Chapter 1060: A Blank-Staring Lius

Cute, small octopuses swam in the ocean, their delicate, soft tentacles gracefully swaying with the water currents.

"Hehehe! This is Jellyfish Fields, Patrick!" The giant sponge cube, entangled with vines and holding a net on a stick, let out an unsettling laugh. "Come quickly, let's catch some jellyfish!"

Rheos felt something was deeply wrong. It wasn't that he hadn't seen such bizarre and evil scenes before; he had encountered far more uncanny and sinister things in the terrifying and malevolent ruins of ancient civilizations—places that were evil, bizarre, terrifying, and unfathomable. But this place was merely the living world of evolving species...

"He didn't know what civilization these beings were from," he thought. "Perhaps their own civilization was simply that evil, and they were merely using this to play tricks and deceive."

He sneered, turned, and left. He couldn't be bothered to get involved with these bizarre creatures. Moreover, he sensed an extremely eerie and sinister, immense evil here—something he had never felt in his entire life! It faintly emanated from that crude stone castle, "the Krusty Krab," and gave him goosebumps.

"Patrick, hurry up!" SpongeBob yelled.

Splash. Rheos paid no attention and instantly swam away. His speed in the water was immense; no bizarre underwater bushes or corals could possibly compare.

"The jellyfish are getting away, SpongeBob, watch this—" A booming, muffled voice echoed. "Macho Man Form!"

Behind him, an explosion echoed, inexplicably making Rheos's scalp tingle."Roots of the Old Tree!""Tree Realm Entanglement!""Needle-and-Thread Insertion!"

Countless species were instantly and brutally captured by nets of interwoven trees and vines, almost entirely caught in a single swoop in just a few breaths.

"Trees, nets, restraints..." Rheos's face completely fell.

At this moment, he finally knew what this was: the legendary "running plants," that terrifying race with the first-mover advantage!

Weren't they supposed to be trees? How could trees dive into the deep sea? Wasn't there someone on the forum fiercely uniting to resist this ancient, mysterious civilization, even reporting on their racial intelligence, and claiming they were currently slaughtering and massacring wildly on land?

"SpongeBob, we caught a jellyfish.""Patrick, let's take it back quickly; Squidward must be getting impatient." The two ran back hand in hand, joyfully, stirring up a good amount of mud and sand on the seabed.

Splash. He himself was completely ensnared in a net and brought into that strange, crude stone fortress. Soon, he was tossed into a corner, where he saw other bizarre creatures, just like him, who had been captured and tied up like zongzi.

Seeing this scene, his mind instantly reeled. These dozen or so captured species were utterly enraged, looking at the messages on the forum.

"Come quickly, we are in the seventh land area, cornering and killing this treant on a vast grassland! Let's first kill them and clear them out!""We are close to winning! Their race has suffered heavy losses, who can help!""Hurry! Everyone gather on land and encircle them!"

"Hehehe." He sneered a few times. Looking at the outwardly calm individuals around him, he suspected these were all messages posted by those who had been captured.

They deliberately misled others to go ashore, claiming a great battle had already begun on land. In reality, it was an insinuation for others to hide in the sea, because trees couldn't swim underwater and would float, making the sea an extremely safe place. This was a blind spot in thinking, and surely many would choose to go into the sea, waiting for the great battle to unfold.

"It must have been the first person who tried to hide in the sea and got caught... Then they used this trick to lure other beings." He sneered a few times. These guys were old relics who had lived for tens of thousands of years, cunning and shrewd. Not a single word directly told others to enter the sea, yet they all subtly hinted that entering the sea was the safest option.

"A bunch of sly old foxes," he thought. He quietly exhaled.

Having roamed the world for many years, he considered himself a seasoned veteran, yet he had still been outsmarted. These guys were far from simple. He shook his head, then looked at the forum, which had previously only had a hundred pages, but had now soared to five or six hundred pages. He posted a comment:

"I've rushed here for support! They are indeed strong, but they are almost exhausted. I hope someone can rush to assist! Otherwise, once we are all wiped out, no one on this land will be able to stop them, and the entire land might be purged by them!"

