Chapter 432

Over the once-silent city of Haiyan, howling storms relentlessly battered the urban landscape; on the distant horizon, black clouds hung like iron curtains, pressing the sky so low it seemed ready to crash onto the sea, churning and twisting, with occasional deep purple lightning flashing within—yet no thunder echoed, only a suffocating silence.

Amid the dim twilight, the city's ruins appeared even more desolate: fractured skyscrapers resembled skeletons devoured by monstrous beasts, shards of glass glinted with ominous glimmers, and the palm trees along the seaside boulevard had long withered, their dry branches rasping against the wind like whispers from some living thing.

Lin Xian, Kiki, and Shizhi sped low across the skyline, heading toward the Infinite Station; their powered armor's holographic displays flickered incessantly, the Geiger counter's alarm never ceasing—as if every signal beneath this storm was under intense interference.

"There are so many monster auras… inside the clouds, up in the sky…"

Shizhi's voice trembled; the oppressive weight of the black clouds brought back memories of that night in Dawn City.

"Lin Xian, have you contacted them?" Kiki asked, using telekinesis to form a barrier against the gale.

"No!"

Lin Xian shot through the streets at high speed, leaving a violent pressure wave that scattered debris; he looked up at the churning, lightning-wracked sky and said grimly,

"They're all retreating toward the Infinite Station. If they run into trouble, the squads should be able to adapt."

"Understood!"

Whoosh!

Along the eastern coast of Haiyan Island, outside the docking pier, the sea began to boil.

Not ordinary waves—entire stretches of ocean churned like water brought to a boil, roiling with murky foam; beneath the black water, massive shadows drifted, occasionally surfacing to reveal translucent, glowing bodies before sinking again into the depths.

"This is bad," Ningjing said, her face darkening; she immediately called all members to prepare for evacuation.

"Watch out!"

"Where's Abai?" Ningjing called to Huo Ge but saw no sign of Abai.

"Over there!" Xiaoqing leapt onto the roof of a seaside residential building and shouted into the wind.

"You… look!"

Abai's voice came through the comm; at that moment, Ningjing and Huo Ge climbed up. Below the road lay a jagged black-rock coastline. The instant they landed, Lu Xingchen saw dozens of whale carcasses inexplicably stranded along the shore—deep-sea creatures rarely seen since the Day of Revelation, yet here they lay in unnatural abundance.

"Abai, what did you see?" Ningjing moved beside him and found him staring upward at the low, black clouds above the open sea; slowly raising his hand, he said tensely, "Can't you see it? Something's there!"

At his words, Ningjing and Lu Xingchen looked up—but saw only a dark, churning sea beneath the storm, nothing else.

"Focus your mind!"

Xiaoqing swung down from above, her voice grave: "You must use your psychic energy to block the storm's intrusion to see it!"

Ningjing frowned, immediately pushing her psychic energy to its peak; instantly, the sea wind battering her powered armor's shell grew thick and heavy. Beneath the storm's howl, she lifted her gaze again toward the black sea—and this time, her pupils contracted sharply: a horrifying sight materialized before her.

Beneath the black clouds over the sea, several colossal, indescribable beings floated like hunched, curled skeletons, moving in unison toward a single direction; countless massive tentacles and limbs dangled down to the water's surface, like inverted giant trees!

"What kind of evil entity dares drift through the daylight?"

Huo Ge's face paled; the scene struck with overwhelming force—each monstrous form hunched its head in identical, unnatural postures, drifting toward a single point, while the shore was littered with whale corpses, a scene of apocalyptic horror.

"We need to evacuate fast—everything's cut off."

Boom!

Within the industrial zone, a sudden surge of noise erupted; at the same moment, Abai stared at the boiling sea ahead and said tensely, "Something's coming up!"

Ningjing frowned, turned her gaze to a large warehouse, and decided instantly: "Get inside—don't let them mark us!"

The team moved swiftly, dashing into the warehouse amid the thundering chaos from all sides.

Elsewhere, inside a mall building in the seaside commercial district, the heavy mech "Shasha" braked urgently into an underground garage as the storm intensified; Long Zhijie controlled dust-wave bursts to cover the team's retreat inward, while Mo Nika stood on the mall's plaza, her expression sharp: "Hurry—before they spot us."

After the team entered, she suddenly turned, her helmet's nanofaceplate opening; she fired an invisible sonic sword toward a distant electric tower on a nearby building—the air cracked with a piercing shriek, and in the next instant, the tower toppled in the gale, dragging down a section of the facade as glass shattered into a thousand fragments.

At that moment, Mo Nika clearly sensed the rushing sounds within the storm shifting toward that building; seizing the distraction, she quickly retreated with Long Zhijie into the mall's underground garage for temporary cover.

"Mo sister, why don't we just charge straight back to the Infinite Station?" Shasha asked Mo Nika.

"These things are moving too fast—we need to avoid them first. We don't have any lure agents. If we bring a marker back to the Infinite Station, we won't be able to handle it." Mo Nika's mind was clear; her sonic psychic ability had already detected the rapidly approaching entities, and the storm above held unknown dangers—she had to act decisively.

"It's not even 3 PM yet," Daliu said. "Let's wait—the storm might pass."

"The radiation levels in this storm are extremely high—we've never encountered anything like this. Why now?" Shasha operated the computer aboard Flying Peach, launching several reconnaissance drones into the dark garage as she spoke: "Could it be that the floating island the Falcon Sea Clan mentioned is approaching?"

"It's possible," Long Zhijie said calmly. "This storm feels… alive."

Mo Nika lowered her gaze slightly, observing the surroundings in silence.

On the island's western shore, above the rail station's dome, Qian Dele and Shu Qin's team watched the wind patterns with grim expressions.

"Have you seen Lin Xian and the others?" Chen Sixuan, fully armed, called over the comm from aboard the Infinite Station.

"Not yet," Shu Qin replied.

"This storm is too strange—our transmissions are heavily disrupted even at a few hundred meters. This isn't normal." Luo Yang operated a handheld jammer; hundreds of drones patrolled low overhead, coordinated via relay nodes—but even so, the electronic systems were severely affected, constantly triggering surge alarms.

Miao Lu and Xiao Yuan all gripped their weapons in readiness; Mo Xiaotian crouched nervously by the door, staring up at the black void above the dome; Sun Yuzhen flew in from afar and called to Chen Sixuan,

"We haven't spotted anyone in any direction—should I expand the search radius to cover them?"