Chen Nuo followed the team that moved like the living dead, with no idea how long they had been walking.
After washing off his disguise underwater, Chen Nuo had reverted to his original appearance—an Asian look that wasn't conspicuous in this team.
The team was composed of members from the two previous exploration teams. The mercenaries of the second exploration team came from the Black Bee organization. To meet the demands of this mission, Black Bee had specifically selected mercenaries who regularly operated in Southeast Asia, so Asians were already part of the original contingent.
Traveling on foot through the rainforest was typically an exhausting endeavor, but this team moved relentlessly, as if they never knew fatigue.
These individuals didn't sleep or rest and seemingly felt neither hunger nor thirst.
They moved through the jungle at an astonishingly fast pace.
They even seemed fearless of the dangers inherent in the tropical rainforest.
It was as if venomous insects, snakes, ants, or fierce wild animals were all completely ignored.
Moreover, when they advanced, they disregarded paths and terrain.
Once, while crossing a stretch of jungle, Chen Nuo personally witnessed a startled venomous snake attack a team member.
But the one attacked seemed like an unfeeling wooden dummy, allowing the snake to bite and hang onto his body.
The bitten man appeared to feel nothing; he simply pulled the snake off, ripped it in half, and tossed it into the bushes.
Chen Nuo had observed that the arm of the man bitten by the snake had swelled up, but after they had walked for about half a day, the swelling gradually subsided.
The toxins seemed unable to pose a fatal threat to him—or rather, these individuals were fundamentally no longer living humans.
For two whole days, the team advanced through the rainforest, stopping only twice.
The first halt occurred when a river blocked their path.
Initially, the team mechanically entered the river to swim across. But soon after, the first mercenary who leaped into the water was attacked.
This section of the river was a piranha habitat.
And so, a hundred mercenaries with numb expressions stood on the bank, indifferently watching as their companion in the water was devoured by countless piranhas, soon reduced to a mere skeleton.
The eeriest part was that the one being consumed didn't let out a single scream from start to finish. He struggled numbly a few times, as if merely trying to shake off the piranhas.
Unable to do so, he was quickly consumed.
Throughout the ordeal, those on the bank made no attempt at rescue.
The silence was so profound it was hair-raising.
The only change was that the team quickly altered their direction of advance.
The team then moved along the riverbank to the right for over an hour, bypassing the piranha-infested area before crossing the river again.
The second stop occurred after they had crossed the river and traveled for another day and night.
Chen Nuo felt his power being suppressed more and more intensely.
He could no longer even extend his power beyond his own body. In other words, Chen Yanluo, with his most potent spiritual power, could no longer project it outside his body, unable to release even the slightest spiritual tendril.
This intense suppression made Chen Nuo feel extremely uncomfortable.
Moreover, having lost the ability to extend his power, Chen Nuo had, so to speak, gone from being superhuman to an ordinary person—albeit one who was physically stronger.
He could no longer use Telekinesis to control anything beyond his own body.
Though Telekinesis still allowed Chen Nuo to manipulate his own body, making it much stronger than an ordinary person's, he had essentially transitioned from a superhuman capable of long-range attacks to a mere Body Technique practitioner, capable only of physical attacks.
Put simply, with his power unable to be exerted externally, Chen Nuo's abilities were temporarily suppressed to the state they were in before his first mission to South Korea to save Firefly.
Unable to exert his spiritual power outwardly or use Telekinesis, Chen Nuo could only rely on his physical endurance to combat fatigue and thirst.
After two days and nights, Chen Nuo had basically reached his limit.
He felt his body was severely dehydrated; his sweat had long ago soaked through his clothes and then dried, and eventually, he couldn't sweat at all.
Meanwhile, the others in the team, true to their undead nature, seemed completely unaffected.
Chen Nuo felt his feet were worn raw, and his leg muscles had stiffened from extreme fatigue. His calves had actually cramped a few times, and though he managed to soothe them with his spiritual power, he felt he had little strength left to continue walking.
Not having eaten for two days and nights caused Chen Nuo's stomach to churn with excess acid, spasming from time to time.
His body naturally reeked.
Chen Nuo was well aware that his body had begun to show signs of dehydration; he was just gritting his teeth and forcing himself to endure.
Finally, after the second day and night ended, the team entered a small lake.
As they waded forward, they saw that this lake lay just beneath a hillside that seemed, at most, about a hundred meters high.
The dense rainforest tightly covered the area above and below the hillside, with only the lake seemingly exposed, like a mirror set into a lush grove of trees.
Due to the terrain's undulating elevation, a tributary of the Amazon River cascaded down from a higher point to a lower one here, forming a natural waterfall.
The river water fell from high to low, carving out this lake before continuing its eastward rush.
One after another, the team members jumped into the lake, much like dumplings being dropped into a pot.
