Chapter 452: Deep into the Mist (2/2)

Well, Mu is right on this. I *am* a burden here.

Thought Ye Chong, as he looked at the thick mollusk on the way. He had an idea, as he piloted Han Jia, prompting a direction-change and a thrust towards the strand.

The mollusks were much thicker here, which their diameter hit few kilometers. Ye Chong flew along one mollusk, only to spot a few giant tumors on the surface, in which the unknown creatures rested peacefully. Somehow Ye Chong had a strange idea that... those creatures were in a kind of uterus...

As Ye Chong ventured into the center, the strands grew thicker, darker as well, with the dark linings increased inside them. The strands entangled each other, like the few eldest woods in the forest. Such dense environment was not favorable for Collisions, so Ye Chong could no longer spot his allies around.

At one point the giant strands had eventually conglomerated, forming a shield which isolated the inside from the outside.

Han Jia squeezed itself into the gap between the mollusks, it weaved in and out of the forest of mollusks as it ventured deeper.

Ye Chong felt he had arrived at one gigantic tree hole somehow... as darkness engulfed him. It felt like another world, where nothing from the outside could reach, not even lights, not even the sound of the void. Ye Chong was on high alert as he turned on the lights.

Han Jia advanced with the two beams of light carefully.

A few times the camera turned at the mollusks around and Ye Chong could already discern the decreased number of tumors on the strand bodies. The mollusks outside were like branches fully bore with fruits, yet the mollusks at the interior had hardly a few of these ”fruits”. It was strange, but Ye Chong would not let down his guard just yet, as he noticed one particular thing in the silence.

There were fewer tumors, but the creatures slumbering inside were glowing in sharp crimson tails, far brighter than the pale reddish of the tails Ye Chong had seen at the outside. From Ye Chong's experience, would that mean the redder the tail, the stronger such creature is? Ye Chong subconsciously nodded at that, as he presumed these unawakened beasts to be the greater beings in their kind.

Without hesitation, Ye Chong began destroying these potentially greater threats in the darkness.

Han Jia's wings spread into 12 spiky tentacles and launched themselves at the tumors. Unlike the alarmed beasts out there, these beasts were more fragile while being unable to sense anything in their sleep. It only took a gentle poke at the tumor, then ejection of liquid would occurred, in no time the shell and the skin of the unknown beast would turn tainted.

It only would take a few more hours... or a few more minutes pessimistically before the weakest beasts waking up into the strongest few in their kind perhaps.

That was Ye Chong's thought as he continued destroyed these unripe blobs, expressionlessly. It might be cruel but both Ye Chong and Mu probably would consider this appropriate. It was the safest countermeasure to the brewing danger after all.

”Mu, do you see any connection with the monster we encountered at the underground back then?” said Ye Chong as his hands danced upon the control panel.

...

”Probably...” It took a while for Mu to give a figure, ”At a chance of 81 to 85%.”

Exactly. Thought Ye Chong. Wise people do think alike, that was exactly his thought that there should be a connection between both creatures.

Han Jia went deeper.

”Wait...,” whispered Ye Chong as he felt something odd.

The deeper he travelled, the lesser the tumors on the strands, while the redder the tail turned, the stronger the beast could be... if that was the case... assuming quality was taking over quantity...

He looked at the surroundings, the tumors had reached a minimal amount. As he flew about 1 kilometer deeper, he finally found another tumor. But that tumor... the color of its tail was giving him a quick heart attack.

Ye Chong immediately broke the tumor and killed the glowing crimson on its tail. No drama, a quick successful blow. It was then Ye Chong felt relieved and continued traveling.

But then the later journey only drained more colors on his face.

He zigzagged through the strands and had already lost count of the distance he travelled. But roughly... he reckoned he had travelled a distance about 10 kilometers away from that giant tumor just now.

That was the frightening part - he had never encountered a single tumor in the past 10 kilometer course.

It was indeed an anomaly which stressed him up the wall. What could be there ahead? At such circumstance it would be either the queen or the wormhole to another dimension. That would be one thing he was very much certain of, he was in fact traveling towards the core of the area.

The diameter of these mollusks had reached a length which Ye Chong could not estimate at glances, even those dark, vein-looking linings were broader than before. There were strange glowing fluid flowing inside them.

It almost felt like Ye Chong had taken a trip from one bloodstream towards the artery near a pumping heart.

The fluid inside the linings was making rhythmic movements towards a single direction, working exactly like the pulses.

Ye Chong looked upon the place where the linings could no longer be discerned far ahead. His eyes slightly shut as he inhaled deeply and made a dramatic exhalation. The calming respiration was carried out for a few cycles before he sprung his eyes open.

He pulled the lever and Han Jia zoomed towards the darkness ahead.