novelraw Chapter 127 : Song of Sand and Mirage
Chapter 127 : Song of Sand and Mirage
After Chen Sui obtained the absorption device, Gu Qinxue's thorny fire whip immediately released He Lanqi.
The crimson red mecha was thrown backward by the long whip, and Lu Ting's mecha rushed forward. Before it could get close, it saw the fire whip that had just released He Lanqi suddenly lash out violently in mid-air.
Gu Qinxue's thorny fire whip carried a powerful energy impulse. When the whip's thorns collided, they unleashed huge waves of fire and explosive impacts.
Lu Ting's mecha immediately retreated, blown back by the scorching red cloud.
The Na Luo River and Saint Laurent teams that were about to charge forward briefly paused in this explosion mixed with energy impacts.
Only three black and gold mechas, with shield umbrellas extended in front, charged directly into the neutralizing fire cloud.
"Shall we go?"
Chen Sui took out the Mirage Orb, looking around.
"Will this thing work? I'm out of energy, I'll be at a disadvantage in a fight."
Zhou Chen looked doubtfully at the Mirage Orb. Even if it generated a mirage, there would still be some distance before it entered the ground, right?
"Directly concentrate the energy underground, and when the mirage appears, it drops to the ground."
Chen Sui said.
She was already gathering spatial energy fluctuations.
Xie Chunshi glanced at her and instructed: "Protect the analyst."
The protection he referred to meant everyone emitting energy fluctuations to prevent Chen Sui's spatial fluctuations from appearing abnormal among them.
The energy glow of the five Zhu Jing Fu members appeared as the fire weakened.
However, before the surrounding crowds could catch up, they saw waves of energy rippling outward from around the black and gold mecha.
Earth-yellow energy waves burst from the black and gold mecha's palm.
Noya narrowed his eyes, focusing on the Mirage Orb in Chen Sui's mecha palm.
"What is Zhu Jing Fu doing?"
He Shuangmu watched as the black and gold mecha not only didn't flee, but instead stopped in place.
Na Luo River didn't dwell on this question, charging directly against the energy waves.
However, a scene that shocked both teams appeared.
The earth-yellow energy gathered in front concentrated and spread out, directly enveloping the black and gold mecha, condensing into an earth-yellow ancient city wall. The phantom of a building appeared unexpectedly on the ground before them.
"This is—"
Na Luo River's mechas charging forward were bounced back by the energy of the mirage's appearance, their cannons also flipped, bouncing toward the rear.
"A mirage??"
Both team Commanders spoke simultaneously.
The building became increasingly solid, with every pattern on the city wall becoming visible. Just as it completely stabilized, the earth-yellow energy impact weakened.
The five Zhu Jing Fu members were wrapped in the yellow phantom, with energy light bursting from Chen Sui's teammates around her, while her mecha's exterior was covered in earth attribute energy.
As the earth-yellow energy flickered, the flowing sand around moved directly toward the mirage's position. With the mirage flickering and earth attribute energy richly concentrating around, Zhu Jing Fu's black and gold mechas, along with the mirage phantom behind them, were pulled downward as if covered by an invisible giant hand.
They sank directly into the yellow sand.
In front of the base station, a huge deep pit surged downward, with flowing sand filling it like an ocean tide. In just a few breaths, it had filled the original position. Sand gushed out, and mounds of earth driven by the remaining earth attribute energy bulged into ridges at the original site.
"Holy shit?"
Na Luo River's strong attacker belatedly pulled at his collar, then realized his outfit today had no exaggerated cape, just a combat suit. His hand grasped at nothing, but his inner surprise made him completely disregard this.
Simos turned and asked: "What did Zhu Jing Fu do??"
[Yeah, what did Zhu Jing Fu do (stunned)]
[Watching Zhu Jing Fu's livestream for so long, I thought cutting down the meteor tree, digging out the energy pipe, and smashing the maze wall was outrageous, but Zhu Jing Fu tells us, that's nothing!]
[Come on bro, others summon energy bodies, you directly summon an energy body nest??]
[Mirages eventually become energy body nests anyway, so calling it an energy body nest isn't wrong (face up)]
[Wait, can mirages be summoned like this? How did I not know this when doing the sand mirage mission?]
