106: Chapter 106 Death Storm
The moment the "seagull" plunged into the "Ghost Nebula," Wang Pingan felt as if his spiritual sea of consciousness had been thrown into a bucket of ice water.
A strange, cold energy filled with negative emotions ignored the ship's physical defenses, and like countless invisible, icy little hands, it burrowed frantically along the neural system connecting him to the ship, heading deep into his consciousness!
"Hiss..."
Wang Pingan couldn't help but gasp.
That feeling was just as Mentor Murphy had described, like countless frozen steel needles stabbing into his brain one after another.
Moreover, those energies were mixed with all sorts of negative emotions filled with despair, pain, and resentment.
They whispered like the most vicious demons, echoing constantly in his mind, attempting to corrupt his will and shake his spirit.
"So this is 'Psionic Energy'? It certainly packs a punch."
Wang Pingan snorted coldly in his heart.
If it were any ordinary Fourth-Rank Martial Artist, even one specialized in spirit, they would likely have already suffered a mental breakdown or even collapsed completely under such continuous attacks on the soul level.
But Wang Pingan was no ordinary person.
With a thought, he acted.
The "Star Sea Contemplation Diagram" operated at full power!
Hum—!
In his spiritual sea of consciousness, that vast sea of stars composed of billions of stars suddenly lit up!
The brilliant starlight, filled with a sacred and vast aura, transformed into an indestructible silver barrier, firmly guarding his entire spiritual sea of consciousness.
Those cold "Psionic Energies" attempting to invade, the moment they touched that starlight, were like ice and snow encountering a scorching sun; they emitted silent screams and were rapidly purified and dissolved!
"Hmm?"
Beside him, Mentor Murphy clearly "saw" the changes in Wang Pingan's spiritual sea of consciousness through the auxiliary system.
In his cloudy, old eyes, a flash of deep shock appeared once again.
"This... this is... solidified spiritual defense?!"
"This kid... he has actually cultivated his spirit to the level where he can autonomously form a 'Protective Barrier'?"
"This fucking... this is something only a Sixth-Rank spirit Master could barely manage!"
Mentor Murphy felt his worldview had been refreshed by Wang Pingan once again.
He looked at the teenager who had a calm face, as if nothing had happened, opened his mouth, but ultimately said nothing.
He just silently raised Wang Pingan's danger level by two ranks in his heart.
The process of passing through the "Ghost Nebula" was uneventful despite the dangers.
When the "seagull" emerged from the other end of the nebula, all traces it had left in the subspace channel had been completely erased by that violent "Psionic Energy."
What followed was a long, dull interstellar voyage.
About a dozen hours later.
When a red coordinate point, flashing with danger warnings, appeared on the ship's navigation system screen.
Mentor Murphy's spirit, which had been somewhat wilted, instantly perked up.
"We've arrived!"
"Kid, are you ready? We are about to exit the subspace channel!"
"Ready at any time." Wang Pingan's voice was steady and full of strength.
"Good!"
Mentor Murphy took a deep breath and pressed down heavily on the control console.
The hull of the "seagull" shook violently!
The bizarre and variegated scenery outside the window vanished instantly.
In its place was a deep, deathly silent, and heart-palpitating darkness.
And...
At the end of that darkness was a vortex so huge that it could not be described in words, slowly rotating and emitting an ominous, dark red light!
Subspace Storm!
Even just looking at it from afar through the porthole.
Wang Pingan could feel a fear originating from the depths of his soul!
That was not merely energy pressure.
It was a crushing force from a higher dimension, coming from "space-time" itself!
In front of that terrifying, massive vortex capable of swallowing stars.
Their tiny "seagull" was so insignificant that it wasn't even as large as a speck of dust.
"Gulp."
Wang Pingan swallowed hard.
He felt his palms were already starting to sweat.
"How is it, kid? Scared silly?" Mentor Murphy's voice echoed in his consciousness, carrying a hint of teasing.
"...A little." Wang Pingan answered honestly.
"Hahaha! That's right! If you could look at this thing and not have any reaction, then I would start to doubt whether you are human at all!" Mentor Murphy laughed loudly.
"Don't be afraid." His voice became serious again.
"According to my calculations, in three minutes and twenty seconds, the energy tide on the periphery of the storm will enter a 'low period' that lasts for ten minutes."
"That is our only window to enter!"
"From now on, focus all of your attention!"
"Use your spirit to feel it, to familiarize yourself with it, to predict it!"
"Yes!"
Wang Pingan immediately extended his spirit, which was as high as 500 points, without reservation toward that terrifying dark red nebula!
Three minutes and twenty seconds.
Wang Pingan felt that this short time was longer than any battle he had experienced in the past.
His spirit, like a boundless giant net, cautiously covered toward that dark red vortex emitting an aura of destruction.
The moment they made contact, a terrifying torrent of information, violent, chaotic, and filled with a sense of tearing, surged back along his spiritual threads!
