Chapter 101 The Ambush

Because time was limited, and the main purpose of this trip wasn't to study the organization of the corrupted legion, Hao Ren couldn't spend too much time examining those "summoning platforms." But he still roughly estimated the number of summoning platforms set up in the entire Equatorial Fracture Zone based on what he could observe at the bottom of the rift—undoubtedly, he arrived at a rather astonishing number.

Although it couldn't compare to the universe-wide "mechanical cataclysm" of the drone swarms, the rate at which these corrupted monsters proliferated soldiers was still astonishing. Their corrupted army would be an irresistible tidal wave in the face of any mortal race. No wonder Salaman and the guardian legion he led had suffered repeated defeats in these thousands of years of war, ultimately relying only on Agadal's doomsday weapon and the nexus's own powerful shields to barely stay alive. In fact, one could say that if they hadn't possessed the doomsday weapon "Endless Torrent," which was enough to turn the tide of battle, and the nexus's remaining defensive capabilities, the guardian legion would probably have been flattened by the monsters long ago.

Vivian guessed, "Those Brainspawn… they're connected to the summoning platforms, so they're the commanders behind the corrupted legion?"

"They look more like they're presiding over a summoning ritual," Izhaks had a different opinion. "The platforms' function should merely be to gather and amplify energy, to provide energy for the summoning ritual—I'm a demon, I'm more sensitive to the aura emitted by this kind of ritual."

Elizabeth poked Izhaks' leg with the little horns on her head: "Dad, the worldview here is different from our old home. Your experience might not be useful here."

Izhaks was exposed by his own daughter, and his face was a little embarrassed, but he still said, "I'm just offering an opinion. You guys can consider it."

"I also think those Brainspawn are just presiding over the summoning ritual," Hao Ren said at this time, expressing his support for Izhaks. "Remember the Brainspawn we saw when we infiltrated the pipelines before? If some Brainspawn are responsible for commanding the troops, I think the one in that room back then was more like a commander."

Vivian glanced at Hao Ren: "What's your basis?"

"I noticed some video equipment in that room at the time. Some of the videos were still showing the situation of the drone swarms in outer space," Hao Ren explained. "Compared to the summoning platforms in the rift below, that room was more like a command center."

"Anyway, no matter how these monsters increase their numbers, it doesn't have much to do with our mission this time," the data terminal floated up. It projected a route map, on which the part involving the Great Rift Valley, which was originally missing due to incomplete data, had now been partially completed, and a short red line was connecting the platform where everyone was and another entrance not far away. "According to this unit's calculations, we need to go over there. After re-entering the pipeline system from the gate, we can return to the correct route—after that, we can directly reach the location where the Amanthir Crystal is stored."

Guided by the data terminal, Hao Ren's gaze slowly moved along a cliff on one side and quickly found the location of the entrance indicated on the holographic projection: it was directly below the platform where everyone was standing, about five hundred meters in a straight line, and was an inconspicuous small platform.

And between the two platforms, there was a completely unobstructed cliff, with no place to set foot at all.

Crossing a five-hundred-meter cliff wasn't a problem for anyone here, but the biggest trouble was that this cliff was unobstructed: this was no longer a ventilation duct without surveillance and guards, but an open outdoor space. Newly born corrupted monsters were flying out of the rift every minute and every second. There were also Abyssal Fiends and corrupted giants patrolling in the sky above the rift. The risk of being discovered was high if they went directly over there.

However, there was no other way to choose: the data terminal sensed the surrounding situation through radar and did not find any other alternative passages.

"We can only go from here," after observing the movement patterns of the corrupted monsters, Hao Ren made up his mind. "A wave of newly born monsters in this area will fly up approximately every three minutes, and there is also a brief time difference that can be used by the patrolling troops in the sky. Coupled with Vivian's Shadow Veil, we should be able to avoid being discovered if we are careful."

Considering that the fluctuations caused by space teleportation were the easiest to expose, the data terminal's teleportation function couldn't be used here. Nangong Sanba's talent as a demon hunter, his teleportation ability, was also prohibited, so the group could only use their own methods to cross this five-hundred-meter distance: fortunately, the target platform was diagonally below here, which greatly reduced the difficulty of crossing.

Vivian first refreshed the duration of the Shadow Veil state for everyone individually, and then directly disintegrated into a large group of small bats, easily crossing this distance that was "completely inconspicuous" in her eyes. Then it was Lily—she just jumped over, without even a running start…

Then there was the rolling cat. The cat girl ran lightly along the cliff to the opposite side, as if walking on flat ground. Nangong Sanba was rolled up by his sister and thrown ten times before being thrown to the platform diagonally below. Nangong Wuyue then simply liquefied herself and flowed to the opposite side along the cracks in the cliff…

The means of a group of guys were really diverse, which broadened Hao Ren's horizons.

One by one, the people in the team crossed this distance with no danger. Hao Ren was the second to last to arrive on the opposite side: like Lily, he also jumped over, but he also took a dozen steps to run.

