Chapter 374: Chapter 374: Snatching the Ship from the Tiger’s Jaws
Chen Xuan, with Honglian, had already dived to the spaceship crash site.
If it were the Fire Line Band that arrived here, the first thing they would do was to open a passage into the spaceship, but Chen Xuan noticed that the spaceship hatch was tightly closed, which was evidently a sign unfavorable to the original plan.
After all, the search team had received a distress signal from the Mechanical Officer, indicating that the survivor had already abandoned ship and escaped. Hence, they had no reason to lock the hatch.
Of course, Lin Qing and Ji would definitely carry door-breaking devices, but whether using a laser to cut the lock or installing directional explosives to break the door, both methods would take at least a minute. During this time, the Celestial Patrol could show up at any moment. Even with violent dismantling, they might not successfully open the door.
According to the haven, this spaceship is an advanced product capable of freely traversing the atmosphere.
However, now, all these troubles can be omitted.
After gliding to the ground, Honglian dashed to the side of the spaceship, placing her hands on its dust-covered shell to begin "registration"—a prerequisite for exercising "Shifting Form and Shadow." With small objects like bullets or coins, she could complete the registration in an instant when held in hand, but larger objects were much slower and consumed more energy.
The largest object she had ever moved before was a passenger bus.
Yet this spaceship wreckage was larger than ten buses combined.
Honglian felt her bodily strength rapidly draining, her two arms as heavy as Mount Tai, and her shoulders felt like they were weighed down by a thousand pounds.
But two other forces surged to support her collapsing body.
One came from the Living Dead, which sensed the body’s plight and began to fully control all bodily functions, maintaining operations under low consumption while accelerating Spiritual Qi circulation, squeezing the qi entering the body like a sponge.
The other was the Purifying Heart Technique, which Chen Xuan said was a cultivation Heart Method that could strengthen the body just by carrying it, well-suited with all abilities, which he had specially requested from the World Ability Center.
Now it seemed that these words weren’t deceiving herself.
Chen Xuan, on the other side, used the Divine Eye Technique to observe Xu Xuanling’s every move.
She was like an agile bird, fluttering around the Celestial Patrol, with each acceleration and dive just narrowly avoiding the enemy’s mighty crash. From afar, those four legs reaching to the sky seemed to move rather slowly, but Chen Xuan understood that it was just a trick of distance, much like when an airplane flies overhead at seemingly snail-like speeds, whereas its cruising speed is generally around 800 kilometers per hour.
The Celestial Patrol was the same.
Each of its strides traversed distances measured in kilometers, requiring only about four or five seconds. If Xu Xuanling couldn’t surpass that speed while evading, she’d be directly hit by the approaching steel structure, with consequences unimaginable. Therefore, after each dodge, she’d raise her altitude to convert potential energy into kinetic energy during a dive, accelerating herself to near sonic speed.
The Celestial Patrol was indeed being held at bay by one person.
Despite the Purple Sky True Thunder and Thousand Thoughts Sword being unable to harm it, it temporarily had no way to deal with Xu Xuanling.
Just when Chen Xuan thought she could continue to delay like this, a sudden change occurred!
A peculiar white flash rippled through the clouds.
It came swiftly and departed just as fast, undulating like ripples, similarly illuminating the surrounding sandstorm.
While the thunder from the Purple Sky True Thunder formation resembled countless "dragons" traversing the clouds, these white patches of light were like flashlights hidden above the cloud layer.
Chen Xuan immediately linked it to "muzzle flash."
In past battleship long-range engagements, the main guns often fired before the masts even breached the horizon. The blaze engulfing the shells and the sparks from high-speed friction would refract off the sky, producing a flash similar to a flashbulb. Even when lookouts couldn’t see the opposing ships, they could determine the enemy’s firing position from these flashes.
Although artillery exchanges were quite ancient, the light spots were somewhat distanced from the Celestial Patrol. Unless its body was like a massive dish propped on four legs with downward-facing cannons, such an effect couldn’t possibly occur.
