I can see experience bars after being transported to another world.

Blue light surged in from all directions; it was too bright.

Lu Yuan couldn't help but squint, trying to see clearly what was in front of him, but he stopped the next moment.

ore.

There are minerals everywhere.

Those translucent blue crystals layered upon each other, piling up to form walls, condensing into pillars, and so on.

Lu Yuan's pupils contracted slightly, but it wasn't a buildup.

It's a package.

Through the light refracted by the ore, Lu Yuan saw the outline.

The outline of the stone pillar.

Dozens of stone pillars, even thicker than the Iron Whale, are hidden beneath this translucent ore. Something is faintly engraved on the pillars, distorted and deformed by the refraction of blue light, making it difficult to see clearly.

Those were runes; Lu Yuan recognized that style.

Similar symbols were engraved on the altar in the dream, indicating it was the Church of the Deep Sea.

Lu Yuan's gaze followed the stone pillar upwards, towards higher ground—behind the ore, he saw a towering, dark temple.

Its scale far exceeded expectations; the dome supported by stone pillars disappeared into the darkness, and blue crystals enveloped the entire building like a cocoon, with runes appearing and disappearing under the refraction, like an ancient kingdom sleeping in the deep sea.

Majestic, solemn, even terrifying.

Lu Yuan finally understood.

This place has never been a mine, and these ores are not mineral deposits.

These are the secretions of the "Mother." The injured "Mother" recuperated in this temple, secreting these crystals to envelop herself and the temple, layer upon layer, for countless years.

until today.

Until they broke in.

Lu Yuan's breath hitched for a moment.

You have trespassed into the temple.

You have glimpsed something that should not have been glimpsed; you have taken a difficult step in your exploration of taboo studies.

【Rationality III: +10..15/70】The gray text jumped, and the long-dormant rationality experience value jumped forward by a large margin.

He didn't have time to think it through. Because he saw the center of the mine.

The area had been cleared, revealing the black rocky ground below, as if someone had deliberately cleared out a sacrificial site in this space enveloped in blue light.

In the very center of the site stands a tiered altar.

The altar is pyramid-shaped, with seven or eight layers high, each layer covered with runes that gleam faintly under the blue light.

Behind the altar, a wide passageway extends deeper into the ground.

The passage was also mined out, with the ore on both sides neatly cut. The end of the passage disappeared into the darkness, and the bottom could not be seen.

The heartbeat was coming from there.

At this moment, three gray-robed figures stood atop the altar, facing the cave entrance, as if they had been waiting for a long time.

The one in the lead slowly opened his mouth.

The voice carried an eerie rhythm:

"Welcome, guests from Grimport." As he spoke, a cloudy blue light flickered in his eyes. "Mother has been waiting for you."

Marcus's mechanical eyes glowed brightly red, and the gears spun rapidly.

Alice had already raised her warhammer, and lightning crackled and leaped across its head.

The device on the judge's chest began to preheat, emitting a low hum, and steam spewed out from the gaps.

The newborns scattered, their arms deformed, weapons in place.

The church deacon raised the holy emblem, and golden light began to gather.

But the man in gray did not move.

He simply stood on the altar, looking down at the crowd as if they were prey walking into a trap.

"But I want to see my mother..."

He paused.

"At least, let's survive first."

The moment the words fell.

The ground began to shake; it wasn't the slight tremor from a heartbeat, but a real tremor.

The tremor was so strong it felt like the entire underground space was about to collapse!

[Warning: Large-scale ritual traces detected; unusual biological activity underground...]

The sudden tremor caused Lu Yuan to stumble, and Gray caught him and then stood in front of him.

The ground around the altar began to crack in densely packed fissures, from which a viscous blue liquid oozed.

Then countless tentacles surged out of the crack.

Its size is larger than any I've seen on the road, and the bottom part is even as thick as an adult's torso.

They twisted and tangled wildly, their countless tentacles intertwined, eventually piling up into a mountain, their surface constantly writhing, gradually forming a coiled cocoon-like structure.

My heart is racing.

Thump, thump-thump—

The tangled tentacles had already reached several meters in length, but they were still growing and spreading. Every now and then, something would open and close within that mass of flesh and blood.

Is it an eye?

Lu Yuan tried to look away, but he had already seen it.

[Sighting of a Deep Alien: ██]

[Warning: Determining sanity... Determination failed]

【理智：-5...-5...-5...45/70】

Reason crumbled like flowing water, as if something was tearing his brain apart, whispering, murmuring, and calling out from the depths of his consciousness—

Lu Yuan's vision blurred.

The scene before him was distorting. Lu Yuan heard the song of the deep sea, beckoning him to go forward, to touch that mass of flesh, to let him—

"Ugh—"

A muffled groan came from the side.

Lu Yuan's consciousness was pulled back a little, and he barely turned his head, only to find that not only him, but everyone around him was experiencing a very serious breakdown of their rationality.

Gray knelt on one knee, covered his head with his hands, and trembled violently.

Alice knelt on the ground, her warhammer supporting her body. Lightning flashed on and off, her lips were pale, and blood vessels were spreading from the corners of her eyes.

Ed and Leonard had fallen, curled up on the ground, groaning in pain.

Not just them.

Even the modified newborns encountered problems.

Some covered their heads, some knelt on the ground, and some even had their mechanical arms twitching uncontrollably. Suppressed groans came from under the bird-beak masks, and their bodies convulsed under the black robes.

Even Marcus's movements froze.

Pain flashed in the human's eyes, the red light of the mechanical eye flickered violently, and as if disturbed, the sound of the gears turning became intermittent.

Everyone is being eroded by pollution.

Lu Yuan managed to stay upright and looked around.

Only one person was still standing.

Philip.

But at this moment his condition was also extremely dangerous. His face was pale, his eyes were closed, sweat was dripping down his forehead, and his hands were pressed tightly on the holy emblem. Pale golden light flickered around him, like a candle flame in the wind, which could be extinguished at any moment.

But he was still standing.

"Philip!"

Lu Yuan used all his strength to shout at the top of his lungs:

"What are you waiting for!"

Lu Yuan didn't know what other tricks Philip had up his sleeve, but right now the only hope of protecting those around him was the church.

Upon hearing this, Philip's body trembled, as if he had suddenly come to his senses. His bloodshot eyes looked around, and with a gritted tooth, he pulled a scroll from his pocket.

The scroll was yellowish all over, with faint scorch marks on the edges, and the runes on it emitted a faint golden light.

The next moment, Philip tore it open.