"Using flight?"
Shasha's face lit up with delight upon hearing this, jumping up directly: "Really? We're activating the Sky Do train?"
For a mont, everyone's gaze turned toward Lin Xian, while Laine and his group from the Falcon Sea Group looked on with distinctly different expressions.
How does it sound like you have another train?
"This would be sowhat risky." Lin Xian directly expressed his thoughts: "With the orbital network severed and being targeted by Sanctum mbers, finding a path across the Pacific Ocean won't be easy."
At this mont, Qian Dele, sitting leisurely on the sofa, spoke up: "Flying directly across the Pacific—great idea. Staying at sea is too oppressive, completely different from the beach waves and sunset I imagined."
"So you really plan to cross the Pacific by train?"
On the Falcon Sea Group side, Vanessa looked surprised: "That's incredibly exciting."
Erica stepped forward and said: "Several months ago, the Federation used this route for many mariti material transfers. Although it was fraught with danger back then, with maintenance from the Federation and Interstellar Military, this route was temporarily passable."
"Right." Cai En nodded, speaking to Lin Xian: "After the slogan of fleeing east was raised, many trains rushed across the ocean lines at that ti, but the situation didn't last long."
"Because of the Oceanic Titan?" Chen Sixuan asked.
"Not exactly." Cai En shrugged: "After all, it's just a single rail line. On land, even if cities are destroyed, there are other routes, but not here. The more people fleeing, the more attacks and damage to base stations and tracks occurred. For the Federation, maintaining this line beca extrely costly, and personnel losses were significant too—it's just too dangerous at sea. So the destruction of the ocean rail was only a matter of ti. Even if you continue forward now, you'll probably only find fragnts of forr mariti industrial ruins. Running smoothly isn't really possible."
"I thought so too." Lin Xian nodded. Just arriving at Haiyan Island, they imdiately encountered hundreds of miles of collapse. Even though they narrowly escaped from Haiyan Island now, he had little confidence in the tracks ahead.
"No, another vehicle." Lin Xian responded calmly: "I have a starship in hand."
"Lin, besides stars, do you also have a ch army in hand?" Cai En asked curiously at this point.
"Not exactly." Lin Xian said with a slight smile.
"Then I still need to remind you that flying over the Pacific isn't a great idea either." Laine looked at Lin Xian: "From what I learned at the Foundation, those storm clouds—ghostly jellyfish are just appetizers there."
"Not exactly." Cai En shrugged: "After all, it's just a single rail line. On land, even if cities are destroyed, there are other routes, but not here. The more people fleeing, the more attacks and damage to base stations and tracks occurred. For the Federation, maintaining this line beca extrely costly, and personnel losses were significant too—it's just too dangerous at sea. So the destruction of the ocean rail line was only a matter of ti. Even if you continue forward now, you'll probably only find fragnts of forr mariti industrial ruins. Running smoothly isn't really possible."
"Direction?"
Viola stood with hands behind her back before the holographic star chart, her chanical voice speaking steadily:
"But you said, using flight?" Vanessa's gaze swept across the carriage interior: "This army destroyer?"
[Among them, the routes to North Arica passing through the Kermadec Trench toward Auckland and to South Arica via the Strait of Magellan toward Santa Cruz both exceed 40 hours. Even with subsonic flight, estimated duration exceeds 31 hours 15 minutes. The final option involves directly crossing the super-strong westerlies toward the polar northern ice fields—this is the fastest way to reach the poles, taking 22 hours, but has higher risk factors. Besides the westerlies and No. 8 Star Abyss, the northern ice fields and polar Kunlun City also have over ten thousand kiloters of uninhabited ice regions.]
"Going directly to the poles isn't really feasible." Laine said at this point: "Even the Foundation doesn't dare attempt such routes. The poles have polar day, but the westerlies are in the polar night circle. Unless you're tired of living, absolutely don't consider such paths, even if you have a starship."
"I wouldn't be that reckless. Besides, my convoy is still entering North Arica, so taking the land route is safer. I've heard the Storm Strait is like a hellish zone now—many wanting to reach the poles must cross that sea. We can't avoid it either."
"What!" Geddy looked astonished. At this mont, several key mbers of the Falcon Sea Group widened their eyes. Laine pushed down his sunglasses to look at Lin Xian, then at his hands, rembering how he had once summoned a ch giant arm. After a mont of being stunned, he instantly understood.
