Chapter 4: The Encirclement (Part 2)

A crew member witnessed this scene firsthand—something strange passed by not far away, and then a three-meter-wide passage appeared on the ship, completely empty. Both the bulkheads and everything inside vanished. Of course, that was the last thing he saw. Soon after, countless insects swarmed through, and within seconds, the hundreds-of-meters-long spaceship disappeared completely, leaving not a trace, as if it had never existed.

Guo Shier had been observing the spaceship. It had passed by them just a few dozen seconds ago, and now it was completely gone. He couldn’t help but curse, “These insects are absolutely monstrous!”

Li Ran said, “Let’s go quickly. Ignore that spaceship. We need to leave this ruins as soon as possible. It’s a shame—this place was originally the best chance to leave the Projection Starfield. I’m sure there must be a passage to the Greater World. Even if it’s gone now, as long as we find that point, we can force our way through using the Boundary Breaker.”

Guo Shier also felt regretful because he hadn’t found-> Gumu, and he knew he might never get another chance like this. After some thought, he finally took out the last message token he had—one left by-> Gumu; he had used all the others. He included his own information in the token and left details about the Void Insects, instructing-> Gumu to leave immediately if he received it. He also left-> Gumu an address—the great city of the Mechanical Race—and set a time for a meeting.

Qi Wu Zhen asked in surprise, “You’re sending a message token?”

Guo Shier replied, “I still have one left. If I don’t use it now… I might never get another chance. Let’s give it a try.”

Qi Wu Zhen nodded. “That’s good. I hope the place where your master is isn’t in the direction the insect swarm is heading. Otherwise, your message token won’t make it through.”

The insect swarm could erase all matter, including message tokens. Once it encountered them, the tokens would vanish instantly. Guo Shier said, “If it’s in the direction the swarm is going… that means one thing—I don’t even want to think about it…” In other words, wherever the Void Insects passed, not only would nothing survive, but everything would be erased entirely—-> Gumu wouldn’t be able to escape either. With that, he sent the message token, which flashed away with a trail of red light.

Li Ran smiled. “Good luck!”

The token flew in a diagonal front direction. Its speed was extremely fast, even faster than their own flight speed, so they couldn’t track it. Guo Shier said, “Let fate decide. I hope Master-> Gumu has good luck!” That was all he could do.

Li Ran said, “I hope there are no more obstacles ahead.”
Everyone understood that this obstacle didn’t specifically refer to the Void Worms but also to humans. After all, there were various races in the Projection Starry Sky, including those with malicious intentions who often liked to launch surprise attacks. It would be fine if they encountered such situations normally, but now that they were on the move, a ambush would, although unlikely to harm them, delay them and give the Void Worms behind them a chance to catch up—which would be extremely troublesome.
Guo Shier said volunteeringly, “I’ll take charge of scouting!”
Li Ran replied, “It’s better to take turns.”
Scouting alone placed too much strain on the soul. It might not matter in the short term, but over time, it could easily lead to exhaustion. Guo Shier didn’t refuse either. “Okay, just give me a signal, and we’ll switch…” He immediately sent out soul waves—this time not in all directions but focused ahead in their flight path, sending out invisible ripples in circles. His scouting range reached thousands of kilometers. This distance wasn’t particularly far or close, but it was enough for them to react in time and prepare for whatever came next.
Selin said, “The worms behind us… their speed seems to be increasing…”
Li Ran glanced back and said, “Damn it, it really has accelerated!” Unnoticed, they had been drawn closer to the Void Worms.
Guo Shier smiled bitterly. “It’s frustrating. I’ve been chased by people many times in my life, but this is the first time I’ve been chased by worms in such a desperate situation.” In fact, when he was younger, he had also been chased by worms and fled in panic because his strength was too weak back then. But now was different—his strength had reached its peak among the Spellcrafters, yet he was still being chased around. There were always some things in this world that shouldn’t be provoked.
Earlier, in the small world, they had seen an incomparably huge monster. Standing on it was like standing on a continent. If that thing had targeted them, they wouldn’t have stood a chance to resist. Even just the parasites on its body were unimaginably powerful, forcing them to back down without even thinking of fighting it.
After continuous high-intensity flight, Guo Shier was the first to give out. He said, “Fly with me; let me rest for a while!” After all, he was still carrying someone else. He stopped holding Selin and instead used a purple chain to secure her behind him so it wouldn’t interfere with his use of spells.
The three of them had originally formed a triangular formation, but this time Qi Wuzhen took up the leading role. Li Ran said, “Shier, come over!”

