novelraw Chapter 128 : Song of Sand and Mirage
Chapter 128 : Song of Sand and Mirage
"How's the mecha thruster energy?"
Xie Chunshi's voice came along with the blinding white light.
Zhou Chen and Puluo's voices echoed from within the sphere: "Just enough for propulsion. I feel like a ball being kicked around. Do we have a chance to escape?"
"Yes," Chen Sui quickly adapted to the strong light, with many energy bodies surrounding the sphere. "Lucky King, release lightning."
Zhou Chen had no time to sense the surrounding situation, but hearing her words, he immediately concentrated energy.
The lightning storm quickly gathered, instantly exploding along the steel needles around the square mace. Lightning flashed in the yellow sand, blasting the energy bodies outward layer by layer.
This powerful energy fluctuation not only momentarily halted the high-grade energy bodies but even made the Xitisi team, who had already entered the base station entrance, look back.
"I think this lightning attribute," He Chigui said softly, "feels familiar."
He had an introverted and shy personality, with limited social interactions with members of other academies. The lightning attributes he was familiar with, besides his own academy's Chi Buyu, were only Zhou Chen, with whom he had collaborated in the Red Moon Snow Plain.
Song Yuan identified the newcomers almost without doubt: "That should be Zhu Jing Fu."
After speaking, she felt a burden lift from her shoulders.
Zhu Jing Fu was also an attacking team, with no conflict of interest with them. The two sides might be able to negotiate a joint effort, especially since Na Luo River wasn't easy to deal with.
She just didn't know if Na Luo River, holding the absorption device and surrounded by energy bodies, had enough energy left.
Song Yuan's mind raced quickly, without considering another possibility.
However, whether she would still think this way after seeing Zhu Jing Fu remained to be seen.
While Xitisi hesitated, Chen Sui's gaze suddenly looked into the distance.
Upon touching that silver giant beast silhouette, Xie Chunshi's voice sounded: "The base station is nearby."
These words made the three outside the sphere restless.
"Actually, sometimes I don't really want to believe in these mystical things," Chen Sui said sincerely.
Rather than vague luck, she preferred to believe in her own strength.
But every time at moments like this, Zhou Chen would use reality to tell her: this is the Lucky King, don't struggle, just accept the luck.
Gu Qinxue also pondered for a second, then said: "He wasn't always like this."
"Let's go directly to the base station. Coming out and immediately finding the base station is the best outcome."
Chen Sui said.
This was practically heaven helping Zhu Jing Fu.
Getting the device and then the mirage, having no energy and then immediately finding the base station.
Perfect.
Gu Qinxue scanned the surrounding energy bodies as Xie Chunshi's energy fluctuations spread outward.
Frost spread layer by layer, instantly covering the yellow sand surface.
The intense heat in the surroundings dropped instantly, with ice crystals visible in the air.
"If we still had energy now, one shot could control them directly," Chen Sui felt the temperature difference front and back, suddenly sighing.
With this temperature, directly firing a control cannon would definitely give Zhu Jing Fu enough time to escape.
There would be no need for Xie Chunshi to concentrate so much energy.
Chen Sui glanced at the black gold mecha encased in blue light, thinking to herself that Xie Chunshi's energy consumption was not light. Once they reached the base station, she needed to check his mental domain's condition.
Chen Sui made a mental note. Seeing the frost energy blocking high-grade energy bodies, with a few individual ones approaching the sphere, she drew her spear and flew forward. The long spear swept horizontally around, its sharp edge carrying flickering green light. Energy burst into vines the moment it touched the energy bodies, directly wrapping them along the spear's trajectory.
"Puluo, retract the shield!"
Chen Sui cleared the area around the sphere and reminded her teammate.
Puluo immediately gripped the long staff end of the shield umbrella, twisting it internally. A small opening immediately appeared on top of the sphere, the shield umbrella instantly closing inward. The sphere vanished, returning to a shield umbrella in his hand, which the foot soldier quickly twirled, transforming into a long staff held in his hand.
As soon as they were exposed, the strong light from outside stung their dry eyes, and the cold air from the surrounding yellow sand made them catch their breath.
Zhou Chen hadn't reacted when he directly collided with an energy body. The energy on his square mace hadn't fully dissipated; the lightning remnants were raised by the mecha, instantly exploding into a thick lightning bolt when struck downward, directly hitting the energy body while thundering into the yellow sand ground, raising walls of sand on both sides.
