A massive inferno rained down from the skies. Cyclones made up of flaming energy raged through the entire battlefield as two cultivators worked together. Zhang Liena was on one side and Huo Qiang was on the other. Both had managed to toss their differences aside to open a path for Zhang Dong.
The monster they were focusing on was really tremendous and composed mostly of water. This would leave Huo Qiang weakened by the extensive Dao of water swirling around. Only with Liena's help who was able to fan the flames to the next level were the two able to compete with the monster's defenses.
Those tentacles started crumbling and had the water trapped inside to evaporate. While Water was the weakness of fire it went both ways. With a high enough temperature, all water would evaporate and be unable to reform back into its old shape. This immense heat was affecting the monster's regenerative capabilities as the withered tendrils were not being replaced by new ones.
This was all done to give him some time and open up the path. The monster's size and tree trunk-sized tentacles had been wrapped around each other to form something resembling muscle fibers. These fibers were quite hard and would be almost impossible to break through. Now with the heat turned up Zhang Dong could attempt his plan of entering this creature's body.
There was no reason to fight this outer shell, it was obvious to them all that this was nothing more than a distraction. The more time they spent fighting the outside of this monster the more energy they would just waste. It more than likely had a lot more Qi to power itself that it was siphoning from somewhere inside that tentacle-covered castle. The fastest way to end this would be by Zhang Dong facing the real Empress on the inside.
While it was perhaps possible to overpower this last boss from the outside with the help of his flying fortress, he didn't want to prolong any of this. His current power level went above what the system should have been able to give to him. The seed inside of him had already absorbed multiple Daos which in his mind made him one of if not the strongest person in the world. He just needed to get in there to quickly finish all of this before any more of his sect members suffered critical injuries.
'Keep it busy while I'm in there, I won't take long.'
'Take care and return to me.'
'I will.'
Before shooting forward he sent one last message to his wife that was concentrating on the large centipede monster. Soon after he was shooting forward like an arrow drawn from a huge bow. His form was surrounded by swirling golden energy that was empowered by several others.
The creature before him reacted to the attack by defending itself with its many tentacles. The huge body was also surrounded by a strange dark blue haze of water energy. Luckily he was not alone as another man in flashy azure armor appeared to create a better path for him.
Zhang Zhi had also been boosted by his faction system and was in the possession of some powerful treasures. One of them was similar armor to those Huo Qiang and Zhang Liena were wearing. Coupled with a blade that could slice through almost anything he quickly let his attack fly.
A water dragon was formed from the piercing strike. It flew forwards to push the large amounts of tentacles and tendrils that were coming its way. Before it dispersed it even managed to create a small opening in the watery barrier the creature produced. This helped him tremendously as when he arrived he was already drilling into those huge muscle fibers with no resistance.
While he was surrounded by a lot of energy it began to slowly chip away the further he got inside the monster. This thing was really sturdy and even with the help from the heat on the outside he could feel the monster quickly regenerating this wound. If he didn't make it inside in one go then he would be trapped inside by these tentacle parts.
'Bob, are you sure there is an open space where I'm going for?'
'Affirmative.'
Zhang Dong didn't choose a random location to attack. Bob had previously scanned the palace for energy signatures. This allowed him to have a schematic of the entire place inside of his system. Then he just needed to let his Ai scan the whole creature to show him parts of the castle that weren't covered in tentacles.
Normally the Empress should have covered her real body or the core in a mass of tentacles that would render her unkillable. Yet for some reason, there was a section of new tunnels inside of the castle the monster was now wearing. If he saw this as another game map created by a higher being then this made sense. He was probably supposed to find an entrance and go through it to find the weak point. The world was giving him a way to end it and there was no reason to refuse this help.
'I might not make it… maybe I should have chosen a thinner area…'
This didn't mean that he didn't want to cheat the system slightly. There was one area that was quite thin and entering it wouldn't even need the help of his allies. Instead, he chose to attack a more robust section for the sole reason of hastening the whole process. That entrance point was directly at the start of the monster's centipede section. He would need to travel through the whole length which was another maze of tunnels. Thus he chose to go right into the castle part that didn't have that many of those passages.
'Luckily it's quite dark in here…'
His spiritual shield and swirling Qi that he covered himself was slowing down. The path that he created behind himself was already closed so there was no way of backtracking. Instead, he pointed out with his finger to generate one of his old attacks. A beam of concentrated light escaped creating a tiny opening to the chamber he wanted to arrive in.
'I can see some light there.'
His body shifted into a shadowy form and quickly traveled through the finger-sized opening he created. The little passageway he created began to get smaller and smaller until it was the size of a needle right at the end. This was enough for him as his shadowy form didn't need much space to squeeze through.
'I made it… but where did I really make it in?'
His body changed into his armored form after he canceled his shadowy technique. The place he found himself looked like some sort of bed chamber that perhaps one of the mermaids had used before. The whole place was destroyed and some of the black tentacles had gone through the walls to trash everything. When looking at those pulsating things everywhere he put up his guard but just as he expected, there was no reaction.
'It does seem like the walls will attack me at least…'
After taking this form the black tentacles shifted into something like muscles and had apparently lost their previous properties. They were now incapable of reacting to his presence and were nothing more than flesh that acted as a biological barrier. Even after giving them a few pokes with his finger he wasn't getting any adverse reactions which meant that he could safely traverse through this place by himself.
'Bob, search for the nearest route to this monster's core or its true body.'
'Scanning in progress…'
While going through this place he started looking around. There was actually some light on the side that was produced by some glowing pearls that replaced torches and candles. Most of this place was destroyed but some of the passages still remained. Now that he was walking through them he could examine some of them.
'This looks like the picture of the Empress… and only her pictures…'
It was a bit strange to see her face is drawn and placed everywhere. It was as if she was the only real person living in this gigantic castle. The other people were just clones that she could control so perhaps she chose not to get them immortalized in the art here.
'She might actually be some type of false immortal, there was mention of them inside some of the libraries.'
There was a distinction between a true immortal and a false immortal to the people living in this world. The former was someone that as the name stated, could live forever or at least had such a long lifespan that it felt like they lived for an eternity. The latter was someone that had to prolong their life through other means. If this woman had a way to insert her soul into cloned bodies without losing the essence in the process, then she would be in this category.
Zhang Dong didn't really have the experience of living in this world for too long. More of his time was wasted in the other world as he had lost a whole five years in this one while not feeling the time pass him at all. Even though he had no experience with living that long he was sure that it would probably affect a person's psyche.
'Can't live for hundreds of thousands of years and still be normal, it's probably even worse if they have to continue passing into new clone shells… would the memories of the person she takes over mix with her own or would they be erased beforehand?'
He kind of knew how this process should work. After analyzing the cloning devices and some of his knowledge about souls he could bring a thesis to the forefront. The technique was probably flawed in a few spots which made this person believe that she was the only real being left alive. Perhaps these cloned soldiers were nothing more than life extenders in her eyes. Even when they actually grew up normally and had their own dreams it didn't matter.
'I wonder what will happen to them after their leader is dead… I guess I'll find out soon enough…'
At first, he thought that making a deal with this creature would have been an option. After wandering through these tentacle-coveted halls his opinion had changed. It was better to let this false immortal fall before she ruined even more lives and the chamber that she was in had already been discovered.
'So that's where you are… it's time to end this.'