Chapter 341 Blindly Descending Spores and Greatsword Interception
Lunar Rail Station No. 1.
Three huge titanium steel tanks were roughly welded together.
There's no streamlined outer shell. There's no rotating ring like those in science fiction movies used to simulate gravity.
It resembles a lump of iron covered in barbs, suspended alone in a very low orbit fifty kilometers above the lunar surface.
Inside the patrol cabin, the temperature was kept firmly locked at a slightly chilly seventeen degrees Celsius.
The air circulation system emitted a monotonous hissing sound.
The filter had a lingering smell of engine oil and ozone.
Station Chief Chu Gang, with an unlit cigarette dangling from his lips, stared intently at the deep-space radar in front of him.
The entire Station 1 is sliding into the far side of the moon at a speed of 1.6 kilometers per second.
Below is absolute darkness.
"Cut off the active sound." Chu Gang flattened his cigarette butt.
"Passive optical array at maximum capacity. Microwave background radiation receiver at full load."
The navigator's hands rapidly tapped on the physical keyboard.
The cabin lights automatically dimmed.
On the screen, the outline of the Aitken Basin resembled a huge black scar.
Sudden.
The lower left corner of optical screen number three flickered without warning.
There was no red dot alarm.
No high-energy radiation readings were found.
However, a portion of the background starlight in that area was "erased".
The navigator sat up abruptly, his fingers hovering over the control panel.
"Station admin, coordinates 044, 712. Starlight refractive index anomaly."
Chu Gang leaned closer.
The screen zoomed in dramatically.
At an altitude of eight thousand meters above the lunar surface, directly above the Black Gate.
A shapeless, black mass, like ink dripping into water, slowly spreads in a vacuum.
It does not emit any heat.
Even the gravity reading is zero.
But it's floating upwards.
Against the moon's weak gravity, it headed straight for the patrol track of Lunar Orbiter Station 1.
"What is that?" the navigator asked, his voice dry.
"I don't know. There's nothing on the radar. It doesn't reflect electromagnetic waves."
Chu Gang stared at the ever-growing blob of "ink".
The edges of the space around it present a nauseating sense of distortion.
It's like a photograph that's been burned and melted at the edges, revealing the underlying color.
"One hundred and twenty seconds until contact."
Chu Gang slammed down the red physical button on the main control panel.
The piercing battle alarms blared simultaneously inside the three titanium steel canisters.
"Level 1 combat readiness."
"Aren't we going to consult Kyoto?" The navigator gripped the control stick tightly, his knuckles turning white.
"By the time the signal travels back and forth, this thing will be smeared in our faces!"
Chu Gang pulled down the holographic sight.
"Main guns warming up. Psionic orbital arrays one and two."
"Load the [Extreme Sun] heavy armor-piercing projectile."
Following the instructions.
The thick armor on the outside of Station One split open to both sides.
Two giant electromagnetic railguns, each thirty meters long, protruded into deep space.
There are no complicated spell effects.
Only an extremely pure physical coil is charging, emitting a piercing buzzing sound.
The robotic arm is in operation.
Two solid star iron pillars, each weighing one ton and engraved with patterns of extreme yang remnant flames, were roughly pushed into the cannon barrel.
"Eighty kilometers away."
"Fifty kilometers."
The blob of black ink magnified rapidly on the optical screen.
It detected the presence of the orbital station.
Its originally slowly drifting form instantly changed, elongating into dozens of sharp black tentacles.
Like a black umbrella torn apart by a gale, it rushed towards Station One.
The speed instantly broke the sound barrier.
No sound can be heard in a vacuum.
There was only extreme silence and a sense of oppression.
Chu Gang gripped the trigger tightly.
"Fire!"
boom!
Two blinding orange-red flames instantly traversed fifty kilometers of deep space.
A one-ton Star Iron armor-piercing projectile, with an initial velocity of six kilometers per second, slammed into that mass of black tentacles.
on the screen.
The black tentacles, upon contact with the star iron, frantically coiled around it like living things.
They were not smashed.
They are trying to devour this enormous physical kinetic energy.
However, the [Extreme Yang Remnant Flame Array Pattern] inside the Star Iron was triggered.
The extreme high temperature, without oxygen to aid combustion in the vacuum, directly ignited the compressed spiritual pressure inside the star iron.
A blindingly white spherical flash exploded in deep space.
It's like lighting up a miniature sun on the far side of the moon.
The black ink was instantly torn apart by the white light.
Countless tentacles twisted and carbonized wildly in the high temperature.
In the end, it turned into a deathly gray residue, scattered in the moon's gravitational field.
Inside Station 1.
Chu Gang gasped for breath, staring intently at the optical screen.
