The system is four years ahead of schedule, but Weird is still a cub.

The enormous "nest brain," with a diameter exceeding ten meters, was as if grabbed by an invisible giant hand, instantly uprooted from the wall, and dragged into the bizarre energy storm generated by the neutralization of two different bizarre energies.

Shen Ge's body jolted violently as an unimaginably powerful surge of energy rushed into his consciousness. Even with his eighth-level willpower, his vision went black for a moment, and his face turned deathly pale.

Something is wrong!
Something is very wrong!

Neither this enormous "nest brain" nor that bizarre skeleton could possibly possess the strength of an eighth-tier Ghost King.

How could that withstand his full-force attack?
However, just as Shen Ge was about to further expand his devouring power and eliminate the "strange skeleton" along with it—

The enormous skeleton, silently immersed in the culture tank, emitted a dense, eerie black mist.

An unexpectedly massive surge of strange energy erupted from the depths of every bone in the skeleton, like a flood bursting its banks!

boom! ! !
The Devouring Ghost Domain clashed directly with the pure ghost energy that was eroding it!
The surrounding space was violently distorted by the collision of the two extreme strange energies. The strange energy storm tore through the space, and the entire area shook violently. The strange space seemed to be about to collapse!
The skeleton itself, which served as the "core of power," was like a red-hot iron, radiating an aura of extreme danger.

Forcibly devouring it would only lead to Shen Ge engaging in an endless and costly battle with a Ghost King whose rating could not be determined in this already bizarre space.

Fortunately, with the disappearance of the "nest brain," the entire "living laboratory" seemed to have been instantly unplugged. The "contaminated zone" that permeated the entire cave receded rapidly like the receding tide.

The flesh and blood that were still pulsating slightly on the wall stopped beating, and the blood vessel cables hanging from the ceiling lost their luster and became lifeless.

The invisible pressure that had been weighing on Yu Tiexiong and Yun'er suddenly disappeared.

"Phew... Is it over?" Yu Tiexiong asked, panting heavily, looking at the skeleton that no longer posed a deadly threat.

Yoona quickly walked to Shen Ge's side, looking at his pale face with worry in her eyes: "Captain Shen, are you alright?"

Shen Ge waved his hand, indicating that he was fine. He forcibly suppressed the churning eerie energy in his mind and looked at his wrist terminal.

According to his initial plan, he not only intended to destroy the "nest brain," but also to swallow the bizarre skeleton along with it.

However, the fact that this immense "repulsive force" could even withstand the system's Devouring Domain piqued his interest in the origin of the skeleton.
After all, Shen Ge has encountered all sorts of strange things in the fragmented world so far, but he has never seen this type before.

This arduous and protracted battle ultimately ended in a Pyrrhic victory for Shen Ge.

He successfully destroyed the laboratory's "brain," temporarily eliminating the greatest threat, but he lacked the ability to eliminate its "heart"—the terrifying skeleton that provided the eerie power—once again.

Just when the three thought the crisis was over and were preparing to rest and discuss how to deal with the skeleton, another unexpected event occurred.

"Beep beep..."

Yoona's wrist-worn device suddenly emitted a rapid notification sound.

She looked up abruptly, her beautiful eyes filled with astonishment: "Captain Shen! The entire base's biosignals have been reactivated! No... no, this isn't an attack signal, all the energy is... redirecting! It's like... transmitting data!"

As if to confirm her words.

Throughout the entire "living laboratory," the long-dormant, intricate black blood vessels, like a spider web, suddenly glowed with a faint black light!
The light was no longer the chaotic and disorderly flickering energy it had been before, but instead flowed rapidly from the core cavern where they were located in all directions of the entire base!
Countless paths of light traverse, converge, and diverge within the complex flesh and blood passages, creating an unprecedented and bizarre scene.

Yoona quickly compared the 3D model of the base projected by the wrist terminal with the glowing blood vessels in front of her in real time.

A few seconds later, she gasped and came to a startling conclusion: "I understand... the entire vascular network of this 'living laboratory' is itself a giant living map!"

