225: Commander-in-chief, please give the order!

“If I fall, the Federation will collapse.”

“If I don’t go, in seven days, civilization will also come to an end.”

“The outcome is no different, so why not give it our all?”

“I’ll go with you.”

Li Xue凝, who had been silent, spoke. Her stance was always so simple and pure.

Where you are, I am.

Su Lei looked at her, not refusing.

“The key to this journey is not how to fight the Abyssal Demon Whale.”

Su Lei projected the incomplete star map of the entrance, which he had obtained from the Council of Venerables, onto the center of the council hall. “It’s about how to open that entrance.”

“A specific celestial phenomenon will occur naturally in seven days.”

“But the other core condition required to open the entrance—a massive energy key capable of shaking the space barrier in an instant—needs to be created by us.”

“Simply put…”

He looked at everyone. “We need to detonate a torrent of energy right under the Abyssal Demon Whale’s nose.”

“Using this as a leverage, like a crowbar, to pry open a crack in the invisible gate of the Ruins.”

Dean Li, who had been urgently summoned to the meeting, looked troubled after hearing Su Lei’s request.

“Governor Su Lei, to achieve such high-precision energy detonation in that environment, this… this has completely exceeded the limits of what our current technology can comprehend.”

“Any electronic equipment would instantly fail, and any remote control would be impossible.”

“The only possibility is a manned intrusion.”

“We need a vessel capable of resisting the Abyssal Demon Whale’s pressure to the maximum extent through special means, and equipped with a specially made energy core.”

“Then, a Martial Artist with sufficiently strong willpower, capable of enduring the divine pressure, would pilot it to the most precise coordinates and manually detonate it.”

Dean Li lowered his head, his voice hoarse.

“This… is a one-way, no-return journey.”

The entire council hall once again fell into a deathly silence.

This time, it wasn’t due to despair, but because of a more profound, more tragic emotion.

Everyone understood that this so-called pilot was not a hero, but a sacrificial warrior.

He was a chess piece that had to be sacrificed to open the only path to survival for Su Lei and human civilization.

Who could go?

Sending anyone would be cruel.

“I’ll go.”

Zhao Wufeng strode out from his seat and stood in the center of the council hall.

“My Martial Dao has reached a Bottleneck; it’s difficult to advance further in this life. To use this worthless old life of mine to exchange for a glimmer of hope, however ethereal, for the Federation and the continuation of human civilization, would be a worthy death.”

“I was once a soldier of the Federation. My duty is to charge into battle and clear all obstacles for the commander. It was true then, and it is true now.”

“Brother Zhao! No! This…”

Chen Xuan quickly stepped forward, trying to stop him.

“Nonsense! Your life is also a life!”

Zhao Wufeng merely raised his hand, interrupting everyone’s persuasion, then faced Su Lei.

“Commander-in-chief, please give the order.”

Su Lei looked at him quietly and nodded slightly.

“Approved.”

These two words weighed a thousand pounds.

“From now on, all top resources of the Federation will be allocated to the Dawnbreaker Project without limit.”

“I want the Academy of Sciences, within six days, at any cost, to build a vessel for General Zhao Wufeng that can carry the hopes of all of us…”

“The Dawnbreaker Ark.”

With the order given, the entire Federation, this massive war machine that had just been integrated and then suffered internal damage, began its most efficient and frantic operation in history.

Secret factories across the globe burned their furnaces day and night.

Countless rare alloy Materials, enough to spark national wars, were taken from the deepest strategic warehouses, melted, and forged.

The lights of the Academy of Sciences did not dim for six days and six nights. Dean Li, with all the top scientists, seemed to be burning their lives and wisdom, pouring everything into this solitary vessel named “Dawnbreaker”… East Sea, secret deep-sea shipyard.

A uniquely shaped vessel, entirely dark red, like a long spear about to pierce the sky, or a meteor preparing to burn itself out, floated silently on a massive launch platform.

It was Dawnbreaker.

Born for the dawn, it would also burn itself out before the great dawn.

Zhao Wufeng had already put on his special pressure-resistant life support suit, capable of resisting the erosion of Law.

“Old fellows…”

Zhao Wufeng heavily patted Chen Xuan’s shoulder, baring a mouthful of white teeth, smiling brilliantly: “Don’t look so gloomy, as if I’m really not coming back.”

“Wait for me, I’ll blast open a bright new world for you all!”

He laughed loudly, then turned abruptly and strode into his glorious battleship, which belonged to him alone.

Beside him, another smaller, all-black ghost ship, Phantom Shadow, which seemed to merge with the shadows of the deep sea, was also ready.

Su Lei and Li Xue凝 stood at the bow, nodding slightly to those who had come to see them off.

“Depart.”

Above the East Sea, the wind was calm and the waves were still.

But only powerhouses at Su Lei’s level could clearly sense that beneath this calm sea, the terrifying Abyssal Demon Whale had only fallen into a brief slumber.

The two vessels moved at high speed through the deep seawater.

The closer they got to the giant vortex, the stickier the surrounding seawater became, as if space itself was being distorted by that supreme power.

Inside Phantom Shadow, Su Lei and Li Xue凝 sat cross-legged, their Qi completely contained.

And in Dawnbreaker ahead, Zhao Wufeng was enduring a terrifying pressure unimaginable to a Mortal.

That invisible pressure from the divine Domain, passing through the hull, was like billions of steel needles, constantly impacting his spirit and body.

He gritted his teeth, his gums already bleeding.

His hands gripped the control stick tightly, his eyes bloodshot, and veins bulged on his forehead like earthworms.

He poured the overbearing and unparalleled Protective Aura he had Cultivated throughout his life, without reservation, into every cell of his body, resisting the pervasive erosion from the Law level.

Finally, at dawn on the seventh day.

When the first ray of sunlight, struggling to penetrate the storm on the sea surface, cast a faint glow.

They reached the edge of the vortex.

The sight before them was enough to make any living being who saw it completely lose the ability to think.

It was a super vortex, unimaginably huge, with a diameter exceeding three hundred kilometers.

Its center was an abyssal darkness, so profound that even light could not escape, as if it connected to a Hell in another dimension.

Everything was distorted, pulled, and frantically devoured here.