novelslam Chapter 110 [You'd better be stronger than me]
Chapter 110 [You'd better be stronger than me]
The steel gates of Blackrock Fortress were wide open.
Chen Kai carried the deeply comatose Li Yao at the front, followed closely by Wang Xuan and Ai Jia.
A chaotic mix of colors swirled around them, unable to suppress the crimson-black aura emanating from them.
The [Seed of Chaos] on Li Yao's chest, resonating with her heart, was quietly... no, it should be said that it was drawing energy from the [Heart of the Abyss] in her backpack without even pretending.
"Get out of the way!" Chen Kai said somewhat anxiously, his attitude less than polite, exuding a strong sense of pressure.
The guards were forced to retreat repeatedly. Without any announcement, the Dwarf King Thoradin and Commander Brenner strode out of the throne room.
"Put him down! Immediately!" Thoradin's warhammer hit the ground, and an amber-colored runic aura spread out, temporarily stabilizing the anomaly.
"Notify all craftsmen on the master list to assemble at the core workshop within five minutes! Anyone who is late will never be allowed to touch a hammer again!" Brenner roared, not wanting to be sent flying.
The group placed Li Yaoping on the special rock forging platform in the center of the workshop.
The black and red threads were menacing, even eroding the surface of the basalt, and the stone platform made a cracking sound.
Brenner put on special goggles and analyzed the situation...
"She is assimilating the obsidian core, or rather, the core is assimilating her; these two forces are completely opposite in nature, yet they are forcibly fused within this human girl's body; if left unchecked, she will become a human bomb in three hours at most, powerful enough to blow half of Blackrock Fortress to the sky."
Wang Xuan wiped the blood from his face and forced himself to stand up straight.
"The mission of the divine messengers was to bring back the source of chaos, and we have done so. Now, it is up to you to fulfill your promise and seal it away." He brought up the identity of the divine messengers again, albeit with a hint of bravado.
Soradin remained silent, observing the merging orbs of light, lost in thought...
Ten master-level rune blacksmiths who had been urgently recruited were already in place.
They stood around the forging table, each holding thick blueprints and measuring tools, arguing amongst themselves.
"Use the Stasis Rune! That's the path to godhood for our dwarven god of forging. If we can intercept the Abyss, we can definitely solve her problem."
"Idiot! Don't you even look at this intensity? Tsk tsk... the Stasis Rune would probably explode the moment it hits; we'd have to use a channeling technique to release the excess energy!"
"Where do you plan to go? Detonate the core of the volcano? If you want to drag us all to heaven with you, then go ahead!"
Arguments rose and fell, and no one could come up with a definite solution.
Time was ticking away, second by second.
Li Yao's body surface gradually showed a trend of becoming translucent and crystalline, indicating that the core of the giant beast was beginning to affect her.
"Perhaps... we can avoid the congestion and the queues." A slightly timid voice broke the silence during a break in the argument.
The masters stopped arguing and all turned their gazes toward the corner of the workshop.
The human master craftsman Mason stood there, clutching a piece of parchment, looking out of place among a group of bearded dwarves.
"Who are you? Who let you into the core workshop?" a red-bearded master shouted angrily.
Brenner raised his hand to stop the reprimand.
"Let him speak. He's the kid who built that double-acting bellows before, and he's also a member of this group of divine messengers."
Mason dared not look into the eyes of those masters, and could only stare at the parchment sketch in his hand.
"When I was studying the bellows, I found that when the pressure of the two airflows is too high, if you try to block them with a valve, the valve will explode. If you release them directly, the sudden drop in air pressure will also damage the cylinder."
He walked to the forging table and drew a twisted figure-eight on the ground with a charcoal pencil.
"This is the 'Ouroboros' concept that Mr. Wang Xuan mentioned before, which is a vicious cycle. We don't need to create a container to fight against this energy, but rather to create an orbit."
Mason's train of thought became increasingly clear, and his speaking speed increased.
"Use a set of 'mutually negating' runes to construct an infinitely looping channel inside this container; let them chase, collide, and cancel each other out continuously inside; like a reflux valve in a bellows, let them consume themselves."
The entire audience fell into deep thought.
"Mutual negation...a vicious cycle of spear and shield..." Brenner seemed to realize what Mason meant.
