Cerydra said solemnly, "May your journey be successful, everyone!"
Of course, she wouldn't be joining them. Even if she wanted to, Arthur and Pan Ming would never allow it. What kind of small-scale infiltration mission would involve the Empress of an entire nation personally participating?
Arthur declared, "Mission guaranteed!"
With that, he strode confidently through the Century Gate, leading the way. Pan Ming pressed his palms together, bowed lightly toward Cerydra, and followed. Hysilens, bringing up the rear, exchanged a silent, meaningful glance with Cerydra—or rather, a glance between her two selves. Without a word, Hysilens turned and stepped through the gate, which immediately sealed shut behind her.
The moment they arrived on the other side, a putrid stench assaulted their nostrils. Hysilens, having visited this place before, knew exactly what to expect. She immediately held her breath and conjured a thin, vaporous film around her body to shield herself from the foul environment.
Though not directly submerged, it was practically the same. The humidity around Hysilens soared, quickly soaking her clothes.
Pan Ming, maintaining his hands clasped in prayer, visibly emanated a cyan aura—the unique energy of a Monk, Qi—which he was using to neutralize the harsh environmental conditions.
Only Arthur struggled. With each breath, his face contorted in discomfort. While Hysilens and Pan Ming had their methods to block out the stench and resist the toxic fumes, Arthur, as a Barbarian, possessed no such fancy skills. But no matter—his superior physique allowed him to simply endure the current level of toxicity.
The process, however, might be less than pleasant.
Afterward, Hysilens finally had a chance to survey her surroundings. Unlike her previous visit, when the ground had been covered in green moss and various-sized mushrooms, the ground now glowed a dark, crimson hue.
Hysilens took a few steps, her feet sinking into the soft, spongy ground like treading on rotting flesh. It was clear this place had been thoroughly corrupted by the Mother of Flesh.
"Which way should we go?" Hysilens asked the Demon Axe in Arthur's hand.
The Demon Axe replied bluntly, "How should I know? We just landed! How could I possibly know where we are? Let's wander around a bit first and see if I can figure out what this place is."
Hysilens nodded and randomly chose a direction to walk in, with Pan Ming and Arthur following close behind. After only a few steps, Hysilens began to feel uncomfortable.
The ground was soft and yielding, and she was wearing thin, high-heeled shoes. Her heels sank easily into the ground with each step. How could walking in such conditions not be miserable?
This forced her to lean her weight forward, pressing all her weight onto the balls of her feet, creating an odd sensation of walking on tiptoes. Glancing at Arthur's strained expression, Hysilens decided this minor discomfort was bearable.
The trio continued onward, and after walking a few hundred meters, a "mushroom" suddenly emerged from the ground. The demons of Abyss Layer Seventy-Nine all resembled mushrooms, a sight Hysilens had witnessed before.
However, this Mushroom Demon was different. It stood as tall as a grown man, its main body a deep crimson, while the mushroom cap on its head alternated between red and green.
Eyes and a mouth adorned its main body, but it looked as if it were sick, its expression deeply dejected, sorrowful, or perhaps in pain. The Mushroom Demon staggered unsteadily toward Hysilens and her companions.
Arthur immediately tensed, gripping his Demon Axe. "Careful!" he warned.
But before he could finish his warning, the Mushroom Demon suddenly collapsed backward onto the ground, its body convulsing violently as the mushroom cap on its head began to swell and expand rapidly.
Arthur's expression grew even more wary. In the next instant, the mushroom cap exploded completely, and several gaunt, emaciated arms shot out, flailing wildly before collapsing limply to the ground, motionless.
Hysilens remained silent for a moment before finally saying, "This guy... he seems to be dead."
Arthur: "?"
Pan Ming, who couldn't see anything, was even more confused. "What happened?"
At that moment, Demon Axe burst into uproarious laughter. "Hahahaha! I'm dying of laughter! This... this... hahahaha!!!"
The Mother of Flesh had indeed corrupted this layer of the Abyss using some unknown method, but how long had she been at it? A few days? A few months? Yet before that, the entire Layer Seventy-Nine had been tainted by the Plague Lord for millennia!
Every corner of this layer had been thoroughly marinated in the Plague Lord's essence, saturated with toxic miasma and the stench of death. In a sense, the Plague Lord and the Mother of Flesh were fundamentally incompatible.
As a result, the Mushroom Demons here, though corrupted and transformed into a semi-flesh state, had begun sprouting bizarre body parts. Take that mushroom just now, for example—it had grown a mass of arms directly from its brain.
Despite the pollution, the mushrooms retained their inherent toxicity. These newly grown, superfluous body parts immediately fell into a state of "poisoning and illness." The Mother of Flesh's Authority compelled these parts to self-heal, but the Mushroom Demon's inherent nature caused them to become poisoned and ill again. This cycle repeated endlessly, constantly draining the energy from the Mushroom Demon's body.
This explained why the mushroom that had emerged earlier appeared so weak and frail.
Hysilens glanced down at her feet again. Although the ground was covered in fleshy tissue, its vitality was alarmingly low, resembling chunks of rotting, putrid "dead flesh."
The Demon Axe swiftly concluded his thoughts and declared, "With this, traversing Abyss Layer Seventy-Nine should be a piece of cake! There aren't any real enemies here at all!"
The three of them continued forward on tiptoe. More Mushroom Demons emerged from bizarre locations, seemingly intending to attack, but the same pattern persisted: before they could even fight, they were nearly dead after just a few steps.
Finally, after circling the area extensively, the Demon Axe announced, "I know the way now! Let's go left!"