Trap

At the very front are the intertwined "Yinglong | Mech and Miasma Throat".

Zijin and Su Ming flew swiftly in pursuit.

Even though the two were wearing full-body winter gear, they could still feel the chill seeping in little by little as they were constantly battered by the cold wind high in the air.

"Why are you frowning?" Zijin asked.

She did not speak.

As soon as you open your mouth, the cold wind rushes into your throat like ice scalpers, making your teeth feel like they're about to freeze.

[If we patiently tug at this dragon's defenses, our chances of winning are very high.] Zijin continued to send the message.

Su Ming shook his head.

He stared at the massive figure at the very front, clad in heavy armor and flying silently.

Don't you find this a little strange?

Even with our full winter coats on, we're still feeling cold.

Why did that Poison Dragon dare to wear a full suit of metal armor and fly at such a high speed?

Zijin also realized something was wrong.

Based on her experience as the Zijin Faerie Dragon, if she were in this situation, she would definitely want to dig a snow cave to hide.

Moreover, according to records left by the Dragon Race, Poison Dragon live in subtropical regions.

Not to mention, Miasma Throat was wearing a suit of cold, metallic armor!

Su Ming looked at his wrist.

The enemy has been operating the "Withering" domain.

Under the protection of the Zijin, he did not feel that his vitality had been taken away.

But her skin seemed a little Pale.

[And something about this guy's abilities just doesn't feel right.] Su Ming murmured.

****

As they spoke, Miasma Throat was already close to Pansy.

The Quail quickly ordered, "Activate shield defense!"

Throughout the massive hull of the Pansy, hundreds of mages from the Final Bone Mad Machines began unleashing their Magic Power.

They cannot intervene in such a high-level battle.

But a home can be protected!

As the large-scale alchemical array was activated, countless Magic Power crystals lit up on the Pansy.

A thick, massive shield rose up, enveloping the Pansy.

Large-scale magical defense weapon:

"Sacred Antelope Horn!"

The Miasma Throat exhaled a breath.

The corrosive mist crashed into the shield.

The magic shield fluctuated violently, with large patches of dark green ripples appearing on its surface, but it showed no signs of being penetrated.

Looking at the surface of the ship, the large patches of Magic Power crystals radiating a glowing light clearly indicated that this was no pushover.

Outside the magical shield, the unprotected trajectory of the Vermilion Bow was corroded by the corrupting mist and quickly broke.

The corroded track surface was pitted and uneven, with remnants of the track falling from the sky.

This section of track had already been ordered to be dismantled by Quail.

There are still more than 100 meters left.

The broken track crashed down, but was blocked by the shield, leaving only a few heavy ripples on the light screen.

They then rolled down the outer layer of the shield and crashed heavily onto the ice.

The ice layer was cracked with Spiderweb- like pattern.

The track made a hissing sound upon contact with the ice, and white mist rose up, indicating that the ice was quite hot.

The Miasma Throat clearly did not understand that this meant they had been working not long ago.

A single launch of the Plain Zeng was completed.

He simply watched as the supply drones, already sheltered inside the shields, landed on the deck of the Pansy.

The ground crew of the Final Bone Mad Machines quickly stepped forward.

Someone brought in a fuel pipeline to refuel the storage tank that had been replaced by the "Yinglong";

Someone connected a thick charging cable to the superconducting battery port.

The Pansy's entire power system began operating at full capacity.

Inside the hull, the gas turbine roared, and the steam turbine supporting the nuclear reactor rotated at high speed.

A large amount of electricity is output from the generator and collected.

On the superconducting battery, blue-white electric arcs lit up in concentric circles along the metal casing.

****

This scene suddenly reminded Miasma Throat.

"Hmm, these monkeys like nuclear energy."

In that case, he wouldn't need to fight against that thick shield.

Regarding nuclear energy, Eden received a Jörmungandr, and the Divine Sacrifice Society already prepared for this!

One of them is the "Zero Hour Tranquility" feature that can turn them off.

Similarly, it could do the opposite: the Miasma Throat began to retreat and create distance, while simultaneously raising one of its dragon fingers.

Between the tips of its claws rested a plate-shaped Magic Power Crystal Core.

The crystal core resembled a snake scale, was completely transparent, and had fine red threads constantly moving inside.

It was as if a restless rage had been sealed away.

The Miasma Throat focused its mind and began to activate the crystal core.

What will be used soon is a transcendental law magic.

He didn't study this type of path, so he couldn't complete it on his own.

The crystal core shattered within the Dragon Claw.

Countless tiny specks of light drifted into the sky.

The dragon's eye in the Miasma Throat suddenly sharpened.

Midnight · The Clamor!

Invisible ripples spread across the sky.

There was no explosion, nor any blinding light.

However, a strange and oppressive aura suddenly appeared in the sky above the polar regions.

The sound of the wind seemed to be suppressed by some invisible hand.

The snowflakes paused for a moment.

The light patterns on the outer shield of the Pansy were momentarily misaligned.

