Chapter 108: 106. The Sea Monster's True Form?

106. The Sea Monster's True Form?

Although Drake was shocked by the facts Li Nuowei had confessed, he also recognized the current situation. Hearing the increasingly hurried footsteps coming from behind the door, he said to Li Nuowei, "Fine, I believe you. Since you have such an ability, then for the actions that follow, I will listen to you."

"Then leave it to me." Li Nuowei nodded readily, then immediately led Drake deeper into this dark room.

There was light in the depths of the room; it was a dim green, as if substances like fluorite were embedded all around the walls. They ran through cracks in the walls, and the gaps combined into irregular patterns, like developed plant roots extending toward another underground spiral staircase.

Drake was curious and wanted to lean in closer, but Li Nuowei grabbed his arm and said, "Don't stare at those lights for too long. Those lights are life; they are sensitive to the gaze of living beings. They will parasitize your eyes and then slowly drain the nutrients from your brain."

"The light is actually life?" Drake was stunned, suddenly feeling that his imagination and perspective were somewhat insufficient.

"You have died at the hands of these things three times." Li Nuowei calmly stated the terrifying fact. Drake's expression stiffened for a moment, and he dared not try to look at them easily again.

Not having encountered any out-of-control or terrifying danger for the moment, Drake's heart gradually relaxed. While walking down the stairs, he continued to pursue the previous topic: "Since you have experienced this kind of thing so many times, is there not a single experience where you successfully survived head-on?"

"There is, many times." Li Nuowei led the way in front, observing the surroundings at all times, and said, "But those were not the endings I wanted to see. I can survive to the end alone, but the ending is never perfect."

Hearing Li Nuowei's words, Drake was slightly silent and asked, "To you, what counts as perfect?"

"Everything I want to achieve can be done, and everyone I want to protect can survive—this is what I consider perfect." Li Nuowei had no confusion about this and said it very firmly.

Drake did not know why Li Nuowei was so obsessed with the perfect ending in his heart; he only stated his own view: "Eight or nine out of ten things in life do not go as planned, because not everyone is a perfect person, and naturally, they cannot do perfect things."

"I believe it can be done, based on my ability." Li Nuowei said in a deep voice, "Although this is not an easy thing, this was my original intention for buying this ability from the small shop, and I am also slowly doing better and better. I am just a little bit away from succeeding."

"Aren't you tired?" Drake asked.

Li Nuowei's footsteps paused, and he turned to look at Drake. Drake said earnestly, "Frequent death and reincarnation must have caused you to lose something. I think anyone can see that your mental state is very abnormal."

"There is always a price to pay." Li Nuowei vaguely avoided this question and switched to another topic, saying, "Do you know what the thing under this Air Raid Shelter is?"

"The main body of that big fish?" Drake looked at the other person deeply, but still followed Li Nuowei's topic to make a guess.

Li Nuowei shook his head: "No, but it is equally dangerous."

After hearing this, Drake pondered for a few seconds, frowned, and a crazy idea popped into his mind. He tentatively asked, "Could it be that sea monster beast?"

He remembered that a mysterious Ancient Book copy seen in the Liuhua Twelve Streets museum mentioned that the God of Anhai, who allegedly descended to Earth from outer space back then, defeated an unidentified sea monster beast that was stirring up trouble in the coastal areas at the time.

The things recorded in that "history book" cannot be fully trusted. After all, that unidentified sea monster was a type of existence similar to the God of Anhai. According to what is told in the agent knowledge base, both can be classified as Alien Gods, and the life form of an Alien God itself has long transcended human understanding and cognition of life. Death as defined in the eyes of us humans might not be the case at all for an Alien God.

"Bingo!" Li Nuowei nodded. "That sea monster did not truly die. To be precise, the sea monster was just one of the Avatars of that Alien God."

"It was actually just an Avatar? Then is what is underground the True Form of that Alien God?" Drake was horrified.

"I am not sure if that is the True Form; I have never even managed to glimpse its full picture." Li Nuowei tried hard to recall his memories of dying over and over again, pinching his brow in some pain, and described it as such: "It is a gray swamp, but if you look closely, those swamps are not solid matter; they are a certain type of energy fluid that human science cannot define today. It is just that those energies overlap and coincide, and the color is deep, making it look like a solid."

