122: Chapter 122 The sleeping Thunder Beast was actually the Wall of Sighs.

Li Yuan stood by the observation deck of the battle fortress, watching the creep-covered land receding rapidly outside the window, his expression somewhat subtle.

The journey to hunt the Ultralisk had ended.

They were now on their way back to the Angel Defense Zone base.

As for why they weren't continuing to hunt Ultralisks, it was because it was a loss.

A huge loss. A complete disaster.

To fight this Ultralisk, they had traveled nearly two hundred kilometers back and forth.

The energy consumption of the battle fortress didn't matter, but what about the time cost? Four hours round trip, four whole hours!

Fine, you could say finding the next Ultralisk wouldn't take that long.

But the most important thing was the return. The cost-effectiveness was too low.

There was only one basketball-sized crystal of life essence. The quality was indeed good, and the energy abundance was tens of thousands of times that of a regular Zergling.

But he only had one.

Li Yuan recalled the life essence collected by the Light Guardians when they were clearing the defense zone earlier.

Although the amount provided by each Zerg was minuscule, the sheer number made up for it; two million Zerglings and Roaches added up, and the efficiency averaged over a unit of time was hundreds of times higher than hunting an Ultralisk.

And... it only had life essence!

Only Aria could kill the Ultralisk; the others couldn't penetrate its energy shield at all.

But Aria's attacks would directly shatter the Ultralisk into ice powder, causing all the psionic and biological energy to dissipate. There was no way to collect it to increase the base's energy concentration.

"But it was so cool!" Laya was clearly still quite excited. She hugged Li Yuan's waist from behind, pressed her face against his back, and her voice still carried the lingering excitement, "Such a huge monster, and it was gone with a 'pop' from Sister Elia! How awesome!"

Elia sat on a chair nearby, holding a hot drink with both hands and sipping it slowly.

Hearing Laya's words, her ice-blue eyes lowered, staring at the liquid sloshing in the cup, and she said softly, "I didn't expect it either."

She paused and added, "I thought it would hit the shield too? When my attack hit it, it seemed like the shield was gone!"

Li Yuan lowered his hand and turned to look at his two teammates.

Laya's eyes were sparkling, clearly still immersed in the shock and excitement of "instantly killing a giant beast." Elia, on the other hand, looked somewhat bewildered.

"Forget it, let's not think about it." Li Yuan waved his hand, "Anyway, remember the lesson—fighting Ultralisks isn't worth it. Next time we see a big guy like that, unless it attacks us first, we're going around it."

"Why?" Laya tilted her head, "Can't we just kill it?"

"We can kill it, yes, but the cost-effectiveness is too low." Li Yuan explained patiently, "Look, how much time and energy did we spend fighting it? And the harvest? Just that one small crystal. If we spent the same amount of time clearing out the regular Zerg Swarm, the harvest would be at least hundreds of times what it is now."

The battle fortress kept moving.

Li Yuan looked out the window; the fortress was already approaching the border of the Angel Defense Zone, and he could see the holy light beacon on top of the distant watchtower.

"Anyway, let's just treat this time as a test." Li Yuan concluded.

The fortress slowly drove into the shield range of the Angel Defense Zone base.

Ling Xi was already waiting on the tarmac. This soft and cute Angel squad leader had her wings tucked behind her back today, wearing a simple combat suit, with her long silver hair tied into a neat ponytail, making her look much more capable.

"Student Li Yuan! You're back!" Ling Xi jogged up to meet them, her eyes sparkling, "I heard you... took care of an Ultralisk?"

"Took care of it." Li Yuan jumped down from the fortress and clapped his hands, "But the process was a bit... unexpected."

He briefly explained the situation—the Ultralisk's absurd shield, their ineffective attacks, and finally, how Elia shattered it with a single finger.

Ling Xi listened with her small mouth slightly agape, unable to close it for a long time.

"A sleeping state... energy shield?" She was stunned for a long while before realizing, "I remember now! The academy database mentioned it! Ultralisks are known as the 'Wall of Sighs' when not in combat. They enter a 'defense mode' and convert most of their biological energy into an external shield, with a defensive strength... approaching the level of a medium warship's shield! Usually, to kill an Ultralisk, you have to wake it up first. Only then can land weapons penetrate its defense."

She looked at Elia, her eyes full of amazement: "Student Elia, you were actually able to penetrate that kind of shield in one hit... that's amazing!"

Elia was a bit embarrassed by the praise, her ear tips turning slightly red: "I... I didn't expect it either. It seemed like his shield was gone when I hit him."

