Inside the seventh level of Fortress 76, Xing Dian had escaped for barely half a minute.
After swallowing a medicinal pill, his aura began to recover.
Wang Ji Xuan felt a surge of energy, lowered his head to spit out a mouthful of blood, and his spirit surged once more.
This kind of Great Blood Qi Pill was indeed a good thing. Although it was a product of demonic methods, and eating too much of it had some side effects, the overall effect was quite good.
—The main problem now is the lack of materials to refine herbal spirit pills.
Mu Dan pulled off a damaged piece of X-Armor and saw that Wang Ji Xuan's wound had already closed on its own, surrounded by a swirling aura of blood.
She frowned and asked, "Sir, what should we do about this?"
"Never mind it, it's not a major injury... Bring me his severed leg."
Daoist Wang responded softly, guiding the blood qi to surround the wound, constantly thinking in his heart whether he had recorded any soul-chasing techniques in his previous life.
Damn it, I really don't have any.
After all, their sect wasn't some kind of demonic sect, and they hadn't collected techniques in this area.
Or maybe they had collected them, but he overlooked them when he was searching.
Xing Dian left behind a leg...
The only technique Wang Ji Xuan could use was the Secret Curse Technique from the Miao Jiang Gu poison arts, but using this kind of curse would require sacrificing the lives of at least hundreds of people to severely injure Xing Dian. Based on the powerful self-healing ability Xing Dian had shown before, it didn't seem likely that it would directly kill him.
This...
Forget it.
He'd settle accounts with Xing Dian after he broke through to the Golden Core Realm. He'd just remember the ambush this time.
The Daoist's mood was a little gloomy.
Mu Dan hurriedly jumped back to the opening, brushing past Ling Tong.
Ling Tong frowned as she looked at the injury on Wang Ji Xuan's shoulder. The faceplate of the Zhan Ren Armor opened on its own, revealing her slightly nervous pretty face.
She knelt on one knee in front of Wang Ji Xuan, and an emergency tourniquet popped out from the side of her armor.
Ji Xiao and Ji Yale also crowded around. The two brothers had calm expressions, stable emotions, and compassion in their eyes.
The Buddhist Dharma had made them kind and gentle.
Wang Ji Xuan didn't stop Ling Tong from bandaging him, and asked softly, "Can we move now? Other spirit energy users will definitely come to kill us later. They should see me as the inheritor of the Spirit Practitioner civilization, just like the Blade Beasts."
"Huh?" Ling Tong asked softly, "Aren't you?"
She was too perceptive.
"Not entirely."
Wang Ji Xuan smiled and said:
"This Xing Dian is really disgusting, a dignified S-rank spirit energy user actually came to investigate. However, his target should be the Demon-Breaking Dagger."
"He took a Demon-Breaking Dagger."
"Is there a tracking device on it?"
"Yes, but it's already been shielded. The last location it showed was deep underground, in a tunnel where the Blade Beasts had been active."
Ling Tong said quickly:
"Headquarters has already transferred two second-generation semi-human mechs to support us. They can reach this airspace in thirty minutes.
"The entire fortress has been completely sealed off. We've placed six semi-human mechs and two thousand special forces here. As long as it's not Xing Dian's kind of perverted infiltration ability, there shouldn't be any problems afterward. This time, it was indeed our defense that was lacking, I'm sorry.
"Everyone has already armed themselves. I've told them not to come down for the time being, and to guard all the passages.
"If we rashly transfer, it will be easier to fall into danger.
"Moreover, if we want to transfer later, it's best to go to the General Command Headquarters. Although there are still a large number of middle and lower-level spies there, at least the high-level officials have now been purged, and the military strength is the most abundant."
Wang Ji Xuan nodded, just as he was about to say 'Then we'll listen to you,' Wan Xiaoqi was already shouting at the top of his lungs:
"New S-rank reaction! Something is entering the atmosphere at high altitude! The high-altitude camera has captured a woman! Retrieving her information from the database!"
"Coming so fast?"
Wang Ji Xuan wasn't too nervous, but he was a little strange in his heart.
If this person was with Xing Dian, then why didn't she take action when Xing Dian was being besieged? Although the siege was relatively short, she should have shown up when the fight started...
If she wasn't with Xing Dian, then was she also here for the Demon-Breaking Dagger?
They had anticipated that once the Demon-Breaking Dagger began to be popularized, it would inevitably be targeted by Spirit Energy City.
But they really didn't expect that the other party would act so quickly, and that two powerful S-ranks would come at once.
Ling Tong immediately said: "Wang Zheng, you don't have to worry, we can handle it. Even if the other party is fierce, we can hold on for half an hour without any problems."
Shen Hai corrected in the communication channel: "Half an hour is just the time for the two instructors to reach this airspace. It will take at least forty minutes for them to actually enter the battlefield. If Xing Dian is just an investigator and vanguard, then the intensity of the subsequent attacks can be imagined. Let Ji Xiao prepare, we need to use his ability to transfer Wang Zheng."
