Chapter 382 (2/2)
The First Born below the cloud of fire began to move as if had sensed the danger. A slit opened on top before a few gigantic tentacles poked out from the opening. Hao Ren instantly called out, “Now!”
A loud bang in the sky was followed by a dimensional door, which appeared amid the cloud of fire. Y’zaks did not let the meteoroid crash through the atmosphere. Instead, he had opened a dimensional door right above the target, so that the meteoroid would crash down at full speed as it would in space. He had only one aim: creating the greatest impact!
A meteoroid as large as a small hill emerged from the dimensional door. As soon as it came into contact with the air below, it turned into a ball of fire and fell towards Earth at hypersonic speed. So fast that Hao Ren could not get a glimpse of the true face of the meteoroid.
However, at the same time, the air above the First Born also warped in an unusual manner and suddenly, the meteoroid froze in mid air.
There was no movement, no explosions. As if a movie tape was stuck in its player, the Ferromanganese meteorite stopped in the air as soon as it emerged from the dimensional door. It was floating in the air.
The air above the First Born was riddled with rings of ripple. The MDT analysed it and screamed out, “Holy f*cking moly! It’s an anti-gravity and kinetic energy neutralising field!”
Nangong Wuyue jumped up and yelled, “Is this still a tree?”
The MDT yelled back, “It never was a tree!”
With just a flick of its finger—so to speak, the First Born had stopped the low-tech meteoroid. The few gigantic tentacles poking out from its top opening waved in air for a moment before suddenly pointing at the meteoroid in unison. Beams of strong light were fired from the tips of the tentacles and the meteoroid of Ferromanganese core was shattered into thousands of pieces instantly.
Not a single hair on the First Born was burned!
Everyone on the ridge had their jaws dropped to the bottom of the mountain. Y’zaks was especially dumbstruck for a long while. At that moment, Vivian suddenly noticed something beginning to move around the First Born.
The gigantic creature of mess began to leak fluid out of its body. The fluid was the exact same viscous blood they had seen down in the caverns. The red fluid quickly formed a pool around the First Born and then, it spread rapidly outwards.
The fluid surged and spread in all directions. It consumed everthing—rocks and trees—in their path.
Organic or inorganic, it took all matter as its nutrients, and then spread out even quicker!
Suddenly, the young ascetic nun realised she had collected a sample of the fluid. She screamed and quickly took the bottle out. Sure enough, the red fluid in the bottle was surging violently and it beginning to corrode the crystal bottle. She threw the bottle away as hard as she could.
The crystal bottle was shattered upon impact with a rock. Fluid was splashed all over. As soon as the fluid came into contact with the rocks and soil, it surged even more rapidly like a duck taking to water before it formed into a small pool of blood, the size of a washing basin. Then, the fluid flowed down rapidly toward its parent’s body—the First Born. It kept growing as it travelled down the mountain.
Suddenly, Becky recalled the story she had read about the legend of the apocalypse and the goddess: the goddess tossed her wine glass onto the earth, as the wine flowed out of the glass, it spread to the land and burned everything in its path. The fire kept burning for many days until the world was totally consumed…
The description in the story was actually not about actual fire, but this blood before their eyes!
This was the ultimate weapon of the First Born. The tentacles may have been powerful enough to destroy a whole army batallion, their scorching light beams may have been able to shatter any mountain peaks, but to rebuild the ecological sphere, it needed something more horrific—the red fluid was its ultimate weapon of mass destruction. The fluid would consume everything that contained basic organic elements—including living things and lifeless objects. Then, it would grow indefinitely. The phagocytosis and multiplication process would increase expotentially, and no force in the world could stop it from spreading to the whole planet. Not doubt, the ancient magic civilisation was strong but, it was totally helpless in the face of such a disaster. If the goddess had not left behind a safety mechanism to restrict the First Born, the planet would not have survived for the last 10,000 years!
As the First Born of the Original Seed, it possessed the ability to simulate the Blood Tide, and perhaps this was what the red fluid was all about.
But now, it was meaningless to study what it was simulating. The most important thing was to find out how this thing could be killed!
“We’re running out of ideas.” Hao Ren turned around and looked at the four ascetics and Ophra, whose face was pale like a ghost. Suddenl,y he patted the MDT. “Shall we consider the solution we discussed earlier? Just give me a definite answer!”
The previous night, Hao Ren and Y’zaks discussed about the meteoroid option. Both of them had run through the worst case scenario: what if the meteoroid did not work? Although Y’zaks’ signature skill was already many times more powerful than a nuclear weapon in theory, they did not dare bet all their hopes on a single piece of space rock simply because—the weaponry of an ancient magic civilisation was not necessarily inferior to those from Y’zaks’ hometown!
The ancient magic civilisation was already capable of interstellar travel, building teleportation gateways on Earth and the moon, constructing colonial cities on foreign planets, and even researching forbidden realms like the creation of life; it was safe to say that aerospace, physics, chemical and every other technology of theirs were far more advanced than the technology on Earth today. Most likely, nuclear weapons were not something new to them. They could have very well possessed the capability to summon a meteoroid strike already.
Such an advanced magical civilisation, along with its ecological sphere, was completely wiped off by the angry First Born. If history was anything to go by, they were no better off than a sitting duck.
So, Hao Ren had already anticipated the possibility of the meteoroid strike failing, and put in place a plan B, which was practically the last resort. But, even if that was the only option left, he had to think not twice, not thrice, but many more times.
Uncharacteristically, the MDT was silent for a long moment before it spoke with its emotionless, synthesised voice, “You must think it through and through. The operation manual has cleary stated that it is forbidden to strike the surface of any planet!”
“I know. I’ve read all of the safety regulations. I know why it is forbidden to strike the surface of a planet. It’s to prevent total destruction of the regional ecosystem, and the crystalisation of a good half of the country.” Hao Ren pointed at the First Born, which kept releasing what was possibly the Blood Tide. Hao Ren stomped his feet. “But now, the ecosystem of this place is quickly being destroyed! One strike won’t make it worse!”
The MDT was silent again for several seconds before it hovered up. “The application has been submitted to the Data Network and approved. However, you and I will be held responsible if the amount of casualties turn out higher than computed. This is a serious matter! Destruction of a regional ecosystem is punishable. The punishment is death by fire squad. You better not miss and bombard the werewolves’ hometown! This is an extra safety agreement operation, which must be done manually. You know, manual control!”
Hao Ren took a deep breath. “I’ve read Introduction to Small Spacecraft Cannons.”
“…Are you sure?”
“…I’ve read at least half of it.”
“F*ck you… Focus your mind. I’ll use you as a springboard to pull the Petrachelys into this world. But, only one shot is allowed. The interference of psionic energy is very high; as we’re still on emergency connection mode, you guys might be bounced out of this world after the shot. And you’ll have to wait for one month before you can establish connection again.”
Becky stood nearby, listening to Hao Ren arguing with the MDT for a long time. However, she understood none of it. She could not help asking, “What are you guys talking about?”
Hao Ren took another deep breath and looked up into the sky.
“Inspector Hao Ren requests for orbital bombardment!”
Becky was flabbergasted. “…What?”