232: Chapter 232 Devouring Godhood! Backlash?

Chen Du's posture as he fell from the crack in the Sky Curtain was not graceful.

His Shadow Wings were half-broken, and nosebleed dripped from his chin.

Xia Mo caught his arm, her lips pressed into a thin line.

"Idiot, you're bleeding again."

"Minor injury."

"Bleeding down to your collar is called a minor injury?"

Before Chen Du could talk back, a figure had already crouched in front of him.

Ye Qiu had a mouthful of Purification Water and leaned in to pass it over.

The warm liquid passed between their lips, and a cool restorative power flowed down his throat.

Wherever it went, the torn capillaries quickly closed.

"Sister Qiu's movements are so fast!" An Nuonuo crouched nearby, holding a towel with both hands, her small face serious.

"Captain, wipe yourself."

Chen Du took the towel and wiped himself haphazardly.

Physical wounds could be repaired, but mental exhaustion couldn't be replenished.

He fished out that Dark Gold Crystal from his trench coat's inner pocket.

The pulsing frequency matched his heartbeat.

Half!

The other half was three thousand meters underground.

He turned his head to look at Li Yaozhi.

Li Yaozhi leaned against the ship's railing, closed her eyes, and tossed a coin.

The copper face flipped four times in mid-air and fell back into her palm.

Heads.

"Four hours."

"That's all the time you have."

Chen Du stood up and put the crystal back into his inner pocket.

"Enough."

"Xia Mo, come with me."

"Okay."

Without any unnecessary words, Xia Mo sheathed her famous blade and followed his lead.

Lin Keke opened her mouth to say something but was held down by Tang Ran's hand on her shoulder.

"Let the Captain go. We'll guard the ship."

...

Entering through the bullet hole in the statue's chest cavity blasted through by the Storm Ripper, the internal structure far exceeded expectations.

The spiraling downward tunnel was composed of semi-molten alloy walls, with a layer of dark red pipelines embedded in the walls every few dozen meters.

A certain translucent viscous liquid flowed within the pipelines, and sounds similar to moaning could be vaguely heard.

Xia Mo's footsteps paused for a moment.

Chen Du didn't stop. "Don't listen, keep going."

Just then.

Six automatic turrets popped out from both sides of the wall, their infrared beams locking onto the two.

The barrels rotated.

Charging energy.

Chen Du didn't even slow his pace.

Shadow Hand extended from beneath his feet; six pitch-black fingers crushed the six turrets simultaneously.

Boom, boom, boom—

A chain of explosions followed, the firelight illuminating the spiral tunnel.

Chen Du reached out and pushed forward.

Shadow Power transformed into a shield wall, forcibly crushing the laser fence in front of him.

The transmitters were crushed into scrap metal, and the red lines went out one by one.

Immediately after.

Thousands of fist-sized Mechanical Spiders surged out from the gaps in the pipelines, covering the ceiling of the tunnel.

Xia Mo drew her sword.

An icy blue arc of light swept across!

Rows upon rows of the spider swarm on the ceiling shattered, ice crystals spreading from the cross-sections, freezing the remaining spiders in place.

Chen Du walked forward, stepping on the ice shards.

"It's like browsing a supermarket," Xia Mo commented indifferently.

Chen Du's mouth twitched. "Supermarkets have better air conditioning than this."

The temperature continued to climb.

Deep at about two thousand meters, the tunnel walls had already begun to turn red.

Xia Mo's Ice-type ability spontaneously formed a thin layer of cold air around them, barely managing to keep the perceived temperature down.

Chen Du glanced at her.

A thin layer of sweat appeared on the girl's forehead, and small ice beads condensed on her eyelashes.

He reached out and pulled her shoulder, letting her come half a step closer to him.

"Save some energy; it might be even hotter below."

"It's fine! I can hold on."

At the end of the tunnel.

A giant door cast from black alloy stood in front of them.

The door was covered with ancient totems of the same origin as the murals, their dark gold patterns glowing faintly in the high temperature.

Chen Du took out the half-piece of Godhead from his inner pocket and pressed it into the very center of the door panel.

Hum—!

All the totems lit up.

The giant door split from the middle and slid heavily to both sides.

A massive skeleton spanning the entire underground space lay face up on a floor where lava and cooled metal intertwined.

Each rib was two stories high, and the spine wound for hundreds of meters like a long black dragon.

The hollow eye sockets of the skull faced the vertical shaft in the ceiling, with residual Shadow Power flowing between the bone crevices like gossamer.

That was the remains of the Tyrant! It had lain there for untold eons!

It was still massive enough to be suffocating.

And the skeleton was covered with dense Metal Worms.

They wriggled and squeezed, leaving corrosive ravines on the surface of the bones.

The largest worm was perched in the very center of the skeleton's chest cavity.

It was devouring the last bit of Shadow Power on the skeleton's surface, bite by bite.

Crunch, crunch...

Chen Du stood at the doorway.

Dark gold flames burned deep in his pupils for three seconds.

Then he spoke.

"This is the god of machinery?"

"A bunch of maggots eating a dead man's bones?"

Xia Mo tightened her grip on the hilt of her sword.

She rarely saw Chen Du speak in such a tone.

Often, the calmer he was, the more terrifying.

The largest worm sensed the aura of the tyrants authority.

