Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Seven: The Fish and the Net (Part Two)

Abruptly, a streak of purple light tore across the sky, manifesting out of thin air directly before Ye Chong and Mu.

The metallic luster of the purple hue suggested that the alloy was infused with rare, specialized metals. The main body of the mech was slender and elegant, appearing almost delicate, yet the strangely folded wings retracted behind it were intricately detailed. Ye Chong had never seen such refined wings; they were indistinguishable from those of a real bird. Could such ostentatious wings withstand the immense air resistance generated by high-speed flight? Ye Chong was deeply skeptical. The mech’s overall design was peculiar, resembling a bird of a species he had never encountered. Had Fred been present, he would have immediately recognized it as a mech modeled after the legendary phoenix.

Unfortunately, Ye Chong lacked Fred’s erudition. His field of vision was not so broad; all he saw were the constantly rotating three-dimensional grid schematics.

However, Ye Chong possessed his own unique expertise. From that single movement, he judged that this purple mech possessed exceptional propulsion performance—he even suspected its speed was in no way inferior to Mu’s.

Indeed, Ye Chong immediately received a warning from Mu: "Yezi, be careful. This mech is formidable!" If even Mu considered it formidable, then this was certainly no ordinary machine.

This mech was the "Nirvana Feather" piloted by Feng Su. Of the twenty-five mechs opposing them, twenty had been engaged by the twenty Morning-class mechs under her command. Both sides had been restrained, avoiding the all-out firefight she had anticipated. The remaining five, including three "Mermaid’s Wounds"—the primary mechs of the Mech Master Association—were being held back by her. She had assumed that with the remaining ten Morning-class mechs, capturing a single target would be effortless.

She had not expected the target to be so unexpectedly powerful.

Though she was single-handedly dealing with five mechs, Feng Su remained poised and at ease, her attention primarily focused on the ten mechs responsible for capturing the target.

While others had failed to clearly see the golden streak, Feng Su had witnessed it perfectly.

A micro-mech? As someone equally familiar with mechs, Feng Su recognized the "Guardian" for what it truly was. The extraordinary strength the Guardian displayed sent shockwaves through her heart; no one present understood the implications better than she did.

The inherent contradiction between miniaturization and power in mechs seemed non-existent in this machine. If this technology were acquired, she believed that with their faction's existing technical foundation, they could achieve an immediate, leapfrog advancement. Their current methods of warfare would likely be transformed, and without a doubt, the Orbit Ring would instantly become the leader among the three major powers.

Over the years, the three factions had developed along different paths, but all had reached a bottleneck. Only such revolutionary technology could allow for further progress—and it was a massive leap. Whoever achieved it first would possess an absolute advantage.

Conversely, if one of the other two factions obtained it, the consequences were unthinkable.

When she saw the seemingly unremarkable daggers in Ye Chong’s hands slice through the armor of the Morning-class mech with ease, Feng Su was nearly stunned.

This—this was completely against all logic!

Even a laser sword could not cut through the armor of a Morning-class mech so easily. What kind of mystery lay within those two daggers?

If the Black Horn faction mastered this technology, combined with their terrifying close-quarters combat abilities, Feng Su couldn't help but shiver.

The intelligence failure was undoubtedly fatal at this moment. None of them had expected another mech to be present here.

The opponent’s reaction speed and computational ability were truly terrifying. The dazzling series of maneuvers that followed were all executed with pinpoint precision, cleverly utilizing the environment. In a mere few seconds, the encirclement she had deemed an impenetrable wall of copper and iron was shattered. Seeing the large and small mechs about to break through, Feng Su could no longer concern herself with the five mechs she had been engaging and pulled away to intercept them.

The Nirvana Feather was worthy of being the ace mech of the Orbit Ring; its speed seemed to have transcended the limitations of space, appearing out of thin air directly before Ye Chong and Mu.

Ye Chong’s attention was entirely captured by the purple mech, just as the majority of Feng Su’s attention was fixed on the golden figure of Ye Chong.

Ye Chong did not know that the pilot of this mech was the terrifying purple-clad Master-level pilot who had caused him trouble before, and Feng Su was equally unaware that the target she was hunting was the same warrior she had once mistaken for one from the Black Horn faction.

Thus, both sides stood in a strange standoff, unaware of the other's true identity.

The five mechs of the Mech Master Association, having lost their target, seemed to realize they were no match for Feng Su and did not press forward.

