Chapter 404: Messenger of the Gray Mist (120,000 [votes] seeking monthly tickets!)

When Dawn City entered the night early and global radio signals vanished, the atmosphere inside the city command center of the European Storm Alliance, far away in Reykjavik, was incomparably silent. Outside, in the safe shelter district, the camp tents of the convoy of over four million survivors were spread out everywhere. It was still daytime here, but everyone could feel a dark cloud slowly shrouding the European sky.

At the Dawn Center in the direction of the Tianji Qionggu Strait, hundreds of thousands of doomsday armed vehicles of all types were parked across the entire strait plain. From base vehicles to off-road vehicles, from rail trains to armed trucks, from aerial vehicles to infantry squads, nearly 8 million homeless survivors had gathered here. There were dozens of large convoys with over 50,000 people each. Dawn Center Commander-in-Chief Li Heping had a solemn expression. Dressed in a trench coat and military uniform, his eagle eyes were sharp. After Ye Lan's voice came out, everyone fell silent. Countless convoys and scouts stood on the roofs of their vehicles, looking toward the south.

Phoenix City in Ushuaia, South America; the Alaska Allied Front in North America; the Noah and Republic shelter archipelagoes in Oceania... The survivors remaining in every corner of the world were, at this moment, gripped by urgency for the survival of humanity. Countless people began to pray, hoping that Dawn City could overcome this dark test and usher in the dawn for humanity once again!

【Oxygen remaining: 95%...】

【Low-temperature, weightless environment detected; battle armor life-support system activated.】

The mechanical female voice echoed in his ears. Lin Xian felt as if he could hear the sound of the breathing valve circulating inside his power armor mask.

Lin Xian slowly opened his eyes. What entered his vision was an inverted starship cabin space. Countless fragments, instruments, and cables were suspended in mid-air, like a bizarre slow-motion silent play.

An extreme chill surged from all directions. Even though Lin Xian was wearing interstellar-grade power armor, he immediately felt a powerful darkness invasion, no less intense than that within the No. 5 Star Abyss, striking at his consciousness.

His mental power was being crazily twisted, his consciousness disintegrating, his vision blurring—bone-chillingly cold!

*Sss-sss. *

The automatic obstacle-avoidance systems all over his power armor constantly emitted subtle jet movements, helping him remain stably floating in place, preventing him from colliding with the cabin or sharp metal fragments.

Lin Xian panted continuously, adjusting his state. Although he had been prepared, the violent dark invasion force still made him feel as if he were being swallowed by the deep sea. At the same time, this was his first time undergoing such a large-scale teleportation, which gave him a feeling of extreme time distortion. It was as if it weren't the spatial teleportation he had imagined, but rather that he had been sucked into a node within some dark star abyss and then passed through it rapidly to appear here. It seemed like an instant, but in reality, he had experienced a long process.

He frowned slightly and reached out to grab the flickering bullet he had sealed in a lead box, which was floating in the air.

"Why does it feel like a bizarre entity is flickering behind me when the night descends..."

Lin Xian tightened his brow. He looked at the time with an ugly expression.

17:44

"Two hours? How could so much time have passed?"

Lin Xian's head was splitting with pain. He looked up and discovered that his location was precisely the scientific laboratory cabin on the 【Civilization Pioneer】 where he and Kiki had infiltrated earlier. However, the main cabin wall had been torn open, revealing a ten-meter-long crack. The metal edges were twisted and curled as if gnawed by a giant beast. Through the crack, he could see the pitch-black universe—no sound, no temperature, completely pitch-black, as if he were deep beneath an abyss.

The cabin had long since lost its air and pressure. A thin layer of frost had formed on the edges of the crack; it was the trace of leaked liquid oxygen freezing instantly in the vacuum.

The corpse of a young woman wearing glasses and a lab coat floated slowly past. Her beautiful face was frozen a cyan-purple color, her mouth wide open as if still screaming silently. Her hands remained in a forward-reaching gesture, as if trying to grab something.

He had seen this face before; it was the woman they had encountered when leaving the starship.

Lin Xian hurriedly turned toward the spherical experimental device, activated his thrusters, and flew over. Pressing against the observation port, he looked in with a searchlight and discovered that the dark-corrosion cells inside had long since turned black and lost their activity. Lin Xian then found the data cable and used his mechanical ability to prepare to restart the cabin's circuits and establish a connection.

But as his Mechanical Heart operated, a strange spatial fluctuation rippled through the surrounding space, as if creating some kind of ripple.

This immediately made Lin Xian cautious. He released Grace and several drones to probe from the direction of the cabin crack and the passageway, but he discovered nothing, seeing only the pitch-black, infinite cosmic space.

*Woo~*

As Lin Xian utilized the Superstring Reactor Phase Rainbow Ring, part of the cabin's energy was restarted, and the lights flickered to life.

"Grace, help me... connect to the starship system." Lin Xian endured the immense pressure and said to Grace.

【Understood.】

Grace quickly adjusted her form, latched onto the experimental device, and then her fingers deformed and inserted into the data port, beginning to access the data.

