Chapter 450

Mars is the most eagerly explored place in the solar system, after the Moon.

To this day, nations continue to vigorously explore Mars, not only because this planet is closest to Earth, but also because it holds abundant resources and great strategic value.

"Good evening, dear viewers."

"Recently, the Mars rover 'Curiosity,' launched by NASA in November 2011 and successfully landed on the Martian surface in August 2012, reestablished contact with Earth after 431 days."

"Shortly, we will see real-time broadcast footage from NASA's Mars exploration."

According to Beijing time, it is now 10:50 p. m.

Most office workers are already in bed playing their phones' 'last five minutes,' while students within the nine-year compulsory education range rarely stay up past 9:30 p. m. for children's channels.

In today's internet-saturated era, the number of people still sitting in front of their TVs to watch late-night science programs is steadily declining, mostly limited to those in related industries or astronomy enthusiasts.

The program director sighed after checking the ratings; two months ago, he had specifically traveled to a village in Jiang Nan to worship a particularly miraculous statue, spending three full days in prayer.

It's not that he was superstitious,

it's just that the unearthed statue had a peculiar magic—he, single for decades, had nearly fallen into it.

"So it doesn't work after all?" The program director felt his mind was going odd—he really should see a psychologist: "Broadcast the footage."

The handsome host, hearing the voice in his earpiece, smiled: "I believe that in the near future, our country will also achieve independent Mars exploration. Alright, let's focus tonight's gaze on the alien landscape."

【Barren and lifeless, with nothing but endless sand, rubble, hills, gullies, Gundam, Eva-01, Daoist Priest.】

"Hmm, we've now received the real-time footage from Mars." The host glanced at his science-popularization script, preparing to add some 'side dishes' for viewers while the slightly lagging live feed played on screen.

Otherwise, watching nothing but poor signal and barren scenery on an alien livestream—even the most curious viewer would fall asleep.

"If what we see, the Martian surface is primarily dunes and gravel." The host looked up at the live feed: "Similar to Earth, it possesses Iron Man, Dragon, Yang Erlang."

"."

?

The host stared at the broadcast footage, as if a string inside his mind had snapped—his script stuck in his throat, his mind utterly blank.

Not just him—space agencies worldwide and viewers in front of their TVs were frozen, staring at the flickering black-and-white livestream, as if frames of still images were being displayed one by one.

A strange unicorn Gundam kicked Eva-01 in the face; Eva-01, wielding the Lance of Longinus, stabbed back, while dozens of tractors hovered in the sky, collectively attacking the unicorn Gundam.

Iron Man flashed past the probe, carrying a youth with snot and tears streaming down his face.

A man with black hair, clad in armor, wielding a three-pronged two-edged blade, had his arm bitten by a giant black dog; a fat Daoist Priest was pulling at the dog, then the scene shifted as a dragon's head bit down directly.

The Mars probe's live feed shook violently, spinning through the air as if blown by a gale.

During this, numerous figures in ancient attire drove hand-pulled tractors racing across the sandy terrain, leaving long trails of black smoke behind; weapons hung densely in the sky, with one man standing at the center; a ten-meter-long great sword rested against the neck of a man consumed by madness.

These scenes were hard to discern unless closely observed, but to those with a Leewenhoek-level passive ability, details were clear.

Finally, the Mars probe landed in a pile of sand; a heavily overloaded tractor stopped, and a man wearing a copper coin mask stepped down, waving to someone beside him.

"What is this?" Li Huowang drew his sword and pointed at the 'Curiosity.'

"It's a Mars probe, Li Huowang. You're a modern person—you don't even know this?" Qing Wanglai sat on the tractor's hood, his expression strange: "Was your top score in science cheating?"

Li Huowang scratched his head and changed the subject: "Will this thing expose us?"

"If it has signal and sufficient power, it transmits surrounding footage back to Earth when activated," Zhao Shuangdian sat on the rear-mounted cargo box, examining the mechanical joints in motion: "It's probably been active for some time."

Yi Donglai: "The cost of one unit ranges from several billion to hundreds of billions."

Li Huowang: "."

He glanced at the chaos nearby—wild battles, relentless bombardments, scheming, tornadoes destroying parking lots—then at the swaying camera, and quietly sheathed his sword.

It's too late now, let it go.

He climbed into the driver's seat, pulled the hand lever, and sped off with a "putt-putt-putt," leaving a trail of black smoke.

"Multiverse Resonance Saturated Barrage! Die, twin-tailed loser!!"

"Ruby, get back here! You little brat pretending to be young—you're older than Emiya Shirou!"

"Can't you all just stop fighting?"

"Emiya Shirou, I'm hungry."

A massive magical array constructed its circuits; a torrent of magical energy poured down, colliding with the dazzling, glittering gemstone sword—this was a battle of infinite magic against infinite magic.

Though mixed with the wailing of a certain red-haired man.

