The truth behind the insect infestation is worth pondering over. Perhaps some things are not as simple as they appear on the surface. At the very least, for an Insect Race of this scale to hatch, it would require extremely astonishing energy and resources. Where does this energy come from? Where do the resources come from? This world hardly has any life to speak of. At least from Lu Ye's current perspective, there is nothing of use to the Insect Race. With a thought, he urged the Sacred Beetle to fly along the edge of this world. Since it's a secret realm-like world, it naturally has edges, unlike the Nine Provinces, which is a massive celestial body that one can eventually circle back to the starting point regardless of the direction taken. Just like the various small secret realms Lu Ye had visited before, the edge of this Great Secret Realm was also chaotic and void, giving an extremely ominous feeling, even the Insect Race was unwilling to approach it easily. He had observed earlier that the portal he came through stood at the edge. The flight speed of the Sacred Beetle was still quite fast, as its own strength was not weak either. Lu Ye clung tightly to the Sacred Beetle's back, occasionally peering down. Soon, his gaze was attracted to a hill standing to the left. He had seen this hill when he first came in but only realized at this moment that it was not a hill at all but a gigantic insect hive! Lu Ye had never observed an insect hive from this angle before. Although he had entered insect hives in the Spirit Stream battlefield, that was deep inside them, and he had no idea what they looked like from the outside. The entire structure of the insect hive resembled a hill-shaped fleshy lump. On that lump were countless holes of various sizes, making it look like a beehive. Insects continued to crawl out of this beehive-like lump. And in Lu Ye's field of vision, there was more than one such beehive-like lump. Looking up, blurry hill-like structures came into view, which were undoubtedly insect hives standing on this land. These insect hives created the vast numbers and scale of the Insect Race and are the root of the insect disaster. If the Nine Provinces cultivators could find a way to break into this Great Secret Realm, they could naturally resolve the insect disaster. But the key problem now is that entering here is extremely difficult. Lu Ye managed to get in because he harnessed the Insect Race using Soul Taming Divine Runes, coupled with his excellent Concealment skills. However, bringing others in is not an easy task. Moreover, given the environmental conditions here, bringing too few people would be futile. At least an army is needed to deal with the Insect Race here. In the Nine Provinces, Lu Ye had rarely seen Insect Race engage in fratricide. At most, they devoured the corpses of their fallen companions. But in this Great Secret Realm, the Insect Race did not coexist peacefully. Fighting and conflict were ubiquitous, and the corpses of dead insects were devoured by survivors, becoming the strong capital of the survivors. This is presumably also why the Insect Race can produce many formidable existences. They continually grow stronger by devouring their companions or becoming the food of even stronger beings. In the Nine Provinces, the lack of fratricide is probably because there are better things that attract them, suppressing their innate drive to kill each other. For instance, fluctuations of spirit force, or the vitality of the human race… During this time, the Sacred Beetle was targeted by a ferocious Insect Race. This Insect Race was absolutely a major insect, in both size and strength superior to the Sacred Beetle. Frightened, Lu Ye quietly cast a Move-Like-The-Wind Spirit Rune on the Sacred Beetle, thus managing to escape. It was a close call. In a place , without the cover of the Sacred Beetle, once exposed, it would undoubtedly lead to a fate of no burial ground. Even deploying the Dragon Throne would be futile. He continued flying along the edge, not daring to delve deeper. The further into the center, the more numerous the Insect Race became. Conversely, at the edge, because of their instinctive fear of the chaotic void, there weren't many Insect Race nearby, making Lu Ye's situation safer. During this period, Lu Ye observed as many as a dozen gigantic insect hives and several terrifyingly ferocious giant insects. Such giant insects possessed the power to stir the seas, and even the most advanced Divine Sea Realm cultivators of the Nine Provinces would likely be no match. To defeat such giant insects, one could only rely on strength of numbers to win! After a few Shichen, a point of light caught Lu Ye's attention from below. Upon closer look, he was taken aback. For the source of that light was none other than another portal! Though unfamiliar with this Great Secret Realm, Lu Ye, having a sense of direction, was sure that this portal was not the one he entered through but another. He was slightly surprised but quickly understood upon thinking it through. The Nine Provinces is vast, and within its realm, there are countless fissures, insect paths, and the deeper one goes, more insect paths converge. However, they ultimately cannot connect to a single place, meaning this Great Secret Realm has more than one portal leading to the Nine Provinces. The exact number is unknown. Lu Ye was very curious about what place this second portal connected to. Thinking for a moment, he directed the Sacred Beetle to fly downwards. Moments later, he squeezed through the portal amidst the swarm of insects. The familiar feeling of being suppressed by the origin magnetic field descended