Location: Inside the Trench Warden (Esophagus/Spirit-Engine)
Depth: 4,500 Meters
The inside of the Leviathan did not smell like flesh. It smelled like a burning refinery.
Aris slid down the gullet of the beast, carried by a torrent of freezing, oily mercury. The creature's biology was a grotesque fusion of deep-sea evolution and metallic adaptation. Its "veins" were pipes pumping pressurized coolant; its "flesh" was layered biological steel.
The pressure outside was immense, but inside the beast, it was a chaotic storm of crushing muscular contractions.
"ROAAAR—GURK!"
The Leviathan thrashed. The entire world spun. Aris dug his Void-Claws (manifested from shadow Qi) into the walls of the throat to stop his descent.
"System," Aris commanded, his voice echoing in the wet, dark tunnel. "Map the internal structure. Locate the Power Core."
[Scan Active...]
[Target Biology: Biomechanical Hybrid.]
[Vital Points Identified:]
* The Sonic Resonator: Located in the upper chest. (Source of the scream).
* The Spirit Core: Located in the central cavity. (The Heart).
"The scream is annoying," Aris muttered, wiping slime from his mask. "Let's mute it."
He climbed up against the flow of swallowed fluid. He reached a pulsating chamber of cartilage and vibrating metal plates—the Sonic Resonator.
Aris grabbed a handful of delicate, vibrating nerves.
[Skill: Reverse Refinement - Targeted Decay.]
"Silence."
He ripped the nerve cluster out.
The vibration stopped instantly. Outside, the Leviathan tried to scream, but only a gurgling hiss came out.
The Harvest
Aris dropped down toward the stomach. He wasn't just here to kill; he was here to shop.
"This creature has adapted to 5,000 atmospheres of pressure," Aris analyzed as he moved through the intestinal maze. "Its bones are made of Abyssal Dense-Iron. That's a Tier-5 crafting material."
He passed a ribcage. He punched it.
CRACK.
He ripped a two-meter-long bone rib from the wall of the creature's chest cavity.
[Item Acquired: Leviathan Rib (Rank: Earth).]
[Inventory Full? No. Sending to Nox's Shadow Storage.]
The Leviathan convulsed violently. It could feel an intruder ripping its skeleton apart piece by piece, but it couldn't reach him. It slammed itself against the canyon walls, trying to shake Aris loose.
Aris tumbled, smashing into a wall of muscle.
[HP: 88% / 100%]
[Warning: Qi Reserves at 60%. Pressure protection active.]
"Running out of time," Aris noted. "Time to stop the heart."
He located the Spirit Core. It was a massive, glowing blue orb the size of a carriage, suspended in a web of arteries. It pumped not blood, but liquid mana through the beast.
Aris stood before the beating heart.
"You lived a long life," Aris whispered, placing both hands on the pulsating surface. "Now, you are fuel."
[Ultimate Skill: Abyssal Cannibalism - Overdrive.]
He didn't just drain it. He drank it.
The violet energy of the Abyss surged from Aris's hands, infecting the blue core. The Leviathan froze. The blue light turned purple, then grey, then black.
[Absorbing...]
[XP Gained: +50,000]
[XP Gained: +50,000]
[XP Gained: +50,000]
The massive heart withered. It turned to ash and crumbled.
The Leviathan died instantly.
The Escape
The moment the heart stopped, the creature went limp. But now, Aris faced a new problem.
He was trapped inside a sinking corpse.
"Nox!" Aris projected his thought via the soul-link. "Status!"
"Scared. Floating. Ship beeping." Nox's panicked thoughts filtered back.
"Come pick me up. I'm exiting via the side door."
Aris turned to the wall of the beast's chest. He drew the God-Blight Spike.
SLASH.
He carved a hole through the tough outer hide.
Liquid mercury rushed in, filling the corpse. Aris pushed himself out into the open ocean.
The pressure hit him instantly.
[Warning: External Pressure 5,000 Atmospheres.]
[Abyssal Sovereign Body: Straining.]
[Qi Consumption: 100 points/sec.]
Aris floated in the pitch-black void. The corpse of the Leviathan drifted past him, sinking deeper into the abyss.
"Where are you..." Aris scanned the darkness.
Two headlights cut through the gloom. The Void-Shell descended, its legs twitching nervously. Nox was piloting it—badly—but he was there.
Aris grabbed the landing strut as the ship passed. He scrambled to the airlock, cycling it manually.
HISS. CLANG.
The water drained. The air pressure normalized.
