Climbing by the spider silk naturally wouldn't be as fast as the Hooded Figure.

Soon, we lost sight of the Hooded Figure entirely.

Fortunately, although this profoundly deep tunnel was utterly eerie, it held no immediate danger.

The only real complication was the intermittent nature of the spiderwebs; sometimes they were so dense as to be impassable, forcing us to use the utility knife to cut through, while other times long stretches were clear, requiring us to revert to our previous method of using magnets to advance.

As we climbed, a thought occurred to me, so I asked Nobita, "Back at the entrance, you all scrambled upward as if your lives depended on it—what was going on?" Hearing this, Nobita seemed to recall something, his face instantly paling as he stammered, "Bugs, so many bugs." I looked over at Nie Chuan. "Bugs?" Nie Chuan hesitated for a moment before saying, "Yes.

The number of those insects was beyond imagination, moving with a collective buzz like a living mountain.

Nobita and I were nearly swallowed by the swarm." Continuing our ascent, I pressed further, "What kind of bugs were they? Was this the Bug Princess's doing?" Nie Chuan shook his head. "I don't know.

All I can say is that the bugs poured in from the cracks in the mesh wall like a tide, rising higher and higher.

If we hadn't moved fast, we surely would have perished." I frowned slightly, glancing down into the tunnel beneath us; no bugs were following.

Just as I was contemplating why those insects wouldn't venture past the bronze door, I saw something resembling black mist rising not far below, accompanied by a faint, high-pitched buzzing sound. "Damn it! The bugs! They're coming in! Hurry, climb faster!" Nobita yelped.

Seeing the black mist ascend with terrifying speed, a cold sweat broke out across our foreheads as we scrambled upward with all four limbs.

But no matter how fast we climbed, we couldn't outpace flying insects.

Before long, we were so exhausted we couldn't lift our hands anymore, our bodies completely drenched in sweat.

At this point, the swarm had risen to a position five or six meters below our feet.

We simply couldn't move any further, all of us staring grimly below at the fingernail-sized black insects continually surging upward.

A few of the faster bugs had already scaled the wall and were nearing our heels. "What...

what the hell are these bugs? Do you think they eat people?" Nobita asked me between gasps, crushing one of the bugs that had reached his foot with his sole.

Nie Chuan answered from the side, "This...

this looks like a species of scarab beetle, belonging to the order Coleoptera.

They generally feed on plant sap and are highly resilient." Nobita's expression eased slightly upon hearing this. "So they're vegetarians? That's a relief." "Relief?" I managed, dripping cold sweat. "Wait until these things climb all over you, bury you in their mass, and even if they don't bite, imagine them crawling up your nostrils and down your throat—see if you're relieved then." My description must have been too vivid, as the other two immediately found the strength to push themselves upward for a bit longer.

Then, all three of us were too exhausted to even speak.

Strangely, however, once the bugs neared us, their upward progress seemed to slow.

The insects that had been buzzing wildly in the air mostly settled onto the walls, moving upward by walking.

Even so, the sight made the hair on our scalps crawl.

Nobita found a cluster of sturdy spider silks, lay down, and after a long, ragged breath, declared, "I...

I...

can't...

climb anymore.

If they...

they want to eat me...

let them come!" Nie Chuan and I were also at our breaking point, our breathing sounding like wheezing bellows, our hands and legs completely numb.

Seeing that escape from the pursuing swarm was impossible, Nie Chuan glanced at me and asked, "Do you...

do you have fire?" I knew what he was contemplating, so I shook my head. "If we...

we set the bugs on fire, they'll...

they'll scatter chaotically, and then...

we'll burn to death too." Nie Chuan shrugged in resignation and simply closed his eyes.

Seeing him adopt the expression of a martyr facing execution, I looked upward, hoping to see the miraculous figure of the Hooded Figure coming to our rescue.

But even as the swarm began to crawl up my trouser leg, I saw no sign of the figure.

So, I followed Nie Chuan’s example and closed my eyes.

However, shortly after I shut my eyes, I felt a cool breeze brush past my face, followed by a cold hand gently resting on my cheek.

Startled, I snapped my eyes open only to find a beautiful face silently gazing down at me, her eyes filled with tenderness and a hint of piteous vulnerability.

For that instant, I almost thought it was Liang Qian, and I froze.

But upon closer inspection of the multicolored hair covering her graceful * and the Muramasa demon blade thrust into her chest, I instantly realized: it was the Bug Princess.

The Bug Princess was adhering to a surface made of bundled insects, looking at me with an expression that pleaded and begged.

My mind went blank for a moment. "What do you want?" I managed to ask.

The Bug Princess could not speak.

She merely moved slightly, pointed at the blade embedded in her chest, and looked at me again with pleading eyes.

Truthfully, I could never stand it when women looked at me that way.

Even though I knew this was no woman, just a giant insect, those eyes made me hesitate.

After some thought, I spoke to the Bug Princess before me. "Have you ever heard the story of the farmer and the wolf?" The Bug Princess understood human language; even though I spoke Chinese, she comprehended, and she shook her head, indicating she hadn't.

I don't know why, but at that moment, I felt compelled to tell a story to a giant bug.

But the words were already on my tongue, so I continued, "Once upon a time, there was a farmer who, during a harsh winter, found a small wolf cub freezing to death on the road.

The kind farmer took pity on it and brought the cub home to raise it.

Under the farmer's care, the wolf grew up, but one dark and stormy night, the wolf succumbed to its feral nature and mauled the farmer's entire family to death." Hearing my truncated tale, the Bug Princess fell silent.

She kept looking into my eyes, her gaze full of sincerity.

However, ever since seeing her true form, I remained unmoved.

The Bug Princess's final expression shifted to disappointment and sorrow.

With a soft sigh, she slowly moved away from me.

Then I watched as her body was gradually engulfed by the swarm of insects, eventually disappearing from sight.

In truth, when she looked at me, I felt a moment of wavering, because I saw no deceit in her eyes.

But ultimately, her decision to withdraw left me with a sense of regrettable pity.

The Bug Princess vanished, and the world before my eyes suddenly plunged into absolute blackness.

I was startled, thinking I had gone blind.

But when I touched my eyes, I realized I had closed them.

Could it be that what just happened was merely a hallucination? I quickly opened my eyes and saw that the swarm had not retreated; they were hovering less than three meters beneath us, as if waiting for something.

Seeing that Nobita and Nie Chuan still had their eyes tightly shut, seemingly unaffected by my speech, I patted them. "It's okay now!" Nobita and Nie Chuan opened their eyes with disbelief, their first action being to frantically check their surroundings for bugs.

When they saw the swarm lingering just below us, they both looked puzzled.

Watching the Bug Princess, who had already disappeared within the throng, I sighed. "Let's go.

These bugs probably aren't after us.

We should get out of here quickly." They both nodded, and then slowly resumed their climb upward.

Only when we had gained significant distance from the swarm did we stop to rest again.

Nie Chuan finally couldn't hold back his curiosity. "What is the deal with these bugs? Are they afraid of one of us, stopping right at our feet?" I glanced at Nie Chuan, hesitated, and ultimately chose not to tell him what had just happened, because I couldn't be sure if it was a hallucination or reality.

After a moment of deliberation, I replied, "Perhaps so." In reality, Nie Chuan guessed that I didn't have the answer, so he didn't press the matter.

It was Nobita who directed his flashlight beam upward toward the expanse above. "That's strange.

When we were outside, we didn't see such a tall structure extending into the sky.

We've climbed a good distance now—at least as high as climbing from the first to the twentieth floor—yet we still haven't reached the top.

Just how tall is this building?"