Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The Thousand Lakes fell into enemy hands! That news swept across Heavenly Federation like a hurricane. Except for a few card artisans who succeeded in breaking through the attacks, all other card artisans were sacrificed for the ancient city. The two legions that were highly regarded by Jia Yingxia were attacked by two legions from Desert Camp. The attack was a success for Su Heiming. The card artisans from Moon Frost Island were desperate as they launched a crazy counter-attack to defend the city. It brought severe casualties to the Desert Camp. That enraged Su Heiming which he ordered the massacre of all inhabitants after breaking through Thousand Lakes!
The ancient city was reduced to ruins. All card artisans and ordinary inhabitants were killed. Everyone in Heavenly Federation was appalled! The bloody scenes were transmitted to every corner of Heavenly Federation through the Fantasy Platform. Su Heiming’s brutality immediately aroused fear and criticism throughout Heavenly Federation.
It was only then that people remembered that there was another massacre not long before. Unlike Su Heiming, the bright image of Tang Hanpei was deeply rooted in everyone. His massacre was brought up, resulting in a negative impact on his image in the public’s heart. Even Tang Hanpei wasn’t expecting that. The momentum of his expansion was interrupted by the criticisms. Under various pressures, Tang Hanpei stopped his attacks to reorganize his army.
Su Heiming swept through Heavenly Drum Village District as he continued his string of victories. No one could stop him. The core force in Moon Frost Island had been obliterated. The remaining troops in different parts of Moon Frost Island were directionless and adrift, so they crumpled in front of Su Heiming’s army. Su Heiming’s brutality was enough to annihilate the morale of the opposing force. The Desert Camp encountered little resistance. Wherever it went, all the forces surrendered to him.
The cunning and ferocious Su Heiming was shrewd; all who surrendered must have their team’s card artisans joined his army.In this way, Su Heiming’s team accumulated and expanded his power; he was increasingly influential. The majority of the card artisans from Heavenly Drum Village District was under the leadership of Su Heiming. His power quickly surpassed Tang Hanpei and became the strongest in Heavenly Federation! He was ruthless and merciless. He would never hesitate before massacring entire cities if there was any form of resistance. Under this pressure, people were terrorized and dared not opposed him in the slightest.
All the experts had spoken in unison; the two regions would usher in a brutal ruler! The question was, would Su Heiming stop after completing his conquest of Heavenly Drum Village District? Of course not! Then who would be his next target?
In the base of ash stratum, Chen Mu and Bogner were looking at the summary of events sent from Eastern Wei Base. Lan Feng was responsible for collecting information at Eastern Wei Base. Periodically, she would summarize the major events in Heavenly Federation and forward them to Chen Mu through a special channel.
The establishment of a base in ash stratum was well-known within the managerial level; they were all excited. Xi Ping was busy organizing people to enter ash stratum as soon as possible. All the required card appliances for the development of the crevices in the ash stratum were handled by Alfonso and Kirkley’s Department of Card Appliance. Chen Mu’s team was the only one known to be successful in breaking through the attacks. Their whereabouts were naturally an exciting topic. Coupled with the constant publication by Elemental Fantasy Platform in the past few days, Eastern Wei Base had become a paradise far away from the center of the wars.
Every day, a large number of card artisans rushed into the base, hoping to get the right to stay. With the continuous increase in population, the development of the base encountered many problems. The most serious one was the lack of funds. A lot of defensive devices like Starfish fort were highly-priced, and recruiting new card artisans was costly…
They had too many expenses. Even if they had abundant resources, Xi Ping felt the pinch. The establishment of Big Crack Base could help in obtaining fantastic wealth, and also enabling the development of base at breakneck speed. However, Chen Mu didn’t intend to wait until the second batch of card artisans to arrive. He left a group of card artisans for Lu Xiaoru and Flat Eyebrow. He led other card artisans and set off right after the sandstorm ended. Fortunately, he had a ‘thousand-kilometer card.’ As long as there were no sandstorms, communication was convenient.
The dull terrain and the dreary sky was quite repetitive, which made the march tedious and almost maddening. During the 30-day march, they didn’t encounter any danger except for one seven-day sandstorm. Everyone was sluggish. There were no living things, and there was no need to worry about attacks. Although due to disciplinary reasons, daily vigilance and scouting continued, it was evident that the team was slacking. The team was silent; it seemed like they were even too lazy to speak.
Chen Mu didn’t have any good solutions to deal with this. But to stop their sluggishness, he began his field training with them. On the tenth day of Chen Mu’s departure from the Big Crack Base, the second batch of people had arrived. The development work was in full swing. This time, even Borna, the chief Architecture Card Artisan, came to the Big Crack Base in person. He was responsible for the expansion and improvement of the site.
