Chapter 350 The Nine Provinces Barrier Officially Opens

"Crackling sound—!"

A thick, dark blue arc of electricity, visible to the naked eye, shot up along the rocks at the edge of the sinkhole and slammed into the tracks of a heavy engineering mech.

"Warning! The main control board is experiencing strong electromagnetic pulse interference! System is restarting..."

Inside the mech's cockpit, a piercing, synthesized voice echoed wildly. The pilot, sweating profusely, frantically pounded on the blacked-out control panel, shouting, "Move! Move it!"

"Stop filming! Abandon the vehicle! Physically cut off the power! Everyone unplug external power and retreat two kilometers!"

Zhao Yi yanked open the armored door of the cockpit, grabbed the engineer who was still struggling with the control lever with one arm, and threw him onto the gravel ground behind him.

The gale, carrying icy snowflakes, stung people's faces like knives.

The sky above Death Valley was completely black. These weren't ordinary storm clouds, but a thick, leaden-gray storm cloud so heavy it seemed poised to crush the entire Kunlun Mountains. There was no muffled thunder within the cloud, only an extremely high-frequency, teeth-grinding hissing sound of electrical discharges.

This is the underlying rule of this world, a warning to that colossal being beyond its limits.

"Professor Wang! The electric field strength above Kunlun has exceeded the peak value of the measuring instrument! This is not a conventional discharge; it's a plasma column at the level of tens of millions of volts!"

In the underground control room in Kyoto, a meteorologist pressed his earpiece, which was emitting static noise, against his head and shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Disconnect conventional optical monitoring of the Kunlun node! Activate the deep spiritual pressure detection array!"

Wang Mingyuan gasped for breath, his chest heaving violently. "The lightning tribulation struck; it's invisible to the naked eye and even ordinary cameras!"

The image on the big screen instantly switched to a dark green spiritual pressure topology map.

The very next second after the switch was completed.

"boom--!!!"

A blinding bolt of lightning, over thirty meters in diameter, carrying devastating kinetic energy, tore through the thick, leaden-gray clouds and crashed down with incredible precision toward the No. 9 cauldron at the bottom of the sinkhole!

Bottom of the sinkhole.

Faced with this overwhelming force descending from the heavens, Gu Qing neither drew his sword nor raised his protective true essence.

He stood on the deep, inky black star iron base, tilting his head back, his dark pupils reflecting the lightning that filled the sky.

"Fourteen thousand modules are assembled into an array through physical contact, and there will inevitably be microscopic losses in the transmission of spiritual energy."

Gu Qing's lips curled into an extremely arrogant smile. "Since the earth's ley lines aren't hot enough, then I'll borrow your lightning to completely weld these array patterns together!"

He suddenly raised his hands, his fingers clenching tightly in mid-air.

The lightning bolt that was supposed to strike his head was forcibly diverted when it came into contact with the divine sense barrier emitted by Gu Qing!

The thick bolt of lightning was forcibly split into tens of thousands of fine electric snakes.

Under Gu Qing's guidance, these electric snakes seemed to come alive, precisely drilling into the array patterns connecting the more than ten thousand modules of the No. 9 Cauldron!

"Buzz—!!!!"

There was no hissing sound of melting metal, only an extremely loud spiritual resonance that seemed capable of shattering the soul, which exploded in the heart of Kunlun.

This is Gu Qing's doing!

The modules of the No. 9 Cauldron are interconnected by forming circuits based on the synchronized frequency of their array formations. However, under the frenzied clash of extreme Yin and extreme Yang energies, these independently operating sub-arrays are at risk of collapsing at any moment.

Now, Gu Qing used the lightning of the Heavenly Tribulation to forcibly act as a planetary-level "array conductor"!

Billions of volts of high voltage and lightning imbued with the laws of heaven danced wildly within the array patterns of the star iron module. The violent power of the lightning directly pierced through the slight obstruction between the different array patterns, and the extreme yang and extreme yin energies, catalyzed by the lightning and fire, instantly achieved a perfect balance!

The engravings on the surfaces of tens of thousands of modules were completely connected in the electric light, forming a flawless and seamless massive spiritual energy loop!

"The spiritual pressure is in a closed loop! The module array of Cauldron Nine has overlapped!"

In the control room, Lin Feng watched as the red lights representing the breaks in the array patterns disappeared at a visible speed. He practically lay face down in front of the screen, roaring, "It's no longer ten thousand parts... it's become a complete whole at the array level!"

The lightning tribulation did not stop.

Seemingly enraged by this act of "using the might of heaven to set up an array," the second and third lightning pillars struck down one after another, even carrying a faint purple aura of destruction.

