Chapter 257

"What happened here?!"

Kiki caught up with the PX-05 robot in tow, and as she looked at the tragic battlefield before her, she couldn't help but furrow her brows.

Monsters over 3 meters tall were densely packed as far as the eye could see, a hundred times more terrifying than the Snow Demons they had encountered before; it was hard to imagine what had happened here.

"These aren't our people."

Xiang Xiang Ningjing quickly walked over to a frozen corpse, identified it, and frowned, saying, "It doesn't look like they're from the Phoenix Society either."

"That Hercules is from the Phoenix Society," Lin Xian said solemnly. He immediately took out his binoculars and looked into the distance: "It looks like there's more than one."

"So many Hercules transports, what are they carrying?" Kiki's eyes widened.

The Hercules transport aircraft has a takeoff weight of over 1,000 tons and is mainly used by the military to lift large military equipment; it can even lift 20 heavy TFV600 twin-barrel tanks at once. Yet, Lin Xian could see at least three crashed Hercules transports before him. This terrifying lifting capacity could have easily lifted his Infinite away.

"It must be some big guy."

Lin Xian exhaled a puff of cold air inside his cold-weather mask and said, "If I'm not mistaken, the distress signal you received earlier must have been sent from here."

"Let's go forward and take a look."

"Alright, get in the car!"

Whoosh—

The cold wind was biting. This death battlefield stretched for several miles. Lin Xian and Xiang Xiang Ningjing returned to the polar vehicle and drove forward.

As their polar vehicle drove in, more and more corpses of strange entities appeared in the snow layer. Some were half-covered, while others were completely buried. The polar vehicle's tracks crushed over them, emitting the crackling sound of breaking corpses.

Xiang Xiang Ningjing looked at this tragic scene with a gloomy face. Although she had held onto a glimmer of hope when she came, her heart instantly turned cold when she saw the situation here.

"It looks like Old Shi and the others are in grave danger."

"Let's keep looking."

Lin Xian drove the polar vehicle forward with a stern expression, not expecting that he would soon see the fourth Hercules transport!

He took a deep breath and said to Kiki.

"Four transport aircraft, and they even used joint cables. It looks like they were either transporting a large army's worth of heavy weapons, or it's that... super-large mecha mentioned on the radio!"

Kiki gasped upon hearing this. She had guessed as much when she saw this formation earlier, but the situation seemed much more exaggerated than she had anticipated.

"A mecha weighing several thousand tons? Does the Phoenix Society have such technology now?"

Kiki was someone very familiar with military mechanical technology, and she knew quite a bit about many top-secret military weapons and equipment. Hearing Lin Xian's words, she felt a mix of shock and uncertainty.

"If it has such volume and weight, it not only requires an ultra-high-power energy and propulsion system, but also a high-agility drive system. These combined would involve many very complex neural master control elements. Even with an AI program for integrated processing, such a large volume would still be limited by the load limit of the materials..."

Kiki sat cross-legged in the passenger seat, her hands moving rapidly on the mobile terminal, calculating.

"Even if these aren't problems, there is one most critical point: to achieve high-level resonant drive, one pilot isn't enough. Otherwise, a weapon of this level, if it can only reach a Level 1 or Level 2 resonance coefficient, would just be a clumsy humanoid weapon depot, not even as valuable as the combat power brought by airships and fighter jets. I don't know what kind of solution the Phoenix Society has provided, but analyzing it, it doesn't seem as reliable as the Iron Swarm."

After speaking, she looked at Lin Xian, her eyes brightening: "However, you are the exception. If there really is such a mecha, perhaps you are the optimal solution."

"We are currently in a pile of monster corpses, and we don't even know if there are any other living things. It's a bit redundant to worry about these things now," Lin Xian said in a deep voice.

A signal antenna several meters long rose from the polar vehicle. Lin Xian deliberately increased the transmission power, searching for available information in this snowfield and connecting to the road signs along the way.

