At this moment, the entire Cai En team finally got a clear view of the mechanical gate that had earlier summoned the giant mechanical sword. Each of their faces was filled with astonishment, as if they had just seen an alien creature.

“Is this still... an ability?”

“Space?”

“I was curious at first—where did all those drones come from?”

“Amazing. So this is mechanical supernatural power!”

Everyone was discussing excitedly. Geddy and Vanessa glanced at Lin Xian with surprised expressions. “I think I now roughly understand why we couldn't detect his spirit value. Mechanical supernatural power seems to be... more mysterious than any other ability,” she carefully chose her words.

“I feel the same,” Vanessa nodded in agreement.

Cai En looked at the scene and sighed deeply. He now fully understood the terrifying energy of this Sword Bearer. It seemed that the plan they had prepared wouldn’t be much help against Lin Xian. Seeing this, Laine immediately sized up the situation and said to Azrael, “Iron Arm, send the Haiwen intel and coordinates to Captain Lin.”

Azrael hesitated for a moment, then promptly obeyed.

On Lin Xian’s side, after receiving the information, he input it into the Iron Rain drone system. This operation was more complicated than expected. Although the number of abnormal entities in this sea area had likely decreased significantly, vigilance could not be relaxed.

Iron Rain drones were somewhat weak against large abnormal entities, but their special metal construction and waterproof features made them perfect for underwater information relay.

Splash!

Under Lin Xian’s control, a large number of drones quickly launched into the water. The first step was to confirm the underwater situation. If they could directly open the reserved energy discharge port, then there would be no need to send people down to take risks.

At this moment, a small display appeared in Lin Xian’s hand, showing real-time underwater images captured by the drones’ top cameras.

Under Lin Xian’s command, the drones submerged one after another. Nearby, Laine watched Lin Xian’s operation and reminded, “Strictly speaking, none of the energy discharge ports of the Deep-3 device are farther than the waters near Haiyan Island.”

Lin Xian nodded while operating the drones and replied, “I understand what you mean. These discharge ports are all within the geologic influence of Mount Garland’s submarine mountain crust. That’s exactly why this thing caused Mount Garland to revive from a dormant volcano.”

“I can’t be completely sure, as the Foundation keeps this information confidential. I just want to say that if the volcano starts moving violently, even an earthquake alone might destroy all the geothermal facilities.”

Lin Xian said bluntly, “So even if energy is discharged, it would mostly only affect the geothermal wells near the submarine base. If the volcano erupts, there’s nothing we can do. But the plan just mentioned might still be worth trying—throwing a Hail Mary.”

Laine understood Lin Xian’s arrangement and walked over to look at his control panel. He immediately said with some confusion, “Only the household bodies are left?”

Just now, the number of abnormal entities had been so high that even a glance sent chills down one’s spine. But now, beneath the water surface, it seemed only the bodies of sinking abnormal entities remained, with vast amounts of black mist diffusing.

“So much black mist, no other abnormal entities nearby?”

“Maybe because this area used to be the territory of that giant vortex monster. Even though it was slain, its aura probably still lingers underwater, so other abnormal entities dare not approach this area,” Erica said.

“Or maybe because you just sucked up all the blood crystals here, and since there’s no geothermal core dissipation in this area, these abnormal corpses and the dispersed dark energy are less attractive than other areas,” Lin Xian explained.

Erica smiled upon hearing this and looked at Geddy. “Do you think he’s right?”

“Looks like it. These abnormal entities didn’t disappear;

they were slowly drawn away by other areas before losing their marked target,” Cai En adjusted his sunglasses and said.

“That can’t be,” KIKI said.

“I almost thought we’d lose our lives out there. Who would’ve thought that sea area actually became so quiet,” Vanessa sighed.

“Even so, we can’t let our guard down,” Lin Xian reminded sternly.

There were still many abnormal entities on the surface, which was bad news. But if they relaxed their vigilance because of this quietness, it would be a small but dangerous mistake, possibly costing lives.

Geddy’s drone lost signal during its ascent, the light barely visible. Only the deep-sea submersible’s lights and sonar signals could be seen. Under Maggie’s control, the submersible slowly ascended several hundred meters, surrounded by jagged underwater rocks. As it ascended, multiple relay drones floated in the deep sea like a chain ball. Guided by Laine’s coordinates and deep-sea hydrological data, Geddy slowly found a metal pipeline hidden among the rocks. It was clearly not the backup energy discharge pipeline Laine mentioned.

The submersible continued along the backup pipeline and soon found the energy discharge port.