Puluo wasn't faring any better. The three, surrounded from below, barely managed to punch through the layers of energy bodies for an upward propulsion path.
That's when Gu Qinxue's thorny fire whip lashed out.
The long whip directly circled Chen Sui's wrist. Chen Sui grabbed Puluo's shoulder with her other hand, directly lifting him, while Puluo grabbed Zhou Chen. The three, each grabbing another, were directly carried upward by mecha propulsion.
The energy bodies, smelling the absorption device, immediately gave chase.
The lack of energy meant Zhu Jing Fu's propulsion wasn't at maximum, but because energy attacks on the way blocked the energy bodies' steps, they successfully shook off the group of pursuing energy bodies and crashed directly into the base station.
The group didn't even walk in; after Xie Chunshi opened the base station permissions, they directly rolled past the barrier device, rolling all the way through the entrance.
When the mechas finally crashed onto the ground, Chen Sui heard the mecha's prompt sound.
[Damage level 81%]
"Hiss—"
She got up holding her waist. When passing through the entrance, she had been burned by infrared rays, leaving a huge mark on her mecha's back.
"Did you pick up energy? Why did the infrared light rush directly at you?"
The other Zhu Jing Fu members' mechas also had collision damage, but all stayed within 70%. Fortunately, the red line had been raised to 19%, otherwise Chen Sui, who had already endured so much energy, now accumulated to over 80%, would have been directly eliminated if the line hadn't been raised.
Chen Sui looked at the error location on her mecha, her gaze somewhat profound.
That area had been repainted, and although covered with golden patterns, Chen Sui remembered that the original location had a large patch of red rust.
"Have the base station's energy monitoring instruments all been replaced?"
She suddenly asked.
Xie Chunshi's expression suddenly changed, directly skipping over this topic: "It should be residual attack energy from outside energy bodies."
He explained, while simultaneously pushing his hand behind Chen Sui, indicating she should move forward.
Chen Sui blinked, understanding that his deflection was an acknowledgment.
It seemed that the Energy Field Management Department's new instruments had some effect.
They could now detect certain spatial fluctuations.
Chen Sui lowered her eyes. After entering the base station, she first stored her mecha at the transfer point, then the five headed toward the resource point.
"Someone was faster than us?"
There were footprint marks on the base station floor, looking quite fresh.
Zhou Chen's voice had just fallen when the resource point's main door opened.
Xitisi, having already completed energy charging, appeared at the doorway.
A black-haired girl stood at the front, wearing a crisp black combat suit, her face solemn, giving her a somewhat hard appearance. Her gaze was particularly resolute. Upon encountering the people outside the door, she first showed a hint of surprise, then realized.
"Zhu Jing Fu, you're quite fast."
Song Yuan was somewhat puzzled when she saw them, but not surprised because it was Zhu Jing Fu.
"Leader Song, what a coincidence."
Zhou Chen greeted warmly.
Song Yuan nodded, making way: "You're low on energy?"
From the Xitisi team, a boy with asymmetrical eyes looked at Zhou Chen: "No wonder Zhu Jing Fu's points rose so quickly. You fired a lot of cannons on the way, didn't you?"
"Can't help it, that's just our level," Zhou Chen affectedly brushed his hair.
"Charge up first. Zhu Jing Fu, did you see any other teams on your way?"
Song Yuan asked friendly as she exited the resource point.
Chen Sui's hair had become extremely smooth in a small braid at the back, swaying with her movements, looking extremely cute. Her cheeks were utterly sincere, her pupils extremely bright.
"We met Saint Laurent, we came out of the maze together."
Song Yuan nodded, smiling at her friendly. "Then it seems we can exchange some information. I have Ink Hills' route."
Xitisi had just brushed past Ink Hills.
If they could exchange information about the other two teams, perhaps Xitisi and Zhu Jing Fu would have a chance to intercept Na Luo River in advance, and possibly even overtake the other two teams to enter the main base station first.
Xie Chunshi also understood her meaning and nodded.
As Zhu Jing Fu and Xitisi's five members crossed paths, at the moment of entering the resource point and the door closing,
Zhou Chen suddenly leaned against the door, patting his chest in relief.
"Wow, Xitisi wants to cooperate with us? That's the idea, right?"
He looked at Xie Chunshi.
The wolf-tailed curly-haired boy's eyes, calm as a dead pond, carried a hint of amusement. When he nodded, he made a hushing gesture to his teammates.