upon him once more, causing Lu Ye's spirit force to become sluggish. Fortunately, he was prepared, otherwise, his aura would have been exposed just from this alone. Lu Ye quickly took out the ten-part map to compare his current location, and soon determined that he was now in the Leizhou region. However, because he was too deep underground, the markings on the ten-part map were not very distinct, and he didn't know precisely where in Leizhou he was. He hastily put away the ten-part map and directed the Sacred Beetle to re-enter the Insect Race's Great Secret Realm through the portal. Going in reverse took quite a bit of effort, but he finally returned. As before, he ascended to the sky immediately, sneaking along the edges to continue his exploration. Sure enough, after several more Shichen, Lu Ye found the third portal. In the following days, Lu Ye commanded the Sacred Beetle to explore this area. This Great Secret Realm, when viewed from afar upon returning to the Nine Provinces from the Blood Refinement World, didn't seem particularly large; it was merely one of the larger floating lands. But being within it made him realize its vastness. It was approximately the size of a provincial state, meaning the scale of this Great Secret Realm was almost comparable to that of a Spirit Stream battlefield. The number of portals was intriguing, exactly nine in total. Each time Lu Ye passed through a portal, he would enter and exit once to determine his position. The nine portals corresponded exactly to the Nine Provincial States of the Nine Provinces! If this was a coincidence, it was too much of a coincidence. Lu Ye faintly saw some profound and mysterious handiwork in it. But he couldn't fathom why this was the case for the time being. Several days after entering the Insect Race's Great Secret Realm, Lu Ye returned to the portal where he first came in. The situation within this Great Secret Realm had basically been surveyed, and he had gained immense rewards. Lu Ye never intended to single-handedly destroy those insect hives to resolve the current predicament of the Nine Provinces. That wasn't realistic, as individual power is ultimately limited. In this calamity sweeping through the Nine Provinces, only when all cultivators unite can they overcome the crisis. In a sense, this event was a crisis but also an opportunity to change the thousand-year-old pattern maintained by the two major factions of the Nine Provinces. At the very least, the two major factions have temporarily ceased their conflicts. With this in mind, Lu Ye seemed to understand something. He commanded the Sacred Beetle to walk into the portal and left the Insect Race's Great Secret Realm, finally breathing a sigh of relief. Being in the Insect Race's Great Secret Realm meant truly walking on the edge of life and death. Any exposure would surely lead to a bad end. Now that he was out, he could finally control his own fate. However, Lu Ye couldn't reveal himself yet and could only continue to hide under the wings of the Sacred Beetle, allowing it to crawl outward along the Insect Path. He originally intended to retrace his steps, but with so many branching paths on the way, it was impossible to return by the original route. As long as he avoided wandering into the territory of the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge, it would be fine. Although the two major factions are not antagonizing each other currently, their lines are distinct, and appearing in the territory of the Ten Thousand Demons Ridge could cause misunderstandings. For this reason, he often had to take out the ten-part map to estimate his general position. After another period of arduous trekking, by the time his cultivation had recovered to about seventy percent, Lu Ye finally flashed out from under the wings of the Sacred Beetle. With a thought, the Sacred Beetle suddenly fell silent, crouching on the spot. Lu Ye raised his hand and unleashed a Fire Phoenix, engulfing the Sacred Beetle in blazing flames, quickly reducing it to ashes. He charged forward with his blade, slicing through the Insect Path. Any insects perceiving the spiritual power fluctuations and attempting to hinder him turned to dust. Charging and slashing all the way, until he no longer felt the suppression of the origin magnetic field on himself, he finally burst out of the Insect Path, entering the ground fissure. He shot skyward, the blade light swept wildly, and the light above his head grew ever clearer. Finally, at a certain moment, he broke free from the darkness and saw the light. Lu Ye exhaled deeply. Though this journey through the Insect Race's Great Secret Realm had no perilous moments per se, from the time of going underground, his nerves had remained taut throughout. Especially after truly entering the Insect Race's Great Secret Realm, a month-long journey took its toll on even him, leaving him mentally exhausted. The main issue was that the Sacred Beetle's crawling speed in the Insect Path was not fast enough, especially when moving against the Insect Race's movements, being occasionally knocked back by stronger insects. Otherwise, it wouldn't have taken so long. Nonetheless, he gained substantial rewards from this journey. The most important was understanding the various situations inside the Insect Race's Great Secret Realm. Now, as long as the problem of weakening due to the suppression of the origin magnetic field can be solved, the Nine Provinces cultivators can assemble their forces to invade the Insect Race's Great Secret Realm. By then, using the strong foundation of the Nine Provinces cultivation world, resolving the insect disaster wouldn't be a difficult task.