“Lin Xian, in the sky!”

Just as Lin Xian’s attention was fully focused on the terrifying whirlpool beneath the underwater cliff, Shiori suddenly sensed a dangerous aura. Instinctively, she looked up, and this very glance made KIKI detect the anomaly as well, immediately triggering her reaction.

The moment KIKI’s voice rang out, Shiori’s ability rapidly unfolded. Lin Xian felt a heavy pressure descend from above without hesitation, and the power armor’s propulsion system erupted at full throttle!

Smell!

A sonic boom shattered the air as the shockwave surged forward. Just as the three of them escaped the airspace, a massive laser beam with a diameter of over two meters, accompanied by an intense heatwave, suddenly slammed down. The wild energy beam swept across the sea surface, instantly stirring up hundred-meter-high waves and forming a towering wall of water!

Boom!

Under extreme high-speed overload, Lin Xian tilted sideways and rose. He saw that the laser beam directly struck the location of Laine’s group, completely destroying their small flying vehicle. Looking up, he saw the terrifying dark red beam originated from a patch of black-gray storm clouds hanging extremely low—almost hovering just a few hundred meters above Chatham Island!

“An atmospheric creature?!”

“It’s hiding in that cloud!” KIKI shouted.

The black cloud disk covered the sun, darkening the sky. Lin Xian scanned the radar and immediately discovered the silhouette of a huge winged creature twisting within the cloud mass. As the thick cloud gas dispersed, his vision suddenly caught a glimpse of black-and-white wing edges resembling a bat, causing his eyes to flicker sharply.

“Lin Xian.”

“Definitely at least Special-level!”

Lin Xian glanced at the spirit value detector: “We’ve all been tagged with level 4 marks!”

“What do we do?”

“Deal with it!”

The moment they were marked, Lin Xian instantly felt the entire sea area begin to tremble, from slight vibrations escalating into violent shaking.

“There are many... coming.” Shiori nervously looked around the sea area. The massive abyss whirlpool below seemed to be stirring as well.

Lin Xian and KIKI’s gazes turned toward the distance. The ocean appeared to be boiling, with dense muddy bubbles rising to the surface. Earthquakes around Chatham Island intensified, causing landslides and rockfalls.

Seeing this, Lin Xian’s heart sank. He immediately looked up toward the black storm clouds overhead and said in a cold voice,

“No matter what that thing is, we have to deal with it immediately!”

However, just as Lin Xian and KIKI prepared to strike, Laine’s calm voice suddenly came through their earpieces.

“Captain Lin, leave it to us. You guys get off the sea surface first.”

On the shore, Laine’s squad scattered like lightning from the shattered beach sand and rocks. Laine, clad in a Phantom Wolf-class power armor, stood on the beach with cold eyes fixed on the black storm cloud overhead, commanding through the channel,

“Vanessa, Erica, you two go up. Iron Arm, provide cover. Geddy, take the others and watch the sea conditions. Take it down within 30 seconds!”

“Understood!”

A precise command was issued, and the Falcon Sea Group instantly entered combat mode. Multiple sonic booms sounded as figures broke through the smoke stirred by the laser beam, flying like shooting stars straight toward the border.

“Ma Yeguan, clearing the path for you.”

Vanessa’s voice calmly resonated through the helmet’s built-in communicator as dark energy surged wildly from her body, breaking the sound barrier and ascending at low speed.

“Here they come.”

Below, the hulking Iron Fist Azrael sped along the coastline, his crystal lattice power activated. His eyes flickered with electric white light. His two iron fists raised like massive cauldrons, his mechanical arms transforming and folding. A black glow condensed at his cannon’s muzzle. The wild energy caused the surrounding sand and gravel to levitate. In the next instant, accompanied by a deep sonic explosion, a gray shockwave blasted straight into the sky. The massive recoil force caused the ground beneath Azrael to crack and collapse in a circle!

Boom!

That shockwave seemed to be a combination of an energy ability and a mechanical cannon, piercing upward and instantly expanding as it slammed into the giant storm cloud, violently blasting open a clear air shockwave zone. The huge shockwave tore apart a large portion of the storm cloud. At that moment, the huge atmospheric creature hiding within the cloud finally revealed itself. The dark clouds were ripped apart by the violent shockwave. A colossal shadow with a wingspan of hundreds of meters emerged. Its outline was indeed like a deep-sea bat, but the edges of its wing membranes displayed abrupt black-and-white mottled patterns, exactly as Lin Xian had guessed. It was truly a sky ghost measuring hundreds of meters!