The last one to come over was Izhaks. Hao Ren nervously paid attention to the movements of the patrolling monsters in the sky, while silently calculating the "floating" time of the newly born monsters below, until Izhaks landed heavily on the platform with a "thud," he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The timing seemed to be just right.

"Caught up," the fluff on Lily's ears also slowly calmed down. She had been holding her breath since just now: although Vivian's Shadow Veil was very powerful, it only blocked the aura and partially concealed vision. If they really encountered those monsters at close range, they couldn't hide at all. "Come on, come on, this gate is open, there's no one inside…"

As she spoke, she vigilantly looked around. Almost at the same time as she turned her head to look in the direction of the rift, a dark red monster with a dozen tentacles floating below, like an inflated brain, suddenly floated up from under the platform!

A Brainspawn, it and Lily looked at each other, only three meters apart.

The husky girl's tail exploded with a "bang" on the spot. In an emergency, her voice even changed its tone: "Landlord! Brainspawn!"

Everyone on the platform also noticed the Brainspawn that had suddenly floated up at this moment. Hao Ren felt his scalp tighten suddenly, but the conditioned reflex cultivated by facing sudden situations over a long period of time still made him raise his inspector's gun at the first moment. Without thinking about it, he aimed and fired.

The Brainspawn also seemed to be taken aback by the scene it suddenly saw in front of it. Its floating tentacles were even a little sluggish, but at the moment Hao Ren raised his weapon, the monster reacted at an unreasonable speed, and before Hao Ren could shoot, it dodged the trajectory in an almost teleportation-like manner and pounced on everyone on the platform!

"Quick, kill it!" Izhaks gave a low shout, and a fiery light surged on his fists. Like a human-shaped tank, he rushed up. Following closely behind him were the holy silver crossbow bolts shot by Nangong Sanba, followed by Vivian's lightning balls and Elizabeth's Fel fireballs—various attacks instantly blocked all the Brainspawn's dodging routes, and the entire platform was shrouded in a layer of heat waves due to the sudden burst of various energies.

"Be careful of its tentacles, its tentacles can cut space!" Hao Ren still remembered his first encounter with the Brainspawn in Holletta. While joining the attack, he loudly reminded Gun Gun, who lacked combat experience, "Vivian, keep an eye on the space around the platform to prevent this guy from escaping!"

The Brainspawn had obviously underestimated these suddenly emerging invaders before, or rather, it didn't know the details of these guys who had never been seen in the Holy Land at all. Therefore, after the fight, it quickly fell into a disadvantage because it couldn't cope with it. Being besieged to such an extent by a group of creatures that looked like "mortals" angered this ancient and powerful monster. It shook the air and let out an angry roar. Immediately, everyone around it felt a strong dizziness attack their brains.

Along with the dizziness, there were also various negative emotions and hallucinations.

This was the Brainspawn's most adept and most difficult to guard against ability: mental attack!

But Hao Ren had been guarding against this move for a long time. His mental defense, which had been specially strengthened by CROW 12345, had even resisted the nightmare invasion of Locke Marton, so in the face of the mental shock emitted by the Brainspawn, he was only slightly dizzy. With a slight bite of his teeth, he refocused his attention and fired again at the moment when the Brainspawn had just released its skills and its movements were slow.

This time, the monster couldn't dodge it.

A bright blue beam hit a swollen tumor on its surface, and then large swaths of crystallized structure spread rapidly from this tumor to the monster's whole body. It could no longer maintain its levitating state, so it let out an angry shriek and then uncontrollably fell to the ground.

At the same time as it shrieked, Hao Ren saw circles of semi-transparent ripples visible to the naked eye spreading out from the base of the Brainspawn's tentacles. He instantly realized the role of these ripples and his heart shook: they were going to be exposed!

But before he could take more action, those ripples suddenly seemed to hit some invisible barrier. They disturbed into a mess of chaotic noise in mid-air, and disappeared in the next second.

Hao Ren was stunned for a moment, but before he could think more, he felt a huge force coming from behind: Lily grabbed his arm and ran into the gate with her legs apart: "Things are dire, let's get out of here!"

The group finally entered a new ventilation duct, and they finally stopped after confirming that they were far enough away from the entrance.

Hiding behind a corner, Lily poked her head out to look at the direction the group had come from, and took a few deep breaths to calm down: "Huff—it doesn't seem like anyone is following…"

"I was scared to death!" Nangong Wuyue lay on the ground like a dehydrated salted fish. "Just now I thought we were all exposed, and I was thinking we were dead for sure."

"Did you see the last scene just now?" Hao Ren looked at Vivian. "That Brainspawn was trying to send some kind of signal…"

"And then it was intercepted," Vivian nodded. "I saw it too."

Hao Ren frowned: "What was that?"

Izhaks also saw the scene just now, and was obviously also concerned: "Not sure, but it's obviously some kind of energy field, and… it's not the same kind of energy field as those monsters."

Then the three looked at each other, and Hao Ren couldn't help but mutter: "There are forces on this planet besides us?"