Chapter 287: A Nuclear Blast Looms

Chapter 287: A Nuclear Blast Looms

Ji Xinghuo opened up his satellite map, revealing a swamp that spanned over ten thousand square kilometers. If the crawlers within this vast wetland maintained the same density, a rough estimate placed their total number at well over ten million. It was a terrifying prospect.

Ren Mian also sensed the impending danger. She halted the wolf pack several hundred meters away from the swamp, her gaze fixed ahead, a grave expression on her face. "We should detour," she said quietly.

Ji Xinghuo shared her sentiment. Although he wanted to harvest the spiritual source energy and smoothly earn Eternal Day merits, he couldn't afford to jeopardize this hunting mission, especially with Sister Ren by his side.

"Can we fly over it?" he asked after a moment's thought. "It would save us some time."

Detouring around the swamp would add over a thousand kilometers to their journey.

"It's not safe," Ren Mian immediately objected. "There are not only crawlers in the swamp, but definitely also many-headed snakes. Their perception is extremely sharp, and they can attack targets high in the sky. The swamp on the planet of Abyss is itself a small ecosystem, with a complete food chain and as many as a dozen types of monsters. It's very dangerous."

"Alright, let's go around then," Ji Xinghuo decided without further hesitation.

The wolf pack immediately changed course, running along the edge of the swamp, maintaining a safe distance.

Ji Xinghuo kept his electromagnetic induction active at all times.

Suddenly, a sound emanated from the direction of the swamp, distant but growing louder. He turned his head to look, but the trees obstructed his view.

"What's that sound?" Ren Mian asked, her eyes filled with confusion.

Ji Xinghuo shook his head, unsure himself.

The sound grew nearer and louder, like a giant wave crashing on the shore, a cacophony of chaotic noises. The sky above had somehow darkened, obscured by thick clouds.

The ground began to tremble slightly.

"I'll go take a look," Ji Xinghuo said, his instincts warning him of impending danger. He soared into the air, climbing to a height of several hundred meters to survey the distant horizon. But a single glance was all it took for his expression to turn ashen.

Several kilometers away, the swamp had given birth to a black wave. Countless swamp crawlers frenziedly churned forward, carrying with them filthy water and grass, forming a wall of water nearly ten meters high. With breakneck speed, they charged towards Ji Xinghuo and his companions. Following closely behind this mass of black crawlers were countless other monsters—running on the ground, swimming in the water, and flying in the air—all roaring as they charged forward.

There were at least several tens of thousands of these monsters.

And in the distance, an even larger, indiscernible number of monsters surged forward, blotting out the sky and covering the earth.

"Can't their target be me?" Ji Xinghuo was struck with horror.

He didn't think he had such great ability, and even if the gene mother tree had targeted him due to his previous hunting of numerous monsters, it wouldn't have caused such a huge commotion.

"Black Tide!"

On the ground, Ren Mian also noticed the abnormality in the swamp. She forgot about concealing her presence and shouted, "Xinghuo, let's run!"

Ji Xinghuo immediately descended.

Ren Mian had already put away the Wolf Spirit Wood and was turning back to flee in the direction they had come from. Ji Xinghuo flew over and swept her into his arms, rushing back into the sky.

"What's going on?" Ji Xinghuo asked as he flew at full speed.

Ren Mian activated her Thought Necklace and replied through their mental connection, "That's a Black Tide. It's a phenomenon that occasionally occurs on the planet of Abyss, where a large number of monsters gather and dark clouds block the satellites, preventing the orbital laser cannons from aiming. The specific cause is unknown, but sometimes it's to attack a Crystal English city or to wipe out powerful Eternal Day guards. Anyway, it's very dangerous, and we must not be caught."

"Don't worry, they won't be able to catch up," Ji Xinghuo assured her as he continued to accelerate, surpassing 300 kilometers per hour. He could maintain this speed for nearly an hour.

He glanced back and saw that they were gradually pulling away from the black tide.

Ren Mian breathed a sigh of relief.

"We're unlucky to have encountered a Black Tide as soon as we entered the Level 5 zone, but fortunately, we reacted quickly, and you can carry me while flying," she said.

But upon hearing her words, doubts began to stir in Ji Xinghuo's mind.

This was too much of a coincidence.

Just now, he had felt that he didn't possess such great ability, and now he wondered if this Black Tide was specifically targeting him.

As this thought crossed his mind, a large patch of dark clouds appeared on the horizon in front of them.

"Spore Bats!"

Even though they were still several kilometers away and the sky was dark, Ji Xinghuo could clearly make out the churning mass of countless spore bats! He had killed innumerable spore bats in the Level 1 zone, yet the number before him far surpassed all of them combined.

"Is it really me they're after?"