The giant ghost’s wing membranes twisted in the high air. The black-and-white boundary edges tore the clouds, forming jagged turbulence bands. Multiple tail spines grew like steel cables from its rear. On its underside, facing downward, was a devilish giant mouth apparatus with deep fissures. Its head bore two pairs of crimson ghost eyes pulsing with energy. The earlier laser beam had apparently been fired from these eyes.

After the vacuum shockwave blasted through the cloud layer, the giant ghost seemed to sense the dark energy fluctuations from Laine’s squad. Its crimson ghost eyes on the abdomen suddenly flared brightly, unleashing two dark red laser beams fiercely toward Vanessa and Erica.

“Watch out.”

At this moment, Erica, clad in reinforced armor, suddenly accelerated. Her eyes flashed as a diamond-shaped light shield appeared in front of her, roughly half the size of a basketball court. It directly intercepted the laser beams. The shield surface vibrated at high frequency, refracting the laser energy into dozens of scattered beams resembling shattered red glass. Then, under Erica’s control, the scattered beams converged like a closing lotus flower, reflecting straight back at the giant ghost. In an instant, the creature’s green biological force field was rapidly consumed by its own reflected laser beams. Within the few seconds Vanessa and Erica rose into the air, more than half of the force field collapsed, and deep cuts appeared on the giant wings!

At this moment, Vanessa’s power armor surged with dark energy waves. Her figure streaked through the refracted beams, trailing a twisted purple-black trace of space distortion from her mechanical greatsword. From behind, she lightly hissed, swinging her giant sword horizontally. The blade emitted a dark energy beam slash, precisely severing three incoming steel cable tail spines!

!!

The giant ghost emitted a sharp cry in the high air. Its giant wings wildly rolled, raising all the tail spines to attack the two women. At the same time, its multiple compound eyes surged with overwhelming laser energy, emitting crimson light.

Seeing this, Erica immediately shouted,

“Vanessa, cut through the middle!”

“Good idea.”

The two women faced the mountain-like Special-level creature without fear. One unleashed a massive energy wave through her ability light shield, charging head-on toward the laser beams. The other raised her greatsword, leaping from behind to the giant ghost’s back, preparing to strike.

Buzz!

At this moment, all the giant ghost’s laser eyes released power, but this seemed to play right into Erica’s hands. Her ability was perfectly suited to counterattacking energy-using aberrations. She quickly identified the weakest laser beams and fully unleashed her ability light shield, directly reflecting the laser beams sweeping behind the giant ghost. The beams instantly cut open a giant gash over a hundred meters long. Black scorched eyes and exploding biological tissue erupted like a volcanic eruption.

Meanwhile, Vanessa seized the moment of Erica’s breakthrough through the giant ghost’s biological force field and flew in at high speed. Raising her sword toward the giant gash, her entire power armor and ability surged to the extreme. She directly slashed with her mechanical sword.

Screech!

In less than half a minute, the giant ghost hiding in the clouds was sliced open along its front, revealing a gap at least one-third of its body length. Countless compound eyes burst out blood mist, energy black gas scattered. Without even a mournful cry, it began to fall downward.

“Erica, your ability has improved a lot. You can now fully reflect laser energies of this scale.” Vanessa hovered in the air, looking at the falling giant ghost with a very proud expression.

Erica’s expression remained cold, but her gaze was fixed warily on Lin Xian’s direction. She said quietly, “According to Geddy, the Sword Bearer’s team’s peak is only about 12,000?”

“They haven’t awakened their crystal lattices, but their raw strength is already impressive,” Vanessa said.

Erica responded calmly, “Potential? I don’t care about that. I’m just thinking, with this strength, defending Dawn City won’t be easy, let alone saving our Falcon Sea Group.”

Vanessa looked toward Lin Xian’s side with a complex expression but said nothing.

...

In the distance, watching the Special-level creature quickly taken down, Laine’s core members coordinated like flowing water. Lin Xian and KIKI could not help but exclaim in amazement,

“Wow, so powerful! A Special-level gone in less than a minute?”

Lin Xian looked at the level 4 dark mark that had just faded and focused on the battlefield. “Those guys must have all completed crystal lattice evolution, each with at least 14,000 peak power. There’s no room for hesitation in this situation. Everyone must go all out for a one-hit kill, or else...”

Before he could finish, Shiori suddenly said, “Lin Xian, there’s more.”

Crunch.

At that moment, the just-extinguished mark suddenly flickered again. Ghost remains, wrapped in black smoke and greenish blood rain, crashed down onto the sea surface. The whirlpool where the corpse sank had not yet calmed. Suddenly, the deep blue seabed surged upward. A ring-shaped mouth apparatus over fifty meters in diameter broke through the waves. Thousands of bony tentacles spun like a meat grinder. The sea exploded with towering waves!