The further they drove, the more buried corpses of strange entities Lin Xian discovered. Previously, many were already buried by the snow layer, but the further they went, the more those corpses began to appear on the surface of the snow layer in large areas.

"These monsters seem to be running in one direction."

Xiang Xiang Ningjing also discovered this phenomenon. She said into the communicator: "Lin Dui, be careful. Abai says the monster aura ahead is getting heavier."

Lin Xian frowned upon hearing this. He looked at Kiki. Both were somewhat surprised that Abai could detect the aura of strange entities, but hearing Xiang Xiang Ningjing's judgment, both became even more vigilant.

"These monsters are buried shallower and shallower. It doesn't look like it's because of the snow layer, but rather like..." Kiki raised her hand, and a wave of telekinetic energy surged, crashing open a patch of snow. In an instant, a pile of Snow Demon corpses was flipped out like potatoes.

"It should be the time of death. The further we go, the later the time of death, so they are buried shallower," Lin Xian said in the communicator: "There should be people resisting ahead."

Click, click~

Buzz, buzz~

Just as Lin Xian finished speaking, the howling cold wind began to weaken quite strangely. At this moment, the green light on the communicator that Kiki was using for full-band searching suddenly flickered a few times.

"Hey, there's a signal!"

Kiki immediately perked up and began to narrow the fan range of the signal search. Sure enough, after a while, the green light flickered more persistently, and inside the communicator, a hoarse sound of wind began to emerge.

"... Whoosh (wind sound)... who"

"... Damn... whoosh (wind sound)... no"

On the other side, Xiang Xiang Ningjing also heard the intermittent tones in the communicator, her brows slightly furrowed. Suddenly, her gaze fixed, and she pressed the communicator: "Lin Dui, it seems to be Fatty Cat's voice. It's our people!"

"Fatty Cat, Old Shi!" Xiang Xiang Ningjing immediately shouted.

"... Whoosh (wind sound)... careful... underground... don't... approach"

"Underground?" Lin Xian captured a few clear words and couldn't help but frown: "What are they saying?"

Hum, hum!

The polar vehicle accelerated, moving toward the direction where the signal was captured.

At this time, there were more and more dead monsters in the snowfield: vehicles, damaged 'Iron Guard 3' military assault mechas, aerial vehicles with only their engine compartments sunk into the snow layer, and Interstellar Army soldiers wearing protective power armor whose corpses had already frozen into ice sculptures. Further ahead, a huge black shadow lying horizontally on the ground gradually came into view from the wind and snow.

"What is that?" Kiki's eyes widened.

"A transport ship?"

"Doesn't look like it..."

The two polar vehicles drove in rapidly. Just as Lin Xian, Xiang Xiang Ningjing, and the others thought it was a large black hill or some kind of aircraft even larger than a Dragon-class transport ship, the black shadow ahead began to become clearer, and a terrifying biological image appeared in their sight.

That black hill was actually a giant black worm!

The black worm wound for hundreds of meters, like a giant water pipe lying horizontally in the snowfield, seemingly already dead. An abyss-like giant mouth was facing the approaching polar vehicles. Just that giant mouth filled with swirling sharp teeth seemed capable of swallowing both polar vehicles in one gulp.

Seeing this scene, the two polar vehicles immediately stopped.

"This... what kind of monster is this!!" Xiang Xiang Ningjing couldn't help but exclaim when she saw this scene.

"It seems to be dead."

Lin Xian didn't dare to breathe a sigh of relief at this moment, saying sternly: "Could it be that this thing caused the earthquake last night?"

"Wow, what a big worm!" Kiki's eyes widened.

Lin Xian noticed that there were many ravine-like wounds on the giant worm's corpse. The most terrifying one seemed to have been cut open by some sharp blade by two-thirds, which was enough to be fatal!

"What's wrong with you?"

On Xiang Xiang Ningjing's vehicle, she noticed that Abai in the back seat looked a bit off.

"So many... monsters," Abai said nervously.

"So... so many monsters."

