If the intelligence they had obtained earlier was completely accurate, then the source of the World Tree's corruption should indeed be directly beneath Nidhogg's nest. The part most likely to have become corrupted was undoubtedly the Firstborn's core organ—the brain core. They had explored all the way here through the underground cavern, and the various signs they had found along the way also indicated that the corruption was spreading. But there was one thing Hao Ren had not expected:
The organ before his eyes was a mass of healthy biological tissue.
"These tentacles... and the condition of the nerve ganglia don't seem right." The Data Terminal flew around the enormous cavern, constantly sweeping blue scanning beams over the tangled, vine-like tentacles. "They seem to be divided into two completely distinct... factions."
The Data Terminal was not the only one to notice this. After observing carefully, Hao Ren also discovered that the biological tissue around the nerve ganglia was abnormal. The tentacles covering the four walls of the cavern were not entirely the same. Some had undergone severe pathological corruption, their skin wrinkled and blackened, utterly devoid of luster, as though they had been scorched by flames. The others, however, looked quite healthy. They were plump and vibrant, and on parts of their skin, one could even see gleaming silver runes—the unique mark of Yggdrasil, this special Firstborn. The two kinds of tentacles appeared so distinct that they seemed to come from two different organisms. Entangled together, they gave off the feeling of sworn enemies.
When an ordinary organism developed a disease, the affected area was usually a "gradient." Healthy and unhealthy tissue would blend together, with plenty of "semi-pathological" tissue appearing in between. But there was none of that here.
The healthy and diseased tentacles all eventually converged in the