Sunny and Krax descended the spiral bone-staircase, explicitly leaving the toxic, ash-choked atmosphere of the Abyssal Front behind.
The door to the vault was designed to be operated by a single Vanguard commander.
The interior of the vault was devoid of dark Qi, a deliberate design to quarantine the space from the holy radiation above.
It was barren, containing only a few rusted iron cots and heavy, sealed crates of compressed blood-rations.
Sunny explicitly calculated the logistical reality of the vault. The Vanguard commanders had designed this space purely for human survival.
The air was breathable, and the rations were sufficient to sustain a cultivator for the mandated lunar cycle.
However, the complete lack of ambient dark Qi meant that any demonic beast trapped down here would slowly, agonizingly starve, their spiritual cores withering from sheer malnutrition.
He glanced toward the corner where his menagerie had gathered.
The Sovereign Ghoul Ape, forced to crouch in the confined space, radiated a faint, hungry aura. The Phantom Ash Scorpion clicked its pincers nervously, explicitly sensing the sterility of the environment.
Sunny was entirely unbothered. He possessed the Abyssal Void-Sac, which currently hovered near the ceiling. Within its extra-dimensional pocket, Sunny had stored enough Corrupted Spirit Stones and highly refined toxic catalysts to artificially sustain his fiends for months. He explicitly did not intend to let his beasts starve, nor did he intend to leave this vault until the holy crusade above burned itself out.
Krax, the rat-faced scout, immediately began pacing the perimeter of the vault, examining the heavily warded vents. He was sweating profusely.
"S-Supreme One," Krax stammered, pulling a thick, lead-lined cloak from his pack. "The ambient radiation from the Orthodox artillery above may still leak through the ventilation shafts. I humbly advise you to don the protective shroud. A single holy spark could cause profound soul-blisters."
Sunny remained perfectly still, his dark robes flowing around him. He explicitly chose not to change into the heavy, cumbersome lead cloak. He pulled a small, cursed bone-vial from his sash, containing a concentrated, black liquid he had formulated during his isolation. It was ’Shadow-Weave Nectar,’ a highly potent dark-alchemy paste designed to temporarily obscure a cultivator’s aura from holy detection.
Sunny casually poured the viscous liquid into his palm and smeared it across his pale cheekbones and the back of his neck.
He didn’t bother offering any to Krax. He explicitly knew that because he had tethered his soul to the Sanguine Void-Leech, any minor holy radiation that managed to penetrate the vault and blister his skin would be instantaneously healed by the parasite’s Yin Qi. Krax’s heavy cloak was redundant for a master of flesh-mending.
Krax stared at Sunny’s exposed skin, explicitly bewildered by the Young Master’s absolute lack of self-preservation. "Your... your physical vessel is impenetrable, Supreme Patriarch. I am but a fragile insect."
"We will secure the perimeter," Sunny commanded, his voice a flat, emotionless void. He explicitly wanted to explore the vast, subterranean network connected to the vault to ensure no stray Orthodox Paladins had breached the lower tunnels. Sitting in a single room for a month was tactically unsound.
Sunny led the way, with the towering Ghoul Ape walking silently at the rear, its massive, dark-metal frame occasionally scraping against the low, petrified ceiling.
They navigated the sterile, winding corridors of the leviathan marrow. The silence was oppressive, broken only by the heavy, rhythmic thuds of the Ape’s footsteps.
Sunny explicitly focused on the System’s diagnostic overlay, utilizing his vision to scan the dark corners for any lingering threats. In the Demonic Path, assuming a ’safe zone’ was actually safe was a guaranteed method of dying.
"Blood... sustenance..."
A faint, psychic transmission echoed in Sunny’s mind. It was the Sanguine Void-Leech, safely hidden within the Void-Sac above his head. The healer was explicitly sensing a massive concentration of vital fluids nearby.
Sunny paused, holding up a pale finger.
Krax immediately froze, his heart hammering against his ribs. He explicitly believed the Supreme Flesh-Crafter was about to harvest his soul.
Sunny stared into the gloom of the corridor ahead. To the naked eye, there was nothing but a jagged outcropping of petrified bone extending from the ceiling.
However, the Supreme Merge System explicitly highlighted the outcropping with a glowing, red data frame.
[Target Identified: Abyssal Choke-Weed]
[Monster Level]: Tier 2 (Elite)
[Monster Grade]: Normal
[Monster Attribute]: Wood / Poison
[Condition]: Dormant (Camouflaged)
Sunny explicitly recognized the lethal ambush predator. The Choke-Weed was a parasitic vine that perfectly mimicked the texture of petrified bone. It hung silently from ceilings, waiting to drop a highly acidic, suffocating noose around the neck of unsuspecting prey.
"Ape," Sunny commanded via telepathy. "Target the jagged protrusion. Absolute kinetic force. Do not utilize the resonance."