Wang Ji Xuan hurriedly said, "I'm fine now, I can continue fighting. The injury is just a minor problem, and my mental power has recovered."
Mu Dan jumped out of the pit with a look of disgust, carrying a severed leg in her hand, trying to keep the severed leg away from her.
Wang Ji Xuan suddenly asked, "How about letting Mu Dan wear my X-Armor?"
"Yes, but we have to apply for it, and the Commander-in-Chief should temporarily approve it."
Ling Tong took decisive action, directly picking up Wang Ji Xuan in a princess carry, and turned to run towards the entrance of the sixth level.
"Go to the sixth level first, there are too many children here."
Her voice rang in Wang Ji Xuan's ears, as well as in the ears of the commanders of each unit:
"Attention all units, powerful spirit energy users are about to invade Fortress 76!
"All units are authorized to open fire freely! Eliminate all spirit energy users who enter radar range!"
"This fortress is activating the Level One Spirit Energy Disaster Response Protocol. All levels of the fortress will drop gates, cut off communications, and activate the automatic fire of the entire upper city area! Next, at all costs, we must hold out for forty minutes!"
"Immediately transfer the fortress magistrate and commander to the safe house on the eighth level."
"Yes!"
More responses came from the rapidly expanding communication channel.
Ling Tong carried Wang Ji Xuan and had just rushed to the sixth level when Wan Xiaoqi drove up from behind in a supply vehicle, shouting quickly:
"Sir! We just received a video! It was sent by the other party! The spirit energy user falling from high altitude will arrive on the surface in three minutes. Her codename is Huorong! Ranked 19th among known S-ranks! Specializes in fire abilities, and once single-handedly destroyed a King-class Blade Beast! She's an old monster from the same era as Xing Dian!
"The perimeter suddenly detected hundreds of spirit energy user signals! Their strengths are all A-rank or B-rank. They have a fleet of shuttles underground!
"They will attack the camp within three minutes after Huorong arrives on the surface!"
Ling Tong's expression remained calm, hugging Wang Ji Xuan tightly. With a stride, she jumped into the supply vehicle with the back door open, and Shen Hai in the back seat reached out and grabbed Wang Ji Xuan.
Wang Ji Xuan: ...Actually, this Daoist can walk.
"Play the video first."
...
Buzz.
The projection screen flickered slightly, and a 'young' woman wearing a red rubbery jumpsuit appeared, sneering with her hands on her hips:
"Hello, residents of Fortress 76 in the Middle Ancient Basin.
"I regret to inform you that half of you will be welcoming death within twenty minutes.
"I can tell you what we will do here.
"I will fall from high altitude and destroy your surface defenses, and then the powerful, righteous, and lovely great spirit energy users I brought will raze all your defense systems from the first to the sixth level.
"Then, we will arrive at your eighth level, where your reservoir is, right? We will release a rapidly spreading virus to kill forty percent of the humans in this fortress, note, at least forty percent of the humans.
"If you ask why we are so extreme, in fact, this is a kind of punishment.
"The D5 Comprehensive War Zone has recently been constantly provoking our Spirit Energy City, which has seriously affected our positive image in human society.
"The military ruling faction led by Fu Jian is unwilling to embrace progress, unwilling to look at the relationship between spirit energy users and humans with a more open perspective, arbitrarily tearing up our agreements, destroying hundreds of thousands of crystal cores that should have belonged to us, and denying our contributions to fighting the Blade Beasts, and then wanting to achieve military dictatorship over all mankind.
"Our actions today are necessary and must be taken.
"Fu Jian and his lackeys even killed dozens of high-ranking military officers who we painstakingly cultivated for you and who were responsible, which has seriously crossed our bottom line.
"So there is this sanction.
"In addition, you are hiding something in this fortress, right? You are very disobedient. According to various intelligence we have obtained before, it reveals that there is your secret factory here, producing some strange things. I know you are definitely destroying these things now, but it doesn't matter.
"As long as you produce this thing, we will continue to attack.
"Whether it's here, there, or your Commander-in-Chief's headquarters, no one can challenge Spirit Energy City's right to interpret the word 'spirit energy,' even if we pay a heavy price for it.
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"Remember, we kill you because you crossed the line, not because we are cruel."
Huo Rong blinked slightly.
The projection screen flickered slightly and then disappeared.
Inside the supply vehicle heading to a corner of the sixth level, everyone was silent.
Ling Tong said: "Arrogant and conceited, which fits my stereotype of high-level spirit energy users."
"They want to destroy this place," Shen Hai frowned, wearing Zhan Ren armor, "This is an act of revenge, and it's very clear that they are targeting the Demon-Breaking Dagger."
Ling Tong said: "After all, the Demon-Breaking Dagger has disrupted their monopoly on spirit energy and made them feel panic."
"There's one more thing."
Wang Jixuan exhaled softly, the wound on his shoulder already beginning to heal:
"This video must have been recorded in advance."
"They're explaining their motives. It's a demonstration, and a threat to other integrated war zones. The desperate City of Psionics can only use fear to deter human society and delay their reckoning."
