Chapter 149: One Sword
“Patrol Fortress 301 and 313 approaching target area. Patrol Fortress 311, 315, and 322 advancing at full speed. Reinforcements will arrive within three hours.”
“What’s the current status of Suspended High Tower 132?”
“Mayor Qualcomm ordered the separation of the tower and the disaster engine. The deep space behemoth’s target is clearly the tower’s outer shell.”
Hearing this, the Federal Council President’s face darkened, and he pondered.
“Sacrificing the tower to protect the engine core… Although cruel, it’s the best option.”
The outer shell could be rebuilt, and the millions of Tower People could be replenished from the wasteland settlements.
But the loss of an engine core was irreversible. The current Federation couldn’t manufacture them.
The President thought Qualcomm’s decision, although cruel, was understandable.
“He’s already committed crimes against humanity, one more charge won’t make much difference.” The President thought for a moment, then issued another order. “Have the nearby Suspended High Towers prepare to retrieve the engine core.”
The order was sent, but there was no reply.
“Hmm?”
The President was slightly surprised, then his assistant’s trembling voice came from the digital terminal.
“President… Mayor Qualcomm isn’t protecting the engine core. He’s piloting the disaster engine, charging towards the deep space behemoth. It seems he’s planning to… attack?”
“Attack a deep space behemoth?” The President jumped up from his seat, his face filled with disbelief. “Are you sure he hasn’t gone mad? No, wait… he’s always been a madman… a complete lunatic!”
How could a normal person come up with such a crazy plan as using the “string vibration” device for interdimensional travel, and actually carry it out?
But the President also knew that an ordinary Suspended High Tower didn’t have any weapons capable of effectively attacking a deep space behemoth. Qualcomm’s action was like a moth flying into a flame, and it would also waste a disaster engine.
“It’s true… President, he overloaded the disaster engine and is charging towards the deep space behemoth…”
The assistant’s voice trembled. He had seen the real-time video from the patrol fortress’s long-range detection device. Even though the image was pixelated, the behemoth’s terrifying presence was still palpable.
The President’s digital terminal also received the video, and he stared blankly at the bright light, like a firefly flying towards a giant beast, then collapsed into his chair.
“My god…”
This was the President’s first time seeing an overloaded disaster engine, and it would probably be his last.
“Connect me to Qualcomm, immediately!”
The President shouted, gnashing his teeth.
“O-okay…”
The assistant hurriedly connected the communication channel. As the beeping sound rang out, the entire world seemed to fall silent, waiting for the response from the man facing the end of the world.
…
“Beep… beep… beep…”
Amidst the deafening roar of the overloaded disaster engine, the communication signal was barely noticeable.
Qualcomm glanced at the channel, then answered.
“Mr. President, at such a critical moment, what instructions does the Federation have?” Qualcomm asked slowly.
“Qualcomm, you madman… Stop the engine, it’s not too late!”
The President’s furious voice rang out, his urgency evident.
“You know how important a disaster engine is to human civilization… Qualcomm, stop!”
“Thank you for your compliment, Mr. President, I mean, the ‘madman’ part, but I’m sorry,” Qualcomm’s tone was slightly playful, “although I would like to obey your orders, the madman piloting the engine now isn’t me, but another madman.”
“Who?”
The President was stunned. Who else could Qualcomm refer to like this? Could it be his brother, Lingxi?
No, Lingxi was already dead…
“A little girl who calls herself an ‘immortal’…”
Qualcomm shook his head, even he found his own words ridiculous.
“Whoever it is, stop the engine! I want to talk! I want to talk to her!”
“I’m just an immortal. A deity should be on a different level.” Luo Xue’s calm, childish voice rang out.
After Soul Transformation, above Ascension, that was the level of a deity, right?
“It’s all the same, no difference.” Qualcomm shrugged, glancing at Luo Xue. “Why don’t you talk to the President? It’s a rare opportunity to talk to such an important figure, haha… It’s good to leave some last words.”
“Not interested.”
“She said she’s not interested.”
“It’s… a child?” The President was about to explode. “Qualcomm, what are you doing?!”
“It’s not what I want to do, it’s what she wants to do, Mr. President… I’m not joking, charging towards the deep space behemoth was really her decision.”
Qualcomm seemed indifferent. After his plan failed, he seemed to have lost interest in everything, like a mere spectator.
“Whoever it is, stop the engine immediately! I order you! Stop!”
The President’s furious voice echoed. Compared to the lives of a Suspended High Tower and millions of Tower People, he… or rather, human civilization, valued the disaster engine more.
Luo Xue ignored him and closed her eyes.
She needed to be in her best condition to control the power of the overloaded disaster engine.
Seeing this, Qualcomm discreetly closed the communication channel, and the President’s shouts abruptly stopped.
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
Qualcomm asked casually, bored.
Luo Xue opened her eyes slightly, hesitated for a moment, then said,
“Can you still enter your space-time avatar state?”
“Probably, what do you want to do?” Qualcomm asked. “Let me tell you, I can’t rewind time or anything. The engine is already here, you can’t go back.”
“Of course not…”
Luo Xue looked up at the approaching deep space behemoth and said faintly,
“I just… need a sword, a sword capable of severing a deep space behemoth.”
“You mean…”
Qualcomm’s expression turned serious. He suddenly realized what Luo Xue was planning.
“Your space-time avatar, it can tear space, right? At its limit, can you… extract a fragment of space?” Luo Xue continued. “I think, if you can do that, it should be… the sharpest sword in the world, right?”
Qualcomm was silent for a moment, then nodded.