[Border Army here to explain, the sand mirage energy field appears for a short time, and there are indeed many places that haven't been explored yet]
[For future energy fields like this, just put Zhu Jing Fu in there. I've discovered they can explore anything]
[Wow, Saint Laurent and Na Luo River are dumbfounded]
[Zhu Jing Fu: Thanks brothers, I'll go ahead first]
[Impressive (thumbs up)]
[Noya kid, don't stand there stunned, they've been gone for a while, what are you still looking at?]
When Simos turned to ask the analyst, Noya's gaze was still fixed on the position where Zhu Jing Fu had left.
Saint Laurent's analyst Xue Yaoyao sensed an unusual fluctuation, and instinctively said: "Is it Chen Sui's summoning body energy?"
"Earth attribute energy? But it doesn't seem quite like it. It's as if some energy is blocking my perception, I can't feel her energy attribute at all."
Xue Yaoyao said.
Noya's gaze wandered for a second, his mind recalling the scene just now.
Apart from the energy storm swept out, the remaining energy seemed to be wrapped in an invisible restraint, the intensity of which even he could sense.
Rather than saying the underground energy pulled Zhu Jing Fu down, it would be more accurate to say that Chen Sui had been channeling energy toward the ground from the beginning.
Noya's eyes pondered.
Not getting a response from the leader, Xue Yaoyao looked at the golden mecha in front: "What do we do now?"
"Go to the base station," Noya returned to his senses, a serious, contemplative expression appearing on his shota face. His tone was serious for a second, but quickly recovered, "I'm out of energy! How can I fight?!"
Hearing his voice, Xie You turned to look at him, then suddenly said: "Zhu Jing Fu is also out of energy. Did you come out of the maze together?"
Xie You asked in return.
Noya suddenly pounded his fists together, letting out a cursing sound: "They were so generous at the beginning, exchanging energy pipes with me?"
"I should have kept it! Ahhh! Sister Chen Sui, you tricked me again!"
Xie You shook his head, sighing heavily. After hearing Noya's journey with Zhu Jing Fu, he gritted his teeth: "Such acting, why not join the interstellar holographic immersive performance?"
On the other side, Simos, who was slow to react, suddenly said: "So you're saying, if you hadn't helped, Zhu Jing Fu might have come out without energy, right?"
Noya's heart took another arrow. When Xie You pointed out that Zhu Jing Fu was low on energy, he realized he had been led along again, but Simos just had to make it so explicit.
"Do you really have to pour salt on my wounds, good brother?"
Noya looked at him resentfully.
Simos tapped the tip of his nose, giving a dry laugh, then got back to business: "What exactly did Zhu Jing Fu do? That was a mirage, right?"
"Did they know in advance that the mirage would appear here? And how did they determine that once the mirage appeared, it would go underground? It couldn't have been just Zhou Chen's words, that would be too absurd."
Simos spoke a stream of words, like a string of beads.
He Shuangmu suddenly felt that watching events unfold with Simos must be very enjoyable, as this person didn't like to keep secrets and his responses were always emotionally valuable.
"Rather than saying they knew about the mirage in advance, I'm more inclined to believe they summoned the mirage."
The analysts from the two teams exchanged ideas and reached a conclusion.
—"Zhu Jing Fu must have discovered an energy source related to the mirage, which allowed them to trigger mirage energy concentration in advance through some special energy source."
"That's too absurd."
"The urgent matter now is to go to the main base station," Xie You said with gloomy eyes. In this round, Na Luo River was the defending champion, but they were successfully attacked, and he was even dominated by Chen Sui. Xie You gritted his teeth; he needed to teach Zhu Jing Fu a lesson.
—Chen Sui actually rubbed his face on the ground.
And Xie Chunshi.
—So heartlessly firing a direct shot, alright, fine.
"We're not going," Noya declined with a wave of his hand, raising his cannon to indicate, "We Saint Laurent don't have enough energy and want to go to the base station to recharge."
Simos felt frustrated at this: "Look, you do need to replenish your energy, but next time Zhu Jing Fu hands you something, don't take it. Don't get played again, how many times has this happened?"
After speaking, he pondered: "Maybe I should also take some acting classes after this round ends?"
Xie You glanced at him from the corner of his eye, letting out a light snort.
The sound carried no destructive power, but was quite insulting.
Simos widened his eyes at him: "Leader, what do you mean?"
"You taking acting classes? Work on your idol baggage instead," He Lanqi said mercilessly.
Watching Xie You mark the map and determine the route.
Na Luo River had obtained very detailed map information from the base station, including the mirage monitoring at that time.
Because Na Luo River had the absorption device, attracting numerous energy body attacks, their points were consistently ahead, so they basically never entered the mirage.
