"Emperor Vine?"

Andrew had a confused expression on his face, not sure what the person in front of him was talking about.

"Could it actually be the Emperor Vine!?"

Lune’s expression suddenly changed, and when he looked again at the heart in the hall, his face was already filled with shock.

"Emperor Vine... Emperor Vine..."

Andrew muttered a few words to himself, and then, as if remembering something, his expression also changed.

As the head of security at the GTBU base, he had naturally read the Alien Species Manual, so it wasn’t surprising that he knew about the Emperor Vine.

In fact, when the Alien Species Manual first appeared, most people could still recount its contents in detail. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

After all, there were only so many things in it, so memorizing all the information wasn’t too difficult.

But later, since Zhang Xiaoman returned from the Dark Star Alliance and used their database to supplement the contents of the Alien Species Manual—recording a lot of information about star beasts and demon races from there—everyone in the Star Alliance wouldn’t be caught off guard when encountering them in the First Universe.

So, a few years ago, the manual was suddenly filled with massive amounts of information. As a result, hardly anyone could memorize all its content, causing trouble for many students in schools.

Previously, exams related to alien species information were relatively easy for them to pass, but with the manual’s supplements, the amount they needed to memorize increased.

With so much content, it became impossible for everyone to record all the alien species information, so they just recorded the key information highlighted in the manual.

Just now, Andrew found himself in that exact situation. At first, when he heard about the Emperor Vine, he didn’t react until he carefully recalled and realized how terrifying it was.

"How could it be the Emperor Vine... how could it be the Emperor Vine... wasn’t it supposed to be the Thorny Heart... how could it be the Emperor Vine..."

Seeing him in such a dazed state, Aaron shoved him aside and understood what was going on.

"The juvenile form of the Emperor Vine and the Thorny Heart do indeed have some similarities, making it very difficult to distinguish them if you’re not careful..."

Su Changqing’s voice came through his divine thought.

"These people must have mistaken this Emperor Vine for the Thorny Heart, so they locked it here."

Aaron nodded, then looked at the ground in the hall littered with monster corpses and said:

"Star Lord, we now know where those monsters went. They were all dragged into the F-52 area, their flesh devoured. The Shadow Demon likely used this power to complete its final stage of growth..."

He couldn’t help but curse under his breath again.

"Damned fools, if it weren’t for those idiots bringing the Emperor Vine in, leading to its devouring by the Shadow Demon, the Shadow Demon might not have grown to its current power!"

Indeed, the Emperor Vine in front of them was already dead. What they saw was its corpse; though it seemed to have slight undulations, it was actually due to the influence of the Shadow Demon’s control.

Now, the Shadow Demon that consumed the Emperor Vine was undergoing its final evolution, and Aaron could distinctly feel a terrifying energy accumulating within the large heart before them, ready to burst out at any moment.

"Destroy it! We still have a chance! Before it breaks out of its cocoon!"

At this moment, Aaron disregarded Andrew and the others’ culpability and directly gathered his own dark spiritual power, charging at the monster.

"Aaron! Be careful!"

Bena noticed several black shadows materializing on the surrounding walls and hurriedly warned him, simultaneously joining in the fight to cover Aaron’s attack.

"Boom boom boom!"

A series of violent explosions echoed, causing the entire underground base to tremble. The black shadows emerging from the surrounding walls were swiftly dealt with by Bena, allowing Aaron to advance unimpeded to the front of the heart.

"Die!"

Aaron gathered a trace of bloody light in his palm, and a Blood Ice Dragon appeared seemingly out of nowhere. He directly unleashed the second form of the Reverse Flow Technique, Blood Transformation.

However, the expected result didn’t occur. A terrifying face suddenly appeared on the outer surface of the black heart, as if it had split off from the heart itself, reaching out to meet Aaron’s incoming Blood Dragon.

"Buzz!!"

A strong shockwave swept out, and under its force, everyone present nearly fainted. Lune, whose injuries had just healed, couldn’t help but spit out a mouthful of blood and slumped to the ground.

"Watch out!"

Beelu followed up with an attack, raising a shield to help the others withstand the residual impact of the attack.

"It actually... blocked a deacon’s attack..."

He immediately saw the outcome of a fierce clash between one person and one demon; the terrifying Blood Dragon had been stopped by the Shadow Demon split from the heart.

That was an attack from a Holy Temple Deacon. If fully unleashed, it could have collapsed the entire base, yet it was now so easily intercepted by the enemy.

"This is... this is a Level 5 Nightmare Shadow!"

Everyone gasped in shock.

Unexpectedly, the heart still had such a powerful guardian.

But the next scene left them completely stunned.

Four or five more figures emerged from the heart, and judging by their forms and the energy fluctuations they emitted, they were all Level 5 Nightmare Shadows!