Was there a modern "muzzle flash"?
There certainly was.
Similarly, large warheads, if fast enough—say, over ten times the speed of sound—would also generate flashes due to intense air friction. Especially when breaking through the cloud layer, the enormous shockwave cone could even illuminate the night sky.
The moment this thought surfaced, Chen Xuan felt every hair on his body stand on end!
Something was happening with the Celestial Patrol!
And whatever it was, it was coming soon!
Indeed, after the first wave of ripples subsided, a new wave followed immediately. This time, the flash height was much lower, seemingly blooming right above Xu Xuanling’s head!
Chen Xuan instinctively reached towards his glasses.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye.
These light spots suddenly rained down "light particles," each dragging long conical trails, tearing the sky into patches of hollowness.
Even with the deceleration effect of the Divine Eye Technique, their speed was astonishing, seemingly already upon Xu Xuanling.
Xu Xuanling reacted instantly.
Hundreds of Thousand Thoughts Swords rushed towards these light particles under her command, seemingly to intercept them.
Another batch of Qi Swords intertwined in front of their master, forming a dense sword wall.
But the light particles ignored these Thousand Thoughts Swords.
They exploded directly.
In an instant, the night turned to day, more blinding than the sun’s fireballs suddenly shrouding the third ring area, with strong light waves sweeping over every building, igniting vines and vaporizing dust, leaving nothing but a pale expanse!
The Thousand Thoughts Swords were pulverized instantly.
Xu Xuanling’s figure was completely engulfed by the fireball.
Luckily, he pressed quickly!
Only Chen Xuan knew how dangerous that moment was. He simultaneously pressed the button on his glasses as the light particles fell, teleporting Xu Xuanling back to the branch store with probably less than a tenth of a second to spare. If he had waited until the light particles expanded into fireballs before recalling, everything would’ve been too late.
Yet the danger wasn’t over.
Following the light radiation was the shock wave.
Hot energy pushed and compressed the air, forming a solid wall spreading outward, capable of collapsing buildings and overturning bridges on high pillars.
Fortunately, the Celestial Patrol was lured to a somewhat distant position by Xu Xuanling, keeping the explosion center a distance from them. Without hesitation, Chen Xuan erected a "Thousand Thoughts Sword Shield," constructing as many layers of defense as possible around himself and Honglian. After four or five seconds, the shock wave hit, with surging dust and rubble engulfing everything around!
He could feel the force of gravel hitting the Qi Sword, each strike no less powerful than a bomb fragment. If a normal person was hit, it typically resulted in a gruesome death.
The spaceship debris was also swept by the shock wave; debris hurled by the gale pounding on the hull, but only leaving hundreds of shallow dents on its surface without piercing a single hole.
They had to thank the crisscrossed elevated bridges nearby—had those dense piers not absorbed a large amount of energy, they might have been blown away.
Visibility shrunk to within a few meters around.
Even the Celestial Mist Skill couldn’t detect the nano-living body’s presence.
Chen Xuan effectively lost the position of the Celestial Patrol.
This was definitely not good.
Recalling its sinister route and massive range of movement, Chen Xuan could no longer care about saving resources and immediately pulled out five Wind Riding Talismans, transforming them into gales sweeping the surroundings. The sandstorm was instantly blown away, returning clarity to his sight.
But the Celestial Patrol was no longer where it was.
Chen Xuan suddenly found his location surprisingly bright, with every piece of rubble on the ground casting distinct shadows.
He looked up, involuntarily squinting.
It seemed like numerous searchlights were shining down, rapidly pressing towards him.
Those were the giant feet of the Celestial Patrol!
In less than three or four seconds of losing sight, the Celestial Patrol was already above him.
But Chen Xuan grinned, as it was ultimately a step too late.
Because the spaceship and Honglian beside him had vanished without a trace, as a coin slowly descended from mid-air.
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