Since the Insect Princess showed no intention of opposing us, we decided to maintain a peaceful distance. Even if we desired to slay demons and subdue evil, we were no match for her, so our only option was to keep moving forward, putting as much distance between us and her as possible.

The further we advanced, however, the more disoriented we became. We traversed the phalanx of armor, yet the path ahead seemed to stretch into an endless, inky darkness.

Shining the flashlight haphazardly around, we still couldn't locate any patch of light reflecting back.

“Where… where exactly are we supposed to go?” Nie Chuan asked, gazing into the gloom with confusion.

I shook my head, indicating my own bewilderment.

Then, Da Xiong, that rather dense fellow, piped up, “Look, butterflies!”

I froze for a moment and glanced above Da Xiong’s head; indeed, two butterflies resembling dried leaves were fluttering around him.

A seed of doubt was planted in my mind because the Dead Leaf Butterfly belongs to the order Lepidoptera, typically active only during the day. It was one or two in the morning here, and the darkness was profound. How could butterflies possibly be out?

Could it be…?

I turned back towards the direction where the Insect Princess had been, but the view was already obscured by countless suits of armor; the Princess was nowhere in sight.

When I turned back, the butterflies above Da Xiong were already flapping their wings, drifting slowly forward.

“Quick! Follow those butterflies! There’s nothing growing here, no food. These butterflies must know the exit, or they’d have starved to death,” Nie Chuan urged.

And so, the three grown men began chasing after the two butterflies.

The butterflies didn't fly particularly fast, but since they were airborne, keeping up was still somewhat strenuous for us.

We followed them for about a hundred meters when, suddenly, the butterflies ahead vanished.

Startled, we rushed forward to investigate, only to be abruptly halted by something materializing directly in front of us.

Fortunately, I was prepared, shielding my face with my hands, but Da Xiong crashed into it headfirst. With an 'Ouch,' he bounced back like a rubber ball.

Rubbing the sore spot, we quickly righted ourselves and reached out to touch whatever had stopped us.

We discovered, not far ahead, a wall as hard as steel.

However, this wall wasn't vertical; it curved inward.

Moreover, the wall was riddled with numerous diamond-shaped perforations of uniform size, making the entire structure resemble a massive net.

The butterflies had flown out through these fist-sized openings. Looking out now, we saw a desolate wasteland choked with wild grass. The moon cast a dim glow from behind the clouds, where a few stars glittered between the layers of vapor.

“No wonder the flashlight didn't reflect any light—it’s an iron mesh,” Nie Chuan remarked, running a hand over the barrier.

“This net is pretty solid. How are we supposed to get out?” Da Xiong muttered, touching his bruised nose.

I looked back toward the Insect Princess’s location, thinking that if she led the butterflies to guide us here, she wouldn't leave us without an exit. Did she just mean to tell us there was no way out?

Just then, Nie Chuan spoke beside me. “We don’t need an exit; if we had wire cutters or a crowbar, we could get through.”

“A crowbar… a crowbar…” Da Xiong frantically patted his pockets, not even finding a single key, causing him to pace nervously.

That’s when I recalled hearing a loud metallic clang when something fell from the sky earlier. Clearly, there was an exit somewhere, probably overhead.

Did the Insect Princess guide us here so we would climb up?

With that thought, I shook the wire-mesh wall to confirm its sturdiness, and then I took the lead, starting to climb.

The other two, seeing me ascend, clearly understood my intention and followed suit.

Because the wall offered plenty of gaps for footholds, we climbed quite rapidly at first.

But this only lasted momentarily. As we ascended, we realized that about thirty meters up, the iron mesh began to curve—inwardly.

To continue, we would have to hang onto the upper mesh openings and traverse sideways.

This required skill and arm strength that would be extremely difficult for the average person, but having weathered storms of our own, the climb wasn't overly taxing for us.

We crawled along the inner surface of the wire mesh toward the center, resting our feet by hooking them onto the netting whenever we grew tired.

From the ground, we’d estimated the area enclosed by these cage-like walls to be about a thousand square meters—a five or six-minute walk or run. However, suspended upside down on the mesh ceiling, movement was much slower; we spent over ten minutes crawling just to advance a few dozen meters.

As we penetrated further inward, we began to notice things hanging from the iron mesh.

From a distance, they appeared to be humanoid shapes, but as we drew closer, our hearts hammered in our chests.

The things dangling from the ceiling were cocoons, similar to those of insects.

But what was wrapped in silk wasn't a silkworm larva; it was a human being.

And the strands didn't resemble silkworm silk; they looked more like spider silk.

Besides these inverted cocoons, the entire dome overhead was shrouded in a thick layer of webbing that almost entirely blocked out the outside light.

Seeing this, we hesitated.

Anyone capable of cocooning a person couldn't be an ordinary spider; it had to be a Jorōgumo or a giant man-eating arachnid.

We were already hindered in our movements; if we encountered such a creature, we would have nowhere to run.

Da Xiong, being heavier, gasped heavily as he said to me, “What do you think, Ge, should we keep going?”

I looked at him, extended a hand to wipe the sweat from my brow, and replied, “Let’s see how things look.”

Nie Chuan interjected from the side, “I say we just set these webs on fire.”

I pondered the idea and thought it feasible, reaching into my pocket for my lighter.

Just as I found the lighter and was about to spark it, Nie Chuan suddenly stopped me.

He pointed in one direction. “Wait, look, what is that?”

Following the beam of his flashlight, we saw a semi-circular object dangling in the very center of the dome, about two meters in diameter.

At first, I couldn't clearly make out what it was, but as the flashlight beam swept over it, the object reflected a dull, blackish sheen—the characteristic glow of bronze.

I confirmed it was a bronze artifact, and when I saw the beast-head motifs and the ring held in the creature’s mouth, I realized it was a bronze door, half-open.

Shifting slightly on the mesh wall, I confirmed that the other half of the bronze door lay just behind it.

We were staring intently when we suddenly heard a series of metallic clanking sounds, as if something was rushing out from inside the door.

Then, a person clad in dark blue clothing tumbled out and dropped down.

However, just as his whole body cleared the threshold of the door, he managed to grab the edge of the bronze door with one hand, leaving him dangling there.

We focused our gaze and recognized the figure: the hooded youth.

He was covered in wounds of varying sizes, bleeding profusely, and looked terribly weak.

The hooded youth seemed to sense our presence, turning his head to shield his face from our flashlights with a look of cold indifference.

Next, the hooded youth exerted force with one arm, pulled himself up, and disappeared back inside the bronze door.

Seeing him re-enter, I put down the lighter.

If I had set the netting on fire, the hooded youth might have been suffocated inside the doorway.

Furthermore, there was no longer any need to burn the webs, because if the hooded youth could pass through, it implied there was no immediate danger along the route.

Thus, the three of us climbed the mesh and pursued him.

Whether we intended to rescue the hooded youth or not, we simply focused on climbing quickly without speaking.

Soon, we reached the side of the bronze doors.

We saw then that the bronze doors were even larger than we had imagined; when closed, the pair would measure five to six meters in diameter.

The doors were covered in intricate, swirling patterns—resembling vines or tangled snakes—that gave an unsettling feeling.

The sound of fighting still echoed from within, suggesting an intense battle was raging inside.

We exchanged glances, all harboring the desire to see what was happening, and so we edged cautiously toward the bronze doors.