Right after that, amid a series of strange noises that emerged within the deafening swallowing sound, the swallowing sound gradually quieted down, and even the strange noises from the beginning disappeared.
“What’s going on?” Shen Ge tried using his Specter Eye to look into the darkness ahead, but he could only see the pervasive black mist of specter energy. He found no trace of the specter.
The one that had made that deafening swallowing sound just now was definitely a specter — very likely the specter maintaining this distorted space. Shen Ge’s shots had clearly enraged it. Judging by how frenzied the swallowing sound had been, it was obviously about to fight him, yet it suddenly stopped because of a strange noise.
That strange sound resembled the chirping of cicadas. Mixed into the deafening swallowing, it gave Shen Ge the illusion of “ringing ears.”
Just as Shen Ge was puzzling over it, a series of “papapa” sounds echoed through the space as fluorescent lights were turned on, and the entire space “lit up.”
This kind of “brightness” was very eerie. It was as if the ceiling itself was emitting light — no lamps, no light source whatsoever. It simply felt like the ceiling was “bright,” like the sky.
If Shen Ge hadn’t known he had gone hundreds of meters underground through “Collapse,” he would have thought he was still on the surface — that what was a few meters above him wasn’t a ceiling, but the open sky.
As the ceiling lit up, the whole space became bright and open, but the black mist of specter energy was spreading at a speed visible to the naked eye, diffusing through the entire space.
Even when Shen Ge activated his Specter Eye to try to see through the black mist, everything still looked foggy. He couldn’t make out what was inside the mist at all.
Just then, Shen Ge’s Specter Eye suddenly caught a figure flash by within the mist. The shadow was terrifyingly tall — feet on the ground, head touching the ceiling. By rough estimate, it was at least four or five meters tall.
“A strange person?”
Forget about that kind of physique — even the environment alone ruled out the option of it being human. As for whether it was a specter or a strange person, that was impossible to determine.
“Is this trying to lure me into the mist zone?” Shen Ge thought for a moment. To be safe, he didn’t rashly follow it in. After all, according to the system’s prompt, the specter hidden here was a high-rank specter about to mutate into Rank 7. Just the black mist of specter energy it released was enough to block Shen Ge’s specter domain. He had to be even more careful.
Shen Ge took out the Specter-Slaying Revolver and was about to fire a few shots to scout the way, but found that the dark shadow moving deeper into the mist zone had vanished in the blink of an eye.
All around was silent. He couldn’t hear a single sound. Shen Ge could even clearly hear his own slowed breathing.
This feeling was very eerie. Anyone with claustrophobia would probably suffocate to death the next second, as if the entire space was constantly compressing.
The mist zone kept expanding. Shen Ge had only two choices before him: one, step into the mist zone and chase that spectral figure; two, first move away from the mist zone and explore.
Shen Ge chose the latter. On one hand, after his specter domain’s characteristics were neutralized by the specter energy released by the master of this space, it was in a “failed” state. On the other hand, the opponent’s specter energy seemed to faintly suppress his own — otherwise it wouldn’t have given Shen Ge that hallucination-like sense of oppression.
Shen Ge had rarely encountered this feeling since the “Misfortune Incident.” Part of the credit went to the system, and part to the Red Mist Armor and Little Seven.
Moreover, even if he fell under the influence of specter-energy hallucinations, Little Seven could still serve as the last line of defense — a physical wake-up call, or something like that.
“Phew.”
Shen Ge let out a long breath, steadied his mind, and tried to focus without paying attention to those sounds that were being infinitely amplified to influence his consciousness and judgment.
The mist zone was spreading fast. After walking for a while, Shen Ge had to start running, but after more than half an hour, not only had he not seen the end, he hadn’t even found any terrain changes in the space — let alone an exit like a “door.”
Just then, Shen Ge seemed to hear a conversation beside his ear. The voices were intermittent. They felt clear, yet he couldn’t make out what they were saying.
Shen Ge stopped and looked around. He didn’t see anyone else, but the voices were like whispers right next to his ear.
If he closed his eyes, it felt like they were right beside him, talking.
Shen Ge frowned and continued forward with the Specter-Slaying Revolver in hand.
Suddenly, Shen Ge felt his vision blur. He seemed to see many figures walking around in the mist zone. They appeared to be in a huge laboratory — some picking up instruments from lab benches to operate them, some controlling some large machine, and some gathered in twos and threes discussing.
