"South Pole! Frost Prison Clan! A larger spatial beacon?!"
Chu Xuan's hoarse, urgent warning pierced the fragile sense of accomplishment lingering in Area B-7 of the "404" base like an ice-cold needle. Behind the leaded glass in the observation room, the gravity on General Yang and Director Zhao Qiming's faces froze, then deepened into a more profound chill. Spatial fluctuations ten times stronger than Beijing's! A more complete Starry Sea Celestial Domain beacon! And that unheard-of, bone-chilling name – "Frost Prison Clan"!
"Immediately! Highest-level encrypted comms! Patch through to 'Kunlun' Central Command! Target: All Antarctic research stations, orbital monitoring satellites, deep-sea submersibles! Priority Alpha: Lock onto all anomalous energy signatures beneath the South Pole ice cap! Engage 'Sky Eye' system at maximum resolution! I want the ice sheet scoured!" General Yang's voice rang out like an unsheathed sword, decisive and sharp, echoing through the encrypted channel to the command center thousands of miles away. He harbored no doubt about Chu Xuan's assessment. The eerie, death-radiating "Dao Mark Fragment" crystal condensed from radioactive dust was proof enough. This youth held keys to powers beyond their understanding, powers that meant survival or extinction.
Zhao Qiming spun around, fingers a blur on the virtual console. Encrypted commands flowed like an invisible torrent to every corner of the globe. The entirety of the "Kunlun" base, indeed China's apex monitoring forces, snapped into focus on that frozen white continent at the bottom of the world.
Supported by two soldiers in bulky protective suits, Chu Xuan stumbled out of B-7. His face was parchment-pale, lips cracked. Each breath scraped like fire in his lungs. On his left forearm, the gray, petrified patch had deepened in color, clinging like ugly tree bark. A numbing coldness, like a venomous serpent, slithered up his nerves. In his system interface, the crimson countdown [Estimated Complete Petrification: 8 Months 12 Days] hung like the Sword of Damocles.
[Petrification Curse backlash deepened… Left arm sensory loss: 18%…]
[Recommendation: Immediate deep energy recuperation, meridian repair…]
"Chief Chu! Medical team en route! Hold on!" Zhao Qiming's voice was thick with concern, seeing Chu Xuan's state.
"Not dying," Chu Xuan gritted out, shrugging off the soldiers' support. He stood, albeit unsteadily, his gaze locked onto the tactical container now holding the dark gray, light-streaked "Entropy-Fission Dao Mark Fragment." Deadly, yes, but pulsing with genuine, albeit weak, Law power. "Director Zhao… secure this. It's volatile… but might be a trump card."
"Understood!" Zhao Qiming nodded sharply, signaling specialists to transfer it under maximum containment protocols. He knew this crystal, "refined" from nuclear waste, was invaluable beyond measure.
Back on the surface, the harsh Gobi sunlight made Chu Xuan squint. Desert-camouflaged VTOL transports roared as they landed. Refusing a stretcher, Chu Xuan boarded the aircraft back to "Kunlun" with Zhao Qiming. The cabin hummed with tension. Large screens displayed real-time feeds from the global monitoring network.
Suddenly, one feed zoomed in!
It was an overhead view from a high-resolution spy satellite in low orbit. The center showed the vast, blindingly reflective Antarctic ice sheet. But at its heart, near the geographic South Pole, an incongruous sight marred the pristine white – a roughly five-kilometer-wide circular area of ice, glowing an unnatural, translucent deep blue! The ice structure here seemed altered, less like solid white mass, more like a colossal, murky sapphire with dark currents swirling within! At its core, a tiny, almost imperceptible white light pulsed with a steady rhythm. Each pulse sent subtle ripples through the surrounding blue ice!
[Warning! South Pole spatial beacon activity spiking! Current intensity: 12x Beijing coordinate!]
['Frost Prison Clan' energy signature confirmed! Weak but persistent! Origin points to deep blue zone core!]
[Spatial law disturbance expanding… affecting stability of surrounding 300 km ice sheet…]
"The deep blue zone… core light…" Chu Xuan fought the discomfort, his obsidian pupils locked onto the pulsing point. He marshaled his depleted spirit energy, pushing the system for deeper scanning.
Huummm!
