While Imhotep, Heng and XueLin were running for their lives, Zheng was causing a storm inside the alien mothers.h.i.+p. There were certainly violent gusts from the numerous explosions, though no rain.
Zheng had no fear of the spider machines unlike the other group. The energy beams could at the most induce pain on his body. The recovery rate of his Qi was equal to its consumption as long as he stayed on top of dodging the incoming fires. With technological weapons being ineffective against him, there was no way for the aliens to defeat him with close combat. Furthermore, psyche abilities had little influence on him since he had reached the fourth stage and broke free of his heart"s devil. His enemies could only rely on force greater than what he possessed or corner him through the use of influence.
Zheng had scouted this large area in the time. The mothers.h.i.+p was similar to a hive, constructed by layers upon layers of pa.s.sageways. In between the pa.s.sageways were metallic layers approximately a hundred meters in depth. The aliens had fully grasped anti-gravitational technology that enabled them to bypa.s.s the difficulty caused height and build such a magnificent structure. There were vertical pa.s.sageways that went through the mothers.h.i.+p. Every thousand meters down was a platform like the ones team China"s s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p landed on.
A few of the rooms Zheng encountered had other uses that he couldn"t figure out. Spider machines and s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps were parked in most rooms and then there were the red colored plants. He didn"t know what these plants were but he could imagine, or at the least, he could see their uses.
Human bodies hung and embedded on the plants. Not all of these bodies were corpses, most were but some were still alive. All the bodies belonged to humans. The plants infected the bodies. Branches pierced through every part of the bodies, from the stomach to the brain. It seemed as though they had become part of the plants, or the plants were growing within them.
Zheng had gooseb.u.mps the first time he entered a room like this. The moans terrible groans uttered by the living sounded like voices echoed from the depth of h.e.l.l. They could not move their bodies so they stared at Zheng, as if they were begging him to free them from this h.e.l.l.
Zheng dragged several dozen spider machines into the rooms and detonated them. The plants continuously released carbon monoxide which was neutralized by another gas it released, but the explosions broke the balance and the rooms exploded.
"I will kill all the aliens. Just think of it as doing something good for the humans of this world. There"s no right or wrong in a war to fight for a species living s.p.a.ce."
Although Zheng had mostly figured out Xuan and HongLu"s plan, he was still infuriated by the scenes he witnessed. It was sympathy toward the loss of his kind. Those killed and being killed were humans after all. When he saw those humans, he had the thought "If I am one of them." A vicious fire burned inside him and he wanted to blast the mothers.h.i.+p with the Magic Cannon.
"It"s too inconvenient without a psyche force user. There"s no way to contact the other members, no way to see the area in whole, no way to know where the enemies are, no way to know where the targets are. A psyche force user is too valuable to a team, more so than the leader, the fighters, and the strategist combined. A good psyche force user should greatly increase a team"s overall strength." Zheng muttered as he ran along the pa.s.sageway.
He had two goals, go through as many areas as he could to increase the chance of finding an energy reserve, which would allow him to blow up a large section at once, and to use himself to bait team Pacific. If he guessed it right, team Pacific should have arrived at the mothers.h.i.+p at this time.
(I don"t know how strong team Pacific are but I will eventually see it in a battle. I am more curious at the aliens. Is this all there is to them? What do they have to defeat us or even capture us alive? They wouldn"t have let us inside the mothers.h.i.+p if they aren"t intending to capture us. Do they have a secret weapon? What is it?)
The three members of team Pacific were peaceful compared to Zheng. All the machines that came within a hundred meters of them stopped functioning and only woke up after they left ten thousand meters away. Several hundred machines gathered after them but they neither attacked nor move closer to team Pacific.
(Interesting. Team China"s leader is an anxious type fighter. He talks to himself while he walks. But he"s right. A psyche force user is like a terminal that connects all the members of a team to a network. A team without a terminal will only end in death.)
Julian sneered but only for a second because he noticed Lionheart was staring at him. He held back his smile and rubbed the corner of his mouth.
Lionheart moved his eyes away. Those eyes felt sharp, as though he was ready to kill someone. Julian and the other member couldn"t help but took two steps to the side.
Julian said with a smile. "We are close to team China"s leader. Should we join the fight for this one?"
Lionheart combed his hair with a cold smile and turned his head around. "Same rules. I will fight him alone. If I lose, we will go at him together… I suddenly find that I can"t understand you. You have been hiding behind me since way back in time. Are you going to give me a dagger to the back?" His eyes were cold as steel.
Julian"s smile and tone remained gentle as before. "How could I? We are comrades. I am not going to act stupid when such a strong enemy is standing before us. Rest a.s.sured, leader. You should be confident with your own strength. You are the man who will surpa.s.s the leader of team Devil!"
Lionheart took a deep breath. A deep red flame emerged on his body. Its color was so deep that it was close to black. A pure white light radiated from the Caucasian man at the same time and enclosed Julian inside. The dark red flame couldn"t come near to the light. After a while, Lionheart retrieved the flame back into his body.
(This guy"s sheath is definitely an S rank item or higher. The only issue lies in its restriction or I would have killed him and seized it. I should have killed Julian before the sheath appeared, or at least before he exchanged the Shaka enhancement. There"s no guarantee that I can kill him at this point. Looks like I have to resort to that method…)
(This idiot is showing off his self-created ability again. How can you be so proud of an ability created with my help?)
Julian opened his lips but his expression suddenly changed. He said. "Hurry! Zheng Zha is running at another direction. He"s speed is getting faster. He might have discovered us!"
