Chapter 240: Fooled Ya! I Don’t Just Fly, I Can Go to Space

Turbulent and violent—that was Qi Suian’s perception of the current Black Crystal Tide.

Thankfully, he had killed Yu Shijin beforehand, interrupting its growth before its consciousness could fully form.

It was only a half-finished product, yet it was already this strong. Had it truly completed its evolution, Qi Suian could have forgotten all about trying to farm it for gains.

"There’s one hour left. I hope nothing else goes wrong." Qi Suian glanced at the countdown timer for the limited-time event.

Of the seventy-two hours, only one was left.

He had already farmed everything he could.

Now, he just had to wait for the timer to hit zero.

As for the Tai Sui God, it had obtained massive amounts of fuel and had plenty of module slots, ready and waiting for the next Doomsday World.

[Given your plot armor, it’s highly unlikely anything will go wrong.]

The AI comforted Qi Suian.

Qi Suian, of course, thought so too, but he knew his power wasn’t enough to control the situation’s development.

Especially now that the Black Crystal Tide was no longer confined to the planet’s surface but had penetrated deep into its core, showing a clear trend of assimilating the entire planet.

This was definitely not a normal development; some entity had to be intentionally guiding it from behind the scenes.

"I still don’t think this is going to end so quickly." Although Qi Suian felt it was bad luck to say it, this ultimately involved the unknown entity known as the Era of Lords.

[Yes, you are correct. Just moments ago, the Black Crystal Tide’s activity began to increase dramatically.]

"Then what are we waiting for? Let’s bolt for space," Qi Suian said without a moment’s hesitation.

’I refuse to believe it can chase me all the way into space.’

The Tai Sui God shot into the sky, attempting to break through the atmosphere.

[Magnetic field disturbance detected. Atmospheric region is anomalous.]

As far as the eye could see, the starry sky was gone, replaced by a layer of coalesced black crystal.

This layer of black crystal had just appeared; it hadn’t been there before.

"Can we break through?" Qi Suian asked calmly.

Through a combination of Extreme Will, Unyielding Spirit, and hormonal control, Qi Suian could artificially induce a state of complete fearlessness.

[Effective escape is impossible.]

[According to data analysis, the Black Crystal Tide’s blockade of the sky was indeed just initiated, but it was long prepared.]

[The aggregation speed is too fast, and it emits high concentrations of intense radiation. The Tai Sui God cannot withstand it.]

[It exploited your greed.]

"Yeah, I know." Qi Suian didn’t deny his own greed.

As for being outmaneuvered, it was simply a matter of being the less skilled party.

Just as he could kill Yu Shijin to halt the Black Crystal Tide’s growth, the Black Crystal Tide could naturally exploit Qi Suian’s personality flaws to scheme against him.

It was always a two-way street.

Continuing toward space was a dead end; it was surely a trap.

Landing was even more out of the question. The black crystals on the ground were just waiting for him to descend so they could swarm him.

"In that case, we’ll just maintain high altitude and stall for time."

"One hour... no, fifty-four minutes. I refuse to believe we can’t last that long just by flying around the globe."

"If it’s got the guts, let’s see it fill the entire gap between the atmosphere and the surface," Qi Suian said coldly.

This was a time to meet unpredictability with constancy.

If neither up nor down was an option, he would compromise.

[I’m afraid your plan won’t buy us much time. Since the Black Crystal Tide can directly manipulate the entire planet’s atmosphere, it means it has air superiority.]

As the AI finished speaking, the reconnaissance network fed back new data.

The black crystals on the ground began to squirm like a tide, gradually forming into humanoid structures.

Qi Suian, of course, recognized these special structures: humanoid, black crystal versions of the Wasteland King.

They were replicas of the old Black Crystal Giants.

This time, it wasn’t just one or two, but a vast, densely packed horde.

"They probably can’t fly... okay, they can definitely fly." Qi Suian had to eat his words before he even finished the sentence.

The Black Crystal Giants used a special Extraordinary structure to defy their own weight, flying up toward Qi Suian in the high altitude.

As they flew, bizarre, sharp spikes began to protrude from the surfaces of all the Black Crystal Giants.

The next moment, these spikes were launched in a dense barrage.

Their speed and power were both immense, and they carried a massive amount of radiation.

If the Tai Sui God were hit, it would most likely... be fine.

Did they think its shields and force fields were just for show? The strength of these Black Crystal Giants was uniform—likely because this was the first batch, they were all Tier-1 Fireseeds.

They posed no threat whatsoever to Qi Suian and the Tai Sui God.

But that wasn’t the point. The point was that the Black Crystal Tide could create derivative life forms capable of acting independently.

The next batch might be Black Crystal Giants at the Final Fireseed stage.

The Floating Cannons emerged and a Ghost Energy Storm swept out. Whether it was the spike attacks or the Black Crystal Giants themselves, everything was disintegrated into particles within the storm.

"Full power," Qi Suian said coldly.

The "full power" he spoke of didn’t mean he would personally join the fight, but rather the full power of the Floating Cannons.

All the Floating Cannons converged, continuously combining until they formed a single, giant Floating Cannon.

Then, Qi Suian began to channel Feast energy, relaying it through the Tai Sui God directly into the giant Floating Cannon.

