135: Chapter 135 Fire! What I want, no one can take away from me!

Chen Chen reduced the engine power to thirty percent, and the Ghost Fortress slowly approached the rocky platform.

"Wanxing."

Shen Wanxing looked up from the sofa on the first floor, her light amber pupils shifting twice.

"Time to work."

Shen Wanxing put on the pink high heels by her feet, stood up wrapped in a blanket, and wobbled toward the armored door.

Chen Chen jumped out of the vehicle and landed on the rocky platform.

The soles of his boots stepped onto the dry stone surface.

A purple pillar of light shot out from the airdrop box, appearing even more dazzling at close range.

The airdrop box was larger than he had imagined—one and a half meters square, its dark purple metal casing covered in runes.

"Come here."

Shen Wanxing carefully jumped down from the landing ramp in her high heels, and Chen Chen caught her by the waist.

"Touch it."

Shen Wanxing raised her hand.

Her fair fingers touched the metal surface of the airdrop box.

Buzz—

Golden light exploded from her fingertips.

Gold and purple intertwined, and the diameter of the light pillar surged three times over, expanding from one meter to over three meters, illuminating the entire rocky platform as bright as day.

System notification sounds rang out repeatedly in Chen Chen's mind.

[God-grade Talent: Lucky Critical triggered!]

[Reward advancement probability triggered; Epic-grade airdrop supply box quality forced to leap!]

[Obtained Item 1: s-rank vehicle ecological expansion blueprint ×1!]

[Obtained Item 2: High-level Ability Crystal ×120!]

[Obtained Item 3: Tier 3 Aberrant Core ×30!]

The gold and purple light lasted for nearly ten seconds before dissipating.

The airdrop box split into four petals, and the items inside scattered across the rocks.

One hundred and twenty thumb-sized Ability Crystals emitted a faint blue glow, thirty dark red Tier 3 cores rolled across the ground, and in the very center lay a silver-gray metal scroll—the S-grade blueprint.

Shen Wanxing squatted on the ground, picking up an Ability Crystal and turning it over in her hands.

"So beautiful..."

Chen Chen put the blueprint into his silver-grade storage ring and leaned over to pat Shen Wanxing on the head.

"Well done."

Shen Wanxing's ears turned red, but the corners of her mouth couldn't help but curl upward as she lowered her head with a silly grin.

The spoils were quickly moved back into the vehicle.

Chen Chen distributed the Ability Crystals—twenty for Shen Wanbing to strengthen her Mental Power, fifteen for Jiang Yanxue, fifteen for Su Xiaoqi, fifteen for Qin Hongye, and ten for Blood Rose.

The remaining forty-five crystals and thirty Tier 3 cores were put into storage.

Jiang Yanxue held an Ability Crystal, her dark red pupils flashing twice. "Do I just eat this?"

"Crush it to absorb it; it takes twenty minutes to take effect," Shen Wanbing said as she pulled up the crystal's energy analysis data on the command console.

Without a word, Jiang Yanxue clenched her fist and crushed the crystal.

Faint blue energy seeped into her skin through the gaps between her fingers.

Her pupils dilated suddenly, the dark red becoming even more bewitching.

"...Refreshing."

Su Xiaoqi was more direct, stuffing all fifteen crystals into her mouth and chewing.

The crunching sound made Blood Rose's face turn pale.

"Do you just put everything in your mouth?"

"Anything tasty is fine." With blue crystal shards hanging from the corner of her mouth, Su Xiaoqi gave her a thumbs-up.

Chen Chen didn't stay on the first floor for long.

He took a couple of steps toward the stairs and turned to look toward the auxiliary command console.

Jiang Jiuyou was still on the fourth floor.

Chen Chen went upstairs.

Fourth-floor Pilot Tower.

Jiang Jiuyou had just finished archiving the fleet data on the auxiliary command console.

The recent command of the battle left her breathing slightly hard, with a very faint sheen of sweat between her collarbone and neck.

The collar of her black turtleneck undershirt was pulled tight by the rise and fall of her breathing.

Chen Chen's footsteps stopped behind her.

"I saw the results—a total wipeout in one minute and seventeen seconds. The focus fire precision of the fleet you commanded is two levels higher than the military's."

"No need for pleasantries." Jiang Jiuyou's fingers were still on the panel, her voice returning to its usual coldness.

Chen Chen took a step forward.

He rested one hand on the back of the auxiliary command chair.

Jiang Jiuyou finally turned her head.

