Above The Sky
Chapter 243 - 243 231 Sleepless Eye 13

243: Chapter 231: Sleepless Eye (1/3) 243: Chapter 231: Sleepless Eye (1/3) The long tunnel exploration continued for some time.

The team from Fiery Flame Land, lacking the Prophet Psychic and Silver Core Chips to record the map, had to use various detection instruments to examine the different forks in the tunnel, deploying methods like sonar and water dye tracing to probe and mark their route.

The process was inefficient and exceedingly cumbersome.

The most terrifying aspect was that many tunnels, which seemed to lead to distant places, wound back to the main tunnel after a series of twists and turns—a giant ‘U’ shaped structure that appeared frequently, significantly dampening their spirits.

After a while, even the Spiritual Machine Church’s monk team began to whisper amongst themselves, and the normally patient captain who could lie in wait in the jungle for days without budging grew anxious.

——This exploration was purely accidental, not a planned event.

To him, danger and boredom were trivial matters; what was most important was that the situation had deviated from the plan.

Moreover…

something about this place instinctively unsettled him.

“So far, we have explored for more than five hours without seeing the slightest hint of the ancient civilization’s remnants,” he said.

“The ruins definitely exist, but did those natives really give us the correct path?”

He couldn’t help but turn his head to the monks, frowning as he asked, “Or is their information also outdated?

After all, it’s been eight hundred, if not a thousand years since they left the ‘Holy Ground.’ Can their records truly be reliable?”

“We are just around the entrance to the ancient civilization, we should be right next to the formal entrance, perhaps already deep inside,” the lead monk with the synthetic voice calmly explained as they recorded the map routes.

“The local natives did not deceive us.

In fact, captain, you are well aware that there’s such a large network of underground caverns and ecological systems here that almost mirrors those above ground—would you believe it if you had not seen it with your own eyes?”

Indeed, this was the truth.

The captain still felt uneasy, but he had to admit it.

Ultimately, this was also because the special operations team from Fiery Flame Land had faced numerous setbacks lately.

A few days ago, a group of trained natives crossed their boundary with permission and, under the Native Great Shaman’s orders, attacked a youth from the White Folks in Harrison Port…

Claiming he was an enemy of their tribe, the reason for their devastating defeat six years ago.

Truth or not, in the end, it was just a fourteen-year-old child—what need was there for so many people?

As it happened, these hunters ran straight into the Ellen Family’s guards.

Not only did they expose their backing, they were completely annihilated!

The defenses of Harrison Port tightened visibly—it was so severe that even they almost left traces behind, forcing them to pretend to be a merchant ship at sea to avoid attention.

Who would have expected another accident to happen…

The abnormal changes in the Southern Sea swept them all up.

It was also because they had long learned of the existence of the ‘Native Holy Land’ from the natives’ accounts and, recalling the guidance of the Native Great Shaman, when they encountered ‘The Gate,’ they entered a calmer smaller rift next to the large one.

This allowed them to preserve most of their intact equipment and enter the underground ruins.

Otherwise, if they fell through the large rift, even if the people survived unharmed due to the water’s buffer, the ships and equipment were sure to be lost.

The captain was well aware that his mission was not to explore the Native Holy Land.

However, for the Spiritual Machine Church, it was different.

The monks from the Aether Arms Order of the Fiery Flame Land, who had come to this place, had their sights set on the Native Holy Land.

Or more precisely, on the ‘remnants of the ancient civilization’!

The Spiritual Machine Church was the most enthusiastic and actively exploring Orthodox Church of the ancient civilization’s remnants on the Terra Continent.

In pursuit of the so-called ‘Ascension,’ they had collected almost all records and documents of the ancient civilization from above ground.

This time, it was after the Spiritual Machine Church received reports of the ‘Native Holy Land’ from the captain and others that they identified related records of the ancient civilization from their documents—the records showed that this site was a super gigantic base even in the ancient era, or a ‘super gigantic ruins cluster’ in terms of the present era.

Since it was a suspicion rather than certainty, the Aether Arms Order did not directly send a monk group.

But even for a ‘rumor,’ they dispatched an Iron Eye Monk and two Watcher Knights to assist the captain in local exploration.

“Now, the existence of the ruins has been proven, but the Great Shaman is dead,” he said.

Looking around at the various dark and meandering entrances and side tunnels, the Crimson People’s captain couldn’t help but sigh: “Without a guide, such exploration is too inefficient…

and far too dangerous.”

But just as the captain was absorbed in thought, a piercing scream suddenly erupted.

The people of Fiery Flame Land were startled, immediately organizing their ranks and forming a defensive formation, with some of their mobile forces looking in the direction of the scream, their movements systematic and orderly.

As they turned their gaze towards the origin of the scream, even the captain, who was no stranger to life and death, felt a chill run through him, his scalp tingling.

A scout marking the walls in a side cavern on the left was carving signs with a knife, when a slimy tentacle stretched out from a crevice in the rock, coiled around him, and violently pulled him towards the tiny gap.

His arm seemed about to be torn off forcibly, crushed into an indistinct mass of flesh and blood.

But what truly astonished the captain was not just this, but the tentacle itself—covered in strange pits and pus-filled sores, with viscous slime filled with countless small blue insects squirming inside, it inspired an intense feeling of revulsion and danger.