Looking at Zhu Jing Fu's situation now, they had to enter the mirage.
Moreover, Xie You turned and reminded Noya: "With Zhu Jing Fu obtaining the device, their first choice would be to go to the main base station and place it before news of their successful attack spreads."
Noya thought for a moment: "Secondary base station, main base station, Zhu Jing Fu's route... we need to arrive at the main base station first, otherwise Ink Hills and Xitisi won't know Zhu Jing Fu has the absorption device. These people are masters at acting. Once they get into the base station..."
Noya clapped his hands: "Great, we'll all be dominated by Chen Sui. What's the point of playing?"
Xie You nodded, "Let's go."
Noya waved to him, and the group moved toward the secondary base station.
Na Luo River and Saint Laurent initially identified target points. If the two teams could intercept Zhu Jing Fu at the main base station in advance and inform the other two teams about Zhu Jing Fu's placement route, it wouldn't be easy for them.
But in reality, Xie You's concerns were somewhat excessive.
Forget about going to the main base station to place the device now.
Chen Sui specifically directed the mirage energy concentration point underground, and after the mirage gathered, it immediately pulled the five Zhu Jing Fu members down. But Chen Sui, or rather all five Zhu Jing Fu members, were busy escaping and didn't notice—
The mirage underground would attract large numbers of energy bodies to enter. Even if this new mirage entering the ground was forced, energy bodies were still attracted, rushing toward the mirage moving underground.
And at this moment, inside the mirage, lying in the spacious square inside the ancient city wall, were the five Zhu Jing Fu mechas, peacefully lying on the ground. The five people couldn't muster enough energy for a single fully charged cannon shot.
"Problem coming, energy bodies approaching."
Chen Sui held the absorption device, installing it at the front of the cockpit. As energy perception returned, she said in a deep voice.
The absorption device wasn't very large, could be concealed by mecha components, and her energy shielding covered it, blurring the attraction signal of the energy absorption device to energy bodies. Analysts would find it difficult to sense the device's location.
But energy bodies were a different matter.
The mirage attracted energy bodies.
Zhu Jing Fu attracted energy bodies to attack.
This wave was like wolves in front and tigers behind; Zhu Jing Fu had just escaped one fire pit only to jump into another.
"Please let the energy bodies ravage us to their heart's content... mmm—??"
Zhou Chen's words were cut off halfway as Puluo flipped over and directly covered his mecha's mouth.
The foot soldier mecha pressed down heavily, nearly taking Zhou Chen's breath away.
"Puluo, are you trying to kill me?"
Zhou Chen looked up at him, eyes unfocused.
Seeing he had stopped talking, Puluo got up and explained: "I was afraid you'd jinx us again."
Chen Sui stood up on the other side; the absorption device was difficult to place, forcing her to stand.
As Chen Sui detached the chest mecha component, looking at Puluo on the side, a thought suddenly occurred to her.
"I think, since we've already played a trick on them, why not go all the way?"
Xie Chunshi looked over at her.
He saw the analyst looking at the foot soldier.
Even though Puluo was accustomed to Chen Sui's strange ideas, under this intense gaze, he couldn't help but tremble.
Xie Chunshi also looked over curiously.
"Why not put this thing on Puluo?"
It was natural for a foot soldier to stick close to an analyst, and later Chen Sui could attract fire while directly sending Puluo into the base station.
Zhou Chen was shocked by this idea, suddenly exclaiming: "Holy crap, I can't even imagine how other academies will curse us. Just imagining it makes me excited."
Puluo sighed in relief, thinking Chen Sui wanted him to lure away the energy bodies, a scene he had often seen Zhou Chen perform.
So it was just about placing the absorption device.
Wait??
Wait what??
—Placing the absorption device? Wouldn't that attract energy bodies—
"Then you can take your shield umbrella and endure a beating here for a while."
Chen Sui's gaze toward the foot soldier became increasingly benevolent.
"After practicing injury resistance for so long, it's time to see the results."
Puluo instinctively looked at Zhou Chen.
The agile attacker's joy was evident: "Hahaha, Puluo's injury resistance is very strong, trustworthy, truly trustworthy."
Great, finally it wasn't his turn to take a beating.
Puluo: My teammates are so ruthless they even trick their own teammates.
Despite thinking this, when Chen Sui installed the absorption device, the foot soldier stood like a mountain, motionless. Chen Sui then gave him instructions about his movement points.