Numerous modules, such as Dragon and Tiger Primordial Divine Force, the Greedy Glutton’s Feast, and Novice Player’s Armor Pierce, were activated simultaneously.

The Tai Sui God even applied the Evil Dragon and Evil Tiger enhancement.

A dragon and a tiger could be seen roaming around the giant Floating Cannon, emitting a horrifying, baleful aura.

The multiple modules synergized and amplified each other, causing the Floating Cannon’s power to skyrocket.

At the cannon’s muzzle, ghost energy began to converge.

It was charging.

It didn’t take long, however. The dark energy swelled rapidly, and in less than three seconds, it was emitting an aura that made Qi Suian’s scalp tingle.

The next moment, the ghost energy erupted, transforming into a beam of light that lanced toward the ground.

The mode it used was, of course, Dark Energy Beam.

Although it was a single-target attack, the beam was so thick it could be called a pillar of light.

Wherever the Dark Energy Beam touched, be it black crystal, soil, or rock, everything was disintegrated in an instant.

A massive, bottomless chasm appeared.

But this wasn’t the end; it was only the beginning. The giant Floating Cannon was still firing its continuous Dark Energy Beam.

As the cannon’s muzzle moved, it carved a trench-like path of disintegration across the landscape.

Its trajectory was a 360-degree rotation, sweeping upward. Not only did it attack the ground, but it also disintegrated the coalesced black crystal in the atmosphere, carving a massive rift.

After completing the rotation, the giant Floating Cannon immediately disassembled.

Thankfully, the parts weren’t completely destroyed, so there was no need to trigger its failsafe repair protocol. The nano-repair bots could handle it.

"Perfect chance, let’s move!" Qi Suian had talked a big game about confronting the Black Crystal Tide head-on.

But in reality, his plan was to feint an attack to break open the atmospheric blockade.

It was true that his opponent couldn’t possibly fill the entire space between the surface and the atmosphere in the remaining fifty minutes.

But it was still dangerous.

So, attacking the surface, which at first glance seemed like an act of rage, was actually just a diversion.

The Tai Sui God recalled the Floating Cannons and shot toward the sky. Its Wind Master aviation system, running on overload, began to groan and creak.

The Black Crystal Tide seemed to realize Qi Suian’s intention, and it certainly wanted to stop him.

After all, it had inherited Yu Shijin’s hatred and wanted nothing more than to flay Qi Suian alive.

A fine idea, but the speed granted to the Tai Sui God by its Wind Master aviation system was simply too great.

It simply couldn’t repair the breach before Qi Suian broke through the blockade.

As for the traps and contingency plans it had set up behind the blockade, they had also been destroyed by the Floating Cannon’s three-hundred-and-sixty-degree Dark Energy Beam.

The Black Crystal Tide watched as Qi Suian’s silhouette broke through the blockade, reached outer space, and finally vanished entirely from its senses.

In that moment, it understood that it could not kill him, and its hatred would never be sated.

Rage swept through every inch of the Black Crystal Tide, making the entire planet’s surface appear to constantly twitch and convulse.

It was venting its fury, but because its hatred remained unsated, that anger only continued to build and grow.

"Jack!"

"You coward!!"

"You despicable insect! You worthless weakling!!!"

The Black Crystal Tide roared its curses—the first sounds it had ever made.

「Meanwhile」

Qi Suian was streaking through space, not even sure where he was headed.

However, he still heard the Black Crystal Tide’s furious curses. It wasn’t just sound; it carried a psychic impact that struck at his very soul and Spirit.

It was a good thing he was so far away. Had he been any closer, he feared that not even the Tai Sui God’s Martial Dao Will could have blocked the assault.

It might have been powerful enough to shatter him completely.

"Heh. Just like Yu Shijin, all you can do is rage impotently," Qi Suian said, finally relaxing.

He knew the Black Crystal Tide couldn’t hear him, but it didn’t matter. He had survived.

As for the terrors of space, he hadn’t encountered any yet. After all, he hadn’t traveled far from the planet’s surface; compared to the vastness of the cosmos, his journey was but a drop in the ocean.

And so, Qi Suian calmed his mind and enjoyed the momentary peace.

The AI, meanwhile, began using the Tai Sui God to collect cosmic data. It might be useless, but then again, it might not.

In any case, it had plenty of storage space to spare.

The AI didn’t urge Qi Suian to remain vigilant. A rare moment of relaxation would be good for his mental recovery.

He was always tense and rarely had a chance to unwind.

It was just that its attempts at psychological counseling and mental therapy for Qi Suian hadn’t been very effective.

Now that he was stronger, he certainly died less, but that didn’t mean he was immortal, nor could it erase the trauma from all his previous deaths.

"AI," Qi Suian said suddenly, "I remember back in the Profound World, I said I would give you the server for Dawn, the AI from the Watchman Morning Company, right?"

[Yes, but Dawn’s server has already been destroyed.]

"That’s fine. We collected some server racks before, didn’t we?"

"Anyway, the Tai Sui God has more than enough module slots now. We can install a server as one of the modules."

"It’s not convenient to do it in space, so let’s head into the next..." Before Qi Suian could finish, the countdown for the limited-time event, Black Crystal Tide, hit zero.