"Click, click..."

"Lin Dui!" Xiang Xiang Ningjing's expression changed drastically upon hearing this, and she shouted into the communicator: "There are many monsters still alive here!"

"Click, click... buzz, buzz."

Rumble, rumble~

Whether it was the sky or an earthquake, the snow layer in the snowfield transmitted bursts of violent tremors.

Rumble, rumble!

The roaring sound began to become incomparably violent!

Lin Xian noticed that the ground seemed to begin to surge like waves. Those monster corpses buried in the ice and snow began to be exposed to the surface of the snow layer in large numbers with the shaking of the snow layer.

At this time, the hoarse voice in the communicator suddenly became much clearer. Only then did the few hear that the hoarse voice inside was someone shouting loudly!

"Careful... whoosh (wind sound)... can you hear me... whoosh (wind sound)... careful underground!!"

"Underground... there are... big bugs!!"

Lin Xian and Kiki's expressions changed drastically upon hearing the content in the communicator. He was just about to start the polar vehicle when he was shocked to find that the snow layer and ground under the vehicle suddenly began to collapse like quicksand.

"Oh no!"

"Too late!"

Kiki reacted, directly throwing away the mobile terminal, her eyes glowing with powerful psychic fluorescence. She desperately grabbed Xiang Xiang Ningjing's polar vehicle next to her, and together with her own, violently lifted them toward the sky!

Hum!

In an instant, the two polar vehicles, weighing several tons, flew directly into the air from where they were with great overload force!

And the next moment, the ground under the polar vehicles collapsed with the sliding snow layer, revealing a huge black abyss.

It was a giant abyss-like mouth!

Boom!

In an instant, the snow layer burst, and a giant black worm rushed out from underground with its giant mouth wide open, drilling out of the ground for more than ten meters in one go, attempting to swallow both vehicles in one gulp.

Kiki grabbed the two vehicles and lifted them rapidly. She clearly felt a surge of impact force rising from under the vehicles. In an instant, the area outside the polar vehicle windows suddenly darkened. Everyone in the two vehicles saw the inside of the worm's mouth filled with sinister fangs, blocking the sky and sun!

"Ah!!"

Kiki gritted her silver teeth and let out a sound of rage. The telekinetic energy in her hands directly crushed all the windows of the two polar vehicles, and with powerful upward force, they rushed into the sky.

The black worm rushed up to its limit, its mouthparts spitting out a huge gust of fishy wind. Then, the giant worm body twisted, and after swallowing nothing, it drilled toward the ground.

Boom!!!

The giant worm, with the momentum of an earthquake, violently tore the ground apart, drilling back underground like a fish, its worm body, of unknown length, arching a curved bridge on the ground, crazily passing through, and drilling into the ground with the clattering sound of an earthquake!

"Forward!"

Lin Xian shouted. Kiki had used too much force, and the two vehicles had already been lifted to a height of more than thirty meters. Then she retracted her strength and pushed the two vehicles forward, falling toward the snow surface ahead in a parabolic arc.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~

At this time, in the cold wind and mist ahead, a harsh boiling sound rang out. With the giant black worm entering the ground, densely packed Snow Demons began to swarm from all directions of the snow layer toward the source of the vibration.

"Abai!"

Before they even landed, Xiang Xiang Ningjing shouted to Abai. Abai in the back seat climbed to the front seat without hesitation upon hearing this, and in the air, he directly lifted his sunglasses.

Hum~!

Scorching energy gathered around his eyes. In an instant, two dark red laser beams burst out, hitting the snow layer in front of the two vehicles.

Then, he directly raised his head and flicked it.

Whoosh, the laser beam swept straight forward, instantly clearing a charred, bloody path through the densely packed Snow Demons.

And at this moment, Kiki happened to control the vehicles to land heavily, the tracks spinning crazily, rushing all the way along this cleared bloody path.

"Old Shi and the others are at 1 o'clock, head there!"

