89: Chapter 89 Only those with a broad mind can go far.

With the arrival of the spike of glaaki, a slime-mold-like red network spread across his entire body, finally converging at his chest.

The mark of Cthugha right in the center of Xie Feng's chest flashed.

The crimson core slowly rotated inside the cardiac tissue, and the surrounding plasma light patterns diffused outward in circles.

The spike of glaaki was stabbed into his heart, with its tip protruding half an inch from his back, and its dark green metallic luster had been continuously flowing.

The mark of Cthugha began to heat up, and the spiral patterns on the surface of the spike of glaaki disintegrated layer by layer in the high temperature, dripping down from the tip.

The spike melted.

The myocardial tissue that had already begun to stiffen was reignited, transforming into a dense magic power that could drive blood flow without relying on a heartbeat.

Then the mark itself began to sink down along the void.

The mark of Cthugha sank down from the exact center of the heart, passing through the pierced ventricle. Along the entire piercing path from chest to back, the skin, muscles, sternum, and pericardium were melted layer by layer.

The void was formed.

A circular hole with extremely smooth and regular edges pierced from the very center of the chest to the back.

The inner wall of the hole was covered with a very thin dark-red plasma light film, and a constantly beating dark-red miniature fireball was suspended in the exact center of the hole, looking like a red star with black spots.

That mark of Cthugha sank from the surface of the heart into the space originally occupied by the heart, absorbing all the melted residual heart tissue into its own light patterns, turning itself into Xie Feng's new organ.

Looking inward from the front of the hole, one could see the miniature fireball suspended and slowly rotating, hanging in the middle of the rib cage.

In the cavity between the fireball and the inner wall of the hole, the remaining internal organs were writhing extremely slowly, and the surface of the lung lobes was also covered with a very thin dark-red light film. Every breath would make the color of the light film change from dark red to bright orange and back. The cut ends of the esophagus, trachea, and large blood vessels were all sealed by that layer of plasma light film, and no blood or body fluids leaked out.

This layer of light film was the new inner wall of the rib cage. It replaced the original pleura, pericardium, mediastinal structure, and a part of the sternum, hanging the entire solar heart in the exact center of the chest cavity, separated from the outside atmosphere only by that thin layer of light film at both ends of the hole.

Xie Feng no longer needed a heartbeat. That ball of fire was slowly rotating in the chest cavity, surrounded by a very thin layer of dark-red thermal radiation. The heat was firmly locked within the range of the inner light film of the hole, and even the clothing close at hand was not scorched.

The mark of Ghatanothoa smoothly returned to his chest, imprinting itself on the light film.

After Xie Feng put on the black robe given by the Third Princess, the shadow of the hood covered his entire face, and the faint dark-red halo emanating from his chest passed through the fabric of the robe, flickering in the darkness.

Zuo Ciyuan's jade pendant was still continuously nourishing his cerebral cortex, ensuring that his consciousness would not dissipate during this transition.

"Glaaki! Screw you!"

Xie Feng rolled over and sat up. Looking at his broad-chested appearance, veins bulged on his forehead.

This clearly looked like Glaaki trying to turn him into His slave. Glaaki was originally a Great Old One on Planet Shaggai, but after being struck by that big alarm clock Ghroth, fell to Earth. Now, being weak in power, he was hanging around the Severn Valley flirting with believers.

Generally speaking, a person pierced by the spike of glaaki would undergo one to two days of transformation, and then be left with a non-bleeding wound covered in red patterns. But now he was obviously taken advantage of by Cthugha, who directly melted him away.

Speaking of which, when did Ygolonac choose him as a vessel? Xie Feng didn't remember any scene on the battlefield of Ranhuo City where he was blessed by the God of Depravity!

"Something is wrong, I need to think…" Xie Feng slowly activated the mark of Yog-Sothoth, and a fragment of a memory flashed past.

In Kumu Village, when Xie Feng faced Tu Ziguan, who was disguised as a Weird entity, he suddenly discovered that his shadow on the ground had no head…

"Damn it! It wasn't the work of a Weird entity? You did this!?" Xie Feng really couldn't stand these Cthulhu-mythos gods. One was more shady than the other, and there was no telling when he'd fall into their traps.

