Skinwalker Belle – Chapter 505 – This Time, No Help

Chu Chen picked up the communicator.

His finger hovered over the button, paused for three seconds, then set it back down.

He got up from the floor, pushed Chen Mo aside, and stumbled to the main screen.

His legs were still numb.

Bracing himself against the edge of the table, he reviewed every marker on the timeline again.

“Chen Mo.”

“Here.”

“Lock the door.”

Without a word, Chen Mo turned, locked the door, and pulled down the only venetian blind in the command center.

The room was left with only the cold glow of the screens.

Chu Chen grabbed a blank sticky note, his pen nearly carving into the paper.

First line: Spirit Gathering Array.

Blue Star’s 103 Rifts formed Spirit Gathering Runes, with the Formation Eye pointing toward Hangzhou.

This was the conclusion he had already deduced before.

Long Hao’s goal was to harvest the life force of two million Blue Star inhabitants to break through to Level Ten.

So they had formulated a countermeasure.

Relocate Blue Star’s people to the Dragon Spirit Continent, empty Blue Star, and strip the array of its fuel.

Logically, this countermeasure was flawless.

But.

Chu Chen drew three lines under the word “But.”

So far, they had transferred six hundred thousand people to Azurewood City.

From beginning to end, the Dragon Clan had made no effective attempt to intercept the migration of Blue Star’s people.

Previously, he had thought this was a hole in the Dragon Clan’s intelligence network.

But ever since he learned that the other side had been secretly observing Lei Li all along, he no longer thought that way.

Chu Chen wrote four words on the second line of the sticky note: Two-Way Array.

The pen tip punched a hole through the paper.

What if there was also a Spirit Gathering Array on the Dragon Spirit Continent?

The Spirit Gathering Runes formed by Blue Star’s 103 Rifts had been publicly attributed to the Dragon Emperor’s arrangement.

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But he had once communicated with Long Yi across space.

The Dragon Emperor was powerful, but not to the point where Long Yi—then at the peak of Level Eight—couldn’t comprehend him.

And most importantly—the Dragon Emperor’s Rule Domain was not Spatial Ability, but something akin to a Death Domain, the opposite of Lei Li’s.

Someone capable of wielding such Spatial Ability, opening one hundred and three Rifts simultaneously—based on energy index calculations, they would have to be at least at the peak of Level Nine.

It was highly likely that this was the person lurking in the shadows, watching Lei Li.

Highly likely that this was the Dragon Clan’s ancestor, Long Hao.

The other side had operated on the Dragon Spirit Continent for centuries. What reason was there to believe he had only set up an array on Blue Star?

The Dragon Spirit Continent was several times the size of Blue Star.

The major cities, garrison camps, teleportation nodes… if these coordinates also formed a colossal array, its scale would only be greater than Blue Star’s.

And they had personally sent six hundred thousand Blue Star people into that array’s coverage.

Chu Chen’s lips were cracked and peeling.

He wrote the third line: Pureblood Dragon Clan = Bait.

The Dragon Spirit Continent didn’t just hold six hundred thousand Blue Star people.

There were also millions of Demi-humans.

And… the Pureblood Dragon Clan itself.

Long Hao was the Dragon Clan’s ancestor—why would he strike at the Dragon Spirit Continent that had long been under his own rule?

Even the Pureblood Dragon Clan was on the menu.

Unless…

By the time Chu Chen finished writing this line, the pen had fallen onto the table.

He didn’t pick it up.

The chain of logic closed.

Why did Long Hao invade Blue Star?

Why didn’t the Dragon Clan’s upper echelons stop Blue Star’s people from migrating to the Dragon Spirit Continent?

Because it didn’t matter where the people went—as long as they were still in the pot.

Why did the Dragon Clan deploy hundreds of Level Seven Purebloods to Blue Star this time?

Chu Chen closed his eyes.

The answer was cold and simple.

To pin down Lei Li.

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Across all of Blue Star, there was only one person who could deal with hundreds of Level Seven Purebloods.

These Purebloods were scattered near the various Rifts, forcing Lei Li to clear them out one by one.

And at her current Energy Level of mid-Level Nine, she couldn’t return to the Dragon Spirit Continent through the Rifts.

At least ten days.

Ten days.

This was no coincidence.

