Garbled Text

The mass of fused palms and organs below ultimately failed to grow into a complete "person," instead becoming a malformed thing resembling a human pig—

It had a head and a chest cavity but no limbs. Its chest was swollen with organs, while several fingers at the bottom connected to slimy tentacles stretching in every direction.

The freak stood stiffly upright, just like the humans Feng Ling and Ye Zheng had seen in the city, as though it were basking in the sun.

Plants grew leaves and bloomed when they basked in the sun.

This lump of flesh, however, could only grow proliferative tissue, clumsily imitating the form a human ought to have under the influence of genetic memories lingering in its nerve endings.

Feng Ling increasingly felt that this Maze suited her temperament. Both she and it could create life. The difference was that the lifeforms it created shared its consciousness, while the lifeforms created by the Abyss Mother Nest each had their own consciousness.

Come to think of it, could an individual among a group of creatures with completely unified consciousness be considered an independent life?

That seemed like a philosophical question, so Feng Ling did not dwell on it.

"If the God of Spring and Life has no other tricks, then aside from erasing others' consciousness and forcibly assimilating them, it doesn't seem very threatening," Feng Ling said. "It just has more branches and a larger sphere of influence. It'll take a little more effort to kill, that's all."

Ye Zheng asked, "How do you plan to kill it?"

"If we can't find the main body, we'll have to force it out somehow." Feng Ling tilted her head in thought. "The Red Dots in Third Perspective should be those plump organs. The Taoist has several barrels of