Full health is the kill threshold, no matter if you're a god or a demon!

The world spun around.

Void.

It was that boundless void again.

Countless orbs of light floated around him, like stars frozen in time.

Each sphere of light is a world, a competition zone, a realm—some are as bright as the sun, some are as dim as ashes, some are flickering violently, and some have been completely extinguished.

They densely covered the entire void, stretching to the horizon and into the unperceptible distance, like a boundless sea of ​​stars.

This wasn't Liu Nian's first time here. This time, he wasn't speechless with shock like last time. He simply hovered in the void, waiting quietly.

Sure enough, those things appeared very quickly.

They emerge from the void like shadows stepping out of an ink painting—their translucent bodies appearing and disappearing in the starlight, without a fixed shape, sometimes stretching into a snake, sometimes shrinking into a sphere, and sometimes spreading out into nothingness.

[Level 999 Void Guardian]

Liu Nian silently counted in his mind—six, the same as last time, no more, no less.

"Ugh! It's you again, little guy~"

That hoarse voice, which sounded like both laughter and sighing, rang out.

Liu Nian secretly wondered: Are there only a few Void Guardians? Or is this area specifically their responsibility? Or perhaps they sensed that an "old acquaintance" had arrived, so they specially sent the same group of people to receive him?

Speculation aside, Liu Nian didn't dwell on the matter. He took a deep breath and took out the prepared items from his backpack.

"I brought the things."

The Void Guardians fell silent.

Then, the Void Guardian who had chased him last time slowly floated over.

Its shape changed constantly as it floated, eventually coalescing into a blurry, roughly human-shaped outline, with pairs of red eyes emerging from various parts of its body, all staring at Liu Nian.

"You've got some nerve," the voice said, a hint of sarcasm in its tone. "I let you go last time, and you actually dared to come back?"

Liu Nian shrugged and handed the gift forward: "A person should always keep their word, shouldn't they?"

Those "eyes" stared at Liu Nian for a few seconds, then swept over the gift in front of him.

"Let me see... Dragon Blood Wine... Legendary Skill Book..." its voice rang out, tinged with satisfaction. "And a live legendary creature. Not bad, not bad, you've brought everything this time. Oh? There are double sets?"

It opened its mouth wide and inhaled forcefully, and those things instantly turned into a stream of light and entered its mouth.

"Alright, you have ten minutes to run away this time," the other party said.

Liu Nian suddenly took out an experience orb and said, "Can I buy some information from you?"

During their first encounter, the other party tried to extract his experience points, leading Liu Nian to guess that the other party might have some need for experience points.

The other person glanced at the experience orb in his hand and exclaimed in surprise, "Wow~ you actually have this kind of delicacy~ Well, ask first, and I'll decide how much you want based on your question!"

Liu Nian said, "I want to go to a place, the area where the Gorgon Insect King resides."

"The Gorgon Insect King?" The other party sounded puzzled. "We know nothing about the situation on your side, so I can't answer that question. You can only ask me questions related to the Boundary Tree."

Liu Nian thought for a moment, then said, "Do you know which Boundary Tree this one I came from was once connected to?"

Nigellas must have moved between different World Trees, so if we know which World Tree the other party came from, we have a very high probability of knowing where the Insect King is!

"That's no problem!" The Void Guardian said after only a brief glance. "Hmm~ It comes from the Infinite Continent, which is quite far. However, we both really like what we have. How about this, I'll accept it, and I can take you there directly, how about that?"

"Thank you so much!"

---

Hesdra Nest City, a Tier 4 capital city of the Lepidoptera.

This is not a constructed city, but a giant insect hive that has grown out of itself, possessing life and will, and capable of executing some simple commands.

It clung to a steep cliff, growing like a malignant tumor.

A translucent biomass dome covers the city, with a network of pale purple blood vessels pulsating within it, delivering nutrient-rich liquid to every corner of this living city.

The ground was a fungal carpet made of flesh and chitinous shells, covered with fine hairs and glands that secreted mucus. The hairs swayed gently in the breeze, like a purple grassland.

Along this hillside, there are various Zerg buildings in similar styles, but none are as magnificent as this main city.

Surrounded by these many buildings, one tree stands out as an oddity.

It resembled a dead tree, its bark a dark red, somewhat like the color of dried blood.

On the withered branches, there were many corpses, their shadows indistinct.

A large number of Zerg players were patrolling back and forth around, while some small insects were constantly gnawing at the trunk of the World Tree...

At that moment, a corpse on the tree suddenly struggled up, then transformed into the appearance of a Fogborn and fell down.

Then Liu Nian saw the insects on the tree.

Thick, dark purple worms, each as thick as an arm, covered in fine exoskeletons, with razor-like mouthparts on their heads, were frantically gnawing at the trunk of the World Tree like ship maggots.

This thing looks like... isn't it just a dimensional worm shrunk countless times?

I remember that Gorgon used these insects to open up the inter-regional passage last time... Could it be that these dimensional insects have this ability because they gnaw on the World Tree?

Liu Nian's sudden appearance caused the dimensional insects that were clinging to the tree trunks and gnawing at them to stop moving.

Their antennae were raised high and swayed gently in the air, as if they were probing something.

Around the Boundary Tree, the patrolling Lepidoptera players also noticed him.

Six-legged insectoid warriors surrounded them from all directions, their scythe-like forelimbs raised high, their compound eyes gleaming with vigilance.

"Niezellas?" The leading insectoid captain tilted his head, a low hum emanating from his mouthparts, his tone tinged with surprise. "What brings you here?"

Liu Nian recognized the insectoid creature—he had seen it before in the competition area; it was the guy named Skarax who was possessed by Gorgon.

"I have something to discuss with the Great Devourer," Liu Nian said succinctly.

The insectoid captain stared at him for a few seconds, then closed his eyes. A moment later, he opened his eyes, turned to the side, and made way for him.

"The Great Devourer is letting you in."