Petrification rebirth

In the deep and tranquil stone staircase, only the sound of Qin Yu's footsteps echoed. It must be said that such a scene was a test of one's mental endurance. Even the slightest fearful person would either break down or lack the courage to continue walking. From a psychological perspective, when a person is in a dark environment, the tendency is to merge into the darkness rather than disturb it.

After walking in darkness for over half an hour, a faint light appeared ahead, and Qin Yu felt relieved. Walking in darkness was extremely oppressive to the psyche, and he had to remain vigilant against potential unknown dangers. His nerves had been tightly wound throughout this section of the staircase.

Qin Yu quickened his pace towards the source of light. It was a bend, and the light came from a small spherical object on the wall, emitting a faint glow.

"This is fluorite." Qin Yu carefully examined the spherical object on the wall and recognized its material.

Fluorite is a crystalline mineral with many facets, and its mineral composition emits a glow. It was relatively common in ancient times, and many poor households would find pieces of fluorite to use as makeshift candles.

Starting from the bend, every few tens of meters on the stone staircase, there would be a piece of fluorite embedded in the wall. Qin Yu speculated that these were used by the Entropy Clan for illumination, but now they also facilitated his movement.

With the presence of light, his walking speed increased significantly. After passing by a dozen or so fluorite points, Qin Yu finally completed the entire staircase and arrived at a flat ground at the very bottom.

This area was adorned with fluorite embedded all around, illuminating the entire space as bright as daylight. In the center stood a massive stone sculpture.

"Is this the statue of the Thousand-Legged Lord?"

Seeing this colossal statue, the thought flashed through Qin Yu's mind. The statue had a golden crown on its head, and the facial features were somewhat blurred, except for two enormous green eyeballs gazing forward. From the head down, the sculpture's body twisted, extending into a thousand arms, densely stacked upon each other. Each arm was twice as thick as Qin Yu's thigh.

The Entropy Clan worshiped the Thousand-Legged Insect, and this statue was likely their totem for worship, the Thousand-Legged Lord. As Qin Yu approached the statue, he noticed something peculiar. The gigantic statue seemed to be severed in the middle, as if someone had taken an axe and chopped it in half, with a clean break at the lower half.

Just as he was about to observe carefully, a series of crawling sounds came from a distance. The sounds were quite chaotic, as if many creatures were crawling towards his direction.

"Could this be the lair of those giant centipedes?" Qin Yu instantly thought of this possibility. The crawling sounds were likely emitted by the centipedes, and the likelihood was high. Without daring to stay any longer, he walked towards the corners, trying to find a place to hide.

The chaotic crawling sounds came from all directions, clearly indicating that there was more than one creature. If he was discovered by them, Qin Yu didn't believe he could escape from the clutches of numerous giant centipedes.

Just as Qin Yu anxiously scanned his surroundings, his eyes suddenly brightened. Near the western wall corner, there was a stone door. At this moment, he couldn't consider much else. He rushed to the west and pushed the stone door with force. Surprisingly, the door moved, revealing a crack. He quickly squeezed in and carefully left only a small gap before closing the door.

Not long after Qin Yu closed the stone door, numerous green giant figures crawled from the darkness on all sides, heading towards the central statue.

"So many giant centipedes! Damn, the Entropy Clan specializes in raising insects."

There were a total of thirty-two giant centipedes, each as huge as a crocodile. This number shocked Qin Yu, leaving his mouth agape. Fortunately, he hid quickly. If he had been surrounded, it would have been a dead end.

The thirty-two giant centipedes crawled in unison until they reached the front of the giant statue. They formed a square formation, appearing remarkably orderly.

"Gaaah!" A piercing screech came from the leader in the middle, and instantly, all the centipedes joined in the chorus. Each centipede raised its body, resembling humans paying respects to their ancestors, continuously undulating.

The piercing cries and the synchronized undulating movements of the centipedes deeply shocked Qin Yu. Their behavior was incredibly surprising to him.

"Gaaah!"

