Chapter 228 - 212: A Narrow Escape

Chapter 228: Chapter 212: A Narrow Escape

Inside the vehicle, Ye Qingniao could no longer hold back. She pressed both hands against a piece of exposed metal on the vehicle’s body, took a deep breath, and clenched her jaw. Her bulging combat suit tightened once more as sparks of electricity overflowed from her bright eyes...

"Come on...!"

A faint CRACKLE of electricity flowed from her palms into the armor plating, traveling along the metal hull toward the spear, where it mingled with the charge at the spear’s tip.

BZZT—

Dark blue electrical light surged from the tip of the spear, which had pierced the cage and was now angled toward the sky. It formed microscopic links with every falling raindrop, and countless invisible, minute arcs of electricity spread between heaven and earth like a web of silk...

At this very moment, under the influence of her power, the entire structure had become a super lightning rod giving the middle finger to the sky!

Her lightning-type Superpower erupted from within her. This energy followed the pathway she had just created, shooting straight into the storm clouds raging outside, which were saturated with a violent electrical charge!

VMMMM—!

It was as if time froze in that instant.

An unprecedented, soul-shuddering, terrifying pressure descended in a flash!

It was the primal roar of the planet’s power, the sword of judgment that could tear the heavens and earth asunder.

It was as if an invisible wire had connected between the clouds, and the long-brewing thunderstorm had finally found an outlet.

KRA-KOOOM—!!!!

A clap of thunder so loud it could have deafened the three of them, even inside the cage, exploded through the air!

If Lin Fan had been standing outside, he would have seen a searing bolt of heavenly lightning—thicker than a water bucket and so bright it looked black at its core—pierce the rain, tear apart the night, and strike with perfect precision onto the section of the spear tip exposed to the outside!

Even the system-forged alloy spearhead from Lin Fan didn’t last a single microsecond against the tens of thousands of degrees of plasma. It instantly melted, warped, and even evaporated into wisps of metallic vapor!

Compared to this pillar of lightning that connected heaven and earth, the bolt Ye Qingniao had previously summoned herself was like a wet noodle trying to pick a fight with a steel beam!

BZZZZ—

The violent, majestic power of nature surged down the spear—a perfect conductor—and poured instantly into the enclosed biological cage!

In that instant, the world lost all color.

The spear, the armored vehicle, the severed skull, the entire massive, fleshy cage—and even Lin Fan and Ye Qingniao inside the vehicle—were instantly engulfed by a blue-white plasma so dazzling it was impossible to look at, almost appearing liquefied!

Inside the vehicle, Cheng Qi—who had his feet off the floor and was huddled tightly in the insulated driver’s seat, far from any metal conductors—shivered with his head in his hands, feeling every single one of his hairs stand on end.

’This is beyond the scope of a Superpower.’

’This is a true natural disaster!’

"SKREEE—!!!"

The entire tentacle cage instantly let out a horrific, bloodcurdling scream!

It wasn’t a sound, but the shriek of countless bundles of tentacles being carbonized by the high-voltage current in an instant!

The sound didn’t travel through the air; it bored directly into everyone’s minds through some kind of vibration.

The violent current spread madly from the point where the spear had pierced, turning the entire cage into a gigantic "electric chair."

The tentacle walls, once incomparably tough and capable of infinite regeneration, instantly boiled, scorched, and carbonized under hundreds of millions of volts and tens of thousands of degrees of heat!

The severed skull of "Jiang Jing," which Lin Fan had tossed onto the roof of the armored vehicle, was instantly carbonized in the terrifying lightning strike without so much as a grunt, its life force completely annihilated.

The moment the lightning descended, Lin Fan summoned his greatsword and plunged it deep into the wall, redirecting all the arcs of electricity that cut through the air toward him back into the wall, joining the frenzied electrocution of the tentacles.

Even the one or two unruly arcs that managed to strike Lin Fan were instantly neutralized and annihilated by the faint blue crystalline armor shield on his body. It only cost him a negligible amount of Energy Value and was completely unable to penetrate his defense...

「Meanwhile, on a highway several kilometers away.」

The rain was coming down harder and faster, drumming against the roof of the vehicle. A thick, oppressive scent of blood filled the air inside, making it hard to breathe.

Liu Bin had the gas pedal floored, his hands gripping the steering wheel tightly. In the back seat, Chu Zhaozhao was curled up in a corner, gently holding a semi-conscious Su Qing, letting her lean against her.

Su Qing’s eyes were closed, her brow twitching and furrowing as if she were reliving the desperate battle in her dreams.

Just as a dead silence fell over the vehicle, the dark world in the rearview mirror was suddenly, without warning, illuminated!

"Holy shit! What is th—"

Liu Bin felt as if a blue-purple sun had suddenly ignited in the rearview mirror. The blinding glare made him instinctively squint, and his foot reflexively slammed on the brake.

SCREECH—!

The tires skidded on the slick road, and the vehicle lurched to a halt.

Su Qing, who had been resting with her eyes closed against Chu Zhaozhao, was jolted awake by the inertia. Gritting her teeth against the sharp pain in her chest, she instinctively turned her head to look out the window.

At the end of the endless, rainy night, in the direction of the ruins from which they had just narrowly escaped, a heart-stoppingly massive pillar of blue-white lightning shot upward like a sword of judgment, instantly piercing the thick storm clouds!

It was a light so absolute it tore the night asunder.

Only then did the delayed, rolling, thunderous roar follow.

RUUUUMBLE—!!!

A massive shockwave of sound and vibration swept toward them. Even from kilometers away, even through the pouring rain, the world-destroying, violent aura still made everyone’s heart tremble.

