The earth was scorched, the ridges and hills were razed to the ground, and the raging fire was gradually devouring the forest vegetation on the edge. In the most severely damaged areas, the world looked like it was the end of the world. Molten rocks turned into rivers of magma, flowing freely on the cracked surface. Thick smoke spewed out of the craters everywhere, dyeing the sky scorched. Huge wreckage of the fortress could be seen everywhere on this newly formed 'disaster plain', like a mutated steel jungle pointing angrily at the sky.
And the rift that traversed the earth was surrounded by these doomsday scenes. On its jagged edges were charred tentacles, rocks and soil constantly fell from the edge of the rift into the bottomless abyss below, and two rivers of lava that had yet to cool down hung over the cliff, just like the legendary sulfur river that connected hell and the human world. And at the bottom of the great rift, there was a faint red light shining in the darkness.
It was the nerve node of the First Born, glowing in the darkness.
The drone cluster had set up a temporary base around the great rift. Large equipment originally used for space engineering operations was directly dropped from orbit to the surface, assembled on the spot, and turned into the decomposing beam generators hanging on the edge of the rift, pointing to the bottom of the abyss. Now there were three sets of decomposing beam generators in operation. They used powerful high-energy rays to disassemble all physical matter along the way, and the obstacles in the depths of the rift were cleared by them.
Some of the engineering drones were busy flying between these large equipment, while more of the other models had entered the fissure, exploring and pioneering work inside. Occasionally, there was a flash of light in the depths of the great rift. That was the armed drones performing anesthesia, kinetic hypnosis, physical deletion on the still-active tentacles of the First Born …
Anyway, it was almost the same thing.
The Petrachelys lowered its altitude and entered the rift steadily and silently. As it descended, the light from above slowly became a distant and blurry line of light. Other than the light of the decomposing beam, there was only the drone cluster flying around the spacecraft.
Hao Ren looked at the decomposing beam thoughtfully. "Mine lances are really the world's most powerful anti-armor weapon …"
"Pfft, they can only burn rocks fast. If we really encounter something with a bit of technology, they can't even compare to my main cannon," Nolan said, a little unconvinced. "What's so great about just dismantling rocks?"
Nangong Sanba gave the shipgirl a strange look. "Do you really have to compete with a bunch of mine lances?"
Nangong Wuyue poked Nangong Sanba's arm with the tip of her tail. "Brother, don't tease her. it took Nolan a lot of effort to fix the main cannon, but she didn't even fire a single shot.
On the other hand, Hao Ren did not care about the shipgirl's little tantrum. He was focused on the excavation work of the drone cluster and the situation in the depths of the great rift.
This was a different "deep dive" operation. He had entered the core of the First Born before, but it was either a young First Born like in Holletta or a harmless child like Zorm. The most risky one was on Inferno, where he led a team into the body of a living adult First Born. The feeling of traversing deep in the tentacle jungle of the planet left a deep impression. But the First Born on Inferno had been completely sealed by the demon god Vivian, and before the seal was lifted, it was not a threat at all.
But it was different here: the First Born on this planet was not only alive, but its tentacles could still move freely. Although its consciousness had dissipated, its body was not restrained. For such a powerful mythical creature, the subconscious movement of its body was enough to cause the world to fall.
It was no wonder that Hao Ren had prepared such a big operation and even sent the drone cluster to escort him.
"How's the lullaby program?" He knocked on the control panel in front of him, snapping Nolan out of her state of mumbling.
"The first drone has carried the lullaby device into the depths of the rift. We found a large number of ganglia that emitted strong nerve impulses. Now those ganglia have been hypnotized," Nolan said as she projected the situation at the bottom of the rift. Nolan said as she projected the situation at the bottom of the fissure. The image showed a dark red underground canyon landscape. On both sides of the canyon were almost straight rock cliffs, and the bottom of the valley was slightly narrowed. A large number of tentacles and glowing nerve lines grew in and out of the rock walls and intertwined at the bottom of the valley, almost completely blocking the fissure. Among the intertwined biological tissues, there were many luminous lumps that glowed brighter. Those were the ganglia.
The engineering drones were busy working around the ganglia. They fixed metal beams on the rock walls and the more stable tentacles, and placed the lullaby device near the ganglia. The luminous tumors flickered at a very stable speed. Apparently, they had entered a state of deep sleep.
