Bring Out the Tech!

Just like an invisible whip striking the earth. Where the sharp head of the staff slammed into the ground, tens of thousands of fissures abruptly branched out and spread. An invisible force poured deep into the earth from that instant of impact, raging like a torrential flood. High in the heavens, beneath the looming crimson, burning great star, bizarre fractures appeared one after another—as if reality itself could no longer bear the weight, unable to endure the immense power brewed within this reenactment of recorded history. The power of a natural calamity converged into a single blow, causing the colossal behemoth hidden deep beneath the earth to violently shudder, screeching and wailing in agony. Vast torrents of foul-smelling blood sprayed out from the fissures, mixed with mangled flesh and gore. Its breath was failing. The soil churned as if some mollusk were writhing in terror, attempting to flee. Yet it was utterly powerless to suppress the destructive force spreading within its body; no sooner had it barely crawled to the surface than it exploded into a mist of blood. With the monster's death, the illusion capable of eclipsing reality could no longer hold. The bustling scenes rapidly crumbled and disintegrated before everyone's eyes. The heavily guarded high walls and ramparts vanished without a trace. Leaving behind only broken walls, crumbling ruins, billowing black smoke, and patches of crimson soaked deep into the soil alongside countless scorch marks. The Permanent Investigation Team's outpost was reduced to nothing but rubble. Countless crisscrossing, translucent crystals remained embedded in the ground like shattered fragments of weapons, having yet to dissipate even now. It made Lou Feng turn deathly pale as he muttered in disbelief: "That's Aunt's spiritus shaping..." Even though they had been out of control for a long time, they still maintained their sharp outlines and terrifying sharpness; debris blown by the wind across the edges was sliced cleanly in two upon contact. The ferocity and fury condensed within the spiritus had crystallized, showing no sign of fading. Compared to this, Ji Jue was paying more attention to the massive arena directly ahead that had completely collapsed the instant the ground cracked open... that was the very place "Old Tian" had wanted to lead them into. Countless runes and spiritus circuits snaked along the ground and rose upward, outlining faint contours. Supported by the surrounding sacrificial offerings and numerous displays, they formed an intricate, colossal lock. A ritual cage. And now, under the crushing force from the outside, the cage had collapsed and was rapidly dispersing. Watching this, Ji Jue's eyelids twitched violently. Part of it was lingering fear, but part of it was... sheer heartache. So many materials! So damn many materials! And they were all widely versatile, extravagant, high-end stuff. If there had been any chance to salvage them, Ji Jue might well have pounced on them right then and there. Unfortunately, there was no chance of that now. The instant Tong Shan flipped the table, bursts of flame erupted from all directions across the ruins, even right under the feet of Ji Jue and the others, accompanied by countless steel fragments and bullets whistling in from afar... It was as if an entire powder keg had been laid out beneath their feet. The enemy had clearly prepared to blow them sky-high the moment negotiations broke down or capture failed. Yet now, under the telekinetic suppression of Tong Shan, every fire and explosion was thoroughly locked down, crushed, or expelled the moment it sparked to life. All that could be heard were muffled thumps, accompanied by feeble wisps of white smoke and faint flickers of fire. Among the many manifestations Tong Shan commanded, the Burning Star Manifestation was neither his strongest in attack nor defense, but it was the one he wielded with the greatest mastery and the least blind spots. Not only did it provide the most ridiculous baseline buffs, but it also offered the strongest crowd-control effects. Under gravitational shifts that defied imagination, every attack within the domain was suppressed, repelled, and cast outward. "Get the hell out here!" As the banner whipped through the air, the staff head slammed into the empty space once more, kicking up another storm that blew away all deception and disguise. Tong Shan's gaze locked onto the distant ruins. The direction where "Old Tian" had been flung. "Heh, true to your name as the cornerstone of Haizhou, the towering mountain..." Amid a faint sneer, a shadowy figure slowly pushed himself up from beneath the rubble. Unbothered by his disheveled state, his mangled limbs rapidly knit back together and healed. With the illusion gone, an entirely different face was revealed—covered in tattoos, practically oozing malevolence and savagery. He gave a generous round of applause for that decisive assault and counterattack. Normally, even if someone noticed something amiss, they would start by probing. What he hadn't anticipated was that Tong Shan would strike without the slightest hesitation, showing zero fear of collateral damage or breaking things! "Do you really not care at all about injuring your comrades or wrecking the outpost?" He sneered. "If your teammates knew, I wonder how heartbroken they'd be." "If comrades are injured, heal them; if things are broken, repair