The white light dissipated.
The black monster disappeared.
"Did I hit it...?" The navigator gripped the handrail tightly, breathing heavily.
Chu Gang did not relax.
He zoomed in with the high-powered lens to where the black ink was rising.
The far side of the moon.
There.
The place where the first blob of ink just appeared.
A second clump of oozing out.
The Third Regiment.
Fourth Regiment.
They look like broken drain pipes.
It is continuously being squeezed out from the cracks beneath the lunar crust.
It spread silently into deep space.
They were densely packed, like a rising black cloud of spores.
Chu Gang abruptly pulled out the communicator.
"Kyoto! Hirohan! This is the first station on the Moon Rail!"
"The black door didn't open! But its spatial rift leaked out!"
"Unidentified biomass is leaking out!"
……
Guanghan Base. Central Control Room.
Xu Zhao forcibly switched the piercing red alarm sound to a silent flashing mode.
On the screen, countless tiny black dots pierced through the fire network of Station One, blindly descending towards the base under microgravity.
"They have no vision, and no coordinates."
Xu Zhao's hands flew across the keyboard. "This is indiscriminate overflow. They're blindly descending."
"Push the output power of the Taiyin condenser to the maximum."
"As long as the outer shell of the formation holds up and physical contact doesn't occur, they won't be able to find us!"
"stop."
Chen Ge strode to the control panel and grabbed Xu Zhao's wrist.
Xu Zhao suddenly looked up: "Captain Chen? Without activating the highest defense, a few drops of black water could melt through the outer titanium steel!"
"Melting through is a minor issue. Being exposed is a major issue."
Chen Ge stared at the rain of black spores falling from the screen, his eyes extremely cold.
"The Taiyin Array is of the extreme cold attribute. That black water is high-dimensional pollution."
"Once they crash into the array's protective barrier, the clash of extreme cold and corrosive spiritual pressure will produce an extremely violent energy reaction."
Chen Ge tapped his fingers heavily on the screen.
"If we use an array to directly block this black water, the intense energy friction will be like lighting a giant glow stick in an absolutely dark room!"
"The Black Gate will instantly lock onto the coordinates of the Guanghan Base."
Xu Zhao's back instantly broke out in a cold sweat.
Chen Ge's war intuition was correct.
Passive defense is tantamount to actively feeding the coordinates to the monster below.
"What can we do? The base's outer shell can't be corroded, and we can't withstand the attacks head-on. Are we just going to watch them fall?"
"Push the defensive line out."
Chen Ge turned around and grabbed his fully enclosed tactical helmet.
"They didn't have any explosive properties in mid-air; it was just a pure physical descent."
"Before they hit the base's outer shell."
"Send someone to pick them up."
"Use your sword to cut it."
Chen Ge pressed the button for full-channel combat broadcast.
"All combat units. Except engineers."
"Put on your armor. Draw your sword."
"Come out with me."
……
Outside the No. 3 airlock. Buffer passage.
Five hundred troops stationed on the moon have been assembled.
There are no researchers here. They are all combat cultivators in the Golden Core and Foundation Establishment stages who have undergone rigorous vacuum combat training.
They were wearing a thickened version of the "Black Tortoise" type full-coverage exoskeleton.
The psionic reactor behind him emitted a low rumble.
Each person held a titanium steel heavy sword that had just been transported from Earth and even still bore the marks of forging.
Chen Ge stood at the very front of the line.
He was carrying a Star Iron Ship-Slaying Sword weighing 1,200 jin (approximately 600 kg).
"Listen carefully to my command!"
Chen Ge directly used his true energy to blast the sound into everyone's helmet.
"Our mission is to establish an absolute buffer zone three kilometers directly above the base!"
"Use the weapons in your hands to shatter the filth falling from the sky! Burn them to ashes with the extreme yang array patterns on your swords!"
"Nothing is allowed to touch the base's outer walls!"
"We must not reveal our location!"
"kill!"
Five hundred cultivators roared in unison.
The violent true energy surged within the sealed passage.
laugh--
The airlock suddenly swung open.
Five hundred heavy mechanical exoskeletons simultaneously ignited the recoil thrusters on their backs.
The blue-white tail flames drew five hundred straight, dazzling rays of light in the darkness of the moon's far side.
Like a group of steel meteors swimming against the current, they bravely broke through the concealment and camouflage layer of the Guanghan base.
……
Two kilometers above the lunar surface. A weightless vacuum region.
A black, viscous substance the size of a millstone was silently drifting down toward the base's dome.
boom!
Chen Ge's heavy armor shot out from below like a cannonball.
There was no dazzling sword light.
