The exit is quite well hidden.

Mingxi could only say that the owner of this space was extremely cautious. This nested space was already so well hidden, yet they still managed to create such a mountain of corpses to block the way.

Don't they find it disgusting to go in and out like that?

Mingxi suppressed her nausea and fixed her gaze once again on the pile of corpses in front of her.

Grayish-white fur, rotting flesh, exposed bones, and semi-congealed black blood.

They were piled up one on top of another, blocking the space from the ground all the way to the dome, almost completely sealing off the way ahead.

stench.

It was a putrid stench that could penetrate all pretense and strike straight to the soul.

After all, it was a smell that even Mingxi, who had excellent self-control, couldn't help but feel like vomiting.

She can't see the expressions on Jin Yuanbao's face right now, but they must be quite interesting.

This smell is absolutely incredible.

It wasn't just the usual smell of decay; it was a mixture of corpse poison, putrefactive energy, and some strange, sweet-smelling odor.

Ming Flea Xi stood before the pile of corpses, expressionless.

The nine gold ingots also remained expressionless.

“Master.” Although Guangguang could not empathize with Mingxi, it still knew how to care for people. At this moment, its voice was filled with obvious disgust. “The corpse poison is too strong. You are now a weak and pitiful little flea. You can easily be poisoned to death.”

Mingxi: "..."

Is it telling a hellish joke?

What kind of weak and pitiful little flea is she?

Speechless.

Mingxi ignored Guangguang.

They leaped into the air and stepped into the pile of corpses. Jin Yuanbao and the other nine followed naturally. No one wanted to say a word.

Besides not wanting to talk, another reason is the fear that speaking will immediately attract the attention of the space's owner.

Although the place was unexpectedly dirty and chaotic, filled with all sorts of strange and unusual things, the few fleas had most likely managed to hide perfectly.

As long as you don't make a sound or use any skills, the other party shouldn't notice.

In short, just shut up.

Be a weak and pitiful little flea.

Mingxi hopped into the pile of corpses. At this moment, her exceptionally slender feet sank into the soft, rotting flesh. Even though she was so thin that she couldn't muster even half a gram of flesh, the pile of corpses was incredibly 'deep'.

As soon as she stepped down, black liquid seeped out from the crack.

Hesitating for even a second is irresponsible to yourself.

Mingxi immediately jumped out of the second installment of the filthy pool of life.

"Pfft~"

Good heavens!

commit a sin!

The stench doubled.

"Sizzle~"

Good heavens!

Mingxi could actually hear Lan Yueliang sucking up vomit.

You can tell it's been a tough time for it, and everyone else is having a tough time too.

Mingxi wished she could borrow Jin Yuanbao and the others' skills to build a filtering Great Wall inside her nasal cavity.

"Pat-pat..."

Something above her head came loose, and a rotting rat paw fell down, landing at Mingxi's feet and splashing drops of dirty water.

The water droplets weren't actually that big, but for Mingxi, who was only the size of a grain of rice due to her disability, these things made her feel the greatest malice in the world.

"Bang!"

She was wrapped in a ball of dirty water, making her a perfect cosplayer for the Little Mermaid with dreadlocks.

"Master, your bad luck has hit you on the head," Guangguang said with a grin.

Mingxi didn't want to speak and withdrew a mouthful of saliva, struggling to get out of the dirty water ball, her 'hair' all wet.

She looked at Jin Yuanbao and the others. They usually protected Mingxi like the apple of their eye, but just now they hid faster than anyone else, afraid that if they were too late, they would be punished by heaven.

There's a saying that goes, "Dad is safest when things are dangerous, and dad is dangerous when things are safe."

They are all her fathers.

Jenny was heartbroken.

Too lazy to deal with the fleas, Mingxi continued to probe deeper.

The inside of the pile of corpses was even more terrifying than the outside.

There is no light here, only the eerie phosphorescence emitted by rotting flesh.

The ground beneath your feet is always soft and sticky, and you could fall through a layer of flesh and into a deeper abyss of decay at any moment.

The air was filled with visible black particles, which were the corpse poison that had condensed into a "fog".

But Mingxi didn't stop, and neither did the gold ingots following behind ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) her.

They struggled through the pile of corpses for a full two hours. During that time, Mingxi experienced the horrific ordeal of being nearly drowned in the filth, and the embarrassing situation of being approached by a burly, obese maggot who mistook her for a companion...

The Tang Monk and his disciples went through eighty-one tribulations on their journey to the West to obtain Buddhist scriptures. Mingxi found an outlet and painted her already rich life into a colorful abstract painting.

