The Crimson Moon hung high, stretching twisted shadows like countless probing tendrils. Ashen Town lay in deathly silence; even the usual nighttime cries of corrupted beasts had vanished, as if all evil were holding its breath, waiting for something.
At the clinic's door, the final preparations were complete.
Raine wore his old leather armor, soaked through with medicinal liquids. Frostsong hung across his back; the chill radiating from the scabbard seeped through the leather, sharpening his senses. Liana still wore her sleek dark green hunter's outfit, the pair of strange long needles crossed across her back, her belt heavy with various potions and tools. Hank shoved the last two vials of Fortified Barrier Potion into their backpacks, his cloudy monocular eye full of complicated emotions.
"Remember, retreat immediately if something feels off! The map can only be trusted seventy percent; the structure below has long changed!" Hank's voice was hoarse. "And… if you see… see 'those things' 'sowing'… whatever you do, don't look them in the eye!" He didn't explain what "sowing" meant, but the fear in his voice was unmistakably real.
Melly handed Raine a specially made lantern. Inside the shade was no flame, only a writhing mass of moss that emitted a soft silver glow. "Moonmoss Lamp. The light isn't strong, but it can scare off some of the little things… and it won't awaken anything bigger," she whispered, her eyes rimmed red.
Liana gave a final check to a palm-sized, compass-like device. At its center was no pointer, but a suspended drop of dark red liquid—the condensed psychic corruption extracted from Hank. "Corruption Tracker. The stronger the energy, the more violently this 'blood' vibrates," she said, carefully stowing it away.
No further goodbyes were exchanged; the two figures slipped silently into the fog outside town, heading toward the scar-like mine entrance carved into the distant mountainside.
The closer they got to the pit, the thicker and fouler the air became, a mixture of sulfur, rot, and metallic rust. The ground beneath their feet was increasingly covered by a dark purple, carpet-like fungus, soft and elastic underfoot, nauseating. Towering, twisted clusters of dark red crystals began appearing around them, pulsating like veins. They radiated faint heat and emitted constant psychic whispers, trying to penetrate the mind.
Raine's right arm crystal markings began to warm slightly; the suppressive effects of Silent Mercury seemed weakened here. Frostsong emitted uneasy whispers from its scabbard. Liana's Corruption Tracker throbbed violently as the suspended red drop quivered.
The mine entrance had long since partially collapsed, leaving only a gap low enough to require bending. Inside was pure darkness, as if it could swallow all light. Liana lit the Moonmoss Lamp; its silver glow illuminated only a few meters ahead, while the edges of its light dissolved into an impenetrable blackness.
Inside the tunnel, everything was far more ruined and bizarre than the map suggested. The original wooden supports had mostly rotted or collapsed, replaced by a dark red, muscle-fiber-like organic tissue clinging to the rock walls, pulsating slightly like the veins of the mineral veins themselves. Rusted tools and shattered ore littered the floor, and occasionally, one could spot a fully crystallized corpse, frozen in the final agony of its death struggle.
"Stay close," Liana whispered, her steps light as a cat's, always avoiding areas that seemed particularly sticky or emanated dangerous energy fluctuations. "Listen carefully. Aside from our breathing and heartbeat, any other sound could be a trap."
The tunnels descended with countless branching paths. Guided by the old map, the Corruption Tracker, and Liana's sharp perception of energy flows, they cautiously selected their route. Sometimes they had to crawl through narrow gaps; sometimes they had to swing across bottomless vertical shafts using ropes. Every brush against the walls transmitted an unpleasant warmth and pulsation from the living tissue beneath.
Silence was their greatest enemy. It was a malign stillness, waiting for prey to break from fear or exhaustion. Only the occasional distant, indistinct sound—sluggish dragging or dripping—made the air even more unnerving.
The first encounter came without warning.
As they entered a relatively spacious cavern, the Corruption Tracker suddenly vibrated violently! Almost simultaneously, the "rock wall" above them split open! It was not stone at all, but a masterfully disguised mass composed of countless entwined purple-black tentacles and decayed limbs—the Lurking Aberration! It shrieked a piercing, fingernail-on-glass sound, and several tentacles bristling with suction cups and bone spikes lashed down like lightning!
"Get out of the way!" Liana shoved Raine aside and executed a nimble backflip, both long needles already in her hands.
Raine's reaction was a beat too slow; Silent Mercury severely delayed his reflexes. A slick, writhing tentacle wrapped around his left leg, its immense strength threatening to drag him off the ground! Strong paralysis tingled through his leg where the suction cups touched, and a weak, draining sensation pulled at his life energy.
At the critical moment, the instinctive power of his draconic blood surged! A suppressed roar tore from his throat as his crystalline right arm erupted briefly with a black-red glow! He did not call upon his energy; he relied purely on the terrifying force of his crystallized arm. He grabbed the tentacle with a reverse grip, his fingers like blades sinking deep!
"Pshhh!"
Thick, bloody liquid splattered. The aberration let out a scream of pain. Raine seized the opportunity and, with sheer force, tore the tentacle apart! At the same time, Liana's long needles struck! One precisely pierced an energy node in the aberration's core, while the other, glowing with pure white light, stabbed directly into the tentacle still writhing around Raine's leg!
"Purifying Burn!"
With a flash of white light, the tentacle instantly blackened and withered, turning to ash. The paralysis faded.
"Thanks." Raine breathed heavily as he steadied himself, his left leg still somewhat weak. The burst of force just now had loosened the restraint of Silent Mercury slightly.
