Chapter 1 Nidhogg's Aberration

Unlike the version in mythology, Nidhogg actually went mad while gnawing at the roots of the World Tree. After that, the black dragon transformed into a monster that only knew destruction and slaughter. What it gnawed at was none other than one of the First Born's nerve lines.

Its lair was located directly above a node of the First Born's brain tissue. This unfortunate creature chose to nest on top of a super-powerful psychic energy emitter, which doomed it from the start. Even if Nidhogg hadn't touched the vines and Source Blood that spread from underground, it would have eventually gone mad in its dreams from listening to the First Born's murmurs.

Hao Ren left Anthony and Izhaks and his daughter on standby on the surface, then led the others into the huge underground cave beneath Nidhogg's corpse.

This wasn't the first time he'd come into close contact with the First Born's deep organs, so the strange, oppressive environment didn't make him as uncomfortable as it had before. As he advanced through the cave, he was able to calm down and explain his research results on this super-demigod creature to Galazur while observing the surroundings.

"The First Born's large tentacles can sometimes reach several kilometers in width, but smaller tentacles like nerve bundles may only be a few meters in diameter or even smaller. I estimate that this cave leads directly to the brain tissue, so basically everything here is nerve lines," Hao Ren said, pointing to the vines or tentacles that wound around the cave walls, while paying attention to the ground beneath his feet. "The First Born's nerve conduction is very peculiar and doesn't completely follow the laws of the universe. Some of its nerve conduction is even faster than light. A nerve impulse can be sent to all tentacle endpoints instantly."

Galazur nodded slightly. "Because it is quite large."

"That's right, quite large. A mature First Born can coexist with a planet. It can drill through the entire planet's mantle and crust and soak its core in the Earth's core to absorb nutrients. With such a huge body, it wouldn't even be able to think without faster-than-light nerve activity," Hao Ren shrugged. "But I still have to say one thing: A regular First Born doesn't have the ability to perform hyperspace jumps with massive objects. Their mission is to maintain the ecosystem. Yggdrasil is a rather strange individual."

"Pay attention to your surroundings," Vivian reminded. She had already smelled the surging aura of Source Blood and felt a rather dangerous sensation. "If you see any tentacles moving, say something quickly."

As soon as she finished speaking, she heard Nangong Wuyue exclaim in surprise, "Ah! I think a tentacle just retracted beside me!"

The siren girl's exclamation immediately startled everyone. Nangong Sanba immediately raised his hand crossbow. "Where is it, where is it..."

Nangong Wuyue curled up her entire snake body, but after trembling for a few seconds, she suddenly relaxed. "Um, I think I saw wrong. That was just my own tail..."

"Did you pour that mouthful of dish soap into your brain?!" Hao Ren glared at the cowardly sea serpent, slapping her tail. "I told you to be vigilant, not to scare yourself!"

The siren girl's interruption made the atmosphere in the team a little tense. Just being in a closed cave was enough to make people feel stifled, and the fact that this cave was full of tentacle-like plants and vines made the atmosphere five times as oppressive. And finally, there was a siren beside you who was always jumpy and would scare people by curling herself into a giant snake... Honestly, the only time Hao Ren had been startled so far was by Wuyue's shout.

But soon, he was startled a second time.

He discovered that countless cracks suddenly appeared on the ground beneath his feet. The entire cave instantly collapsed, as if the rock layer below had suddenly disappeared. Everyone followed and fell into the endless abyss, and at the end of the abyss was a molten core emitting scorching light!

This sudden change made Hao Ren's brain short-circuit for a moment. He almost instinctively wanted to exclaim, but at the moment his body lost balance, he felt a surge of clarity rush into his spiritual world. In a hazy vision, he saw Raven 12345's smiling face flash by. The goddess sister grinned at him, showing off her eight pearly white teeth, and gave him a thumbs-up. "I'm backing you up."

All the illusions vanished, and Hao Ren felt a solid sensation in his hand. He suddenly woke up and realized that he was tightly clutching Lily's tail. This must have been a conditioned reflex when his body lost balance just now.

Lily was staring blankly ahead with wide eyes, her gaze completely unfocused. Not only Lily, but even Nangong Sanba and Nangong Wuyue beside her were the same. Only Vivian slowly turned her head, her eyes hazy as she looked over here. "Illusion."

