76: Chapter 76 The Supreme Conference! The Endgame and Breakthrough of the Five Grandmasters

Inside the capsule on the left was a gaunt old man.

Although his body was still mostly intact, a closer look would reveal his head was densely packed with electrode tubes.

The lines on the EEG monitor were almost a straight line, with only occasional, extremely weak fluctuations proving he was still alive.

"Wind God Xu Changfeng." Elder Long looked at the screen, the corner of his eye twitching.

"During that battle six months ago, to prevent the Beast Emperor's Abyss Gaze from engulfing the main force, he burned his own spiritual Origin and forcibly activated the forbidden spell, Sigh of the Wind."

"Although he succeeded in deflecting the Beast Emperor's attack, his own spiritual world... completely collapsed."

"The expert group issued an ultimatum yesterday: his brain is in a state of deep self-closure, like a locked black box."

"Whether through medical means or attempts by spiritual-type ability users to awaken him, there has been no reaction."

"In layman's terms, he has become a vegetable, and a vegetable with a shattered Soul at that."

The situation in the capsule on the right was even more tragic.

That was a man who should have been extremely burly, codenamed Mountain-Crusher, Grandmaster Zheng Kaishan.

But at this moment, his body presented an extremely eerie distortion.

His limbs were twisted like a pretzel, his chest cavity was completely collapsed, and his whole body looked as if it had been flattened by a giant hammer.

Even after soaking in repair fluid for half a year, those broken bones still could not heal because the corrosive rules of the Abyss Beast Emperor remained in the wounds.

"Old Zheng..." Elder Long's voice choked up. "He burned all the essence and blood in his body, withstood three heavy strikes from the Beast Emperor's tentacles, and even had half his shoulder chewed off by the Beast Emperor, yet he didn't take a single step back, locking the Beast Emperor's movements tight."

"It was precisely those three seconds of rigidity he bought with his life that allowed Elder Zhang to seize the opportunity for a close-range self-detonation, thereby shattering the shield in one blow, forcing back the Beast Emperor, and buying a precious half-month buffer period for General Leng Feng who arrived later."

"Now, besides his eyeballs being able to move, he can't even lift a single finger. When he was conscious the day before yesterday, he sent me a message through the eye-tracking System: 'Stop wasting resources, pull the plug, and save the energy for the young ones.'"

The conference room was deathly silent, save for the muffled sobbing of Director Zhao Gang.

General Lei Zhan, with red-rimmed eyes, slammed the table hard: "Those goddamn bastards! Old Zheng was a fierce warrior who could fight his way in and out of an army of thousands back in the day! And now, to think..."

He was a pillar of Huaxia! A peerless powerhouse who once guarded a city all by himself!

Now, one has become a living corpse, and the other a cripple.

"Besides those two." Elder Long took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the grief in his heart, and cast his gaze toward another darkened screen position.

A string of ancient Buddhist prayer beads was placed there.

"The ascetic Great Master who guards the Hell Gate in the West has not sent any news for three full months."

"In the last contact, he said the Abyss aura was rioting, and to prevent the monsters from rushing out, he decided to Seal his five senses, becoming an Incarnation as the eye of the formation, merging with the Seal array."

"In other words, he... is also unable to move."

"This is our current situation." Elder Long spread his hands, his tone revealing a deep sense of powerlessness: "Five Grandmasters: one dead, two severely injured, one under Seal."

"The only Grandmaster still able to move, Sword Saint Ye Wudao, must sit in the capital to deter those scoundrels hiding in the shadows and the decapitation strikes that could appear at any moment."

"And what we are facing is a line of defense that is collapsing across the board, the unkillable Black-Armored Beast, a super volcano about to erupt, and a locked technology tree..."

"Everyone." Elder Long stood up, hands pressing on the table, his gaze becoming sharp as a knife: "Tell me, is there... any salvation for Huaxia?"

"Bang!" Thunder God on the other side of the screen slammed his fist onto the control console, purple lightning crackling, causing even the communication signal to experience a momentary interference.

"There is salvation! As long as I am not dead, this sky will not collapse!" Thunder God's eyes widened in anger, his hair and beard bristling: "At worst, I'll go learn from old man Zhang, self-detonate! And drag that volcano down with me to fill it!"

"Stop talking nonsense!" Elder Long barked, "If you die, who will suppress the elemental riots? Do you want half of Huaxia to be submerged in lava?"

"Then what do you propose we do?!" Thunder God was so anxious he was dancing with rage, "The soldiers under my command are almost all dead! Those new recruits can't even cast a Fireball spell properly! I wish I could split myself into eight pieces to use!"

On the other side, Elder Qian took off his glasses and rubbed his temples wearily: "Risking our lives won't solve the problem. What we need is a way to break the deadlock."

"The current dilemma is that we are trapped in a vicious cycle."

"To break the armor, we need stronger weapons; to build weapons, we need more Advanced Materials and energy; to obtain Materials, we need to win battles..."

"And right now, we are stuck at the very first step."

Elder Qian sighed: "Unless... unless a miracle happens, unless a god falls from the sky who can ignore existing physical rules and smash this lock open for us."

"A miracle..." Elder Long chewed on the word, a bitter smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.

"Conventional means have failed. In extraordinary times, perhaps... we can only use that final trump card."

As soon as he finished speaking, the gazes of everyone present, almost at the same instant, fell upon Director Zhao Gang sitting at the end of the table.

Even Sword Saint Ye Wudao, who had been resting with his eyes closed, suddenly opened them, his gaze piercing over like a sword.

They all knew what Elder Long was talking about.

That file classified as "Top Secret SSS-Level" — [Cloud Top Palace · God-Child Project].

"No!" Director Zhao Gang felt the gazes of the crowd and stood up abruptly, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, shouting protectively: "Chief! Seniors! How old are those three children?!"

"Although they have been in the Cloud Top Palace for a while, all things considered, they haven't even been born for a year! Although they look like they are four or five years old, their minds are still babies! Now you want them to come out and take the hit? This... this is too cruel!"

"Cruel?" Thunder God on the other side of the screen sneered, his voice vibrating through the loudspeaker, making people's eardrums ache.

"Director Zhao Gang! Look behind me! Look at that volcano about to erupt! Look at those young mages who died to fill the formation eye! Aren't they cruel?"

"Since those three children have enjoyed the country's highest-level resource allocation, and since they possess that kind of Heaven-Defying talent, that is their fate! It is the responsibility they should shoulder!"

"Furthermore... I can barely suppress the subterranean fire anymore! If there is no Origin of All Fires to save the situation, half the West will be finished! By then, even more people will die!"

"But..." Director Zhao Gang still wanted to argue.

"Director Zhao." Elder Qian, who had been silent, also spoke, his voice old and weary.

"Our technology has been locked. If we don't have that child who possesses the legendary Divine Mechanism Refinement talent to break the deadlock, our weapons will never be able to pierce the defense of the Black-Armored Beast."

"Every minute, people are dying on the front lines. Our time... is running out."

Director Zhao Gang opened his mouth, looking at the tear-streaked faces on the screen, looking at Elder Long's eyes that were filled with hope yet held unbearable reluctance, he slumped back into his chair.

He knew he couldn't stop it anymore.