The system’s warning ended, and the ground ahead split open into a massive fissure. One after another, enormous pitch-black tentacles extended from underground, as if some indescribable Great Old One had risen from the depths.
“Holy shit?”
Was this a full-course meal right off the bat?
Shen Ge had assumed this Sixth-Tier specter was hiding underground to avoid drawing the attention of the Seventh-Tier specter—that it absolutely wouldn’t emerge from the ground until it completed its Seventh-Tier mutation. Who would have thought it would come out just like that?
Where’s your dignity as a specter?
Shen Ge didn’t know about other specters, but at the very least, this Sixth-Tier specter had no dignity to speak of. As the earthquakes intensified, more and more fissures appeared on the ground, which meant more and more black blood gushing out and more and more spectral tentacles extending above ground.
Looking out, there was a dense, massive expanse of them. The feeling was strange—like watching all the hairs on a monkey’s arm suddenly stand on end at once.
Some of the longer tentacles shot straight into the sky, piercing into the thick cloud layer. A second later, the dark, crow-black clouds in the sky began to churn, as if a massive rainstorm was about to break. The black blood gushing from underground gathered into thick clouds of mist at a visible rate.
“This much black blood?” Shen Ge felt something was off about the “volume” of black blood erupting from underground—like the specter had been slashed right across a major artery. Otherwise, there was no way it could spray out this much blood.
But these black tentacles all belonged to that Sixth-Tier specter. There was no reason for a specter to be gravely wounded and near death while its tentacles remained this active.
Could it be that the two specters shown on the [Map] were actually a single fusion-type specter about to merge together? The reason it was hiding underground was that the two specters were still fighting over final control of the body, and Shen Ge’s appearance had completely broken the original balance, causing the stalemate between the two specters to tip?
Shen Ge was a little surprised at his own “bold guess,” but it was undoubtedly the explanation closest to the current situation.
Bang!
Suddenly, with a loud crash, a pitch-black tentacle shot out from the rising mist nearby and slammed toward Shen Ge’s position.
When it was less than five meters from Shen Ge, the tentacle suddenly opened a “mouth,” revealing row after row of disgusting teeth as it lunged to bite him.
But when it bit toward the ground, Shen Ge had already vanished from his spot, causing that terrifying tentacle-mouth to bite nothing but air.
Shen Ge reappeared at the roadside, holding the Specter-Slaying Revolver and firing “bang bang bang” in rapid succession at the tentacle. All the shots landed in the same area, trying to use the revolver’s penetrating power to directly sever the tentacle that had locked onto him.
However, the tentacle Shen Ge severed fell to the ground, and eight octopus-like legs immediately grew from the severed end. Shaking its disgusting big-mouthed head, it charged at Shen Ge.
“Well now, you can split in two and survive on your own?” Shen Ge couldn’t help but complain. Then he raised a hand, deployed the Formless Spectral Domain, and used “Collapse” on the incoming specter.
Boom!
Since Shen Ge wasn’t inside this Sixth-Tier specter’s body at the moment, and the surrounding black blood hadn’t affected him either, his spectral energy coverage was completely unimpeded. A tiny specter mutated from a tentacle naturally couldn’t withstand the Formless Spectral Domain’s effect and was immediately “Collapsed” back into the ground.
Whether it was Shen Ge’s fight with this spectral tentacle that drew the attention of the surrounding tentacles, or whether he’d been locked onto from the very start, more tentacles now came at him.
However, as Shen Ge continued walking along the roadside toward the center of the quarantine zone, the tentacles attacking from both sides were all forced back into the ground by the Formless Spectral Domain’s “Collapse.” Only some remained swaying above ground, paired with those disgusting big mouths ringed with teeth—looking exactly like a certain song:
“I have a beautiful wish—when I grow up, I can plant the sun…”
And as Shen Ge walked forward, spectral “sunflowers” with gaping mouths were being planted into the soil one after another around him. Quite fitting, actually.
The tentacles came fiercely, but under the Formless Spectral Domain’s influence, they couldn’t even get close to Shen Ge—instead, they were made into flower arrangements.
Shen Ge simply spread his spectral domain outward quickly, setting his sights on the bewildered mist, wanting to probe the Sixth-Tier specter’s true nature.
The impact force from the Formless Spectral Domain’s “Collapse” was like a sharp knife stabbing into the spectral-energy black mist, rapidly tearing it open and trying to shatter it.
However, the thick mist had barely dispersed before it quickly gathered again. Even so, in the instant the mist gathered, Shen Ge saw what was inside it!
