310: Chapter 245: The Star Gate Shocks, a Million Blood Sacrifices to Build a Passage

The stealth coating of the merchant ship 'Shatterbones and Salt' shimmered with imperceptible ripples against the dark backdrop of the Universe, like a cautious deep-sea fish silently sliding into the shadow zone of Planet Red Rock 4's geostationary orbit. Inside the ship, the lights were dimmed to their lowest setting, leaving only the dim green and dark red glows from the instrument panels and monitoring screens to illuminate five solemn and focused faces.

After seven days of careful maneuvering, disguised trading, and piecing together information, they had finally reached the periphery of their ultimate target area. Less than forty-eight hours remained before the mission deadline.

"Shut down all non-essential power output, activate the passive sensor array, open the optical observation windows, and adjust the filter lenses to Band 7, focusing on energy and life signatures," Lin Zhou's voice echoed in the silent cabin, steady yet laced with a hint of tension.

Li Mo's fingers danced rapidly across the console as a series of commands were executed. Several inconspicuous metal plates on the freighter's hull slid open, revealing high-precision crystal lenses and energy-sensing probes. Qin Qing stared intently at multiple split screens, which were filled with complex data streams and preliminary imaging. Zhao Hao and Wang Meng stood by the hatch and the weapons console (though the freighter had almost no weapons), their muscles slightly tensed, ready to respond to any sudden situation at a moment's notice.

The ship slowly adjusted its attitude, pointing the observation windows toward Planet Red Rock 4 below.

The first thing that met everyone's eyes was a planet that appeared entirely dark red and rust-brown. The atmosphere was thin, and the surface was covered in rift valleys, craters, and vast plains seemingly formed from cooled lava. Unlike ordinary barren planets, this one was dotted with numerous obvious artificial traces: crisscrossing crude roads, open-pit mines like scars, and scattered camps or outposts emitting faint glows of energy. The entire planet was shrouded in a faint, unsettling dark red energy mist, as if the whole planet were slowly "breathing" some kind of evil Aura.

However, these sights were merely the background. Everyone's gaze was instantly and firmly drawn to an area near the planet's equator, unable to look away.

There, what might have originally been a massive crater basin was now occupied by a creation so vast and evil that it defied linguistic description—

The [blood sacrifice star gate]!

It was not a building in the traditional sense, but more like a giant wound "grown" from the planet's surface, condensed from countless twisted matter and energy. The star gate's base was rooted deep in the earth, with an estimated diameter of over fifty kilometers, composed of mountains of piled skeletons! Those skeletons varied in size and form—humanoid, beast-like, and even some from unnamable creatures—layered and crudely bonded and cast together by a dark red substance resembling coagulated plasma, forming a massive and hideous base. A rough estimate of the number of skeletons would easily exceed a million! Their hollow eye sockets seemed to still be screaming silently, forming the most basic and bloody "building material" for this evil demonic gate.

From the center of this skeletal base, the main body of the star gate "grew" upward—two dark red energy arch-pillars, ten thousand meters high, leaning toward each other like the curved horns of a giant beast. The pillars were not solid metal but were composed of highly compressed, materialized blood-light and chaotic laws. Their surfaces were constantly flowing with nauseating, life-like viscous ripples and phantom images of agonized faces that were perpetually twisting, shattering, and reforming. The tops of the pillars met thousands of meters high in the sky, forming an irregular, violently fluctuating crimson energy vortex node.

Between the two pillars was the "doorway" of the star gate—a slowly rotating deep red vortex over twenty kilometers in diameter! The vortex was not a flat surface but was so deep it seemed to lead to a blood-pool abyss in another dimension. Within it tumbled energy as thick as plasma, with countless twisted shadows, screaming Soul fragments, and incomprehensible runes floating, colliding, annihilating, and being reborn. At the edges of the vortex, space appeared unstably fractured and ghosted, emitting Soul-shuddering suction and chaotic fluctuations. Even observing through filter lenses from a vast distance, everyone felt waves of palpitations and dizziness, as if their very life force were being sucked away by that vortex.

Around the star gate, in an area spanning hundreds of square kilometers, the ground appeared morbidly charred and cracked, with not a single blade of grass growing. The ground was etched with dense, massive crimson magic circle patterns covering the entire basin. These patterns extended from the star gate's base like blood vessels, connecting to dozens of huge, volcano-like "blood pools" in the surrounding area. Although the blood pools appeared dried up or left with only dark red traces at the moment, the lingering, intense smell of blood and resentment seemed capable of being transmitted through the Void Realm.

Even more hair-raising was that the entire star gate area—including the skeletal mountain of the base, the crimson arch-pillars, the energy vortex, and even the magic circles on the ground—was undergoing a slow and continuous pulsation, like a giant and evil heart. Every pulse caused the surrounding dark red energy mist to vibrate, and the planet's own magnetic field emitted a groan of pain.

