The Mantis and the Oriole

The turbid torrent of muddy flash flood abruptly splattered with blood, scarlet churning. A fountain of blood erupted! The cage traced by countless raindrops and the frost crystals born of the bitter chill collapsed and scattered entirely. A shrill, piercing shriek rose from beneath the fountain of blood as writhing limbs shot forth, thrashing and sweeping— They hoisted Little Niuma into the air, tossing it back, repelling it! The turbid surge of blood and mud boiled. Writhing tendrils of flesh extended, propping up an enormous body as it rose from the depths, revealing a gruesome sight. One could still faintly discern remnants of a vehicular chassis and frame, as if... This thing had originally been a car?! Yet once the camouflaged shell shed, the bizarre flesh compressed and hidden beneath unfolded. It was like a colossal octopus, amber-colored giant eyes dotting its head, while bony suckers and mouthparts bristled across its tentacles, making one's scalp prickle. As if possessing an innate gift for camouflage, its hues shifted ceaselessly, making it virtually undetectable under the cover of the deluge. Regrettably, from the massive rift piercing through its body, blood now gushed incessantly. Within a blister behind the wound, the convulsing figure of a human was faintly visible. Heavily wounded. Spiritus disorganized, expression horrified. A blood-drenched face twisted in agony, glaring fixatedly at Ji Jue. Shock, disbelief. It was as though he had seen a ghost. With a navigator drawing attention up in the sky, the driver had steered the behemoth beneath the flash flood churning with mud and gravel, quietly creeping upstream to infiltrate right under Ji Jue and his companion's feet. Large-scale fluctuations of spiritus were masked by the behemoth's innate camouflage, perfectly compensating for the greatest weakness of such a wide-area compound effect of Tianyuan and Entropy. In just a few seconds, the entire battlefield would have frozen completely within the shackles and bonds of torrential rain and frost. They had thought everything was foolproof, never imagining that Ji Jue possessed a Celestial Craft relic like the Mirror of Contained Forms—capable of bypassing all surface appearances to observe every flow of spiritus and decipher all shifts. Going to such lengths had amounted to taking off one's pants to fart. Even before it had been unleashed, Ji Jue had already calculated the core's position by tracing the anomalous flows of spiritus... A decisive sword strike. Until Little Niuma descended from the heavens, the driver hadn't even had time to react. Caught completely off guard, he had suffered an instant, devastating blow. That he had managed to survive Pan Ying's strike at all was only because Pan Ying was busy greedily draining the bigger one outside! At this moment, amidst a ringing chime, bloody radiance shimmered over the transparent broken blade. Having gained another inch after being tempered once more, Pan Ying seemed to have turned into a black hole. Catalyzed and infused by dragon blood, it radiated an irresistible pull toward all life in its surroundings at every passing moment, dragging an endless stream of fresh blood into the blade. Writhing in agony from its grievous wounds, the behemoth flailed its tentacles and bellowed, somehow dragging the airborne blood back into itself. As another tentacle swept out, the pouring rain and raging deluge converged once more, the shapes of gaping maws materializing from the void to gnaw upon Little Niuma's chassis. The screech of metal grating against metal rang endlessly, sparks flying in all directions. Little Niuma was completely unharmed! At most, a couple of scratches had been added to the composite armor serving as its carapace. Amid the roaring rpm of its engine, intense heat rose across its form, rapidly evaporating the rain penetrating its frame, while the frost sprouting within its joints was pulverized to dust in full stride. Driven furiously by its engines, jets of flame billowed out. Without the slightest hesitation or delay, it surged forward once more like a shooting star. Colossal axes and warhammers weighing multiple tons swung with savage abandon, shattering layer upon layer of water screens and ice walls. It charged forth undaunted, not even bothering to defend, face-tanking every bit of the enemy's offensive. With its skeleton and engine reinforced by countless materials Ji Jue had poured into it, combined with the corrosion and transformation of dragon blood and the material property reinforcement granted by Fluid Alchemy, the current Little Niuma was a heavy armored fortress capable of taking heavy artillery fire to the face. Paired with its innate, almost instinctual manic mobility and the terrifying destructive power granted by Pan Ying— Unkillable, unburnable, uncatchable, unmatched! In a head-on clash, it was the true nightmare-class monster! Backup fuel tanks, spiritus reserves engaged; steering booster engines No. 2, 3, 4, and 5 engaged— Overload operation! In the blur of the downpour, all that could be seen were the roaring flames spewing from its rear and Pan Ying's blood-red glow, advancing like a pair of eerie binary stars through earth, mire, and torrent, streaking like lightning! The incoming gale abruptly shattered. Through the suffocating deluge, it forcibly