So Powerful! A Formidable Enemy Without Question!

Wu Pifu still had no idea where all the monsters across Gaia had come from.

Some of them had crossed over through second-tier nightmares. For example, the Pink Serpent the veterans had repeatedly mentioned was one such case. It had wiped out the maintenance personnel in several regions in succession, turning those places into dead zones.

But the vast majority of monsters were not like that. Even if nightmares had initially crossed through every shelter belonging to the maintenance personnel, it would not have been enough to completely seal off all of Gaia. That would require at least tens of millions of shelters. There was simply no way so many shelters could allow nightmares to cross through, because once a nightmare passed through a shelter, that shelter would shatter and vanish completely.

Unfortunately, the Main Brain would not answer any questions regarding Gaia's changes, so Wu Pifu had no way to guess.

As the isolation wall slowly rose, Wu Pifu put all other thoughts aside and stared intently into the area beyond it.

This was the second time the isolation wall had been opened in his sector!

According to the veterans, every sector initially had only its hibernation chambers open. All surrounding passageways and areas remained isolated. Even Sector 6123 had originally possessed only hibernation chambers; the maintenance base station had only become available after the isolation wall was opened later.

Every sector would have awakened maintenance personnel. Once all surviving maintenance personnel died, the Main Brain would revive five more at the end of a Week's End. This would continue until every sleeping maintenance worker in the sector had died. That sector would then receive a special marker on the map, indicating that the area had completely fallen into deathly silence.

Because of his access permissions, Wu Pifu had previously only been able to see the regions nearby on Gaia. Now that his permissions had been upgraded, the map had expanded by more than twice. He could see over a dozen surrounding sectors. Of them, only Sector 6123, where he was, and distant Sector 6127 still had living people. Every other sector was marked in the black color of deathly silence.

Sectors 6120 through 6122 had all been destroyed by a second-tier nightmare called the Pink Serpent. That much was confirmed.

The isolation wall opened completely, and lights began to appear in the area beyond. Wu Pifu did not hesitate. He stepped inside, while Jiujiu hesitated for a moment and did not fly after him.

Though this area had been sealed off for who knew how many centuries or millennia, there was not the slightest strange odor. The floors, walls, and everything else were clean and white. Yet Wu Pifu did not lower his guard in the slightest. He could vaguely sense a kind of oppressive fluctuation coming from ahead. It was an intangible feeling. After all, his Tiger Demon Art had reached the pinnacle stage, only one upgrade away from the ultimate Manifestation of Perfection. That had also granted him certain unusual spiritual senses.

Though it certainly could not compare to the legendary martial arts instinct of sensing the cicada before the autumn wind stirred, it gave him a slight premonition of danger.

As Wu Pifu ventured deeper into the passageway, the colors before him gradually began to feel wrong. Pink appeared on the surrounding floor, walls, and ceiling, but when he focused and looked carefully, the pink vanished again. It could only be seen from the corners of his eyes.

This discovery made Wu Pifu even more cautious. He had roughly guessed what the isolated monster in this medical base station was. It was likely a derivative created by contamination from the Pink Serpent.

As he walked, Wu Pifu began to feel heat spreading through his body, and his lower half naturally hardened as well. But that was a simple matter. A slight circulation of his qi and blood was enough to resolve it. The real trouble was that all kinds of colorful thoughts began to appear in his mind. At that moment, however, the Sleepless Spirit-Sense in his mind shone brilliantly, suppressing those distracting thoughts within a single breath.

What a joke. The Sleepless Spirit-Sense could suppress even the backlash of negative emotions. At least at his current level, mere colorful thoughts were nothing. Even without the Sleepless Spirit-Sense, Wu Pifu was battle-hardened from the internet. How could he possibly be affected by something like this?

As Wu Pifu went deeper, he heard sounds that seemed like moans, yet also like faint cries of pain. Then he saw a twisted, skinned mass of flesh, nothing but muscles, sinews, bones, and organs, constantly writhing.

There was no pattern to the flesh mass at all. He could see neither head nor feet, nor could he make out any specific organs. There was only twisted, horrifying flesh.

Yet unbelievably, the sight of that flesh mass caused desire to surge within Wu Pifu's heart.

It was truly incomprehensible. It was clearly a nauseating lump of flesh that made one want to vomit at a glance, yet both his body and mind were inexplicably excited. He even felt an urge to throw himself at it without regard for anything else.

"This is a petty trick. How dare you deceive me?"

Wu Pifu muttered under his breath. The qi and blood of the Tiger Demon Art circulated, while the Azure Python Shedding Art drove his blood energy. His joints crackled loudly. He stretched out his hand into a claw and was about to pounce forward.

But at that moment, a pink snake head emerged from the flesh mass. The snake head gave a rather humanlike smile, making the qi and blood within him tremble again, before it said, "Little brother, I told you, I remembered you. Now..."

Before it could finish speaking, Wu Pifu had already charged before the snake head. Behind where he had been standing, the metal deck smoked, and two shallow footprints had been stamped into the ground. The distance of over ten meters had been crossed in the blink of an eye.

While the pink snake head's gaze was still focused on the distance, Wu Pifu had already arrived before it. One claw stabbed down, his five fingers piercing into the snake head's flesh and bone like steel nails. His other hand straightened its five fingers and rose high, then whipped down like a long lash, slapping the pink snake head across the face.

The scene was somewhat ridiculous, but that slap directly smashed half of the pink snake head's face.

Python Tail Whip!

This was a move from the Azure Python Shedding Art.

If the Tiger Demon Art used claw forms as its primary attacks, then the Azure Python Shedding Art used palm strikes. It imitated the attacks of a giant python's body and tail, relying mostly on whipping palms, crushing palms, coiling palms, and the like.

