About thirty miles behind Lu Ye, Tang Jun, who was pursuing like a mad dog, witnessed this change unfold before his eyes, and in an instant, cold sweat broke out all over him.

With his Moon Jade cultivation and over three thousand years of lifespan, his knowledge and experience were naturally not something Lu Ye could compare to.

So he immediately saw the problem.

This space has collapsed!

This was clearly a sudden, accidental event. Tang Jun had only heard from others about such occurrences a long time ago and never thought he would actually encounter one day.

Because the probability of this happening is incredibly low.

Seeing that the situation was unfavorable, he quickly halted his steps and turned to move away from this area.

However, the speed of the space collapse was extremely fast, and the coverage was also vast. Even though he was about thirty miles away from Lu Ye and reacted quickly, he still couldn't escape.

Almost at the instant he turned, the space in the area he was in also broke apart. Tang Jun felt an instant illusion of stepping into emptiness, and he then experienced the same helpless feeling Lu Ye felt moments ago.

No matter how much his cultivation surpassed Lu Ye's, under that terrifying devouring force, he still had no room for resistance. His body was uncontrollably pulled into the collapsing space, following in Lu Ye's footsteps.

The two figures disappeared, and the collapse and fragmentation of space became more intense, rapidly extending in all directions until after a long time, it gradually calmed down. In this stellar space, however, a huge circular portal appeared, inside murky and chaotic, leading to an unknown destination.

In the chaotic and unordered place, Lu Ye mobilized spirit force to protect himself, but the effect was weak. Mysterious power surged from all sides, incomprehensible to him. Under the constant erosion of that mysterious power, his protective spirit force was repeatedly broken, quickly leaving him bloody all over, even stripping a layer of his skin.

He slowly realized exactly what had happened.

In terms of knowledge and experience, he indeed couldn't compare to Tang Jun, but he had at least flipped through a large number of jade slips in Xiyuan Pavilion of the Dwarf Race. By aligning his current situation with what he had read in any jade slip before, he naturally understood.

He had unwittingly triggered the birth of an Insect Path!

The stellar space is full of perils. These dangers not only come from the diverse star beasts and powerful beings of various races but also include some extremely concealed, undetectable natural perilous lands.

There is a type of natural perilous place, which, on the surface, shows no signs at all but is actually a place terrifying to cultivators.

That is the place of vulnerable space.

Under normal circumstances, every space is extremely solid, regardless of how time passes, there won't be many changes.

But the stellar space is vast, and there are always special locations where the space is very fragile, some naturally, and some due to other special reasons, such as... the gestation of an Insect Path.

The Insect Path has no direct relation to the Insect Race. The term Insect Path is merely a term. Strictly speaking, an Insect Path is a void passage, each end connecting two locations in the vast stellar space. Entering from one end of the Insect Path, one can traverse spatial barriers and easily reach the other end, saving a lot of traveling time.

In stellar space, there are still many such Insect Paths. Many powerful beings use stable Insect Paths to rapidly travel between two specific locations.

Insect Paths don't exist forever. Some are slowly disappearing, while others are being nurtured and born.

The space at both ends of an emerging Insect Path is undoubtedly vulnerable and, over time, will become increasingly fragile until one day it collapses completely, forming the entrances of the Insect Path.

Lu Ye never expected to be so unlucky as to encounter such a thing; there were too many coincidences involved.

He coincidentally arrived at this location while being pursued by Tang Jun.

This position coincidentally happened to be the entrance of a gestating Insect Path.

He coincidentally constructed Void Spirit Runes here...

Under normal circumstances, even in a place of vulnerable space, a cultivator merely passing by wouldn't cause any changes unless they happened to encounter the exact moment of the Insect Path's birth, a probability that is nearly impossible.

But Lu Ye happened to construct Void Spirit Runes.

This spirit rune involved some spatial mysteries. The instant the spirit rune was successfully constructed, it undoubtedly triggered some changes in this space, leading to the premature appearance of the Insect Path entrance. So only did the fragile space fracture, and the space collapsed.

The appearance of this Insect Path was provoked by him. Without him, it might have appeared decades or even hundreds of years later.

Realizing this, Lu Ye immediately realized that he was in big trouble!

When an Insect Path is first born, it is extremely unstable, completely unable to allow smooth passage. In fact, not every Insect Path permits traversing. Some Insect Paths, even after many years, remain chaotic inside–even a Sun Blaze entering would lose itself, becoming lost within.

Most Insect Paths undergo a period of evolution before gradually becoming conduits for cultivators to pass through conveniently.

In any case, the Insect Path he is in is definitely a deadly place.

It was his first time experiencing such a thing and for a moment he didn't know how to react. He carefully recalled the information he had seen in the jade slip from the Dwarf Race, and quickly calmed his mind, allowing the mysterious power around him to envelop him, not daring to resist.