gouged a massive hole, trampling astral winds and tearing through the tempest. Boom! The driver screamed. Working with the behemoth, endless rain suddenly converged and froze, a glacier erupting from the ground to swallow Little Niuma whole. Yet before he could even breathe a sigh of relief, he heard it—amid a dense chorus of cracking wails, fissures burst open and spread. Under Pan Ying's cleaving strike, the iceberg fractured right down the middle, and the monster broke free of its cage once more! Red radiance erupted from the beastly visage. Dragon blood surged and poured into Pan Ying, brutally catalyzing it and causing Pan Ying's bloody gleam to swell once more. Endless sharpness churned like a crimson tornado, expanding into an exaggerated, monstrous blade over ten meters long. Ignoring the furious assault of the Vortex Chosen in the sky above, it raised the blade, and then— Cleaved! "[Halt]!" In an instant, all things fell dead silent. A hoarse voice rang between heaven and earth, bringing everything to a dead stop. Gales, torrential rain, flash floods, falling boulders, splashing raindrops, even Little Niuma swinging its sword mid-air, and the faint light An Ning had cast— All paused for a fleeting instant. Right after, a shimmering illusory light engulfed the driver within the behemoth, and the Celestial Chosen vanished into thin air. When the frozen world resumed motion the next moment, the behemoth's wail soared into the sky, resounding across the mountains. Beneath Pan Ying's savage cleave, it was sheared in two. The bloody radiance on the blade spread, countless tendrils piercing the writhing, spasming flesh, completely draining its vitality to nourish Little Niuma's engine and dragon blood. With the crimson light circulating, blade and beast grew increasingly berserk. Snarling as it looked around, its gaze fell upon an eerie vehicle that had appeared out of thin air in the distance, bearing an emblem—Xinyuan! At the fatal brink, rescue had arrived— Inside the rear carriage, the badly wounded behemoth's driver was pale and twitching, gasping violently, having not yet recovered from the near-death terror. "Th-thank you—" "Shut up—" The driver and navigator from Xinyuan wore solemn expressions, staring with deep wariness at Ji Jue and An Ning in the storm, and at the steel monster charging forward with sword in hand. Reviewing the files and records from afar, they had thought he was nothing special. Only when facing him in person did they realize that this terrifying oppressive presence... did not stem from that steel beast, nor from the Hunter following alongside him, but precisely from Ji Jue himself—the very artisan who had always been implicitly looked down upon! That sweeping gaze had cast toward this location even before they had broken through space to arrive! Spatial fluctuations had actually been detected before they had even begun— "The driver is a Celestial Chosen of the Eternal Gate," Ji Jue said, narrowing his eyes. "The Gao family's [White Harness], and the Zhou family's [Jade Precept]," An Ning said. "The Gao family's [White Harness] is one of the few Eternal Gate inheritances outside the Star Core Association. The other, [Jade Precept], is a compound matrix of Aether and Ascension. Brother Ji Jue, be careful—those 'Heralds' can alter reality by speaking. Though it comes with many restrictions, it's very troublesome." White Harness referred to ornate carriage straps. Celestial Chosen of the Eternal Gate had always been rare, and to establish an independent lineage outside the Star Core Association was naturally nothing to scoff at. A Herald of the Jade Precept, with the ability to alter reality directly through spoken words, paired with a Vortex practitioner and that wounded Entropy practitioner... things were about to get tricky. Yet after appearing, rather than seizing the opportunity to mount an all-out assault, the enemy remained rooted in place. Waiting? What were they waiting for? What else could they be waiting for! In those few seconds of standoff, Ji Jue's expression shifted slightly. Without hesitation, he waved his hand, and the sprinting Little Niuma suddenly wheeled around, leaping toward Ji Jue. At the same time, Ji Jue clenched his raised fingers. The earth violently shook as mud boiled and churned, spewing roaring flames. Not only were the remaining bombs from the original trap detonated, but the carriage left behind in the clearing also snapped open at that moment. A massive missile launcher slowly rose, and then, without hesitation, spat tongues of fire. Dozens of missiles unloaded all at once. Violent flames and shockwaves of phlogiston erupted from the ground, walling off the space between the two sides as massive volumes of rain evaporated into thick white mist. The raging flames surged and expanded abruptly, shockwaves colliding to unleash earth-shaking booms that surely drew the attention of countless calamity beasts prowling in the distance. The destructive inferno severed the space between them. Before the Celestial Chosen of Xinyuan and the Northern Realm could even react, Little Niuma had transformed back into a massive vehicle, springing forward on its limbs and speeding away with Ji Jue and An Ning aboard. At that moment, a hundred li away, a sigh sounded. "What quick reflexes," Yue Chen murmured from the mountainside. Rain