The dim red light filtering through the crack in the door was like embers on a barbecue grill, burning one's face. Ye Mo squatted against the wall, black oil still seeping from the Steel Bone fragment in his right leg, and the charred nerve connection in his left arm twitching intermittently. He didn't make a sound, but simply stuffed the remnant of the reflective film into his clothes and wiped the sweat from his forehead—even the air in this godforsaken place was hot.
"You really intend to drill through the wall?" Thor lowered his voice, hammer held horizontally in front of his chest, the blue light on Mjolnir shrinking to the size of a grain of rice. "That shield just now almost shredded your heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys, and now you want to shove it into living flesh?"
"Otherwise what?" Ye Mo grinned, his teeth still glistening with blood from the previous battle. "With this physique, I'd be down after three steps on a straight path. At least crawling through a wall doesn't require my feet."
Emma Frost leaned against his other side, her silver hair clinging to her neck, a dried bloodstain beneath her nose splitting open into a thin gash. "The last time you used the Wall Phasing, it was thanks to a fragment of Shadowcat's power." Her voice was so soft, as if afraid of disturbing something, "But now the wall has nerve conduction, it's like the entire ship has consciousness. If you force your way in, it will hurt, and it will scream in pain."
"Then don't let it think I'm 'human.'" Ye Mo closed his eyes, his consciousness sinking into the 19th floor of the " Gene Spiral Tower." The system didn't give any prompts, but he could feel that one ability bar was shaking— Wade Wilson's Healing Factor and Shadowcat's spatial folding were fighting. He forcibly twisted the two data together, trying to put his body into a "half-dead" state: cells constantly Regeneration while remaining ethereal.
On his first attempt, his left arm got stuck as soon as it touched the wall. The wall seemed to come alive and suddenly contracted, black slime gushing out from the cracks and pushing his arm out. The sound of Steel Bone repelling foreign materials and tissue tearing was sickeningly loud.
"Hiss--" Ye Mo gasped, leaning back and almost bumping into Thor.
"I told you," Thor reached out to steady him, "You're not Wall Phasing, you're shoving your hand into a meat grinder."
"The second time is different." Ye Mo gritted his teeth, shaking off the black liquid from his arm; his palms were covered in a sticky, fishy stench. He turned to Emma Frost: "How long can the Mental Barrier hold?"
"Five minutes," she said. "Any longer and I'll have a brain hemorrhage."
"That's enough." Ye Mo took a deep breath and handed over the pain shielding authority to Emma Frost. She nodded, and a faint light flashed at her fingertips, instantly enveloping the three people's nerve signals in a thin silver membrane.
This time, he didn't force his way in. Instead, he first activated his Healing Factor to its maximum, putting his body in a state of rapid repair. Then, he gradually extended his Spatial Perception forward, gently cutting into the wall structure like using chopsticks to pick up tofu. The wall trembled slightly, but did not contract violently again.
"It's done," he said softly.
The next second, she slid into the sand like a drop of water seeping in, disappearing without a sound.
Emma Frost pressed her hand against the wall, her body went limp, and she sank in as well. Thor frowned, gripped the hammer, and finally did as she was told. The three of them were squeezed into the metal mezzanine, surrounded by warm, dark walls, with a slow pulse felt above and below them, like crawling inside the intestines of a giant beast.
"This experience is worse than childbirth," Ye Mo muttered to himself.
"You've given birth?" Emma Frost replied.
"I overheard something when my cousin was giving birth to her second child while I was waiting for my milk tea outside the delivery room."
Thor chuckled softly from behind, "Can you two shut up? I'm afraid this ship will spit us out if it hears you two talking nonsense."
They moved slowly along the side wall of the main passage. Footsteps came from ahead—not the sound of metal boots hitting the ground, but more like the "slap" of bare feet on wet flesh. The Dark Elves patrol had arrived. Three figures were draped in black robes, their heads tilted abnormally, their necks twisting like snakes.
The three held their breath, their heartbeats suppressed to the lowest possible level by Emma Frost. She deliberately slowed her metabolic rate, creating a state of suspended animation, and her body temperature rapidly dropped to near ambient temperature. Thor compressed the remaining lightning energy within his body into a circulating flow, not letting a single drop leak out. Ye Mo used his Spatial Perception to scan ahead and discovered three forks in the road: the middle one was the main energy channel, illuminated by purplish-black conduits; the right side was deathly silent, like an abandoned cabin; and deep within the left side, there was an extremely faint particle resonance, the frequency of which matched the Aether fluctuations previously observed within Jian's body.
"Left side," he mouthed.
Emma Frost nodded, her mental energy subtly probing to confirm the patrol wouldn't turn. Once the three barefoot pairs were far away, they continued to inch forward. The wall was narrow, and the three were almost piled on top of each other. Ye Mo could feel Emma Frost's breath on the back of his neck, Thor's hammer handle occasionally poking his lower back.
"Could you please put away that hammer of yours?" he complained in a low voice.
"Where am I supposed to put it? There aren't any coat hooks here."
They ventured deeper along the left-hand path, and the walls became softer the further they went, as if they were passing through layers of connective tissue. Occasionally they encountered branch pipes filled with a dark, blood-like liquid that would twitch slightly when touched.
"This ship is alive," Emma Frost telepathically said. "It's monitoring us."
"Then don't let it 'sense' that we're moving." Ye Mo adjusted the resonance frequency of his gene fragments, synchronizing every inch of his movement with the pulsation of the wall. He was now like a ghost, Regeneration and penetrating at the same time, relying on this cobbled-together freak ability of " Regenerative Phasing ".
Seven minutes later, a thick inner wall appeared in front of them, three times thicker than the previous wall, its surface covered with runes and faintly glowing red.
arrive.