Zhou Chen returned a zipping motion: "I understand, I get it all, I'm good at this. It's just acting, right?"
He was already quite skilled at it now.
[Brilliant]
[From Xitisi's perspective, the bullet screen comments are going crazy hahaha]
[They're all telling Song Yuan, don't let them in]
[Hahaha, now in front of Xitisi is: not-a-drop-of-energy-left·unarmed·one-punch-knockout·device-carrier·successful-attacker Zhu Jing Fu, Xitisi missed the best opportunity to intercept]
[Leader Song even smiled as she saw Zhu Jing Fu off to recharge. I just saw her give Chen Sui a loving smile; I'm afraid she might pull out an energy pipe and give it to Zhu Jing Fu]
[Don't say that, I'm afraid Zhu Jing Fu might trick Xitisi out of their energy pipes afterward]
The resource point could only fully charge the mechas' energy; to have energy reserves, they still needed the limited energy pipes.
Xitisi, being one step ahead, had left no energy pipes remaining in the resource point.
But the five Zhu Jing Fu members weren't worried.
"Later we'll go ask Xitisi to exchange."
Zhou Chen drank the nutrient liquid while also taking away a large pile of spirit body feed, planning to feed his spirit body in the micro energy field, saying: "Little Sui, what do you think we should exchange? Mecha repairs?"
"Huh? Still need to exchange?" Chen Sui raised an eyebrow. Seeing her expression, Zhou Chen immediately felt Chen Sui had some bad idea.
Then he heard the usually obedient and sensible Black Sesame Rice Ball say sincerely: "Can't we play the sympathy card?"
Xitisi wanted to team up with Zhu Jing Fu against Na Luo River. If Zhu Jing Fu had no energy, their plan would fall through, right?
Anyway, they would still have to exchange information later, so why not just paint themselves as miserable as possible?
As soon as Chen Sui finished speaking, Zhou Chen was silent for a moment, then suddenly touched his chest, saying: "I don't know why, but I feel a pain here."
Chen Sui looked at his profound appearance and raised an eyebrow: "Are you sure?"
"Just kidding," Zhou Chen tossed away the nutrient liquid test tube, righteously declaring: "My conscience was eaten by dogs long ago."
After speaking, he excitedly asked: "What speech tactic should we use?"
"Tell the truth?" Chen Sui cleaned up the remaining resources, replaced a batch of dust shields, and found several materials that could be used for sunscreen coating at the resource point before preparing to leave.
"Wasn't our last fight miserable enough? Not a drop of energy left."
Zhu Jing Fu's experience, as long as they didn't mention it was with Na Luo River, would certainly qualify as heart-wrenching and tear-jerking.
The meeting point for the two teams was coincidentally in the repair room.
This wasn't really a coincidence; Xitisi was also using the repair facilities in the repair room to fix their mechas.
When Zhu Jing Fu's mechas were brought out, their dilapidated state shocked the Xitisi members.
"How much did you fight? In the past, this would have gotten you directly eliminated, right?"
Looking at one of the black gold mechas, Xitisi's foot soldier touched it. Chen Sui watched him scan her mecha with a scanning device, her expression unchanged.
"We went through the mirage, the maze, and then met Saint Laurent outside the base station. That kid Noya is cunning as hell."
Zhou Chen said fiercely, his tone very angry, his hand formed into a fist as if ready to punch someone. "The energy noise in the sand maze was deafening, walking for half a day without finding a way out. We couldn't take it anymore and thought since the base station was ahead, we might as well blast our way through. After all, we could recharge at the base station."
"But this guy was waiting outside the maze like a hunter. Just as we ran out of energy, Saint Laurent beat us half to death outside the base station. Fortunately, we ran fast, but who knew we'd end up directly in the mirage, and even go underground, then get beaten again by energy bodies."
"Listen," Zhou Chen looked pitifully at the Xitisi members, "you guys took all the energy pipes, couldn't you leave us some?"
Song Yuan lowered her eyes, not daring to believe easily. From the corner of her eye, she saw the foot soldier shake his head, indicating no abnormalities detected, and only then did she let down her guard, looking at Xie Chunshi: "You encountered Saint Laurent, we encountered Ink Hills."
As she spoke, she pulled out a map to determine Na Luo River's position based on the other teams' directions.
"It seems then that Na Luo River is right next to Saint Laurent. According to the route, these two teams might collide."
Xie Chunshi nodded.
