"How Long Can a Person Survive in Space Without Protection?"

As long as they made it back to the shop and pulled down the rolling shutter, they could sever their connection to this world and get her out of danger!

The moment Chen Xuan grabbed her hand and turned to run toward the shop, a high-pitched buzzing suddenly rose behind them. It sounded bad enough on its own. He twisted around and caught sight of the six-legged robot from the corner of his eye. It had turned to face him, and the six-barreled machine gun at the center of its turret began spinning at high speed.

"Get down!" the girl shouted.

At the same moment, Chen Xuan activated the Divine Eye Method.

Everything moving around him slowed in an instant. He saw flames bursting from barrels as thick as fists, bullets tearing through layers of air toward him, their ring-shaped shockwaves clearly visible along the way.

If one of those bullets hit him, even an athlete probably wouldn't be able to take it, right?

But Chen Xuan knew he could react!

The third level of the Heavenly Cloud Skill had made his movements sharper and his limbs stronger. Seeing the trajectories of every bullet in advance also let him plan his evasive route ahead of time. He had already mapped it out in his mind: duck and dive forward, roll, then leap sideways. That would let him evade the entire barrage, slip through the sole opening into the shop, and pull off an impossible miracle—

But the girl's tug brought all his plans to an abrupt halt.

Chen Xuan never expected her pulling strength to be so incredible. She was actually evenly matched with him! They were pulling in completely opposite directions, so neither managed to move the other. They remained locked in place, wasting 0.05 seconds. That brief delay was enough for the following bullets to seal off their escape route ahead.

When she failed to pull Chen Xuan along, she drew back her arm and yanked again, making a move that left him dumbfounded! She actually dragged Chen Xuan behind her and stepped forward, placing herself in front of him!

That took another 0.05 seconds.

In that 0.1-second gap, the bullets had already struck the girl. Chen Xuan not only heard the dull impact of bullets entering flesh, but also felt an enormous force slam into him. It was the kinetic energy carried by large-caliber rounds. Even without taking a direct hit, he could feel her crashing into him like a hammer, sending them both rolling through the air!

This is bad.

Chen Xuan's heart lurched. That rotating Gatling gun had to be at least 30mm caliber. If something like that hit a customer, wouldn't it blast her to pieces?

The Divine Eye Method ended, and the individual bullets instantly became a dense, scorching torrent. After blasting the two of them away, it poured into the shop entrance, shredding the shelves and glass display cases to pieces.

Chen Xuan's heart immediately ached. He had assumed that such a miraculous shop would have some sort of self-protection mechanism, but reality was completely different. Furniture, decorations, merchandise—anything hit by the large-caliber barrage shattered cleanly, no different from paper. Even the brick walls were punctured with every shot. Within mere seconds, the shop had become a complete mess.

After landing, the two of them happened to roll into a blind corner of the hall.

The torrent of bullets followed, but all of it was blocked by a thick metal wall pillar.

"Cough!" The girl released Chen Xuan and spat out a mouthful of blood.

Chen Xuan was surprised to find that she was still intact. She had not lost any limbs, nor had her body been torn in half. That bullet had merely ripped apart the bodysuit around her abdomen, revealing a patch of charred skin underneath.

"Were you... trying to get yourself killed just now?"

She rebuked him weakly.

Good. She wasn't dead.

Chen Xuan had no time to answer. The cannon fire had sent them flying. Though they had temporarily escaped its firing zone, they were now even farther from the shop. It would take one or two seconds to run there, and there was no cover along the way. He might be able to make it alone, but carrying a customer made it unlikely.

"How did you teleport before? Can you do it again?" Chen Xuan pointed toward the shop entrance. "As long as we get there, we'll be safe."

"What's the point of being safe? I have to get to the control room immediately, or it'll be too late!"

She forced herself to stand, trying to find a route out of the hall.

At that moment, the six-legged mech changed its tactics as well. It lowered itself close to the ground, and the panels on top of its head opened one after another.

The next second, seven or eight cylindrical objects launched out of its ammunition bay!

Chen Xuan used the Divine Eye Method again, slowing the motion of everything—he saw clearly now. Those cylinders were not missiles, but small drones. Judging from their size, they could not carry additional weapons. They were most likely suicide weapons. Once they joined the attack, this blind corner would be riddled with openings.

He couldn't let these things spread out!

Chen Xuan decisively summoned the Thousand Thoughts Sword, causing four qi swords to appear directly above the ammunition bay!

The drones had only just launched and had not even unfolded their rotors when they slammed straight into the blades blocking their path, instantly getting sliced into several pieces.