"Conserve your strength. Don't try to fight them head-on." Liana watched the now-motionless aberration corpse above them warily. "These things are just sentinels."
They continued deeper. The surrounding biological tissue grew even denser, almost covering every surface, making it feel as though they were walking inside the intestines of some giant beast. The air was hot and humid, carrying a sweetly putrid stench. The sensation of being watched grew stronger.
They began encountering even stranger phenomena—flesh on the walls would suddenly bulge, forming blurred, distorted human faces that emitted silent wails; the fungal mats on the floor would suddenly sprout pale, arm-like appendages, attempting to grab their ankles; once, as they passed through an area, they heard a crystal-clear voice speaking in the continent's common tongue, repeating pleas for help and warnings, yet the source was several corpses half-engulfed by crystal!
Spiritual corruption pervaded everywhere. Even with purification incense and mental fortitude, both felt dizzy, beset by hallucinations.
Finally, following the map's guidance, they reached the edge of a massive underground cavity. The scene before them suffocated even the psychologically prepared pair.
This was no longer a mine—it was a huge, living nest!
At the center of the cavity was a massive tumor of flesh, crystal, mechanical remnants, and struggling corpses, over fifty meters in diameter, pulsating like a diseased heart! Thick, blood-vessel-like dark red crystal clusters extended from the tumor into the surrounding rock walls, pumping immense corrupted energy through the entire mineral vein system. The tumor's surface was covered in slime, with constantly opening and closing cavities, ejecting fist-sized, mucous-covered egg-like objects that were dragged away by small, skin-stripped dog-like corrupted creatures, "Nurturers," into the surrounding dense tunnels.
This was the "sowing" that Hank had feared!
Directly above the massive tumor, the cavern ceiling had ruptured, and a concentrated beam of dark red Scarlet Moon light shone down like a spotlight, bathing the tumor and providing it with a continuous stream of energy! The connection point between the Scarlet Moon projector and the underground corruption source!
"...Corrupted Heart..." Liana's voice trembled. "It's converting Scarlet Moon's corruption into physical form… hatching those monsters!"
At that moment, the Corruption Tracker went berserk, almost about to explode! The drop of dark red liquid boiled violently!
The tumor seemed to sense their presence. One of the massive surface cavities suddenly turned toward them. Inside the cavity were not darkness, but countless spinning, crimson crystal eyes!
An indescribable wave of horror swept over them, a mixture of psychic assault and pure energy suppression!
"Ugh!" Liana screamed, dropping to her knees and clutching her head, blood instantly flowing from her nose. Her mental defenses were so fragile against this onslaught.
Raine felt the same—like a heavy blow had struck his brain, his blood rushing backward through his body! Under the impact of this overwhelmingly powerful, congruent force, Silent Mercury's suppression was shattered!
The crystalline patterns on his right arm flared with unprecedented crimson light, resonating strongly with the Scarlet Moon above and the tumor ahead, frenziedly absorbing the surrounding corrupted energy! Excruciating pain and a feral, destructive urge flooded Raine's mind!
"No… can't… lose control!" He gritted his teeth. The Life Seed mark on his left chest flashed wildly, attempting to stabilize and suppress the chaos.
The eyes on the tumor locked onto Raine, whose energy signature was the most abnormal! Several tentacles, made entirely of pure corrupted energy and whip-like in form, tore through the air, radiating a destructive aura as they lashed toward him! At the same time, from the surrounding shadows, countless disturbed Deep-Seeker hunters and Nurturers swarmed out!
Liana gritted her teeth against the searing pain and fired several "Holy Light Needles · Anti-Evil Type" at the energy tentacles, but could only slightly slow them down!
"Raine! Wake up!" she screamed, trying to rouse him from the instinct-driven and pain-overwhelmed state.
The energy tentacles were already upon them! The shadow of death loomed!
At this desperate moment, Raine let out a roar that was no longer human, a sound blending dragon roars, mechanical grinding, and the shrieks of plants! He stopped trying to restrain himself and instead made a reckless move—he channeled the wildly raging energy that remained even after being suppressed by Silent Mercury, together with part of the mental pressure from the Corrupted Heart, through the guidance of the Life Seed, directly into the Frost Whisper Sword behind him!
"Clang—!"
The Frost Whisper Sword emitted a piercing, high-pitched, mournful cry, as if unable to bear the burden, yet also as if salvation had come in the nick of time!
A twisted sword aura, crazily interweaving black, green, and red, detached from the blade—not slashing toward the tentacles, but cutting at a massive dark-red crystalline blood vessel that supported the cave on the side!
"Wilted Slash · Pseudo!"
Where the sword aura passed, the massive crystalline blood vessel did not explode, but instantly lost all luster, turned gray and brittle, and then, as if weathered for tens of thousands of years, silently collapsed and shattered!
With the energy supply severed, the pulsation of the Corrupted Heart suddenly faltered! The energy tentacles lashing at Raine instantly dimmed and vanished! The entire nest dimmed for a brief moment!
All corrupted creatures emitted confused and pained wails!
"Now! Go!" Liana reacted immediately, grabbing the nearly drained Raine and throwing a "Flash Mushroom" at the rushing horde. The blinding light instantly engulfed the cave.
Dragging Raine, she dashed desperately toward the nearest narrow branch, an emergency escape route long abandoned and marked on the map.
Behind them came the deafening roar of the Corrupted Heart resuming its pulse, along with the frenzied pursuit of countless monsters.
Their exploration had failed, but they had inadvertently uncovered a terrifying truth, and the dangerous, uncanny new potential of Raine's power.