The Shadow of Rixi City
On the evening of the third day, as the group struggled over a mountain ridge covered in eerie blue frost vines—like a grotesque landscape pierced by massive ice spikes—a colossal shadow finally dominated their entire field of vision, so vast it seemed capable of swallowing the sky itself, freezing their very souls.
Rixi City.
This once-mighty super-fortress metropolis that had guarded the throat of the Lieyang Corridor, the most prosperous and impregnable bastion in the western frontier of the Muret Continent, had now completely fallen—transformed into the raging core nest of the "Corrosive Earth Vines" and the most direct, most despair-inducing symbol of the Doomsday Rebirth's terrifying dominion.
No trace of what could once be called a "city" remained in sight. In its place stretched an endless, terrifying jungle woven, entwined, and piled high from countless madly writhing Corrosive Earth Vines in red, blue, and green hues—each main trunk typically over five meters in diameter, soaring dozens or even hundreds of meters tall! These monstrous entities resembled evil tentacles from the abyss, deeply rooted in the city's skeletal remains, coiling around, crushing, and devouring the steel frameworks of skyscrapers, the crisscrossing maglev rail networks, and the grand halls and plazas. Embedded within the massive vine trunks were the grotesquely deformed, specimen-like remnants of high-rise wreckage and airship husks—civilizational bones that the behemoths could not fully digest. At their tips, in the twilight, the vines danced like demons in frenzy, constantly spewing thick clouds of virulent spores mingled with corrosive particulates, dyeing the already gloomy sky with a bizarre curtain of flowing tri-colored deathly halos.
The air was thick with a suffocating, nauseating stench—the acrid smell of steel corroded by strong acid, the putrid stench of highly decomposed organic matter, the pungent odor of leaked chemical solvents and energy liquids, the rich, sweet, toxic scent emanating from the vines themselves, and a deeper, more penetrating, mentally polluting, unsettling, almost maddening fragrance. The entire area was shrouded in a heavy, oppressive force field, filled with endless malice and destruction; stepping into this place was like willingly sending oneself into the entrance to a living hell.
Even these battle-hardened veterans, who had witnessed countless horrors, felt an overwhelming shock and bone-chilling dread grip their hearts at this visceral, immense, utterly complete scene of civilizational annihilation. This was not merely the death of a city—it was the horrifying embodiment of entire races and civilizations being twisted, decomposed, and devoured by an incomprehensible evil force.
"This… is the source of the 'Corrosive Earth Vines'… the purgatorial core forged by the Doomsday Rebirth…" Yuyuer's voice trembled faintly despite herself; the glow of the crystal ball cradled in her arms seemed dimmed, suppressed by the omnipresent thick malevolence.
"Fuck… this is seriously a place even ghosts wouldn't want to stay in!" Kayla muttered curses under her breath, electric arcs flickering restlessly along her thunder claws, her beastly pupils filled with instinctive revulsion and violent killing intent.
"Target confirmed. Environmental energy readings exceed limits, contamination index surpasses safe thresholds, threat level: extremely lethal." Rex's electronic eyes flashed frantically with glaring red alert data streams. "Direct entry into the core ruins of the city yields survival probability below 5%. Strong recommendation: peripheral reconnaissance, prioritize locating energy anomalies or structural weak points."
Fa took a deep breath, trying to steady her pounding heart—but what she inhaled was that nauseating cocktail of odors. In her right eye's starry pupil, The three-colored light threads of deep blue, dark green, and silver-white in her right eye swirled at an unprecedented speed., attempting to pierce the dense miasma and layered vines to seek the "root" or "gate" hinted at in the Queen's intelligence. Yet a powerful, chaotic, malice-filled spiritual interference field clung to the area like thick sludge, muddying her perception.
"Salsa," Fa said gravely, her sharp gaze shifting to the mechanical cat shell on her shoulder, "Rixi City has become a vine nest. Rushing in blindly is suicide. Deploy all Shadow Hawks at maximum range—reconnoiter a 30-to-50-kilometer perimeter around the city! Prioritize: architectural remnants starkly contrasting the vine aesthetic, any artificially excavated openings (regardless of size), concentrated anomalous energy reaction points, or…" She paused, voice intensifying, "any traces of 'man-made entrances' that do not appear naturally formed or vine-damaged! Especially signs of underground facilities! Dig three meters deep if necessary—find it!"
