novelraw Chapter 121 : Song of Sand and Mirage
Chapter 121 : Song of Sand and Mirage
Chen Sui's gaze fell on Zhou Chen through her mech. He suddenly shuddered, a chill crawling up his spine.
Zhou Chen shook his head vigorously several times. "I'm just joking, how could I? In such a formal occasion, such a formal competition," his finger pointed up in the air, drawing a circle, "how could I joke about that? Let's go, let's go, let's quickly earn some points."
"What's yours is mine, what's mine is yours, what's there to compete about?"
Zhou Chen said with an obedient expression.
He was afraid that if he provoked Chen Sui's competitive spirit, this overachiever would treat him like an energy body to farm.
He retreated so quickly that Chen Sui hadn't yet responded before the other three burst into laughter.
"Spineless," Gu Qinxue glanced at him, walking side by side with Chen Sui.
Puluo, one step behind, pushed Zhou Chen's mech and whispered: "How dare you? Little Sui is much more competitive than you."
Zhou Chen was silent for a second, then said nervously: "Got too full of myself."
"Alright, let's go to the divine platform first. A competition is fine too. If you win, I'll use the lightning teeth to make your cannon."
Chen Sui looked back at Zhou Chen. The lightning teeth were the White Jade Thunder Serpent giant teeth extracted in Red Moon Snow Plain. Because polishing them would take too much time, they hadn't yet been integrated with the cannon.
When Zhou Chen heard this, his just-extinguished fighting spirit reignited, and he moved forward to ask: "Then, Little Sui, can the Sand Armor Beast's sharp teeth also be used to enhance my Four-sided Mace?"
"You want all the good things for yourself?" Gu Qinxue raised an eyebrow, looking at him.
She was also waiting to enhance her Thorny Fire Whip.
Chen Sui thought for a moment, then sighed slightly: "They all ran away in the end. If there were more Sand Armor Beasts, we could replace all the thorns on the Thorny Fire Whip, which would likely increase its lethality."
Zhou Chen's face also showed some regret. "Next time I encounter them, not a single one will escape."
The temple's inner hall was extremely spacious, completely different from the intricate carving outside, appearing particularly rough. But leaving the inner hall and ascending to the divine platform, there was a path of rising steps. Below the divine platform was a huge open square. Climbing up from above the inner hall, they landed in the center of the square. Looking up, they could see the 'god' surrounded by a group of energy bodies in the divine platform.
"What these energy bodies revere is—a tree?"
Zhou Chen asked curiously.
"This tree looks somewhat familiar?"
He cupped his chin, pondering.
The tree's posture was very familiar, but its overall composition was strange.
Chen Sui stared at the tree. Of course Zhou Chen found it familiar. Although the structure forming the statue before them wasn't similar to Wood-Born Flower's giant tree, this posture and the surrounding energy bodies had all appeared in her visions.
This was clearly the giant tree form of Wood-Born Flower.
But this statue, one could vaguely see, was composed of branches, leaves, textures, and the flower stamens and fruits within the leaves—all pieced together from various plants.
One could find shadows of all Star Alliance plants on it, and most were commonly seen species.
Wood-Born Flower had already settled on one form, not as 'colorful' as this statue.
Chen Sui lowered her eyes. While her teammates were still thinking, she suddenly said: "Energy bodies are coming."
This vast square, if her guess wasn't wrong, should be where energy bodies came to worship.
The black-gold mech shifted its gaze from the statue.
Chen Sui scanned around the divine platform. The surrounding energy fluctuations were becoming increasingly intense. The signal in the team channel kept growing stronger, and vibrations came from all around, with increasing amplitude.
In the control room, the reviewers who noticed this scene on the sacrificial platform each pondered, while Mo Qiu'an, positioned behind the crowd, had already begun integrating all wood attribute energy fields.
In the energy field, Zhu Jing Fu's black-gold mech occupied a high position. Zhou Chen even sat directly on the giant lion in front of the divine platform. His mech was sheltered by the lion's body, appearing to have no issues at all.
"Good design, the concealment positions in this energy field are really good," Zhou Chen set up his cannon, placing it between the staggered heads of the giant lion, with a wide field of view, overlooking the entire square.
Just as he finished his praise, Chen Sui only had time to smile briefly before her expression paused, her gaze becoming stern as she looked toward each entrance of the inner hall.
"The energy body group is here."
As soon as she spoke, a hurricane directly swept open in the center of the square.
A sharp eagle's cry.