"Disaster!"

"It's too difficult!"

Mingxi felt like she was shattered. If it weren't for the thought that it was better to avoid trouble and that stealth infiltration was more cost-effective than reckless invasion, she really wanted to just banish Ye Xiu and blow up this damn space.

Sigh, in the end she's just too weak.

Just as Mingxi's personal qualities were being severely tested, a faint yet familiar energy fluctuation finally appeared ahead.

exit.

She finally found it.

The moment Mingxi stepped out of the pile of corpses, she froze.

Not because of liberation, but because of the world before my eyes—

It was completely different from the Ghostly Nightmare Land she had seen before.

The sky is an inverted ocean.

Pale blue seawater flowed slowly overhead, schools of luminous fish swam in the water, and occasionally a huge shadow would sweep by.

It was some kind of giant deep-sea shark, over 100 meters long, swimming upside down in the sea.

Beneath my feet lies an overturned land.

It was not ordinary ground, but a mixture of countless broken boulders, twisted building ruins, and some kind of crystallized plant.

They stretched from the soles of our feet into the distance, then suddenly broke off and plunged into an endless abyss.

Further away, there are suspended waterfalls flowing backwards, burning forests that are devoid of warmth, and unknown creatures swimming inside completely transparent mountains.

The air is sweet.

It carries a strange, drowsy sweet scent.

"This seems to be... a secret realm?"

Mingxi looked around warily.

"It's not a secret realm."

Most of the time, Guangguang is quite reliable and completed the scan immediately. "This is still the Nightmare Land... it's a real illusion."

A true illusion is a long-standing illusory space. Because it has evolved over a long period of time, it may even have developed its own rules. Therefore, it is not only difficult to break, but it also approaches reality infinitely.

That's why it's called a real illusion.

Mingxi took a deep breath.

It really is sweet.

Mingxi stopped maintaining the flea state and, after releasing Ye Xiu, the one person and nine pets could no longer endure it.

Black Pearl and Little Silver Flower unleash their skills simultaneously.

Large water balls relentlessly and continuously pelted them, washing away all the filth they had accumulated as fleas.

Little Silver Flower was equally generous, using her Angel's Kiss to dispel the negative effects acquired from traversing mountains and valleys, such as corpse poison and the aura of death.

After that, Florence bloomed a string of fragrant flowers on Mingxi, Xiaoyinhua, Chiyu, Liangjingjing, and Yaoxuan respectively.

Fragrant flowers are a common type of herb, but their fragrance is quite unique. It can emit different scents depending on individual constitution and personality, and the fragrance is long-lasting.

Cheap and easy to use.

It is loved by both humans and supernatural beings.

"Ya Prison!"

Liang Jingjing pulled off the flower wreath around her neck, looking disgusted.

It's only because Mingxi taught it well, otherwise this tattered flower would have been thrown at Florence's face long ago.

What the hell!

"Jin".

Florence calmly replied: "Girls all have them. If I don't get you one, you'll blame me for favoritism."

After all, the sparkly one is genderless, and both the androgynous Yoh-hyun and the otherworldly one belong to... the abnormal category. There is not much difference between them, and they are treated equally, which is a sign of its gentlemanly nature.

"Ya Prison!"

I would never do that!

Mingxi couldn't help but chuckle as she listened to their conversation.

Because of its bright and sparkly personality and behavior, it's easy to forget its gender; it can actually be a girl.

In this respect, Florence truly excels in detail.

That's incredibly considerate.

"Hey, Jin Yuanbao, Yao Xuan, can you tell where the Corpse Rat originated?"

Both indicated they could try their best.

Jin Yuanbao suddenly opened his Heavenly Eye, and Yao Xuan also released his skill to begin deduction.

Three seconds later, they all pointed to the southeast, indicating that the energy was chaotic and numerous, and that the number of corpse rats might far exceed their previous predictions.

Mingxi's eyes turned cold.

"Walk."

After passing through three illusory zones that could confuse one's five senses, they finally arrived at the source.

It is still a 'mountain'.

It wasn't the mountain littered with corpses like before, but a mountain piled up with corpse rats.

This mountain is alive.

The mountain surface was covered with countless corpse rats.

"Good heavens! This is giving me trypophobia!" Mingxi was a little numb; she had never seen such a grand scene before.

The mountain was very high, and its surface was covered with almost entirely ferocious-looking, unpleasant-looking rats.

