The Devourer's Lair
Being able to traverse the earth as freely as the open sky was undeniably a tremendous advantage. It was a domain easily overlooked and notoriously difficult to defend.
Especially when employing the Five Elements Heavenly Escape Art as Han Yujin was now, a technique far subtler in presence and quicker than ordinary earth-escape methods, it became all the more impossible for an opponent to guard against.
He was even masking his existence with the Dream Illusion Only Mind divine ability.
He continued onward without interference for a brief time.
Less than a minute later, his divine sense caught an underground structure. It was a space equipped for modest habitation and storage, connected to a long subterranean passage stretching into the distance.
It did not appear to have been built by mobilizing large numbers of native intelligent beings. The floor, walls, and ceiling were all formed from solid rock, clearly the product of some supernatural art akin to dharma techniques.
Having utilized similar illusory methods several times for comparable purposes, he felt even greater certainty.
They mobilized ability users to construct this.
That implied it was an important facility. No one would invest such effort in a trivial installation.
Above ground, his senses detected a native settlement of respectable scale, now plunged into considerable chaos by the ongoing battle between Nascent Soul stage entities. No direct damage seemed to have been inflicted, yet the mere ripple of aftershocks was enough to inspire terror.
Han Yujin once again felt the sheer distance he had flown after being launched from the landing craft. For anyone else it would have been a tragic obstacle to returning, but for him—with his own hidden motives—it was instead an opportunity.
The problem is that no matter how cleverly I improvise something convincing, the moment Commander Brenar falls, my death becomes certain.
The fact that the demonic sorcerer investigator had charged so aggressively at Commander Brenar continued to trouble him. The more he reflected, the less he could imagine any other reason for the entity to reveal himself in such a manner.
There was only one possible explanation.
Confidence in victory.
It required no lengthy consideration: the instant Commander Brenar was defeated, the Demensys cruiser’s fate would be sealed as well. It might have already broken orbit and activated its warp engines to avoid annihilation while the battle raged.
It would amount to abandoning their captain, yet surprisingly there were precedents of such “sacrifices” being ordered by the captain themselves.
In that event, even if Commander Brenar prevailed, it would still take days for the Demensys to return.
While weighing every variable, he finished analyzing both the surface and underground situations along with their layouts.
There seemed to be no concept of a bomb shelter; none of the surface dwellers had even considered fleeing underground. He could guess the reason.
This solidly constructed underground passage served not only as a route to somewhere but also doubled as a prison facility.
The initial spaces for habitation and storage were quarters for the guards. Beneath them lay a rather spacious yet brutally harsh prison holding roughly forty captives.
If these beings possessed anything resembling civilization, the existence of prisons was hardly surprising. He could easily imagine how the prisoners were eventually disposed of.
The passage leads toward the kingdom’s central region.
It was unlikely to be solely an underground facility for transporting “prisoner test subjects.” There had to be other purposes. After his cursory examination, he proceeded along the extending corridor.
The passage curved gently at intervals and appeared linked to every settlement above a certain size. He was clicking his tongue at how meticulously it had been built—far beyond his expectations—when a noteworthy change finally appeared.
Xenos…
From a certain point onward, biological tissues unmistakably belonging to that race of cosmic monsters began thinly coating and growing across the passage’s floor, walls, and ceiling. Some sections sprouted countless hair-like filaments that swayed in a revolting display.
They were breeding them down here.
The word “breeding” fit perfectly. From what he had learned as a soldier of the space forces, Xenos were not creatures that would docilely cover passages like harmless moss.
Even at minuscule sizes they displayed distinct, insect-like activity, infecting other organisms, consuming them, and steadily increasing in both mass and power. They were monsters of that nature.
As he advanced closer to the kingdom’s center, he had no choice but to move while fully entering the passage itself. Extremely fine Xenos tentacles had spread outward from it like a vast neural network, claiming the surrounding earth.
To avoid detection, he could either retreat far away or utilize this corridor, which formed a void zone like the eye of a storm.
To think they laid out a surveillance field in this manner.
The tremendous advantage he had believed underground travel provided now felt utterly meaningless. He had assumed any defenses would amount to mere formations, but this was something he had never imagined.
Yet the underground passage itself was so undefended that it prompted several thoughts.
They built it, but primitive civilized beings using it left them no choice but to leave it this way?
It might seem as though he were underestimating a Nascent Soul stage opponent too casually, yet the notion carried a strangely realistic weight. Similar situations had arisen often enough in his experience.
Even if a security system was theoretically flawless, those who used it frequently created massive gaps.
While his mind turned over these thoughts, he passed through the desolate, grotesque corridor where only Xenos biological tissue covered the walls.
At last, a door appeared. It was of ancient design, sealed with proper repair-type restrictions that prevented any Xenos tissue from encroaching upon it.
Amusingly, however, the door stood wide open, as if the deployed restrictions were mere decoration. From the feel of it, this was not a one-time coincidence; the entrance seemed to be left like this almost constantly.
…Well, complacency is understandable.
Considering the owner of this place was a Nascent Soul investigator, what real purpose could such defenses serve? Even the strongest great chieftain among the natives was merely at the late Core Formation stage and already functioned as one of his limbs.
Thus he entered the underground region beneath the kingdom’s center, beneath a colossal structure that could rightly be called a royal palace.
It was a large hall formed by the convergence of several passages extending from different directions…
What lay within was a full-fledged demonic realm.
