Chapter 267: Rosie, Dead

Deep within Kunlun Mountain, Xia Wan's fate remains unknown; the critical information she obtained at great cost is now being fully analyzed by the New Era. At the other end of Earth, on the Public Sea in the South Pacific, marked by a leaked coordinate, a "high-stakes gamble" driven by greed and despair is hurtling toward a bloody conclusion far faster than anyone anticipated.

Pandora allied with several arms dealers similarly blinded by "alien relics" and a formidable private armed fleet, forming a massive "Joint Exploration Fleet" that arrived en masse at the target sea area.

The sea surface was calm, its deep blue hiding boundless secrets.

Lilith stood in the command room of the flagship Poseidon, her violet eyes fixed rigidly on the screens of various detection devices. Though she had forcibly silenced all opposition, a thread of unease coiled through her like a venomous snake. She could only keep telling herself: this was the only chance; she must gamble on!

"Report! Sonar detected an anomalous structure on the seabed! Depth: 4500 meters!" a technician suddenly shouted.

Everyone's spirits lifted instantly!

The sonar image on the screen showed a massive, irregular, clearly unnatural rise on the pitch-black seabed—its scale far exceeding any known wreck or natural formation!

"Deploy submersibles! Immediately!" Lilith's voice rose sharply with excitement.

Several of the most advanced unmanned submersibles were launched into the sea, darting like agile fish toward the mysterious seabed structure.

The atmosphere in the command room tightened to its limit; everyone held their breath, waiting for the submersibles' transmitted footage.

Yet as the submersibles descended deeper, the data they sent back began to grow bizarre.

"Signal under heavy interference! Image unstable!" "Depth 3800 meters… 3900 meters… 4000 meters… Energy readings spiking abnormally!" "Something's wrong! This interference pattern… isn't natural!"

Lilith's heart plummeted.

At that moment, the main screen displayed the final, extremely blurred, snow-covered footage from one submersible—the surface of the seabed "structure" appeared covered in a constantly flowing, liquid-metal-like substance! Beneath it, faintly visible were intricate, glowing geometric patterns!

Before anyone could make sense of it, all submersibles' signals severed simultaneously.

"What's happening?!!" "Lost contact! All lost contact!"

The command room erupted into chaos!

Lilith's face turned deathly pale; a freezing chill shot from her feet to her skull! She finally realized—they might… no, they certainly had walked into a meticulously laid trap!

"Retreat! Immediately retreat! Full battle readiness for the entire fleet! Leave this sea area!"

But it was already too late.

Almost as Lilith gave the order, the liquid-metal layer on the seabed's massive "structure" erupted into violent boiling! Countless ghostly-blue, tentacle-like energy beams shot upward from the seabed at speeds exceeding physical limits, striking every single ship belonging to the "Joint Exploration Fleet" with pinpoint accuracy!

The Poseidon shuddered violently, as if gripped by an invisible giant hand! All electronic systems failed instantly; lights flickered wildly; alarms screamed like dying wails!

"No—!!!" Lilith let out a desperate scream.

She saw through the window: other ships struck by the ghostly-blue energy beams dissolved and vaporized like ice thrown into a steel furnace—no explosion even had time to occur; they simply turned into twisted glows and metallic vapor, vanishing into the air!

It was a form of destruction beyond comprehension!

"Shield overload! Hull disintegrating!" the engineer screamed his final cry.

Lilith collapsed to the floor, her violet eyes reflecting the hellish scene outside the viewport. She saw the ghostly-blue energy spreading like a living thing along the hull, turning alloy armor as fragile as paper wherever it passed.

She remembered Qin Feng's cold gaze, remembered his mocking words about "gift money."

So… he knew all along.

He knew what was here.

He knew this was a dead end.

He watched them coldly, like fools leaping willingly into a firepit.

Infinite regret, terror, and twisted hatred consumed her utterly in this moment.

Just as the ghostly-blue energy was about to reach the command room, Lilith mustered her last strength, snatched up the internal comm, and unleashed her final curse—vile and defiant—its shrillness piercing the alarm's wail:

"Qin Feng—!!!"

The ghostly-blue light swallowed everything.

The flagship Poseidon, along with all its crew—including the once ambitious, obsessive, and deranged CEO of Pandora—Lilith—was erased from this world in mere seconds, leaving not a trace.

Above the South Pacific, silence returned.

As if the massive fleet had never existed.

Only the still-deep sea area silently spoke of the horror that had just occurred—far beyond human understanding.

Pandora's gamble ended in total annihilation and the death of its core leader.

Far away in the New Era, Qin Feng received, almost simultaneously, an alert from the global monitoring network: a coordinate in the South Pacific registered an unexplainable, extremely brief yet astonishingly intense energy burst; then, all signals from Pandora's joint fleet vanished collectively.

He stared at the screen's now "calm" sea area coordinate, his face expressionless.

As if the deaths of hundreds of lives and the complete annihilation of a long-standing adversary were merely brushing away a speck of dust.

He picked up the internal comm, connected to Su Wenqian, and calmly reported the outcome:

"Rosie, dead."

(Note: Rosie is one of Lilith's names; here, Qin Feng uses her true name, emphasizing detachment and indifference.)

Su Wenqian remained silent for a moment before replying softly: "... Yes, sir."

She knew an era had ended with Lilith's (Rosie's) death.

The Pandora problem had been eradicated in the most thorough manner possible.

And all of this happened merely because they touched the…

A trivial trap laid by the sir.

Su Wenqian gazed out the window at the thriving scene of the New Era, her heart chilled.

Those who oppose the sir have long since had their fates sealed.