"Prepare, target locked, full firepower!" the pilot of the lead Mermaid’s Wound gritted his teeth, as if having made a firm decision, and issued the order resolutely.

The other four mechs received the target coordinates: Ye Chong and the "Fish" piloted by Mu.

"This..." the others hesitated. Was this not the person they were ordered to bring back alive? Attack him?

"Full firepower" meant discharging all weapons simultaneously. It was rarely used on the battlefield due to its immense power but also its clear drawback: fifteen seconds of complete immobilization following the attack, which, on the battlefield, meant death.

"Better that no one gets him than to let the enemy have him!" the lead pilot said coldly, the determination and murderous intent in his voice making the other four shudder.

Considering they would return from this mission in disgrace, they would surely face punishment. And the captain was right; handing the target over to someone else would likely result in a punishment worse than death in battle.

The four agreed almost simultaneously. The five mechs hovered in mid-air, looking down at the three mechs in the standoff. All their firing ports swung open, and their primary weapons glowed with a menacing light, aimed directly at Ye Chong and the Fish.

"Volley!" the captain shrieked, his high-pitched, strained voice filled with a desperate, tragic intensity.

At that very moment, Feng Su, who had been facing the two mechs, suddenly felt a jolt of horror. The strange premonition brought about by a Master-level pilot's consciousness development forced her to react instantly.

She leapt, rising into the air, perfectly obstructing the line of sight between the five mechs and Ye Chong.

The purple wings behind her spread wide. Only then did everyone realize how massive the Nirvana Feather’s wings were—fifteen meters long, making the main body of the mech appear petite in comparison. A layer of purple light, resembling rippling water, rapidly surfaced from the wings and extended thirty centimeters into the air, forming a massive pale-purple ion barrier that enveloped the entire Nirvana Feather. Under Feng Su’s deliberate protection, Ye Chong was also shielded within this ion barrier.

Of course, Ye Chong’s vision remained strictly black and white.

A searing white light illuminated everything between heaven and earth, blindingly bright. Everyone was forced to pause. The five mechs combined their full firepower into a single, thick, dazzling beam. Magnetic flux, laser beams, thermal rays—all weapons fired at the same time, at the same frequency, toward the same target.

The energy contained within the beam caused the holographic scanning systems of all the mechs to wail with frantic alarms. In an instant, the expressions of every pilot changed drastically—except for Ye Chong and Feng Su.

The beam struck the Nirvana Feather’s ion barrier with precision.

Those who had not yet recovered from the previous flash were plunged into an even more blinding white radiance. Except for Ye Chong, everyone was effectively blind, their vision filled with nothing but whiteness.

The Guardian’s unique black-and-white vision allowed Ye Chong to witness this soul-stirring scene, an image that would remain with him for a lifetime.

*Boom.* With a faint sound, like an eggshell being crushed, the thick white beam collided with the ion barrier that appeared pale white to Ye Chong. The light flared intensely, and countless fragments scattered like fireworks before dissipating into the air. It was as if a high-pressure jet of water had struck an open umbrella, splashing into countless crystalline droplets.

Energy surged, and a massive shockwave radiated outward from the point of impact at an astonishing speed.

The Fish, piloted by Mu, was not as fortunate as Ye Chong. Although Mu reacted instantly, shielding its chest, the defensive shield that had once caused the Mermaid’s Wound so much trouble was as fragile as an ice sheet; it didn't even hold for a tenth of a second before turning to ash.

Mu’s breathtaking operation was on full display—though there was no one left to witness it. In the nearly negligible instant, Mu managed to slip inside the protection of the Nirvana Feather’s ion barrier. Even so, the Fish paid a heavy price: of its four mechanical arms, only one remained—the one holding the ejection pod. The other two had been completely vaporized in that instant. All auxiliary ammunition in the ejection pod was gone, meaning the Fish had lost all combat capability.

The terrible force generated by the violent collision of energy forced even the formidable Nirvana Feather to retreat.

Except for Mu, Ye Chong was the only one whose vision remained clear. Seeing the Nirvana Feather closing in on him, a cold glint flashed in his eyes.

He pushed off with his toes, and the Guardian’s super-powered burst accelerated him to a shocking speed in an instant. The two unremarkable daggers were already naturally held in his hands.

The three-dimensional grid schematic in his eyes spun incessantly, and analysis data cascaded down like a waterfall. The scattered white dots and intersecting white lines grew fewer, yet brighter and clearer in Ye Chong’s vision.

Locked on!

Ye Chong’s pupils contracted sharply.