"That commotion... Was that a missile?"

Liu Bin stared, dumbfounded, at the lightning that connected heaven and earth, muttering to himself.

"No... not a missile." From the passenger seat, a weakened Zhang Wenyuan poked his head out, staring intently at the pillar of light. The shoulders that had been constantly tense finally relaxed, and he slumped back into his seat, murmuring, "It’s Cyan Bird. They’re still alive..."

"It’s Big Bro!" Chu Zhaozhao said with absolute certainty, though from where her confidence came, she didn’t know.

"It’s Lin Fan..." A smile tugged at the corners of Su Qing’s mouth. Each breath sent a searing pain through her chest, yet her face broke into the ugliest, yet most relieved, smile she had worn since the retreat. "I knew it..."

"Just drive. Don’t stop." She closed her eyes again. Her voice was weak, but it carried an unprecedented conviction. "We don’t need to worry about him. The one that should be worried is that monster."

Liu Bin froze for a second, then it dawned on him. The heavy gloom on his face was swept away. He roughly wiped the rain from his face and let out a loud laugh. "Hold on tight! We’re going after them!"

The engine roared to life again, its headlights piercing the darkness. Sent off by the rolling thunder, the vehicle plunged into the wind and rain ahead.

...

A few seconds later, the thunder subsided.

KNOCK, KNOCK!

"Are you okay?!"

He dismissed his greatsword, which was still smoking, and took a few steps to the armored vehicle, rapping his knuckles hard on the still-hot, bulletproof window.

"N-not... dead..."

Hearing the knock, Cheng Qi finally dared to lift his trembling head from his arms and look dazedly out the window.

The scene before him was a completely different world from just a few seconds ago.

The lightning had faded. The writhing, nauseating tentacle walls were now dead silent. Countless dark red embers spread and flickered across the carbonized walls like flowing lava, gone was the grotesque vitality of thousands of squirming maggots.

He tentatively touched the window frame, and after confirming there was no residual current, he sheepishly opened a crack in the window. A suffocating smell of burnt flesh and ozone flooded in.

"I’m fine... Ah! Cyan Bird!"

Having finally recovered from the thunderous blast, he whipped his head around to look inside the vehicle.

"Cough, cough... I-I’m okay..."

A voice, somewhat weak but still sounding full of vigor, came from the back of the vehicle.

Ye Qingniao was still in her explosively muscular form, but one of her hands was now charred black. Even though she was inside a Faraday cage, the initial moment of summoning the lightning had caused a significant backlash of the violent heavenly thunder against her body.

Fortunately, for an Awakened One with their formidable life force, this was just a superficial wound.

It wasn’t even as powerful as the previous strike that had paralyzed her entire body and blinded her in one eye.

"Good that you’re okay. Reverse!"

Confirming that both of them were alive as planned, Lin Fan waved his hand, signaling the driver to get moving.

Though they had won this stage of the battle, he couldn’t relax one bit.

’After I bombed it last time, the Corrupted Giant Tree wouldn’t dare appear before me in its true form so easily.’

’These countless roots don’t have a health bar. That "Jiang Jing" was an idiot, obviously a remote-controlled test subject. After fighting for so long, I haven’t seen the "Tree’s" main body at all!’

’Those two sky-reaching tentacles haven’t reappeared, so they must not be easy to regenerate. But last time, I clearly saw something about to hatch from the myriad-blood sac at the bottom of the pit.’

The armored vehicle reversed a few meters to create some distance. Lin Fan poked the red-hot butt of the spear with his finger.

With a SIZZLE, a wisp of white smoke rose from his fingertip, but the spear also vanished in an instant, leaving only a five-centimeter hole...

Rain and cold wind that had been waiting outside for a long time poured in through the small opening. The tentacle wall, not quite dead yet, instinctively twitched at the stimulation. But with this movement, it was like old, peeling paint; black carbon ash flaked off in showers, and it no longer had the strength to heal.

A grin spread across Lin Fan’s face. He summoned his great axe, and imbuing it with the energy of an impact crystal, he began swinging wildly. The fleshy wall was now mostly carbonized. Under the axe’s blows, it no longer had its former resilience, but instead cracked and splintered like dry, rotten wood, exploding into clouds of black dust.

After clearing a large enough area, Lin Fan stepped aside and swung his arm forcefully:

"Ram it!"

BAM!

The twenty-ton-plus steel behemoth roared as it once again slammed viciously into the wall!

This time, the wall no longer possessed that despair-inducing resilience.

The thick layer of charred husk was incredibly brittle. Upon impact, it made a KRAKA-KRAKA sound as it disintegrated. Countless bits of carbon ash fell like a black avalanche, and a large chunk of the wall in front of the vehicle collapsed, revealing the glowing red veins within.

"Again!"

Lin Fan brought his hand down again.

BAM!

Before the armored vehicle even came to a full stop from reversing, its eight wheels SQUEALED against the ground as it charged forward again. Another massive crash, and this time, the wall let out a groan, as if unable to bear any more.

The charred wall in front of the vehicle suddenly split open with several menacing cracks. The gushing downpour from outside poured in madly through the fissures, mixing with the black ash on the wall and turning into streams of black mud that flowed under the wheels.

"!"

Lin Fan didn’t speak, merely waving his hand again!

"BREAK! THROUGH!"

Cheng Qi, in the driver’s seat, had also gotten fired up from the ramming. He roared as he slammed the accelerator to the floor!

BAM—CRACK!

With one final, all-out charge, the charred barrier completely collapsed!

Like a wild beast breaking free from its cage, the armored vehicle forcibly smashed through the wall, its front end leaping high into the air as it charged directly into the curtain of rain!