Lin Xian made a decisive decision. Being able to hold on for two days, Shi Diyuan must have some reliance. Having disturbed that big worm, the two polar vehicles couldn't drive back, so they had to bite the bullet and rendezvous with Shi Diyuan first.

"Ouch~"

Falling from the air, Kiki didn't have time for precise control. The two vehicles smashed onto the snow, almost falling apart. Fortunately, these two vehicles were special vehicles and were very sturdy, and the power systems were not affected.

!

"Watch out for the side!"

Squeak, ah!

Squeak, squeak, squeak!

Before they could sit steady, several Snow Demons had already pounced on the vehicle frame, their long tails with sharp spikes stabbing fiercely into the vehicle.

"Get lost!"

Kiki backhanded a wave of telekinetic energy, directly blasting all the Snow Demons within a spherical semicircle range!

Buzz!

Just as the road was about to close, the next laser beam shot out again.

Scrape, scrape, scrape!

At this moment, a high-speed rotating sharp sword swept across the Snow Demons ahead, bringing up sheets of blood and spraying heads. The rotating sharp sword flew back in an arc. On Xiang Xiang Ningjing's polar vehicle, a thin and slim girl figure gracefully caught it. She stood on the roof of the car, facing the howling cold wind, and with a few knife strikes, she used a bursting revolver to cut down all the Snow Demons pouncing up.

Buzz, woo!

Lin Xian slammed the steering wheel, crushing a few Snow Demons, and directly raised his hand to point the 【Mechanical Energy Cannon】, which shot out. The mechanical engine at his fingertips roared, tut-tut-tut, and the dazzling blue light directly pierced through more than a dozen Snow Demons, bringing up a charred, foul smell!

"Buzz, buzz... this way, southeast direction! Whoosh (wind sound)..."

Inside the communicator came Shi Diyuan's heroic voice. Lin Xian immediately opened his mouth upon hearing this: "Brother Shi, how are you guys doing?!"

Because the car windows were shattered, the howling cold wind poured into the car crazily, and the steering wheel and dashboard were soon covered with white frost. The heating system failed. Fortunately, everyone was wearing cold-weather gear, but their vision was blocked by the gradually increasing wind and snow.

"Lin Xian?!"

Hearing Lin Xian's voice, Shi Diyuan seemed surprised. He didn't expect that besides Xiang Xiang Ningjing, Lin Xian from the Infinite had also come.

"Old Shi, Lin Dui came with me to help!" Xiang Xiang Ningjing also shouted in the communicator.

"Quick, head southeast, to the edge of the canyon... whoosh (wind sound)... it's temporarily safe here!" Shi Diyuan shouted.

Hearing Shi Diyuan's voice, Xiang Xiang Ningjing seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. She slammed her foot on the accelerator and drove the polar vehicle crazily toward the front.

Dong, dong, dong, several muffled sounds rang out in the snowfield.

At this time, everyone suddenly discovered that in the surging Snow Demon swarm, several huge four-legged monsters rushed toward the two vehicles in a strange crawling posture.

This monster had no eyes, its curved limbs were like steel, emitting a heavy sound, and its speed was extremely fast. Even the Snow Demons under its feet were indiscriminately crushed by a few. It was seen suddenly rushing out from the Snow Demon swarm, pouncing fiercely toward Xiang Xiang Ningjing's polar vehicle!

Boom, boom!

The four-legged monster was huge, its crawling posture even taller than the polar vehicle. Its two front feet directly stabbed into the polar vehicle's hood and tracks. Bang! In an instant, the vehicle body deformed. Xiaoqing, standing on the roof, took the opportunity to leap out, rolling in the air, holding a gun-blade, and performed a vertical slash toward the center of the four-legged monster's head!

At the same time, Xiang Xiang Ningjing in the car was quick-witted. She grabbed Abai, kicked her feet, and using the inertia, directly lowered her head and leaped out from the windshield.

Clang!