As soon as the message was sent, he quietly observed the other species, while feigning nonchalance about being tied up on the ground.

Indeed, being captured once meant facing death once.

Three deaths meant being eliminated from the game.

After three deaths, a fourth rebirth required enormous resources, resources that even powerful beings like them found incredibly painful to acquire.

After all, this was Naithera's scheme. For those wealthy, old "leeks" (a term for easily exploitable individuals) who lacked evolutionary potential but still wanted to enter, an unimaginably exorbitant price had been set.

"Since they aren't killing us and aren't in a hurry for us to die, I'll observe the others first..." Rheos took a deep breath. After all, dying was also a skill; it wasn't something one could do at will. Their captors had even stuffed something into their throats to prevent them from committing suicide.

"But it was useless..." Rheos shook his head. "It wasn't that no one had ever thought of keeping a creature imprisoned indefinitely to prevent it from committing suicide. But we can control biological evolution, and we can also evolve suicidal bodily mechanisms."

It just required some time.

Therefore, he felt confident and secure.

Soon, he saw a small, green algae-like creature who introduced itself as Plankton. It was none other than the Brainworm Deity, seriously recording and observing their data.

Indeed, they had been captured to observe their species evolution data.

But there was nothing to be done. Caught alive and unable to quickly commit suicide, they were at the mercy of their captors.

"Hmm, about twenty-seven, I think..." the Brainworm Deity mused. "All species are accounted for, even birds; that should be enough. And they all have good bloodlines. Perhaps they evolved from their own racial populations. I guess we can now make the 'Möbius Ring'?" As it said this, a hint of horror appeared on its face, and it looked at them with pity.

Soon, inside this crude stone fortress, Patrick and SpongeBob walked in from outside and began further data research and investigation.

"Huh? This one, is it from the Great Octopus race?" SpongeBob quickly noticed this and was startled. "A Great Octopus, and a Ninth-Order Master?"

Patrick also seemed surprised, and he and SpongeBob whispered to each other,

"What should we do?""I don't know, a Ninth-Order Great Octopus, with this physique, must be incredibly strong...""Considering our relationship with Lehnemanns, it wouldn't be good to kill him, would it?"

Nearby, Rheos found this peculiar. It seemed they were very familiar with his race, and even knew Lehnemanns... He kept feeling that term was a mishearing. What "relationship" with him?

He had guessed that this race might be ancient. After all, the last time "The Garden of Annihilation" opened, it must have been hundreds of thousands of years ago, right? But for this race to know Lehnemanns, who had already fallen, was truly strange...

At this point, these few players were earnestly discussing it, not caring much about it. They just wanted to do someone a favor, and it wouldn't make much difference to them anyway.

"Also, Squidward is also a member of this race. How about we inform Squidward?""I think so. It doesn't really matter anyway."

A short while later, Rheos was led out, under the envious gaze of the others.

As for Rheos, he also saw inside the stone house a Great Octopus somewhat similar to himself. From its bloodline structure, it was clearly likely from his own kin.

It was currently soaking in a tub that reeked to high heaven, like a putrid swamp, evolving species within it.

"What are you doing?" Rheos was stunned. He naturally knew he had kin in ancient ruins, but he never bothered with them, letting them fend for themselves.

"Oh, this is a method of evolution." The Great Octopus shook its head, looking resolute and diligently cultivating. "This is something done by the Star Constellation Sect, an ancient lineage of esoteric arts from their Buddhist and Daoist traditions... Before you is the Divine King's Wooden Cauldron, where all the world's poisons, filth, decaying matter, and corpses are collected and steeped. Through daily refinement, one can forge the 'Thousand Spiders, Ten Thousand Poisons Body'."

Rheos didn't react immediately. The other party should have been excited to see their ancestor; why were they so calm?

He was the Sixth Inspector, possessing supreme power and talent. With just a flick of his finger, he could make his kin prosper.

This kin before him could absolutely not have reached the Ninth Order; they were merely a deity. He himself knew best how difficult it was for his race to reach the Ninth Order!

However, this Great Octopus, merely an Eighth-Order deity, glanced at him calmly while bathing in the sea of poison. "You're behind the times, a pitiful country bumpkin. Even if I told you, you wouldn't understand... I am evolving the world's most evil and ancient species—the Asura."