A gray long-beaked bird with huge wings whirled out from the inner hall entrance.
It opened its long beak, raised its head toward the sky, and exhaled. The hurricane in the center of the square immediately began moving outward.
The five from Zhu Jing Fu vigilantly observed. Chen Sui's mental barrier was set up around them, while Zhou Chen's cannon carefully gathered energy.
"Whoa, they haven't discovered us, have they?"
Chen Sui narrowed her eyes: "Long-Beaked White-Topped Eagle flock, SS-level energy bodies, they shouldn't have."
Only with SSS-level energy body fluctuations would Chen Sui worry about exposure.
Zhou Chen had absolute faith in her words, so he continued to weakly gather energy. Even when the hurricane swept to his eyes, he just moved his cannon back a bit.
That hurricane energy swept past the giant lion's face, moving toward the other side of the square.
Various energy bodies crawled out from within the hall. Chen Sui curiously observed the trajectories of the energy bodies. When the hurricane flew toward an energy body, an earth wall rose, directly blocking this energy.
"Damn, so many energy bodies?"
During the time Zhu Jing Fu hid and waited for energy bodies to gather, the entire square had already been filled with giant beasts.
"In the middle are two SSS-level energy body groups, Titan Long-Necked Beasts and White Sand Ants."
Chen Sui's voice came through as she captured footage of the two types of energy bodies.
The Titan Long-Necked Beast was an extremely large four-legged beast with a long neck. Its outer layer was a scale armor that looked very much like soil, with edges curling up. One leg was as thick as a mech. When three to five gathered, layers of energy halos emanated from them, and surrounding energy bodies sensing this scattered away.
"With a neck that long, doesn't this guy's head get sore?"
Zhou Chen asked sincerely, his cannon already aimed at the Titan Long-Necked Beast's long neck.
"First lure away the SSS-level, then deal with those in the middle together."
Xie Chunshi's voice came through.
Chen Sui agreed: "Fire the Fierce Fire Cannon directly. It's not like we built this temple."
Her words all but directly said to blast this divine platform and square into ruins.
At the mention of the Fierce Fire Cannon, Zhou Chen looked at the cannon in his hand and asked: "So should I still shoot?"
He had heard Chen Sui mention luring them away—this task wouldn't still be his, would it?
"Of course," Chen Sui's tone was enticing. "Lucky King, you naturally need to take action. Puluo's shield umbrella will protect you. Titan Long-Necked Beasts move slowly, but you need to be careful of the White Sand Ants. These things can fly."
Zhou Chen looked at Puluo. The soldier, hidden behind another giant lion, raised his long staff.
He glanced at the Titan Long-Necked Beast. The energy body was showing a ferocious expression to its surroundings, its huge mouth open wide, with soil-like traces covering its teeth. Its soil-red eyes rotated around, its nose moved, and its long neck began to rotate.
"They're about to discover us."
The Titan Long-Necked Beast's energy perception was extremely sensitive; Chen Sui's energy barrier wouldn't deceive it for long.
"Lucky King, we'll strike first."
Chen Sui reminded.
Zhou Chen's hand trembled slightly. He turned to look at Puluo, his expression serious: "Puluo, you must protect me well."
"Rest assured!"
The soldier tapped his long staff, his voice resonating like a bell as he uttered a few words.
Zhou Chen closed his eyes, his mech leaping out from behind the giant lion, raising the cannon that had been gathering energy for a long time.
"Take this—"
He shouted, firing the energy-gathering cannon toward the Titan Long-Necked Beast group.
Under the feet of the Titan beasts, only as big as one of its footpads, long-winged ants were flying among the forest of leg pillars.
When the energy-gathering cannon, carrying a huge energy impact, crashed down, the White Sand Ants' long wings emitted a slight vibration. The White Sand Ants staying around the Titan beasts immediately flew up.
Fire light exploded in the square, dust flying, an energy impact spreading outward, directly knocking down the standing Titan beasts. Surrounding low-level energy bodies flew toward the periphery.
In a blaze of dazzling fire, countless White Sand Ants flapped their long wings. As the group flew out, it was like a layer of white gauze blown by the wind, flying toward the black-gold mech's position.
Long wings vibrated, emitting a buzzing sound.
Zhou Chen propelled his mech, leaping into mid-air. "Goodness, these things are more than just a little fast."
The White Sand Ants' wing-flapping frequency became faster and faster, instantly drawing the white gauze around the black-gold mech.
"Puluo, fire the energy cannon at me."
