Chapter 50: Failure and Strength
The water in the pool was bone-chillingly cold. To be safe, Su Xiao didn't let Baha or Amu enter the pool. Instead, they observed the surroundings near the pool to avoid having their escape route blocked by any potential enemies.
Gurgle, gurgle~
Bubbles rose from the bottom of the pool. Through the faint light above, Su Xiao could vaguely see a massive creature at the bottom. The creature was translucent, lying motionless on the pool floor—not dead, but in a deep slumber.
Su Xiao took out a small oxygen tank, took a deep breath, and scanned his surroundings. Based on the information provided by Bubu Wang, he quickly spotted an opening in the pool wall about 50 meters deep.
The opening was three meters wide, pitch black inside, like a massive underwater maw waiting to devour anyone who entered.
Su Xiao kicked off the pool floor, surged into the opening, and pressed a thin film over his right eye. This was an underwater night vision device with a 20-minute duration.
Swimming forward through the opening, the surroundings were pitch black. Aside from the sound of Su Xiao's movements stirring the water, it was eerily quiet, putting immense psychological pressure on him.
After swimming for at least ten minutes, Su Xiao noticed the passage began to slope upward. In less than five minutes, a faint light appeared from diagonally above.
With a splash, Su Xiao surfaced, exhaling a long breath of stale air. He was in a small pool about three meters in diameter. At the edge of the pool was a gap, where a stream of clear water flowed down, following a carved groove in the ground toward the distance.
Su Xiao looked around. This was a natural cave. It wasn't dim inside; the ceiling was nearly ten meters high, with basketball-sized openings above. Sunlight streamed through these openings, raising the temperature inside the cave to around 40°C.
The air in the cave was heavy with moisture and stiflingly hot, like being inside a vegetable greenhouse.
[Tip: The Hunter has arrived at the Greenhouse. This is the sacred ground of the Diba Clan.]
[Supernatural Plant · Dibamu location detected. The Hunter should proceed deeper into the Greenhouse as soon as possible.]
[Stealth Concealment activated. Blocking Rank: ???]
[Warning: If the Hunter comes into contact with the Supernatural Plant · Dibamu, the Apocalypse Paradise side will likely break through the spatial barrier here and teleport Contractors into the Greenhouse.]
...
Su Xiao glanced at the Reincarnation Paradise notification, then climbed out of the pool. He looked at the sunlight slanting in from the ceiling, a thoughtful expression on his face.
The entrance to the Greenhouse was only five meters wide, leading straight ahead. Or rather, this wasn't the main entrance—it was the water source for the Greenhouse.
Su Xiao stepped forward and arrived at a corner ahead. As he passed a stone wall, he noticed a door-shaped crack on it. Clearly, this was the real entrance.
Just as he reached the corner, Su Xiao stopped. Bubu Wang was sitting behind the corner, blocking Su Xiao's path with his body.
"Woof~"
Bubu Wang winked at Su Xiao, meaning: 'Master, hide your aura first. It looks like a 'god-level' fight is about to break out over there.'
The area behind the corner was much more open. It was a clearing of several hundred square meters. At the innermost part was a stone door, two meters wide and four meters high.
The stone door was tightly shut, carved with images of the sun, the moon, an undying insect, and a plant.
Above the stone door, thick, finger-sized emerald vines had broken through the wall. The vines bore round leaves, and dozens of them were twisted together into a massive vine ball embedded in the stone wall. A few vines hung down, clinging to the stone door below.
The Gluttony Monarch stood about ten meters in front of the stone door, looking up at the vine ball above it, seemingly deep in thought.
After a moment, the Gluttony Monarch bent down and grabbed the ground. His sharp claws pierced the earth, scooping up a handful of gravel, which he tossed at the stone door.
A series of sharp crackling sounds rang out as the gravel bounced off. The vines on the stone door writhed like living creatures, twisting unnaturally. These weren't the Supernatural Plant · Dibamu, but vine plants eroded by Dibamu.
The vine ball above the stone door slowly opened, and a figure fell from between the vines, landing with a thud on the ground.
Witnessing this, Bubu Wang swore to the heavens that this was the least impressive boss entrance he had ever seen.
