We can temporarily set aside the discussion of what great crisis Ke'ermo and Lord Wanda are currently facing in their escape. Let's return to the scene at Sero Ancient City earlier.
The moment the massive Myriad-Headed Beast descended into the material world, it was only the size of an ordinary elephant. It immediately crashed through this magnificent underground ruin, bursting out of the ground.
It broke through several layers of flooring while continuously expanding its body. By the time it appeared on the surface, its body was already hundreds of times larger than when it first emerged.
Immediately after, it was naturally targeted by spatial shockwave bombs.
Perhaps the Myriad-Headed Beast's body expansion was extensive; the higher it went, the greater the destruction it caused. By the time it reached the ground, a slight shift of its body instantly destroyed almost all surface structures.
As for this underground altar located on the lowest level of the Ancient City, it suffered relatively minimal damage.
Aside from a gaping hole in the ceiling large enough for an elephant to pass through, through which thousands of tons of sand, rubble, and broken rocks poured down from the upper levels, burying one-third of the altar's space; and the beast's frantic rampage upon its emergence hitting the altar's pillars, causing a collapse that buried another one-third; there was truly no other damage.
At least one-third was still left, wasn't it?
Additionally, many areas of the thick ceiling had cracks, with small stones falling occasionally, and the roars of the warship battle against the giant beast above would directly transmit underground, creating more vibrations.
But this was probably the only place in the entire Sero Ancient City where there was still standing room.
In the underground altar, which originally gathered thousands of people, there was almost no sign of life now.
"So, this really isn't my fault… They either died from infighting, died during the Void Realm monster's descent, and only then was there the structural collapse." Yu Lian, hiding by the doorway of a passage that hadn't completely collapsed, looked at the collapsed sinkhole ruins before him, activated his spiritual energy vision, and emotionlessly observed everything on site.
His gaze swept over the ruins in front of him, which buried countless corpses. With a flicker of his position, he instantly traversed a hundred meters through the air, appearing directly where the spiritual energy aura was densest.
Yu Lian took out a small power shovel from a pendant on his external power exoskeleton and began to meticulously excavate the ruins. His movements were decisive and professional, neither causing secondary collapses nor being too slow, clearly indicating he was accustomed to such work.
He tossed aside a pile of broken stones and pulled out a dark blue mental gem, as well as a dusty, bloody head, with half a shoulder still attached to the neck. Upon closer inspection, it was none other than Regis. This high-ranking member of the Wanling Sect, Lord Wanda's shield, stared at Yu Lian with unfocused eyes, a look of regret on his face.
"Oh, a bounty of 7.4 million!" Yu Lian regretfully tossed the remains aside, observed three seconds of silence, but stuffed the mental gem into his storage compartment.
He continued digging, carefully pushing aside a large stone, which then revealed the body of a slightly older Lumina. Looking closer, it was actually only the upper half of the body, with two of its four arms broken; of the remaining two, one was broken in half.
What slightly surprised him was that this fellow was actually still alive.
...Oh, the one nicknamed "Lord Yan"! He seems to be a spiritual energy user, no wonder his vitality is so strong. Speaking of which, what did Babalu and the others call this guy? Old Dog?
"Save me…" he whispered, his facial carapace already deformed, barely able to open his eyes, yet he could sense someone nearby.
"Save me…" he pleaded again, his voice becoming urgent: "I'll give you money, lots and lots of money…"
This guy's spirit is really good!
"I have 100 million letter stars in a secret account at Starry Sky Industry Bank! 100 million, the account number is XDSS427AA…" He quickly rattled off the account number and password, then realized why he had revealed everything so quickly.
Before Lord Yan could figure out the reason, Yu Lian's punch exploded his head.
Indeed, severe physical pain must also affect one's mind and will. If it were peacetime, how could Yu Lian have so easily controlled a spiritual energy user's mind?
Yu Lian casually pulled out a necklace from the other party's neck, confirmed that the red "gem" on it was indeed a chip, and put it into his storage compartment. He casually dragged Lord Yan's corpse aside and continued digging. After another five or six minutes, he finally retrieved the several sacrificial artifacts.
These were all treasures, and also essential components of the magic array that Count Salwen used to suppress the Myriad-Headed Beast. What could suppress could, conversely, also release and control.
This was the plan of Lord Wanda and the Lumina Rebels. Unfortunately, they did not expect that one of the sacrificial artifacts was fake.
Yu Lian collected the several treasures, including the fake ring he had asked Lord Grant to make. They were probably damaged because they bore the connection between the material world and the Void Realm and served as a medium for the Myriad-Headed Beast's descent. Yu Lian planned to ask Uncle Grant if they could be repaired, and if not, he could dismantle them to extract the precious metals and Zero Element materials.
A common quality "ink crystal," a type of spiritual energy crystal, also floated up from the dead Lord Yan.
After putting away all these spoils, Yu Lian paused in place, looked for a path, and while continuing to dig, began to communicate telepathically with Shi AA.
"Are you sure it's this direction?"
"It's here! After Mr. Wanda found us, he transferred us, along with the experiments and life support equipment, to the very bottom of the Ancient City, placing them with his meditation room…"
"He probably thought this was the safest. Also, this allowed him to restrict everyone's access under the pretext of preparing the ritual."
"However, he studied for a while, but never found a way, so he stopped bothering with us."
"Isn't it because you never cooperated with him? That's why he treated you as puppet worms and biological brainwashers?"
"Because we just didn't want to cooperate with him!" The slug worm said directly: "Don't look at us without a torso, don't look at us having escaped the low-level tastes dominated by hormones and dopamine, but we still have proper taste. Figures like Count Salwen are very good! Although his thoughts are a bit too heavy, he is, after all, a capable and tasteful talent, and he speaks well, everyone likes him very much. But Mr. Wanda is a bit lacking."
"Heh, so you're so willing to cooperate with me because I'm also very capable and tasteful, and speak well too?"
"...At least, compared to Mr. Wanda, you are somewhat acceptable. As long as you don't always let yourself be dominated by hormones and dopamine, you'll be more like a higher being who has escaped low-level tastes!"
"Heh, living is for happiness! Without hormones and dopamine, how can one feel happiness!"
"Isn't that just an illusion produced by hormone secretion and nerve stimulation? Isn't happiness something felt through the soul?"
"For someone who claims to be a biologist, what's with all this metaphysics?"
While bickering with the space slug worm, Yu Lian dug and pushed, finally clearing a large pile of fallen rocks, and at last found an inconspicuous passage entrance.
"Yes, this is the way." Shi AA said: "Go inside, turn right at the third intersection, and that's Mr. Wanda's laboratory and meditation room. All the compatriots he dug out are there…"
Yu Lian nodded and proceeded at full speed.
But the closer he got to his destination, the more uncomfortable he felt.
A few minutes later, when he stopped in front of a large door engraved with the Wanling Sect's symbol, he used his spiritual energy perception to search behind the door, and his heart immediately sank to the bottom.
"...Shi AA, a person's life, no, a worm's life, the life of all living beings, the most important thing, besides happiness, is resilience! What do you think?"
It turned out that the space slug worm was even smarter than Yu Lian had imagined. It was silent for a few seconds, and the soul information it sent back already carried a hint of sadness.
He had already understood Yu Lian's meaning.
Hmm, continue to pay off debts, while there's still some fire left to burn.