novelraw Chapter 131 : Song of Sand and Mirage
Chapter 131 : Song of Sand and Mirage
Yellow sand extended outward, with a gray-yellow tower standing tall among it. On the top of the highest round fortress-like spire, a red light flickered.
A bat with huge black wings flew past the horizon, trailing a flame-like wake that instantly exploded in mid-air when it merged with the surrounding energy, raising a layer of red curtain floating in place.
Behind the red gauze, a silver light flashed. A long spear directly tore through the flames, its sharp tip stabbing directly into the black-winged bat's back.
The long spear penetrated the black-winged bat. The black gold mecha turned around from above the fortress, tossing the bat backward, immediately reporting the position.
Behind her, an energy cannon carrying lightning was fired, directly enveloping the black-winged bat in a shell of lightning and fire. With the explosion sound, a small mushroom cloud erupted.
The black-winged bat's body was burned to black ash, dropping only one energy crystal.
At the fortress below, on the high platform near the arch-shaped spire, several black gold mechas surrounded by a sea of energy bodies spread cannon fire and energy in all directions. At the top, a black gold mecha wielding a long spear rushed toward the highest point, knocking down all the energy bodies blocking her way. Facing layers of fire waves spreading from above the spire, Chen Sui endured the pain of being scorched by the fiery storm, charging directly into the sea of fire, toward the center of a cross-like ornament at the top of the spire.
—There was a fire-red sphere.
Chen Sui had seen a similar earth attribute sphere before.
It was the Mirage Orb from the temple mirage.
Sensing someone rushing toward the Mirage Orb, the mirage's energy instantly started to fluctuate. The entire building's body shook, sinking toward the underground.
"Little Sui, the mirage is going to sink."
Zhou Chen noticed this disturbance. Lightning split the surrounding energy bodies as he looked up and called out a warning.
The mecha suffered some damage in the high temperature. At this moment, the outermost heat-resistant coating played its role, preventing Forest Envelopment's damage from being too high. Directly facing the fire trend, when Chen Sui's fingertip touched the Mirage Orb in front, a thought moved in her mind, and a green light instantly burst forth.
Green light enveloped the mecha, her fingertips immediately wrapped in a layer of vines, circling around the Mirage Orb's position from her fingertip.
Just as the vines surrounded the Mirage Orb, the fortress mirage had already sunk by more than half, with only the topmost platform still on the outside.
Zhou Chen, seeing the yellow sand that had already swallowed half of his foot, hurriedly looked up.
The green energy broke through the fire waves above, as if carving out an independent space, evenly dividing with the fire attribute energy. At the moment the Mirage Orb was enveloped, it directly consumed and surrounded the fire attribute energy around it.
Green filled the sky.
"Got it!"
The vines contracted, directly delivering the Mirage Orb to the mecha's hand.
At the same time, the mirage's building structure seemed to shake, as if about to collapse.
Zhou Chen quickly swept away the surrounding energy bodies. His square mace, carrying mighty lightning, swept horizontally around. Gu Qinxue's fire whip lashed out as she leaped upward, the long whip extending forward to encircle Puluo's mecha, propelling out together with Zhou Chen.
On the other side, Xie Chunshi quickly approached Chen Sui above. As the analyst's mecha emerged from the sea of fire with the Mirage Orb, water mist instantly enveloped Chen Sui's mecha.
The intense high temperature from the mecha being scorched by flames gradually dissipated, and the pain transmitted to Chen Sui's nerves gradually eased. She had no time to think about these things, gripping the Mirage Orb tightly. Seeing the Commander reaching out to her, she placed her mecha's hand on his, and under Xie Chunshi's pull, directly left toward the sky.
At the original spot, the mirage, having lost the energy support of the Mirage Orb, collapsed and dissipated at the fingertips while moving toward the underground, becoming a handful among the yellow sand, directly merging with the surrounding soil.
The ground instantly collapsed into an arc, with surrounding yellow sand flowing down along this arc, being sucked into the cavity below, looking like quicksand.
Zhu Jing Fu's mechas propelled to a distant flat ground. After everyone stood firm, Chen Sui extended her hand to look.
"Fire attribute, the fire attribute in the sand mirage is becoming increasingly dense."
The Mirage Orb in her palm was bright red. Now the fire attribute energy had become so rich that it was enough to form a mirage.
