Chapter 371

Huan Long tilted her head slightly, seeming a bit surprised, "Pretty decisive. But…"

Before she finished speaking, the ground beneath the Insect Armor Assassin, already fragile from the previous battle and her Corrosion, shattered with a boom!

A purple‑black giant maw, over ten meters in diameter, covered with layers upon layers of spiral serrated teeth, burst up from the earth, swallowing with the force of devouring heaven and earth, and in one bite gulped the stalled Insect Armor Assassin!

The giant maw closed, the ground bulged, and earth and stone flew everywhere!

A terrifying giant insect over thirty meters long, as if from an ancient abyss, burst out of the ground!

Its body was covered with constantly writhing, proliferating carapace, countless compound eyes glinting with greedy purple light; it was the little landmine Huan Long had pre‑planted here with her power—a creature rapidly spawned by the ley lines!

The giant insect raised its head and let out a trembling screech, as if announcing the capture of prey to its master.

Huan Long hovered above it, her blurred face seeming to show a look of satisfaction.

Yet that satisfaction lasted less than three seconds.

The massive body of the giant insect suddenly stiffened!

Immediately, dazzling violet‑red light burst simultaneously from multiple points inside its body!

"Pfft! Boom! Zila—!"

Like a ignited fuel tank, violet‑red flames spewed wildly from the insect's joint gaps, mouth, and compound eyes!

The giant insect let out a painful wail, thrashing wildly, smashing the surrounding factories into ruin.

"Oh?" Huan Long raised an eyebrow.

"Bang—!!!"

The chest of the giant insect exploded open with a boom, creating a massive cavity!

A figure burning with violet‑red tail flame, like a reverse‑flying meteor, burst out boldly, hovering in midair, facing Huan Long at a distance!

Moonlight and firelight together illuminated its new form.

The previously hunched insect‑shaped body now stood upright, its lines smooth and full of explosive power.

The main body was sheathed in matte black reinforced insect armor, but the seams of the carapace and the bases of the eight extending blade limbs on its back coursed with scorching violet‑red energy veins, like lava flowing in darkness.

The head featured a more mechanical streamlined design, its compound eye structure merged into two cold violet‑red V‑shaped Light Bands, like a hunter's gaze.

The entire form constituted a violet‑red Mecha seemingly born for battle!

Heimu watched the live feed, couldn't help whistling, his fingertips lightly tapping the armrest: "Cool! Not for nothing I spent ages remotely modeling inside its belly! This Breeding·Sam is decent, huh? Hmm, just the consumption is a bit fast…"

Huan Long stared silently at this freshly renewed opponent, and for the first time a fluctuation named "interest" appeared in her hollow eyes.

"Interesting... so interesting!"

She clapped lightly, her voice tinged with the delight of discovering a new toy, "To think it can, at the moment of being swallowed, reverse‑use the power of Breeding to achieve such violent reconstruction... The will behind you is more intriguing than I imagined."

Before the words finished, Huan Long's figure vanished abruptly as if melting into the night.

Almost simultaneously, the side of the violet‑red insect armor warped space, and a phantom limb, somewhere between a Light Band and a tendril, silently pierced out, aiming straight at its head's energy core!

"Clang—!!!"

The two blade limbs behind the violet‑red insect armor crossed at astonishing speed, Blocking, and the violet‑red energy collided with the phantom limb, erupting a huge roar and scattering sparks!

It spun with the momentum, another blade limb slashing toward the spot where Huan Long had appeared, but only shattered a afterimage.

The battle instantly entered an ultra‑high‑speed rhythm!

Huan Long's figure flickered like a specter in space, launching attacks from countless impossible angles.

Both sides chased each other at high speed in the air, explosions roaring continuously, turning the abandoned factory district below into chaos.

Huan Long's power became more bizarre and hard to defend against, with a larger range, while the violet‑red insect armor excelled in speed, instantaneous burst power, and its sturdy carapace.

The fight fell into a brief stalemate, intense and thrilling.

After another violent clash, the two sides temporarily separated.

