Chapter 683 Breaking the Cocoon, Aberrant Creation

This open space stretched far beyond what anyone had imagined.

Fifty feet? A hundred feet? Three hundred feet?

The towering dome soared far higher than any normal structure. Its intersecting arches, the skylights inlaid with colored glass and gold, and the intricate carvings swallowed by dark purple loomed above them like an artificial sky.

It appeared to be some kind of church or temple—a place meant for worshipping gods.

Yet the grand hall, vast as a public square, lacked the pews, shrines, stone pillars, and stairs that should have filled it. It was entirely empty.

The sheer, empty scale of it bore down on them the moment they stepped inside, exerting an invisible pressure that made it hard to even breathe.

Outside, they had mistakenly believed the area was safe—that the dark purple mycelium had vanished, kept at bay by some invisible barrier. That had clearly been a desperate misjudgment.

The ominous, hellish fungal colonies hadn't avoided this place because they were repelled by some local power, leaving a safe clearing as the group had guessed.

Quite the opposite!

The "clean" path Xia Nan and the others had walked was entirely due to this temple. Its attraction to the mycelium was simply too strong, drawing every nearby colony to this single focal point.

The dark purple fungus that should have been outside devouring buildings and carpeting the ground was instead smeared here like heavy, overlapping layers of paint. It coated every visible surface, stacking so thickly that the floor was now half an inch higher than the tunnel outside.

The surrounding walls had once borne intricate, glorious murals depicting the history of the serpent-men and the gods they worshipped. Now, the mycelium had eroded and swallowed them whole.

In the carvings of mortal saints wielding divine authority, only the faint outlines of their serpent-bone crowns remained recognizable; the rest had sunk into a dark purple abyss. The mycelium tainted every single scale on the massive, winding giant serpent relief. Framed by the ominous purple rot, the serpent's merciful posture of bestowing divine grace now looked like a twisted, agonizing struggle.

At the same time, the group finally spotted the main host of the serpent-men they had thought fled the settlement.

"Purebloods," "Hexed," and "Abominations"—nearly a thousand serpent-men of various castes remained frozen in the postures of their final moments. Like statues set in mycelium, they knelt in a massive ring around the altar, heads bowed in devout prayer to their god.

Clearly, the great entity these serpent-men worshipped from the bottom of their hearts had not offered them salvation.

Worse still, even the sole structure inside the temple—the hexagonal sacrificial altar that stood as the absolute sacred core of the serpent-man tribe...

...was now profanely occupied by the dark purple filth.

Thick layers of fungus caked the altar, softening its sharp stone edges into swollen, fleshy contours. It looked like some bizarre organic structure; thick, bulging veins were even visible across its surface.

And resting at the very peak of this fungal altar grew an oval, egg-like silk cocoon.

It was also woven from mycelium, but the power gestating inside was perhaps too concentrated, compressing the dark purple threads into a deep, abyssal black-purple.

"Thump, thump, thump."

Piercing through the thick outer shell, a rhythmic, muffled heartbeat pulsed faintly from the depths of the cocoon. It echoed like a drum from hell through the vast, dead silence of the temple.

Something was wrong!

Something was definitely wrong here!

By his feet, Winter Wolf Fanny suddenly tensed, crouching low with a low growl.

Stepping through the tunnel and seeing the interior of the temple, Xia Nan felt a sudden, sharp sense of dread.

His formidable Perception—which had never failed him in any of his past adventures—had led him to a wrong conclusion for the first time today.

It was as if all outward aura had been firmly sealed within the altar's silk cocoon. Even now, staring straight at this grotesque scene, Xia Nan's Perception couldn't detect a single trace of danger.

Yet any ordinary person with even the slightest grasp of the Transcendent Tier would feel at least some dread at the sight of this.

It was obvious: the mycelium—or rather, the cocoon—was using some method far beyond Xia Nan's current ability to perceive to completely mask its presence, sealing its aura entirely within the temple.

He didn't hesitate for a second.

The moment he realized this, Xia Nan's first reaction was an emergency retreat.

Setting aside the sprawling, magnificent arena—which gave him such an inexplicable sense of déjà vu that he half-expected epic background music to start blaring at any second.

