Chapter 590: Covering the Retreat
The Pink Celestial River, proliferating madly like cancer cells, ultimately couldn't withstand the Yang Flames, whose power was infinitely elevated by the united will of the masses.
That laser scalpel, powerful enough to slice planets like oranges, did its utmost to sever the demonic claw reaching towards the Moon.
The Celestial River, which had given all superhumans the feeling of being their natural predator since its first appearance, was for the first time repelled by their combined might. Yet, no one dared to relax in the slightest.
"Quickly, leave now!"
"We'll cover the retreat!"
"......"
After barely managing to hold on until the Moon Fortress completed its orbital escape and acceleration, the Moon Fortress's Supreme Command issued the order to evacuate immediately.
The eleven hundred and twenty-five Fifth-tier Projections summoned for duty, and the thirty-two Sixth-tier Projections who answered the call, all gathered above New Florence City at this moment.
They would serve as the rear guard, providing suicidal cover during the Moon Fortress's evacuation.
"You must stay." The Red Wizard King, Dorag, called out to Li Shunsheng, who seemed to be trying to slip away amidst the chaos.
"Only your true body can undo the Time Stagnation."
"And if you leave now, the Time Stagnation on him will automatically lift. So, please, I must trouble you to stay until the very last second of the twenty-four-hour limit."
Though the words were phrased as a discussion, there was no hint of a negotiating tone. The Council had never intended for the instigator of all this trouble to simply pack up and leave, dumping the mess onto them.
"Are you trying to send me to my death?" Li Shunsheng's face fell.
Being forced to join a group of Projections who clearly didn't care about death on a suicidal interception mission—even a fool could guess the outcome.
Just now, an unknown force had influenced him, granting him a temporary Time Stagnation leverage of tens of thousands of times.
In reality, without relying on that power, he could at most freeze individuals who were twenty times stronger than himself.
"Not death, but atonement," Holy Maiden Wei Ni Si said, almost grinding her teeth.
The Celestial River incident had erupted in the Luminous Holy Church's main stronghold, and she had suffered the most severe losses. Naturally, she was furious.
"As long as you are willing to sign this Luminous Holy Covenant, the moment the Time Fool is released, we will sacrifice one-third of the Projections to establish a one-time spatial transfer array for you, leading to the Moon God."
Wei Ni Si presented the only Luminous Holy Covenant she currently possessed that could bind a Sixth-tier superhuman.
"Serve as vanguard in five space frontier battles...
Fifty percent of the spoils from those five battles to be handed over to the Federation Council, twenty percent to compensate the Luminous Holy Church's losses...
Serve as a Sixth-tier instructor at the Federation Special Military Academy for twenty years, during which you must cultivate at least one Fifth-tier battle commander and twenty Fourth-tier warriors...
Complete three Federation-designated missions that are not fatal or critically injurious...
..."
Li Shunsheng scanned it, largely confirming that what he held was an unequal treaty. If he was willing to serve as a laborer for decades, they would retrieve him.
"What if..."
"No 'what ifs'," came the reply. The pressure from more than twenty Sixth-tier Projections, layered with over a thousand Fifth-tier Projections, was overwhelming; saying it was like an avalanche would be an understatement.
"Either die now, or gamble that we can save you."
"......"
Faced with a choice between life and death, he still caved. Throughout history, only death remains the ultimate challenge.
In a one-on-one fight, he was confident he could rely on the Time Fool to eliminate any Projection present. But unfortunately, this wasn't a duel; it was one against dozens, hundreds, even thousands.
What's more, the menacing Yang Flames were still looming in the sky. Even being grazed by that thing would be incredibly painful, and a direct hit might very well dissolve him entirely.
"Leave the green hills, no fear of no firewood." He fiercely committed Wei Ni Si, that little opportunist bitch, to memory, and coldly signed his mark.
......
The moment the contract was signed, Li Shunsheng felt a vast will sweep over him. At the same time, he understood the price of violating the agreement—from this point forward, every time he underwent a Cultivation Tribulation to break through, he would be plagued by Demonic Obstacles.
"As expected, that person's shadow is indeed behind the Luminous Holy Covenant..."
Except for a few critical junctures, all other tribulations were brought by Bai Mo. Since the Luminous Holy Covenant could influence the strength of all tribulations, Li Shunsheng naturally deduced this conclusion.
"If that's the case, then by appeasing him, is there a chance to weaken or even eliminate the tribulations looming over me...?"
Alas, his bold thoughts stopped there. As a martial artist, his remaining dignity would not allow him to ponder too much about such an act as lowering the difficulty of advancement by groveling to an enemy.
......
"Goodbye, Moon." Amidst the sighs of the Land of White's populace on Earth, the Moon Fortress, which had severed the Celestial River's tentacles, finally departed Earth's orbit, slowly flying towards Mars along its predetermined route.
In the empty expanse of space, only over a thousand entities with powerful Spirit Energy reactions remained.
Such a force, placed thirty years ago, before the Spirit Tide erupted, would have been enough to wipe out human civilization on Earth within twenty-four hours.
But at this moment, they all harbored a mindset of mutual destruction, hoping to hold back the monster before them for a little longer.
......
Deprived of the Yang Flames' suppression from the Moon, the severed Celestial River immediately began ultra-speed regeneration.
In less than two hours, it had fully recovered its previous form.
Countless Observers and Hunters surged from the shallow layers of the Celestial River. With the restrictions of the Moon's surface gone, they now appeared in virtually every corner of three-dimensional space, surrounding the Projection army from all directions.
However, paper cannot wrap fire. The Projection legion, all starting at Fifth-tier, was like a raging inferno, wantonly burning through the monsters attempting to surround them.
Before the Projections' power was exhausted, these paper-thin cannon fodder alone couldn't inflict any harm upon them.
"It seems those mutated Scavengers are coming too."
The gigantic monsters, like countless small Scavengers ground together in a meat grinder, once again appeared in everyone's line of sight.
The scythe-like tentacles moving at supersonic speeds were entirely different from the weak little scythes on ordinary Scavengers' limbs.
"Boom!" Although sound couldn't travel in a vacuum, when the first Fifth-tier Projection wielding a rune-sword met the scythe-like tentacle head-on, the impact, like Mars colliding with Earth, involuntarily made people imagine the sound of a violent crash.
"Each mutated Scavenger has a combat power roughly equivalent to Tier 5-6," a battlefield analyst Projection, hovering in the center of the formation, stated in the communication network.
The question of how many such monsters were hidden within the boundless Celestial River was also one that no one dared to dwell upon.
"Gentlemen, though space is vast, we have no path of retreat, for behind us lies Malcolm Joia."
P.S. Red envelopes will be given out in the group chat tonight at 12 AM. The group number is in the description. All fated individuals are welcome to join... Wishing everyone a Happy New Year.
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