Salsa's electronic voice carried absolute focus and the gravity of a critical mission. The mechanical cat's back armor plates silently slid open—this time, not dozens, but over a hundred smaller, more agile and stealthy Shadow Hawks erupted forth like a surging black flood! Cold, resolute scouting will flickered in their soulfire eyes. This was nearly the limit of Salsa's current soul-body capacity to control simultaneously—each one an extension of her perception.
The hawk swarm scattered silently into the deathly night like black stars strewn across the darkness, fanning out from the terrifying vine forest toward every direction: undulating charred hills, cracked dry riverbeds, utterly desolate ghost towns, vine-twisted highways, and the relatively sparse buffer zones at the edges. Their piercing soulfire eyes cut through the thin twilight and drifting lethal miasma, scanning every suspicious inch of ground.
The group concealed themselves in a mountain hollow cleverly camouflaged by Lin Ya's animated thorns and special mycelium, waiting in silence. Time dragged on amid suffocating stillness and the distant "creaking" of vine friction. The atmosphere was solid with tension. Everyone knew that finding the hidden "root" or "gate" determined the mission's success—and perhaps the survival of hundreds of thousands of soldiers on the western front.
Whispers from the Graveyard
The wait was long and agonizing. Night fell like a thick black velvet curtain over the land. Only the eerie tri-colored glow from deep within the vine forest—like demonic eyes—and the distant, cold points of soulfire from the hawks high above dotted this hopeless darkness.
Several hours later, Salsa—who had remained statue-still, fully linked via soul chain to control the hawk swarm—suddenly lifted the mechanical cat's head! Her amber electronic eyes blazed with unprecedented intensity, like a predator spotting prey!
"High-value anomaly detected!" Her electronic voice carried barely suppressed excitement and focused precision at uncovering a crucial clue. "Northwest direction, approximately 30 kilometers away—coordinates marked! A large public cemetery site discovered!"
Everyone's spirits surged; all eyes locked onto Salsa.
"Cemetery?" TISK frowned deeply, growling roughly, "This damn place is full of graves—what's so special?"
"No," Salsa explained swiftly and clearly, "The cemetery itself is largely overrun and eroded by Corrosive Earth Vines, superficially indistinguishable from the surroundings. But at its deepest point, beneath an apparently ordinary family mausoleum, the hawks detected extremely strong energy shielding reactions! The concealment method is extraordinarily sophisticated—nearly perfectly blended with the ambient death aura and vine energy field. Without the hawks' soul-body perception being hypersensitive to unnatural energy anomalies, plus ultra-low-altitude, multi-angle, saturation-level repeated scans, it would have remained undetectable!"
She paused briefly, her electronic tone rising in gravity: "More critically: the hawks captured extremely faint but unmistakable 'life pulse' signals leaking from deep within that mausoleum! Not the invasive, evil pulses of the vines—but mixed, pain-filled, distorted, powerfully energetic life signatures! Among them…" Salsa's voice betrayed rare shock and certainty after data comparison, "…at least three core life signals match energy waveform spectral characteristics from samples collected in the two Doomsday Rebirth laboratories we infiltrated earlier—with a 92.7% match!"
"Laboratories?!" Fa's pupils contracted to pinpricks! A signal like this appearing near the suspected core facility entrance of the Corrosive Earth Vines was no coincidence! Icy battle intent surged through her veins.
Celestia's ice-blue eyes sharpened like blades forged from eternal frost; her six wings unconsciously unfurled slightly, faint thunder-wind sounds coiling around her fingertips, poised to strike.
"Furthermore," Salsa continued with absolute rigor, "when the hawk swarm attempted lower-altitude deep scans, they sensed powerful non-vine energy alert networks and multi-layered nested spatial disruption traps around the cemetery! Defense level far exceeds any stronghold we've encountered before!"
"Cemetery… entrance… painful life signals… lab signatures… high-level security…" Yuyuer rapidly repeated the keywords; deep blue light swirled swiftly in the crystal ball in her arms, wisdom shining within. "The clue chain is closed! This is no accident! This is almost certainly our target! The Doomsday Rebirth has hidden their western command hub, the Corrosive Earth Vines' energy supply and control core—and likely a secret base for forbidden live experiments—beneath this vine-covered cemetery! Using the natural death aura of the graveyard and the vines' cover, they've perfectly evaded all conventional detection!"
