86: Chapter 86 The Phoenix Takes Flight, A Colossal Steel Beast That Blots Out the Sky

"It seems we don't have the time to build slowly."

Lin Yun's voice echoed in the deathly silent combat command center of the dinghai-class warship, every word striking the hearts of everyone like a heavy hammer.

Outside the window, the sea surface, which had been somewhat calm after the sinking of the "Liberator," was now churning with eerie, massive waves without warning. The global seismic monitoring network had gone completely mad; the needles danced frantically in the red zone of the highest alert, as if announcing that the planet was undergoing an unprecedentedly violent convulsion.

"Reporting, Brother Lin! The 'Dingyuan' has arrived above the Mariana Trench! But... but its plasma shield is being rapidly eroded by an unknown energy field! The energy consumption rate is a hundred and twenty times the normal level!" Xiao Zhang's voice came through the encrypted channel, filled with unprecedented horror.

One must understand that the Dingyuan's planetary-class plasma shield was enough to withstand the aftershocks of a small supernova explosion. Yet now, merely the energy field leaked by the awakening behemoth was making it struggle so pathetically!

"This isn't some biological weapon at all..." Lin Yun stared fixedly at the pair of metal eyes on the holographic nautical chart, which were slowly opening and were larger than any mountain range. He said word for word, "This is a... living engine disguised as a planet!"

It was buried deep near the Earth's core by the scum of the Moon Gate, using billions of years of geological activity and a thick crust as camouflage to secretly absorb energy from the core. Its awakening was not just for battle, but to turn the entire Earth into a massive signal tower—an interstellar coordinate prepared for the arrival of the "Lord"!

"Captain Long, now, I need you and your fleet to return immediately." Lin Yun turned around abruptly and gave the order to Captain Long Ying in a tone that brooked no argument.

Captain Long Ying's body trembled slightly. She had just given her all to this man, and hearing the order, she instinctively wanted to obey. However, her duty as a soldier made her blurt out, "No! Mr. Lin! I am a soldier; my battlefield is here!"

"Your battlefield?" Lin Yun walked up to Captain Long Ying, reaching out to stroke her cheeks, which were flushed with excitement. There was no trace of lust in his eyes, only a burning flame called "madness." "Your battlefield will soon no longer be on this sea."

"Xiao Zhang! Connect me to Elder Chen immediately! Highest clearance!"

"Nuwa! Invade all global industrial internets! I want the data of every factory, every assembly line, and every 3D printer!"

"All supercomputing centers, abandon all current projects immediately and merge all computing power into the Pangu calculation network!"

Lin Yun spoke faster and faster, commands issuing from his mouth like a tempest. Everyone in the combat command center, and even the Dragon Kingdom's High Command connected through the communication network, was caught off guard by his sudden orders.

Elder Chen's aged and urgent voice soon rang out: "Comrade Lin Yun! What on earth happened? That monster..."

"Elder Chen, the monster is just an appetizer," Lin Yun interrupted him. "I now need the industrial power of the entire country—no, the entire planet! I want to turn a blueprint into reality within twenty-four hours!"

"Twenty-four hours? What kind of blueprint requires such a massive mobilization? Even for the 'Dingyuan,' it took us a full month..."

"The Dingyuan?" Lin Yun laughed arrogantly. "That was just a toy."

With a sudden wave of his hand, the holographic nautical chart that originally belonged to the dinghai-class warship was instantly overwritten.

In its place was an unimaginably massive real-time industrial heat map covering the entire territory of the Dragon Kingdom. From the heavy industry bases in the northeast to the precision manufacturing factories in the southeast, and then to the energy centers in the western hinterlands, millions of factories and production lines became flickering points of light under Nuwa's forced takeover.

"From now on, initiate the 'Miracle' Project!" Lin Yun's voice reached the ears of every person in charge of the taken-over factories through the Nuwa system.

"All automobile production lines, switch production immediately; you are responsible for producing the structural keels of the Luan Bird!"

"All mobile phone OEM factories, abandon all orders; your task is to produce the self-repairing nano-armor for the hull surface!"

"All aerospace launch centers, convert into assembly workshops for anti-gravity engines!"

"All nuclear power plants, overload energy output by three hundred percent to supply the nation's modified electromagnetic rail transport network!"

"I don't need you to understand the blueprints. Nuwa will simplify the production process of every component into idiot-proof operational instructions. You only need to execute them!"

"Not enough raw materials? Then melt down all those old-era aircraft carriers, warships, and tanks for me! All steel is equal scrap metal before my Luan Bird!"

Crazy! Everyone who heard these words felt that Lin Yun had gone completely insane!

This was no longer just an industrial mobilization; this was using the flesh and blood of a nation to forcibly give birth to a technological deity!

Countless factories fell into chaos the moment they received the instructions. But when the Nuwa system downloaded the modification plans and production modules directly to their mother machines, and when the first piece of structural steel fully meeting Luan Bird standards was printed in just three minutes, all doubts turned into feverish worship.

A miracle was unfolding on this ancient land in the most incredible way.

A torrent of transportation drones shuttled across the skies of the Dragon Kingdom, blotting out the sun, precisely delivering hundreds of millions of components from across the country into nine giant "sinkholes" located deep in the Gobi Desert.

Those were originally abandoned giant open-pit mines, but now, under the modification of billions of nano-engineering robots, they had turned into nine of the most magnificent construction platforms in human history, reaching straight into the sky.

Countless mechanical arms, like the titan hands of myth, pieced together, welded, and fused massive hull modules at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Twenty-four hours.

To the outside world, it might have been just an ordinary day.

But for the entire Earth civilization, these twenty-four hours were the dividing line between two eras, the old and the new.

When the first ray of morning light of the twenty-fifth hour pierced the darkness of the Gobi and fell upon those nine behemoths that already stood tall.

The whole world, through the live broadcast of space-based satellites, saw a sight enough to make even the gods tremble.

Nine ships!

A total of nine Luan Bird-class aerospace carriers, each over five thousand meters long, hung quietly in the massive construction docks like nine ancient descending steel deities.

Their silver-white hulls reflected a cold metallic luster in the morning light, their streamlined forms filled with an unspeakable aesthetic of violence. The dense arrays of cannons and launch batteries seemed to tell of their destiny—born for destruction.

On the bridge of the dinghai-class warship, Captain Long Ying and all the crew members had already been dazed for an entire night by the broadcasted images.

Only when Lin Yun's calm voice rang out on the bridge again did Captain Long Ying snap out of it as if waking from a dream.

"Captain Long, now, your fleet has arrived."

Captain Long Ying looked up abruptly at Lin Yun.

Lin Yun was seen giving the final command into the communicator.

"Luan Bird No. 1 through No. 9, release all physical anchors!"

"Activate anti-gravity curvature engines!"

"Target: Mariana Trench!"

"Let us... take flight!"

"Hum—!"

Accompanied by a low-pitched roar enough to make the soul resonate, nine clusters of brilliant blue light, as bright as suns, lit up in the nine "sinkholes" deep in the Gobi.

The next second, the nine steel behemoths, more majestic than mountain ranges, broke free from the shackles of gravity and rose slowly in an elegant yet supremely domineering posture!

Their massive hulls cast giant shadows that covered entire provinces.

At this moment, the sky seemed to be completely obscured by this group of newborn steel behemoths.

Thousands of miles away at the Mariana Trench.

The Living Planet Engine that had just awakened also seemed to sense the massive threat from the East. In its two metal eyes, which were like continental plates, a trace of... solemnity appeared for the first time?