To deal with these Pureblood Dragon Clan members, Lei Li had to level up—whether passively or actively.

In fact, the other side likely knew that Lei Li needed powerful female warriors to level up, and had deliberately mixed a number of females into this batch of Pureblood Dragon Clan.

They knew Lei Li’s exact level, knew exactly how fast the Rifts were expanding, and had precisely calculated this time gap.

Chu Chen grabbed the communicator. This time, he didn’t hesitate.

The channel switched to maximum encryption.

“Zhou Ming.”

Wind and the hum of spatial distortion came through the communicator—Zhou Ming was in the middle of a Portal mission.

“Chu Chen?”

“Stop.”

Chu Chen’s voice was more urgent than he’d expected.

“All Portal operations are suspended immediately. The batch currently in transit will finish this run, and then not a single person is to be sent to the Dragon Spirit Continent.”

Zhou Ming’s movements stopped.

The wind through the communicator went silent.

“…What’s going on?”

“Don’t ask. Just execute. After the Portal is closed, contact Lu Yuan and Zhu Yan immediately with the same order. Then send a message to Su Yue—Azurewood City is to suspend all preparations for receiving personnel from Blue Star as well.”

Zhou Ming was silent for two seconds.

Chu Chen heard him take a deep breath.

“Understood.”

No unnecessary words.

The connection cut.

Chu Chen switched channels.

“Lu Yuan.”

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After static crackled, Lu Yuan’s lazy voice came through, with Zhu Yan cursing in the background.

“Chu Chen, I’m busy here. Rift Forty-Nine just spawned another—”

“Listen to me.”

Chu Chen cut him off.

“From this moment on, all survivors are to be stationed in place at the various Blue Star bases. No Rifts, no Dragon Spirit Continent. Anyone already in transit gets turned around and sent back to Western Sichuan.”

Lu Yuan’s tone changed.

“What’s wrong?”

“We’ve been played.”

Four words.

Both ends of the communicator went quiet at the same time.

Even Zhu Yan’s voice in the background stopped.

“From the very beginning,” Chu Chen said, “they were waiting for us to send people over.”

He didn’t explain further.

Lu Yuan and Zhu Yan didn’t need the full chain of reasoning. They only needed the conclusion.

“Copy that.”

Lu Yuan’s voice lost all its playfulness—sharp as a blade.

The call ended.

Chu Chen leaned back in his chair.

There was a crack in the ceiling—it had been there since the day he’d arrived at the base, but no one had ever paid it any attention.

He stared at that crack for a long time.

He was thinking about a question.

If the hand behind the curtain was indeed scheming against Lei Li, then what was it afraid of?

Lei Li at mid-Level Nine was a top-tier existence on the entire Dragon Spirit Continent.

But Long Hao… or rather, that “Number One” from two hundred years ago… he dared to lay out such a grand scheme, which meant he had absolute confidence.

Peak Level Nine, or even higher.

He wasn’t afraid of Lei Li’s combat power.

So what was he concerned about?

Chu Chen’s gaze returned to the timeline.

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Ability.

Lei Li’s ability was unique.

Based on Chu Chen’s long-term observation, she could steal others’ talents, Bloodlines, even their very existence.

It was even possible that the identity of “Lei Li” itself had been stolen.

What if the other side had a similar ability?

Chu Chen sat up sharply.

Zhou Ming had said that person possessed a Spatial Ability completely identical in origin to his own.

Zhou Ming’s Special Ability had awakened naturally.

If that person had stolen this ability through some means…

Or perhaps…

He thought of an even more terrifying possibility.

Eliminate all impossibilities, and whatever answer remains—no matter how unbelievable—must be the truth.

Chu Chen’s back ran cold.

He raised his hand to send a message to Lei Li, his finger hovering over the communicator, then stopping.

If the other party had been monitoring Lei Li all along.

Then was this communication line safe?

He didn’t know.

He knew nothing.

Chu Chen set the communicator back on the table, staring motionless at the green indicator light flickering on and off.

Behind him, Chen Mo stood in the shadows, not daring to breathe.

A long time passed.

Chu Chen pulled out the last half of a chocolate cake from the drawer and took a huge bite.

His cheeks bulging, he mumbled indistinctly:

“Notify Azurewood City.”

He swallowed the cake.

“Prepare for a desperate fight to the death.”

“This time, there are no allies.”