I can see experience bars after being transported to another world.

The smell of burning flesh filled the air, pungent and bitter.

More importantly, the flames did not stop burning.

The purplish-black flames seemed to have their own consciousness, drilling down along the flesh and blood, burning deeper into the ground, using the flesh and blood as nourishment, and spreading wildly in all directions.

There was no surprise in Adrian's gloomy eyes; he clearly knew exactly what kind of power he had borrowed from this person.

He used the black wing behind him to lift himself up slightly, his feet leaving the ground, and slowly raised the hand covered in flames, sending it towards the enormous creature.

A purplish-black flame surged from his palm, condensing into a thick pillar of fire that slammed straight into the chest of the enormous creature.

The moment the membrane touched the purplish-black flame, it began to curl.

The dark red membrane that had blocked all attacks finally cracked in the face of this flame.

The membrane cracked outwards from the point of burning, exposing the flesh underneath. The purplish-black flames seeped into the cracks and burned from the outside in.

The colossal creature let out a roar unlike any before. This roar was filled with pain.

It slammed its arms down on its chest, trying to extinguish the flames, but the purplish-black flames wouldn't let go once they touched it, and instead burned from its chest to its palms.

The Blue Knights saw an opportunity.

Her silk threads shot out at the same moment, and she swept past from the side. Crimson sword energy poured into the slender sword and slashed hard at the flesh membrane of the behemoth that was burned by the flames.

This sword cut in half a foot deep, far penetrating deeper than any of the previous sword strikes.

The Ascended One moved as well. The beam of light from its chest blasted into the crack scorched by the flames. This time, the beam of light was not blocked by the flesh membrane and went straight through most of its body, blasting out a mass of flesh from its back.

The enormous creature swayed, its two legs sinking into the flesh and blood of the ground to hold on, stubbornly refusing to fall.

The flesh and blood beneath its feet surged wildly toward its body, trying to fill the burn wounds.

But the purplish-black flames continued to burn, and the flesh and blood that had been filled in were burned away layer by layer. For the first time, the speed of repair could not keep up with the speed of destruction.

The attendant had already withdrawn the purple light. He no longer needed to attack, nor could he fight anymore. His specialty wasn't large-scale, forceful attacks, and unless he was fighting desperately, there was no need to waste any more time.

The attendants gathered the purple light and hovered it around the group, guarding against any sudden attack.

He stared at Adrian's retreating figure for a moment, the black wing slowly flapping within the hollow, the purplish-black firelight illuminating half his face. The servant's eyes flickered, then he averted his gaze.

Margaret, however, didn't have that much thought.

She fired a volley of her crooked water blades at the behemoth, but seeing that it had little effect, she simply turned her attention to the Blue Knight, condensing a layer of water film to shield her from the splashing pieces of flesh and to protect her from most of the contamination.

At the same time, the battle situation in this hollow place completely changed.

The Blue Knight took the initiative to restrain the massive entity, preventing it from advancing even a single step.

Adrian's ranged flames scorched its flesh and blood, while the Great Ascended helped the purplish-black flames expand inward.

In an instant, the behemoth was forced to retreat, and the flesh beneath its feet could not keep up with the speed of the purplish-black flames burning it. The wounds on its body became more and more numerous and deeper.

Adrian hovered in mid-air, his jet-black wings slightly folded. His expression was calm, but a sense of madness emanated from the purplish-black flames surrounding him.

Meanwhile, Klaus loosened his grip on Lu Yuan's wrist.

The two stood in a completely unfamiliar passageway.

Above and below, all was flesh and blood; the dark red flesh formed the passage before us.

The entire passage seemed to possess a certain vitality, undulating slightly, its surface expanding and contracting, exuding an aura unique to living beings.

There are no bronze pillars here, and looking back, the huge void from before is no longer visible.

Before his eyes, Lu Yuan's gray and white text seemed to have gone mad.

[Environmental Sensing: High-level pollution source detected. Please move away immediately.]

[Environmental awareness: Pollution levels continue to rise.]

[Environmental Sensing: High-level pollution source detected. Please move away immediately...]

Several gray and white text prompts popped up almost simultaneously, and more kept appearing.

Lu Yuan forcibly ignored those words and didn't look at them again.

Both he and Klaus were well aware of what they would face next.

The green light on Klaus's bone ring flickered slightly as he raised his hand, aligning the ring with the front.

There are three forks in the road ahead. The one on the left slopes slightly upwards and looks the narrowest; the one on the right bends to the side; and the one in the middle goes downhill.

A very thin green ray of light extended from the bone ring, winding its way forward along the flesh-and-blood ground, and finally entered the central passage.

"That thing went out through this road."

Klaus withdrew his hand, signaling Lu Yuan to follow closely, and then walked towards the middle passage.