A rough estimate puts it at least in the hundreds of thousands.

Even if more than half of the 100,000 corpse rats are juveniles, it's still enough to make one's scalp crawl.

If all of these corpse rats were released, Blue Star might end up like Lingyuan Star eight hundred years ago.

"Madman!" Mingxi cursed under her breath.

The overwhelming sensory experience was even more impactful than the mountain of corpses she had encountered before.

That was a different kind of shock.

Inside the mountain, huge, fleshy, tumor-like structures could be vaguely seen wriggling; it was unclear what they were.

At the top of the mountain, a corpse rat, far larger than its kind, was perched.

It is over ten meters long, covered in jet-black scales, with a row of bone spurs on its back, and black mist spews out from its nostrils with every breath.

Wherever the fog passes, rocks are eroded and the air is distorted.

“Saint-level.” Yao Xuan’s voice was solemn. “With this physique and this level, he has consumed at least a thousand humans.”

Beneath the corpse rat, one could vaguely see human skeletons, different from the rotten, blackened skeletons from before.

They are also remains that have been eaten, but they are still very fresh.

Skull, spine, ribs, finger bones... they were scattered around the Saint-level Corpse Rat, forming a pale white 'bone carpet'.

Among the bone blankets, some were clearly children's bones, small and fragile.

Mingxi's pupils contracted slightly.

She did not take immediate action and did not find anyone suspicious at the moment.

Calm down first.

Mingxi gave Jin Yuanbao and the others a wink.

Without disturbing any of the corpse rats, they circled around to the other side of the 'mountain'.

On that side, hundreds, even thousands, of metal cages were scattered about!

This scene was equally breathtaking.

Outside the cage were tattered rags, hair, and more human skeletons.

Mingxi approached the first cage.

Inside the cage were huddled human-shaped objects—they were described as objects because their human form was barely discernible.

Mingxi's gaze fell on one of the middle-aged men.

He had become so thin that he was skin and bones, his skin was like paper stuck to his skeleton, and his ribs were countable.

Although his eyes were open, they didn't seem to focus, and they didn't even move.

His eyes were sunken, his eyeballs were cloudy, and he showed no reaction to anything in the outside world.

He huddled in the corner of the cage like a dead shrimp.

"As."

Black Pearl stealthily approached and couldn't resist reaching out her claw to poke the man's face, but he remained motionless, as if dead, without even moving his eyes or showing the slightest reaction.

"His consciousness has been completely erased. Although he is not dead yet, he is no different from a dead person."

Yaoxuan's voice was filled with suppressed anger, "Prolonged hunger, fear, and the aura of fear and death released by the corpse rats have completely destroyed his spirit."

He's now just a living corpse.

Not only him, but almost everyone in these cages is in a similar situation.

Mingxi turned her gaze to another person.

A woman.

Both were emaciated, and both had empty eyes.

But she seemed more alive than the middle-aged man, because she was holding something in her arms—a baby.

An infant who has been dead for an unknown period of time.

The body was shriveled and blackened, like a piece of dried-out wood.

But the woman still held it tightly, as if it were the most precious treasure in the world.

Her lips moved slightly, uttering low, hoarse murmurs.

"...Baby, be good...don't cry...Mommy's here...don't cry..."

Mingxi considered herself to be a soft-hearted person, but at this moment, she felt as if she were being pickled in a jar of sour vegetables.

She quickly shifted her gaze, and in her field of vision was a boy who looked to be about seven or eight years old.

He is still awake.

But Mingxi wished he hadn't woken up.

Those eyes had lost the clarity that a child should have.

They are like two dry wells, filled only with numbness and emptiness.

He sat in the center of the cage, drawing something on the ground with a twig.

Mingxi walked a little closer and then saw that what he was drawing was a mouse.

A giant, man-eating rat.

"call......"

Mingxi took a deep breath; she had never realized it so clearly before.

Humanity has always been a purgatory.

The boy suddenly raised his head.

His numb, stiff pupils reflected her image, staring blankly for a long time.

Then, in a hoarse, almost inaudible voice, he murmured a single word:

"save......"

After saying that, he continued to look down and draw mice.

It was as if that word was just the last, unconscious groan of a trapped beast.

Mingxi stood there, silent for an unknown amount of time.

Then she turned around, looked at the mountain of corpses, at the rat king on the mountaintop, and at the rats still wriggling.

Her hands clenched tightly.

The nail is digging into the flesh.

But her voice was unusually calm, eerily calm.

"I must make sure that not a single lizard rat escapes from here!"