Chapter 143 The Frontline Situation

While Bai Huo and her demon hunter companions were discussing the frontline situation, Hao Ren and Lily were staring blankly at the broken palaces floating in the void in the distance. Standing beside them, Nangong Wuyue noticed and curiously poked their arms with her tail. "What are you two looking at?"

Hao Ren was jolted back to his senses by Wuyue's poke, and he immediately forgot what he had been thinking about. He scratched his head. "Uh... nothing. It just feels kind of familiar, like I've seen it somewhere before. Could it be... a style from somewhere in Holletta?"

Vivian narrowed her eyes. "Architecture from the Magic Empire era?! That's possible, considering they could even bring an entire planet like 'Purgatory' over here." After saying that, she glanced at Lily. "It makes sense for the landlord to be pondering things, but why are you, with your carefree personality, also acting all serious?"

Before Lily could say anything, Hao Ren answered for her, "Nonsense. Go find any husky and look at it. Do they ever look anything but serious when they're spacing out?"

Vivian wanted to ask something else, but just as she was about to open her mouth, a strong flash of light suddenly burst out in the distance, followed by a deafening roar that was even louder than thunder. Everyone looked over in alarm and saw that a floating stone platform about a kilometer away was suddenly engulfed in flames. After that loud noise, a large number of magic bullets flashed around the stone platform like a rainstorm, and faintly visible within those flashes were countless figures crisscrossing. The flames and lightning illuminated a large number of broken buildings around the stone platform, revealing a fierce attack. In the center of the stone platform, in a defensive posture, was a half-collapsed temple. The top of the temple shone with a torch-like light, and a huge shield enveloped the entire platform, enduring continuous external bombardment.

Demon hunter warriors constantly emerged from the temple to meet the enemy, but due to the great distance and the interference of the exploding flames, Hao Ren couldn't clearly see what was happening there. But just from observing from afar, he could tell that there was a fierce battle taking place—a full-scale melee between demon hunter soldiers, with a destructive power no less than the saturation firepower of the human hot weapon era!

"The attack on the Dalsu Temple has begun again," a demon hunter warrior said through gritted teeth. "Since yesterday, their attack frequency has doubled. Now there's almost an attack every hour. I don't know how long the temple's crystal can last."

Nangong Sanba subconsciously tightened his grip on his weapon. "Shouldn't we go help?"

"This platform is more important. We must first hold the control hub of the Stars High Tower," Bai Huo said, trying to suppress her emotions. "And they might attack this place at any time. With insufficient manpower, everyone can only fight on their own. Follow me, I'll take you to the temporary command post first."

Led by the defending soldiers, the group quickly moved from the platform, traveling on a series of broken steps and slopes floating in the air, experiencing discontinuous gravity and strange, inverted paths. At least for Hao Ren and Lily, it was a wonderful experience. Finally, they arrived in front of a small palace floating in mid-air. Compared to the other dilapidated palace ruins, this small palace, used as a temporary command post, seemed relatively intact. Only a part of its outer wall had collapsed, and part of the palace's upper structure had turned into floating debris. A large number of demon hunter warriors guarded the palace, and Hao Ren saw many floating rune stones and ballista-like weapons placed on the open space near the building. These were clearly the demon hunters' large-scale armaments.

After seeing many individual demon hunter equipment, he finally saw the large weapons they used during the mythological war era.

The interior of the palace was empty. It seemed to have been a place of sacrifice, but now all the ritual items had been cleared out, and the remaining open space had become a busy command hub. Hao Ren saw a set of intricately structured small objects floating in the center of the hall, representing the locations of various palaces and towers in the Corpus space. They were lifelike and vividly reproduced, floating and rotating in mid-air according to the operating rules of those real buildings. Some demon hunter warriors walked around this special "sand table," constantly consolidating frontline battle reports and transmitting instructions. A particularly tall, dark-skinned man stood next to the suspended model; it was Tutanin, who had just returned from the front line not long ago.