A freezing sensation, carrying the dead chill of absolute zero, echoed back through the system scan! Not an image, but a contour on the level of Laws!
In Chu Xuan's mind's eye, beneath the ice sheet, at the heart of the deep blue zone, the outline of a colossal structure took shape – a pyramid-like construct of unknown silver-white material, deeply embedded in ancient bedrock! Its surface crawled with energy circuits finer than hair, impossibly complex, flickering in time with the core light (the beacon heart)! More chillingly, near the base of this massive beacon, several minuscule, ice-crystal-like, grotesquely twisted "life-signatures" moved slowly! Their energy aura was frigid, viscous, radiating an instinctual hunger for flesh and blood – the unmistakable signature of the "Frost Prison Clan"!
"The beacon… integrity over 70%… far superior to that Beijing fragment…" Chu Xuan's voice was heavy. "Those ice-points… Frost Prison younglings or scouts… They seem… trying to activate or… maintain it?"
The implication dropped the cabin's temperature further. The aliens had already established an outpost at Earth's most secretive spot?
"Report!" An urgent voice crackled over comms. "'Snow Dragon' icebreaker relayed emergency! Deep-sea submersible on routine survey near Ross Ice Shelf edge encountered severe unknown interference! Sonar detected massive, regular non-natural structure contour approx. 1500m below ice shelf! Coordinates… match the satellite's deep blue zone edge! Sub attempted approach… signal lost! Final feed showed violent shaking and… eerie blue ice-flash!"
The screen switched. A blurry, violently shaking video clip played. An external submersible camera view. Turbid, icy water. The mountainous underside of the ice shelf stretched ahead. Suddenly, the frame jerked violently, as if struck by an invisible force! In the tumbling view, the camera captured a fleeting glimpse of horror: within a massive depression at the ice shelf's base, several grotesque corpses lay frozen!
The corpses were huge, over three meters tall, humanoid but encased in thick, angular, deep-blue crystalline armor! Their heads resembled enlarged insects, compound eyes replaced by frozen spheres of ghostly blue flame. Massive mandibles curved like ice-carved scythes! Frozen for millennia, the claw marks scarring their armor, shattered crystalline weapons nearby, and faintly glowing ice shards drifting in the water spoke of savage battle! Most horrifying – one corpse was impaled through the chest by a broken sword of archaic design, neither metal nor stone, emitting a faint bronze glow! The sword's style… bore an uncanny resemblance to patterns Chu Xuan had "seen" on the Starfall Iron fragment beneath the Forbidden City throne!
[High-concentration 'Frost Prison Clan' residual energy detected… Corpse state: Time of death exceeds millennium…]
[Unknown metallic energy reaction… Bronze sword fragment analysis: 65% match… Suspected 'Starry Sea Celestial Domain' standard weapon remnant…]
[Warning: Frost Prison youngling energy signatures detected near sub's last known location! Count: 3! Rapidly approaching signal loss point!]
"Frost Prison corpses… Starry Sea weaponry… a thousand years ago?!" Zhao Qiming sucked in a breath. This shattered all understanding! Buried beneath the Antarctic ice lay the remnants of an interstellar war fought in the distant past! And the Frost Prison Clan… had never abandoned this place!
"Their target has always been this beacon!" Chu Xuan's voice cut like steel. "The Beijing fragment was likely accidental fallout. This one in Antarctica is their true 'anchor' to the Starry Sea Domain, their targeting beacon for Earth! A millennium ago, they tried to seize it, were repelled by Starry Sea forces… Now, they're back! And they've likely already infiltrated with younglings! Those younglings are trying to wake the beacon!"
He turned sharply to General Yang, urgency blazing in his eyes. "General! We need a total Antarctic lockdown and surveillance, Alpha priority! And the 'Ark Project' – it can't wait! Kunlun, Qinling, Taihang… all chosen dragon-vein node sites – construction must start now! We're out of time! If that beacon fully activates, its spatial ripples will dwarf Beijing's by tenfold! The global rate of temporary dungeons and spatial tears will explode! Frost Prison mass infiltration could come sooner, fiercer than our ten-month estimate!"