Inside the swamp are the faces of various creatures—human faces, beast faces—and I have even seen countless faces of Abnormal creatures. They are twisted and piled together, seemingly still alive and conscious, and they will emit cries for help and wails to those who see them.

I think those are all dead souls. They are bound, devoured, and fused by the swamp, becoming a part of the swamp, living with the swamp from then on... and... and..."

Li Nuowei felt a wave of dizziness; just recalling it seemed to cost him half his life, and cold sweat soaked his whole body like a tide.

"Enough, enough, I don't need to know such detailed things." Drake, relying on his limited imagination, had already conjured up terrifying images from Li Nuowei's rough description. He hurriedly stopped Li Nuowei's recollection and supported the swaying man.

"We die at its hands almost every time, and we cannot find a way to deal with it." Li Nuowei gently stroked his forehead, wiped the cold sweat from his brow with the back of his hand, and said.

Hearing that it was so dangerous, even he, who loved adventure, quietly developed thoughts of retreating, but this cowardice was soon smoothed over by his rationality and kindness.

Anyway, suffering from the Jiaoren Disease, he wouldn't live much longer, so why not explore the truth? Perhaps he could even save a few humans who had been caught here.

Li Nuowei seemed to see the thought that flashed through Drake's mind and said, "We actually have another reason why we must go down, and that is that there exists something underground that might be able to cure the Jiaoren Disease on you, only it is being well guarded by the swamp."

I once observed that the Jiaoren characteristics manifesting on you showed a clear regression phenomenon after coming into contact with the light emitted by a gem. Unfortunately, that was the only time I noticed it, and I never had the chance to see it again, so my impression of that gem is not very deep. I only know that it is the same color as the light emitted by those on the walls, only more piercing, dazzling, intense, and surging."

"I can still be cured?" Drake was startled, and wild joy surged in his heart.

"I speculate... well, it is a deduction made by you on one of the death lines after you received the information I gave and were also attacked by the swamp." Li Nuowei originally wanted to gild his own lily, but changed his mind, acted like an honest man, and said, "The reason that big fish, the God of Anhai, targeted the sea monster back then, besides the competition for territory and food, was also likely because the sea monster's True Form or another Avatar—that is, the swamp—possessed the ability to resist and target her characteristics."

The fish-men who were crazily chasing us before were mostly sent by the God of Anhai to guard and watch over the swamp. The purpose was that she did not want the swamp to leak out, nor did she want the outside world to perceive the existence of the swamp. If they discovered someone breaking in here, the fish-men would kill those intruders. Of course, even if they were not killed by the fish-men, the people who broke in here would eventually be devoured by the swamp."

Because that swamp has been guarded by the fish-men and the God of Anhai, it is very hungry. Although it cannot go out itself and may not have much consciousness, its instinct to feed still makes it perform predatory behaviors, such as luring humans into the Tunnel and coming to its hunting ground."

Listening to Li Nuowei's recounted analysis, Drake said sincerely and confidently: "As expected of me, to be able to see so much information."

Li Nuowei laughed dumbly and said, "If you had also had that terrifying experience, I believe you would also be able to draw such an analysis."

As the two talked, they unknowingly reached the end of the spiral staircase and both saw the fluorescent green light in front of them becoming increasingly piercing, as if the "Green Light Gem" mentioned by Li Nuowei was right there not far away.

Thinking of Li Nuowei's description of the swamp, Drake moved forward with trepidation. No matter how disgusting and terrifying he felt about the True Form of the twisted and deformed monster, or how stunning and beautiful the swamp's Avatar looked when it took the form of a girl to chat him up, Drake's only motivation at the moment was to find the "Green Light Gem" that could help him get rid of the erosion of the Jiaoren Disease Curse.

Compared to the cautious Drake, Li Nuowei was clearly a brute who dared to be so reckless only because he relied on his ability to save and reload his progress countless times; he was no gentleman.

Feeling that they had reached the limit of the staircase path, Li Nuowei poked his head out to observe the scene below the spiral staircase. He saw a stone platform built from ten thousand souls standing in the middle of a swamp. Around the stone platform, strange symbols composed of human eyes and fish bodies were drawn, which were quite fitting, and an irregular object emitting green light was floating there.