For the sake of safety, Chen Mu built communication towers along several water sources and left a garrison to guard the towers. This way, they could keep in touch with each other in this vast and desolate wilderness; communication was the first thing they needed to consider.
“D*mn it. This is boring. When is this going to end!” a member of the team cursed. “Who knows?” The companion on one side felt weak and complained. “We train every day, I’m going crazy. Others often praised the ash stratum. I think this is just a boring place!””You’re right. After walking for so long, we didn’t even see any grass. We have eaten liquid nutrients every day for so long that I’m losing my sense of taste.”
Just then, the card artisan who was complaining, glanced at the distant horizon and was left dazed and confused. “This place is bizarre. Treasures are all over the place, but there’s not even a single human being. Now, I’m more excited to see a living creature than to see those valuable treasures. I dare say if there’s a Tashtagol lizard in front of us, half of the team will dash forward and kill it! And we’ll have a delicious meal.” He smacked his lips and fantasized about the taste of meat without worrying about how scary the Tashtagol lizard was.
“Hey, look, what’s that?” his companion didn’t reply, but pointed to the horizon. “What? That… what’s that?” At the intersection of heaven and earth in the distance, there was a bright blue ray. The blue ray was like paint that dripped onto an absorbent paper. It spread through the sky at an alarming rate.
That anomaly immediately attracted the attention of Chen Mu and his team. The Demonic Woman who was walking in front looked astonished. She obviously hadn’t encounter this before. “Cold… Cold Crystal Storm!” Bogner was screaming behind Chen Mu, his voice was trembling with deep fear. Chen Mu heard him, and his face took on a ghastly expression, he turned back to look at Bogner. Bogner turned as pale as death; he stared at the blue ray sweeping fast across the horizon!
For the first time in 30 days, the forlorn siren sound alarmed the team. Bogner recovered from his shock, his eyes wide open, he roared in his hoarse voice, “Hide! Quick! Everybody hide! Fortifications! Fortifications!” His roar woke the dazed members, and the team was in chaos. Bogner’s worried expression made everyone aware of the imminent danger. Everyone rushed over to the cliffs on both sides of the big crack. They were still in mid-air, with full power on!
These days, to avoid sandstorms, they had become quite experienced in digging holes on the cliffs to accommodate their body shapes. The explosion sounds were as dense as frying beans, and the smoke and dust immediately spread around, covering the big cracks.
Without saying a word, Chen Mu wore a glove on his right hand and pounded heavily on the cliff. “Dong!” With a dull crash, a cobweb-like crack appeared on the cliff. He swung to the side, tapped a few times besides the crack, and the crushed stone by the crack seemed to be squeezed forcefully as it spewed out from the cliff wall.
In the blink of an eye, a deep cave was formed. Without saying a word, he pulled Bogner into the cave. The surrounding card artisans couldn’t help but glance enviously. Although they were equipped with Power Gloves, only Chen Mu could fully utilize its power. Since there were no wild animals, the Card Insertion technology that Wei-ah mentioned hadn’t been incorporated yet. They could only use some functions of the gloves.
Wei-ah had felt that the wild animals near Eastern Wei Base weren’t fierce enough to meet the requirements of Card Insertion. He didn’t know that there wasn’t any living thing in ash stratum. However, although they couldn’t maximize the power of Power Gloves, they were powerful card artisans so bombing a hole in the cliff was easy for them. The huge team from a moment ago disappeared in the blink of an eye. They were like moles drilling into the cave.
Wei-ah watched the blueness spreading from the horizon, and his expressionless face showed a rare fluctuation. He only looked at it once, before redirecting his gaze as he saw Chen Mu carry Bogner into the cave. He didn’t hesitate as he took Little Bu Mo into the cave too. “No, boss, it’s not strong enough!” Bogner looked terrified. In a short time, his eyes were covered with blood. The Demonic Woman didn’t choose her hiding place but decided to follow Chen Mu into his cave.
Seeing Bogner’s panic, Chen Mu sighed softly and said, “I know, but we don’t have time. The Spinulosa Disk has been destroyed. We couldn’t escape in time.” Nor did he expect to encounter what Bogner called a Cold Crystal Storm. Since the last mention from Bogner, he had been anxious about it. Never did he expect that he was going to encounter what he feared most. Bogner’s face was drained of blood.
Looking through the cave entrance, the initial grey air seemed to be dyed with a layer of blue. Chen Mu used his ‘thousand-kilometer card’ to inform the Big Crack Base so that they could prepare early. Bogner’s face softened a lot as he watched Chen Mu calmly handled the disaster. Just then, the Cold Crystal Storm struck them!