The massive transport pierced the clouds, landing on "Kunlun" base's hidden runway. The hatch opened. Chu Xuan, supported, emerged into an atmosphere crackling with even greater tension and frenetic activity. Inside the vast command center, countless screens flickered, data on the Antarctic deep blue zone, Frost Prison corpses, and the lost sub cascading like waterfalls.
Chu Xuan was rushed to the base's highest-level medical center – more a hybrid of cutting-edge biotech and the nascent theories of spiritual energy he'd provided than a traditional hospital. Soft, milky light filled the space, mingling with the scents of herbs and disinfectant. Doctors and researchers in white coats regarded him with a mix of awe and intense curiosity.
"Chief Chu, please recline. We need a full assessment, especially… the left arm." Chief Medical Officer Qin, silver-haired and scholarly, focused intently on the gray, deadened patch on Chu Xuan's forearm.
Precision instrument probes touched his skin. High-sensitivity sensors mapped every nuance of his energy flow and vital signs. When scanning beams focused on the petrified area, alarms shrieked!
The screen displayed a horrifying image: The grayness wasn't just skin-deep. It rooted deep into muscle tissue, even beginning to encroach on bone! At the microscopic level, cell activity there was near zero, the structure mineralizing like petrified wood, forming a hellish boundary with the vibrant surrounding tissue! Worse, faint tendrils of gray energy (the petrification curse's essence), chilling and annihilating, seeped outwards from the arm with slow, grim determination!
[Physiological Scan Report:]
[Left Forearm: Muscle Fibrosis/Silicification: 35%... Abnormal Bone Density Increase, Enhanced Brittleness… Neural Conduction Block: 85%…]
[Curse Energy Infiltration: Spread 5cm above elbow… Slowly advancing towards shoulder and thorax…]
[Cellular Repair Capacity: Suppressed by curse energy & radiation damage. Efficiency: 1% of baseline…]
[Overall Assessment: Irreversible tissue necrosis ongoing… Systemic curse energy contamination risk…]
"This…" Chief Qin frowned deeply, sweat beading on his temple. "Chief Chu, the condition of your left arm… is critical. This… 'Petrification Curse'… our current methods can't comprehend it, let alone reverse it. It resembles… erosion at the level of Laws. Forcibly devouring the nuclear waste drastically accelerated its spread." His tone held profound helplessness. Human medicine seemed pathetically inadequate before such transdimensional power.
"I know," Chu Xuan's voice was calm, as if discussing another's limb. He felt the increasing numbness and leaden weight in his left arm, the fiery sting in his scorched meridians. "Conventional medicine is useless. My recovery hinges on energy, on devouring, on breakthroughs elevating my life essence." He paused, meeting Qin's gaze. "However, Chief Qin, the residual radiation damage, energy congestion, and meridian tears from devouring the waste… perhaps your biotech and pharmaceuticals can alleviate them, buy me some time."
Qin's eyes lit up. "We can try! Prepare the highest concentration life-repair fluid, add specialized radionuclide neutralizers! Simultaneously, based on the 'Meridian Warming' section from your Basic Qi-Guiding Technique, we'll use bio-electric currents and specific frequency sonic waves to stimulate your own Qi's meridian repair!" He turned instantly, barking a stream of precise orders to his team.
Soon, Chu Xuan was immersed in a warm, viscous, softly glowing green fluid. Precision electrodes connected to his major meridian points. Gentle bio-electric currents and specific sonic frequencies pulsed through him. The repair fluid, rich in potent radionuclide neutralizers and high-energy nutrients, permeated his skin and respiratory system.
[External Assistance Active…]
[Radiation Residual Neutralization Efficiency +30%…]
[Meridian Tear Repair Speed +15%…]
[Life Energy Supplemented… Slightly alleviates weakness from core energy depletion…]
[Warning: No effect on Petrification Curse itself… Spread rate unchanged…]
Limited effect, but better than nothing. Chu Xuan closed his eyes, silently circulating the gentlest "Return to Origin" method from the Basic Qi Refining Formula. He guided his meager threads of Devouring Heaven True Qi, painstakingly mending the ravaged meridians, while attempting to refine the chaotic Qi residue left by the violent energy conversion – Qi still tinged with entropy. It was agonizingly slow, like diverting floodwaters through a channel littered with broken glass.