Because the information recorded in the jade slip mentioned that if one were to encounter this kind of situation, going with the flow was the best choice. If luck favored them, they might be carried out of the Insect Path by the mysterious power. Any resistance would only worsen the situation.

Lu Ye's current feeling was like being plunged into the deep sea, with violent currents surging below. At one moment he was swept toward one direction by a current, and then another moment, carried away in another direction by a different stream...

After several rounds of this, he completely lost his sense of direction.

Experiencing it firsthand, he finally felt the dangers within this newly formed Insect Path. A cultivator falling in such a place could easily lose their sense of direction. Without a sense of direction, even if one has the ability to break through, they wouldn't find the right spot.

He couldn't discern what exactly the mysterious power enveloping him was. The direct sensation was akin to being scraped by blades over every inch of skin.

His protective spirit force continually shattered and was repeatedly stimulated, with little effect. His skin had already been scraped off several layers, every spot radiating intense pain.

Thinking about how to escape was now a question he had to consider. Counting on those bizarre currents to carry him out of here seemed unlikely; if he doesn't make an effort, it ultimately leads to a dead end.

But what should he do?

While Lu Ye was pondering, suddenly, a familiar roar echoed not far away.

It was Tang Jun's voice!

This guy had somehow fallen in here.

Judging by the sound, he was obviously urging power to fight against the surrounding environment, but it's unclear how effective it was.

Lu Ye's mood instantly soared!

If he were trapped here alone and Tang Jun escaped, the Nine Provinces would be at risk. Tang Jun would definitely seek out traces of the Nine Provinces cultivators. The Unparalleled Continent is only a little over a year away from Nine Provinces, and with Tang Jun's capabilities, he might find Nine Provinces.

Without him to anchor the situation, and with Nine Provinces cultivators lacking the red talisman, how can they contend against a Moon Jade?

Now that Tang Jun is caught in this Insect Path, whether he can leave alive is uncertain. How could he then trouble Nine Provinces?

At least someone is accompanying him! This is truly shared fate.

Tang Jun's voice only appeared briefly and then vanished, both swept away by the fierce currents, unable to control their figures. Earlier they were possibly close but by now, Tang Jun had certainly gone far.

Lu Ye was too lazy to think much about Tang Jun's situation; he needed to think about himself.

He had only been trapped for a moment and was already feeling overwhelmed. After all, he was just at the Constellation Early Stage; he hadn't refined the Essence of Blood and Flesh to its utmost extent. Though his skin injuries usually recovered quickly, they hadn't yet reached the point where his flesh could regenerate. These things can only be done once he refines his Essence of Blood and Flesh to perfection and advances to the Constellation Mid-Stage.

Now his body was drenched in blood, not a spot intact. At this rate, he feared he would truly perish.

With resignation, Lu Ye could only shove a handful of spirit jade into his mouth, then summon the Dragon Throne.

With the crimson cover armor adorning him, Lu Ye clearly felt his foundation continuously being consumed. Luckily, his cultivation was higher now, allowing him to persevere for longer.

But eventually, his spirit force would run out.

He needs to find a way to escape before his power is exhausted.

He strained to recall all kinds of detailed intelligence he had seen before on the jade slip from Xiyuan Pavilion, hoping to find an appropriate solution, but came out empty-handed.

The omnipresent currents still swept around, though for now, with the Dragon Throne's protection, Lu Ye himself remained unharmed. However, the Dragon Throne issued continuous creaking sounds indicative of strain, suggesting that even this cover armor couldn't last indefinitely.

After contemplating for a moment, Lu Ye had an idea and put away the Dragon Throne.

He activated the power of the Talent Tree, and instantly, countless subtle roots that were difficult to detect spread over his body.

His thought was simple; the Talent Tree could absorb power, whether from Spirit Stone or spirit jade, and could even devour the spirit force within a cultivator's body. So this peculiar force around him... could it also be absorbed?

If so, leveraging the Talent Tree might fend off the wash of that peculiar power.

After some attempts, Lu Ye realized his assumption was correct. The Talent Tree could indeed absorb the power of the strange currents. However, the absorption rate wasn't fast enough, so during the process, he still suffered damage from the wash, yet comparatively, it was slightly less severe than before...

If the Talent Tree's absorbing power were strong enough, it would undoubtedly mitigate the current crisis, but unfortunately it wasn't yet up to par.

Yet soon, Lu Ye felt a strange sensation; as the Talent Tree absorbed, some wondrous insights emerged within him. These insights were indescribable and inexplicable yet strangely deepened his understanding of the Void Spirit Runes.

It was truly a bizarre occurrence.