On the body of the thousand-meter-tall alien aggregate, countless twisted limbs flailed across its surface, and countless roaring maws opened and closed.
A pure will of destruction spread like a tsunami. The air grew as thick as setting concrete, suffocating everyone beneath its weight.
Bai Yuekui, Marc, Ran Bing... everyone felt an unprecedented sense of suffocation and despair.
Before this colossal monstrosity that warped space and crushed minds, all their previous battles seemed as insignificant as child's play.
However, the bloated figure stepping out of the plague vortex completely ignored this terrifying coercion.
The Great Unclean One tilted its head back, looking up at the towering aggregate. The kindly smile on its fat-laden face grew even more radiant.
It let out a burst of joyous laughter that sounded like a bubbling swamp.
That laughter intertwined with the surrounding aura of rot and decay, creating an extremely bizarre contrast.
Ran Bing and Xia Dou felt their scalps go numb. How was this reinforcements? This was clearly a terror even more incomprehensible than the Pola Beasts.
"Roar—!"
The aggregate unleashed an earth-shattering roar, a sonic wave formed by the shrieks of billions of insects.
Countless pitch-black tentacles made of insect swarms, carrying the power to tear through steel and mind-corroding soul shocks, smashed into the Great Unclean One like a violent storm.
The Great Unclean One neither dodged nor evaded. It even opened its arms wide, as if embracing a long-lost child.
Squelch! Splat!
The physical attacks could only pierce the constantly bursting and healing pustules on its body, splattering foul-smelling pus.
As for the soul shocks capable of driving heroes to madness, washing over its body felt like nothing more than a gentle breeze on a scorching summer day.
The Great Unclean One even narrowed its eyes in comfort, letting out a satisfied rumble from its throat before releasing a loud, echoing burp.
Finally, it moved.
It slowly swung the rusted, giant curved blade in its hand.
But where the blade passed, it did not stir up a storm of blood and gore.
Clusters of yellow-green motes of light drifted leisurely from the edge of the blade, like dandelion seeds catching the wind.
The motes of light landed lightly on the massive body of the Mana aggregate, silently melting into it.
The insects tainted by the light were not harmed in the slightest; instead, it was as if they had been injected with the most potent catalyst.
Their carapaces grew even more bloated, oozing a sickly, oily sheen as they began to frantically multiply and mutate.
Some sprouted additional maws, while others grew swollen fungal sacs.
Their movements completely broke free from the control of the Mana Giant's core will.
For the first time, the core of the aggregate felt fear.
He realized that his body was being eroded and assimilated by a higher, far more bizarre law of "life."
He could feel an absurd emotion called "compassion" growing wildly within every single one of his cells.
His struggles and his fury only served as catalysts, accelerating the process of being literally burst apart by this "compassion."
Bai Yuekui's pupils contracted violently. She tried to use her understanding of Source Essence to analyze the Great Unclean One's power.
But all she saw was an incomprehensible chaos.
It was rot, decay, and death, yet bizarrely... it contained the most maddening, primal, and vibrant vitality.
This was a realm entirely beyond her comprehension.
In the distance, Bai Yuetian, the man beside Ian who had just obtained a handsome new body, stared blankly at the scene.
"What... is that... thing..." he muttered to himself.
His newly established worldview was being shattered into pieces by the absurd yet divine "slaughter" unfolding before his eyes.
"No... stop... stop!"
Lusheng's will let out a final, mournful cry.
But the only response he received was the Great Unclean One's increasingly joyous laughter.
Finally, the thousand-meter-tall Mana aggregate lost all resistance amidst its silent expansion.
It no longer roared or struggled, turning into a giant, writhing mass of living flesh that continuously multiplied and emitted a strange fragrance.
The Great Unclean One stopped its "blessing" in complete satisfaction.
It patted its split belly, and the massive, constantly chewing mouth suddenly opened wide.
Whoosh—!
An irresistible, immense suction force erupted from that bottomless maw.
Like a whale inhaling the ocean, or a gale sweeping away scattered clouds.
The mountain-like mass of aggregate flesh, along with Lusheng's consciousness inside it, was completely and smoothly sucked into its massive stomach.
The rumbling vanished.
The roaring disappeared.
The entire underground cavern instantly fell into a dead silence.
All that remained was the Great Unclean One's satisfied chewing and the nauseating gurgling of its writhing intestines.
It patted its round belly and let out a contented burp. A wisp of yellow-green gas, mixed with disgusting slime, slowly drifted out from its stomach.
"Blergh—!"
Xia Dou could no longer hold it in. She bent over on the spot and began to vomit violently.
Ran Bing's face was as pale as paper. She covered her mouth tightly, her body trembling uncontrollably.
Marc and Bai Yuetian wore blank expressions, their eyes hollow, having completely lost the ability to think.
The Great Unclean One paid no mind to these insignificant mortals.
It slowly turned around and once again bowed deeply and respectfully to Ian, as if waiting for its next instruction.
Then, rays of golden light began to emerge from its writhing belly, piercing through the thick fat and rotting flesh.
It was as if something was about to break out of its shell... from within that most foul of incubators.
The golden light on its belly grew brighter and denser.
Finally, with a muffled pop that sounded like a heartbeat, the large mouth on its belly suddenly snapped open.
But what spewed out was not foul-smelling flesh and pus.
Instead, it was a torrent of green life energy, so dense it had materialized, mixing the auras of decay and rebirth.
A brand new "Mana Creature" was gently "spat" out from the Great Unclean One's stomach.
It was no longer a twisted fleshy tube, nor an ugly aggregate of insects.
It was a giant Divine Tree taking root in the earth.
Its trunk possessed the warm texture of white jade, flowing with golden-green sap that resembled the very essence of life.
Among the lush branches hung countless exotic flowers and strange plants of various shapes, constantly opening and closing. They emitted a bizarre scent that mixed the fragrance of soil with the sweet stench of corpses.
In the core of the Divine Tree, within a softly glowing heartwood, Lusheng's consciousness had not perished.
He was no longer that cold bystander, but had completely merged with this majestic, compassionate life force.
He felt an unprecedented sense of "completion" and "joy."
It was a cycle, a rebirth—an eternal decay and an eternal bloom.
With the "Divine Tree" at the center, green life energy swept across the entire underground cavern like a tsunami.
The hard rock walls became overgrown with various glowing mushrooms and vines.
Crystal-clear spring water, radiating the aura of life, gushed from the dried ground.
In just a few minutes, the entire dead, oppressive underground cavern transformed into a vibrant, bizarre underground world.