Warm Welcome, Strange Phenomenon

Almost at the same instant of the impact, even before the cabin had come to a complete stop, Lin Yi felt a strong sense of crisis.

"Boom! Crack!"

The sturdy walls of the shuttle were suddenly torn apart from the outside by an incredibly brute force.

Immediately afterwards, a huge claw covered in dark red scales, carrying a strong fishy smell, plunged straight into the cabin, its target Lin Yi's head.

The attack came so quickly, as if these monsters had been lying in wait, just waiting for their "prey" to appear.

Lin Yi's pupils contracted slightly, and he felt a chill run down his spine.

This is a less favorable situation. Clearly, this is no coincidence, but rather that the exit of this spatial passage has been discovered by the natives of this world.

Faced with this sudden and deadly attack, Lin Yi didn't even get up.

He sat upright in his chair, his right hand forming a sword shape with his fingers together. The movement appeared slow, but in reality, it was as fast as lightning.

"Laugh!"

With a soft sound, the enormous claw, containing terrifying power, disintegrated from Lin Yi's fingertips the instant it touched his fingertips, disintegrating inch by inch along his arm, turning into the finest metal particles that vanished into the air.

The violent energy contained within the claws was instantly annihilated by this extremely Sharpness power of rules.

"Aww!"

A painful and furious roar came from outside the cabin.

Lin Yi moved as if weightless, sliding out of the torn hatch and immediately found himself above a huge basin—the exit of the space passage, about ten meters above the ground.

At this moment, the ten-meter height did not bring him any safety advantage.

Below, the entire basin seemed to come alive, transforming into a sea of monsters.

As far as the eye could see, countless creatures of all shapes and sizes, twisted to the point of being nauseating, poured out of rock crevices, underground caves, and the shadows of distorted vegetation, like boiling sewage.

They roared and howled, their eyes flashing with dark red light, as they rushed towards Lin Yi, who had just appeared, and the space portal behind him that was constantly fluctuating and "spitting out" more shuttle pods.

The forms of these monsters mostly challenge the limits of ordinary people's understanding.

Some of them looked as if they had been skinned, revealing scarlet muscle texture, running on all fours, yet possessing hands resembling those of a human.

Some were made of countless pale bones haphazardly pieced together, with joints twisted in the opposite direction, crawling rapidly on the ground like spiders.

Even worse, some are simply wriggling lumps of flesh covered in slime and suckers, dragging long tentacles.

They come in a wide variety of species and shapes, but without exception, they all exude a strong desire to attack.

Their eyes, or other similar sensory organs, mostly gleam with an extremely unsettling dark red light.

"It's extremely aggressive, and seems to have been deeply provoked by my presence."

Lin Yi made a decision instantly.

This spatial passage exit had clearly been discovered by these monsters long ago; in fact, they may have already tried to figure out how to enter the spatial passage.

"Fortunately, the rule deviation wasn't too high, otherwise it would have been quite troublesome."

Lin Yi looked at the several monsters that had already reached him, and felt a little fortunate.

As soon as he came out, he released his Soul Power to sense the surroundings. Although there were many of them, their quality was average and they were within his control. The most powerful ones were the few monsters that had reached the Star Vortex level front of him.

The first one resembled a giant lizard, but its back was covered with mouths that opened and closed constantly, oozing corrosive mucus.

The other end resembled an elongated humanoid shadow, moving at astonishing speed, wielding claws made of pure dark energy.

There was also a giant, putrid beehive, vibrating its tattered wings, emitting a disturbing buzzing sound, and spewing out dense bone spikes.

The energy level of these three monsters had reached the Star Vortex level.

They clearly targeted Lin Yi, launching a deadly combined attack from three different directions.

Corrosive slime, dark claws, and a storm of poisonous stings instantly engulfed the space where Lin Yi was located.

Faced with this sudden attack, Lin Yi simply pressed down with his left hand, causing the space in front of him to slightly distort and an invisible spatial barrier to form instantly. All the slime collided with the barrier, making a "hissing" sound, but it could not penetrate even a fraction of the barrier.

Then, a thought flickered in his mind.