Guo Shier immediately moved closer to Li Ran. Dozens of purple chains emerged from Li Ran and transformed into a net that instantly wrapped around Guo Shier and Seraphine. He said, “Just don’t move. I’ll explore the situation. You have five minutes to rest.”
Guo Shier nodded, took out a few soul beads and put them in his mouth, then began silently reciting scriptures to restore his depleted soul.
A slight fluctuation in the soul energy immediately affected Qi Wu Zhen and Li Ran. Realizing it was the ripple from the soul scriptures, they moved a little closer to Guo Shier. This fluctuation was beneficial for them as well, helping to calm their intensely active souls and soothe their agitated bodies.
The ripple from the soul scriptures didn’t spread far—only about seven or eight meters. Li Ran and Qi Wu Zhen were already accustomed to this, but the person here wasn’t a professional from the Spellcraft Clan. The moment the soul fluctuation reached her, Seraphine was stunned. She had never experienced anything so intense; her entire being seemed to be shaken. She didn’t understand what was happening, but her whole body relaxed.
That sense of tranquility almost made her moan. After all, she wasn’t an expert in souls and was quite unfamiliar with them. Her race didn’t even have a concept of souls. Yet, she could clearly feel a sense of peace and an intoxicating joy. She tightly hugged Guo Shier’s waist as if holding something comforting, gradually sinking into that state and unable to pull herself back.
Seraphine never could have imagined that, through this soul purification, although she still didn’t possess the ability to reincarnate, it greatly expanded her future potential. Everyone has their peak period, followed by a bottleneck period. Not everyone can break through this bottleneck, as it depends on one’s own qualities. If one’s qualities aren’t sufficient, breaking through becomes extremely difficult.
Through the purification by the soul scriptures, Seraphine’s qualities improved rapidly. What improved was her soul power, which is far stronger than physical power. The body is tangible, while the soul is intangible. Only by combining the two can a strong human be formed. Guo Shier’s soul scriptures essentially filled in her weakness, giving her a chance to join the ranks of the top experts in the Blade Clan.
Just five minutes passed—seemingly an eternity to Seraphine, yet also like a flash in the pan. When the soul fluctuation ended, she lost that sense of tranquility and felt extremely distressed. She hugged Guo Shier’s waist tightly and couldn’t help but moan.

Guo Shier asked inexplicably, “Ceciline, what’s wrong?”
Ceciline’s face turned red instantly. Realizing her mistake, she murmured, “N-nothing… It’s just that it was so strange just now… There was a strange feeling… I… I really like it.”
Li Ran and Qi Wuzhen couldn’t help but laugh. Of course, they understood Ceciline’s feelings. The first time they experienced the fluctuations of the Soul Scripture, they too had been greatly impacted. Back then, when Qi Wuzhen was unconscious, he even crawled into Guo Shier’s arms.
Qi Wuzhen said, “It’s fine. You’ll get used to it soon. This is Shier practicing.”
A hint of surprise flashed in Ceciline’s eyes as she said, “Practicing… It can actually give people such a feeling. I feel like a brand new person. Shier… can you keep practicing?” The feeling was too wonderful; she longed to stay in it forever.
Guo Shier said, “Hehe, you can experience this whenever anyone here rests. Big brother, take a break. Let me take over!”
Li Ran replied promptly, “Okay, I’ll rest.” The two then exchanged places.
Five minutes later, Li Ran replaced Qi Wuzhen again. Ceciline indeed experienced that wonderful feeling once more.
This repeated for two hours, during which Ceciline’s soul underwent a complete transformation, which was of great significance to her. Although she still couldn’t be reborn, for people in this world—especially those with strong martial skills—once their souls grew stronger, even by a little, their strength would improve dramatically. Up to this point, Ceciline still didn’t understand the reason behind it, but she enjoyed the mental peace brought by the soul fluctuations; it was an extremely wonderful feeling.
Li Ran and the others also took this opportunity to fully recover. That’s why professionals from the Spellcraft Clan are so hard to deal with. Given even the slightest chance, they would prove more resilient than experts from other races, even if they were unaware of the existence of the Soul Scripture as a powerful technique.
Having regained their strength, the three rushed forward again. Guo Shier continued to emit soul fluctuations—not only to detect any ambushes ahead but also to check for spatial rifts. Those rifts were just as dangerous as the Void Worms. If one collided with them unprepared, no one could escape being cut apart and annihilated. No one doubted this.
Behind them, the swarm of worms kept changing shapes, resembling ferocious monsters flying toward them along the horizon.

Guo Shier was the least willing to see this situation happen. He shouted, “Change direction… there’s a spatial rift ahead. I can’t tell how big it is. Find a way to avoid it!”