【Our current altitude has exceeded the altitude of Blue Star's geostationary orbit. Affected by perturbations, the orbital parameters are showing drift.】

"So, if we are to return to the atmosphere, we need propulsion devices, right?"

【Yes. Based on shipboard data, our current altitude is 46,852 km from the ground. If re-entry into the atmosphere is required, we must use a Hohmann transfer to ignite from high orbit and descend to low Earth orbit. We also need to calculate the velocity increment and perform at least two decelerations to ensure the re-entry angle is correct.】

Lin Xian frowned: "Hurry and help me acquire the energy data of the dark-corrosion cells absorbing the darkness invasion from this device. Also, detect if there are any survivors or un-offline propulsion cabin sections."

【Understood, acquisition complete. Additionally, an unknown emergency signal from the main bridge has been discovered, but the cabin section has already separated, making it impossible to acquire.】

"So fast?" Lin Xian asked while flying with Grace from the cabin toward the main bridge on the upper deck.

【The emergency information transmission devices of this starship are transmitting signals toward Blue Star and all directions of the universe. According to the command log query, it is confirmed to be the perpetual order issued by Captain Chu Jing: that is, as long as the system or emergency circuits are activated, the 【Civilization Pioneer】 will continuously transmit.】

"A distress signal?"

Lin Xian used a pulse laser to cut open a twisted, damaged automatic door. The next moment, his gaze froze. Outside the door, the bow of the entire 【Civilization Pioneer】 had completely broken off at a 90-degree angle. Large amounts of starship debris and human corpses floated in the boundless darkness of space. The main structural keel and cabin section faults of this 500,000-ton giant human spacecraft were all exposed, forming a horrifying and tragic scene.

Grace's voice came to his ears.

【No, these signals include:】

【1. Energy data of dark-corrosion cells absorbing the darkness invasion.】

【2. Ionization reflection, spectrum, neutron, and radiation dose data under the Sky Curtain giant screen's screen-breaking state.】

【3. Low-frequency radio spectrometer (NCLE) data used for studying signals from the cosmic dark age.】

【4. Physical variation data of all personnel, including Chu Jing himself, after encountering the dark energy storm...】

*Sss. *

Lin Xian activated his propulsion device, dodging various fragments along the way, and entered the passageway to the main bridge. He pushed aside tangled cables, bypassed dead bodies, and finally entered the huge main bridge of the 【Civilization Pioneer】. The vast bridge command room was deathly silent. A single ray of sunlight slanting through a broken porthole illuminated the bridge.

And there, in the captain's seat, a corpse in full military uniform, covered in white frost, sat upright. He was restrained by a safety belt, seemingly having sat in this position from beginning to end, facing everything without fear.

Hearing Grace's words, Lin Xian looked at the captain's corpse with a look of solemnity.

He knew that this person was Chu Zhaonan's son, Chu Jing.

Lin Xian remembered that when he left the 【Civilization Pioneer】 that day, he had brushed past a young colonel in the passageway. Seeing him now, he realized that person was Chu Jing.

"Rest assured, the information you sent out will not be swallowed by the darkness. I will bring it back for you..."

Lin Xian looked at Chu Jing's face, now covered in white frost, and said in a low voice.

"Thank you, Colonel Chu."

【Signal acquired. This signal is a communication command issued by the 【Natural Selection】 to a space device located at geostationary orbit coordinates. This command has received an information return.】

Lin Xian turned his head: "What coordinates?"

【Analyzing.】 Grace looked up at Lin Xian. 【Through the orbital coordinate sequence of the star-sky device, it is retrieved that this space device is the Longguo Planetary Orbital Defense Plan—South Tianmen.】

Lin Xian's pupils shook upon hearing this: "They connected to South Tianmen?!"

【Yes. This information was issued by 【South Tianmen】 5 hours and 21 minutes ago. The reply command is: System restart complete, currently adjusting orbital position.】

"Adjusting to where?"

【Here.】

Grace said softly, then pointed toward the direction outside the main bridge porthole.

"No way..."

Lin Xian immediately activated his jet device, rapidly rushing out through the broken porthole of the bridge. Adjusting his floating angle amidst a pile of space debris, he then saw that huge planetary orbital defense device he had only ever seen in the news. Accompanying the 52,660 km altitude of Blue Star's geostationary orbit, it was suspended in the silent starry sky like a giant sword reaching for the heavens, with a majestic posture!

The 12-kilometer-diameter giant ring-shaped energy storage array, equipped with the "Thousand-Mile Eye" deep-space radar and 24 "Candle Dragon"-class constrained particle beam arrays capable of instantly intercepting and evaporating small meteorites within 500 meters, was a defense platform built by the Longguo United Federation for the ecological safety of the planet and the Moon-gazing planetary ring.

Platform codename: South Tianmen!

"Sure enough, the first thing the pioneer fleet did after breaking through the Sky Curtain giant screen was to attempt to contact South Tianmen."

Lin Xian looked at the huge man-made space device and discovered that signal lights were still flickering on it, but all the working cabin sections were extinguished, deathly silent. The entire space device seemed to be wrapped in a boundless black aura.