"Cannon charging is insufficient, be mindful of mecha damage. After energy bodies are attracted by you, output will follow up promptly. Don't use the shield umbrella to assist others, protect yourself first."
Chen Sui added a few more words.
Puluo's mecha had the strongest damage resistance in Zhu Jing Fu, plus energy shield enhancement, capable of withstanding group attacks from energy bodies.
Zhu Jing Fu's cannons were currently insufficient, energy attacks consumed a lot, and they were mostly close combat, making it easy for mecha to be damaged by surrounding energy attacks.
Currently, everyone's mecha damage levels were far from ideal.
"The mirage won't move underground for too long, then it will return to the surface. Hang in there."
Xie Chunshi added.
This mirage was suddenly summoned by Chen Sui. According to general rules, mirages would form on the desert surface, then enter the ground.
Now that it went underground first, it would refresh a new location and charge on the surface.
Puluo nodded: "Understood."
The energy convergence around became more intense.
After the absorption device was installed, Chen Sui felt that energy bodies were already just outside the mirage.
Puluo, carrying the absorption device, rushed into the interior of the city, standing firm on the highest earth-yellow watchtower.
The first to enter the mirage was a special crimson bird, carrying scorching high temperatures, charging into the mirage, its scarlet eyes immediately flying toward the foot soldier.
Zhou Chen and the other Zhu Jing Fu members were distributed in four directions around Puluo, with lightning flowing on the square mace, and the phantom of the black arrow hawk flickering.
"Damn, this is just the beginning, why are there so many?"
The crimson birds were just the start. Following them, energy bodies—those running on the ground and those flying in the sky—all poured in. Additionally, there were continuous energy storms around, fierce winds directly sweeping energy bodies in.
"Prepare to move, don't really let Puluo take a beating for too long."
Chen Sui reminded.
Green light flickered on her long spear, though the Wood-Born Flower phantom didn't appear, she only relied on resonance to drive the surrounding energy.
On Xie Chunshi's side, as the sea sprite leapt from the water surface, it instinctively looked at Chen Sui's surroundings. When the mecha darted out, its long tail circled once, quickly approaching the energy body group as Xie Chunshi's mecha moved.
Waves of energy attacks struck Puluo's shield umbrella.
Both sides of the shield umbrella were opened, forming an oval sphere around the black and gold mecha, firmly locked to the ground by a golden light.
The huge sound of metal mushrooms enveloped the sphere.
A small mushroom above the sphere, its human face grimacing and snarling at the approaching energy bodies, intimidating them.
Chen Sui had seen Little Jin in this posture once before, when he hammered Puluo into the combat platform, his spirit body ran out of control and made scary faces at her.
Chen Sui looked from afar as a metal cold light rose, directly blocking the earth spikes thrust toward Puluo, then the golden light was pinched into blade-like willow leaves, stabbing out toward the energy body group.
"Everyone make way, Puluo, control your metal! Don't electrocute yourself, okay?!"
Zhou Chen leapt out, gripping the square mace and striking downward, while shouting to Puluo.
The willow leaf blades carried energy vibrations, dividing the energy bodies into different block distributions.
Zhou Chen landed in one block. Puluo's willow leaf blades directly inserted into the ground, instantly expanding outward, forming a metal net.
The black and gold mecha shuttled through wind blades and earth spikes, the square mace heavily smashing into the ground among the energy body group, the long mace extending.
Purple lightning exploded, instantly emitting an avalanche-like lightning strike sound.
The smell of charring spread.
[Damage level 85%]
Zhou Chen's mecha reported continuously increasing damage.
Charging into the group energy storm of energy bodies, the high pressure was extremely severe. Wind blades and earth spikes were everywhere, easily cutting through the black and gold mecha's shell.
Zhou Chen finished one strike, and before the lightning disappeared, his mecha kicked away a four-legged giant beast energy body charging at him. His square mace swept away a tongue-flicking lizard, and the mecha thrusters pushed him upward.
"It's over, not enough energy, even my thrusters are struggling."
He complained.
Chen Sui and the other two were clearing energy bodies around Puluo's direction. Hearing this, she expanded her perception to check the mirage's energy fluctuations.
"Wait a bit longer, the mirage's energy is almost dispersed."
The mirage's first energy charge was forcibly concentrated by her using the Mirage Orb. It wasn't strong enough for the mirage to gather underground for too long.
Hearing this, Zhou Chen felt somewhat relieved, saying: "I advise this mirage to be sensible, directly throw me at the base station entrance. I don't want to make an effort anymore."