A current of bone-chilling cold mixed with intense excitement shot through everyone present! After enduring countless hardships and breaching layers of death blockades, they had finally touched the icy, secret door of the demon's lair!
Fa rose sharply, her starry eyes locking onto the northwestern darkness; The three colors of light in his eyes—deep blue, dark green, and silver—burned with unprecedented intensity, as if to ignite this hopeless night: "Target confirmed! Northwest, 30 kilometers—cemetery entrance!" Her voice rang with iron resolve and a commander's absolute will:
"Salsa! Hawks maintain long-range continuous surveillance—do not approach and trigger alarms! Celestia, take to the air! Expand high-altitude early warning to 50 kilometers! Everyone, final gear check!" Her gaze swept every resolute or fanatical face. "This will be our most perilous, darkest, and most crucial battle against the Doomsday Rebirth since we began! The gates of hell have appeared—Dawn Infiltration—tonight!"
In the dark mountain hollow, pairs of eyes burning with unyielding battle intent lit up amid the gigantic shadow cast by the vine purgatory. Without the slightest hesitation, the group moved like lethal blades melting into the night, racing toward that graveyard entrance concealing endless secrets, agony, and horrific truths. Behind them loomed the writhing silhouette of Rixi City, while ahead yawned the maw of the abyss—the graveyard entrance waiting silently like a giant beast's open throat for its prey.
The Tomb of Ten Thousand Vines
The cold scent of earth mingled with the sweet rot of vine corrosive fluid assaulted their nostrils. Fa's party lurked like phantoms at the cemetery's edge; before them lay Salsa's marked entrance—a ancient family mausoleum half-concealed by deep-green Corrosive Earth Vines. The stone door was weathered, its carvings long blurred, yet in their perception it radiated a profoundly discordant energy fluctuation.
"The core weakness of the camouflage energy field… lies three meters behind the stone door, on the main wall of the burial chamber." Salsa's electronic voice pinpointed precisely in their minds. "Structural scan shows a massive void beyond the wall—energy reactions drop stepwise… it's the entrance passage to the underground facility!"
"Rex, jam the shielding magnetic field!" Fa ordered in a low voice.
"High-frequency pulse disruption—firing!" Rex's shoulder armor slid open; dozens of dart-like micro-devices shot out, embedding precisely into the tomb's stone seams. They hummed, unleashing invisible but intense disruption waves. The perfect camouflage energy field rippled violently like a pond struck by stones, revealing the cold, thick alloy door outline behind!
"Lin Ya, breach the door!" Fa followed immediately.
Lin Ya pressed both hands to the ground; emerald spiritual power surged into the earth like a tide. Countless hair-thin animated root tendrils drilled into the gaps between the stone and alloy doors, frantically secreting highly corrosive bio-acid! A piercing "sizzle" rang out as the hard rock and metal doorframe visibly softened and melted. Simultaneously, Zhamisi crossed her twin blades—"Deepflow Venom Bite!"—releasing dense ink-green toxic mist to accelerate the corrosion. In mere seconds, the cannon-resistant alloy frame was eaten through, leaving a smoking, person-sized hole edged in green fumes!
A blast of stale tomb air mixed with strong disinfectant, blood, and an indescribable cloying sweetness erupted from the breach—like opening Pandora's box to hell!
"Alert!" Fa's starry eyes flashed; precognition screamed warnings!
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
From within the hole, hundreds of lurking Corrosive Earth Vines shot forth like awakened vipers, shrieking through the air! No longer mere plant forms, their tips gleamed with metallic chill—clearly embedded with high-strength alloy piercing heads! They targeted Lin Ya and Zhamisi at the front!
"Get lost!" Kayla roared like thunder; her Fifth Stage Transformation·Beast Soul Titan activated instantly! A massive thunder-soul giant body blocked the pair, thunder claws ripping the air with furious lightning as they smashed down! Boom! Several alloy vines shattered in electric sparks! Yet more vines snaked flexibly around, stabbing from cunning angles!
"Ice Crystal Wall!" Fa's short blade swept; a thick ice barrier rose to block the flank. Arya's light arrows precisely sniped, severing vines piercing the ice. TISK's lava hammer slammed the ground, ice-fire shockwaves shattering and freezing nearby vines. Celestia flashed like lightning, wind-thunder power coiling her fingers to slice any stragglers!