"Magic Girl…" Yi Donglai, seated in the passenger seat, asked: "Should we introduce this to our world?"

Qing Wanglai pushed up his glasses and asked: "Did Su Tianfu corrupt you?"

"Just a joke."

During this, occasional magical artifacts and spells exploded around Li Huowang, but they had zero effect on the hand-pulled tractor packed with four people—they drove through the chaotic battlefield like tourists on a sightseeing vehicle.

"Li Huowang, with those thick eyebrows and honest eyes—I never thought he was the one with the biggest cheat system." Zhang Chu'an hid behind a hill, staring at his hand-pulled tractor, now ruined from barely scraping by:

"Who brings the Dao of Heaven to a competition? Liu Li Ge, aren't you going out to compete for a ranking? Exchanging for equivalent resources with Big Brother Su would be great too."

"Han believes frequent use of resurrection artifacts corrupts one's original mindset," Han Li shook his head, releasing several mechanical puppets from his instrument panel to observe the surroundings:

"This event is about participation, not risking nine deaths to fight for a rank. If you succeed once through opportunism, future crises will make you obsess over today's gains—seeing only opportunity, blind to danger."

"Moreover, for you and me, apart from the insight into the Law of Destruction, all other rewards we've already obtained from Su Lin."

"Minor resources are unnecessary. My humble opinion, Brother Chu'an, don't worry about them."

Zhang Chu'an slowly returned to his normal expression—he felt Liu Li Ge's thoughts were becoming increasingly meticulous.

Whatever. These masters are too high-level; I'll just stay casual.

"So, Liu Li Ge, can I borrow your tractor to take a shot?" Zhang Chu'an rubbed his hands, grinning: "Seven for you, three for me if I win?"

Beneath this region, a large spatial array was laid out; once the total mileage of all vehicles reaches the threshold, they may proceed to a special track built by Immortal Sects using secret techniques, gaining speed bonuses according to their mileage.

Unfortunately, so far, the total mileage of all participants is insufficient!

Because most have used some form of cheating—those who have honestly run from the start are virtually nonexistent, and even flight via wings doesn't count toward mileage.

Bai Zunzhe: 【My numbered tag, after my own improvements, can track everyone's mileage. Any cheating will be settled in full by the final stage—I haven't told anyone this rule.】

Reasonable. The Light Judge said: "Therefore, all contestants, such as Shi Hao, Shi Hao, and other contestants like Shi Hao, please diligently make up your mileage on Mars."

"Split it evenly." Han Li nodded without hesitation.

"As long as I don't have to risk myself, it's fine, right?" Zhang Chuyan, seeing Han Li's decisiveness, tore off the sticker from his tractor and swapped it with Han Li's.

He didn't mourn the previous tractor for a single moment; now he drove toward the battlefield.

Swoosh—!

Boom~~~~

Zhang Chuyan, just emerging from the concealment array, was struck by an unknown area-of-effect attack from above, vanishing into a cloud of dust.

"Dead dog, let go! If you're going to bite, bite Shi Hao in front!" Ye Fan stepped out of the dust, gasping in pain, gripping the King's Divine Weapon shaped like a three-pronged, double-edged spear and jabbing it at Hei Huang's dog head—but this dead dog's hide was too thick; the King's Divine Weapon couldn't harm it:

"What the hell are you doing?! Rabies?!"

"You think I don't know about Yang Erlang? Daring to take advantage of your Dog Lord! Oooh—!" Hei Huang refused to let go; to soothe Xiao Nannan to sleep, he had long read countless picture books meant for human children.

"Damn it! This eel's power has surged! Don't leave me behind!" Duan De's voice came from the dust behind Ye Fan. "Eel! If you don't let go, I won't be gentle!"

When the dust cleared, Duan De was barely holding on inside the mouth of the Purple-Gold Divine Dragon. His treasures glowed with divine light, and the seven-colored mist and chaotic qi he conjured blocked the dragon's upper and lower jaws as they closed.

It wasn't that he wanted to run—he was stuck because he was too fat after the tractor transformed.

"Auuuugh! Do you think the Dragon Lord came to Mars for what? The Dragon Lord flipped over, and you won't win either!" The Purple-Gold Divine Dragon's eyes turned red, purple aura swirling around him; had he not feared the consequences of unleashing his full power, he would have already drawn upon the strength of an ancient great god.

"Shit! Dead dog! Ye Fan! You two bastards! @#%" Duan De cursed, imagining himself and the wrecked tractor swallowed whole by the eel.

No one noticed: beneath the massive dragon body, broken tractor parts and a hand exposed outside twitched twice, then fell still.

"Miscalculation."

Kleine tried to deceive Su Lin, casting a foolishness-debuff effect—but it had zero effect.

That wasn't the point. The point was that before he even moved, Su Lin had already launched an attack on the group members around him.