Xiaoqing's gun-blade slashed across the four-legged monster's head, vertically slashing from between the eyebrows, bringing out a hard sound. This monster's skull was extremely hard. The blade slashed across, but only split half of the skull, and blood plasma sprayed out immediately.

And at this time, Kiki also made a move at the same time, using telekinesis to grab Xiang Xiang Ningjing and Abai and pull them back.

Boom, boom, boom!

The polar vehicle's momentum didn't diminish, driving toward the four-legged monster, directly flipping over and crushing it.

"Hold on!" Xiang Xiang Ningjing pushed Abai onto Lin Xian's polar vehicle, and she suddenly stepped on the roof of the car, leaping toward the four-legged monster.

"Xiaoqing, move!"

Xiang Xiang Ningjing shouted coldly in the air. This woman was filled with a sharp momentum, actually heading straight for it.

Seeing this scene, Xiaoqing set up her gun-blade, kicked twice on the four-legged monster's body, and after slashing down two Snow Demons, left the range.

Seeing Xiang Xiang Ningjing actually daring to come toward it, the four-legged monster roared, but both front legs were still stuck in the polar vehicle. Xiang Xiang Ningjing's speed was extremely fast, almost arriving in an instant. She actually swung her right fist, smashing toward the four-legged monster's head.

Bang!

Xiang Xiang Ningjing swung her fist down, smashing fiercely onto the head of the four-legged monster that had raided them. Only a muffled sound was heard. The four-legged monster's huge head was like being hit by an anti-material sniper rifle. Most of the head collapsed instantly, the neck bone burst, and the brain on the forehead turned into blood plasma fragments, spraying backward, extremely bloody!

Boom!

This punch carried a huge fist wind, and even a large area of wind and snow ahead was hit into a vacuum-like area.

"Holy crap!"

Seeing this scene, Kiki's eyes widened.

"What great strength!" Lin Xian was also secretly amazed at this moment. For a while, he couldn't be sure whether this woman was an esper or a genetically evolved physical artist to have such great strength.

"Girl, pull them in."

The Snow Demon tide arrived in an instant. Lin Xian drove the polar vehicle to sweep across a patch of snow, creating a steel plate defense on the left frame, while letting Kiki pull people back.

Kiki understood, grabbed Xiang Xiang Ningjing and Xiaoqing with one hand, and pushed a shockwave with the other to blast away the Snow Demons, after which the polar vehicle directly rushed out of the encirclement.

Buzz!

Abai used a laser beam again to sweep away the roadblocks, while Xiaoqing, Xiang Xiang Ningjing, and Kiki resisted the monsters swarming from all around.

The polar vehicle sprinted at high speed. There were more and more Snow Demon corpses on the ground, and many fresh corpses that had not been buried began to appear, seemingly having died not long ago.

Seeing this scene, Lin Xian immediately understood that it must be the Snow Demon tide constantly attacking in the direction of Shi Diyuan and the others, so piles of corpses were exposed.

"I see you!"

Sure enough, the polar vehicle had just rushed out less than two kilometers, and the sound in the communicator began to become clear.

Beep!

Bang, bang, bang!

At the same time, overwhelming firepower lines flashed in the wind and snow fog ahead, crazily suppressing the Snow Demons swarming behind the polar vehicle.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh! Boom, boom, boom!

In an instant, there were even a large number of explosive missiles exploding among the Snow Demons. The firepower didn't look like the effect brought by Shi Diyuan's few weapon stations at all.

"It looks like it's not just Old Shi and the others."

Xiang Xiang Ningjing shouted: "There are others!"

"Phoenix Society?"

"Lin Xian, look!" Kiki suddenly exclaimed loudly.

Everyone looked at the wind and snow fog ahead. They saw that the firepower lines in the wind and snow were increasing, and a large number of large vehicles and snow vehicles began to appear, at least a hundred vehicles, closely surrounding a curved defensive line about several hundred meters long. In front of the line, there were mountains of corpses of various strange entities and Snow Demons. The smell of gunpowder smoke and blood was carried by the cold wind and snow. Large explosion craters and crashed aircraft were everywhere.