At that moment, everyone saw a giant eye appear in the sky.

That eye had no pupil, no emotion, only utter indifference.

It seemed to open its eyes from some incomprehensible depth, gazing down faintly across the divide between reality and illusion.

Just one glance.

It seems to have gently disrupted all the precise order in the world.

The impact on Su Ming was particularly severe.

While he was flying at full speed, his mind felt as if it had been struck by a hammer.

His vision went black, he lost his balance, and fell from the sky.

Zijin quickly reached out and pulled him back, preventing him from falling onto the ice.

"It's Jörmungandr!"

Su Ming was panting heavily, cold sweat beading on his forehead.

The eye in the sky, which had just made a fleeting appearance, has now vanished.

But that chilling, oppressive feeling, as if it came from the highest heavens, was something Su Ming confirmed—"I've glimpsed it in the Rift Ruins."

"It comes from His power!"

****

"Yinglong | Inside the mecha, snowflakes filled the screen around his vision."

The entire system suffered an inexplicable shock in an instant, with most modules crashing simultaneously.

Spinal Hub system failure!

The neural feedback that had been almost integrated with the mecha was suddenly severed.

Beianqi was startled.

The right-side thruster of the machine briefly shut down, and the massive mechanical dragon body sank downwards, crashing almost diagonally onto the ice surface.

Beianqi can't see, but she can feel.

She quickly pulled the lever.

The left thruster's vectoring nozzle is deflected downwards.

"Yinglong | One of its mechanical wings brushed against the ice surface, kicking up a string of ice fragments and sparks, before rising and leaving the ground."

Beianqi broke out in a cold sweat.

Fortunately, the most essential operating functions have redundant manual backups.

Although the "Yinglong" was difficult to control with just these tools, at least it did not crash.

The system also quickly restarted and began an emergency self-check.

"Attitude control correction system, takeover complete."

"Neurofeedback module restart progress, 15%."

"Attempting second link recovery."

Beianqi gritted her teeth and gradually stabilized her body.

The Miasma Throat also noticed this scene.

Yinglong's movements were intermittent, and its flight trajectory resembled a trembling tremor.

It felt like half of a nerve had been severed.

Unfortunately, in order to maintain the spell, and because he was a bit far away, he couldn't take advantage of the situation.

Pansy, which was the first to be affected, also experienced a large-scale system crash due to the impact of the "Clamor".

Inside and outside the ship, all screens went black simultaneously.

The lights are off.

All automated equipment has come to a standstill.

One second later, the emergency power supply came online.

Red backup lights illuminated in rows along the passageway.

The control systems of each gas turbine were restored in an emergency, and the restart was completed after the power outage.

Almost all the warning lights came on, but then went out one by one as the automatic control system intervened.

The Quail was startled.

These are not the key points.

His first glance was at "Zhurong".

"It took a full ten seconds for Zhurong's automatic control system to complete the restart."

Then, as expected, it popped up a series of warnings:

Global neutron flux exceeds the limit by 1000%.

Nuclear fission reactivity is severely overflowing from the reactor core components, and the temperature is rising rapidly. The current temperature is 2500 degrees Celsius. Risk warning: Quail core meltdown. It's like a quail's scalp exploding.

"Don't say such a long string!"

"Just tell me what to do!"

He barely understood neutron flux.

These data show that the giant fat dragon outside used that strange spell to increase the spontaneous fission rate of U235 by nearly ten times!

Back when they were refining uranium-235, Su Ming had told Quail about the power of a nuclear explosion.

So he's terrified right now!

"And don't fucking talk to me about safety rules."

"Just tell me how to avoid melting!"

Like Beianqi, Quail also learned the bad example of "criticizing AI".

The "Zhurong" intelligent control system remained silent for a few seconds, as if it were calculating carefully.

Then, the answer was given:

I suggest you pour yourself a glass of ice water to calm your emotions. As a fourth-generation reactor, it's extremely difficult to melt down. I need to explain to you the design features that utilize the Dupler effect (negative reactivity temperature coefficient) and the moderator temperature effect.

Is it the cavitation effect?

"No, tell me the result!" the Quail hurriedly said.

As the core temperature rises, the reactivity of the nuclear fuel will naturally decrease. Natural cooling is still in operation, and the pressure in each circuit is normal. The reactor system is still far from the critical value for an accident.

Upon hearing this, the Quail finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"So all those stupid warnings of yours were just to scare me?"

He spoke in an unfriendly tone.

Those were warnings issued based on the safety manual and design limits. "Damn it."

The Quail actually poured itself a glass of water.

The icy water slid down his throat, and he realized his fingers were trembling.

"Change your wording when you call the police; don't be so scary next time!"

****

Earth, Pinecone Hamlet Area, Action Group.

Two hours ago.

When the scene quieted down again, there was no trace of the original spot.

Jin Rongjia got up from the ground.

He brushed the dirt off his clothes and discovered that most of the electronic devices were damaged.

