"Why?" Zheng Zha wondered internally, yet his eyes were fixed on the billions of crawling things below. He couldn't fathom why such a vast number of these creatures would turn on one another. In mere moments, a quarter of their number had already been devoured by the remaining three-quarters, and the count continued to dwindle.

"Because these words are forbidden to be spoken, and even knowing them is dangerous. I suspect the moment we step foot on Earth, the scene you currently witness in this space will manifest there: hordes of creatures from countless other dimensions will appear, sparking a catastrophe that will cause massive human casualties and fundamentally reshape human society... A brilliant scheme, a profound arrangement. So, this 'Main God' space is actually like this..." Chu Xuan sighed, then continued.

"What do you mean? I don't understand what you're saying," Zheng Zha frowned, trying to process Chu Xuan's words but failing to grasp their significance.

Chu Xuan shook his head. "The reason they didn't leave complete last words is likely to warn us of this: the Box's creators can ascertain, by some means, whether we are aware of their existence, or even aware of the Box's existence itself. Once they know, they will erase us. This shares a similarity with returning to the real world via the 'Main God'—if the memory of revealing the 'Main God' information surfaces in our minds, we are terminated. However, the Box's creators won't simply kill us directly; instead, they will summon other beings from the infinite planes to assault Earth. It’s much like how we use the 'Main God' space to enter different horror movie worlds; the creatures appearing are drawn from infinite dimensions—they could be mechanical beings like the Transformers, genetic horrors like the Xenomorphs, mythical creatures like dragons from magical lore, or even spectral entities like the spirits from Ju-On. One purpose of the 'Main God' space is to forge powerfully evolved humans. Through these various horror worlds, we become familiar with unknown monstrous threats. Only by becoming strong can we likely withstand those beings that cross through dimensions—that is one function of the 'Main God' space."

"The second function is as humanity's final bridgehead. When humanity cannot resist those creatures, we can retreat into the 'Main God' space to rest and recuperate temporarily. After the devastation wrought by the monster cataclysms, more evolved individuals will certainly emerge from humanity. With this period of respite in the 'Main God' space, even if the creators outside the Box detect its existence, this 'Main God' space is a box within a box. It will take them considerable effort to enter. By then, our strength will have vastly increased. If all else fails, the strengthened humans can forge another box within this one to continue hiding and accumulating power. What an elaborate calculation. The Sages and Cultivators of the past had already planned humanity's retreat route, but..."

"Is the final battle truly the end?"

Chu Xuan shook his head but remained silent, lowering his gaze to examine the magical runes carved on the door. While inspecting them, he said, "You stay there for a while and try your best to stop those creatures from crawling out of the opening. If they manage to enter the fourth level, they will be within the castle's perimeter, and we will have to exterminate every last one of them... The battle has begun, Zheng Zha. Survive, for this is the price of obtaining the answers!"

"What do you mean? Can these crawlers hurt me?" Zheng Zha asked, feeling utterly bewildered.

Never mind that he was currently floating over a thousand meters high; even on the ground, with his current strength, he wouldn't fear these creatures. He could escape their range long before they could attack. As for Chu Xuan suggesting they reach the cave entrance—that was even more preposterous. That opening was tens of thousands of meters overhead; these monsters couldn't fly, so how could they possibly reach it?

However, the scene that unfolded next stunned him into silence. The crawlers below had devoured each other until only about one-fifth of their original number remained. Then, they began to secrete a layer of keratin from beneath their skin, which enveloped them and formed countless cocoons, leaving them motionless on the blood-red earth below... The ground had truly become entirely blood-red, not just in color, but stained with the copious blood left by the devoured insects.

These cocoons cracked open after mere seconds. From within emerged various life forms, ranging from one to two meters in height. All possessed blood-red bodies, but their forms differed: some resembled multi-legged spiders, others were four-legged, sharp-toothed beasts like canines, some were bulky, human-shaped monstrosities, and others were indescribably repulsive shapes. In total, there were tens of millions of these creatures, densely packed across the ground as far as the eye could see. Even from a thousand meters up, Zheng Zha felt a wave of nausea; the sheer quantity of monsters was terrifying.

