novelraw Chapter 130 : Song of Sand and Mirage
Chapter 130 : Song of Sand and Mirage
"Little Chi, why don't we chat a bit?"
Zhou Chen dodged Chi Buyu's lightning, trying to strike up a conversation.
Chi Buyu was extremely talkative in daily life, but once it came time to focus on energy control, he could immediately shut up, putting all his attention on control.
The Pool family members all seemed to have this trait. Some even joked that Chi Buyu was born to study the art of silence.
After Chi Buyu fell silent, his lightning energy became extremely intense. The SSS-level pressure made Zhou Chen hold his breath, until a fire dragon from Gu Qinxue in the distance came charging from behind him, carrying a powerful energy storm.
"Knock him down, don't let him block the way."
Chen Sui controlled Wood-Born Flower's vines to encircle the mecha's limbs. If they could pull the mecha out from the upper space, Zhu Jing Fu could leap directly to the surface under the protection of the wood attribute energy planted around the mirage.
Zhou Chen understood her meaning, moving aside to let Gu Qinxue's fire dragon charge through. He flipped onto the fire dragon, his energy cannon covered with a layer of lightning, firing directly at Chi Buyu's mecha.
"Meow!!"
The clear cat eyes of the long-tailed cat flashed with lightning, a layer of silver glow spreading over its black fur. Opening its mouth, it let out a loud cry, instantly bursting a layer of lightning around it, gathering into a lightning net in front of Chi Buyu.
"Boom—"
The cannon blast exploded, lightning scattered, flames burned in the air, stirring up dust from the underground. The view in mid-air became yellowish and blurred.
Behind Xie Chunshi, the sea sprite circled around him, layer upon layer of blue energy fanning out, directly colliding with the water column ejected from Song Yuan's palm.
The collision of two water attribute energies caused the fire attribute energy in the mirage to boil.
Xitisi's foot soldier's cannon was constantly aimed at mid-air, this threat making the Zhu Jing Fu members leap quickly in the air.
Because of this, when Chen Sui flashed through mid-air, the Xitisi members didn't react immediately.
It wasn't until a cold light, completely different from lightning, cut through the dusty vision that Song Yuan suddenly widened her eyes, "Chi Buyu!"
"Thud!!"
Her warning came too late. The black gold mecha had already crashed into the lightning.
The numbing sensation of electric shock traveled through the mecha's sensors into Chen Sui's mind. The green crystal in her mental domain rotated, and the Wood-Born Flower giant tree suddenly flickered behind Chen Sui. A layer of green light enveloped her mecha as it charged into the lightning net.
The long spear cut through the lightning, directly striking Chi Buyu's mecha.
Chi Buyu's asymmetrical eyes lost focus for a moment. The long-tailed cat behind him cried out violently, but this cry only made Chen Sui lift her eyelids slightly.
"Not bad lightning, but not as good as Red Moon Snow Plain."
Chen Sui critiqued.
When Chi Buyu regained his senses, he only heard this sentence. His mind was confused for a second, instinctively thinking: comparing him to the entire Red Moon Snow Plain lightning storm? Was he worthy?
However, soon Chi Buyu had no time to think about these things.
The long spear carrying green light directly pierced through the lightning net defense in front of him, the spear head with tremendous force striking his chest.
Like being hit by a giant stone, Chi Buyu's breath instantly caught.
That long spear was gripped by a pair of mecha arms, turning to hammer downward. Chi Buyu felt his body become weightless, falling downward.
His asymmetrical eyes slowly returned to normal, but watching Zhu Jing Fu getting farther away, a thought quickly flashed through Chi Buyu's mind: "Why am I falling so fast..."
"Is it possible," Xitisi's foot soldier Jing Yao spread out an energy shield, directly catching the falling Chi Buyu with an extremely loud 'thud' as Chi Buyu crashed onto the energy shield's surface, then heard his teammate continue, "that it's not you falling fast, but, Zhu Jing Fu escaping."
The process of Chen Sui knocking down Chi Buyu happened too quickly, so quickly that Song Yuan only had time to call out Chi Buyu's name. Before she could even say "be careful," the strong attacker was already in close combat with the long spear, being hammered down.
Then, green vines descended from somewhere, carrying a shimmering green light, directly encircling Zhu Jing Fu's black gold mechas and pulling them upward.
At the same time, the giant tree behind Zhu Jing Fu's analyst was pulled along, moving toward the top of the pyramid. As they leapt out of the mirage, the Wood-Born Flower giant tree strangely overlapped with the pattern on the top of the sixth layer of the pyramid.
Song Yuan, who was originally about to give chase, suddenly contracted her pupils upon seeing this scene, completely unable to speak.
"Chen Sui—"
Song Yuan's heart skipped violently, and she instinctively closed her mouth. She took several deep breaths. Jing Yao, hearing the gasping sound from the team, hurriedly looked toward the leader, only to see Song Yuan quickly adjust herself. When she raised her head again, her voice betrayed nothing.
She seemed to have no emotions about Zhu Jing Fu's departure.
But Jing Yao knew this was just Song Yuan's way of forcing herself to stay calm.
"Leader?"
"I'm fine," Song Yuan looked at Chi Buyu who was being helped up by him. "And you?"
"I-I'm fine too, just one strike, didn't hurt much," Chi Buyu told the truth. Chen Sui's attack was mainly unexpected, but in terms of damage, it was just a continuous dull pain for a while. The mecha damage wasn't high. He looked up and realized why Chen Sui had hit him.
He was right below the hole Zhu Jing Fu had blasted, blocking their exit.
Really, couldn't they have said something if they wanted to pass? Though he wouldn't have let them.
"We're going to the main base station," Song Yuan decided. After speaking, she unconsciously looked at the top of the sixth layer of the pyramid. Song Yuan was certain that there were no such patterns below, only on the sixth layer.