"They're telling everyone that we're not just psionics, we also have a virus capable of wiping out forty percent of the remaining population... They're truly inhuman!"
"But now, Xing Tian has escaped."
"We can reasonably assume that Huo Rong already knows that there are awakened psionic cultivators in Fortress 76, which makes her motives even stronger."
Shen Hai asked, "In that case, should we immediately send out a transport plane, pretending to be transporting awakened psionic cultivators, to lure them away?"
"Their original plan was to destroy this place."
Ling Tong said quickly:
"Even if we use this method, we can only lure away a small portion of their fighting force at most. Besides, whether the other side is interested in awakened psionic cultivators and whether Xing Tian has already shared intelligence are both unknown."
"What we need to do now is to safely transfer Wang Zheng."
Shen Hai said firmly, "There's no way to get far in just a few minutes!"
Ling Tong immediately retorted, "Then we'll lure them into the upper city of the fortress and fight a street battle, then use Ji Xiao's ability to take Wang Zheng away!"
"Instead of taking him away, why don't we fight with all our might!"
Shen Hai's eyes were full of fire:
"Just like how we besieged Xing Tian just now, we'll besiege Huo Rong again!"
Wan Xiaoqi, who was driving, reminded, "There are still more than a hundred psionic reactions outside the camp, all A-level and B-level. This number has already exceeded the limit of what we can defend, and most of the special drones (swarms) that Teacher Wang made were damaged just now and need to be repaired before they can be used."
The atmosphere inside the vehicle quieted down.
Wan Xiaoqi gently stepped on the brakes, and the supply vehicle stopped in front of a rising elevator.
The second and third transport vehicles following behind also stopped simultaneously. Ji Xiao, Wu Man, Ji Yale, Zheng Shiduo, Mudan, and a group of special forces members jumped down at the same time.
They thought they were going to the surface to meet the enemy.
Shen Hai and Ling Tong looked at each other, neither willing to yield.
Wang Jixuan raised his hand slightly, "How about... I go talk to these people? Then, during the negotiation process, Mudan takes me into the wilderness, we pull them out of the range of Fortress 76, and then use a nuclear bomb to solve them?"
"Then what about you? You're going to carry a nuclear bomb too?"
Ling Tong suddenly became a little agitated, but she restrained her excitement:
"Your value far exceeds me, Shen Hai, and everyone else here combined!
"Failing to predict in advance that they would besiege the origin of the Demon-Breaking Dagger was already my mistake. I don't want to personally bury the only hope of human civilization fighting back against the Blade Beasts."
"Wang Zheng, you are that hope!"
Wang Jixuan said, "I'm not. I'm just a cultivator trying to become stronger. You give me shelter, and I give you technology. It's a fair trade."
"Then this fair trade is our hope. If you die, or you are captured by them, then we will have nothing."
Ling Tong's chest rose and fell slightly. She took a syringe from Wan Xiaoqi's hand and stared at Wang Jixuan.
"I'm sorry, if there must be a villain, then I will be it."
"I can coexist with Fortress 76, but you must obey my orders. When we drag the psionics into street fighting, Ji Xiao will take you away from here. I will have Shen Hai and Mudan meet you on the outside, and all the remaining semi-human mechs will enter the upper city to ambush."
"The ground troops are already spreading to the periphery, maintaining their strength in the first wave of impact, and then covering your retreat."
"When you leave here, we will use the smallest price to eliminate this group of psionics."
"This is an anesthetic for psionics. I don't want to use it on you... Wang Zheng, look at me! Please, execute the order!"
Wang Jixuan sighed softly, and then revealed a bit of a smile:
"Yes, ma'am."
Ling Tong breathed a slight sigh of relief.
Wang Jixuan secretly praised her in his heart.
She looks quite charming when she gets serious.
However, today's situation is not so easy to break. In this chaotic world, wanting to cultivate peacefully is like a fool's dream.
Since that's the case, then don't blame him.
Wang Jixuan suddenly said:
"Ji Xiao, Wu Man, you two come with me."
"Mudan, protect Ling Tong without leaving her side. If Ling Tong wants to use a suicide attack, then dismantle her mechanical arm."
"Shen Hai is responsible for the next command. Ling Tong has lost her composure."
Ling Tong frowned, "Wang Zheng, a junior mechanic, I am the one issuing orders now!"
Wang Jixuan knocked on the car door, leaned down and crawled out. Mudan had already rushed up, using her arm projection screen to display an order from the Commander-in-Chief.
"Sorry, Major Ling Tong, my superior has the highest command authority in this area, covering all emergency orders. This is the Commander-in-Chief's encrypted personal letter!"
Wu Man and Ji Xiao quickly chased after Wang Jixuan.
Wang Jixuan waved his hand without looking back, and finally clenched his fist at the sky.
"You guys fight normally, don't worry about me."
"Also, the hope of mankind lies in its own will. My fair trade with the D5 war zone is just one of the paths to realizing this will."
"Let the storms rage, I will ride the wind and ascend to the clouds!"