Before anyone could clearly see what sea monster had emerged, a muffled sound like a deep abyss whale’s roar rang out. The central cavity pipe of the giant mouth suddenly contracted violently, spewing out a mass of white objects. Looking closely, they were countless pale sea worms shaped like peeled centipedes, with barbed tails. Each was as large as a python. The swarm covered the sky, instantly blocking out Lin Xian and Laine’s squad!

“Erica, raise the shield! Iron Arm, break through for me! I’ll deal with that thing!”

Laine’s voice instantly rang over the comms. Seeing the massive insect swarm, Lin Xian immediately said to KIKI,

“KIKI.”

“Got it.”

KIKI and Lin Xian’s cooperation was tacit—just one word was enough to understand each other’s intent.

Just as Erica released her light shield and Iron Arm prepared to fire the Black Star Cannon, everyone noticed the insect swarm’s flight suddenly froze, as if completely suspended in the air. Erica and Azrael looked back to see KIKI floating slowly toward them like a deity. She raised her hands sharply to both sides, instantly parting the tsunami-like insect tide.

At this moment, Lin Xian, ready to act, saw the giant sea worm preparing to dive back underwater. He immediately said to KIKI, “Got it.”

“I’ll help you!”

It was Laine who spoke. He stepped forward, stretching out a hand. Suddenly, cold air spread over the boiling sea surface. A large area visibly froze quickly, delaying the deep-sea worm’s retreat. The ice cracked with piercing sounds!

A freezing ability?

This was a first.

Lin Xian’s thoughts flickered. Without hesitation, under the coordination of KIKI and Laine, he raised his hand and summoned the Black Star Forge.

At that moment, a black mechanical gate roared open high above. A mechanical giant arm wielding the Suzaku Plasma Diffraction Sword extended from the gate. Hundreds of engines roared on the mechanical arm. A rocket engine at the elbow burst out Mach diamonds, propelling the heavy mechanical right arm into afterburner acceleration. The modified Genbu mech’s right remaining arm tightly gripped the crimson divine sword. Friction with the air caused the blade to glow faint red. It slashed horizontally at the abyss sea worm!

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Burning bursts erupted, the air vibrated. The plasma diffraction sword’s world-destroying slash was ruthless. The sea worm’s biological force field was completely unable to withstand it, and Lin Xian’s slash cut it cleanly in half.

Lin Xian didn’t know whether the emerging sea monster was A-level or Special-level, but he knew this slash could not be resisted even by S-level Wanderers or Earth Surges in the Dawn City defense. Against these sea monsters, it guaranteed a kill.

Seeing this, Laine, Vanessa, Erica, and Falcon Sea Group’s mechanic Azrael all changed expressions. They knew Lin Xian was a mechanical ability user and the Phoenix Society’s Sword Bearer.

But none expected this mechanical ability user could summon a mech giant sword that cleaved the sky. The scene was explosive, shocking everyone.

The giant sea worm was cut in half by the plasma giant sword. Its stinking black-green viscous fluid sprayed like a waterfall, corroding the frozen sea surface into boiling pits. However, Lin Xian and Laine suddenly noticed their dark marks had not faded but instead intensified. The spirit value detector’s alarm blared a piercing long wail. The red marks on the screen flashed wildly, the concentration values skyrocketed like an out-of-control engine, seemingly about to break the critical level 5 threshold!

“Damn.”

Laine immediately realized something was wrong, but it was already too late.

“Lin Xian, it seems the surrounding sea monsters have been alarmed...” KIKI’s telekinetic field crushed the tiny sea worms in swarms, her face grim.

Lin Xian looked gloomily around and said in a low voice, “I see.”

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The entire sea area around Chatham Island suddenly boiled. From the abyss whirlpool at the eastern underwater cliff, countless aberrations of various sizes burst out of the water. In the sky, another enormous black shadow gathered above the clouds. The reef area echoed with the roar of collapsing rocks, as if something was burrowing from the seabed to the land, about to break through the surface...

Splash!

The boiling sea surface was suddenly covered by countless deep-sea maggot-like worms. They surged with the tides, followed by all kinds of indescribable aberrations bursting out of the water. From all directions, they swam, crawled, or walked toward Lin Xian and Laine’s squad, launching a full-scale assault.

Who would have thought that just minutes ago, this place was calm and peaceful? The moment the dark marks appeared, it instantly turned into a slaughter arena where deep-sea monsters hunted!