The Hive

But Jielusi did not rush forward, clearly realizing that she couldn't defeat a professional warrior like Matiasu with her spear.

The gloom in her eyes faded, and her expression regained its clarity.

Immediately afterwards, a sudden surge of excruciating pain overwhelmed the girl, and Jielusi swayed before collapsing to the ground.

Just as Matiasu was about to rush forward, a series of mechanical sounds suddenly rang in his ears, exceptionally clear in the vast desert.

He immediately became alert.

He'd had enough of the endless stream of strange creatures appearing on the other side.

The unmanned weapon station buried in the sand suddenly sprang up, and the dark, honeycomb-shaped rocket launcher rose accordingly, pointing at him.

Despite the excruciating pain, Jielusi raised her left wrist and quickly entered the authorization.

"Automatic attack permitted!"

From the perspective of the unmanned outpost, Jielusi and Ruixiuli, dressed in combat uniforms, are identified as friendly units.

But Matiasu, no!

"What the hell is this thing?"

Matiasu almost instinctively wanted to escape.

Beside Jielusi, from the fallen orc corpse, a semi-transparent soul figure broke free.

It transformed into a wisp of light and swiftly disappeared into the depths of the night.

That was Gruffik's soul, which escaped through the "Mark of the Mortal World".

Jielusi's expression turned cold at that moment.

Her aura turned icy cold again.

A thick, dark energy surged up, as if a crack had opened up from the depths of her body.

Even the wind seemed to fall silent for a moment.

Jielusi raised her hand, aimed at the ghostly figure, and loosely clenched her fist.

"Return!"

The voice was unusually calm, without the slightest ripple.

But the soul that had already escaped seemed to be grabbed in mid-air by an invisible hand and dragged back!

Gruffik's spirit struggled frantically, emitting a shrill, mournful shriek.

Jielusi clenched her five fingers, then flicked them.

Bang!

Gruffik's soul was instantly crushed!

A large amount of dark spiritual light exploded in her palm, then was compressed into a solid dark magic spell, which entangled Matiasu!

"Soul Lock!"

The ghostly light tightened, freezing Matiasu's movements for a moment.

Hive outpost locked on, open fire.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Forty-eight rockets were launched, their exhaust trails leaving dense, bright lines in the night, like a swarm of venomous bees rushing towards Matiasu with a fierce whistle!

Matiasu roared, and the patterns on the "Anti-High-Speed Ballistic Weapon Amulet" hanging on his body lit up.

The rocket that was about to hit the target was half stopped by the amulet.

Immediately afterwards, he swung his sword with both hands, the sword light dancing into an iron curtain, and cleaved through many rockets rushing towards him.

Explosions continued to erupt around him, sending flames, shockwaves, debris, and waves of sand flying everywhere.

But there were just too many rockets.

His Battle Qi Shield shattered upon impact, but nearly ten bullets still managed to break through all the defenses and slam into him solidly!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The armor shattered, flesh and blood flew everywhere, and Matiasu was blasted away.

He fell to the sand, his body inside the armor crumbling, leaving only a pool of blood that seemed to have seeped into the sand.

More than a hundred meters away, Matiasu's naked figure suddenly appeared.

Dodge fatal damage!

He barely managed to steady himself and spat out a mouthful of blood.

****

Ruixiuli suddenly appeared behind Matiasu.

He gritted his teeth, his entire body moving like a black shadow skimming the ground, a white bone sword in one hand and a black bone sword in the other, aiming for Matiasu's nape with a twist.

Matiasu tried to evade or use his escape methods again, but at this moment, he was powerless.

As Ruixiuli forward, he passed right by him.

Something the size of a football rolled onto the ground.

A headless body then fell to the ground, crashing into the sand, never to rise again.

The surroundings finally quieted down.

Only the afterglow of the rocket explosion remained burning, and dust slowly settled.

Ruixiuli leaned on his sword, his breathing noticeably heavier.

He didn't even have time to rest before rushing to Jielusi's side.

The girl's face was ashen; she was gritting her teeth as she tended to her injuries.

Ruixiuli quickly helped Jielusi remove her torn clothes, took out the rune bandages from the first aid kit, and used them to stop the bleeding.

Then, the two each drank a bottle of potent healing potion.

After doing all this, Jielusi went limp and fell directly into his arms.

"Hey, I'm seriously injured too, okay?"

Ruixiuli a wry smile, took off his own relatively intact clothes, and draped them over Jielusi.

He was struck in the chest twice by Matiasu; the boron carbide bulletproof plate only blocked the sword, but the powerful impact did not dissipate.

It took Jielusi a while to finally find the strength to stand up.

Ruixiuli raised his hand and, using the lowest-level skeleton summoning spell, wastefully summoned the corpses of Matiasu and Gruffik into skeletons to clean up the battlefield.

Detonate the remaining ammunition to destroy the Hive Launcher.

The rest, whether they were anything or nothing, were destroyed, and then everything was buried in sand.

The two then helped each other as they walked towards the wind-eroded pillar forest.

****

After managing to get back, Jielusi fainted immediately.

On the contrary, Ruixiuli recovered somewhat.

He loaded the recovered data into the cargo bay of the "Y-3X loitering munition" and then pressed the launch button.

The cylindrical drone was launched from the ground with the help of a disposable rocket. In mid-air, it unfolded its folding wings, started its propellers, adjusted its attitude, and disappeared into the night sky.

Ruixiuli drank another bottle of healing potion, then rummaged through the supplies he had previously hidden and took out a fully functional medical kit.

