164: Heart of a False God

Inside the ventilation duct of the Inverted Pyramid.

It was pitch black here.

Chen Du slid along the cold pipe wall.

The shadow beneath him was like a layer of black latex, wrapping him and Xia Mo tightly.

The experience was terrible.

It felt like being swallowed into a monster's belly, narrow and stuffy.

"This damn place, the designer must have a hole in their head."

Xia Mo huddled in his arms, unable to stop herself from complaining.

The space was too cramped; she could only curl herself up like a small shrimp.

To maintain balance, her hands gripped Chen Du's collar tightly, her nose filled with the smell of tobacco from the man.

"Try to understand; after all, it's a psychopath who stuck a house upside down into the ground."

Chen Du controlled the shadow tentacles to scout the path ahead.

"Aside from being used for evil rituals, I can't think of a second reason for this anti-human structure."

Sliding to the end, Chen Du peeked down through the gaps in the grille.

Even for him, who was used to big scenes, this sight made his teeth ache.

Below was a corridor.

The walls weren't made of reinforced concrete, but of slowly writhing, grayish-white rotten flesh!

Metal pipes crawled all over it, twitching every now and then.

"The core we're looking for is at the very bottom, which is the tip of the pyramid."

Chen Du spoke softly, his golden eyes lighting up with a faint glow in the darkness.

Click!

The shadow turned into a sharp blade, shearing off the grille screws.

The two landed lightly.

The sensation underfoot was soft and squishy.

With one step, yellow grease sizzled out from the cracks in the floor.

"So disgusting."

Xia Mo lifted her foot in disgust.

Just then.

Piercing chainsaw sounds came from around the corner of the corridor.

Accompanied by the sound of metal grinding, a strange wheel was pushed out, rolling along.

"Hide!"

Chen Du reacted extremely quickly, pressing down on the back of Xia Mo's head.

The two quickly melted into the shadows of the corner.

The next second.

A hair-raising monster turned the corner.

It should have been human.

Wearing a blood-stained white coat, its lower body was severed and welded onto a caterpillar track chassis.

Its left hand was a high-speed rotating bone saw, with bits of meat still hanging on it;

Its right hand consisted of several thick syringes dripping with green medicinal liquid.

The scariest part was the head.

The top of the skull had been flipped open, stuffed with a mess of wires and chips.

A red electronic eye rolled around in its socket.

[Mechanical Doctor (Mass-Produced Type)]

[Rank: B+]

[Note: Though called doctors, their main business is dismantling living people into parts or piecing together dead ones into batteries.]

[Evaluation: Extremely poor craftsmanship, one-star review, get lost.]

The notebook in his mind gave a prompt.

That Mechanical Doctor was dragging a body that was still twitching.

It was an unlucky Awakened Ones.

The person wasn't completely dead yet.

A large hole had been cut in his chest, his heart was missing, and a wheezing sound like a leaky bellows came from his mouth.

"It hurts... kill me... please..."

The Mechanical Doctor ignored him completely.

"Beep! Noise pollution detected... executing silence protocol."

It raised the syringe and stabbed it ruthlessly into the person's throat!

Pfft!

The scream stopped abruptly.

Xia Mo suddenly gripped Chen Du's arm, her nails almost bruising his flesh.

Her breathing became erratic.

A cold killing intent overflowed from her, nearly breaking through the shadow's camouflage.

"Don't move."

Chen Du gripped her waist tightly, whispering in her ear.

"This thing is a walking alarm; kill it, and the whole pyramid will explode!"

"It's not worth exposing our position for this kind of trash."

Xia Mo bit her lip, forcing down her anger.

"These animals..."

"That's what I wanted to say too."

Chen Du watched closely as the monster dragged the corpse away.

"Don't worry, there will be a chance to deal with them."

Once the semi-mechanical monster was far away.

Chen Du finally let go.

"Let's go, this place is more complicated than I thought."

The two continued deeper.

The further down they went, the more eerie the surroundings became.

The biological tissue on the walls began to throb.

At a consistent frequency.

Thump, thump, thump... a dull heartbeat began to echo in the air.

Every beat shook their eardrums until they hurt.

They encountered several more patrol waves on the way.

