364: Chapter 299: Feigning Weakness to Lure the Enemy Deep into a Deadly Trap

The deafening roar of the outer barrier shattering, like the mournful cry of a collapsing celestial body, echoed long and hard within the Star Dust Mist Sea.

After enduring the impact of the Mountain Giant, the bombardment of the Thunder Judgment, and the subsequent relentless onslaught of the Titan legion, that light blue barrier—a Fusion of natural energy, Moonlight Power, and Law Order—finally reached its limit. Spiderweb-like cracks instantly covered the entire surface, and then, it turned into scattering, dimming specks of light and dissipated completely.

The moment the barrier shattered, the violent Void Realm energy and the oppressive feeling carrying the scent of sulfur and thunder from the Titan legion poured into the periphery of the floating islands like a burst dam!

"The barrier is broken! All units, charge! Crush them!" Octavius's wild roar resounded across the battlefield. He jumped down from his energy throne, holding a giant thunder hammer, and took the lead, turning into a golden meteor that smashed towards the largest central rock island! Behind him, over fifty Titans, the remaining Mountain Giants, and the regrouped swarm of Gargoyles let out earth-shaking roars, surging toward the islands that had lost their outer protection like a golden torrent of steel.

The pressure increased sharply!

Facing this flood of destruction was the second line of defense constructed by Xinghai University, relying on the island terrain and defensive fortifications—the three-dimensional defense net.

"All defense towers, fire at will! Maximum rate of fire!"

"Ground fortresses, counterattack! Elf mages, full support for protection and slowing Spells!"

"Dragon legion, entangle the enemy's aerial units and prevent them from dive-bombing the ground troops!"

"Law Fishmen, activate underwater interference devices to delay enemies advancing from underwater or low altitude!"

Lin Zhou's Orders were instantly transmitted to every combat unit through the Divine Thought network. His face was slightly pale; just now, controlling the river of civilization to withstand the Thunder Judgment had consumed a huge amount of Divine Power (current Divine Power reserve: 157,000 / 200,000), and his mind had also borne a significant burden. However, his eyes remained as calm as an abyss, tightly fixed on the overall battlefield.

The defense tower groups erupted with unprecedented firepower density!

【Mohist · Armor-Piercing Oscillation Crossbows】 shot like raindrops at the charging Titans. Although it was difficult to penetrate the Titans' skin, which was comparable to legendary metal, the high-frequency vibrations constantly interfered with their balance and energy operation.

【Chain Bolt Launchers】 poured arrow rain onto the denser clusters of Mountain Giants and Gargoyles, with explosive fire lighting up continuously.

【Energy Interference Rays】 focused on Titans and Storm Giants priests who were brewing a second thunder attack or attempting to cast large-scale war divine Spells, forcing them to distract themselves with defense or interrupting their spellcasting.

【Law Imprisonment Halo】 lit up at key passage nodes under Qin Qing's regulation. Any Titan that broke into the halo's range would feel a powerful "Order resistance," as if trapped in an invisible quagmire, with their strength and speed noticeably suppressed.

In the ground fortresses, Tiangong Dwarves warriors operated 【Runic Heavy Cannons】 and 【Geological Oscillation Generators】, coordinating with the 【Thorn Vine Traps】 and 【Quicksand Spells】 laid by the Literary Heart Elves to stubbornly block the approaching giants. Zhao Hao's dragon flock, supported by Su Yueyao's Moonlight Power purification, fought fiercely with the still-numerous Gargoyles and a few Thunder Giant Eagle Knights. Dragon Breath and claws tore apart rocky bodies, while Moonlight Power precisely sniped at the giant priests attempting to command or cast Spells.

The battle instantly entered a white-hot stage!

The roaring, explosions, shouting, the humming of Spells, the sound of metal clashing... all intertwined into a cruel symphony of war. Energy turbulence surged everywhere, stirring the Star Dust Mist Sea into Chaos. Broken fragments of mechanisms, severed rocky limbs of giants, pieces of Gargoyles, and even the corpses of kin continuously fell from the sky.

The battle situation was extremely tragic. The power of the Titan legion was simply too strong!

A defensive Titan withstood the concentrated fire of several defense towers and the Law Imprisonment Halo, smashing through a secondary fortress built on an energy rainbow bridge. The thirty Tiangong Dwarves warriors and five mechanical Puppets guarding it were instantly smashed into powder by its giant hammer.

Another assault-type Titan broke into the position of the Elf mage group. Although blocked for a moment by the urgently raised 【Natural Protective Wall】 and Moonlight Power barrier, its thrown thunder spear pierced the barrier, blasting several Elf mages chanting large-scale slowing Spells into charred remains.