Just as Lin Xian was preparing to fly out from behind a broken cabin structure to get a closer look, his power armor and his perception simultaneously detected a bizarre fluctuation. Lin Xian immediately called out to Grace, then hid in the shadows of the floating cabin section.

At this moment, countless pitch-black tentacles, like fine filaments of cable, spread out from behind the broken propulsion cabin section of the Star Shepherd. Their numbers grew, like blood vessels and veins clinging to the starship's hull, rapidly infiltrating the torn cabin gaps.

"What is that thing..."

Lin Xian's gaze was solemn: "A bizarre entity?"

Those pitch-black tentacles seemed to appear out of thin air from the starship wreckage, gradually spreading and growing larger. Lin Xian slowly raised a drone to peek out from the wreckage and observe. Shockingly, he saw that behind the broken remains of the 【Star Shepherd】, a giant biological mouthpart, resembling a black hole accretion disk, was slowly opening. Those tentacles, like a net covering the sky, were constantly covering from one starship wreckage to another!

And at this moment, the drone's observation perspective suddenly observed a giant shadow appearing on the other side of the Blue Star atmosphere, behind that black creature!

Three giant space city rings overlapped, quietly suspended in an endless dark airspace under the illumination of the sun and moonlight!

Lin Xian immediately recognized it; that was humanity's largest space infrastructure project—the Moon-gazing Planetary Ring!

This space city, which utilized tidal forces and solar energy for energy harvesting, had a diameter exceeding 300 km, resembling a cosmic giant beast suspended in Blue Star's distant orbit.

But at this moment, this massive miracle of civilization was seemingly being swallowed by some kind of black energy storm in the dark universe. Below it was the Blue Star Pacific Ocean, where huge oceanic storm clouds were churning, resembling a scene of world destruction!

Just at this moment, the bizarre sucker creature in front suddenly emitted a tangible dark fluctuation that swept over.

"Damn it!"

Lin Xian felt a chill all over his body. He cursed under his breath, immediately and quietly activated his thrusters, and rushed back into the bridge wreckage through the porthole of the 【Civilization Pioneer】 main bridge. He immediately used a spirit-swaying detector to check himself. Only after seeing that he hadn't been marked with a dark mark did he let out a long sigh of relief. Recalling that scene just now, he couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.

South Tianmen, the Moon-gazing Planetary Ring—it seemed they were all being eroded by the cosmic darkness surrounding Blue Star. Lin Xian had originally thought there might at most be human-bizarre entities that had mutated on them. Who would have thought that there would actually be bizarre entities in this space wreckage!

【Large-scale biological movement detected; emergency evacuation recommended!】

Grace said at this moment.

"I know."

After acquiring the data, Lin Xian had originally intended to head immediately toward the Gray Mist Messenger, but the situation he saw now made him instantly vigilant. He immediately dispatched dozens of drones.

"Grace, help me check the path and see if there are any bizarre entities on that Gray Mist Messenger!"

The dark energy fluctuation emitted by an S-rank entity would not be small. The movement just now had reminded him: if there were other bizarre entities clinging to the Gray Mist Messenger, then never mind saving Chu Yan, if he were marked with a dark mark, there was no telling what terrifying things might be in this space—just like that sucker creature that looked like a two-dimensional unfolding; he couldn't even judge what level that thing was.

【Planning path and conducting biological detection; signal relay anchor points need to be set.】

While Grace manipulated the drones to help him scout the path, Lin Xian quietly peeked out from the porthole, looking at South Tianmen, which was at least thousands of kilometers away, and began to calculate in his heart.

【Detection complete; no active organisms found. Grace suggests you act immediately; biological entities have been detected approaching the 【Civilization Pioneer】.】

"Understood."

*Sss! *

Half a minute later, Lin Xian manipulated his power armor flight device and rushed out of the wreckage area at high speed, gradually approaching that super-large bizarre entity colonization suit suspended in space.

The Gray Mist Messenger was in an inverted state, and the eight heavy plasma thrusters behind it were already charred. He landed on the suppression device behind the mecha's head, using mechanical scanning while manipulating the control unit.

Subsequently, under Lin Xian's operation, one of the tubular suppression devices slid out slowly. He opened a hidden cabin below and shockingly discovered an all-metal life capsule rising from the cold air. At the same time, inside the mecha's control hub cabin, a robot almost identical to Grace was suspended in the air, connected to a large number of cables.

And after Lin Xian opened that life capsule, he saw, as expected, that the person lying inside was none other than Julius!

Compared to the clone he had encountered before, this Julius seemed significantly older by 10 years, his body somewhat gaunt. He was soaked in some kind of biomass liquid, his skull completely opened. Outside the transparent biomass liquid capsule, a large amount of white mycelium wrapped around him, looking like a pupa that hadn't fully formed.

【She is Crimson No. 3 Viola, my online version. By uploading digital life consciousness through Julius and undergoing human-in-the-loop evolution, she possesses 'self-personality' consciousness. Although this part of the consciousness was captured by me during the Crescent Moon Operation, her storage memory should also have an offline version like mine. At the same time, her armor material uses the same standard as mine, which is stronger than 'Dancer No. 1'. Please be careful.】

"That's simple!"