It raised its head from the skeleton, and piercing red light shot from its compound eyes.

Hiss—!

A sharp mechanical hiss made the ground tremble.

Suddenly.

Thousands of small worms surged from various parts of the skeleton, gathering in front of Chen Du and piling up like a human pyramid into a three-meter-high wall.

The worm wall wriggled constantly, its gear-like mouths opening and closing one after another.

Chen Du took a step forward.

"Sacrifice."

The strange mouth on the cover of the sacrifice notebook exploded to its limit!

【Jiejiejie!! You've been eating for free for so many eons, today you'll spit it all out for this great one!!】

Black devouring power poured out like a tsunami!

The Metal Worms let out extremely shrill screams!

The worm wall began to crumble from the outer layer.

One, ten, hundreds of Metal Worms were sucked into the strange mouth by an irresistible gravitational force.

Devoured, crushed, and turned into nourishment.

The worm wall vanished completely within ten seconds.

Only the largest one remained.

It tried to flee from the skeleton's chest cavity, its thick body twisting frantically.

Chen Du stepped over and stepped on its head.

The bone gold cleaver sank into the ground, pinning its body through.

Green slime gushed from the wound, splashing half of Chen Du's trouser leg.

He crouched down.

Looking directly into that mouth that was still opening and closing.

"Take a message to your master for me..."

"Don't even think about taking a single thing belonging to the Tyrant!"

A twist of the blade!

The worm's head shattered, clattering against the rock wall.

Chen Du reached into the skeleton's chest cavity.

The second half of the Source Divinity was obtained.

It throbbed slightly, its frequency perfectly matching the half in his inner pocket.

He held the two crystals together in his palm, and they merged into one.

Boom—!!!

A dark gold energy storm erupted from the Core Forbidden Zone!

It surged all the way up the spiral mine shaft, tearing apart all the defense facilities along the way with magnetization!

Metal fragments were sucked into the light pillar, spinning in the tunnel like thousands of flying daggers.

The light pillar burst out from the remains of the statue atop the Holy Mountain!

Shooting straight into the sky!

Fortress No. 0819 was pushed back dozens of meters by the shockwave.

Unsecured toolboxes flew out with a clang, sucked into the sky by the light pillar's magnetic field.

Lin Keke fell flat on her back.

"Another earthquake? No! The Captain is causing trouble again!"

An Nuonuo lay on the ship's railing, her small face half-pale and half-flushed.

"The Captain will definitely be fine... definitely..."

"Of course!"

Tang Ran's hair was blown into a lion's mane by the shockwave. "If that guy can die, I'll swallow this scythe!"

The dark gold light pillar lasted for a full thirty seconds.

Then—

Ding—!

In the field of vision of every surviving player in the world, a piercing golden announcement popped up simultaneously.

【Global Announcement: Tyrant · Source Divinity has been recovered.】

【Heavenly Dao Rule System entering... temporary repair mode.】

【Angel of Judgment — Withdrawn!】

The World Channel was silent for three seconds.

Then it went completely crazy.

【Am I seeing this right? A global announcement? What level of event is this? This is the first time I've seen a global announcement in all the time I've played!】

【The Tyrant's Godhead has been recovered? By whom? Wait, it couldn't be No. 0819, could it? It must be No. 0819!】

【God Du... God Du snatched back the god's things?!】

【The Heavenly Dao Angel of Judgment has withdrawn! Could the rule suppression be lifted?!】

【No way... someone can actually do something like that?】

...

The Holy Mountain was collapsing.

Having lost the parasitic support of the mechanical worm swarm, the hundred-meter statue began to disintegrate from the inside.

The steel skeleton snapped, and the stench it emitted wafted for over a dozen kilometers.

In the dust and smoke.

A figure walked out.

Half of Chen Du's trench coat was burned away, and his left arm from shoulder to wrist was covered in charred burn marks.

He felt his power skyrocketing.

What flowed in his veins was no longer simple Shadow Power, but something older and more violent.

But at the same time.

The Shadow Power was no longer obedient.

It began to seep out spontaneously.

From the pores of his skin, from between his fingers, from the depths of his pupils, it surged out uncontrollably.

The shadow beneath his feet expanded frantically.

Expanding from two meters to five meters, ten meters, twenty meters...

Its shape was constantly changing!

One moment it was the silhouette of a giant, the next it shattered into the silhouettes of hundreds of bats, and the next it converged into a spear that reached the heavens.

Chen Du clenched his fist.

The Shadow Power was like a wild horse that had broken its reins; he couldn't pull it back at all.

Xia Mo ran over from behind the ruins.

"Chen Du!"

As soon as her palm touched Chen Du.

A burst of numbing electricity exploded from the point of contact, spreading through Xia Mo's arm to her entire body.

Her Shadow Pierce talent was suddenly activated, and a deep icy blue surged in her pupils.

"Chen Du... the power in your body is overflowing."

Chen Du looked down at his palm.

Dark gold patterns flowed frantically under his skin, as if something wanted to break out of its shell from within him.

Deep in his mind, the strange mouth of the sacrifice notebook was uncharacteristically silent.

Three seconds later, it finally spoke in an unprecedented tone.

【Kid... your body cannot contain the complete Tyrant's Godhead.】

【If this continues—】

【Either you devour it, or it devours you!!!】