87: Chapter 88 The Ten Elders Suffer a Crushing Defeat at the Hands of the Giants; This Battle Is Unwinnable, the Spirit Rings Are Too Deceptive!

Desert Base, third underground level, Supreme Strategic Command Center.

The air was thick with a scorched scent, not just from the long-sealed equipment that had just been powered up, but also from the suffocating scenes displayed on the massive screen.

Xue Youyou sat on the edge of the command console, holding a cup of freshly made "Full Sugar, No Ice, Extra Boba" milk tea, her legs, clad in black lace stockings, swinging back and forth.

She had no interest in the war footage on the screen; instead, she was fascinated by the thermos Lei Keming had just dropped on the floor, nudging it around with her toes.

Jiang Chen, meanwhile, was staring intently at the screen, his brow furrowed into a deep frown.

"Old Lei, are you sure this isn't the latest Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster?"

Jiang Chen pointed at the behemoth on the screen, which was hovering fifty meters above sea level, pitch-black and wreathed in pale blue electric arcs.

"Anti-gravity engines? Force field shields? And the charging reaction of this main cannon... is that a plasma cannon?"

Jiang Chen turned to look at Lei Keming. "How long have I been gone? Even if time flows faster on Blue Star, it's been at most six months, right? Did the Eagle Sauce dig up the ancestral grave of the Transformers? Or did Megatron become their technical consultant?"

Lei Keming’s expression was grim. He braced his hands against the command console, his knuckles turning white from the pressure.

"We wish it were just a movie."

Lei Keming pulled up a set of data charts, his voice heavy. "But this is real footage our reconnaissance satellite captured in the international waters of the Pacific three days ago."

"This hovering mothership, codenamed Zeus, suddenly ascended from the Bermuda Triangle three days ago. It underwent no test flights and was immediately deployed for combat."

"And this." Lei Keming switched the feed.

The screen displayed a battle taking place on an island.

A group of soldiers clad in exoskeleton armor and wielding beam rifles were advancing rapidly.

Their movements were inhumanly agile; each leap covered over ten meters, and the beam sabers in their hands could effortlessly slice through tank armor.

"These are the Foot Basin Chicken’s Ronin mech units. While the technology clearly originates from the Eagle Sauce, they’ve undergone localized modifications, emphasizing melee combat and high mobility."

Lei Keming took a deep breath and offered a despairing conclusion:

"According to our think tank's assessment, the technological level of the Eagle Sauce and the Foot Basin Chicken has experienced an inexplicable, cliff-like surge in just six months."

"If our previous technology was a Type 0.7 civilization, the technology brought by the Taichu Holy Land allowed us to reach the threshold of Type 1.0. But now, the Eagle Sauce is at least at the peak of a Type 1.5 civilization!"

"Type 1.5..." Jiang Chen muttered.

This gap couldn't be bridged overnight with a few spirit stones traded for instant noodles.

It was like an army armed with matchlock muskets suddenly facing a group of aliens piloting Gundams.

"Then what about our defensive line?" Jiang Chen suddenly realized something. "The Ten Elders of the Taichu Holy Land didn't return with me. With them around, what kind of trouble could these piles of scrap metal possibly cause?"

Mentioning the Ten Elders caused Lei Keming’s expression to turn even more peculiar, tinged with a hint of frustration.

"The elders are indeed powerful, but..." Lei Keming sighed and tapped a few keys on his keyboard.

"See for yourself. This might be the most absurd battle in the history of the cultivation world."

The screen shifted to the East Sea, at a disputed reef. Smoke filled the air, and flames shot into the sky.

What should have been a one-sided slaughter—cultivators annihilating a mortal army—was now a bizarre stalemate.

In the center of the screen, Elder Huoyun was wearing a custom camouflage tactical vest over his Taoist robes. He brandished the alloy Flying Sword he had forged over the last few months, glaring furiously at a Ronin mech that was leaping about.

"Argh! This old man is furious!" Elder Huoyun roared, forming a sword seal with his hand. "Fiend! Taste my blade! Raging Fire Prairie!"

