T/L: this is the last chapter of the main story! This chapter is only <5k, so I’ll split it into two parts~
“Boom!”
Dirt, stones, and blood splattered everywhere, and the heat from the explosion vaporized some of the blood, creating a crimson, blood mist that obscured a bulky figure behind the shattered stone.
“It’s useless, you all will die!”
The monster swung their limbs and hissed, as the eerie energy intensified, making it difficult to see its true form through the shifting blood mist.
The Zerg screeching resumed as a large swarm of creatures emerged from behind the monster, charging toward them. Blood flowed like a stream, converging and amplifying the red glow, twisting the air even more.
Chu Rong’s eyes sharpened, and he fired another shot, but the charging Zergs threw themselves in front of the cannon’s path, forming a living wall to shield the monster.
“Enjoy this slowly,” the monster’s voice lowered ominously as they began retreating deeper underground.
“Trying to escape? Not so easily!”
At this crucial moment, Mi Lai unleashed a surge of earth magic, which surged into the stone slabs below.
“Break!”
With a shout, the magic compressed and then exploded, creating cracks in the surrounding stone slabs. The vibrating soil and rocks began swirling in the air like a dragon, chasing after the retreating monster, sweeping away the incoming Zergs.
The black hole’s pull weakened, easing the pressure on Qiao Zhiya, who increased his magic output, causing the golden light to flare up again.
Qiao Yi tapped his staff, and a wooden magic circle appeared, dispersing the blood mist. Numerous vines emerged, burrowing into the ground in pursuit of the monster.
Chu Rong quickly concentrated his spiritual energy and fired several more shots at the opening, enlarging it, and then commanded, “Retreat from the hole, away from the black hole, quickly!”
“Yes!”
Fan Xiangnan and Lin Zhen responded in unison, organizing the soldiers for a retreat.
The front-line squad held off the Zergs, while the rear squad finished them off. The remaining soldiers cleared the Zerg corpses, working in unison to open a path.
Seeing the soldiers leave one by one, Qiao Zhiya relaxed slightly, but then the situation changed. The cracked stone slabs suddenly broke and fell away, revealing a room filled with blood beneath. The red glow intensified, and the blood swirled, forming a deep hole. A strange force surged, freezing the magical energy in the air for a moment, and the black hole exploded.
“Ugh!”
Qiao Zhiya, suspended above the blood pool, took the full brunt of the impact. He gasped and his face turned pale, the golden magic circle instantly dissipating.
Qiao Yi’s expression changed. He quickly enveloped Qiao Zhiya in magic and summoned protective arrays to shield [Elf].
Everyone was caught off guard by the hidden blood pool beneath the slabs.
“These are fresh blood, disguised as Zerg life signals. Damn monster!” Mi Lai, catching a few retreating soldiers with her magic, saw the hellish scene below through the mech’s projection. Furious, she unleashed another wave of magic, causing the ground to tremble and collapse, filling the blood pool with debris.
“Rumble!”
The entire underground area shook like an earthquake. As the surrounding soil fell away, more stone slabs were revealed—this was not a Zerg-dug pit, but an underground structure made of stone slabs!
“The red patterns on the slabs are bleeding!” Lin Zhen, now at the exit, shouted, alarmed.
“Retreat, everyone!”
Chu Rong, his expression darkening, had no doubt that the slabs concealed more blood-filled chambers. He quickly placed some large blocks of black jade near Mi Lai, then flew to [Elf] and escorted Qiao Zhiya toward Fan Xiangnan on the other side of the exit.
“Splash!”
Sensing their escape attempt, the blood pool’s suction force intensified, and the red glow brightened once more.
Chu Rong’s eyes narrowed as he fired a shot directly into the blood hole, spilling fuel to ignite. The flames soared, vaporizing the blood and enveloping the space in a red mist, making the atmosphere even more sinister and distorted.
Seizing the moment, Qiao Zhiya threw out a device, which expanded upon landing, extending vines that ensnared [Elf] and [Rong Tian], pulling them to the other side of the opening.
“Boom!”
As the soil filled in and the flames burned, the blood pool exploded, sending blood, stone fragments, and dirt flying toward them. The device’s enlarged body blocked the debris.
“Move! We can’t stay here!” Chu Rong landed, grabbing the withering device and commanding loudly.
“The ground here is starting to seep blood too!” a soldier shouted in alarm.