The port was located at an underwater cliff, but the problem was that the port was completely blocked by the corpse of the giant vortex monster. The massive worm-like body sprawled across the seabed, and the seawater was almost obscured by a large area of black blood, severely affecting the submersible’s camera system.

Seeing this, Lin Xian frowned deeply. This was incredibly unlucky. The scan couldn’t reveal where the discharge port was at all, and Lin Xian’s submersibles were all small devices, incapable of dealing with such a huge carcass.

“It seems completely blocked...” KIKI’s eyebrows knit tightly. She looked decisively at Lin Xian and said, “I’ll go down and move it!”

“Let me go. My body can withstand that kind of water pressure,” Geddy from Cai En’s side stepped forward. “I should be able to handle this.”

“Wait a moment.”

Lin Xian’s eyes flickered. “There are still a lot of abnormal corpses sinking. We can’t confirm safety yet. I want to probe some more.”

Lin Xian immediately deployed more drones to spread out around the giant corpse for searching. Several submersibles headed toward the underwater cliff. As soon as they approached, some strange noises started coming through Lin Xian’s control device, mixed with the sound of water pressure. The noises gradually became denser, a buzzing that sent chills down the spine.

“Sounds like a swarm of worms?” KIKI said. But before she finished, she saw a horrifying scene.

The underwater situation was complicated;

currents stirred up silt, and unidentified fibrous substances drifted in the water, completely obscuring the submersible’s view. Visibility was no more than ten centimeters. Looking down, one couldn’t even see their own feet. But the underwater cliff was unusually calm, as if frozen by a spell.

The moment the submersible’s lights turned on, everyone was shocked by the image on the display!

The cliff’s sides were full of pits and holes like Swiss cheese. Each hole had an abnormal entity coiled inside, and outside the holes crawled countless dark red tentacles. These tentacles were covered with deep-sea larvae. Just looking at it sent shivers down one’s spine. The light shone down less than five centimeters beneath the submersible, where the entire area had turned into a sea of deep-sea larvae!

“Looks like we were wrong. There are still quite a few here...” Vanessa said.

“These don’t seem like newly arrived ones, probably not the type that can release dark marks,” Lin Xian observed solemnly. He then looked up toward the distant, drifting black floating island on the sea and said, “More like those released by the worm nest.”

Knock knock knock...

A strange knocking suddenly sounded.

Lin Xian focused, and the deep-sea larvae had somehow crawled onto the submersible. Their vicious mandibles kept gnawing at the metal parts of the submersible.

At that moment, the screen image suddenly darkened. Lin Xian immediately controlled the submersible to look up. A giant fish had appeared above the submersible’s head. Its body was covered with all kinds of abnormal tentacles.

The tentacles were long, swaying like seaweed in the water. Everyone present knew this was definitely a special-level abnormal entity!

Suddenly, the giant fish opened its huge mouth, revealing rows of metal-like sharp teeth. In the blink of an eye, it swallowed all the submersibles exploring the underwater cliff.

Sizzle...

The image on Lin Xian’s display twisted and distorted before freezing inside the giant fish’s enormous stomach. Dark green gastric acid dripped down, instantly dissolving the submersibles and severing all links.

Seeing this scene, the atmosphere instantly stiffened. If someone had gone down to explore just now and got eaten, that wouldn’t be the worst part. The real worry was if they were marked again. Then this sea area would erupt in chaos once more.

“Phew...”

Lin Xian exhaled deeply and said gravely, “There are too many monsters in this nearby sea area. I didn’t expect so many to show up in such a short time. Looks like... we have to abandon this energy discharge plan.”

When Lin Xian said this, including the Falcon Sea Group members, everyone’s faces turned complicated. Everyone was well aware of the current predicament. At this time, Azrael stepped forward and said,

“Then we don’t have enough time. Rather than waiting for that device to lose control and Mount Garland to erupt, we should take advantage of the daytime and risk breaking out!”

“Daytime? Given the recent situation, does it really matter if it’s day or night?” Geddy’s tone was heavy.

“What else can we do? Are we all just supposed to stay here and wait for death?” Azrael said helplessly.

Laine raised his hand to silence Azrael and then looked toward Lin Xian.

“Lin, any ideas?”

Lin Xian was also extremely troubled, constantly calculating. Without a better plan, they really only had Azrael’s idea left: a risky break. But even if they had to break out, aside from the dangers of Haiyan Island, he would still have to find a landing point along the fractured oceanic orbital line without satellite positioning, which was troublesome.

