Chapter 113: Locking Eyes with a God

Miraculously, his consciousness didn't collapse, no matter how many negative emotions and intrusive thoughts flooded his mind.

His mind held on, but his body couldn't bear the strain. Under the gaze of such an existence, the cells throughout his body showed faint signs of genetic collapse.

He tried to summon Bubai, intending to retreat into the Shadow Space, but Bubai's response was incredibly weak. As if on the brink of death, the shadow rippled like disturbed water before falling completely dormant.

He had completely lost his connection to Bubai.

It seemed the gaze had injured Bubai as well.

Was he going to die? No wonder no one had ever made it out of the Black Fog. With an entity like this inside, even a gold-tier powerhouse would face certain death.

Su Mu never expected to die simply because some existence had glanced at him.

But none of that mattered now. 'Then I'm going to look right back at you.'

Rip!

The silver mark between his eyebrows tore open, revealing a Silver Vertical Pupil. His cold, indifferent eye locked onto the dark yellow pupil in the sky above, like two Gods exchanging a gaze.

The moment the Silver Vertical Pupil appeared, the deranged whispers in Su Mu's ears vanished instantly, as if the hallucination had never existed.

Yet the physical collapse of his body didn't slow down. He simply couldn't withstand the eyeball's gaze.

Without the slightest hesitation, Su Mu instantly activated the Silver Vertical Pupil!

Boom!!

A brilliant silver light erupted from the eye, transforming into a silver pillar that bridged heaven and earth. It slammed viciously into the dark yellow pupil.

The silver beam was incredibly thin, like a toothpick piercing a massive bubble. Accompanied by a massive bursting sound—Bang!

The dark yellow eyeball exploded. Thick, yellow-green pus rained down, falling onto the rocks below with a violent, sizzling corrosion.

Su Mu immediately downed his last bottle of Vitality Potion to recover from the exhaustion caused by the silver eye. Moving like a nimble dancer, he darted back and forth to dodge the falling pus.

Mixed within the yellow-green pus were solid, egg-like objects encased in the thick slime. They shattered upon hitting the ground, and Snakefolk crawled out from within. Covered entirely in black scales, they had serpentine bodies yet possessed arms and legs. Their identical dark yellow vertical pupils locked onto Su Mu as if they had spotted prey.

[Myriad Phenomena]!

Believing in striking first, Su Mu directly cast his Illusion Technique to deceive the Snakefolk, but he failed. Although a brief flash of confusion crossed the creatures' eyes, their gazes never wavered from him.

'Heat sensing?'

It seemed the Snakefolk possessed some of the natural traits of regular serpents.

It was common knowledge that snakes had terrible eyesight. They didn't rely on sight to hunt, but rather heat sensing. They could perceive the infrared rays emitted by surrounding objects.

Su Mu hadn't expected to be so unlucky. The originally powerful [Myriad Phenomena] kept running into its natural counters. Furthermore, the mental strength of these Snakefolk was not weak; he couldn't instantly hypnotize them as he could with ordinary people.

Gradually, more and more Snakefolk were born. Their numbers had already broken past a thousand and continued to surge. Like newborns, they adapted to their newly formed bodies, and then, driven by their feeding instincts, fixed their eyes on Su Mu.

By then, Su Mu had already run far away. He wasn't stupid; how could he just sit there and wait for death? Looking back, that giant eyeball seemed very much like some kind of broodmother, existing solely to incubate these Snakefolk.

He sprinted madly, moving so fast that he completely lost the Snakefolk in mere moments. But this bit of distance wasn't enough for him to escape, because the Snakefolk's speed was also increasing.

Their growth rate was astonishing. It took them less than a minute to go from stumbling like infants to sprinting as if they were flying.

Even though Su Mu was out of their line of sight, they seemed to possess a special perception that kept him firmly locked down as they closely followed behind.

'What kind of monsters are these Snakefolk? And what was the origin of that giant eyeball?'

Even while running, Su Mu kept calmly thinking. He even felt that the giant eyeball was connected to a God. The feeling it gave off was very similar to the Primal Angel from before, and it was only by relying on the Primal Angel's power that he had pierced the eye.

'If the eyeball was a God, wouldn't these Snakefolk be the offspring of a God?'

The Nightmare World was indeed spectacular. Just how many more secrets were hidden here?

He ran for about half an hour, but the footsteps in the Black Fog behind him were still following, now mixed with the sound of friction and crawling, like countless venomous snakes winding their way across the ground.

He knew the Snakefolk had grown again. They had gone from initially running on their legs to now using both their legs and snake tails.

Hiss...

The sound of a flickering tongue appeared behind Su Mu's back. A Snakefolk had already rushed over, opening its bloody maw wide and viciously snapping its sharp fangs at him.

As if he had eyes in the back of his head, Su Mu ducked to dodge the strike, then swiftly spun around and planted a flawless [Great Force Bombardment Punch] squarely on the snake's head.

The moment his fist connected with its black scales, he had the illusion of punching solid steel, or perhaps hitting Yang Dongqing.

Bang!

The Snakefolk was sent flying several meters away, but it merely shook its head and stood back up like it was completely fine.

At this moment, Su Mu felt like a newbie account that had accidentally wandered into a Hell dungeon, unable to defeat even a single basic mob.

The Black Fog that legends claimed even gold-tier powerhouses struggled to walk out of was indeed terrifying to this degree. He had only just begun his exploration, and no one knew how many terrifying monsters were still hidden within the endless Black Fog.

"Barring any surprises, I'm really going to die this time." Su Mu sighed softly, as if lamenting something.

He wasn't lamenting his own life, but rather that he had just found such an interesting place and had to stop after only exploring the tip of the Nightmare World's iceberg.

By this time, quite a few Snakefolk had already closed in. After their growth spurt, their speed had surpassed Su Mu's.

The icy snake pupils unique to cold-blooded animals stared at him, holding nothing but predatory instinct in their eyes.

"Then let's do one more shot." The Silver Vertical Pupil between Su Mu's eyebrows lit up. This was his only method capable of killing the Snakefolk, though unfortunately, it was only one shot at a time.

Boom!

The silver pillar of light once again illuminated the endless Black Fog, viciously piercing through the Snakefolk in a straight line. The hard black scales were like paper in the face of the silver light. A single strike wiped out over a hundred Snakefolk.

After the strike, Su Mu's breathing grew ragged, and a wave of weakness surged through his entire body. He had to lean on the Snakewood Cane in his hand just to keep himself from collapsing.

He had no more Vitality Potions, and even if he did, it would be useless. He had used the Silver Vertical Pupil three times in a single day, overdrawing his body to the absolute limit. If it wasn't for his formidable mental strength supporting him, he would have passed out long ago.

At this point, he had fallen into complete desperation. His physical and mental strength were both exhausted, Bubai was heavily injured and dormant, and his Transcendent Potions were practically used up.

The charging Snakefolk, however, ground to a halt. A flicker of instinctual fear surfaced in their cold snake pupils. They were clearly terrified by the Primal Angel's power, hesitating and refusing to step forward for the moment.

The scene settled into a stalemate. One side lacked the strength to act, while the other didn't dare to act. The two sides faced off in the Black Fog, surrounded by complete silence.