The world's morals are deteriorating—someone would attack a fellow group member they'd spent days with? Or perhaps Su Lin's target was always only the group members; none of the surrounding cultivators who attacked him were harmed.

"..." Kleine thought, raised his ancient staff, and tapped it lightly in the air.

As his spiritual essence sharply decreased, a spell from a past moment reappeared in history, and a large group of cultivators surrounding Su Lin briefly forgot and became confused.

He deceived history and the cultivators' minds, merely to verify a hypothesis.

As expected, Su Lin exploded with abilities, countering every spell aimed at the hand tractor.

"Don't you have any shame?"

In response came a barrage of instant-cast forbidden spells.

Kleine understood: for Su Lin, whether he himself was first place didn't matter—it mattered whether any group member reached the top three to exchange for equivalents, like the n bottles of immortal wine Shi Hao coveted.

Compared to that, letting the local cultivators win was far more cost-effective.

"I can understand your thinking. Indeed, this saves a huge expense." Kleine ended his stealth state and returned to reality, nodding in agreement, then turned to the nearby Gundam and gave a standard smile:

"But it's not saving me money."

Kleine decided to give everything—even if he died once—he would hold Su Lin back so the group members could have a chance to secure top-three positions.

Shi Hao: "I'll give you fifty percent. @Ye Fan, how did you get eliminated? That's pathetic."

Yi Leina: "We four split it evenly!"

Xing: "+1"

Especially Especially Especially Xiao Yan: "Fifty percent!"

Song Shuhang: "Senior Especially Especially Especially Xiao Yan, you're still alive?!"

Lu Mingfei: "I don't want to split one percent! You two lunatics, fight somewhere else and don't drag me in!"

Su Lin saw the chat log and sneered: "Fine, I'm done pretending."

"Senior Su Lin is revealing his true intentions?!"

Song Shuhang was instantly startled, raising his alertness to the maximum.

In his eyes, seven-colored rainbow light swirled; traces of fate, time, space, and causality appeared in these eyes named "Seven Light"—it was precisely because of this immensely powerful eye technique that he had survived until now, escaping the ambushes of those big shots who had lowered their dignity.

It was strange: his greatest danger now came from Senior Su Lin, yet the very eye technique that let him survive was tied to Senior Su Lin.

With complex emotions, he shivered. Though he didn't know why Senior Especially Especially Especially Xiao Yan hadn't been eliminated yet, he could rely on no one but himself now.

Song Shuhang gritted his teeth, his gaze resolute: "I will break my own fate—who says my passive skill must be uncontrollable?"

Rules can be broken. Fate can too!

"My fate is mine, not heaven's!" — Song, for the sake of survival, Shuhang

Watching beneath the Martian surface, the massive Yin-Yang Taiji Bagua array gradually activated, Song Shuhang saw a colossal space tunnel forming.

Shift gear, accelerate, charge—surviving until now with the lowest fourth-rank cultivation, Song Shuhang dashed into the array the instant it formed.

In an instant, Song Shuhang saw

The Fool Mr., in the form of a mythic beast, with a swarm of tentacles that drove one to madness, dragging the ten-winged Unicorn Gundam into the "eye" of the Yin-Yang Taiji fish.

These were the only two mandatory return traps in the competition: at the two "eyes" of the Yin-Yang fish, any contestant who accidentally stepped into this area would be instantly returned to the starting point.

"Senior Kleine!"

Song Shuhang hadn't expected things to happen so fast—in the black eye of the Yang fish, he saw Kleine, restored to human form, dragging the unwilling Su Lin into endless darkness, the latter raising his thumb high until swallowed.

Was it over?

The space tunnel formed; the swirling Yin and Yang energies blurred the surroundings, even time becoming chaotic here.

At the same time, the license plate on his vehicle lit up; the hand tractor received a hundredfold physical acceleration and hundredfold time-flow boost.

"We can win!" If this buff applied—

At that moment, a strong scent of scallion surged.

Recognizing the familiar smell, Song Shuhang, who had just sighed in relief, looked ahead—and saw Ye Fan, holding the Cauldron of the Mother Qi of All Things, relentlessly smashing it against Shi Hao, again and again, the sound like war drums.

And a chain of cosmic law pierced through space, carrying a sacred power that would drive one mad if stared at too long, transferring pure divine energy to Ye Fan.

Below, Duan De, Black Emperor, and Purple Gold Divine Dragon pulled Ge Gu, who kept turning the tire, their eyes brimming with unhidden glee, as if wanting to drag him into the hell of losers.

Together.

Jiang Shan: 【Just received notification of Su Lin's team change: Ye Fan and Purple Gold Divine Dragon have been merged into his group. Since Su Lin wasn't eliminated, just sent back to the start, it's actually reasonable, isn't it?】

Song Shuhang: "."

Referee, I've never heard of a resurrection match?

(End of Chapter)