Chapter 254: Crash Site

The moment the Nautiloid crashed down, Xia Zhi perceived it.

Therefore his actions were also extremely fast; he directly locked onto the specific crash location and came to investigate.

From the outside, this spaceship looked just like a giant conch shell, only covered with an external deck and extending long tentacles.

It was simply as if a giant organism had been transformed; its features were very distinct.

It is said this is the bizarre flying ship used by Mind Flayers, called the "Nautiloid".

The greatest feature of this kind of ship is that it can sail in the Astral Sea and also teleport between different worlds of the Material Outer Planes.

Long, long ago, when Mind Flayers could shuttle between the various worlds of the Material Outer Planes without any resistance, they used the Nautiloid's tentacles to search for interesting creatures on the Surface World—

Then bring them home to study... or eat directly.

But times have changed; as a warship of the Mind Flayer Empire at its peak, the Nautiloid's condition is just like that of the Empire itself.

Because Mind Flayers have already lost the secret of manufacturing this kind of bizarre flying ship, this also means the loss of any single Nautiloid will be a permanent attrition.

It will also bring those brain-eating monsters one step closer to being forever trapped on the Material Outer Planes.

Of course, it is also precisely because Nautiloids have become extremely rare.

A Mind Flayer community possessing a Nautiloid will hide it away very carefully, only letting it fly into the sky when necessary.

So an opportunity like today, where a Nautiloid crashes in an accident, is indeed extremely rare.

"Don't miss any single detail; raise the scanner's range and precision to the maximum—"

Xia Zhi instructed his personal AI; at this moment Huifeng was scanning the Nautiloid, using super-era algorithms to conduct a meticulous scan of the hull structure and attempt to reconstruct a model.

Then, he also strolled casually through the scene, by the way taking away some key samples and preserving them properly.

After all, if he attempts reverse engineering later, they might come in handy.

Flames leaped at the scene; a pungent scorched smell permeated the air; everything around indicated a fierce battle had erupted here before the Nautiloid crashed.

From those clearly discernible battle traces, and the corpses scattered all over the ground, many clues were practically laid out in the open.

"It's actually a Cambion..."

Squinting his eyes slightly, Xia Zhi paused his steps slightly, stopping before a completely charred corpse.

Time flowed in his pupils; the Causality Vision converted external environmental information into near-visual information reception; he easily made out the creature's outline and appearance from not long ago.

Deep red skin, horns, bat wings, tail—all present; marking its obvious devil bloodline.

This is a fiend named Cambion; although it was still the first time seeing one, the youth who had mastered the corresponding data identified it correctly at the first time.

This clue was very obvious; he pondered with great interest—

Did this ship just escape from Hell?

Glancing slightly, he saw a few more corpses; he examined some traces on the Nautiloid thoughtfully—those were deep claw marks.

Walking a few steps out, he lowered his head to look at the ground, then hooked his finger gently.

A small piece of red flew into his hand.

"Red Dragon..."

Xia Zhi identified the source of this red scale; the sulfur and pumice scent lingering on the scale also proved this point.

So to speak, this Nautiloid was not only attacked by devils from Hell, but also suffered an attack from a Red Dragon; it seems it provoked all kinds of trouble?

—"Red Dragons possess a strong territorial consciousness; they like high mountains and wastelands, and any other place that allows them to perch high and overlook their territory..."

Relevant knowledge was instantly recalled; he made a reasonable deduction—

This Nautiloid previously happened to have intruded into a Red Dragon's territory, so it attracted an attack?

No, that's not right; compared to this, there seems to be an even more probable option...

Githyanki.

A race once enslaved by Mind Flayers, but the slaves ultimately rebelled against their masters and won back their freedom.

But hatred cannot be written off just like that; Githyanki extremely hate their former masters and have always sought ways to completely destroy Mind Flayers.

These powerful warriors from the Astral Sea, renowned for the legendary Silver Blades and Red Dragon mounts, attacking a Mind Flayer Nautiloid seems like a very normal thing.

Thoughts like electricity; the Wizard pieced together a rough outline in an instant.

However the specific ins and outs are still debatable; after all this Nautiloid seemingly provoked too many troubles at once, so it should be somewhat special to some degree.

"There's still a living one..."

After Huifeng reported the scan was complete, the youth also looked toward another piece of Nautiloid fragment not far away, and immediately walked through the flames.

Blazing flames licked his body; unfortunately not even that layer of "Mobile Temple" on him could be broken through, let alone make his body feel anything.

Harder than any substance, softer, temperature-resistant, and sharp...

What a pity, only the surface skin is like this.

In another fragment of the disintegrating Nautiloid, Xia Zhi examined thoughtfully, and incidentally pinned several Intellect Devourers preparing to flee in place.

On that broken deck lay a deformed lifeform like an alien xenomorph; at the first moment of arriving at the scene, he had already perceived this life's existence.

