Psychics don't die from gunfire

Chapter 879 Distant Tides
Song Shi patiently waited for the other party to finish being excited.

VE realized her slip of the tongue, made two "uh-huh" sounds, and quickly changed the subject: "Yeah, yeah, now is indeed a good opportunity for an expedition. I checked, and the Empire's front line has already pushed to the mainland of the Eastern Continent Republic. They can't handle it, they're too busy."

"If we seize this opportunity to stab them in the back, we'll definitely take a big bite out of them, and the Empire will certainly expend a lot of resources in the process."

“No.” Then VE saw the person in front of him shake his head and heard him say, “I have to correct you on one point, VE.”

“I didn’t come here to wipe out those powerful families from top to bottom, or to crush the empire.” Song Shi paused, then shrugged. “Of course, that’s definitely a big part of the reason. But it’s still a bit different.”

VE's eyebrows looked like they were about to be twisted into towels as he said in a sinister tone, "I've looked through some information and heard that when you Eastern Continent people fought in ancient times, you liked to drive your cars into each other's pits. Before crashing, you would find a large flat area and arrange your vehicles in formation, all in perfect unison."

"What's wrong?" she bluntly expressed her dissatisfaction, her tone sarcastic: "What's that word called? Oh, I found it, 'nostalgia for home.' You've been standing here staring at it, and now you've decided to angrily reverse course and wage a war of politeness?"

Song Shi hadn't expected the other person to spout such a string of words, and was somewhat speechless. He sighed and casually leaned on the railing: "If this is all I want—I could blow up the Eastern Continent Republic right now."

"The struggle for the Fifth Ring requires going to the Outer Heavens, which is indeed an unspoken rule. But unspoken rules are always something that is followed or not, depending on one's mood. I could just head straight for the Eastern Continent in the next second, boil up the rivers and lakes, pull down underground molten rivers, push geological movements and volcanic eruptions, and turn those powerful families into lone commanders."

“I’m not here to win like this—I don’t even consider this a win. To me, it’s just a frustrating loss. The Vanpusta Empire and the Eastern Continent Republic are at odds, which might be an opportunity, but if we let them continue fighting, I don’t know how many counties and provinces will be razed to the ground.”

"Can this be the same?"

VE couldn't hold back any longer and interrupted bluntly: "Going to space to fight is of course an unspoken rule. You can refuse to do it, and the other Fifth Ring members can refuse to do it too. This will never end. Haha, even if you end up destroying everyone else, by then, I think the New Order Federation will only be an empty shell with broken pieces scattered all over the ground."

"A lose-lose situation. Nobody wants to lose, and nobody wants to lose. That's why most Fifth Ring members don't do it this way. Right now, the Vanpusta Empire and the Eastern Continent Republic are locked in a fierce battle, and you insist on starting a war on both sides simultaneously."

"But I think they're the same."

Song Shi said calmly.

"I will not allow any of them to take Donglu."

VE was speechless.

She glared at Song Shi for a while, then leaned back on the other end of the screen and snorted, "Whatever you want. I just need the 'quantum communication link.' Let me make it clear beforehand, I'm fine with assisting from the sidelines, but I'm not going to the front lines."

Song Shi raised an eyebrow: "I'm quite familiar with the trick of fabricating and exaggerating workplace injuries to get more gold coins from employers. Back when I was a free bounty hunter, sometimes I was so poor that I couldn't even afford to eat, so I had to rely on this to get more gold coins from employers."

Immediately afterward, Song Shi laughed and said leisurely, "I approve."

To be fair, the destructive power of [Celestial Calamity Fire] is indeed quite brutal. However, VE has never been known for her powerful frontal combat abilities since she first rose to fame. Her true strength lies in the support field, and her methods are diverse.

Even with the Singularity technology "Based Reality Overwrite" and the home-field advantage, taking a direct hit from [Celestial Calamity Fire] would definitely not be pleasant.

The screen flickered and went dark. VE had broken free of the service robot and deactivated the hack.

Song Shi shrugged, but the next second, the robot's head, which had been tilting backward, stood up again, and the screen, which had been off, lit up once more. "Hmm...?"

"Why was the line busy just now?" The newly displayed icon was Lapis Lazuli's. It looked quite confused, but then got straight to the point: "Song Shi, I think you should take a look at this."

Its avatar shrunk, and a pop-up window appeared.

It's obvious that this is a camera angle, and the location is underwater? The person holding this camera must be the type who can't stand being mistreated; the searchlight is shining so brightly that it illuminates the deep sea as if it were daytime.

Considering that this was done through the lapis lazuli channel, the photographer is probably a genuine AI expert.

These guys, literally tough as steel, have always been experts in special operations. They can ignore the lack of oxygen, they can fool the air pressure, and they can wear extra-large deep-sea diving equipment.

Under the sunlight, the seabed is covered with a thick layer of white ice. Due to repeated breaking and overlapping, the ice layer has taken on a blurry, murky, dark white appearance. The ice bed, accumulated over time, solidified at low temperatures, and compacted by the heavy pressure of the deep sea, makes it not much more fragile than steel.

The camera panned forward, and Song Shi glanced at the parameter changes displayed in the upper left corner; the diving depth had exceeded 15,000 meters. Although it was nothing compared to his solo expedition to the Earth's core, it was still considered an extremely harsh environment.

Gradually, an underwater canyon appeared in the frame. It was not wide, but it stretched all the way to the end of the field of vision, as if a god had raised his sword and cleaved the earth, deep and bottomless.

The photographer slowly entered the canyon.

The light suddenly contracted, as if choked by an invisible force. The ice bed stretched out, climbing down the steep rock walls on both sides, solidifying into jagged, irregular icicles. These crisscrossing icicles gleamed with a murky blue light, their age unknown.

Several underwater micro-drones were deployed to scan back and forth, building environmental models in real time.

"Hardness?" Song Shi squinted and suddenly asked.

The icicles crisscrossed, resembling a thousand troops raising their spears, forcing the photographer to actively break through the ice. A robotic arm with a strong industrial aesthetic appeared in the frame, prying apart the icicles.

Not moving.

It seemed to pause for a moment, then tried to break it again, this time with a noticeable increase in force, and the ice shard snapped in two. For an intelligent machine to require "consciously and actively increasing its force" to break an ice block was beyond expectation.

"Hmm." Lapis Lazuli nodded. "We're almost there. Keep watching."

The camera descended and moved along the way, and the photographer also braved thorns and brambles. If it were anyone else, they would probably have been riddled with holes, but the former relied on the mechanical steel body to reach the deepest part of the canyon.

At a depth of 17,000 meters in the ocean, at the deepest part of the glacial cliffs.

Like a fossilized amber, a black cube lies buried deep beneath the ice bed, silently frozen.

(End of this chapter)