The energy cannon carrying energy was one of the scents that attracted energy bodies.
Puluo watched as he led a layer of White Sand Ants behind him, flying in a spiral line toward the sky, then flying back down with the White Sand Ants, leading the energy body group toward the far end of the square.
Seeing that Zhou Chen's position was about to reach a certain point, Puluo fired a shot at his location.
The rich energy liquid scent permeated the air. The black-gold mech was covered with a layer of scent extremely sweet to energy bodies.
The White Sand Ants' speed increased, the distance between them and the black-gold mech narrowing.
Puluo flung out his shield umbrella, always ready to support Zhou Chen.
"Watch out, don't let these things step on me," Zhou Chen reminded him, then spiraled down from the air. Seeing the Titan beasts standing up, he directly crashed among the extremely thick leg pillars.
"Don't worry! I guarantee you'll remain intact."
Puluo's eyes followed Zhou Chen's mech. His cannon was covered with a layer of golden energy. When the giant beast's foot was about to fall, the energy cannon wrapped around the gun barrel fired at the Titan beast's leg, deflecting along the angle. At the same time, he controlled the energy cannon to explode, drawing away the Titan beasts' encirclement, allowing Zhou Chen to freely pass through the forest of leg pillars.
The White Sand Ants followed the black-gold mech, with the two energy groups converging toward a corner of the square.
Chen Sui, seeing the SSS-level energy groups retreat from the central position toward the edge, quickly looked at her other two teammates.
The scent of energy made the energy body groups agitated, with hurricanes and yellow sand sweeping through.
Earth spikes sprouted from the ground, surrounding hurricanes wandered on the ground, blowing the entire square with yellow sand filling the sky, the view becoming a murky yellow.
The vision in the mirage underground was already dark, now relying solely on the temple's lights for illumination. Yellow sand was blown up, countless earth attribute energy spread around, the ground's soil layer becoming increasingly hard. Sand flew in mid-air, covering the lampshades, dimming the light.
The mech's illumination appeared particularly obvious within.
When Chen Sui looked at him, Xie Chunshi nodded. The black-gold mech lit up with a dazzling light, directly attracting the attention of all surrounding energy bodies.
Puluo fired several more energy shots, finally controlling the lured energy body groups around Zhou Chen, preventing them from being attracted to Xie Chunshi's light.
"That's too flashy. The Commander definitely learned this from Little Sui."
Zhou Chen gritted his teeth, dodging the wind blade attacks from the White Sand Ants behind him. Glancing at Xie Chunshi in the center, who was like a light bulb, he said somewhat enviously.
This spotlight moment must be incredibly cool, but unfortunately, in this shot, he was in the corner leading ants!
The mech spotlight attracted all the energy bodies. Facing them was a gust of wind and sand. An earth wall with sharp energy spikes rushed toward the three's position.
"Seal."
Xie Chunshi's palm carried a layer of ice attribute energy, with low temperature rapidly spreading. Blue light surged like a tide, rolling forward fiercely.
Ice frost and cold air dispersed, a biting chill rapidly sweeping the surroundings. Chen Sui raised her cannon, her mech leaping into mid-air.
In front was a layer of ice, directly freezing the earth attribute energy wall that was about to pounce on the mech, like an amber stone that had settled for a long time.
As Chen Sui passed through the ice layer, Xie Chunshi's fingertip pointed, the energy around his mech spreading out, directly crossing the ice layer. Looking down from above, the frost formed a thin layer of ice on top. Energy bodies could easily pierce through it, but their feet were stuck to the ground by the spreading ice layer, unable to move.
"Ah Xue."
Chen Sui's Fierce Fire Cannon gathered energy, a blazing red light brightening in mid-air, like a rising red sun. Scorching high temperature instantly spread, the ice layer showing signs of melting.
Gu Qinxue immediately followed, emerging from the ice layer. Behind her, an energy body brightened with a huge shadow, flames rising around the lop-eared rabbit.
As she raised her energy-gathering cannon, a ball of fire gathered at the cannon's mouth. "Coming!"
As Chen Sui fired the Fierce Fire Cannon, Gu Qinxue fired her energy-gathering cannon along the trajectory of her cannon.
"Bang—"
The two cannon shots brushed past each other in mid-air, until they contacted the ice surface. The energy covering the outside of the energy-gathering cannon burst open, with flames spreading along the ice wall, directly burning on the ice wall.
When the Fierce Fire Cannon entered the ice layer, it was ignited by a layer of fierce flames.
"Sizzle—"
A huge explosion!