Suddenly, another roar came from a distant corner, and another centipede crawled out from a certain corner. However, this centipede was different from the others. It moved slowly, and it didn't have the green eyes on its head.

"Isn't this the centipede whose eyes I gouged out?"

This eyeless centipede seemed to be heading towards the centipede swarm. It had only taken a few steps when the other centipedes in the swarm started screeching, their voices even sharper than before, tinged with excitement and anger.

Over thirty centipedes surrounded the eyeless one, continuously emitting screeching sounds as if communicating with each other. The initial high-pitched voices gradually turned into low growls. Eventually, all the centipedes made way, creating a path for the eyeless centipede to crawl towards the statue of the Centipede God.

"Grrr!" The eyeless centipede let out a mournful sound. It looked around hesitantly, as if unsure of something.

"Gaaah!" Seeing the hesitation of the eyeless centipede, all the surrounding centipedes screeched together. One of the larger ones even stomped its foot on the eyeless centipede's head, opening its grotesque mouth and roaring at it.

The eyeless centipede lowered its head and prostrated itself under the statue of the Centipede God. It emitted a low growl at an ultrasonic frequency, and its entire body trembled incessantly. Soon, the segments on its body began to detach, and green fluid started flowing out from various parts of its body, quickly filling the ground around it. The centipedes around it stared intently, some even extending their tongues to lick the green fluid that had pooled around them.

In just a short while, the eyeless centipede lost all its vigor and lay on the ground, motionless as if dead. The centipedes around it emitted excited screeches, and the countless segments on their bodies rhythmically beat the ground, creating a sound like drumming.

"This rhythm is strange!" Qin Yu, hiding behind the stone door, listened to the centipedes' drumming sounds. He felt his heart rate gradually increasing, as if it was about to burst out of his chest. His face turned red.

Fortunately, before his heart could burst out, the centipedes stopped drumming. Qin Yu quickly looked over and saw a hole appearing in the head of the eyeless centipede, followed by green fluid gushing out. Immediately after, a red creature emerged from the hole.

Upon seeing the red creature, Qin Yu's pupils contracted. Wasn't this the same red creature that was kept in the jade disc? The organization led by Li Long attached so much importance to this creature, and he never expected to find it within the body of a centipede.

The red creature turned its body around and glanced around before finally fixing its gaze on the statue of the Centipede God. It emitted a cheerful, melodious chirp and shot towards the face of the statue like an arrow. Finally, it crawled into the mouth of the statue and disappeared.

As the red creature entered the statue's mouth, Qin Yu witnessed an unbelievable scene. The lower half of the Centipede God statue slowly grew a pair of legs, which moved slightly before transforming back into stone, as if it had always been a part of the statue's base.

"Petrification rebirth!" Qin Yu's eyes widened, unable to hold back his astonishment. This was a secret technique recorded in the Zhu Ge Internal Classic, an extremely complex and sinister technique.

Petrification rebirth, as the name suggested, involved petrifying one's own body while maintaining bodily functions, and then awakening at a future time to gain a second life.

The reason this technique was considered sinister was because it required a continuous supply of life energy. While petrified, the body's functions slowed down, and vitality diminished at a slower rate. However, to reverse aging and rejuvenate, one needed to absorb a massive amount of life energy. If a human wanted to successfully undergo petrification rebirth, they would require life energy equivalent to a thousand times their own, meaning they would need a thousand individuals to transfer all their vitality to them.

"This red creature is actually providing life energy to the Centipede God. Could it be that Li Long's organization wants to resurrect the Centipede God?"

After a brief moment of astonishment, Qin Yu began to contemplate. If Li Long's organization sought to resurrect the Centipede God, they must have come here before. Since they were able to enter and leave the Nine Stars Three Talents Formation safely, they wouldn't need to set a trap to lure Mo Yongxin here.

If their purpose wasn't to resurrect the Centipede God, this mysterious organization must have been so eager to obtain the red creature because it had other unknown uses aside from providing immense life energy to the Centipede God.