Boom!
Wang Pingan's head felt as if it had been hit head-on by a supernova; his entire spiritual sea of consciousness was trembling violently, and countless bizarre, fragmented images flashed crazily in his mind.
There were stars exploding, black holes devouring, the birth and destruction of strange civilizations... those images seemed to contain some kind of contamination from a higher dimension, frantically assaulting his will, attempting to tear his consciousness into pieces.
"Good grief, this thing even has mental attacks?"
Wang Pingan felt a chill in his heart and hurriedly retracted his spiritual defense line.
The "Star Sea Contemplation Diagram" operated autonomously, and brilliant starlight constructed an indestructible barrier in his spiritual sea of consciousness, firmly blocking those chaotic information torrents outside.
Even so, he still felt as if his brain was being roasted on a fire, with waves of piercing pain constantly coming.
"Kid, how are you feeling?" Mentor Murphy's voice echoed in his consciousness, carrying a hint of tension.
"It's okay, I can barely hold on." Wang Pingan gritted his teeth, his voice trembling slightly, "This damn thing is at least a hundred times fiercer than the simplified version in the simulator!"
"Nonsense! This is a genuine cosmic disaster!" Mentor Murphy's voice was also filled with gravity, "What you need to do now is not to fight against it, but to understand it, to adapt to it! Imagine it as a violent ocean; what you need to do is not to go against the current, but to find the gaps between the waves and go with the flow!"
Go with the flow?
It was as if lightning had flashed through Wang Pingan's mind.
He no longer tried to use his spirit to resist that torrent of information head-on, but instead opened his mind, activated the "Eye of Truth," and began to actively parse and analyze the operating laws of that violent energy.
In his data vision, that terrifying Subspace Storm turned into a chaotic model, vast beyond imagination, composed of countless red, black, and purple energy flows.
These energy flows appeared chaotic, colliding and annihilating crazily.
But Wang Pingan, relying on the abnormal analytical ability of the "Eye of Truth" and his massive computing power comparable to a supercomputer, quickly discovered a subtle, imperceptible pattern within it.
Tide rises... tide falls...
Every explosion of energy was accompanied by a brief attenuation.
Although this process was so fast that it was less than 0.01 seconds, it did exist!
"I think... I understand a little." Wang Pingan's eyes grew brighter and brighter.
"Time's up!"
Just then, Mentor Murphy's voice, filled with tension and excitement, exploded in his mind! "The energy tide has entered the low period! The window is open! Do it now! Charge!"
"Hold on tight!"
At this moment, Wang Pingan's consciousness completely merged with the entire "seagull"!
He did not hesitate in the slightest, maneuvering the ship like a top-tier surfer, finding the fleeting gap in the waves, and plunged straight into that red vortex!
As soon as they entered, an indescribable, terrifying pulling force squeezed toward the "seagull" from all directions!
The ship's hull emitted a teeth-gritting "creak," as if it would be directly crushed into a pile of scrap metal by this terrifying pressure at any moment!
The warning lights in the cockpit flashed crazily, emitting ear-piercing shrieks!
[Warning! Structural integrity of the hull is dropping rapidly! Ninety percent... eighty-five percent...]
"Damn it! The pressure is even greater than I calculated!" Mentor Murphy's face turned pale instantly; he gripped the armrests of his seat tightly, veins popping on his forehead.
"Mentor! At 37 degrees to the front left, a high-energy space-time rift is forming!" Wang Pingan's voice was terrifyingly calm.
His "Eye of Truth" had already taken in all energy changes within hundreds of kilometers ahead.
He could even "see" how those space-time rifts, like black lightning, were born from the void, and how they erupted in an instant with a terrifying power capable of tearing stars apart!
"Tilt 15 degrees to the right! Increase engine power by 3.5 percent! Fast!" Mentor Murphy looked at the data stream rapidly refreshing on the light screen and roared hoarsely.
Wang Pingan's intent was faster than his voice!
Almost the moment Murphy's voice fell, the heavy hull of the "seagull" swept an elegant arc to the right with an extremely agile, eerie posture that completely violated the laws of physics!
Swish—
A huge, black space-time rift several kilometers long brushed past the left side of the "seagull," passing by with extreme danger!
The terrifying suction force even caused the entire ship to shake violently!
"Phew..." Mentor Murphy let out a long sigh of relief, feeling his back completely soaked in cold sweat.
Just now, if Wang Pingan's reaction had been even 0.1 seconds slower, they would have already been sucked into that space-time rift and torn into elementary particles.
However, before he could even catch his breath.
Wang Pingan's voice, calm and devoid of any emotion, echoed in his mind once again.
"Mentor, it seems... we have trouble."
Murphy's heart skipped a beat, and he hurriedly looked up at the porthole.
He saw that on the channel ahead of them, he didn't know when, a large, dense swarm of... "jellyfish" emitting a ghostly green light had appeared?