Sila—

The sound of tearing fabric echoed through the blood vessels. Inside a vein, the Side of Truth, suspended in a translucent sphere, was using its mind creation abilities to control three astral behemoths. Together with Zhong Li Mie Ming and Wang Bu Liu Xing on either side, they were efficiently slaughtering the swarming immune cells.

How long had this battle been going on?

Three hours? Or four?

Wang Bu Liu Xing activated the Bi'an Armor. From a firing port in the sphere, he released a beam cannon, blasting a menacing neutrophil to pieces. Just as he was about to adjust his aim, a wisp of visible blue smoke rose from the Bi'an Armor itself.

Overloaded again.

Wang Bu Liu Xing, without changing expression, pulled a single-use [Master-level Mechanical Repair Scroll] from the void, tore it to shreds, and restored the Bi'an Armor to perfect condition. At the same time, he said in a low voice through the spirit network, "These immune cells are getting stronger. If this keeps up, we won't even reach the vena cava."

Any potions, elixirs, or items that restore spirit energy have "drug resistance."

The Side of Truth controlled the sphere, carrying the three of them through the veins, resisting the endless stream of immune cells. They didn't know how many fifty-meter or hundred-meter monsters they had killed, or how many bottles of potions they had consumed.

But the immune cells in front of them were like an endless tide, impossible to kill completely. Their numbers were increasing instead of decreasing.

Even more terrifying was that the defensive capabilities of the immune cells were steadily increasing.

At first, a casual blow could shatter an immune cell into pieces. But as time passed, a single blow would only seriously injure them. A second attack was needed to finish them off.

Sometimes, the three of them did nothing, yet the next wave of immune cells would inexplicably have a much higher defense.

Either armor would grow on their surface, making them immune to piercing attacks, or mucus would be secreted on their surface, making them immune to fire attacks.

Antibodies.

These immune cells were generating antibodies against the transcendents at an extremely fast rate.

Within the giant's body, other transcendents must have been devoured by the immune cell army, absorbing antigens and producing antibodies. This caused other immune cell armies thousands of miles away to upgrade remotely.

Every moment, the giant's immune system was strengthening, until all the transcendents were dead or injured. Was this the hidden time limit set by the slaughter game?

A thought flashed through Wang Bu Liu Xing's mind when he heard Zhong Li Mie Ming roar beside him, "Careful!"

A macrophage suddenly darted out from a corner, its surface cilia waving wildly, entangling one side of the translucent sphere.

The cilia tentacles squeezed hard, causing spiderweb cracks to appear on the sphere's surface. The sphere's firing port also collapsed, pinning Wang Bu Liu Xing's arm.

In that critical moment, a Z-shaped golden light swept past countless immune cells and struck the macrophage's surface, shattering it.

"It's you..."

Wang Bu Liu Xing's eyes narrowed. As the golden light dissipated, a golden shuttle-shaped speedboat appeared before them. Seated on the boat were three figures: Tai Hao, Shi Kong, and Hohenheim.

"Found you."

Hohenheim, wearing a trench coat, smiled slightly, raised his staff, and released a water vortex spell, stirring up the surrounding river of blood.

The waves of blood surged, washing away the surrounding cells.

Shi Kong and Tai Hao beside him also attacked, killing the few immune cells that remained.

The Side of Truth controlled the translucent sphere, opening a gap to allow the shuttle-shaped speedboat to enter. The six of them joined forces.

While taking turns repelling the surrounding immune cells, they quickly exchanged information.

————

"...So you didn't encounter any other players along the way?"

Hohenheim said meaningfully, "That's really... good luck."

"You've encountered other players?"

Wang Bu Liu Xing frowned. "Players from Earth, or transcendents from other worlds?"

"Both."

Hohenheim said quickly, "The initial teleportation locations for the three of us were near the left gastroepiploic artery. We quickly joined forces. After figuring out the situation, we headed towards the gastric vein.

Along the way, we encountered many transcendents from Earth, such as European Heavy Industries' [Symbiotic Armor], [Agares], the GRU's [Torch], and a few others from the Syndicate.

However, the fighting was too intense. Every corner of the giant's body was erupting with war between the immune system and the transcendents.

Plus, the immune system could generate antibodies and constantly upgrade. Players couldn't withstand the increasing combat intensity and either conceded and teleported away, or were killed and digested before they could escape.

Only the strongest few could continue to persevere.

Symbiotic Armor and Torch withdrew on their own. The rest of us reached the stomach."

