Chapter 386: Do You Have Any Sense of Public Morality?!

Ang landed on the Eternal Road, startling a withered insect that slowly crawled away on its six legs.

Ang tilted his head in confusion, watching it.

Negrilis and the others arrived in the Sage's hearse, landing beside Ang.

"Huh? A bug? Alive?" Negrilis was stunned. The Eternal Road hung suspended in the void, tiny in volume, seemingly incapable of retaining air—did these insects not need to breathe?

"There's air." Du Luo waved his Golden Pointing Rod, revealing a thin layer of air beneath their feet—so thin it rose only to waist height, nearly vanishing at the neck.

When they landed, the thin air stretched upward along their bodies due to surface tension, bulging slightly above the surrounding area.

"If it's a living thing, it must lie flat on the ground to breathe. But such thin air can't sustain large creatures—unless they don't need to breathe at all," Negrilis said.

Among them, only Anthony needed to breathe; the rest did not. Looking at the endless stretch of the Eternal Road, Anthony grew troubled.

Briefly holding his breath was fine, but prolonged absence of air required a transformation of life form—he doubted he could make it to the end.

"Maybe I should go back first. The Church still has many matters to settle," Anthony said.

Ang nodded and pulled out a teleportation scroll for him.

"No need, I have one myself." Anthony withdrew his own teleportation scroll, tore it open, and vanished in a flash of light.

Only Ang, Negrilis, the Sage, Du Luo, and the sapling remained—the angel and the zombie hadn't followed.

Ang had no intention of bringing them. He glanced at the insect that hadn't crawled far, thought for a moment, then pulled out a fairy bean, crushed it into powder, and sprinkled some before it.

The insect, startled by the falling debris, froze in place, motionless.

"What kind of bug is this? So skinny—look at its abdominal membrane, sunken, like it hasn't eaten in ages," Du Luo observed closely.

"Then how did it survive?" Negrilis asked.

"Maybe it was hibernating? We woke it up. In such a food-scarce place, most creatures hibernate to minimize energy expenditure," Du Luo said.

As they discussed, the frozen insect finally moved—it had no such complex thoughts. After pausing, it realized the falling debris was food and immediately bit down, crunching loudly.

The fairy bean's effect was immediate. After a few bites, the insect was full; its abdominal membrane swelled like an inflated bladder. Satiated, it scurried off on its six legs and vanished.

"It runs pretty fast," Negrilis marveled. So all that sluggishness before was just hunger.

"Every place has its own ecology. In such harsh environments, surviving species must have special adaptations. Stay alert," Du Luo said.

The group walked forward, occasionally encountering strange creatures—mostly low-level insects, clearly better adapted to this environment.

"Do you feel the air getting denser?" the Sage suddenly said.

Du Luo immediately swung his Golden Pointing Rod and noticed the air now reached above their heads.

"Why is this happening?" Negrilis muttered. "We've walked the whole way without the Eternal Road growing wider or thicker—it shouldn't produce such uneven thickness unless there's an air source ahead."

Hearing this, Ang immediately broke into a sprint. After running dozens of kilometers, he finally spotted faint light ahead and clearly felt air resistance—the air here had thickened enough to be felt.

Ahead lay a broad flat surface covered in green crops, illuminated by beams of light.

The Eternal Road passed through this plane, and along both ends, countless creatures crowded together, each occupying distinct zones in orderly fashion.

"Is this a farm barrier? The air must be coming from there," Du Luo exclaimed.

A farm barrier was an independent spatial barrier, cutting into another plane—its ecosystem belonged to that other plane. Since it cultivated plants, it required air, sunlight, and water.

But once established, the barrier lacked full isolation; air leaked out and diffused along the Eternal Road, making areas closer to the farm barrier richer in air.

The air in the Palace of Rest came the same way, but since the Palace had limited space, diffusion stabilized once internal and external equilibrium was reached.

But the Eternal Road, suspended in the void and long and narrow, lacked sufficient gravity to retain air, which continuously dissipated—the farther from the farm barrier, the thinner the air became.

Thus, the land near the farm barrier became a prized territory, contested for both air and food.

Their arrival stirred the creatures on this end of the farm, but they paid no attention to the commotion, instead observing closely.

"Mostly herbivores, right? Those are Flame Rabbits? Why are their fur so dull? Isn't their fur supposed to be fiery red?" Negrilis asked.

