Death… And Me

Chapter 4384: Time for the Game

*Ping, ping, ping, ping...*

It didn’t take long for many more dots to start appearing on the Godly Pressure Detection Radar.

Harksha looked at the display, and her expression turned even paler. "S-So many..."

Roan glanced at the radar as well before calmly replying, "Seems like we managed to escape the encirclement."

Only then did Harksha snap out of her trance. Indeed, the dots on the radar weren’t appearing only in front of them. Instead, they were lighting up from every direction within the radar’s thirty-kilometer range. Had they not charged through the path Roan selected, they truly would have ended up surrounded from all sides, with nowhere left to run. "You must have seen situations like this many times..."

Roan gave a slight nod. "I’m an ascender, after all. But even then, most ascenders aren’t really experienced with managing battlefields and predicting enemy moves."

Senkiyu sighed in response. "Cultivators from the Great Voids seek greater strength above everything else. Even if they participated in countless wars before ascending, the chances that they actually commanded those armies are little to none. Most only ever fought on the frontlines."

"You got the crucial point," Roan confirmed. "There are obviously more of those experienced in true commanding. Tobao is a good example. However, there are indeed only a handful of ascenders with real commanding experience. As for commanders with the same level of experience as me or greater, those are even rarer."

Roan wasn’t trying to brag. He couldn’t care less about recognition. To him, he was merely stating an objective fact. Whether the others believed it or not made no difference.

Harksha took a deep breath while keeping the airplane steady. "So, Roan, where to now?"

Roan shook his head. "We can only react to whatever comes at us, just like we did a moment ago. We have no information about what’s inside this barrier—where they could be hiding, what terrain lies ahead, where we could flee, or where they might be trying to herd us. For now, all we can do is buy time while gathering as much information as possible."

Kentucky nervously looked toward Rean. "How long until you finish it?"

Rean never took his eyes off the Core. His hands continuously adjusted arrays while Sister Orb helped from the Great Void. "I told you already, this isn’t a Godly Crystal. I tried extracting the Godly Energy inside, but it didn’t go well. First of all, the Godly Pressure contained in this thing is comparable to that of a Godly Predator. The Disguise Array simply isn’t at that level yet."

"So there’s no way?" Cantra asked this time.

"Not quite." Rean continued working while receiving Sister Orb’s assistance. "If this were truly a Godly Predator Crystal, we’d have no chance whatsoever. However, it isn’t. The Godly Energy inside this Core is much gentler. To be more specific, it has been manipulated to an incredibly refined degree. It isn’t natural—it was deliberately engineered. That actually helps with separating it into Celestial Energy and Godly Pressure."

His hands never slowed as he continued explaining.

"Even so, I’m having to modify the arrays on the fly. The Core wasn’t designed to be connected to an array like mine, so every adjustment creates another incompatibility somewhere else. I’m still trying to stabilize the conversion process while preventing the Godly Pressure from leaking into the airplane’s internal arrays. I’m not sure it’ll work, but there’s a chance." He finally glanced up for just a split second. "I just need time. Try to buy me an hour, will you?"

"One hour..." Harksha bitterly smiled.

They had nearly been wiped out only moments ago, escaping solely because Roan anticipated the encirclement before it was completed. Now the barrier had closed behind them, trapping them inside enemy territory. Surviving another full hour under those circumstances sounded almost impossible. Harksha truly didn’t expect the situation inside this place to be this bad.

Roan narrowed his eyes. "Will the Celestial Thrusters last that long?"

Everyone’s attention immediately shifted to Rean. Even those who knew nothing about arrays could tell the thrusters were being pushed far beyond their intended limits. The entire rear section of the airplane trembled continuously, and faint cracks had already begun appearing throughout several supporting arrays.

Rean finally answered without hesitation.

"No."

Roan gave a small nod before asking, "How long?"

"At this speed?" Rean quickly calculated while watching several array projections. "At most another minute before critical failure."

Roan accepted the answer immediately. "That’s enough." He turned to Harksha. "Slow down. Revert the thrusters to their original Celestial Energy output."

"But..." Harksha glanced at the radar, where several guardians were already approaching from behind. "They’re going to catch us if we do that. Wouldn’t it be better to put as much distance between us as possible first?"

"Do it!" Roan replied without any intention of explaining.

Harksha gritted her teeth before disengaging the overcharged arrays. Sure enough, the airplane quickly lost nearly two-thirds of its speed, although it still continued flying at the maximum velocity achievable through Celestial Energy alone.

"Done," she said while watching the pursuing dots rapidly close in. "Are you sure about this?"

Roan checked the radar before nodding.

"Yes. They’re faster, but not by enough to catch us instantly. If we only overcharge the thrusters at carefully selected moments using the Godly Predator Crystal, we can stretch that remaining minute over a much longer period instead of wasting it all in one continuous burst."

His eyes then shifted toward the airplane’s projection screens.

