Silent Rift Valley, as its name suggests, is characterized by deathly silence.
Unlike the faint phosphorescence and rustling life activity that permeate other parts of the fungal forest, the depths of the rift valley are shrouded in an almost stagnant darkness and silence.
The smell of chitin and fungi in the air was replaced by a more primal and intense odor of decay and dust.
When Linde stepped into this area, what came into his view through the [Deconstruction Halo] was a scene of devastation and battlefield ruins.
Huge, varied fungal remains are scattered across the bottom of the rift valley. Some are torn apart, oozing viscous, long-congealed fluorescent fluid; others are crushed by some immense force, their caps and stems turning into a pool of slimy mixture of fragments; and still others are cut or pierced by sharp weapons, leaving irregular gaps at the breaks.
Mixed among these fungus remains were numerous fragments of the carapace of the Qitar insectoids and rudimentary bone and stone weapons.
Some of the shells still bear deep scratches and impact dents left by fierce battles.
Judging from the age of the wreckage and the remaining energy, this fierce battle must have taken place not long ago, perhaps within a few days.
"Internal strife? Or... resisting external enemies?" Linde's gaze swept across the battlefield as he calmly analyzed the situation.
The Insect King did not mention any recent large-scale military operations, especially against this rift located in a forbidden area.
His attention was quickly drawn to the enormous remains of the fungus.
These fungi were quite different from the relatively docile luminescent fungi he had seen before. They were enormous and more animal-like in structure, with muscle-like fiber bundles and some kind of primitive ganglia, clearly predators or defenders with the ability to move and attack.
[Deconstructing the Halo] Silently covering the relatively complete remains of a fungus that resembles a magnified scorpion.
(Structural analysis: The hyphal network is highly specialized, forming muscle-like contractile units... The energy core is located at the base of the stipe, possibly some kind of bioenergy aggregate... Information transmission mode... Non-standard nerve impulses, more like... Distributed pheromone exchange and resonance?)
A glint of inquiry flashed in Linde's eyes.
This biological structure is quite peculiar. Its actions are not entirely dependent on brain command, but are coordinated by countless hyphal nodes, resembling a miniature biological network.
This explains why some tissues can still retain a certain degree of activity even after severe damage.
(It exhibits a weak energy reaction, is inert in nature, but structurally stable, and contains some kind of... undefined active factor?)
Just as Linde was focused on analyzing the fungus's physiological structure, trying to uncover the secrets of its energy core and its possible connection to the "Whispers from the Underground," the [Deconstruction Halo] fed back an extremely subtle but continuously occurring change—
The faint energy reaction inside all the surrounding fungal remains, whether it be torn flesh, broken caps, or flowing viscous fluid, is beginning to increase slightly at an extremely slow but highly synchronized frequency!
Even more astonishingly, these organizations that should have died were being drawn together by some invisible force field, and were beginning to move extremely slowly, like iron filings attracted by a magnet, toward his location... crawling and converging!
At first, only the fragments moved, but then the larger pieces of debris also began to tremble and slide.
The broken hyphae, like living tentacles, actively reach out to nearby fragments, pulling and sticking them together. The viscous, fluorescent fluid no longer seeps into the ground; instead, it binds the fragments together like glue.
The process was silent and eerie, unfolding in the deathly still ravine, as if an invisible hand was piecing together something from these dead fungus beasts.
Linde stopped his analysis, his cold purple eyes fixed on this illogical scene. His face was expressionless, but the invisible force field around him slightly strengthened, and the phantom of [End of Annihilation] appeared faintly behind him.
He did not immediately intervene, but instead observed calmly.
He wanted to see what the forces manipulating everything behind the scenes were planning to do.
The aggregation speed is getting faster and faster!
Countless fragments, flesh, and bodily fluids of the fungi surged toward the center like rivers flowing into the sea, squeezing, merging, and shaping each other.
The glued joint emitted a teeth-grinding "squeak" sound and the faint sound of mycelial growth.
A gigantic, ever-twisting aggregate of countless dead fungus beasts rapidly took shape.
It barely sketched an outline—thick legs, a massive torso, and a head that was not yet fully formed.
It was... a huge and twisted humanoid shape!
It stands tens of meters tall, its entire body composed of various colored fungal flesh, broken caps, and viscous fluorescent liquid. Mycelia constantly wriggle on its surface, attempting to repair and perfect the details, emitting a pungent, nauseating stench of decay and chaotic energy fluctuations.
The barely recognizable location was the head. Two holes slowly formed inside, with no eyes, only two constantly rotating vortexes composed of concentrated fluorescent spores and chaotic information flow, which stared intently at Lind.
A shockwave, a mixture of the resentment of countless dying fungus beasts, the lingering killing intent of the battlefield, and the gaze of a colder, more inhuman being, crashed towards Lind!
"roar--!!"
The fungus-humanoid aggregate emitted a silent roar that did not travel through the air but directly affected the soul. Its enormous fist, made of fungal flesh and broken bones, smashed down on Lind with the force to crush mountains!
Even before the attack arrived, the violent mental shock and physical oppression were enough to cause ordinary creatures to mentally collapse and physically disintegrate.
However, Lind simply stood there quietly, as if what was coming towards him was not a devastating attack, but a gentle breeze.
He raised his right hand, and the light of order from the veins at his fingertips intertwined instantly with the power of nothingness from Shadow Abyss.
He neither chose to confront directly nor dodge.
Just as the enormous fist was about to strike, he pointed his fingers like a sword and gently tapped the core of the twisted humanoid aggregate—the most chaotic and concentrated area of energy in the chest cavity.
"Analysis complete. The structure is fragile, there is an energy conflict, and the core logic chain is broken and chaotic."
"Disperse."
There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a soft sound, like a bubble bursting.
The enormous, menacing fungus-humanoid aggregate froze in place, like a sandcastle stripped of all its support.
Immediately afterwards, the countless mushroom fragments that made up its body lost their invisible cohesive force and scattered all over the ground with a clatter, turning back into a pile of lifeless remains and scraps of flesh.
The two swirling spore vortexes instantly dissipated and disappeared into the air.
The combined negative energy surge dissipated abruptly, as if its source had been severed.
The rift valley returned to its deathly silence, as if the terrifying humanoid amalgam had never existed.
Linde slowly withdrew his finger, looking at the pile of completely lifeless fragments on the ground with a cold gaze.
(Not a true creation of life, but a "corpse puppet" forcibly driven using residual biomass and meager energy. The controller... has an extremely deep understanding of the fungus's biological structure and energy network, and can exert influence remotely.)
(This method of manipulation partially matches the characteristics of "underground whispers." However, the ability to gather scattered debris to this extent and imbue it with preliminary attack commands indicates that the source of these "whispers" is not entirely dormant.)
His gaze was directed towards the deeper, darker part of the rift valley, where the unusual fluctuations originated.
"It seems we're not far from the 'guests'."
Linde strode forward, ignoring the once-cold remains of the mushroom beast beneath his feet, and steadily walked towards the depths of the rift, into the darkness that held the secrets of the evil god.
His figure, bathed in the interplay of faint fluorescent light and deep shadows, appeared all the more upright and solitary, like a judge approaching the final mystery.
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