Fang Senyan stared down at the Hai-Chimera eggs settled at the bottom, a strange, indescribable sensation rising in his chest, for he noticed that compared to the eggs he had previously gathered, these emitted an ineffable luminescence—what Miss Wuge described as "soul"—yet, conversely, they lacked the fierce, arrogant heat contained within the others he’d found.

"There must be some secret here I haven't yet grasped," Fang Senyan murmured to himself.

Deep within one of the rock crevices, the Reef was visible, wrapped in viscous slime near the end—sprawled on the ground, coughing violently. He was, after all, a contractor; even that monstrous giant octopus, the Hai-Chimera, despite its immense power, could not maintain permanent mental control over him. After draining Reef's remaining utility as labor, it had commanded its few half-orc slaves to tie him up thoroughly and dump him in this fissure. Presumably, thinking Reef a useful asset that could be controlled again later, it hadn't disposed of him entirely.

Before Reef’s face lay five or six giant eggs, each the size of a coconut. Their shells were not hard, but rather thin, gelatinous, and highly pliable. Within them, the outlines of tentacles could be seen writhing restlessly. Periodically, a nipple-like protrusion atop each giant egg would spray a jet of fluid onto Reef's face. This fluid was thick and glue-like; when it accumulated, it could easily cause suffocation, explaining Reef’s wretched state.

Fang Senyan rushed forward and, in a matter of moments, rescued Reef. Both had lost their gear bonuses, but they were still far stronger than ordinary men. Fang Senyan quickly tore the ropes binding Reef. At this point, Reef, doubled over, dry-heaved for a long time before finally catching his breath. He managed a wry smile: "You finally made it. I just swore an oath to my sword that if I could hold out another ten minutes here—no, five minutes—I wouldn't have lasted."

Fang Senyan laughed heartily and clapped him on the shoulder: "Better late than never."

Reef glared at Fang Senyan and snorted dismissively through his nostrils. Fang Senyan then asked Miss Wuge to bestow the Blessing of the Eldar upon him as well; regardless of whether his previous suspicions were correct, it was best to apply it first. Fang Senyan suddenly recalled something and immediately turned to Wuge: "I remember you said these Hai-Chimera eggs might be quite useful to you, right? Why don't we grab a few while the mother octopus is away?"

Wuge pressed her fingers to her brow—her silver hair rippled slightly—then shook her head faintly. "No, all the eggs are spiritually linked to the Hai-Chimera's main body right now!" As she spoke, a faint green light emanated from her body, enveloping both Fang Senyan and Reef. They both shuddered simultaneously, feeling as if they had been instantly transported into the void. They could see the surrounding rock, mountains, and water systems completely vanish, replaced by a clear, almost special-effect-like view of plant roots penetrating the strata, star-like threads of water grass, and the faint life signatures of several half-orc slaves not too far away.

Beyond that, clinging to the stone walls near the underground lake, they could see dense masses of fine, blue, straight lines spreading out like a spiderweb, connecting to a dense, almost substantial mass of blue far in the distance.

That blue was still surging—simultaneously evoking the image of a turbulent ocean and the mystery of a nebula. Because Fang Senyan and Reef were not seeing with their physical eyes but perceiving through their minds with Wuge's assistance, the sensory impact was doubly intense. They couldn't help but ask, "Is that thing the Hai-Chimera?"

Wuge hummed an affirmation and nodded slightly. She continued, "Yes. According to the records in the Rivendell Codex, the environment the legendary creature Hai-Chimera chooses for laying eggs is quite peculiar and demanding—though the details weren't fully documented. A genius finally figured out that they require this sort of hot-spring-like environment for incubation. But the Codex also states that legendary creatures like the Hai-Chimera are fiercely protective of their spawn, to the extent that they will starve rather than abandon their eggs during incubation. I don't know why it would leave the nesting pool at this time."

Just then! A difficult-to-describe red light erupted in the distance!!!

Brilliant and intense, filled with an arrogant majesty, a mass of concentrated, molten red light suddenly appeared and heavily collided with the mass of blue light!

In that instant, Fang Senyan, Reef, and Wuge simultaneously clutched their heads, staggering back seven or eight steps while letting out groans of intense pain. The illusion they had been witnessing instantly shattered like broken glass. Wuge suffered the deepest trauma among them; her face turned deathly pale as she clutched her head, appearing fragile and on the verge of collapse, like a weak willow swaying in the wind. She gasped for breath before finally recovering, yet she leaned softly against Fang Senyan’s chest.

