The Green Gourd's Evolution, Divine Son's Advent

The sudden turn of events left not only Fourteen utterly bewildered, but Du Chen and Steve were equally flabbergasted. Who could have foreseen the Life Shortcut vanishing so inexplicably?

Thirteen, under Steve's control, let out a chilling sneer. 'Hmph, this is excellent. Let us all perish together!' Angie shook her head frantically. 'No, I won't die! Alex, quickly, retrieve the Life Shortcut!'

Slam! Du Chen spun around and slapped her. 'Silence!' Of course, he yearned to recover the Life Shortcut, yet the situation before them was starkly evident: it seemed to have been snatched by something within the Labyrinth of Life on the opposite side. The gnarled, woody life-wall now obscured everyone's view, leaving none privy to the events unfolding beyond. Furthermore, no one possessed the power to breach this formidable barrier and carve a path to survival.

Chek had already rushed over with his people, foremost among them a sedan chair borne by four men, carrying the still-unconscious Old Matriarch. Chek was a good man; his first thought in this crisis was to ensure his mother's safety.

However, Du Chen gazed at him with a troubled expression.

'Mr. Alex, what's wrong?' Chek asked cheerfully, looking at Du Chen with hope. Yet, upon noticing the grim expressions on everyone's faces, he finally realized something was amiss. 'Could it be... could an accident have happened?'

'The Life Shortcut is gone!' Du Chen slammed his fist against the wall.

Chek looked as if he had been doused with a bucket of ice water, nearly collapsing onto the ground. 'This... what are we to do? Without the Life Shortcut, we can only rely on Duding... but we're still missing one alchemical good: Azure Iron!' He suddenly sprang up, yelling at the people behind him: 'Quick, go find Azure Iron! Find it at all costs!'

Du Chen narrowed his eyes. 'The Huhuhu Beasts are arriving too swiftly. Even if I found Azure Iron now, there wouldn't be time for alchemy. Chek, immediately organize our people to defend against the Huhuhu Beasts using the bunker's intricate tunnels!' He glanced at the Brockman people and captives surrounding them, then declared loudly, 'Have the other families act as cannon fodder on the outer perimeter! All Brockman people, gather here! I will find a way to retrieve the Life Shortcut!'

Chek, utterly lacking a backbone, was now flustered and helpless, capable of nothing but numbly executing orders.

Inside the cavern, everyone's face was ashen, and a terrifying silence reigned, broken only by Angie's frantic murmuring. 'It's over, all over! The Life Shortcut is gone, and the Huhuhu Beasts have a new leader... We're doomed, I'm doomed!'

Steve guarded the captives, while Du Chen and Fourteen inspected the walls, attempting to find The Clues. Meanwhile, the Huhuhu Beasts had already assaulted the bunker's surface.

Over two million Huhuhu Beasts covered the dim, grey earth above the bunker like a vast carpet of purple and white.

'Heh-gakka, brothers, did Changxi lie to you!?' Changxi roared, standing before the multitude of beasts with his tail held high. 'In less than half an hourglass, I led you through eleven lines of defense of the Violet-Bloods and brought you to the bunker's surface!'

'Changxi, Heh-gakka!' The Huhuhu Beasts at the forefront, corpses still clenched in their jaws, roared frantically and excitedly. At this moment, the Huhuhu Beasts utterly idolized Changxi. *This* was a true king; *this* was a worthy leader!

Eliminating Pieres was simply our most Heh-gakka decision!

'Heh-gakka Changxi, Heh-gakka King!' A chorus of praise rose and fell.

Changxi lashed his tail and bellowed, 'Save your praises! Right now, only a few tens of thousands of our vanguard brethren have eaten their fill; vast numbers of our brothers behind them are still starving! I, Changxi, am a Heh-gakka King, and I will never let my brethren go hungry! Kill! Follow me into the bunker! Heh-gakka, kill them all!'

With that, he led the way, smashing open the bunker's great gate with a single swing of his tail, and roared commands, directing the Huhuhu horde to surge inside.

Inside the bunker, the Violet-Bloods had already fallen into despair as the Huhuhu Beasts surged overhead. Initially, some still clung to memories of past encounters – that Huhuhu Beasts didn't kill captives, intending to surrender to become safe prisoners. But now, the Huhuhu Beast King was Changxi, and he had no need for living captives; only corpses to fill his brethren's bellies!

The Violet-Bloods were utterly consumed by despair. Facing inevitable doom, their primal survival instincts, akin to those of humans, ignited their most valiant and bloodthirsty aspects. They seized advantageous positions throughout the tunnels, using their familiarity with the battlefield to ambush the Huhuhu Beasts at every turn. They sought not victory, but merely... to die with dignity, not in ignominious defeat!

'Even if I die, I'll drag someone down with me!'

This became the collective roar of the Violet-Bloods trapped in this death-match!

Changxi stood on the surface, directing the Huhuhu Beasts' assault on the bunker. As he watched, he suddenly frowned. Just then, a Huhuhu Beast General rushed over to complain, 'Heh-gakka King, the tunnels inside the bunker are simply too narrow! Our brethren cannot spread out, and our numerical superiority cannot be leveraged...'

Changxi gave an arrogant laugh. 'You are truly something! We are Huhuhu Beasts, two million strong! How large can this bunker be? Tell all the brethren behind to concentrate here and use their mouths to dig away all the earth above this bunker!'

The General's eyes lit up. 'Heh-gakka King Changxi, you are truly Heh-gakka!' Whether that 'Heh-gakka' syllable was a term of praise or a derogatory epithet... who the hell knew?