The 1,200-pound ship-slaying sword, carrying extremely pure physical kinetic energy, slammed into the center of that mass of black water.
The [Extreme Yang Remnant Flame Array Pattern] engraved on the blade was forcibly detonated by true energy the moment it made contact.
The black water emitted a silent shriek, attempting to wrap around Chen Ge's mechanical arm along the blade.
But the extreme heat and violent kinetic energy tore it apart, burning it into ashes that flew everywhere.
Chen Ge forcefully twisted the hydraulic rod around his waist in mid-air, causing the thrusters to spray out and stabilize his body.
"First team on the left flank! Second team on the right flank! Third team at the very front!"
"Spread out! Open your umbrellas!"
Five hundred renovation workers scattered in the vacuum.
The battle escalated rapidly.
Large and small black ink droplets kept falling from the sky.
The monks stood with their backs to deep space, facing the falling contamination.
The heavy titanium steel greatsword was wildly swung in the vacuum.
Each strike was accompanied by a brief burst of Extreme Yang True Fire.
A Foundation Establishment stage sword cultivator cleaved a mass of descending black water in two with a single sword strike.
But at the moment the black water burst, a few extremely tiny drops of residue splashed onto his shoulder armor.
stab-
A piercing, corrosive sound echoed through the bone conduction channel. The heavy Xuanwu armor, as if made of paper, was instantly burned through, leaving a hole.
The black mycelium frantically burrowed into his flesh, attempting to devour his vital energy.
"Get out!"
The sword cultivator's eyes widened without the slightest hesitation.
He gripped the heavy sword in a reverse grip and slashed it violently at his own shoulder.
The blunt, heavy sword blade, imbued with the true fire of extreme yang, along with the entire piece of contaminated titanium steel armor and a large chunk of flesh and blood imbued with true essence, was forcibly sliced off by him and kicked far away.
There were no screams.
The only sounds were heavy breathing and the hissing of the exoskeleton's automatic hemostatic spray.
He gripped the heavy sword tightly with one hand, ignited the thruster again, and charged towards the next plume of black water.
This is humanity's defense line.
Avoid using high-frequency arrays for direct fire to prevent revealing the base's coordinates.
Using flesh and blood, steel, and extreme physical violence, a protective umbrella of flesh and blood with a diameter of five kilometers was erected around the Guanghan base.
……
Earth. Kyoto Joint Control Room.
On the large screen, the green dots representing life signs around the Guanghan base are colliding violently with the black dots representing pollution.
Wang Mingyuan stared intently at the screen.
"The casualty rate is rising." The adjutant's voice trembled. "Should we issue close air support to Station One?"
"No. The main guns at Station One will make too much noise and draw Black Gate's attention to the defense line."
Wang Mingyuan remained unmoved.
His gaze was fixed on the teleportation array at the core of the Guanghan Base, which was emitting a faint light.
"Chen Ge made the right decision."
Wang Mingyuan's voice was cold and hard: "Using the most primitive slashing to intercept the blindly descending spores is the only way that won't expose the spiritual pressure fluctuations of the Guanghan Base."
"He's using human lives to buy time for the base to remain hidden."
Wang Mingyuan turned to look at the logistics minister.
"Are the supplies on Earth ready?"
The logistics minister, sweating profusely, nodded vigorously.
"The three thousand heavy swords that just rolled off the production line at Third Heavy Industry, along with the remaining Extreme Yang True Fire purified liquid, have all been loaded into the teleportation chamber. They are ready to be sent at any time."
"Activate the formation."
Wang Mingyuan issued the order.
"Tell the Guanghan Base: as long as they're still holding out outside, Earth's resources will always be sufficient!"
……
The Moon. Deep within the Guanghan Base.
The teleportation array emitted a blinding white light.
Three seconds.
Three seconds later, the heavy cargo hold slammed onto the unloading platform.
A large amount of condensed liquid from the moon washed away the ground, erasing all traces.
Ma Cheng, leading his engineering corps, charged forward like madmen.
The crowbar was used to break open the alloy lock.
One after another, titanium steel heavy swords, still warm from being forged in Earth's armory, were roughly pulled out.
"The sword cultivators at the front lines are running out of their Extreme Yang Enchantment! Hurry!"
Ma Cheng hung two heavy fuel canisters around his neck and grabbed three heavy swords.
"Construction crew! Everyone act as transport soldiers! Send these things to our brothers in heaven!"
There was no excuse. There was no fear.
Dozens of engineering monks, carrying heavy weapons and ammunition, rushed through the airlock towards the silent battlefield outside.
Blood is flowing on the front lines.
Logistics are running at full speed.
Humanity, this massive war machine, is now locked together between the Earth and the Moon.
……