In the sky, a Green Dragon had its wing injured by the combined attack of three Gargoyles and a Storm Giants priest, falling with a mournful cry; had it not been for Zhao Hao's timely rescue, it might have fallen.

Xinghai University's defense line was shrinking step by step, and the casualty figures began to climb. From the situation, it seemed completely suppressed by the Titan legion, which had the advantage in power.

On the Star Gazing Platform, Su Yueyao's face was pale as she continuously mobilized Moonlight Power to heal the seriously wounded and purify the invading thunder energy. Qin Qing's forehead was sweating; maintaining the large-scale Net of Law and Imprisonment Halo consumed a great deal. On the command screen in front of Li Mo, the green dots representing their own units were extinguishing or turning yellow (damaged) at a speed that was not fast but steady. Zhao Hao was covered in blood (mostly the enemy's), with flames of anger and unyielding determination burning in his dragon pupils.

"Lin Zhou! The loss of outer defense nodes has exceeded 40%! The third and seventh rock islands are about to fall! At this rate, the middle defense line will be fully breached in at most half an hour!" Li Mo reported urgently, his voice carrying a trace of imperceptible trembling. The actual combat loss ratio was more cruel than the simulation deduction.

Lin Zhou's gaze swept across the battlefield, watching those kin who fought bravely but fell one after another, watching the fortifications gradually collapsing under the violent power of the Titans, and his heart was bleeding as well. These were his hundred days of hard work, the practitioners of Way of Civilization. But he knew that there could be no hesitation or weakness at this moment.

The plan was proceeding step by step.

Although the opponent's offensive was fierce, it was not flawless. After breaking through the outer barrier, the Titan legion's Formation was no longer as tight as it was initially, due to the segmentation of the terrain and the obstruction of the defense towers. Octavius himself had charged too far ahead, slightly disconnected from the main force. More importantly, the opponent's arrogant mentality of "power crushing everything," after initially encountering stubborn resistance, had not only failed to restrain itself but had become even more impatient and furious due to casualties and obstruction.

It was time.

Lin Zhou took a deep breath, a flash of determination in his eyes, and then deliberately let a look of "inability to cope" and "unwillingness" appear on his face. His voice spread across the battlefield through Divine Thought, carrying a trace of "reluctance" and "tragic heroism":

"All units! Fight and retreat! Abandon the outer rock islands and the severely damaged defense towers! Shrink back to the central main island! Rely on the core fortifications and underground passages to conduct layered resistance! Buy time for... for the final means!"

His voice "just right" conveyed the meaning that "resources are running out," "the trump card is about to be played," and "preparations are being made for a final fight." At the same time, he secretly transmitted another completely different, extremely calm instruction to the core team members such as Su Yueyao, Qin Qing, Li Mo, and Zhao Hao: "Execute according to the second plan, retreat in an orderly manner, lure the enemy into the 'Xun position,' 'Li position,' and 'Kan position' triangular area, pay attention to controlling casualties, and preserve effective strength."

The team members understood. When Su Yueyao commanded the Moonlight Guard and the Elf mage group to retreat, they "hastily" laid down some flashy but average-power "flash traps" and "weakening vines," which seemed to be desperately blocking, but in reality, had limited effect. Qin Qing "struggled" to maintain the Net of Law, but the range "had to" be gradually reduced and concentrated near the central main island. The defense towers controlled by Li Mo, when "forced" to be abandoned, launched "self-destruct programs" one after another, erupting with a final burst of fierce but messy attacks, raising large clouds of smoke and energy turbulence to obscure vision. Zhao Hao's dragon flock "embarrassedly" shook off the entanglement and fought and retreated towards the main island, their Dragon Breath appearing "weak."

The entire retreat process looked like a forced shrinking defense, filled with grief and Chaos, after fighting until they could no longer hold on.

"Hahaha! Indeed, you can't hold on anymore! What kind of bullshit civilization, in the face of absolute power, is just a bunch of weaklings!" Octavius laughed wildly, smashing the remaining base of a self-destructing defense tower into pieces with a hammer, his golden thunder pupils full of excitement for the victory in sight and disdain for the enemy's "weakness." "Want to shrink back into the turtle shell for a final fight? Dream on! The whole army presses on! Don't give them a chance to catch their breath! Directly breach the main island and drag out that kid who is playing god!"

In his view, although Xinghai University's resistance was more stubborn than expected, causing some casualties to his side (nearly half of the Mountain Giants lost, one-third of the Gargoyles lost, and three Titans slightly injured), it ultimately could not make up for the absolute strength gap. The opponent's leader (Lin Zhou) was clearly panicked, starting to shrink his forces, and might even be preparing to use some kind of trump card with a huge cost. This was the best time to finish it in one battle! He must not let the opponent fully display the trump card!