Lin Xian pulled out its main control cable: "Grace, help me overwrite her."

【Understood.】

Grace walked up at this moment, her hand's neural cables inserted into Viola's back-of-head data port, and said to Lin Xian:

【Viola is the master AI of this colonization suit's full-armor mechanical unit. Do you want to retain her action module?】

"No need."

Lin Xian took a deep breath. He had already been tricked before; how could he be careless again?

Although... the matter regarding Hua Xiaoling hadn't caused any harm, Lin Xian felt it was better to be in complete control of this kind of intelligent brain.

【Your plan is to return to the atmosphere by restarting this colonization suit system. This will be a very dangerous move. According to the Pioneer Project's log data, the dark-side storm and large-scale mutations are highly likely related to some kind of effect produced by this S-rank breaking through the Sky Curtain giant screen. Under these circumstances, the darkness invasion is highly likely to infect you.】

"I know, so I want to test something..."

Lin Xian broke out in a cold sweat. While taking out the device already manufactured by the Black Star Forge, he had created a dark-energy co-potential device developed by Mochizuki Zhensi. Subsequently, Lin Xian connected this device directly to the Gray Mist Messenger's action brain. Now that he had the potential energy conversion device acquired from the 【Civilization Pioneer】, he could completely utilize the Gray Mist Messenger's action brain for dark energy conversion.

*Woo! *

At this moment, the small conversion device activated. Lin Xian instantly felt the torso and armor of this S-rank bizarre entity seemingly shudder violently. An invisible faint light rapidly spread out. Subsequently, Lin Xian immediately felt the chill of the darkness invasion around him suddenly disappear, the distortion of his consciousness-shaking vanished, and even his vision became much clearer.

"Success... it really is effective!" Lin Xian said excitedly at this moment.

At this time, Grace had already completed Viola's system overwrite and said to Lin Xian:

【Are you preparing to upload Chu Yan's consciousness to Viola, letting her survive in the form of digital life?】

Lin Xian looked at Julius in the capsule, his gaze freezing.

"She shouldn't have that intention..."

【Then how do you plan to bring her back?】

"There is only one way." Lin Xian looked at the large amount of mycelium behind Julius's capsule life cabin. Those mycelia followed the system pipes all the way through the suppressor directly to the 【Gray Mist】's action brain.

"Grace."

Lin Xian looked at Grace at this moment and said:

【I am here.】

"I have a task for you, and perhaps only you can do it."

Grace stood with her hands behind her back, her ballet posture proud and upright, and said to Lin Xian: 【Grace is honored.】

*Sss. *

In cosmic space, Grace loaded the small propulsion device Lin Xian had manufactured, traveled through the starship wreckage area, and flew toward South Tianmen thousands of kilometers away!

The heavy cabin door closed, and the tubular suppressor retracted and inserted. At this moment, inside the suppressor cabin, even with the massive mechanical colonization suit covering it, Lin Xian could still smell a scent like formalin mixed with decaying matter.

Lin Xian walked behind Viola, reached out to re-insert the cables behind her, and then used his mechanical ability to restart her.

*Woo~* The core on 【Viola】's chest began to light up. Immediately, all the movement units on her body emitted resonance, powerful computing power surged, and she rapidly searched the entire 【Gray Mist Colonization Suit】 system. At this moment, a female voice extremely similar to Grace's sounded.

【Hello, Lin Xian. I am Viola. I have copied Grace's system data. From now on, I will serve you in place of Grace.】

Lin Xian took a deep breath, his gaze immediately turning cold. He came to a survival cabin he had just manufactured and took off his armor.

"Viola, search the colonization suit system and Gray Mist biological signs!"

【Viola understands. Searching, safety protocol activated.】

【Report: Armor integrity 92%, LCL apostle inhibitor complete, suppressor device online, large amount of unknown biological current detected.】

【Plasma thruster power remaining 34%, circuits for No. 1 and No. 4 burned out, No. 8 thruster offline.】

Lin Xian immediately released all maintenance and construction drones. At the same time, a scanning signal came in, and all 6 construction sequences of the Black Star Forge were activated to prepare for component construction.

"Viola, calculate the repair time."

【Combined with your repair and construction efficiency, the estimated repair time is 4 hours, 12 minutes, and 51 seconds.】

Lin Xian looked at the time at this moment and swallowed hard. He sat directly into the life cabin and handed the repair work over to Viola.

"I am going to test the connection to the action brain now. If my abnormal heart rate time or physical signs of death exceed 3 minutes, cut off the mycelium brain-machine directly and activate the AED system on me."

Viola was silent for a second, then said: 【Viola understands.】

Subsequently, Lin Xian lay into the life cabin, his heartbeat accelerating rapidly. He tried to steady his breathing and maintain his focus.

At this moment, the mycelium brain-machine link device slowly attached from the back of his head. *Zzz~* A surge of biological current instantly surged.

At this moment, the pupils in Lin Xian's eyes suddenly dilated, and countless blood-red colors began to occupy his eyes.

