I fabricated myths to guide the revival of spiritual energy.

The ever-rising red curve in the monitoring array, projected onto everyone's retina, is approaching its limit, frame by frame.

Zhou Lan stood in front of the command platform of the second line of defense, staring at the thing.

It is unlike those void mutants from a hundred years ago.

Those things are twisted, greedy, and hungry. Even if they grow many more limbs, they are still essentially similar to some kind of polluted creature.

But this thing in front of me is different.

It was too quiet.

Its pale upper body lay prostrate on the lunar soil, its seven bent fingers digging slowly into the grayish-white ground, the closed eye in its palm like a sealed slit. It had no facial features, its head as smooth as a polished bone.

The strangest thing is its shadow.

Under the intense light of the moon, it should have left a clear black shadow behind it.

But its shadow fell in front of it.

Towards Earth.

"The target's upper body is detached from the crack."

"Air pollution readings continue to rise."

"The second line of defense towers are stable."

"Spirit-Slaying Cannons one through three have completed charging."

On the communication channel, the voices were all hushed.

Zhou Lan did not give the order immediately.

She was waiting for that thing to reveal its true purpose.

The slender shadow finally moved.

It slowly raised its right hand, positioning its palm against the second line of defense.

The closed eye opened a crack.

In an instant, the lunar soil in front of the second line of defense silently sank.

It wasn't crushed by force.

It's like a frame of a video being cut out of reality.

The three sensor posts that had been placed in advance on the perimeter disappeared simultaneously.

The coordinates where they once existed are now only three perfectly round pits with excessively neat edges.

The array monitor's face turned pale instantly.

"It's not an energy attack!"

"It's deleting local material information!"

"The distance to the outer edge of the second line of defense has been rewritten; the actual distance between the target and our positions is decreasing!"

Before the words were even finished, the distance reading on the screen jumped from 3,700 meters to 2,100 meters.

The 1,600-meter section of the lunar surface in the middle is still there.

However, in the array's feedback, that distance is no longer considered a distance.

Zhou Lan's eyes turned cold.

"A benchmark for enclosed spaces."

"The Nine Palaces Array Tower is now manually calibrated."

All automatic ranging systems have been taken offline.

The adjutant was stunned for a moment.

"all?"

"all."

Zhou Lan said.

"Use a rope and ruler."

The moment the order was given, hundreds of logistics cultivators rushed out of their bunkers from the positions behind the second line of defense.

Each person had a black rangefinder cable strapped to their waist, covered with densely engraved patterns.

This is the most primitive calibration tool used at the Guanghan base.

clumsy.

Inefficient.

It's even a bit embarrassing.

However, when the enemy's capabilities begin to corrupt observations and tamper with data, the most primitive things become the most difficult anchors to be deceived.

One by one, black ropes were driven into the lunar soil.

The logistics monks lay on the ground, using their naked eyes, markings, and array nails to reconfirm the actual distance between the second line of defense and the crack.

A hoarse voice counting off came through the communication channel.

"Measurement height 1, 3,694 meters."

"Second measuring rod, 3,697 meters."

"Measurement height 3, 3,691 meters."

Zhou Lan raised her hand.

"Use manual measuring tapes as the standard."

"Spirit-Slaying Cannon, Suppress."

Three beams of dark blue light burst forth from behind the second line of defense.

They didn't strike the slender shadow's torso, but rather landed precisely in front of the open eye in its palm.

A burst of icy blue spiritual flames silently erupted from the moon's surface.

That thing paused for the first time.

The palm of his eye blinked.

At that moment, all the rewritten distance readings jumped back simultaneously.

"Three thousand seven hundred meters!"

"The monitor shouted."

"Distance restored!"

There was no cheering from the position.

Everyone knows this is just the beginning.

The slender shadow slowly lowered its body.

The next moment, another hand emerged from the crack behind it.

The second one.

The third one.

The tenth one.

A dozen pale, half-body shadows crawled out one after another from the edge of the crack.

Their movements were so synchronized, as if controlled by a single consciousness.

