Read Novel Full Chapter 1155 - Taming the Old World - Myths - 4
Chapter 1155 - Taming the Old World - Myths - 4
Zhao listened in stunned silence…
He had never personally descended to the Platinum 3 depths of the abyss. He had only managed to scrape against that crushing, suffocating mana density exactly once in his entire life, and that was barely, desperately clinging to survival when he had dove into the Wood zone after Dragarion.
But Ren, who was now casually, mentally interfacing with the ancient brain of the world whenever he needed to, could effortlessly pull the veil back on mysteries buried that deep. And this was one of them.
"The Great Fissure, right before it plunges into the true Diamond depths," Ren explained, his eyes tracking the massive silhouette above, "is physically blocked. It's completely sealed off by a solid crust of Diamond-density mana crystal almost everywhere. There are only a few caves scattered across this side of the world. They are the only physical entrances to the ancient crystal core that sustains this entire world. And one of those specific entrances is located right on the razor's edge where Platinum 3 bleeds into Diamond, sitting right in the middle of each side of the Empty Fissure."
From that unimaginable depth, the ancient crystal formation slowly spiraled upward, eventually resurfacing at the Light Fissure in the tenth ring, part physical crystal, part ethereal construct, aggressively pulsating with the hyper-charged flow of the Sun Dragon ancient attack.
"But returning to that specific entrance," Ren continued, pointing upward at the vanishing stork. "The one that bird aggressively guards. That hole in the bedrock isn't just a cave. It's a filter for these beasts that naturally accumulate cores."
The foundational logic of the bio-mana cycle was elegant in its absolute, unyielding cruelty.
Very few terrors ever survived long enough to reach Platinum 3. Even fewer possessed the biological audacity to choose the specific evolutionary path that granted them the theoretical potential to eventually breach Diamond, because taking that path required enduring a terrifying period of relative temporary weakness.
To complete that evolution and reach Diamond, every single one of those terrors had to physically pass through that tiny, suffocating filter in the crystal crust.
And the Dragon Stork knew exactly where that choke point was. It simply parked its massive body at the only mandatory tollgate in the world, and it waited.
However, these specific terrors were so incredibly rare that when a Stork finally managed to catch and devour one, the brutal cycles of global distribution dictated that the absolute highest probability of finding the next meal wasn't here. It was on the exact opposite side of the world, waiting at the mirrored filter deep inside the Empty Fissure.
Therefore, its highly specialized diet forced it to migrate from one extreme pole of the continent to the other, relentlessly chasing a prey that only appeared in 2 year drops.
And when the Stork finally ate a terror, it didn't just consume the flesh. It consumed the terror's massive, hoarded collection of unrefined cores.
A Platinum 3 terror carried an astronomical volume of accumulated cores in its body. The Stork swallowed them whole, utilizing them as internal, biological storage drives. It funneled the ambient, hyper-dense energy radiating from its Diamond crystal nest, a structure woven with micro-thin ether veins, directly into those stolen cores. This violent infusion didn't just reactivate the dormant stones; it essentially transformed them into a massive, internal battery bank that powered the Stork's gargantuan flight.
It was going to discard them the exact second they were almost empty.
But it wouldn't discard them dead.
The diamond density vein left just the spark of living ether burning inside them. It unleashed them in a sprawling, continental rain of activated cores specifically over the Iron belt. It timed the drop perfectly yet inadvertently, right at the halfway point of its journey, sucking all the energy and dumping the nearly exhausted and now heavy useless batteries so it could recharge one final time before completing the second half of its migration.
That specific rain of falling, glowing spheres was the exact mechanism that seeded the vast majority of the wild beasts across the surface and shallow crust of the territories.
The entire migration was a blind, involuntary logistical delivery system. And the Dragon Stork, operating entirely on pure instinct, was the unwitting, colossal gardener of the wild world.
"So, your frantic warning to hide was actually somewhat useful, almost entirely by accident," Ren told Zhao, a faint, wry smile touching his lips.
Because there was a highly specific, dangerous detail. The colossal beast, which possessed a bloated, almost triangular balloon-like shape due to its belly being physically stuffed with thousands of cores, making it the size of a true guardian, might have actually taken a sudden, violent interest in Ren if it had sensed his fusion.
A specialized predator uniquely adapted to hunting hyper-dense, powerful terrors could very easily misclassify the powerful aura of Ren's two-way fusion as the exact prey it was starving for.
"But honestly, the highest probability is that it wouldn't have attacked us anyway," Ren added after a moment of cold calculation. "Even in a standard dual-fusion, my raw output slightly eclipses it. It would have instantly recognized that it was outmatched in mana density. A creature that manages to survive for centuries by meticulously collecting cores doesn't live that long by blindly risking its life against something stronger than itself."
Zhao nodded slowly, permanently archiving the intelligence.
There were extraordinarily few natural beasts in existence that willingly abandoned their native mana zones. And this specific creature managed the impossible feat using a frankly bizarre, fascinating biological workaround. The concept rattled around in Zhao's head, leading him, almost involuntarily, to think of the only other creatures on the continent capable of abandoning their zones.
The mutant beasts.
He voiced the thought aloud, questioning how Selthia's swarms managed it without carrying internal batteries.
"They use the sheer mass of the stampede to forcefully bend the ambient network, rather than relying on internal batteries," Ren explained, his eyes darkening. "It's a deeply fascinating, terrifying capability I've managed to perceive through the corruption grid."
Ren elaborated on the grim mechanics. The corrupted network, operating through the massive swarms of beasts, literally bent the deep, subterranean mana currents. They forced the ether into tight, localized rivers of energy, like temporary, synthetic mana veins, that the mutant beasts dragged along with them as they marched.
That was exactly why a mutant wave felt so incredibly, suffocatingly ominous long before it breached the line. They didn't rely on the empty ambient mana to survive. They literally dragged their own rotting, corrupt atmosphere with them.
"And I strongly believe that is the exact reason why they never use mana skills," Ren continued, his analytical mind chewing on the data. "Why they strictly rely on throwing their physical bodies at the Wall. They simply don't possess enough surplus mana to expel it as a localized spell. Every single drop of corrupt ether they drag with them is entirely consumed just keeping their corrupted biology moving."
He paused, staring out into the dark, moss-draped trees of the swamp, following the logical thread to its terrifying conclusion.
"I think the corruption violently mutates their biology into something that closely approximates the function of a human core. It's a synthetic system designed to project accumulated mana without wasting a single drop. It meticulously recycles it. It artificially inflates it." Ren let out a slow, heavy sigh. "Though, frankly, I am incredibly grateful that the copy isn't flawless. If it was, we would be facing generic, Silver-tier mutants effortlessly launching elemental skills without needing to be directly tethered to Selthia's consciousness."
He frowned deeply at his own horrifying mental image.
"And that would be a truly catastrophic headache."
And exactly as if speaking of the devil had violently summoned her, Ren's internal radar spiked.
He detected a bizarre, erratic movement deep underground.
His vastly expanded mana perception, which had been back to methodically mapping the bedrock of the Black Swamp for the ruin's entrance while they waited for the Stork to pass, suddenly tripped over an anomaly.
It was an energetic signature that absolutely did not correspond to the place. It didn't belong to the colossal slugs, the water serpents, or the hanging black flora of the local ecosystem.
It was the thick stench of corrupt energy.