The Side of Truth frowned. "The stomach?"

"That's right."

Hohenheim said, "We originally wanted to bypass the major organs and directly reach the heart via the systemic venous blood, but the immune system's counterattack dispelled that idea.

If we didn't understand the giant's specific situation, we wouldn't be able to win, even if we reached the heart.

So we passed through the stomach muscle layer and reached the stomach."

Hohenheim paused, a solemn expression on his face. "Standing on the upper part of the stomach, overlooking the situation, was as magnificent as overlooking Earth from a space station.

In the colorless ocean of gastric juices, trillions of immune cells and hideous stomach bacteria were engaged in fierce combat. The corpses accumulated by both sides were almost as thick as land plates.

Even if you threw behemoths like the Hundred-Armed Giant or the World Serpent into the battlefield, they would probably be killed by the endless immune cells and bacteria."

Hohenheim shook his head solemnly and said slowly, "However, the scene we saw in the stomach also helped us confirm a conclusion."

Wang Bu Liu Xing asked subconsciously, "What conclusion?"

Hohenheim turned his gaze to Tai Hao, who coughed softly and said, "The giant has inextricable connections to the real world.

The overall structure of his stomach is very similar to the Prison Demon Cave held by the Special Affairs Bureau in the real world."

"What?!"

Wang Bu Liu Xing opened his eyes wide in disbelief. Tai Hao didn't waste words. He gently swiped his finger in the air and used a spell similar to "Water Mirror Technique" to create a mirror.

The image in the mirror was exactly the scene in the stomach that Hohenheim and the others had seen.

"Normally, the gastric mucosa is the mucous membrane inside the stomach cavity, forming many folds to protect the stomach itself from gastric acid corrosion.

However, the giant's gastric mucosa is like a tower, dividing the entire stomach into layers upon layers.

The further down you go, the more ferocious and violent the pathogens imprisoned there become."

"..."

Wang Bu Liu Xing and Zhong Li Mie Ming looked at the image in the water mirror technique. As members of the Special Affairs Bureau, they could naturally see many structural similarities between the giant's stomach and the Prison Demon Cave.

It was as if... the Prison Demon Cave was built to imitate the giant's stomach.

Hohenheim and the others looked at the expressions on Wang Bu Liu Xing and Zhong Li Mie Ming's faces, confirmed that they were equally shocked and astonished, and continued, "We've seen the stomach. The gastric juice is empty, without any digestive matter. The intestines are the same.

They are almost entirely filled with energy-rich, pure bodily fluids comparable to crystal ore.

The giant hasn't eaten for a very, very long time. The energy source for all the cells comes from the giant's own energy reserves. God knows how many years he has been asleep.

In addition, we also found some traces of aura left by transcendents in the lymph tissues of the stomach and surrounding areas."

The Side of Truth frowned. "Aura?"

"Yes."

Hohenheim said, "Lymphatic tissues have immune functions, so they are also called immune organs. They are the sites where immune cells at all levels are generated, differentiated, and matured. They can be regarded as the various command centers of the immune system.

Don't you find it strange?

Normally, it would take at least a few hours for the immune system to discover our arrival and dispatch 'main force troops' like macrophages and NK natural killer cells.

However, shortly after the players were teleported over, everyone was subjected to a fierce siege from the immune system.

We believe that this situation was caused by someone, or some transcendents, commanding from behind.

They took a step ahead of us, rushed to the thymus and other tissues, and used their control over helper T cells and other commanders to mobilize and guide immune cells to exterminate players from other camps.

And the aura of these people is very similar to... Michael."

The Side of Truth's eyes narrowed. He instantly thought of the information he had obtained from the Vatican Roman Catholic Church about Michael's true identity.

Michael was different from Su Ni Sheng. She had real parents and a hometown, and her life experience could be traced back to after she became a player.

But this was also the point that puzzled the Side of Truth.

Every top-level transcendent, whether it was Hohenheim, Shi Kong, or the Side of Truth himself, had displayed outstanding talents far beyond ordinary people in certain fields before becoming a player.

Even that Li Ri Sheng was a genius in his own way.

But Michael, according to the information, was just a commoner girl born in the Corsica region of France. Her parents and ancestors were all unknown farmers. Her resume at school showed no commendable talent. She was slow, silent, and not good at speaking.

But after becoming one of the earliest players, her strength increased at a terrifying rate, crushing her contemporary transcendents. This information was also sealed, and all related personnel were brainwashed and had their memories wiped by the Global Supernatural Alliance.

