The Massive Tendril Monster only moved a few hundred meters in that direction before coming to a halt.

In front of it lay a black region with unstable properties and form. Due to the region's highly unstable state, Lin Ye couldn't determine what it actually was.

"Is there something moving up ahead?"

Although Ayla couldn't perceive the outside world and couldn't see the black region in the pitch-dark seawater, she could still feel the changes in that area, even through a layer of glass.

"Yeah, I don't know what that is either. This is the first time I've seen matter in this state."

Lin Ye controlled a parasitic creature that had been disconnected from the Parasitism Network and sent it toward that region. The moment it approached the black substance, the black matter appeared on its body. Its physical state began to transform, and it quickly became part of that region.

During this process, Lin Ye noticed that some of the parasitic creature's matter was expelled into the outside world and naturally merged into the seawater.

'That expelled matter seems somewhat similar in composition to the seawater... So this Black Sea was formed by this kind of substance?'

Lin Ye sent another disconnected parasitic creature toward the region. This time, he used the mental network to carefully observe the entire transformation process. But the process was extremely complex, and in such a short time, he couldn't figure out its underlying principle.

"Lin Ye! Your body!"

Ayla's scream snapped Lin Ye out of his thoughts. He hadn't sensed anything wrong with himself, but when he looked down at his body, he realized that the transformation state had already appeared on him.

Perhaps due to his Special Ability, the transformation wasn't fast. But if he let it continue like this, it wouldn't be long before he became part of that region as well.

Lin Ye immediately moved his consciousness into a parasitic creature. But that creature also began to transform into the black substance, and the speed of its transformation was extremely rapid.

Seeing this, Lin Ye had no choice but to return to the xenomorph body. During the time he had been away, the transformation state of the xenomorph body had not stopped.

"...Don't worry, I'll be right back."

Lin Ye moved through layer after layer of tendrils to exit the Massive Tendril Monster. His Special Ability allowed him to survive normally on the seabed. He walked alone toward that region, and just getting slightly closer caused the transformation on his body to accelerate dramatically.

'If the transformation speed keeps increasing, I'll be completely transformed before I even touch that region...'

Lin Ye had no choice but to take out the glass container and pour the black liquid inside into his mouth.

That giant shadow definitely wouldn't have given him something like this for no reason. And at the bottom of the Black Sea, there weren't many places where such black liquid could be used.

After drinking the black liquid, the transformation state on Lin Ye's body was suppressed, but it didn't disappear entirely.

Lin Ye directly activated Red Flash and charged into the unstable black region.

Upon contact with that black substance, the transformation speed of Lin Ye's body increased slightly, and some changes seemed to occur that he couldn't yet understand.

The interior of the black region was in an extremely chaotic state. Lin Ye moved quickly through the disordered matter. Though it was utter chaos, he soon found the source of all this disorder.

It was an entrance leading downward below the ground. This was the deepest point of the Black Sea, so this entrance naturally led to somewhere beneath it.

Without hesitation, Lin Ye jumped straight into the entrance. Inside, there was a vertical elevator shaft. The entire shaft was about several hundred meters long, and only the upper section near the Black Sea was flooded with seawater. The lower section had no seawater, but it was filled with large amounts of solidified black substance.

After Lin Ye left the seawater, the elevator shaft had a door every few meters. Most of these doors showed varying degrees of damage, though a few remained intact.

Since this entire area was constructed from materials that blocked Spiritual Perception, Lin Ye could only look through the broken doors to see what was inside.

This appeared to be a laboratory of extremely high technological level. Even now, some of the instruments inside were still running.

Lin Ye didn't start investigating from the topmost door. Because of the transformation state, his body was slipping out of his control, so he needed to figure out what had happened here as quickly as possible and find a way to resolve the transformation.

By sensing the distribution of the black substance inside the elevator shaft, Lin Ye quickly located the origin point of the black substance's eruption. It wasn't at the lowest door, but at one in the middle section of the shaft.

That door had already become part of the black substance, and the entire surrounding area had turned pitch black.

Lin Ye entered that corridor. It looked very ordinary, with only some structurally complex laboratories.

These labs seemed to be arranged in a nested structure, likely designed to prevent experimental material from leaking. But judging by the results, it hadn't been much use.

Lin Ye went straight to the deepest part of the lab, which appeared to be the initial location of the substance's eruption.

'They cleaned up pretty thoroughly...'

As the origin point of the incident, this place wasn't particularly heavily damaged. Some experimental instruments were even still running. But all the information in those instruments had been wiped clean, leaving no traces behind.

Fortunately, some paper documents remained nearby, recording certain experimental details.

[Deep Well Substance Experiment Report 17543]

[Experiment Content: Transplant Deep Well Substance into Subject No. 10]

[Experiment Steps:

Inject 1 milliliter of Deep Well Substance extract into Subject No. 10's body. Dissect Subject No. 10 and observe the transformation of each tissue. Transplant 1 milligram of Deep Well Substance into Subject No. 10's tissue.

...]

Through the surviving documents, Lin Ye quickly understood the situation here.

This appeared to be an underground laboratory for studying "Deep Well Substance." As for what the Deep Well Substance actually was, the documents didn't provide a relevant description. But based on the literal meaning, it was probably a substance obtained from some kind of deep well.

During the experiment, some kind of accident must have occurred. This accident was likely related to that special Subject No. 10.

'But this information doesn't seem to help me... No, wait. Subject No. 10 was in a dismembered state, yet merely by coming into contact with a trace amount of Deep Well Substance, it caused this outcome. That information might be useful later...'

After confirming there was nothing left to find, Lin Ye left the lab at maximum speed and headed straight for the bottom floor of the elevator shaft.