The treatment lasted hours. When Chu Xuan emerged, his face remained pale, his steps unsteady, but the fiery lung pain had lessened. The sensation of internal energy chaos had settled. The numbness in his left arm persisted, but the crushing weight felt slightly less oppressive. The cost was overwhelming exhaustion.
Just then, Zhao Qiming hurried in, his face etched with unprecedented seriousness and… a flicker of excitement?
"Chief Chu! General Yang convenes the Supreme Strategy Council in 'Pangu Hall'! The 'Ark Project' is officially launching! Your presence is mandatory!" He glanced at Chu Xuan's state. "Chief Qin! Administer the highest-grade neural stimulant and energy booster! Time is critical!"
Cold liquid surged into his veins, forcibly scattering some fatigue. Chu Xuan drew a deep breath, sharpness returning to his gaze. "Let's go!"
Stepping back into "Pangu Hall," the atmosphere crackled differently. Gone was the skepticism and probing. In its place hung the oppressive weight of impending storm and desperate resolve. The massive ring-shaped table was packed. Beyond the core decision-makers, stern-faced generals, engineers in functional gear, and geologists in lab coats filled the seats, each bearing immense responsibility. The huge holographic sand table no longer displayed Earth, but a 3D topographic map of China. Ten massive points blazed crimson: deep within the Kunlun Mountains, beneath the Qinling peaks, in the heart of the Taihang Range, at the edge of the Taklamakan Desert, beneath the South China Sea trench… the optimal Ark City sites Chu Xuan had provided!
"Comrades!" General Yang stood at the head, his voice resonant with steely resolve. "The supreme phase of Project 'Great Wall' – 'Doomsday Ark' Engineering – commences now! Objective: Within ten months, construct ten fully enclosed subterranean survival fortresses at these ten strategic nodes! Capable of housing ten million souls each! Possessing complete ecological recycling, energy self-sufficiency, and formidable defenses! This is the final hope for the survival of our Chinese nation, indeed, the entire human civilization, in the cataclysm to come!"
Silence, thick and solemn, filled the hall. Ten cities for ten million! Underground! In ten months! It sounded like madness! Even with a nation's full might, in peacetime, it defied imagination!
"General Yang! With all respect!" A meticulously groomed academician, responsible for mega-engineering projects, stood, his voice tight with emotion. "This is fundamentally impossible! The sites are in geologically complex, environmentally extreme locations! Deep Kunlun, Qinling – access is treacherous, large equipment impossible! Taklamakan shifting sands! South China Sea trench pressures and corrosion… Each is a world-class nightmare! Ten of them! Ten months? Even if we work non-stop, drive every construction worker and engineer to death, it cannot be done!"
"Indeed, General!" A resource allocation officer added, face lined with worry. "Such a colossal undertaking demands astronomical steel, concrete, specialized composites, energy… plus life support, air recycling, water treatment… It would cripple the national economy! Supply chains would collapse!"
"And the technological barriers!" A materials scientist pushed his glasses up. "The structural integrity required for such vast subterranean spaces exceeds any existing standard! How to ensure safety under extreme geological stress and potential alien attack? The energy problem? Closed-loop ecosystems for millions? We've only simulated it theoretically!"
Objections erupted like machine-gun fire. The sheer scale of the obstacles was suffocating. Pessimism and despair began to seep into the room. Even the staunchest military leaders furrowed their brows at the ten glaring red dots on the sand table.
General Yang scanned the room, his gaze finally landing on Chu Xuan, who had just taken his seat – pale, weakened, yet eyes sharp as honed blades. "The difficulties… we acknowledge them. But this path… is our only choice! Chief Advisor Chu! 'Pangu'! Tell everyone present how we accomplish this 'impossible' task!"
Swish! Every eye snapped to Chu Xuan. Doubt. Scrutiny. Hope. Even veiled resentment.
Chu Xuan rose slowly and walked to the central control console. He didn't address the skeptics directly. His calm gaze swept the map of China. A finger tapped the virtual keyboard.
Huummm!
The ten red dots on the sand table blazed, sending out intricate webs of energy lines. Simultaneously, incredibly detailed – almost fantastical – engineering blueprints, technical parameters, and material formulas cascaded down auxiliary screens!