"Hum—!" The Flying Sword, wreathed in raging flames, transformed into a streak of red light and slashed fiercely toward the mech’s cockpit.

In the Taichu Realm, this strike would have been enough to level a mountain peak.

However, just as the Flying Sword was about to make contact— "Zzz—!" A pale blue, hexagonal energy shield suddenly flared to life on the mech’s surface.

"Clang!" With a sharp ring, the peerless Flying Sword struck the shield, but it felt as if it had hit cotton. Not only did it fail to break the defense, but it was also sent flying by a massive shockwave of recoil.

To make matters worse, since Blue Star lacked spiritual energy, the strike had consumed Elder Huoyun’s own True Essence.

"Warning! Energy shield integrity at 99.99%." A cold, electronic voice emanated from the mech.

Immediately, the mech raised its right arm, aiming a multi-barreled rotary laser cannon at Elder Huoyun.

"Zzzzzzz—!" A dense barrage of red laser beams poured down like a torrential rain.

"Block! Block! Block, block, block!" Elder Huoyun frantically summoned a tortoise-shell shield. He was blasted backward by the lasers, his feet carving two deep trenches into the sand.

Although he was a Nascent Soul Stage expert with a formidable physique, and these lasers couldn't truly harm him, the massive kinetic energy left his blood roiling, and half of his beard was scorched off.

"What... what is going on?" Jiang Chen stared, dumbfounded. "Did Elder Huoyun skip breakfast? Why was his strike so weak?"

"He didn't skip breakfast." Lei Keming pointed to the screen, specifically at the silver collar around Elder Huoyun’s neck.

"It’s because of the Spirit Ring."

Before Jiang Chen could speak, a sorrowful howl shattered the solemn atmosphere of the command center. "Son-in-law, you’ve finally returned! This war is impossible! It’s truly impossible to fight!"

The usually ethereal and transcendent Elder Huoyun was now standing there with a soot-blackened face, his robes riddled with burn holes, and half his beard singed away.

He limped into the command center and slammed his notched alloy Flying Sword onto the table.

"These foreign barbarians are going too far! They’re relying on that turtle shell—that force field shield—to tank my Flying Sword strikes!"

"If we were in the Taichu Realm, I could have sliced them and their shells in half with a single strike! But now..."

Elder Huoyun pointed at the silver collar on his neck, which was blinking with a red light, looking as aggrieved as a three-hundred-pound child.

"This Spirit Ring suppresses my cultivation until it's not even at the Foundation Establishment Stage! If I try to use even a little True Essence, it shocks me! I wasn't defeated by that lump of scrap metal; I retreated because this collar shocked me numb!"

Beside him, Elder Qing Rou looked equally miserable, using her True Qi to expel the tear gas she had inhaled.

"And that air filtration system—it’s the absolute nemesis of poison cultivators! My Seven-Step Heart-Breaking Smoke had barely been released before that giant fan blew it right back at me! *Cough, cough, cough*..."

Elder Jingang was in an even worse state, dripping wet from having just been fished out of the sea. Clutching his chest, he groaned, "That gravity bomb is tricky. My divine strength had nowhere to go, and I was sent flying three hundred miles!"

Looking at this group of cultivation masters who had been beaten to such a sorry state, Jiang Chen and Lei Keming exchanged glances.

"This is truly a case of a dragon stranded in shallow water being teased by shrimp, or a tiger falling to the plains and being bullied by dogs."

Lei Keming sighed. "The Saintess added these Spirit Rings to protect Blue Star. Who could have imagined that in just a few short months, the Eagle Sauce’s technology would explode to this extent? They’re actually suppressing cultivators in battle!"

"Son-in-law!" Elder Huoyun grabbed Jiang Chen’s hand. "Quick! Contact the Saintess! Contact the Sect Master! We can’t take this lying down! Request to lift the Spirit Ring restrictions! Or... or have the sect send over some heavy-duty weapons! I’m going to show them why flowers are red!"

"Right! Call for backup! We definitely need backup!" Jiang Chen, incited by the miserable state of the elders, felt his own anger rising.

His own security staff had been beaten up by hooligans from the next village—how could he let that slide?

"System! Contact Ji Linglong immediately!"

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