them; if losses are incurred, compensate for them. When it comes to our own people, everything can be talked through. When it's not our own, naturally there's no need for bullshit." Tong Shan cast a cold glance over, exuding the casual extravagance of an old patrician family, and commented with contempt, "Among you vermin, there are indeed a few standouts... A good deal tougher than the two who died by my hands earlier. Too bad it's only by a little." The man's expression didn't waver in the slightest. Blood-red flames surged around him, radiating an unabashedly ferocious aura. His frame grew inches taller as jet-black armor spread across his body, encasing his face. The quintessence of the Swarm and the corruption of Frenzied Slaughter rose from his soul. Piercing wails and roars echoed in the air like auditory hallucinations. A blood-soaked sword grew inch by inch from his flesh and blood, as though pieced together from countless broken blades. Fierce, savage barbs jutted out, and the skull on its hilt gaped open. Amid a soundless shriek, his aura surged even higher! A Regeneration-tier Chosen of the Swarm! That sword... Ji Jue narrowed his eyes, trying to discern the details. After shedding their mortal vessels, Heaven's Chosen of the Regeneration tier often underwent numerous mutations. Changes to bone or flesh were mere outer manifestations; at their core, they were no longer ordinary mortal beings. Just like Lawrence before, whose regeneration speed was so absurd he could tank direct frontal assaults from Minerva. The sword this man had just drawn was likely a mutation achieved upon reaching Regeneration, bound to possess bizarre properties and powers. Judging by how effortlessly it cleaved through telekinetic repulsion like a hot knife through wax, it was clearly troublesome. What was more, on the other side of the outpost, the figure blasted away by the direct hit of the Burning Star Manifestation clambered back up. Still indistinct and pitch-black, as though sculpted from shadow, the limbs and flesh he had lost were already fully restored. Ji Jue's heart sank further. Another Regeneration... And it was a Chosen of the White Stag, the direct antithesis to Tianyuan! Ji Jue's mood grew even heavier. His dogshit luck was seriously cursed. This was supposed to be a gilded carry run with big bro at the helm, so how the hell had the Permanent Investigation Team's base been wiped out, and how did two freaks like this spawn in? What the hell was the Evil Transmutation Cult playing at? How much had they drunk without touching a bite of food to dare pull off something this insane?! "Blood Invoker Yan Chong, Shadow Hand Ling Zhi?" Tong Shan sneered. "And here I thought who it was. Two stray dogs who didn't dare show their faces in the Federation. Joining the Evil Transmutation Cult seems to have stiffened your spines quite a bit." From within that expanding, amorphous shadow came a cold voice: "Before coming here, someone told me that twelfth place on this generation's Raw Stone Rankings was too low for you. Too bad I didn't believe it." "I thought so too," Yan Chong grinned. Without warning, a storm of blood erupted from the earth! It was Sweeping Clouds—many times more terrifying than any Swarm Chosen Ji Jue had ever seen! Unlike the complex and esoteric paths of others, the blessings of the Swarm Path had always been sickeningly simple and brutal: boost attack, boost defense, boost health, boost damage... Few gimmicks—just pure, unadulterated raw stats! Right now, as stats inflated to the Regeneration tier were unleashed before Ji Jue's eyes, he felt as though everything in sight had been swallowed by that crimson storm. A mere forward rush stirred up a tidal wave strong enough to knock an ordinary person off their feet! On the other side, Ling Zhi's silhouette vanished completely, turning into a shifting, elusive expanse of darkness that swept toward Tong Shan. Two corrupted Chosen who had steeped themselves in the Regeneration tier for years and ranked near the top of the Federation's wanted list launched a ferocious assault on Tong Shan simultaneously! Meanwhile, the others were hardly idling either... Around the turbulent ruins of the outpost, figure after figure emerged from hiding, forming an encirclement! Amid the violent tremors and howling winds of the clash overhead, at least twenty-odd corrupted Chosen converged from all four directions! "They really think they've got us dead to rights," Ji Liu, acting as interim vice-captain, gave a wry laugh as he pulled two weapons taller than himself from the vehicle—one resembling a broad-axe, the other a halberd. "Prepare to fall back. I'll cover the rear," he ordered. "Ah Xuan, Xiao Xue, protect Xu Guan and the artisan." No need for him to say it—the instant Yan Chong appeared, Ji Jue had already ducked behind Jiang Xuan. Gripping the dazed Lou Feng with one hand, he said cautiously, "Brother Xuan, you've got to keep me safe!" "I'll... do my best," Jiang Xuan forced a wry smile as his entire body turned silver, his Metallic Quality ability transforming his flesh. With a wave of his hand, an iron wall burst from the ground, shielding the teammates behind him from the bullets whistling in from afar. With his other hand, he pulled an enormous, improvised iron warhammer from the ground, taking up position at the very front. He took a deep breath. His scalp still tingled with dread... Holding the line in a frontal clash was one thing, but protecting non-combatant teammates in the middle of total chaos... was that really something "doing his best" could solve?! "No worries. The Evil Transmutation Cult is way too overtuned this patch—it really is a problem," Ji Jue poked his head out, looking at the charging enemies. "I can help nerf them for you." *Nerf?