The retreating soldiers hesitated, and Chu Rong frowned deeply, ordering, “Reduce the number of mechas, two people per mecha, quickly!” He glanced at Mi Lai, who had just replenished her magic, but she cut him off with a wave.
“I know, leave it to me!” Mi Lai discarded the now pale black jade and unleashed another surge of earth magic. The surrounding soil cracked and crumbled away, revealing stone walls and several previously concealed passageways.
“The monster went down the middle path,” Qiao Yi said, continuously soothing Qiao Zhiya with his magic.
“Let’s go!” Chu Rong ordered, leading the way.
Qiao Zhiya shook his head at his father, indicating he was fine, then followed Chu Rong.
They moved quickly through the underground passages, with Mi Lai’s earth-elemental magic constantly revealing more stone corridors. Qiao Yi accurately guided them until they reached a large hall with multiple connected pathways. He signaled for everyone to stop.
“My vines only reached this far,” Qiao Yi noted, observing the hall covered in spiritual stones and red patterns, and each corridor adorned with red symbols. He frowned, saying, “Including the path we came from, each corridor leads to a teleportation field, and only one path is correct.”
Mi Lai, exhausted, slumped on the rest chair of Chu Rong’s mecha, and couldn’t help but ask, “What if we choose the wrong one?”
“If we make the wrong choice, we’ll likely face another blood pool and black hole combination, or worse,” Qiao Yi replied gravely. “And next time, we might not be so lucky to escape. The previous space connected to here, and the ends of these corridors might all be traps.”
“Enjoy this slowly…” Chu Rong muttered the monster’s words, a cold fury building within him. “It seems the monster has prepared quite a ‘gift’ for us.”
“Only knows how to hide and play dirty, huh? Disgusting!” Mi Lai cursed, her anger flaring. “I’ll tear this place apart and see where it hides!”
“We can’t destroy it.”
Qiao Zhiya spoke up, his tone unusually serious. He moved to one of the corridors, inspecting the chaotic red patterns before pointing to a particular spot, “There’s a warning here. Behind these slabs is all blood. If we break them, the teleportation field beneath us will activate immediately.”
Everyone froze, looking down at the red-patterned slabs underfoot, then at the spot Qiao Zhiya pointed to, puzzled by what they saw.
“Qiao,” Chu Rong approached him, gently calling his name.
Qiao Zhiya glanced at him and explained, “Making it this far means intruders, like us, have likely figured out the secret of these red patterns on the teleportation field. The monster anticipated this and added interference factors to the patterns on the corridors, preventing us from deciphering the coordinates. These interference factors are all from the encrypted text.”
The current situation seemed contradictory. The addition of chaotic patterns was clearly to prevent them from determining the coordinates, yet there were warnings written in cipher, as if the monster didn’t want them to wander aimlessly. Was this some twisted game by the monster, testing if anyone could decode the encrypted text?
Qiao Zhiya frowned, feeling like he might have missed something.
‘Encrypted text?’
Chu Rong also furrowed his brow and looked at the red patterns.
‘Unlike the other teleportation fields, these slabs only had a layer of contamination from the Zerg creatures on their surface. I could even vaguely sense the fluctuations of spiritual stones’ power.’
‘This underground structure must have been built before the appearance of the Zergs… Could the monster be the creator of the cipher, someone called Nan Suo? Did he personally build this place and survive until now?’
“There is indeed interference,” Qiao Yi confirmed, adding, “Including this hall, there are eleven teleportation fields in total. They are interconnected, and if one is destroyed, the others will activate immediately. We can’t stay here for long; this teleportation field is large and takes time to activate. It’s probably already in the process.”
In other words, choosing the wrong path would lead to a dead end, destroying the passages would lead to a dead end, and staying too long without making a choice would also lead to a dead end.
They had worked their way into the monster’s lair, and the monster had cleverly used this lair full of slabs and red patterns to set a trap, aiming to trap them.
“Returning the way we came is not possible…” Fan Xiangnan suggested with a frown, but before he could finish, an explosion occurred. The passage they had come through collapsed, and blood began to seep through.
Everyone fell silent—the last escape route was blocked. They had to choose from these passages.
“Returning is impossible. Even if the path doesn’t collapse, it’s likely already filled with blood. Going back could mean encountering a black hole at every step,” Qiao Yi continued, his voice steady despite the silence. He reached out to pat Qiao Zhiya’s head and, seeing him focused on the corridor patterns, asked softly, “Qiaoqiao, have you discovered something?”
The group snapped back from their previous despair, their eyes lighting up with hope as they looked at the [Elf] ahead.