Lin Xian glanced at him: "Imdiately."
"You're not planning to continue sailing at sea?" KIKI asked them at this point.
Laine's gaze swept over his teammates as he said calmly: "The word 'sailing' sounds too carefree. Our plan is also to cross the Storm Strait."
He turned to look at Lin Xian, speaking solemnly: "Lin, thank you for your leadership. On behalf of the 532 survivors of Falcon Sea Group, I express our gratitude. These are the trophies I collected using the copper sphere—as I said, they should rightfully belong to you."
As he spoke, Erica and others brought over two large ammunition boxes. When the lids opened, a terrifying wave of dark energy surged upward. Everyone looked to see the boxes filled with various sizes of dark red blood crystals, each perfectly spherical. Surprisingly, these blood crystals lacked any bloody odor and were exceptionally clean, not appearing deliberately cleaned—as if they were naturally like this.
"Wow, this many?!" Lü Chang exclaid directly.
"One would think we slaughtered hundreds of special-level or S-level entities." Monica crossed her arms, her gaze shifting from the blood crystals in the boxes to Lin Xian: "Now we won't have to worry about supplies, ammunition, or weapons."
"You're giving us all of these?" Chen Sixuan asked the key question.
Laine smiled casually, looking at Lin Xian: "Lin, although I had Azrael arrange for the fleet and Neptune to proceed toward the Republican Archipelago via unmanned navigation, given Mount Garland's destructive power, we're not holding out much hope. With so many team mbers now holess... I'd like to request this submarine from you. Or at least until our people find another vessel."
Lin Xian responded directly: "Since we're cooperating, whether it's this submarine or these blood crystals, they're our collective trophies. This isn't about exchange. Without your intervention, we wouldn't have succeeded so smoothly, let alone collected these blood crystals. I think we should split these blood crystals fifty-fifty."
Cai En nodded upon hearing this, not hesitating as he gladly accepted: "Lin, I believe your becoming Phoenix Society's Sword Bearer wasn't accidental—I've witnessed that now. If there's opportunity, let's et again at the poles!"
"Good."
Lin Xian shook his hand, then without further words—dayti was growing shorter—Cai En needed to urgently lead his team in planning next steps. After bidding temporary farewell to Lin Xian and others, taking half the blood crystals, he led his key mbers back to the North Wind 09 nuclear submarine.
"Lin, thank you." As Vanessa left, she turned back with a smile: "I have a premonition we'll et again. I look forward to fighting alongside you."
[I have calibrated our current sea coordinates through celestial navigation and gyrocompass: 18°14'S, 177°25'E. Three transoceanic flight plans have been formulated.]
Rumble!
Waves churned as the black submarine carrying hundreds of people slowly subrged into the sea, then disappeared beneath ocean currents.
Watching the Falcon Sea Group depart, Shu Qin seed sowhat puzzled: "The sea is so dangerous—I thought they'd want to co to land with us."
"Danger is relative."
Lin Xian closed the Infinite's external watertight door, turning back into the carriage: "They treat Oceanic Titan hunting troubles as opportunities. Cai En isn't a simple man, and he has Foundation background with many survival thods. Comparatively, he prefers the sea route."
Qian Dele stretched lazily: "With this many blood crystals, circulating them on the black market could imdiately establish a dium-to-large organization. I think they value prosthetic evolution and ability enhancent more—quite bold all around."
"Actually, this mindset isn't wrong." Monica said: "With strength and ans, comprehensively improving capabilities before the final day arrives increases survival chances."
Hearing this, Fire Bro unusually voiced agreent: "Indeed! This venerable one quite agrees—through myriad hardships, only cultivation matters most. If our abilities could one day rival that oceanic demon god, we would fear no catastrophe."
"You think too simply—that thing can shatter islands with one slap. What level would our abilities need to evolve to resist that?" KIKI floated mid-air with crossed arms: "I think we should focus on how to deal with the Sky Veil Barrier above. Only by flying out can we truly pioneer the future."
"Lin Xian." Chen Sixuan walked while speaking to Lin Xian: "Which route have you decided on?"
Lin Xian walked to the dining table, pointing at a location on Viola's holographic projection: "Here."