Zhou Chen looked around. The sun was still so dazzling, but perhaps because it was about to set in the west, the surrounding temperature had dropped significantly, unlike when the sun was high, when he wanted to pull the mecha's constant temperature system to the maximum, making the energy roar echo throughout the cockpit.
"Although the fire attribute has intensified a lot, the surrounding temperature isn't that high," Zhou Chen looked at Chen Sui; this temperature was quite comfortable.
Chen Sui sighed. The mecha's temperature sensors detected that the sand mirage's temperature had dropped by tens to hundreds of degrees, and it would drop further at night.
"Is it my imagination," Chen Sui sniffed, seemingly smelling a bloody scent that was quite familiar, "this smell is so similar to..."
Just as she spoke, she instinctively extended her hand. Unexpectedly, a round water droplet suddenly fell from mid-air, directly landing on the mecha's palm.
Red liquid spread across the mecha's palm, the water flow carrying a slightly scalding heat. Chen Sui hissed, and the people around looked at her. But they didn't need her to say anything more, because soon everyone felt a hot wave carrying a bloody smell approaching.
Red rain drizzled from the sky.
"Isn't this the red rain from Sultry Red Forest?"
Zhou Chen felt the raindrops hitting his face. The burning sensation of the red rain was much milder than that in Sultry Red Forest, not intense, just feeling like mosquito bites. It quickly flowed down the mecha, without leaving corrosion marks.
There was even less impact on mecha damage.
The sand mirage rarely had rainfall. In the nearly twenty years since the energy field formed, it had rained only once, but that was with a rich concentration of water attribute energy. Now it was fire attribute energy concentration, and such a vast amount of fire attribute energy directly formed the red rain unique to fire attribute energy fields.
"The fire attribute energy in the sand mirage is too strong," this wasn't the first time Chen Sui mentioned it. Earlier, when walking with Xitisi, she and He Chigui had said the same thing.
"Fire attribute?" Zhou Chen said in surprise. Just about to say something, his mouth opened then quickly closed, making a 'debo' sound of opening and closing. "Forget it, I won't say anything. I'm afraid if I predict something, you'll blame me again."
Although the mystical persona was cool, Zhou Chen was also afraid. Unable to control it, he tried to use it less.
Mainly because he talked a lot, and he was afraid that he might accidentally predict something bad.
Xie Chunshi glanced at him and reminded Chen Sui: "First secure the Mirage Orb. The energy field has been frequently unstable recently, there should be some changes, but let's complete the mission first."
He hinted to Chen Sui that the sand mirage's anomaly wasn't just an issue of one energy field. Currently in the competition field, they could only obtain information about the sand mirage. Only after completing the mission and getting out could they integrate with other energy fields to determine where this abnormal energy came from.
Chen Sui, reminded by him, nodded without paying much attention.
Speaking of the mission, she looked back at Zhou Chen: "Lucky King, we're about to reach the main base station. Get ready, we'll be counting on your acting skills later."
After Zhu Jing Fu determined the swinging mecha, everyone's mechas had undergone modifications. The absorption device hadn't been removed from Puluo's mecha.
But similar energy fluctuations to the absorption device were simulated by Chen Sui, using energy signals attached to the other members' mechas, and the mecha components were modified to look as if they were hiding a component inside, instinctively making people think they had hidden the absorption device within.
But all five Zhu Jing Fu members had such modifications.
"I dare not imagine how tightly they've surrounded the main base station."
Zhou Chen brushed his square mace, sighing.
He wasn't the final step in placing the device, but in Chen Sui's plan, he was the step to cover Puluo's entry into the base station.
"Why is the role of getting beaten always mine," Zhou Chen's tone was somewhat aggrieved as he turned to look at Chen Sui.
Chen Sui was already very familiar with this process: "This isn't about getting beaten. It should be said that for this task, if it were assigned to anyone else, they would get beaten. Only you—"
Chen Sui solemnly patted Zhou Chen's shoulder, seeming to particularly approve of him: "Only you can do this task well, avoiding other people's attacks and successfully tricking other teams' attention."
Zhou Chen turned back, looking uncertainly at Gu Qinxue, though his eyes were already completely tinged with pride. "Really? You think so too?"
Gu Qinxue knew he was wagging his tail for praise, but considering he was about to get beaten, she nodded, "Mm."
Although it was just a cold, single syllable, it was enough to make Zhou Chen so happy he couldn't find north. He immediately put his arm around Puluo's shoulder, promising him: "Don't worry, when the fighting starts, I guarantee you'll get in unscathed."
