Under the watchful eyes of Ryann and Jiang Jianming, the 3D star map flickered as numerous starships escorted the Pangu’s Axe in its rapid descent.
Even dismantled, the Pangu’s Axe remained enormous. With its power supply units necessarily removed alongside it, the suspended artillery platform appeared extremely cumbersome. Its body gleamed with iron-black and copper-yellow colors, with starship shadows falling upon it like birds, truly resembling a divine artifact from ancient legends.
“Maintain current speed, keep descending!”
Inside the Tianshuhao starship, Xie Yuduo stared intently at the altitude numbers jumping on the screen.
His right fist was tightly clenched on the command console, unconsciously trembling slightly.
The Major General was also tense.
The decision of how deep to sink the artillery platform now completely relied on his judgment.
If they weren’t close enough to the Crystal Nest, they couldn’t force out the mother nucleus; but if they got too close, the Crystal Nest might not even need to expose its mother nucleus – it could severely damage the army and destroy the giant cannon without using full power.
The starships were moving quickly – if they showed any signs of hesitation, the Crystal Nest would immediately notice, and the Imperial Army would surely lose their initiative!
In an instant, the leading Silver Big Dipper fleet encountered the first wave of attacks.
The Crystal Nest seemed to sense that today’s invaders came with tremendous force. Crystal creatures emerged faster in the high altitude, with white crystal edges striking the fleet like a storm.
“Ugh…!”
Inside the mecha, Tang Zhen’s face turned pale. The crystal particles’ mental pollution made his vision fill with stars, as if millions of ghosts were screaming in his head.
He grinned. Not bad… today’s Crystal Nest’s attacks were indeed stronger than in the past few months!
Behind him, Bei Man’er, who was operating the mecha, shouted “Be careful!” Tang Zhen swallowed the blood in his throat, as his reddish-brown crystal bones transformed into scythes, violently clashing with the Crystal Nest creatures!
“Golden Sun Wheel, provide cover!!”
At Celine’s command, the Golden Sun Wheel’s mecha troops changed formation, arranging themselves in a grid pattern to block the unpredictably appearing Crystal Nest creatures one by one.
Instantly, the sound of shattering crystals filled the air, interweaving with the starships’ artillery fire, with chaotic light everywhere!
In this situation, the naked eye could no longer see. The mecha’s armor plates were all locked down, and soldiers fighting outside their cabins could only rely on special goggles equipped with anti-crystal armor to observe crystal particle concentrations during combat.
“The Crystal Nest is starting to focus on the Pangu’s Axe, tighten your formation!”
After Zheng Yue shouted into the communication system, his eyes glanced downward – the vast white crystals at the bottom remained lifeless. Forget about launching attacks or showing any changes, they showed no signs of even moving!
The next moment, Xie Yuduo’s voice transmitted to the inside of the artillery platform. “All ships, reduce speed by half; Pangu’s Axe, begin charging.”
The Imperial Army decided not to descend any further!
They had deployed enough bait, now it was time to apply pressure. Energy gathered at the center of the Pangu’s Axe cannon, forming a rapidly expanding light purple sphere. The temperature in that area rose sharply, and space itself seemed to begin distorting.
The crystal particles in mid-air grew restless, attacking the Imperial Army’s formation almost frantically, but the Crystal Nest’s surface remained quiet!
“Damn thing…” Xie Yuduo ground his back teeth, staring intently at the display screen, killing intent almost solidifying in his eyes.
That’s right, the Crystal Nest mother nucleus’s consciousness was also gambling! It was betting that the Imperial Army wouldn’t dare to actually fire at this moment, wouldn’t dare waste such a trump card before the decisive battle!
After all, once the Pangu’s Axe fired, it couldn’t attack again for three days.
And if the mother nucleus was forced to reveal its true form, what followed would surely be an extremely brutal battle, with unpredictable consequences…
The communication system flickered. In the channel, Celine nervously lowered her voice. “Major General Xie, we can’t actually fire.”
“If we fire, we’ll need to create a gap in our formation for the crystal annihilation cannon’s energy beam. If anything goes wrong and Crystal Nest creatures break through, we really won’t be able to protect the Pangu’s Axe!”
Unexpectedly, upon hearing this, Xie Yuduo’s eyes suddenly lit up, and he laughed loudly. “So that’s it!”
“No wonder the Crystal Nest isn’t afraid – we haven’t even properly positioned ourselves for firing, we’ve been underestimating them… Lieutenant General Celine, tell the Golden Sun Wheel to spread out, Pangu’s Axe accelerate charging, prepare to fire!”
“You… little madman!” Celine stared in shock, cursing, “Such a big gamble, can you take responsibility!?”
Suddenly, a calm voice cut into the two generals’ communication. “It’s fine, I’ll take responsibility.”
Inside the Golden Sun Wheel space station, Jiang Jianming pressed his earpiece, exchanging a look with Ryann beside him.
“Why hesitate,” the Crown Prince raised his eyebrows, “didn’t you say I was the trump card?”
Jiang Jianming smiled knowingly, releasing his hand, and spoke into the channel. “No need for pretense anymore, it seems… the Crystal Nest won’t reveal the mother nucleus’s location unless pushed to the extreme, so let’s just fire directly.”
“Your Highness Jiang!”
Celine was shocked. Even Xie Yuduo drew a cold breath, thinking he was indeed worthy of being Commander Aslan – how daring!
