It's getting windy.

Li Chen's voice brought Gu Shen back to his senses.

The sound of pebbles hitting the mask was very harsh… the source armor had a built-in noise reduction and soundproofing effect, and this harsh sound was enough to indicate the force of the pebble strike.

He raised his head and looked into the distance.

The gravel that was already swirling in the sky showed signs of forming a storm.

The "Blazing Fire" scattered around him conveyed a sense of "unease"!

He wasn't the only one who noticed this anomaly.

There were other sensitive transcendents in this explorer team.

Yuan Yuan and Su He, at the front and rear of the team, both looked up.

The two captains, main and deputy, exchanged glances.

A calm voice sounded in the command channel.

"Everyone, increase the source energy combustion efficiency to 120%. We need to speed up…"

As soon as the voice fell.

Several veterans had already completed this configuration, clearly aware of the unusual environment around them.

The source armor's energy technology, after a long period of research in North Continent, was basically mature. In special circumstances, the source armor had a backup option to "break the limit," but this meant a large amount of source matter would dissipate and be wasted.

On an outbound mission, every transcendent had to conserve their energy.

After the combustion efficiency exceeded 100%.

The source armor could operate beyond its capacity, greatly increasing the speed of advance… but in exchange, the mileage was greatly reduced!

Such an order would not be given unless absolutely necessary!

Within five seconds, the source armor combustion efficiency increased to 120%, and the speed of the entire team soared. On the wasteland of the [Old World], filled with thick fog, the twelve members of this explorer team became a blur, shooting out like arrows!

"Captain, what's going on?"

Zhu Xiao asked in the public channel, his voice a little nervous.

"The wind pressure has suddenly increased."

Yuan Yuan replied calmly, "There may be a [Storm] forming… If we're fast enough, we should be able to escape before the storm takes shape."

"My [Source Eye] detected source matter anomalies in the due north direction." Li Chen reported his findings immediately, "In an hour, this source matter should initially coalesce into a [Storm]."

Due north?

The team members exchanged glances.

This could be considered good news… if these rampaging source energies were coalescing in the south, that would be terrible!

The direction of their return was south.

With the storm coalescing to their north, at least they had a road home to escape.

Gu Shen fell into thought.

Li Chen's [Source Eye] had limited sensing ability, only detecting one storm in the due north direction… but his "Blazing Fire" had a wider range!

In his vision.

The gathering points of "wind pressure" were not just one.

Further away, several storms were brewing.

"Encountering storms in the [Old World] isn't uncommon."

Seeing Gu Shen's silence, Yuan Yuan comforted him telepathically, "Most explorer teams can escape… as long as they detect the movement in advance and don't get caught in the storm."

"Mm…"

Gu Shen woke up from his thoughts and subconsciously echoed.

Then he asked, "If you get caught in a storm, what happens?"

"Of course… you die."

Yuan Yuan's answer was without hesitation.

He looked at Gu Shen, wondering why such a smart guy would ask such a simple question?

"The storms in the Old World only contain rampant source matter, which is an untamable force. Ordinary flesh bodies simply cannot bear this violent transcendent power. Even the gods find it difficult to contend with and can only evade… No one would think of entering a storm and still survive. Once caught in a storm, there's only one ending: complete annihilation."

Yuan Yuan's voice was low, "Annihilation in the truest sense."

The flesh, of course, would be torn apart by the storm.

No matter how much an organic creature tempered its skin, it couldn't resist that terrifying power.

As for the spirit.

Before such a massive source matter storm, the spirit was just a lone boat on a raging sea.

Perhaps the spirit could survive for a second or two longer after the flesh was broken.

Then… it would be submerged in the raging sea.

Gu Shen nodded, indicating that he understood.

"Then I have some bad news for you. In an hour, a storm will arrive from the west at our current location. Escaping along this route is a dead end." Gu Shen said calmly telepathically, "Li Chen's detection results are wrong. This isn't an ordinary storm. There are at least ten wind pressure points, and the storms brewing at each point are converging to the south."

"……?"

Yuan Yuan's face was a little pale.

If these words hadn't come from Gu Shen, he wouldn't have believed them at all!

Since joining the Investigation Corps and starting to carry out outbound missions, he had never encountered a storm of such terrifying proportions… And the worst thing was that these storms were all heading south?

What did that mean?

It meant… there would be an unprecedented source matter tide impacting the great wall of the Zheng Wing Defense Line!

If the scale of the storm was as Gu Shen said.

Then, could the Umbrella Defense Line… withstand it?

He subconsciously raised his hand to his forehead, but his hand pressed against the cold source armor mask. With just a slight force, a very faint "crack" sounded on the outside of the mask. Yuan Yuan's pupils contracted slightly… this sound caught his attention!

He quickly concentrated his mental energy on the transparent mask.

