Across the entire sky, under the harsh glare of light, one could see that stretch of alien land. In the unfolding panorama lay a megalithic formation, winding like a black dragon, and opposite it, a boundless swarm of Great Spikes...
Hundreds of source energy ships closed in from the sky, their colossal surges of source energy bearing down like a tsunami. In the distance, the dense horde of Great Spikes began to hesitate slightly, turning their heads to gaze up toward this patch of sky.
Over two hundred Red Shoulders revealed their towering figures amid the ranks, clutching ferocious column swords that flared with blue light.
They would pose a deadly threat to CA117.
Shortly, when the ship made its deliberate dive into the low altitude of that area—to a height where Han Qingyu and Pegmont could attempt to board—the Red Shoulders, and especially the more than two hundred blue-glowing column swords in their hands, could be considered surface-to-air missiles, creating a lethal threat to the craft...
Even now, the exact, precise location of the rescue operation remained unknown, impossible to ascertain. All that was certain was that Qingzi and Pegmont were somewhere beneath the surface there.
To put it another way, the two greatest hopes for humanity's future in this generation were currently buried in that dirt. And their ensuing life, death, and destiny were, to an extent, in the hands of Yang Qingbai.
Faced with this, Yang Qingbai felt no overwhelming sense of mission, no solitary, heroic passion, nor any excessive nervousness. He simply executed everything within his power according to the established plan, then calmly chose—or rather, accepted—destiny's ultimate verdict.
Yes, destiny.
In this life, one had no choice but to believe in fate.
Were it not for destiny, no matter how great his talent or how hard his efforts, Yang Qingbai didn't believe there was any other way he could have stood at his present heights, becoming the most powerful, legendary figure in the history of humanity's source energy aviation.
And that destiny had begun that year at the Azure Huaxia recruit training camp, when he walked into the dormitory and met a few people, among them two names that had seemed utterly ordinary back then...
Tick.
Tock.
The time belonging to humanity remained under precise calculation, precisely waiting and marching toward the arrival of those life-and-death three seconds.
Across the sky, airships howled, streaks of light flashing like needle points.
Abruptly, CA117's tail, resembling that of a giant fighter jet, began to shudder with greater frequency and amplitude, stirring up violent, turbulent ripples in the source energy airflow.
In truth, this deceptive shuddering and deliberate generation of source energy turbulence had been maintained throughout the entire flight. Hunted by hundreds of Great Spike craft, every turn, climb, or dive Yang Qingbai made could not under any circumstances be anticipated or deciphered in advance; otherwise, ship and crew would be instantly destroyed.
*Whoosh-boom!* Mars's thin air cracked like shattering stone across the upper plane.
CA117 flashed from southeast to northwest, rocketing across the Boulder H4 area...
Mid-flight along a straight line, it pitched up violently!
Behind it, hundreds of Great Spike craft pitched up in unison!
Then, as if it had pitched up with too much force, CA117 swung its rear half straight forward. An instant later, it abruptly stalled, overcame its inertia, transformed its tail into its bow, and plummeted diagonally straight toward the ground!
This wasn't a maneuver only CA117 could perform—it was merely the first time it had done so today. Because of the unique propulsion of source energy engines, every source energy airship was theoretically capable of it.
The airborne Great Spike fleet reacted swiftly, following suit and continuing their pursuit, though the distance between them widened slightly for the moment.
...
Underground, the howl of the source energy fleet was inaudible. Amid the ceaseless bombardment of the surface by tens of thousands of Great Spikes, they couldn't even detect the suffocating source energy fluctuations pressing down from the sky.
Thus, Han Qingyu knew nothing of what was happening above. The only things he could trust were Yang Qingbai and the numbers ticking across the watch dial.
"Three, two, one—go!"
In total blindness, relying solely on the agreed-upon time, Han Qingyu gave the order to break out. With a roar of power, Pegmont unleashed his full strength, raising his blade to breach the surface.
What greeted him was...
*Boom!*
Plumes of dust rose like mushroom clouds across the terrain.
In a single instant, hundreds of column swords, intermingled with more than a dozen blue-light column swords, slammed down toward him and the ground he had breached.
*Boom!* A second wave.
*Boom!* A third wave.