Tentacles—countless tentacles. It was as if the spectral-energy black mist was made entirely of clustered tentacles.
[Warning!]
[Warning!]
[The Sixth-Tier specter is at a critical moment in completing its Seventh-Tier mutation. The surrounding environment has developed a severe corrosive reaction due to spectral energy influence. Host is advised to find a way to stop the specter from completing its mutation, or immediately leave this area to avoid spectral energy corrosion.]
The system’s notification had just sounded when the spectral-energy black mist torn open by the Formless Spectral Domain rapidly converged, swallowing both Shen Ge’s Formless Spectral Domain and Shen Ge himself.
“Spectral Eye!”
Shen Ge closed his eyes and opened the Spectral Eye on his forehead. Focusing his attention, he looked around through the Spectral Eye. Although the entire street district’s appearance was somewhat affected by the spectral-energy black mist, he could still make out the general layout.
More black blood was gushing out. The spectral toads emerging from the black blood were like an overturned ant nest. The tentacles were more like thick fur—just looking at them made one’s scalp tingle.
Then the ground beneath Shen Ge’s feet suddenly split open. The spectral-energy black mist seemed to transform into a giant hand, yanking him tightly down into the earth.
Shen Ge’s reaction was extremely fast. He immediately retracted the Formless Spectral Domain and switched to condensing a Formless Barrier around himself for protection.
Without the protection of the Red Mist Battle Armor, he needed to be more cautious. On top of that, the system had repeatedly warned that the spectral energy here had strong corrosive properties. Even with the system’s protection, he could very well suffer corrosive reactions and hallucinations—he had to take precautions.
After nearly ten minutes of free-falling, Shen Ge felt himself land on a surface hard as rock. The rock and the Formless Barrier collided with a loud crash.
This kind of “texture” was a first for Shen Ge since being swallowed by specters. In the past, it was always a soft, squishy “floor,” or else a green, oily “swimming pool.” Either flesh walls or stomach acid—generally speaking, you could immediately tell you’d been swallowed into a creature’s belly.
But this time the feeling was clearly different—like crashing into hard rock buried deep underground. For a moment, Shen Ge couldn’t figure out what could be so hard inside a specter’s belly that it could crack even the sturdy Formless Barrier on impact.
Shen Ge didn’t hesitate to activate the triple-trait state of “Formless + Silent + Untraceable” to avoid being directly noticed by the Sixth-Tier specter.
Then Shen Ge took out a flashlight and swept it around, discovering he was indeed inside an underground rock cavern. His position was on a platform jutting out from the rock wall, and below was a bottomless “abyss.”
Thick spectral-energy black mist drifted above the “abyss.” This specially made spectral-energy flashlight had its light source blocked after about ten-plus meters down—clearly abnormal.
Shen Ge closed his eyes and opened his “Spectral Eye” to look below. He saw black, viscous blood still flowing down the mist-shrouded rock walls, and at the very bottom was a black blood pool, bubbling with blood blisters—absolutely disgusting to look at.
Shen Ge took out the butcher knife and slashed at a small protruding rock on the wall. The “rock” was far more fragile than he’d imagined—it was cut clean through with a single strike.
Then, with a “pfft,” black blood sprayed from the severed section, flowed onto the stone platform, and dripped down toward the “abyss” below.
What looked like “rock” was actually the specter’s flesh and blood—just that under the spectral-energy black mist’s influence, its hardness and appearance were close to rock.
Shen Ge lifted his foot and kicked the “rock” he’d cut off down. Under the Spectral Eye’s gaze, this chunk of flesh fell into the black blood pool at the bottom of the “abyss.”
The next second, with a “pfft,” a spark of fire boiled up from the black blood pool, and that “spark” instantly transformed into a massive mouth that swallowed the rock chunk whole.
“Well now, you won’t even spare your own flesh and blood, huh?” Shen Ge said in surprise.
This specter was vastly different from any specter he’d encountered before, once again reminding Shen Ge of his earlier guess: these were two high-tier specters fighting over control of a merging body, which was why there was this strange sense of “mutual rejection.”
After all, although specters would devour each other’s spectral energy when coveting a同类’s power, they weren’t so desperate as to eat themselves.
At present, Shen Ge had two options. First, use the usual conventional tactics for dealing with high-tier specters—find the specter’s “heart” and destroy it.
The second option was to find the “conflict point” between the two high-tier specters, then find a way to amplify that conflict, making their contradiction even fiercer. Then he could sit back and watch the tigers fight, playing the role of the fisherman reaping the benefits.
