Chapter 1 A New Beginning

Boom—

A tremendous explosion erupted with a burst of fire. A large hole was blasted open in the thick, keratinized and connective-tissue-mixed outer wall, expelling a large amount of scattered liquid and vaporized smoke. Hao Ren and Vivian's figures quickly broke through the last barrier and disappeared into the chaos.

The Blood God Vivian felt a faint prickling sensation "beneath" her. The one-kilometer-tall Blood God was slightly stunned, slowly lowered her head to look at the giant organ fused with her body, but she saw nothing.

Like a robot that had suddenly lost its target, the Blood God abruptly entered a standby state, remaining still and silent. Gurgling blood began to pour out from the surrounding Progenitor tendrils, repairing the damaged parts of her body: these parts had been blasted by Hao Ren and the others using magic, bullets, grenades, and even small rockets, but these attacks had no effect whatsoever.

More Progenitor tendrils stretched out from the surrounding chaos, hissing strangely as they connected to the giant organ beneath the Blood God Vivian, fusing or replacing the severed nerve lines and muscle tendrils. Soon everything was restored to its original state, and the flesh organ, resembling a heretical temple, floated quietly in the chaotic, dark red space, surrounded by countless tendrils that bound and secured it. The only difference from before was that atop this "heretical temple" now stood a huge female body formed of blood, and this body was silently expressionless, showing no sign of rationality.

Lily and the others were temporarily resting on a safe island some distance away. Hesperia had a wing broken in the previous battle, Duncan and Cassandra were contaminated by poisonous blood, and Nangong Sanba suffered severe mental damage. Lily also lost some of her beautiful fur. Nangong Wuyue opened a large barrier to provide healing for everyone, while anxiously watching the giant Blood God: "It looks like it's quieted… down?"

"That thing doesn't seem to have a mind," Lily said casually, stroking her tail with heartache. "Otherwise, we'd be dead already. Didn't you see that I wasn't even hindered when I dragged Sanba away?"

"Do you think Hao Ren and Vivian can handle this thing?" Nangong Wuyue's tail curled into a question mark in the air. "I can sense information from the water. That 'giant' is just the tip of the iceberg of some kind of power. She's connected to the entire planet through the surrounding tendrils. It's almost the planet's will."

"Anyway, I believe in the landlord," Lily replied without hesitation. "There's nothing the landlord can't do."

Nangong Wuyue opened her mouth, but could only mutter in a low voice: "The master is forever invincible… Tsk, tsk, what standard loyal dog logic."

On the other side, Hao Ren and Vivian had entered a strange place and were taking the time to control their respective injuries.

Hao Ren's upper body was tattered. After the shield broke, large areas of his skin were severely burned by the previous blood mist, but fortunately, these were not fatal injuries. The everted and foul-smelling flesh was regenerating and sloughing off at a visible rate. A faint silver light wandered through the wounds, and the dissolved parts were rapidly growing back. In this process, Hao Ren had to endure not only severe pain but also bouts of dizziness: his body was missing too much material, and the parts corroded by the blood mist had to be completely discarded, so his biological tissue was not enough.

Hao Ren took out something like a large vacuum injector from his personal space, installed a rather large "reagent tank" on it, and injected it into his most severely damaged left arm. With a soft hiss, the materials were converted into a self-repair system, and the dizziness finally subsided.

He looked at the silver light running through his body, and for the first time noticed that his bones had a crystal-like texture in a deeper wound. This made him shake his head with a complex smile and mutter to himself: "I never thought my body would have changed to this extent without me realizing it… Now it seems I can hardly say I'm flesh and blood anymore."

Vivian's voice sounded beside him: "It's lucky you protected me until the last moment. Why didn't you say the shield capacity wasn't enough sooner?"

