novelraw Chapter 359-1: Painbearer Belatu, Battle of Demigods (1)
Chapter 359-1: Painbearer Belatu, Battle of Demigods (1)
[You tell Flanda that you have captured an Ascended Divine Kingdom Flying Dragon, and ask whether you can use this flying mount to cross the border and reach the interior of the Sacred Nest.]
[Flanda is taken aback, saying that it indeed sensed you pulling a masterless consciousness into the web of consciousness, but that was a consciousness under your control, and since it did not have your permission, it could not casually probe it.]
[As an Ascended being, the Divine Kingdom Flying Dragon can indeed cross the border without attracting the attention of the Pilgrimage Angels.]
[However, the Divine Kingdom Flying Dragon is different from the Giant Vein Dragonfly. It does not have a hollowed abdominal cavity, and you can only ride on its back. It and Kim would still be exposed…]
[Flanda thinks for a while and comes up with a method.]
[Compared to the Divine Kingdom Flying Dragon’s body size, it and Kim are relatively small. You can open up an opening on its back and hide inside the flying dragon’s body.]
[But this will inflict a large amount of continuous damage on it. Judging by an ordinary flying dragon’s vitality, it might not even hold on until reaching the border…]
Lin Xun’s eyes light up, and he adopted Flanda’s plan without hesitation.
His Divine Kingdom Flying Dragon is an enhanced high-performance version. As long as it can successfully fly over the border, he can have Saio Chisoku-hime heal it and restore it to full status to continue on its way, practically a perpetual motion machine.
[You drive the Hive Consciousness and summon the Ascended Divine Kingdom Flying Dragon…][You leap onto the giant hornet-like Divine Kingdom Flying Dragon. Its feelers connect to your body, and you completely control this terrifying creature’s every movement.]
[The bone wings on your back spread open and stab into the carapace on its back, carving out a deep wound that exposes its internal organs. Blood gushes out in torrents…]
[Flanda and Kim hurriedly pull the wound apart and burrow into its body, inevitably squeezing its soft internal organs.]
[Since you are linked to the Divine Kingdom Flying Dragon’s consciousness, you can clearly feel its intense pain, but under your control it cannot even let out a scream.]
[The gigantic shadow circling in the distance gradually approaches the firmament above your head. You seem to have attracted the attention of a Pilgrimage Angel.]
[The giant creature flies to the sky directly above you, circling nonstop…]
[Do you want to launch an attack on the Pilgrimage Angel?]
[A thought travels through the web of consciousness and delivers a message to you. Flanda’s voice rings out in your mind…]
[Do not worry. The Pilgrimage Angel has not discovered anything abnormal. Otherwise it would definitely have attacked you at once. It is probably just the sudden appearance of the flying dragon that has triggered the Pilgrimage Angel’s wariness.]
[Just take off as usual. Remember, under no circumstances are you to take the initiative to attack the Pilgrimage Angel.]
[You control the Divine Kingdom Flying Dragon, ignore the enormous creature circling high above in the distant sky, and take off directly.]
[The Divine Kingdom Flying Dragon beats its two pairs of narrow membrane wings and rapidly ascends. The wound on its back that had just started to show signs of healing splits open again, and the blood that had been gradually stopping once more flows in a steady stream.]
[Cold wind howls past your ears, and the frigid snow scraping across your face stings slightly. As the Divine Kingdom Flying Dragon climbs rapidly, the snow-covered ground under your feet grows farther and farther away, and the towering spire buildings become smaller and smaller…]
[Your flying mount, the Ascended Divine Kingdom Flying Dragon, has taken some damage…]
[Your flight altitude keeps climbing, and the enormous creature circling above your head gradually becomes clearer before your eyes.]
[…]
[You can already clearly see the pitch-black markings on the Pilgrimage Angel’s scaled wings and its sharp, hideous mouthparts.]
[However, the colossal creature merely casts you one downward glance, then gradually moves away, continuing to scatter the snow that carries foreign factors.]
[Your flying mount, the Ascended Divine Kingdom Flying Dragon, has suffered extremely serious injuries…]
[As you continue to fly higher, you finally see what the so-called border actually is.]
[There are sparsely scattered stars at the vault of the sky above. Only when you fly close do you see that those stars are each a massive hexagonal cavity like a hive cell.]
[It is precisely these cavities that link to the ground of the second layer of the Sacred Nest.]
[You maneuver the Divine Kingdom Flying Dragon past the Pilgrimage Angel and into an empty hive cavity…]
Taking the opportunity, Lin Xun switches to his healer Shell and heals the Divine Kingdom Flying Dragon back to full, even mending its wounds, directly sealing Flanda and Kim inside its body.
The second layer of the Sacred Nest is still shrouded in heavy snow, only with slightly fewer Pilgrimage Angels than on the first layer.
Under normal circumstances, he would still have time to carefully explore the Sacred Nest, and he believes the rewards here would definitely be plentiful.
But now time is tight. Obtaining the Complete Wet Nurse Umbilical Cord and a Shell at the demigod realm is the top priority. He can only temporarily forgo exploration and head straight for the Sacred Nest Center…
The closer to the Sacred Nest Center, the smaller the area of land on each layer becomes, and accordingly, the number of Pilgrimage Angels decreases.
Lin Xun even sees that there are a few layers of the Sacred Nest that have not yet been completely covered by snow, where many normal Ascended beings are present.
They fly all the way to the seventh layer of the Sacred Nest, where the hellish game prompt indicates that Belatu’s Rebirth Sleeping Palace is located.
[…]
[The Divine Kingdom Flying Dragon lands on the ground, its expression feeble and dispirited.]
[You dismount from your steed, look around, and on this layer there is no White-Fleece Snow Season, no Pilgrimage Angels, and no sign of any snowfall.]
[You can clearly see that both the ground and the sky of this layer have a curved arc. It is as if you are within an annular space, and the farthest point your gaze reaches is not the horizon, but the bulging, curved ground, where the spire buildings tilt inward toward you.]
[You understand that the closer to the Sacred Nest Center you are, the smaller the area of land each layer has.]
[If you liken the giant egg-like Sacred Nest as a boiled egg, then the outer layers are the shell surrounding the egg, the inner layers are vast swathes of egg white, and the ninth layer at the very center of the Sacred Nest is the yolk.]
[You and the Divine Kingdom Flying Dragon are in a deserted street. As the city of the seventh layer of the Sacred Nest, it is deathly silent. Though everything in sight is relatively clear and bright, there is an invisible chill slowly spreading…]
[Flanda and Kim tear open the Divine Kingdom Flying Dragon’s body cavity and crawl out from within.]
[Kim is covered in blood and takes huge gulps of air the moment he emerges, looking like he nearly suffocated to death.]
[Flanda, on the other hand, is completely unruffled. Not even her white gauze dress is stained with blood.]
[Upon seeing the scene on this layer, it frowns, then closes its eyes to quietly sense. Its expression becomes extremely grim.]
[Flanda tells you that, Oath bearer, the seventh layer of the Sacred Nest should have a great number of angel warriors, but within the range of its perception right now… there is not a single living creature.]
[Such a situation should not occur. It has a very bad feeling.]
When something abnormal happens, something sinister is often at work. Even if the seventh layer were crawling with Extreme Evil monsters, or entirely filled with Ascended angels, that would be more normal than this completely empty scene.
Lin Xun suspects that some change has occurred in the Sacred Nest Center, but at this point he can only grit his teeth and continue toward their destination.