The Charging Dragon

The remaining Crystal Spawn Insect were driven forward. They would self-destruct, destroying Plain Gift's mobility, and then Jinghuo would use its giant tail to knock it away. With the plan set, Death Knell and Nitelai exchanged glances briefly, instantly understanding each other's meaning—this method might allow Jinghuo to prolong its life, but as the Crystal Spawn Insect were continuously depleted, they would lose all their usable cards.

This "Deboning" plan has completely failed!

[You could try to struggle close enough and gamble on destroying the dam with dragon breath!] The Death Knell transmitted, avoiding Jinghuo and the other members of the Plundering Clock, [so as not to have come for nothing.]

[Well, if things get bad, abandon the Jinghuo or draw attention away, and we'll retreat!] Nitelai's response was equally cold.

After their conversation, the two looked away as if nothing had happened.

Nitelai continued to control the swarm of Crystal Spawn Insect, dispersing them to a greater distance. They were still too close; they needed to gain more depth for interception.

The lookout suddenly let out a piercing scream, his finger trembling as he pointed to the horizon, where a blinding point of light was rapidly enlarging along the ground. "That thing—it's here again!"

It's only been a little over a minute! Nitelai was shocked.

He quickly detonated the Crystal Spawn Insect on its trajectory, but it was too late. The smaller Plain Gift had already successfully approached and completed its final directional correction, hurtling straight at the Crystal Dragon's head with a piercing shriek!

Jinghuo barely managed to react, tilting its massive head to the side and then forcefully swinging it back, attempting to deflect the deadly metal rod. However, the hasty and unprepared impact was weak and ineffective. The metal shuttle, traveling at more than twice the speed of sound, sliced across Jinghuo's neck scales with a "whoosh," like a red-hot knife cutting through butter!

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The deafening sound was not from an explosion, but from the agonizing sound of crystals disintegrating. Along the path of Plain Gift, the nine towering crystal clusters were completely shattered into countless fragments. Deadly crystal dust mixed with energy streams shimmering with starlight rippled outwards.

The Jinghuo only had time to emit a brief, chilling wave of fear before it abruptly stopped. The remaining crystal fragments quickly faded afterward, leaving only a deathly gray-white.

"Damn it, the restraints are all destroyed!" a member of "Quarter Hand" cried out. He instinctively turned around, wanting to seek instructions from Death Knell, but only saw two shooting stars— Death Knell and Nitelai had already taken to the air without hesitation, fleeing frantically towards the outskirts of the battlefield without looking back! They had all been abandoned!

"Damn Su Ming!" As Nitelai sped away, he glanced one last time at the Crystal Dragon in its enormous eyes, the light growing ever stronger, and a sense of helplessness washed over him. "How are we supposed to defeat an enemy like this?"

"We have no choice but to use the same method we used to kill Atiya." The sound of the Death Knell carried an indescribable weariness in the wind. But the two had no time to say more. From all directions, powerful auras converged on them like nooses. High above, the enormous figure of a dragon hovered.

Without hesitation, the two plummeted downwards. Rather than becoming easy targets for the dragon in the vast sky, they decided to use the terrain to find a glimmer of hope. "Split up!" Nitelai growled, parting ways with Death Knell in mid-air.

The pursuing powerful figures immediately dispersed.

The first to be caught was Nitelai, who was slower.

Gelie's wings emitted a light, ethereal glow as he carried Zijin down from the sky, traveling in the same direction as him.

"Good afternoon." Zijin's lips curled into a smile, and she unleashed Finger of Death," sending Nitelai's shield tumbling wildly. "Have you eaten?"

On the other side, the Saint Rank priest, Wanshi, surrounded by a holy aura, led three powerful warriors —Ruixiuli, Bowers, and Jielusi— to complete the encirclement of the Death Knell.

Higher up, five or six dragon elders circled, their scales reflecting beautiful colors in the sunlight, ready to swoop down and launch a thunderous attack at any moment. Around them, a large number of mid-level combatants stood by. Facing a small but elite enemy force, units with insufficient strength rushing in would only make the situation more chaotic.

But they weren't idle; the abandoned Minute Hand and Quarter Hand hands became their targets.

Celestite Hydropower Station, Type 59 Modified, inside the cockpit.

"What are you hiding for?!" Su Ming cursed.

He loosened his collar and wiped the sweat from his forehead. The temperature was very high, and the hastily constructed skeletal cockpit naturally lacked air conditioning or cooling arrays.

