Chapter 841: Peeling the Cocoon

The shape of this object that had been noticed was fixed. Although it was covered in a layer of flowing Luse mud, if one observed carefully, one would discover that while its covering was in constant, ceaseless flow, the object itself was motionless; this motionlessness was very striking amidst the myriad flows, and after observing for a long time, it was easy to perceive its true outline.

That was a... hand?

No, compared to a "hand" specific to one of the limbs of a Human, this was more like the limb of some other creature; judging by the shape, this limb should also serve as the "hand" part on that creature's body.

In short, this smooth, curved shape was the severed limb of some creature.

If Tang Zhao were to guess, he felt it looked like the tentacle of an octopus, but at the front end, one could see a bifurcation, having a structure similar to fingers, only it was not five fingers, but only three.

That kind of shape on the limb that was human-like yet not human also instinctively produced a feeling of unpleasantness.

Why was that thing, which was different from the Luse mud, here?

Food?

This evil god had rules and abilities for feeding, which made it easy for Tang Zhao to associate the thing underneath with some kind of stored food that was currently being devoured, or simply put, this was originally a whole, complete creature's corpse that had already been devoured until only such a severed limb remained.

But Tang Zhao immediately determined that was not the case; the flow of those Luse muds was not gathering toward that outline to feed; on the contrary, they were flowing outward from the part of the tentacle; if one looked closely, the Luse mud was secreting from the tentacle.

Wait... could it be?

Were all these Luse substances secreted by this tentacle?

So much, all of it?

One must know that the tentacle was not very large; even if one added up all the suspected parts around it, it was no more than three feet long, the thickness of a lower leg, which could be considered thin and long; it was not obvious in the tall space, and it was hard to imagine that so much Luse mud was secreted by this small tentacle. This was truly one begetting two, two begetting three, and three begetting all things.

It was almost a bit contrary to the conservation of matter...

Wait... it was going to feed, right?

Tang Zhao remembered; this thing continuously sucked up the energy and life force of Humans or Heavenly Demons, which were all very precious energy; perhaps this tentacle was not secreting it itself, but rather it was similar to excretion... no, it was equivalent to a converter?

Obtaining energy through feeding, then multiplying and spreading in large quantities... becoming the scale of today.

Or perhaps, it was not just a single tentacle? It was just that there was only one tentacle here right now.

Although this was the final Great Ship, its future base camp, he imagined it must have had a base camp before; perhaps its true body had not yet fully migrated over, and it had only placed one tentacle here to lay out its plans on the ship first?

Although he was only looking at this tentacle, there was endless room for imagination, and the doubts and thoughts in Tang Zhao's heart popped up one after another, for example:

Did it have an additional true body? Could it be an entire creature?

What kind of creature would that be? Where did it come from?

How many similar tentacles did the creature have on its body?

Was that creature alive?

Was this tentacle alive? Could it still move?

If it were a Human, once an arm left the body, unless it was Bucky, it would certainly be dead meat, but one could not use the form of a Human to speculate about all creatures; not to mention things like earthworms, some Heavenly Demons could split their bodies and survive. He had heard that octopuses even had more than one brain, and their tentacles could think independently. Who was to say that the tentacle before him was not a living avatar deposited here?

If it really was... then that would be good?

If it had consciousness, then he had found the real master. Today would not be for probing, but he could attempt to take it down in one fell swoop.

Tang Zhao gently beckoned, and the Sword Manual behind him flattened and hovered in the air like a flying carpet; he sat on the pages and flew, Floating, toward the tentacle.

At this time, he was still in a state of powerful Disappearance, and approaching through the air openly did not cause any reaction. He tried his best to maintain Floating, not touching any bit of green, and only opened his Glasses when he reached the space above the tentacle: "Scan."

"Life: Unknown."

"Not this one, this has already been scanned; look underneath? Look at that one underneath."

"Obstruction detected, rules chaotic, unable to penetrate. Please remove the barrier layer."

"As expected, one cannot skip the hard work." Tang Zhao had originally thought about scanning from the air and then drawing a conclusion, but he did not expect to encounter an obstruction.

However, this obstruction was very powerful; the Glasses' scanning could take effect even from across half a mountain, and he could even give the Songtian High Priest who was climbing up a physical examination from here, yet it could not penetrate the tentacle that was close at hand.

Actually, it was not that it absolutely could not penetrate; he could increase the energy—yes, that was to mobilize the power of the Sovereign.

He now mastered a portion of this supreme power. Although the main framework of the Glasses, which was the residual power he had picked up from the well, was very limited and could at most maintain its own operation, and the power of the other fragments was about the same, there would be more or less some residual power; Tang Zhao had not noticed these powers at the time, but with his deepening mastery of the Glasses, he could gradually collect them, accumulating little by little to gather some of the energy from back then.

Only those who had seen that kind of power knew how strong it was; it could not be imagined by imagination alone, and Tang Zhao had been a bit dazed the first time he gathered it—was this a power that truly existed?