The flickering scenes in the mist zone gave Shen Ge a sense of déjà vu, but for a moment he couldn’t remember where he had seen them before.
Then Shen Ge’s vision blurred again. When he came to his senses, he found his body was walking forward uncontrollably — about to step into the mist zone…
Shen Ge forcibly released a large amount of specter energy, trying to break through the invisible restraint. The air before his eyes trembled and twisted at this moment, as if about to be torn apart.
“Heh, I almost got my mind controlled just like that from a moment of carelessness. These Rank 6 specters really are none to be trifled with.” After forcibly breaking through the specter energy controlling him, Shen Ge couldn’t help but frown. Clearly, the hallucination’s influence here was much greater than he had imagined.
Nothing was strange about anything appearing in a specter space — let alone hallucinations. Before, Shen Ge had triple-layered protection and didn’t have this kind of trouble. But now, facing a specter of the same rank and having lost two layers of defense, he could be affected by the opponent’s specter energy if he wasn’t careful. It forced him to be even more cautious.
A Rank 6 specter, placed in any city, would be a destruction-level disaster. Only Shen Ge could, while directly clashing with a specter, consider how to find it and kill it.
“Kill a Rank 6 specter” — forget the whole world; even in the Great Celestial Dynasty, which was far ahead in anti-specter strength, it was still a very “niche” phrase.
“After moving away from the mist zone, the mind-control effect weakened a lot. But this also shows the opponent can’t wait to drag me into the mist zone.”
Because of this, Shen Ge couldn’t let the opponent have its way. He immediately sped up, moving away from the mist zone while trying to find an exit.
Another half hour passed. Since the entire space had no reference points other than the mist zone, Shen Ge felt like he had been running in place the whole time.
At this point, as a Rank 6 strange person, more than half of the specter energy in his body had been consumed. It was clear that the specter hidden in the specter space was constantly eroding him with specter energy.
Without the protection of the system — this primordial specter cell’s specter energy — Shen Ge would probably have long been completely lost in the specter space’s hallucinations and dragged into the mist zone.
“Stalling like this isn’t a solution either…” Shen Ge still had a few Mental Apples in hand, but who knew how long he’d be trapped here.
Rather than being worn down by the opponent, it was better to switch roles and wear the opponent down himself!
Shen Ge took out a Mental Apple and held it by his mouth. Then he raised his hand toward the empty space ahead. After a moment’s thought, he shifted his target from the black mist spreading behind him and the eerily glowing ceiling above to the latter. He raised his palm toward the glowing ceiling.
“Collapse!”
Shen Ge frantically released the specter energy within him, forcibly expanding his specter domain. As the opponent’s specter energy neutralized it, he kept releasing more.
The entire space rapidly distorted under the collision of two Rank 6 specter energies. The whole space seemed to twist and spin like a twisted dough twist.
With a violent shaking, a large chunk was torn open in the ground, and then a large amount of black liquid flowed out from the gap in the ground!
It was like cutting a giant beast’s leg with a knife — after slicing off a big chunk of flesh, blood gushed out and instantly spilled across the ground.
The difference was that the blood surging from the ground was black and very viscous.
“Well well, rich enough to… drip oil?” Shen Ge gritted his teeth, enduring the specter energy consumption. Even though he had already eaten a Mental Apple, the consumption was far greater than he had imagined.
[Warning!]
[Warning!]
[Warning!]
[Detected a very powerful specter energy reaction. Host, please find a way to escape this highly contaminated area immediately to prevent being affected by the opponent’s specter energy!]
“?
System, are you blind? I’ve been trapped here for almost a few hours. If I could escape, I’d have left long ago. Did you really need to remind me specially?
Fortunately, Shen Ge was currently suppressed by the opponent’s surging specter energy. Otherwise, he would have at least cursed the system a few times — or at the very least made it sing a song.
Complaints aside, at least from the life-loving system’s prompt, it was clear that the black blood surging from underground was indeed very dangerous.
But no matter what, Shen Ge’s attack had at least worked. It was better than being “worn to death” in this maze.
“Wait, underground?”
Shen Ge’s peripheral vision caught the black blood gushing from the crack ahead. He suddenly thought of a question… Had he gotten the direction wrong?
Underground was the key?
Shen Ge immediately shifted the target of “Collapse” from the ceiling to the ground. Feeling the tear of “Collapse,” the crack was quickly torn wider, gushing even more black blood.
