The system is four years ahead of schedule, but Weird is still a cub.

Inside the main control room of "Iron Heart," Shen Ge watched the entire battle through the monitor. Now that the "Raiders" legion was fully developed, he often didn't need to take action.

The battle ended quickly.

When Kyle used the shockwaves from his spear to slice the core tumor pulsating with immense, bizarre energy into pieces, the entire crystalline mountain of flesh emitted a piercing sound before collapsing into countless tiny crystalline chunks that slowly sank to the bottom of the sea.

Having broken through this strange and eerie crystallization barrier, the "Iron Heart" continued its voyage towards the far north. The Silent Sea seemed to be just a prelude; in the following sea areas, although strange signs of activity reappeared, its ecology became increasingly extreme and distorted.

However, for the upgraded "Raiders" legion, these deep-sea monsters, which are at most Tier 6, no longer pose a real threat. Instead, they have become a continuous source of high-quality fuel for the "Iron Heart" furnace.

Just as the voyage entered its tenth day and was about to reach the outer edge of the final coordinates, Hephaestus's "long-range crystal sonar array" made a new discovery.

"Sir! A large-scale, high-intensity, and regularly operating artificial signal source has been detected 1,000 kilometers directly ahead!" The technician's voice was filled with vigilance.

Hermes quickly constructed a three-dimensional model of the signal source. It wasn't a distress signal, nor was it simple communication. It was more like... a huge factory, carrying out some kind of massive industrial production, the energy fluctuations and mechanical vibrations generated during its operation clearly discernible even from thousands of miles away.

Even more bizarrely, the flesh and blood monsters within a radius of hundreds of kilometers centered on that signal source were all exhibiting a state of extreme panic as they scattered and fled, as if they were trying to escape some irresistible "natural enemy".

"All personnel on high alert!" Kyle issued the order in the command channel: "This smell... there's no doubt about it, it's those 'New Gods' tin cans."

As the "Iron Heart" slowly sailed into that sea area, everyone was shocked by the sight before them.

A mobile fortress beyond imagination floats silently in the deep sea.

—"The Ark of Melting"

It was a floating steel mill consisting of countless huge, rusty gears, pipes that spewed high-pressure steam, and creaking giant conveyor belts.

It showed no signs of life whatsoever, only steel, machinery, and the core of the furnace emitting a dark red light.

Countless giant mechanical arms, each hundreds of meters long, extend from all around the ship, like spider legs hunting prey, capturing those deep-sea monsters that have no time to escape.

No matter how much the strange creature struggles, it will be dragged back by the mechanical arm with unparalleled strength, and then mercilessly thrown into the huge furnace at the top of the ark, which is billowing with thick smoke.

Flesh and blood are "purified" in the flames, refined into energy ingots and high-purity raw materials that gleam with a metallic luster, and then transported to the interior of the ark by conveyor belt.

This is precisely the cruelest manifestation of the "Omnissiah's" gospel of purifying flesh and blood.

The moment the "Iron Heart" appeared, the mechanical operation of the "Melting Ark" ceased.

On the ark, all the searchlights suddenly changed direction, and thousands of beams of light locked onto the "Iron Heart".

The next second, the battle broke out.

"Warning! A large-scale flesh-mechanical fusion has been detected approaching!"

Accompanied by a piercing alarm, the massive hatches on both sides of the "Melting Ark" roared open.

An endless, bizarre mechanical fusion, hastily assembled from high-speed rotating gears, sharp blades, and powerful pistons, surged forth like a tidal wave, charging toward the "Iron Heart."

"'Raiders' Legion, engage!" The legion led by Kyle and Roca, with the flesh-and-blood alloy armor of the "Raiders IV" fused with machinery, clashed violently and strangely, sparking countless bursts of light; the resonant shockwaves of the "Crystal Spears" tore one cumbersome machine after another into bizarre fragments.

Meanwhile, on the bridge, Hephaestus was in command, his fingers moving like afterimages on the control panel as he led his technical team in an electronic warfare battle against the "Melting Ark".

"The other side's firewall uses 'chaotic encryption' and has an extremely large computing power! 'Hermes'... is about to be overwhelmed!" a technician reported, sweating profusely.

