NABC Page 98
Page 98
A feeling of perfect harmony and deep connection instantly welled up in Bai Yuekui's heart.
Without the slightest hesitation, she lightly touched the ground with her toes, her figure rising gracefully as if merging into the water, silently entering the cockpit.
The armor closed gently.
The dark gold visor on the head of the Pure Candle mech instantly lit up with a brilliant yet not dazzling golden light.
The four energy wings on its back unfolded and fluttered gently, emitting refreshing energy ripples.
Chapter 135 Flying Devouring Beasts
The Tai Chi core on the mecha's chest throbbed steadily and powerfully, perfectly synchronized with Bai Yuekui's own heartbeat and life essence frequency.
Beneath the mask, Bai Yuekui felt as if he were immersed in a warm spring of life.
In the past, when I used my strength, the subtle tearing sensation at the cellular level and the deep-seated fatigue were being rapidly soothed and repaired by a gentle yet powerful energy.
Bai Yuekui could clearly see internally that the cells in his body, which had been weakened by the overuse of Miracle K and Angel Potion and the continuous depletion caused by injuries, were now regaining their vitality.
An unprecedented sense of ease and powerful energy filled my entire body.
With a slight thought, Boss Bai gently flapped the light wings on the back of the Pure Candle mecha.
"Shh!"
Her figure appeared instantly hundreds of meters in the air, her movements fluid and natural, without the slightest hesitation, reducing the burden on her body to zero.
Bai Yuekui then tried to concentrate his power in his right hand, and a light sword made entirely of golden energy, even longer and sharper than the physical Tang sword Alaya-vijnana, instantly extended out.
With a casual wave of his hand, a crescent-shaped golden blade of light shot out, silently slicing a giant rock in the distance in two, leaving a smooth, mirror-like cut.
Its power far surpasses that of the past, while its consumption... is almost negligible.
Bai Yuekui hovered in the air, carefully sensing the surging yet gentle power within her body, feeling the joy of her cells being reborn. She slowly closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
When she opened her eyes again, golden light seemed to flow in her clear, cold eyes, making them even more profound.
With a thought, the mecha dissipated, and Bai Yuekui landed lightly, his aura seemingly becoming calmer and more unfathomable.
She looked at Chen Yuan for a long time before slowly speaking. Her voice was calm, but it carried a complex emotion that was hard to describe: "Thank you. I have more time to explore the truth."
Hearing this, Chen Yuan smiled: "It's good that I can help you. After all, you are the backbone of Dragon Bone Village."
Bai Yuekui didn't say thank you again; some kindness is best kept in one's heart.
She simply turned her gaze back to the Purifying Candle mech and said softly, "Its name is Purifying Candle, meaning to purify filth and illuminate darkness?"
"Yes……"
"A good name..."
While the two were chatting, they were unaware that they were on a deserted island far overseas.
Location: An uninhabited island in the Western Pacific Ocean, where the old world map markings are no longer valid.
This uninhabited island overseas, due to its remote location and lack of strategic value, was not directly impacted in the early stages of the apocalyptic disaster, and no one paid it any attention.
On other large islands, the few surviving indigenous peoples ultimately could not withstand the encroachment of the mana ecosystem and were transformed into abundant fleshy soil resources.
Some archipelagos, due to their unique and enclosed environments, have allowed the mana ecosystem to develop in its early stages without external interference, much like a giant natural petri dish.
Over the years, the Mana Flower on the main island in the center of the archipelago underwent an unusual transformation after absorbing a large amount of life essence from the island.
No longer a single flower shape, it grows and expands upwards like a giant dark red coral tree, forming a huge complex structure that covers half of the island and emits a biomagnetic field far exceeding the strength of ordinary ones.
This strong magnetic field distorts the light and energy field on the island. From a distance, the island is shrouded in an eerie, shimmering aurora-like glow year-round, often accompanied by a continuous low-frequency hum, making it look like a giant biological nest from afar.
The strong magnetic field, high concentration of serotonin, and abundant life essence provided excellent conditions for the unique evolution of the Devouring Beast.
The central Mana Flower's structure has dozens of enormous fruits, resembling dark purple metallic cocoons, growing at its top.
These fruits are covered with pulsating energy patterns on their surface, and contain highly compressed life essence and mutated gene sequences inside.
At this moment, all the giant cocoons pulsated violently in unison, their frequency resonating with the magnetic field pulses of the island.
"Crack!"
"Crack!"
The cocoon does not simply break open, but rather melts and reshapes itself like living metal, stretching out strong and powerful limbs and wing membranes.
The first to emerge from their cocoons were the prototypes of the Winged Beasts, who could fly from birth; the ability to fly was an instinct deeply ingrained in their genes.
At the beginning of their emergence from the cocoon, they struggled to float up by relying on the pair of huge fleshy wings on their backs, which were interwoven with skin and biometal.
Wingspan typically reaches 15 to 20 meters, with the leading edge of the wing bone sharp as a knife, gleaming with a cold, eerie light.
By absorbing life essence, their bodies begin to become relatively slender and streamlined, and their entire bodies are covered with a layer of dark scales, which effectively reduces air resistance when flying.
Its head structure is bizarre, lacking obvious eyes. Instead, it has multiple constantly vibrating sound cavities and sensory nodules for high-frequency echolocation and releasing devastating sonic attacks.
The air was filled with a faint, pungent odor, a mixture of ozone and styrax.
Beneath its wing membrane and on both sides of its torso, the eerie blue bioluminescent patterns flicker, making it appear like a drifting will-o'-the-wisp when it flies in the night sky, mysterious and unpredictable.
The Winged Beast's first hunt was silent, yet extremely deadly.