Vivian's injuries were much lighter than Hao Ren's—you could even say she had no injuries at all. Her resistance to blood magic was surprisingly high, and she was protected the whole time, so she only had some minor scrapes and bruises. Wisps of mist swirled around her body, repairing the damaged areas, and soon everything was restored to its original state.

"I was calculating the remaining capacity," Hao Ren shrugged, immediately wincing in pain. "Hiss—in theory, it should have been enough for us to fly through this kilometer, but I didn't expect the last wave of attacks to be so powerful, and maybe there was a bit of miscalculation."

Vivian frowned at Hao Ren: "It would be nice if you weren't immune to my magic, so I could help you heal."

At this moment, the data terminal floated out of some corner: "Although it's not good to interrupt you two exchanging affections, this machine still has to remind you: Partner, your actions just now were too reckless, not the best option at all!"

Hao Ren twitched his lips: "There wasn't time to think much at the time."

Yes, there was no time. The data terminal did have many better options—for example, he could have gone back to mobilize the tortoise rock platform, or temporarily returned to the surface to take his time, or released some detection robots to study the Blood God Vivian's composition and weaknesses, but there was no time for that. The Blood God's activity was rapidly awakening the Progenitor, and the latter could awaken at any moment, and then the entire Purgatory planet would be turned upside down in an instant. At this time, Hao Ren had no time to think about the best option, so he could only grab Vivian and rush over.

"This machine means you could have at least driven over—although that car doesn't have much defense, it could have at least helped you resist a few hundred meters, and then you wouldn't have to be here grimacing and recovering your health and mana."

Hao Ren: "...Why didn't you say so earlier!"

The data terminal immediately spouted: "This machine thought you had some ideas about picking up girls when it saw you protecting the girl and rushing forward. It wasn't until you got here bare-chested and giving yourself an injection that this machine realized you didn't think of it at all!"

Hao Ren: "..."

Vivian: "..."

"Alright," Vivian interrupted the awkwardness with a subtle expression. "Let's take a look at the surrounding situation—we seem to have arrived at an incredible place."

Hao Ren grunted and turned to look into the depths of the space, frowning: "Does this look like a building inside?"

The scene inside the giant organ was completely different from what he had expected. It was not filled with liquid and biological tissue, but a well-structured place, like a strange "biological building." A large number of pillars and arches formed of biological material supported the space inside, and a blood-like red liquid flowed in the grooves at the top of this space: there were no pipes at all, and the scope of the liquid's flow was obviously controlled by something more mysterious.

Hao Ren saw many cracks leading to the outside on the dark red ceiling. From those cracks, he could even vaguely see the towering figure of the Blood God Vivian. He frowned: "I'm carrying a lot of weapons. If I blow this place up, I should be able to destroy the Blood God's current body."

"But that would only destroy her current body," Vivian pointed to the tendrils extending into the organ. "Look at these things. Everything is connected. Blowing this place up would probably cause the demon god to transfer and be reborn elsewhere, or even be reborn on the surface. That would really be a bloodbath."

Hao Ren grunted, and while moving his newly regenerated arm, he asked: "Is what you're looking for really inside here?"

Vivian nodded, pointing in a certain direction: "That's it!"

Hao Ren followed the direction of her finger and his eyes slowly widened.

A two-meter-high blood-red crystal quietly floated in the center of this giant organ, bound and fixed there by chains, and a figure could be faintly seen in the crystal.

Chains?

"This was definitely not generated by the Progenitor's body itself!" Hao Ren immediately lunged over. He first checked the chains binding the crystal, and then looked at the crystal. "It really is you inside… No, should I call you the Evil Spirit?"

A red-haired Vivian quietly slept in the crystal, her face serene and peaceful.

"This should be the Blood God's main body," Vivian put her hand on the crystal. "She's here, fused with the Progenitor's spirit and flesh, resulting in a huge distortion… But she originally wanted to stop all this, so she buried herself in the planet's core."

Hao Ren looked at Vivian: "What are you going to do?"

Vivian smiled: "Eat her."