Pfft!
The moment Shen Ge landed this time, he was immediately hit by an intense burning sensation. There had originally been an invisible barrier cushioning him below, but it was instantly burned through the moment it touched the corrosive slime beneath.
“The ghost energy intensity has increased?” Shen Ge didn’t have time to think much. He immediately condensed an invisible barrier in midair and jumped onto it. His left foot sole had been burned, so he quickly pulled out healing spray and gave it a few sprays.
He hadn’t caught the ghost, but ended up losing a pair of shoes instead.
Standing on the invisible barrier, Shen Ge looked around and noticed that the layout inside the space seemed to have changed somewhat. The rotten flesh covering the walls was thicker, the viscous substance on the ground was deeper, and most importantly, this area also had large patches of ghost-energy black mist drifting through it.
“The twisted space inside this ghost’s belly seems more complicated than I imagined. Is it because two high-tier ghosts are fighting over final control of the fusion?” Shen Ge said in a low voice.
Shen Ge shone his ghost-energy flashlight around. In the distance, the originally blood-red rotten flesh walls had turned pitch black, as if they had merged with the fungal carpet on the ground.
The blood-red viscous substance on the ground had increased, and it was clearly visible flowing out from the walls, bubbling with disgusting red blisters.
The freakish humanoids that had hatched from those blood eggs also seemed afraid of the bloody viscous substance in the pool. Most of them crawled in the areas covered by the fungal carpet—on the walls, in the corners of the ground—keeping far away from the “blood pool” in the middle. There were also some reckless ones that walked toward the blood pool, but they were quickly corroded until not even scraps remained.
Going up wasn’t an option, so Shen Ge could only try exploring in other directions. Maintaining his three-trait state, he arrived beside the wall where the most freaks had gathered.
Holding his Ghost-Destroying Revolver, Shen Ge planned to take out a few freaks to expose the wall and try breaking through it to see if he could leave this space. But before he could act, those freaks seemed to sense something and swarmed toward his position, forming a wall of bodies that blocked everything completely.
The behavior of these freaks undoubtedly proved Shen Ge’s guess correct—they had gathered here clearly to shield their “master.”
Shen Ge no longer hesitated. The Ghost-Destroying Revolver combined with the Pig-Slaying Knife began clearing the area. Even with the interference of the ghost-energy black mist and the surrounding environment, these blood-egg freaks stood no chance of blocking his attacks.
A few minutes later, Shen Ge had cleared out a large number of low-tier blood-egg freaks. At that moment, the wall covered by the fungal carpet bulged with disgusting pustules one after another. When they burst open, they turned out to be new blood eggs.
“Hm?” Shen Ge visibly paused. He had originally thought these blood eggs were all produced by the Alien Queen upstairs. He hadn’t expected the wall to produce them too?
Wait!
Shen Ge had a very bad feeling. Perhaps it wasn’t that the wall could also produce blood eggs—perhaps this wall was the Alien Queen herself.
He had gone around in a big circle, and had actually been swallowed by the Alien Queen?
“When did that happen? Was it when the ghost-energy black mist affected my mind, or when I passed through that ghostly passage?”
“Or maybe the Alien Queen on the ceiling before wasn’t the ‘main body’ at all—just a part of the body—and this space is the Alien Queen?”
The more Shen Ge thought about it, the more alarmed he became. Because from this perspective, he had picked the wrong target from the very beginning. He thought he was fighting the boss’s main body, but was actually trapped inside the Five-Finger Mountain, fighting against a finger.
“I can’t waste time here. This thing is clearly trying to trap me here and drain my ghost energy!” Shen Ge focused and covered the wounds carved out by the Ghost-Destroying Revolver and Pig-Slaying Knife with his invisible ghost domain. The instant the ghost domain slammed into the wall, it immediately encountered a powerful resistance.
“Collapse!”
Shen Ge concentrated all his power on the invisible ghost domain. The power of “Collapse” was like a heavy hammer, violently striking the wound on the wall.
Under Shen Ge’s burst of ghost energy, the wall exploded with a spray of blood with a “bang,” actually smashing open a large hole—even the blood-egg freaks crawling on the fungal carpet nearby were blown away by the shockwave.
The wall was healing. Behind the hole seemed to be a bottomless abyss. Although it wasn’t clear where the hole led, going to a new place was better than being trapped here forever.
Shen Ge decisively wrapped himself in an invisible barrier, then leaped forward, using the attribute amplification effect to violently crash into the black hole.
Shen Ge felt himself fall into a dense ghost-energy black mist. It felt like floating in the universe—no obvious tendency to rise or fall, as if suspended motionless in the air.