And this defensive line was surrounding the edge of a huge cliff in the Terrakama Ice Valley. As Lin Xian's polar vehicle approached, a huge black shadow appeared in the sky behind the defensive line.

That black shadow was like a sky-supporting giant, holding a fist and supporting itself on the canyon with one hand. Most of its torso was under the cliff, but just the part exposed to the horizon was like a steel building, revealing a sky-shaking and earth-shattering momentum!

Lin Xian's gaze trembled. At this moment, everyone in the car saw that it was a super-large humanoid mecha!

Boom, boom, boom!!

As Lin Xian and the others' polar vehicle drove in, the firepower of the defensive line suddenly increased. At the same time, more than a dozen espers with different forms rushed out from inside, beginning to use their means to help suppress the monster tide behind.

For a time, the scene fell into a white-hot state. Lin Xian saw a train group modified with a strong magnetic all-terrain drive module lying at the very front of the line, and a middle-aged man wearing thick cold-weather gear was carrying a Gatling gun and firing crazily.

Shi Diyuan.

Rumble, rumble, at this time, the sound of an earthquake came again. Those swarming Snow Demons were like madness, crazily rushing toward the metal jet.

And besides the four-legged monsters, several unknown monsters with huge wings began to appear in the cold wind, carrying the cold wind and constantly flying over the defensive line.

"It's that black worm!" Lin Xian shouted.

"Brother Lin."

Shi Diyuan stopped the firepower in his hands and shouted to the few: "That bug underground doesn't dare to come near here. Quick! Drive in!"

Lin Xian didn't say a word upon hearing this, directly slamming the accelerator to the bottom. At the same time, the Mechanical Heart operated, bringing the polar vehicle's power to the limit, kicking up a sky-high snow layer, and rushed over.

At this time, a heavy armor tracked truck at the front of the line started and opened a small gap.

Woo!

Just where the polar vehicle drove past at high speed, snow dust suddenly burst up. That giant black worm drilled out from underground again, instantly swallowing a large number of Snow Demons in one gulp!

The violent earthquake caused the snow layer on the edge of the cliff to slide continuously, and a large-scale avalanche began to appear. The rumbling sound was deafening in the ice valley.

"So Old Shi and the others were trapped here?!" Xiang Xiang Ningjing said.

"Escape there first!"

At this time, the polar vehicle had rushed to the front of the line. Lin Xian immediately shouted to Kiki: "Let's attack together and block it."

"Alright!"

Hum!

Kiki quickly flew up from the car, her eyes flashing with fluorescence, her hair moving without wind, directly launching a big move toward the Snow Demon tide behind!

Hum!

A low, light sound rang out, and a nearly transparent spherical light screen quickly shrank toward her heart. In an instant, it transformed into a shockwave light ball emitting white fluorescence, with her as the center, instantly vibrating and spreading out!

Rumble, rumble!

In front of this huge shockwave, the deep snow and frozen corpses on the ground were all swept up like a river. Those Snow Demons and monsters crazily rushing forward collided with this invisible shockwave curtain one after another, and were shaken away one after another in the roaring monster cries. The huge force constantly caused a large number of Snow Demons to be squeezed into fragments, instantly turning the snowfield in front of the line into a frozen empty ground with shockwave traces!

Buzz!

At the same time, Abai's laser beam shot out toward the sky, directly cutting off half of the wings of a giant winged monster, spraying down a sky full of green corrosive acid.

Rumble, rumble~!

The vibration of the earth suddenly slowed down at this time, and the blizzard began to intensify. At this time, those Snow Demons seemed to be affected by this vibration and began to drill into the snow, disappearing into the wind and snow in whole pieces.

"Drink!"

Shi Diyuan, who was firing, looked at this scene and couldn't help but shout: "This little girl, haven't seen her for a short time, has her esper ability grown so terrifyingly!"

(End of chapter)