The battle reached a stalemate.

The mechanical fusion is bizarre, devoid of pain and death, and inexhaustible. Although the "Raiders" legion is elite, its enormous energy consumption has caused it to begin to decline.

Meanwhile, the temperature of the massive core furnace of the "Melting Ark" is rising at an alarming rate, and an energy powerful enough to destroy everything is brewing within it.

"It's an energy cannon! This level of energy aggregation, once it's fired, everything in this sea area will be vaporized!" Ellie's voice was filled with urgency.

At this critical moment, Shen Ge, who had been standing silently in the shadows, made his move.

The next second, a bizarre scene unfolded on the battlefield that left everyone speechless.

The core furnace of the "Smelting Ark," which was about to launch the "Purification Scorched Earth Cannon," suddenly went out.

Immediately afterwards, its thousands of massive mechanical arms, along with all the mechanical fusions that were still locked in combat with the "Raiders" legion, all came to a standstill.

Immovable Ghost Realm!

Time to stop!

After Shen Ge "froze" these mechanical fusions, he then controlled the "Raider" legion to resume its actions. The next second, the horn of counterattack was officially sounded!
As the "Melting Ark" fell to the "Raiders" legion, "Hermes" instantly captured and intercepted the highest priority data of the collapse.

A cold, synthesized electronic voice echoed across the silent bridge:

"Warning: 'Sequence 1' level information contamination source detected. Coordinates: XXX, XXX. Initiating 'Final Protocol'... Praise be to Omnisiah!"

Hephaestus stared at the glaring "Sequence 1" on the screen, then subconsciously glanced at the expressionless man beside him, who seemed to have only done something insignificant, and swallowed hard.

In the hearts of the "Iron Heart" members, Shen Ge has become a god-like figure. Whenever he makes a move, it is always awe-inspiring and he is omnipotent!

As the cold, mechanical sound dissipated above the bridge, the entire "Melting Ark" disintegrated, turning into a pile of scrap metal that sank into the deep sea.

What should have been a brutal and devastating encounter ended in a bizarre way that defied everyone's expectations.

Inside the bridge, there was a deathly silence. Everyone was stunned by Shen Ge's unpredictable methods; it wasn't a crushing defeat on the level of strength, but a suppression on the level of characteristics.

The sixth-tier strange horde was like ants in front of Shen Ge; no matter how many there were, they couldn't cause any trouble and would only become a means for him to farm points.

There's no point in Shen Ge pursuing points now, because his system points are almost limitless. His current devouring of the strange entity is only for repairing the system.

“'Sequence 1'…” Hephaestus murmured to himself, his gaze toward Shen Ge filled with not only fervent worship but also a hint of awe.

“Sir, your presence seems to have triggered the lowest level of the ‘New God Cult’s’ alarm protocol.”

Shen Ge did not respond; he simply stared at the marked coordinates on the screen: "The far north. It seems the New God Cult's stronghold is also there."

"Full speed ahead."

The concise command broke the stagnant atmosphere.

The "Iron Heart" is activated once more, crossing the graveyard of steel and setting sail again toward the marked final destination.

Half a month later, "Iron Heart" finally reached the coordinates that Shen Ge had glimpsed using the power of dreams—the extreme point of the world.

However, the scene before my eyes was even more magnificent than I had imagined, and it also gave me a deep sense of...despair.

The colorful aurora that covered the entire polar sky was not a simple optical phenomenon at all. It was a "veil of eerie energy" that flowed slowly like a living thing, the final barrier of that inverted spire.

The strange energy it emits has an extremely strong corrosive effect on pure living organisms. The seawater here even exhibits a semi-solid, constantly bubbling gelatinous state.

"Warning! The activity of the hull's living alloy is being suppressed! Energy conductivity has decreased by 12%!"

"Warning! The Crystal Resonance System is experiencing frequency instability! Shield energy output is unstable!"

The piercing alarms blared incessantly. The "Iron Heart," a war machine that combined the pinnacle of two civilizations' technologies, simultaneously exhibited unstable rejection reactions before this ultimate barrier. Both the flesh and blood representing "life" and the crystal representing "technology" were being frantically eroded by this veil.

