Chapter 400: Pursuit

Four days later.

In lunar orbit, a landing capsule that looked like a spider with six legs in the front and back detached from the working capsule and began a circling motion along a huge arc.

After adjusting the angle several times, the landing capsule was captured by the moon's gravity, the falling form and angle gradually stabilized, and then the partition in front of the lens opened, and the landing capsule saw the desolate planet for the first time.

High-speed cameras and advanced chips were enchanted and protected by the Armor Charm outside the magic-isolated coating, and the data stream was stably sent to the working capsule, and then forwarded back to Earth by the latter through high-power laser communication equipment.

Thus, the moon landing command center on Earth two seconds later also saw that scene.

That was an image of the front of the moon.

A cheer erupted in the command room. Up to this point, the launch mission could be considered basically completed. Three items to be verified: the availability of the Floating Charm in the launch stage, the reliability of the Undetectable Extension Charm in long-distance navigation, and the stability of the final communication, all achieved round results.

Next, every second the exploration satellite existed was extra profit.

Everyone relaxed their mentality, and occasionally someone walked around, patting each other on the shoulders.

Murphy was still waiting. The orbital position of the landing capsule was still too high, and at this moment it could only see things like craters. 【400-1

We need to get closer.

"According to our latest calculations, the location of those primordial substances should be at the exact center of the far side of the moon; the landing module can land there after two decelerations."

After another ten-plus hours, the landing module orbited the moon once, then decelerated again, gradually descending toward the lunar surface, and finally reached a sufficiently low altitude. It sped across the lunar surface, moving from the near side of the moon to the far side.

It rapidly passed over the Jules Verne crater, its speed decreased again, adjusting the landing position, and then it passed over the Tsiolkovsky crater. Ahead lay the intended landing site at the center of the far side of the moon, a valley within the Soviet Mountains.

At this moment, the sun's position was just right, the view was very clear, and the high-speed camera transmitted the scene of the lunar far side back to the control room clearly.

A spectacular mountain range appeared in the landing module's field of view. This mountain range was very irregular, filled with towering cliffs and abyss-like valleys. The landing module's speed decreased further, the landing engines ignited, and after a third attitude adjustment, it began a slow descent from a height of about fifteen kilometers.

Below was an area surrounded by towering lunar rocks, but the deeper parts were plunged into darkness due to the angle of the sunlight.

"How do they look... like man-made structures..." someone nearby suddenly said.

Murphy also saw the appearance of those lunar rocks clearly. Indeed, compared to the strangely shaped lunar rocks elsewhere, or the craters formed by meteorite impacts, the shapes of the lunar rocks here were truly too regular. They formed a circle, yet it didn't look like it was formed by a meteorite impact; they almost all had roughly similar outlines, as if they were built from several ring-shaped stones—a deep well.

"This thing, isn't it wrong?" someone shouted in surprise. "Although no probe has observed this place at this altitude, photos from higher up have been taken in the past. If it looked like this, it should have been discovered long ago..."

Murphy frowned, suddenly thinking of that term, "Magic-Informed Effect..."

Just then, the high-speed camera seemed to experience some malfunctions, flickering constantly. In the few frames that occasionally appeared, one could see patches of rock pillar shadows appearing below, and those rock pillars were covered in irregular outlines.

But before they could see them more clearly, a crimson radiance suddenly lit up below.

……

In the gloom surrounded by ring-shaped lunar rocks, tall stone statues stood in the valley. They were either standing or lying down, in various postures. Most of the stone statues were already dilapidated, some even collapsed on the ground, their bodies shattered into stone fragments, but there were still many stone statues that looked as if they had just been carved, appearing as if they had never suffered from any weathering.

In the eternally silent space, a tiny starlight suddenly appeared in the abyss-like sky and slowly began to fall.

Suddenly, a stone statue vibrated, bursting with countless cracks.

Soon, more stone statues also began to vibrate. Amidst "clattering" sounds, it seemed as if countless debris fell with the vibration of the stone statues.

"Star..."

"Star of man..."

"The time... has come..."

With a crash, a huge gap split open in the head of a stone statue, and an eye shining with crimson light burned sternly within it.

The next instant, a red beam of light shot into the sky.

However, high in the air, a transparent barrier suddenly appeared, reflecting the light back like a mirror, plowing huge gullies in the valley.

At the same time, the constantly flickering images in the control room suddenly flashed, and then turned into static.

……

The signal was lost, but the landing module did not crash; instead, it continued to descend. The stone statues below stirred one after another. A stone statue crouched down, then jumped up with a boom, darting out like a cannonball. Just as it was about to make contact with the landing module, the shadow of a chain suddenly appeared on its body.

The next instant, the chain turned from virtual to real, and with a bang, it pulled it tight.

The landing module also stopped descending. It hovered more than a hundred meters above the valley floor. There was clearly nothing there, but it remained motionless as if it had landed steadily on a piece of glass.

"Its power..."

"Has weakened..."

The next instant, countless stone statues moved. They leaped up one after another, but were eventually fixed in mid-air by chains. Then, new stone statues ran upward along those materialized chains, only to be pulled back by newly appearing chains.

Countless stone statues eventually piled up in the valley like an acrobat troupe, stacking higher and higher, and those chains also became more numerous, winding around and tying those stone statues up like rice dumplings.

Below, the stone statue that had just emitted the red light crouched down, then suddenly began to sprint, running upward along the mountain of stone statues that had been tightened by thousands of chains like a stone pillar. Countless chains emerged from the ground again, attempting to block it, but a blood-red long spear appeared in its hand. Those chains were blocked by it and could not bind it for a moment.

But a phantom chain also appeared on its body. The moment it ran to the top of the stone pillar, the chain turned from virtual to real, instantly pulling it tight. The huge pulling force even made the entire valley tremble.

However, the long spear in his hand was thrown by him in the momentum, suddenly turning into a blood-colored meteor, and with a "bang," it actually pierced through that transparent dome, firmly fixing itself onto it.

The entire valley shook violently, and the transparent barrier suddenly lit up with blinding light. The next instant, with a "crack," the dome sheared the long spear off and returned to being complete.

However, the broken crimson spear tip outside the dome squirmed, then jumped up like a worm and leaped into the landing module.

Immediately, the six metal legs of the landing module came to life, crouched to store power, and then jumped violently, leaping into the air.

Several chains below chased like long snake tentacles, but the landing module suddenly disappeared from the air, warping to a height of several hundred meters higher, shaking off the chains.

At the same time, the landing engines, which had clearly run out of fuel, erupted with blue exhaust flames, rushing at an astonishing speed toward the service module staying in lunar orbit in deep space.

……

"What's going on? The signal is gone..."

In the Earth command room, people were checking various parameters in confusion, trying to find the reason for the loss of the landing module's signal.

Just then, a researcher saw the data on the screen and froze for a moment, "Director, our landing module doesn't have a return plan, right?"

"It seems to be returning to lunar orbit!"

(End of chapter)