Before the Divine Eye Method ended, he pointed downward with his finger. As if understanding his intent, the Thousand Thoughts Sword turned their tips in unison and stabbed into the launch bay before it could close.

Sparks erupted in an instant.

The sparks triggered a violent secondary explosion!

Two deafening booms rang out as a crimson fireball burst from the top of the armed mech, the shockwave even cracking the floor!

"Who... are you?" The girl's eyes widened larger than eggs.

"I told you, I'm the shopkeeper." Chen Xuan supported her. "Where's the control room? What do you mean, it'll be too late?"

"In the sunken area of N45 Compartment. We need to pass through here..."

Before she could finish, the mech, covered in flames and black smoke, began to move again with a shudder!

It took a step back, then fired a blinding laser at the floor beneath its feet!

"What is it doing?" Chen Xuan asked in confusion.

But the girl realized something and cried out, "Oh no!"

But it was already too late. The floor that had been shattered by the explosion was completely severed by the laser barrage. Combined with the violent shaking of the hall itself, the trapped stress seemed to find an outlet, instantly expanding the crack into a fissure that stretched across the entire hall!

The entire glass dome could no longer bear the strain and collapsed under the tearing force. The hall seemed to be ripped apart down the middle by an invisible giant hand, splitting directly into two halves.

"Warning! N43 Sector has suffered severe structural damage. All personnel, proceed to emergency evacuation facilities immediately!"

The shrill alarm rose even louder.

But to Chen Xuan, it was far too late—the instant the hall split open, air began rapidly venting outward. The terrifying pressure difference was like a hurricane, sucking every movable object in N43 out into space. Even the burning mech was no exception.

For a second or two, Chen Xuan lost control of his body. By the time he came back to his senses, he had already been flung into the weightless void of space alongside countless pieces of debris.

No matter how agile he was now, there was nothing he could do.

That six-legged machine had actually destroyed the space station itself just to stop the girl from reaching the control room.

How long could a person survive in space without protection? This classic question surfaced in Chen Xuan's mind.

Earlier, he had dared to fight the armed mech because he had the Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell Technique. But being thrown into space was completely different. The technique could only let him evade death once, while the vacuum's freezing cold and decompression were enough to kill him countless times over.

While he was still conscious, Chen Xuan hurriedly pulled out the scanner gun he carried with him, intending to use the shopkeeper recall function to return to the shop.

But strangely, he did not feel any discomfort.

Even though he had stopped breathing, he did not hear the hiss of his saliva evaporating or feel the stabbing pain of his eyeballs bulging outward.

Chen Xuan carefully sensed his condition and discovered that his entire body was wrapped in a layer of qi—not merely over his skin, but protecting every blood vessel and every strand of muscle. This qi came from the accumulated effects of the Heavenly Cloud Skill automatically circulating over time.

It could permanently evolve the body and take the first step toward ascension... He remembered that the Heavenly Cloud Skill's description included a line like that. Could going into space naked be part of ascension too!?

He could even breathe in small breaths, as though his body had entered an internal circulation mode. At the current rate of qi consumption, he could hold on for at least another ten minutes or so.

This high-grade cultivation method was incredible!

Suddenly, Chen Xuan spotted his customer.

The girl was tumbling about twenty meters away from him. She clearly had not died either, but in the weightless environment, she could not stabilize her posture at all.

He also saw the full scale of the massive space structure beneath him—it might not have been as exaggerated as a true megastructure, and it was still several levels short of blotting out the sky, but it was unquestionably grand and spectacular. There were hundreds of structures like N43, each comparable to a pedestrian plaza. They formed exquisite hexagonal constructions, arranged like honeycombs and suspended beneath those ring-shaped frameworks.

In theory, the collapse of a single N43 would not pose a fatal threat to the main structure. Yet Space City was indeed on the brink of destruction. Explosions were erupting everywhere along the framework, connection points were breaking apart one after another, and the fragments scattering into space glimmered like a blizzard sweeping through the deep void.

The hundreds of connected honeycomb structures were also slowly falling under Earth's gravity, like a sandcastle whose foundation had been washed away by seawater. It was only a matter of time before the entire thing collapsed.

Chen Xuan now understood what those "fireworks" launched from Earth had been... They were ballistic missiles carrying nuclear warheads. But explosions in a vacuum had no shockwaves, and flames would not rise upward, making them resemble extremely dazzling circular bursts of fireworks.

Were the people on the ground attacking this Space City?

But it looked completely defenseless. It was clearly just a place for living and sightseeing.

Chen Xuan shook his head and pushed aside the flood of questions. Since the vacuum could not harm him for the time being, and since he still had a little time, he had to save his customer.

At the very least, he had to try his best.

After all, every customer was the most precious treasure.