The Zhu Jing Fu members, seeing him start a conversation with Song Yuan, quickly gathered around Chen Sui to repair their mechas. Zhou Chen lowered his head, suppressing his laughter on the outermost edge of the crowd.
Who would understand? Saint Laurent not only encountered Na Luo River but also fought with them.
In the end, the absorption device, after all that fighting, ended up in the hands of Zhu Jing Fu on the sidelines.
"Sigh," Zhou Chen profoundly tossed his hair, "this must be the power of a strong person."
"What power of a strong person," Lu Hang Jiu said softly behind him.
"Damn," Zhou Chen was startled, his body leaning back. Looking back, he saw Lu Hang Jiu's cool face, which gave him a fright. He quickly recalled whether he had kept his mouth in check and hadn't let anything slip before asking in return: "You scared me, what are you doing?"
Lu Hang Jiu handed him several energy pipes: "Our leader asked me to deliver these."
"Even Noya could pin you down and hammer you, Zhou Chen. You're getting worse and worse. You're a newly promoted SSS, can't you show some strength? And you call yourself a strong person?"
Lu Hang Jiu glanced at him. Thinking about how calmly Xie Chunshi had described his team's agile attacker being beaten, he felt somewhat pitiful looking at Zhou Chen.
Having no energy was truly problematic; Zhou Chen could be blasted away by Noya's few cannon shots.
Too miserable.
What agile attacker suffers such indignity?
Lu Hang Jiu, as an agile attacker himself, couldn't stand being affected by insufficient mecha propulsion impacting speed. Putting himself in Zhou Chen's place, he suddenly felt affection for Zhou Chen.
Holding several energy pipes, Zhou Chen hadn't yet reacted. Watching Lu Hang Jiu's departing figure, he suddenly met his teammate's eyes.
Chen Sui covered her chest with her hand: "Not good, I also feel a vague pain here."
The bullet screen viewers watching this scene had complex feelings.
[You should feel pain]
[In the future, when Chen Sui gets up in the middle of the night to mine, she'll have to think about this]
[The main thing is that Xie Chunshi described it so miserably. Originally everyone looked at Zhou Chen with a kind of parental love, even Chi Buyu said he wanted to 1v1 Noya]
[Noya: I didn't provoke any of you]
[Noya: We destroyed walls together, fought battles together, ran out of energy together, in the end, the device isn't mine, the energy pipe isn't mine, all I got was a pot falling from the sky]
[You Zhu Jing Fu, really, even tricking Xitisi, a bunch of honest people]
[Yes, honest people who immediately scan Chen Sui's mecha]
[I'm not trying to say, since they already scanned Chen Sui's mecha, couldn't they scan someone else's?? It's on Puluo!! I want to roar but the holographic image can't transmit my voice]
[Who could imagine? I'm more curious how Chen Sui will repair Puluo's mecha]
[No need to be curious, Xie Chunshi is already taking Song Yuan to the control room. Without their leader, Xitisi can't put together a smart brain]
[Chi Buyu heard Chen Sui could repair his weapons and is already ecstatic]
The energy pipes felt somewhat hot in her hands. Chen Sui also wanted to repair Puluo's mecha with the absorption device under the watchful eyes of Xitisi, to deceive them thoroughly. So she directly took on the task of repairing Xitisi's mechas.
This conveniently distracted them with weapon repairs, while the most troublesome Song Yuan had already gone to the base station with Xie Chunshi.
Besides that, Zhou Chen and Puluo engaged Xitisi in conversation about how they were beaten by Saint Laurent, making Chi Buyu's asymmetrical eyes increasingly obvious.
Gu Qinxue took on the task of blocking the screen while Chen Sui repaired Puluo's mecha.
Chi Buyu had no time to look elsewhere, listening to Zhou Chen describe the battle situation, feeling empathetic. When he heard about Noya directly blasting Zhou Chen with a cannon, he couldn't help but curse: "How could he be so vicious? Alright, alright, Black-hearted Rice Ball, just wait, actually daring to claim he's the number one lightning controller, I, Chi Buyu, am the first to disagree."
Zhou Chen showed a confused expression: "You're not angry at all about me being beaten?"
You only care that he claimed to be the number one lightning controller??
Besides, what are you two competing for? The number one lightning controller title undoubtedly belongs to him, Young Master Zhou.
"Of course not!" Chi Buyu immediately changed his tone, "Where did he hit you? Let me see?"
