38: Chapter 38 Roars and Mysterious Codes from the Depths of the Earth
Three hundred kilometers underground, the Gray Dwarves' mining cavern.
The once clamorous battlefield had now fallen into an eerie, deathly silence.
Facing the descending Queen of Blades, whose entire being radiated an Epic-Tier seventh-stage oppressive aura, the Gray Dwarves' prideful, stubborn psychological defenses crumbled instantly.
Sarah's icy gaze swept over these trembling, diminutive creatures, as if looking at ingredients awaiting processing. Her voice echoed through the cavern, each syllable carrying a metallic quality, resonating directly within the souls of every Gray Dwarf.
"Submit, or... be eaten."
The option of death was tossed out with chilling nonchalance.
The instinct for survival overwhelmed everything else.
Just as Sarah's slender hand, sheathed in amethyst carapace, slowly raised, ready to ignore all resistance and forcibly implant a mark of enslavement into the soul of the Gray Dwarves' leader, Okale—
"ROAR—!!!"
A deep, ancient, terrifying roar, as if from the deepest pits of hell, erupted without warning.
That was not sound.
It was a sledgehammer striking at the soul!
The sound waves were no longer mere vibrations in the air; they had transformed into tangible mental shockwaves, instantly sweeping through the entire underground world, scattering the seventh-stage oppressive aura Sarah had released into disarray.
BOOM! RUMBLE!
The earth shook violently.
The entire mining cavern groaned, its structure on the verge of collapse. Countless enormous stalactites, which had hung inverted from the ceiling for millennia, now severed from the bedrock, plummeted down in a dense, torrential rain.
Each weighed several tons, crashing onto the ground, churning up clouds of dust and shattered rock, releasing dull, thunderous impacts.
"Ah! It's awake! It's awake!"
The Gray Dwarves, who moments before had only been cowering from Sarah's oppressive aura, now seemed to witness the true apocalypse descending. Their fear no longer stemmed from the crushing power of a superior being, but from a primal, ultimate trembling—a terror etched into their very bloodline and genes, the dread of a natural predator.
They clutched their heads, curled their bodies, and lay prostrate on the ground, trembling like leaves in a storm. A pungent, foul stench spread amidst the chaos—some Gray Dwarves had been scared into incontinence.
"That is..."
Far away, billions of miles distant in the divine realm, Su Chen, sharing Sarah's visual feed, also felt his pupils contract sharply.
His body, seated upon the divine throne, involuntarily leaned forward, his hands gripping the armrests with white-knuckled force.
He saw the deepest wall of the mining cavern—the layer of bedrock the Gray Dwarves had excavated for countless generations, considered indestructible—now rapidly developing a spiderweb of enormous cracks visible to the naked eye.
From within the cracks, a dark red light seeped out.
BOOM!
The rock wall collapsed with a thunderous roar.
A subterranean cavity, vaster than the entire Gray Dwarves' mining cavern and of unfathomable depth, was exposed before all living beings.
Endless darkness.
Within that absolute void and silence, two colossal scarlet eyes, like giant searchlights, slowly opened.
Those pupils held no intelligence, no emotion—only the most primitive, purest hunger and destruction.
Next, crimson magma, like the surging blood within some colossal creature, began to glow and flow within the darkness, gradually outlining a terrifying form that would suffocate any living being.
It was a behemoth, its body length absolutely exceeding three hundred meters.
Its entire form was covered in obsidian-thick armor flowing with scorching magma, with destructive thermal energy venting from the seams of its plating.
With merely a breathing motion, its two enormous nostrils exhaled clouds of high-temperature sulfurous toxic fumes capable of instantly melting steel.
Where the toxic fumes touched the cavern walls, the hard rock immediately sizzled, transforming into streams of scalding molten stone.
"Ding! Warning! Ultra-high energy biological signature detected!"
A cold, mechanical system prompt exploded in Su Chen's mind, each word sending violent tremors through his heart.
[Biological Designation]: Magma Behemoth (Dormant/Awakening)
[Race]: Elemental Being/Titan Construct (Suspected)
[Estimated Tier]: Eighth-stage (Quasi-Deity Peak/Pseudo-Deity Level)
[Status]: Extremely Dangerous! Extremely Hungry!
"Eighth-stage?!"
Su Chen's chest tightened. A chill shot from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head, his scalp prickling with numbness.
This damned place! This resource point he had casually chosen actually hid an ultimate boss of this caliber?!
What did eighth-stage signify?
It was an existence second only to true deities who had ascended their divine thrones and ignited their divine flames!
Pseudo-Deity level!
If it so wished, merely turning over now could cause the entire underground world for hundreds of kilometers around, along with everything on the surface above, to completely collapse, reduced to a sea of magma and fire!
However, what made Su Chen's heart race even more violently came next.
As that Magma Behemoth stirred from its slumber, its unimaginably colossal body shifted slightly.
Just that slight movement.
Su Chen's vision, enhanced by divine power, keenly captured a detail previously obscured by the behemoth's bulk.
On the dark red wall beside the behemoth, scorched by millennia of extreme heat into a metallic sheen, was clearly etched a line of code emitting an eerie red glow.
The red glow was not magical radiance, but a pure, cold energy warning light.
[Specimen: X-998]
[Affiliation]: Third Era · Titan Deity Race · No. 7 Biological Laboratory
[Status]: Genetic Chain Collapsed/Decommissioned/Sealed]
The font used for this string of code was one Su Chen had never seen before—highly mechanical, futuristic, and sci-fi in style.
It was filled with cold logic and an absolute sense of order.
This style was utterly incongruous with the current World of Gods, brimming with magic, divine spells, and battle aura.
"Laboratory number... decommissioned specimen... Titan Deity Race?"
In an instant.
Torrents of information exploded in Su Chen's mind like a breached dam.
He instantly realized he might have inadvertently touched upon the deepest, most ancient hidden history of this World of Gods.
This seemingly ordinary underground mineral vein was no naturally formed, rich mining zone.
This place was most likely a biological weapon testing ground left behind by a super-civilization from the previous era—the one named the "Titan Deity Race"!
"No wonder this behemoth has been dormant here all along. It's a sealed, decommissioned product."
Su Chen forcibly suppressed the violent turmoil in his heart, compelling himself to calm down from the shock of the world-destroying eighth-stage oppressive aura and the staggering secret revelation.
His mind raced frantically.
This level of power was absolutely not something the current Zerg Swarm could confront head-on.
Utterly impossible.
Even Sarah, who had already advanced to Epic-Tier, would likely not withstand three moves before this eighth-stage behemoth. She would be utterly incinerated by its all-melting magma core.
"Don't provoke it yet."
Through the crystal-clear psychic network, Su Chen decisively issued the command.
His voice held not a trace of tremor, frighteningly calm.
"Sarah, suppress your aura! Immediately! Right now! Do not startle that behemoth under any circumstances!"
"First, secure the peripheral Gray Dwarves. Withdraw slowly."
Su Chen's gaze remained locked on the "X-998" code in the holographic visual feed. The fear and shock in his eyes were rapidly receding.
In their place, a flame called ambition blazed fiercely in the depths of his pupils.
"That behemoth is an unpredictable time bomb, liable to detonate at any moment."
His heartbeat began to accelerate again, but this time, it was no longer from fear, but from an extreme excitement and greed.
"But if handled correctly... it could become the sharpest blade in my hand, even the key for me to glimpse higher-dimensional power!"