Chapter 176 Shortcut? No, it's a grave.

The dark golden Void Energy long blade sliced through the mist, carrying terrifying kinetic energy capable of cutting through a stellar-class warship's shield, and slashed viciously toward those two scarlet giant eyes that looked like searchlights.

There was no crisp sound of metal colliding as expected, nor the humming of an energy shield shattering.

The tactile feedback felt wrong.

It felt as if he had plunged a red-hot table knife into a large slab of over-fermented, rotten butter.

It was sticky, sluggish, and even had a nauseating suction sensation that traveled along the blade all the way to Lin Yuan's arm.

"What the hell is this thing?"

Lin Yuan frowned, and by the light erupting from the Void Energy long blade, he finally saw the true face of the behemoth before him.

This was not a warship at all.

It was a massive meatball forcibly kneaded together from the wreckage of thousands of spaceships.

Shattered armor plates, twisted engine nozzles, and broken main gun barrels—everything was glued together by a dark red, mycelium-like substance.

Those mycelia were still slowly wriggling, like countless greedy blood vessels, digesting and assimilating the captured metal wreckage bit by bit.

And those two "red lights" were merely the glow from some kind of high-energy reactor wrapped in mycelium, looking just like the bloodshot eyes of this monster.

"Squeak—!"

From the wound slashed open by the Void Energy long blade, there were no sparks, but instead, a thick reddish-brown smoke gushed out.

This smoke seemed alive; it did not dissipate in the vacuum but, like a school of piranhas that had caught the scent of blood, instantly counterattacked and clung tightly to the Void Energy shield on Lin Yuan's body.

Sizzle, sizzle—

A teeth-grinding sound of corrosion suddenly rang out.

"Alert! Energy shield integrity dropping rapidly! 90%... 70%..." The system's red pop-up windows flooded the screen.

"Unknown high-dimensional bacteriophage detected, currently analyzing host energy structure! This substance possesses 'reverse devouring' properties; it is recommended to break contact immediately!"

"You even dare to eat Void Energy? You've got a good set of teeth!"

Lin Yuan's eye twitched as he watched the rust-like red spots on the shield spreading rapidly, even beginning to infiltrate his own mechanical body.

The feeling was eerie; it wasn't just energy being consumed, it felt more like countless tiny insects trying to burrow into his pores, crawling along his meridians toward his energy core.

This thing was treating him like a new piece of "scrap metal," preparing to pack him away.

"Since you can't digest it, don't force yourself."

Lin Yuan made an immediate decision and did not linger in the fight.

He abruptly detonated the remaining Void Energy on the long blade, creating a small spatial oscillation that forcibly shattered the mycelia clinging to him.

Utilizing the recoil, he left an afterimage in the air and turned around to dash toward Earth.

"gaia! Set the shield frequency to maximum! Switch all close-in defense guns to live ammunition mode! Don't let that red mist touch anything!"

"Received! But this thing is too fast! It's crawling over along the gravitational waves!" gaia's voice carried a rare hint of panic.

No sooner had Lin Yuan landed on the docking platform of the Heavenly Court Fortress than that mass of reddish-brown mist struck Earth's outer defense grid like an incurable disease.

If it were a standard energy attack, Earth's current shields would be enough to withstand a planet-killer cannon.

But this red mist played dirty; it ignored the interception of the energy shields and, like a splash of paint on glass, plastered itself directly onto the outer armor of the dragon sparrow.

"Sizzle..."

The surface of the hard super-alloy armor instantly bubbled densely; the scene was like throwing a sugar cube into hot coffee.

The originally pristine silver-white hull grew a thick layer of red rust at a speed visible to the naked eye.

And this layer of red rust was moving!

They were like a conscious skin disease, spreading frantically toward the internal circuitry of the spaceship.

"Old Lin! Something big has happened!"

Academician Wang's wrinkled old face appeared on the communication screen, with a laboratory flashing with red light in the background.

"This is not simple chemical corrosion! This red rust contains logic code! They are tampering with the ship's underlying protocols!"

Before he could finish speaking, a twin-mounted electromagnetic railgun less than five hundred meters from Lin Yuan suddenly turned its muzzle without warning.

It did not lock onto an enemy but aimed directly at a radar station nearby.

"It's gone crazy!" a damage control crew member shouted in terror.

Boom!

With a flash of fire at the muzzle, the phased array radar that had just been upgraded was instantly blown into a pile of scrap metal by its own brother.

Immediately after, more automatic defense facilities began to malfunction; anti-aircraft missiles were about to ignite in their silos, and close-in defense guns were firing wildly into the air.

The entire outer defense line of the dragon sparrow instantly turned into a chaotic mess.

"It's trying to possess the ship!" Lin Yuan stared at the red spots still spreading under his feet, his eyes instantly turning cold.

"You want to snatch my ship? Aren't you afraid of choking to death?"

"gaia, cut off all power supply to the infected areas! Physical cut!"

"I can't cut it! They've already infiltrated the backup lines!" gaia was so anxious it was about to cry.

"In another three minutes, they'll be able to reach the main control room!"

"Then don't cut the lines."

Lin Yuan took a deep breath, a flash of ruthlessness appearing in his eyes.

He abruptly raised his right hand, the Void Energy rune in his palm illuminating with a roar, and a black energy storm condensed into a giant claw in his hand.

"Since this piece of meat is rotten, then dig it out!"

Without another word, Lin Yuan controlled the Void Energy claw and slashed viciously at the armored section on the left side of the dragon sparrow that had been covered by red rust.

