Chapter 1 The Battle of Amantir

The battle in Amantir broke out deep underground, yet the destruction it wrought had spread to the surface, ravaging nearly half the planet in a grand natural disaster—a cataclysmic change visible even from space.

Salaman stood on the bridge of the El, watching the real-time images transmitted from the external monitors with his adjutant. The image of Amantir was suspended in the center of the holographic projection, occupying nearly three-quarters of the screen. Everyone could clearly see that near Amantir's equator, the land was collapsing and contorting.

That was where the Amantir control center was located—a gigantic temple clearly visible from high orbit. At this moment, the massive temple had fractured in the middle, and continuous explosions were spreading along the temple's crack into the surrounding building complex. The halls and temples were shaking because the ground they stood on was rippling like melting butter, rapidly sinking towards the planet's core, as if a black hole had appeared deep underground, devouring the entire planet.

There was, of course, no black hole. Salaman knew the real reason for the ground's collapse: Like Agudar, a large area inside Amantir was hollow. A large number of incredibly sturdy crystal pillars supported the planet's outer structure while also acting as energy network nodes for the planetary warship. For the crust to collapse as a whole, something extraordinary must have happened in the crystal pillar layer.

Earlier, Salaman had received a brief message from an encrypted channel. After deciphering the message, he learned the general plan devised by Hao Ren and the fairies. So, seeing the changes on Amantir's surface at this moment, the legion commander could only stare blankly and mutter to himself, "They actually blew up the crystal pillar layer..."

"Only part of it," the young adjutant added from the side.

"But this is still a crazy plan," Salaman shook his head and smiled wryly. "I have to admit, in terms of creativity, that 'Observer' far surpasses us standard and rigid soldiers. I don't think any Guardian Giant could have accomplished this step in this infiltration mission, even if he could successfully drill into the core of Amantir."

"Based on the time the crust's stabilization system can support after the crystal pillars collapse, their battle in that Nightmare Nest should be nearing its end," the young adjutant said. "But we still haven't received any news of a successful operation—the control center has begun to disintegrate, and their time is running out."

"The crust of Amantir is still collapsing, which is the best news. It shows that those freaks still have no spare capacity to stabilize the starship's disaster. The trouble in the Nightmare Nest is not over yet," Salaman shook his head, then looked at another set of holographic projections next to him. "Those drones haven't started moving yet..."

The holographic projection next to him showed the scene of the drone legion. After the Guardians and the drone legion retreated to this position and faced the Corruptors from afar, the drones' actions appeared mysterious in the eyes of the Guardians. A large number of drone groups built layers of barriers around their berths, and then more drones jumped into this area from the depths of the universe. The newly emerged drone groups did not seem to be combat models.

Subsequently, drones constantly moved in and out of that area. Occasionally, one could see some large-scale components being transported inside, and no one knew what they were for.

In the most recent drone group movement, Salaman saw those drones dragging several super-large crystals into that mysterious "construction site." The size of those crystals was no different from mountains, and their energy reaction was astonishingly high.

The drones did not communicate with anyone, and the Guardians did not receive permission to enter the drone group's base. Recklessly scanning the friendly forces' position with radar or other observation devices was obviously an extremely serious signal of provocation. So, Salaman and his soldiers could only watch the mechanical life forms, as diligent as worker bees, busying themselves every day, completely unaware of what they were doing.

But this morning, the drones' actions suddenly ended, as if they had completed the task assigned by their master and began to enter standby mode, waiting for new orders: this state has continued until now.

Just as Salaman was guessing what the drone group planned to do, he saw the drones on the periphery suddenly move again: they scattered around, seemingly to make way for something.

The adjutant shouted loudly, "Encrypted communication received, content—the Shadow Emperor has won a little golden man!"

This was the strange code left to him by that equally strange Observer. Salaman did not understand what the words in this sentence meant, but he knew very well what the sentence itself meant: the infiltration team led by the Observer had succeeded!

They had destroyed the Nightmare Nest and seized the Amantir Crystal!

"Report, the drone group is starting to move. They are closing the barrier system around the position. Super high energy reaction detected in the center of the drone group! Energy reaction intensity has exceeded the measurement limit! Energy intensity exceeds the measurement limit!"

"Are they preparing to attack Amantir?" Salaman couldn't help but press his hand on the armrest of the seat. "The Observer hasn't withdrawn yet..."

Hao Ren and his party had said before they set off that they had prepared a retreat plan, but Salaman did not know the details of this retreat plan. Seeing the movement of the drone group at this moment, he realized that the final attack was about to begin, and Amantir would become the legion's target—but until now, he had not seen Hao Ren and the elite team he led withdraw from that planet.

But just as he was feeling curious, a thin blue light suddenly flashed across the holographic projection.

The sensitive external monitors immediately noticed this thin blue light and zoomed in on it. Salaman finally saw clearly that it was a silver-white spaceship—the high-tech starship that the Observer was riding in.

