The Record of Unusual Creatures

Y'zaks pulled his head out of the wall, together with some debris and stones. He spat them out and said, "I don't want to fight in this place. I can easily cause the entire tunnel to collapse."     

Uruk looked at the enormous man with a strange expression and found that he was pretty much squatting. "Can you still fight?"     

"Don't underestimate him. He can beat everyone here even if he's lying on the ground, let alone squatting," said Nangong Wuyue.     

Hao Ren waved his hand and said, "Stop mumbling. Be careful of your surroundings."     

A mechanical sound came from a branch pipe on the left. Everyone was on guard, but they did not find any enemies. It sounded just like the operational workings of a transmission device. Nangong Sanba went up and took a quick look cautiously. He then waved to everyone and said, "There's a gate here!"     

Everyone rushed there and saw a brighter light at the end of the pipe. The mechanical sound was coming from that direction. It seemed to be an exit.     

After confirming that no enemies were lying in ambush, Hao Ren held his shield and led the team through the long tunnel. They came out of a circular gate and found themselves in an unusually broad, tall corridor. It was a solemn, square corridor with a width of more than 10 m and a height of more than 10 m. And if you looked up, it would almost make you feel dizzy. The corridor was brightly lit, while the walls were cast with some kind of grayish-white metal. Bare rock could be seen where the metal did not cover. It seemed to be a place that was not completely finished yet.     

Y'zaks was stretching his arms. He was happy to come out of the narrow, cramped pipe. "Finally I don't have to be cramped inside... Hmm, this place is a little too wide."     

The huge corridor was clearly not made for humans. Hao Ren immediately remembered the kind of giant he had discovered on Io. He knew that the brain monster was the result of those giants' mutation. However, the brain monster had lost its body. Did it still need to live in a lair of this size?     

Uruk was stunned from the scene before his eyes. "There's been such a thing in the depths of the Sacred Mountain?"     

"These things may have existed before you came here." Vivian looked at Uruk and said, "I can understand how you feel. In a sense, the brain monster and his servants should be the natives of this place. And all of you just moved here thousands of years ago."     

Uruk waved his hand. Apparently, he did not want to talk about the topic. Ophra ordered the knights around her, "The lot of you, go and check the situation in front and at the back for a moment. The rest of you, stay here and rest while we wait for the other soldiers. We don't know the situation here, it's better not to move too fast."     

Hao Ren agreed with the arrangement, but the size of the underground stronghold made him feel anxious. He held the MDT and scanned every inch of the place. Lily noticed this and curiously asked, "What are you doing?"     

"The space here is surprisingly large," Hao Ren said while he looked at the results on the MDT. Although the powerful energy disturbances in the mountains had reduced the accuracy of the MDT, it still managed to collect some data as they went deeper. "There's a huge hole in the area hundreds of meters away from here... but I can't detect its boundary."     

Lily stuck her tongue out and asked, "Is it possible that this mountain is hollow inside?"     

Hao Ren was just about to say something when they suddenly heard noises coming from the end of the corridor. The knights who had just gone to check the situation in front were retreating and fighting at the corner of the corridor. The thing they were fighting with was the stitched horror that they saw on the ground earlier!     

As soon as Ophra saw this, she drew her sword and rushed forward without hesitation. The long sword was blazing with holy flame. The marshal's silhouette flashed in the air like a shadow and a couple of the monsters were burnt to ashes by the holy flame before they could react. Several of the knights reported loudly before they could catch their breath, "A lot of monsters are coming out of the gates. They seem to be blocking the place!"     

The moment the knights finished speaking, the alarm went off, and the sound of mechanical friction came from every corner, indicating that more mechanical gates had opened. Everyone immediately understood what was going on: the base's controller had sounded the alarm and begun to release the stitched horrors to stop the intruders.     

The defense system of the entire underground stronghold was activated and it quickly targeted the site of the invasion. More gates as well as the exits for counter-attacks were slowly opened in the corridors. A large number of the stitched horrors roared out of the bio-modification factory hidden deep underground. As these defenses were activated, they heard voices in the pipe behind them: more knights had finally arrived.     

"Good." Ophra nodded to Elson and said, "It appears that the defenses here have been activated. All we need to do is rush in. Bring your men and come with me."     