Screech—!

A scalp-numbing sound of metal tearing echoed through the sky.

Like a cold surgeon, Lin Yuan forcibly dug out the ship structure, which was the size of a basketball court and included three gun turrets and part of the corridor, from the mothership!

At the break, sparks flew everywhere, with various pipelines exposed, spraying gas and coolant.

"Get lost!"

Lin Yuan waved his hand, and the huge piece of "rotten meat" that had been dug out was thrown fiercely by the Void Energy toward the red mist chasing from afar.

The huge mass of metal wreckage had just touched the red mist when it was instantly wrapped by countless mycelia.

The red mist seemed very satisfied with this "food" delivered to its door; its momentum, which had been frantically assaulting Earth, slowed down for a moment, and it turned to pounce on the wreckage.

Taking advantage of this gap, twelve thousand planetary engines roared simultaneously with a deafening sound.

"Full speed ahead! Charge through!"

The immense thrust propelled Earth like a cannonball out of a barrel, forcing it to graze past the edge of the terrifying red mist and plunge headlong into the deeper darkness.

...

Half an hour later.

The piercing alarm finally ceased, leaving only the monotonous sound of mechanical operation.

Lin Yuan stood on the command deck, watching damage control robots repairing the gap he had dug out with his own hands.

Although the method was a bit brutal, if he hadn't done so, the entire dragon sparrow would probably have become the monster's feast by now.

"That was close..." Academician Wang slumped in his chair, still clutching the tablet recording the data.

"If we had been one step slower just now, our fire control system would have entirely belonged to them.

The virus in this place is simply unreasonable; it can even write physical laws as code."

Lin Yuan didn't speak, just stared out the window.

By now, Earth had shaken off the entanglement of that "aggregate monster" and sailed into a relatively open area.

It was terrifyingly quiet here.

That sickly green mist had faded quite a bit, replaced by a deathly grayness.

Looking around, countless wrecks were floating in the surroundings.

There were broken keels thousands of meters long, huge engines with only half remaining, and countless mecha fragments floating like dust.

These things were like tombstones in a gigantic interstellar graveyard, floating silently in the void, recounting the tragedy of the past.

There was no wind, no light, only endless deathly silence.

"Beep—"

Suddenly, the system's exploration radar emitted a crisp prompt sound.

Lin Yuan's eyes narrowed, and he raised his hand to grab at the void outside the window.

Gravitational waves swirled, and an inconspicuous black fragment passed through the protective shield and landed in his hand.

This fragment was about the size of a palm, with sharp edges, and was covered in the scratches of time.

"This is..."

Lin Yuan exerted force with his fingertips, attempting to crush it.

With his current physical strength, he could easily knead even ultra-high-strength aerospace titanium alloy into dough.

But this fragment didn't budge at all.

"Old Man Wang, come take a look." Lin Yuan casually tossed the fragment to Academician Wang.

Academician Wang fumbled to catch it and pulled out a portable analyzer to scan it.

The next second, the old man's eyes widened more than light bulbs, and his breathing became so rapid it was as if he were about to pass out.

"This... this molecular structure! This is titan Adamantine! This is top-tier material only used by the royal guard warships of the Titan Civilization!"

Academician Wang's beard was shaking with excitement.

"Just this small piece could be traded for a patrol ship on the black market! To think it's floating everywhere here?"

Upon hearing this, the originally oppressive atmosphere in the command room changed instantly.

Everyone's eyes lit up; that was the greed belonging to a scavenger, engraved in their bones.

Lin Yuan looked at the boundless wreckage belt outside the window, the corners of his mouth slightly raised: "It seems that although this place is deadly, it is also truly lucrative.

A Ji was right; this is a gold mine that hasn't been touched by anyone."

"Pass the order down: maintain Level 1 alert, deploy unmanned collection boats, and salvage as much as you can.

But this is just an appetizer; our target is that one ahead—"

Lin Yuan's finger hadn't even had time to point toward the huge shadow vaguely visible in the distance.

"Ah—!!!"

A piercingly miserable scream suddenly came from the monitoring console.

Lin Yuan turned his head abruptly.

He saw the soldier responsible for monitoring the status of the planetary engines, who was currently pointing at the screen in front of him with a deathly pale face, slumped on the ground as if he had seen a ghost, his lips trembling so much he couldn't even utter a complete sentence.

"What's going on?!"

Lin Yuan took a stride over, his gaze falling on that monitoring screen.

That was the real-time monitoring footage of the No. 404 planetary engine located on the Pacific plate.

In the footage, the giant nozzle that should have been spitting out blue exhaust flames was now pitch black.

And on top of that steel giant tower, which was over ten thousand meters high, something had appeared out of nowhere.

It was a hand.

A pale, rust-covered mechanical giant hand that was almost as large as half a continental shelf.

It reached out from the mist silently, its five fingers, like mountain ranges, gently closing together, holding the fully operational planetary engine as if it were a toy.

And what made Lin Yuan's scalp tingle the most was that, regardless of radar, thermal sensing, or gaia's system self-checks, there had been no alarm at all before this moment!

It was like a ghost that had been standing behind you the whole time, and just when you thought you had escaped, it placed a cold hand on your shoulder.

"Is this... the Gravekeeper?"

Lin Yuan stared at that giant hand, feeling a chill surge from the soles of his feet straight to his scalp.

On the screen, that giant hand exerted a slight force.

Crack.

That magnificent engine capable of pushing Earth to wander was, between those five fingers, like a fragile matchstick, silently... snapped.