375: Chapter 375 Wind Wall Hard to Break? Naval Guns Clear the Way!

"Front row, raise your shields! Back row, focus fire!"

Fan Sinian's roar exploded over the sand dunes.

He was already positioned at the very front of the squad. Several Scarab Beetles were crawling on his massive shield, gnawing at the metal edges with their mouthparts. With every swing of his shield, he sent an entire swarm flying.

Hao Ke had transformed into his Red Giant form, his crimson skin standing out starkly against the sky filled with yellow sand. Every time he slammed his fist down, a shallow crater appeared on the dune, with the flattened fragments of beetle shells embedded at the bottom.

Lin Xiao stood in the front-center of the squad, not rushing to make a move.

His gaze swept past the front lines of the battle, quickly scanning the entire battlefield.

This was the third encounter with the Insect Swarm.

Compared to the red Scarab Beetles in the Imperial Palace, these black insects had significantly thicker shells, moved much faster, and possessed stronger bite force in their mouthparts!

Compared to the hasty skirmish at the Cloud Palace, the scene before them was clearly much harder to handle.

However, the Astral Express's overall combat methods had completely changed.

Rotations and cover between squads had become fluid. Once the melee fighters in the front row saw their stamina drop to half, they would automatically retreat to swap out, while the ranged units concentrated their fire to prioritize sniping the larger, mutated individuals.

As the old saying goes, actual combat is the best training!

About half an hour later, the squad led by Lin Xiao was the first to tear an opening through the Insect Swarm.

He directed the squad to advance several hundred meters. The slope of the sand dunes gradually leveled off, and the yellow sand beneath their feet began to mix with fine gravel.

They were approaching the perimeter of the temple!

He raised his hand to signal the squad to pause and establish a defensive perimeter on the spot, while he walked forward a few steps and stood still.

In the area about two hundred meters ahead, the view became clear, and a high-speed rotating wind wall could be seen.

It was a visible barrier of airflow that extended from the ground up into the high sky.

The airflow rotated so fast that even the light was distorted.

Looking through that surging wall of wind, the outline of the temple flickered and wavered as if it were underwater.

But even through this distorted image, he could identify the general form of the building.

It was a magnificent twelve-story pavilion, with the eaves of each floor slightly upturned, resembling a lotus flower inverted in the sea of sand.

Although it lacked the sky-blocking, oppressive feeling of the core building in the Cloud Palace, it was far more elegant than the Qitian Temples on the ground.

The Imperial Palace pursued intimidation, while the temple sought solemnity.

But what surprised Lin Xiao even more was not the temple itself, but the scene inside the wind wall.

Looking out, vast areas of green vegetation covered the entire region embraced by the wind wall.

It was a shade of emerald green that was absolutely impossible to see in the desert. It appeared extremely abrupt against the backdrop of the golden sand sea, and even felt somewhat unreal.

He also saw a good-sized pond right in front of the temple.

The water surface reflected the light, which had become fragmented after being distorted by the wind wall, shimmering and sparkling.

Lin Xiao turned his head to look at Yimu, who was following behind him.

"Before you left Heze, did this area exist on the ground?"

Yimu shook her head, pale blue fluorescence lighting up in her pupils as she peered into the wind wall. "No. What I saw back then was only a desolate desert. There was nothing but yellow sand."

There was a sense of deeply suppressed confusion in her voice. "So, I am also very curious to know where this building came from, and how this oasis has existed in the very center of the desert for so many years."

Lin Xiao turned his head back, his gaze falling once again on that green area.

On the surface of the grass, a large, blurry black shadow covered the ground, distributed quite extensively.

The outline of the shadows was very irregular; some places looked like they were piled together, while other places were sparsely scattered.

But the distance was too great, and combined with the distortion effect of the wind wall, it was impossible to see exactly what they were.

Bodies of the Insect Swarm? Or something else?

"Brother Lin, how do we get through this wind wall?"

Fan Sinian rushed over from the rear, holding his shield.

He looked as if he had just crawled out of the gut of the Insect Swarm; his armor was covered in black slime and fragments of beetle shells, and thick liquid was still dripping from the surface of his shield.

"I'll give it a try."

Lin Xiao lifted his battle axe, the muscles in his arms tightening sharply under his armor.

The blade of the [terminator] drew a sharp arc in the air, carrying astonishing force, and slammed fiercely into the high-speed rotating airflow.

With his current constitution attribute, the power of this strike was not low.

However, the moment the blade touched the wind wall, it actually came to a stop!

The powerful force was dispersed into countless tiny turbulent flows, carried away silently along the direction of the wind wall's rotation, without leaving even a trace of a ripple.