In fact, Hao Ren was not surprised at the activation of the defense system, because this was inevitable. The brain monster that could sense their minds must have been able to sense that someone had invaded its territory. The only thing Hao Ren found strange was why the alarm did not go off until now. The brain monster's slow reaction made him feel weird. He had expected to be attacked fiercely the moment they entered the underground stronghold.     

"MDT, try to navigate as far as possible." Hao Ren put his doubts aside and threw the MDT in the air. "Take us to the depths."     

The Data Terminal did not talk much in such a situation. It whistled and dashed to the front.     

All of them immediately followed the blue lightning. The knights raised their swords; the mages were surrounded by the brilliance of magic; the priests held holy objects and the Bible aloft. This "cleansing force", driven by faith and justice, ignored the eerie alien surroundings. They left all doubts behind and charged towards the end of the corridor, which was being blocked by monsters.     

The MDT tried to eliminate the ubiquitous energy disturbances in the underground stronghold as much as possible. It tried to trace out the roadmap to the depths of the cavern, leading the team swiftly through the gates, which were blocked by monsters. However, there were some occasional errors in the navigation: Some sort of automatic system in the stronghold seemed to be aware of the MDT's existence. It was consciously using strong interference to disturb the route. But those errors did not affect Hao Ren's team. When they saw a thick wall in front of them, and a road was right behind the wall, they did not find another route. Y'lisabet threw a hellish, super lava ball two times larger than her at the wall. And the wall was gone.     

That's right. This was how they dealt with a maze. They did not care about the gates or obstacles.     

Over time, more backup soldiers penetrated the area through several tunnels. The new soldiers were ordered to take a different route to sweep away the chimera-like monsters, while they also relieved pressure on the main forces. Soon, the underground stronghold was filled with explosions and shouting. But the other troops did not move as fast as Hao Ren's team, so most of them stopped at the outer corridor, blocked by layers of alloy gates. In the end, only Hao Ren's team got into the core of the underground stronghold.     

The monsters were constantly coming out of all corners. The knights formed a defensive line on both flanks, resisting the monsters and ensuring that the team could maintain its tempo of bombardment and march quickly. Meanwhile, Ayesha and Nangong Wuyue, as powerful healers, were constantly healing the wounds of the knights and dispelling the poisonous stench from the stitched horrors. Watching Y'zaks and Y'lisabet bombing the way in front of them, they got a little worried and asked, "What if the Sacred Mountain collapses?"     

"Do you think that the brain monster would dig such a huge hole in the Sacred Mountain and forget to reinforce the outer frame?" Hao Ren replied loudly in the explosion. "The Sacred Mountain has been hollow for several thousand years, it won't collapse!"     

*Bang!* As soon as he finished talking, they felt the ground shaking as if it was crumbling.     

 "Landlord! Look what you've just said…" Lily immediately screamed.     

Hao Ren was also startled, but he soon realized that something was not right. "Wait a minute, the mountain isn't collapsing! It doesn't sound like an earthquake…"     

The loud crash lasted only for a few seconds, and the quake around them soon calmed down. But after a while, a similar quake and loud noise came again!     

As Hao Ren said, it did not sound like the Sacred Mountain was going to collapse, nonetheless, it was definitely not a good phenomenon!     

They heard roars of the stitched horrors coming from the front. Hao Ren saw a heavy gate at the end of the corridor, which seemed unable to close. He immediately lifted his lance and strode forward. "Hurry up!"     

They went through several gates as well as pass a few corners, and the space around them seemed to become more and more spacious, making them wonder if the whole mountain had been hollowed out. That weird, quaking sound was still going on and on and on. It sounded as if some super huge device was warming up, ready to start. Suddenly, a thought flashed through Hao Ren's mind. At the same time, he found that he had come to the end of the corridor.     

At the end of the corridor, there was a platform hanging in the air. A shockingly huge cavern was in front of them, and they were stunned by the thing in the middle of the cavern.     

Hao Ren now knew what the brain monster was doing in the Sacred Mountain for tens of thousands of years.     

"He's fixing the spaceship… and it's fixed…" said Lily.     

Rollie also glanced at it. She immediately rolled up into a ball at Hao Ren's feet and said, "We're going to die meow!"