Puluo didn't quite believe this promise, but he did believe in Zhou Chen's talent for attracting hatred, so he nodded and also asked: "Do you need me to leave the shield umbrella for you then?"
"Nah, no need. The competition's number one agile attacker, you think I'm a vegetarian? I'll show you what an agile attacker's speed is like."
In the entire competition field, only Zhu Jing Fu's analyst could pin him down and hammer him.
As for others, wanting to compete with an agile attacker in speed was simply a joke.
Chen Sui secured the Mirage Orb in her hand. To ensure the foot soldier's safe entry into the base station, they needed to prevent other teams from following in.
Chen Sui didn't need to think; when the fighting started, she would definitely be among those receiving focused attention.
Although she had already mentally prepared to be surrounded and attacked.
But when she arrived outside the main base station and saw the scene at the entrance, she was still somewhat surprised.
Na Luo River and Saint Laurent were the first to head to the main base station. The first thing they did upon entering was to close the secondary entrances. If it weren't for the main entrance not being forcibly closed, Xie You would have wanted to lock the base station completely, preventing anyone from entering.
Seeing this made Noya touch his nose tip nervously, thinking that if the base station was locked like this, and they got the device later, how would they get in.
"Zhu Jing Fu's points are still rising. Did these people stir up an energy body nest? They're not in a hurry at all."
Walking out of the base station, Noya looked at the points ranking. Zhu Jing Fu was already at the top, pulling away from second-place Ink Hills, while Ink Hills and Na Luo River's points were close.
"The absorption device brings a continuous stream of points. Would Zhu Jing Fu be willing to miss that?" Xie You said coldly, walking out of the base station, looking at the uneven mountain body below. At the bottom was a circle of alternating quicksand and ordinary dust in the yellow sand face. His deep black snake pupils kept contracting and expanding. "Of course they're not in a hurry."
"Zhu Jing Fu doesn't have a bit of energy. If they don't recharge first, how would they dare to come?"
Zhu Jing Fu couldn't possibly be the first to reach the base station. Which arrival they would be didn't matter to them now.
Xie You now really wanted to know if Xie Chunshi had thought about how to break out of the base station.
Just as the two teams were guarding on the wind-eroded mountain cliffs around the base station, teams suddenly appeared from two directions in the distant sand face, heading toward the base station.
One team came from behind the base station, unable to open the base station at the secondary entrance. The black mechas made Saint Laurent somewhat reactive, with He Shuangmu's cannon firing without warning.
"What's your problem?"
Jing Yao immediately swung out an energy shield, blocking in front of the team. The cannon's impact made the foot soldier's figure retreat a few steps. At the front, Song Yuan's hand raised, pressing on Jing Yao's back.
Feeling the cold touch from behind, Jing Yao looked back at her. "It's Na Luo River and Saint Laurent."
When Chi Buyu heard Saint Laurent's name, his eyes immediately brightened, and he waved toward the direction where the cannon had been fired: "Noya!"
Behind the wind-eroded cliff, Noya poked his head out, identifying the Xitisi members, "Song Yuan, Chi Buyu!"
Xie You appeared from the other side. Noya hurriedly said: "Hey hey hey, don't open fire! The device isn't with Na Luo River. Now they're our allies."
The black mecha moved forward with propulsion. Chi Buyu directly rushed out, slapping Noya hard: "I know, the device is with Zhu Jing Fu, right!"
He spoke with certainty. Noya didn't even need to ask why. Once Chi Buyu started talking, a string of words flowed out: "We encountered Zhu Jing Fu. That liar Zhou Chen, he said you beat him so badly, so terribly, I felt so sorry for him and gave him several energy pipes!"
Chi Buyu spoke with righteous indignation, not noticing that Noya's hand was about to be crushed. Black Sesame Rice Ball gave a cold laugh: "Is that so? How did he say I beat him?"
Chi Buyu then recounted the story Zhou Chen had told him.
When mentioning Saint Laurent waiting outside the maze, several members of the Na Luo River team frowned in unison.
By the end, however, there was no trace of them.
Instead, it was all Saint Laurent's doing.
Noya's face was fuming with anger, gritting his teeth: "Really? Did he not say that Zhu Jing Fu had no energy, that I helped them break down the maze wall, that when fighting Na Luo River without energy, we fired the cannons too?"
