MM Racing Chapter 60 Belonging
Chapter 60 Belonging
"Transformed into a sacred lake?"
Xu Yang subconsciously turned around.
In a daze, something else seemed to rise from the air above the black lake.
Just how many people would it take to exchange for the black, slimy liquid in a lake?
His eyes held a coldness, as if he were asking out of curiosity.
"Isn't that black slime produced by inferior species?"
"That's one way to put it, but actually, any snake descendant that doesn't have enough evolutionary potential or has died can be integrated into the sacred lake."
"Humans aren't descended from snakes, are they?"
The monster in front turned its head, sticking out a long, thin, scarlet tongue, and said with a half-smile, "Have you forgotten how you gained intelligence? Just by turning humans into an inferior species."
"How many are there?"
"A few hundred billion, I guess," it said nonchalantly. "Transform them, add a bunch of war-dead trash, and with the power of the ancient spirits, they become our sacred lake."
Xu Yang seemed to hear some voices echoing in his mind, but he couldn't hear what came after that.
A hundred billion people...
His pupils contracted slightly.
An image uncontrollably unfolded in my mind—
The endless crowd, like livestock, was driven by fear to surge toward a black expanse of land.
Through the radiation of the ancient spirits or other mutations, people began to writhe in agony on the ground, and then more and more lay down, gradually forming a dark mass of alien beings.
People will watch as ugly black scales grow on their bodies, and the skin on their limbs becomes unfamiliar and painful.
Ultimately, it felt like being burned.
Muscles and bones fused together amidst screams, turning into drops of viscous fluid.
They converged in one place, becoming a boiling black lake.
It serves as a means of evolution for the serpent race, or as a means to reintegrate their kind into it.
Xu Yang felt a chill run down his spine.
He had no doubt that the backstory of genetic memory was true. In fact, even his cruelest conjecture seemed as gentle as a nursery rhyme compared to the truth.
This is not a war at all, it is a massacre.
On this planet, humanity was domesticated, transformed, and assimilated by these invaders like livestock. They drained its lifeblood, leading to the extinction of the race.
The reality is only colder.
After all, this is a species that devours its own kind, scorns the dead as "waste," and then squeezes out the last bit of value from them.
If this is true of their own kind, what about those who are different...? Their only value is probably to become a drop of nourishment for the sacred lake.
In silence, two figures walked one after the other toward the huge cone-shaped building in the center ahead.
It was a massive tower several thousand meters high, with spiral patterns all around it and strangely structured runes carved on it. The lowest level was a row of densely packed holes, which seemed to be the entrances to caves.
It was emitting the same black dust as the snake-tailed monster.
Clearly, there are many more snake people among them, which is probably why the streets were deserted before.
But what are these beasts doing here?
Xu Yang asked, "Why did you bring me here?"
"To the ancient spirits."
Without turning its head, the monster slid into the hole in the cone-shaped tower without hesitation.
Xu Yang paused at the cave entrance for a moment, looked around, and then followed him inside.
Facing us was a large, circular hall, unlit, yet filled with a thick, viscous dim light and dust that seemed to seep into the skin.
Above, protruding platforms resembling sharp teeth jut out from the wall, staggered and layered, extending upwards.
There are no steps, no handrails—this space was never designed for humans.
The only thing available for crawling on was the twisted patterns on the wall.
At the very top, surrounded by all the platforms, hangs a sphere that looks like a black hole.
It looks like an upside-down, tightly closed eye.
Countless black threads descended from that "eye," spreading densely across each platform and towards the ground.
Each black line ends up connected to a Serpent.
They stood silently, motionless.
Xu Yang looked to his side.
The Serpent Cult member who led him into the tower had closed his eyes and stood frozen in place, as if he had lost his soul.
A black thread was tied to the top of its head.
Before Xu Yang could figure out what the black line was, a new one appeared in front of him.
puff.
That was the sound Xu Yang had imagined.
In fact, when the black line "pierced" his brain, he felt no pain or discomfort.
The black line is not a real substance, but some kind of eerie light.
It only shone on his forehead.
The thought had not yet faded—
Xu Yang's vision was abruptly pulled away.
Without any warning, he felt himself being gripped by an invisible hand and violently pulled upwards.
The ground, the towers, the city—everything shrinks into blurry blocks of color in an instant.
The city of the serpents became a tiny black dot in the abyss.
Before he could even feel the shock, he was suddenly thrown into the air at an altitude of ten thousand meters, and paused for a moment—
Then, weightlessness.
His vision suddenly flipped, and he began to fall.
A shriek emanated from some level of consciousness as the city ground hurtled toward him, getting closer and closer until he could see every twisted line on the black stone slab.
The next moment—
boom.
Without impact, he pierced through the ground.
A low, muffled hum reverberated deep within my consciousness, as if it had pierced some kind of membrane.
Below, there was endless darkness.
The darkness was profound and living, like a force that actively swallowed everything.
Hollow, lifeless, despairing...
A barrage of negative sensory experiences followed.
This is the center of this planet.
Xu Yang knew instinctively.
But now it seems that everything has disappeared, and the Earth's core has become an empty, dark void.
Wait, there seems to be something else deep inside?
My gaze continued to fall...
Finally, he saw it.
It wasn't that I saw it; rather, after my consciousness was pried open, that figure forced its way in.
It was a snake.
A snake that swallows its own tail and connects the two tails to form a ring.
He hung there silently in the center of the empty darkness.
Thoughts froze the moment He was observed.
Xu Yang tried to see His whole form, but his shallow consciousness could not grasp His details.
All that could be seen were pitch-black scales.
But above the darkness flowed colors that did not belong to any spectrum, seemingly shining with the brilliance of stars.
Strange and vibrant colors.
So much so that the darkness was glowing.
A contradictory concept holds true at this moment.
Xu Yang's consciousness felt as if it were being swelled up.
Then, a name popped into my head—
Gu Ling.
The literal translation is "ancient being," which is a descriptive term. As for His true name, perhaps no one is qualified to know.
This applies to humans as well as to the serpent race.
His gaze was fixed on Him, unable to break free, as if drawn by an attraction on a conscious level.
A second could be ten thousand years.
The figure finally cast a glance at him, and even though it seemed to make no move, it was a gaze that dissected his entire body.
It was devoid of any emotion, indifferent, and magnificent.
……
I don't know how much time passed.
A faint connection was suddenly established between him and Gu Ling.
Xu Yang's gaze shifted, and he realized he was free again. At the same time, Gu Ling also withdrew her gaze.
The space was filled with profound darkness, as if the gaze had never existed.
Then, something sprouted in his heart.
A warm, gently flowing sense of belonging.
Suddenly, the image of the Serpent race flashed through his mind—those slender, scale-covered figures, their outlines suddenly becoming so fluid and harmonious. In contrast, the bald, soft human bodies in his memory, covered only by a thin layer of skin… were ugly, repulsive, and disgusting.
Xu Yang's consciousness convulsed for a moment.
wrong!
No, no, no!
He held onto this thought tightly in his mind, his eyes filled with coldness.
Cognitive change!
The moment this word surfaced in my mind, my slumbering will was awakened, and my thoughts were firmly shut off from the eerie sense of belonging.
Only then did the distorted aesthetic slowly disappear, allowing the soul to catch its breath.
The feeling of terror subsided, but Xu Yang didn't even have time to feel relieved.
Suddenly, his gaze froze.