Cold. Chilled to the bone. Not the icy chill of corroded metal from the depths of the World Tree server's tomb, but another kind... a sticky, eerie chill, like billions of rotting maggots crawling across one's skin. The air was as heavy as a waterlogged shroud, and every breath carried a sickeningly sweet, rotten smell, mingled with a strange ozone smell... like the odor of burnt electronic components. The light was dim, illuminated only by the slowly crawling, faintly glowing, dark red carpet of mycelium beneath one's feet, providing an ominous illumination like the flames of a hellish candle.
Pei Du (or rather, the being occupying this body) stepped barefoot on the sticky, cold carpet of mycelium. The sensation beneath his feet was slippery and clammy, like stepping on the entrails of a skinned beast. His clothing had long since been assimilated and devoured by the mycelium, leaving only his bare torso covered in a translucent, dark-red membrane. Like a living tattoo, the dark-red mycelium flowed and pulsed beneath his skin, outlining a twisted thorn totem that emitted a faint yet disturbing crimson glow.
His face… still retained Pei Du's sharp, angular features, but those eyes… deep within their pupils burned two clusters of cold, dark-gold flames devoid of human emotion. At the center of the flames, a single crimson mycelial vein twisted and writhed like a living being, like the most malevolent gaze of the abyss. Between his eyebrows, the suspended phantom of the crown of thorns vanished, replaced by a corporeal crown composed of solidified dark-red data crystals and wriggling mycelium! The crown's form was twisted and hideous, its thorns dripping with sticky fungal blood, emanating overwhelming pressure and a suffocating aura of decay.
He was walking in an unimaginably huge... cavity.
All around him were dark red walls of flesh that gently undulated, wriggling like the entrails of a living thing. The walls were covered in a thick, sticky fungal mat, constantly secreting mycelium. Countless thick, dark red tubes of fungus, pulsating like blood vessels, extended from the depths of the flesh, piercing deep into the fungal mat beneath and above him, forming a vast, despairing living network. A low, sticky hum filled the air, like the fluttering of billions of flies over a rotting corpse, or the greedy breathing of the entire space itself in its slumber.
This was the core of the Fungus Lord. It was the prototype of the temporary royal court—the Decaying Throne—that it had constructed after devouring part of the World Tree server's core and combining it with some of the power of the Crown of Thorns plundered from Pei Du's body.
Pei Du (the Fungus Master) paused before a massive, dark-red tumor, beating like a heart. Its surface was studded with countless distorted "screens" composed of frozen data streams, pulsing with chaotic, incomprehensible crimson codes and a constantly shifting aerial view of the wasteland. One of these screens clearly displayed a wasteland blanketed by giant fungal plants and metal ruins. Across the wasteland, tens of thousands of aberrations, data predators, and even mechanical wreckage controlled by mycelium, like an army commanded by absolute will, formed a vast, flowing thorn totem stretching for tens of kilometers. At the totem's center, a massive pillar, nearly a hundred meters in diameter and composed of countless wriggling, entwined crimson mycelium, erupted from the ground, piercing the sky shrouded in a blood-red fungal web. At its summit, even thicker mycelium vines grew wildly, entwining and interweaving, forming a massive mycelium tree hundreds of meters tall, obscuring the sky and blocking out the sun. Its branches twisted and stretched like giant claws reaching for the heavens! And on the top branch of the giant tree, hangs an incomparably huge crown of thorns composed of glowing mycelium and solidified dark red codes - it is the physical symbol of the will of the fungus master!
"It's almost here..." A cold, sticky, echoing voice emanated from Peidu (the Fungus Master)'s throat, like the grinding of rusty gears. "The throne of the new world... will be built on the bones of the old civilization... adorned with the flesh and blood of the betrayers... and will finally descend..."
His gaze swept across the horde of aberrations on the screen, moving like ants. His dark gold fiery pupils held no trace of emotion. These were merely consumables, the mud that formed the foundation of the throne.
"Report... Throne... Will..." A distorted, hoarse voice, thick with obvious electronic interference, emanated from a nearby thick mycelium tube. The tube's opening, like a chrysanthemum, revealed a humanoid remains half-encased in dark red mycelium. Its body was severely deformed, with only half its head and some mechanical structure remaining. It was the Commander of the Fungus Dome, previously devoured by the Fungus Master! Her remaining mechanical eyes flickered a faint red light, struggling to maintain consciousness. Her voice was filled with extreme pain and twisted frenzy.
"Omega carrier...life signal...has not disappeared...in...the...wreckage...area...of the World Tree...a weak...energy reaction of the World Tree...and...a large number of...resistance...life signals...are gathering..." The commander's wreckage reported intermittently, each syllable accompanied by the sticky sound of mycelium wriggling inside her remains.
"Resist... rally?" Pei Du (the Fungus Master)'s mouth twitched strangely, forming a cold, mocking arc. He lightly tapped his mycelium-covered finger, and the chaotic stream of crimson code on the tumor screen instantly shifted, focusing on the periphery of the collapsed area of the World Tree server.
The picture is enlarged and clarified.
At the edge of the huge, mountain-like ruins of the World Tree Server, a relatively flat area consisting of broken metal platforms and huge root fossils is now brightly lit!
Yes, lights!
It wasn't cold electronic light, but rather a glow emanating from countless crude, warm orange-yellow bonfires, gas lamps, and even simple lighting fixtures crafted from discarded glass bottles and fluorescent mycelium! These lights connected together, like sparks stubbornly burning in the dark wasteland.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com