A low roar suddenly rang out in the cave. Galazur spoke two powerful words in Dragon Language: "duva-zada!"

Powerful Dragon Might swept across everything like a steamroller. Lily and the Nangong siblings instantly regained their senses. Nangong Sanba was still a little confused after waking up, holding up his hand crossbow and angrily shouting in a certain direction with his neck craned, "You demons and heretics, retreat quickly! When this grandpa says surrender, he means surrender! I, Nangong Sanba, have always been upright when I admit defeat... Ah, why are you all back?"

"It was an illusion," Hao Ren said, still shaken. "The First Born probably mumbled something in its sleep... Fortunately, Galazur and I are also demigods, so we withstood this wave of psychic shock. We should be fine now."

Lily tugged at Hao Ren's sleeve. "Landlord, landlord..."

Hao Ren glanced at the husky girl. "What?"

"I think the illusion hasn't faded yet," Lily said cautiously, tears still in the corners of her eyes. "I don't know why, but my tail hurts so, so much!"

Hao Ren broke out in a cold sweat on the spot. "...That's because your brain is more retarded, so the illusion lasts longer. It definitely won't hurt after a while!"

"Oh."

Although this illusionary disturbance didn't cause any real damage, everyone became twelve times more vigilant as they continued to move forward. Hao Ren felt a faint sense of danger in his heart.

He understood some of the First Born's physiological characteristics—he knew that although the First Born could use its powerful mental strength to interfere with mortals' minds and drag ordinary people into its twisted dreams, its brain core should actually be safe, because the First Born had multiple brain cores. These brain cores worked together, and there was precise coordinated thought-wave conduction between them. Out of the self-preservation mechanism that all creatures shared, this vital and precise organ of thought should be completely sealed off, not only physically, but also mentally.

In other words, under normal circumstances, the First Born would never directly use its brain core to launch a psychic attack on the outside world. This could interrupt the coordinated state between the multiple brain cores. Its main way of releasing mental strength was through the tentacles extending from the large nerve nodes, which were specialized psychic wave-releasing organs.

The fact that illusions were appearing near the brain core led Hao Ren to a conjecture: Some of Yggdrasil's organs seemed to be losing control.

His heart suddenly skipped a beat. Could this be the mechanism by which a normal First Born (like Zorm) transformed into a mad First Born (the Destroyer)?!

"This should be the cavity you were talking about," Galazur's voice interrupted Hao Ren's thoughts. The team had already reached the end of the deep vine cave. Ahead was a wide, hemispherical cavity. "The biological tissue in front looks like some kind of core. Is it a brain core?"

Hao Ren looked up and saw a recessed structure in the center of the wide, hemispherical cavity. The recessed area was filled with slowly writhing red liquid, and immersed in this pool of Source Blood was a biological tissue more than ten meters high that emitted a faint red light. Countless tentacles extended from the biological tissue and reached all the way to the stone walls surrounding the cavity.

He was extremely familiar with this scene. He had seen it in the Great Underground Cave of Holleta.

"What you're seeing isn't the brain core itself, but a large node. However, some large nodes are the containers for the brain cores. That organ is hidden beneath the reddish connective tissue."

Hao Ren spoke as he walked forward, stopping half a meter away from the pool of Source Blood. He carefully observed it and confirmed that there was indeed a brain core inside this large node: At the base of this mass of biological tissue, an irregular network of connective tissue was flashing red light regularly. Beneath the red light, he could see a vague spherical shadow, and the Data Terminal was reading a strong psychic signal from there.

"Is this thing controlling Yggdrasil's activities?" Galazur looked curiously at the strange organ called the "brain core." "Truly marvelous..."

"This is one of the brain cores. A mature First Born has several to a dozen brain cores. These brain cores are connected together to form its complete brain, but each brain core can also carry out complete thought activities independently."

"Is this the source of the corruption?" Nangong Sanba stroked his chin. "Shall we perform surgery to remove it? That way, the other normal brain cores can take over the tentacles of the corrupted part, and Yggdrasil should be able to wake up."

Nangong Sanba's analysis was correct, but Hao Ren shook his head after observing it carefully. "No, something's not right here—this is a healthy organ!"