Chapter 871: Rune Deep Pit
Rune Deep Pit
"It's perfectly normal. The body affects the mind, but the mind can also affect the body. You get to decide whether you want to be a human or an octopus."
Lin Ye had been maintaining his human form all along, unwilling to advance too quickly, precisely to prevent mental problems from arising.
"...I'll try my best."
Natalie gradually adapted to her new organs. She carried Lin Ye and began searching through the corpse fragments for usable materials.
"How about this piece?"
"Average. It should be a mid-tier spiritual energy material, usable for crafting external weapons."
"What about this bone?"
"This one's good. It can be used to reinforce the spine."
...
Although Lin Ye couldn't sense the specific structure of the corpse fragments, his keen eyes were still sharp enough to determine the approximate grade and composition of the materials.
With Lin Ye's help, Natalie quickly assembled a complete set of mutation organs.
However, all the materials had been processed by the parasitic squid, so they couldn't even come close to the mutation organs Lin Ye crafted. It was roughly on the level of a budget meal delivery.
"Can we escape now?"
Natalie asked with eager anticipation.
"Don't rush. You need to think things through carefully before doing anything. Right now, you're just a relatively strong high-level spiritual energy user. Even if you manage to escape, what could you actually do?
Outside is a chaotic battlefield. Any random squad of high-level spiritual energy users could kill you."
Having finally made a bit of progress, Lin Ye had no intention of going out there to get himself killed.
"Then what should we do? Hide here forever?"
Natalie had never set foot on a battlefield before. She had no idea what to do.
"Why does this thing collect corpses?"
Lin Ye posed a question.
"Uh... to collect materials?"
Natalie had just gathered materials here, so that was the first thing that came to mind.
"And then?"
Lin Ye continued questioning.
"...Collect materials, to accomplish something?"
Natalie said uncertainly.
"Exactly. So all we need to do is blend in with the corpse fragments, and we'll discover what these fragments are being used for. No matter what the enemy plans to do with them, we can find a way to profit from it. That's the correct way to act."
Lin Ye had absolutely no intention of running around on the battlefield.
"...Should we help the military district defeat these enemies?"
Natalie hesitated for a moment before asking.
"Remember, no matter what you're doing, you must first assess the situation and clearly understand what you want to accomplish.
It's like playing chess. You have to figure out the players, the pieces, and the rules first. That's the most fundamental thing.
For example, right now, if you want to kill everyone, you'd have to make both sides destroy each other.
If you just want to kill the people who dragged you into this mess, then you need to secure victory in this war first and return to the military district as a war hero.
It's not about helping the military district defeat the enemy. It's about helping your military district defeat the enemy."
Lin Ye would make different decisions depending on the situation. If his true body were here, of course, things wouldn't need to be this complicated, but Natalie didn't have the ability to solve every problem on her own.
Once the problems here were resolved, Lin Ye would leave this Plane, and everything else would have to be handled by Natalie herself.
"I understand."
Natalie grasped what Lin Ye meant.
"Then get ready. We're about to be dumped out."
Lin Ye could sense the movement pattern of this corpse-collecting creature. It had been staying in this spot for quite a while.
"Alright."
Natalie placed Lin Ye onto her body, and a thin membrane covered her skin. It was a camouflaged epidermis capable of interfering with spiritual perception.
Five more minutes passed. A massive crack opened beneath the mountain of corpses, and a flood of corpse fragments poured out through the gap.
A wave of mental energy swept across all the corpse fragments. Natalie was scanned as well, but the sender didn't detect her.
Lin Ye observed the outside world through the camouflaged epidermis. Below was a deep pit piled high with corpse fragments. A Giant Creature of enormous size, its body covered in inserted pipelines, was crouched over the pit.
'What are they doing? Some kind of sacrificial ritual?'
If the enemy intended to utilize these corpse fragments, they could process them in a far more refined manner rather than piling them all together.
If it was a sacrificial ritual, then there was no need to overthink it.
Natalie fell into the deep pit. She didn't move recklessly, letting the corpse fragments pile up on top of her.
"Move toward the edge of the pit. Someone outside might be sensing this area. Don't get discovered."
Lin Ye didn't speak aloud. Instead, he moved his fingers and wrote this line of text on the surface of Natalie's body.
The camouflaged epidermis wasn't infallible. Some high-level spiritual energy users with keen perception might see through their disguise, so it was best not to make any sound.
Natalie moved together with the surrounding corpse fragments to the edge of the deep pit. There, she discovered a large number of blood-red runes carved into the pit walls.
"Move toward the deepest part. Don't make any big movements."
Lin Ye could roughly understand the purpose of these runes, but he needed to examine more of them before figuring out how to deal with this deep pit.
Natalie cooperated fully and moved deeper inward. Her body could transform into an octopus-like state, so the surrounding corpse fragments didn't hinder her.
Lin Ye observed the runes on the walls. A slight tremor ran through the pit walls, suggesting the war seemed to be drawing closer.
It took Natalie half an hour to reach the very bottom of the deep pit. The runes here looked far more complex, and some of them were constantly shifting their structure.
Boom!
A violent explosion rang out from above, but the deep pit didn't collapse, and the explosions didn't stop.
"Do a full circle here and place me near the ground."
Lin Ye scratched more lines across Natalie's body surface.
Natalie slowly adjusted her angle and placed Lin Ye against the inner wall of the camouflaged epidermis.
Explosions continued relentlessly above. Natalie quickly completed a full circle, and Lin Ye finished examining the blood-red runes in this area.
"Do another circle. I'll tell you where to alter the rune structures."
Lin Ye couldn't sense these runes, but he could deduce their functions from their shapes. All he needed was to change the rune structures at some key positions, and he could completely transform the function of this rune deep pit.
Though he wasn't sure if it would work either, after all, this was the first time he'd ever done something like this.
Thud!
Natalie was suddenly sent flying by a punch. If her epidermis hadn't been tough enough, she would have been killed in a single blow.
"Still alive, huh? I thought you were just some little bug that snuck in, but turns out you're a big fish."
A Humanoid Figure covered in thick, sturdy tentacles appeared at the spot where Natalie had been standing. It didn't continue attacking but stood in place, sensing Natalie's exact condition.
"Ninth-tier spiritual energy user. Use your combat form directly. It can't beat you."
Lin Ye spoke up.
"Got it."
The camouflaged epidermis retracted to her back, and Natalie instantly entered combat mode.