However, because he was more interested in the Nautiloid, plus this life reaction—though seemingly like a candle in the wind—would actually be able to linger until tomorrow morning if just left alone.

So he wasn't in a hurry to come confirm the situation, but waited until he got the Nautiloid's sample data first.

【52】 The dying creature lying on the ground had an octopus-shaped head, and a long tentacled lower jaw...

The creature lying on the ground, on its last breath, had an octopus-shaped head, and its lower jaw was long tentacles...

This image is not unfamiliar; after all, when dissecting that True Soul back then, he had already witnessed it.

But that one was a newborn Mind Flayer, while this one now is obviously a survivor of the Nautiloid crash, meaning its head holds more value.

Seemingly also perceiving someone's arrival, the dying Mind Flayer struggled to raise its head; its vicious little yellow eyes stared dead at the blurry figure in its vision.

Pity—

Sympathy—

This monster exerted full effort to control the other's thoughts with mental power, attempting to awaken empathy in the other's consciousness, to make the other rescue it.

At the critical juncture of life and death, it could no longer care about so much; it erupted with its strongest mental power with full effort.

After all, it judged that in such a state it could not last long; preserving strength held little meaning — the priority was to get rescued as quickly as possible.

"……"

"……"

However, the human on the opposite side was not controlled.

The heavily injured Mind Flayer was somewhat blank; it did not sense any sign of resistance from the other party at all, but why did it seem to have not succeeded either?

No pity.

No sympathy.

One should say there was nothing at all; that human just stood there thoughtfully, sizing itself up with a very strange gaze.

No, that's not right — it wasn't a very strange gaze, but rather should be a very familiar gaze.

The blank Mind Flayer abruptly reacted; it seemed its former self had once sized up those interesting lower creatures in just this way, with the gaze one uses to regard experimental animals or food.

Only now the roles had suddenly reversed, and it being scrutinized like this, it was completely unaccustomed.

The next moment——

The Wizard finally moved, or rather, Huifeng's preparation work had already been completed, and he could act to contain them.

He merely reached out and pointed lightly, and the heavily injured Mind Flayer and the several Intellect Devourers around it directly vanished into the golden ripples.

Inside the sealed Personal Warehouse space, an empty area had already been demarcated into a small test zone.

Nanomachines hastily assembled into a Biochemical Laboratory, Psionic Frame, Bioreactor, Surgical Dissection Table, and so on — a whole series of facilities.

Under bright lights, the silver-white alloy Ground, smooth walls without any undulations, all kinds of high-precision Instruments, the combination of Magecraft and physics emitted a special feeling.

The Mind Flayer was immediately immersed in the two-meter-high Bioreactor, sinking and floating in the dark nutrient fluid, rapidly losing Consciousness.

As a currently relatively precious Living Specimen, it would first have its injuries repaired, then be properly put to use.

In the short time of assembling the specialized research area, Huifeng had already found time to design several thousand research protocols for this Experiment Subject.

Enough to thoroughly exhaust its value before its brain was extracted for preservation and its body sliced for study.

Scanning the surroundings once more, Xia Zhi turned and left.

People nearby had already rushed over; he did not intend to show himself, and conveniently cleaned up the traces left by his arrival.

Moreover, according to Huifeng's Scan, collecting general environmental data within a hundred Kilometers of the crash site, it was discovered that on another beach far from the crash site, there were still several surviving life Reactions.

——Status was Coma, but no life Danger; one could even say they did not at all resemble survivors of a crash.

——Compared to the Mind Flayer that nearly died from the crash Accident, those few Mortals were obviously very special.

Merely out of a certain cautious mentality, or perhaps a faintly sharp intuition, Xia Zhi pondered a bit and did not choose to go directly make Contact.

Because referencing Faerûn's past adventure stories, he had reason and evidence to seriously Suspect that this might well be another group of Adventurers bearing "Providence".

Of Course, to call it Providence would be less accurate than calling it the will and Arrangement of Divine Spirits.

Anyway, the Wizard did not believe in the slightest that there was no deeper level of power Influence behind those Adventurer Groups.

After all, when it comes down to it, an Adventurer's Positioning is ultimately just a Chosen Piece; then the players gaming behind the scenes surely Exist.

Therefore, one must be Cautious, Cautious, and Cautious again.

"Then, long-distance Observation, for now let's not make Contact……"

Huifeng proposed this, "Compared to this, I think Master you should Pay Attention to your first Believer's side——"

"According to the signal from Prototype Powered Weapon No. 1 just now, that Drow seems to have discovered a Channel leading to the Underdark……"

"The diffused Hovering Return Line seems to have detected the Existence of that special Material called 'Mithral'; preliminary Detection Results match very closely……"

"Perhaps relying on our Unique Advantage to crush them, the Opportunity for a Outer Planes Reduction Strike has come……"

(Chapter End)