Strange Beasts Eerily Resembling Cthulhu

Gu Changyuan flew toward the depths of the Outer Realm.

As he ventured deeper, the surrounding scenery began to change drastically.

At first, scattered vegetation could still be seen.

Grayish-brown shrubs, dark red moss, and the occasional twisted, withered tree.

But soon, even that vegetation disappeared.

In its place was a desolate expanse of scorched earth.

The ground took on an eerie purple-black hue, its surface covered in a thin layer of ash.

The air was thick with the pungent stench of sulfur. Occasional fissures scarred the earth, faintly glowing with flowing dark red light from within.

The sky grew increasingly dark.

The already dim light now vanished almost entirely.

Replacing it was a bizarre dark purple canopy, like a curtain soaked in blood, pressing heavily down from above.

The surrounding spiritual energy also began to grow violent.

No longer the relatively stable spiritual energy found near the Outer Realm City, it was now chaotic, tyrannical, and brimming with hostility.

With every breath, one could feel the killing intent hidden within this energy.

Gu Changyuan's expression remained unchanged as he continued forward.

A transparent barrier had long since condensed around him, completely isolating the violent and chaotic spiritual energy.

The energy crashed against the barrier like invisible beasts, yet it could only stir faint ripples on its surface.

Fifteen minutes later, Gu Changyuan arrived in the sky above a cliff.

Below the cliff lay a massive pool of black water.

The pool was as black as ink, thick like liquid darkness, without the slightest ripple on its surface.

The entire environment was terrifyingly quiet. There was no sound of wind, no sound of water, and no noise from any living creature—only a deathly silence.

Even though the pool appeared perfectly normal and the environment was eerily tranquil, Gu Changyuan's soul power had already spread out, allowing him to clearly perceive what lay within.

Deep at the bottom of the pool lurked a colossal behemoth. Its aura was deliberately concealed, yet it still could not hide that nauseating presence.

"Hmph."

Gu Changyuan scoffed coldly, his voice echoing through the silent world.

"You were so arrogant just a moment ago. Now you know how to hide?"

A cold sneer curled the corners of his mouth.

"It's too late."

As his words fell, Gu Changyuan abruptly raised his right hand and pointed a finger through the air at the black pool below the cliff.

The Nine Tribulations Sword Formation hovering above instantly erupted with an absolute, world-dominating coercion that immediately enveloped the entire black pool area.

Immediately after, nine ancient longswords trembled simultaneously, emitting a loud hum as nine peerlessly sharp sword lights burst forth from their blades.

Carrying the might to tear heaven and earth apart, they coalesced in midair with a resounding boom, transforming into a giant sword light that spanned the heavens.

The sword light was dazzling and bone-chillingly cold. Like a heaven-cleaving blade swung by a deity, it fiercely slashed toward the black pool below.

"Boom—!!!"

An earth-shattering explosion shook the entire cliff violently, sending crushed rocks tumbling down.

The giant sword light viciously cleaved into the black pool, instantly tearing open the calm surface. A massive column of water erupted into the sky, hundreds of feet high, piercing the clouds.

It then exploded with a bang, sending black water splashing across the sky and pouring down like a torrential rain.

The bottom of the pool was forcibly split open by the sword light, revealing a bottomless ravine. The black water churned and boiled madly, frothing with dense bubbles.

A thick, putrid stench instantly permeated the air, inducing nausea.

"Ah—!!! Ah—!!!"

A shrill, hissing shriek echoed from the bottom of the pool.

The sound was mournful and piercing, carrying endless fury and agony, vibrating so intensely that the surrounding rocks began to crack.

Amidst the splashing black water, dozens of incredibly thick black tentacles suddenly shot out from the depths.

The tentacles were covered in rough, hard black scales dripping with a viscous black fluid. They writhed and thrashed wildly, slapping against the water's surface and kicking up even more black spray.

Following closely, an absurdly massive and grotesque behemoth slowly crawled out of the boiling black water.

Gu Changyuan hovered in midair, his calm gaze landing on the strange beast. His eyes showed no fluctuation, but he carefully scrutinized this eerie monster.

It resembled an octopus, yet it was a hundred times more bizarre. The center of its torso was not made of ordinary flesh and blood.

Instead, it was an unimaginably huge eyeball. The eye was over thirty feet in diameter, with a dark red pupil covered in dense bloodshot veins, exuding a cold, greedy, and maddening malice.

The outer layer of the eyeball was tightly wrapped in coarse, tough black skin.

Surrounding this giant eye were countless, densely packed black tentacles stretching for dozens of feet, overlapping and intertwining with one another.

What was even more hair-raising was that on every single tentacle grew an eyeball slightly smaller than a fist.

These small eyes were densely packed, covering the entire lengths of the tentacles. Their pupils were also dark red. All of the eyes rolled simultaneously, and countless cold, eerie gazes locked onto Gu Changyuan in unison.

The sensation of being stared at by countless eyes would make anyone's skin crawl, sending an inexplicable chill welling up from the bottom of their heart.

Gu Changyuan's heart stirred slightly. Rather than calling it a weird octopus...

It would be better to use a term from his past life's memories on the Blue Planet to describe it—Cthulhu.

The appearance of this thing was far too similar to the twisted, bizarre, and indescribable monsters from his memory.

At the exact moment those countless gazes locked onto him, an extreme sense of nausea, dizziness, and mental corruption flooded into the depths of Gu Changyuan's mind without warning.

The feeling was as if countless bugs were gnawing at his soul, inducing a restless agitation.

"A mental attack? When did..."

Gu Changyuan was slightly taken aback, a flash of surprise crossing his eyes.

The protective barrier around him possessed immense defensive power; ordinary attacks could never breach it.

Yet, he hadn't expected it to fail in completely blocking this eerie mental erosion, allowing this malice to slip through the cracks.

However, the instant that discomfort appeared, a secret art within Gu Changyuan's body began to circulate automatically.

A majestic soul power swept out like a tsunami, instantly washing away the malice and mental corruption that had invaded his mind, leaving not a single trace behind.

His expression grew slightly solemn, and a hint of seriousness entered his previously indifferent eyes.

It seemed this big-eyed octopus monster was quite a bit stronger than he had anticipated, actually possessing such a bizarre method of mental attack.

Gu Changyuan focused his mind to perceive the fluctuation of the beast's aura, instantly coming to a judgment in his heart.

Its cultivation had astonishingly reached the True Immortal Realm.

Furthermore, this was not a pseudo-True Immortal suppressed by the laws of the Heavenly Dao, but a complete, pure True Immortal cultivation entirely free from any restraints.