The ice soul power erupted.
The giant man's body began to freeze from his forehead, deep blue frost spreading rapidly to cover his entire frame.
On his twisted face, an expression of terror was frozen forever.
Jiang Lin withdrew his sword and continued forward.
A second Abyss Lord lunged from the side, his spear thrusting out like a venomous dragon.
The Shadow of Blood shifted a step to the side, its blood-colored longsword precisely striking the tip of the spear.
Clang!
Amidst the deafening sound of clashing metal, the spear shattered inch by inch.
The Shadow of Blood did not stop its momentum, piercing straight into the Abyss Lord's chest.
The third, the fourth, the fifth...
Jiang Lin and the Shadow of Blood were like two sharp blades, carving two crimson trails through the Dark Moon Altar's complex.
The thirteen Abyss Lords were each 3rd-rank peak powerhouses who had once struck terror into the hearts of Ember.
But before Jiang Lin, they were as fragile as paper.
One strike, one kill.
By the time the last Abyss Lord's corpse fell into a pool of blood, Jiang Lin was already standing before the gates at the deepest part of the altar.
It was a massive gate ten meters high, cast entirely from dark red crystallized material, its surface carved with countless twisted faces and patterns of Aberrants.
A dark red light leaked from the gap in the door, accompanied by a low, heartbeat-like throb.
Jiang Lin raised his hand and pushed the door.
The massive gate slid open silently.
Behind the door was a vast circular hall with a dome thirty meters high, constructed entirely of translucent crystallized material.
Dark red light fell from the dome, making the entire hall look as if it were soaked in blood.
In the center of the hall was an altar built from the skeletal remains of countless Aberrants.
At the top of the altar, a figure sat quietly in meditation.
It was a woman.
She wore a dark red robe that spread across the skeletal altar like a pool of congealed blood.
Her face was pale and exquisite, her eyes were tightly closed, and her lips were slightly upturned in an eerie curve.
The most striking feature was her hair.
It was a long mane of dark red hair that looked like burning flames, swaying slowly behind her even though there was no wind.
“Are you the leader of this group?”
Jiang Lin asked calmly.
The woman opened her eyes. Without a word of explanation, she rushed toward Jiang Lin.
Jiang Lin raised the Eight Extremities Holy Sword, pointing the tip of the blade at Shadow Moon's forehead.
He didn't waste any more words either. Taking a step forward, the deep blue ice soul power began to condense at the tip of his sword.
“Die!”
Shadow Moon shrieked. The dark red mist around her surged frantically, turning into countless tentacles that shot toward Jiang Lin!
Jiang Lin did not dodge.
He simply swung his sword lightly.
As the sword light swept past, all the tentacles froze simultaneously, deep blue frost flowers appearing on their surfaces before they shattered into countless ice crystals.
Shadow Moon's pupils constricted, and she retreated rapidly.
But Jiang Lin's sword was faster.
First Style · Frost Condensation.
The sword moved without a shadow; only a tiny speck of deep blue frost quietly appeared on Shadow Moon's forehead.
Her body froze in place. In her dark red eyes, the two swirling flames began to slowly fade.
A one-shot kill!
Shadow Moon's body began to disintegrate. Starting from her forehead, deep blue frost rapidly spread, covering her entire body.
“Mozos... will not let you off...” her final voice was like a flickering candle in the wind. “It... is already... waiting for you...”
As her voice fell, her body completely turned into ice crystals, reflecting a tragic yet beautiful glow under the dark red sky before slowly scattering away.
Jiang Lin stood where he was, watching the ice crystals dissipate in the wind.
“I know,” he said softly. “I'm waiting for it too.”
The destruction of the Dark Moon Altar caused a massive shock within Ember.
When the silver-haired woman led a small team to the complex surrounded by the Blood Demon Legion, all she saw were the corpses of the Abyss Lords scattered across the ground, cultists fleeing in all directions, and the massive gate pushed open at the deepest part of the altar.
“Where is the Pope?”
she asked.
Jiang Lin stood at the top of the altar, his golden hair fluttering in the wind.
“Dead.”
“What about the body?”
“There is no body.”
The silver-haired woman fell silent for a moment and didn't ask further.
She simply turned and gave orders to the Emberflame members behind her.
“Search the entire altar and destroy all items related to the evil god. Detain the cultists on the spot and wait for headquarters to send people to handle them.”
The orders were quickly executed.
Emberflame members moved through the ruins, escorting cultists who had lost the will to resist and collecting scattered documents and items.
The Dark Moon Altar, a tumor that had occupied the East Continent for three hundred years, was finally completely uprooted in a single day.