"Anyway," Li Yuan interrupted this mutual flattery, "we're back. How is the progress in the Angel Defense Zone?"

"It's already at 58%!" Ling Xi said excitedly, "Thanks to your help in pushing it forward so much! At this rate, we can finish the basic clearing by tomorrow!"

"That's good." Li Yuan nodded, "We'll rest here today and continue tomorrow."

While Li Yuan and his two teammates were resting at the Angel Defense Zone base, tens of thousands of kilometers away, deep in the towering mountains of Planet G-77-3, an anomaly was quietly occurring.

It was a mountain range completely covered by grey-green creep, with the mountain surface covered in Zerg-specific biological structures—bulging air sacs, writhing veins, and breathing holes that opened and closed from time to time.

But on a steep cliff on the north side of the mountain range, the color of the creep was significantly darker, and its texture was also more... rigid.

"Crack, crack." The sound of breaking echoed.

The entire cliff split open, revealing the smooth alloy surface underneath.

It was a door. A giant alloy gate supporting the entire mountain.

The surface of the door flowed with light blue energy patterns, and it was currently sliding slowly from the center to both sides, emitting a low and sustained mechanical running sound.

Behind the door was a bottomless dark tunnel.

The inner walls of the tunnel were covered with glowing biological material, providing faint illumination.

And deep in the tunnel, shadows were flickering, moving, and gradually becoming clear.

They walked out of the tunnel and stepped into the pale daylight outside.

These figures generally maintained a humanoid silhouette—head, torso, limbs.

But the details were filled with an extremely uncomfortable "sense of incongruity":

Some had arms twice the length of the other side, with joints bending in the opposite direction; some had multiple eyes growing on their heads, distributed without any pattern; some had insect-like arthropods extending from their backs, or incomplete bird wings, or simply a cluster of writhing tentacles.

Each individual emitted powerful energy fluctuations, with intensity fluctuating between Tier 4 and Tier 5.

These energy attributes were chaotic—some were as hot as flames, some as cold as frost, some as elusive as ghosts, and some as heavy as mountains.

They intertwined and collided with each other, stirring up visible energy ripples in the air.

Primarch.

The seventh-generation experimental subjects of the Holy Brilliance Purity Group, creations that fused a human basic framework with the genes of dozens of races.

They had been sleeping deep underground, awakened by a preset wake-up command.

Leading them was an individual about three meters tall with dark golden skin.

It retained roughly human facial features, but three extra vertical pupils grew on its forehead, with lava-like luster flowing within them.

Behind it were three pairs of incomplete light wings—two on the left were as white as angel wings, one on the right was as pitch-black as a demon wing, and the other three were transparent insect membrane wings.

It raised its head, and six eyes turned simultaneously, scanning the surrounding environment.

The grey-green creep. The Zerg's sour, putrid scent permeating the air. The faint hissing of the Zerg coming from the distance.

The next second, it moved.

No language, no communication, not even a clear thought process.

The other Gene Primordial Bodies followed closely behind.

Their walking postures varied: some walked upright like humans, but their stride frequency was unnaturally fast; some walked on all fours, crawling like beasts; some simply floated off the ground, gliding along the surface of the creep.

The creep sensed an aura that did not belong to the Zerg.

The ground writhed, and countless Zerg broke through the soil, hissing and pouncing on these uninvited guests.

But compared to this group of Gene Primordial Bodies, the remaining Zerg, which had lost the collective command of the Zerg Swarm, were simply too weak.

The dark gold Progenitor didn't even stop walking.

It just raised its right hand—the arm began to deform in the process of being raised, a metallic luster appeared on the skin surface, and the five fingers merged, elongated, and transformed into a two-meter-long bone blade.

It swung down.

The bone blade traced a dark golden trajectory, and wherever the trajectory passed, the space left a brief scorched mark.

The moment three Zerglings touched the trajectory, their bodies were neatly cut in half, the tissues at the cut carbonized, and they didn't even have time to spray blood.

The other Progenitors also took action.

A Progenitor with white wings on its back opened its hands, and holy light poured out from its palms, turning into countless light spears that shot out.

The light spears precisely pierced the Zerg's nerve nodes, causing them to fall to the ground in convulsions.

A Progenitor whose skin was covered in fine scales and whose head had the outline of demon horns let out a low roar, the sound containing a mental shock.

A group of Zerg stiffened in unison, the light in their compound eyes dissipated, and then they collapsed to the ground—their mental fluctuations had been shattered.

The battle ended in an instant.