The task force suffered heavy casualties, but he couldn't afford to worry about that.

"What about the target?" Jin Rongjia asked loudly.

"The sniper in the distance has spotted the target leaving," a team member reported.

"But I didn't see the details clearly."

"It's only confirmed to be roughly a humanoid creature."

Soon, another piece of bad news arrived.

The red crystal found on Lie'aonisi's body is gone.

Jin Rongjia's face darkened.

That's their target.

Several minutes passed before the action team restored communications.

"So you encountered the beings who descended from Eden, but they left?"

Ling Wen's voice came from the other end of the communication.

"Yes," Jin Rongjia replied.

Do you have any video or audio recordings?

"All the electronic cameras are broken," Jin Rongjia replied.

He glanced at a group of busy team members nearby.

"However, we brought a film camera with us."

"Washing in progress."

After a long fifteen minutes, the first batch of footage recorded by the film camera was finally developed and digitized.

The image has a heavy graininess, and the colors are somewhat distorted.

But they captured what happened at that time.

A winged humanoid target swooped down from the sky into the scene.

Extremely fast.

In the previous frame, it was just a blurry black dot in the sky; in the next frame, it had already crashed into the vicinity of the magic circle.

He immediately snatched the red crystal and pressed it against his chest.

He then unleashed lightning, striking targets in the surrounding area.

Then quickly leave, staying close to the ground.

****

The tracking operation was launched swiftly.

This operation, of course, utilized satellites.

According to satellite images, the other party flew more than ten kilometers in a very short time.

Then it disappeared.

The analysis team discovered that the opposing side had deployed more than a dozen illusions or similar clones in the final scene.

These phantoms moved in different directions, but their speeds, heat sources, and trajectories were remarkably similar.

This results in an exponential expansion of the tracking direction and range.

Jin Rongjia repeatedly played the few frames of footage showing the other party rushing into the scene at high speed.

"His speed-changing ability far surpasses the Saint Rank described by Su Ming."

"So, like the visitors from the North Pole region of Taya, they are also above the Saint Rank," Ling Wen said.

Afterwards, through communication between Miao Xin and Taya's side, they learned more information.

"Winged Feather Race"

This is the message Chloe gave.

"They are a branch of the Feather Race."

"Once a ruler of noble lineage."

Chloe paused slightly.

"In their time, we Feather Race, whose wings had degenerated, were considered an inferior species."

"While wings gave them greater flight capabilities, they also became a tremendous physiological burden."

"The strong members of the Winged Feather Race are alright, but ordinary individuals are extremely weak, resulting in insufficient reproductive capacity for the clan."

"The population base is continuously declining."

"Ultimately, with the changing times, they became completely extinct."

****

Next, the task force embarked on a long and arduous search.

After the illusions disrupted the vision, the Winged Feather Race chose to blend into a densely populated area of buildings to escape detection.

Then it was moved.

All methods failed to recapture it.

Or rather, it was captured.

But by the time they found them, the other party had already moved to another location.

Their investigation was completely outpaced!

Data from the Sky Eye in one area hasn't even been uploaded or analyzed yet.

The other party quickly left the designated area.

The enemy has a strange familiarity with technological methods!

At Experimental Base No. 1, the alert level has been raised to the highest level.

"Normally, they should be here to cause trouble for us," Ling Wen said.

"The experimental equipment is here, and Miss Qiu is here too."

No one raised any objections.

But all around was calm and peaceful.

Only as the distant typhoon made landfall did the sky become filled with thin clouds.

Typhoon Lupit, which Base No. 1 was on high alert for, eventually made landfall elsewhere.

****

The Arctic battlefield of Taya.

The exterior of the Pansy.

The Miasma Throat maintained the "Zero Hour Clamor" effect, but found that Pansy did not make any of the expected noise.

Although the lights went out for a moment, they quickly came back on inside the massive steel ship.

The slightly disrupted order is being quickly restored.

He frowned Miasma Throat.

According to the oracle, this thing should be absolutely effective!

It can at least disrupt the other side's energy supply.

In the air, the "Yinglong" mech completed its equipment reboot.

After Beianqi reconnected to the Spinal Hub link, the body's posture suddenly stabilized.

The thruster's exhaust plume suddenly lengthened.

"Yinglong" lowered its nose and lunged at the Miasma Throat once more.

The Miasma Throat backward, its body almost touching the ice.

Then, with a flap of his wings, his massive body swept across the ice in an arc, turning and leaping away to avoid Beianqi's shot.

The Gauss bullet grazed past his heavy armor.

Some bullets struck the heavy armor, shattering it into pieces.

Some bullets landed on the ice, carving out long, narrow grooves.

The Miasma Throat darted back and forth erratically.

Having failed to break the deadlock, he immediately reverted to his original battle strategy.

His domain is also nearing its activation threshold.

That Bay Owl truly believed that her "life" offset her "Withering."

The dragon's Miasma Throat tilted to one side:

But what if the power he used from the beginning wasn't "Withering"?