A thin, silver crack appeared silently on the shadowy monster's neck, as if sliced by the sharpest scalpel.

The shadowy monster's form suddenly stiffened, then silently split open from head to tail, transforming into two dissipating pieces of dark energy that ultimately vanished without a trace.

At the same time, Lin Yi took a step to avoid all the poisonous thorns aimed at him, and then turned his gaze to the lizard monster with many mouths on its back.

He didn't even make any additional movements; he simply locked his mind onto the target.

The Inner Space Explosion!

It was as if an invisible high-explosive bomb had been stuffed inside the lizard monster's enormous body. With a muffled bang, its body suddenly expanded and exploded from the inside out.

Blood, bits of flesh, and slime splattered everywhere, and the nauseatingly mouthful back was blown to bits.

As for the last honeycomb-shaped monster.

Lin Yi pointed his fingers like a sword, made a slashing motion, and then a thin, almost invisible black thread silently sliced through space, directly peeling away the small area of space he was in.

Then, the hive monster seemed to be "cut" out of the real picture, disappearing without a trace in an instant, leaving only a spatial scar that quickly healed in its place.

In the blink of an eye, Lin Yi effortlessly and casually annihilated the three most threatening Star Vortex level monsters using a variety of exquisite and powerful rule-based techniques.

Only then did the subsequent shuttles emerge one after another from the space tunnel like a meteor shower, crashing heavily into various parts of the basin and raising clouds of dust.

"Enemy attack! High alert!"

"Form ranks! Quickly! Move closer to the Commander!"

"Protect the landing site for the logistics and engineering teams!"

"All detachments will counterattack according to the pre-arranged plan!"

Zhou Yuxuan, Chen Yu, Andre, Elizabeth, and the others immediately roared in anger.

As soon as they emerged, they found themselves in a similar siege situation to Lin Yi, but their extensive combat experience allowed them to react swiftly even under extreme conditions.

With a roar, Andre slammed his fists into the ground.

A thick, earthy-yellow light erupted, and the earth around him seemed to come alive. Thick rock walls rose from the ground, not only blocking the attacking monsters but also providing valuable cover for the team members who landed nearby.

His team members followed suit, some gathering stone spears to throw from a distance, others reinforcing the rock walls, instantly stabilizing a small section of the position.

Elizabeth nimbly traversed among the rocks, spreading a chilling icy power wherever she went, instantly freezing the ground and any monsters that pounced on her into ice sculptures.

With each pull of the ice crystal longbow she conjured, a deep blue frost arrow shot forth, accurately striking the vital points of the monsters in the distance that were attempting to spew acid or release mental waves, instantly freezing and shattering them.

Chen Yu, on the other hand, has a different style; he is fiery in temperament and follows the same rules.

Instead of using his battle sword to counter the attack, he simply held his hands together in a gesture of respect, and a ferocious fire dragon, entirely composed of the rules of blazing flames, appeared out of thin air, emitting a silent roar as it circled and charged around him.

Wherever the fire dragon passed, the air distorted, and those fire-fearing monsters were ignited, turning into screaming torches that fled, clearing away patches of scorched earth.

Zhou Yuxuan appeared more composed. A clear, aquamarine aura rippled around him, and as he moved his hands, soft yet resilient water curtains appeared. These not only effectively deflected and diluted the monsters' ranged energy attacks, but also seemed to have a life of their own, entangling and binding the extremely fast monsters, creating excellent opportunities for his teammates to kill them.

At the same time, he commanded with composure, constantly issuing orders on the chaotic battlefield, coordinating the cooperation between the various battalions, and patching up defensive gaps.

Although the Stardust level members are individually weaker, they unleash formidable combat power under the protection and command of the Star Core level members.

They formed small battle formations, using energy weapons and their individual special skills to tenaciously resist the seemingly endless tide of monsters.

Lin Yi hovered in the air and then took the initiative to clear out the remaining enemies. After all, in the unknown environment, he needed to have enough source energy to deal with any unexpected situations that might arise.

Therefore, he simply used his powerful senses to survey the entire area, only intervening when he deemed it necessary.

