novelTele Chapter 37 Corpse Cocoon
Chapter 37 Corpse Cocoon
The colossal bronze tree stood in the darkness, like a pillar connecting hell and the mortal realm, its eerie pulse causing Qin Yuan's heart to beat in sync with it. He gazed at this incredible creation, his mind racing with calculations.
"System, scan this tree, find the area with the most concentrated energy, and see if it is the energy core you mentioned," Qin Yuan commanded in his mind.
[Scanning in progress... Anomaly detected in the energy flow across the entire tree... Analyzing the energy gradient distribution... Confirming the torsion peak point...]
A few seconds later, a semi-transparent three-dimensional tree diagram was projected into his vision, revealing the structure of the bronze tree in exquisite detail. In this virtual image, a spot in the upper part of the trunk was flashing a blinding red light, as if it were its heart.
[Target locked! Located approximately 67 meters vertically above the tree trunk, 15 degrees east of east. The energy distortion coefficient in this area has reached the upper limit of the threshold, the spatial structure is abnormal, and the materialized force field strength is the strongest in the entire tree. According to database comparison, this coordinate point highly matches the location of the cocoon in the host's memory.]
"Corpse cocoon..." Qin Yuan narrowed his eyes. Just as he suspected. The original work didn't describe it directly, only mentioning it briefly. The amber-like substance that sealed ancient corpses seemed to be the protective shell of the Bronze Tree, the alien energy core, or rather, a byproduct of highly condensed energy.
"Very good," Qin Yuan muttered to himself. He looked up at the towering bronze tree trunk, estimating the distance. 67 meters, equivalent to more than twenty stories high. For an ordinary person, climbing such a vertical surface would be a suicidal challenge, but for him, it was not impossible.
He flexed his fingers, his mutated nails twitching slightly before retracting, feeling the suction force that could erupt at any moment. There were no ropes, no professional climbing equipment, only this modified body and the instincts derived from his alien bloodline.
"Then let's go up and take a look."
Qin Yuan took a deep breath and walked to the base of the bronze tree. The patterns on the trunk surface looked even more bizarre upon closer inspection; the protrusions and grooves resembled some kind of unknown writing or circuitry, and they were cold to the touch, carrying the unique texture of metal.
He placed his hands on the tree trunk and began to climb like a gecko. The first ten meters or so went smoothly; although the surface of the bronze tree was smooth, it posed no obstacle to him. In the silent, dark space, only Qin Yuan's soft breathing and the sound of his clothes rubbing against the tree trunk could be heard.
However, when he climbed to a height of about thirty meters, something unexpected happened!
"Squeak—!!!"
A sharp, ear-piercing metallic scraping sound suddenly came from inside the tree trunk, as if some kind of giant gear had begun to turn! Immediately afterwards, the patterns on the surface of the tree trunk in the area Qin Yuan was climbing began to glow with a ghostly green light!
[Warning: Active defense mechanism activated. Danger level: Medium to high. Host, please proceed with caution.]
As soon as the system notification ended, Qin Yuan heard a dense rustling sound coming from the surrounding darkness. The sound came from all directions, echoing from the bronze branches overhead, from the cracks in the surrounding rock walls, and even from the bottomless darkness beneath his feet.
The first to appear were monkeys, but unlike the ordinary mountain monkeys he encountered in the forest, these monkeys had bloodshot eyes and moved stiffly yet swiftly. Even more bizarrely, each monkey's face was covered with a mask-like hard shell.
They are a troop of monkeys controlled by the Chi Gu!
These biological weapons, modified by ancient witchcraft, are now being controlled by the energy field of the bronze tree and are surging towards him like a tide!
"So this is the protection mechanism..." Qin Yuan's eyes turned cold. He had expected it wouldn't go so smoothly, but he didn't expect it to happen so quickly.
One of the Gu monkeys was the first to attack, swooping down from a branch diagonally above, its claws gleaming coldly, aiming straight for Qin Yuan's face!
Qin Yuan gripped the tree trunk with one hand, and with the other hand, he shot out like lightning. His mutated fingernails instantly snapped out, and with a whoosh, he cleaved the monkey in two! Dark red blood and shattered Chi Gu shells scattered everywhere.
But this was just the beginning. More Gu monkeys swarmed in, ignoring the deaths of their companions, attacking frantically, trying to tear this outsider who dared to desecrate the sacred tree to pieces.
Qin Yuan nimbly traversed the tree trunk, his hands transforming into deadly weapons, leaving a trail of severed limbs in his wake. However, the monkeys were simply too numerous to kill. Even more troublesome was the fact that these monkeys, controlled by the Chi Gu, showed no fear of death, charging forward relentlessly.
"I can't linger here too long," Qin Yuan thought to himself. His goal was the core above, not to fight a war of attrition with these puppets.
Just as he was thinking of a solution, something even worse happened.
"Heh...heh..."
A low, hoarse sound, like the sucking of a broken bellows, came from the darkness below. Qin Yuan glanced at it briefly, and his pupils suddenly contracted!
From the shadows surrounding the roots of the bronze tree, a group of humanoid beings slowly emerged. They were described as human because they still largely retained human features, dressed in tattered clothing that could be vaguely discerned as fragments of ancient sacrificial attire.