After some thought, Lin Xian decided to first return to the Infinite armored train in the city area before discussing further.

At that moment, a sudden intense sonic boom came from the storm clouds on the horizon. Everyone immediately raised their heads alertly. The sound kept approaching through the clouds. Just as everyone thought it was some monster appearing, a familiar voice suddenly came through Lin Xian’s earpiece.

“This is Viola, currently passing through Chatham Island sea area descending.”

Lin Xian’s eyes lit up instantly, and he couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. He said to the others, “Don’t be nervous, it’s my people.”

Splash!

No sooner had he finished speaking than a roaring sound of breaking the wind started deafening everyone. A jet flame suddenly burst through the clouds, followed by a swarm-like group of drones trailing behind.

Boom!

With a ground-shaking impact, Viola, emitting high-temperature residual heat, disengaged her flight suit and emerged from the dust, standing proudly before Lin Xian.

“Very sorry, during the patrol mission I encountered strong electromagnetic and gamma ray interference near the G05 orbital base station, forcing a system reboot and an attack by a type of abnormal creature, resulting in my mission being delayed by 14 hours and 51 minutes beyond the estimated time.”

“Gamma rays?” KIKI was the first to react with surprise. “From where?”

“Unknown origin.”

Lin Xian’s expression darkened upon hearing this. He immediately recalled the gamma ray incident from last night. Unexpectedly, not only Grace but even Viola was affected.

He looked at Viola’s body, which clearly showed signs of battle but no damage. Then he asked, “How was the patrol?”

Viola stood with her hands behind her back and reported calmly.

“Starting from the G3 base station east of Haiyan Island, orbital segments G4-G6, G7-G10, G13, and G15 all showed varying degrees of orbital damage, mainly concentrated at base station locations. Starting from G16, the orbit returned to normal. However, my patrol only reached G18;

further conditions require additional investigation.”

“Is that... a quantum brain robot?” Vanessa stepped forward from the crowd, astonished by Viola’s report.

“Yes.”

Hearing the conversation, Laine said, “I mentioned before, those base stations are either survivor shelters or Sanctum’s armed outposts. The conflict between Sanctum and other survivors never ceased. Maybe due to the conflict or attacks by abnormal entities, the orbits have all been affected. Using a train for travel was not a wise decision.”

“Now we’re not worried about that issue,” Lin Xian said with a heavy sigh. He looked at Viola and felt a stirring in his heart.

“You’ve returned just in time. There’s a... rather dangerous matter that needs you to handle.”

“Please instruct,” Viola responded without hesitation.

Lin Xian immediately handed over the drone control to Viola. “Use this coordinate to enter underwater and open the energy discharge port.”

“Understood.”

No sooner had she finished speaking than Viola instantly deployed a precise operational path. Thousands of drones were mobilized in an instant. Then she leapt onto a submersible and quickly plunged into the deep sea.

Viola’s body could maintain agile movement several thousand meters underwater. Her high-energy weapons were sufficient to destroy the monster carcass blocking the discharge port from below and open it. Although the monsters might attack, Lin Xian did not need Viola to fight them. As long as no dark mark appeared, things would be much simpler.

Buzz!

In the black seawater, Viola’s figure darted down like a sharp sword. Soon she reached the enormous vortex monster corpse at the discharge port.

Rumble!

At that moment, a seismic quake suddenly struck. Everyone on shore felt the ground shaking. The sea surface churned, and murky bubbles instantly filled the water.

“Earthquake?”

“Mount Garland is stirring!”

“Terrible.”

Laine looked at Lin Xian. “Lin, there may already be a small-scale eruption.”

Lin Xian’s expression turned grim. “We need to hurry.”

[Warning: Viola has detected underwater seismic activity and volcanic earthquake zone activity. The magnitude has reached level three.]

[The quake has spread to the fracture zone near Chatham Island. Analysis indicates Mount Garland is becoming increasingly active.]

“Keep moving forward. After opening the mechanical gate, return immediately,” Lin Xian ordered.

“Understood.”

Viola arrived at the discharge port. Facing the huge abnormal entity carcass, her arm morphed into a plasma cutter. She precisely cut through while moving at high speed, then blasted open an opening and drilled downward.

[Energy discharge gate found. Activating pipeline negative pressure. The discharge port is covered by the target carcass, which may cause regional heat overload. Clear the area?]

At this moment, Viola’s voice came through.

Lin Xian glanced at the giant vortex monster corpse, which looked like an island. His gaze flickered, and he suddenly said,

“No need. Leave it in place. I want to run a test...”