Simply the fact that this entity could blind his outstanding Perception—masking its threat even when he stood so close—made Xia Nan realize that whatever waited inside that cocoon was almost certainly beyond what he could handle in his normal state.

There was no reason he had to stay. A decisive retreat was his smartest option right now.

But just as Xia Nan made the decision to retreat and shifted his thoughts into action in a split second...

...his teammates, reacting half a beat slower, finally processed the twisted scene in the temple and made their own reactions.

Zanfrey and Winsor lacked adventuring experience. Though they sensed something was wrong, they didn't know what to do and simply stood rooted in place, entirely at a loss.

Behind them, the experienced Ake might not have grasped the full depths of the threat like Xia Nan did, but the terrifying sight inside the temple was enough to warn him of the danger.

Limping quickly forward, he grabbed Zanfrey and tried to drag him back.

The gnome Rogue had already glimpsed this scene while scouting ahead. His face was still deathly pale and his expression steeped in terror, yet he showed no intent to flee. He just stood at the very front of the formation, staring blankly at the silk cocoon on the altar.

With his back turned to the group, a trace of frantic zeal flared deep within his glazed eyes, alongside an ominous dark purple light that was rapidly surging outward.

By contrast, the strongest reactions came from the Half-Drow Yexi and the human Warrior Benni.

"It's that thing!!!"

"Damn it, run!"

Even though not a single shadow or silhouette was visible from the outside, the two of them somehow recognized the creature gestating and evolving inside the cocoon.

They had been effortlessly crushed by its initial form and then humiliatingly taken captive by the green-skinned goblins. After escaping their cages, that terrifying trauma flared up again like an inescapable nightmare.

Their mental defenses shattered on the spot. Whatever calm composure they possessed as veteran adventurers vanished without a trace.

Triggered by sheer panic, the two entirely different individuals simultaneously broke down into a state of terrified panic, looking even more pathetic than ordinary villagers.

Making no attempt to quiet their movements and completely ignoring the teammates standing beside them...

...they spun around like startled poultry and bolted frantically toward the exit, screaming in panic.

However, no matter how fast their reflexes were, the group was ultimately one step too late.

Perhaps Yexi and Benni had made too much noise, or perhaps the fungal carpet had alerted it to the adventurers' intrusion.

The slow, echoing heartbeat filling the temple abruptly accelerated, and the massive, unmoving silk cocoon suddenly twitched.

Through the thick casing, like looking through frosted glass, a twisted, blurred humanoid silhouette could be seen stretching its body inside.

As its extremities pushed outward, distinct bulges jutted against the surface of the cocoon.

Like hairline cracks spreading across an eggshell.

It might have only been a minuscule, unnoticeable tear on the outer shell caused by the creature stirring, but the terrifying aura of a powerful monster—which had been suppressed entirely within—suddenly blasted outward.

Only then did Xia Nan's razor-sharp Perception finally catch the aura bleeding into the air—an unprecedented, lethal sense of danger that sent chills down his spine.

His physical instincts moved faster than his thoughts.

Long before Yexi and Benni reacted in terror, he had already spun around the moment he realized something was wrong, keeping only a sliver of peripheral vision locked onto the cocoon on the side.

By the time Ake and the members of the Shadow Crow party processed the situation and made their moves...

...Xia Nan, wrapped in pitch-black astral winds, had already taken his first step toward the exit.

Driven by the instantaneous explosive power of [Fang Hunt], Xia Nan dashed to the entrance of the tunnel in the blink of an eye.

Yet, much like how the temple had entirely blinded his Perception earlier, he found that a thick, viscous web of dark purple mycelium had silently woven together, completely sealing off their escape route.

It wasn't just a thin film over the opening. Through the writhing gaps in the threads, he could see that the entire tunnel had been choked full of fungal sludge, blocking it solid like mud and glue.

Unlike the panic and confusion gripping the rest of the party, Xia Nan's inherently outstanding psychological resilience allowed him to instinctively pivot his decisions the exact moment he realized they were trapped.