20:05, Dawn City. Dark clouds churned, and wild thunder exploded. It was as if only the sound of destruction remained between heaven and earth.

High above, the Silent City and the Heaven-Suppressing Ship fired countless artillery shells into the depths of the sky's clouds. Grand explosions of fire constantly appeared from the clouds, reflecting the silhouette of a terrifying atmospheric creature.

On the deck of the Silent City, Tianye Lan, wearing power armor, leaped high, his iron fists constantly smashing one incoming flying bizarre entity after another. Long Zhijie's powerful control domain expanded, grinding swarms of flying bizarre entities into dust. Qian Qian Qian Suxun had a cold expression, controlling thousands of mechas in cyclic combat. Tens of thousands of Silent City combat residents joined the battle, and countless drones and all city weapons surged in counterattack under Mochizuki Zhensi's control.

"Zhensi, that big guy's defensive surface area is too large. Logically speaking, it shouldn't have such a long duration." Qian Qian Qian Suxun frowned, constantly looking at the data transmitted by the AC robots.

"We have always believed that the S-rank driving the bizarre entity tide to attack was some kind of 'command' action, but looking at it now, this might only be one of the reasons."

Inside the main bridge, Mochizuki Zhensi stood with his hands behind his back, his expression remaining calm in the face of the attack of millions of monster tides:

"Bizarre entities can convert the power of the darkness invasion for their own use. Therefore, those monsters that were eliminated are precisely the 'sustenance energy' for these large S-rank monsters. Eating soldiers both consumes the enemy and strengthens oneself; this is the simplest hunting philosophy."

Around the Twin Star Tower, the hundreds of air patrol fleets composed of various parties had already burned the air into a scorched stench. Various drones, individual flight vehicles, and aerospace fighters danced in the sky. Besides the large number of monster corpses falling, there were also human fighters burning and crashing. A Ray-class starship lowered its altitude from the thunderstorm, missiles and main guns firing densely into the sky. Suddenly, several giant tentacles, burning the air like meteorites, fell rapidly from the clouds, instantly piercing through the starship's bow and propulsion cabin section completely.

*Boom! *

The tens of thousands of tons of aircraft emitted a dying wail of 'kong-kong-kong'. The starship hull and armor plates exploded layer by layer, with the energy and weapon cabins undergoing sympathetic detonation. In an instant, a huge mushroom cloud lit up on the horizon.

The firelight almost illuminated half the sky. Several fleet vessels dodged at this moment. The commanders on them looked at the monstrous firelight on the monitors, beneath which were comrades-in-arms falling like rain. Countless people were rolling and falling from high altitude; some were grabbing at broken oil pipes in vain, others were still firing back at the bizarre entities while falling. Under the sky full of monsters, these hundreds and thousands of humans were falling into the abyss like ants.

"Emergency report: Watcher-class battle damage and crash. Echo-class formation, shift rapidly to fill the gap in Airspace 13. Do not let the anti-aircraft line be breached!"

*Bzz-bzz-bzz! *

The massive crash turned the city streets below into a large sea of fire, with more than half the streets becoming ruins and rubble. Here, the wreckage of the Watcher was still burning, while another fleet formation had already flown over at high speed, refilling the gap in the firepower net.

Inside the city, the defense lines of various districts had already turned into a sea of doomsday. The bizarre entities had not yet been repelled, and large-scale mutations had already appeared within the survivors and the military. If one were not decisive, the chain reaction would quickly lead to the total annihilation of a company or convoy camp.

On the street defense line, Liang Lei, Li Guangwen, and a group of melee ability users were covered in the blood plasma of bizarre entities, cutting down the bizarre entities that had surged into the city walls all the way. After hours of bloody battle, the Gatling artillery had long since run dry.

"There are too many of these things!" Li Guangwen stood on the roof, punching a bat to death with a blast punch, shouting with a face full of blood and filth.

"Watch out!" Liang Lei rushed over from behind with his metallic skin, blasting a wing-winged demon away.

"Be careful!"

Who would have thought that a bizarre entity swooping down from the sky would rush over at high speed, spraying acid. At this moment, the building's steel-slashing greatsword flew over, piercing it directly and pinning it to the wall.

*Da-da-da, da-da-da. *

Behind a defense line, Hu Lushou, wearing high-grade battle armor and even a steel helmet, hid behind a bunker, firing wildly at a group of bizarre entities in an alley.

"I'll kill you all!"

*Ka-ka~*

But at this moment, the bullets ran out. During the lull in firepower, that group of bizarre entities stepped on the corpses of their companions and suddenly exploded, rushing toward Hu Lushou.

Hu Lushou's hands trembled as he urgently reloaded, his face turning pale as he retreated continuously.

"Wait, pause, let me reload..."

Just as the monster full of sharp claws was about to pounce on Hu Lushou, a mechanical iron fist flashing with crimson electric surges arrived with a boom. A single electric hammer strike directly blasted the monster into blood and filth, the resulting shockwave killing the monsters in the entire alley along with it.