"Your concerns," Chu Xuan's voice, though quiet, carried clearly, "based on current science and engineering, are entirely valid. But the 'Ark'… is no traditional bunker. It is a fusion of the imminent 'Spiritual Energy Resurgence' and my mastery of 'Devouring Heaven Engineering' – a construct of Cultivation Technology!"
He pointed at the Kunlun Mountain site. Its 3D schematic magnified, revealing its structure.
No steel-and-concrete honeycomb. Instead, a colossal, bowl-shaped composite structure leveraging natural caverns and stable bedrock! Its primary support wasn't steel. The core material listed was: [High-Purity Spirit Concrete (Formula: Portland Cement + Spirit Crystal Powder + Dragon Vein Earth Qi Guiding Runes)]! [Superconductive Spirit Energy Conduits (Base Material: Trace Dao Mark Fragment-doped Superconductive Ceramics)]!
"Structural integrity?" Chu Xuan pointed to material specs. "Spirit Concrete, infused with spiritual energy, possesses ten times the strength of our strongest alloys! Plus micro-damage self-repair! Superconductive conduits channel Dragon Vein Earth Qi throughout the Ark City, forming its core energy and defense matrix!"
His finger moved, zooming on the Ark's outer layers, revealing intricate, overlapping patterns. [Composite Defense Array (Tier 1): Earth Vein Bulwark Formation (Primary Defense) + Nine Palaces Labyrinth Formation (Spatial Distortion) + Thunder Attraction Evil-Dispelling Formation (Energy Attack Deflection/Absorption)]!
"Defense problems? Cultivation formations integrated with modern energy shielding! Earth Vein Bulwark anchors the Dragon Vein, drawing earth-force for physical and energy shields! Nine Palaces Labyrinth disrupts spatial senses, blinding enemies! Thunder Attraction absorbs incoming energy attacks, converting part into Ark City power! This is the 'impregnable fortress' of the wars to come!"
Chu Xuan's finger then swept to the Taklamakan and South China Sea trench sites.
"Taklamakan site sits atop a deep aquifer beneath an ancient riverbed! We deploy the 'Dark Water Spirit Gathering Formation' to purify and channel groundwater, while utilizing the desert's abundant sunlight to build massive 'Photothermal Spirit Conversion Towers' (blueprints showed vast solar mirror arrays fused with spirit-gathering runes) – solving energy and water!"
"South China Sea site is on a stable plate edge near the trench! Leverage deep-sea pressure and geothermal heat to build 'Profound Heavy Water Power Cores' and 'Earthfire Forges'! Heavy Water Cores provide stable base energy. Earthfire Forges, spirit-driven, can smelt deep-sea minerals directly into special alloys and building materials! Simultaneously, the 'Dark Water Mystic Ice Formation' regulates internal temperature and utilizes sea pressure to reinforce external structure!"
Finally, Chu Xuan's finger slammed down on the console, summoning an icon that made every pair of eyes widen in instinctive unease – a symbol composed of countless twisting devouring vortices.
"And resources…" Chu Xuan's voice held icy finality. "While mobilizing the nation to gather conventional materials, launch Sub-Plan 'Gluttony'! Target: All known high-level nuclear waste repositories, severe chemical contamination zones, toxic industrial landfills – worldwide!"
The room exploded again!
"What?! Touch that poison again?!"
"Chief Chu! The price you paid at '404' wasn't enough?!"
"Those are death traps! How can we use them?!"
"Because they hold the 'Dao'!" Chu Xuan's voice cut through the uproar, sharp as a blade. He pointed at his still-throbbing left arm, madness flickering in his eyes. "Poison? Death? To the Devouring Heaven Physique, they are merely inferior, unrefined 'Spiritual Treasures'! Raw chaos energy and fragmented Laws!"
He pulled up the post-"404" report, highlighting the dark gray "Entropy-Fission Dao Mark Fragment" and its preliminary analysis.
"See this! The product of devouring nuclear waste! Imbued with 'Entropy' and 'Fission' Dao Marks! Crude, dangerous, unstable… yes! But it is real Law power! It can be the core of a one-shot, high-yield Law weapon! It can power specialized formations! It can even… be 'nutrition' for my own devouring and recovery! The mountains of nuclear and toxic waste poisoning our world? You see burden, disaster… I see – strategic reserves! The final, most dangerous 'war dividend' we can extract from this planet before the full spiritual resurgence!"
