Chapter 129

Chapter 129

As the reserve forces successfully retreated into the fourteenth layer of the windscreen shield, the shield activated just in time. Meng Li, who had chosen to stay outside, retracted her spiritual being and activated her battle armor, rising above the shield's airspace.

In the visible distance, another large swarm of flying beasts, resembling a dark cloud, flew toward them.

The generals had been fighting non-stop for nearly forty hours, but Meng Li, newly promoted to S-rank, was still full of energy. She could at least take over the defense of the base's western airspace.

Marshall Lin Lie connected to her wrist device and briefly instructed, "Take care and return to the team before you're exhausted."

Meng Li nodded. "Understood."

The two leading flying beasts were S-rank, so Meng Li released her fire scorpion.

The fire scorpion, in its normal form, soared toward the swarm. With a single wingbeat, it cast a massive wind net that ensnared the lower-ranked birds trailing behind the two S-rank flying beasts. The subtle S-rank flames instantly spread across the entire net, incinerating the birds before they plummeted toward the mutated beasts below, briefly clearing a space.

In the air, the two S-rank flying beasts were firmly fixated on the fire scorpion. Though the spiritual being had wings, they could still discern its essence as a scorpion—prey that should have been theirs!

The two flying beasts cooperated, one aiming for the scorpion’s head and the other for its tail.

The fire scorpion flew higher, seemingly attempting to escape, causing the two flying beasts to chase faster. Just as they were about to catch up to the lowered scorpion tail, the tail suddenly pressed against the scorpion's back. The fire scorpion stopped ascending and quickly spread its wings, spiraling downward.

The sharp, armored S-rank wings sliced through the flying beasts' wings like paper.

Inside the windscreen shield, Xu Qiao, who had just sat down to rest, felt her throbbing headache ease slightly as she watched this impressive display.

Sun Xuan sat beside her, also looking up. Only when Meng Li retracted her spiritual being and hovered in the air again did he turn to Xu Qiao and say with a complex emotion, "A little over a month ago, I was still your instructor. Now, it seems I might be the one learning from you."

Xu Qiao smiled. "Once an instructor, always an instructor. Without your strictness back then, we couldn't have progressed so quickly."

Sun Xuan smiled. "No need to be so formal. Call me Big Brother, like the others do, or just use my name. We're all part of the same generation, after all."

After a brief chat, knowing she would need to take over the frontline again in the evening, Xu Qiao took one last look at her comrade in the air and swallowed a sedative to rest.

The twenty-second day of the twelfth lunar month, 6 PM.

In the airspace above the coastal waters connecting the southeastern offshore and the ocean, a large group of mutated seabirds flapped toward the northwestern offshore. Only the hundred or so seabirds directly in the fighter jet's path took notice; the rest ignored it.

Suddenly, a golden-red snake-like spiritual being and a fiery red giant bird spiritual being appeared on either side of the fighter jet. One spewed golden-red flames, while the other unleashed crimson flames, encircling the jet from both sides.

No matter the type of flame, any seabird that touched the flames caught fire. In a desperate bid to survive, they dove toward the sea surface. But before they could reach the water, their bodies had already been burnt to a crisp.

The remaining seabirds desperately flew toward the higher altitudes on both sides, but no matter how fast they flew, the dragon and phoenix easily caught up, burning every seabird out of the sky.

Above the sea surface, two massive S-rank mutated whales surfaced for air. Their streamlined bodies could each serve as a landing pad for dozens of fire dragons.

Without needing to use their mental commands, the dragon and phoenix dove down on their own, each aiming at a mutated whale and spewing flames.

Since the night before yesterday, the phoenix had lost count of how many S-rank sea beasts it had burnt to death. Yet, its invincible Phoenix flames only managed to scorch a shallow hole into the wet back of the mutated whale.

Before the phoenix could continue its attack, the whale, having taken a breath and feeling the pain, quickly submerged back into the water.

As the prey submerged, the phoenix could do nothing more. Looking over, the fire dragon’s flames had also failed to kill the whale, but the dragon’s claws were firmly embedded in the thick skin of the whale, and its mouth was deeply inserted into the hole it had burnt. It went underwater along with the whale.

