16: Chapter 16 Egg-Core Weapon, Unprovoked Wound

The wind stopped, and a layer of thin frost condensed on the iron edges of the turret.

Chen Wuwang's hand didn't shake. His fingertips gripped the Egg Core's casing, and with a click, the latch popped open. An eerie green light seeped from the gap, crawling up his nano-spirit-silk gloves like a living thing.

He looked down at the data stream from his Mechanical Prosthetic Eye—temperature, radiation levels, and energy fluctuations were all beyond safe thresholds, but the interface matching showed 97.6%. The remaining 2.4% had to be manually calibrated.

"Three deviations," he whispered, drawing a titanium alloy dagger with his left hand and quickly carving three notches onto the connection ring of the cannon's core slot.

Sparks jumped half an inch high, and the air filled with the smell of burnt runes.

The Mechanical Prosthetic Eye scanned in sync, the data flickered twice, and finally, a green prompt popped up: [Embedding Authorization Activated].

He pushed the Egg Core in, fitting it perfectly.

"Charge!" he roared, his voice echoing within the metal chamber of the turret.

Chen Tiezhu squatted before the energy matrix console, his ten fingers flying across the rune keys, veins bulging on his forehead.

All spare Spirit Stones in the Artifact Refining Workshop had been drained, and the energy-conducting lines were hot enough to fry eggs, yet the charging progress bar had only reached sixty percent.

"Not enough!" He looked up, his voice cracking. "Patriarch! This thing can't reach full capacity at all! Forcing a shot will cause a backfire. Not only will the turret be finished, but the entire mining area will collapse!"

Chen Wuwang didn't look at him, his right eye staring intently at the hundred-meter-tall giant shadow on the remote locking interface.

The Mother Empress still floated there, her ring-shaped fissure rotating slowly, as if waiting for them to collapse on their own.

The blue light of the spirit array slid across its surface like raindrops hitting an iron shell, failing to leave even a dent.

"You're calculating based on traditional Artifact Refining logic," Chen Wuwang finally spoke, his voice not loud but drowning out the noise in the turret. "I'm playing with variable superposition."

He pressed his right hand onto the firing valve, fingers splayed, palm flat against the metal plate. blood-colored spirit patterns exploded from the edges of his pupils, instantly covering his entire eye sockets.

Deep within his consciousness, the System interface silently emerged, and three heavenly secret instructions scrolled past—

[In three quarters of an hour, blood mist will descend in the west; one Zerg Egg Core can be collected.]

[Chen Xiaodao will have an Epiphany of Sword Intent tomorrow at noon.]

[Within seven days, the Artifact Refining Workshop needs to upgrade its psionic assembly line.]

He grinned. "Old friend, let's bet big this time."

"Patriarch!" Chen Tiezhu suddenly stood up, kicking over the control chair. "It's going to explode! I've said it more than once or twice! This thing is alive! The energy in the Egg Core isn't like Spirit Stones; it will backlash! It will lose control through resonance! You're filling the cannon barrel with your life!"

Chen Wuwang looked back at him.

That one look made Chen Tiezhu's throat suddenly tighten.

It wasn't anger, nor was it madness. It was a kind of... all-seeing calmness. Like a programmer staring at a piece of code destined to crash, but who had already written the patch.

"I know it will explode," Chen Wuwang said. "The explosion is exactly what I want."

His fingers tightened as he pressed the lock key.

The countdown began: "3... 2..."

Chen Tiezhu lunged forward to cut the power, but his feet froze as soon as he stepped out—the cannon body had already begun to vibrate, the internal energy-conducting rings emitted a high-frequency hum, and eerie green light sprayed from the seams.

That was the sign of the Egg Core being fully activated. It wasn't the completion of charging, but a Breakthrough of the critical point.

"...1."

The firing valve dropped.

BOOM—!!!

A distorted sphere of light erupted from the muzzle. Instead of flying in a straight line, it lunged forward like a twisting snake, tearing through the air.

The rocks along the path vaporized instantly, a deep trench was plowed into the ground, and the heatwave threw both men backward.

Chen Tiezhu slammed into the console, his ears ringing and his vision filled with afterimages.

The projectile didn't fly fast, and it was even a bit crooked, but the trajectory it traced in the air grew brighter and increasingly unstable, as if it could explode at any moment.

The Mother Empress moved.

One of her arthropod tentacles slowly rose, the surface carapace cracking to reveal a shimmering rune array within. An invisible force field spread out, directly facing the projectile's flight path.

The next second, they collided.

There was no earth-shattering explosion.

Only a dull "thud," like a heavy hammer striking an iron drum.

Then, there was a moment of stillness.

Immediately after, a crack split open on the surface of the Mother Empress's shell.

It wasn't a shallow wound; it was a longitudinal crack extending from the outer armor to the inner tissues, over ten meters long, with its edges still slowly expanding.

Eerie green bodily fluids seeped from the crack, making a "sizzling" corrosive sound as they dripped.

Her massive body swayed, the ring-shaped fissure stopped rotating, and her entire existence seemed to stutter for a frame.

Back at the turret, no one spoke.

Chen Tiezhu's mouth hung open, his hand still resting on the edge of the console, fingertips trembling. He saw it clearly—that shot had actually wounded the Mother Empress. It wasn't a hallucination or an illusion; it was a genuine breaking of her defenses.

"Ha."

A laugh rolled out from Chen Wuwang's throat.

Then a second one, louder.

Finally, he threw his head back and laughed, his shoulders heaving violently. His laughter echoed back and forth across the vast mining area, like a madman, yet also like a victor.

"Did you see that?!" He pointed at the giant shadow in the sky, his arm swinging with such force he almost lost strength. "Zerg! This is the power of technology! It's not like your piles of rotten meat that evolve through devouring—it's calculated! Modified! Blasted out!"

He turned and grabbed Chen Tiezhu's shoulder, his strength so great the other man stumbled.

"Uncle, did you hear that? It's in pain! Our stuff can make it feel pain!"

Chen Tiezhu's lips moved, but no words came out. He stared at the crack on the Mother Empress in the distance, the Artifact Refining Law he had believed in for twenty years crumbling piece by piece. He had spent his life polishing runes, tempering Materials, and pursuing perfect structures, yet that shot just now—crooked, unstable, and destined to explode—had pierced through a god-like existence.

"You... you let it explode on purpose?" he finally squeezed out.

"Yes," Chen Wuwang released his grip and wiped his face, the blood-colored spirit patterns yet to fade. "The Egg Core's energy can't be suppressed, so don't suppress it. Let it start vibrating in the cannon barrel. It's a bomb when it flies out, and it detonates through resonance upon impact. I didn't want to pierce through it; I wanted to make it split open from the inside."

He looked down at the still-smoking cannon barrel, the corners of his mouth curling up.

"The first shot was to test feasibility."

"Next comes the real battle."

Residual heat shimmered on the metal floor of the turret, distorting the shadows. In the distance, the Mother Empress's crack had yet to close. She slowly turned around, her ring-shaped fissure facing the direction of the turret.

Chen Wuwang stood by the firing valve, his right hand still resting on the control lever, his gaze as sharp as a nail.

Chen Tiezhu leaned against the console, his body trembling slightly. Sweat from his brow slid into his eyes, stinging sharply.