washed over his indifferent face, yet he showed no emotion whatsoever. Across a hundred li, through layers of mountain ranges, and relying on coordinates provided by Xinyuan, he had already locked onto the enemy's position through faint seismic vibrations. What was more, he had been building momentum for a long time— The unending torrent falling from the sky was captured by the terrifying gravitational pull stemming from the Desolate Ruins, spiraling down into the vortex in his palm. Massive amounts of matter compressed continuously, emitting an agonizing, tooth-grating screech. Soil, rainwater, rocks, and even skeletal remains—all matter converged toward the center under the blessing of the Desolate Ruins. In the end, suspended in the empty air above his palm, a fist-sized pitch-black sphere formed— Superdense matter! A pity, missed by just a hair. Still, no matter. Such a cunning adversary was worthy of an all-out effort he had not made in a long time! The superdense matter, weighing tens of millions of tons, quivered abruptly. As his fingers tightened, it seemed gripped by an invisible hand. Following Yue Chen's motion, it rose slowly. Across the distant mountains and rivers, from a hundred li away, Yue Chen took a silent, deep breath, then drew back into a throwing stance. Metallic luster surfaced across his muscles, grinding together with piercing shrieks. An immense outline manifested around him, towering into the clouds. Headless and neckless, yet complete with all four limbs—this was the tyrannical spirit born of pure matter. The so-called [Giant]! Now, the Giant threw! Amid a deafening roar, the superdense matter suspended in mid-air shot through the sky. Then, as it hurtled through the air, relieved of pressure, the matter erupted outward—expanding, diffusing, and spewing forth incalculable mass that turned into a catastrophic jet. With Crushing Ruin, it punched through ridge after obstructing ridge, effortlessly crossing a hundred li to plummet from the heavens. Engulfing the entire battlefield. Incalculable dust and gravel sprayed outward like shrapnel, piercing clean through Goutui Mountain and cutting it in two at the waist. On the other side, Jijiao Mountain was riddled with holes, collapsing with a roar into the flash flood and choking the riverbed. Amid the earth-shaking tremors, the topography of both mountains changed radically, collapsing inward to bury everything into a towering earthen mound— Every trace of wreckage and debris from the battlefield vanished. Along with the battlefield that had existed moments before. Inside Xinyuan's vehicle, the Herald of the Jade Precept gazed at the scene before him. Even though he had sent the signal and drawn up the plan earlier, he was left stunned: "Th-this... this is the Giant?" "That guy has gotten stronger again," the driver of the White Harness sighed softly. "A pity, though." The opponent's reaction speed had been too fast. The moment the superdense projectile fell from the sky, Ji Jue had already fled beyond the strike zone. When the overwhelming gale surged, that bizarre spider chariot had already bounded into the air, riding the shockwaves and blast winds of the explosion to escape who knew where. The instant he sensed they wanted to stall for time, he had retreated without a shred of hesitation, lacking even the faintest desire to linger in battle. Just how paranoid and vigilant did one have to be to startle at every shadow and see an enemy behind every bush? It was simply absurd. Thud! The sound of landing broke the silence. The Vortex Chosen soaring in the sky descended, rushing to treat his grievously wounded teammate. His method of healing was blunt and brutal: gouging out chunks of his own flesh and stuffing them into the wounds torn open by Pan Ying. Soon, the writhing flesh knitted together without a scar. Vitality was restored, yet the corrosion and residue of bloody radiance upon the soul, as well as the shattered matrices, would still take time to slowly recover. "Managed to keep my life. Thanks," the Entropy Chosen said, some color finally returning to his face, though he could barely stand. "Why didn't you stick to the plan and wait for us to arrive?" Herald Zhou Lun demanded. "Lü Yang, what on earth were you thinking?!" "Get this straight, I'm not your subordinate! Don't come whining at me!" The Vortex Chosen, Lü Yang, scowled. "With electromagnetic interference this bad, any distance means we can't receive a damn signal! How was I supposed to contact you? When we spotted the guy, if we hadn't made a move, where would we track him down once he fled? Should we have ended up like Tiancheng, waiting to be picked off one by one?" "...You think you discovered him?" Zhou Lun's cold expression twitched. Suppressing the urge to sneer, he hissed through gritted teeth, "I felt the ripple of that spiritus riot from hundreds of li away! If he truly wanted to make a move, why cause such a huge racket? Has that guy baited hooks only once or twice? Can't you see he was deliberately luring you in?!" Lü Yang's expression shifted slightly. Just as he was about to snap back, he froze on the spot. His pupils lit up. Not just his—in that moment, everyone's eyes were illuminated. Illuminated by that streak racing through the long night and torrential rain— Flying Light! Outside the battlefield, in a direction entirely