357: Chapter 358 Discovery of the Zerg Nest

The shuttle, like a silver arrow, dove rapidly through the ice-and-fire corridor opened by Shen Muyao and Feng Ling, eventually landing steadily on a relatively flat, shadow-shrouded crater edge on the moon's surface. The hatch slid open, and the cold, near-vacuum thin atmosphere, mixed with the Zerg hive's characteristic acidic rot and decaying organic smell, rushed into the cabin instantly.

Lin Muyang was the first to leap out, setting foot on this alien land. Beneath his feet was grayish-brown rock, riddled with holes and covered in viscous secretions, feeling unpleasant to the touch.

He quickly scanned his surroundings. The inner walls of the crater were steep and hideous, casting deep shadows, with only the distant light of the star providing a sliver of illumination. A silent yet tangible sense of oppression filled the air, as if the entire moon itself were a massive, slowly breathing living organ. In the distance, the faint, tooth-gritting sound of chitinous friction and low hissing could be heard; more Zerg were awakening and gathering in the shadows.

"The outer clearing is basically complete, but the smell is even stronger here." Shen Muyao landed lightly, her eyes alertly scanning the shadows that seemed still yet ready to pounce at any moment. Her senses told her that more threats were hidden beneath the surface.

"The target isn't on the surface." Lin Muyang's Eye of Creation was already active, having penetrated the surface rock to look deep underground. In his vision, the complex network of holes and cracks beneath his feet extended downward, eventually converging at a massive cavern about thirty meters deep, emitting strong pulses of eerie green energy.

The nature of that energy shared the same source as the Zerg command ripples he had felt before, but its intensity and purity were over a hundred times higher, carrying a loathsome, cold, and greedy sense of consciousness. "It's underground, about thirty meters down. There's a massive energy aggregate; it should be the brain or the Hive Core we're looking for."

Gui Wanwan followed closely behind. She aimed the Nether Eye at the ground, marking a glaring, pulsating eerie green light spot. "Master, thirty-point-five meters underground, a large cavity. It shows reactions of ultra-high concentration bio-energy and a psychic field, consistent with the characteristics of a high-level Zerg command node. It's surrounded by dense life signals... the numbers are staggering."

"Dig it out." Lin Muyang's tone was flat as he gave the simplest command. Time was of the essence; they had to strike directly at the heart.

"Let me do it." Shen Muyao stepped forward, her hands hovering over the ground. She closed her eyes, and the frost magic around her surged like a tide, compressing and condensing in her palms. The next moment, she slammed her palms downward!

"Ice Vein Piercing: Pathmaker!"

*Crack—Boom!!!*

Centered on where her palms landed, the hard, cold rock layer was instantly permeated and made brittle by an extreme chill! Immediately after, a frost tunnel over two meters in diameter, with edges as smooth as a mirror and plunging straight down, was forcibly opened amidst the deafening sound of shattering! The inner walls of the tunnel were covered in a thick layer of eternal black ice, emitting a piercing cold that temporarily blocked any potential Zerg ambushes from the surrounding rock layers.

The tunnel extended straight toward the depth marked by the sensors, with the unsettling eerie green light faintly visible at the end.

"The tunnel is stable, but the cold can only temporarily suppress the bugs around us. We need to hurry." Shen Muyao stood up, her face slightly pale; this strike had consumed a significant amount of her magic.

"Go!" Without hesitation, Lin Muyang was the first to leap into the frost tunnel. The inner walls were smooth, and he controlled his body to slide down rapidly like a slide. Gui Wanwan, Shen Muyao, Feng Ling, Lilia, Jialiya, Seraphina, Elabess, and the others followed, sliding in one by one.

A few seconds later, their feet hit solid ground. They had passed through thirty meters of rock and fallen into a massive underground cavern filled with evil vitality, a world completely different from the deathly silence on the surface.

The cavern was unimaginably vast, over fifty meters high and likely hundreds of meters in diameter, as if the entire area beneath the crater had been hollowed out. The walls were no longer rock but covered in a thick, squirming dark-red fleshy tissue that secreted mucus. It was crisscrossed with thick, pulsating eerie green energy conduits like blood vessels, bathing the entire cavern in a ghastly green light.

The air was filled with a nauseatingly strong smell of acidic rot, the cloying scent of organic matter, and a sharp, omnipresent psychic whisper that tried to burrow into everyone's minds, bringing fear and chaos.

And at the very center of the cavern, their target was clearly visible—

It was a giant eerie green egg sac over twenty meters in diameter, pulsating slowly like a heart! The surface of the sac was covered in a tough chitinous shell with a metallic luster, and a viscous, shimmering green liquid constantly seeped from the cracks in the shell.

Inside the sac, a deeper, constantly twisting and shifting shadow outline was faintly visible, as if gestating some unspeakable horror.

Majestic eerie green energy rippled outward like breath with each pulsation of the egg sac. The energy conduits on the walls acted like umbilical cords, channeling nutrients from unknown sources to it. This was the Zerg's command center here, the core of the hive!

However, reaching this sac was no easy feat. Centered on the egg sac and within a hundred-meter radius, the ground, walls, and even the air were densely packed with layers upon layers of various Zerg units! They were no longer just simple Drones or Assault Bugs, but formed a complete, three-dimensional defensive system:

The outermost layer consisted of countless heavily armored Guardian Cockroaches, like mobile fortresses, crouching on the ground to form a solid wall of meat shields. Above them were agile Killing Zerglings with sharp mouthparts and Spitter Bugs capable of spraying strong acid or bone spurs. Hovering in the air were a smaller number of highly threatening, bat-like Psionic Bugs capable of releasing psychic shockwaves, as well as massive Hive Lords with energy-shimmering carapaces.

Even in some shadowed corners, one could see slender, translucent Hive Weavers constantly releasing interference waves; they were clearly maintaining some kind of energy field and psychic barrier around the egg sac.

The bugs here, whether in terms of size, shell luster, or the energy fluctuations they emitted, far surpassed those encountered on the warship. They silently guarded the egg sac, their eerie green compound eyes all locked onto the sudden intruders. They didn't attack immediately, but they exuded a suffocating pressure, like the calm before a storm. The cavern seemed even more terrifying because of their stillness.

"That's the command center... no, it might be something even worse." Gui Wanwan could feel that the psychic fluctuations from the sac were not just commanding the swarm, but were hatching or gestating something. The surrounding Zerg weren't just simple guards; there was a deeper link of energy and life between them and the egg sac.

"There are too many of them, and they're all elites." Lilia took a sharp breath as holy light condensed in her hands.

"These bugs... seem to be nourishing that egg." Jialiya, sensitive to life and death energy, could feel the life force of the surrounding Zerg being drained bit by bit toward the central egg sac.

"We must destroy it." Lin Muyang's gaze pierced through the layers of Zerg, a cold light glinting in his eyes. He could feel that with every second of delay, the energy within the egg sac grew stronger, and the Zerg defenses might adjust accordingly. "But a frontal assault will leave us trapped in a sea of bugs. We need a strategy."

"These bugs are all protecting it, which means it's the key—the brain, or perhaps the heart," Gui Wanwan analyzed quickly. "Once we launch an attack, it will inevitably trigger the most frenzied counterattack. Master, please assign the tasks."