The two beasts continued to fight while resting, gradually improving their condition.

Seeing this, Chu Chen whispered a reminder, "Don't throw too many corpses over there."

Although the two beasts didn't understand the reasoning, they executed his orders well.

Chu Chen did this because he was afraid the insect swarm would flee after eating their fill. These were all his Slaughter Value points, and if they escaped, he would suffer a huge loss.

Chu Chen roughly calculated that as long as he exterminated the entire swarm, the 20,000 Slaughter Value points he just used up could be replenished.

Under Chu Chen's command, every time the swarm finished devouring a corpse and was about to join the fray, another corpse would drop among them.

Though it seemed like they were constantly eating, only a few Earth Rock Cockroaches actually ate food; most of them were just fighting over it.

With the two beasts advancing, the space they could move in expanded, and the speed at which they killed the Earth Rock Cockroaches naturally increased.

A quarter of an hour later, the number of Earth Rock Cockroaches had sharply decreased to fifty percent.

At this point, the two beasts also began to show signs of fatigue. The swarm was too large, and killing them one by one could literally exhaust them to death.

Seeing this, Chu Chen adjusted the strategy again, letting the two beasts take turns fighting.

Although this would greatly reduce efficiency, it could extend their combat time.

Another quarter of an hour passed, and the swarm's numbers had dropped to less than four hundred.

After feasting on numerous fellow corpses, the Earth Rock Cockroaches' hunger and aggression waned greatly, with some even slowly retreating.

Seeing this, Chu Chen knew the swarm intended to retreat, which left him somewhat regretful.

Chu Chen surveyed the surroundings, noticing the stalactites hanging like waterfalls from the walls, and a daring thought suddenly popped into his mind.

After a moment of deliberation, Chu Chen gritted his teeth and said, "Lei Yao, Nirvana, attack those stalactites."

The two beasts followed the order without hesitation, gathering their Skills and launching them at the stalactites.

With a burst of noise, their attacks hit the stalactites accurately.

Though the stalactites were made of very hard material, their structure was not stable. Under the beasts' assault, they shattered instantly, even causing the cave to shake slightly, raining down numerous cone-shaped fragments onto the swarm.

Chu Chen raised his hand, casting a Barrier above his head, before leading the two beasts to retreat backward.

Amid the loud roars of collapse mixed with the Earth Rock Cockroaches' tragic screeches, it was as if a symphony of death was playing.

The abundance of stalactites in the cave triggered a chain reaction from the massive vibrations; they fell like an Ice Burst.

In mere moments, the swarm was buried in the rubble.

Looking at the pile of rubble ahead, Chu Chen wore a complicated expression.

Now he had both good news and bad news.

The good news was that the swarm was completely exterminated, and the Slaughter Value points had returned to 20,000, eliminating their crisis.

The bad news was that the way back was blocked by the rubble, leaving them unable to return.

Even if they started clearing the rubble now, it would likely take several days.

The only exit now was to continue exploring deeper, but before doing so, he first let the two beasts rest well.

Chu Chen took out some food and water, allowing the beasts to have a hearty meal.

About an hour later, the two beasts finally returned to their Peak state.

Chu Chen patted the beasts on their shoulders and said solemnly, "Let's go."

Nirvana took the front, Chu Chen in the middle, and Lei Yao in the rear.

As the trio continued to venture deeper, the cave's interior became increasingly narrow, with Nirvana barely able to squeeze through due to its size.

Lei Yao was much larger than Nirvana, so it couldn't pass through such tight passages at all. Reluctantly, Chu Chen had to store it temporarily in the Soul Sea.

After moving forward a bit more, the passage narrowed again, this time even blocking Nirvana from passing.

Seeing this, Chu Chen sighed helplessly and had to store Nirvana in the Soul Sea as well, then retrieved a dagger from his Space Belt.

Taking a deep breath, he held the dagger in front of him and cautiously made his way forward.

As the passages grew narrower deeper in, he had to transition from walking upright to crouching, half-squatting, and finally crawling.

The mere few hundred meters took Chu Chen a whole quarter of an hour to get through.

Looking at the half-meter wide irregular passage ahead, he felt uncertain, unsure if it led to a dead end. With no turning back, he gritted his teeth and continued crawling forward.

Twisting his body, Chu Chen laboriously advanced another hundred meters or so until the passage widened a little.

Seeing this, a smile appeared on Chu Chen's face. He took out a Fluorescent Stone, holding it in his hand and stretching his arm forward, discovering that the passage behind was getting even more spacious.

Finally relieved, Chu Chen used both hands and feet to rapidly make his way deeper.

A short while later, he slowly stood up and dusted off his clothes. Taking a deep breath to calm his excitement, he resumed his journey.

After advancing another hundred meters, the passage opened up considerably, now able to accommodate the two beasts' bodies.

Without hesitation, Chu Chen summoned the two beasts.

Lei Yao gave a low growl, seemingly concerned about Chu Chen.

Nirvana also let out a roar of concern.

This comforted Chu Chen greatly, easing his inner anxiety considerably.

With the two beasts protecting him, their travel speed increased severalfold.

In mere minutes, they reached the end of the passage, which connected to a giant stone chamber.

Chu Chen didn't step out of the passage but carefully poked his head out to examine the stone chamber.

The chamber was extremely silent, so much so that even his breathing was overly audible.

He and the two beasts cautiously explored the chamber's edge, and half an hour later, they returned to the passage they had entered from.

By now, he had a good grasp of the stone chamber's layout; it was several thousand square meters large and connected to several passages. This place was the deepest part of the cave.

Puzzlingly, in such a large stone chamber, not a single Star Beast was in sight. Could all the passages be as narrow as the one they had come through?

After pondering for a moment without finding a better explanation, Chu Chen shook his head in resignation, dispelling all messy thoughts from his mind.

Reminding the two beasts to be cautious, he led them into a second exploration.

The first time only covered the edges of the chamber, but now he intended to explore toward its center.

About a quarter of an hour later, Chu Chen suddenly stopped, hearing a faint dripping water sound not far away.

The cave lay deep in the mountain, so why was there the sound of dripping water? Could it be a water flow from the mountain?

This hypothesis was quickly dismissed, for the sound only occurred once and then fell silent, which was illogical.

Driven by curiosity, Chu Chen cautiously approached the source of the dripping sound.

A moment later, Chu Chen looked at a small puddle at his feet, within which lay an unknown white liquid.

Seeing it, he froze, and to confirm his suspicion, he raised his head to look upward.

Above the white liquid was a large Stalactite Cone.

A droplet of white liquid was slowly condensing on the Stalactite Cone.

Chu Chen could clearly feel the droplet contained pure Star Power.

"This is Thousand-Year Stalactite Liquid," Chu Chen said with a trembling voice.

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