Ye Mo cautiously extended half a hand, his fingertips touching the inner wall. In an instant, his nerve endings transmitted a dense energy feedback—a high-frequency oscillating barrier on the outer layer vibrated eight hundred times per second; even a slight touch from an ordinary person would be sliced into pieces. The inner layer was a magical array composed of seven stone pillars, continuously releasing a suppressive field capable of sealing superpowered individuals on the spot. Not to mention, there were four fully armed Dark Elves warriors on rotation, positioned in a diamond shape with very few blind spots.
"We can't force our way in." He withdrew his hand and said in a low voice, "We have to wait for the fault line."
"Fault line?" Thor asked.
"The energy cycle interval." Ye Mo squinted. "I just figured out the pattern—every seven minutes, the high-frequency fence pauses for 0.6 seconds to dissipate heat. It's during that time."
"0.6 seconds?" Emma Frost frowned. "Not even enough time for me to blink."
"But we don't need to come out," Ye Mo said. "As long as we can probe our consciousness inside for that brief moment, we can figure out the internal structure."
He turned to the two men and said, "You two cover me, I'll go touch the last section of the wall."
"Are you going to risk your life again?" Thor grabbed his shoulders. "Are you made of iron?"
"No," Ye Mo grinned, "It's just that I'm shameless, the system keeps giving me updates."
After he finished speaking, he didn't wait for a response and slowly pushed his body forward. This time, he only poked half his head out, the rest of his body still hidden in the wall. The runes on the inner wall began to heat up, but he endured it without backing down, letting his skin be scorched, Regeneration while recording the energy frequency.
Three minutes later, he shrank back, his face pale. "Found it," he gasped. "There's a maintenance gap above the ceiling, forty centimeters wide, covered with sensor wires. Emma Frost was right, touching even one of them will trigger a alarm."
"What should we do then?" Thor asked.
"Go down there." Ye Mo pointed to the ground. "There's a drainage channel at the bottom of the wall, buried under the magic circle's base. That's a blind spot, but they've definitely set a trap."
"So?" Emma Frost looked at him.
"So we have to take a gamble." Ye Mo licked his chapped lips. "Next time there's a fault, I'll lead you guys in through the drainage ditch. Be quick, and don't touch the sides."
"What if there's a pressure sensor?" Emma Frost warned.
"Then let's pray I'm not the heaviest one." Ye Mo glanced at Thor.
"Are you implying I'm fat?" Thor glared.
"I meant your hammer is heavy."
The three rearranged their positions, with Ye Mo in front, Emma Frost in the middle, Thor at the rear, forming a triangle against the wall's recess. Time passed slowly, and no one spoke. The wall continued to pulsate, and the distant footsteps of patrolling could be heard faintly.
Six minutes and fifty seconds.
Ye Mo began to count silently.
7, 6, 5...
Emma Frost tightened her Mental Barrier, suppressing the vital signs of the three people to the limit.
IV. Three...
Thor's fingers gripped the hammer handle, the lightning energy compressed to its limit, ready to detonate and create chaos in the localized area the moment it was exposed.
two...
Ye Mo's body began to become ethereal, his Healing Factor fully activated, preparing to face possible lacerations.
one!
The red light on the high-frequency fence suddenly went out.
"Walk!"
He lunged forward, pulling the two men along the drainage ditch beneath the core area. The walls briefly became inactive, and they slipped through the base gaps like eels, landing almost silently.
The next second, the red light returned, and the magic circle hummed and operated as usual.
They succeeded.
Hidden in the shadows of the base, one can look up and see the circular platform formed by the seven stone pillars, with a dark red mist floating in the center, slowly rotating, each fluctuation causing the air to tremble slightly.
The Aether are right there.
Four guards stood at the four corners of the platform, weapons held horizontally in front of them, their eyes fixed on the void, motionless.
"What do we do now?" Thor asked very softly.
"Wait." Ye Mo leaned against the wall, his left arm slightly injured and slowly recovering. "Wait for them to change shifts, or... find the next opening."
Emma Frost closed her eyes, scanning the internal structure, her brow furrowing slightly. "The sensor wires in the ceiling are interconnected," she said. "If one breaks, all of them will trigger an alarm."
Thor looked up. "Is it possible... to use lightning to disrupt things for a moment?"
"Okay," Ye Mo nodded, "But only once, and the output must be precisely controlled."
"I can do it," Thor said.
"Then we'll wait for the next fault line." Ye Mo stared at the Red Fog. "We only have one chance."
The three fell silent, lying in wait. The air was thick with the smell of high temperature and metallic rust, and the guards' footsteps rang out rhythmically like a pendulum.
Ye Mo looked down at his right leg, which was still oozing black oil, and then touched the remnant of the reflective film in his pocket.
"You said..." he suddenly spoke, his voice so soft it was almost inaudible, "If the three of us became wanted criminals, what nicknames should we have?"
Emma Frost glanced at him. "You've been wanted three times already."
"This time we need something more catchy." He grinned. "How about ' The Wall Phasing Trio'?"
Thor scoffed. "Sounds like someone fixing sewers."
"Then you choose one."
"'Thunder Drilling Commando Team'."
"Taizhong Er."
"'Ghost Delivery, Mission Accomplished'."
This looks like takeout.
Emma Frost closed her eyes and leaned against the wall. "If you two keep arguing, I'll throw you out to lure the monsters."
The two immediately shut up.
The red light in the core area flickered silently, like a heart that refused to sleep.
Ye Mo raised his hand, looking at the newly Regeneration skin on his fingertips, which shimmered with a faint grayish-white hue in the dim light.