Driven by Octavius's strict Orders and his own high morale, the Titan legion pursued more fiercely and urgently! They stepped over broken fortifications and the corpses of kin, ignoring those sporadic, ineffective traps and slowing Spells, like burning red daggers, fiercely stabbing at the core of Xinghai University's shrinking defense line—the central main island and several key rock islands connected to it.

The route they pursued, unknowingly, was guided by Xinghai University's "retreating" troops and "failed" fortifications, leading them into an area with relatively complex terrain, connected by several narrow energy rainbow bridges and natural stone veins, with many smaller floating rock reefs suspended around it.

This was the core area of the death trap Lin Zhou had pre-set, known in the construction plans as the "Complex Rule Interference Zone," but its hidden, true name was—the "Civilization Labyrinth Formation · Prototype"!

When Octavius personally led over forty main-force Titans and the majority of the remaining vassal legions into this area, a sudden change occurred!

"Now! Activate the Labyrinth Formation!" A sharp light exploded in Lin Zhou's eyes. There was no longer any hint of "weakness," and his long-suppressed aura surged explosively!

He formed hand seals, and the phantom of the river of civilization surged behind him once more. But unlike before, what flowed within the river this time was not just the epic of civilization; countless profound geometric figures and Dao runes composed of light emerged—it was the fused manifestation of Mohist Mechanical Arts, Daoist Formation principles, School of Names logical sophistry, and even the School of Military's strategies of the void and reality!

At the same time, the hundreds of thousands of "Miniature Rune Units," "Rule Anchors," and "Environmental Resonance Crystals" that had long been buried underground, inside the rock masses, and within the energy rainbow bridge structures were all activated simultaneously! Li Mo pressed the final activation command!

Hum——!!!

The entire space emitted a low hum, as if originating from the level of the rules themselves. With the central main island as the base point, an invisible, complex, and multi-layered space-rule interference field instantly unfolded, completely enveloping the Titan legions that had stepped inside.

To the outside world, it seemed as though the light in that area had merely twisted, and the mist had thickened slightly. But the Titans inside immediately felt that something was wrong.

"What's going on?!"

"Is space folding? No, it's a sensory disturbance!"

"Those bridges... that wasn't the path just now!"

"Where are the enemies? Where did those retreating bugs run off to?"

Octavius stopped abruptly, looking around vigilantly. He realized that although he was clearly charging toward the central main island, the path before him had become intricate and complex. The originally clear target (the Star Gazing Platform on the main island) seemed to be constantly "shifting," and the positions of the surrounding floating reefs also appeared to change at every moment.

What made him even more anxious was that he felt the close mental link and power sharing he maintained with his subordinate Titan legions through his Divine Kingdom Domain had been severely interfered with and weakened! It was as if an invisible barrier filled with "noise" had been placed in between.

"A Formation? A trap?" Octavius was both shocked and furious, but he had blind confidence in his own power. "Trivial tricks! In the face of absolute power, any gimmick is meaningless! Everyone, close in on me! Break the finesse with power, and smash this area to pieces!"

He swung his massive thunder hammer, his muscles bulging. Dazzling golden lightning and earthy-yellow power of the earth gathered frantically at the hammer head. Aiming at the seemingly empty "mist" in front of him, he launched a full-force strike containing his "power" divine office!

"Earth-Shaking Heaven-Splitting Strike!"

This strike was enough to raze a small mountain range to the ground and could even briefly tear through Mid-Tier Divine Power level rule defenses! The massive hammer, carrying a storm of destruction, smashed down fiercely!

However, the scene of shattered space and collapsing Formations he had expected did not appear.

The moment that terrifying power touched the "mist," it was as if a clay ox had entered the sea, or as if it had smashed into a gigantic, elastic ball of cotton! The power was not "blocked" or "cancelled out," but rather dispersed, guided, and offloaded in a bizarre manner!

Octavius clearly felt that the moment his hammer struck the target, its power was divided into thousands of tiny tributaries. Following some profoundly mysterious rule network, it dissipated in all directions of this "labyrinth"—to the reefs beneath his feet, the rainbow bridges to the side, the mist in the distance, and even the void above... It was as if his strike was not attacking a single point, but "gently pushing" every component of the entire Labyrinth Formation!

The result was that the Labyrinth Formation trembled slightly. A few non-critical floating reefs acting as "pressure relief valves" silently turned into powder, but the overall structure remained as stable as Mount Tai! The effect of his earth-splitting strike had been weakened by more than a hundred times!

"What the hell is this?!" Octavius's pupils constricted, filled with disbelief. He had never encountered such a bizarre defensive method! It didn't resist head-on, it didn't reflect, but instead "thinned out" and "digested" his power!

Just then, one of his hot-tempered assault-type Titans (LV52) under his command, feeling anxious due to the loss of direction and poor communication, roared and threw a heavy punch at a nearby floating reef that was constantly "flickering" in position.