The eyes in the palm of the hand open at the same time.

The space in front of the entire second line of defense suddenly seemed to be crumpled by an invisible hand.

"Array Tower Number One is out of balance!"

"The distance marker on the left wing is broken!"

"Number 3 firing position moved forward, coordinates incorrect, repeating, coordinates incorrect!"

Zhou Lan looked at the series of alarms, the sound of which remained steady.

"First Sword Team, move out!"

The twelve sword cultivators who had been waiting behind the defensive line stood up at the same time.

They are the youngest group in the lunar rotation combat battalion.

The youngest one is just twenty-four years old.

A hundred years ago, someone this age might have been burning the midnight oil at university to finish a thesis, or worrying about rent at a company.

But in this era, twenty-four years old is enough to stand on the front line of the far side of the moon.

Twelve sword lights flew out, skimming the lunar soil.

There was no fancy trailing tail.

There was no catchy slogan.

Like twelve springs compressed to their limit, they wedged straight into that polluted space along the real path marked by an artificial ruler.

The young man in the lead was named Chen Xu.

The foundation has been built into nine layers.

He was just one step away from achieving the Golden Core stage.

He knew his team wasn't there to kill their target.

They have only one task.

Close your eyes and palms!

Even for a single breath!

"Third from the left, open your eyes."

Chen Xu said in a low voice.

A female swordsman beside him suddenly pressed down with her sword, skimming across the ground as she thrust her sword into the palm of the third pale shadow on his left.

His eyes were fixed on her.

Her body suddenly stopped.

It's not that it's frozen in place.

Instead, the distance between her and that eye was reduced to zero.

She is still charging forward.

But in the next instant, it was already pressed against the monster's palm.

The seven-fingered hand came down and pinched her head as if crushing a piece of paper.

"transposition!"

Chen Xu roared.

At the rear of the group, a formation cultivator crushed the jade talisman at his waist.

The sword patterns beneath the feet of the twelve people flashed simultaneously.

The female swordsman disappeared from the spot.

Chen Xu appeared in her spot.

The palm fell.

Chen Xu did not back down.

He gripped the sword with both hands, reversed the blade, and thrust his shoulder directly into the palm of that seven-fingered hand.

"Pfft."

His palm and eyes were pierced by the sword tip.

At the same time, seven bent fingers pierced his left shoulder.

Chen Xu groaned, and half of his body instantly lost sensation.

But he smiled.

"It's a success."

Inside the second line of defense, Zhou Lan raised her hand and lowered it.

"Heavy artillery, pick off the third one on the left."

A beam of blazing white light pierced through the surface of the moon.

The pale half-body convulsed violently within the beam of light, its eyes, pierced in the palms, opening and closing repeatedly, but it could no longer maintain a stable observation.

Three breaths later, it began to collapse from its chest, turning into a weightless puddle of ash.

"Kill confirmed."

"First kill recorded."

In the Kyoto control room, someone subconsciously clenched their fist.

Wang Mingyuan, however, did not show any joy.

He stared at the wound on Chen Xu's shoulder.

The wound is not bleeding.

Instead, it was oozing out strands of deathly gray lines.

It looks very similar to the scar on Gu Qing's tiger's mouth.

"Pollution has invaded."

Wang Mingyuan immediately replied.

"Inform Guanghan that the wounded should not be treated with conventional healing techniques."

Old Li had already grabbed the communicator.

But before his order could be given, Zhou Lan spoke first.

"Chen Xu, missing shoulder."

There was a moment of silence on the communication channel.

Chen Xu looked down at his left shoulder.

That thin, deathly gray line was crawling along the flesh towards the heart.

He held the sword horizontally with his right hand.

He cut off an arm along with half of his shoulder bone himself.

The blood splattered into a string of slowly floating beads in the low-gravity environment.

The next moment, the medical array behind him lit up, forcibly dragging him back to the second line of defense.

When Chen Xu crashed into the medical pod, his face was as white as paper, yet he still gripped the hilt of his sword tightly.

The medical monk rushed over to seal his blood.