He explicitly forbade the resonance because vibrating the structural support of a subterranean tunnel could collapse the entire vault on their heads.
The Sovereign Ghoul Ape explicitly understood the parameters. It did not roar or prepare an elaborate incantation. It simply stepped forward, its massive, dark-metal arm blurring with impossible velocity.
CRASH.
The Ape’s fist slammed directly into the petrified bone outcropping. The sheer kinetic impact shattered the ceiling, sending jagged shards of leviathan marrow raining down into the corridor.
A horrific, high-pitched shriek echoed through the tunnel as the ’bone’ suddenly began to writhe and bleed a viscous, green sap. The Abyssal Choke-Weed, violently torn from its camouflage, fell heavily to the floor. Its thick, thorny vines thrashed erratically, attempting to wrap around the Ape’s legs, but the beast’s dark-metal bones were entirely impervious to the acidic thorns.
The Ghoul Ape casually raised its heavy foot and stomped downward, explicitly crushing the central core of the parasitic vine into a pulverized, green paste.
Krax stared at the crushed remains, his jaw slack with absolute terror. He explicitly realized that if he had walked down that corridor first, the Choke-Weed would have decapitated him before he could even scream.
"Your... your omniscient sight is terrifying, Supreme One," Krax whispered, trembling violently.
"The marrow," Sunny ordered coldly, pointing at the crushed vine.
Sunny explicitly knew the highly toxic sap of the Choke-Weed was an excellent, cheap catalyst for his Phantom Ash Scorpion. He ordered Krax to manually harvest the green sludge into several glass vials, completely ignoring the scout’s terrified whimpers as the acidic sap lightly blistered his hands.
Continuing deeper into the subterranean network, the sterile environment gradually gave way to a damp, humid atmosphere. The sound of running fluid echoed softly in the distance.
They eventually emerged into a massive, cavernous chamber.
The center of the chamber was dominated by a sprawling, subterranean blood-lake. The thick, crimson fluid bubbled slowly, radiating a heavy, ambient dark Qi that the isolation vaults lacked. It was explicitly an ancient feeding reservoir designed to sustain massive siege-beasts.
"A blood-reservoir," Krax muttered, his eyes wide with desperate thirst.
As they approached the edge of the viscous lake, a sudden, sharp hiss erupted from the bubbling surface directly near Sunny’s boots.
A grotesque, bulbous head the size of a melon suddenly broke the surface of the blood. It possessed no eyes, merely a massive, circular maw lined with jagged, inward-facing teeth.
The creature violently spat a thick, foul-smelling glob of highly corrosive black bile directly at Sunny’s dark robes.
Sunny did not flinch, though his civilian mind explicitly screamed in disgust. The bile struck his robes, instantly sizzling against the heavy fabric.
[Target Identified: Bile-Spitting Toad]
[Monster Level]: Tier 1 (Novice)
[Monster Grade]: Normal
[Monster’s Likes]: Spitting highly corrosive bile at apex predators.
[Monster Weakness]: 1. Extreme Cold. 2. Lightning. 3. Profoundly infuriated when spat upon in retaliation; will suffer severe core-aneurysms out of pure rage.
Sunny stared blankly at the System’s blue text. He explicitly marveled at the sheer, suicidal stupidity of demonic biology. The toad explicitly enjoyed spitting acid at creatures capable of instantaneously erasing its existence.
Even more absurd was its third weakness.
Sunny explicitly did not intend to spit on a giant toad. He found the concept profoundly disgusting. However, he also explicitly did not want to waste his fiends’ energy on a Tier 1 nuisance.
Sunny maintained his flawless, chilling mask of absolute apathy. He stared down at the eyeless, burbling toad.
He slowly gathered a dense ball of his own dark-alchemy infused saliva in his mouth, augmented by the toxic ’Shadow-Weave Nectar’ he had smeared on his face earlier.
With absolute, terrifying precision, Sunny spat directly onto the center of the toad’s bulbous, eyeless head.
The Bile-Spitting Toad froze completely.
The creature’s primitive, spiteful biological logic-array violently short-circuited. It explicitly could not comprehend the sheer, unimaginable disrespect of being spat upon by an apex predator.
The toad swelled rapidly, its skin turning a vibrant, pulsing purple as its internal core pressure skyrocketed from pure, unadulterated rage. It let out a suffocated, bubbling shriek before a loud pop echoed across the blood-lake.
The toad explicitly died of a massive brain aneurysm, entirely unable to process the insult, floating lifelessly to the surface of the blood.
Krax stared at the floating corpse, then looked up at Sunny in absolute, paralyzed awe. He explicitly believed the Supreme Flesh-Crafter had just utilized a forbidden, highly concentrated blood-curse projected entirely through his saliva, instantaneously executing a fiend with a single, contemptuous spit.
"Your... your toxicity is absolute, Supreme Patriarch," Krax whispered, explicitly terrified of ever annoying the Young Master, lest he be executed with a loogie.