338: Chapter 338 The Road to Escape

"Done."

About six and a half hours later, Zhang Huaiyuan's tense expression relaxed slightly.

Fortunately, he hadn't been slacking off during this time, having constantly used his spare moments to study; aside from Virtual Technology, his other disciplines had also improved significantly.

Otherwise, he really wouldn't have been able to fix this machine.

"Statue of Liberty, what is the situation?"

Zhang Huaiyuan stretched, looking at the temperature-controlled azure light screen around him, his heart warming involuntarily.

At least he still had this reliable partner accompanying him.

"Everything is well, Your Excellency."

The Statue of Liberty turned around with a smile, as if what she had just dealt with were not billions of blackened living beings, but merely some dust she had casually brushed away.

"That's good."

Zhang Huaiyuan breathed a sigh of relief.

They had not pursued him, which at least proved his hypothesis was correct: the enemy hiding in the shadows did not have full control over the Ascension Battlefield.

"However, this place is too close to the edge of the Ascension Battlefield; it is not a place to stay for long."

Zhang Huaiyuan hesitated; he currently had two choices.

One was to continue using the cross-boundary Warp Device for random teleportation.

The second was to find the spatial connection points of each world and teleport in a fixed manner.

The advantage of the former was that the route was random, making it difficult to be ambushed in advance, and the transfer speed was fast.

But the problem was that it consumed a massive amount of energy, and if he continued to use it consecutively, it was highly likely to be completely scrapped.

The disadvantages of the latter were also very obvious: the route was fixed, making it easy to be ambushed, and it was time-consuming.

But the advantage was that it was cheap.

"Statue of Liberty, what do you think we should choose?"

Zhang Huaiyuan frowned and asked.

"Your Excellency, I am just an ordinary intelligent lifeform."

The Statue of Liberty kept her gaze on Zhang Huaiyuan, saying calmly:

"Whatever you say, I will do. As for such complex questions of choice, it is of course for you to decide."

"Uh... alright, you..."

Zhang Huaiyuan couldn't help but chuckle at her righteous appearance.

He naturally understood that she meant she unconditionally supported him.

He shook his head and smiled:

"Then let's go with the second plan."

As he spoke, he took out a series of spatial positioning devices and skillfully began to fiddle with them.

Before, he had been afraid of being discovered and didn't dare to use technological weapons too excessively.

For a Scholar above level 45, finding the spatial connection point of a world was effortless.

Only twenty minutes later, a coordinate was clearly marked on the device's display screen.

"3700 kilometers, let's go."

Zhang Huaiyuan glanced at it, put away the device, and then put on his mecha, preparing to fly over.

At this moment, a rapid "beep-beep" sound rang out.

Subsequently, a communication automatically popped up on his wristband, and a phantom of a mechanical lifeform appeared in front of him.

"Thank heavens, Junior Martial Brother, I've finally contacted you."

A trace of joy at having survived a disaster appeared on the mechanical lifeform's face, and he rambled:

"Your location coordinates suddenly disappeared, and when they reappeared, you were already at the edge of the Ascension Battlefield, almost leaving. No matter how I tried to send you communications, there was no reply; you worried me to death!"

"Third Senior Brother?"

Zhang Huaiyuan was stunned for a moment, then felt a surge of joy.

He had been wondering why the entire association seemed to have lost contact during the operation, thinking it was for fear of being discovered.

He hadn't expected it to have been blocked by some means.

As for whether the Third Senior Brother in front of him was an enemy in disguise, Zhang Huaiyuan was not worried in the slightest.

Forcibly connecting to the communication system of core members required authorization from the association's internal high-level officials.

With the previous assassination attempt as a precedent, if they could still have a loophole exploited again, those Scholars might as well just slit their own throats.

Thinking of this, he hurriedly asked:

"Third Senior Brother, what exactly is going on? Where should I go now?"

"The situation is even more serious than imagined. These dark rats have secretly seized control of many worlds and are comprehensively eroding the Ascension Battlefield."

Third Senior Brother's tone became somewhat grave:

"The association's powerhouses have already arrived and are attempting to drive them out."

"Your current location is close to the monsters' base camp, and most of the area has already been contaminated..."

"Third Senior Brother, what kind of existences are they exactly?"

Zhang Huaiyuan couldn't help but interrupt and ask.

He had wanted to ask this question for a long time.

What exactly was it that required the three major forces, which he viewed as behemoths, to join hands to deal with it?

"That is a long story, and knowing too early would only be detrimental to you."

Third Senior Brother was silent for a moment and said:

"I only learned of it from Teacher not long ago, but I would rather not have known."

"What do you mean?"

Zhang Huaiyuan frowned; it was just knowing who the enemy was, why did it sound like some kind of taboo?

"Wait until this matter is resolved and ask Teacher yourself. Right now, the most important thing is to bring you back safely."

Third Senior Brother shook his head and did not answer directly, changing the subject:

"Currently, the two forces are colliding with full force, and since you are located in an area largely controlled by the opponent, we cannot use our authority to teleport you out directly."

As he spoke, he waved his hand, and a virtual projection appeared in the void.

It seemed to be an image created by observing from a high-dimensional perspective.

In the vast, endless void, layers upon layers of infinite blue light and crimson were flickering.

They ground against and collided with each other; even the image flickered with terrifying fluctuations that were chilling, as if two supreme existences were roaring in anger.

Every second, azure blocks of color or crimson blocks of color would dim.

— That represented the complete annihilation of a world.

"However, even though they launched a sneak attack, the association still holds the overall advantage. They also cannot teleport directly to your location and can only shuttle through world by world."

Third Senior Brother waved his hand again, and the projection flashed, changing into another star map.

"This is the distribution and all spatial coordinates of the 129,600 worlds of the Ascension Battlefield. Your current location is here, and you must follow this route to reach the area we control, which is here."

He pointed, and one of the star paths began to flicker.

"There is a transit station established by Holy Spirit City, and experts from Holy Spirit City will meet you there. The association's Cleaner Legion is also rushing to provide support."

Third Senior Brother looked at Zhang Huaiyuan and said solemnly:

"According to the association's intelligence, one of the supreme powerhouses among those monsters is attempting to use the controlled area to break through the integrity of the Ascension Battlefield and then pursue you personally."

"I don't know why they want to kill you so much, Junior Martial Brother, you must be careful. As long as you reach the transit station, you will be safe."

"I understand, thank you, Third Senior Brother."

Zhang Huaiyuan took a deep breath, nodded, and closed the communication.

"No time to lose, let's go."

...