different from where Little Niuma had fled, An Ning's silhouette appeared for a fraction of a second. Just a single instant, yet she unleashed a strike none of them had anticipated! When everyone subconsciously assumed An Ning and Ji Jue had long since retreated together, few bothered to question whether the headcount aboard the vehicle was off. Now, from the darkness beneath the light, six kilometers away—Hunting Finger, Flying Light came hurtling! The moment they perceived that pinpoint of Flying Light, death was already upon them. Borne on incomparable, horrifying velocity, countless minute specks of light scattered like dew, like lightning, bubbles shimmering, while a pitch-black shard of iron arrived in the blink of an eye. Locked onto the weakest among them: the Entropy Chosen... Abrupt and without warning, there was no time to react. All they could rely on was instinct! Lü Yang's body expanded violently like an explosion. Scarlet erupted and flesh proliferated, transforming from a human form into a wall of flesh and blood blocking the front of the group. Yet in the very next instant, the barrier of blood and bone collapsed, punctured clean through. At best, it bought merely a heartbeat. In that critical instant, Herald Zhou Lun finally opened his mouth. It was not the "[Halt]" that forcibly shackled all things, nor the "[Fix]" designed to counter the techniques of the White Stag, but the swiftest, most agile invocation to produce an effect: "[Divert]"! Bang! Amid the explosive roar, the Entropy Chosen fell backward, twitching violently. Blown away by the gale churned up by the shockwave, he crashed to the ground, unable to get up. The violent power packed into that seeming line of flying light was unimaginable. The moment its trajectory was deflected and lost control, its energy erupted outward. In the end, the iron shard narrowly scraped past his shoulder, flying off into the darkness behind him. It left behind only a receding shrill whine and the terrified gasps of the target. Still alive! The corner of Zhou Lun's mouth twitched into an instinctive smirk. He turned to look back, but something felt wrong. His gaze swept toward the origin of the Flying Light. An Ning had vanished without a trace. If a strike failed to kill, retreat a thousand li—that was the House of An's style; there was no need for surprise. Yet along the straight trajectory the Flying Light had cut, scattered flecks of light still flickered and lingered, swaying in the wild wind as they slowly dissipated. Strange. The technique of Flying Light was purest and deftest; it shouldn't leave any residue behind... Wait—was Ji Jue really in that fleeing vehicle?! In that fleeting instant, as doubt welled in his heart, horror and shock followed close behind. He opened his mouth instinctively, preparing to roar. Yet all he saw in the end was a glint of light flashing at the end of the darkness. [Humidity compensation calibrated] [Wind speed calculation complete] [Ballistic trajectory locked] In the span of a spark, beneath blinking indicator lights, a deluge of parameter calculations was completed. Anchored firmly into rock upon its mounting bipod, the heavy sniper rifle over two meters long made its final micro-adjustment. No trigger needed to be pulled, no orders or commands given. Under Ji Jue's overarching gaze, the apparatus's spiritus made the call. —[Fire]! The primer struck. The scorching cartridge casing flew upward, tumbling through the air and landing with a sizzle in a puddle, while the bullet in the bore had already torn through the sky! A crystal-clear, translucent bullet soared through a seemingly frozen world. Through the seams of the raging storm, it wove deftly forward, piercing nine kilometers of howling wind and torrential rain. Guided by the parameter markers left by the dancing residual lights, it traced a slight arc before screaming straight ahead. Those dancing, dissipating residual lights burst silently, expanding outward along the trajectory the Flying Light had carved, clearing a vacuum corridor devoid of a single droplet of rain. A pioneer, blazing a ballistic trail. In mid-flight, the crystal-clear bullet peeled away layer by layer like an onion. Intricate and dense spiritus circuits shed and detonated, their thousands of instantaneous corrections and boosts sending the bullet's horrifying speed skyrocketing even higher. Until it arrived right before his face. Defenses that had not even had time to fully manifest in the void shattered abruptly, collapsing into pieces. As the warhead detonated and fragmented, a tiny breach was punched through. At last, wrapped within layers of crystal, a blade fragment sheared from Pan Ying unsheathed once more. A pinpoint of bloody radiance illuminated Zhou Lun's contorted face. And then— Crack! After the momentary screech, the tempest and deluge crashed down once more. A shout that hadn't had time to escape dispersed into the wind, vanishing without a trace. In the dead silence, Zhou Lun's expression twitched for an instant, as if in self-mockery. He parted his lips in a faint smile. A breeze blew in from afar, whistling through the through-and-through hole running from his forehead to the back of his skull, carrying the scent of blood and death as it blew toward where the living could never go. Just like that, Herald Zhou Lun fell backward. Lifeless.