Their skin had a bluish-black, stone-like sheen, and their eye sockets were hollow, within which flickered eerie green flames. Their movements were stiff yet powerful, and they held rusty bronze weapons in their hands, which gleamed ominously in the eerie green light.
"The corpse of an ancient priest awakened by the energy field, or rather, a guardian puppet transformed by the energy of the Bronze Tree." Qin Yuan immediately understood; this was the true core of the protection mechanism!
They used the corpses of those sacrificed here thousands of years ago, immortalized by the energy of the bronze tree, as their most loyal guardians. Initially, Wu Xie posed no threat to the core energy source, but now, Qin Yuan's arrival with the system has directly awakened them.
These ancient puppets were clearly more difficult to deal with than the Gu monkeys. They began to climb the tree trunks, slowly but surely closing in. Even more terrifying, Qin Yuan noticed that when they touched the tree trunks, the eerie green light on the surface seemed to intensify, as if it were recharging them.
With a horde of Gu monkeys attacking from the front and ancient puppets lurking below, Qin Yuan found himself in a true dilemma. For him alone to climb nearly seventy meters and break through the core protection under such an onslaught was virtually impossible.
"It seems... we'll have to resort to some extreme measures."
Qin Yuan's eyes hardened. While continuing to defend against the monkey troop's attacks, he used his mental link to issue a general attack order to all the alien squads lurking in the rear, except for the two aliens protecting Wu Xie!
"hiss--!!!"
Almost the instant the command was given, chilling hissing sounds echoed from the shadows throughout the underground space. A dozen black figures suddenly burst forth from every unexpected nook and cranny!
These aliens, modified from mountain monkeys, were smaller than the standard aliens Qin Yuan knew, but their killing instincts and fighting talents were undiminished. Their exoskeletons gleamed with a glossy black light under the eerie green glow, their inner teeth extended and retracted in their mouthparts, and their long tails lashed out like steel whips.
The battle instantly intensified!
A single alien swooped down, knocking a Gu monkey off a tree trunk and tearing its throat in mid-air with its sharp claws. Another alien attacked from the side, its long, spear-like tail piercing through two ancient puppets crawling side-by-side, stringing them together like candied hawthorns!
The aliens held an overwhelming advantage over the Gu monkeys. The monkeys' claws and teeth could hardly damage the aliens' sturdy exoskeletons, while every attack from the aliens was fatal. More importantly, the aliens were completely immune to the control of the Chi Gu; they only obeyed the commands of Qin Yuan, their "Empress."
But those ancient puppets were much more difficult to deal with. Their bodies seemed to have been imbued with the energy of the bronze tree for a long time, making them exceptionally hard, and ordinary attacks rarely resulted in a fatal blow. Moreover, they felt no pain and knew no fear; even if their arms were torn off or their chests were cleaved open, as long as they could still move, they would continue to attack.
An alien lunged at a puppet wielding a knife, its claws carving three deep gashes into its chest, but it didn't completely destroy the puppet. The puppet swung its knife back, but the alien nimbly dodged, its long tail wrapping around the puppet's neck before it suddenly tightened its grip!
"Crack!" The cervical spine snapped, and the puppet finally stopped moving.
The alien squad cleared a bloody path through the bronze tree with their art of slaughter. The corpses of the Gu monkey horde fell from the sky like dumplings being dropped into a pot, and the broken torsos of the ancient puppets slid off the tree trunks, crashing to the ground with dull thuds.
Qin Yuan seized the opportunity and increased his climbing speed. With the alien squad protecting him, the monkey troop and puppets could no longer get close.
Forty meters, fifty meters, sixty meters...
As he got closer to the core, Qin Yuan could clearly feel the powerful and distorted energy fluctuations. There seemed to be an invisible pressure in the air, making it difficult for him to breathe.
The patterns on the tree trunk become more complex and dense here, and the emerald green light almost solidifies, flowing through the patterns like the blood vessels of a living creature.
Below, the battle between the alien squad and the guardians continues. While the aliens are ferocious, their numbers are finite, whereas the horde of Gu monkeys and ancient puppets seems endless. Two aliens have already been severely wounded in the attack, torn apart by several puppets; their murky blood splatters across the bronze tree trunk, hissing and corroding nearby puppets.
Qin Yuan's heart sank. These aliens only had a three-day lifespan, so it was supposed to be a one-off deal, but he hadn't expected the losses to be so quick! He couldn't delay any longer.
He gritted his teeth, ignored the fierce battle below, and climbed upwards as fast as he could!
Finally, when the altimeter showed 67 meters, he reached his destination.
Before them was a huge, translucent, amber-shaped cocoon, like a tumor clinging to the tree trunk and branches, about three or four meters in diameter. Inside was a curled-up ancient corpse, the very same corpse cocoon described in the original work.
At the core of the corpse cocoon, an irregular crystal the size of a fist, constantly shifting through seven colors, floated silently, emitting a chilling energy fluctuation.
[Target confirmed: Bronze Tree Energy Module Core (unstripped). Warning: The outer cocoon of the core is a high-strength bio-energy polymer; forced destruction may trigger an energy rampage.]
Qin Yuan stared at the seven-colored crystal, a burning light flashing in his eyes. This was his goal for this trip!
He slowly reached out and touched the surface of the translucent cocoon...