178: Chapter 178 Infiltrating the Capital, Unexpected Changes Abound!

The private message notification sound rang out.

Lin Xiao was currently controlling the main cannon to bombard the Imperial Guard's third line of defense.

He glanced at the private message interface, and then his brows furrowed.

Jiang Wanwan briefly explained the situation on the train.

There was good news and bad news.

Ten Merfolk Berserkers had ambushed the train, and nearly half had already been dealt with.

Chen Pingan, who hadn't fought in a long time, had stepped in and killed two.

Currently, everything on the train was normal, and she told him not to worry.

After reading the message, Lin Xiao's gaze narrowed slightly.

No wonder he had received a notification earlier that the territory's facilities were being damaged.

So someone was playing dirty!

Of course, Chen Pingan's appearance was both a surprise and a delight to Lin Xiao.

Suffering severe physical and mental trauma and then reigniting one's fighting spirit was an extremely difficult process; few people could achieve it.

This guy was indeed a talent worth molding!

Lin Xiao scanned the Imperial Guard on the main battlefield who were still struggling to hold on, then looked at the passengers who were currently entangled with the enemy.

With a slight thought, he replied:

"The front lines are progressing smoothly, don't worry about me. Pay more attention to the situation around the train; there might be more than one wave of ambushes!"

Jiang Wanwan's reply arrived almost instantly: "Understood!"

Lin Xiao closed the private messages, his gaze returning to the battlefield.

The Imperial Guard's formation had already been torn to shreds by the ship's cannons.

Several gaps had appeared in the front-row shield formation, and the density of the mid-row warriors was far less than before.

Just then, a sudden commotion broke out in the military formation.

A sharp, piercing edge cut in from the side and rear, severing the Imperial Guard's vanguard in half.

It was Jing Hua.

She had finally joined the battle with the main force of her former subordinates.

The situation instantly turned into a complete rout.

Seeing this, Lin Xiao planned to execute a temporary action plan.

He wanted to leave the main battlefield and infiltrate the capital alone.

As a veteran driver, he wasn't unfamiliar with 'backdooring' tactics.

Of course, the the queen could not leave the main battlefield.

Because just behind the military formation, an even heavier battle line was slowly pressing forward.

That was the heavy cavalry.

Strictly speaking, they were heavy armored Guards riding sea beasts.

Each sea beast was as large as a train carriage, carrying fully armed Merfolk Guards on their backs. Heavy armor covered their entire bodies, leaving only a pair of crimson eyes exposed.

They also numbered in the thousands and were divided into three military formations.

So, for safety's sake, the the queen super-dreadnought had to stay on the main battlefield to hold the fort.

With eight large-caliber naval guns, these sea beasts wouldn't be able to cause much of a stir.

Lin Xiao wasted no more time watching the battle and directly activated the the queen's autonomous attack system.

This was a new function he had figured out during previous battles.

For some reason, even if he left the core cabin, he could maintain a certain vague sensory connection with the ship.

The the queen would continue to fight according to his preset commands.

The main guns would focus on striking the deployment area of the heavy cavalry, Iron-Devouring Worms would be continuously deployed, and the ship itself would maintain mobile evasion.

With the commands set.

Lin Xiao detached from the core, left the cabin, and dove into the cold seawater.

The skill [Stealth] was activated.

His figure quickly faded into the darkness, merging with the shadows on the seabed.

As he crossed the white plains, Lin Xiao looked back at the battlefield.

The the queen's eight main guns were firing in turns, and the passengers, joined by the Merfolk remnants, were devouring the Imperial Guard's vanguard.

He withdrew his gaze and accelerated forward.

Due to the effect of [Bond: Beloved Person], Lin Xiao already had a 15% movement speed bonus.

Now that he was wearing the Level 4 set, this value had jumped directly to 35%!

A full 35% increase in movement speed allowed him to travel through the seawater at high speeds.

The white sedimentary plains receded rapidly beneath his feet.

Ten minutes later, a glimmer of light emerged from the darkness ahead.

It was the outline of a city.

Lin Xiao slowed down and observed carefully by the faint blue light cast by the seabed crystal clusters.

The capital of the Di Peoples Kingdom was even more grand than he had imagined.

The entire city was like a giant Giant Clam magnified ten million times.

The bottom shell formed thick city walls, while the upper shell was half-open, forming a dome that covered the entire city.

The gaps in the middle were all filled with transparent crystal, looking from a distance like a massive glass curtain wall.

The city walls were covered in coral and shell sediments, shimmering with an ancient pearly luster under the faint blue light.

Outside the towering walls, there must have once been prosperous towns.

Lin Xiao saw broken walls and ruins.

The remains of those buildings extended from the foot of the city wall out to the edge of the white plains.

Walls built of black stone had mostly collapsed, and coral reef-covered roofs had shattered into countless fragments.