Ghost domain!
This time Shen Ge didn’t release any single trait ability. Instead, he directly spread out his own ghost domain to try eroding this space.
The moment the ghost domain spread out, that familiar neutralizing force appeared again, as if the entire space was opposing Shen Ge.
Shen Ge knew full well how dangerous his situation was. He didn’t dare hold anything back, immediately releasing his ghost energy to the maximum. His ghost domain reached an unprecedented intensity.
Perhaps having grown used to Shen Ge’s gradual, probing releases of ghost energy, even the Alien Queen hadn’t expected Shen Ge to be so ferocious this time. A moment of hesitation caused its ghost-energy defense to be broken through. In an instant, a violent ghost-energy storm erupted throughout the pitch-black space!
The Alien Queen’s ghost energy was completely thrown into chaos by Shen Ge. He vaguely heard “pfft pfft” chewing sounds coming from the wall behind him. Without looking, he knew that after he had consumed a large amount of its ghost energy, the Alien Queen had adopted the most direct recovery method—eating the blood eggs and ghosts it had produced.
Ghosts don’t even have consciousness, let alone any “maternal love.” Its maternal love was making its sons go “crunch” in its mouth.
Meanwhile, outside the wall, the area previously covered by the fungal carpet suddenly began writhing. Then a giant mouth with fleshy petals appeared. After opening, it extended slender black tentacles one after another, rolling everything devourable—surrounding ghosts, freaks, blood eggs—into its mouth.
Through these several confrontations with the Alien Queen, Shen Ge could already confirm that the other party was the second ghost fighting the sixth-tier ghost for body control after the fusion—the hidden ghost the system had told him to find and kill.
He just wasn’t sure whether the Alien Queen was still a completely independent entity at this point, or whether it had already partially fused with the sixth-tier ghost.
If it were an independent entity, most of its body either grew on the walls or had merged with the underground research facility. And after merging with the underground research facility, the possibility of being swallowed by the sixth-tier ghost was extremely low—it seemed more like it had already begun fusing with the sixth-tier ghost.
But saying the Alien Queen had already fused with the sixth-tier ghost didn’t make sense either. After all, from what he could see, these two ghosts were in a “hostile state.” As a parasite inside the sixth-tier ghost’s body, the sixth-tier ghost couldn’t wait to devour it or drive it out—there was no way it would release ghost-energy black mist to help it locate Shen Ge.
Shen Ge could now confirm that the Alien Queen and the ghost-energy black mist filling the space came from two different ghosts—clearly the hidden ghost and the sixth-tier ghost.
“Don’t tell me these two ghosts teamed up just because an outsider like me showed up? Do ghosts even understand ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’?” Shen Ge couldn’t help but complain.
As more and more ghosts were swallowed by the Alien Queen, Shen Ge could even hear clear chewing sounds. It sounded like biting into juicy meat worms—just listening was utterly nauseating.
After the ghosts were crushed and absorbed by the Alien Queen, the giant mouth on the flesh wall began to contract, instantly digesting all those crunchy morsels.
After a large amount of energy was absorbed by the Alien Queen, the big hole Shen Ge had blasted in the wall instantly healed completely, “sealing” Shen Ge inside the pitch-black space.
In fact, the Alien Queen had tried to “squeeze” Shen Ge out, but unfortunately Shen Ge was currently deep within the core where it condensed its ghost energy, and had released his strongest ghost domain yet at the center.
The ghost energy the Alien Queen had just condensed was absorbed and scattered the moment it touched the ghost domain. It couldn’t push Shen Ge at all and could only give up.
It had originally planned to trap Shen Ge to death, but Shen Ge controlled his ghost domain to keep stirring, causing the twisted space to tear wildly. It was truly like Sun Wukong causing havoc in his sister-in-law’s belly, turning everything upside down.
Just then, Shen Ge suddenly “sensed” the end of this space—or rather, it wasn’t that he sensed it, but that his ghost domain touched an obstruction.
This time Shen Ge had released his own ghost domain. The entire domain was connected to his senses. The ghost domain was like his hand—whatever it touched immediately fed back to his brain.
Shen Ge could clearly feel that the obstruction he touched this time wasn’t the wall he had entered through. Although this space was pitch black, he had marked that wall with dream power when he came in.
Now he couldn’t sense the dream-power mark, which meant this was another direction. To be safe, Shen Ge tried to locate the dream-power aura he had left behind, and found it was far behind him.
That meant “breaking through” here would be equivalent to running the Alien Queen clean through. Even if it didn’t kill it, it might still deal a heavy blow.
