"Ugh... ah..." In reality, Pei Du, who was soaked in sewage and twitching violently, made a hoarse, meaningless sound of pain from his throat. His eyes were widened to the limit, and his pupils were dilated. All that was reflected in them was the boundless fear and absurdity brought by "himself" who was sleeping in the incubator!
Almost at the same time when Pei Du fell into the abyss of identity collapse——
“Sizzle——!!!”
A powerful, terrifying feeling, like a high-voltage electric current, suddenly shot through Pei Du and Xu Shuangyao's bodies! This feeling didn't originate from the outside world, but erupted directly from deep within their spines, where the thorns had pierced them! Along the fused twin crowns, like countless icy venomous snakes, it instantly burrowed into their nervous systems!
The symbiotic connection was brutally and thoroughly penetrated under the extreme pain and the forced action of the crown!
"Ah——!!!" Xu Shuangyao let out an even more shrill scream, and her body suddenly arched in the sewage, as if being whipped fiercely by an invisible force!
The burning pain from the wound on Pei Du's neck was like a red-hot iron, instantly branding Xu Shuangyao's nerve endings! She felt as if her neck was also torn apart!
The burning and suffocating sensation Xu Shuangyao felt from inhaling the spores in his lungs also overwhelmed Pei Du like a tide! He felt as if his chest was stuffed with hot charcoal, and every breath was accompanied by tearing pain!
The touch of cold sewage, the sticky and slippery feeling of mycelium crawling across the skin, the low-frequency humming of the vibrating pipes... all the feelings, indistinguishable from each other, like a violent tsunami, impacting the consciousness of both people at the same time!
"No... stop..." Xu Shuangyao screamed silently in her mind, filled with extreme shame and fear. Having the most intimate feelings of the body sensed by another person simultaneously was more destructive to one's dignity than any torture!
The cold, empty feeling and overwhelming anger that rose in Pei Du's heart from the collapse of his identity, like a black hole swallowing everything, were like a flood that instantly broke through Xu Shuangyao's already fragile mental defenses! She felt like she was being dragged into an icy cave of despair. At the same time, a violent fire of destruction burned in her heart, almost burning away her sanity!
Xu Shuangyao's heart-wrenching pain at being betrayed by his creation, the immense guilt he felt for Pei Du's accelerated transformation, and the extreme shame and indignation at being forcibly invaded felt like countless sharp needles, piercing Pei Du's chaotic consciousness. He felt his heart being gripped by an icy hand, and at the same time, he was burned by an intense sense of humiliation that didn't belong to him!
Two completely different yet equally intense emotions collided violently, blended, and contaminated each other in the symbiotic channel, dragging the two into an even more chaotic and painful vortex!
The chaotic connection of consciousness was like an out-of-control data stream. Fragmented images, sounds, and sensations flashed and collided uncontrollably between the two. There were also completely chaotic fragments whose source was unidentifiable: twisted plant roots wriggling in the darkness... cold metal instruments dripping liquid... a blurry figure wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat...
These fragmented pieces of information were like sharp shards of glass, rampaging through the consciousness space shared by the two people, bringing deeper confusion and pain.
However, in this extreme pain and chaos, a strange and irrational change also happened to both of them at the same time!
The still-oozing wound on Pei Du's neck, caused by the chainsaw blade, suddenly stopped bleeding in the cold, dirty water at a visible speed! The edges of his twitching flesh began to twitch and contract, almost as if alive! While the wound didn't heal instantly, its deterioration was forcibly halted! A faint but tangible heat flowed from the point where his spine had been pierced, flowing along the icy energy of the Fusion Crown, forcibly injecting into his exhausted body, temporarily squeezing out the last bit of strength!
The burning and suffocating sensation in Xu Shuangyao's lungs seemed to be relieved after sharing Pei Du's almost beast-like and tenacious vitality! Although it was still painful, the despair of being on the verge of suffocation subsided slightly.
But this is by no means a gift!
Every slight tingling sensation brought by the contraction of the wound, every moment when strength was forcibly squeezed out, was accompanied by a more intense, deeper pain from the place deep in the spine where the thorns pierced! It was as if countless cold needles were piercing the brain and limbs along the spine! At the same time, an intense feeling of weakness and hunger, as if the source of life had been forcibly extracted, entangled like a maggot on the tarsal bone! This power was ignited with vitality as fuel! Every use accelerated the burning of their remaining candles of life! Symbiosis is a curse and a shackle! It brings the power of drinking poison to quench thirst, at the cost of the dual erosion of soul and body!
"Ugh..." Pei Du suddenly struggled to raise his head from the sewage, coughing violently and spitting out filthy black water. His pupils, dilated by the pain and the impact of his identity collapse, now forced a fierce, beast-like glint into them. He felt the thorny force being forced into his body, and the even more greedy sucking deep in his spine! He saw the madly multiplying, wriggling fungal carpet around him, nearly filling the entire pipe! He saw the spore dust in the air, as thick as mist! And he felt... the newly awakened, terrifying will, hanging overhead like a cold star, radiating endless malice and devouring desire—the Fungus Master! It was awake! Its billions of "compound eyes" had locked onto them! This pipe was no longer a shelter, but a closing, fang-ridden living trap!
"Escape..." Pei Du's voice was as hoarse as an old bellows, and every word was filled with blood foam and severe pain. "Must...escape..." He used the hand with dark red curse patterns on it, regardless of the severe pain, to grab Xu Shuangyao's cold and trembling arm tightly, trying to drag her out of the sewage.
Xu Shuangyao was struggling too, the shared agony making her face uglier than a dead person's. She forced herself to free herself from the chaotic swathes of memory and emotion, her scientist's instinct for survival overcoming the brink of collapse. "The exit... there might be something behind it..." She raised her finger with difficulty, pointing towards the darker depths of the pipe. That was the direction the water flowed when they fell. It might lead deeper underground, but it might also be the only way out.
Their eyes met briefly in the sticky, spore-filled air. There were no words, only a shared, naked desire to survive, and a bond rife with pain and distance, forcibly bound together by the shackles of symbiosis.
Pei Du clenched his teeth, his gums practically bleeding. He tried, using the force he'd been forced into him, to drag Xu Shuangyao along, through the surging sewage, at the bottom of the slippery pipe covered in newly formed mycelium, taking the first step toward the depths of darkness.
His steps were heavy and staggering, as if he was dragging heavy shackles.
There was an even more intense tingling and sucking sensation from the crown of thorns along my spine.
At the same time, deep within the pipe, in the impenetrable darkness, countless tiny, dark red dots of light seemed to appear, like the eyes of a sleeping demon opening, silently lighting up... locking onto their clumsy movements. The will of the fungus master, like an icy tide, began to spread silently along the activated mycelial network, encircling them.
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