The dark green tentacle, carrying a fishy wind, lashed out at Su Wan again.
Su Wan gritted her silver teeth, no longer trying to dodge, and with a flick of her wrist, a short assault rifle appeared in her hand.
"Da da da!" She pulled the trigger at the attacking tentacle, and bullets poured out like rain, accurately embedding themselves in its epidermis, sending splashes of putrid, dark green fluid flying.
However, the tentacle seemed to feel no pain; its offensive merely paused for a moment, and countless tiny suckers at its tip suddenly opened, ready to coil around Su Wan's body.
Just then, "Su Wan, be careful!"
Lu Shiyan's figure burst out from the shadows of the warehouse like a leopard; he immediately saw Su Wan's danger, and the even larger shadow constantly rising from the deep pit.
Lightning and flames instantly intertwined in his hand, and a small ball of lightning and fire whistled towards the tentacle entangling Su Wan.
"Boom!"
The tentacle shuddered from the explosion, its attack thwarted.
Su Wan seized the opportunity to retreat, looking with lingering fear at the collapsed giant pit.
"Rumble—"
The ground trembled violently, and the precarious shelves in the warehouse emitted a grating screech as a behemoth finally emerged completely from the bottomless giant pit.
It was a section of a body covered in thick, dark green carapace, its surface greasy and slick; the part that had merely emerged from the ground was seven or eight meters high. Countless tentacles, thinner than the previous ones, writhed wildly on its main body.
The monster's head had no clear features, only a single massive, murky eye that occupied nearly half the area of its skull, flickering with a chilling, cruel light.
A nearly solid pressure, mixed with an overwhelmingly nauseating stench, assailed them, making the air viscous and filling their breaths with a rusty, metallic smell.
"This… what the hell is this thing?" Li Kui, still carrying the unconscious Jin Dongdong on his shoulder, couldn't help but curse, his facial muscles twitching involuntarily, his scalp tingling.
Lu Shiyan's expression was grave; he subtly shielded Su Wan behind him, the crackling lightning around his body and the fiercely burning flames illuminating him in flickering light and shadow.
"It seems this is the main event," he said in a low voice, his aura suddenly becoming sharp as he locked onto the monster.
Su Wan leaned against Lu Shiyan's solid back, trying to calm the dizziness and exhaustion brought on by the sudden burst of the spatial blade's nascent form earlier; her body swayed slightly as she struggled to stand firm. She clenched her fists, attempting to regain her strength.
"Awoo—!"
The monster's main body sensed the powerful threat emanating from Lu Shiyan; its massive single eye fixed on Lu Shiyan, and its enormous mouth, lined with layers of sharp teeth, suddenly opened.
"Whoosh—!"
A stream of dark green, highly corrosive-smelling venom, carried by a foul wind, shot directly at Lu Shiyan and Li Kui.
"Get out of the way!" Lu Shiyan growled, wrapping an arm around Su Wan's waist and abruptly retreating.
Li Kui also reacted incredibly quickly, carrying Jin Dongdong and executing a clumsy roll on the ground, narrowly avoiding the main attack range of the venom.
"Sizzle—"
The venom landed on the hard concrete ground, immediately corroding large, acrid, smoke-emitting holes, leaving the ground pockmarked and shocking to behold.
"Ah!" Li Kui cried out in pain, groaning as he scrambled to his feet.
He had dodged in time, avoiding most of the venom, but a few drops had still splashed onto his left arm.
The clothing on his arm was instantly corroded through, and the exposed skin began to make a terrifying "sizzling" sound, quickly rotting and turning black. A piercing pain made the veins on his forehead bulge, and cold sweat instantly drenched his back.
"Li Kui!" Su Wan exclaimed.
"I'm fine! It's just a flesh wound!" Li Kui gritted his teeth, enduring the agonizing pain that almost made him faint, and placed Jin Dongdong behind some relatively safe discarded machinery, large beads of sweat rolling down his temples.
At this moment, Jin Dongdong slowly regained consciousness, startled awake by the surrounding tremors and Li Kui's cries of pain.
The moment he opened his eyes, he saw the hellish scene before him and the terrifying, monstrous giant creature exuding endless malevolence.
He shuddered in fear, his slightly recovered body instantly becoming even weaker, his teeth chattering.
But when he saw the horrifying wound on Li Kui's arm, and Lu Shiyan and Su Wan fiercely battling the monster, constantly in peril, an indescribable emotion welled up from the bottom of his heart, overriding the bone-deep fear.
He endured his physical weakness and severe headache, staring intently at the monster, desperately searching his mind for any records of similar monsters in the "Apocalypse Survival Journal."
"This thing… this thing… I must have seen it somewhere…" Jin Dongdong murmured, his voice filled with anxiety and fear, and a hint of hope.
Just then, Su Wan suddenly felt the velvet box containing the dark purple psychic mutated crystal nucleus in her space begin to vibrate violently.
A strange energy fluctuation, tinged with desire and irritability, emanated from the crystal nucleus, creating a strong, ominous resonance with the giant monster before them.
"Hmm?" Su Wan's heart tightened, and she instinctively pressed the location where the box was stored.
Almost at the same time, the main body of the monster, which was currently sparring with Lu Shiyan, suddenly froze all its movements.
Its massive single eye slowly shifted away from Lu Shiyan and turned towards Su Wan!
More precisely, it turned towards the spatial location where Su Wan was storing that purple crystal nucleus! Unconcealed greed and agitation flashed in that single eye.
"It… it's looking at me?" Su Wan asked uncertainly, her heart uncontrollably speeding up.
"It's it! It wants that crystal nucleus!" Jin Dongdong suddenly remembered something; he struggled to lift his head, using all his strength to point at a slightly raised area on the monster's head, whose color was a bit lighter than the surrounding carapace, "I remember now!"
"The notes say that deep within the nests of these Corrupted Earth Worms, a special energy crystal nucleus will be born alongside them!"
"If the accompanying crystal nucleus is taken away, it will fall into extreme madness, but at the same time, the carapace it uses to protect its core will have a momentary weakness due to the loss of the crystal nucleus's energy supply!"
"That spot on its head! Right there! That's its vital point! It was drawn in the notes, absolutely no mistake!" Jin Dongdong's voice was hoarse from excitement and exertion, and his breathing was rapid.
The giant brain-like organ subtly writhed, and an invisible, terrifying pressure instantly descended!
"Ugh!" Su Wan felt as if countless steel needles were being brutally driven into her head; the pain was unbearable, and her vision blurred.
Lu Shiyan grunted, his expression also becoming grave; the wooden armor flowed erratically over his body, clearly resisting this mental assault.
Li Kui, even worse, directly clutched his head and painfully knelt on the ground.
"It's… a psychic attack!" Lu Shiyan said with difficulty, the veins on his forehead bulging.
Su Wan endured the headache; her metal detector, whose screen had previously exploded, now emitted an even sharper "buzzing" sound, and the entire instrument began to heat up, its remaining needle pointing frantically in a certain direction within her space.
It was that purple crystal nucleus!
"Lu Shiyan, catch!" Su Wan endured the severe pain, and with a thought, the dark purple crystal nucleus appeared in her hand; she used all her strength to toss it towards Lu Shiyan.
The monster's main body also seemed to sense the appearance of the crystal nucleus; countless tentacles writhed even more wildly, and the mental assault from the brain-like organ at its top suddenly intensified!
Just then, a small red shadow flashed out of Su Wan's pocket like lightning, too fast for anyone to make out its form.
"Hongdou!" Su Wan exclaimed.