In some places, one could still see the appearance of former days.

Squares or temples, markets and dwellings.

But in more places, they were buried by silt and sediment, with only some vague outlines exposed.

The traces left by war had not been erased even after a hundred years.

Lin Xiao moved through the wreckage, quietly approaching the city wall and finding a relatively hidden corner to stop.

Then, he began to float up until he reached the glass curtain wall.

Through the crystal, he could see the faint outlines of the city's interior.

Lin Xiao observed for less than ten seconds when alarm bells suddenly rang in his mind.

Outside the crystal curtain wall, several dark red lights bloomed simultaneously.

Immediately after, several slender figures shot out from the gaps in the crystal, moving so fast they left only a string of afterimages.

Lin Xiao rolled to the side, holding the calamity bane across his body to block.

Boom!

The first figure grazed his shoulder armor, the impact making his arm go numb.

The second and third followed closely behind, their sharp bone spikes blasting several deep pits where he had just been standing.

Lin Xiao steadied himself and used the visual range of his faceplate to carefully observe the attackers.

To be discovered even in a Stealth state—the perception of these Merfolk Guards was actually quite impressive.

Wait, those are... Merfolk?

Lin Xiao was somewhat surprised.

The three figures before him were different from any Merfolk he had ever seen.

Their bodies were more slender, their heads protruded forward, and their features were compressed into a narrow outline.

The weirdest part was the top of their heads.

A half-meter-long bone spike extended from their foreheads.

When these Merfolk swam at high speeds, their bodies would tighten into a straight line with the bone spikes facing forward, making them look like a school of swordfish.

Was this originally a certain type of Merfolk?

Or was it a fusion created through some special means?

Lin Xiao's gaze darkened.

The three figures circled in the distance, turned around, and charged at him again.

This time they were even faster, with a layer of faint blue light condensing at the tips of the bone spikes, like three arrows leaving a bow.

The Merfolk Guards were very fast. Lin Xiao didn't have time to play around with them and directly activated Wither Domain.

The three figures crashed into the domain's range simultaneously, and their speed plummeted.

They went from being arrows off a bow to fish stuck in a swamp.

Lin Xiao closed in.

The calamity bane swept out with a crimson glow, and the first Guard's head flew off.

The second one reacted and tried to turn around and flee, but was split down the back by his axe.

The third one finally broke out of the domain's range, but before it could accelerate, it was dragged back by Death Grip.

The axe blade fell.

Three twisted wrecks slowly sank into the sediment layer on the seabed.

Lin Xiao looked at the shattered corpses.

The suspicion in his heart was gradually being confirmed.

These swordfish-like Merfolk were not born this way but were fused together using some method.

The Imperial Guards he had encountered earlier were already strange enough.

Even with limbs severed and chests pierced, they still charged forward expressionlessly.

And these Merfolk Guards had even undergone physical mutations, just like the naval soldiers he had seen on the ships...

It seemed that the Di Peoples Kingdom had been severely eroded by the Black Tide.

What on earth was that newly empowered Majesty Cang Ming doing?

Or was all of this at the behest of this monarch?

Lin Xiao put away his battle axe and, without staying, slipped into the city through the crystal passage the Guards had emerged from.

Passing through the thick crystal curtain wall, the full view of this capital finally revealed itself before his eyes.

Then, he was stunned.

This capital city was extremely beautiful and spectacular!

The dome was covered with glowing crystals, lighting up the entire city as if it were daylight.

Those crystals were not manually inlaid but had grown naturally from the shell dome, like clusters of inverted stalactites, with soft halos flowing between faint blue and silver-white.

Looking further down, peculiar towering buildings that looked like coral thickets came into view.

Towering spires, wide arcades, and tiered terrace gardens.

The building surfaces were covered in nacreous structures similar to the inner walls of shells.

Snow-white, they could reflect a kaleidoscope of colors.

It was truly magnificent.

Illuminated by the dome crystals, the entire city looked like a meticulously carved work of art.

Based on this alone, one could see the former prosperity of the Di Peoples Kingdom.

As for why he said 'former'.

Lin Xiao's gaze moved downward.

All the buildings, starting from the base, were wrapped in a viscous black substance.

That black substance writhed slowly, submerging the foundations of the coral towers, filling the pearl-paved streets, and clinging to the pillars of the arcades.

On the streets that stretched in all directions, not a single normal Merfolk could be seen.

There were only dense, twisted figures moving through the black substance.

Some still retained the outline of a Merfolk, while others had completely mutated into something else.

Extra limbs or heads, and slender tentacles growing out from various parts of their bodies.

Lin Xiao crouched on a collapsed coral tower, overlooking the city below.

This wasn't some capital city.

This was entirely a petri dish for Calamity Creaturess!