Ji Xinghuo's heart was filled with suspicion and uncertainty, and he immediately changed his flight path.

After flying just a few kilometers, he discovered yet another mass of flying monsters forming a dark cloud ahead, as if they were forming a encirclement. There were also countless monsters on the ground, creating a black tide.

"Something's not right!"

Ji Xinghuo observed carefully for a few seconds. These monsters were simply too numerous, and the black tide they formed was massive, spanning at least thirty to forty kilometers. During its formation, he had happened to be within its path, and no matter which direction he chose, he would encounter it.

Ji Xinghuo nodded.

He quickly scanned the area with his Omniscient Eyes, choosing a direction with the fewest monsters, and accelerated with all his might.

Boom...

With Ren Mian in his arms, Ji Xinghuo unleashed a gale force wind as he sped through the sky.

Within seconds, he approached a group of flying monsters.

Countless spore bats filled the sky, along with other bizarrely shaped monsters, numbering in the thousands. They formed an endless black cloud that blocked their path, stretching as far as the eye could see.

Just before crashing into the "black cloud," Ji Xinghuo's spiritual energy surged, and the flow-shaped barrier on his body inflated like a balloon, forming an elliptical bubble about two and a half meters long. Both he and Ren Mian were protected within this bubble, and thin currents of electricity crackled on its surface.

"Boom!"

A loud blast signaled the collision of Ji Xinghuo with the horde of monsters.

In that instant, it was like a high-speed train plowing through a flock of sheep. Any monster that came into contact with the barrier instantly exploded into a bloody mess.

The impact triggered thick bolts of lightning from the barrier, erupting in all directions and turning the surrounding monsters into ashes.

More monsters surged forward relentlessly, as if their numbers were endless.

Thunder roared and lightning crackled.

Ji Xinghuo's flight carved a straight path through the monster crowd.

Although the nearby monsters were annihilated, each collision created resistance, slowing down his speed. To maintain his velocity, he had to consume more stellar power.

"Be careful!"

Ren Mian warned, as hidden among the dense monsters were several venomous flying dragons.

They were all super-class monsters, not the kind that could be easily killed by a collision.

She raised her hand to shoot a beam of light, but suddenly, the area lit up brilliantly. A massive bolt of lightning appeared out of thin air, striking one of the venomous flying dragons. The lightning jumped from one dragon to another, piercing through them before finally dissipating.

Visually, it looked like a zigzagging lightning bolt had impaled the dragons together.

Immediately afterward, they fell to the ground.

Ji Xinghuo flew past their falling bodies, his face turning slightly pale. The release and control of this Thunderclap Palm technique had consumed a significant amount of his spiritual energy.

They had only just reached the middle of the monster black cloud, and the relentless monsters surged forward even more ferociously.

It was like a tidal wave crashing in, filling their entire field of vision and blocking out everything else.

Their flight speed slowed down abruptly.

"Leave it to me."

Sensing Ji Xinghuo's dilemma, Ren Mian quickly spoke up.

She raised her crystal-like hand, and a light sphere formed at her fingertip. After a few seconds, she fired it forward. A blinding white light exploded with a loud bang, and countless rays of light pierced through the monster crowd. The intense brightness caused the monsters within the range to lose their vision, and they let out shrill roars.

Ji Xinghuo immediately felt the pressure lessen, and he accelerated, crashing through a path.

Ren Mian didn't stop there. She raised her hand, and five beams of light shot out from her fingertips. With intense focus, she directed the beams, each over a hundred meters long, like the sharpest swords, slicing and killing the monsters in their way.

This further reduced the resistance Ji Xinghuo faced during his flight.

At the same time, every few seconds, Ren Mian fired off a light blast, blinding the surrounding monsters.

The two worked together seamlessly.

The density of the monsters ahead of them decreased rapidly, and after a few minutes, they suddenly broke free from the monster black cloud.

Without a moment's hesitation, Ji Xinghuo continued to fly at breakneck speed.

However, even before they had escaped the cloud, he had already used his Eternal Day badge to send their location to the Crystal English tribe.

Boom!

Just as Ji Xinghuo had flown a short distance away, massive crimson laser beams penetrated the cloud cover, relentlessly striking the monsters in the sky and on the ground. Yet, compared to the scale of the black tide, the range and frequency of the orbital laser cannons' attacks seemed inadequate.

The spiritual source energy was surging.

Ji Xinghuo slowed down and turned to look at the bombarded monsters.

Suddenly, a bone-chilling feeling gripped him, and his brow twitched as if pricked by a needle. His Omniscient Eyes sent an unprecedented warning of impending danger.

Before he could comprehend what was happening, Ji Xinghuo's vision was filled with nothing but white light.

"Nuclear blast!"

A terrifying thought flashed through his mind, and he turned his head, reacting with lightning speed to close his eyes and accelerate as fast as he could. Still, the intense light brought tears to his eyes.

