The two of them traveled for a bit more and eventually slipped past the defenses.
They had officially left the Eternal Maw's territory, making the journey far easier.
As soon as they left the Eternal Maw's territory behind, they rapidly continued towards the east, zigzagging constantly.
"Are there any more dangerous territories?" Shang asked.
"One more," the Sweeper answered, "but it is the least dangerous one. Usually, it would be quite dangerous, but if you have some insights into darkness, it won't be a problem to get through it."
Shang nodded. "And that's it?"
"Correct. After that, the only dangerous location would be the Sky Lantern's territory, but it isn't as aggressive as the Eternal Maw."
By now, the two of them were about 200,000 kilometers away from Shang's branch, which actually wasn't even a third of the complete way.
However, the two most dangerous areas were near the center of the Natural Selection Company's territory, and they had just passed them.
Shang and the Sweeper kept traveling for nearly three days after this spot.
They broke through several borders, but none of the borders had been troublesome. Of course, there were more dangerous areas, but they didn't need to go through them.
By now, they had traveled for a total of four days, and they were only 100,000 kilometers away from the Sky Lantern.
Even though the climate hadn't changed previously, Shang could now see the difference.
They mostly traveled towards the east, but they had also traveled quite a bit towards the south, and Shang could tell that the surroundings had become a bit hotter.
The trees still basically looked the same, but Shang could see a couple of new kinds from time to time.
After four days of travel, Shang and the Sweeper reached the last dangerous area on their journey.
As Shang continued flying forward, he noticed that the amount of Darkness Mana in the surroundings grew higher and higher.
He was even sure that, if he had eyes, he wouldn't be able to see anything at a certain point.
The Darkness Mana grew denser and denser, and Shang even felt his Spirit Sense being warped.
Shang focused on the Concept of Shadow and used his Spirit Sense in tandem with it.
The Darkness Mana in the surroundings began to illuminate inside Shang's Spirit Sense, and he could feel it moving around.
He could feel how the Darkness Mana hit certain spots and bounced off.
He could feel spots that the Darkness Mana couldn't get to.
He could feel the general trajectory of Darkness Mana.
Shang had never been in a location with such dense Darkness Mana, and he had never been able to feel the Darkness Mana this clearly.
Of course, over the past couple of days, the Sweeper had informed him about this area.
This was the last dangerous area, the Lake of Darkness.
The Lake of Darkness wasn't actually comprised of water but of pure Darkness Mana.
The Lake of Darkness was a 5,000-kilometer-wide basin filled to the brim with thick Darkness Mana.
From the outside, it looked like a lake of black smoke that stretched into the horizon.
The Lake of Darkness seemed mystical and magical, but it wasn't actually that strange.
It was simply the hunting ground of the Darkness Weaver Ants.
The Darkness Weaver Ants were powerful beasts that worked and lived in large groups. There were often tens of thousands, if not millions, of ants in one nest, and they marked their territory with this layer of Darkness Mana.
The size of their territory depended on how many Ancestral Beast Ants a group had.
This specific territory was the biggest one in the entire Natural Selection Company. The next biggest one was only a tenth as wide.
The size of the Lake of Darkness signified that this nest of Darkness Weaver Ants had a bit over a hundred Ancestral Beast Ants.
They probably also had over ten thousand Archbeast Ants and probably over a million High Beast Ants.
After adapting to his new surroundings, Shang already found more than a thousand Darkness Weaver Ants in his Spirit Sense.
Funnily enough, most of them weren't walking around but actually just being buried in the ground.
The Darkness Weaver Ants were just waiting in the ground for any prey to approach them. Ironically enough, they looked more like ant lions than actual ants by doing that.
Under normal circumstances, the thick Darkness Mana would severely disrupt one's Spirit Sense, but by using the Concept of Shadow, Shang managed to perceive his surroundings clearly.
The Sweeper had already explained to Shang that the ants were simply waiting for their prey to approach and enter.
The Lake of Darkness moved in an ebb-and-flow pattern. Under normal circumstances, the Lake of Darkness was about 5,000 kilometers wide, but by saving up a lot of excess Darkness Mana, the Darkness Weaver Ants could expand the lake momentarily to a size of 6,500 kilometers.
As soon as any living being was engulfed by the Darkness Mana, they would enter a panic and run in a random direction.
Due to the disorienting effect of the Darkness Mana, the beasts wouldn't be able to tell the different directions apart, and a big group of them would enter the Lake of Darkness.
That's when the Darkness Weaver Ants would strike them and pull them back to the nest.
The Darkness Weaver Ants were very weak on their own. They were slow, clunky, and they didn't have much power. The best they could do was to close their pincers around a target, remain stuck on the target, and fill it with venomous Darkness Mana.
In a way, walking through the Lake of Darkness was like walking through a dark room filled with mouse traps, just more dangerous.
It would be a miracle if someone only triggered a single mouse trap at a time.
Something like this could overwhelm even an Ancestral Mage.
However, if one knew some Darkness Laws, it wouldn't be difficult to get through the Lake of Darkness.
Ironically enough, the ants weren't very good at finding beings that were using the darkness to their advantage to hide.
The Darkness Weaver Ants perceived their eternally dark surroundings by the movement of Darkness Mana, but if a person managed to simply make the Darkness Mana move around them without actually interfering with the continuous flow, the Darkness Weaver Ants wouldn't see them.
The Sweeper and Shang simply flew through the Lake of Darkness, avoiding the Ancestral Beast Ants while simply ignoring every other ant.
Not a single ant was triggered, and the two of them flew out of the Lake of Darkness in just a couple of minutes.
Sure enough, it had been easy to pass through it.