The even more terrifying part was yet to come. Those creatures immediately began tearing each other apart again, still consuming one another. This new frenzy of slaughter was far more brutal than the first; only one in a hundred survived. Then, these gorged entities transformed once more into cocoons, though these were significantly larger. Several hundred thousand massive cocoons stood on the ground, and the blood-red earth had only deepened in hue.

——————

"I see now. The Sages and Cultivators likely wanted to convey one more thing: the enemy evolves too, utilizing a pattern identical or similar to our reincarnation squad’s—advancement through the razor's edge of life and death..." Zheng Zha finally became serious. If nothing else, the sheer numbers of the creatures below were enough to demand his full attention.

This time, the transformation was much slower, taking several minutes for the creatures to fully coalesce into shape. Their sizes were significantly larger than the previous iteration, and their evolution in form was more drastic: three-headed, sharp-toothed beasts several meters high; massive demons with dual wings sprouting from their backs; grotesque, gigantic lizards; and corpulent, multi-limbed horrors... These forms closely mirrored the abyssal demons described in Dungeons & Dragons rules, leading Zheng Zha to wonder if the D&D ruleset itself was created by humans under the influence of the 'Main God.'

There were several thousand of the winged, giant demons. Their strength clearly surpassed the surrounding monsters. They relentlessly snatched up other creatures, tearing and devouring them, while the lesser monsters couldn't even resist before being ripped apart and swallowed by these demons, who stood over three meters tall. Once sated, these demons spread their wings and soared toward the pit in the ceiling. The remaining ground creatures, seemingly oblivious, continued their cycle of fighting and feeding.

The flight speed of the giant demons was not particularly fast—certainly slower than the Green Goblin's board. Furthermore, their flight seemed somewhat awkward. Nevertheless, thousands of massive demons ascending together formed a black, suffocating tide that was utterly soul-stirring. At the entrance of the pit, only Zheng Zha stood to block them. The first dozen or so leading demons closed in on him immediately.

With a faint whoosh, Zheng Zha drew the Tiger Soul Blade. Although he didn't know the exact power of these giant demons, to prevent them from entering the pit, he unleashed the full force of his 'Explosion' level power from the outset. The Green Goblin's board was far swifter than these demons. In the blink of an eye, the leading few dozen were sliced into fragments as easily as cutting tofu. Zheng Zha didn't pause, charging into the demon horde like a wolf attacking a flock of sheep. In mere moments, hundreds of the giant demons were destroyed; they appeared to be all flash and little substance.

(No—based purely on raw strength, each of these giant demons was no weaker than a standard Xenomorph, perhaps even slightly stronger. With a force numbering in the thousands, if they reached the real world, they could genuinely obliterate a city...)

The massive pit was located ten thousand meters up in the ceiling. It would take the giant demons a considerable time to fly that distance, and by the time they reached that height, Zheng Zha would have annihilated them all. After clearing this wave, he noticed that over a hundred new, enormous cocoons—about seven or eight meters tall, all uniformly blood-red—had formed on the ground.

(The previous giant demons, despite their immense strength, couldn't utilize energy attacks. Monsters like that are only dangerous due to their numbers and brute force; defeating them isn't difficult. Moreover, the pit is tens of thousands of meters high; ordinary monsters can't escape, and those that can, I can kill. Unless... these monsters can evolve to a point stronger than me, or they can appear endlessly until they exhaust me?)

While Zheng Zha faced the endless swarm and their evolving forms, Chu Xuan was moving with frantic haste. No one understood the horror of these monsters better than he did. According to his deductions, the Sages and Cultivators wouldn't easily hand over information, especially knowing that the Box creators would target anyone who possessed this crucial knowledge. If someone weak carried this information back to the real world, humanity would immediately face a catastrophe, or at the very least, be pushed to the brink of extinction...

Therefore, the Sages and Cultivators must have imposed a test on the recipient of the information—a test carried out in an extremely brutal manner... Survive, and you earn the right to this knowledge; fail, and you all perish in this horror world, spared from dooming others in the real world.

(So, the growth of the hatchlings is irrelevant now. This horror world has turned exceptionally terrifying. Survive, if we can manage it...) He leaped toward...