Chapter 1329: Chapter 347: Blind Box Zone, Insects Ascend to Dragons (Part 5)

The entire skeleton was pulled out from the spine in one motion. The dark red swarm was writhing crazily in the cracks, but he slammed the spine fiercely onto the ground.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

He stomped down with one foot after another, each step accompanied by erupting Gang Qi, crushing the skeleton into fragments and grinding the swarm into pulp.

Until all that remained underfoot was a blurry pool of blood, he stopped his movements, his chest heaving violently, and the worm pulp on his body was steamed into white smoke by the Gang Qi.

Challenger Tips echoed in his mind, he collected the refined remains and the spoils from the ground, and continued to explore deeper into the valley.

The number of sewn bodies encountered along the way clearly increased.

They even kept coming in a surrounding stance.

Li Zheng instantly realized that his presence had already attracted the attention of the Insect King controlling these sewn bodies behind the scenes.

Yet he had no intention of stopping his progress.

The mist on the map was continuously dispelled, and he found many traces left by the Reverse Tide Warriors in this region.

Through the Guidance along the road explanation and the library information provided by research party players in the live stream barrage, he had a general understanding of this war.

The fuse of this war was a Rule-level artifact: Compassion. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

The scouts exploring the area on behalf of the Reverse Tide Army reported that the Compassion Clan held this artifact, leading to the Reverse Tide 3293 Corps receiving the news.

At that time, the Reverse Tide Army was experiencing war and couldn’t dispatch core power, so the 7th regiment stationed at the border joined the battle to seize the rule.

In the end, almost at the cost of annihilation, they captured the Compassion Rule.

This rule is now also in the hands of the Reverse Tide 3293 Corps, the strongest Rule-level Power they possess.

As for the right and wrong of this battle, only children talk of right and wrong.

The Reverse Tide Warriors could fight to death in bloody battles to cover their comrades, or mercilessly slaughter enemy tribe women and children.

This had nothing to do with good and evil; it was the most fundamental survival law of this world.

Therefore, the Reverse Tide Army is seen by countless forces as: Demons, Butchers, Sinful Legion, etc.

Only, no one cares about these titles.

All forces in Monster World have one consensus: Survival equals correctness, enabling one’s own people to survive equals heroism.

In the eyes of foreign forces, those wicked demons within the Reverse Tide Army are generally heroes to the living beings of the Reverse Tide Army.

When external threats arrive, it is only these "demons" in the mouths of foreign forces who will stand at the forefront of the attacking enemy formation.

While hunting, Li Zheng was also observing the performance of his other brothers.

Apart from Chi Tu’s relatively dangerous start, being chased by Black Tide Demonic Spirits under the control of the Evil Spirit Warriors, the rest of the brothers had a pretty decent start without encountering unbeatable threats.

Li Zheng did not focus too much on his brothers, instead putting more energy into hunting.

During this period, he discovered a strange matter.

Exploring further into the valley, the appearance of sewn-body lives seemingly began to change.

Initially encountered were various oddly shaped sewn bodies pieced together by flesh, but the sewn bodies deeper in the valley tended towards uniformity.

Whether in body flexibility or combat power, there was a notable improvement.

While their numbers surged, their behavioral patterns also changed.

They no longer roamed aimlessly; they started gathering and hunting.

They actively dug out various deeply buried skeletons, even attacking some plant and beast monsters, dragging their remains to the center of the valley.

Through Qi-Blood wave perception, he felt as if there was a massive life transformation device inside.

Similar to the Evil Eye Tower controlled by Earth Thought Bully, capable of devouring, converting energy.

Following the sewn bodies’ trails, he passed through a narrow path obscured by giant vines and jagged rocks.

Before him suddenly opened up, the sight was unsettling.

The deepest part of the valley was a Flesh Melting Furnace constructed by countless flesh.

Its surface undulated and wriggled like a living being, countless Evil Gu Worms shuttling within, like blood in vessels.

Skeletons were its framework, flesh was its filler, shattered metal fragments embedded like scale armor on the surface.

At the top of the furnace were multiple openings similar to volcano mouths, continually spurting thick black-purple energy mist, the source of Qi-Blood wave perception felt earlier.

Surrounding the furnace was a dense army of sewn bodies like worker ants.

They endlessly fed the collected materials into the furnace’s several gigantic mouths at the top.

Inside, the furnace emitted sounds like a giant heart pounding dully, interspersed with the sound of bones being crushed and dissolved.

Here, the sickly sweet scent mingled with metallic corrosion and the stench of burnt flesh to its peak, causing Li Zheng to subconsciously frown.

Upon Decomposition scanning, the information presented in his mind stunned him.

[Blood Stone (Pseudo-rule - Advanced)]:

Target Description: The Blood Stone Furnace fused with the Origin Power of "Flesh World," due to its incomplete Rule Framework, has not yet ascended to Rule-level. It can continuously generate pure flesh through devouring, purification, and transformation to create flesh-bodied beings.

...

"Brother Guide, what is this thing again?"

After reading the Decomposition introduction, Li Zheng was bewildered and decisively decided to ask Guidance when in doubt.

Facing the inquiry, Guidance opened its eyes:

[You can understand this as a robot processing plant, but it processes not metal parts, but highly optimized flesh bodies.]

[The materials fed into the furnace will be forcibly decomposed, purified, and reconstructed by the Rule-level Origin Power of the "Blood Stone Furnace." This process is like smelting scrap iron into high-purity alloy ingots, then stamping, forging according to preset blueprints, and finally assembling into a precise mechanical body.]

[But here, the Blood Stone Furnace forges not gears and bearings, but tough muscle fibers, efficient energy circulation systems, and hard biological armor skeletons, thus it’s a biological processing plant.]

Upon hearing this, Li Zheng nodded in realization, then asked puzzledly:

"Brother Guide, does the Evil Gu Worm intend to create stronger puppet bodies?"

[Wrong, the Evil Gu Insect Clan itself is the operating system and driver of flesh vehicles. Integrated into the created flesh bodies, they will no longer be low-level parasite puppet controllers, but evolve into a highly cohesive consciousness cluster, a biological intelligence core capable of perfectly harnessing this new flesh body’s entire potential.]

Guidance simulated the process on the light screen.

Countless tiny Evil Gu Worms, in the furnace’s energy field, followed the surging flesh to merge and regroup, like chips implanted into various parts of a newly born body.

Connecting worm to worm formed a complex structure akin to the neural network within a human body.

"Still don’t get it, how is this different from controlling sewn bodies?"

[There is a big difference, what they’re undertaking can be understood as a ’whole race ascension’ ceremony. This clan’s ambition is substantial; they’re tired of merely patching up corpses and remnants, parasitically growing within decayed shells of others, forever relying on external force to live. They seek to use this Blood Stone Furnace to completely escape the fragile worm form and elevate the entire clan from parasites to: masters of perfect life bodies.]

[Every worm colony born from this furnace will be a new life body constituted by pure flesh, pursuing life forms comparable to, or even surpassing those inherently powerful races. They aspire not to control corpses, but to become a New God.]

"Pure body? Isn’t that us players?"

[Correct, the ultimate goal of the Evil Gu Worm is to create perfect life bodies similar to players, capable of embedding with any external force, achieving near-perfect growth potential.]

"Wow, who would’ve thought that in some corner of the Pale Continent, even dust-hiding insects aspire to become dragons... Ascending as a race, forging godly bodies, what a grand ambition, what a wild heart."