The whale, still burning from the fire dragon's flames, thrashed its tail in agony. Daring not to surface for fear of another attack, it swam rapidly toward its companion, hoping its friend could help it shake off the relentless spiritual being that clung to it no matter how much it thrashed.

The other giant whale opened its mouth to bite the dragon's body, which was several dozen meters thick.

It had aimed perfectly, but still missed, its head slamming into its injured companion's body.

As they pulled apart, the giant whale looked back at its companion and was shocked to find that the spiritual being had disappeared!

The giant whale swam around its companion, and just as it was about to search the surrounding waters for the golden-red dragon, a massive hole began to melt through its companion's back from the inside, and the fire dragon emerged, claws outstretched and fangs bared. Before the whale could react, it felt a searing pain in its back as the fire dragon started drilling another hole into it!

Enraged, the giant whale used the fire dragon's clinging body to slam into a large sea beast nearby.

The waters churned violently, and the struck sea beast was immediately pierced with a row of holes by the fire dragon's spinal spikes. The fire dragon, seemingly unaffected, clawed off a large piece of whale skin, then aimed its dragon mouth at the shallow hole, dried up the remaining seawater, and continued to spit fire into it.

As it watched its companion sink, the giant whale, in terror, commanded the surrounding sea beasts to come and bite the fire dragon.

But these lower-level sea beasts couldn't even bite through the fire dragon's top-tier defensive hard scales.

A few minutes later, the fire dragon flew out of the water with three S-class crystal cores in hand. It threw the cores into the cabin door and then returned into Qinchi's body.

Noticing Lin Zheng about to swallow an S-class crystal core, Qinchi reminded him, "The energy in S-class crystal cores is too immense. Even with our physiques, consuming five within twenty-four hours carries the risk of explosion. If I'm not mistaken, this is already your fifth one today."

Lin Zheng looked at the radar detector, where the density of sea beasts was increasing, and said with a bitter smile, "My mental strength can't hold up for another kill."

Qinchi pressed down on Lin Zheng's arm holding the crystal core and said, "Rest for three hours. I'll wake you up exactly after three hours."

Lin Zheng asked, "Can your fire dragon hold on for three more hours?"

Qinchi replied, "It can fight physically while I use my abilities to handle the flying beasts."

Using spiritual beings for physical attacks consumes much less mental energy.

After a brief pause, Lin Zheng lowered his seat and took a dose of the sedative.

Lin Zheng remembered clearly that he had taken the sedative at 6:32 PM, but when he woke up, it was already 2:00 AM.

As his consciousness fully cleared, Lin Zheng abruptly looked at the copilot's seat next to him.

Qinchi was staring ahead, his eyes filled with a sea of fire. Lin Zheng then looked outside the fighter jet and realized that Qinchi was using wind and fire abilities to pursue a group of flying beasts.

Lin Zheng quickly released his Phoenix spiritual being to assist him.

When the aerial battle ended, the fire dragon returned with three S-class crystal cores. Its golden-red scales had dimmed almost to the point of losing color.

Lin Zheng, without negotiating, firmly grasped the back of Qinchi's chair and said, "It's your turn to rest. I'll wake you up exactly after three hours."

Qinchi smiled and, without sitting in the copilot seat, leaned back slightly in the cabin to the rear. Glancing out the window at the dark, endless sea, he murmured, "The last day."

Lin Zheng checked the navigation and saw that the fighter jet was heading toward the coastal area.

On the third day of the beast tide, whether it was S-grade land beasts, flying beasts, or ocean beasts that had slipped through the net, they had all arrived near the four bases and various coastal bases. Thus, staying on the first line of interception had lost its purpose for the two of them. From now on, their mission would be to support various bases, going wherever was closest to falling and needed protection the most.

Seeing that Qinchi had no intention of taking sedatives while staring outside, Lin Zheng took out a tube from his own space and handed it to him.

Qinchi didn't accept it, saying, "The sedatives have no effect on me."