Sun Chang clenched her iron fist, looked back at Hu Lushou, who was scared into sitting on the ground, and shouted in a low voice: "Be a little more careful."

"Thank you, wifey, for saving my life!!!" Looking at Sun Chang descending like a divine soldier, Hu Lushou was streaming with tears and snot.

On City Wall No. 1, dense firepower poured down like a waterfall toward the back of the black curtain. Outside the city, it had long since turned into a sea of blood. The mountain of corpse fragments in front of the mecha regiment's artillery meant they had to stand higher by stepping on the corpses of the bizarre entities.

*Ugh-ah!!! *

A violent black centipede drilled out from the corpse tide, bit and exploded a Vulcan armor, and then rapidly rushed toward the mecha cluster.

*Bzz! *

At this moment, a dark red laser beam swept past, instantly cutting the black centipede into several segments. Sun Yuzhen flew in the air with A-Bai, exerting the power of her laser beam to the extreme.

"Divine · Infinite Burning Flame Sword!"

A giant crimson flame pillar swept across the battlefield, bringing up a sky full of fire, and a blade tornado formed by thousands of sharp blades pushed horizontally all the way.

"Fire Brother, watch out for the sky!" Kiki shouted to him.

On the battlefield outside the city, Fire Brother, Kiki, and hundreds of destruction-level and several angel-level ability users were exerting violent combat power!

In the Twin Star Tower command room, the battle situation was constantly refreshing.

"Report: The Sky-Surveying Machine has discovered No. 19 S-rank creature 【Wanderer】 35 kilometers south of the city!"

On the combat screen, on the ruins full of smoke and fire, a terrifying multi-legged mobile creature appeared in the picture!

Under its huge figure, rows of buildings constantly collapsed, and an acidic shockwave directly caused the surrounding reinforced concrete buildings to constantly dissolve and melt.

"Report: In Defense Sector No. 8, Defense Outposts 45, 46, 47, 48, 51, and 52 lost signals at the same time, and strong seismic waves were detected. The silhouette of the front torso of No. 11 S-rank creature 【Earth Surge】 has been observed!"

Xu Zhenyue and several high-ranking officials were all concentrated around Ye Lan, looking at the command screen with solemn expressions.

"Ability user teams, concentrate your firepower. Do not let 【Earth Surge】 break through the city wall!" Xu Zhenyue initiated command to the front line at this moment: "Dispatch the unmanned intervention unit to attempt to change the target's direction of travel."

"How is the mutation situation now?" Ye Lan asked.

"It has already reached a third-level deterioration degree. If these two bizarre entities arrive, it might rise to a fourth-level deterioration." Xu Zhenyue said at this moment: "Reaching the fourth level, the front-line troops might start having problems."

Besides Xu Zhenyue, Generals Lu Tianye and Huo Jiang were both commanding on the front line. Ye Lan looked at the combat screen and said with a calm expression:

"How is the deployment of the City Ring Co-potential Tower?"

"Deployment is complete." Su Jin, who was in charge of this work and was the former head of the Federation's Far Star Project, reported at this moment: "We have deployed multiple power supply lines, and the Silent City's device is also in place. The dark-corrosion cells remain active. Now, as long as Lin Xian breaks through the Sky Curtain giant screen and the data is transmitted over, the Dark Energy Co-potential Tower can be lit immediately."

Su Jin said while looking with a heavy expression at the constantly rising casualty numbers on the combat screen, the various crashed fleets, the fallen streets, and the Southwest Defense Sector wall on the verge of collapse, saying sternly:

"It's just time..."

"Time is sufficient." Ye Lan said without turning his head: "The Emperor Project God Group has arrived. Notify the front line: individual combat power, retreat!"

On City Wall No. 1, in the southwest direction, the key defense area of the Garrison Army and the Iron Guard Brigade, the sky resounded with a boom.

Huo Jiang stood in the city wall defense command post, looked at the lights in the sky's clouds, and said with a sharp expression: "Finally here!"

He immediately stepped forward: "Connect me to the Qin brothers and Bai Ye, Su Rui!"

"Yes!"

"All units pay attention: Friend-or-foe identification A-1 Emperor-Zhu Que, A-2 Emperor-Inside Inside Xuanwu signals have been uploaded to the Intelligence Compilation Center. Prepare for impact!"

Garrison Commander Lu Tianye heard this information and immediately ordered in a deep voice: "Special Armed Power Battalion, retreat across the board. Artillery screen cover for Sectors 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9!"

"The Emperor mechas are here, retreat quickly!" The regional commanders of various regiments shouted one after another.

"Ability group, air cover for the transport planes!" Seraphim Department Head Luo Ming was commanding the battle at the edge of a transport ship, shouting into the communicator.

*Woo!!! *

The soldiers of various high-grade power armor teams fighting on the front line of the city wall received the order and retreated one after another.

At this moment, all the survivors fighting fiercely in Dawn City suddenly discovered that in the sky in the east of the city, the clouds were being torn apart.