Zhou Chen tried to find a wound that looked convincing on his mecha to act more realistically, but his mecha was too mottled, covered in energy marks, making it impossible to distinguish cannon impacts. Zhou Chen searched but couldn't point to a specific location.
His hesitation was noticed by Chi Buyu, who, looking at the mecha's wounds, became even angrier. "Beaten so badly, you've really suffered."
There were even footprints on Zhou Chen's mecha: "How many kicks did you take? Hmph, so vicious."
Zhou Chen pressed his lips together, too embarrassed to say those were from his teammate Gu Qinxue.
But seeing Chi Buyu's righteous indignation, he refrained from saying anything.
Just thinking to himself: Chi Buyu, Noya, when we get out, we're still good brothers.
When Xie Chunshi and Song Yuan returned, Chen Sui had already completed most of the work. Seeing him back, she heard the leader confirm the next route.
"We'll go to the main base station with Xitisi. If there are no surprises, Na Luo River should be on this path. They have the absorption device, and their current score growth rate has clearly slowed down, indicating they're moving away from energy body groups, preparing to go to the main base station to place the device."
Xie Chunshi pulled out Na Luo River's score growth line graph. The four Zhu Jing Fu members nodded slightly, their eyes somewhat guilty.
Why had Na Luo River's score growth rate slowed down? Others might not know, but how could Zhu Jing Fu not know?
"Are we leaving?"
Chen Sui asked.
When Xie Chunshi marked their advancing route, he circled a point, seemingly unintentionally, but Chen Sui and the others quickly understood this meant he was planning to escape there.
With the absorption device on Zhu Jing Fu, it would definitely attract surrounding energy bodies. They couldn't walk long with Xitisi before the anomaly would be discovered.
In the base station, they could fool the other side using isolation devices, but once outside, even with Chen Sui's energy shielding concealment, it wouldn't hide from He Chigui's perception for long.
They needed to find a good opportunity to escape, preferably without fighting too much.
After all, Zhu Jing Fu still had many battles with energy bodies ahead.
Xie Chunshi nodded, then heard the analyst say: "Alright, let me reinforce your mental domain barrier before we go."
Chen Sui leaped down from the upper control platform, immediately storing the mecha.
Seemingly by position, the first to be stored was Puluo's mecha, then she handed the mecha rings one by one to her teammates.
Song Yuan was checking Xitisi's mechas; the repair effect was very good. She looked at the Zhu Jing Fu members: "From now on, pleasant cooperation?"
"Pleasant cooperation!" Chen Sui gave her a shallow smile, then immediately turned away, somewhat guiltily breathing a sigh of relief.
The Zhu Jing Fu analyst and Commander left briefly, with the remaining three staying behind. Chi Buyu continued discussing previous matters with Zhou Chen. Song Yuan listened from the side, suddenly interjecting: "Saint Laurent went to the base station first?"
Zhou Chen nodded, recalling whether there were any omissions in the plot he had fabricated. "Yeah, they took the energy and were preparing to leave around the base station. Who knew this maze was so big? The area we blasted wasn't so good, and we directly collided with them."
Chi Buyu frowned: "Didn't you just say Noya was lying in wait, catching you all?"
"I said that to make him seem more calculated," Zhou Chen was not at all embarrassed, immediately finding an explanation.
Song Yuan nodded, pondering: "They should have plenty of energy, but recently their score growth has almost stagnated. Could it be they haven't encountered any?"
This didn't seem right; Song Yuan felt increasingly strange.
Clearly, the base station could obtain very detailed mirage detection information nearby, even predicting when the mirage would go underground. Noya couldn't possibly just sit by and do nothing.
Zhou Chen, without blushing at all, boasted: "Maybe I injured him."
"Though I couldn't use cannons, my square mace wasn't just for show."
This made Song Yuan think, while Chi Buyu suddenly fixed his gaze on him: "You're acting strange."
Gu Qinxue became alert, thinking he had detected an anomaly, and had already instinctively gripped the weapon tied to her leg.
Then she heard Chi Buyu say with certainty: "You must be exaggerating. With your level, hurting Noya? Your mecha got beaten that badly."
Zhou Chen widened his eyes, already sweating from fear, but hearing these words, although he was being looked down upon, he still breathed a sigh of relief.
Gu Qinxue put down her weapon, expressionlessly glancing at Chi Buyu and Zhou Chen.
Good, intelligence on par with Zhou Chen.