He narrowed his eyes slightly.

The feedback from that strike was completely different from the feeling of hacking into a normal barrier.

There was no sense of impact, no rebounding force, only a void-like feeling as if the power had been swallowed.

Lin Xiao withdrew his battle axe and reached out his palm, slowly pressing it against the surface of the wind wall.

The moment his fingertips touched the airflow, a violent force surged back along his arm.

He was pushed back half a step, and a sharp, stinging pain shot through his wrist.

Fortunately, his constitution attribute was high enough; it was just slightly uncomfortable, and he hadn't suffered any substantial damage.

If someone with poor constitution tried this, their palm would have already been torn to shreds by the airflow.

"Everyone, do not touch the wind wall."

Lin Xiao shook his wrist and sent a reminder in the chat channel.

The voice message pierced through the buzzing sounds around them, clearly reaching everyone's ears.

Just as the message was sent, a report came back from the other side.

Chen Pingan had also led his squad deep into the Insect Swarm and arrived at the other side of the wind wall.

His horizontal blade slashed out a sharp beam of light, instantly killing thousands of Scarab Beetles blocking his path on the sand dunes.

But when the blade light struck the wind wall, the surface of the airflow only fluctuated slightly, then immediately returned to its high-speed rotation, not even leaving a decent mark.

Liu Bi followed up with an attack, but the result was exactly the same.

The wind wall took it all in stride.

"Captain Chen, the bugs are surrounding us!"

Fang Yuan's urgent voice came from not far away.

The squad on the left had penetrated deep into the Insect Swarm and established a stronghold near the wind wall.

However, the number of insects was too great, and the passengers could not hold out for long.

Just at this moment, a voice message came through the chat channel:

[07-01 Lin Xiao: All squads take note, maintain a safe distance from the wind wall. I am about to launch a naval cannon strike!]

At the same time he sent the message, Lin Xiao remotely activated the Astral Express core.

It was different from before.

In the past, his will directly drove the turrets; his will was the will of the Astral Express.

Now, he had to wake up the core first, and then indirectly control it through the core's characteristics.

In a race against time like this, an extra step meant an extra layer of risk.

Hundreds of kilometers away on the Astral Express, as the turrets were remotely activated, the metal structure on the roof of the train unfolded amidst a roar.

Seventy-six naval cannons divided into two batches began to turn, the orientation of the barrels slightly staggered to form two sets of trajectories covering different angles.

Energy condensed inside the gun chambers, and the sizzling sound of air being ionized came from the roof of the train.

Originally, Lin Xiao did not plan to use the naval cannons.

Because this kind of super-standard strike would quickly clear out the Insect Swarm.

And the most important purpose of him taking the passengers out to grind monsters these past few days was to let everyone have as much actual combat experience as possible and obtain more resources so they could quickly develop and grow.

This way, not only could the overall strength of the Astral Express be improved, but the stardust, supplies, and equipment that the passengers obtained could also allow the entire economic system to operate faster.

But the defensive power of the wind wall had already exceeded the scope of what conventional means could break through.

In that case, Lin Xiao had no choice but to use some unconventional means!

After setting the target coordinates.

Lin Xiao issued the attack command:

Fire!

The first round of energy shells instantly tore through the sky, whistling toward the distance.

Dozens of light shells, trailing golden exhaust, streaked across the sky above the sand dunes, drawing glaring arcs in the field of vision, and then simultaneously slammed onto the surface of the wind wall.

Shockwaves exploded, and energy carrying a violent aura erupted at the point of impact.

The Scarab Beetles around the wind wall were instantly ground into powder by the shockwave, and those further from the impact point were also blown away by the air blast, tumbling several times in mid-air before falling onto the sand dunes, stunned.

Yellow sand was kicked high into the sky, forming a brief curtain of sand.

At the same time, a series of notifications popped up in Lin Xiao's field of vision.

[Energy has reached the conversion limit: 1000 / 1000]

[stardust has reached the capacity limit: 10000 / 10000]

Under the effect of the [Devour stardust] characteristic, the Insect Swarm killed by this round of shelling was instantly converted by the Astral Express core.

The energy bar and capacity bar were instantly filled.

Immediately following were several more notifications.

[Killed 16,812 Scarab Beetles, current base constitution attribute: 121 (+17 ↑)]

[Overflow stardust has entered the backpack: 776,410 ↑]

[Note: stardust can be used to strengthen the [Naval Cannon] system. Do you wish to proceed with further operations?]

Lin Xiao's gaze paused for a moment on the last notification.

Strengthen the naval cannon system?