He unwrapped the bandages from Jielusi's body and re-treated the wound that had only been temporarily stopped from bleeding.

Jielusi slowly woke up.

"What a terrible day," she murmured.

"Yes," Ruixiuli wholeheartedly agreed.

This operation has been carried out in a manner that minimizes the time required and reduces the window of opportunity for encountering the enemy to a minimum.

According to the pre-operation plan, there was a certain probability that they would encounter the president of the Jinlin Chamber of Commerce.

There is also a certain probability that you will encounter a powerful being who Plundering Clock.

As luck would have it, they bumped into both sides at the same time!

They could only thank Su Ming for his prudent assessment of the enemy and for preparing ample backup equipment for them.

One of the wounds was quite deep, Ruixiuli gave Jielusi an injection of painkiller and began stitching it up.

But his actions still made Jielusi frown slightly.

"It will leave many scars on your body."

The girl's voice was as soft as a sigh in the night wind.

"It's alright. You can use healing magic to treat it later, and it will only leave some faint marks at most," Ruixiuli replied. "Look at my face, it was like that, but I got it back."

After the wound was treated, Ruixiuli pulled out a blanket and covered Jielusi with it.

Then, she took out two bags of amino acid-based enteral nutrition solution from her medical kit, inserted straws, and handed one bag to her.

The two of them leaned against a flat rock.

Jielusi shifted slightly, snuggling up next to Ruixiuli.

Her gaze fell on Ruixiuli's face, and she suddenly frowned slightly.

Your face, which you finally managed to heal, has been slashed again.

Ruixiuli raised his hand and touched his cheek, where a new wound had indeed appeared.

He disinfected himself and then applied medical tape.

When I was little, people always laughed at me for looking like a girl.

Ruixiuli smiled.

"Back then, I always thought, 'If only I had a big scar on my face—it would look so cool!'"

Jielusi couldn't help but smile.

She was in too much pain to actually laugh.

The atmosphere gradually quieted down again.

After a while, Ruixiuli said in a low voice, "I haven't thanked you yet for saving me here last time."

Jielusi turned her head to look at him.

"I thought you hadn't recognized me at all."

Ruixiuli looked somewhat uncomfortable.

"I really didn't recognize him."

"It wasn't until I saw you with your hair dyed black this time that I suddenly remembered you were the little girl I met in the desert all those years ago."

Even he himself felt somewhat embarrassed.

Jielusi didn't laugh at him; she simply looked up at the sliver of night sky above and her voice softened.

I was only seven years old when I met you.

"Oh, right," she suddenly remembered, "Was I particularly stupid back then, giving out warnings haphazardly and disrupting your tactics?"

No.

"That's what Ruixiuli explained."

"On the contrary, Leonite mistakenly thought we were caught off guard."

"But Shadu cleverly used this psychology against her, and thus successfully outmaneuvered the enemy."

Jielusi did not continue the topic.

"It took me six months to recover after being injured by Leonite."

She told Ruixiuli about what happened next.

"My hair turned pink around that time too."

It's normal that you didn't recognize me.

She paused, and her gaze calmed down considerably.

"It was from that time that uncontrolled dark energy began to emerge within me."

Ruixiuli didn't speak, but listened quietly.

"Later, the village priest noticed something was wrong and recommended that I go to a church school to learn magic and master control abilities."

"That's where I met Yise."

When the name was mentioned, Jielusi's expression softened noticeably for a moment.

"I have a talent for light magic, so I became a healer."

"But I'm not like ordinary healing mages."

"I have an irrepressible need for the soul."

"Every few months, I tear apart the souls of the dead to draw power from them."

"Otherwise, that substance will accumulate more and more inside me, eventually leading to a loss of control."

Ruixiuli frowned slightly, but did not interrupt.

Jielusi continued, "After Yise found out about this, he took me to find those notorious wanted criminals."

"Kill them like this every now and then."

That way I can hold on.

The wind whistled through the stone pillars.

Jielusi hugged her knees, gazing at the sandy ground in the distance, and said softly, "Because I'm so special."

"So Yise took all of these things upon himself."

"Pretend to be an indignant young girl."

She didn't want anyone to notice me or discover my unusual condition.

Jielusi smiled.

That's why Yise tries so hard to be flamboyant and stand out wherever he goes.

Ruixiuli whispered, "Perhaps, this is part of her personality."

"But in the end, Yise did it all for me."

The voices gradually faded.

Once you relax, fatigue washes over you like a tide.

The two of them snuggled together and fell asleep.

****

The Y-3X loitering munition flew through the night sky.

Two hours later, it was spotted by a patrolling Divine Eagle Drone, which then connected to the navigation link and guided it towards the forward camp.

Several Feather Race mages used Flight Spell to intercept the loitering missile in mid-air and bring it back to the ground.

The information obtained from the Jinlin Chamber of Commerce was successfully delivered.

Staff officers and intelligence personnel conducted an analysis overnight.

Maps, activity logs, handover forms, and records of correspondence were laid out, compared, and marked. Under the lamplight, everyone exchanged judgments, and soon the high-precision military desert map on the table was covered with red lines and markings.

Before long, one location became the focus of everyone's attention.

Stone-patterned altar----

The report was quickly delivered to Su Ming.

"Great!" He was in a good mood and said half-jokingly, "Give each of the people involved in the analysis a cucumber for a midnight snack."

After that, Su Ming's eyes gradually sharpened.

"We've finally found your trail."

"The Plundering Clock!"