344: Chapter 344 Heaven and Earth

"Awake?"

A voice, gentle yet tinged with a hint of fatigue, came from beside him.

Lu Yuan slowly opened his eyes.

As his vision cleared, he saw Xia Li holding a cup of warm tea and squatting halfway beside him.

She had already changed back into her familiar silver-white battle armor, which was now stained with mud and dark red blood.

A few strands of hair clung messily to her cheeks, obviously having just been through a fierce battle.

"Drink some water."

Xia Li reached out to support Lu Yuan's shoulders and handed the teacup to his lips.

Lu Yuan subconsciously took two sips.

As the warm tea entered his stomach, his groggy brain finally gradually cleared up.

"Where am I? I... how long did I sleep?"

"Twenty hours."

"Huh?!"

Lu Yuan suddenly sat up.

Only then did he realize he was lying on a temporarily laid metal platform.

The surroundings were parked full of severely damaged red armored vehicles.

A large number of Red Wolf members ran back and forth.

Some were carrying the wounded, while others were repairing the armored vehicles.

Still others were fixing Super Alloy chains hundreds of meters long onto the nearby tilted giant mountains.

The entire temporary camp was in complete chaos.

Even more terrifying... was the heaven and earth in the distance!

Above the firmament, it was covered with pitch-black cracks stretching tens of thousands of miles horizontally and vertically.

Behind the cracks was not the starry sky.

Instead, it was the constantly churning chaotic turbulent currents!

A large amount of pitch-black thunder struck down from the cracks, blasting bottomless giant craters into the earth one after another.

At the end of the sky,

a silvery heavenly river tens of thousands of miles wide actually poured backward from the fractured firmament.

Resembling a giant water dragon spanning across heaven and earth, it continuously washed over the shattered mountains and rivers below.

The earth had long been severely tilted.

Mountains towering ten thousand feet high slowly slid under the traction of gravity.

Mountains and rivers shattered.

Rivers changed their courses.

Countless cities and villages were buried in the overwhelming torrents of mud and rock.

Further south,

crimson-red magma gushed out from the underground.

Rolling black smoke blotted out the sun.

The entire world was like a colossal giant marching toward death,

with every inch of its bones shattering and every drop of its blood burning!

"Where is this?"

The sleepiness on Lu Yuan's face instantly vanished.

Xia Li stood up and looked up at the shattered sky.

"We are in the third tribulation—Heaven and Earth!"

"After the twelve-hour rest period ended, the system forcibly initiated the final trial."

"At that time, you hadn't woken up yet, so we could only bring you in with us."

"Ever since entering the trial, eight hours have passed."

Lu Yuan's expression changed slightly,

and he immediately opened the quest panel.

A huge crimson light screen appeared before him.

[Third Tribulation: Heaven and Earth!]

[Trial World: Ancient Nine Provinces!]

[World Status: On the Verge of Destruction!]

[Quest Requirement: Repair this heaven and earth before the world completely collapses!]

[Remaining Quest Time: 3 hours and 56 minutes!]

[Current Heaven and Earth Integrity: 39.7%!]

[Current Repair Progress: 6.4%!]

[Warning! Heaven and Earth integrity is continuously declining!]

[It is estimated that three hours and fifty-six minutes later, this world will be completely destroyed!]

[By then, all living creatures and challengers inside the world will be completely annihilated by the chaotic turbulent currents!]

[Challengers can choose to exit at any time!]

[Those who exit will retain all rewards from the first two trials!]

[For those who continue the trial, the estimated mortality rate exceeds 90%!]

Lu Yuan stared at the quest in front of him,

his expression gradually turning solemn.

The first two trials.

The first tribulation, Asking the Heart.

Facing the butcher's knives of the devils, protect three hundred thousand commoners in retreating.

No matter how many enemies there were, they could ultimately be killed.

The second tribulation, Bone Structure.

Endure the pain of divine bones entering the body.

As long as one's willpower is strong enough, one can likewise forcefully endure it.

But this third tribulation...

The enemy is not some monster, not some deity... but the entire heaven and earth marching toward destruction!

"How is the situation now?"

Lu Yuan asked in a deep voice.

Xia Li was silent for a moment, and finally slowly shook her head.

"Very pessimistic."

"Lin Zihao has already deployed all three hundred thousand people."

"Eighty thousand people are rescuing the commoners of this world in the north."

"Sixty thousand people are heading south to suppress the earthly fire."

"Fifty thousand people are dredging the heavenly river."

"Seventy thousand people are using quantum chains to secure the sliding mountain ranges."

"The remaining people are trying to rebuild the fractured pillars of heaven and earth."

"However..."

Xia Li reached out and pointed into the distance.

A mountain peak that was originally secured by thousands of quantum chains suddenly emitted a deafening roar.

"Crack!"

A Super Alloy chain dozens of meters thick snapped abruptly!

Immediately following that, the second and third ones!

The mountain peak towering tens of thousands of meters high instantly lost control and slid toward a city below that accommodated millions of refugees.

"Damn it! The mountain is collapsing!"

"Quickly hold it!"

"Logistics Team, full power output!"

Thousands of red armored vehicles started their engines simultaneously.

The violent roar resounded through heaven and earth.

Streams of exhaust flames spewed from the tails of the armored vehicles, desperately pulling the giant mountain that was about to collapse.

But just as they barely stabilized the mountain peak,

the earth beside them split open with another pitch-black abyss hundreds of kilometers long!

Countless mud, rivers, trees, and even entire villages were swallowed into the cracks.

Screams remained clearly audible across hundreds of kilometers.

Lu Yuan's gaze sank completely...

Xia Li said in a low voice:

"Our repair speed falls far short of the speed at which heaven and earth are collapsing."

"Just as we plug one heavenly river crack, three more will split open right next to it."

"Suppress one earthly fire, and ten surrounding volcanoes will erupt."

"The situation is very pessimistic right now, we need your strength..."

Right at this moment,

"The President is awake!"

An excited voice came from afar.

Lin Zihao, covered in dust, hurried over with several intelligence team members.

His left arm was still wrapped in bandages, and his clothes were tattered.

"Boss!"

"You're finally awake!"

Lu Yuan didn't talk nonsense and asked directly: "Report the losses."

The excitement on Lin Zihao's face quickly vanished.

"Over seventeen hundred people died in battle."

"Over twenty thousand seriously injured."

"They weren't killed by monsters."

"The vast majority were swallowed by suddenly splitting ground during rescues, or swept away by the backflowing heavenly river."

"And many people lost contact."

"We can't find their locations at all."

Speaking of this,

Lin Zihao raised his hand and unfolded a holographic map.

On the map,

the entire Ancient Nine Provinces was almost completely covered in crimson red.

Only a few areas still flickered with faint green light points.

"Boss."

"There are a total of four pillars of heaven and earth in this world."

"Now all four pillars are broken."

"We are trying to rebuild the pillars using armored vehicles, mountain ranges, and Super Alloy."

"But at the current speed,"

Lin Zihao's voice was bitter,

"forget four hours; even if you give us four days, we might not be able to complete it..."