Just as Chen Yu's fire dragon was about to be extinguished by a strange slime monster that could absorb fire energy, a tiny spatial rift silently appeared at the core of the slime monster, causing its energy structure to collapse with a gentle stir.

When Elizabeth was simultaneously targeted by three incredibly fast shadow hunters, and was in grave danger, the space around her instantly became viscous. The three hunters' movements suddenly slowed down, and she accurately shot them in the head with three ice arrows in a backhand motion.

Just as the rock wall that Andre was supporting was about to collapse under the frenzied attacks of several powerful monsters, an invisible spatial force quietly reinforced the inside of the rock wall, making it as stable as Mount Tai.

He primarily uses Space Rule to construct defenses, reposition, and execute precise decapitations, while employing the Metal Rule to break through strong defenses and eliminate powerful enemies.

He rarely used the Time Rule and the Life Rule, especially the Time Rule, because his Main Body was constantly maintaining the time power of his clones. Using the Time Rule would easily cause interference and increase the burden on his Main Body, so he almost never used them.

Even so, it's sufficient to handle the current situation.

Soon, under Lin Yi's covert coordination and the valiant efforts of the team members, the East Peak Mercenary Group, which had suddenly entered the storm, managed to stabilize itself amidst the raging waves and began to move upstream.

The battle was fierce and brutal; the monsters' corpses piled up in layers, and their dark red blood almost stained the ground of the basin.

Although the Mercenary Group also suffered wounded, thanks to their tight formation and timely medical treatment, no one died.

About half an hour later, the crazed monster was finally wiped out, leaving behind only a mess and a thick, nauseating stench of blood.

The basin has temporarily returned to calm.

"Is the ending over?"

A Stardust level member slumped to the ground, looking at the slaughterhouse-like scene before him, muttering to himself.

"Don't let your guard down, reconnaissance team, expand the perimeter! Everyone else, quickly clean up the battlefield, collect samples, and treat the wounded!"

Although Zhou Yuxuan's voice was tired, he still calmly issued the instructions.

Then, he walked to Lin Yi's side and whispered, "Commander, preliminary statistics show 27 lightly wounded, no serious injuries. However, energy and ammunition consumption has exceeded 10%."

Lin Yi nodded slightly, his gaze sweeping over the team members who were bandaging and treating each other's wounds, his expression somewhat grave.

About ten minutes later, the specially reinforced shuttle carrying important logistical supplies and the Star Realm Army's engineering team carefully and smoothly landed in Safe Zone that had been repeatedly cleared and confirmed.

Captain Rex led his fifteen men out quickly. When they saw the scene of corpses strewn across the land, a scene like a living hell, and smelled the nauseating stench, even the experienced elites of the Star Realm Army turned pale.

"Commander Lin Yi."

Captain Rex walked up to Lin Yi and said gravely, "It seems the spatial passage has been discovered by the native creatures."

"Um."

Lin Yi simply responded with a faint "yes".

"Start your work immediately, we don't have much time!"

Captain Rex said no more and turned to yell at his teammates.

The engineering team immediately began to swiftly unload the sophisticated "Hermes" space anchor generators and auxiliary equipment. They selected a relatively flat and easily defensible area backed by a massive rock wall and began to race against time to stabilize the passage.

Lin Yi stopped on the higher rock where he had landed and looked around the area that had just experienced a bloody battle.

His brows furrowed deeply, not only because of the horrific scene before him, but also because of a deeper unease about this secret realm.

During this period of time, he carefully reflected on it and has come to a conclusion.

The rules of this secret realm have been distorted.

The rules that leaned towards darkness, silence, and chaos became clearer. Here, he felt that his space and the Metal Rule were in perfect harmony, while the Life Rule seemed to be shackled and operated in a sluggish manner.

"Commander." Elizabeth walked to Lin Yi's side, a hint of worry on her beautiful face.

"These creatures. I've never seen them before, I can't even understand how they exist. And this light."

She looked up at the sky, instinctively tightening her collar. "The sunlight on me only made me feel cold and uneasy."

Chen Yu also walked over, wiped the soot and sweat from his face, and spat. "This godforsaken place makes me feel very uncomfortable. These monsters seem to have no fear of death at all. In the end, not a single one ran away. Even the Abyssal Beast knew fear back then."