This premeditated ambush, which aimed to catch the enemy off guard by taking advantage of the halved charging time, was only half successful. Su Ming had positioned the bullet trajectory to pierce through the head and the crystal cluster in a straight line, but it was still narrowly avoided by the enormous dragon head.

"Why is this giant still moving forward?" Miao Xin controlled the reconnaissance drone, hovering close to the Crystal Dragon to confirm that all the crystal clusters had turned into dust, but the super dragon was not paralyzed as expected.

"Full-power armor-piercing rounds, three-minute recharge!" Su Ming grabbed the communicator and said to Beianqi.

"Receive!"

The logistics team sprang into action at the order, the sound of cooling water spraying mingling with the loading sounds of Plain Hatred. The Vermilion Bow cannon emitted a deep hum as energy surged violently.

"Then keep bombarding it until it falls completely!" Su Ming said sharply.

On the other side of the battlefield where the Saint Rank was being besieged, Zijin had just gathered her Magic Power to make a move when a storm carrying sand and gravel suddenly rose from the ground. Immediately afterward, a terrifying sound wave that almost tore off eardrums exploded on the battlefield!

Zijin quickly activated a soundproof barrier and locked onto the source of the sound—it was the crystal dragon, which was raising its scarred head and letting out a roar that shattered the clouds.

The dragon's breath spread out, affecting the giant dragons circling in the sky, which scattered in panic in all directions.

"What's going on?" A hint of surprise flashed in Gelie's golden vertical pupils.

"I don't know, but judging from this, it won't calm down unless we bombard it with a few more shells," said Zijin.

Nitelai intended to take advantage of the chaos to speed up his escape, but out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the man and dragon. Although they were talking while looking at the other side of the battlefield, their pursuit of him didn't stop for a second!

"Hey, you still haven't told me what you ate for lunch." Zijin turned around, her voice carrying a hint of teasing.

She raised her fair hand, and a dazzling sphere of light instantly condensed in her palm, from which countless streams of light shot out. Solar Flame; Starlight!

Chaotic energy surged wildly in front of Nitelai, forming a distorted shield that barely blocked the attack. Just as he was about to retaliate, Gelie's scorching breath, imbued with the might of a dragon, followed closely behind, slamming into him and sending Nitelai flying like a kite with a broken string, carving a deep furrow in the mud.

After the Crystal Dragon let out that earth-shattering roar, its previously colorless eyes suddenly turned crimson. Then, its massive body suddenly accelerated, its four hooves shattering the earth, and it launched a ferocious charge towards the direction of Type 59 Modified!

Its movements became more fluid, its massive body displayed incredible flexibility, and its speed increased rapidly, doubling in the blink of an eye!

"What the hell?!" Su Ming stared intently at the huge figure rushing towards him on the monitor screen. "After destroying those crystal clusters, how come this thing is even more powerful?" "It can't be because we were kind enough to lighten its load, can it?" Miao Xin complained.

On Zijin's side, Nitelai sprang up from the mud pit in a disheveled state, laughing maniacally to the sky, "Hahaha, you're in big trouble now! You've shattered the Crystal Dragon's restraining crystal cluster with your own hands!"

"Restraint?" Zijin instantly grasped the key point, her mind racing. "Those enormous crystal clusters... they were used to suppress its own will!" "So hurry over there to put out the fire?" Nitelai's Magic Power surged as he tried to accelerate his escape again. "Otherwise, your precious cannons and hydroelectric power station will be reduced to ruins!"

Gelie flapped his enormous dragon wings violently, whipping up a gale, and pursued after them once more without hesitation.

"Two things I need to tell you." Zijin's voice carried a hint of sweet coldness, and light gathered in her hand, condensing into a scepter flowing with divinity. "First, so what if that lump of crystal goes berserk? Su Ming will still crush it to powder. As for the second—" She tapped the scepter lightly, "You've been targeted by 'Chi'!"

Before she could finish speaking, Zijin's six-pointed star, Meteor Shower, suddenly activated. Countless magical orbs of various colors, trailing long fiery tails, surged out wildly, shooting haphazardly in all directions as if out of control.

Nitelai was momentarily stunned, about to wonder why the other party was wasting Magic Power, when he suddenly remembered something.

He quickly waved his hands, scattering handfuls of sparkling crystal shards that spun wildly around him, forming a radiant shield. Sure enough, the colorful orbs that had been flying aimlessly suddenly changed direction and swarmed towards him, engulfing Nitelai from all directions.

