Chapter 349: Alarmed

While Lin Zhen hesitated.

Three more messages popped up on the terminal screen one after another, their pale blue light staining the film a faint azure.

【Zi Jiu: Should we continue?】

【Aili: I don’t want to give up. Let’s try again once more.

【Anvil: The Saint’s Hand Society is coming. Should we leave?】

Clearly.

Chicha hadn’t only contacted him; he’d relayed the news to everyone at the very first moment.

And they had all offered their own suggestions.

Zi Jiu, as always, chose to trust his judgment.

Aili, when it came to matters involving Yun Ruoxi, wouldn’t give up unless there was truly no other option.

Anvil’s reply seemed to ask for Lin Zhen’s choice, but it was clear he feared the Saint’s Hand Society.

‘It’s easy to defeat the bandits in the mountains, but hard to defeat the inner demons in the heart…’

Lin Zhen slowly exhaled, recalling the mental struggle he’d gone through aboard the spaceship.

He had already made up his mind to wage war against the Saint’s Hand Society, to take back Chatosi, and to break the Mental Brand in everyone’s minds with a victory over them.

Why, at this critical moment, was he hesitating and wanting to retreat again?

There was only one choice after all!

Lin Zhen clenched his fist.

The five years of effort he’d put in, the series of trump cards he’d prepared for the Saint’s Hand Society—the dozens of silver-white alloy boxes quietly sitting inside the spaceship’s hold—flashed through his mind one by one.

Finally, he reached out and sent his decision on the terminal.

【Lin Zhen: Continue. This is a war.

【Lin Zhen: We will not retreat!】

Zi Jiu stared at the two messages on her terminal, as if she could hear Lin Zhen’s resolute words.

The corner of her mouth lifted slightly.

Aili, who had been prepared to give up the operation but still felt reluctant, froze for a moment after sending her message.

She brushed a strand of smooth hair from her forehead to behind her ear, her face full of determination, a hint of anticipation in her eyes.

‘Sister… we’re going to meet…’

“Continue?”

Anvil, knowing he was about to face the Saint’s Hand Society head-on, wore a helpless smile.

His hands trembled uncontrollably, and his breathing quickened.

But then, his eyes flashed with the image of the blue-haired girl who always smiled brightly and took good care of him.

And the stubborn, red-eyed blonde girl.

Five years of tempering…

Wasn’t this the moment they’d been waiting for?

“Damn it!”

Anvil muttered under his breath, suddenly clenching his fists. The bulging muscles coiled like iron cables on his arms.

His hands lost color from the force.

But…

His hands stopped trembling.

Strength was meant to resist fear, to fight fear, and…

To protect the one you love.

Wasn’t it?

Anvil loved Aili!

Wasn’t that something everyone already knew!

Yun Ruoxi: What do you want to do to my sister? Say that again!

Now that they’d decided to continue the operation, no matter how formidable this crab wall was, they had to cross it this time.

Lin Zhen suppressed his growing impatience as time ticked away. He approached to within a hundred meters of the crab wall and observed it carefully.

If they wanted to cross it stealthily.

There were only two ways: over the top or under the bottom.

Compared to the ground, where he couldn’t confirm how deep the wall’s roots went, Lin Zhen naturally preferred going over the top, where the height was fixed.

The crab wall was only twenty meters tall. Anyone could easily jump over it.

But such an obvious flaw couldn’t be unknown to the carapace race.

Maybe the wall had specific measures for high altitudes?

What if they went even higher?

The fact that they hadn’t been detected by the carapace race this close to the wall proved the cloaking device was effective.

Lin Zhen narrowed his eyes, thoughtfully rubbing his chin.

He then sent a message to the other three, telling them to immediately retreat to a small grove a thousand meters away from the crab wall.

Though confused, Zi Jiu and the others obediently followed the order and quickly arrived at the designated grove.

Lin Zhen pressed the circular disc, deactivated the invisibility, and snapped his fingers.

A silvery-white liquid flowed out from his body.

In front of everyone, it condensed into a four-square-meter metal sheet.

The sheet was as thin as paper, with several handholds on its surface.

“I’ve got a way. We’ll cross the crab wall at an altitude of five thousand meters.”

Lin Zhen explained, pointing at the metal sheet.

Though he couldn’t wrap himself or others in telekinesis like Yun Ruoxi and fly freely in the air, he could use his supernatural power to lift metal and perform simple flight.

“Understood. I’m all set.”

Meanwhile.

Inside the Crab Wall Guard’s garrison, the wall’s interior wasn’t packed solid with dense red crabs as Lin Zhen had imagined.

On the contrary, it contained large, deliberately left-open spaces.

These spaces were fixed in size but constantly shifting.

Moreover, the red crabs forming the wall were living creatures. The immense life fluctuations they emitted collectively were enough to conceal the guards’ presence from ordinary star energy users’ detection.

That’s why Lin Zhen had completely failed to notice that several thousand soldiers were scattered inside the crab wall.

And at that moment.

Brody, the commander of these several thousand guards, received a request from Detective Zachary of the Interstellar Security Office.

In the near future.

Four Empire people might try to cross the crab wall.

But these four Empire people weren’t bad people. Detective Zachary, who contacted him, hoped Brody would give them a minor punishment to deter them, without harming them.

Brody agreed.

Zachary was of aristocratic birth and had a powerful Gifted Talent, earning him a good reputation among the high circles of the Crab Kingdom.

With a rare opportunity to build connections, Brody naturally wouldn’t miss it.

He grabbed a handful of tiny red crabs from his chair and rubbed them gently.

He thought about how active he should make the crab wall to discourage the intruders.

And to prevent them from getting hurt while trying to sneak across.

As for the possibility of Lin Zhen and the others actually sneaking over the crab wall…

Neither he nor Zachary had ever considered it.

After all, if it were without their knowledge, Lin Zhen and the others might have had a chance to succeed.

But since they knew about it now.

If they still let them cross, then what was the crab wall doing blocking that polluted land?

The crab wall’s strength lay in its omnidirectional monitoring and terrifying blockade capability.

So what was the point of the crab wall blocking that polluted land?

Brody thought for a moment, then went to the adjacent crab wall central control. He ordered his personal guard to max out the crab wall’s detection system.

With that, it should be about…

Clack, clack, clack!

The detection system had just been turned to maximum when several giant crabs in the room started rapidly swinging their pincers.

The guard’s face showed a hint of shock. He lowered his head and operated the crab wall’s control panel, then looked up.

“Sir, the floating crabs in zones C3 and A1 have been alerted!”

The crab wall was never just the twenty-meter wall that people normally saw.

Both in the sky above and the ground below, there were invisible nets.

Together with the wall, they formed a massive sphere, enveloping the entire Polluted Land.

And the floating crabs were the invisible net hidden in the sky.