As he parried desperately, the skin on Pegmont's palms split open. Blood seeped from countless pores along his arms, and coughing up mouthfuls of blood, he was driven right back underground.
At the same time, a momentary gap inevitably opened in the Great Spikes' relentless bombardment.
Pegmont assumed Han Qingyu would seize this opening to fight his way out and carve out a foothold.
He was wrong.
"Go again!" Amid a roar, a foot drove hard from behind, planting squarely against the metal case on Pegmont's back.
The kick was as sudden as it was violent.
Pegmont couldn't stop his momentum.
Left with no choice, he could only channel the momentum into another forced eruption of power, thrusting his blade outward with a blast.
*Clang-clang-clang-clang!*
Amid a chaotic clatter of dead iron clashes, Pegmont found that he had broken through. Driven by momentum, he shot straight into the air above the heads of the Great Spike swarm.
Below, the densely packed horde of Great Spikes hissed and roared ferociously, raising their column swords in anticipation of his descent, while others prepared to leap up and strike him.
At the same time, roughly four to five hundred meters away in the sky, a human source energy airship was plunging diagonally downward at high speed.
Undoubtedly, it was CA117 coming to their rescue.
The deviation from the rendezvous point wasn't terribly large.
Yet it was still out of reach—he couldn't make it across!
Nor could the airship linger at low altitude to adjust or wait; to do so would almost certainly cause CA117 to crash, leaving none of them alive to escape.
Pegmont's body began to fall.
He couldn't allow himself to drop back down into that suffocatingly tight swarm of Great Spikes.
"Aargh!" With a furious roar, Pegmont raised his blade with both hands and slashed empty air with all his might.
Though his physical energy had been severely depleted over time without recovery (or so he reasonably believed), and despite his severe injuries, a desperate strike from humanity's top-tier combatant still smashed downward across several meters of space, battering a patch of dozens of Great Spikes half a head shorter into the ground.
Immediately afterward, his entire body harnessed the recoil of the impact to rise again, flying backward higher into the air.
Yet due to the sheer strain of that overloaded strike, his strength temporarily gave out. The sight of "shaggy, half-naked Pegmont" flying backward bore an uncanny resemblance to a dead shrimp with an arched back.
With no source energy field in midair to grant him a temporary foothold, he would inevitably fall back down.
Worse, Great Spikes on the ground were already preparing to hurl their column swords at him.
Han Qingyu had still not appeared.
*You bastard!* Pegmont cursed bitterly in his heart.
*Whoosh! Whirr-whirr-whirr...*
A rapidly spinning Azure battleblade burst from the earth, arcing upward at an angle, appearing beneath his feet in what seemed like an instant.
Pegmont was still wearing Azure combat boots—high-quality footwear with dead iron plates embedded in the soles.
Almost on instinct, Pegmont stomped down quickly and accurately against the spinning plane of the blade.
The battleblade continued spinning onward, carrying his entire body diagonally upward and sweeping across nearly two hundred meters in a flash.
At the same time, the clamor of intense combat erupted behind Pegmont. Han Qingyu had emerged. Like an enraged bull, he swung his blade and charged headlong into the dense swarm of Great Spikes.
His line of attack pushed straight toward the point where CA117 was diving down.
It seemed he wanted to carve a path straight through the densely packed swarm.
*But how could that even be possible?!* Pegmont groaned inwardly.
It had to be said that fighting alone on Mars and being stranded without food or supplies for so long had taken a heavy toll on his body, mind, and willpower.
Unbelievably, the guy had even grown a bit sentimental. In this fleeting moment, he was dazed by a strange mixture of touched gratitude and sorrow.
By now, CA117 had completed its dive, having touched its lowest point. Moving forward, it could not pause or hesitate for an instant; it had to execute the predetermined plan immediately—bank right and pull up.
And Yang Qingbai did precisely that.
Through his high-magnification scope, he could faintly make out the silhouettes of Qingzi and Pegmont locked in combat. Their position and current situation made it look as though there was no way they could reach him in time—no way at all...
Yet Yang Qingbai resolutely wheeled the craft into a turn and pulled up.
He did not worry or think on their behalf. He simply performed his part.
Chapter 914