Instead of responding, Qiao Zhiya moved closer to the red patterns, carefully examining them, then proceeded to the next corridor, repeating the process.
Chu Rong followed closely behind, keeping watch.
In the darkness of the underground, only the sound of the mechs moving could be heard. After about fifteen minutes, Qiao Zhiya had examined all the red patterns and suddenly pulled out the manuscript to review it.
“The slabs are seeping blood again!” a soldier in the corner exclaimed.
“Mine too…”
“Here as well…”
The soldiers started to stir. Chu Rong glanced over and coldly ordered, “Stay calm.”
The noise ceased abruptly, and after a brief disturbance, the soldiers quickly quieted down, but the atmosphere grew even more somber.
Qiao Yi looked at Qiao Zhiya, who was engrossed in the manuscript, his grip tightening on his staff as he tried to suppress his emotions — if today was destined to be a dead end, he needed to find a way to save his wife and son.
Just as he was contemplating various desperate measures, Qiao Zhiya suddenly looked up and pointed to a corridor. “There! That path is correct! The monster didn’t understand the meaning behind these encrypted texts! This underground passage wasn’t built by him — he was forced by that monster! The builder left hints for future visitors!”
Everyone’s spirits were lifted, and Chu Rong immediately signaled, “Form up and prepare to move out!”
Before the blood could fill the hall, everyone swiftly moved into the corridor Qiao Zhiya had indicated, rushing forward. Qiao Zhiya also excitedly explained.
“The author of this text is a soldier named Nan Suo, who created the encryption method. He was passionate about medicine and also delved into various obscure cultures, working on something related to helping recluses! This text is actually a love letter he wrote to a Hermit! It’s his posthumous work!”
Previously, after translating the common sections of the three encrypted texts, Qiao Zhiya discovered that the book told a love story. He had been puzzled at first, but the story became clear once he saw the text on the corridors.
Nan Suo was indeed passionate about medicine, but he had a unique spiritual ability that allowed him to control blood. Since he couldn’t touch anything related to medicine due to his uncontrollable power, he shifted his focus to his second interest — Exoplanet Native culture research, becoming increasingly engrossed in it.
During this period, he met his lover, a hermit named Kang Cheng, whose power was even more sinister — he could absorb the spiritual power from others’ spiritual seas, turning it into his own.
When they first met, Kang Cheng was a weak, isolated Exoplanet Native youth with a deathly gaze. Nobody in the aid department liked him, except for Nan Suo, who treated him with patience and kindness.
And this was also the beginning of Nan Suo’s tragic life.
Kang Cheng discovered the uniqueness of Nan Suo’s power and grew greedy. He responded positively to Nan Suo’s kindness and began to disguise himself as a cheerful and lively child under Nan Suo’s care, hiding his true nature.
The naïve Nan Suo had no idea of Kang Cheng’s intentions. He gradually fell into Kang Cheng’s deceitful trap and eventually fell in love with him. Kang Cheng, taking advantage of the situation, got together with him.
After they were together, Nan Suo noticed his health deteriorating and his power becoming increasingly unstable, occasionally experiencing memory loss. He began to worry that his powers might go out of control, so he decisively retired from the military due to health reasons and painfully tried to break up with Kang Cheng.
Kang Cheng desperately tried to keep him, and Nan Suo, feeling soft-hearted, eventually agreed that they should leave the Federation and live in seclusion to prevent Nan Suo’s powers from harming others.
After some discussion, Kang Cheng took Nan Suo to a hermit’s secluded refuge. There, Kang Cheng removed his disguise and openly began to siphon Nan Suo’s power, forcing him to use his powers to harm others. He planned to make Nan Suo stronger before completely stealing his power.
Nan Suo was shocked and in pain. He tried to escape, but as soon as he left the refuge planet, Kang Cheng pursued him. The two struggled and accidentally fell into an asteroid belt, where they discovered this primitive planet.
Kang Cheng was overjoyed by the yellow leaf trees and spiritual stones on the planet, while Nan Suo breathed a sigh of relief — here, in this isolated place, Kang Cheng should no longer force him to continue committing evil deeds.
Kang Cheng indeed calmed down for a while. The abundance of spiritual stones was enough for him to become stronger, and perhaps because of his loneliness, he even began to confide in Nan Suo about his past, truly opening up to him.
The closed environment fostered their feelings, and Nan Suo soon forgot the wrongs Kang Cheng had done to him. They enjoyed a period of honeymoon.