Lionheart was surprised for a moment then he jumped. He seemed to have transformed into a dark red light and flashed straight ahead.
"Send his location into my mind! You can take your time. I am going to meet that arrogant leader!" Lionheart left his message and disappeared from the other two people"s sights in the next second.
Zheng didn"t discover team Pacific approaching him. In fact, he wanted team Pacific to find him. He was running because he found a translucent room with a window that allowed him to see through to the outside of the mothers.h.i.+p. This window was facing the Earth.
Zheng didn"t pay much attention in the beginning. He skimmed the room then left but something didn"t feel right after he left the room. The s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p entered the mothers.h.i.+p on the side the mothers.h.i.+p was facing the Earth. Counting the mothers.h.i.+p"s rotation, it should take several more hours before the side he was on rotated to the opposite side. Yet, no one knew what time Xuan was going to fire.
Zheng felt unease. If his conjecture turned out true, team China would see a glimpse of light in this situation but all living beings in this world, from aliens to humans and animals, would not. If the Magic Cannon were to fire facing the Earth, no one would know how many humans would die.
(It"s a stupid principle to adhere to but I don"t wish to bring this disaster to the humans on the Earth if circ.u.mstances allow. Let"s just treat this as a good deed.)
Zheng followed the pa.s.sageways leading into the center of the mothers.h.i.+p at once. He didn"t know where Xuan was but Xuan wouldn"t be that far away even if he was fast. Xuan hid himself through an unknown method and he seemed to know the location of everyone else. Doraemon probably produced something when he was alone. Zheng wanted to enter the center of the mothers.h.i.+p and deviate the projectile of the Magic Cannon from the Earth when it fired.
However, Zheng didn"t know how to lead the rest of his team. If the Magic Cannon did not cover the whole team, the chance of success would be lowered because no one knew who the Guide selected as the leader. If the candidate was outside the fire of the Magic Cannon, those who died would die for nothing.
(I hope Xuan and HongLu plan includes gathering everyone together for the fire. Anyway, team China"s fate is on the hands of you two awful dudes!)
"Eh? Putting the fate of everyone to Xuan and me? Sorry, but I don"t have a way to gather everyone." HongLu said in a matter of fact tone.
The group walked out from the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p. Julian had cleared surrounding area before team Pacific left. The aliens weren"t killed but his powerful psyche force left the machines still unconscious. Team China was rather relaxed for the while. ChengXiao asked the question his had, how to find Zheng and put a perfect ending to this movie.
HongLu, to everyone"s surprise, responded with he had no solution. Everyone was shocked. HongLu had told them of the whole scheme already but if the team could not gather at the last step, how were they going to know who the Guide had chosen? What if the chosen one wasn"t inside the blast radius?
"There"s no need to worry too much." HongLu twirled his hair and chuckled. He held a piece of silver plate then communicated his thoughts directly to the others" minds. "I have considered this possibility and I believe Xuan also considered it during the formulation of the plan. One thing we are certain is team Pacific wouldn"t let us die too easily."
"And? Not like they are going to let Zheng come find us." Anck-Su-Namun said with a hint of panic.
HongLu looked at the woman with a seemingly smile. He shook his head and continued talking through the mind. "They don"t plan to have Zheng look for us. They want us to look for Zheng. Team Pacific"s plan is to kill Zheng before they kill us, to avoid him become cautious at the announcement of our deaths. Yet, they can"t have us actually meet up with Zheng either. A team China a.s.sembled together is much stronger. At the same time, they don"t want the aliens to kill us. My speculation is their psyche force user will likely to inform us of Zheng"s location when we are in danger, which happen to be the place where they would be fighting Zheng. Once they kill Zheng, we would arrive to get killed."
There was a moment of silence from the rest of the group. Anck-Su-Namun asked. "How would they know when we are in danger? What dangers exist in the mothers.h.i.+p? The spider machines?"
"The spider machines do pose danger but they don"t come quick enough. Furthermore, we get surrounded by a large number of machines, their psyche force user won"t actually be able to guide us out of the danger. They need something different… Uh. What is your guess on why the aliens allowed us into the mothers.h.i.+p?" HongLu giggled, and without waiting for an answer, he continued. "I have been contemplating, how strong are the aliens? The aliens in this world are stronger than how they are depicted in the movie. Judging by the situation we are in and the influence team Pacific possesses, this movie doesn"t justify the near twenty people difficulty. In other words, the aliens have a secret that isn"t shown in the movie. I think it has to do with the red plants that appeared on the Earth. Those plants consume human bodies, speak of which…"
HongLu fell into his thoughts as he began to unravel some key points of the movie. He said through his mind. "So that"s why. The pieces fall into place if my conjectures have been correct. The aliens must have obtained the movie plot from team Pacific and the existence of G.o.d"s realm and the teams. We don"t know how much they know at this point but that"s why they allowed us into the mothers.h.i.+p. They want to obtain our genes… The red plants are capable of absorbing and modifying an organism"s genes. Each planet has an environment that only organisms native to the planet can adapt to. The microorganisms vary from planet to planet. Aliens would most likely die in ten or twenty days if they are suddenly exposed inside the Earth. They have to adapt to the environment in order to survive and the best way to accomplish this task is to extract the genes from native organisms, which is a function of the plants.
"Furthermore, the plants might also be biological weapons. A species that can absorb and fuse genes from other species might be able to evolve into a new species adept at combat. In this case, the aliens let us into the mothers.h.i.+p to absorb our genes and evolve organisms that can unlock the first, second, third and even the fourth stage. I think the danger I was talking about should be coming soon!"