Two towering 'human figures' like gods appeared in the clouds within their sight, accompanied by thunder and lightning under the cover of infinite artillery screens and anti-aircraft firepower. The roar of the vortex engines of dozens of 'Hercules' super-heavy transport planes came from far to near, like the breathing of ancient giant beasts. Steel cables tightened in the hurricane, and the massive black shadows being hoisted slowly pierced through the thick fog.

Those were two of the latest model Emperor Project God Group war machines, one size larger than the prototype. The composite armor of super-carbon acetylene alloy shone with a cold, chilling light under the searchlights, as if they were Titans walking out of mythology!

The mecha on the left was deep blue all over, with two nuclear fusion turbine engines spraying orange-yellow plasma beams roaring. This was a heavy-duty replica of the 【Prototype-Pangu】, with ghostly blue plasma light flickering at the joints. In the cockpit, the co-state neural link of the Qin Yue and Qin Chuan brothers was erupting with a rare 98% synchronization rate. Both had sharp gazes, and their hand movements and gait were almost completely identical.

"Target: No. 11 creature, Earth Surge."

"Inside Inside Xuanwu, prepare!"

"Inside Inside Xuanwu, prepare!"

"Fire!"

*Clang! *

Dozens of giant steel cables on the transport ship were released simultaneously. Subsequently, this 26,000-ton super-large humanoid mecha fell directly from an altitude of 400 meters!

*Woo! *

Under a violent wind-breaking sound, the Emperor-Inside Inside Xuanwu crashed into the Pujiang River located in the southwest of Dawn City. The river water exploded into a hundred-meter giant wave. The Emperor-Inside Inside Xuanwu knelt on one knee, its magnetic rail shield inserted into the Bund wharf, and the instantly activated defensive force field shook the bizarre entity tide and building wreckage within a radius of three hundred meters into dust!

In the cockpit, looking at the mountain-like No. 11 creature 【Earth Surge】 under the black fog silhouette on the holographic interface, the Qin brothers had cold gazes, their hands spreading out!

"Destroyer, fire!"

"Destroyer, fire!"

The front armor of the Emperor-Inside Inside Xuanwu's chest unfolded layer by layer, revealing a 120-unit Destroyer missile launch silo, firing twenty giant missiles with a boom!

And on the other side, the Emperor-Zhu Que mecha flowed with crimson energy. This was a high-mobility, high-burst assassination-class mecha, using new anti-impact materials throughout its body. In the cockpit were a husband and wife, husband Bai Ye and wife Su Rui. Both were graduates of the Air Force Academy. When the steel cables were lowered, the Zhu Que's leg thruster nozzles were like phoenix tail flames, bringing up a violent wind pressure and landing directly, the cracked ground raising a sky full of smoke and dust!

Facing the No. 18 creature 【Wanderer】 with its countless long legs and acid rain in front, the couple's gazes met, and they still assumed a combat posture.

"Activate Zhu Que Plasma Diffraction Sword!"

"Activate Zhu Que Plasma Diffraction Sword!"

*Sss! *

The giant mecha in an agile posture spread its arms, and two high-energy diffraction swords spraying crimson plasma beams almost illuminated the entire night of the battlefield.

"Come on!"

"Come on!"

The couple shouted simultaneously!

Under the violent thundercloud sky, the battle with the three S-rank bizarre entities all started at this moment. The Battle of Dawn City had completely entered a white-hot stage!

At this moment, in deep space orbit 46,852 km from the ground, a 160,000-ton humanoid mechanical colonization suit floated quietly amidst starship wreckage, its eight plasma thrusters behind it like an eight-winged angel, revealing a majestic scale.

Lin Xian felt his consciousness being torn apart instantly. Countless cracks at the edge of his vision seeped with viscous dark red. A powerful sense of weightlessness dragged him ten thousand meters beneath the deep sea. Countless screams echoed in his eardrums like the wails of hell. If he had been able to hear the cries of billions of people before when approaching the black fog, at this moment, Lin Xian felt as if he had fallen into an ocean formed by the living dead.

Suffocation, weightlessness, consciousness tearing—darkness was no longer darkness, but a living entity, constantly wriggling and proliferating. From point to circle, from triangle to Euclidean geometric body, every edge was twisting, flipping, and self-devouring in defiance of logic. His brain tried to understand, so those edges pierced into his thinking, stirring his cognition into a fishy, brain-matter thick soup.

Lin Xian felt himself falling from space to the Blue Star ground, passing through the atmosphere, passing through the thunderstorm clouds. The continental shelf and the ocean were collapsing, and a vastly huge black deep hole was spreading disorderly on the ground.

His head was splitting with pain. His consciousness seemed to have passed through countless universes, then to planets, dust, molecules, atoms, neutrons, protons... all the way to an unknown black hole space!

At this moment, Lin Xian felt his consciousness become 360 degrees—or more. It wasn't just space, but the overlap of countless repeated spaces and worlds. His body was already gone. Just as he was falling along with this repeated dark space, suddenly a hand grabbed him!

At this moment, everything seemed to quiet down. The overlapping space disappeared. His vision was left with only a pitch-black void area. And as Lin Xian focused his vision, the person who reached out and pulled him was none other than Chu Yan!