The lake was not deep; when Chen Nuo jumped in and moved forward more than ten meters, the water only reached his chest.
Then, as the team began to enter the waterfall, passing behind it under the spray of river water, Chen Nuo, being the last one in line, discovered that behind the waterfall was a hidden passage through the mountain.
In the pitch-black passage, the team needed no illumination and simply advanced into the darkness.
Chen Nuo dared not release his spiritual power and could only try his best to follow the person in front by relying on his senses, moving inward step by step.
Fortunately, Chen Nuo had taken the opportunity to drink several mouthfuls of water from the lake while crossing it.
Although the lake water looked clear... I hope there aren't any parasites in it.
At this point, Chen Nuo couldn't afford to worry about such things.
After walking in the cave for a few minutes, Chen Nuo realized something was wrong.
This cave was supposedly within that hillside.
However, from his earlier visual estimate from the outside, the hillside was not only low but also didn't cover a large area—an interior cavern should not be this deep.
After walking inside for several minutes, Chen Nuo could tell by feel that the path was mostly straight and level.
At this rate, we should have exited the hillside long ago. It's like walking into a house of at most one or two hundred square meters; if you walk straight from the front door, you should exit quickly, yet here we've walked for a long time without leaving... Something is definitely wrong!
The deeper Chen Nuo walked into the cavern, the stranger the sensation he felt became.
He experienced a slight dizziness.
Logically, someone with strong spiritual power should hardly experience physiological reactions like dizziness.
But this dizzying feeling grew stronger the deeper he walked into the cave.
Eventually, Chen Nuo felt as if he were a child again, riding a pirate ship amusement park ride, back before his Special Ability had awakened and he was just an ordinary person.
It was a feeling of completely losing his spatial equilibrium, leading to imbalance, an inability to maintain a normal posture, and a failure to react promptly to the perceived changes in his surroundings...
I'm sure this place is a cave! A cave can't possibly swing like a pirate ship! If that isn't the case... then there's only one answer left! The space here is being forcibly warped by some kind of power!
At one point, this sensation of distortion suddenly intensified to an extreme.
It felt just like stepping off the edge of a cliff into emptiness.
The illusion of standing on flat ground, with firm earth beneath his feet, yet feeling as if he had stepped into the void and was plummeting rapidly, nearly twisted Chen Nuo's cognition and perception.
The feeling was so unbearable it almost made him want to vomit blood.
But fortunately, this extreme disorientation and displacement, which had erupted suddenly, vanished just as abruptly without warning.
It lasted perhaps only a second; soon, everything returned to normal.
The feeling of misalignment and imbalance instantly receded like a tide.
Then, Chen Nuo saw a bright light ahead.
The exit at the other end of the cave was right before him.
Light from outside poured in through the entrance; looking out from the darkness, it was almost blindingly bright.
This made Chen Nuo's heart instantly sink.
Without a doubt, just a second ago, the cave behind me was pitch black! Yet, after taking just one more step, this exit suddenly appeared! This is indeed the effect of spatial distortion!
Chen Nuo already had a suspicion about what was happening...
When he walked out of the cave with the team, silent and slow, and stood on a rock platform halfway up the hill... from this vantage point, at this height, he could take in the entire vista before him...
Chen Nuo sighed inwardly.
Just as I thought!
Looking down from the hillside, a flat plain stretched out at the foot of the mountain.
Before him was a scene that seemed to have emerged directly from the annals of ancient Maya civilization.
Stone houses of varying sizes, with square bases and rounded, pointed tops, gave the immediate impression of a city.
And further in the distance stood a Maya-style pyramid, nearly as tall as a mountain.
However, this pyramid was larger, taller, and more majestic than any surviving Maya pyramid known to exist.
Even from a distance, a visual estimate suggested its base covered an area larger than two football fields, and its height was more than double that of the hill where Chen Nuo currently stood.
What made Chen Nuo's heart pound wildly... was the top of that pyramid.
A stone pillar stood at its peak, possessing an aura as if it pierced the very heavens.
The sky-piercing stone pillar... surrounded by square buildings...
All of this, if one were to strip away all the vegetation covering the ground... it's almost identical to the layout of the underwater cavern on the R.B. sea floor where the alien Mother lay dormant!
Beside the rocky platform on the hillside, a winding path led directly down to the base of the mountain.
The team descended the mountain quickly, and Chen Nuo continued to follow unobtrusively at the end of the group.
Upon reaching the ground, the team, without hesitation, crossed the plain's forest and swiftly entered the ancient and dilapidated city composed of square stone houses.
Their objective was unmistakably the gigantic pyramid.
When Chen Nuo followed the team into the city, he looked around and saw that the place was extremely dilapidated; many of the stone houses had collapsed, with only a few retaining their approximate original shape.
The entire "city" was silent; not even the chirping of insects or the calls of birds could be heard. Looking up, the sky was devoid of any avian life.
