Chapter 65: Jade Deity of Past and Present-Mei luta por mil léguas(Li Lan, o Escritor)

"Drone Three, take evasive action, take evasive action!"

The urgent radio call echoed inside the cabin of Drone Three.

However, the pilot had no time to dodge.

"Whoosh—Boom!"

An air-to-air missile instantly tore through the transport aircraft carrying an entire squad.

"Drone Three! Drone Three?!"

By now, Drone Three had been reduced to a heap of burning wreckage on the ground.

Long Teng could only grit his teeth as he watched the Yangji attack helicopter diving down from the sky.

The rift torn open by the Evil God materialized directly above the Long Teng formation.

Yangji fighters pouring out of the rift launched a surprise attack right over the heads of the Long Teng fleet.

A rain of missiles and autocannon fire instantly blanketed the airspace.

"Evasive maneuvers! Evasive maneuvers!"

"Hurry!"

Flare decoys scattered across the crimson sky like falling blossoms, attempting to intercept the incoming missiles.

Yet, the Yangji attack helicopters were clearly well-prepared.

They carried an ample supply of air-to-air missiles.

Meanwhile, with their airfield destroyed and resupply impossible, the Long Teng aircraft had no chance of replenishment.

As dedicated attack helicopters, these Yangji craft possessed higher maneuverability and thicker armor.

In short, they outmatched the battered Seahawk helicopters in every aspect.

"Boom!"

Missiles struck the frantically dodging aircraft, shredding the high-speed rotating rotors and tailfins.

"Warning! Out of control! Out of control! The enemy has hit our wing!"

"Tailfin lost! Repeat, tailfin lost! Drone Seven is going down! Going down!"

"Drone One, there are too many of them!"

The panicking shouts of various pilots rang through the headsets.

"Damn it!"

Old Xiao kept his gaze fixed on the White Tower still some distance away.

Several Yangji attack helicopters had already pounced from its right flank.

Resembling powerful AH-64 helicopters, these formidable war machines rapidly launched a volley of missiles at Drone One.

The thirty-millimeter autocannons beneath their noses were also firing at a high rate of fire, pounding Drone One like a torrential storm.

"Incoming missile!"

Long Teng stared fixedly at the missile hurtling toward them.

Closing his eyes and gathering his focus, the artificial dantian within his body began to operate.

A wisp of orange ethereal energy began to condense on his right hand.

"Manifest, Qi!"

Dai Longmei's ethereal energy concentrated on the rifle in his hands, imbuing the bullets within the magazine.

Long Teng's orange pupils flashed with an orange glow as well.

Influenced by his consciousness channeling the ethereal energy, the enemy attack helicopter that had been rushing at Drone One at high speed suddenly appeared much slower in Long Teng's vision.

Taking a deep breath, he raised his rifle.

"Old Xiao! Just keep driving forward!"

The ethereal-energy-infused rifle rounds tore through the air, heading straight for the pouncing attack helicopter.

aided by the ethereal energy, the flight speed of the rifle bullets increased significantly.

Dense bullets precisely struck the rotor shaft of the first attack helicopter.

No more than ten bullets hit the shaft, but aided by the burning ethereal fire, the massive blades were instantly melted and destroyed.

"Mayday! Mayday! We are going down! Going down!"

"Boom!"

The enemy had actually shot down the Yangji nation's most advanced attack helicopter with a mere rifle.

This indeed shocked the Yangji pilots.

Yet, being elite soldiers, they did not retreat.

"Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!"

The two attack helicopters following the lead craft rapidly closed in on Drone One.

A dense storm of autocannon fire immediately destroyed Drone Three, which had been flying alongside them.

"Damn it, there's more!"

Old Xiao had no time to be astonished by Long Teng's incredible feat, forcing the control stick back to begin evasive maneuvers.

"Falcon Six! Falcon Six!"

Long Teng called out to the special operations members aboard Drone Three.

However, no response would ever come from the blazing cabin.

"Dammit!"

Long Teng tried once more to draw qi from his artificial dantian.

Yet, this implanted simulated dantian gas tank was now useless.

During the fierce battle outside the Fourth Ring Road of Dragon City, it had already consumed a massive amount of ethereal energy.

The special operations soldiers sitting in the cabin attempted to drive off the incoming enemy aircraft with the door-mounted machine guns, but the sturdy fuselage of the Yangji attack helicopter remained unfazed by standard machine gun rounds.

"Take them down!"

The thirty-millimeter autocannon emitted a terrifying roar as a dense torrent of shells slammed directly into the fuselage.

Long Teng felt as though he could foresee what was about to happen next.

A rain of autocannon rounds would shred the cockpit of the Seahawk helicopter.

Old Xiao and his co-pilot would be torn to pieces by grenades, half of their entrails splattering across his own face.

He and his surviving brothers would spiral down in the crashing helicopter, smashing into the ruins still some distance away from Peace Square.

This predetermined end rehearsed itself within Long Teng's mind, destined to become reality the very next moment.

"Clack!"

"Boom!"

The two pouncing attack helicopters were suddenly pierced by a white ethereal sword descending from the sky.

The giant sword formed of ethereal energy swept rapidly through the air, cleaving the fuselages of both attack helicopters in two.

The violent explosions reflected in Long Teng's bewildered pupils.

"What is the situation?"

"Why did Phoenix Nine and Twelve suddenly explode?"

Chaos erupted within the communication network of the Yangji helicopters.

Yet, the ethereal arrow afforded them no time for panic.

"Boom!"

The ethereal arrow, moving at a speed far exceeding the flight velocity of the Yangji attack helicopters, hacked through their heavy armor, which was normally capable of withstanding direct hits from large-caliber machine guns.