Huan Long hovered nearby, her form seeming slightly more solid than before, as if she were drawing something from the battle.

"What an outstanding creation... no, perhaps an incarnation?"

Huan Long's voice carried a smile, "I'm getting more curious about the director behind you. Let me see... who are you?"

She suddenly ceased her aggressive assault, those hollow, scorching eyes staring directly at the opponent.

An invisible force, like the thinnest yet most resilient thread, ignored physical defenses and wound straight toward the core consciousness driving this insect armor!

【Warning! High‑priority spiritual intrusion detected! Source: Huan Long! Target: Main Control Link!】

【Intrusion attempt breaching the first and second spiritual Firewall!】

【Intrusion signature match: Destruction destiny‑derived Spiritual Pollution, Breeding information assimilation…】

【Attempting isolation... encountering resistance...】

【Warning! Opponent attempting reverse trace of controller coordinates and information!】

In the room, a harsh alarm blared as Heimu's Light Screen began to show static and distortion, even popping up some incomprehensible error code boxes.

"Ah…"

Heimu blinked, looking at the panel in front of him twitching as if infected by a virus, stroked his smooth chin, "Glitched out? Came straight along the network cable?"

【System: Madam, essentially, your cross‑world consciousness operation via the avatar of Emperor III, in perceiving an entity possessing Destruction and partial Breeding traits, may exhibit more pronounced Corrosion. In a sense, the opponent is the one attempting to purge the anomaly.】

"... System, why does that sound like you're saying I'm the virus?" Heimu's mouth twitched.

【System: The metaphor may be inappropriate, but logically there is a similarity. The opponent is attempting to comprehend an unknown threat.】

"Still in the mood to joke, seems the situation isn't too bad?" Heimu raised an eyebrow.

【System: Intrusion intensity is rising, but the core Firewall, built upon Memory, Intellect, and your unique avatar, remains temporarily stable. Initiate Counterattack?】

Heimu watched the strands on the Light Screen that were trying to be cracked, a mischievous glint flashing in his violet‑black eyes.

"Counterattack? Hmm… she wants to know who I am, doesn't she?"

Heimu stretched his body, leaned back in his chair, propped his leg up, "Then let's show her. System, retrieve the recorded footage from my birth, blur out irrelevant details, focusing on the scene at that time."

【System: Understood. Constructing now】

【Warning: The opponent has breached the third layer Firewall, beginning to access surface information……】

【The information packet birth silhouette has been deployed.】

Huan Long's consciousness probing layer

Countless fragmented pieces of information and unfamiliar coordinate parameters flashed before her eyes.

She is forcibly breaking through the secret behind that stubborn Firewall.

Suddenly, all resistance and chaotic information receded like a tide.

She saw.

Not a specific visage, not clear coordinates.

It was the universe.

The deep space where stars flickered.

Then, the view was completely occupied by an indescribable presence.

It stood amid the starry sky, beneath it a slowly rotating Möbius-ring structure.

Its body was massive and grand, non‑human in form, the main mass exhibiting a machine‑like cold hardness, its base hue a deep violet‑black.

Six structures, like branches yet resembling gigantic mechanical arms, extended to its sides, their shapes bizarre.

In the center, a continuously pulsating purple rhombic core emitted an ominous glow.

In its head region, only a swath of deep purple that devoured light, like a covering veil, with gray elongated matter draped behind.

Countless tiny purple cross‑star rays circled it, rotating serenely.

There were also countless interstellar warships, their gun barrels flashing, a dense barrage of fire like a dazzling yet lethal rain curtain, pouring toward that violet‑black majestic entity!

A black‑red grid spread from that entity, and wherever it passed, the warships' beams were extinguished, space itself seeming to moan under the unbearable load.

A name, or rather a distinctive concept, was forcefully imprinted into Huan Long's probing along with this image and the emanating power.

All of Huan Long's conscious activity, at this moment, experienced an extremely brief stagnation.

It was not shock, not fear, nor sudden enlightenment.

It was a deep…

Confusion.

(Iron Tomb?)