The facilities built by the guardian giants, even if it was just a ventilation duct, were quite spacious for an ordinary human.
Perhaps it was Hao Ren's unreliable boss who took care of his employees, or maybe it was the goddess of creation who was watching over her own daughter, they crossed the perimeter without any trouble under the nose of the festered and entered the ventilation duct leading to the control center.
The power of the Mad Lord had infected almost everything on Amantir, including the temple and its ancillary facilities. But this infection did not affect the normal operation of these facilities, such as the energy and lighting systems. The gate of the ventilation duct could still be opened, and the internal circulation system and lighting were working as usual. Coupled with the quietness of the ventilation duct, Hao Ren would have almost forgotten that he was in the base camp of the minions of the Mad Lord if it was not for the oppressive cold air and the strange stench in the air.
"This passage will be very long," Hao Ren said as he walked in front, looking at the map projected by the MDT. The map was provided by Salaman, which recorded the detailed structure of Amantir before its fall. The festered did not need to destroy the fortress that they had already obtained, so most of the areas on the map were still valid, but the safety factor was not so good. "The underground structure of the planetary fortress is intricate, or the underground facility of this thing is the body of the starship. We will pass through several underground factories and mechanical cabins. Although most of the route is in the duct, there will still be a few sections in the middle that lack cover. Everyone will have to adapt to the situation. Stealth is the first priority."
Vivian said in a low voice, "This is very close to the great rift valley, and the underground environment is likely to have changed a lot. We can't fully trust the map."
"Of course," Hao Ren nodded. "But for now, we have nothing else to use except this map."
At this time, the MDT suddenly said, "Attention, there is a reaction of the festered above."
Everyone immediately shut their mouths, while Vivian waved her hand to summon a gray shadow. The power of the shadow obscured everyone, suppressing everyone's auras and reactions to the lowest possible.
A moment later, the MDT dispelled the alarm. "We've walked over. Other weak signals are far away from us."
Hao Ren looked up. The dark vault above the ventilation duct blocked his view, but he knew that he was passing under a small temple. The festered that the MDT sensed earlier should be the soldiers patrolling the small temple. This was still a shallow area. If he was not careful, the enemy could still sense him.
"I can't use the Shadow Canopy too often." Vivian retracted her Shadow Power after the alarm was lifted. "Although this energy is hard to detect, it can still be detected if I use it frequently."
Hao Ren nodded. "Pass this section as soon as possible."
The team continued to move forward in the underground facility. Apart from the sound of their footsteps, there was only the ubiquitous low buzzing sound and the sound of air flowing through certain gaps in the ventilation duct. Of course, there was not much to enjoy in a duct. Coupled with the gloomy and depressing environment here, Lily felt very uncomfortable. "It's creepy … I can't see anyone, but I feel like there are people everywhere …"
"Don't say that now!" Nangong Wuyue immediately had goosebumps. She was crawling forward in her sea serpent form. When she heard Lily's words, the tip of her tail subconsciously straightened. "I'm already having goosebumps …"
Nangong Sanba suddenly frowned. "Wait a minute … maybe it's not an illusion. There's something here!"
Although Sanba was the weakest among them, the demon hunter's bloodline talent, the Hunter's Skill, had given him a good sense of perception. Coupled with his limited strength, he was the fastest to react when there was an extremely faint and difficult to detect phenomenon around him.
So when he spoke, everyone immediately tensed up. Hao Ren immediately looked at the MDT. "Scan."
The MDT immediately turned on all of its sensors. A pale blue light spread along the inner wall of the ventilation duct, and the MDT projected the results of the scan.
In the tubular holographic image, there was nothing but a few spots of light, and those spots of light were actually the waste energy that had escaped from the depths of Amantir that permeated the entire space.
"I didn't find anything." The MDT turned off the enhanced scanning module. "Sanba, are you hallucinating?"
"Please call me Nangong," Nangong Sanba corrected him with a serious expression. Then, he frowned and shook his head. "No … I can indeed feel something around me. It's … a very subtle spiritual energy reaction, with weak thoughts. It's a bit like a ghost, but its thoughts are more chaotic and weak than a ghost's."