The Huhuhu Beasts changed their tactics, beginning to excavate the earth. The Brockman Bunker lay approximately twenty meters underground, and the two million Huhuhu Beasts, using their innate abilities, quickly dug away the earth above it. However, a complex network of underground tunnels soon appeared before them – the Brockman people had retreated to the lowest cavern. Fortuitously, that cavern had been dug to a considerable size!

But Changxi glared at the tunnels. 'Dig, keep digging! Even if you have to dig down to the Life Tree's inner wall, you will devour the Violet-Bloods!'

The cavern lay five hundred meters deep. This time, the Huhuhu Beasts indeed spent a considerable amount of time digging through the earth above. As the surrounding earth softened, the cavern collapsed with a roar. Amidst the flying earth, Du Chen and the surviving Brockman people were exposed before the Huhuhu horde.

Some of the Brockman people were petrified with fear, but more gritted their teeth, preparing for a final desperate struggle. Seeing this, Du Chen curled his lips into a smile. 'Eldest Brother, it truly seems there's no retreat now.'

Steve shrugged. 'Well, we can't just wait for death, can we!?' He tossed Thirteen from his shoulder onto the ground, brandishing the Flaying Blade in his hand.

Changxi sneered, striding to the front of his lines. He stared at the surrounded Violet-Bloods and laughed heartily, 'Brethren, whoever among you hasn't eaten yet, go and feast now!'

The Huhuhu horde orderly split into several groups, pouncing with savage grins...

But just then, 'Heh-gakka! Delicious!' An exclamation of surprise rose from beneath Du Chen and the others. Immediately after, the vanished Life Shortcut's radiance reappeared, not as a flash, but as if something was gnawing from below, biting out a small hole, mouthful by mouthful. Then, a tiny head emerged, resembling a cute, short-eared, long-haired rabbit. 'Eh? I can actually dig through the life-wall? When did I acquire this ability?'

It had actually gnawed open the life-wall with its bare mouth!

What power was this? Who among those present dared claim they could harm the life-wall in the slightest? Yet, this tiny head found its teeth sufficient...

Du Chen couldn't help but be startled by the small head before him. The Huhuhu Beasts were equally stunned, or rather, aghast. Changxi stared at it and asked, 'You... are you a Huhuhu Beast too? Did you come from outside? Can you lead us out of this City of Penance?'

The tiny head indeed resembled a Huhuhu Beast, yet it shook its head. 'No, I'm not. I'm Green... Oh, Alex, you're here! Heavens, I finally found you!'

This little creature was, astonishingly, the lost Green Gourd Beast. It hadn't actually entered the City of Penance but had gone missing at its very edge.

The Green Gourd Beast wiggled its body, climbing towards the surface. Its head emerged, then its neck—that vine-like appendage—followed. But its tail was stuck outside. The Green Gourd Beast paused, then gave an awkward chuckle. 'My apologies, I'm too plump!' It turned back and began crunching 'kaba-kaba' at the life-wall.

Heavens, Du Chen's heart sank. Just how terrifyingly powerful was this Green Gourd Beast? Watching it gnaw at the life-wall... it was as effortless and leisurely as Beibei munching on a snack. It seemed that one of the world's five great primordial forces was, in its eyes, nothing more than a piece of black bread!

The Huhuhu Beasts were equally stunned; they naturally understood the implications of what the Green Gourd Beast was doing.

Soon, the Green Gourd Beast gnawed out a hole nearly sixty to seventy meters in diameter. It stretched its neck and wiggled, then gave another awkward smile. 'Wait a moment, everyone. Heh-gakka, after eating someone a few days ago, I got too plump... I'll gnaw some more!'

The Huhuhu Beasts were dumbfounded. No one cared to continue devouring the Violet-Bloods. Wasn't sixty to seventy meters enough? One had to remember that Pieres's tail was only forty to fifty meters in diameter!

But there was something even more shocking. Changxi numbly swallowed a gulp of saliva and sniffed. 'Did you smell that? The scent on this Huhuhu Beast is the same as our Mother Goddess!'

'The same as the Mother Goddess? Could it be... a Divine Son?' The Huhuhu Beasts stared intently at the Green Gourd Beast.

The Green Gourd said shyly, 'My scent is a bit strange... Heh-gakka, I was just painfully hungry earlier, and someone—I don't know who—passed a tree seed from here to the outside. I ate it in one gulp, and it nearly tortured me to death...' He complained as he gnawed, 'After eating that tree seed, my stomach hurt so much I rolled around in agony. But once I recovered, not only did my scent change, I can now gnaw through the life-wall! Heh-gakka!'

So it turned out this Green Gourd had eaten the Life Shortcut, and somehow, it now possessed some of the Life Shortcut's abilities!

What was the Life Shortcut? It was the seed of the Life Tree, the very Son of the Mother Goddess worshipped by the Huhuhu Beasts. Now, the Green Gourd Beast had consumed the Life Shortcut, acquiring all the attributes of the Huhuhu Mother Goddess's Son...

Finally, the Green Gourd gnawed open a massive hole a hundred meters in diameter, and under the dumbfounded gazes of all present, slowly revealed its true form.

'What a... what a colossal tail...'

The Huhuhu Beasts suddenly prostrated themselves in worship, and Changxi, tears streaming down his face, exclaimed, 'Oh, Divine Son, have you come to lead us out of the City of Penance to find more food? Thank the Mother Goddess, praise the Divine Son!'