"My... God..." Zhao Hao's mouth hung open, a dry sound coming from his throat. He prided himself on having seen Dragon Treasure Troves and grand temples, but compared to this forbidden creation forged from the remains of a million living beings and evil energy, those seemed pale and powerless. He could even feel a trace of instinctive loathing and trembling from deep within his Red Dragon Bloodline.

Wang Meng clenched his fists so hard his knuckles turned white and the veins on his forehead throbbed. Behemoths were known for their strength and wildness, yet this pure, massive scale of evil and madness still shocked his perception. "These bastards... just how many did they kill..."

Behind his glasses (a disguise prop), Li Mo's eyes were wide as saucers, his fingers tapping the console so fast they almost left afterimages as he frantically recorded the massive amount of data from the sensors: "Energy readings are off the charts! Chaotic law concentration has reached disaster levels! Life reactions... the base skeletons retain faint waves of Soul resentment, the intensity is compounding... unable to estimate! The spatial stability coefficient is below the critical point of 0.3! Once this thing is fully activated, the spatial ripples it triggers will be enough to tear apart asteroids!"

Qin Qing's face was as cold as frost. Her instincts as a Judgment Angel gave her an extreme repulsion toward such a scale of blatant chaos and evil creation, but she forcibly suppressed the urge to purify everything and reported calmly: "Preliminary scan of guard forces complete. Around the star gate base, there is a permanent ground force of approximately twenty-five thousand units, primarily elite heavy infantry of the Bone-Crusher Clan, Berserkers, and Troll Spear Throwers, mixed with a small number of Wolf Riders and War Kodo Beasts (six giant creatures similar to Kodo Beasts observed). There are about twenty aerial patrol formations, each with 5-10 Orc Assault Craft or modified Bat-Wing Fighters."

She paused, her voice becoming even more solemn: "Detected seven high-intensity individual energy sources. Six of them are scattered in watchtowers or command posts in different directions around the star gate, with energy levels approximately between LV350-LV420, presumed to be demigod-level shamans or Warlords. The last one... is located directly above the star gate, hovering near the energy vortex..."

She turned her gaze to the main screen, and the image zoomed in. Beside the churning crimson vortex, a relatively small figure that nevertheless emitted energy fluctuations as conspicuous as a star floated quietly. It was an Orc over five meters tall, covered in thick dark-red bone armor, with curved giant horns on his head, holding a massive battle-axe wreathed in crimson lightning. Just by standing there, the terrifying pressure he radiated caused the energy field near the observation lens to distort. He seemed to be the focal point and guardian core of the entire star gate's evil energy.

[High-energy reaction individual detected (Priority Target)]

Race: Orc (Mutated/Divine).

Energy Level: LV480 (Peak Lesser Divinity).

Divine Tendency: Highly suspected [Blood], [War], [Destruction].

Status: Deeply connected to the blood sacrifice star gate, suspected to be the star gate's energy hub and ultimate guardian.

Threat Assessment: Extremely dangerous! Success rate of direct confrontation is less than 1%.

"LV480... Peak Lesser Divinity..." Wang Meng gasped. They had just seen how difficult the LV450 Skullcrusher Mogrosh was, and the one before them was of a higher Rank, with an even more ferocious Aura, and was integrated with the star gate, possessing a massive home-field advantage!

Lin Zhou's gaze was fixed on that Beast God, then slowly swept over the entire star gate area, finally landing on a reading Li Mo was tensely calculating—the countdown to full activation extrapolated from the rotation speed of the star gate's energy vortex, the energy accumulation rate, and the charging status of the magic circles.

The numbers on the screen jumped continuously, finally settling on a suffocating value:

[Estimated time remaining until 'blood sacrifice star gate' is fully activated: 15 days 03 hours 47 minutes (Error ±6 hours).]

Fifteen days! Only fifteen days remained before this demonic gate, forged from the blood sacrifice of a million living beings, would be completely through. At that time, no one knew what scale of Orc army, or even more terrifying things, would pour out of that crimson vortex and fall upon the human defenses!

"Fifteen days..." Lin Zhou repeated in a low voice, his heart feeling as if it were being squeezed by an icy hand. The urgency of the mission was now presented before his eyes in the most direct and terrifying way. They not only needed to bring back intelligence, but the intelligence they brought back had to be accurate and timely enough for the Human Race high-level leadership to make an effective response within just fifteen days! Otherwise, the consequences would be unthinkable!