"Force a breakthrough! Charge the geothermal main cannon, I refuse to believe we can't blast it open!" Kyle gritted his teeth.

Hephaestus shook his head, his face more solemn than ever before. He pointed to the frantically jumping data stream on the screen: "It's useless. The simulation results of 'Hermes' show that the level and complexity of the veil's magical energy exceed the limits of our current understanding. Any form of physical or energy attack will be absorbed and deflected by its complex magical energy flow the moment it comes into contact with it, and will eventually be completely dissipated."

He came to a conclusion that plunged everyone into an icy abyss: they were barred from their final destination, not even qualified to enter the battlefield.

Just when everyone was at a loss, in the deepest medical laboratory of "Iron Heart", "Zero", who had been in a semi-comatose and semi-conscious state, suddenly let out a painful groan.

She curled up on the medical bed, her body trembling violently. Beneath her fair skin, the silver energy veins representing the erosion of "Pandora's" evil power uncontrollably surfaced, radiating a dazzling light at the same frequency as the "Aurora Veil" outside.

"Quick! Ellie! 'Zero's' vital signs are rapidly deteriorating!" the medical staff in charge of monitoring her issued an emergency call.

Ellie and Alai rushed into the lab immediately. They saw that Zero's eyes had lost focus, and she was unconsciously muttering a series of chaotic data streams and commands. Her body was resonating strongly with the terrifying aurora curtain.

Hephaestus witnessed this scene through the surveillance system, and countless fragments of information parsed from the Precursor database flashed through his mind in an instant.

He immediately rushed to Shen Ge and reported in a rapid-fire voice, "Sir! I understand! According to the final decoding of the database, 'Zero,' as the 'container' of 'Pandora,' is essentially a living 'key' that can link 'life information' and 'mysterious energy'! And this 'Aurora Curtain' in front of us is a 'lock' that corresponds to her!"

"In theory, we can guide the 'Pandora's Power' within 'Zero' to resonate with the veil, thereby creating a temporary passage for 'Iron Heart' to pass through safely!"

"What nonsense are you spouting!" Alaina's angry voice came through the communicator. She was holding the trembling "Zero" tightly, trying to calm her down with her body heat.

"She's just a child! Not a tool for your experiments. Doing this will kill her!"

Hephaestus ignored Alai's agitation and simply looked at Shen Ge, awaiting the final decision.

The road ahead leads to "home," and the key to unlock it is none other than Zero, which was found earlier at the Pioneer Experiment Base.

Although Shen Ge had always trusted Hephaestus, he felt that this time, Hephaestus's judgment might not be accurate.

The reason he had this idea was that the mysterious coordinates that appeared in the previous "Forge Ark" happened to point to this place.

It felt like... deliberately guiding them to bring "zero".

“No need, Alai. You take care of ‘Zero’. I’ll come and see what this is.” Shen Ge got up and walked to the bridge control console.

Inside the core energy chamber, the massive furnace emitted a deep rumble, a reaction to the "Iron Heart" being struck by the eerie energy curtain, causing a massive depletion of its own defensive shield's energy.

Just as everyone was wondering what Shen Ge was going to do, he disappeared from the control panel and appeared in mid-air the next second.

Shen Ge stood on the transparent floor formed by an invisible barrier, appearing as if he were hovering in the air. Then, he raised his hand and made a grasping motion in the air.

The air seemed to tremble violently, and two enormous, transparent hands materialized "invisibly," attaching themselves to the veil of strange energy.

The two invisible hands clinging to the curtain began to move to the sides, and Shen Ge actually tore a hole in the seemingly indestructible "curtain of strange energy" that repelled everything.

After the rift opened, a dense, eerie black mist enveloped the entire sea area. As the eerie curtain was torn open, lightning flashed and thunder roared in an instant.

As lightning ripped through the gloomy sky, one could vaguely see what appeared to be a giant, inverted spire piercing the deep sea from the sky.

“‘Iron Heart’ can stay outside. I’ll pilot ‘Ark One’ inside.” Although Shen Ge opened the psychic barrier, he didn’t let ‘Iron Heart’ come in with him.

This was something Shen Ge had arranged from the beginning. Although Alai and the others were worried about his safety, they dared not question his decision. (End of Chapter)