With their high-speed flight capabilities and sound wave perception, they can easily lock onto moving targets at sea tens of kilometers away.
Just then, a converted Old World refugee ship happened to be passing through this dangerous sea area, trying to avoid the storm.
They have been adrift at sea all their lives, which is why they have barely survived to this day.
These flying Devouring Beasts approach silently above the clouds, using their ability to absorb and deflect sound waves to greatly reduce the noise they generate during flight.
The observers on the ship cried out in despair only when they swooped down from the clouds like ghosts.
The high-frequency, destructive shriek was the first wave of attack.
An invisible sound wave instantly enveloped the entire ship, and the people on the deck clutched their ears in pain and collapsed to the ground, bleeding from their seven orifices. Electronic devices sparked and malfunctioned instantly.
Immediately afterwards, the winged beasts easily tore through the ship's steel plates with their sharp wing bones and claws. Some even grabbed terrified crew members, flew them into the air, and then threw them into the sea to their deaths.
These winged beasts can fire focused sonic projectiles from their vocal cavities, detonating all electronic equipment on the ship.
The entire attack took place on the dark sea as the storm approached and lasted less than six minutes.
The already precarious ship completely lost power and fell silent in the surging dark gray waves. All life essence was plundered, leaving only the gradually sinking wreckage and a small amount of flesh and soil floating on the sea surface.
There were no eyewitnesses to report this disaster back to any surviving forces on the ground.
The winged beasts circled a few times, sensing the energy contained in the storm and the faint, richer aura of life essence emanating from a more distant direction. They emitted excited infrasonic hisses, then turned around and, like well-trained hunters, quietly disappeared into the storm.
Chapter 136 Naval Battle
The birth of the Ghost Wing Beast is a unique evolutionary result of the Mana ecosystem under specific closed enrichment environments, combined with strong magnetic fields, high concentrations of life-generating substances, and the stimulation of serotonin.
They are born with the ability to fly and powerful sonic attacks. Their appearance means that the threat to the mana ecosystem is no longer limited to the ground. The ocean is no longer safe either, and the air and the open sea have become new death zones.
This means that... the level of disaster faced by the remaining human beings has risen to another level.
……
Unit in unknown waters southeast of the Western Pacific Ocean, Coastal Alliance Third Search Fleet.
The Hope Probe and its two escort vessels comprise a total of 87 people, including six Tier 3 Awakened, searching for data and usable supplies left behind by the old-era maritime research station.
Weather conditions: overcast, light fog over the sea, winds gradually picking up, a storm is brewing.
On the bridge of the Probe, the old captain Wang Lei gripped his brass binoculars tightly, his wrinkled eyes narrowed as he warily scanned the horizon shrouded in a thin mist.
Wang Lei's second-in-command, Li Zheng, the ship's chief awakener, was standing to the side with his arms crossed.
On his bare, bronze forearms, a barely perceptible metallic sheen occasionally flashed across his skin—an unconscious manifestation of his body-hardening ability, passively activated.
"The magnetic field in this godforsaken place is as chaotic as a pot of porridge; the GPS is practically spinning like a top."
Wang Lei put down his binoculars and said in a hoarse voice, "Captain Li, get your men on their toes. I have a feeling something's not right; it's too quiet."
Li Zheng nodded and whispered into the communicator, "Ling Tong, Shui Gui, Yan Wei... you guys stay on high alert and report any developments immediately."
"Spirit Eye" Li Sha, a third-tier Awakened with enhanced vision, is located in the watchtower.
Her pupils glowed faintly, piercing through the thin mist like a hawk's.
“No visible threat detected, Captain, but there is a slight, very faint anomaly in the airborne bio-material readings, and we cannot pinpoint the source.” Her voice carried a hint of confusion.
Another third-tier awakened being, "Water Ghost" Chen Tao, was listening underwater using sonar in the ship's lower deck.
"The underwater area is quiet, no abnormalities have been detected yet, everything is normal... wait..."
He paused suddenly, "There's a strange interference noise, um, it's coming from, from above, like high-frequency vibrations..."
He didn't finish his words.
"call out!!!!"
A terrifying howl, indescribable in its sharpness yet mixed with a deep bass, descended from the sky like an invisible giant hammer, instantly piercing through the entire fleet.
The first sonic strike was like an invisible hammer.
"Ugh!"
“My head!!”
"Captain, something terrible has happened! All electronic equipment has malfunctioned and is unusable."
Inside the bridge, the glass observation windows shattered instantly into a spiderweb pattern.
Sparks flew from all the screens, black smoke billowed out, and the piercing alarm stopped abruptly halfway through its blare.
Most of the ordinary armed crew members rolled on the ground in agony, clutching their ears, blood seeping from their eyes, ears, nose and mouth, instantly losing their fighting ability.
Captain Wang Lei felt as if he had been struck in the chest, and he coughed up a mouthful of blood, collapsing onto the cockpit. After all, he was only a first-tier ability user, with only sailing experience, and was not good at combat or defense.
Even Li Zheng was stunned by the sudden sonic shock, his body trembling violently. He forced himself to steady himself and roared, "Enemy attack! They're high in the sky, flying units! Open fire!"
His voice sounded weak and feeble amidst the terrifying howls.
On the watchtower, "Spirit Eye" Li Sha was the first to be hit; her enhanced vision and hearing became fatal weaknesses at this moment.
The high-frequency sound waves directly damaged her sensory system. She screamed in agony, blood streaming from her eyes, and fell from the tall watchtower.
At the same time, the mist was torn apart, and dozens of huge black shadows, like demons bursting out of hell, swooped down at an astonishing speed.