they relaxed and their vigilance decreased.
The subsequent climb went smoothly, and soon the Four True God of the Thousand-Eyed Race reached the last step, which was also the most dangerous.
As was customary, Theseus the Strange Light Bearer successfully ascended the steps, and then he commanded the other three True God.
The same thing had been repeated hundreds or thousands of times before, so Octavian and the other two didn't take it seriously. In addition, with success in sight, they were focused on passing the level completely and ignored the possibility of danger approaching.
Until the very moment their last step landed, the entire Flame Stairway trembled violently, a soul-shaking cry exploded through the air, followed by a gigantic Phoenix covered in Soul-Burning Fire, which spread its wings and swooped down toward the three Octavian gods.
Octavian looked up in disbelief, only to meet a glimpse of indifferent yet mocking emerald Pupil Light in someone's eyes.