The only sound came from the team—the crunch of the mercenaries' boots on the ground.
Here, it seemed, no living thing could be heard or seen.
From the moment he entered these "city ruins," Chen Nuo perked up his ears and heightened his senses, vigilantly observing and probing his surroundings...
I must remember, back in that underwater cavern, there was an 'Awareness' specifically charged with guarding the Mother!
It took a full half hour to traverse this cluster of buildings.
The team's pace had slowed considerably, allowing the exhausted Chen Nuo to barely keep up.
At this moment, he absolutely dared not release any spiritual power to probe his surroundings—even if he wanted to, he couldn't.
The intangible, oppressive pressure was omnipresent. Chen Nuo had already exerted all his effort to completely withdraw his spiritual power into his Consciousness Space, not daring to activate it in the slightest. He tried his best to suppress the fluctuations of his spiritual consciousness to a level far weaker than that of an ordinary person.
For the sake of camouflage, he even forcibly reined in all his spiritual power, meticulously suppressing any conscious fluctuations.
After passing through the cluster of buildings that formed the city, the team quickly arrived before the massive pyramid.
When they reached its base, although the pyramid's structure was severely dilapidated—with stone materials peeled off or even collapsed in many places on its exterior—its overall construction remained incredibly solid.
Standing at its foot, one could truly appreciate its sheer scale and majesty.
A broad staircase led all the way up to the main entrance at the pyramid's base.
The arched main entrance stood wide open. After the team filed in, Chen Nuo followed them into the pyramid's interior.
It was a passage constructed from stone blocks.
The spacious passage was wide enough for four people to walk abreast.
Engraved murals adorned the stone walls on both sides.
Although ninety-nine percent of the paint had flaked off, the incised lines still allowed one to faintly discern their original appearance.
The team moved quickly, giving Chen Nuo no time for a closer look. He dared not activate his spiritual power to forcibly memorize them, so he lacked the capacity to retain the content of these murals.
The only mural that he committed to memory after a single glance was one whose imagery plunged Chen Nuo into deep thought.
It depicted a pyramid, with countless small figures prostrating in worship around its base.
And at the very top of the pyramid stood that enormous stone pillar.
The mural showed a scene that made Chen Nuo's scalp tingle: a vast, dark shadow coiled atop the stone pillar at the pyramid's peak.
He couldn't discern exactly what the thing was, but one feature was strikingly clear.
This dark shadow had eight legs.
Deep within the pyramid lay a large indoor hall.
The design of this hall was rather peculiar.
In the center of the circular hall, a huge pit had been excavated.
The pit was about three meters deep from the hall's floor, and circular holes dotted its walls.
Surrounding the hall were stone pillars of varying designs: some were humanoid, others bestial, and some even depicted half-human, half-beast figures.
Steps led down from the edge of the pit.
The team walked directly down into the pit, where these individuals lined up as if instinctively knowing their places.
For an instant, Chen Nuo sensed that a stream of consciousness seemed to simultaneously detach from each of these "living dead" and rapidly depart their bodies.
GURGLE, GURGLE...
From the holes in the pit's walls, streams of a semi-transparent, whitish liquid began to flow rapidly.
It looked like some kind of liquefied wax, or perhaps a type of grease.
This greasy substance gushed out from all sixteen surrounding holes, quickly filling the pit.
After a few moments, the pit's floor was submerged in the grease. All the "living dead" standing in the pit had their ankles engulfed...
Slowly, it rose to their shins... then their knees.
Chen Nuo stood amidst the team. When the grease engulfed his shins and soaked through his trousers to his skin...
Chen Nuo's eyes widened involuntarily.
This sensation... How can I describe it...? Every part of my skin that touches the grease feels as if every pore is singing and leaping with unrestrained joy! My muscles, already sore and strained to their limits from exhaustion, along with every inch of my skin, every muscle fiber, every cell, feel like desiccated plant seeds instantly receiving vital moisture. The sensation of my flesh instantly plumping up, that vibrant and pure Life Force seeping into, even being poured into my body... It's as if every cell is cheering ecstatically!
In that instant, Chen Nuo found the answer that had been eluding him.
These living dead... they haven't eaten in so long... How do they maintain their physical forms without decomposing? Even if their consciousness can be controlled, human bodily functions cannot be sustained for so long without nourishment!
The grease had now reached his thighs.
Chen Nuo began to deepen each breath, increasing both its depth and frequency.
Although he couldn't project his spiritual power outside his body, Chen Nuo consciously tried to inhale as much oxygen as possible with each breath, then directed his body to enter a state of hibernation as best he could.
An expert of Chen Nuo's caliber could already control and master his own physical body with considerable freedom, even down to the precise level of cell division, wound healing, and more.
His heartbeat and blood flow could all be controlled.
The grease submerged Chen Nuo to his chest.
