Full health is the kill threshold, no matter if you're a god or a demon!

From the mission description and Hector's words, we can learn that the Heart of Terra was not destroyed, but rather that something unexpected happened.

In other words, as a perpetual energy core, it is very likely that it is still continuously emitting energy, but this energy is not being supplied to Ascalon... So where did it go?

"No, we can't wait any longer, we have to rush in and check!"

Liu Nian made up his mind. At this point, he didn't care how disgusting it was. Anyway, his defense and health were high enough, so he jumped straight into the deep pit!

But we can't just jump in headfirst.

He ignored the corrupted guards that kept crawling out of the pit and instead gave a new order to the spider servants.

The spider servants surged toward him at once, like a black tide.

They climbed up his legs, covered his waist and abdomen, wrapped around his chest and arms, and finally closed up around his head. The eight legs of each spider servant were tightly interlocked, and the layers of anti-magic alloy shells formed an impenetrable full-body armor on his body.

The inspiration for this came from Riftscale. Although Spider Servants could not enhance Riftscale like Snakemen, at least under the protection of this anti-magic shell, Liu Nian would not be able to directly come into contact with those disgusting corrupted guards.

Liu Nian moved his limbs; the special armor fit him well, and his movements were not restricted in any way.

He let the other spider minions continue attacking the mechanical guards, while he walked to the edge of the pit and leaped in.

The wind howled, and the metal rings on the pit wall flew past him rapidly, circle after circle, like an endless spiral.

Each metal ring was crawling with disgusting rotting flesh and mechanical arms, which, sensing something falling, reached out to try and grab it.

The red lenses on the surface of the Spider Servant Armor lit up simultaneously, and dozens of white rays shot out, piercing through the outstretched, fleshy mechanical arms one by one. Some were even severed directly, and the severed mechanical arms fell into the deep pit along with Liu Nian, turning into purple dust in the darkness and slowly dissipating.

Liu Nian fell for about thirty seconds, and the scene on the pit wall began to change.

The metal rings grew denser, and the gaps between them narrowed. The rotting flesh was no longer scattered, but covered the pit walls in large swaths. Liu Nian also observed that each pulsation of the blood vessels was not meaningless, but rather carried by energy flowing upwards…

He looked down into the pit, where a dark red light pulsed, like a giant, diseased heart. Each pulse pumped energy, sending it upwards along the veins in the pit walls…

Clearly, those mechanical guards are constantly being generated using this energy, meaning that without destroying this diseased heart, you can never kill all those mechanical guards!

As Liu Nian got closer to the bottom of the pit, the air became scorching hot and carried an astonishing stench that could be smelled even through his helmet.

Finally, he could see the bottom of the pit clearly.

It was a platform woven from rotting flesh and machinery. The ground of the platform was a thick layer of writhing flesh and blood... The thing that originally looked like a heart was a living creature with a dozen thick pink pipes extending from its body, connecting to the surrounding walls like umbilical cords.

This heart-shaped monster occupied most of the platform's space, its surface covered with protruding, tumor-like eyes. Those eyes were initially looking around casually, but eventually all locked onto Liu Nian.

Liu Nian's body landed with a thud on the fleshy platform, his boots embedding themselves directly into the rotting flesh. With the slightest movement, they made a squelching sound, squeezing out the dark purple blood from the rotting flesh and splattering it onto the surface of the spider servant's armor, producing a sizzling corrosion sound.

Liu Nian stared at the huge fleshy monster on the platform. It looked somewhat like the Eye Demon, but it was definitely much more disgusting!

[LV? ? ? Abyssal Energy Devouring Beast]

Liu Nian was stunned.

He can't even see the level of this thing?

What the hell?

But then I thought about it again, and realized that this thing had been absorbing the energy of the Heart of Terra for who knows how many years, so it had already exceeded the level limit.

But... where is the Heart of Terra?

Liu Nian looked around but didn't find anything similar to the psionic core from before...

The space itself doesn't look complicated; you can see the whole thing at a glance.

He frowned deeply. "Don't tell me you're the Heart of Terra..."

The fleshy ball seemed to understand his words; the tumors on its surface blinked simultaneously, and then—it smiled.

It had no mouth, but Liu Nian could feel it laughing—a chilling pleasure emanating from the depths of its soul.

Then, it moved.

The fleshy ball's body suddenly split open with a huge gash, stretching from its head to its base, like a toothless maw. Inside the maw was no esophagus, no stomach, only a bottomless abyss of darkness. A putrid stench gushed forth from the fissure, so intense it almost solidified.

Liu Nian instinctively tried to retreat, but the fleshy platform beneath his feet suddenly became as soft as a swamp, and his feet sank in, unable to pull themselves out. The Spider Servant Armor's rays shot towards the fleshy ball, hitting its body and leaving only a few charred craters, which were instantly filled by newly formed rotting flesh.

The giant mouth suddenly grew larger than usual, and swallowed Liu Nian in an instant!

Darkness. Endless darkness. No sound, no smell, no gravity.

Liu felt like he was falling, but also like he was floating in place. The red lenses on the Spider Servant Armor were still glowing, but the light could only illuminate an area of ​​less than a meter around him before being swallowed by darkness.

He fell for an unknown amount of time—maybe a few seconds, maybe a few minutes—before his feet suddenly touched solid ground.

A light shone.

Warm, golden light shone down from above, like sunlight filtering through the clouds.

Liu Nian looked up and saw a huge ball of light hovering high above him, emitting a stable and soft glow.

[Everlasting Energy: The Heart of Terra]

It was a pure, intact, and energetic Terra Heart.

It is golden in color, with countless fine runes flowing on its surface. With each pulse, it releases a golden halo that spreads in all directions.

Liu Nian stood on the energy platform and looked around.

In the four cardinal directions, there is a luminous spatial gate, its frame made of golden energy, leading into a deep purple expanse. Surrounding the platform is a circular purple landmass, approximately one kilometer in diameter, with undulating terrain, bizarre and twisted vegetation, and half-collapsed, dilapidated buildings—buildings that are clearly not of the Ascalonian style, but rather remnants of some pre-civilization corrupted by the abyss.

Above, the Heart of Terra floated in mid-air, its golden light bathing the entire space, warm and stabilizing.