Brian Cooper once again took two steps back, watching as the insect on the ground curled up, twisting weakly. It seemed there was no greater danger now, so he finally let out a sigh of relief and glanced at his left wrist.

At that glance, he was instantly startled. He saw a finger-sized wound on his wrist, with a ghastly green color spreading out from it, diffusing toward the rest of his wrist. Before long, a large green patch had formed between his wrist and elbow.

All these changes happened in an instant—Brian Cooper barely had time to react.

Of course, he knew nothing about this kind of insect or the bizarre green blotch, so for the moment, he had no better solution.

But suddenly having such a large green mark on his wrist looked truly unsettling. No one would believe it wasn’t poison. In that moment, Brian Cooper’s heart sank to the bottom.

However, after a while, Brian Cooper realized he didn’t seem to be showing any signs of dying from poison, and that terrifying green patch didn’t seem to have any other side effects.

For now, this attack, aside from the pain from the finger-sized wound, only changed the color of his skin—there were no other reactions for the time being.

Brian Cooper was extremely surprised, unable to figure out what had happened. But since the situation hadn’t worsened, he let out a breath of relief. After standing in place and pondering for a moment, he stepped forward, keeping his distance, and used the short sword to poke at the insect on the ground.

Under the torchlight, he finally got a clear look at the insect’s full appearance. Aside from its disgusting face, Brian Cooper suddenly noticed a pair of wings on its back, and instead of the usual six to eight legs most insects had, it only had four limbs on its thorax and abdomen.

Just like the terrifying creature he had seen outside earlier.

Brian Cooper’s face darkened. In that moment, he quickly pieced some things together. The insect egg before him was very likely the offspring of that mysterious creature from before—at the very least, the two were closely connected.

Could it be that the unknown, bizarre creature had suddenly appeared and attacked the people here at Jade Hall because it needed to lay eggs?

In any case, Brian Cooper was filled with disgust at all this. But he soon noticed that the insect larva that had just attacked him was still writhing in pain on the ground, twisting its body as if suffering unbearable torture, and was gradually nearing death.

Yet, nothing around it was attacking it.

Brian Cooper slowly stood up and looked around. Suddenly, his eyes lit up as if he’d thought of something. He raised his head and looked up at the high dome.

Jadeite stone—the completely sealed Jade Hall built by Jade Hall!

No matter how powerful the adult creature was, jadeite was still a deadly bane to all magical beasts in this inner ring. The insect larva, trapped inside Jade Hall, was clearly suffering from the intense power of the jadeite, which directly led to its dying state. This also indirectly explained why the insect egg had appeared so shriveled earlier.

In that moment, Brian Cooper felt a sudden sense of satisfaction. He shot a cold glance at the insect on the ground, let out a cold laugh, and pressed the torch down onto it!

In an instant, a series of shrill screeches rang out. After a while, the sound faded. When he lifted the torch, only a lump of charcoal remained on the ground.

Afterward, Brian Cooper began searching all the corpses in Jade Hall, and in total, he found five similar insect eggs. He mercilessly killed each of these dangerous creatures, and the burning flames purified all the abominations.

After searching several times and confirming there was no more danger, Brian Cooper walked, somewhat wearily, to the depths of Jade Hall, found a clean spot to sit down, extinguished the torch, and sat quietly in the darkness.

He stared coldly into the darkness before him. Who knows how much time passed before he finally drifted into a deep sleep, overwhelmed by indescribable exhaustion.

……

When people are utterly exhausted or deeply unsettled, they often have nightmares, and Brian Cooper was no exception.

He had nightmares—more than one, in fact, several. The dreams were so terrifying that, upon waking, he didn’t even want to recall them.

When the darkness pressed in around him, and when he once again felt himself breathing, in that moment, his whole body seemed to relax.

He reached out and touched his left wrist. It felt no different from usual, except for the new wound. Though he couldn’t see it in the darkness, he felt that perhaps the green patch was still there.

Even now, he showed no signs of dying from poison, nor did his wrist feel numb, itchy, or rotten. The aftermath of that terrifying attack seemed to be nothing more than a change in the color of his skin.

Brian Cooper still felt that such a terrifying creature shouldn’t be so fragile, but at least this was better than actually being poisoned.