"Maybe insufficient light? Flame Rabbits are the most numerous. What are those next to them? Flea monsters? Why are they so much smaller? Aren't they carnivores? How come they coexist peacefully with the Flame Rabbits?" Du Luo said.

"Wait—what's that coiled around the Eternal Road? A giant snake? No way—can a snake this big survive here?" Negrilis gasped.

A bulge near the farm barrier stirred, then lifted a serpent's head.

The Eternal Road was about fifty to sixty meters wide and four to five meters thick—meaning its circumference was at most around one hundred thirty meters. This snake had wrapped itself more than once around it, meaning its body length was nearly two hundred meters.

But unlike its length, its diameter was only about three meters—without its head, it looked more like an earthworm.

The giant snake raised its head, opened its mouth wide, revealing rows of sharp teeth—this wasn't a snake at all. Snakes swallow prey whole; they don't need so many teeth.

"Not a snake, more like an earthworm—and it's baring its teeth at us. What do we do?" Negrilis asked.

Du Luo rolled up his sleeves: "I'll show you a magic trick." Then he charged forward.

The flea monsters and Flame Rabbits, for some reason, dared not attack him. He rushed to the giant snake's side, pounded it relentlessly, pummeling its head into a swollen mess, then dragged it back.

Negrilis stared, dumbfounded: "You call that magic? How are you this strong? You dragged a two-hundred-meter snake?"

Du Luo replied matter-of-factly: "I hit people with my fists—isn't that magic? You could too. There's almost no gravity here—you could drag it as well."

The Alchemy King hitting people with his fists truly qualified as magic.

Ang stepped forward, lifted the giant snake's head, and brought it to eye level.

Fear surged in the snake's eyes. Oh no—a tiny thing had already knocked it senseless, and now another tiny thing lifted it up. The strength in its hands made every struggle feel futile. Who had it angered?

"Can you speak?" Ang asked.

The snake nodded frantically—but forgot its jaw was held by Ang. Its head didn't move, but its body arched upward.

Ang released it and turned to Negrilis.

That glance told Negrilis it was his turn. He fluttered his pages forward and asked: "You're an earthworm, right?"

Negrilis, still in his Copper Book form from when he'd sealed the Blank Divine Core and hadn't returned, appeared as a talking book. The snake was bewildered: "What's an earthworm?"

"You've never seen one? No earthworms here? Those slender creatures that wriggle through soil," Negrilis flipped open a blank page and displayed an image of an earthworm.

"Oh! So that's an earthworm? There are some—Flame Rabbits dig them up and eat them." Then the snake realized: "You're calling me a little bug?!"

The snake roared, opening its mouth wide. Du Luo leapt up and slapped its head, knocking it dizzy again.

The snake's head drooped, sulking: "I'm a little bug…"

"Who taught you Common Tongue?" Negrilis asked again.

The snake looked confused: "Taught? I've known it since I was born."

"No one taught you? You just knew it? Bloodline inheritance or soul implantation? You don't look like bloodline inheritance—probably someone implanted it. How long have you lived?" Negrilis asked.

The snake asked blankly: "What does 'how long' mean?"

After much communication, Negrilis realized the snake had no concept of time or lifespan. Only after Du Luo implanted the concept of time did the snake finally calculate: "I've lived eleven hundred years."

"Then it was probably Your Majesty who implanted it. Have you seen this creature?" Negrilis displayed a black crystal skeleton on his page.

The snake shook its head.

"Oh come on, you know nothing! What good are you?" Negrilis complained bitterly—every key piece of information he wanted remained unanswered.

"Forget it. Tell us why you're all here, coexisting peacefully. Why don't you eat all the flea monsters and Flame Rabbits?" Negrilis asked.

The snake involuntarily rolled its eyes. Everyone saw the clear look of disdain in them—Negrilis had asked a foolish question.

"If I eat them all, they'll be gone. I'll starve," the snake reluctantly answered.

"Aren't you hungry now?" Negrilis asked.

"Hungry. I endure. I sleep," the snake replied.

After further conversation, they finally understood why carnivores and herbivores coexisted peacefully here.

Flame Rabbits ate the grass growing in the farm barrier. Flea monsters ate the rabbits—but ate sparingly, targeting only the old, weak, or sick.

Thus, the flea monsters were all malnourished, but since their numbers were orders of magnitude fewer than the rabbits, eating sparingly kept their population stable.