The Chu Yan before him was no longer that mechanical prosthetic body, but a completely materialized consciousness torso.

Her whole body was smooth and clean.

"Lin Xian." Chu Yan looked at Lin Xian in surprise: "How could you appear here?!"

"This is a long story..."

Lin Xian felt this brand-new state of consciousness. At this moment, he didn't know how much time had passed, but he knew that he saw Chu Yan now, which meant he had temporarily survived!

He immediately told Chu Yan about the Phoenix Society and his plan. Upon hearing Lin Xian's crazy plan, even Chu Yan, with her powerful mental power, felt somewhat unbelievable.

"Madman!"

Chu Yan looked at him and frowned, shouting: "You only said that there is a flickering bullet to return to the 【Civilization Pioneer】, but you didn't consider how to control this Gray Mist Messenger to return."

The colonization suit on the Gray Mist Messenger was only a suppressor and auxiliary action armor. Simply controlling its thrusters wasn't a big problem, but the key was that Lin Xian actually had no plan to activate and control its action brain to break through the Sky Curtain giant screen.

Lin Xian shook his head: "Indeed, I didn't consider this."

But he looked at Chu Yan: "It's just that I felt you must have a way, so I came up. Maybe it was a bit rash, but there was no better way."

Chu Yan looked at Lin Xian with a complex gaze, then fell silent for a moment and said:

"Julius's life has reached its limit. His plan was actually to use the S-rank identification of the Sky Curtain giant screen to completely assimilate him into the same life form. But he miscalculated. There is indeed a darker existence here, but to the darkness, he was just a piece of living tissue to revive the action brain..."

Lin Xian shrugged: "Now this biological battery has become me. So as long as I don't die, I can use myself and the Gray Mist action brain to bring your mental consciousness back. I deduce... this should be correct."

"According to your previous link with me, theoretically, perhaps it is possible..."

"It's just that I was in a near-death state before, and your body has temporarily died." Lin Xian said what she wanted to say: "But I think it's no problem. We have to try, don't we?"

Chu Yan avoided Lin Xian's gaze: "You are right. The dark energy data of the 【Civilization Pioneer】 plays a vital role in human war and survival. I admire your courage."

"Let's not put on the noble hat yet. Let's talk about something practical. I have already controlled the Crimson No. 3 main brain." Lin Xian's gaze was cold, looking at his surroundings: "What kind of place is this, and how do we go back?"

Chu Yan said sternly: "You can understand this place as a piece of exploration neuron opened up by the mycelium using the human brain medium in the Gray Mist bizarre entity action brain. It is the first collision between the neurons of two civilizations. Our consciousness is temporarily stored here, but the essence of our life forms is different, so we cannot communicate or exchange directly. We can only use experiments for logical deduction. Moreover, the survival medium of dark creatures is in a corrosive state to us, so the constraint locks and suppressors manufactured by the Crimson World suppress its neural activity to above 70%. Plus, this is only an action brain, so according to the data conclusions of the Crimson World, about 420 healthy young human brains can be on par with it in terms of mental activity."

"In other words, it's consciousness backflow. Whichever side has stronger mental power can occupy the dominant position."

Lin Xian was startled upon hearing this: "That is to say, it takes 420 human brains to be on par with one S-rank action brain suppressed by 70%?"

"That's right."

"Then us?"

"Adding me is enough." Chu Yan said at this moment: "My mental power exceeds the peak sum of at least 1,000 people!"

Lin Xian let out a sigh of relief and looked at Chu Yan: "Then it seems I bet right."

"Mental power merging is not an easy thing. It's different from neural telepathy. And besides coordinating the frequency, we also have to cooperate to resist the darkness reaction of the Gray Mist."

"That's no problem."

Chu Yan possessed powerful mental power abilities, while Lin Xian was an angel-level mechanical ability user, and he already had quite a bit of experience in resisting darkness. He was still very confident about this point.

Chu Yan tilted her head slightly and said to Lin Xian: "Also, after our consciousness is shared, you will have no secrets from me here."

Lin Xian frowned, looked at the naked Chu Yan at this moment, and said:

"I think, at this time, these things are no longer important."

"You are right."

Chu Yan turned around at this moment. Under the surge of powerful mental power, the surrounding darkness began to fade continuously. Lin Xian's perspective seemed to begin to expand continuously. A blurred space scene appeared in front, as if he were looking at that starship wreckage area from the perspective of the 【Gray Mist】 messenger.

At this moment, Lin Xian looked, feeling the violent mental power surging all around. Countless dark tides were gathering toward the two like a tsunami. The violent roaring sound exploded in the space like thunder. He immediately shouted loudly:

"So, what do we do next?"

Chu Yan's gaze was sharp. Chu Yan slowly raised her right hand toward Lin Xian and said loudly:

"Grab my hand!"

"And then?!"

Lin Xian immediately reached out and interlaced his fingers with Chu Yan's. In an instant, under Chu Yan's powerful mental power, the violent thunder sound all around seemed to disappear instantly, and heaven and earth quieted down.

Only one voice of Chu Yan resounded in his mind:

"Our minds are one!"

(End of chapter)