Lu Yuan followed behind him, his feet on the fleshy ground. Each step he took was soft and heavy, and his shoes had to sink in several inches to keep him steady.

This was completely different from the feeling in the previous hollow. At least the flesh on top had some soil on it, but the ground here was pure flesh.

He glanced down and saw that the footprint remained on the flesh for two or three breaths before slowly bouncing back.

The two of them crawled into the middle passage together.

The passageway was extremely oppressive, and the further you went in, the more eerie the environment became.

The flesh on the wall no longer rippled slightly, but began to pulsate rhythmically. Lu Yuan could feel the speed of that pulsation, which was exactly in sync with the heartbeat coming from the deepest part of the body.

Something seemed to be slowly flowing within the wall of flesh and blood. With each movement, a warm current surged up from the depths of the passage, carrying a pungent, fishy stench that hit people's faces.

"Why take such a big risk?" Lu Yuan said as he walked, his voice not loud.

Klaus walked ahead, his entire body covered in bone armor, dark green crystals constantly appearing on his skin. He didn't turn back, continuing to lead Lu Yuan deeper into the area.

"It's just to take a look at that so-called taboo," Lu Yuan continued.

"According to the rules of the Empire," Klaus's voice came from within the bone armor, somewhat muffled, "such an existence cannot be included in a report without concrete evidence, or rather, it cannot be used as a basis for a report."

"Aren't you worried that what if a taboo truly exists, and you miss it? Or that it might erupt into an irreversible threat?"

Lu Yuan's words caused Klaus to fall into a brief silence.

"Absolutely not." His voice was icy. "There have been several examples before, all leading to extremely dire consequences. Someone used the pretext of taboo to transfer a large number of personnel, resulting in the base being attacked. Tell me, isn't that ridiculous?"

Lu Yuan did not speak again.

He certainly believed that the empire must have corresponding rules, but he also believed that Klaus would never take such a big risk and lead him, a second-tier being, to the deepest part of the seal just for a rule.

From the time he met Klaus until now, everything he has done has been driven by his own ideas.

Therefore, he definitely came here to find something.

As for the so-called forbidden traces of the empire, or rather, the direct clues, that is not important.

Lu Yuan didn't intend to press further; since Klaus wasn't going to talk, there was no point in asking.

The passage continued to narrow. At the very end, it was only wide enough for one person to squeeze through sideways. Klaus's bone armor scraped against the fleshy walls on either side, making a sticky scraping sound.

Deep within Lu Yuan's consciousness, the thread connecting the first three fragments suddenly tightened, its previously vague direction abruptly becoming straight. The thread no longer pointed unambiguously downwards; this time, it clearly indicated a location.

The fourth fragment was directly above their heads, or rather, it should be above them in the next space after they walked out of the passage ahead.

Lu Yuan silently memorized this location.

The passageway twisted and turned several more times, the pulse quickened, and the hot air grew increasingly scalding.

Lu Yuan felt as if he were walking into the body of a living thing, and the passage in front of him was the blood vessels inside that thing.

Klaus suddenly stopped, and Lu Yuan almost bumped into his back. He peeked out from beside Klaus's shoulder and looked ahead.

Suddenly, the view opened up before them; the passage had come to an end, and ahead lay a vast, boundless void.

Compared to the place above, this is the real abyss.

Even if the hole above is large, it can only fit about a thousand people. From here, you can't even see the opposite wall.

The only thing visible was a faint, dark red glow emanating from the deeper part, illuminating some outlines.

Countless bronze pillars rose from the deeper bottom, spreading upwards.

These pillars vary in thickness, some so thick that it would take several people to encircle them, while others are as wide as a person, and they are inserted diagonally into the inner wall of the entire hollow space.

The surrounding cliff walls were dotted with caves of varying sizes, all covered in a layer of dark red flesh and blood, their destinations unknown. A scorching, foul wind surged up from the bottom of the abyss, burning Lu Yuan so much that he instinctively took two steps back.

There's no need to consciously listen to the heartbeat here, because it comes from the deepest part of the body and resonates solidly within this enormous void.

With each heartbeat, the fleshy walls of the entire abyss undulated, and the dormant patterns on the bronze pillars lit up the instant the heartbeat landed, then went out again.

A new line of text appeared in Lu Yuan's gray and white text.

[Environmental Sensing: Extremely strong pollution source detected. Please move away immediately.]

Lu Yuan looked at the message.

He knew that he was finally getting closer to the thing that had been sealed away by the Bronze City for thousands of years.

Klaus stood at the exit of the passage, his eyes already covered by a green light.

The faint green glow emanating from the bone armor connected to a thin, faint line that meandered down the cliff face and disappeared into the darkness of the abyss.

Klaus didn't hesitate and stepped down.