"So when these flea monsters go to the main plane and eat freely, they grow large and strong? Then what do you eat?" Negrilis asked.

"I eat them—the flea monsters? What's a flea?" The snake turned to look at the flea monsters—clearly, they had no name here.

Du Luo was stunned: "These tiny flea monsters? Are they enough to fill your teeth? Can you even get full eating these?"

The snake looked pitifully at him: "No. Eat two, then sleep. Still hungry."

So it relied on hibernation to delay hunger. Eat a few, sleep, lower metabolism to near-zero, and when it woke again, the flea monster population had recovered.

But living like this was miserable—like eating one meal a day, taking only one bite. Most would go mad, unable to resist gorging on all the flea monsters and Flame Rabbits at once.

Yet the snake controlled itself. The flea monsters controlled themselves too. Those who didn't? They were gone. In such extreme scarcity, only brutal culling had achieved this balance.

Ang flipped his hand, revealing a handful of fairy beans—he had little else, but plenty of these.

"For me?" the snake asked, surprised.

Ang nodded. He was a skeleton who believed in equal exchange.

He casually tossed the beans into the snake's half-open mouth—which was already wider than a washbasin. Ang didn't even need to look—he could drop them in blind.

The snake snapped its jaws shut, felt nothing, and didn't care about manners. It chewed and grumbled: "Either don't give, or give more. This isn't even enough to fill a tooth gap… gap… gap… gap…"

Before it finished speaking, warmth surged through its body—a sensation it had never known. Fullness flooded every part of it. The constant hunger vanished without a trace.

Soon, the snake let out a satisfied burp—stuffed.

Ang had calculated its size precisely. One more bean and it would have burst.

"This… I… burp… so full. What kind of treasure is this?" The snake stammered, overjoyed.

It was hard to imagine how a giant snake, starved for over a thousand years, felt the first time it ate its fill—no one here needed to eat, so no one could imagine.

"Fairy bean," Negrilis said.

"More? Can you give me more? I've never been full—I feel powerful all over!" the snake exclaimed.

"No. You answered a few questions. A handful's already too much. Go back to sleep. We're leaving," Negrilis said.

This couldn't be. After finally getting full, the snake was desperate. It nearly lunged—but these beings were terrifyingly powerful. It held back, eyes darting as it asked: "Where are you going?"

"To the end of this road," Negrilis said.

"Ride me! Ride me! I'll take you there. Just promise I'll stay full, and I'll carry you to the edge of the void," the snake hurriedly said.

"No. We'll walk," Negrilis said. He had no desire to carry a creature with such a huge appetite—those beans could feed a big cat for ages.

"Go over there? Do you know how long this road is? Once, a yellow lizard-man came here and said it takes three thousand years to reach the end." The giant snake used the time unit it had just learned.

Three thousand years?! If you walk twenty kilometers a day, three hundred sixty-five days a year, over three thousand years you'd cover twenty million kilometers.

That number is absurd. Even if you cut it by a tenth, it's still over two million kilometers; one percent is still two hundred thousand kilometers—how long would your feet last?

"Impossible! Are you kidding? You're lying way too far!" Nagelis shouted, then remembered something and asked: "Is the lizard-man you're talking about this one?"

Nagelis opened his pages, revealing the image of the Arcane Mage Gali Gu.

"Yes, that's the one," said the giant snake.

Nagelis grew uncertain. If this was an Arcane Space Mage, then its claim might be true—could this road truly be millions of kilometers long?

Everyone exchanged glances. The Grand Sage summoned the spirit cart and set off at full speed.

"Hey, giant snake, catch up! Catch up, and we'll ride you!" Nagelis shouted to the giant snake behind them.

The giant snake chased until it felt like it would vomit its gall, yet still watched helplessly as the spirit cart vanished into the distance, finally stopping and grumbling back the way it came.

On the tenth day, the Grand Sage could no longer hold out; Du Luo took over driving the spirit cart. It raced on for two months, finally reaching the end of the Eternal Road.

Far off, everyone clearly saw a black-crystal skeleton standing at the end, frozen in a forward-striding pose, with no trace of soul energy whatsoever.

"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!"

"King! King! What happened to you? Wake up! Don't die, King!"

Du Luo and the Grand Sage rushed to the black-crystal skeleton, weeping and wailing in agitation.

"Who's crying over there?! You're deafening! Do you have no sense of public decency?!" A furious voice suddenly rang out.