It was only because Michael's parents had a Catholic background that this part of the information was preserved by the Roman Catholic Church and sealed as confidential.

Rumble!!

The veins shook violently, interrupting the Side of Truth's thoughts.

Dense cracks appeared on the walls of the veins on both sides, and a massive number of extremely hideous and ugly diseased cells infiltrated from the vein walls.

The white blood cells that were constantly attacking around the translucent sphere suddenly abandoned the Side of Truth and the others. Led by NK natural killer cells, they rushed towards that section of the vein and engaged in a fierce battle with the diseased cells.

"That's..."

Wang Bu Liu Xing opened his mouth and was stunned for a long time. It was as if a flash of lightning had suddenly struck his mind. "Cancer cells?!"

The newly appeared diseased cells numbered in the tens of thousands, densely packed and obscuring the view.

NK natural killer cells charged forward, rushing into the diseased cell cluster, killing and devouring them wildly. The diseased cells' only countermeasure was proliferation.

After entering the veins, the diseased cells began to absorb nutrients and divide rapidly. In the space of a few breaths, they had piled up into the size of a small mountain.

Cancer cells constantly broke away from the mountain and flowed along the river of blood to other places. Once they settled down, they continued to proliferate.

The war between immune cells and cancer cells quickly spread to the entire vein.

The veins trembled constantly, as if they would rupture and explode in the next second.

"Hidden time limit!"

Hohenheim flipped through the Book of All Laws, constantly releasing high-level spells to repel the cells in front of him, while shouting, "Cancer cells are the hidden time limit.

No wonder those people who stayed in the lymphatic tissues before retreated. They were also afraid of cancer cells.

Let's go, get out of here!

We must reach the heart before the giant's body completely collapses.

If I'm not mistaken, the heart holds the answers we seek..."

————

The opening of the inferior vena cava.

A three-meter-tall mech swayed and stopped. It looked up at the towering barrier in front of it, like a gate to heaven.

This was the opening of the inferior vena cava in the right atrium. As long as it took one more step forward, it would reach the heart.

Ding Zhen Si slowly exhaled a breath of stale air and controlled the mech to lean against the side wall of the vein and slowly sit down.

The Kui Niu mech's condition was not good. It could even be said to be quite bad.

All the armor plates on the mech's surface were broken, eight out of sixteen of the vector jet propulsion nozzles on its back were damaged, the anti-magic ammunition was exhausted, and the shoulder missile pods were destroyed. Sparks were constantly flashing inside the cockpit.

Even the life-saving trump card—merging with the Kui Niu mech spirit to transform the mech into half a primordial beast—had already been used twice to deal with the endless immune cells along the way.

He had never been so exhausted, not just physically, but also mentally drained. Every time he closed his eyes, he doubted whether he had the strength to open them again.

Fortunately, he had finally arrived...

Ding Zhen Si calmed his breathing and took out a bottle of elixir and a silver-white test tube from his backpack.

He slowly drank the elixir and then casually broke the silver-white test tube, allowing the perfect-grade [Advanced Mechanical Repair Fluid] inside to flow into the cockpit, quickly repairing the mech's damage and restoring its combat capabilities as much as possible.

"If I were you, I wouldn't choose to enter the right atrium."

A low, hoarse man's voice suddenly sounded from the side.

The Kui Niu mech, which was still sitting in the corner recovering its strength and seemed to have lost its combat capabilities, instantly jumped up. The gauss weapon in its hand was aimed directly at the direction from which the voice came and fired.

Bang bang!

The gauss rifle struck the side wall of the vein, blasting a huge gap in it. But on the radar, the red warning light symbolizing an unknown high-energy life form had not disappeared.

"Your Excellency has followed me all the way from the inferior vena cava. Aren't you going to show yourself now?"

Ding Zhen Si questioned coldly. The voice chuckled and slowly walked out of the darkness.

"How is it you?"

A look of astonishment appeared on Ding Zhen Si's face. The figure who walked out of the darkness was half-human, half-insect, with a layer of dark red chitinous armor covering its body, making it look hideous.

And that half of its face that wasn't covered in chitin was extremely familiar.

The former Brazilian Shichibukai, who had disappeared since the Doorway Battle, Ant King.

"Long time no see."

Ant King grinned hideously. Dozens of giant ants, each more than three meters tall, slowly walked out behind him. The aura fluctuations of each ant were no less than those of the macrophages he had encountered along the way.