The naked eye could not see it.

But the mental energy captured the "abnormality" of the mask at this moment.

Due to the impact of gravel.

The source armor mask had actually been damaged. These damages were extremely small, streaks of abrasion, but accumulating, they had weakened a certain point on the mask to the point where it could crack at any moment!

These pebbles… were not simple ordinary pebbles. They were very likely to have flown from the "brewing points of wind pressure," so they were full of source matter power. If the quantity were denser, they might damage the source armor!

"Captain?"

Li Chen, who had been keeping his [Source Eye] open, immediately noticed Yuan Yuan's abnormality. The captain's emotions seemed to be fluctuating.

Unfortunately.

So far, he hadn't captured the true danger… believing that there was only one "wind pressure point."

"I… I'm fine."

Yuan Yuan took a deep breath, regained his composure, and quickly replaced the spare mask. Then he issued an order in the command channel, "All members, check the damage status of your source armor and report."

"The captain replaced his mask. Was his source armor damaged?"

Mo Hongyi was confused after hearing this.

"It seems so… The surrounding pebbles are a bit strange." Jiang Yu frowned.

In the public channel, the report results came out quickly.

The worrying thing did not happen.

The source armor of others only had very slight "scratches," not as serious as Yuan Yuan's, and there was no need to replace them. But everyone realized that they were in a very dangerous environment at the moment.

Due to the breakthrough of the source energy fuel efficiency limit, the team's rate of advance was extremely fast.

And the faster the speed.

The more severe the wear and tear.

Yuan Yuan tried to release all his mental energy, but unfortunately, he didn't have Gu Shen's powerful detection ability, and the range he sensed was not large. But in his perception, there was indeed more than one wind pressure point.

This was enough to prove that Li Chen's [Source Eye] had not seen the whole picture.

"Gu Shen… I want to hear your opinion."

Yuan Yuan had a headache.

This news was really too bad.

He hadn't figured out the next choice… If the team was going to encounter the storm on the west side in an hour, then how should the team return to Gu Fort? Did they have to continue to increase fuel efficiency?

No, that would definitely be a dead end!

Although this outbound mission had prepared sufficient energy.

But under the 120% limit burning, this energy was only enough for everyone to return to the fortress.

If they increased it again… the return energy would not be able to support the subsequent journey.

After an hour of storm, the next journey would only be more urgent, and if there was not enough fuel, they would definitely be caught up by the storm!

Most importantly, these "gravel" floating in the air, at normal speed, these stones, even if they contained a certain amount of power, were not enough to pose a threat.

The higher the combustion efficiency, the faster the speed, the more dangerous these floating objects became!

"My suggestion…"

Gu Shen silently looked into the distance. After sensing the wind pressure point, he also fell into thought.

The problems Yuan Yuan had thought about before, he had also thought about them all.

If Chu Ling was here at this juncture, it would be great. Perhaps with the help of [Deep Sea]'s huge computing power, he could find a possible way to survive in this storm.

But now, no matter how you looked at it, it seemed like a dead end.

After a few seconds, Gu Shen asked a question: "What is the maximum fuel efficiency that the source armor can break through to?"

"150%." Yuan Yuan frowned slightly. He said solemnly, "The 120% limit breakthrough burns energy 1.5 times faster than usual, and the 150% limit breakthrough, in addition to causing a great load on the source armor… it will also burn 3 times the source energy fuel."

Under this terrifying consumption of source energy.

The transcendent wearing the source armor will get a great speed bonus, even in an environment like [Old World], they can have unparalleled speed.

In this case, the team has a high probability of escaping the storm in front of them!

But, the price is to consume three times the source matter fuel!

"My suggestion, carry out a 150% source armor energy breakthrough!" Gu Shen said slowly, staring into Yuan Yuan's eyes, and said his thoughts.

Run faster than the storm first, then consider other things… Yuan Yuan fell silent.

He hadn't seen it before.

Gu Shen's bones were actually engraved with such "crazy" genes.

Soon, Yuan Yuan laughed mockingly, and he felt that his previous thoughts were really ridiculous. In the face of this situation, what else could he do?

Could anyone really give a "leisurely" solution?

"It's not difficult to carry out the ultimate limit breakthrough." Yuan Yuan said hoarsely, "But even if we run faster than the storm, we will run out of fuel, and everyone will die here."

"No…"

Gu Shen called out the electronic map in the mask's field of vision.

"We can return to the fortress…"

He looked at the winding road home. This was the correct way to the maze that the Investigation Corps had spent more than ten years summing up. Most of the area outside this winding route was shrouded in mist.

Gu Shen used his mental energy to connect the current starting point with the end point of Gu Fort on the electronic map.

He said softly: "As long as we take a straight line that no one has ever walked, we can return to the fortress."