The other "living dead" around him remained in their clay-like, statuesque postures.
Chen Nuo was not surprised. In a sense, these guys are already dead! They're just flesh puppets capable of walking and moving. Their consciousness, their souls, perished long ago.
When the grease submerged his neck, Chen Nuo forced himself into a state of hibernation.
He felt the days of accumulated fatigue and hunger in his body being alleviated as every cell frantically devoured the potent Life Force supplied by the grease. He was gradually nourished, his body slowly replenishing... Chen Nuo even estimated that by soaking in this grease for another hour or two, his body would recover to its optimal condition.
It might even improve further, reaching a new level.
When the grease finally submerged Chen Nuo's mouth and nose, he held his breath. A thin layer of Telekinesis blocked the grease from entering his nostrils and ear canals, and then Chen Nuo forced himself into hibernation...
「The third day and night passed.」
The grease in the pit had long since filled it and stopped flowing. Its surface had gradually dried, forming a hard, wax-like shell on top.
Suddenly, a hand burst through the shell.
Chen Nuo struggled, slowly breaking through the solidified grease, and gradually pulled his body out of the pit.
After climbing out, he took several deep breaths but didn't experience the oxygen deprivation he had anticipated.
It seemed that while soaking in the grease, the infusion of Life Force had also supplied sufficient oxygen.
This was another gamble Chen Nuo had won! When I dissected a few corpses of the living dead, I reached a conclusion: these beings must possess some miraculous power that prevented their bodies from decaying and maintained their physical 'survival.' If soaking in the grease caused oxygen deprivation, their organs would have failed long ago.
It was now nighttime.
Chen Nuo climbed out of the pit. In the dark hall, only a faint glimmer of starlight filtering down from the sky was visible beyond the hall's archway.
Standing at the edge of the pit, he could see through the solidified, translucent grease to the "doll-like" living dead "buried alive" below.
Such a scene in the dead of night was enough to send a chill down anyone's spine.
Chen Nuo exhaled softly, then carefully made his way out through a passage on the other side of the hall.
At the end of the passage lay another inner chamber.
As soon as Chen Nuo entered, he saw another pit of the same size.
Within the translucent grease of this pit, more individuals were solidified like dolls.
The "dolls" in this pit, however, wore slightly different attire.
Chen Nuo no longer saw mercenaries from Desert Fox or Black Bee. Instead, he saw several figures dressed in tropical rainforest exploration gear, looking like archaeologists.
Among them, he could occasionally spot one or two indigenous people.
"Hm?!"
Chen Nuo suddenly froze.
He stared at a figure at the outermost edge of the pit, one encased in the semi-translucent shell of grease.
It was an indigenous person, simply dressed...
But Chen Nuo recognized him instantly!
This native was none other than the indigenous guide from his own exploration team!
Stunned for a moment, Chen Nuo immediately began to meticulously scan the pit for others.
Finding no one else of interest in this inner chamber, Chen Nuo pressed further inward.
He came upon another pit. This time, however, the grease entombed not humans, but a menagerie of animals of various shapes and sizes.
There were American Jaguars, giant pythons, monkeys...
All these creatures were encased in the grease pit, like preserved specimens.
In the pit of the fourth inner chamber he discovered, Chen Nuo found his target.
A group of people lay submerged in the grease...
Chen Nuo spotted several mercenaries from Steel Fire. Then, he immediately recognized a familiar figure.
Vanel was at the very outer edge of the pit. His body was frozen in a struggling posture; though entombed in the grease, his eyes were wide open, his face contorted with anger.
Chen Nuo paused, then slowly squatted down beside the spot where Vanel's head was submerged, pondering for a moment.
Then, he made a decision.
Chen Nuo drew his dagger and began to chip away the grease around Vanel. He grabbed Vanel's wrist and, with a powerful tug, tore apart the hardened grease shell encasing him, forcibly dragging Vanel out.
Laying Vanel on the ground, Chen Nuo first checked his pulse, then slapped him hard across the face several times.
"...HUH!!!"
Vanel's eyes shot open. He exhaled a long breath, his body twisting and struggling like a landed fish for a few moments before his eyes rapidly regained focus.
He spat out a string of curses—in Russian.
Vanel's eyes widened as he looked up at Chen Nuo. He immediately reached out to grab Chen Nuo's arm, simultaneously attempting a joint lock.
Chen Nuo, not wanting to grapple with him, immediately released his hold and retreated.
Vanel stared at Chen Nuo, his eyes wide. He finally calmed down, quickly scanned his surroundings, and then fixed his gaze on Chen Nuo.
"Who are you! Where the hell am I?!"
Chen Nuo's eyes darted around for a moment, then a mysterious smile spread across his face.
"Me? I'm the master of this place!"
"..." Vanel stared at Chen Nuo, his face a mask of terror.