Shifting his feet, he adjusted his stance, instantly swapping from a rapid retreat to an emergency combat posture.

His tactical shift was clear, concise, and highly efficient.

Since a fast retreat was ruined by the fungal blockage, battle was inevitable.

In that case, he would drop all thoughts of running and launch a furious assault.

While the monster had yet to fully break from its cocoon, he would hit it with everything he had and inflict a devastating blow.

As he twisted his body around, his pitch-black eyes naturally swept toward the silk cocoon ahead.

His pupils constricted.

Only a few short breaths had passed since this began. His eyes had been off it for less than two seconds.

Yet on the altar ahead, the egg cocoon resting upon the thick fungal bed had already split completely down the middle.

Dark purple slime dripped and flowed from the opening, but the eerie monster gestating inside was nowhere to be seen.

"Vooom!!!"

Blazing, nearly blinding fiery light erupted from Xia Nan's back. A surging heatwave blasted outward, clashing with the frigid air to form rolling clouds of scalding steam.

[Azure Pine], the exotic wooden sword from the Snake Den Secret Realm, was warning Xia Nan in its own way of the sheer strength of the enemy he was about to face.

Even the pitch-black Arm Shield on his left arm—crafted primarily from the scales of a mythical giant serpent—broke its usual cold, silent demeanor. It vibrated faintly, a dark, chilling glow surfacing across its exterior.

The enemy's overwhelmingly intense presence pricked at Xia Nan's outward Perception like stabbing needles.

His eyes darted, sweeping toward the front of the group.

The gnome Rogue, Landa, was still standing there, completely motionless.

His back was to the group, his facial expression hidden.

Yet his short, diminutive body was already enveloped by a massive, abyssal, and terrifying shadow.

Like a mother embracing her child, backlit by the ruptured oval cocoon on the altar behind them, six slender, powerful arms covered in fine scales reached down gently from above, pulling Landa's stiff, paralyzed body into a tender hug.

Dark purple, viscous drool dripped onto his shoulders. A mouth unique to serpents—capable of unhinging and expanding—descended softly from above, enveloping the top of the gnome's head.

It opened. It swallowed.

The six arms exerted only a slight force as the serpent-like head jerked upward.

Along with a hair-raising gulp...

...the gnome Rogue of the Shadow Crow party turned into a fading silhouette, vanishing into the monster's belly.

Standing before them was a twisted creation—a fusion of serpent-man, fungal mycelium, and, though absent from its physical appearance, traits of a goblin that Xia Nan inexplicably sensed lurking within it.

Standing over three meters tall, its main body retained the traits of a serpent-man. Fine scales dyed dark purple covered its inverted-triangle head, and saliva dripped from its maw as a forked tongue flicked the air. Its cold, slitted pupils held absolutely no emotion. Like a marionette controlled by the fungal swarm, it stared down at the prey that had trespassed into its nest.

Below its neck, its torso displayed a humanoid structure. A fusion of muscle and mycelium formed its broad, powerfully built upper half. Six slender, muscular arms extended from its sides. Two of them clearly belonged to the original serpent-man—flesh-and-blood limbs covered in scales. The other two pairs were formed by fungal threads, mimicking the shape of arms through tightly intertwined mycelium.

Further down, it lacked humanoid legs. Instead, its lower body was a thick fungal tail seamlessly fused with the carpet of mycelium blanketing the temple floor. As the tail swayed, the surrounding fungal colonies writhed violently in response, sprouting fine tendrils.

Time seemed to freeze.

The terrifying pressure radiating from the powerful monster froze everyone in place.

Yet, it did not immediately attack the adventurers.

Right before their eyes, the mycelium-entwined aberrant serpent-man slowly bent its towering body.

One of its slender, scaly arms reached out toward the ground.

It scooped up the two poison-coated daggers dropped by the gnome Rogue.

Only then did the group suddenly realize something else.

The inexplicably familiar weapons held in the serpent-man's other hands.

The longbow of the Half-Drow Yexi, the greataxe of the human Warrior Benni, and—

The heavy tower shield belonging to the guard Ake, emblazoned with the "Shield of the Silver Lake" family crest.