The square's ground was directly blasted with a huge hole, the entire divine platform shaking. In the inner hall, the pillars supporting the divine platform also shook.
Flames burned in the deep pit, energy bodies emitting various howls, miserable and unceasing.
Chen Sui put away her cannon but didn't retreat, immediately switching to her long spear.
Gu Qinxue held her Thorny Fire Whip, and the two rushed into the raging fire waves ignited by the Fierce Fire Cannon.
"Water Drop," blue energy rippled around Xie Chunshi like water ripples. As his figure darted out, blue flames wrapped the yellow sand in the surrounding air and dropped it to the ground.
The vision cleared, the burning intensity of the fierce fire gradually subsiding. Within it, energy bodies were entangled with flames, flapping their wings, flying out of the earth pit with bodies covered in fire.
Chen Sui had already reached above the fire pit. Seeing this, she extended and thrust her spear, directly impaling the leaping energy body. The spear's offensive was extremely fierce, piercing through the energy body's body in an instant, driving the energy body to crash into a stone pillar in the divine platform.
With a "bang," the four-edged spear blade penetrated the energy body's flesh and blood, directly hitting the stone pillar.
Chen Sui raised an eyebrow, immediately withdrawing the spear with some concern. The energy body emitted an explosive roar, this sound directly entering her ears, instantly making the analyst somewhat irritated. Chen Sui stared at it for a moment, her energy perception quickly sweeping over. After withdrawing the spear, she immediately found the right angle and thrust again.
"Ting—"
The spear pressed against the energy crystal, the four-edged spear blade spinning, directly cutting open the energy body's skin, piercing through with blood and the energy crystal.
One energy body was quickly dealt with by her.
On the other side, Gu Qinxue's Thorny Fire Whip entangled several energy bodies that had leaped out, directly pulling the long whip, exploding in mid-air with blood splashing.
The explosion of the Thorny Fire Whip directly blasted the energy bodies into flying flesh and blood. The energy crystals were surrounded by flames spreading along the fire whip, picked up by Xu Bai, who hopped along with the flames.
Noticing Chen Sui's observation, Xu Bai looked in her direction, bending its long ears.
Chen Sui smiled, and at that moment, a black shadow suddenly flashed in the just-quieted flames, rushing directly toward Chen Sui's mech.
A fierce fire burst open in front of Gu Qinxue. Before her vision was blocked, she only saw the black shadow darting to the high air. Several wind spikes instantly formed around, flying directly toward the black-gold mech.
"Little Sui!"
Gu Qinxue called out in the team channel, her tone somewhat heavy.
Chen Sui watched the black shadow flashing in front of her. It was a pure black dual-winged bat with two pairs of wings, one long and one short. The short wing edges were like blades, while the long wings had a layer of long feathers that could directly burst open, seemingly able to fly out in all directions instantly.
Wind blades stabbed toward the space around Chen Sui.
Gu Qinxue and Xie Chunshi looked over somewhat tensely, only to see a silver-white flash. Chen Sui's mech had just removed the energy crystal and hadn't yet turned around, but her long spear moved first, swinging around from under the mech's long arm, rotating once, thrusting out—
A stream of green energy rushed out along the spear.
Green light gathered around Chen Sui, forming an oval barrier, with Wood-Born Flower's shadow faintly visible behind Chen Sui.
In the control room, several people frowned simultaneously.
Song Xingzhang frowned because in an emergency, Chen Sui still instinctively used her spirit body.
And Lu Cuining frowned purely because Wood-Born Flower seemed to have undergone some changes.
Chen Sui also noticed the abnormality on Wood-Born Flower's giant tree shadow. The spirit body hadn't yet appeared when she instinctively withdrew the energy.
The green barrier had just solidified when it suddenly burst and shattered outward.
A crisp cracking sound, accompanied by fragments of green shards.
The wind blades had just confronted the green energy when the other side suddenly released its force. The wind attribute energy body seemed to pause for a moment. This time was extremely brief, but by the time it reacted, the wind blades stabbed down at the central mech.
But only a phantom remained in place, with a gust of wind rising at its side. The black-gold mech quickly turned, its figure making a sharp turn in mid-air, directly coming behind it.
The wind blades crashed into the residual image left by the mech, the phantom completely dissipating with a breeze, leaving only the wind blades colliding with each other, the energy bursting into a white light.
The dual-winged bat's black bean eyes seemed to flash with humanized colors, but more was incomprehension. Its wings flapped for a moment. Chen Sui's energy was completely withdrawn, it couldn't sense energy fluctuations, so it paused for a moment.