Besides those half-human, half-mechanical monsters, there were also Monitoring Eyeballs floating in the air.

Several times they almost ran into them face-to-face.

It was all thanks to Chen Du's incredible shadow manipulation ability.

They had practically turned into stealth masters!

Until the intersection ahead.

Two Mechanical Doctors were blocked there like door gods, exchanging data.

"We can't get past."

Xia Mo frowned, calculating the distance.

If they forced their way through, they would need to take out both simultaneously within half a second and ensure they didn't send out an alarm signal.

"Look up."

Chen Du pointed to the ceiling.

A row of glass tubes transporting nutrient solution hung there.

"Hold me tight; I'll take you for a thrilling high-altitude zipline ride."

Before Xia Mo could react.

Chen Du exerted force with his arms and picked her up directly.

The shadow turned into a tentacle, shot out suddenly, and wrapped around the pipe overhead.

Whoosh!

The two soared into the air!

Like Tarzan in a movie, they swung directly over the heads of those two Mechanical Doctors!

The speed was extremely fast.

Yet it was silent.

Those two monsters, which only followed dead programs, were still methodically checking passcodes, completely unaware of the dark shadow passing overhead.

The moment they landed.

This fellow Chen Du slapped Xia Mo's pert butt again.

"Good performance, Teacher Xia, you didn't scream."

"You..."

Xia Mo was filled with shame and indignation, just about to lash out.

The view ahead suddenly opened up.

All the corridors, pipes, and machinery ended here.

Before them was a massive void.

A terrifying pressure that made the soul tremble was continuously surging up from the bottom of the abyss.

"We're here?!"

Chen Du stopped his joking around.

He stood at the edge, looking down into the pit.

In his golden eyes, a desperate, grayish-white color was reflected.

"Are you ready? We're going to pull a tooth from the tiger's mouth."

Thump—!

This heartbeat was clearer and heavier than any before.

It wasn't just an auditory shock.

"Ugh..."

Xia Mo groaned, her face turning pale.

Warmth flowed from her nostrils.

"What... is inside? Such strong pressure?"

She leaned on sword name, using the scabbard to support her body.

Her vision began to blur.

The surrounding space was distorting.

Those gray walls seemed to grow countless twisted human faces, screaming, wailing, and cursing at her.

This was the mental pollution inherent to high-tier beings!

Even a glance from an ordinary person would turn their brain to mush.

Even an S-rank Talent User looking directly at such an existence without preparation would lose a layer of skin.

"Close your eyes!"

A large hand suddenly covered Xia Mo's eyes.

"Don't look, don't listen, don't think."

"Just treat it as a piece of rotten meat."

The warmth of his palm cut off the hallucinogenic line of sight.

Simultaneously, a stream of pure shadow power flowed from Chen Du's palm into Xia Mo's body, helping her stabilize her spirit.

After settling Xia Mo.

Chen Du then turned around.

His pupils turned into golden wheels, staring directly at the bottom of the abyss.

There.

A heart large enough to fill a basketball court was suspended.

It was grayish-white, its surface covered in rock-like callouses.

Countless semi-transparent tubes were plugged into it like greedy leeches.

Gold-red liquid flowed through the tubes—this was purified energy, feeding back into the entire pyramid.

"Is this... an Evil God?"

Chen Du's expression became serious.

He didn't feel fear; instead, he felt a bit... hungry.

That's right, hungry!

Is it the sacrifice notebook's doing?!

Rustle!

The notebook in his mind flipped rapidly.

Blood-red handwriting exploded wildly on his retina, every stroke revealing extreme greed:

[High-energy reaction detected! High-energy reaction detected!]

[This is the heart left behind by a Pseudo-God!]

[It's dead, but not completely... these ants actually dare to squeeze its value in such a blasphemous way!]

[What a waste! Simply a waste!]

[Quick! Sacrifice it to me! This scent... it's so fragrant! Sweeter than ten thousand virgin souls!]

Chen Du could feel the urgency coming from the notebook.

Like a beggar who hadn't eaten for three days seeing a royal feast.

"Alright, shut up, you're too loud."

Chen Du licked his somewhat dry lips.

"What an appetite. With such a big thing, do you want to choke me to death?"