Yu Xian piloted the King of the Abyss Battle Armor, entering the Primordial Water through the breach where its shield had already been shattered.
After landing on the deck, he commanded the armor to shrink. The King of the Abyss Battle Armor had also been upgraded by Muse; it had originally been massive, but the overhaul had added numerous new functions, shrinking its size being one of them.
Standing nineteen meters tall originally, the battle armor shrank into a three-meter-tall form in the blink of an eye. Through the dark visor filter, Yu Xian's eyes could directly view the situation outside the suit.
The deck of the Primordial Water was marred by numerous stains, and scratch marks ran along the path of the grime.
Yu Xian simply followed the scratch marks forward. When he reached the right edge of the deck, he saw that a hole had been torn into the side of the Primordial Water, though it was currently plugged by some black substance.
"What's this? Afraid the prey will escape?" Yu Xian muttered, slightly puzzled at the sight.
If monsters had invaded the Primordial Water, they were being far too civilized—knowing to 'close the door' after entering. Yet if it wasn't abyssal monsters, what else could it be?
"This is bad. That's mucus from an Abyssal Nester," Niman said gravely and solemnly, looking at the black substance through Yu Xian's line of sight.
"Abyssal Nester?" Yu Xian repeated questioningly.
"There are many creatures in the Abyss corrupted by its influence. Most have no names, and only a select few specific types are formally named and cataloged. Anything with a name is an exceptionally dangerous entity," Niman explained. "The Abyssal Nester is one of them. They have spider-like bodies, and they love seizing moving objects, laying eggs en masse, and completely turning them into nests."
Yu Xian frowned upon hearing this. "In other words, the interior of this warship has probably already become a haven for abyssal monsters?"
"Mm. If we can avoid going in, it's best not to. Is there any way to pinpoint Shui Yuetian's location from the outside?" Niman said affirmatively.
Yu Xian smiled wryly. "I'm afraid there really isn't."
Although the Primordial Water was now occupied by an Abyssal Nester, the ship itself hadn't completely shut down. Many of its defensive systems were likely still running, making it impossible to scan the interior from the outside—unless Yu Xian possessed power greater than the Abyss itself, capable of disregarding such security systems.
"Then let's go in. We've already come this far; turning back just because of danger would be far too much of a pity," Nora spoke up.
In truth, Niman wasn't close enough to Shui Yuetian to risk her life for a rescue; the only reason she had come along was Yu Xian.
Now that Nora had spoken first, Niman remained silent, even though she would have preferred not to go.
A team had to be of one mind. She could voice her opinion, but the final decision belonged to Yu Xian, the leader.
Even though Yu Xian never considered himself the leader, Niman knew very well that everyone was gathered here solely because of him.
Besides, after spending so many days together on the Aska, she genuinely liked the atmosphere of the group. Precisely because she valued it, she understood even better when to speak up and when to keep quiet.
Of course, the biggest factor was that they were strong enough. The interior of the Primordial Water was indeed perilous, but none of them were pushovers either.
Yu Xian looked at the black substance over the breach and finally gritted his teeth. "True. We're already here. If I back down now, a hundred years from now... no, ten thousand years from now, I'd probably wake up one night and slap myself in the face, regretting that I didn't go in."
"Then let's do it, before you end up slapping yourself every day," Niman couldn't help but chuckle.
Little Nora and Huangquan burst into laughter as well, the two little ones chiming in eagerly: "Go for it, Big Brother!"
When hearts united as one, their strength was formidable enough to cut through metal.
Yu Xian smiled faintly. He raised his hand, aiming his palm at the black substance in the opening, and blasted out a beam cannon.
A flash of blue-white light surged, and the black substance blocking the hole instantly vanished into ash. Yu Xian's eyes widened slightly. Glancing at the circular sapphire embedded in his palm, he remarked in surprise, "Was the King of the Abyss always this strong, or is it because of Muse's enhancements?"
He had only channeled a minuscule trickle of energy into the King of the Abyss Battle Armor just now, yet the power of the palm cannon had exceeded all expectations—nearly ten times stronger than his estimate.
This certainly wasn't the armor's limit; he had only executed a probing attack earlier out of fear of damaging the Primordial Water and endangering Shui Yuetian, who might be aboard.
With that shot fired, he now had a rough idea of what it could do.
Stepping through the breach into the warship, he found blackish slime covering everything. It was entirely unrecognizable as the interior of a starship, looking instead like the internal cavity of some living organism.
Finding nowhere clean to step, Yu Xian simply stayed airborne.
He hadn't flown forward for even a minute when an abyssal creature—brawny-limbed, pointed-headed, covered in fleshy nodules, and closely resembling an ape—suddenly lunged from the ceiling.
The interiors of warships were typically built with enormous clearances.
Since Crescent Bay housed every manner of race, if a member of the Giant race came to visit, one couldn't very well expect them to crawl inside.
Consequently, standard-issue warships had an internal height of ten meters or more, Star Rank warships had at least fifteen meters, and wealthier buyers would custom-order heights up to thirty meters.
Right now, the ceiling of the Primordial Water resembled a cavern. Hanging masses of black substance drooped like stalactites, heavily obstructing the view.
This ape monster lunged abruptly from behind one of those 'stalactites'; Yu Xian truly hadn't noticed its presence a second earlier.
*So fast!*
Yu Xian swiftly backed away. An instant before touching down, the abyssal ape monster whipped its tail hard against the floor. Before its feet even met the ground, the momentum of the tail whipped its body up again, pouncing toward the retreating Yu Xian—a move that genuinely caught him a little off guard.
Immediately afterward, however, he raised his hand and discharged a beam cannon through the palm of the King of the Abyss Battle Armor.
Mid-pounce, the abyssal ape monster was blasted straight through by the beam cannon, leaving only its head and the lower body below its pelvis to crash onto the deck.
"Watch out, it's not dead yet!" Niman warned immediately.
Sure enough, the abyssal ape's lower half used its tail to wrap around its severed head, spun on its legs, and bolted, vanishing around the corridor corner in the blink of an eye.
"What kind of monster is this? It survived even that?" Yu Xian couldn't help grumbling.
Taking the opportunity, Niman explained, "To protect its nest, an Abyssal Nester spawns numerous monsters. There are fundamentally nine types: the Ape, Crocodile, Rooster, Tiger, Snake, Lion, Taotie, Qiongqi, and Taowu. The last three are especially formidable. The longer a nest has existed, the more terrifying their strength becomes—they can even reach the Cosmos Rank."
"The first ones sound fine, but the last three completely clash in style!" Little Nora couldn't help chiming in.
The first six—Ape, Crocodile, Rooster, Tiger, Snake, and Lion—were at least somewhat normal, but the Taotie, Qiongqi, and Taowu were mythical transcendent creatures.
And they were far from weak even among transcendent creatures.
Yu Xian, Nora, and Huangquan also felt that the last three monsters belonged to an entirely different league.
Fortunately, this nest aboard the Primordial Water had clearly only just begun forming, so the strongest monsters inside shouldn't be too absurd.
Even so, they would have to proceed with much greater caution in their upcoming exploration. If they ran into those last three monsters, they would likely have a tough battle on their hands.
Chapter 293