More specifically, he studied the three-dimensional terrain maps extending dozens of kilometers ahead. Their effective range actually surpassed the radar itself. Rather than detecting living beings, the airplane continuously emitted specialized Celestial Energy pulses that mapped every mountain, forest, canyon, ruin, and underground cavity before reconstructing them into highly detailed terrain models almost instantaneously.

It resembled echolocation, except the precision was incomparably higher.

Mark truly was an exploration vessel.

"Follow the route I’ll provide from now on," Roan ordered.

A glowing flight path immediately appeared before Harksha.

She frowned the instant she saw it.

The route looked utterly ridiculous.

Rather than flying in a relatively straight line, it zigzagged repeatedly through forests, mountain ridges, valleys, and ruined structures, changing direction so frequently that it almost seemed random.

"That’ll put the guardians directly on our tail in no time."

"For fuck’s sake, woman! Just do what I say!" Roan finally snapped. "How many times are you going to question every single order?"

Senkiyu and the others instinctively felt a chill run down their backs.

The expression on Harksha’s face had become terrifyingly dark.

Had this happened anywhere else—or had it involved almost anyone besides Roan—she probably would have killed the person already.

Roan, however, paid absolutely no attention to her emotions.

"I don’t have time to explain every decision in detail," he coldly continued. "Either trust my judgment or start making your own tactical decisions. We don’t have the luxury of debating every maneuver."

"...Fine!"

Harksha finally gave up and followed the designated path.

As the airplane continued weaving across the terrain, its scanning arrays gathered increasingly detailed three-dimensional data. Every second expanded the mapped area inside the barrier, gradually replacing unknown territory with accurate terrain models. Narrow ravines, hidden cliffs, collapsed cities, underground tunnels, and dense forests all became visible one after another.

Just as Harksha predicted, the guardians closed the distance much faster.

Roan never hesitated.

"Overcharge! Five seconds. Forty-six degrees to the right. Descend toward the forest. Use those ruined structures for cover."

The Celestial Thrusters roared once again.

The airplane suddenly accelerated before diving between ancient stone buildings that had stood abandoned for countless years. Beams of destructive light chased after them, smashing towers, walls, and massive pillars into clouds of rubble.

Only a handful of shots actually reached the airplane.

That wasn’t nearly enough to overwhelm the Light Bending Plate Arrays.

Less than five seconds later, the overcharge ended, leaving the guardians behind once more.

Two minutes later, the exact sequence repeated itself.

Roan selected another seemingly bizarre route.

The guardians gradually closed in.

At the perfect moment, he ordered another brief overcharge.

The airplane would then dive through valleys, skim above rivers, disappear beneath towering cliffs, or weave between enormous ruined buildings before widening the gap again.

Several times, they barely escaped carefully prepared ambushes where multiple guardian groups attempted to intercept them simultaneously.

Those encounters proved beyond any doubt that the guardians possessed remarkable intelligence. They weren’t simply chasing their prey. They constantly adapted to Roan’s flight paths, predicted likely escape routes, and coordinated with distant patrol groups to cut them off ahead of time.

It became a battle of prediction against prediction.

Unfortunately, even though the overcharge only lasted a few seconds each time, the thrusters continued deteriorating.

More and more runes responsible for absorbing and transmitting the Godly Energy fractured under the tremendous strain. Every damaged rune reduced the efficiency of the entire propulsion system, gradually lowering the airplane’s peak speed after each activation.

Twenty-four minutes later, just as the Celestial Thrusters activated once again, an ominous metallic sound echoed throughout the entire vessel.

*Dlung... dlung... dlung... dlung...*

Immediately afterward, the overcharge shut itself down.

The airplane abruptly lost its burst of speed.

Even worse, the thrusters were now operating below their normal Celestial Energy output. The extensive damage inflicted by the repeated overcharges had permanently crippled several of their internal arrays.

Rean never looked away from his work, yet he immediately informed everyone of the result.

"Roan, that’s the end of it. Trying to inject any more Godly Energy from the Predator Core into the thrusters will destroy them completely. You’ll have to work with what you’ve got from now on."

He continued while adjusting another array around the Core.

"Don’t expect me to repair them, either. I have the necessary materials, but the propulsion system is one of the most intricate parts of the airplane. Dismantling it without causing further damage would already take a long time, and rebuilding everything afterward would require at least several days."

Roan had already expected as much.

"As expected," he calmly replied. "It matters not, though."

Harksha couldn’t hold back anymore.

"Then how are we supposed to escape now?" she asked. "I still think we should’ve used the overcharge to get as far away as possible while we still had it."

"Hmph!"

Roan snorted dismissively.

"For what? We’d only have ended up somewhere else inside the guardians’ territory. Worse yet, we’d probably have attracted additional guardian groups from neighboring areas and turned a pursuit into an even larger encirclement. Speed alone doesn’t solve a battlefield when you have no idea where you’re heading."

He waved his hand toward the projection screen.

A completely new route appeared across the terrain map the airplane had painstakingly assembled during those twenty-four minutes.

"We entered this barrier blind," Roan said while studying every canyon, ruin, and mountain now displayed before them. "Now we aren’t. It is time for the game of cat and mouse."