He looked up, his voice so hoarse it was almost inaudible.

"That thing... can kill."

These words reached everyone's ears.

Behind the second line of defense, the atmosphere, which had been so oppressive it was almost frozen, finally eased a little.

It's not inspiring.

Something heavier and harder slowly rose from the depths of everyone's hearts.

It can kill.

......

In the Kunlun Heavenly Palace.

As Gu Qing watched this scene, a faint smile finally appeared in his eyes.

In the sea of ​​consciousness, the system panel lit up again.

The individual combat strength of the contaminated entity is lower than estimated.

[It is recommended that the host immediately connect to the highest divinity and clear the rift on the far side of the moon before the corrupted mother nest fully awakens.]

Gu Qing said calmly:

"What's your hurry?"

The system did not respond.

Or rather, its silence itself is the answer.

Gu Qing looked at the battlefield on the far side of the moon.

"They are testing us."

"I'm also testing them."

The panel flickered slightly.

Continuing to wait will result in unnecessary losses.

Gu Qingdao:

"When a civilization wants to grow, there is no growth without pain."

He paused, his gaze falling into the depths of the crack.

"Moreover, the first wave of results is never the most important."

In the crack on the far side of the moon, more than a dozen pale half-bodies were successively destroyed.

The second line of defense suffered heavy casualties.

Three sword cultivators were seriously injured.

Both array towers are overloaded.

A logistics and ranging team was affected by the spatial folding, and four of them lost their lower bodies on the spot, only able to be temporarily kept alive by a medical array.

But the defensive line did not retreat.

Zhou Lan kept all the reserve teams firmly in place, only allowing the Spirit-Slaying Cannon and the Sword Team to take turns filling in.

She didn't chase after him.

Even when the last pale shadow was blasted in half by heavy artillery and was dragging its remains back into the crevice, she did not allow anyone to cross the man-made benchmark.

The adjutant, his eyes red, asked:

"Commander Zhou, it's going back soon."

"I saw it."

"Should we give it another shot? It's injured; maybe we can bring back a sample."

Zhou Lan glanced at him.

"The order is to repel the first wave."

The adjutant gritted his teeth.

"Samples available..."

"Only when people are alive can there be samples for the next time."

Zhou Lan interrupted him.

"Ceasefire across the board."

"Keep locked down."

"Anyone who dares to cross the line will be dealt with according to military law."

On the battlefield, all the cannons fell silent simultaneously.

The tattered, pale shadow retreated little by little into the crack.

Just as it was about to completely disappear into the darkness, it suddenly raised its hand.

The cracked eye in his palm opened again.

This time, it didn't look at the second line of defense.

Instead, he looked at the severed arm of Chen Xu.

Beside the severed arm, the thin, deathly gray threads peeled from the wound were slowly writhing on the lunar soil.

Zhou Lan's pupils contracted slightly.

"Incinerate the pollutants!"

The rear array tower immediately turned around.

But it was still a moment too late.

Those pale gray lines suddenly all straightened.

They formed an extremely tiny symbol.

Like a closed eye.

The next moment, the symbol burned out on its own.

From the depths of the crack on the far side of the moon came a very low echo.

It's very far.

It's also very close.

In the Kyoto control room, a faint layer of dust appeared on the edges of all the manually recorded papers.

Wang Mingyuan suddenly stood up, staring at the burnt-out eye-shaped ash mark on the real-time image of the moon's far side, his voice low and chilling.

"They are confirming the coordinates."

In the Kunlun Heavenly Palace, the wound on Gu Qing's right hand suddenly reopened.

A drop of blood fell on the floor of the main hall.

The system panel seemed to have finally received this result, with lines of text appearing one by one.

The cracks on the far side of the moon have been marked in reverse.

[The high-dimensional pollution source is calibrating its coordinates within the solar system.]

[Expected scale of the next shock: Incalculable.]

[Should we access the highest divinity?]

Gu Qing stared at those lines of text and remained silent for a moment.

Then he smiled.

The smile was faint, yet as cold as the light on the back of the moon.

"I see."