Chapter 553: Rust Sea Frenzy

Ao Li watched her Reverse Scale Dagger oxidize rapidly in her palm, the dark cyan dragon scale patterns being gnawed away by some invisible thing, leaving only broken rust in the blink of an eye. This dragon clan sacred artifact, passed down for seven hundred years, was now emitting a death-rattle-like hum.

"Only three layers of the laboratory defense wall remain!" Data streams cascaded across Lin Jin's holographic goggles. Those nano-robots composed of rust tides were not mechanical bodies in the conventional sense—the alloy floor they passed over was growing coral-like rust crystals, and the sound of metallic friction like a baby crying echoed in the ventilation ducts.

Suddenly, a bronze-colored light pierced the red mist. Ao Li's dragon horns trembled violently as if sensing something; she reached back and tore off the necklace from her neck, the eighteen pearls exploding into a star chart in the rust tide: "Kan position! The spreading trajectory of those rust spots is in reverse Luo Shu direction!"

As if to verify her words, the surging rust tide suddenly condensed into thousands of red snakes in the air. Lin Jin's particle cutting gun swept across, but the snake swarm dodged in advance as if predicting the trajectory. More rust-colored crystals hung from the ceiling, forming a three-dimensional hexagram covering the entire space in the blink of an eye.

"These aren't nano-robots..." Lin Jin suddenly dragged Ao Li and lunged to the right. The floor where they had just been standing suddenly collapsed into a bottomless Well hexagram pattern. "They are simulating the annihilation orientation of the Congenital Eight Trigrams!"

Ao Li's flag-dress hem suddenly ignited with cyan flames, and dragon scale patterns emerged on her exposed lower leg skin. When her blood dripped into the rust tide, a hair-raising scene occurred—countless tiny bronze gears swam out of the blood beads, clashing with the nano-robots in a mass.

"It's the bloodline resonance of the mechanical Kunpeng!" She suddenly coughed up gold blood mixed with metal fragments. "These rust tides contain the lost Mohist..."

A heaven-shaking explosion drowned out the subsequent words. The last defense wall of the laboratory collapsed, and the rust tide transformed into nine red dragons lunging at the two. At the critical moment, Lin Jin's palm pressed against a protruding piece of metal debris—half a bronze compass suddenly erupted with a cold, moon-like halo.

Time-space froze for an instant. Ao Li saw the reflection of a star chart in Lin Jin's pupils, and the red dragons formed by the rust tide froze in mid-air in a lunging posture. Even more bizarrely, at the ends of the dragon whiskers composed of nano-robots, Mohist secret scripts she had seen in dragon clan classics emerged.

"Moon..." Lin Jin murmured as if in a dream. The compass needle in his hand spun wildly, finally pointing toward the gray-white planet outside the porthole. Ao Li looked in that direction, her blood almost freezing—in the shadows of the craters on the far side of the moon, the outline of a bronze giant tree was vaguely visible, and the rust spots spreading on the tree crown were echoing the tide before their eyes.

Time-space stagnation suddenly lifted. Ao Li, in the rust tide that was about to strike her face, instinctively spun and transformed into a dragon phantom. But when her dragon claws shattered the red dragon's head, the splashing rust crystals transformed into countless bronze counting rods, arranging a shocking scene in the sky—it was a mechanical Kunpeng covering the sea of stars, its wings composed of Λ crystal matrices, and what was beating in its heart position was precisely the bronze compass!

"So the legends are true." Ao Li's dragon horns suddenly burst, gold blood drawing He Tu and Luo Shu in the rust tide. When her blood soaked into the compass groove, the needle suddenly detached and floated, drawing burning trajectories in the air. Those rust tides retreated frantically as if seeing a natural enemy, and miserable wails actually came from the wave composed of nano-robots.

"Follow the needle!" Lin Jin tore off his scorched uniform jacket. Behind them, the remaining Λ crystals in the laboratory were producing a terrifying reaction with the rust tide, and snowflake-like cracks began to appear in space.

The two ran wildly through the collapsing corridor. Ao Li noticed that wherever the needle passed, the rust crystals would retreat to form a passage, just like Moses parting the Red Sea. When they rushed into the emergency elevator, they saw a terrifying scene through the observation window—the entire rust tide was condensing into a conical vortex in the direction of the moon, and emerging from the center of the vortex was the complete form of that bronze giant tree.

"That's not a tree..." Ao Li suddenly pressed her throbbing temples. Fragments of memories from three hundred years ago flashed across her retinas: the bronze star dial towering into the clouds on the dragon clan sacred mountain, with the same branch-like patterns carved on its surface.

The elevator suddenly plummeted. Lin Jin protected Ao Li in his arms in the weightlessness; in the halo erupted by the bronze compass, he saw the true form of those rust tides—each nano-robot core was wrapped in tiny Λ crystals, and the crystal surfaces were covered in Ouroboros curses.

The elevator suddenly plummeted. In the state of weightlessness, Lin Jin shielded Ao Li in his arms; within the halo bursting from the bronze compass, he saw the true form of those rust tides—each nanorobot core was wrapped in a tiny Λ crystal, and the crystal surfaces were engraved with Ouroboros curse seals.

Ao Li's Reverse Scale Dagger suddenly emitted a clear dragon hum. Under her shocked gaze, the surface layer of the completely rusted dagger peeled off, revealing a blade body flowing with starlight. When the dagger pierced into the tide, the rust tide ahead suddenly transformed into a phantom of a Mohist mechanical city, and the "Non-Aggression" characters on the city gate plaque were seeping blood.

"It's a time-space backtracking illusion!" She grabbed Lin Jin's hand and rushed into the phantom. The moment the two passed through the city gate, the elevator shaft in the real world behind them collapsed into quantum dust.

The Mohist mechanical city in the illusion was disintegrating. They saw countless mechanical beasts struggling in the rust tide, and bronze-cast Kunpeng giant ships falling from the clouds. Most shocking was the central square—the dragon clan High Priest from three hundred years ago was pressing his hand against the Mohist Leader's chest, and the core of the array beneath their feet was precisely the bronze compass in Lin Jin's hand.

"So the dragon clan and the Mohists..." Ao Li's dragon blood suddenly boiled. She saw the High Priest slit his wrist, gold blood injecting into the Λ crystal in the Leader's hand, and what emerged inside the crystal was the Ouroboros curse.

The illusion shattered with a bang. The two fell into the ruins of the real lunar base, the bronze giant tree right before their eyes. Lin Jin raised the compass, discovering that the rust patterns on the tree trunk matched the Ouroboros curse on Ao Li's neck perfectly. Even more terrifyingly, when moonlight swept across the tree crown, they clearly saw that every bronze tree leaf was engraved with a human name—the one at the top was "Lin Jin." ===== CHAPTER 554 =====

The illusion shattered with a roar. The two fell into the ruins of the real lunar base, the bronze giant tree before them now within arm's reach. Lin Jin raised the compass and discovered that the rust patterns on the tree trunk matched the Ouroboros curse seal on Ao Li's neck perfectly. Even more terrifying, as moonlight swept across the canopy, they clearly saw that every bronze leaf was engraved with a human name—and the one at the very top was "Lin Jin."