Cold, sticky, and reeking of the sweet, putrid darkness, it enveloped Xu Shuangyao like a heavy shroud. Each time she dragged her broken body across the fungal mat, it felt like struggling in a tar swamp. Sharp pain ripped through every wound, like countless red-hot needles piercing her nerves. Every faint rise and fall in her lungs carried a burning, tearing sensation and a thick cloud of spore dust. The chill of blood loss gradually eroded the life-giving flame that the emerald mark between her brows forcibly maintained.

The plant network's final guidance—that faint yet resilient, heartbeat-like emerald pulse—was her only beacon in the darkness she was sinking into. It came from the depths of the cave, from beneath the mycelial graveyard, from the last spark of fire in Gaia's heart.

"Find it... wake it up..." This thought was like a steel nail, driving into her consciousness that was on the verge of disintegration.

Rustle...rustle...

In the darkness, the creepy crawling sound never truly left. Those distorted fungus beasts, like hungry hyenas, prowled in the shadows, their dark green eyes flickering like will-o'-the-wisp. They were drawn to the scent of blood, yet intimidated by the lingering scent of the plant web between her brows. They dared not approach, yet greedily refused to leave. Every time she paused, stricken by pain or weakness, the rustling sound grew more intense and closer.

Xu Shuangyao bit her already cracked lower lip, the rusty smell of blood tingling her numb nerves. She couldn't stop. To stop would mean death, the complete annihilation of Gaia's last hope. Using her elbows and knees, she once again propped up her battered body, inching inch by inch toward the direction guided by her faint heartbeat. The sticky fungal carpet beneath her left a winding trail of dark red blood and green slime, like a bloody path leading to the depths of hell.

I don't know how long I climbed; time lost its meaning here. Perhaps an hour, perhaps a day. The cavern's space widened, and the pulsating mycelial tubes that formed its walls and ceiling grew thicker, emitting a richer fluorescence. The pulsing feeling of life in the air grew heavier and more oppressive, as if the entire lair were the slowly beating heart of a gigantic creature.

Finally, there was no longer absolute darkness ahead.

A hazy, aurora-like, pale green light permeated from the far end of the cave. The source of the light seemed to be a massive, downward-sloping cave entrance. And it was from the depths of that cave entrance that the faint pulsating heartbeat came! It was more than ten times stronger!

Hope was like a shot of adrenaline injected into a tired body! Xu Shuangyao's spirits lifted, and he struggled to speed up his crawling.

However, just as she approached the edge of the huge hole—

Hiss, hiss, hiss——!!!

A sharp, piercing roar erupted from the bottom of the cave like a tsunami! Immediately following, a suffocating, terrifying aura surged out like a tidal wave!

Xu Shuangyao suddenly fell to the ground, covering her ears tightly, her heart pounding so hard it almost exploded! She endured the dizziness and nausea brought on by the mental shock and carefully looked down.

The scene before her made her hold her breath instantly, and her pupils contracted due to extreme shock!

Below, a vast space, its grandeur and strangeness indescribable! It resembled the interior of a hollowed-out, upside-down living planet! The dome was so high it seemed to have no ceiling, brimming with countless giant mycelial veins, as thick as mountain ridges, pulsating with fluorescent green energy! These veins, like living nerve bundles and blood vessels, converged and cascaded from all directions, ultimately connecting to the very center of the space.

There, suspended was an unimaginably huge, pale green ball of light that looked like a living heart!

The surface of the light ball wasn't smooth, but rather composed of countless wriggling, tangled, pulsating mycelial tubes, densely packed like a living circuit board, emitting heart-pounding fluctuations of life energy and... a cold, greedy, abyssal remnant of will! Each pulsation caused the entire space to flicker, triggering frantic roars from the countless higher-level, even more distorted and terrifying, deformed fungus beasts clinging to it!

The heart of the nest! This is undoubtedly the new "heart" formed by the spontaneous convergence of the remaining mycelial network after the destruction of the core of the fungus dome! It is a terrifying creation born from the mycelial life instinctively seeking to continue after losing its master! And that pulsating green ball of light is the life source that greedily absorbs the energy of the Earth's core and maintains this vast underground nest!

And right below the huge, pulsating core of the fungus nest, in the central area guarded by countless hanging giant mycelium tubes like a cage, in a relatively "calm" dark area - a faint but incomparably tenacious emerald green light like an emerald star is flickering tenaciously!

That's it! Gaia's Seed! The final spark of the plant network!

It was trapped in the foulest, most greedy core of this mycelial nest! This newly formed heart of the fungus treated it as a source of nourishment, madly absorbing and squeezing it! Countless extremely fine, almost transparent pale white energy threads, like greedy straws, stretched out from the depths of the pulsating pale green ball of light, entwining and piercing the emerald star, continuously draining its pure and majestic life essence!

Every pulsation of the emerald green light was accompanied by a painful wail that penetrated deep into the bone marrow, and was clearly transmitted to the depths of Xu Shuangyao's soul through the links of the plant network!

"Gaia...!" Xu Shuangyao's heart felt as if it were being torn apart! Anger and grief instantly overwhelmed the pain in her body! These mycelial dregs that desecrated life had not only destroyed Gaia's protective will, but now were also devouring her last hope of resurrection!

It must be rescued! Those greedy straws must be cut off!

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