No wonder the door was open…!
Even he, who possessed considerable experience as a Core Formation investigator, felt his blood run cold and nausea rise in his throat at the sight. No rational native being would ever willingly set foot in such a place.
The Xenos tissue that had remained quietly moss-like on the walls outside was here thick and pulsating with vitality, faintly throbbing as it shaped the entire chamber like the interior of some gargantuan living organism.
Upon those walls were displayed all manner of “exhibits” created by the demonic sorcerer investigator—things indistinguishable from a devil’s handiwork.
Native intelligent beings that formed this kingdom, along with various animals, had been literally spread open with their interiors fully exposed, connected to the Xenos tissue and preserved in place.
Horrifyingly, they were still alive. They convulsed in agony, wheezing like leaking bellows.
He could not guess how long they had been displayed in this state. Their minds could not possibly remain intact; they must have shattered long ago. Yet the pain itself had clearly not vanished.
They had not been dissected and hung at random. There was deliberate order in their arrangement, and the method of dissection was impossibly precise.
He began to suspect that the assumptions he had made before arriving here might have been mistaken.
It might not have been mere carelessness that left the passage undefended and the door open. If someone had gone to such painstaking lengths to create a living dissection exhibition hall, they might well have wanted others to see it.
Only the curse fucking lunatic came to mind. The madness and malice that saturated the air refused to let his skin stop crawling.
He closed his eyes for a moment to steady his mind, then moved deeper into the hall.
Not toward the passages connecting to other settlements of the kingdom, but toward the corridor that linked to the area used by the hall’s owner. The entrance looked distinctly different, making the distinction easy.
The most obvious difference was that this door was firmly shut.
From the atmosphere, this hall displaying the dissected specimens served as a sort of foyer or front courtyard.
Hmm…
As expected of a Nascent Soul investigator’s residence, the restrictions on the door were no ordinary matter. Naturally, the walls and floor beneath were more densely packed with Xenos tissue than anywhere else.
Merely imagining how they would retaliate if stimulated was enough to raise gooseflesh once more.
Calming his impatient heart, he meticulously examined the door’s restrictions with his divine sense. Given his transcendent comprehension and the fact that he was no novice in formation arts, there was a chance he could unravel them.
Even if he could not fully dispel them, the ingenious applications of Dream Illusion Only Mind and the Five Elements Heavenly Escape Art should allow him to slip through somehow.
A short while later.
Having successfully located a small gap, he hesitated, weighing one concern.
I might be detected…
Yet if the master of these restrictions was still locked in combat with Commander Brenar, the risk might not materialize.
Having come this far, he could not simply turn back.
Having made his decision, he melted through the door’s gap like dispersing violet smoke.
Once inside, he moved at full power under the assumption that his opponent had already sensed the intrusion. He spread his divine sense wide, analyzing the internal structure down to the smallest detail, then shot forward like a beam of light toward the direction of the jade slips he had just detected.
Even if he died here, he had to see those at least once before the end.
The interior consisted of three floors, each apparently serving a different purpose. Unlike the outer areas, it was decorated with luxurious repair-style elegance and kept impeccably clean.
Upon reaching what appeared to be a study on the second floor, he immediately picked up a jade slip only to pause. It was not a purely crafted object but one created through dharma arts that might contain traps for safety.
Would he really have prepared traps in case this place was invaded?
The possibility was more than sufficient. He must not underestimate the insidious nature of a demonic sorcerer.
Yet what rose alongside that thought was his own mental defensive power—strong enough to shatter at any time the illusion cast by the cruiser’s paranoia shockwave cannon.
Let’s trust in that.
With that resolve, he carefully yet without hesitation poured his divine sense into the jade slip.
“……”
He stood as still as a statue, not moving in the slightest for over a minute. Only after fully absorbing the vast quantity of information did he release what resembled a faint sigh and reach for the next jade slip.
They were not manuals of knowledge or techniques concerning the repair system.
Such things were likely carried on the investigator’s person or kept solely within his mind at his current late stage.
The jade slips here were all research logs on creating an External Incarnation based on Xenos, ultimately aiming to forge a new and powerful body for himself while seeking to obtain the Devour divine ability.
…It is true that the Xenos’ devouring characteristic is profoundly mysterious.
Even as he continued reading the second jade slip, the thought occurred to him again.
According to the logs, nearly two hundred years had passed since the demonic sorcerer investigator first arrived and settled on this planet. In that time he had founded a kingdom, raised a communicative proxy to the late Core Formation stage, and installed him as king.
The demonic sorcerer, who possessed a truly diabolical madness and wickedness that made the phrase “true madman” feel utterly inadequate, was nevertheless a genuine Nascent Soul stage investigator regardless of his personality.
Han Yujin had no intention of creating an External Incarnation or forging a new body from the Xenos monster race, yet simply examining the various knowledge and dharma incantations used in the research caused inspiration to explode within his mind.
Naturally, the human-skin incarnation technique he had obtained long ago in the Kangho martial world rose to join it, the two blending seamlessly. There were clear points of resonance between the knowledge of fellow demonic sorcerers.
Roughly thirty minutes later.
Though anxiety gnawed at him over when the owner might return, he ultimately read through every jade slip present.
Now came the second-most valuable item—one he had only lightly scanned with his divine sense but which was highly likely to be at least spirit-treasure grade: the pill furnace.
To someone who had never possessed a proper pill furnace before, it was an object he could not help but covet.