The silver-white spaceship had obviously activated a series of rapid maneuvering devices, so that it directly flew out at nearly the speed of light without using a hyperspace engine. A layer of shield, greatly enhanced by temporary charging, enveloped the entire ship like a heavy curtain, and a layer of projection coating floated on the spaceship's armor plates, with two lines of text that Salaman did not recognize.

*Xuan Hua* First-Class, Star River Fastest.

Nolan was like lightning, splitting straight from space towards the Corruptors' base camp. When crossing the Corruptor legion's blockade, she opened the mirror induction device. Dozens of oval metal devices were thrown into space from the projection port and immediately turned into mirror projections almost identical to the Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace. A large group of projections quickly exchanged positions in the universe and crossed the Corruptors' defense platforms from all directions—the latter had already reacted, and a large number of interceptors and aberrant monsters quickly took off. Anti-aircraft fire also opened fire fiercely, but Nolan's speed was so fast that all the Corruptors' active tracking methods could not lock onto her, and those indiscriminate barrage only destroyed a few mirror decoys released by the latter.

In the constantly collapsing Nightmare Nest, the constantly pouring Corruptors had surrounded Hao Ren and his party. The out-of-control aberrant monsters and Nightmare derivatives around them were frantically impacting the temporary defense line constructed by autonomous machines and armed drones. Hao Ren and his friends had retreated to the very center of the defense circle, constantly shooting down the monsters that occasionally leaked in with various remote attack methods.

Lili, in her white dog form, had exhausted herself in the previous battle and was now lying weakly in the back. Elizabeth and Roll were leaning on her fluffy big tail, receiving Nangong Wuyue's battlefield treatment—in fact, almost everyone had received a round of treatment, and now everyone was taking turns.

After disintegrating a Brain Creature that was secretly releasing a mental attack in a corner with a poison blood arrow, Vivian looked back at Hao Ren: "Is the spatial signal still unstable?"

Hao Ren quickly glanced at the data terminal floating not far away: "Those monsters must have guessed that we are going to withdraw. The interference they released is very strong, but the spatial signal has just been read."

The data terminal also shouted loudly: "Nolan has rushed over and should be able to reach the rendezvous point soon. The spatial signal is strengthening! This unit needs a little time to recalculate the coordinates! Not much, just a few minutes!"

Izhaks tore an aberrant monster that rushed in front of him in half with a casual wave of his hand, and laughed while throwing the two pieces of wreckage out: "Ha, this little time can still be squeezed out—after that brain died, the combat effectiveness of these trash has dropped to the point where it's unbearable."

Nangong Sanba smiled wryly: "But there are still a lot of them."

Hao Ren didn't care: "Anyway, no matter how many there are, they'll be taken away by one shot later."

At this moment, Nolan finally broke through Amantir's near-Earth defense circle, and then slanted across the equatorial Great Rift Valley in an elegant and thrilling parabola.

"Spatial coordinates have been recalibrated! Starting the transfer!"

A white light enveloped everyone. In the white light, Hao Ren slowly raised a middle finger at the Corruptor monsters that were constantly pouring in.

"Bye bye you all—"

The white light dissipated, and everyone disappeared out of thin air in front of the Corruptors, leaving behind only a thick cylindrical metal device flashing red light.

A few seconds later, a powerful shock wave rushed out of the crust, and a mushroom cloud rose from the control center.

In these few seconds, Nolan had rushed back into space. On the bridge, everyone watched the mushroom cloud slowly rise. Finally, Nangong Sanba couldn't help but break the silence: "Speaking of which, the drone group is ready to fire the cannon, is there any point in you blowing it up like this?"

Hao Ren had a profound look on his face: "What do you know, this is called a character business card—anyone with high *bige* has to leave a mark after doing something, Zorro even carves a 'Z' after doing something!"

The data terminal slapped Hao Ren on the head with a *pa* sound: "I've heard of people leaving words, flowers, or playing cards after doing something, and you're the only one who leaves a royal flush, and you still have the nerve to mention *bige*?"

Hao Ren didn't care, just laughed and looked up at the scene in space.

The startled Corruptor army chased after Nolan like locusts, but they were all left behind by the female driver's accelerator, and in the more distant space, the drone group's position had been opened. After all the covers, barriers, and disguises were removed, a huge space structure appeared in everyone's sight.

It was a temporarily assembled facility. Several mountain-sized light blue crystals were arranged in a spear shape, and a large number of silver-white metal beams and connecting light beams connected these crystals into a whole. At the front end of this spear-shaped facility, a powerful energy flow had gathered into a dazzling light.

If you were familiar with it, you could tell at a glance that these crystals were actually part of the Crystal Core Research Station...

"'Annihilation Lance' is fully charged," Nolan's holographic image stood on the bridge, with a happy and high-spirited face. "Let those rookies who can't even catch up with my exhaust go to hell!"

Nangong Wuyue poked her brother with the tip of her tail: "I always feel that Nolan after she starts speeding is completely different from usual."

Nangong Sanba: "Shh, keep it down, don't let the female driver hear you."