465: Chapter 465 Human Bone Pillar

Tianmen Base.

Command Center.

Commander Qin Hai stood in front of the projection screen, his lips moving twice before he could squeeze out a sound.

"Five thousand 'Heavenly Eye' long-endurance drones. Five thousand departed, but those that returned... fewer than two thousand."

No one in the conference room made a sound.

The new generation of "Heavenly Eye" was not the same thing as those oil-burning gadgets from before.

The fuselage frame used skyfall steel alloy, the power core was a Tier 2 crystal core, and the onboard miniature energy spectrometer was something Tao Zhe's team had spent half a year getting the mass production line running for.

The cost of a single unit was at least ten million.

But the cost wasn't the point.

The point was production capacity.

The processing of skyfall steel, the adaptation and debugging of the crystal core, and the calibration of the spectrometer—every link was a bottleneck for production.

With all production lines across Great Xia running at full capacity, they could only build thirty thousand a year.

Five thousand units was equivalent to two months of total production.

And in just that short instant, they had lost nearly three thousand drones.

If those experts found out, there would undoubtedly be another round of fierce cursing.

"Three thousand and forty-seven units lost contact. The loss of contact was concentrated in the same time frame, with a difference of no more than four seconds."

Commander Qin Hai pulled up the flight records. "The drone Formation encountered an unknown attack while approaching the target area at a distance of 1,200 kilometers. The attack method was a long-range spiritual power strike; there were no physical projectiles, no explosion marks. The only data the sensors recorded was an off-the-charts spike in spiritual power readings, and then the signal was cut."

"In just a few seconds, it took out over three thousand drones." Tao Zhe pushed up his glasses. His voice was calm, but those who knew him well all knew he was holding back his frustration. "This attack method is similar to the defensive Formation encountered in the Zerg World ruins."

Su Mingyuan sat in the chair in the middle of the command console, not speaking.

On the table in front of him sat a cup of cold tea, and next to it was a stack of printed drone reconnaissance photos.

The image quality of the photos wasn't great—after all, they were taken with a telephoto lens from over a thousand kilometers away—but the general outline could still be clearly seen.

White, pillar-like objects, over three hundred meters high, arranged one after another on the gray ground, stretching as far as the eye could see.

"Are these pillars made from piles of bones?"

Su Mingyuan picked up one of the photos, looked at it for a few seconds, and put it down.

"Tao Zhe, tell us your analysis."

Tao Zhe stood up, walked to the projection screen, and zoomed in on a close-up photo of a human bone pillar.

"I cross-referenced the Formation pattern of the human bone pillars captured by the drones with the Formation records in the Danding Heavenly Palace Jade Slip."

Two images popped up on the screen simultaneously. On the left was the aerial view captured by the drone, and on the right was the Formation structure diagram extracted from the Jade Slip.

The patterns in the two images were highly similar.

"The conclusion is that this set of Formations shares the same origin as the Soul-Eating Array that destroyed Danding Heavenly Palace in the Skeleton World; it belongs to a variant of the Soul-Eating Array."

Tao Zhe pointed to several key nodes on the diagram. "However, there is a fundamental difference between the two. The Soul-Eating Array in the Skeleton World covered the entire world; that Formation was too massive. This one hasn't reached that level yet. The one in the Skeleton World was a continuous absorption type, like a chronic poison, extracting the essence and Qi of all life forms within its range bit by bit."

He paused.

"This one is different. This is a one-time detonation type. Once activated, the essence and Qi within all existences containing life breath within the coverage area will be drained in an instant, all converging at the Formation eye."

Su Mingyuan tapped his fingers lightly on the table twice.

"Where is the Formation eye?"

"According to the calculations based on the Formation structure, the location of the Formation eye is in the exact center." Tao Zhe pulled up the satellite map, with a red dot marked at the very center of the depression. "Combined with the energy readings captured by the drones, the Formation eye is not a fixed object, but a Zhang Wei."

"Daoist Wan Shi."

"Correct."

The conference room was quiet for a few seconds.

Han Li sat in the corner, her eyes flashing suddenly, as if she were communicating with someone.

A moment later, she spoke.

"Randan Spirit says that he has seen records of similar Formations in the Danding Heavenly Palace Jade Slip. Once the Blood Sacrifice Grand Formation is activated, everything within the coverage area that contains life breath will be extracted. It does not distinguish between friend or foe, nor race. Whether it is humans, Yao Beasts, or Zergs, as long as they still have a breath of life, they will all have their life force drained."

Su Mingyuan turned his head to look at her.

Han Li's expression was very serious.

"It asked a question: How many people do you have in that world?"

Su Mingyuan did not answer immediately.

He looked down at the situation map on the table; the location of the Panshi Hub Base was clearly marked.

When the site was originally selected, the base was nearly twenty thousand kilometers away from the unknown region to the northeast. At that time, it seemed that this distance was safe enough.

But if the coverage radius of the Formation exceeded twenty thousand kilometers...

"The current permanent population of the Panshi Base, including rotating personnel and logistics support units."

Su Mingyuan's voice was steady, but the number he spoke made the temperature in the entire conference room drop by a few degrees.

"Eleven million seven hundred and thirty thousand people."

No one spoke.

Even Tao Zhe was silent.

Eleven million seven hundred and thirty thousand.

This number was not cold statistical data; it was living, breathing people.

They were the soldiers on duty in the zombie concentration camps, the researchers working overtime in the laboratories, the drivers operating forklifts in the logistics area, and the chefs flipping spatulas in the cafeterias.

Su Mingyuan looked at Tao Zhe.

"How much longer until this Formation is completed?"

Tao Zhe was already typing rapidly on the keyboard, and the supercomputer's calculation screens were constantly refreshing on the display.

He performed comprehensive modeling and calculations based on the distribution density of the human bone pillars captured by the drones, the ratio of completed to uncompleted areas, the complexity of the Formation patterns, and the possible engraving speed.

Three minutes later, the results were out.

"According to the calculations based on existing data, the uncompleted area of the Formation accounts for about eight to ten percent of the total area. Estimating based on the opponent's spiritual power level and engraving speed..."

Tao Zhe raised his head and locked eyes with Su Mingyuan.

"Ten days at most."

Su Mingyuan placed the photo in his hand on the table and slowly stood up.

He swept his gaze over everyone present.

Tao Zhe, Commander Qin Hai, Zhang Wei, Zhao Hu, Han Li. Every Zhang Wei's face was written with the same sentence.

What should we do?

Su Mingyuan reached out and picked up the cup of cold tea, took a sip, and put it down.

"Notify Panshi Hub Base to fully enter a state of combat readiness."

"Notify the Rocket Barracks to check all ammunition, including pangu nuclear bomb."

"Notify Chen Rong and Lin Wan to stop all Cultivation tasks and remain on standby twenty-four hours a day."

"Notify the Black Bird to enter hot standby mode."

"Notify Zhang Dabiao that all Martial Artists above Tier 2 are to cancel their rotation leave."

He said five "Notify" in one breath.

"Within five days, I want to launch an attack against it."

Zhang Wei opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but didn't say it.

Ten days to complete the Formation, attack within five days, leaving a two-day buffer.

Time was short, but not too tight.

The problem was that the Zhang Wei on the other side was very likely a Nascent Soul Cultivator.

Last time they fought the Daoist Yu Ling, five pangu nuclear bomb almost failed to stop his Nascent Soul from escaping.

Su Mingyuan saw what Zhang Wei was thinking.

"Zhang Wei, what are your thoughts?"