Ygolonac had already targeted Xie Feng back then. After all, the God of Depravity liked nothing more than disguising as a tattered bookseller to lure people who liked Weird knowledge, and among the 'people' in Jiuzhou who understood Weird knowledge now, none was more extensive than Xie Feng.

As for the old man Glaaki… these two could be considered neighborly and harmonious. Glaaki liked to send some believers to Ygolonac to eat when he had nothing to do, and Ygolonac liked to send some people to Glaaki to turn into believers when he had nothing to do.

The cabin door was pushed open, and the Third Princess stood at the entrance with one hand still resting on her sword hilt. She had clearly sensed the Great Old One-level spiritual power fluctuation just now and rushed all the way down from the upper layer of the flying boat.

The Imperial Guards Centurion followed closely behind her, his hand also resting on his saber hilt.

The two of them saw Xie Feng.

Xie Feng sat on the edge of the couch with his black robe open. There was a circular hole piercing through his chest from front to back. The inner wall of the hole was covered with a very thin dark-red plasma light film, and a miniature sun was suspended in the exact center of the hole.

Xie Feng raised his head, his hood sliding to the back of his head, and the three petals of fire on his dark green face were slowly contracting.

"You!?" The Third Princess's hand slid off the sword hilt. "What were you doing just now?"

"Reading a book. Then my heart was pierced by a spike that popped out of the book. Now I'm fine."

"Fine?" The Third Princess took a step forward, bent down, and leaned closer to the void in his chest to take a careful look. She could even see the twitching of the abdominal organs below. "You call this fine? Where is your heart?"

"It turned into this." Xie Feng pointed at the miniature sun. "Now this is my heart."

"Can you still walk now?" The Third Princess was somewhat dazed. "Can you still go to the Royal Library to flip through memoirs?"

"Princess, do you still have any humanity? The first thing you ask when I become like this is whether I can still work?"

Xie Feng stared wide-eyed and pointed at this feudal landlord.

The Third Princess completely removed her hand from the sword hilt and turned to make a gesture to the Centurion.

"When we reach the imperial capital, get him another inner garment. This robe can cover his face but not his chest. In case the wind blows the robe open, it will be all over." The Centurion acknowledged the order and turned to make arrangements.

In the evening a few days later, the flying boat landed at the post harbor in the western suburbs of the imperial capital.

Xie Feng wrapped the black robe given by the Third Princess tightly around himself, pulled his hood down low, and hid his entire face and the dark-red halo on his chest entirely in the shadows. The cold crystal blind staff tapped on the boarding ladder of the flying boat, and the tip of the staff touched the metal ladder surface, making an extremely light and crisp sound.

The Third Princess had already taken the Imperial Guards and returned to the palace first to report back on her mission, leaving a message through the Centurion before she left:

Tomorrow at the hour of Chen, someone from the palace would come to pick him up.

Xie Feng sat on the edge of the couch in the post house room, flipping through the revelations of glaaki in his hands. He had been reading it all the way on the flying boat these past few days, reading it cautiously.

Before turning every page, he first used the silver-white Void Realm perception of the Gate Guide to sense whether there were any hidden traps deep within the pages. Only after confirming it was safe would he let the three petals of fire in his left eye parse those disassembled and reassembled phantom texts.

Once bitten by a snake, twice shy.

Xie Feng had originally wanted to learn Green Decay Spell or the Funeral Hymn of Nhagorth.

As a result, after a few days, he hadn't learned the incantations of these two Spells, but instead flipped through an inconspicuous corner scroll and found an extremely short summoning incantation: Contact Insects from Shaggai.

"Where is my Green Decay Spell? Where is my Funeral Hymn of Nhagorth?" Xie Feng set the book aside and rubbed his face hard.

After studying for a few days, he hadn't learned any useful Spells, but instead got his hands on a useless skill.

He wrapped the revelations of glaaki back up in blue cloth and stuffed it back inside his robe.

Xie Feng had intentionally sewn a few pockets inside his robe to hold some weird things.

Forget it, it's an incantation after all; he'd memorize it first.

Tomorrow he would go to the Royal Library, settle the Third Princess's matter first, and close his eyes to sleep.

Outside the window, the sound of insect chirping accompanied Xie Feng's snoring as the night deepened...