Jiang Lin did not participate in the subsequent cleanup work.
He stood at the top of the altar, his gaze looking further north toward that pale ice field.
The Eternal Frost Ruins.
The Old World Remnants. The Ark shelter.
It was time to find them.
...
The Eternal Frost Ruins were located at the northernmost tip of the East Continent, a vast wasteland covered in myriad-year ice.
The temperature here remained below minus sixty degrees Celsius year-round. Even the air was frozen into tiny ice crystals that made a fine rustling sound in the wind.
Pollution was so thin here it was almost imperceptible, but it was replaced by another even more lethal threat—extreme cold.
Jiang Lin stood at the edge of the Eternal Frost Ruins, the constant-temperature protective suit on his body running at full power, a faint golden glow isolating him from the outside world.
At the same time, the ice soul power within his body flowed, shielding him from the final layer of extreme cold.
Behind him, a hundred thousand Blood Demons stood silently on the ice field.
Thick frost condensed on the bone wings of the crimson claw-wings, the joints of the Bloodblade Butchers creaked in the low temperature, and the tiny bones of the cursed blood bone dolls trembled slightly in the wind.
But not a single Blood Demon retreated.
Jiang Lin withdrew his gaze and took a locator from his spatial ring.
On the screen, a silver-white dot was flashing. Those were the coordinates Dr. Villa had reverse-located based on multiple abnormal signals, deep within the Eternal Frost Ruins, about three hundred kilometers from here.
“Move out.”
He leaped onto the back of a 3rd-rank peak crimson claw-wing. The hundred thousand Blood Demons followed closely behind, spreading out into a crimson torrent stretching for a hundred miles across the pale ice field.
The ice field of the Eternal Frost Ruins was even more deathly silent than the outside world. There were no Aberrants here, no pollution, and even the wind seemed frozen.
There was only the boundless white ice, reflecting an eerie pale blue luster under the dark red sky.
After traveling for about two hours, an abnormal area appeared on the ice ahead.
It was a massive depression over ten kilometers in diameter, like a giant crater smashed by a meteorite.
The walls of the pit were steep layers of ice, their surfaces smooth as mirrors, reflecting a seven-colored glow under the dark red sky.
The outlines of buildings could be faintly seen at the bottom of the pit.
Massive domes, towering antennas, and dense metal structures.
“The Ark shelter.”
Jiang Lin had the Blood Demon Legion stop at the edge of the pit, then leaped off the crimson claw-wing alone and walked toward the bottom.
The ice creaked under his feet, each step kicking up fine ice crystals.
When he reached the massive metal door in the center of the pit floor, the door slid open silently.
Behind the door was a vast space with a dome a hundred meters high, embedded with countless light panels emitting soft white light.
The floor was polished metal, and the air was filled with the scent of disinfectant and some kind of lubricant.
Dozens of people in white protective suits stood behind the door, holding various weapons.
They weren't swords or blades, but precision energy firearms.
Leading them was an old man with white hair. He wore thick goggles, and his face was covered in wrinkles, but his eyes were exceptionally bright.
“You've finally come.”
The old man's voice was raspy and calm, as if he had been waiting for this moment for a long time.
“You knew I was coming?”
“Of course.” The old man stepped aside and made a gesture of invitation. “In three hundred years, you are the first person to make Mozos feel threatened. We have been watching you.”
Jiang Lin followed him deep into the shelter.
Along the way, he saw the full extent of this shelter.
It was more advanced and more massive than the Ember Headquarters.
Underground farms, breeding farms, factories, laboratories...
Every area was orderly and well-equipped.
The people here wore clean uniforms, and their faces lacked the despair and exhaustion seen outside, showing only a near-mechanical calm.
“I am the Chief Scientist of the Ark shelter. You can call me ‘Zero’.”
The old man led Jiang Lin into a massive laboratory. Holographic projection light expanded in the air, revealing a 3D map of the West Continent.
“Three hundred years ago, our ancestors sought to escape this disaster.
“They built the Ark to preserve the seeds of human civilization.
“But we didn't expect Mozos to bind itself to this world.
“As long as it doesn't die, the pollution will not disappear, and we will never be able to return to the surface.”
He paused, his gaze falling on Jiang Lin.
“And you are the first hope we have seen in three hundred years.”
“I need your help,” Jiang Lin said, getting straight to the point. “I want to kill Mozos, but its physical body is outside the planet. I need a way to leave this planet.”
Zero was silent for a moment before pulling up another set of data.
It was a structural diagram of a rocket: a massive fuselage, complex engines, a precision navigation system...