Asura? At this moment, Rheos was completely captivated.

It seemed this kin of his had had their own fortuitous encounter. They had actually climbed onto a powerful backing—some unimaginable ancient civilization—and were still using their "evolutionary knowledge" to evolve species?

His eyes darted. Knowing he truly might not have to die now, he quickly laughed and said, "It seems our race has truly risen; you're already evolving species. What is Asura? I just heard them mention the 'Möbius Ring'... Is it some kind of ritual? Does evolution also require rituals?"

The Great Octopus looked at the people nearby. The others, however, didn't seem to care. They were merely "connections," and one less wouldn't matter. If he was released, he was released; it could be considered giving face to the Great Octopus and Lehnemanns.

"Consider yourself lucky," the surrounding players said, laughing and spreading their hands with faces full of pity. "Since you can't understand the truth of this 'garden,' it means that after leaving the Cosmos Garden, after Lehnemanns' era, you've become a pitiful country bumpkin who knows nothing."

This contempt, this look as if they were seeing a country native, made Rheos's face darken.

If they were outside, he would have long since slapped these beings to death, wouldn't he? And they were still yelling here?

Also, what did their words mean? This ancient, mysterious civilization not only knew about this place, but did Lehnemanns, back then, also know about this land?

He felt very bewildered, and was lost in a fog.

The Great Octopus took a deep breath and also cast a pitying glance at its "ancestor." "There are some things I cannot say... because your realm, ancestor, isn't high enough. However, you can certainly ask about this species right before us."

Even a descendant was looking at him as if he were a bumpkin? There was no greater disdain than this.

Veins bulged on Rheos's face.

Because for beings of their level, knowledge was power; to deem one's knowledge insufficient was to deem them incredibly weak.

But with his immense forbearance, he still calmed down. After all, when one is under another's roof, it was best if he didn't have to die this time. There was no need to turn hostile. He smiled and said, "So, this Asura..."

"This is an ancient legend." The Great Octopus's expression was somewhat horrified as it recounted the information the players had given it. "Once, on this land, all things evolved, but there once appeared an incredibly terrifying overlord, striking fear into all who heard his name. His name was... Asura."

"So, that's the creature you are currently evolving?" Rheos's eyes gleamed. Exchanging knowledge and acquiring certain information was a huge benefit and treasure to him.

"Yes, that's the one." The Great Octopus took a deep breath. "Back then, fighting was very popular in that land for a while. This treant species was one of the few prominent ones at the time... but it still couldn't compare to a terrifying, foul, evil, and repulsive being that once rarely left that land. That being was an extremely evil deviant. At that time, a powerful entity used alchemy to refine a species of life's origin, full of vitality and representing the genesis of all things..."

Upon hearing this, Rheos was greatly alarmed.

A transcendent species symbolizing the origin of life?

It seemed the history of "The Garden of Annihilation" was very ancient and mysterious, and many events had unfolded during its last opening.

The Great Octopus continued: "After that species, representing life, departed, there were no strong entities left in that entire land. Then, a certain entity suddenly had a peculiar idea: if there was something representing all life, then there should also be something representing all death. He began to evolve an original species that represented death and evil...

He began to ponder, what is death? The Five Signs of Decay among Devas... filthy clothes, withered flowers on the head, sweat under the armpits, and a foul body odor. At the same time, he referenced ancient texts and discovered that human excretion was a place for discharging filth and accumulating grime, symbolizing defilement and dirtiness. "Perhaps he could pursue this direction?"

Rheos felt something was amiss.

The Great Octopus also took a deep breath. "So, he was a madman. Since he was to represent filth and toxins, he evolved the dung beetle—a creature that feeds on feces. Then, not satisfied, he evolved the stink bug, which emits extremely foul-smelling gas. Next came fermenting, decaying transcendent animal corpses and melted corpse fluid, all steeped within. In short, all impurities converged in one place, and evolution occurred within them."

Rheos listened to this historical account. This point wasn't surprising; some evil cultivation techniques in the cosmos were practiced in a similar manner.