16: Chapter 16: The Bait and the Lurking Hunter in the Depths of the Swamp
Under the watch of countless gazes mixed with shock, awe, and fear, Su Chen's expression remained calm, as if he had only performed a trivial task.
Those three hundred thousand Faith Points, accompanied by the mandatory execution of the gambling contract, transformed into a pure torrent and surged into his Godhead Space.
Within the Divine Realm, the waves of the Sea of Faith surged slightly because of it.
However, Su Chen's attention did not linger there for more than a second.
He didn't even bother to look back at those gods whose faces turned from blue to white, from white to purple, and finally into a deathly gray.
Their shock, their regret, and their fear were utterly meaningless to him.
The clamor of ants is not worth an eagle's glance.
Su Chen's consciousness instantly sank, piercing through the endless void to reconnect with his creations hundreds of millions of miles away—the elite force deep within the Poisonous Swamp.
Perspective switched.
Everything around him changed instantly.
The air was no longer as pure as in the Divine Realm; instead, it had turned into a thick, flowing, poisonous miasma like dark green gelatin.
Visibility was less than five meters.
The poison here had surpassed the category of gas and become a physical source of corrosion. If an ordinary rock were exposed here, it would be riddled with holes by erosion within ten minutes, eventually turning into a puddle of foul-smelling sludge.
Forget breathing; if an ordinary creature's skin just touched this toxic miasma, their flesh would fester within seconds, turning them into a withered skeleton.
But for Su Chen's creations, it was a different scene entirely.
The 'Adaptive Evolution' talent allowed the Zerg to ignore this deadly environment. The toxic miasma that could instantly dissolve steel flowed over their hideous carapaces without causing the slightest damage; instead, it was slowly absorbed and converted into basic biological energy.
Paradise.
This was a paradise for the Zerg.
"Rustle..."
A faint friction sound rang out, only to be swallowed by the thick miasma, unable to travel even half a meter.
Queen of Blades Sarah retracted the four hideous bone wings on her back, lowering her streamlined body to the minimum as she glided silently, pressed tight against the surface of the pitch-black swamp.
Her movements didn't stir a breath of wind or make a single redundant sound, like a purple ghost merging into the darkness.
Behind her, a special operations squad consisting of twenty elite Zerglings followed silently in the same posture.
Each of them used the unique Zerg Psionic network to completely shield their life signatures and energy fluctuations. To any god's perception, they were just a pile of lifeless stones or a section of rotten wood.
A perfect stealth assassination unit.
Suddenly.
Sarah's body, which was gliding at high speed, instantly froze.
Her inhuman vertical pupils, flickering with an eerie purple light, suddenly contracted into dangerous pinpoints.
"Father, abnormal energy fluctuations detected."
The cold and precise message crossed time and space, ringing directly in Su Chen's mind.
In the next moment, Sarah's vision was fully synchronized and shared.
Su Chen's 'gaze' pierced through the thick toxic miasma, clearly seeing the scene over a hundred meters ahead.
It was a vast sludge pit, nearly as large as a lake.
The water in the pit was as black as ink, its surface constantly bubbling. When the bubbles burst, they released an even denser stench.
On the edge of the sludge pit, five figures were huddled in a circle, sneakily performing some kind of ritual.
They were all draped in wide gray cloaks that completely concealed their forms and faces. Their entire bodies emitted a nauseating smell of rot that, mixed with the stench of the swamp, was even more stomach-turning.
On the ground in their center, a complex magic circle constructed of white bones and unknown runes flickered with a faint green glow.
At the core of the array, a dark red incense stick only as thick as a pinky finger was burning quietly.
There was no smoke, yet a strange, fatally tempting sweet fragrance was being amplified by the power of the array, drifting precisely with a specific wind direction toward the depths of the pitch-black mud pit.
Su Chen's consciousness swept over that incense stick.
A line of information automatically surfaced in his Godhead.
[Item]: dragon saliva beast lure incense
[Description]: A precious bait refined through a special secret method using the saliva of sub-dragon species mixed with dozens of rare spices. Once lit, its unique fragrance can lure all dragon-blooded or sub-dragon-blooded magical beasts below Rank 6 within a hundred-mile radius into a state of frenzy and greed, driving them to come at all costs.
"dragon saliva beast lure incense... quite the lavish expense."
A hint of coldness rose in Su Chen's consciousness.
A precious item of this level was worth no less than an ordinary artifact. Usually, only those deeply established Second-Turn Demigods would be willing to use it.
His gaze then locked onto those five sneaky figures.
[Target]: Plague Acolytes (Elite)
[Race]: Undead / Corrupt Corpse Kin
[Rank]: Rank 4 (Current rank suppressed, appearing as Rank 3 to the outside)
[Affiliated God]: God of Corrupt Corpses (Second-Turn Demigod)
"So it's an old acquaintance."
Su Chen instantly saw through the other party's origins.
The God of Corrupt Corpses.
This name sat at the very top of the Divine Exchange's blacklist, notorious for all the wrong reasons.
This was a typical Chaotic Evil deity who took pleasure in spreading Plagues and creating undead. His believers were mostly grave robbers, murderers, necromancers, and the like.
This god's favorite activity was playing the role of a scavenger in various Divine Domain battlefields and public secret realms.
However, he didn't scavenge monsters; he scavenged other gods.
He specialized in the sinister business of killing for loot and stabbing people in the back.
"Using Rank 4 elite believers, not hesitating to consume divine power to suppress them to Rank 3, just to sneak into this newbie secret realm only open to those below Rank 3..."
"And even using such expensive dragon saliva beast lure incense..."
"It seems there's an extraordinary 'big treasure' hidden at the bottom of this pitch-black mud pit."
Su Chen's eyes instantly became playful.
The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.
He was all too familiar with this script.
Since he had run into it, there was nothing more to say.
Not only did he want this 'big treasure' about to be lured out, but those five Plague Acolytes pretending to be 'mantises' weren't going to leave alive either.
Rank 4 elite believers were top-tier genetic samples and highly valuable.
Conveniently, his Hive also needed some new nourishment.
"Sarah, do not alert them."
A cold and sinister divine oracle was precisely delivered to the Queen of Blades through the mental network.
"Stand by on the spot and suppress your presence to the absolute limit."
"Yes, Father."
Sarah's body crouched slightly, merging completely with the shadows beneath her feet.
Su Chen's will continued to spread beneath the entire battlefield.
"Divine Oracle issued: All 'Crypt Piercer' units, hear my command."
"Begin tunneling from a depth of two hundred meters. Evade all magical detection and form an absolute encirclement with a radius of five hundred meters, centered on the target array."
"I want your sharp claws hovering directly beneath each of their feet."
"Wait for that big fellow to emerge, wait for them to both be wounded..."
"That will be the time we close the net!"
The order was given.
By the mud pit, the five Plague Acolytes remained completely unaware.
They were greedily staring at the constantly churning black water, whispering in dry, harsh tones, their words filled with desire and excitement for the treasure they were about to obtain.
They had no idea.
Deep within the seemingly solid earth beneath their feet, in the dark underground they could not perceive.
Death had already sharpened its scythe.