Then, with a series of “puchi puchi” sounds, “toads” that looked like they were possessed by Muk — three to five meters tall — kept jumping out from the ground cracks.
“Gulu.”
“Gulu.”
Shen Ge glanced with his Specter Eye. These “toads” were actually Rank 2 specters. Their specter energy was the same as the black mist in the mist zone — presumably from the same “master.”
This confirmed once again that he had “dug a hole” right into a specter’s belly. But Rank 2 specters, no matter how many, couldn’t pose a real threat to Shen Ge.
The appearance of these Rank 2 specter toads clearly wasn’t meant to eat Shen Ge. They only needed to interfere with him somewhat. Once Shen Ge got distracted and his specter energy release fluctuated, putting him at a disadvantage, the hidden specter would seize the opportunity. By then, once Shen Ge’s specter energy was suppressed, it wouldn’t be so easy to deploy his specter domain again.
But… who was Shen Ge?
Forget multitasking — even twenty tasks at once was nothing to him. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to complain about the system’s incompetence at every key moment in battle.
Seeing the specter toads approach his specter domain, Shen Ge focused on releasing specter energy to consume the specter space while simultaneously using “Collapse” to stuff the specter toads back underground.
Thus, an eerie scene appeared on the surrounding open ground: specter toads kept jumping out from the gushing black blood, only to be shoved back underground by an invisible force.
It was fun, but Shen Ge’s specter energy couldn’t withstand this kind of consumption. He had to find a breakthrough point before his remaining specter energy ran out.
“Fine, you won’t let me out? Then no one gets out!” Shen Ge poured all his remaining specter energy into the characteristic “No Exit.” The No Exit specter domain released an unprecedented impact that rapidly spread in all directions — as if no matter how vast this specter space was, it could cover it all.
The dual-domain combo of “Formless” + “No Exit” was something Shen Ge had used many times. Although it put some pressure on him, he was very practiced at it.
But the current problem was that there was still a hidden Rank 6 specter contending with him in the unseen. Fortunately, Shen Ge was used to multitasking. He could fight the specter with specter energy while controlling the deployment of both the Formless and No Exit domains, and also use “Collapse” and “Formless Barrier.”
Seeing that his specter energy was about to bottom out, he decided to go all out at the last moment, releasing “Collapse” at full power toward the ground beneath his feet.
The next second, the ground beneath Shen Ge’s feet gave way and he fell downward, plunging into endless viscous black blood — as if falling into a sea formed of black blood, sinking toward the bottom.
[Warning!]
[Warning!]
[Warning!]
[Detected that the surrounding black blood of specter energy has very strong corrosive properties. The host’s current physical body cannot withstand the corrosion of this specter energy. Please find a way to escape this place immediately!]
The system’s urgent prompts rang out again. As the primordial specter itself, it could be this cowardly — Shen Ge had really seen it all.
“Shut up, you!” Shen Ge couldn’t help but curse. But fortunately, he had prepared in advance. Before his specter energy ran out, he deployed his dual specter domains, releasing No Exit and Formless Barrier ahead of time.
At this moment, Shen Ge’s body was wrapped in the Formless Barrier and wasn’t in direct contact with the viscous black blood. But his specter energy was almost bottomed out, and the Formless Barrier was about to fail.
Yet Shen Ge wasn’t panicked. Instead, he felt as calm as riding an underwater sightseeing elevator. He stood calmly in the “transparent coffin” condensed by the Formless Barrier, complaining about the system’s incompetence while taking out a Mental Apple to munch on. While replenishing his specter energy, he opened his Specter Eye and looked around.
Now he could confirm he was inside the belly of that hidden Rank 6 specter. As for which part, he had no idea.
Even if it wasn’t the “hidden specter” shown in the system’s crisis mission notification, it should be one of the two specters he had scanned at the very beginning.
But no matter which one it was, it was now on Shen Ge’s hunt list. He was determined to complete the crisis mission, and he didn’t want to miss the high-rank specter kill reward either.
Not to mention, with this kind of “shielding” ability and the ability to create such a unique specter space — if the system could devour it and develop this ability, combining it with No Exit, then “No Exit” as his main characteristic combat power would definitely reach another level.
But those were things for later. Right now, Shen Ge first had to confirm which part of the specter he was in, and find a way to accurately locate the “heart.” Against this kind of high-rank specter, destroying the “heart” was the only way!
