Chapter 297: Shadow of the Mother Nest

He took a step forward, and the sight before him made Wang Zhize's mouth twitch.

If the previous Void Hub was a chaotic, code‑redundant junk server, then this place is a landfill of electronic waste where the server, after being struck by lightning, doused in acid, has finally become overrun with mold.

The spatial tunnel sealed behind him, and a cloying iron‑rust smell mingled with the stench of rotting flesh surged straight toward the Celestial Crown.

"Bro, the air here… it's intoxicating!" Wang Zhitao pinched his nose, his little face scrunched up, "It hits harder than that programmer smell earlier. How many long nights must have been boiled to make this scent?"

Wang Zhize ignored him.

His gaze swept over this new world.

The ground was a chaotic pile of countless shattered world fragments and nameless creature skeletons, forming undulating black mountains. The sky was no longer a monotone violet‑black but a viscous, constantly writhing dark red, like the fascia lining a gigantic organism, riddled with nauseating vascular patterns.

The entire world was breathing.

Each "breath" surged with massive life force, yet that life felt like sour chicken soup, reeking of malignantly proliferating cancer cells.

"Tsk, a biological server? The design is forward‑thinking, but the hygiene is worrisome." Wang Zhize's consciousness manifested as a human form in the Newborn Realm, brewing himself a cup of goji tea, "System resource usage is ninety‑nine percent, all spent rendering these useless environmental effects; the Core function must be throttling to death."

As soon as his words fell, an invisible will pressed in from all directions.

Like countless unseen tentacles, it tried to pierce his law framework and implant a new command into his soul code—【Loyal to the Mother Nest】.

"So, we're already handing out the employee handbook? No interview process, just jumping straight to a contract?" Wang Zhize thought.

"I, Wang Zhize, define: your assimilation protocol as a 'rogue software bundled installer'."

"I define: my existence has installed '361 Security Guard' and enabled 'Popup Interception' and 'Strong Purification' modes."

That all‑penetrating corrosive force, as if meeting a natural predator, was instantly blocked by an invisible firewall; no matter how it struck, it could only emit a series of futile "ding‑ding" sounds.

At the same time, Wang Zhitao's eyes lit up.

"Bro! I feel it! So many! So many, so many feasts!" He hopped excitedly in place, saliva nearly spilling, "Right behind the highest mountain! So many! More fragrant than everything I've ever eaten combined!"

What he called "fragrant" registered to Wang Zhize as clusters of high‑intensity energy reactions.

"Hold on, the buffet hasn't opened yet." Wang Zhize, while preserving his "system purity", began parsing the local law structure, "Let's have a pre‑meal snack first."

Before his words finished, the "flesh‑and‑blood earth" beneath his feet began to writhe violently.

Bulging sacs rose, then burst, splattering viscous dark‑red fluid. From that fluid emerged hordes of oddly shaped monsters—some like skin‑stripped giant spiders, some like meat masses studded with eyes, others simply a pool of flowing black sludge.

They are the Mother Nest's "native antivirus software", or, put another way, "immune cells".

They made no roar, only surged silently and tide‑like.

"Bro! Dinner's served!" Wang Zhitao shouted, not waiting for Wang Zhize to speak, his tiny body instantly swelling into a sky‑covering black‑gold behemoth.

He opened his massive maw, like a full‑power giant vacuum cleaner, sucking the monster tide with a fierce gust.

The primordial void creatures couldn't even react before an irresistible gravity lifted them mid‑air, turning them into streaks of light that vanished into Wang Zhitao's gaping maw.

"Burp~" Wang Zhitao hiccuped, smacking his lips, "Tastes good, a bit like spicy crayfish, just not enough shell, not enough kick."

Wang Zhize ignored him, and with amused interest extended his hand, making a vague grab toward the monster tide.

The portal of the Newborn Realm opened in his palm, a suction emanated, precisely "calling out" a dozen different primordial void creatures, packaging them and pulling them into his own little world.

"Chaos Furnace, activate 'Sandbox Mode', analyze sample data, give me a detailed performance report."

His little world is now his super laboratory. These primordial beings are the test subjects delivered to his doorstep.