For a few seconds, the world fell silent.

Then, darkness engulfed everything.

Boom...

Ji Xinghuo heard the terrifying sound waves piercing his eardrums. The intense white light faded, and the world turned black before gradually regaining color. A strong shockwave hit his back, propelling him forward at an even faster speed, but causing no harm.

"Fortunately, we were far away," Ji Xinghuo said, coming to a stop in mid-air and turning back to look at the site of the blast.

A massive mushroom cloud had pierced through the dark clouds, towering thousands of meters high. Even from several dozen kilometers away, they could see it clearly, and a sense of dread filled their hearts.

"The Crystal English sure know how to make a statement," Ji Xinghuo muttered through gritted teeth. "But it's not enough."

Ren Mian's delicate face also reflected her lingering fear.

If the nuclear blast had come just a little earlier, the two of them would have been caught in the blast radius. Even a Star Shepherd would have a hard time surviving at ground zero.

As mere Superhumans, they would have been reduced to ashes.

"The Crystal English often resort to nuclear weapons to eradicate the monsters," Ren Mian explained. "About every 60 years, they prohibit Eternal Day guards from going to the surface and use nuclear weapons to bomb the entire planet, clearing the vegetation and destroying the ecosystem."

"That's ruthless!" Ji Xinghuo exclaimed, his eyes wide with shock.

"But it's futile," Ren Mian shook her head. "The gene mother tree hides deep underground, and within a few months, it regains control of the surface and grows new vegetation."

She gazed at the mushroom cloud, "During the open season for the ground, the Crystal English rarely use nuclear weapons for fear of friendly fire on the Eternal Day guards. Perhaps today's Black Tide was just too massive, and the orbital laser cannons couldn't handle it, so they resorted to this desperate measure."

"The yield of this nuclear blast was probably around 500,000 tons, enough to wipe out the Black Tide." Ren Mian analyzed.

"Damn..." Ji Xinghuo couldn't help but curse.

Today was truly an inauspicious start. They had inexplicably stumbled upon the Black Tide, and now a nuclear weapon had been dropped on their heads, almost ending them.

What made it even more frustrating was that countless monsters had perished in the blast, but due to their distance, he had only absorbed a tiny fraction of the spiritual source energy.

Ji Xinghuo checked the Omniscient Eyes interface.

[Spiritual Source Energy: 83,453]



Even before entering the Abyss Planet, he had already accumulated over 50,000 points of spiritual source energy, and after taking a nuclear blast, his total had only increased by a little over 30,000.

The dangers of the Level 5 zone were indeed formidable.

"Let's go down," Ren Mian said.

Ji Xinghuo landed on the ground while still holding Ren Mian. "Sister Ren, should we continue? Or should we wait and see how things develop?"

Ren Mian thought for a moment. "Let's wait for half an hour. Once the aftermath of the nuclear blast settles, we'll fly straight through."

"Okay," Ji Xinghuo nodded.

Although the area after a nuclear blast had radiation, any monsters within the blast radius would have been wiped out, making it the safest place in the vicinity.

The two waited briefly, and the massive mushroom cloud gradually dissipated.

Ji Xinghuo took off again, carrying Ren Mian.

Soon, he flew back to the epicenter of the nuclear blast, which had once been the edge of the swamp. However, there was no trace of the swamp's original appearance. The water had evaporated, the vegetation had burned, and everything had been leveled, but there was no sign of a crater from the blast.

"It was probably an airburst, causing a wider range of damage," Ren Mian said quietly.

"We have company," Ji Xinghuo said, his electromagnetic induction picking up several figures.

It was a squad of five Eternal Day guards, approaching from another direction and seemingly searching for something.

"They're here to scavenge," Ren Mian observed.

"They're quick," Ji Xinghuo remarked. Although most of the monsters would have been killed by the blast, those farther from the epicenter might have survived, albeit severely injured. And among them could be the most powerful of monsters, possibly even Disaster-level.

These injured monsters, while not dead, would be easy pickings, and taking them down would not only yield exotic species but also earn Eternal Day merits.

As Ji Xinghuo continued to fly, he noticed more people converging from all directions.

Nearby Eternal Day guards had been drawn to the site.

Among them were several Legends, like Ji Xinghuo, possessing flight abilities, and they swiftly scoured the area.

"Ignore them, let's just fly past," Ren Mian said, not wanting to interact with the other Eternal Day guards. But as soon as she finished speaking, she noticed a change in Ji Xinghuo's expression.

"What is it?" she asked.

Ji Xinghuo's gaze was fixed on a spot on the ground ahead, "There's a Disaster-level monster there. It's at least at the Can level, and it's injured and hiding underground. Should we go for it?"

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end