"The energy readings are still slowly rising... those ground magic circles seem to be drawing power from the planet itself and the residual blood sacrifice energy, continuously charging the star gate." Li Mo's voice trembled slightly. "At this rate, the fifteen-day countdown is accurate. Also... I've captured some abnormal spatial signal fragments leaking from deep within the vortex... they're very blurry, but they seem to point to... an extremely distant coordinate filled with violent and destructive Auras... likely the connection point on the other side of the star gate!"

Qin Qing added: "Preliminary analysis of the guard rotation patterns is complete. Ground forces rotate every six hours, and aerial patrols every four hours. Those six demigod-level powerhouses seem to have fixed defense zones and rarely move. The central Beast God... has almost never left the area directly above the star gate. The entire defense system is loose on the outside but tight on the inside; the interior is extremely rigorous, making it almost impossible to infiltrate for close-range reconnaissance." She pointed to several inconspicuous stone pillars near the star gate's base that emitted faint energy fluctuations. "Those are [Soul Sentry Totems] placed by shamans; any powerful Soul not belonging to the Orc faction that approaches will likely be detected."

A brief silence fell over the cabin, broken only by the slight hum of the instruments and the somewhat heavy breathing of the crew. The impact of the sights and data before them was too great. A million skeletons, a ten-thousand-meter blood gate, a Peak Lesser Divinity Beast God, thirty thousand elites, a fifteen-day countdown... every piece of information weighed as heavy as a mountain.

Lin Zhou forced himself to calm down from the initial shock. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath (despite the recycled air in the cabin), and when he opened them again, his eyes had regained their habitual calm and sharpness. He looked at the star gate once more, but this time, he wasn't just observing its terrifying appearance; he was trying to "interpret" it through the lens of civilization's principles.

That churning crimson energy was essentially a mixture of highly condensed life essence and chaotic resentment, forcibly bound and twisted by powerful blood sacrifice rituals and evil rules to form the "fuel" and "coordinates" for piercing through space.

Those countless skeletons were not just building materials; they were carriers of resentment and ritual stabilizers. Their pain and death were eternally etched into the star gate's structure, continuously providing negative "emotional energy."

The connection between that Beast God and the star gate... seemed more like a symbiosis or enslavement. The Beast God used the massive evil energy gathered by the star gate to enhance himself, while he also became the star gate's most powerful guardian node and energy regulator.

The entire star gate was a giant, crude, evil, but... effective creation of rules! It violated the common sense of life and Order, yet in an extreme way, it achieved the goal of spatial leaping.

"Record all visual data, energy readings, spatial coordinates, guard distribution maps, rotation patterns, and... the fifteen-day countdown," Lin Zhou's voice broke the silence, organized and clear. "Li Mo, try to perform a deeper but safe analysis of the leaked spatial signals; even obtaining a little more information about the other side would be good. Qin Qing, continue to refine the assessment of the guard forces, especially the specific locations and possible ability biases of those six demigods. Zhao Hao, Wang Meng, keep a sharp lookout on the surroundings. Although we are in the orbital shadow zone, we cannot rule out the possibility of being discovered by Advanced shamans or special detectors."

He paused, looking at the continuously ticking countdown on the main screen, a flash of determination in his eyes: "We must obtain closer, more core data, especially regarding the internal structure of the star gate's base, the specific locations of energy transmission nodes, and whether we can find its weak points or methods of interference. Current observations are not enough."

"Even closer?!" Zhao Hao exclaimed softly. "There's a LV480 big fellow down there! Plus all those guards and sentry totems!"

"We can't approach directly from the air or the ground," Lin Zhou analyzed calmly. "But we can exploit their neglect of the 'interior.' Since the star gate energy and blood sacrifice residues are so dense, there must be complex energy pipelines and support structures within the underground or the base itself... perhaps, that is also where the defenses are relatively thin and where they consider it absolutely safe."

He recalled Grom Benevolence mentioning that large-scale Orc engineering projects often relied on slaves and prisoners as low-level labor, with chaotic management and crude identity verification... a bold idea began to take shape in his mind.

But before that, they had to safely evacuate their current observation position and organize and send out the intelligence they had already obtained (via a preset relay node, as they could not contact the base directly). With only fifteen days until full activation, they had to race against time.

"Prepare to evacuate the current orbit and proceed to the third backup stealth point according to the original plan," Lin Zhou ordered. "We need some time to digest this information and formulate the next... 'close-range reconnaissance' plan."

The freighter's engines emitted a low-power startup sound as it began to slowly pull away from the geostationary orbit's shadow, sliding silently into the deeper darkness of the Universe, just as it had come.

Behind them, that ten-thousand-meter blood gate continued to pulsate slowly, the crimson vortex churning silently, the countdown ticking away coldly. The shock of the star gate was deeply etched into everyone's heart, transforming into a heavy sense of responsibility and urgency.