Chapter 351: The White-Haired Girl

These semi-transparent crabs seemed to possess considerable intelligence, or perhaps someone was controlling them from behind.

After noticing that over a dozen consecutive impacts had no effect, they quickly changed strategy, swarming up and forming a semi-transparent web in the air.

Like spiders entangling prey, they wrapped the metal cube layer after layer, firmly binding it at the center of the web.

Even when Lin Zhen canceled the lifting force on the metal cube and actively applied a downward falling force, the cube only trembled twice and failed to break free.

Crunch, crunch! Dense clusters of floating crabs crawled over the metal cube, trying to gnaw at its shell with their mouthparts and pincers.

The metal cube continuously emitted harsh scraping sounds.

These sounds, transmitted through the metal, were particularly piercing in the confined, narrow space.

Both Aili and Zi Jiu couldn’t help but show pained expressions.

Lin Zhen naturally wasn’t worried that the high-strength alloy, which surpassed even second-tier star energy metal in strength, could be damaged by these crabs.

However, the trouble they posed truly exceeded his expectations.

After all, they hadn’t even faced the main body of the crab wall on the surface that was rapidly growing; what they were dealing with now were at best the crab wall’s detection devices!

“Metal Reconstruction!” Lin Zhen’s eyes sharpened as he activated his supernatural power.

While maintaining the internal space of the cube unchanged, he forcibly altered its external shape.

The originally square, aesthetically pleasing cube instantly resembled magnetic fluid disturbed by a magnetic field, with spikes continuously emerging on its surface and waves rippling across it.

The floating crabs on the surface were separated, and under the force exerted by Lin Zhen, the cube forcefully broke free from the web’s restraint and rapidly fell toward the ground.

Whoosh! Seeing their target escape, the web instantly exploded into a gust of wind that chased after Lin Zhen and the others.

But one step slow, every step slow.

The metal cube had already transformed into an aerodynamic streamlined shape during its fall, and its speed increased further under Lin Zhen’s continuous acceleration, leaving the pursuers far behind in no time.

The floating crabs chased for nearly a kilometer.

Then, as if they had touched some invisible boundary, they suddenly stopped in midair and gave up the pursuit.

They hovered restlessly in front of the “boundary” for a while, then flew back up into the high sky and disappeared into the air.

However, Lin Zhen did not relax because he had shaken them off.

He stared solemnly at the red canopy below, formed from the transformed crab wall, like an inverted pot lid.

He had only been delayed for a short while.

This red canopy, except for a large hole in the center covering an area of over two thousand square kilometers, was already nearly fully formed.

He had to rush in before the canopy completely closed!

Lin Zhen had already seen how troublesome the floating crabs were, and he naturally didn’t want to directly confront these red crabs, which were more numerous and likely even more troublesome.

It wasn’t that he was truly afraid of these crabs.

It was just that his energy and star energy had to be saved for the fierce battle ahead against the Saints’ hand society Combatants.

Right, the Saints’ hand society! Hadn’t they also crossed the thick alloy layer? He had acted very quickly; they probably hadn’t landed yet, so wouldn’t that mean…

Lin Zhen suddenly realized and looked up, his burning gaze directly fixed on the calm, pale blue sky in the distance.

Those floating crabs seemed to have noticed something and stirred up an invisible, terrifying storm.

Light refracted through the semi-transparent bodies of the floating crabs, making eight huge, several-meter-tall invisible pillars faintly visible.

Crackle! The floating crabs clinging to the surfaces seemed to have damaged the cloaking devices of these pillars while gnawing.

A faint electric light flashed across the sky.

The eight single-person landing pods were forced out of their invisible state.

They were exactly the Saints’ hand society landing pods Lin Zhen had seen in the photos!

Compared to the metal cube, these landers were large and bulky.

Although the repulsion thrusters mounted at the bottom could flexibly adjust speed and silently traverse the atmosphere, they couldn’t reverse accelerate to make a forced landing and shake off the floating crabs.

Moreover, these landing pods were all standard models.

The outer shell used high-temperature-resistant alloy; while its strength was not low, it was completely inadequate against the small biological weapons of the carapace race, whose mouthparts and pincers were at least as strong as ordinary alloy.

Crunch crunch a few times, and the surface became pitted and scarred.

Furthermore, many floating crabs took advantage of their small size to directly crawl into the reserved ventilation openings or assembly gaps, causing massive destruction inside the landing pods.

***

In just a short moment, the faint blue light at the bottom of three landers, symbolizing the operation of their repulsion thrusters, faded away.

Seeing this firsthand, Lin Zhen showed no trace of joy.

The Saints’ hand society’s landing was hindered, but he knew that inside one of these eight landers was a monster of terrifying strength.

Now, with the landers trapped and unable to land.

She… was probably about to make her move, right?

The streamlined, simple lander aimed at the gap in the canopy and charged at extreme speed.

However, Lin Zhen kept his head turned toward the horizon, waiting for a blue figure to appear.

Unlike when facing the metal cube, the floating crabs displayed astonishing destructive power against the landers, making it hard not to suspect that the carapace race had deliberately designed them that way.

One of the Saints’ hand society’s landing pods had all its power destroyed by the floating crabs, turning into a cold iron coffin, firmly trapped at the center of the web, unable to move.

Faced with this situation, the Saints’ hand society Combatant inside the lander naturally wouldn’t just surrender.

She turned the emergency release knob near the hatch.

With a slight explosive sound, the hatch, which had already detached but was still pressed against the frame by the floating crabs, was kicked forcefully from the inside, flying off.

A masked girl appeared at the hatch.

Her entire body was covered in Colony Armor, and her milky-white long hair flowed like seaweed in the fierce wind.

Frost! Ice rapidly spread from beneath the girl’s feet.

Her landing pod, the nearby floating crabs, and the entire web were all frozen in an instant.

She gently exhaled a puff of white breath.

The water molecules in the air quickly froze.

The next second, the white-haired girl jumped directly off the landing pod, stepped onto an icy track that extended downward, and slid toward the gap in the canopy.

Her action was like a fuse. As she chose to abandon the landing pod and descend on her own, the hatches of the remaining seven landing pods were all forcibly opened one by one.

Seven identically dressed star energy users leaped down, each using their own abilities to rush toward the gap in the canopy.

A chariot that appeared from nowhere, a giant bird that blotted out the sky…

The sky was filled with dazzling fluctuations caused by various supernatural powers.

Lin Zhen’s gaze swept across quickly, but he did not find among them a woman with telekinesis or blue hair.