Aris fell onto the deck of the ship, gasping for air. His skin was bruised purple from the sheer weight of the ocean.
Nox bounded over, licking Aris's face frantically, whining.
"I'm alive, I'm alive," Aris pushed the giant dog away, laughing breathlessly. "Good driving, Nox. Remind me to give you a license."
He pulled himself into the pilot's chair.
"System. Depth check."
[Depth: 6,000 Meters.]
[Location: The Trench Floor.]
Aris looked at the holographic screen.
"Turn on the floodlights."
The Graveyard of Giants
The lights flickered on, cutting through the eternal darkness.
Aris stopped breathing.
They were at the bottom. But it wasn't empty rock.
The floor of the trench was a Graveyard.
Massive skeletons—ancient aquatic dragons, krakens the size of mountains, and things that defied classification—littered the sea floor. They were perfectly preserved by the mercury.
But amidst the bones lay ruins.
Ships. Thousands of them.
Some were wooden junks from ancient eras. Some were ironclads from the Hydra Sect. Some looked like advanced, smooth-hulled vessels from civilizations Aris didn't even recognize.
"They all came for the Tortoise," Aris realized. "And none of them left."
He piloted the Void-Shell over the wreckage.
[Scan: Metal detected. Massive quantity.]
"Ignore the scrap," Aris said. "Look for the source of the Hum."
The ship moved forward. The ground began to slope upward, leading to a massive, circular plateau.
On top of the plateau stood a structure that was not built by humans.
It was a Temple.
It was carved from a single block of Black Ice Jade, rising three hundred meters into the crushing dark. It had no doors, only a massive archway sealed by a barrier of swirling blue water that glowed with divine power.
Above the archway, carved in a language that predated the Qin Empire, were words that the System translated instantly.
[The Vault of the North]
[Here lies the Shield of the World.]
[Do not wake the sleeper, for he holds the sky.]
"The Black Tortoise isn't just sleeping," Aris whispered, reading the text. "He's... holding something?"
The Gate Puzzle
Aris landed the Void-Shell on the temple plaza.
"Stay here, Nox," Aris commanded. "If I don't come back in an hour, push the 'Ascend' button and go home."
Nox whimpered but stayed in the pilot seat.
Aris cycled the airlock and stepped out onto the temple floor. The pressure here was maintained by the Temple's own formations, creating a "safe zone" of only 500 atmospheres—breathable for a Nascent Soul cultivator.
He walked up to the Blue Water Barrier.
It rippled like a vertical pond.
Aris reached out his hand.
[System Analysis: Divine Seal.]
[Type: Hydro-Lock.]
[Requirement: The Seal requires a 'Key' of specific frequency to open.]
"I don't have a key," Aris muttered.
He placed his hand on the barrier.
[Access Denied.]
[Counter-Measure Activated.]
A shape formed inside the water barrier. A humanoid figure made of pure, compressed water stepped out. It had no face, only a smooth surface reflecting Aris's mask.
[Guardian: Reflection of the Deep.]
[Level: Scaled to Intruder (Level 57).]
The Water-Man bowed. It raised its hands, forming a combat stance identical to Aris's own.
"A mirror match?" Aris chuckled. "The Black Tortoise is testing me. It wants to know if I'm strong enough to enter."
Aris drew his Shadow Sword.
The Water-Man drew a Water Sword.
"Let's see how well you copy this," Aris said.
He didn't attack with a sword art. He activated the Wings of the Moderator. The glitched, violet-white wings burst from his back.
The Water-Man paused. It tried to replicate the wings. Water sprouted from its back, but it couldn't mimic the System Data inherent in the Moderator's wings. The water wings collapsed, unstable.
[System Error: Guardian cannot replicate 'Out-of-Context' abilities.]
"That's the problem with copies," Aris grinned, lunging forward. "They lack imagination."
Strike.
Aris moved. Light-Shift.
He appeared behind the Water-Man. He didn't cut it; he placed his hand on its back.
"Reverse Refinement: Evaporate."
He dumped pure heat (generated by burning the Frost Sacs in his inventory) directly into the water construct.
HISSSSS.
The Water-Man boiled instantly. It screamed in steam, exploding into a cloud of harmless bubbles.
The Blue Water Barrier flickered. It sensed the defeat of its guardian.
[Trial Passed.]
[Welcome, Challenger.]
The barrier dissolved.
The path to the Black Tortoise lay open.
Aris stepped through the archway, into the darkness of the temple.
"One down," Aris whispered into the dark. "Three keys to go."