Because if these two high-tier specters really were merging, then the possibility of complete assimilation was extremely small. It was more about seeing who would be the final victor and take the dominant position.
So the first thing to do was find a way to “distinguish” the two high-tier specters—determine whether the black blood had already merged together, or whether, for example, the black blood was one part and the “rock” was another specter. Find a way to separate them on a conscious level despite their mostly-merged state, to make subsequent operations easier.
Shen Ge recalled how, when dealing with the Sixth-Tier advanced fusion specter before, its body had completely merged with an entire building—the building was directly embedded into its flesh.
So much so that during Shen Ge’s final “escape,” he could see traces of buildings on the flesh walls and even enter some “rooms” to explore.
Thinking of this, Shen Ge carried his butcher knife to the “rock wall,” picked a spot, and broke it open. Sure enough, another large amount of black blood gushed out.
This time, along with the black blood came disgusting black bugs. Shen Ge ignored the black blood and bugs, using the Formless Barrier to isolate them before continuing to dig deeper.
And the butcher knife was trait equipment—”Indestructible” was actually a form of spectral energy attack. The more spectral energy Shen Ge injected as its user, the sharper the butcher knife became.
This was also why many spectral-energy weapons in the Special Strategy Department showed no particular strength in the hands of spectral agents, but became “divine artifacts” once they reached Shen Ge.
Because spectral agents were “humans”—they didn’t possess spectral energy, so they could only draw out a small fraction of spectral-energy equipment’s effects.
By comparison, monsters who possessed half spectral cells could draw out far greater effects from spectral-energy equipment.
But none of them could compare to Shen Ge, because Shen Ge had perfectly fused Progenitor Specter cells within his body. Put simply, Shen Ge was the “Progenitor Specter.” The spectral energy in his body was the purest, and the effects triggered by injecting it into spectral-energy equipment were also better.
This was also why, when Shen Ge first got the butcher knife, apart from the “Indestructible” trait, he couldn’t even cut through a First or Second-Tier specter’s defense, let alone slay specters.
It wasn’t that the butcher knife “Indestructible” was weak—it was that Shen Ge’s rating was too low and the spectral energy in his body was limited. At that time, he was only slightly stronger than a spectral agent.
But as his rating increased and the spectral energy in his body grew, the amount he injected when using the butcher knife “Indestructible” increased, making the blade sharper and sharper. Forget cleanly severing Second and Third-Tier specter heads—even breaking through a Fourth-Tier specter’s spectral-energy defense barrier was no problem.
After Shen Ge broke deep into the “rock wall,” he awakened the system and said, “System, scan the surroundings.”
“Scanning.”
[Consuming 100 system points. Beginning to mark targets containing spectral energy within a 10-kilometer radius—]
[Marking successful.]
Shen Ge opened the [Map] and took a look. He was at the center of a giant red dot, and the surroundings were densely packed with all kinds of red dots—almost completely lacking any reference value.
“This many specters?” Shen Ge frowned slightly, then suddenly noticed that a large portion of the red dots shown on the [Map] were inside the rock walls.
This further confirmed his earlier guess. So he once again used the butcher knife to chop at the wall—it felt like using the knife as a pickaxe, trying to dig through the “rock wall.”
Shen Ge dug toward the positions on the [Map] where red dots were marked inside the rock walls. As he dug, he eventually hit things characteristic of modern construction—rebar, iron frames, metal walls, and the like.
“Just as I thought!” Shen Ge had been wondering why, when he’d used “Collapse” to go underground earlier, he hadn’t been able to find the underground research institute.
It wasn’t that he’d been unlucky and teleported straight into the specter’s belly—it was that the fusion specter’s fusion target was precisely his destination:
The underground research institute.
“Well now, no wonder I couldn’t find the underground research institute—it was in your belly all along. So that means all I have to do is find the institute’s main control room, grab the monster research reports, then set off another super explosion and blow up the specter from the inside out—that might actually work wonders?”
“Ugh, I really want world nuclear peace.”
“System, give me a nuke.”
Faced with such a “physical” request from Shen Ge, the system naturally wouldn’t respond. But soon Shen Ge wouldn’t have much chance to joke around, because he’d dug into the specter’s major artery.
After Shen Ge dug open the area behind the rebar, it was like striking oil—a massive amount of black blood immediately gushed out.
And accompanying this black blood was a giant, disgusting tentacle-mouth ringed with rows and rows of teeth!
“Fuck, could the other specter be inside the Sixth-Tier specter’s blood?”