“Report,” a technician’s shout came through the channel, “Pangu’s Axe charging almost complete, awaiting orders!”
In the center of the artillery platform protected by starships, a blinding purple light column rose from the giant barrel. Energy flows surrounded it like lightning, with an ascending aura of destruction.
“…!”
Bang – her right fist slammed on the armrest. Celine closed her eyes, steeled her heart, and shouted. “Change formation, prepare to fire—”
At the command, the Golden Sun Wheel mecha troops’ formation in fierce battle suddenly split to both sides, leaving a cylindrical gap.
Numerous Crystal Nest creatures transformed into wildly growing crystal clusters, surging toward the Pangu’s Axe platform. Viewed from above, they looked like disgusting albino locusts.
“Perfect!” Xie Yuduo slapped the command console, suddenly standing up, “Pangu’s Axe—fire!!”
Countless crystal clusters had already embedded themselves like mold into the giant cannon’s alloy body. In the next instant, the purple light column from deep within suddenly released—
Fire!
Like a primordial roar erupting from deep within the giant cannon, energy capable of splitting heaven and earth condensed into a burning beam of light, shooting diagonally toward the surface below.
In the blinding light, Crystal Nest creatures along the path instantly shattered, directly vaporized to destruction!
The Imperial generals held their breath, staring intently at the beam’s destination—
At this moment, even a millisecond stretched infinitely long, with success or failure hanging by a thread.
Instantly, the Crystal Nest’s surface suddenly bulged!
It was too fast, happening in a timeframe human minds couldn’t even process.
By the time everyone realized the Crystal Nest ground had bulged, that surface area suddenly caved in, abruptly opening three enormous lake-like white vortexes!
Crystal particle flows of terrifying density surged forth from the three vortexes.
With a flash of bizarre light, large patches of distorted transparent-white crystals shot up like poisonous snakes emerging from their holes, suddenly rising from the depths of the vortexes into mid-air!
It was identical to the scene when the Crystal Nest devoured Gauis that day, only with even more shocking power.
“Here it comes!”
Inside the space station, Ryann and Jiang Jianming stood up simultaneously.
On the screen before them, all data had gone red. These were crystal particle fluctuations never before detected – from this perspective, their plan had succeeded at least halfway.
Jiang Jianming reached out to maximize the high-altitude monitoring image, and the frontline scene filled their view.
The three streams of white crystals twisted into one bundle in mid-air, colliding with the Pangu’s Axe’s crystal annihilation cannon beam!
Even though both Celine and Xie Yuduo had ordered the troops to disperse as much as possible, when the energy wave exploded, thousands of Imperial Army mechas were still thrown into the air.
The aftershocks of the crystal particle annihilation cannon swept away all nearby Crystal Nest creatures.
A warship suddenly accelerated.
Silver Big Dipper First Army, General’s flagship, Tianshuhao.
Xie Yuduo roared. “Silver Big Dipper troops, follow me!!”
The best-trained soldiers of Silver Big Dipper closely followed their general, diving towards that chaotic Crystal Nest ground.
Celine: “All Golden Sun Wheel warriors, protect the vanguard fleet at all costs!!”
“Open fire!!”
Continuous artillery fire shook heaven and earth. The black universe above was blocked out by bright light, while below was an ocean of surging bright white crystals.
Xie Yuduo’s fighting spirit rose, and he directly piloted his mecha out of the ship, leading the Silver Big Dipper warriors forward through the chaotic light.
Below, the three white vortexes were like the open mouths of demons. Both the manifestation speed of Crystal Nest creatures and the intensity of mental attacks were rapidly increasing. With each meter of descent, soldiers fell behind.
“Three vortexes…”
Blood vessels crawled across Xie Yuduo’s eyes as crystal particles’ stimulation began to dull his thinking.
These three vortexes weren’t close to each other, yet their attack intensity was almost equal.
Which one contained the mother nucleus… or perhaps none of them did?
Suddenly, a row of drug injectors clicked and extended, cold needles piercing into the Major General’s neck!
“Major General Xie! Please… stay… alert…!”
Operating the injection was a non-crystal soldier in the mecha’s rear auxiliary position. His face was deathly pale, and he could barely speak.
Compared to the new crystal species, non-crystal humans experienced weaker mental pollution from crystal particles, but their fragile bodies bore a heavier burden!
Yet that non-crystal soldier maintained his composure through the pain, operating the drug injection.
“Argh!”
As the stimulant drug entered his body, Xie Yuduo groaned through gritted teeth, but his gaze grew clearer.
Given the current situation, it was already incredibly difficult for the army to approach the Crystal Nest’s surface – they absolutely couldn’t explore each vortex individually…
Should they choose one to attack? Try their luck with fate, betting on a one-third probability?
No!
Xie Yuduo clenched his teeth. To hell with fate – how could they leave matters of life and death to probability!?
“—Major General Xie, try the middle.”
Suddenly, Jiang Jianming’s voice came through the communication system again.
That voice was calm and clear, like a cool spring. “We don’t want to leave victory to chance, and the Crystal Nest… or rather Gauis’s consciousness, surely feels the same.”
“If we must bet on something, I’m betting on the center of gravity of the triangle formed by the three vortexes as vertices—”
“I’m betting that the Crystal Nest mother nucleus is evenly distributing its power to control the three vortexes.”