Colorful energies burst forth, weaving together to form a rainbow of light.

Gelie was gathering his dragon breath, about to deliver another blow, when Zijin suddenly shouted, "Quickly ascend! Fly upwards!"

Without hesitation, he flapped his dragon wings upwards with all his might. Accompanied by a piercing sound like countless panes of glass shattering simultaneously, Gelie felt a barrier break down, and the scene before him instantly distorted and changed. Upon closer inspection, he was shocked to find that he was flying parallel to the ground.

So just now, Gelie was actually crashing into the ground!

A ghostly blue light shimmered in Zijin's left eye; her Omniscient Vision vision extended beyond the reach of Nitelai's illusions. Such illusions and misleading spells were utterly ineffective against her.

Seeing Nitelai stagger and become disheveled in the energy storm, Zijin's lips curled into a sweet smile revealing her fangs, and her scepter glowed. "Again!"

Elder Zhimeng had just arrived at the edge of the battlefield, intending to remain a safe distance and enjoy the spectacle. However, upon seeing the Crystal Dragon become enraged, she chose to swoop down and approach, declaring, "I'll investigate it!"

As Zhimeng spiritual power spread like tentacles, she quickly detected the Crystal Dragon's mental fluctuations. She tentatively sent a thought attempting to communicate, only to discover a fatal problem: this Crystal Dragon possessed absolutely no intelligence!

Or rather, it only possesses primitive animalistic instincts.

At this moment, only two emotions burned within its enormous soul: one was the resentment of being bound and enslaved by the crystal clusters for thousands of years; the other was the hatred aroused by being constantly wounded by the giant nails.

The alien soul that controlled it through the crystal cluster had long since been reduced to ashes in the gunfire. However, the one that dared to pierce it with a thick, long iron nail must be crushed!

The Crystal Dragon's crimson, lava-like eyes were fixed on the direction from which Plain Zeng flew. Its six giant feet stomped violently on the earth, each stomp causing the ground within a radius of several miles to undulate violently, rolling like waves and spreading in all directions with debris and dust.

Zhimeng then relayed the information it had obtained to Su Ming.

"So, in other words, the original soul that has been suppressed for nearly a thousand years is now dominating this body?" Su Ming asked.

"Yes, but I can't intervene," Zhimeng said helplessly. "Its soul energy is too strong—although it's still small relative to its enormous size."

"This must be what the Heron mentioned: a single soul controlling a giant body inevitably leads to the annihilation of intelligence." Zijin's voice interrupted, and the Divine Favor Scepter in her hand unleashed a stream of blue light, once again combining with the blazing dragon flames spewed by Gelie to completely blast Nitelai's shield into countless flying fragments.

"I understand." Su Ming finally grasped the situation. "We're facing a severely wounded, completely enraged wild boar."

"Apart from the fact that this 'wild boar' is a little bit bigger than 100 million," Miao Xin followed closely, "And it can spit out huge dragon breath that blows away mountains, there is really no difference."

As the Vermilion Bow finished charging, a notification sound rang out. Miao Xin, who had already aimed, pulled the trigger, and the eighty-ton Plain Increase into the sky.

Just over two minutes later, the projectile had already reached the sky above the Crystal Dragon. Su Ming's hands flew across the control panel, completing the final fine-tuning. "Little darling, don't twist your big head this time!" With the final lock complete, he sighed, "Can we hurry up and finish? We haven't even had lunch yet!"

However, things didn't go as planned. Just as the thick metal rod was about to pierce through the target, the Super Crystal Dragon's massive head suddenly tilted to the side, and the thick Plain Increase, carrying a force of 106.7 million jin, once again slammed into its massive body near the shoulder!

Countless bones shattered, and the massive projectiles were driven deep into the dragon's body. The unimaginable pain caused the Crystal Dragon's enormous body to convulse violently. It once again raised its wounded head and let out a agonizing howl!

"Hey, we're going to complain about noise pollution!" Zijin frowned slightly, but her voice carried a hint of teasing.

The absolute dominance of two against one resulted in remarkable achievements for her side. She had successfully tricked Nitelai into using several of his most trump cards for survival. A dignified Saint Rank expert was suppressed like a trapped beast under the combined attack of Zijin and Gelie, without even the slightest chance to turn the tide.

No matter how hard Nitelai struggled, he couldn't break free!