Seeing Lin Xian point between two land routes, Chen Sixuan's delicate eyebrows slightly furrowed: "Hawaii?!"
Lin Xian checked the ti, imdiately explaining to everyone: "We have less than 8 hours of dayti now. To be safe, we must stop by nightfall. So we'll first head toward the Hawaiian Islands to spend the night there."
Lin Xian smiled without denial—he indeed thought this way.
As he spoke, Erica and others brought over two large ammunition boxes. When the lids opened, a terrifying wave of dark energy surged upward. Everyone looked to see the boxes filled with various sizes of dark red blood crystals, each perfectly spherical. Surprisingly, these blood crystals lacked any fishy sll and were exceptionally clean, not appearing deliberately cleaned—as if they were naturally like this.
Subsequently, Lin Xian opened a hatch from Carriage 5's roof onto the semi-subrged Infinite. Facing the open sea ahead, he raised his hand—with a roaring sound, massive chanical gates tore open in the clear sky's void. From the dark gate depths ca the grinding sound of massive tal structures, countless electric arcs dancing like thunder serpents. As phase halos burned before Lin Xian's chest, the enormous Sky Do train tore through spatial barriers, suddenly descending!
Hurricane winds howled, waves surged as the over-four-kiloter vessel cast steel mountain-like shadows under the clear sky. Newly added arsenal sections highlighted weapon arrays—triple-mounted orbital star-shaker turrets rotated for calibration, plasma cannon barrels revealing their sharp edges, honeycomb missile silos and 1130 close-in weapon system clusters covering the top armor like thorny growths.
Strictly speaking, these weapons weren't all fully manufactured yet. Electromagnetic rail cannons, ultra-high temperature plasma guidance arrays, microwave protection arrays, and including the ammunition recycling factory Lin Xian planned to build internally—even though kinetic weapons would significantly reduce later, they still lacked ultra-large extre energy capacitors and dark energy resonance devices to power those energy weapons.
But none of this mattered currently. Under the clear sky, ti ticked away—he needed everyone boarded quickly, reaching their stopping point before darkness fell.
Fortunately, Lin Xian had Viola and nurous engineering/maintenance robots. Before Infinite's crew boarded, these chanical assistants had already flown into the massive aerial train. Viola reached the bridge, began connecting to the main control system, becoming Lin Xian's global control brain.
"You're giving us all of these?" Chen Sixuan asked the key question.
After everyone boarded the Sky Do train, Lin Xian activated hyperstring reactor phase halos to boost his power output, then fully activated Black Star Forge, beginning to swallow the water-borne Infinite.
Laine smiled casually, looking at Lin Xian: "Lin, although I had Azrael arrange for the fleet and Neptune to proceed toward the Republican Archipelago via unmanned navigation, given Mount Garland's power, we're not holding out much hope. With so many team mbers now holess... I'd like to request this submarine from you. Or at least until our people find another vessel."
Splash!
Massive amounts of seawater fell from the air as the chanical gates in the void slowly closed, causing a heavily ard train to vanish completely.
Now only an over-4-kiloter super-giant flying train remained quietly hovering hundreds of ters above sea level. The starry sky thrusters' hum was masked by ocean waves as Lin Xian reached the bridge, finding everyone gathered there except Ding Junyi who had gone to the science bay—all seemingly waiting for him.
[Target cruise altitude: 2000 ters. Cruise speed: Subsonic.]
"You should all have individual cabins now. What, waiting for to give directions?" With the Sky Do train underway, Lin Xian looked at everyone's gazes fixed on him, unable to resist saying.
"Not that, Captain Lin." Lü Chang glanced at everyone, then back at Lin Xian with a grinning expression: "We're waiting for your orders."
"What orders?"
"Assignnts." Monica sat at the information officer's station, crossing her slender legs as she turned: "Are we all supposed to just lie around resting?"
As they departed, Vanessa gave Lin Xian two items: one was a Crystal Lattice cultivator, a small device similar to a hybrid instrunt, appearing very complex with exquisite craftsmanship, clearly industrial product from a large organization;
the other was information Vanessa herself had collected and researched regarding Crystal Lattice evolution. Knowing this might be what the Infinite needed now, she gifted both to Lin Xian.
Lin Xian looked through the porthole at the sky outside, then took out the lead box containing the dark gear, saying in a deep voice:
"Star Abyss walking?"
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