They were sleeping so soundly that they did not even know that three mine guns were drilling holes in their heads …
Hao Ren glanced at the material decomposition beam that was shooting straight down from the side of the spacecraft and ablating the tentacle blockage. He reminded Nolan, "Make sure the lullaby device is stable. There must be at least two sets of lullaby devices operating at the same time in each area. Otherwise, this thing will wake up."
"Understood, Nolan."
"Any changes in the deep signal response?"
"No changes," Nolan replied. "The signal from the center of the planet shows that the First Born's brain is still offline. The drones found two main nerve lines and confirmed that the two nerves extend directly from the brain area. We did not read any thoughts from the two nerves. "
Hao Ren nodded and did not say a word.
The spacecraft continued to descend and passed the tentacle blockage at the bottom of the canyon. The blockage had been burned into a large hole by the powerful material decomposition beam, and below the hole was a deeper underground cave.
During the process of the First Born parasitizing a planet, the physical structure of the planet would inevitably change dramatically, and some planetary structures that would never appear under natural conditions were thus formed.
In the interior of a planet inhabited by the First Born, the most common structure was a continuous series of cavities and fault zones. These were the traces of the First Born's growth process. When this powerful mythical creature was first born from the Seed of Origin, it would drill deep underground while shaping the ecological environment on the surface. In its infancy, it usually lived near the crust, and to take care of the young ecosystem on the surface, it would constantly move itself, leaving a large number of tunnels and caverns. In the transition stage from infancy to adulthood, it would move to the mantle, immersing part of its body in magma to absorb energy, while the other part of its body would poke out of the surface to continue monitoring the ecosystem. This would leave many penetrating 'rock pillars'. When it reached adulthood, the First Born had almost grown to the point that it could almost spread throughout the entire planet. Its internal structure would move near the core and gradually replace the core's role (such as maintaining the planet's magnetic field), while its surface tentacles spread across the planet.
In this series of transfer, growth, and metabolism processes, a large number of cavities and faults were left in the planet's interior. Under normal circumstances, a planet would inevitably collapse, but as the First Born's tentacles replaced the rock pillars, the physical structure of the planet would actually be stronger than before.
The Petrachelys moved forward in such a series of cavities and faults.
The drone-built excavation equipment shut down after drilling through the crust and a part of the mantle, because the 'underground world' below was spacious enough that Nolan did not need them to continue digging. Nolan would be able to find enough holes for her to pass through. Even if there were more difficult places to pass through, the protection drones could still help to dig.
Nangong Wuyue lay beside the projector as she looked at the image sent back by the external monitor. "It's spectacular."
The spacecraft had just passed through a layer of rock dome and was now flying over a scorching underground lava lake. In the red glow of the lava, a few thick tentacles could clearly be seen across the entire fault. They grew out of the lava, supporting and penetrating the rock ceiling above. There were some branching 'branches' between the tentacles, and the surface of those branches occasionally flashed with light as if there were fire spirits residing in them.
Nolan slowed down and carefully flew between these huge tentacles. The moment the spacecraft passed through one of the tentacles, the external monitor sent back an incredible scene.
They saw that the lava lake below had suddenly disappeared, replaced by a large lush forest. Then the forest was swallowed up by yellow sand, and there were even some ancient boulder buildings in the yellow sand. A few seconds later, the boulder buildings were gone with the wind, and the desert turned into a white snowfield. There were armored knights trekking on the snowfield …
Lily perked up the moment she saw the snowfield. She swallowed hard to hold back the howl in her throat.
"There is a large ganglion nearby," Nolan's voice woke everyone up. "The 'dream' produced by the ganglion distorts the reality of the underground cavern and creates these things."
Hao Ren reminded everyone, "Don't believe these scenes. Although they are real for now, the dream may end at any time, and the forest, snowfield, and desert will turn back into a lava lake in the blink of an eye."
"Incredible …" N-6 muttered to herself. "The planet devourer has such power …"
"This is not all of his power," Hao Ren glanced at the robot girl. "He is not a symbol of disaster from the beginning as you think. After this incident is over, I'll leave you a copy of the information. Then, you'll know the truth. "
N-6 nodded gratefully, and the MDT said, "There is a large ganglion here that can create illusions, which means we are very close to one of the brain nuclei."
As soon as the MDT's voice trailed off, Nolan said in a hurry, "Boss, I think I found something! Look over there! "
In the picture that Nolan had specially marked, Hao Ren suddenly saw that the rock formation in front of them was fragmented, and a large number of crystal clear rocks were mixed in the broken rock formation. Several large black tentacles spread from the bottom of the rock wall, and those tentacles were the central nervous system connected to the brain nucleus.
They found it.
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