The same thing happened. The moment the Titan's fist, which was powerful enough to collapse city walls, touched the surface of the reef, its strength flowed away like mercury spilling on the ground. It conducted along invisible veins inside the reef to other connected reefs, rainbow bridges, and even diffused into the surrounding mist. The reef that was struck only wobbled, with a few tiny cracks appearing on its surface, far from reaching the point of shattering. The Titan itself, because its power was bizarrely offloaded, stumbled and almost lost its balance.

"Four ounces to deflect a thousand pounds..." On the Star Gazing Platform, Lin Zhou watched the bewildered and shocked Titan legions and whispered to himself. This was one of the core rules of the rule-based death trap he had meticulously set up here—the "Civilization Labyrinth Formation"—combining ideas such as Daoist "Taiji," Mohist "mechanical linkage," School of Names "conceptual ambiguity," and School of Military "interplay of void and reality": Power Dispersion and Rule Deflection.

In this area covered by the Formation, space was subtly folded and displaced, forming a labyrinth of vision and perception. More importantly, Lin Zhou utilized the principles of civilization to temporarily modify and solidify some of the basic physical and energy rules of this place:

Rule Modification One: "Individual concentrated power shall be shared by the environment." Any concentrated physical or energy attack that erupts within the Formation and exceeds a certain threshold will be automatically identified and captured by the Formation network. It will then be dispersed and conducted to countless "load-bearing points" across the entire area covered by the Formation through a pre-set, extremely complex energy-matter conduction network. It is equivalent to using the mass of the entire "labyrinth" to withstand a single-point attack. Unless the attack intensity can instantly exceed the total upper limit of all load-bearing points in the entire Formation (which would require power far beyond Octavius's current level), it is difficult to break the Formation by brute force.

Rule Modification Two: "Rigidity cannot last, softness shall overcome." The Formation environment has a natural weakening and delaying effect on powers that are "rigid," "direct," and "explosive," while being relatively friendly to powers that are "gentle," "penetrating," and "continuous." The Titans' power attributes happen to be severely countered.

Rule Modification Three: "Knowledge obscures the eyes, a chaotic heart dissipates power." The Formation confuses direction and perception, weakens Divine Kingdom links, and aims to disrupt the enemy's coordination and judgment. When the heart is chaotic, power is difficult to concentrate, and coordination cannot be tacit.

"Damn it! What kind of hellish place is this?!" Octavius swung his hammer repeatedly, lightning flashing everywhere, but he could only make the mist churn and the reefs tremble; he simply could not break through this bizarre predicament. His absolute power, which he was so proud of, felt like punching into thin air here, making him feel so frustrated he wanted to vomit blood. The Titans under his command also began to fall into Chaos; some blindly attacked the surrounding environment, while others tried to gather lightning for area-of-effect bombardment, but the effects were minimal. Instead, because their power was dispersed and conducted away, their consumption increased.

They were like a group of giants trapped in a complex beehive, possessing the strength to uproot mountains but nowhere to use it; every punch felt like hitting cotton, which was extremely frustrating.

At this moment, the Xinghai University troops, having retreated to the central main island and the core fortifications, gained a precious breathing opportunity. Su Yueyao fully expanded her Moonlight Power healing Domain, Qin Qing gathered the Net of Law to stabilize the core area, Li Mo commanded engineering units to urgently repair damaged fortifications, and Zhao Hao's Dragon flock also landed to rest and treat their injuries.

Lin Zhou stood at the edge of the Star Gazing Platform, watching the Titan legions bumping around like headless flies in the Labyrinth Formation, their power constantly being dissipated by invisible forces, and finally, a cold arc curled at the corner of his mouth.

Show the enemy weakness to lure them deep. Lure them into the trap to reveal the killing intent.

This meticulously arranged civilization labyrinth was the first "generous gift" he had prepared for these Titans who believed in absolute power.

Next would be the real moment for a counterattack. However, before that, let these arrogant giants "cool down" properly in the labyrinth.

He looked up at the leaderboard. Thanks to their previous tenacious resistance and partial kills, Xinghai University's score had quietly risen to 412, and their ranking had improved to 43,891st. Meanwhile, the Titan Domain Academy's score, seemingly due to this deep solo penetration and being trapped, was growing extremely slowly, and they might even be surpassed by other teams.

"Octavius..." Lin Zhou whispered the name. "I wonder how long your power can last while being squandered in my labyrinth?"

He sat down cross-legged and began to regulate his breathing slowly to recover his Divine Power. At the same time, his consciousness sank into the river of civilization, starting to communicate with the sharper edge hidden deep within the sanctuary. The death trap was set; he was only waiting for the right moment.