As soon as the words fell!

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

A dense, shrill whistling sound tore through the air! It wasn't energy beams, but countless arm-thick, gleaming metallic spears...alloy stakes! Like spears of punishment cast down by the gods, they carried terrifying kinetic energy, precisely covering the area where Pei Du was and the surrounding area of ​​dozens of meters!

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The alloy spears pierced the earth fiercely! Deep into the ground! Each impact triggered a small explosion and shockwave! Smoke, dust, and debris soared into the sky! Instantly, a dense forest of metal stakes, flashing with high-voltage arcs, formed around Pei Du! A powerful magnetic field and physical barrier instantly formed, temporarily sealing off the area!

"roar--!!!"

Pei Du's furious roar was drowned out by the roar of metal spears hitting the ground and the crackling of high-voltage arcs! His massive body was staggered again by the shockwaves from the several spears that passed by him, and then he was trapped in the center of the dense forest of metal stakes and the violent electromagnetic force field! He swung his bone claws and smashed hard at the nearest alloy stake!

clang!!!!

A sharp clang of metal clashed! The alloy pillar trembled violently, leaving a deep dent in its surface. A high-voltage arc instantly spread along the bony claws! Pei Du roared in pain and was forced to retract his claws. His dark golden pupils stared intently at the light source piercing the dust above, filled with provoked rage!

This sudden air attack temporarily blocked Pei Du's pursuit of Xu Shuangyao!

Xu Shuangyao seized this life-saving opportunity, unleashing her last remaining potential, and tumbled towards the nearest collapsed cave entrance, half-hidden by a massive metal structure, leading to a deeper level. Without hesitation, she rolled in, her body tumbling and colliding on the steep slope. The excruciating pain nearly made her faint, but she gritted her teeth until she landed heavily on the relatively flat, yet darker, colder, ruins below.

Above, Pei Du's crazy roar, the loud noise of the alloy pillars being bombarded, and the roar of the aircraft engine were gradually separated by the thick ruins, becoming dull and distant.

The edge of the core annihilation point.

This place is even more dead and silent than the upper ruins, and also more... eerie.

The air was as cold as an ice cellar, so thin it was suffocating. The scars left by the massive energy annihilation were shocking: the ground was no longer ash, but a vast depression, as smooth as a mirror, covered with a strange black glass-like substance, as if it had been trampled by the feet of a giant. At the center of the depression lay a bottomless, circular area of ​​"nothingness," approximately ten meters in diameter. There was no light, no darkness, no matter, not even the concept of space; only pure, soul-shattering emptiness. Simply gazing at it felt as if my consciousness were being sucked in and disintegrated.

The edge of this glass-like depression is covered with countless twisted, frozen remains of pale white hyphae and black thorns. They are like sculptures that were melted by high temperature and then rapidly cooled. They maintain the last crazy dancing posture before death, exuding a strange beauty that blasphemes the laws of life.

The air was filled with the alarming intensity of radiation readings (if there were any instruments left), the lingering traces of mental pollution, and a sense of... a cold, immaterial "gaze" as if emanating from billions of light-years away. It was this wave of vibrations that attracted the mysterious sentinel.

Xu Shuangyao fell, still about a hundred meters from the death zone. She lay on the cold, hard glass floor, her bones feeling broken. The faint emerald green light in her chest, like a candle in the wind, barely held onto her last shred of consciousness. The whispers of the plant network grew intermittent in her mind, like a radio broadcast with a poor signal: [Approaching... the edge... sensing... fragments... the covenant... is... wailing...]

The fragments...are here?

She struggled to raise her head, her vision blurred by blood loss and weakness. Not far away, she saw the figure of the sentinel in matte black armor, half-kneeling at the edge of the glassy ground, just a few steps away from the terrifying "nothingness"! The blue light from his (her) compound eye helmet was focused on an unusual spot at the edge of the "nothingness."

There, an irregularly shaped object, roughly half a man's height, sat half-embedded at the interface between the glazed ground and the void. Its entire structure was a dull hue, neither gold nor jade, neither stone nor wood. Its surface was covered with intricate, seemingly naturally occurring, mystical patterns that held an infinite mysteries. These patterns were not inert matter; within them flowed faint, almost imperceptible, silvery light, like stardust.

Most strikingly, the surface of this "stone" was covered in a thin, pale, seemingly living network of mycelium! These mycelium, like the most sophisticated circuit board, entwined and covered those mysterious patterns. Some extremely fine mycelium, like probes, cautiously and greedily penetrated the edge of the "nothingness," as if absorbing some incomprehensible energy! The mycelial network pulsed slightly, emitting a faint yet distinct...activity that was incompatible with its surroundings!

The stone tablet itself exudes an indescribable aura of antiquity, heaviness, and...sorrow. It's as if a giant, having witnessed the birth and death of the universe, sighs silently in eternal silence. The guidance of the plant network originates from it!

"Fragments of the ancient covenant..." Xu Shuangyao shouted silently in his heart, struggling to get closer.

At that moment, the sentry moved. He or she seemed to have completed some kind of scanning and analysis. A cold electronic voice echoed through the silence: "High-density artifacts of an unknown civilization have been discovered. Surfaces are covered with highly active, remnant tissue of a mutant host. Anomalous spatial energy interaction detected... Suspected weak connection to the source of deep space whispers (the Void Zone). Threat assessment: Extremely high. Execute collection protocol: Attempt to physically remove the mycelial covering."

My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!