Chi Buyu looked back at Na Luo River, adding fuel to the fire: "What Na Luo River? They're more likely trying to distance themselves from you."
"Distance themselves"—these four words were like sticking a knife into Xie You's heart.
Noya mercilessly pulled hatred toward Zhu Jing Fu at this moment: "Tsk tsk, Zhu Jing Fu really, your names don't appear in this play at all. It seems Commander Xie didn't consider you at all, Commander Xie."
In Xie You's ears, these words seemed to merge with what someone had said to him years ago when Xie Chunshi left the Xie family.
"Do you think Xie Chunshi ever considered you? He never thought about you at all, Xie You. You have no place in his heart."
"Your brother doesn't want you anymore."
Although it was just a joke among children, Xie You remembered it bitterly for seven years.
He bit his back teeth, Black Mamba's eye sockets reddening. This couldn't be seen through the mecha, but hearing Noya's words, he replied in a deep voice: "Is that so? Na Luo River doesn't need this kind of presence. We only need to be the ones who get the device in the end."
After speaking, Black Mamba turned and stepped onto the wind-eroded cliff, completely hiding his mecha's silhouette behind.
"Ink Hills is coming too."
Before leaving, Xie You left one sentence.
Noya looked to the other side and indeed saw navy blue mechas in the yellow sand, crossing the quicksand belt, appearing from behind the horizon.
Zhang Yingjie's gaze caught a glimpse of crimson red disappearing, but the other two teams didn't attack. Instead, they looked somewhat friendly in their direction.
"It's Na Luo River, Saint Laurent, and Xitisi."
Jiang Zhongyu's voice sounded, "They're not fighting. Did Na Luo River fail to defend their position?"
"Evidently," Zhang Yingjie's figure carried some gravity, "they're outside the base station, probably planning a joint attack."
As for who they were attacking.
That would obviously be the other team not present here.
"Zhu Jing Fu took the absorption device from Na Luo River?" Xin Ming repeated, then somewhat amusedly said, "No wonder their points are rising so fast. Little Zhi, you guessed wrong after all."
Before Ink Hills arrived, they were still guessing why Zhu Jing Fu's points were rising so rapidly.
Zhang Yingjie said it must be because they had the device, but Zhao Jingzhi didn't believe it.
"Based on Zhu Jing Fu's style, they must be heading toward energy body groups, going wherever there's a mirage. I don't even need to think about it!"
These were Zhao Jingzhi's exact words.
Now, seeing the other three teams, Zhao Jingzhi had to admit that the Commander was right, and he sighed somewhat: "Really? We have to fight Zhu Jing Fu again?"
Fighting other teams was still okay, but fighting Zhu Jing Fu, for some reason, always felt frustratingly one-sided.
Zhao Jingzhi rubbed his wrist, "I just reinforced my energy shield. Hope it's not too fragile."
He found it hard to imagine that one day he would use the word 'fragile' to describe an energy shield.
While he was comforting his energy shield's emotions, Ink Hills had already accelerated, joining the other teams.
[Good, now I declare, the Anti-Zhu Jing Fu Alliance is complete]
[This, this, this, is it necessary? We Zhu Jing Fu just took a device, not violated heaven's decree]
[I'm wondering, they even locked all the secondary entrances, they're really cautious]
[Because Zhu Jing Fu is truly capable of dragging people to a secondary entrance, then taking the opportunity to sneak in]
[Zhu Jing Fu has too many devious ideas, it's not wrong to be cautious]
[I'm starting to look forward to it, a fight would be good, a fight would be lively]
The bullet screen excited viewers watching split screens, seeing both the four-school alliance and Zhu Jing Fu's perspective.
After Zhang Yingjie led the Ink Hills members to join, he first scanned the surroundings.
The main base station was located on a high mountain, with rocks wind-eroded into extremely distinctive geographical features. Above were scattered wind-eroded cliffs of various shapes, very suitable for mechas to conceal themselves and ambush from a distance.
With this terrain, Zhang Yingjie instinctively thought, if Zhu Jing Fu were here, how would they utilize it?
His mind was racing, trying to think with a different mindset.
"What took you so long?"
Xie You lifted his eyelids to look at Zhang Yingjie: "If you were any later, you'd only be participating in the final group photo."
The "final group photo" was a mocking term because in the last round, Ink Hills arrived a step late and couldn't join the joint attack against Zhu Jing Fu. In the end, during the final group photo, the five schools had a small fight over positioning.