As Lin Zheng fired an A-grade torpedo toward the sea, he said, "You must rest."

Qinchi paused, and a bottle of shampoo appeared in his hand.

He then took out a small blue vat and poured the entire contents of the shampoo into the vat. Soon, the cabin's air was filled with a faint lotus fragrance.

The fire dragon, its brilliance dulled, extended a section of its tail and knocked over the decoy that was supposed to fool the dragon.

At around 3:00 AM on the twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month, Xu Qiao, who had taken a sedative and was supposed to sleep until 5:00 AM, woke up abruptly. Opening her eyes, she saw a golden-red meteor.

Still groggy, Xu Qiao froze for a moment, her mind struggling to process what she was seeing. Something wasn’t right. Meteors fall from high altitudes, so how could it be flying out from inside the base through the windscreen shield?

She looked at Sun Xuan, who was standing guard.

Sun Xuan, his eyes sharp, met Xu Qiao’s gaze and answered without hesitation, "Qinchi was here just now. He knew you had just retreated from the front lines at midnight, so he didn’t wake you."

Xu Qiao lowered her eyes, and only when the sourness welling up in her heart subsided amidst the sounds of battle and the roars of mutated beasts did she ask in a low voice, "How is he doing?"

Sun Xuan replied, "It was too dark. I didn’t have a reason to keep staring at him."

Xu Qiao forced a smile, pushing down the ache in her heart as she thought of Qinchi. She looked forward.

As if knowing what she was thinking, Sun Xuan said, "The generals have begun clearing the ground-level beast tide. Right now, we're defending the fifth layer of the shield. At this rate, by 6:00 AM, the entire army would likely be defending the third layer."

With only two hours of sleep, Xu Qiao’s mental energy was far from restored. But even with more time, she wouldn’t have been able to rest now.

"I'm going to the medical point ahead."

Knowing her personality well, Sun Xuan didn’t try to persuade her. He simply accompanied her into the fifth layer of the shield and chose a medical point.

Above their heads, outside the shield, fighter jets continuously fired at the beast tide. Payloads from Fu Sui and Meng Li’s abilities were unleashed successively into the beast tide.

As the night sky blazed with fire, Xu Qiao, fresh from treating a patient, looked up and spotted a low-level flying ant the size of a palm that had successfully broken through several layers of firelines. It was about to sink its fangs into the medic at the back of the stretcher team.

Just as Xu Qiao was about to act, the low-level flying ant slowed its wing beats, became dizzy, and fell to the ground as if drunk.

Xu Qiao instinctively looked around. Who had acted? Was there such a "gentle" way to kill?

The healers around her were all busy, including a lotus flower floating in a large blue vat, its ninety-nine petals gently swaying as it healed the wounded with its soothing fragrance.

Higher-level lotus flowers had a more overpowering scent. Though still subtle, within the medical point, it felt as if the lotus was right in front of her.

Gentle, floral fragrance…

Xu Qiao ran out of the medical point and found the spot where the low-level flying ant had fallen. She shone her wrist light to inspect it closely and confirmed that the ant wasn’t dead, just asleep.

Sun Xuan, who had followed her, asked, "Any discoveries?"

Xu Qiao looked up, her eyes bright. "I’ve done experiments on mutated beasts before. The floral scent emitted by my spiritual being can put mutated beasts of lower levels into a sleep, essentially a strong form of hypnosis."

Sun Xuan, listening, stepped on the lower half of the mutated ant with his military boot. The sleeping ant woke in pain, and the upper half of its body was met with another heavy stomp.

Sun Xuan responded, stepping on the ant before continuing, "I understand what you mean. However, out there is the beast tide. Even if you could hypnotize a small range of mutated beasts, the ones behind would continue to split and attack from the sides. It wouldn’t have much impact on the battle situation. It’s better to focus your energy on healing..."

As he spoke, another batch of wounded was brought in.

Xu Qiao concentrated on healing.

Sun Xuan watched her back, holding back the rest of his thoughts, knowing there was no time for anything but action now.