The passage Shen Lao led them through was unlike anything they had encountered in the Leviathan's anatomy. These tunnels pulsed with a different rhythm—faster, more urgent, as if they were moving through the creature's cardiovascular system itself. The walls here were lined with thick, rope-like structures that Lin realized were major blood vessels, each one thicker than his torso.
"Stay close to the center," Shen Lao warned, his body shifted to human appearance—a tall, lean man with the same midnight-blue hair. "The vessel walls are under tremendous pressure. If one ruptures..."
His warning proved prophetic as the rising temperature from the BloodGate's activation caused the Levithan's biology to become increasingly unstable. One of the smaller vessels burst as they passed, spraying them with scalding hot blood that hissed where it touched their clothes and skin.