"Passage filled with bio-sensory traps and energy tripwires!" Rex's electronic eyes flashed red; data streamed like a waterfall. "Pressure-sensitive spore pads on the floor! Nerve toxin needle launchers in the walls! Overhead acid drip devices!"
"Leave it to me!" Yuyuer raised her crystal ball high. "Water Flow Strangulation!" A gentle yet persistent stream of water manifested, snaking into the breach along floor and walls. Wherever it flowed, pressure spores were flushed inert, hidden toxin ports triggered prematurely, acid drips diluted and neutralized. A relatively safe, slick path was forcibly carved!
"Salsa, hawks scout ahead! Everyone, follow me—move fast!" Fa commanded, diving first into the pungent breach. The group followed in single file through the narrow, frigid, trap-riddled alloy corridor. Drips and metallic scrapes echoed overhead; the floor was slick, walls reflected sickly green emergency lights—like traveling down a giant beast's esophagus. Salsa's hawks hovered low ahead, soulfire eyes scanning every potential death corner, guarding the team.
After racing through hundreds of meters of oppressive tunnel, they pushed open a heavy airtight gate—and the sight beyond stole their breath!
A cavernous underground space unfolded—over a hundred meters high, spanning several football fields! Yet no grand architecture greeted them—only… vines! Endless, madly writhing, glowing with evil tri-colored halos—Corrosive Earth Vines!
Countless thick-as-serpent trunks dangled from the ceiling, plunging deep into a churning, living swamp of viscous ink-blue nutrient fluid below. Red, blue, and green vines interlaced like vascular networks across the space, clinging to massive metal scaffolds and shattered cultivation pillars. The entire chamber's light came from the vines themselves: magma-like crimson energy veins pulsing, frost-covered blue surfaces, glands oozing ink-green venom—together forming this underground hell's eerie, oppressive illumination.
Most hair-raising was the center: tens of thousands of giant-insect-egg-like transparent cultivation pods densely embedded in the vine trunks and surrounding alloy walls! Most had ruptured and dried; scarlet serial numbers sprayed on the hulls read: "Project Thorn God - B.O.W. Series". Through cracked walls, one saw residual dried dark-blue viscous culture fluid and… contorted, shriveled, long-dead experimental subject remains in grotesque variety! Humanoid, beast-like, metal-augmented, even insect-shelled or fish-featured! Like insects drained dry by a colossal tree, they were forever entombed in this vine-built horror graveyard called "The Tomb of Ten Thousand Vines"!
The air reeked unbearably: overpowering disinfectant, formalin, rotting flesh, cloying toxin, and vine sap—forming a potent spiritual pollutant assaulting sanity. The floor was a thick, disgusting "carpet" of dead vine debris, experiment fragment shards, and congealed nutrient fluid that crunched sickeningly underfoot.
"This… is the origin of the 'Corrosive Earth Vines'… the Doomsday Rebirth's monster factory!" Arya's face paled; her fingers whitened on her storm bow, emerald eyes filled with shock and indescribable pity.
"Doomsday Rebirth… Dr. Zheng… those bastards!" TISK's eyes blazed red; ice-fire runes on his lava hammer flickered wildly with rage, the dwarf's fury nearly igniting the sinful place.
"Rex, collect vine samples! Analyze composition!" Fa forcibly suppressed her shock and nausea, starry eyes sweeping the vast death factory. Instinct told her this was far more than a mere production line.
"Collection unit active." Rex's arm armor opened; precision mechanical arms extended, carefully severing fragments of differently colored vines and feeding them into the onboard analyzer. "High-spectrum scan, material deconstruction, energy tracing… analyzing… Warning! Samples exhibit extremely high bioactivity, strong corrosiveness, and residual spiritual contamination!"
As Rex focused on analysis, a violent, pain-drenched, apocalyptic danger sense—like icy steel needles—suddenly stabbed deep into everyone's souls!
ROAR——!!! HOWL——!!!
Deafening, inhuman, non-beast roars exploded simultaneously from three directions deep within the space! Accompanied by heavy footsteps and the screech of tearing metal, three enormous, suffocatingly oppressive shadows slowly emerged from behind mountains of ruined cultivation pods and writhing vines!