Swamp Shadows, Void Worms

The Void Swamp was true to its name.

Nightmare's dark gray flying boat hovered at the edge of the swamp, as if facing a constantly churning silver ocean composed of fragmented space.

The system's scanning waves were severely interfered with here, and the spatial model fed back was full of distortions and uncertain blind spots.

Those seemingly calm silver "water surfaces" might split open in the next second, creating a spatial rift that would devour everything; while those seemingly dangerous twisted light bands might actually be relatively stable passages.

"Stay close to me, do not leave my side within three zhang," Nightmare instructed Su Wanqing, then put away the flying boat.

In such an extremely unstable spatial environment, the flying boat had become a burden.

He channeled his Qi, and the Annihilation Domain contracted to the extreme, like a thin, constantly flowing dark gray film clinging to his body, shrouding them both.

This film not only provided defense but, under the system's control, constantly fine-tuned its frequency, attempting to reach a fragile "resonance" with the chaotic spatial fluctuations around them to reduce the probability of being directly attacked by Spatial Turbulence.

The two of them, like two stones cast into water, slid silently into that silver-gray fragmented world.

Once inside the swamp, their senses were immediately subjected to a huge impact.

The sense of direction became blurred; as far as the eye could see, there were twisted and folded lights and shadows, and in their ears was the sharp hissing sound caused by the friction of spatial fragments, piercing straight into the Soul.

The omnipresent spatial pressure squeezed in from all directions; if not for the protection of the Annihilation Domain, they would likely have been torn to pieces in an instant.

The system operated at full capacity, like the most precise navigator, struggling to guide the direction through the chaos, slowly advancing toward the southeast quadrant where the residual energy of the void lotus had been detected earlier.

Along the way, they saw many strange sights.

There were "mountains" composed entirely of solidified spatial ripples, streams of time-space fragments that fell like waterfalls and flashed with seven-colored light, and even some translucent, amorphous, void-jellyfish-like creatures floating between the rifts, emitting weak spiritual fluctuations.

Nightmare carefully avoided all suspicious energy sources and spatial structures; his goal was the void lotus seed, and he did not want to cause extra trouble.

However, trouble always comes uninvited.

Just as they passed through a relatively "calm" area composed of countless tiny spatial bubbles, the system suddenly sent out a sharp alarm!

[Warning! High-threat life reaction detected approaching rapidly! Target: Unknown Void Realm creature (Form: Giant worm-like)! Energy Rank: Dao Integration Initial Stage! Characteristics: Spatial affinity, possesses phase-shifting ability!]

[Target has locked onto the Host! Attack intent is obvious!]

No sooner had the words been spoken than that calm area of spatial bubbles ahead suddenly churned violently!

A huge, translucent giant worm, with silver energy veins flowing inside, burst out from a film of space without warning!

It had no eyes, only a giant circular mouth filled with countless rotating sharp teeth, emitting a silent roar that could shake space, and pounced toward Nightmare and the others with greedy appetite!

A Void Worm! And an adult one at that!

Wherever it passed, the space rippled, and those fragile spatial bubbles shattered one after another, revealing the even more chaotic Void Realm behind them.

"Seeking death!"

Nightmare's eyes turned cold.

In this place where space was extremely unstable, he did not want to use large-scale attacks to avoid triggering a chain reaction.

He pointed his finger like a sword, and the system instantly calculated the location of the worm's energy core and the weak points of its spatial shifting frequency.

A dark gray Annihilation Finger Force, condensed to the extreme and almost blending into the surrounding environment, moved like a teleportation, arriving after the target but hitting first, precisely striking a seemingly solid silver scale behind the Void Worm's head!

That was the key node where its energy flowed during phase-shifting!

*Puchi!*

The finger force sank in silently.

The aggressive Void Worm's massive body suddenly stiffened!

Inside its translucent body, the silver energy veins instantly became chaotic and dim, as if a circuit had been blown!

It let out a painful and angry spiritual shriek, attempting to dive into the spatial interlayer to escape, but the spatial fluctuations around it became extremely turbulent, making it impossible to complete the shift!

Strike while the enemy is down!

Nightmare channeled his power, and the power of the Annihilation Domain condensed highly, turning into countless tiny black threads, like maggots on bones, instantly wrapping around the Void Worm's massive body!

*Chi chi chi—!*

Wherever the black threads passed, the worm's translucent flesh quickly became gray, withered, and finally turned into nothingness!

It twisted and struggled frantically, but could not escape the bone-corroding Annihilation erosion!

In just two or three breaths, this powerful Void Realm creature, comparable to the Dao Integration Initial Stage, completely lost its vitality under Nightmare's precise and efficient strike.

Its massive body crumbled inch by inch like a weathered sand sculpture, finally leaving only a fist-sized, silver-glowing crystal core containing pure spatial energy, as well as a few relatively tough, translucent worm tendons.

Nightmare waved his hand, collecting the crystal core and worm tendons.

The crystal core of this Void Worm was a top-tier Materials for Cultivating the Law of space and refining Magic Treasure, and the worm tendons were also quite valuable.

Having resolved this small episode, the two continued on.

After this encounter, Nightmare was even more cautious, and the system's scanning frequency was raised to the maximum.

After traveling for about half a day, bypassing a space labyrinth that was constantly collapsing and reforming, the system finally sent back the expected feedback!

[Target energy signal detected! Source located in the depths of the unstable spatial folds ahead! Weak life reaction discovered (Plant attribute)! Match rate: 93%! Confirmed as void lotus!]

Found it!

Nightmare felt energized, the system locked onto the signal source, carefully avoiding several hidden spatial rifts, and finally arrived at the destination.

Before them was a relatively stable small floating island covered by some kind of silver moss.

In the center of the island, there was a spring eye continuously seeping out silver liquid, and beside the spring, three strange plants were growing.

They were entirely translucent silver-gray, with slender yet tough stems, leaves like twisted spatial ripples, and at the top of each plant, they each held a fist-sized fruit shaped like a lotus pod, with countless fine spatial runes flowing on the surface—this was the void lotus seed!

Two of them were already close to maturity, emitting strong spatial fluctuations, while the other one was slightly smaller.

However, just as Nightmare was about to step forward to pick them, the system issued another warning!

[Warning! High-intensity energy reaction detected waking up in the depths of the spring eye! Energy attribute: Same origin as the void lotus, but older and more violent! Threat Rank: Late Stage Hedao!]