The two demon statue guardians had been reduced to burning debris scattered across the ground. Ghostly green soul fires flickered like dying fireflies in the viscous darkness, their light fading until they extinguished completely. The hub chamber was restored to deathly silence for the moment, with only the faint sounds of the fleshy walls slowly writhing and the crackling of the Green Lotus Purification Flame burning on the demon statue remains.
The five members of the infiltration squad quickly gathered, scanning their surroundings with vigilance. The air was thick with the pure demonic energy released from the collapsed demon statues, mingling with the already heavy aura of evil, creating a nauseating stench. The Void Piercing Shuttle rested quietly behind them, its hull covered in scratches and corrosion marks, clearly no longer serviceable.
"Abandon ship. From here on, we rely on ourselves." Xiao Qi made the decisive call, waving to store the severely damaged Void Piercing Shuttle. Within this Demon Nest, the massive shuttle would only serve as an easy target.
Without the glow of the shuttle's runes, the surroundings plunged into deeper darkness. Only the dim crimson glow emanating from the fleshy walls themselves—like blood flowing through the veins of some colossal beast—provided a faint and eerie light source. That glow flickered across their faces, adding to the sinister atmosphere.
"Let's move!" Xiao Qi commanded softly, his Green Lotus Origin forming a thin aura around his body that repelled the encroaching demonic energy. He took the lead, walking toward one of the dark, unknowable passage openings at the other end of the hub chamber. Mu Xue, Third Senior Sister, and Zhao Tiezhu followed closely behind, while Second Senior Brother's "Iron Coffin" floated behind Zhao Tiezhu like a loyal adjutant.
They chose the middle passage, the one with the most intense demonic energy fluctuations.
The moment they stepped in, it felt like entering another world.
The passage was not straight but winding, like the intestine of some enormous creature. The ground beneath their feet was not solid earth but covered with an elastic, pulsating membrane that felt soft, sticky, and emitted wet squelching sounds with each step. The fleshy walls on both sides were even thicker, covered with more complex demonic patterns intertwined like nerve bundles that writhed and flickered, as if alive, releasing terrifying energy fluctuations.
More chilling still, on the walls themselves, one could occasionally see distorted, agonized human faces or beast-like masks protruding. They silently stretched their mouths open, eyes hollow and despairing, as if permanently imprisoned and fused into the Demon's Nest flesh, becoming part of its structure. Thick waves of resentment and death qi radiated from these faces, intertwining with demonic energy to form a negative force field sufficient to drive the mentally unstable to instant madness.
"Hold your minds steady!" Xiao Qi's voice transmitted through divine sense into their consciousness, carrying the unique tranquil power of the Green Lotus. Mu Xue had frost swirling around her, her Ice Heart Art operating to resist the mental corrosion. Third Senior Sister's sword heart was crystal clear, slicing through distracting thoughts. Zhao Tiezhu simply pressed forward head-on, relying on his stubborn willpower to endure. Second Senior Brother's "Iron Coffin" had runes flowing across its surface, isolating most of the spiritual interference.
The passage was not empty. Occasionally, low-level maggot-like demonic creatures could be seen burrowing through the flesh walls. Sensing the presence of living beings, they would hiss threateningly, but seemed deterred by the Green Lotus aura emanating from Xiao Qi and did not dare approach.
The deeper they went, the more spacious it became. They passed through chamber after chamber resembling "cavities." In some chambers, mountains of incompletely digested stellar debris and creature bones lay piled up, soaked in corrosive demonic fluid that hissed and reeked. Other chambers were filled with enormous, ovary-like sacs. Through their translucent walls, one could see various demonic embryos developing inside—curled up, occasionally twitching, looking eerie and repulsive.
Floating, semi-transparent resentful souls began appearing in the air. They had no consciousness, retaining only their most primal pain and wailing, drifting through the chambers like headless flies, emitting silent moans, forming waves of hair-raising spirit tides.
"These... are echoes left by worlds devoured by the Demon Nest..." Mu Xue gazed at those wailing souls, her cool eyes flickering with a trace of compassion. Even she, faced with such concentrated and overwhelming despair, felt her spirit waver.
"Record the direction of energy flow, analyze structural weaknesses." Xiao Qi said to Second Senior Brother, his voice remaining calm despite his tightly clenched fists that betrayed his inner turmoil. The scene before them, even more than the external Demon Nest, more directly displayed the Demon Lord's cruelty and the true nature of this Demon Nest—a living nightmare fortress born of destruction and devouring.
Second Senior Brother's "Iron Coffin" runes flickered rapidly as it collected data: "Energy core detected deeper within. These chambers are like... digestion and production workshops. The Demon Nest's 'metabolism' is extremely active. It's constantly 'feeding' and 'growing' itself."
Suddenly, a tremendous roar and intense energy fluctuation came from ahead!
The group immediately concealed their presence and stealthily approached. Passing through a narrow pass, the scene before them made their pupils constrict.
This was a massive central chamber, like the heart of the Demon Nest. Below was an endless expanse of churning, viscous dark-red demonic liquid, a great pool containing countless struggling, wailing resentful souls and not-yet-fully-digested remains, like a hellish sea of blood. Above the blood pool, dozens of enormous tubes composed of demonic energy and flesh floated, connected to the chamber ceiling like blood vessels, continuously channeling pure dark energy into the pool.
And at the center of the blood pool, a massive "cocoon" formed by forcibly kneading countless bones and resentful souls together was slowly pulsating! The cocoon's surface was covered with agonizingly twisted faces, emanating suffocating evil and powerful energy fluctuations, their intensity even faintly surpassing the demon statue guardians they had encountered before!
"What is that?" Zhao Tiezhu gasped.
"It's... the 'thing' the Demon Nest is gestating." Xiao Qi's gaze was grave. He could sense that the power contained within that "cocoon" was extremely terrifying, carrying a familiar aura of the Demon Lord's origin. "We cannot let it complete its formation!"
However, the moment they discovered this great blood pool and demonic cocoon, it seemed they had triggered some kind of alarm mechanism.
Glug... glug...
The blood pool boiled violently, and the wailing of the resentful souls within grew even more mournful. The floating demonic energy tubes suddenly accelerated their energy transmission!
At the same time, on the fleshy walls around the chamber, countless demonic patterns lit up, openings appeared, and dense, varied demonic creatures poured out like a tide! Among them, several elite demonic creatures with particularly powerful auras—similar to enlarged versions of Void Hunting Killers—locked onto the infiltration squad's position!
They had been discovered!
The true defensive forces within the Demon Nest had been fully activated!