But outsiders did not know that. That slap not only erased half the pink snake head's face, but also shattered its calm composure.

The pink snake head immediately let out a furious, rattled scream. "You bastard..."

Wu Pifu had been about to launch a continuous assault, but upon hearing that, his limbs paused. Then he immediately erupted with nearly all his qi, blood, and blood energy in fury. His skin turned crimson, his muscles swelling by a full circle. His hands showed no mercy. One claw plunged into the snake's flesh, then raked upward through the meat mass like five small daggers, tearing flesh and splitting skin wherever it passed.

His other hand formed a palm and continuously hammered the pink snake head. Every palm strike released hidden force. The flesh on the surface appeared intact, but the inside had already been reduced to pulp.

At the same time, Wu Pifu roared in shock and rage, "How do you know who I am!? Speak! How exactly do you know!?"

Wu Pifu was certain he had not been corrupted. Neither his physical senses nor the Sleepless Spirit-Sense within his mind had shown any abnormality. If he had not been corrupted, how could this second-tier nightmare know his name!?

Within two short seconds, the pink snake head had been smashed to pieces. Another snake head emerged from the flesh mass and sprayed a mouthful of pink mist at Wu Pifu. Wu Pifu immediately ducked to evade it, but his feet did not stop. His legs contracted, launching him to the snake head's side. He sent out a single claw, once again gripping the snake head's forehead.

"You bastard! You bastard!" The snake head was even more shocked and furious. As it shook its head, several snake bodies and tails extended from the massive flesh mass over three meters tall. Just as Wu Pifu continued slapping its head, the snake bodies and tails whipped across his body.

Every strike carried a thunderous howl of tearing air. With several cracking blows, blood seeped from Wu Pifu's mouth, nose, eyes, and ears.

Fortunately, he had already reached the Skin Tempering stage of Human Immortal martial arts. His flesh was at least thirty percent tougher than before his breakthrough. He endured this round of attacks and was injured but not killed. Both hands turned into claws and stabbed directly into the snake head. Before the next wave of snake bodies and tails could whip down, he roared and actually raised the snake head along with half the flesh mass, then swung it in a wide arc and smashed it straight into the wall beside him.

With a muffled boom, the snake head was torn off by force. Seeing another snake head about to emerge from the flesh mass, Wu Pifu's ferocity flared completely. In particular, the faint pink mist drifting through the air made his blood boil to the extreme. He held nothing back. With a roar, one claw and one palm drove his body forward, and he crashed straight into the flesh mass, forcibly squeezing the still-unemerged snake head back inside.

"You..."

The snake head opened its mouth wide, its words coming out in broken fragments. Wu Pifu tore and ripped, slapped and struck. When it opened its mouth, he even bit directly onto its extended tongue, then twisted his neck and tore the tongue off outright.

By then, words were futile. The various snake-like organs extending from the flesh mass began a frenzied counterattack, striking Wu Pifu's back and sides. Every blow carried the force of over a ton.

But gradually, the attacks of those organs grew weaker and weaker. By the time Wu Pifu had torn a passage through the entire flesh mass, he had practically ripped it into pieces of rotten meat. The pink mist began to weaken, and the organs and bodies it had formed began to dissipate as well.

The moment Wu Pifu steadied himself, he spun around and grabbed the final half-formed snake head in his hand. The snake head merely stared venomously at Wu Pifu and said, "Bastard, I remember you. I remember you... I remember you!"

"Answer me! How do you know me!?" Wu Pifu asked coldly.

But the Pink Serpent gave no further response. Both the flesh mass and the snake head in his hand were dissipating. Within moments, the pink mist vanished completely, the flesh mass fully dispersed, and the entire passageway no longer showed any abnormalities.

Wu Pifu stood there with a grim expression. A few seconds later, he spat several mouthfuls of clotted blood.

Several minutes later, a series of chirps sounded. A small emerald-green bird flew straight in and landed on Wu Pifu's shoulder, chirping continuously.

"I'm fine. Just some internal injuries. A few vertebrae and side ribs are broken..." Wu Pifu said expressionlessly.

Jiujiu flew around him once and chirped again.

Wu Pifu shook his head. "The Pink Serpent's contamination is extremely strong. Some unknown monster in this compartment was contaminated by it from afar. And it was incredibly powerful. That was merely an insignificant contaminated body of its, yet it still injured me internally. If it were the main body... once it used that contamination source, I might be corrupted into a monster."

"I'm nowhere near a match for it yet..."

At the same time, in the plaza outside, separated from this passageway by only one wall, a giant pink snake over ten meters long lay coiled there. The pink giant snake suddenly spat out several streams of pink blood. The blood dissipated the moment it touched the air. At the same time, strange and grotesque creatures appeared nearby, creatures that inexplicably stirred certain desires and thoughts in those who saw them. They all made bizarre sounds toward the pink giant snake.

The pink giant snake flicked out its tongue and actually spoke in human words. "It doesn't matter. That was my strongest avatar, nurtured for over six hundred years. I had been waiting to open this passageway so I could use it to fight that birdman. In terms of physical strength alone, that avatar was stronger than even my main body... What a waste."

"That human was still so weak when I saw him last time. It has only been a few days, yet his body has become this powerful? If it were merely his body that was strong, that would be one thing, but why does the Lust Domain granted to me by my master have no effect on him at all? That is my greatest power. Even Apostle-level beings do not dare touch it lightly!"

Wu Pifu and the pink giant snake spoke in unison, "So powerful!"

"He will surely become my greatest enemy in the future!"