Under the control of the "nest brain," these blood vessels are responsible for transporting supernatural energy and matter, maintaining the laboratory's "life" and "defense."

When the "brain" dies, the artificially imposed chaotic control is released, and the eerie power originating from that strange skeleton, which has been suppressed for countless years, manifests itself!

The countless streams of strange energy eventually converged at a single point, all pointing directly beneath the enormous skeleton.

This "nest" may not be the end at all.

It is merely a "door".

A "sealed gate" created by a eccentric scientist—that's why the eccentric scientist said at the end that if it failed, he must be killed.

Because he has already assimilated into the entire base!

He is the enigma!

The three of them arrived at the edge of the huge, long-dried-up culture tank.

The bottom of the cultivation tank was covered with a thick layer of fungal carpet and decaying bones, but guided by countless streams of dense, eerie energy, the outline of a passage about ten meters in diameter, resembling a giant sewage outlet, was clearly revealed. That was the end of the map, and the only entrance to the unknown area.

"I come!"

Yu Tiexiong gave a low shout and stepped forward. The crimson light on his arm armor glowed again.

"boom--!!"

With a loud bang, his massive body slammed into the blocked passage like a heavy battering ram.

The fungal carpet covering it instantly shattered, revealing the bottomless darkness below.

The three of them leaped into the darkness one after another.

Beneath the passage lay not the cold metal pipes or damp rock caves one might expect.

When they landed, the sight before them caused even the well-traveled Shen Ge to slightly shrink his pupils.

This is a vast underground cavity whose magnificence cannot be described in words.

The dome was impossibly high, and darkness swallowed the horizon, as if the entire Amazon rainforest's root system had been hollowed out to become an independent world.

In this world, there is no soil, no rocks, and no sign of life.

A massive, magnificent complex of buildings, so enormous it defies any known architectural style, stands silently in this desolate underground space.

They are angular and have sharp lines, full of a kind of postmodern "apocalyptic" feel.

The building's surface is covered with honeycomb-like holes and traces of sandification left by years of relentless erosion.

Some of the more fragile structures have completely collapsed, turning into piles of fine black sand.

A faint yet persistent, eerie energy fluctuation permeated the air. "Where exactly is this place?" Yu Tiexiong murmured to himself, staring in shock at the scene before him.

Although he had heard that the strange space might be connected to other "fragmented worlds", he had only seen it in a top-secret report provided by Shen Ge in Rong City. This was the first time he had experienced it in person.

Just as the three of them had cautiously explored less than a hundred meters ahead, Yu Tiexiong, who was walking in front, suddenly stopped and pulled Yun'er back sharply.

"laugh--!"

Right where they had just stood, a tiny crack in the crystalline ground suddenly erupted with a high concentration of almost solidified gray, eerie energy. The energy was silent, and wherever it passed, even the air was briefly "decomposed" into a vacuum.

Shen Ge's [Eye of the Strange] could see even further, and he discovered that in the shadowy corners of those buildings, there were clusters of crystals emitting a strange black mist.

These crystal clusters, their brightness fluctuating like breathing, continuously radiate a strange, corrosive energy capable of mentally impacting people.

"Be careful of those glowing crystals; they will accelerate the depletion of your ghostly energy and trigger hallucinations," Shen Ge warned in a deep voice.

In this polluted ruin, every step must be taken with extreme caution.

The three could only rely on the [Out of the Ghost Domain] barrier that Shen Ge had created by consuming a huge amount of ghost energy to make short-distance protective movements, carefully traversing between these deadly fungal carpet traps.

After a difficult half-hour march, they finally arrived at a relatively intact, giant obelisk that was hundreds of meters tall.

The surface of the obelisk was also covered with black energy traces, and some murals and strange hieroglyphs engraved deep in the crystal had not been completely erased.

The content of the mural is fragmented, but its general meaning is still understandable.

The first painting depicts a burning, meteorite-like "extraterrestrial object" tearing through the sky and crashing heavily into the depths of the earth.

In the second painting, where the "object from outer space" lands, everything withers and the earth turns to sand, and the rules begin to be distorted.