"Sure, Lucky King," Chen Sui didn't retort this time, soothing him, "Even if you don't believe in the mirage, you should believe in your verbal magic, right?"
Chen Sui seemed to be gritting her teeth as she spoke. From the corner of his eye, Zhou Chen saw the analyst's long spear directly charging into the energy body group.
The spear moved like a dragon, directly sweeping through the energy bodies, clearing a small path among them with thrusts back and forth.
"Amazing, Little Sui," Zhou Chen watched her vines control the energy body group on the ground, praising her.
"It's average," Chen Sui's voice wasn't very relaxed, "Higher-grade energy bodies are about to enter."
The ones Zhu Jing Fu were dealing with now were just a few SS-grade, with most being low-grade energy bodies. With high-grade energy bodies entering, things would only get thornier.
"Please no!!"
Zhou Chen's lightning coiled like a whip, picking up energy bodies from the ground, the lightning entangling the energy bodies in mid-air.
Xie Chunshi's water flow dispersed, frost instantly freezing.
Gu Qinxue's fire dragon roared out.
"Crack—"
Directly shattering the ice blocks along with the energy bodies.
Energy crystals fell from the fire waves.
No one in Zhu Jing Fu paid attention to these energy crystals, as high-grade energy bodies entered. All five had serious expressions.
Energy fluctuations were extremely intense, accompanied by violent tremors as giant beasts entered the mirage.
"I should have known," Chen Sui said softly, "not to concentrate so much energy."
It was her first time using the Mirage Orb, not fully understanding the mechanism.
"If there's another one, I definitely won't do it like this," Chen Sui said, her hint very obvious.
Xie Chunshi laughed: "After recharging, shall we get you a few more Mirage Orbs to try?"
Chen Sui nodded in satisfaction, but the number of energy bodies entering in front of her made her smile instantly freeze on her face.
"Holy shit!"
Zhou Chen's hands were numb, and so was he: "So many??"
"Why weren't there this many before?"
The energy bodies completely blocked the entrance of the mirage city wall, squeezing the outer wall into irregular arches.
"With so many energy bodies, the mirage won't last long."
Chen Sui reminded.
The Zhu Jing Fu members only had a few seconds to complain. As the energy storm swept in, they immediately entered battle mode.
Puluo's shield umbrella endured several energy attacks from around. After high-grade energy bodies entered, the sphere opened, Zhou Chen's square mace inserting into the shield umbrella, with only a small hole from the square mace extending above the sphere.
Gu Qinxue kicked out, sending the metal sphere encasing two mechas toward the interior of the mirage.
As the sphere moved, lightning instantly flashed out from the square mace, striking the surrounding energy bodies as it rolled through the mirage interior.
The energy bodies' attacks hammered one by one on the sphere, making the shield umbrella emit violent sounds, but the top remained undamaged, without even a crack.
Watching the sphere distract the energy bodies for a long time, Chen Sui finally sensed the mirage's energy change at a moment when the sphere stopped rolling.
"Zhou Chen, Puluo, prepare to come out."
Just as she finished her reminder, the mirage began moving upward at an extremely fast speed, with a white light soon appearing in their field of vision.
The suddenly appearing high brightness instinctively made the five Zhu Jing Fu members close their eyes for a moment.
As the mirage stood on the sand surface, the surrounding sand groups flowed closer.
Energy bodies slowly moved away from within the mirage.
But high-grade energy bodies still surrounded the sphere.
Gu Qinxue and Xie Chunshi's energy pushed away the surrounding energy bodies. Chen Sui's vines wrapped around the sphere, her mecha thrusters activating, immediately flying out of the mirage.
Outside the mirage, a silver-white steel monster crawled in the yellow sand.
From several entrances extending around, five mechas slowly walked into the northern side position.
One of them suddenly stopped and looked toward the southeast.
A foot soldier immediately looked over: "Situation?"
The Commander in front turned back to look at the analyst.
From the pure black mecha came a shy voice.
"Seems to be energy fluctuations, and spirit bodies."
Song Yuan looked in that direction, "Other teams are coming."
"Go to the base station first, wait for them to enter."
Xitisi's Commander's voice was somewhat cold, but very reliable.
The group walked toward the interior of the base station, preparing to seize the initiative.
Song Yuan lowered her eyes, thinking.
If it's Na Luo River, fight.
For other teams, cooperation could be discussed.