Zhang Yingjie wasn't provoked by his words, only explaining: "We didn't have enough energy on the way."
Xie You rubbed his temple, unable to bear hearing about insufficient energy: "Simos, give them a few energy pipes."
Na Luo River's strong attacker pulled out several energy pipes and handed them over: "Is this enough? Don't run out of energy halfway through the fight."
When these words came out, Noya felt somewhat guilty for a few seconds and couldn't help but cough a few times.
Zhang Yingjie took the energy, looked around, and explained: "It's enough for fighting, but I feel Zhu Jing Fu won't rush over so easily."
"Xie Chunshi would certainly guess that we're waiting for them here and should have some other preparations."
As for what preparations—
The several Commanders exchanged glances, blinking simultaneously.
Song Yuan watched Zhang Yingjie rubbing the energy pipe in his hand, then passed it to the foot soldier in the team: "Little Zhi, take this to attract monsters."
"The absorption device, these people wouldn't bring an energy body group with them, would they?"
Noya said incredulously.
After saying it, he felt this was indeed something Zhu Jing Fu would do.
"For them, the more chaotic it is outside the main base station, the more opportunities they have," Zhang Yingjie analyzed. "If we want to intercept Zhu Jing Fu, we can't follow their rhythm."
"We need to disrupt their rhythm, eliminate one team first, then compete."
Take out the defending champion, and the remaining people would have a chance.
Several teams agreed with his words, so the Saint Laurent and Xitisi teams each brought out several energy pipes.
Chi Buyu had only a thin one. When Noya looked over, he was quite agitated: "Ahhh, I gave all my energy to Zhou Chen, damn it!"
"Take my advice, in the future on the competition field, don't believe Zhu Jing Fu's words."
These people never bat an eye when deceiving others.
Seeing Chi Buyu looking so pitiful, Noya couldn't help but add: "Zhu Jing Fu likes to blur the lines. You need to analyze more. What they say isn't credible; what you analyze out is."
Chi Buyu nodded with his head drooping, still thinking about the energy pipes that Zhou Chen had tricked away from him.
Speaking of this, Song Yuan remembered an important piece of intelligence, but as she opened her mouth, the foot soldier seemed to sense something and pulled her, reminding her in the team channel: "Commander, this can't be said."
Song Yuan closed her mouth, "I know."
She was just a bit straightforward, not stupid. This was information that Xitisi had exchanged for energy pipes.
Other teams probably didn't know that the device wasn't on Zhu Jing Fu's analyst.
On the other side, Noya was still discussing with the others who would control Chen Sui when the time came.
The Xitisi members were quite silent on this topic.
—Controlling Chen Sui would be useless; the device wasn't on her. She might even be pleased about it.
"Excluding Chen Sui, among Zhu Jing Fu's members, Zhou Chen, Gu Qinxue, and Xie Chunshi are all possibilities. As for the foot soldier, it's unlikely. Their foot soldier isn't very agile and wouldn't have much chance to break through."
In this situation, Zhu Jing Fu should prioritize players with breakthrough capabilities; otherwise, there would be no chance of entering the base station through a four-school siege.
Logically, Chen Sui should be the best choice, but Song Yuan thought that initially Chen Sui didn't put the device on herself, probably considering this issue.
After experiencing the previous competition field, she would become the primary target of attack for the other schools.
"Ghost Flower should be able to entangle her, but not for long. Chen Sui's reaction is too quick," Xin Ming was still discussing plans on how to suppress Chen Sui.
Zhang Yingjie listened to her words, seemingly pondering something. His mind suddenly thought of something, and he raised his head, his sensor eyes flashing blue light a few times, saying to everyone: "If that's the case, then let's conceal Zhu Jing Fu's approach to the base station."
"The energy clusters used by Zhu Jing Fu to surround the island in the White Sand Sky Pillar Sea Domain, we can use them too."
Zhang Yingjie looked at He Lanqi: "Can your perception block Zhu Jing Fu's analyst?"
He Lanqi still didn't speak. Xie You suddenly looked up at him, saying seriously: "Na Luo River's analyst is not inferior to her."
He Lanqi's eyes flashed with surprise, and she confidently nodded: "Of course."
She would do her utmost not to let her Commander lose face.
Zhang Yingjie smiled: "That's good then. It's time to let Zhu Jing Fu see how difficult the path to the base station will be for them."