Fang Senyan stepped forward to support her, then looked toward Reef, forcing back the splitting headache: "Did you get a clear look at what that red light was?"

Reef covered his head and shook it hard: "It was hot, a very clamorous feeling..."

Fang Senyan pressed hard on his temple with his left hand, desperately trying to dredge up clues from his memory, but the damned headache persistently interfered. He suddenly heard Reef, leaning against a nearby stone wall, say hoarsely, "Damn it, why is the temperature of this stone wall rising too?" Fang Senyan's heart leaped, and he suddenly seized Reef's arm: "When we first followed the outer canyon to its end, we found a grim cave." You told me it was extremely dangerous there—how did you know?"

Reef thought for a moment. "When I was first mentally controlled by that damned octopus, I not only had to constantly fetch water from the lake to pour over the eggs but also periodically take some eggs whose watering was complete to the rocks outside the eastern archway in the mountain belly. The rocks there were even hotter than this area."

"So, I saw that outside the eastern archway in the mountain belly, there were two branching paths. Going right for about a hundred meters led to the cave entrance you were about to enter. Looking left, it seemed bottomless, perhaps leading to a deep chasm beneath the earth. I could even see crisscrossing underground fissures, with faint, scorching red light seeping through. Even that giant monster Hai-Chimera seemed extremely wary and defensive of that direction. Those half-orcs were instinctively terrified," Fang Senyan's mind flashed through some data, and he suddenly asked, "Those initial coconut-sized eggs placed in front of me—were they incubated over there?"

Reef's face showed disgust as he nodded: "Yes. When these Hai-Chimera eggs devour each other until they are the size of an orange, they sink back beneath the slime, seemingly using the rock temperature here for incubation. After about five or six days, cracks would appear on the tops of the eggs. At that point, the cracked eggs had to be moved—taken outside the eastern archway in the mountain belly for final incubation. The rock temperature there was at least above thirty degrees Celsius. However, the hatching rate became very low at this stage; they would often crack quickly, and only a very small number of Hai-Chimera eggs could survive this stage and successfully grow to coconut size."

Fang Senyan took several deep breaths, then slowly exhaled: "I know what that ball of red light was!! In the movie, the only one who could directly clash with that damned fat octopus... besides another legendary creature of the same kind... who else could it be!! Only that creature could imbue cold stone with life-like warmth!!"

"...Servant of the Maiar Dark Lord, blood descendant of the Balrog tribe, the last holder of the Fire-Whip... a Balrog of Morgoth—Gothmog, Black Ash!!!"

As this string of titles left Fang Senyan's mouth, Wuge's complexion grew even paler. She weakly held her temples, her voice still clear and cool like dripping spring water, but noticeably weakened.

"My memories from a past life tell me that when Fëanor destroyed the Balrog leader, Morgoth, during the War of Wrath at the end of the First Age, the lives of most Balrogs also ended. But it is said that a few cowards fled into the underground caverns. That was a full six thousand years ago; could this Balrog have been lurking beneath the Misty Mountains for so long?"

Reef sighed wryly: "The reason I didn't get poisoned when I climbed over the rocks containing concentrated toxic gas, while you did, likely stems from this Balrog." Fang Senyan understood at once: "I get it. The Balrog is a monster that can impart body heat to stone; the temperature rises wherever it appears. When you climbed over those rocks, the Balrog probably went to sleep, so the toxic gas condensed at low temperatures, becoming heavier than air and accumulating in the low spots... I went near dawn when the Balrog was likely already bothering the big octopus. Influenced by it, the temperature rose, and the toxic gas evaporated, drifting upward."

Reef sighed again: "It's also likely that the Blessing of the Eldar you had on you at the time helped immensely, allowing you to blend with nature, which is why the octopus couldn't sense your presence." Just then, an indescribable sound traveled from the far reaches of the cavern—like water being poured onto glowing hot coal, a hissing sound amplified a hundredfold, immediately followed by roars of inexpressible rage. The sound was so powerful it shook small stones from the mountain ceiling, sending them rattling down in a shower of rock rain.

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