The angle at which she looked up made her phoenix eyes narrow slightly, and her silvery-white hair slipped from her temples, brushing against her long, swan-like neck.

The thin layer of sweat on her collarbone reflected a faint brightness in the light from the panoramic window.

Chen Chen's other hand gripped her chin.

His thumb pressed against her lower lip, rubbing it gently.

Those lips wore no color, but they were so full they possessed a natural sharpness.

Jiang Jiuyou's breathing frequency changed.

The light in her ice-blue pupils churned violently.

She didn't push his hand away.

Chen Chen's thumb slid from her lower lip to the corner of her mouth, his thumbpad feeling a very slight tremor.

"You said earlier that you hadn't said no yet."

Jiang Jiuyou's eyelashes fluttered twice.

She closed her eyes.

Chen Chen looked at her tightly closed eyelids and slightly raised chin, watching the clearly accelerated rise and fall of her chest beneath the black turtleneck.

He let go.

He took a step back.

Jiang Jiuyou's eyes snapped open.

The light in her ice-blue eyes switched instantly from dazed to something... Chen Chen could only describe as a mixture of killing intent and embarrassment.

"You—"

"No rush." Chen Chen put his hands back into his pockets and turned toward the main pilot's seat.

"Good things should be saved for last."

Jiang Jiuyou's molars ground together audibly.

She lowered her head.

Her lower lip, which Chen Chen's thumb had rubbed, felt slightly hot.

Her heartbeat had not yet returned to normal.

She gripped the armrest tightly, her nails digging into the leather upholstery.

The fourth-floor Pilot Tower was silent for five seconds.

Then Shen Wanbing's voice exploded from the communicator—

"Emergency! There's an abnormal energy fluctuation on the body of the killed Cult Leader!"

Chen Chen rushed to the panoramic window and looked down.

On the rocky platform, the Cult Leader's corpse, whose chest had been pierced by an armor-piercing shell, was swelling.

The corpse's chest split open, and a fist-sized black crystal shot out from the flesh, hovering in mid-air.

seed.

The crystal spun rapidly in the air, dark red energy ripples spreading outward from the core.

Then—

A phantom rose from the crystal.

Three meters tall.

In a greyish-white robe, its face was obscured beneath a hood, with only two clumps of dark red flames burning in its eye sockets.

Bishop of Ashes.

The phantom solidified over the acid marsh, and spiritual pressure poured out from it.

The acid around the rocky platform churned violently, boiling.

Screams came from the communication channel.

The independent survivors with low Spirit attributes in the rear convoy bore the brunt of it, with seven or eight people clutching their heads and collapsing simultaneously.

The Bishop of Ashes's voice exploded in everyone's minds—

"Heretic."

The voice carried a certain metallic resonance, each word weighed down by heavy spiritual pollution.

"You killed my vanguard and stole my supplies."

The phantom slowly turned toward the Ghost Fortress.

"I will give you one chance. Before sunrise, hand over everything you have—your vehicle, your women, your weapons, and your head. Otherwise—"

Chen Chen pressed the red button.

The diamond prisms of the Void Annihilation Matrix stopped rotating.

The sound of the grade a nuclear reactor drawing dark energy echoed deeply throughout the vehicle.

Faint blue streams of light climbed from the base up the hemisphere.

A beam of light.

As thick as a bucket.

Faint blue.

Shot out from the roof.

The Bishop of Ashes's phantom didn't even have time to finish the words after "otherwise."

The moment the beam touched the phantom, the spiritual pressure shattered, and the dark red energy ripples were erased from the inside out.

The three-meter-tall phantom began to decompose from the top down, as if being erased bit by bit by an eraser.

The last to disappear were those two clumps of dark red fire.

Before the flames went out, the phantom's face contorted.

That expression was likely one of shock.

The beam of light died out.

A faint smell of ozone lingered in the air.

Chen Chen moved his hand away from the red button and switched to the public channel.

He only said six words.

"Wash your neck and wait for me."

The public channel was deathly silent for three seconds.

Then—

The communication channel of District 069 was the first to explode.

"Boss is awesome!"

"One shot blasted that lunatic's phantom! One shot!"

"Bishop of Ashes? Ashen Trash!"

Jiang Jiuyou sat at the auxiliary command console, her seatbelt still fastened.

She looked at the empty sky outside the panoramic window where the phantom had dissipated.

Then she looked down at her hands.

They were still shaking.

Whether it was from being frightened by the spiritual pressure...

...she knew very well.