"Use order to envelop disorder, let chaos run wild on the track defined by order, until it is exhausted." Thoradin continued, the dwarf king looking at Mason with a hint of admiration in his eyes, "A brilliant idea."
"But Your Majesty, this process has extremely high requirements. It needs to be constructed within a very high-precision rune array, and the materials used must be able to withstand the load..."
"Use those materials!" Chen Kai said, emptying all the black crystal fragments that had broken off from the obsidian behemoth from his backpack.
With a whoosh, a small black mountain piled up on the ground.
"These things can bear it."
Thoradin picked up a shard, weighed it in his palm, and a wild grin spread across his face.
"This is the best container prototype."
"Pass on my orders!"
"This plan has been elevated to the highest priority!"
"Furnaces No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 are all operating at full power!"
"All master craftsmen, cease all work, whether it's a divine artifact or your wife's necklace, stop! Everyone is divided into groups, with Brenner in overall command, under the guidance of this..."
Thoradin paused for a moment and looked at Mason.
"With the assistance of this Mason technician, we worked around the clock, utilizing shift work!"
"We have to build that damn cage before Death takes this girl!"
"For the Iron Fortress! For the glory of the craftsmen!"
"Roar—!" Dozens of dwarven blacksmiths roared in unison.
Wang Xuan leaned against the corner of the wall, his body sliding down the wall, his gaze fixed on something with a complex expression...
Mason, surrounded by the crowd and pointing at the blueprints with a flushed face, had a gambler's smile on his face.
A seed planted unintentionally sprouted in a desperate situation.
……
East of the River Valley tribe lies what was once the Wild Boar Forest, now a hellish wasteland known as the Crimson Wasteland.
A grayish-white mist swayed through the forest.
"Watch out for the left flank! Don't get caught by it, or it'll crush you!" Zhang Wei reminded his companions via the forum and loud shouts as they marched.
A deformed monster, over four meters tall, crashed through the fog.
Its right arm swelled to three times the size of its body, and its surface was covered with a shiny black keratin layer.
"Whoosh—!" A javelin coated in burning slag flew out and struck the monster's shoulder.
The white flames, powerful enough to melt steel, exploded, sizzling and crackling, but surprisingly, they didn't burn through the monster's body.
The white flame, which was originally invincible, only burned through the surface.
The monster secreted a large amount of translucent mucus under its skin, which neutralized the high temperature and caused the wounds to scab over.
"Damn, it's broken?! White Fire can't break through the defense!" A player from the Tian faction cursed under his breath.
The enormous arm swept across, and three players who couldn't dodge in time were smashed into a bloody pulp. The white light didn't even have time to rise before it was swallowed by the mist.
This is the [Seed of Calamity] after Xu Ye infused it with energy.
It is learning, it is evolving.
In response to players' fire attacks, it developed heat insulation layers and fire-extinguishing slime.
The front lines are collapsing.
Fear is spreading.
Silver lightning tore the battlefield apart.
"What are you afraid of! I've died eighteen times, let me tell you, as long as the health bar is on, I'll kill even a god!" Lightning Blade attacked from the flank.
He was almost completely naked, except for animal hides tied around his thighs and wrists to increase friction.
He leaped high into the air, holding two rough stone axes full of chips.
Point directly to the monster's eyes, because there is no carapace covering them.
puff!
The stone axe was deeply embedded.
The monster roared in pain, its giant arm snapping back in defense, trying to crush the insect.
"Shield!" Lightning Blade didn't dodge; he was gambling.
The massive arm slammed down at the same instant, and the burly NPC warrior crashed into it.
He held up a large shield made from a giant beast skull captured in the previous battle and withstood the blow.
boom!
The soldier coughed up blood from his mouth and nose, knelt on both knees, his kneecaps shattered, but he held on.
"kill--!"
Seizing this precious one-second opening, Lightning Blade drew his stone axe and unleashed a barrage of attacks from above the monster's head, piercing its skull.
The monster fell.
Lightning Blade tumbled to the ground, ignoring the red and white filth covering his body, and pulled up the kneeling warrior.
Kahn spat out a mouthful of blood, grinned maliciously, and uttered a single word: "That's powerful."