* *Nerf them how?* *This isn't some shopping app where sharing a link gets you a discount slash...* Jiang Xuan shook his head, about to thank him for the sentiment, when he caught sight of that strange armored off-road vehicle that had somehow drifted outside the outpost ruins, and its rear cargo bed slowly opening amid the tremors. And then, rising slowly beside the heavy machine gun, was another bizarre contraption covered in weld scars and machining marks, left unpainted out of sheer laziness... It looked as though a dozen-plus thick steel tubes, each over a meter long, had been crudely welded together. It looked like a... Jiang Xuan instinctively rubbed his eyes, questioning his sanity and his vision: *Wait, hold on, where the hell did you get a multiple rocket launcher?!* *Am I going crazy?* *Or are you...* "Don't worry," Ji Jue patted his shoulder and whispered in his ear, "I've got tech!" Now, here comes the tech! Amid ear-splitting shrieks tearing through the air, rapid flashes of fire erupted, shooting from the launcher and soaring skyward. In his perception, the launcher was laughing maniacally: *[I'm gonna blast everything to hell!!!!]* A classic military product of Universal Heavy Industries: the Luwu Type 70mm Multiple Rocket Launcher. Effective range: 800 meters. Maximum capacity: 14 rockets. Electronically fired. Inside each rocket warhead, along with the standard payload, was an extra touch of mysterious little surprises from an artisan... Even though a single salvo could give the sprawling, opulent Governor's Mansion a brisk interior renovation, it was severely outdated and lacked fire-control or guidance systems. Consequently, in the Military Department's database, its rating was a mere D. But that didn't matter! No fire-control? There was Deus Ex Machina. No guidance? He had goddamn Deus Ex Machina! No machine tools? He had Non-Offensive. No precision? He had Masterwork Nature! Short on materials? Just take wholesale steel pipes, run them through an alchemical reinforcement, and make do. Short on phlogiston explosives? Just source the raw ingredients through Layla's channels and assemble them himself. Omitting his own labor costs, the total came out to just 42,900 yuan—and that was only because of raw material controls on phlogiston explosives and skyrocketing black-market prices... Otherwise, Ji Jue could have slashed the cost down to just over 20,000! A true bargain of exceptional quality. Now, cheap flames had launched into the air wholesale. Amid the howling wind and violent tremors, they abruptly scattered into fireworks darting every which way across the sky. Flaming tails and trails of dense smoke crisscrossed, instantly tracing out dizzyingly complex trajectories. One rocket even made a deliberate wide swerve, looping completely around above Ji Jue's head, leaving behind a stream of whoops and cheers: *[Woohoo, lift off!]* Then, the sky full of blazing fire locked onto the earth and rained down! Here comes the tech! "Mother—" The White Stag Chosen charging at the very front slammed on the brakes, looking up in shock. But his pupils were already illuminated by rapidly expanding dark silhouettes and raging flames. In that final split-second, he could only subconsciously mutter the rest, unsure of who it was even directed at: "—fucker!" *BOOM!!!* Flames erupted from the ground, unleashing a storm mingled with countless shrapnel fragments in every direction. Billowing smoke blasted squarely into the face of Ji Liu, who had been gearing up to hold the rear, choking him until he stumbled. He turned back in dazed disbelief: *What the hell? What kind of contraption is this?* *Wait, is he planning to take us out too?!* *You finally dropped the act, didn't you, kid!* "An accident! It's an accident, Big Brother Liu!" Ji Jue waved, shouting a warning, "Look out! Watch your back!" *What accident? Watch what back?* Ji Liu tried to read his lips in confusion and instinctively looked behind him—only to see a torrential downpour of incoming rockets. With a Swarm Chosen's extraordinary dynamic vision, he could even clearly make out the sloppy, hastily painted yellow icon on the rockets' hulls... a radiation warning symbol?! *Ji, you motherfucker...* Ji Liu instantly activated his Sweeping Clouds blessing and bolted for dear life! High above, a furious roar rang out. Yan Chong whipped his head around in rage. Ling Zhi, as a lone operator, didn't care, but the rabble below were his subordinates—the very capital he relied on to maintain his voice within the Evil Transmutation Cult! Sensing the rockets launching, he instantly redirected his fractured sword, slashing across the air toward the launcher rack. Yet, the crimson sword beam broke stride mid-air as though losing its way. Taking an abrupt, erratic turn, it veered off by a few inches, skimming right past Little Niuma's edge before flying into the darkness of Quancheng, where it was swallowed whole and vanished. "Where are you looking?" A sharp voice came right by his ear. Yan Chong's pupils contracted instantly. Whipping his head back around, he saw Tong Shan already right in his face, the bladelike staff head carrying thousands of times normal gravity as it came crashing down onto his head! In his fury, Yan Chong's eyes were shot through with blood, flashing scarlet as he clashed head-on against the banner. Subordinates and lackeys were a dime a dozen; the world was never short of fools willing to risk their lives in pursuit of power. *Once I kill your ass, I can have as many as I want!