Survival of the Nation: My luck was a tiny bit worse.

As expected, just as everyone predicted.

Above, a large group of abyssal monsters are fighting.

Below, Leng Ruolan is AFK (away from keyboard).

The battle between the monsters is getting more and more intense—

Leng Ruolan stared upwards.

soon.

Whoosh!

A figure was thrown out.

"Oh."

Leng Ruolan gave a cold snort.

I knew it—

She slowly twisted the knife handle.

The strange bird let out a cry and skillfully flew upwards.

The figure fell onto the strange bird's back with a thud, exclaiming "Holy crap!"

"My back..."

Ou Yun rubbed his lower back with his hands behind his back.

It shook him to death!

Leng Ruolan asked, "Have you had enough fun?"

Ou Yun let out a long sigh: "Enough, enough."

"Enough already, why aren't you doing it?"

"Don't rush, don't rush."

Ou Yun, supporting himself by the strange bird's neck, struggled to his feet and pulled out the red and green knife from his spatial ring—

The color, however, is still so glaring.

But this time, for some reason, the cold light emanating from the blade was exceptionally menacing—

It's like having a classmate named Jiahao who always says he looks down on Porsches, and then one day he actually comes to school in a Porsche.

Under Leng Ruolan's control, the strange bird slid towards the breach that had been blasted open on the south slope.

The European train landed precisely at the edge of the gap.

The black substance beneath my feet felt soft and elastic, unlike rock at all—it felt more like stepping on the skin of some enormous creature.

The muscle tissue around the gap was still trembling slightly, and the purple liquid flowing in the blood vessels was clearly visible up close.

The air was filled with an extremely strong, sweet, fishy smell, mixed with the stench of sulfur and rotting flesh.

"This smell..."

Ou Yun wrinkled his nose. "Even more aggressive than the Abyss Bone Demon."

He carried the machete and walked deeper into the gap.

The boots creaked and groaned as they stepped on the ground, a mixture of bone and muscle tissue.

Purple slime kept seeping out from the "walls" on both sides, dripping onto the ground and rising into wisps of white smoke.

After walking about fifty meters, the space in front of us suddenly opened up.

It was a huge chamber—no, more accurately, an organ.

The chamber is at least several hundred meters in diameter, with walls made of layers of muscle tissue covered by a translucent membrane.

Beneath the membrane, one can see a dense network of pulsating blood vessels. With each pulsation, purple fluid is pumped from these vessels to the very center of the chamber.

And right in the center of the chamber is that luminous core.

The core is suspended in mid-air and fixed in the center of the chamber by countless thick tendons.

Its surface is translucent, and you can see an extremely thick purple energy liquid flowing inside.

With each core pulse, the tendons contract simultaneously, squeezing the energy fluid out of the core and transporting it through the blood vessels to every corner of the mountain.

It seems to be sleeping.

Ou Yun could even hear the low hum of the core pulse—like breathing.

"This is the lord's heart."

He approached, machete in hand, examining the enormous organ suspended in mid-air. "It's bigger than I expected."

Brother Chen said it was about the size of an adult curled up—but this thing is much bigger than an adult curled up; it could fit two Brother Chens in it.

"The error is within an acceptable range. After all, I relied on data to extrapolate, and I didn't conduct any on-site investigations."

Chen Hao's voice came through the earphones with a smooth and silky sound.

"I can see where you are now. There are at least a dozen tendons around the core, each connected to the main blood vessels inside the mountain. You must sever all those tendons to cut off the core's energy supply. Otherwise, it will keep repairing itself."

"Wow, that means we'll have more meat than we can eat!"

"No, eating this stuff would probably make you self-destruct like that American."

"Uh, never mind then."

Ou Yun scratched his head. "Speaking of which, cutting these chunks of meat...won't it wake up the lord?"

"Then let's slash it a few more times before it wakes up."

"...Your suggestion is really constructive."

Ou Yun took a deep breath and gripped the knife handle tightly with both hands.

Leng Ruolan quickly followed her in—with Nanbei, who had made an emergency landing five minutes earlier, behind her.

Nanbei squatted beside her, its tail stiffly standing upright, its ears pressed down like airplane ears.

It was tense from the moment it entered the chamber, its golden pupils fixed on the pulsating core.

"Neither the north nor the south feels right."

Leng Ruolan lowered her voice, "It's been growling ever since we entered the mountain. It senses more than we do."

"Then let it keep watch, and leave the chopping to me."

Ou Yun, carrying a machete, walked toward the nearest tendon.

The tendon was thicker than he had imagined, covered by a smooth sheath through which he could see purple fluid flowing rhythmically.

He raised the knife, aiming at the weakest point of the tendon—the junction of the two tendons—

chua!

He cleaved down with a single stroke.

A flash of red and green light appeared, and the tendon, thicker than a thigh, was severed cleanly at the root like tofu.

A large amount of purple liquid gushed out from the broken surface, carrying a pungent, fishy odor.

The core pulse rhythm was noticeably off-beat.

The tendons fixed to the wall began to twitch violently, and more and more purple liquid gushed from the broken ends, making the stench in the cavity increasingly strong.

"efficient!"

Chen Hao shouted into the communicator, "The core's energy reading has dropped by seven percent! Keep cutting!"

Without hesitation, Ou Yun immediately turned to the second tendon.

A knife.

Article 3.

Another cut.

His feel for the knife was getting better and better; in his hands, the machete almost became a red and green whirlwind.

This thing is really good!

"This is the fourth one! The energy reading has dropped by thirty-one percent! The core is beginning to awaken—its pulsation frequency is increasing!"

When the European team severed the fifth tendon, a crack suddenly appeared on the surface of the core.

A large amount of thick purple fog poured out of the crack, growing thicker and thicker.

The mist rapidly condensed in the air, transforming into a gigantic abyssal creature—

It has four legs, no head, and its body is covered with barbed bone armor. A small, dark purple core is embedded in its chest cavity.

"roar……"

The creature began to growl.

The two men, gripping their weapons, looked at each other slowly, their expressions grave.

It's as if it's saying: That's all?

Dude, you're the Forest Lord? How come you're not even as scary as Black Hawk?

"The defense mechanism has been activated!"

However, Chen Hao's voice suddenly rose in the earpiece, "That's the core guardian! Be careful—"

The two of them exclaimed "Oh!" in unison. It was just Xiao Guai. Oh well, it's alright now!

Before he could finish speaking, the headless guardian pounced on Ou Yun.

Its legs carved deep craters into the rotten, fleshy ground, while the small core inside its chest throbbed wildly.

Each jump generated visible purple shockwaves in the air.

Ou Yun rolled on the spot to dodge, easily and effortlessly.

He also commented sharply: "This little gadget is actually quite cool!"