The igniting ethereal fire and exploding aviation fuel wove a dazzling and lethal fireworks display across the sky.

In barely five minutes, over thirty Yangji attack helicopters were chopped to pieces by this ethereal sword.

"What on earth is this..."

Long Teng felt incomparable astonishment at the abruptly appearing ethereal sword.

As someone who had participated in the top-secret Long Teng "Qi Condensation" project a century ago, unlike those equally stunned special operations troops who could not perceive the existence of ethereal energy, he could see it.

Yet, such a colossal volume of ethereal energy was something he was witnessing for the very first time.

Moreover, it was white ethereal energy, which he had never seen before.

"Hurry! Long Teng!"

An elderly voice resounded in Long Teng's mind.

"Go to the White Tower."

That voice belonged to old man Yushen.

"Stop them from fusing ethereal energy with the neutron bomb."

"Stop them from triggering the door of the White Tower!"

Yushen's voice was extremely resolute, referring to the tower as a door.

"What... Who are you?"

Long Teng felt the voice was intimately familiar, its accent and tone bearing a striking resemblance to his own.

"Hurry! Take your brothers, take the Falcons there!"

"Only then will I have... a way."

"Ugh!"

As Yushen spoke, he sounded as though he were vomiting blood, his voice growing significantly weaker.

"Tsk tsk tsk, beaten into such a state by me while crossing time and space, even those Jade toddlers can't save you now!"

"And you're still thinking of saving the Long Teng people who perished thousands of years ago?"

The Evil God's seductive and wicked voice simultaneously rang in Long Teng's ears, accompanied by the burning sound of violent collisions between ethereal energies.

"You still dare to be distracted?"

"Hurry up and go!!!"

Taking advantage of the total annihilation of the enemy formation, the remaining eight Seahawk helicopters tore through the smoke and dust, plunging at low altitude toward the White Tower.

"Good! Good!"

In the boundless darkness of the Ethereal Sea, Yushen leaned against the condensed white ethereal sword and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

The surroundings, once rich with blue ethereal energy, were now pitch black.

Ethereal energy within a radius of hundreds of kilometers had been completely exhausted by Yushen and the grinning Evil God.

"Fighting my true form, and you still dare to be distracted?"

The Evil God wore his combat uniform from his homeland, his FAST helmet painted with a blurred flag bearing a faint resemblance to the White Star banner.

He raised the M1911 pistol in his hand.

That ethereal-energy-wrapped pistol was ancient and stained with foul blood, and its pitch-black muzzle was now aimed directly at Yushen's head.

"You damned Easterner, what do you think you are now?"

Old grudges fueled the Evil God's contemptuous disdain for Yushen.

"Do you think you are still the one who destroyed my glory and dreams in Egypt?"

"The bastard who colluded with that Frenchman to steal what should have been my toy?"

Rage caused terrifying yellow ethereal energy to surge around the Evil God's body.

Perhaps we should call this madman by his ancient moniker: the God of Yellow Qi.

"You! Despicable wretch! Playing with those Star-people yet again!"

The eyes of the Yellow Qi God were filled with fury and resentment.

"You made me, made the toys of the gods, unfun!"

"Just like what you did back then with that Frenchman and that Russian!"

Yushen looked at the fellow rambling on about old grievances, a trace of a disdainful smile crossing his face.

"From the moment you treated the creation of the world as a reckless toy..."

"From the moment you personally turned the Yangji nation, which fought to the death for you, into a living hell..."

"From the moment you transformed those Star-people, who should have leaned toward goodness, into murderous monsters..."

Yushen stood up, waving and vibrating the Han-sword-like ethereal blade in his hand, his gaze firm as he looked at the trembling Yellow Qi God.

"I knew I had to fight you to the very end, you bastard!"

The ethereal sword pointed directly at the trembling pupils of the Yellow Qi God.

"Langley kid! You don't really think that torturing these innocent people is revenge for your collapsed nation, do you!"

"It failed you, but none of these people, including Tianyu Long Teng, owe you a damn thing!"

"You deceived your toys into slaughtering innocent and loyal souls for a greater goal and a purer race!"

"I see it's not revenge for that collapsed nation as you claim..."

"It's merely to satisfy your own selfish desires!"

"Shut up..."

Yushen's words seemed to stir old memories within the Yellow Qi God. From his resentful gaze, it was clear he held such assertions in contempt.

Yushen's gaze fell upon the M1911 pistol.

"The sins your country once committed do not mean you have the right to commit the same."

"Shut up..."

"Your nation brought this upon itself."

"Yet you could still contribute to the myriad realms of the Ethereal Sea we created..."

"Shut up!"

The M1911 pistol spat out several terrifyingly powerful ethereal energy bullets.

Yushen sidestepped to dodge one, yet that small bullet detonated behind him with a shockwave resembling a five-hundred-pound aviation bomb.

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"

Despite his combat injuries, facing the incoming ethereal bullets, Yushen agilely brandished his ethereal sword, blocking several rounds.

Even so, the astonishing shockwave swept up all the gravel and bamboo fragments from the stone beaches and bamboo groves for kilometers around the Ethereal Sea.

Amidst the massive tidal wave of ethereal energy, Yushen heard the angry voice of the Yellow Qi God.

"Sooner or later, everything you created will be destroyed by me!"

"I will turn everything you hold dear into my toys!"

"Just as my nation did to me..."

"I will thoroughly ravage, dismantle, and tear them apart!"

"I'll break them one by one!"

"First your Jade Realm, and then the entire Jade Seal Boundary!"

"I'll make you people, who take such pride in your civilization..."

"Taste the exact same flavor I did!"

Accompanied by the seductive yet furious voice, several ethereal bullets hurtled directly toward Yushen's temples.

Yet Yushen simply wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and smiled with utter contempt.