* Above, tangible darkness and blood-fire clashed incessantly, the banner whipping about to stir tidal waves of gravity. Deafening roars rang out without pause, blinding light erupted, and chaotic storms poured forth. And down on the earth, deadly flames soared skyward like festive fireworks. No screams could be heard—only continuous, deafening blasts rising one after another. Due to the complex synthesis of phlogiston explosives, only half of the launched rockets carried standard payloads. The other half consisted entirely of gifts painstakingly prepared by Ji Jue, putting an artisan's morals and principles on full display. A sea of fire spread like an incoming tide. Meticulously formulated thermite, high-concentration phlogiston gasoline, white phosphorus, and various other reactants rained down in a downpour. Shrill screams were swallowed by the thunderous explosions; charred corpses struggled frantically with every ounce of their strength, only to collapse in the blaze and be consumed. Between the shockwaves in the sky and the devastation of the rockets, the ruins were thoroughly leveled. A scorched wasteland. After a single salvo, it was as if they had been put through a sieve. Over half the enemies lay dead on the spot—either due to flimsy defenses, sluggish reaction times, or simply because they were... too weak! More than eleven Calling-stage Chosen perished in the sea of flames. Among those who survived the lethal barrage, many were covered in soot and grime, their faces ashen. They scattered like flushed bees, no longer daring to bunch up and charge as before, completely stripped of their earlier swagger. After nearly being wiped out in one stroke, they could no longer conceal the shock and dread in their hearts. *What the hell was going on? Weren't they supposed to be taking out a Security Bureau relief team?* *What part of this looked like the Security Bureau? They'd poked a goddamn hornet's nest of the Military Department!* *Where did so many guided rockets come from?!* *Weren't precision electronics supposed to be completely inoperable in a corrupted environment?!* *Yet they had clearly seen those rockets swerving, twisting, and wiggling as they flew in—not only were their trajectories slick as hell, but their accuracy was ridiculously high!* Two Regenerations, nine Metamorphoses, a dozen-plus Callings, plus a Calamity-grade Lizard of Delusion—everyone had assumed crushing a relief team would be child's play. Yet before they could even react, they were the ones who had almost been played to death. Before they even traded blows head-on, more than half of them were already dead! How the fuck were they supposed to fight this?! Looking up at the sky, the cultists' hearts sank. Discipline within the cult was ruthless. In a moment like this, no one dared mouth off with *“Can’t even win a two-on-one, do you even know how to play?”* Picturing the consequences of suffering such heavy casualties and failing the mission anyway, everyone swallowed hard, a cold chill running down their spines. Even if they survived, it would be a fate worse than death—they'd likely be handed over to that old bastard as raw materials! *Fuck it, I'm taking you down with me!* "My body transfigures into evil!" His eyes bloodshot with desperation, a follower of the Vortex chanted the slogan. His body expanded rapidly, sprouting countless scales as he morphed into a lizard-like beast four to five meters tall. He charged recklessly toward Jiang Xuan, his eyes fixed on... the two Embers behind him! Cornered like a desperate dog! No matter what, squash the soft persimmons first and secure a kill! Behind him, the other cultists were just as fast, if not faster. Surging through the sea of fire along the path he opened, their eyes blood-red, they charged to steal the kills. In an instant, Jiang Xuan realized that he had become the target of every single enemy. Thankfully, a face turned to steel revealed neither complexion nor expression; otherwise, it would have looked unspeakably grim. Just as he was about to roar and risk his life against this mob, he felt someone poke him in the small of his back. "Brother Xuan, use this..." Ji Jue raised his arms, offering the heavy machine gun he had just detached from Little Niuma. With practiced ease, he drew an ammunition belt from the mountain of ammo boxes piled at his feet and loaded it in a flash. "This has a lot more kick!" In the brief dead silence, Jiang Xuan looked down at the heavy machine gun already whirring to life in his hands. Then he looked up at the enemies who hadn't yet registered what was happening... and at the terrified expression on the giant lizard charging at the very front. Its four claws dug into the earth, carving deep furrows as it desperately tried to brake. But it was far too late. "Mmm..." In that instant, a broad, radiant smile—one that had never been seen before—broke across that metallic face. Jiang Xuan pulled the trigger.