196: Chapter 194 is more complicated than expected?

"Su Qingxue, what is the situation on your end?" The next moment, Luo Yu called the Second Formation via communicator.

"The entrance area has been cleared." Su Qingxue's voice came through, her tone calm: "No Abyssal Creature has been found within a thirty-kilometer radius. The engineering corps is currently constructing the bridgehead, and the basic defensive fortifications are expected to be completed in four hours."

"What about Ivy?"

"The Third Formation has deployed on the eastern flank, extending the search range to eighty kilometers, and likewise, no trace of the enemy has been found."

There was silence on the communication channel.

Then Ivy's voice cut in, her tone sharp.

"Marshal Luo Yu, this isn't normal. Abyssal Giant Beasts are not migratory birds; they don't migrate due to seasonal changes. They have disappeared, and there is only one explanation."

"They have been gathered." Luo Yu finished for her.

The communication channel fell silent again.

Gathered.

That is to say, the three kings of the abyss, or something else, had summoned all the giant beasts scattered in the entrance area together.

As for where they were gathered and for what purpose, it was currently unknown.

But one thing was certain: this was not a panicked flight after a rout, but an organized strategic withdrawal.

"Continue to advance as planned."

Luo Yu made his decision. "The construction of the bridgehead cannot stop. The Second and Third Formations are to expand their search range to two hundred kilometers, focusing on underground and deep cavern areas."

"Understood."

"Received."

After the communication ended,

Luo Yu squatted down and pressed his hand against the ground.

In his spiritual sense, the ground of the Abyss World was not dead matter; every rock and every inch of soil here was saturated with abyss energy, possessing a faint "heartbeat."

He closed his eyes,

and pushed his perception to its limit.

Two hundred kilometers—nothing.

Three hundred kilometers—nothing.

Five hundred kilometers...

Got it.

In the far distance, approximately five hundred and eighty kilometers to the due south, a faint vibration came from deep underground.

It wasn't an earthquake,

the frequency was too regular.

It was more like... breathing.

The resonance produced by thousands of giant beasts gathered together and breathing in unison.

Luo Yu opened his eyes.

"Five hundred and eighty kilometers away, due south, underground."

Su Zhiruo's expression changed.

"That many?"

"I can't count them."

Luo Yu stood up and brushed the dust off his hands. "But the density is very high; the signals have almost merged into one."

Pandora on his wrist suddenly trembled violently.

The thoughts it transmitted were intermittent, but the meaning was clear: "Nest... they are building a nest... gathered together... waiting... waiting for the hunter to come... no... waiting for the invader to come..."

Waiting for the invader.

Luo Yu narrowed his eyes.

Abyssal Creatures were not mindless beasts.

Those that could survive to a high rank were no less intelligent than humans.

Although the The Three Kings had been scared, the opposite of fear was not necessarily surrender... it could also be madness.

They had contracted all their forces to a single point, intending to wait for the enemy to tire themselves out?

Or were they brewing something else?

"Su Zhiruo, expand the spatial scanning range and focus on investigating the spatial structure underground in the due south direction."

"I'm already doing it." Su Zhiruo's forehead seeped with fine beads of sweat, and a pale blue spatial magic array rotated in her palm as a massive amount of data flooded into her perception. "Luo Yu... there is a huge hollow structure underground, with an estimated diameter of at least twenty kilometers... and..."

Her voice paused.

"And what?"

"At the bottom of the hollow, the spatial density is abnormal."

Su Zhiruo looked up at him, the sweat on her temples sliding down her cheeks. "It's as if something is distorting the spatial laws there. It's not a wormhole, nor is it a rift; it's a kind of... biological spatial distortion."

Biological spatial distortion.

Luo Yu's mind raced.

He had seen one existence capable of distorting spatial laws using its own biological power.

Godzilla.

A super creature above the Titan stage was, in itself, a mobile spatial singularity, and its presence would affect the surrounding physical laws.

In other words,

at the bottom of that hollow,

there was at least one creature above the Titan level.

One of the The Three Kings?

Or something else?

"Notify all formations."

Luo Yu's tone hadn't changed, but his speech speed increased slightly: "Accelerate the construction of the bridgehead; all defensive fortifications must be completed within six hours. Su Qingxue's Second Formation is to establish three lines of defense around the bridgehead and use the abyss energy purifiers to expand the safe zone to a five-kilometer radius."

"Ivy's Third Formation is to advance to two hundred kilometers in the due south direction to establish an outpost observation point, but they are not allowed to go a single step further. Report any unusual movement immediately."

"Understood."

After the orders were issued, the tempo of the expeditionary force suddenly accelerated.

The bridgehead was located three kilometers directly in front of the wormhole entrance, on a relatively flat rocky highland.

The engineering corps brought the latest modular defensive fortifications developed by the Dragon Country Military Industry Institute: inflatable alloy walls combined with abyss energy purification arrays, plus automatic defensive turrets donated by the Northern Border Federation.

Three hours later,

a temporary fortress capable of accommodating five thousand people rose from the scorched earth of the Abyss World.

In the center of the fortress stood a huge Dragon Country military flag.

The crimson flag was particularly eye-catching under the dark green sky of the Abyss World.

This was the first nail humanity had driven into the Abyss World.

"The bridgehead construction is complete, the purification array is operating normally, and the safe zone radius has been expanded to 4.2 kilometers." Su Qingxue's report arrived on time.

Luo Yu stood on the fortress wall and looked south.

Under the dark green skyline, nothing could be seen on the horizon, and the dead, silent land stretched to the end of his vision.

But he knew what was hidden beneath that silence.

Five hundred and eighty kilometers away, beneath the ground, countless eyes were staring this way.

A true war had not yet begun.

"Marshal Luo Yu."

An unfamiliar voice came from behind him.

Luo Yu turned around and saw a blonde woman wearing an Eagle Country mecha pilot suit standing on the steps of the fortress wall.

Aivie Stirling.

"The outpost observation point has been built, and no enemy traces were found at the two hundred-kilometer mark, but my detector at the one hundred and eighty-three-kilometer position... picked up this."

She reached out her hand.

In her palm was a fist-sized black crystal, its surface carved with dense runes, emitting an extremely faint purple light.

Luo Yu's pupils contracted.

Purple light.

It was exactly the same color as the spatial beacon pillar in the "genesis" laboratory under the Antarctic ice sheet.

He snatched the crystal, and the moment his fingers touched it, Pandora on his wrist suddenly sprang up, emitting a sharp shriek.

"Something from home! It's something from home!"

A creation of a higher-dimensional civilization.

It had appeared in the Abyss World.

Holding the crystal, Luo Yu stood on the fortress wall, saying nothing.

The wind blew from the south, carrying the peculiar stench of the abyss.

But beneath that stench, his nose caught another scent—a faint purple, higher-dimensional energy that bore traces of artificial manufacture and belonged neither to the abyss nor to Earth.

This counterattack,

from the very first step into the abyss,

had already become more complex than expected.