But in front of the No. 9 Cauldron, which had been completely integrated with it, these lightning strikes became the perfect source of energy!

Each time it was struck by lightning, the towering steel cauldron, thousands of meters tall, emitted a deep, earth-shaking roar. The array patterns on its surface became brighter and brighter, and even faintly emitted a gray halo that blocked all detection.

"The last one."

Gu Qing looked at the purple tribulation cloud in the sky that was rapidly shrinking and brewing its final blow.

He slowly closed his eyes and stomped heavily on the base with one foot.

"Start the battle."

Om-!

Following Gu Qing's command, Cauldron No. 9 was fully awakened.

It no longer passively received the attack, but instead, like a giant spiritual pressure black hole, it actively unleashed a terrifying suction force, violently swallowing the purple lightning bolt in the sky that hadn't yet struck down, along with the entire cloud of tribulation!

A deep echo resounded from the depths of the earth.

The next second, the millions of array patterns inside the No. 9 cauldron simultaneously erupted with dazzling purple-gold light!

Unlike the previous eight cauldrons, this beam of light did not shoot straight into the sky. Instead, it followed the earth's veins and spread wildly in all directions at an extremely terrifying speed!

……

Kyoto Joint Control Room.

"Bang!"

Wang Mingyuan gripped the edge of the table tightly, his knuckles turning white, his eyes fixed on the large screen.

On the holographic projection.

The huge red dot representing the Kunlun No. 9 Cauldron instantly turned into a dazzling purple-gold color.

Immediately afterwards, thick energy chains, like glowing blood vessels illuminating the Earth's skeleton, started from Kunlun and rapidly connected to Mount Tai, Changbai Mountain, and Chengdu...

"The eight cauldrons are responding! The resonance rate of the nine cauldrons has exceeded 100%!" Lin Feng's voice trembled.

The moment when all nine nodes are completely connected.

Around the world, whether it's workers repairing arsenals in ruins, soldiers maintaining order on the streets, or civilians hiding in underground air-raid shelters.

Everyone felt the ground beneath their feet suddenly sink, then lighten again.

In the sky, the atmosphere, which had been somewhat murky, suddenly rippled with a visible bluish-gray hue.

This ripple rose from the nine famous mountain nodes, rapidly intertwining and merging at an altitude of 20,000 meters. It wasn't the fragile, crystal-clear shield from fantasy novels, but a massive armored net with a heavy metallic texture and a matte, explosion-proof coating!

"The atmospheric shielding array has been successfully reassembled!"

"Space curvature anchoring successful! Earth's coordinates are locked!"

"[The Nine Provinces Barrier]... Officially activated!"

No one cheered in the entire control room.

Everyone, including Wang Mingyuan, seemed to have all their strength drained away, and collapsed into their chairs in exhaustion.

"The shield... has been breached," he muttered to himself.

……

380,000 kilometers away.

Above the Guanghan base. A two-kilometer vacuum defense line.

Chen Ge floated breathlessly in the vacuum. The armor on his right arm was completely destroyed, and a broken limb was deeply stuck in the gap between his shoulder blades. The automatic hemostatic spray inside the mecha was almost empty.

"Captain Chen... the suction has stopped."

The vice-captain, coughing up blood, approached in his battered mech.

Ahead of them, the spatial rift that Gu Qing had forcibly cut open was slowly closing.

The first wave of void entities that emerged from the black gate, having had their extreme yin essence drained, had long since turned into countless black ashes, slowly dissipating under microgravity. The black gate deep within the Aitken Basin also fell into a suffocating silence.

"We survived?" a recruit gasped over the channel.

Chen Ge did not answer. He slowly turned around and looked into the distant deep space through the cracked mask.

380,000 kilometers away.

That once azure mother planet is now undergoing an extremely shocking transformation.

A thin, bluish-gray light curtain, exuding a heavy industrial feel, is like a tailor-made heavy armor, tightly enveloping the entire Earth.

Even from such a great distance, the five hundred surviving defenders could clearly feel the vast and profound sense of human industrial civilization and endless earth veins emanating from the armor.

"Captain Chen..." The vice-captain looked at the planet protected under the shield, his voice choked with emotion.

Chen Ge raised his still-functioning left hand and wiped the black bloodstains from his mask. He looked at the shield, forged with the combined power of all humanity, and a weary yet cold, hard smile appeared on his lips.

"Um."

Chen Ge took a deep breath and heavily slung the dulled ship-slaying sword back onto the back of his mech.

"The house is safe now. Next, it's our turn to play with these bastards inside."