That scene, if Zhu Jing Fu were still there, would definitely show that it was the plant enshrined on the altar that gave energy bodies the ability to change into humans.
And at one moment, Chen Sui's spirit body strangely overlapped with this plant.
The scene of Zhu Jing Fu leaving wasn't shown from Xitisi's perspective, but when Song Yuan looked up this time, the camera still panned over.
In the control room, Lu Cuining saw this scene and completely confirmed his inner suspicion.
He left one step ahead, and because he wasn't participating in the three reviewer seats, his departure didn't cause much of a stir.
Wood-Born Flower's vines wrapped around the mecha pulling upward, green light enveloping the mecha, rushing all the way through the yellow sand. When breaking through the surface layer, darkness and white light connected, racing straight into the daylight flames.
The wood attribute energy around the mirage converged into dazzling green lights, collectively forming the Wood-Born Flower giant tree rooted on the ground.
The black gold mecha emerged from the yellow sand. As soon as it landed, Chen Sui's hand retracted, and the giant tree phantom instantly scattered like light, disappearing immediately.
"Ptui ptui ptui!"
Zhou Chen emerged from the sandy soil, feeling sand everywhere, including in his mouth. He spat uncomfortably while shaking his mecha. "So much sand, it won't get into my mecha, will it!"
"We put on dust shields, don't worry," Chen Sui stood up, patting his back, then looked back at Puluo. "How's Puluo?"
To conceal the absorption device on Puluo, Chen Sui had removed a shield from the outside of his mecha and made it into a container for the absorption device, making it difficult to detect by scanning.
The downside was that the mecha became heavier, reducing mobility.
"It's fine, about the same as before," Puluo moved his arms. At first it felt a bit unfamiliar, but he adapted later.
He had been following the damage-absorbing foot soldier path before, preferring to stack defensive components. After Chen Sui's gradual training, suddenly carrying this weight wasn't too uncomfortable.
Chen Sui nodded, watching Zhou Chen still brushing up and down his mecha, seemingly still disgusted by the feel of the yellow sand.
"I wonder," Chen Sui pointed at her chin, looking at Xie Chunshi, "if Xitisi guessed that the device isn't on me?"
Not to mention whether Jing Yao's scan detected it, afterward Chen Sui kept close to Puluo, almost inseparable, making it look as if energy bodies were charging at her. Only Chen Sui's final charge seemed somewhat reckless, not like someone carrying a device.
She wasn't sure if Xitisi had noticed.
"Perhaps we can continue to swing?" Xie Chunshi, seeing her examining Zhou Chen, immediately understood Chen Sui's idea.
The Zhu Jing Fu members escaped the mirage from below the yellow sand, but their steps didn't stop. They continued moving toward the main base station according to their previous route.
The leader continued: "We may not be able to reach the main base station first," he pulled up an image of the main base station. "The main base station has one main entrance and three side entrances. The main entrance is the primary channel, side entrances are usually closed. Based on our progress, Na Luo River and Saint Laurent should have already gone ahead to intercept."
"Xitisi doesn't know where the mirage will take them. Now only Ink Hills doesn't know the device is in our hands," Chen Sui nodded, analyzing.
"Then should we trick Ink Hills when we get there?" Zhou Chen, still riding high from deceiving Xitisi, immediately leaned in.
Chen Sui thought the feasibility was low: "The team points fluctuation is quite obvious now, especially ours. Given Zhang Yingjie's cleverness, he probably already knows."
Zhu Jing Fu and Xitisi had gathered plenty of points on their journey.
"I think the deception plan is excellent and can be used again, listen to my analysis."
Zhou Chen had a flash of inspiration, feeling he had a good idea, and excitedly said.
Chen Sui and Xie Chunshi looked at each other, sensing each other's helplessness even through the mechas.
But since Zhou Chen was rarely so enthusiastic, they stopped talking and gestured to him, "Go ahead."
"When we reach the base station, why don't we say Xitisi took the device!"
Zhou Chen clapped his hands together: "Later, when their points are similar to ours, we'll say we had a fight in the mirage—"
Zhou Chen continued fabricating a story, combining their experience with Xitisi in the mirage and the story he had told Xitisi about being beaten up by Noya, only replacing Noya with Chi Buyu.
After hearing his strategy, Chen Sui and Xie Chunshi both fell silent simultaneously.
Gu Qinxue even directly sighed.
Chen Sui looked somewhat lovingly at the excited Zhou Chen, "Do you know why we were able to deceive Xitisi?"
Zhou Chen stopped talking and looked over curiously.
"Because of information asymmetry, and, the smartest person in Xitisi happened to have a perfect reason to be away."
Chen Sui explained.
With Chi Buyu's intelligence level, being deceived by Zhou Chen's few sentences was normal.
These two were on par, like Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong.
"You can't deceive Noya."
This Black Sesame Rice Ball wasn't easy to fool.
Gu Qinxue closed her eyes, speaking less euphemistically than Chen Sui: "Do you think Noya is like you?"
Zhou Chen was confused: "Isn't this story good? Chi Buyu got very angry hearing it."
He almost wanted to fight Noya.
Chen Sui shook her head. Chi Buyu was easily agitated, and Zhou Chen was praising Noya throughout, making him feel looked down upon.
Noya wasn't someone who could be deceived by such a story. Only something he figured out himself would he believe.
The same applied to Xie You and Zhang Yingjie.
Smart people were generally like this.
"Although this idea isn't great, we should still have one that works."
Chen Sui looked at Xie Chunshi, and the two reached a consensus.
"We might need to modify all our mechas."
When they reached the main base station, they would directly ask the other teams to choose one out of five.
Guess which Zhu Jing Fu member has the absorption device.