Lightning Blade grinned, revealing a set of white teeth: "Again?"
"Again." Behind them, Terra stood on a makeshift watchtower, watching this scene unfold.
"All reserves, follow me and advance!"
"From this day forward, there will be no more factions; this is our valley!"
"Valley Survival Alliance, All-out attack!"
Commands are conveyed.
Zhang Wei pulled out the last notebook from his pocket; it contained an analysis of the monster they had just encountered.
"All support personnel, cease production of burning spears!" He grabbed the guild communicator.
"That thing's skin is too thick, it won't burn through! Change it to 'White Fire Sticky Thunder'! Mix resin into it, stick it to them and burn it! Burn it in!"
"Also, all archers, change your targets! Don't aim for the body, shoot at the joints! Shoot the eyes! Shoot the genitals!"
The players demonstrated remarkable resilience, no longer fighting individually, but instead working together within the framework of an alliance to integrate with the indigenous people.
In a corner of the camp at the rear, there is the Fire Keeper's School.
Anya knelt before the fire; her battlefield was here.
"It's not high temperature... its core has never been high temperature..."
She kept repeating that sentence to herself.
Behind them, the wounded soldiers' camp echoed with cries of agony.
The mental pollution caused by the fog is more terrifying than physical trauma.
Many soldiers were not injured, but they rolled on the ground clutching their heads, and some even tried to gouge out their own eyes.
White fire can purify the decay of wounds, so why can't it purify the madness of the spirit?
If it's fire, it can only burn materials.
But what if this is a manifestation of some kind of rule?
magic? ! !
Anya's fingers trembled slightly. She remembered the elven script she had seen while exploring the ruins, and the flames that Lia had conjured up out of thin air by the campfire.
Magic is deconstruction, it is definition.
"This fire... signifies 'purification'."
Anya suddenly opened her eyes, grabbed a red-hot thin wooden stick, and plunged it into her own arm.
The excruciating pain brought her to her senses. Using blood as ink and pain as a brush, she drew a symbol on the open ground in front of her—a symbol she had learned from the stone tablets of the ruins, which she and Lia had studied, refined, and rewritten countless times.
That's a variant of "fire".
Remove the violence, retain the purity.
"In the name of the Keeper of the Fire, I define this fire—"
"It does not burn anything, but only filth."
hum!
The runes lit up with a soft, milky-white glow, like moonlight.
The halo spread out from her and swept across the entire wounded soldiers' camp.
The spiritual pollution was "burned" away.
This is the first truly meaningful auxiliary spell created by humans on the continent of Asem – [Purifying Fire].
Humanity's research into magic has moved beyond clumsy imitation of others and taken its first step in its own right.
……
In the real world, autumn is in full swing.
Xu Ye tapped rhythmically on the cover of "Genesis Diary" with his fingertips.
Within the Nine Realms Ecological Tank World System before him, two completely different dramas are unfolding on two battlefields.
The Black Stone Fortress in the north represents the ultimate collision of technology and industry;
The river valley battlefields in the south are a testament to courage and will, a brutal struggle for survival.
An outburst from despair, a struggle for survival against certain death, a clash and fusion between different civilizations.
This is the true taste of evolution.
"Very good." Xu also glanced at the lower right corner of his retina.
The numbers, which were jumping rapidly, have now slowed down and shown signs of stagnating.
Because the high-quality nutrients it ingested temporarily satisfied the spores' hunger, it slowed down the backlash against the host's soul.
"Despair is the best catalyst; the ancients were right." Xu Ye stood up and walked to the window.
The tribe has discovered a deeper use for the white fire and is exploring the prototype of holy light.
The four-person team and the dwarves are attempting to overcome the chaos constraint problem that even the previous gods could not perfectly solve.
These two high-pressure dramas, which they themselves directed, are pushing these tiny creatures to their limits.
"Now that the stage is set up, the leading actors are about to give it their all." Xu Ye took out a black chess piece that he had prepared beforehand from his pocket and gently placed it on the edge of the sand table.
"Then let's add fuel to the fire."
"This level of despair is not enough; it's not enough for me to completely turn things around."
"Grow up, struggle on."
"Before I am eaten, you had better evolve a power that even I cannot control."