"I can feel it too," Vivian testified for Nangong Sanba. "But my perception is also very unclear. I can't tell what it is."
Hao Ren looked around cautiously as he lowered his voice. "We have not been discovered yet, so 'that thing' is probably not a sentry set by the festered. Maybe it's a special energy field emitted by the uncorrupted parts of Amantir. Let's move forward, maybe we will find something ahead. "
This little episode made everyone even more nervous. Even Rollie, who was dizzy, opened her eyes wide and focused. The cat maiden tiptoed behind Hao Ren. The cat girl's talent allowed her to move more quietly than anyone else.
But just as they were walking, she suddenly stopped. Her pointy cat ears turned around alertly. "Big Boss Cat, I heard something!"
"What sound?" Hao Ren stopped again. "Why didn't I hear it?"
"It's coming from nearby …" The cat maiden squatted down and turned her ears around as she whispered. "It sounds like something is mumbling in its mouth … Big Dumb Cat, do you hear it?"
Lily did not care what the cat maiden called her. She squatted next to Rollie with a serious face and turned her furry ears around to listen intently. Like a human sonar, the two animal-eared maidens began to search for any unusual sounds in the underground pipeline.
The low hum of the machinery and the omnipresent airflow had disrupted the clues of the sound. Even with their heightened senses, Hao Ren and the others could not hear anything wrong. But the cat and dog duo's super hearing came into play. After a minute, Lily and Rollie raised their hands almost at the same time and pointed to a fork in the road ahead. "It's coming from there! And it's getting closer! "
Vivian immediately summoned the Shadow Canopy again to conceal everyone's presence and even their faint footsteps. Under such cover, Hao Ren led the team carefully to the fork in the ventilation pipe. On both sides of the fork were two empty pipes that looked exactly the same.
Y 'lisabet mumbled, "Seems like there's nothing."
"It's from below. It's coming from below." Lily reminded. With her reminder, Hao Ren noticed that a part of the ground was not the same as the rest. It was a rectangular metal plate. The overlapping lines and protruding structure seemed to indicate that it was a trapdoor.
Wuyue immediately pressed her hand on the metal plate, and a stream of water separated from her body and penetrated into the cracks of the metal plate. Under the power of the water elemental energy, the deformable metal plate quietly opened up a crack, and light shone out from the crack.
There was something down there!
Hao Ren moved closer and looked through the crack at the bottom of the pipe.
According to the map provided by Salaman, they should be near the grand temple where the control center was located. There were more underground facilities here, so it was not surprising that the pipe would pass through an underground cabin. It was even more normal that there were "people" in the underground cabin.
What Hao Ren was really curious about was the "voice" that Rollie heard. The festered monsters could not speak. They had no need to talk, and they did not have the ability to talk.
In a place like Amantir that had fallen into madness, who could communicate with words? Could it be the senior commanders of the festered army?
Through the narrow crack on the floor, Hao Ren saw a rather large room below. The room was brightly lit, and there were some large equipment that was humming. But this bright environment could not reduce the distorted and depressing atmosphere of the room. All the equipment and the floor were covered with a layer of dark red lines, which was proof of corruption.
And in the middle of the room, Hao Ren saw a strange creature.
The image of the creature made Hao Ren's eyes change.
It was a swollen, roughly ellipsoidal mass of flesh, like an inflated brain. It was fixed on a circular metal platform, and a dozen dark red tentacles extended from below the "brain." The ends of those tentacles reached into a circle of holes around the metal platform, and a large number of pipes spread out from the holes, connecting various equipment in the room.
At a glance, it was obvious that this "brain" was controlling the things in the room.
And the voice that Rollie heard was coming from this brain. It was talking to itself.
"Mr. Landlord, Mr. Landlord," Lily whispered and came over. "What do you see? Let me see it too?"
"I didn't expect …" Hao Ren looked up, a little stunned. "I almost forgot about this thing … I didn't expect to see another one here!"
Vivian's curiosity was piqued. "What did you see?"
"It's a brain monster!" Lily had poked her head out to take a look. Before Hao Ren could say anything, she suddenly looked up and whispered, "There's a brain monster down there! It's the kind of brain monster we saw in Holletta and the City of the Sirens! "
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