"Ah~"
The man who had fallen let out a long breath as he slowly stood up. His skin was withered, cracked in some places, with plant roots faintly visible inside the fissures.
"Who... woke me from my painful slumber."
The withered man slowly raised his arm and pushed his dangling eyeball back into its socket. His voice was hoarse, like two sheets of sandpaper rubbing together.
Crack, crack...
The withered man twisted his neck left and right. Feeling that his spine was slightly bent, he grabbed his sparse hair and yanked upward, straightening his spine.
"You look... somewhat familiar."
The withered man studied the Gluttony Monarch. After a moment, his decayed brain recalled something.
"You are... Mogelro? Back then, you knelt and begged me to spare your life. Now, you appear before me again. Let me see, what evolutionary branch have you taken..."
The withered man grinned, plant stems and leaves protruding from the holes in his face.
Hearing his words, the Gluttony Monarch · Mogelro's undying cells surged. He was clearly furious, but he had lost the ability to speak—the price of returning here. Years ago, he had knelt and fled, and even after becoming the leader of the Fire Skull Gang, he could never make up for betraying his kin and running away.
"Undying cells, huh? A failure."
The withered man snorted, looking at the Gluttony Monarch with obvious disdain.
Meanwhile, Su Xiao was using the Apostle's Eye to scan the withered man's information. He could sense that this guy was extremely, extremely difficult to deal with.
[Comparing both parties' Intelligence attributes... Comparison complete. Our Intelligence attribute is 1.18 times that of the enemy. Due to the enemy's high rank, only 72% of the enemy's data is obtained.]
Data as follows:
Name: Kuska (Overlord-level creature)
Category: Supernatural Plant · Dibamu Fusion Entity!
Base Life Value: 100%
Plant Life Value: 100%
Plant Energy: 46300/46300 points
Strength: 150 (True Attribute, World Maximum!)
Agility: 130 (True Attribute)
Stamina: 150 (True Attribute, World Maximum!)
Intelligence: 105 (True Attribute)
Charm: 18
Skill 1, Perfect Implantation (Passive, Lv.70): Life Value +80000 points, True Strength +20 points, True Stamina +20 points. Immune to physical control effects. Reduces all damage by 35% (excluding True Damage and Execution Damage).
Skill 2, Unarmed Combat Grandmaster (Passive, Lv.35): Before fusing with the Supernatural Plant · Dibamu Sub-Body, Kuska possessed extremely strong close combat ability. Originally Unarmed Combat Grandmaster Lv.39, but fusion caused partial memory loss, reducing the skill level by Lv.4.
Skill 3, Death Roar (Active, Lv.65): Kuska and the Dibamu Sub-Body within him perform a dual roar, dealing 780 points of Physical Damage + 590 points of True Viral Damage per second. The roar lasts 7 to 12 seconds, with a kill range of 100 meters.
Tip: While Kuska roars, it inflicts Immobilization, Numbness, and Nerve Paralysis effects.
Tip: While the Dibamu Sub-Body roars, it inflicts Cell Vibration, Muscle Paralysis, and Bone Vibration effects.
Skill 4, Plant Defense (Active, Lv.60): Kuska can control the Dibamu Sub-Body within him, forcing it to grow and form an external defense. Base defense is 176 points, with an additional 97 points of physical defense.
Skill 5, ???
Skill 6, Dual Symbiosis (Ultimate Ability, Lv.31): Kuska slowly devours the Dibamu Sub-Body within him, recovering 10% of his Life Value per second. Effect lasts 30 seconds. During this time, Kuska is in an Unstoppable state, immune to knockback and knock-up.
Skill 7, ???
???
Skill 12, Biological Annihilation (Ultimate Ability): ???
...
Seeing the data for the Overlord-level creature · Kuska, Su Xiao exchanged a glance with Bubu Wang. This guy was clearly a notch stronger than the Moon Goddess.
"Woo~"
Bubu Wang felt his legs go weak. With his frail body, he wouldn't even last a single squeeze from this guy. Although this Overlord-level creature had no presence when it appeared, it was so strong it could rupture your spleen—colloquially known as 'spleen-burstingly strong.'