Lin Yi hummed in agreement and also looked up.

The sky was a somber, leaden gray, with a pale "sun" hanging high in the sky, like a giant, emotionless eye, coldly watching down below.

The light it emitted was not warm; instead, it carried a chilling and oppressive feeling that penetrated to the bone, making people feel uneasy.

--

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away...

A colossal city, like a steel behemoth lying prostrate on the earth, stood silently beneath a leaden gray sky.

The city walls are hundreds of meters high, and are made entirely of a dark red metal that looks as if it has been soaked in countless drops of blood. The surface is covered with deep claw marks and dried stains.

On the city wall, at intervals, there are ferocious towers, with skulls of various shapes hanging from the top of the towers.

Some were as large as millstones, covered in bone armor; some were twisted and deformed, with remnants of tentacles; and some even had eerie green phosphorescent flames flickering in their eye sockets, like an eternal warning and deterrent.

The massive metal city gate was tightly shut, its surface engraved with intricate and ancient runes, from which energy faintly flowed, emanating a force field that isolated the inside from the outside.

Inside the city, the buildings are rather low.

They are mostly built with rocks and a type of grayish-black wood, and their style is rugged and practical.

Pedestrians hurried along the streets, their clothes mostly made of dark, durable materials. Many carried weapons, and even ordinary civilians might have a sharpened bone blade or short axe tucked into their belts.

Occasionally, a patrol team, fully armed and dressed in uniform dark red leather armor, would pass by, their heavy footsteps echoing on the stone slabs, adding to the somber atmosphere.

At the very center of the city stands a fortress entirely cast from dark metal, its style mirroring that of the city walls, yet even taller and more imposing.

The council chamber was dimly lit, illuminated only by a few wall lamps burning with eerie blue flames.

Seated in the main seat was a towering figure, as imposing as a mountain.

The man was wearing a set of dark gold armor that covered his entire body. The armor was designed to look ferocious, with the shoulder armor cast in the shape of a howling wolf's head, and the breastplate had deep dents and several claw marks that had not been completely worn away.

The joints of the armor are inlaid with smooth, polished teeth and bone fragments as decoration, with some of the teeth even faintly radiating energy fluctuations.

He wasn't wearing a helmet, revealing a weathered face with a grotesque scar running from his left brow bone down to his jaw, adding to his menacing appearance.

At this moment, his thick fingers were rhythmically tapping the armrests of his metal chair, producing a dull "thump-thump" sound, as he listened to the reports from his subordinates below.

"City Lord."

A general, also clad in light armor but with a more capable air, knelt on one knee, his tone tinged with disbelief, confusion, and unease. "According to the latest reports from the patrol teams and watchtowers, the area within 500 li of the city is deserted."

The city lord paused slightly in his tapping of the armrest, his sharp, hawk-like gaze fixed on the general. "Empty? Be clear, Batu. Is it inside the Blood Sun Alert Line, or..."

The general known as Batu raised his head, his face still bearing an expression of disbelief.

"It's a complete cleansing! City Lord! Not only within the Blood Sun Alert Line, but our three elite scout teams have also explored an area of Qianli outwards, all the way to the edge of the Fetid Marsh and the Bone Shard Hills, and found almost no trace of any living monsters."

"Not to mention those packs of rabid dogs, even the Shadow Demons and Soul Devouring Mushrooms that usually hide in the deepest caves have vanished!"

A slight commotion rippled through the council chamber. The other generals and staff, who were equally imposing, exchanged bewildered glances.

"How is this possible?"

A bald general with tattoos on his face couldn't help but speak up, "Those ghostly things are like weeds in the ground. You kill a batch, and when the Blood Sun shines on them, even more sprout up. How could they all suddenly disappear?"

Batu took a deep breath and continued his report, "We also found it unbelievable and checked it repeatedly. Until yesterday, a small caravan from the direction of Blackrock City arrived, bringing with them some news."

All eyes were on Batu.

"The caravan's guard leader said that they witnessed a large-scale migration of strange creatures about three hundred miles from our Red Iron City, near the edge of the Pale Forbidden Land."