The third painting depicts a group of creatures dressed in ancient sacrificial attire, resembling human ancestors, working together to slowly place a massive, eerie skeleton—a "suppressing object" radiating the same terrifying aura—into the huge crater created by the "extraterrestrial object."

According to Shen Ge's judgment, this should be a world where civilization is rebuilt after the apocalypse, just like the fragmented world where "Iron Heart" is located.

After Yoona's terminal detected the strange energy fluctuations emanating from the obelisk, it attempted to decipher the "map" of the place.

The three followed the obelisk downwards, passing through a dark passage to the end, where they arrived at a huge hatch.

It was a huge door, hundreds of meters high, made entirely of a single piece of polished black crystal.

The door was engraved with incredibly complex energy patterns, which seemed to have a life of their own, rhythmically and slowly flowing with a ghostly blue light.

"Good heavens... how do we open this door?" Yu Tiexiong looked up at the giant door, feeling the eerie energy that could make any substance tremble, and couldn't help but say.

He subconsciously raised the grotesque arm armor, but quickly lowered it again.

He knew very well that with the power of his ghost cannon, hitting this door would probably not even cause a ripple, but might instead trigger an unpredictable ghost backlash.

Shen Ge frowned as he tried to apply the power of [Invisible Collapse] to the door, but was surprised to find that his strange domain power was instantly dissolved into nothingness when it came into contact with the flowing energy patterns.

Yoona quickly searched the surroundings and soon found a crystal energy node not far from the giant gate, which was similar in shape to the obelisk but much smaller in scale.

She strode forward, preparing to connect the wrist-worn terminal to the energy node and begin executing the final procedure.

However, just as her fingertips were about to touch the cold crystal surface!

The encrypted map they seized from the monster squad, which had already been cracked and rendered harmless, suddenly burst into an extremely dazzling blood-red light on Yoona's wrist terminal!

A flash of light disappeared in an instant, and an encrypted signal containing all the information, including their current precise location and progress in cracking the code, was sent out at the speed of light!

"How is this possible! This is a strange space, how could a signal possibly get through!" Yu Tiexiong said in disbelief.

Shen Ge said in a deep voice, "There is a possibility... that they are here too."

This map, from beginning to end, was a "backup plan," a trigger beacon waiting for these "pathfinders" to finally open the door!
Almost at the same time the signal was sent!

"Boom!! Boom!!"

A violent explosion occurred in the dark passageway they had entered through.

"Captain Shen, we..." Yu Tiexiong wanted to ask Shen Ge what he planned to do.

Shen Ge said calmly, "Since we're already here, let's see what they're up to. I'm very interested in their methods of tracking and transmitting information in this strange space."

30 minutes.

60 minutes.

After waiting for several hours, a line finally arrived at the entrance of the ruins.

They wielded bizarrely designed supernatural weapons, and half of their bodies had undergone mechanized modifications that perfectly integrated with their bizarre flesh. Their jet-black, tight-fitting combat suits could even absorb most of the supernatural energy detection.

"Thank you, elites of the Special Operations Department." The leader, a strange captain, had half his face covered by a cold metal mask.

His voice was transmitted through a mechanical generator.

"Thank you for clearing all the obstacles in our path."

He slowly raised the high-frequency vibrating particle blade in his hand, pointing it at Yoona.

Shen Ge's eyes turned cold, and he suddenly rushed forward, taking the initiative to meet the captain and the other two strongest members.

Yu Tiexiong let out a deafening roar. His burly body stood like a mobile fortress in front of Yoona, and his strange arm armor was fully activated as he engaged in close combat with the four monsters!
Yoona's fingers flew across the terminal screen, and fine beads of sweat appeared on her forehead. The energy bar, representing the decoding progress, was slowly increasing on her screen.

[37%……58%……81%……]

Seeing this, the strange captain who was being suppressed by Shen Ge did not get impatient at all, but instead let out a cold laugh.

“It’s too late,” he said, stating a fact.

"You're just opening the door for us." (End of Chapter)