Everything was far beyond Jiang Lin's imagination.
“We still have three intact launch vehicles sealed in the launch silos deep within the shelter. They can send a payload into low Earth orbit, or even further.”
Zero led Jiang Lin through corridors with multiple layers of verification to a massive gate at the deepest part of the shelter.
Behind the gate was a circular launch silo over fifty meters in diameter.
The walls of the silo were dense with complex pipes and cables, and at the bottom stood an entirely silver-white rocket. The word “Ark” was printed on the fuselage along with a string of faded serial numbers.
“This is the ‘Hope’.”
Zero's voice echoed in the cavernous launch silo.
“Three hundred years ago, it was supposed to carry the first batch of colonists to a neighboring planet. But then Mozos descended, and all plans were shelved.”
Jiang Lin walked to the edge of the launch silo and looked up at the massive rocket.
The silver-white fuselage glinted coldly under the lights, and the payload bay at the top was open, revealing the dense equipment and lines inside.
“How big is the payload bay?”
“Five meters in diameter and twelve meters in length.”
Jiang Lin closed his eyes, his mind sinking into his body.
The Shadow of Blood separated from his body, turning into a streak of crimson light that hovered by his side.
“Can it withstand the g-force during launch?”
Zero pulled up a set of data.
“The launch g-force is about five Gs, lasting for one hundred and twenty seconds.
“Even an ordinary person with training can withstand it.
“The real challenges are the space environment—vacuum, radiation, extreme temperature differences—and most importantly, the unknowns after breaking through the world shackles.”
“Then let's try it.” Jiang Lin opened his eyes. “When can we launch?”
“Three days at the earliest. We need to check the rocket's status, refuel it, and debug the navigation system. But there is one problem...”
Zero paused, his voice turning low.
“The launch window.
“The Hope's orbit is fixed. It can only send the payload into geostationary orbit above the equator.
“If this clone of yours is to stay there long-term, we need to establish a space station there as its base.”
“A space station?”
“Before the Great Cataclysm, we had three space stations in geostationary orbit.”
Zero pulled up a holographic image.
“Two of them have already crashed, but ‘Ark One’ is still there.
“Its position is exactly at the end of the launch window. If everything goes smoothly, the Shadow of Blood can be sent directly into the space station.”
In the holographic image, a massive ring-shaped space station rotated slowly in the starry sky.
The silver-white outer shell bore the words “Ark One,” and its solar panels were spread out like giant wings.
“Is the space station still functional?”
“I'm not sure.” Zero shook his head. “It's been three hundred years; most systems have likely failed.
“But at the very least, it can provide a relatively safe base. The Shadow of Blood can stay there long-term and wait for subsequent supplies.”
“Then it's settled.” Jiang Lin turned around. “Launch in three days. During these three days, I need as many Blood Demons as possible. We can't stop on the West Continent side either.”
The next three days were the busiest Planet Teluofuto had seen in three hundred years.
Inside the Ark shelter, engineers worked day and night to check the rocket's status, refuel it, and debug the navigation system.
The launch silo was brightly lit, the sparks from welding flickering in the dim space, and the creaking of rotating crane arms intertwined with the humming of instruments.
The Ember Headquarters was likewise running at high speed.
Dr. Villa led his team to work around the clock, transporting seeds and embryos from the gene bank to various outposts in batches.
The scale of the breeding farms tripled in just three days, and the production lines at the feed processing plant increased from three to ten.
The silver-haired woman was responsible for coordinating all forces, continuously transporting the materials needed by the Blood Demon Legion to the front lines.
Meanwhile, Jiang Lin put all his energy into summoning Blood Demons.
On the plains outside the Rust Mine, a new flesh-and-blood accumulation site was forming.
The remains of Aberrants transported from all over the Corrupted Plains were piled high here, like a silent graveyard under the dark red sky.
Jiang Lin sat cross-legged in the center of the Sea of Blood, circulating his breathing technique to its limit, continuously transforming that flesh into new Blood Demons.
Three days later, when the first light of dawn pierced through the pollution clouds, the number of the Blood Demon Legion surpassed 1.5 million.
1.5 million Blood Demons stood silently on the plains outside the Rust Mine.
Launch day.
Ark shelter, launch silo.
Jiang Lin stood at the edge of the launch silo, watching the Shadow of Blood and a hundred 3rd-rank elite Blood Demons walk into the payload bay. The hatch closed, and the airtight lock engaged with a dull metallic thud.
“Countdown, ten minutes.”
Zero's voice came over the intercom, as calm as if he were reading an experimental report.
...
Rate on N.U.