What he didn’t say was that to achieve this, he would have to reach Level 10.
Or… pay with his life, his body completely eroded by space-time.
Lingxi had once said that for humans, abilities were like a “disease,” and ability users were “patients.”
The higher the level, the more severe the “disease,” until they reached their limit, becoming terminally ill, beyond saving.
Having reached Level 9 and looking towards the Level 10 beyond the limit, Qualcomm felt that Lingxi’s words were incredibly accurate.
He constantly felt the severe erosion of his ability on his body.
The last time he used his ability at full strength, it took his legs, and this time, it had almost paralyzed his entire body. Next time, it would take his life.
But…
What did it matter?
“You… need a sword?” Qualcomm looked up slightly, his eyes narrowing. “Then it has to be… a very, very long sword, right?”
“No, a short sword is fine.”
Luo Xue shook her head.
“Alright,” Qualcomm smiled faintly. “I’ll give you this sword.”
He struggled to stand up, taking his final step.
The distorted shadow reappeared, the laws of time and space completely consuming his body.
Three minutes before the deep space behemoth’s attack, a twisted shadow left the disaster engine.
Less than five hundred meters away from the behemoth’s claw, a visible area of space began to distort, a spatial fold slowly forming.
A minute later, the brightly shining disaster engine approached this area, and the spatial fold fully formed.
It was… a sword.
Then, as the entire world watched with bated breath, the disaster engine began to disintegrate.
More accurately, it was the external structure of the disaster engine that was disintegrating. Only the core formation remained operational, its overloaded light not dimming, but intensifying.
Luo Xue stood at the core, surrounded by collapsing formation runes, an astonishing amount of spiritual power surging around her.
After a few minutes of overloading, the disaster engine… the energy-gathering formation had reached its limit, and power almost equivalent to that of a peak Nascent Soul cultivator was at Luo Xue’s disposal.
If Luo Xue were just an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator, even if she squandered this massive amount of spiritual power until she was exhausted, she wouldn’t be able to use much of it.
But Luo Xue possessed the Law of Withering, a Nascent Soul level weapon. Its only drawback was its high consumption, difficult even for Core Formation cultivators to withstand.
“I have a sword,”
Luo Xue extended her hand, and the spatial fold, like a giant scar, was folded and condensed until it was the length of a dagger, like a self-defense weapon for women.
But this dagger possessed the terrifying power to cut through space and time.
“Capable of severing the heavens.”
Luo Xue gripped the dagger, and an astonishing sword intent condensed, the Law of Withering even affecting the nearby deep space behemoth.
Before she even attacked, signs of withering appeared on the behemoth’s claw.
This immediately diverted the behemoth’s attention from the Suspended High Tower’s outer shell to the insignificant speck of light beside it, its terrifying eye turning to Luo Xue.
Luo Xue looked up, calmly meeting the behemoth’s gaze.
The next moment, a sword light flashed.
All the spiritual power of the disaster engine converged on this sword strike, the condensed sword intent of withering dimming the surrounding space.
Every inch the sword beam advanced, it was as if it was severing millennia, everything withering in its path, even the deep space behemoth.
“Weng—”
This seemed to be the deep space behemoth’s angry roar, echoing through the sky, but it was futile.
When the sword intent of withering struck, the behemoth’s claw was as fragile as paper, slowly being severed, its constituent matter disintegrating.
The severed claw fell from the sky, and black blood, like rain, poured down upon the earth.
“It… actually severed the deep space behemoth’s claw…”
Everyone watching was shocked, beyond words, even though they could only see a pixelated image.
The Federal Council President stared blankly at the video from the front lines, speechless.
He suddenly realized that the immortals Qualcomm had mentioned jokingly might be… real immortals…
Even the patrol fortresses, equipped with humanity’s strongest weapons, couldn’t achieve such a decisive strike. The Federal Military had been prepared for a months-long battle against the deep space behemoth.
But now…
The military immediately reacted. This was a perfect opportunity.
The deep space behemoth had been severely injured before it could fully form. Such a perfect opportunity would probably never appear again.
“All patrol fortresses on standby, attack immediately! All Suspended High Towers within range, please cooperate! We will launch a swift and decisive strike against the deep space behemoth!”
The military abandoned their plan for a long battle and used all their trump cards, taking advantage of this opportunity to hunt down the behemoth.
However, the deep space behemoth, having lost a claw, wasn’t completely incapacitated. Instead, its true rage was ignited. Its terrifying eye narrowed, fixated on Luo Xue.
It would make the small speck of light that injured it pay the price, even with its incomplete body.
Its twisted and deformed body struggled out of the dark clouds, its massive and tiny limbs pieced together on its grotesque body. This was the first time many humans had seen a deep space behemoth.
The deep space behemoth was completely devoid of beauty. It was simply a crude combination of its understanding of this world, an indescribable monster.
This monster didn’t resemble any beast known to humanity. Its bloated body looked like an irregular tumor, a pair of terrifyingly large eyes embedded on it, along with many smaller eyes of various sizes.
Its extending limbs, some like tentacles, some like claws, were all weaker than the severed claw.
It could be seen that Luo Xue’s sword strike had indeed caused irreversible damage to the deep space behemoth, even forcing it to abandon its prey.
Sensing the behemoth’s rage, Luo Xue’s expression remained calm, even as she was being eroded by the Law of Withering, a dark aura enveloping her.
The surrounding formation runes were on the verge of collapse, their brilliant light gradually dimming.
Only the short sword remained bright.
“It’s not over yet…”
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