Wang Zhitao feasted outside like a tiger among sheep. He found that the void essence within these "little crayfish" was unusually pure, more refined than any "outsourced worker" he had previously devoured. Each one he swallowed deepened his grasp of void law, and his internal power swelled accordingly.

Wang Zhize, carrying this "mobile buffet enthusiast", walked steadily toward the depths of the Mother Nest.

As he walked, he acted like a site foreman, pointing out the "construction quality" here.

"This law chain is built poorly; its load‑bearing structure is unstable and will collapse sooner or later."

"This energy circuit design is redundant, wasting at least thirty percent of the energy."

"And this… so, what is it?"

He halted, looking ahead.

In a valley piled with world debris, massive translucent "bubbles" floated.

Each bubble imprisoned a dim cluster of light. The glimmers quivered faintly, radiating endless sorrow and despair.

Wang Zhize recognized what it was.

It was the wreckage of the World's Will.

It was the residual imprints of countless worlds devoured by the "Void Web", left after their absolute death.

Now, they hang like blood bags, black energy conduits inserted into them, continuously siphoning their final power to feed this massive Mother Nest.

"... Too wasteful." Wang Zhize's consciousness shook its head in the Newborn Realm, "The pulp left after juicing is just tossed here as decorative lighting? There's not even a recycling process; this company's resource management is a complete mess."

He stared at those World‑Will remnants wailing in pain.

"Fine, since you count as 'colleagues', I'll give you a hand."

He extended a finger and lightly tapped those "bubbles".

"I define: your cages are void."

"I define: your suffering is rest."

"I define: your remnants return to order."

Words became law.

Those indestructible energy bubbles, as if pierced by needles, vanished silently. The black conduits imprisoning the World's Will shattered one by one.

Freed from their bonds, the will remnants did not dissipate; under Wang Zhize's law guidance they transformed into tiny pure light particles, like fireflies, rising slowly, eventually merging completely into the void, returning to the original tranquility.

They were liberated.

However, that act was like dumping a ladle of cold water into a pot of calm hot oil.

Boom—!!!

The entire Void Mother Nest jolted violently.

An incomprehensibly massive will awoke with a thunderous surge from the deepest part of the Mother Nest!

That willful intent was filled with the irritated wake‑up mood of a disturbed dream, and a lofty, unassailable authority and rage.

"Who?!"

"Who dares to touch my battery?!"

A silent roar exploded directly on the soul level of Wang Zhize and Wang Zhitao.

Wang Zhitao was eating happily, but this shock made him dizzy and he almost vomited the crayfish he had just swallowed.

"Brother! There's a big thing!" He instantly reverted to his beast form, watching warily toward the depths of the mother nest.

Wang Zhize, as if he had long anticipated it, showed no expression on his face and even dug at his ear.

"Finally here. I thought your customer service line was never reachable."

Accompanied by that angry will, the Earth deep within the mother nest began to rise.

Countless world debris, the skeletal remains of void creatures, and solidified energy torrents were forcibly merged, twisted, and reshaped by an invisible force.

A body so massive it defied measurement rose slowly from the far horizon.

It had no fixed shape, resembling a moving cataclysm stitched from countless mountains and ruins. On its massive form, one dark‑red eye after another opened, each larger than a star.

Void Overlord.

The region's chief agent finally revealed its true form.

It sensed Wang Zhize's actions. The outsider was actually destroying its charging piles, freeing those waste old batteries! That was shaking the foundation of its existence!

Unforgivable!

The countless dark‑red giant eyes simultaneously locked onto the two tiny, dust‑like figures of Wang Zhize and Wang Zhitao.

The Void Overlord let out a silent roar, and its head, composed of countless world debris, split open a massive mouth that spanned the sky.

A chaotic void breath, capable of corroding all laws, spewed out from that massive mouth!

It was neither energy nor matter, but a pure concept of 'erasure'.

Where the breath passed, whether solid world debris or fearless primordial void creatures, everything was instantly broken down and vaporized, leaving no trace.

The destructive torrent surged straight toward Wang Zhize.

Wang Zhitao's black‑golden scales erupted, and he let out a roar, ready to charge.

"Don't move."

Wang Zhize's voice sounded calmly.

He lifted his head, gazing at the attack capable of destroying a star system, and his mouth curved upward.

"Well timed. Perfect to test my newly developed 'firewall', stress test, starting now."