This time was extremely brief, but the black-gold mech that had just landed behind it had already seized this less-than-a-second opportunity. Still with its back to the dual-winged bat, the long spear directly swung, thrusting backward.
The dual-winged bat had just heard the sound when its spine was broken by the piercing spear.
Chen Sui gripped the spear and turned. The dual-winged bat's short wings flapped continuously in mid-air.
It faced Chen Sui's mech, emitting a sonic attack.
The bat's howl was sharp and piercing. Chen Sui's mech head instinctively tilted back, as if this could distance her from its sonic attack.
Her ears filled with buzzing, her brain throbbing.
She forcefully thrust her spear forward: "I've found that you all really love to scream?"
"Is this the song in Song of Sand and Mirage?"
Chen Sui asked in confusion.
Energy bodies couldn't understand her words. Seeing her attack become more fierce, it struggled and screamed more intensely.
The surrounding wind pressure soared. Even the airflow for the mech to breathe became extremely difficult. Chen Sui held her breath, flinging the dual-winged bat behind her, away from her teammates' position.
She directly released the spear from her hand.
The Fierce Fire Cannon quickly gathered energy and aimed, firing a shot at the dual-winged bat's throat.
The Fierce Fire Cannon directly smashed the bat's head, the shot exploding like fireworks in mid-air.
The black-gold mech, seeing the shell explode, directly flashed forward. As the white smoke raised by the flames in front of Gu Qinxue subsided, Chen Sui's voice was heard. She held her cannon, controlling the energy bodies crawling out of the fire pit around her, clearing the energy body encirclement around Chen Sui.
The black-gold mech quickly advanced, grabbing the long spear, pulling it upward from below. The spear stabbed downward, a powerful spear wind sweeping past, directly piercing a sand lizard crawling out of the big pit, nailing it to the ground.
Her mech directly rushed toward the dual-winged bat.
Seeing this scene, the bullet comments immediately had an ominous premonition.
[This sister threw away her spear, how will she fight energy bodies?]
[The cannon is so close, blasting isn't realistic, right?]
[Don't understand, do you? I suggest everyone eating or having food to stop chewing. I'm afraid you won't be able to eat]
[My Emperor Sui's best weapon isn't the spear...]
Some newcomer spectators still didn't quite understand the meaning of this sentence.
Then they saw the black-gold mech rush straight up. Wind blades came at her, but she didn't retreat a single step, directly blocking the wind blade attacks with her mech's palm.
The mech's outer shell was violently broken by the wind blades. The wind flow accumulated in front of the dual-winged bat, making the mech hand's movement somewhat slow. But for the dual-winged bat, it didn't take this metal without any energy fluctuations seriously.
Just as the dual-winged bat was driving more wind attribute energy to gather, Chen Sui's hand grabbed its short wing.
The dual-winged bat made a sound, but its head was still regenerating. The not-yet-fully-regenerated throat made a very harsh, unpleasant sound.
Chen Sui's eyes revealed a hint of ferocity. One hand pressed on the dual-winged bat's regenerating head, while the hand gripping the short wing suddenly applied force.
"Rip—"
The short wing was forcibly torn off by the mech.
"Huff huff!!"
The dual-winged bat emitted intermittent roars of anger.
The mech's movement didn't stop. Short wing, long wing, then twisting off its not-yet-regenerated head.
"I really don't like—"
"Your screaming!"
Chen Sui said in a low voice. When her hand came, it carried an extremely strong offensive, directly inserting into the dual-winged bat's abdomen, while the other hand gripped its spine.
The mech tore, and a well-recorded sound of flesh ripping came through the live broadcast.
The dual-winged bat's internal organs scattered, blood falling like rain.
Xie Chunshi pointed a finger, and a blue water light wrapped around Chen Sui's mech. Blood drops flowed along the water light, with no red color splashing onto the mech.
Only the mech's hands were covered in blood, with an energy crystal lying in the center.
Gu Qinxue cleared the area below, pulled out Chen Sui's long spear, and looked down to find that the sand lizard had been directly impaled by the long spear through its energy crystal.
She withdrew the spear and handed it to the landing black-gold mech.
Zhu Jing Fu's points instantly soared.
Flames spread across the temple square, with signs of collapse and breakage everywhere.
From the corner, Zhou Chen, seeing they had finished fighting, issued a plea for help.
"Is no one speaking for me? I'm coming over!"