Shen Ge refused to believe that this “improvised” alliance would remain firm after one side suffered a heavy blow. Once the sixth-tier ghost noticed the Alien Queen was wounded, it would definitely take the opportunity to strike.
With that thought, Shen Ge withdrew his ghost domain and formed it into a sharp blade, thrusting it toward the direction where he had detected the “obstruction.” His ghost energy dropped steadily, but it also kept accelerating the “blade.”
This violent strike stabbed into the “wall.” Shen Ge’s ghost energy hit rock bottom in an instant, but the terrifying blow still pierced through the “wall.”
Pfft—
Shen Ge felt himself “fly” out of the flesh wall, rushing into an open space. The hundred-fold attribute amplification sent him flying over a hundred meters before he crashed into another flesh wall and stopped.
Shen Ge immediately turned his ghost-energy flashlight to maximum. The beam shot out like a searchlight, sweeping around.
This was a giant “cave,” except the stalactites on the ceiling and walls—and the wall surfaces themselves—were all crimson flesh and blood. Looking closely, he could even see them trembling slightly, as if “breathing.”
This space was clearly different from the previous one. Shen Ge swept his searchlight-brand flashlight toward the direction he had flown out from. After walking a few dozen meters, he found a pitch-black wall—or more accurately, it wasn’t a “wall,” but a huge fleshy tumor covered in thick fungal carpet, its full form impossible to see.
“So this is the inside of the sixth-tier ghost’s belly, and that giant fleshy tumor is the hidden ghost… the Alien Queen?” Shen Ge already had a general understanding of the situation here. It was clearly not too different from what he had guessed.
At that moment, Shen Ge noticed that the wound the Alien Queen had received from his “blade” was healing. But the ghost-energy black mist filling this open space was taking the opportunity to surge into the hole, and some of it even gathered near the opening, preventing the tumor’s wound from healing.
“Just as I thought!”
Seeing this, Shen Ge couldn’t help but feel pleased. He sneered coldly. A beast is a beast. Even though the ghost-energy repulsion made it want to push an “outsider” like me out, once one side of this paper-thin alliance was pierced, the other side would never miss the chance to tear it apart completely.
Because this “alliance” had been an inharmonious hostile relationship from the very beginning. How could it possibly miss such a perfect opportunity to eliminate a competitor once and for all?
Two high-tier ghosts infighting was undoubtedly the outcome Shen Ge most wanted to see. He quickly withdrew his ghost domain, ate a mental apple to replenish his ghost energy, and maintained his three-trait state, trying to minimize his presence. It had a distinct “popcorn spectator” flavor to it.
It was like two cars got into an argument over a sideswipe scrape. Just as the two drivers were about to start fighting, a car nearby suddenly pulled over and rolled up its windows, wanting to watch the show through the glass.
But Shen Ge wasn’t like that. He had pulled a small stool out of his car, sat down right in front of the two drivers, draped a piece of clothing over himself, and was holding a bucket of popcorn.
This wasn’t Shen Ge being “provocative” for no reason. The main issue was that he was inside the sixth-tier ghost’s body, surrounded by the sixth-tier ghost’s ghost energy. No matter how powerful the three-trait effect was, it was ultimately built on trait abilities evolved and activated by the ghost energy released by the system. The root was still ghost energy.
Trait abilities transform ghost energy into the corresponding trait’s ability. For example, “Invisible” makes ghost energy possess the invisible trait, rendering the user invisible.
Put simply, the ghost energy covering Shen Ge’s body produced an invisible trait, which was what made him “invisible” as a person.
Soundless, traceless, and other trait abilities all produced their effects through this same method.
So here was the problem: trait abilities were ultimately manifestations of ghost energy. Therefore, Shen Ge’s three-trait state meant covering himself with three different specific types of ghost energy.
Although these ghost energies had been “trait-ized” and successfully interfered with others’ ability to see him, hear him, or sense him… people couldn’t find him, but the aura of this ghost energy, being of the same sixth-tier level, could naturally be sensed roughly by the sixth-tier ghost.
This was why Shen Ge was like someone who had draped a piece of clothing over himself and sat there watching the show. The sixth-tier ghost couldn’t see what he looked like, but it could see this “lump” of a thing.
So it was awkward. Deal with Shen Ge? The Alien Queen was currently recovering its ghost energy by devouring its own offspring, and might even take the opportunity to seize control of the fused body.
But deal with the Alien Queen? The threat this “bug” Shen Ge had demonstrated during this period far exceeded the Alien Queen’s.
The sixth-tier ghost had no intelligence and clearly couldn’t think on a deeper level. So it chose the safest approach—
Attack them both at once!
