144: Hungry World

There was no sky here, only a churning, dark-red nebula overhead, slowly rotating and casting an eerie light.

The ground beneath their feet was a grayish-white, soft as if they were treading on thick ashes.

In the distance, colossal, flesh-like floating islands hung silently in mid-air.

Trees, dozens of meters tall, rose from the ground, but their trunks were translucent crystal, and their leaves were thin, cicada-wing-like light fragments, constantly shifting in color.

These crystal trees emitted a low, grating hum.

“This place…”

The talkative assault team member opened his mouth, but found himself unable to utter any wisecracks.

It was “unique,” even “magnificent,” yet devoid of any sign of life.

No wind, no sound, no living creatures.

Only dead silence.

A suffocating, bone-chilling silence.

“Holy Light… is suppressed here.”

Leon’s voice grew heavy; the sun rune on his shield glowed much dimmer than it had outside.

“Captain.”

A “Shadow” appeared beside Shadow One.

“Detection radius five kilometers, no life signs, no energy sources. The physical rules here… are very strange.”

At that moment, Tong, who had been keeping his eyes closed, suddenly opened them, his face a little pale.

“My Heart Mirror…”

He murmured.

“I can’t perceive any soul fluctuations.”

“No, that’s not right.”

“It’s not that there aren’t any, but rather… it’s like a bottomless black hole. My perception spread out and was instantly swallowed, without a single echo.”

“This place… is ‘hungry’.”

The word “hungry” sent a chill down everyone’s spines.

Shadow One finally spoke.

“Double-file formation, alternating cover, advance.”

The team moved again, even more cautiously than before.

A day later.

They once again passed through a humming crystal forest, the sound seeming to resonate directly in their minds, unsettling them.

Soon, they arrived at the bank of a “river.”

The river didn’t flow with water, but with a viscous, mercury-like black liquid.

The river’s surface was smooth as a mirror, without a single ripple.

A soldier subconsciously picked up a fist-sized stone and threw it in.

No splash, no sound.

The moment the stone touched the black liquid, it vanished silently, as if it had never existed.

The atmosphere in the team grew increasingly oppressive.

Just then, Tong suddenly pointed in a distant direction: “There!”

Following his gaze, illuminated by the dark-red nebula, an impossibly vast silhouette appeared at the edge of the horizon.

It resembled the ribs of a colossal beast, half-buried in the grayish-white “ash” ground.

Each “rib” was as thick as a mountain, presenting a ghastly white hue, as if composed of a mixture of bone and metal.

In the center of the “ribs,” a gigantic, heart-like purple light cluster could be seen, pulsating faintly at an extremely slow frequency.

“My god…”

Someone in the team gasped, “That’s not a structure… that’s alive!”

Or rather, it once was alive.

A primal fear, stemming from the instinct of life, gripped everyone’s hearts.

They imagined a terrifying creature, its size comparable to a mountain range, having died here, its remains merging with this bizarre world.

Shadow One’s expression became wary.

He sensed far more than the others.

A consciousness.

A plane-level consciousness, unimaginably vast, slumbering, filled with malice and endless hunger.

They were walking inside the “body” of a living, soon-to-awaken terrifying entity.

At this very moment—

Thump.

A dull, drum-like heartbeat echoed from those distant “ribs.”

This sound didn’t travel through the air, but resonated directly in the depths of everyone’s soul.

The grayish-white ground beneath their feet trembled slightly in response.

The team froze instantly.

The assault team member, who had been quietly complaining a second ago, now stood with his mouth half-open, face ashen, even forgetting to breathe.

He felt as if his heart had been gripped by that sound, forcibly synchronized with its rhythm, each beat bringing a tearing pain.

“Steady yourselves!”

Leon roared.

The sun rune on his massive shield flared brightly, and a soft golden halo spread out, barely isolating the tremor originating from the depths of their souls.

The Holy Light dispelled the chill, but it couldn’t dispel the fear.

“Captain…”

Tong clutched his forehead, a trickle of blood slowly flowing from his nostril.

In that instant, his Heart Mirror had nearly been overwhelmed by the vast torrent of consciousness.

“It… it ‘saw’ us.”

Shadow One didn’t turn around; his gaze was fixed on the pulsating purple light cluster in the distance.

He felt it more clearly than Tong did; it wasn’t a “gaze” filled with intelligence, but more like a sleeping person subconsciously rolling over and crushing a nest of ants passing by.

They were that nest of ants.

“This damned place is alive.”

The assault team member finally found his voice, somewhat hoarse.

“Advance.”

Shadow One’s voice broke the dead silence.

The team began to move again, the atmosphere even more subdued than before.

Each step was taken cautiously, as if fearing to disturb the sleeping “giant” again.

The closer they got to the colossal “ribs,” the more bizarre the surroundings became.

The translucent crystal trees hummed more sharply, and the light-fragment “leaves” shifted colors at an increasingly rapid pace, casting distorted light and shadow on the ground, like countless struggling ghosts.

The still black “river” began to bubble with fist-sized air pockets.

When the bubbles burst, there was no sound, but wisps of black mist rose, drifting towards the pulsating heart, as if performing some form of “breathing.”

“This isn’t the corpse of a creature.”

Leon’s voice trembled uncontrollably; as a Holy Knight of Radiant City, he was well-read, and now, he finally unearthed some forbidden records from the depths of his memory.

“This is a ‘World Seed’… No, that’s not right, it’s a failed product, a corrupted, hungry plane embryo, left with only the instinct to devour!”

A plane embryo!

The term sent shivers down everyone’s spines.

What lay beneath their feet was not a secret realm, nor a lair, but a world that had died before it was even born, filled with hatred and thirst for all living things!

“How… could such a thing exist…”

Leon gritted out a few words.

“It hasn’t fully awakened yet.”

Shadow One’s voice pulled everyone back from their shock.

“Right now, it’s only acting on instinct.”

“We must get the message out immediately!”

Leon decided on the spot, “The entire Woma World will become its meal!”

“Retreat.”

Shadow One made a snap decision and gave the order.

Everyone turned around at their fastest speed, running back in the direction they had come from.

Confront a hungry world?

The thought alone seemed absurd.

…

However, when they returned to the clearing where they had first entered, everyone stopped.

The spatial rift they had come through was gone.