The blue insects wriggled, even causing an Origin Substance Reaction.

The tentacle yanked with great force, tearing off the scout’s arm in an instant, bringing a gush of fresh blood, while the blue insects burrowed into his wound.

“Fire!”

The captain ordered sternly, and the soldiers opened fire immediately—a torrent of bullets, each wrapped in frenzied power, broke through the air, pelting the rock wall where the tentacle was located like hail.

Boom, boom, boom!

The sturdy sculpted rock wall instantly crumbled under the terrifying force of the bullets, revealing the cavity behind it—a giant black octopus, not counting the tentacles, more than three meters long, was crouching in the cavity, voraciously consuming the scout’s arm with its mouthparts.

The octopus’s bulbous eyes shone with a bright, ghostly blue light, but upon closer observation, one could see that the light was entirely emitted by small insects gathered together, like dim fireflies.

A barrage of bullets shot towards it, like a fierce storm of rain.

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!

Many of the bullets hit the demon beast level giant octopus, creating ripples, but failing to penetrate.

All the impact was absorbed by the soft, water-like muscles, dissipating and unloading the force.

Sensing the attack, the giant octopus leapt up fiercely, tearing apart the rocks that had camouflaged it, and charged forward.

This charge was like a missile, heading straight for the crowd, about to scatter countless ‘splashes.’

But one knight, wielding a massive metal shield and keenly aware of the situation, stepped forward without hesitation—he lifted his shield and also began to charge, his heavy footsteps shaking the earth, making him seem like a war chariot crossing the battlefield.

Boom!

The armored knight collided head-on with the giant octopus, but it was the larger creature that was sent flying.

Despite its bulky appearance, the octopus consisted mostly of bubbles and water.

In contrast, the knight, who was practicing an earth-based inheritance, could exert far more power underground than usual, with his armor and massive shield weighing over half a ton and having an incredibly stable center of gravity.

However, the giant octopus wasn’t severely injured.

Its soft, boneless, and extremely slippery body hardly felt any impact.

Seeing the tide turn against it, it immediately attempted to flee into the cave, spraying a vast, dark blue mist behind it to confuse the pursuers.

Such tactics might work against the average person, but they were insufficient against the seasoned members of the Fiery Flame Land’s special operations team.

The captain stepped forward and drew his sword, unleashing an intertwined spiral of pressurized wind that tore through the ink mist and enveloped the creature, while an alchemical bullet, burning with flames, was fired from a specially crafted firearm, shooting ahead and hitting the giant octopus.

Boom!

In an instant, what was once an unaffected, watery giant octopus let out a strange scraping noise, as one small half of it was shattered by the fiery alchemical bullet.

The remainder struggled and writhed, trying to extinguish the flames, but then the captain’s forceful sword struck it, instantly tearing it into hundreds of uneven pieces of flesh and blood.

“Stop!”

Seeing the magical beast had been killed, the medical team by the side began to move to help the injured, but the captain, with an extremely grim expression, ordered, “Don’t approach!

Watch out for the dark blue fluids on the ground, block them all!”

“Vicha, can you hear me?

Answer if you can hear me!”

The captain’s command halted everyone’s actions, but all eyes were anxiously on the scout.

“Cough, cough…

huff…

uh…”

The called scout, lying on the ground and convulsing, coughed and slowly got up.

Just as the captain’s expression eased, the scout turned his head, once again startling everyone.

In just a short exchange of fire, the scout’s face was covered with blue spots, his eyes spinning asymmetrically at a rapid pace, and his tongue desperately protruding out, his whole face distorted beyond recognition.

He was coughing up blood as well as a large amount of bodily secretions, his body twitching and contorting extremely unnaturally.

Vaguely visible under the scout’s scalp, something was bulging and wriggling, as if earthworms burrowing through soil.

“It’s an unknown parasite!

Burn it with fire!”

Clasping his longsword tightly, the captain’s face was ashen, and at his command, a Spiritual Machine Nun with a sprayer stepped out from the monks beside him.

She silently activated the device, and a jet of blue-white flames swept across the cave in front.

The cleansing holy fire completely consumed the oxygen, and the nearby troops felt a noticeable shortage of air.

Seconds later, she turned off the nozzle and returned to the ranks, while the cave before them was scorched dry, both the scout’s body and the giant octopus turned into charred remains, emitting a strange barbecued scent.

“Please forgive me, let me go and check the situation.”

Then, the Iron Nun, who followed close to the captain, stepped forward to investigate.

The nun’s face was covered by a specially made gas mask, and her eyes were clearly artificial, with a gemstone texture.

And now, the gemstone-like eyes blossomed like flowers, revealing the bright observation crystals within.

Two beams of light shot out, illuminating the still writhing bodies nearly charred to cinders.

These gem-like prosthetic eyes were a distinctive feature of the ‘Sleepless Eye’ faction within the Aether Arms Order.

The Spiritual Tool Church excelled, and even revered, the replacement of natural body tissues with artificial organs, keeping only the most critical parts, the brain and spinal cord, or sometimes merely the neocortex.

Perhaps due to the lack of physical constraints, the church had a high number of Spirit Energy Users, second only to the Huai Guang Church that required strict adherence to vows and tenets.

At this moment, the Sleepless Eye nun was using her psychic abilities and spiritual tools to conduct a scientific examination.