His gaze swept the room, radiating undeniable authority. "'Gluttony' is my command! I lead specialized 'Energy Devouring Engineering Teams' into these death zones. We will… consume them! Convert them into usable energy crystals and Dao Mark fragments! Simultaneously, purify the land! This not only clears resource hurdles for the Ark Project… it declares to Heaven and Earth – humanity's fangs bite first by devouring its own poison!"
Awe. Absolute awe.
Cities built with cultivation formations! Dragon veins as power sources! Nuclear waste as "supplements" and "ammo"!
Chu Xuan's blueprint shattered all conventional engineering and materials science. It was a vision of madness and science fiction, yet terrifyingly logical, rooted in the coming Laws of spiritual energy. Crucially, "Gluttony" offered a monstrously ingenious way to turn humanity's "toxic liabilities" into potential strategic assets! The audacity, the sheer scope of the idea, left the scientists and engineers speechless, then trembling with the thrill of a new epoch.
The objections died. Replaced by stunned silence, then a dawning, electrifying excitement born of shattered mental chains.
General Yang surveyed the room, seeing the rekindled fire in their eyes. "'Pangu's' strategy is the core of Project 'Great Wall'! National mobilization! Spare no cost! Ensure 'Ark' and 'Gluttony' proceed! Dismissed! All departments, refine plans based on Chief Chu's blueprints and specs immediately! Resource allocation! Engineering Command – report Kunlun Ark Base One groundbreaking plan in three hours!"
"YES, SIR!" The response was thunderous, carrying the weight of a nation's desperate resolve.
The meeting dissolved into a whirlwind of urgent departures. Chu Xuan was guided to a quiet chamber near the command hub for brief rest and energy recovery. Zhao Qiming personally delivered an encrypted tactical tablet.
"Chief Chu, global distribution map for 'Gluttony' Phase One targets, plus preliminary recon reports. Also…" he lowered his voice, "the advance engineering team at the Kunlun primary site… hit trouble. Geological survey triggered a violent… 'Dragon Vein Upheaval'! It's… unnatural. Like the earth itself is enraged. Work is completely halted."
Chu Xuan frowned, taking the tablet. A 3D map of a location deep in the Kunlun Mountains, tagged "Dragon's Spine Valley," flashed red. Beside it were shaky field videos: massive construction machinery shaking violently as if caught in a magnitude 10 quake! The ground wasn't cracking – it undulated like waves, heaving upwards! Stranger still, from fissures and upheaved earth, billowed not lava, but a thick, viscous, oppressive yellow gas! In the footage, several engineers near the gas instantly turned sallow, vomited blood, their bodies visibly stiffening, growing heavier!
[Emergency Report: Kunlun 'Dragon's Spine' Survey Zone Hit by Unknown Energy Eruption!]
[Energy Signature: High-Purity Earth Attribute Spiritual Energy (Earth Fiend Qi)! Extremely Violent! Petrifying/Gravity Suppression Traits!]
[Initial Assessment: Deep drilling disturbed Dragon Vein node, triggering imbalance/outburst between Dragon Qi and accumulated Earth Fiend Qi!]
[Casualties: 7 Critical (Partial body petrification/internal crush injuries), 23 Minor… Operations Paralyzed!]
[Warning: Earth Fiend Qi spread increasing! Unchecked, may trigger regional geological disaster!]
"Earth Fiend Qi eruption…" Chu Xuan's eyes showed understanding, mixed with grim resolve. Dragon Vein nodes were both blessings and curses. Accumulated Earth Fiend Qi was like a festering tumor. "Seems my first act as 'Doomsday Chief Engineer'… is to cauterize this Kunlun Dragon Vein."
He stood up. His body was still weak, his left arm numb and heavy, but his gaze was razor-sharp once more. "Order the site evacuated. Prep a VTOL. I go to Kunlun 'Dragon's Spine' myself."
"Your condition…" Zhao Qiming worried.
"Didn't die devouring nuclear waste," Chu Xuan's lips curved into a cold arc, the obsidian vortices in his eyes seeming to stir again. "This Earth Fiend Qi… might be just the tonic I need." His gaze seemed to pierce space, landing on the container holding the dark gray crystal. "Perfect chance to test what I just 'digested'."