"Bai Huo, I'm glad to see you safe and sound," Tutanin nodded slightly to Bai Huo, then his eyes fell on Hao Ren and his group. "I understand the situation. Thank you for coming to help despite past grievances and differences in camp."

"I don't have any camp differences with you in the first place, but that's not important," Hao Ren waved his hand. "Can someone explain to me what this model means?"

"These are the various architectural ruins floating within the Corpus space," Bai Huo said, pointing to the intricate models. "The palaces are the main troop deployment points and areas of engagement. They can generate powerful protective barriers to block enemies from penetrating deeper, and they also serve as management facilities for controlling energy flow. The white towers are usually energy nodes—also the main targets of contention. They are basically attached to large buildings, so the Elders Council usually attacks the nearest palace first when vying for these nodes. We are currently located here..."

Bai Huo pointed to the Stars High Tower model at the bottom of the sand table. "This is the 'bottom' of the Corpus space. And the Elders Council is at this location above... the Spirit World Clock Tower, the most heavily defended place in the Corpus."

Following the direction of Bai Huo's finger, at the top of all the buildings was a complex, asymmetrical, and bizarre spire. The spire was suspended alone in the open area between a pile of floating buildings. Hao Ren observed it carefully and found that this tower was the only stationary one in the entire Corpus ruins system.

Between the Spirit World Clock Tower and the Stars High Tower was a vast void and countless palace and fortress ruins floating in mid-air. Countless fine electric lights jumped between these models, representing the stalemate and chaotic battle on the front lines.

"Can't we just bypass these palaces and attack the Spirit World Clock Tower directly?" Hao Ren pointed to the large space between the floating palaces. "What if we send some elites to directly decapitate the enemy?"

As soon as he made this suggestion, the surrounding demon hunters shook their heads. Tutanin sighed. "You don't understand this system. Those palaces seem to have empty space between them, but in reality, there are intricate defenses. Invisible space vortexes are everywhere. Only by occupying key nodes can these vortexes be closed. And the energy nodes of the Corpus jointly maintain a layer of barrier outside the Spirit World Clock Tower. This barrier is almost invincible."

As Tutanin spoke, he pointed to the torch-like towers floating between the palaces. Those were the energy nodes.

The entire Corpus space had dozens of such nodes, which continuously transmitted powerful energy to the Spirit World Clock Tower, maintaining the so-called "invincible shield." If all these nodes fell into the hands of the Elders Council, their power could even activate some kind of ancient weapon at the top of the Spirit World Clock Tower, instantly destroying all enemies, or even any city on Earth.

"...This system has no loopholes?" Hao Ren rubbed his chin, almost reflexively wanting to find a shortcut. "Like, if you close some palaces, will there be a system error or something?"

Bai Huo immediately shook her head. "So far, we haven't found any such loopholes."

"Haven't found any?!" Izhaks immediately heard the implication in her words. "Could it be that you didn't build these defense facilities?"

"These defense systems existed before the demon hunters used Corpus as a base," Tutanin said slowly. "They are things that have always existed in this space, exceptionally powerful and far beyond our control. The elders have spent thousands of years exploring the secrets of this space, but in the end, they can only borrow their power according to the existing rules of these relics."

Bai Huo had mentioned before that the Corpus space was not built by the demon hunters, but Hao Ren didn't expect that even the defense systems inside were left by the ancients. He looked around at the high walls and halls, and that strange sense of déjà vu surged into his heart again. "...How strong is that 'invincible shield'?"

"The question is meaningless, because so far, the most powerful force on this planet cannot leave a single scratch on the surface of the Spirit World Clock Tower," Tutanin shrugged, then tapped the ground with his toes. "Even this broken palace under our feet cannot be shaken by Zeus's thunder or modern human artillery, not even a brick or a tile."

Hao Ren was dumbfounded when he heard this, while Bai Huo quietly added beside him, "Do you know why we haven't repaired these ruins? Because we can't even cut those melted tiles and bent skeletons from the ruins."

Just then, a commotion suddenly came from outside.