Was this a power I could possess?

Holding awe and even some trepidation, Tang Zhao hid this portion of power away as a final reserve; if he used this power, he would certainly be able to create a miracle, but this should be his strongest trump card and could not be used at ordinary times.

Just like the present, it was certainly not the time. So, according to the prompt of the Glasses, it would be better to expose a corner of that tentacle.

He thought for a moment, first moved his finger, and the Sword Manual flipped to another page; although he was currently standing on the Sword Manual, the flipping of the Sword Manual did not hinder him at all.

On another page of the Sword Manual was a sword, and the background of that page of the Sword Manual was very beautiful, as if countless petals were dancing in the air.

Fangfei Sword.

This was also plucked from his friend; the longer his Sword Manual was in contact with something, the more detailed the recording, and of course, it was easier to get it from a friend. Fortunately, his Sword Manual recorded it so his friend could use it as usual, and he did not have to worry about his opponents blocking his friends in the restroom and killing them to weaken him.

He flicked his finger lightly, and a petal flew out from his fingertip, cutting a slit in the Luse mud covering the tentacle.

Immediately after, he did not retract the petal, letting it turn into pink light smoke in the air, then backhanded and took out a large piece of Strange Stone, used countless petals to condense a slightly red sword, and slashed down at the Strange Stone.

"Fangfei Sword—Peach Substitute for Plum."

Under the conversion of his Sword Art, cutting the Strange Stone before him was just like cutting that piece of Luse mud; the wound was directly converted over, and although it was also very difficult, cutting slowly would also make progress; there was plenty of time. It was much better than him personally leaning over and working in the Luse mud.

The reason he was so cautious was because he remembered the previous encounter of the Shengnyu; she had rashly used her own power to touch an unknown material and was nearly sucked dry; if it hadn't been for Tang Zhao's coincidence, she would have really been in trouble. And if Tang Zhao were trapped here, he would not be so easily rescued.

He was now a Sword Immortal, so he could avoid using low-level swords. The current test result was that three swords in parallel would not cause problems, so he still maintained a high-intensity Disappearance, keeping himself in an undetectable state, focusing on being cautious.

The sharpness of the sword was rare in the world, and the power grew infinitely with the strength of the Sword Guest; although that green was indeed tough and difficult to exert force on, it was still cut open a small slit under the Peach Substitute for Plum.

Across a certain distance, with the help of the light from the Sword Manual, he could see the appearance of the tentacle inside without the zoom function of the Glasses.

It was a tender pinkish-white color; although delicate, it looked a bit disgusting, because it reminded him of the sight of peeling back a skull and seeing a brain, or like a fetus pulled out alive from a pregnant woman's belly.

Besides that, the tentacle was relatively smooth, without suckers like an octopus, and the fingers could not be seen because the crack was narrow. Just imagining from what he saw: this seemed to be a very fragile life form; if it were not protected by the Luse mud on the outside, it would easily have suffered Disappearance for various reasons. But it was also very powerful; when protected, it had such powerful potential, deriving so much, such terrifying Luse mud.

It was just like... a Human's brain?

Many concepts popped up in Tang Zhao's mind, all mixed together; some seemed very suitable to compare it to, but he still trusted the analysis given to him by the Glasses.

"Creature: Unknown. Scanning..."

Scanning, huh...

The first step is always detection, followed by searching the "database"; if there is identical data, it can be retrieved directly, and if it is not completely identical but similar, it can be compared; of course, if there is no data at all, it is analyzed based on the existing information. This is how Tang Zhao set it to operate.

He looked at this thing, which was strange in shape and likely unprecedented; he feared it could not be compared, so he would go straight to analysis...

"Similar material detected!"

A three-dimensional image unfolded before Tang Zhao's eyes, displaying a phantom of a material that was multicolored and looked very familiar.

This... isn't this that dangerous, energy-draining material he swiped from the Shengnyu?!

Of course, Tang Zhao had never seen this material before and, feeling a sudden urge to study it, had taken it back; he hadn't had time to research it in the past few days, but he had first let the Glasses perform an entry, at which time there was absolutely no similar data, so had he met an old acquaintance here?

Draining energy...

Come to think of it, it really was similar. Even this Luse mud, although it only had a single color, the degree of vibrancy was somewhat similar to the green within those five colors.

Tang Zhao's expression grew grave; previously, he had absolutely no idea where this thing came from, only guessing it might have come from beyond the heavens, but after exchanging words with Wei Zhangle, who had been to the heavens, he realized it might be of the same origin as that multicolored giant monster.

Could it be that this evil god before him also came from over there?

Right, he remembered Wei Zhangle mentioning that although the five-colored monster was massive, the true core was actually a blister on the monster's head, and inside the blister was something delicate like a brain that seemed capable of commanding the monster's body. Could the one before him be the same?

"Data recording... then attempt to approach, derive!"