Chen Gu's "Mind Belief" still gave no warning. But Chen Gu didn't dare to be careless; it was highly possible that the existence beneath the abyss was too high-level, or possessed some special ability that concealed itself from his "Mind Belief."
He quietly approached the edge of the abyss and cautiously peered in. A wave of fierce heat rose up to meet him. Chen Gu saw a viscous, dark red liquid rippling within the abyss, similar to magma yet clearly distinct—more like a thick grease.
A vast, dark red ocean lay below, and soaking within it was a massive... mechanical lung!
Chen Gu was stunned. No wonder he hadn't sensed any danger.
But what in the world was it? An organ of a powerful Energy Gathering Mechanical Species? And why was it soaking here?
While Chen Gu was puzzled, his "Mind Belief" suddenly sounded an alarm. From the midst of that red, viscous expanse, like a chrysanthemum blooming, burst forth hundreds, even thousands, of metallic flexible shafts, which latched onto the massive lung and slowly dragged it down into the depths.
This time, the warning from "Mind Belief" wasn't because the other side held any malice toward Chen Gu, but purely because the "thing" that appeared was too powerful!
As the metallic flexible shafts and the energy-gathering lung melded together, Chen Gu had an inexplicable feeling: Even if the current powers of the Human and Insect Races on this planet were combined, they would be no match for this "thing."
After that massive organ sank, the dark red viscous expanse started to bubble and gurgle before calming down once more.
Chen Gu was suddenly struck by a thought: Could that organ be part of some Super Life?!
How were Super Lives formed? To this day, there was no definitive answer, but the general consensus was that it was directly related to the Super Substances within their bodies.
Perhaps the reason those Energy Gathering Mechanical Species snakes made the long journey to lay their eggs here was to be closer to this suspected Super Life, to draw from its power.
A Super Life! Chen Gu was secretly excited but dared not probe further. He quietly backed away, preparing to return the way he came.
However, halfway back, he discovered a side passage. Previously, upon hearing the heavy, immense breathing, he had gone straight towards the source, ignoring this fork.
The entrance to this passage was also very well hidden, concealed behind three overlapping layers of massive shale. The opening was narrow, barely allowing one person to pass.
Chen Gu listened intently. Hearing nothing from within, he ducked and squeezed inside.
But he quickly withdrew, first returning to where the Energy Gathering Mechanical Species snakes had laid their eggs, and packed up some of them. What if I get hungry on the way? he thought.
Chen Gu then passed through the passage entrance into complete darkness, but the rocks around him seemed to contain some kind of mineral that gave off a faint, pearly white glow.
He walked for an unknown amount of time until he genuinely felt hungry. He took out the snake eggs, ready to feast, but this time, CRUNCH! He almost broke his teeth.
He grimaced in pain and spat out the snake egg, only to find that the other eggs had all turned into an incredibly hard metal as well.
Chen Gu was baffled. What was going on? Had the eggs softened because they were near the Super Life, or had they hardened because they'd been laid for a while?
Since they were inedible, Chen Gu regretfully discarded the eggs. After a moment's thought, however, he picked one up and put it in his pocket as a souvenir.
The cave here had become quite spacious. Small side tunnels, only a few dozen centimeters high, began to appear on the surrounding rock walls—too small for Chen Gu to enter.
It was then that Chen Gu discovered a "benefit" from the snake eggs he had consumed: he could now see clearly in the cavern.
As he continued onward, Chen Gu began to feel 'famished' again. He was somewhat troubled by this. Ever since he turned the page that was Isabella Wu, I seem to have developed another peculiar eating-related ailment: binge eating disorder, he mused.
He got hungry easily, and once hunger struck, he desperately craved food. If he didn't eat his fill, he felt an unbearable discomfort—unlike before, when even starving, he could rely on his powerful physique to endure for a long time.
Now, Great Actor Chen's eyes once again gleamed with a feral hunger as he scoured his surroundings for food.
In this empty underground cavern, with nothing but stones, what food could there possibly be?
Driven by extreme hunger, Chen Gu even took the snake egg from his pocket and tried again to see if he could possibly chew it!
Of course, he failed.
He considered pressing on a bit further. If he still couldn't find anything edible, he would immediately turn back and feast at the snake nesting site.
However, so much time had passed that Chen Gu didn't know if the snake eggs left there were still edible.
He walked on for an unknown duration. The sheer scale of the underground cavern system was astonishing, making Chen Gu wonder if the entire planet might be 'hollow.'
Suddenly, a gust of hot air blew in from ahead. Chen Gu's spirits lifted. An exit! He immediately headed in that direction to find it.
Strangely enough, since squeezing through that stone crevice and walking for so long, Chen Gu hadn't found a single other entrance or exit to the cave system.
The hot air WHOOSHED in. Chen Gu rushed forward a few steps then froze, an intense wave of dread suddenly washing over him.
He quietly crouched behind a nearby boulder, concealed his presence, and then activated the "Radiation Field."
Within a fifty-meter radius, he had a grasp of everything.
Chen Gu's perception spread out like a blind man's hands, extending bit by bit from his position. The area within thirty meters ahead consisted of ordinary rock formations—uneven and rugged, but no different from what he had already traversed.
But beyond thirty meters, the rock surface became uneven, with metallic protrusions attached. At forty meters, these protrusions grew denser, and further on, the ground seemed to be entirely covered by them.
Focusing his senses through the "Radiation Field," Chen Gu discovered these metallic protrusions were actually fist-sized metal eggs.
However, compared to the snake eggs he had encountered, the shells of these metallic eggs were very thin. Despite being metal, they looked as if they could be punctured with a single poke.
Inside each metal egg, a viscous, dark blue liquid enveloped an Energy Gathering Mechanical Species that resembled a piranha but possessed four curved, hook-like claws.
Chen Gu had never seen such creatures before, but his first thought was: Can I eat this?
Energy Gathering Mechanical Species... probably not edible. What a pity. Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝⟡𝕗𝗂𝗋𝖾⟡𝕟𝕖𝕥
From what he could perceive, the quantity of these metal eggs was enormous—there had to be tens of millions, perhaps even hundreds of millions!