Chapter 1447: Plunging into the Cosmic Storm!
Traveling Buddha took out a silver telescope that Xia Fan had never seen before from his spatial ring and looked out through the window, after which he gasped in a hoarse voice, “Oh no! It’s a Murder Shrine fleet!”
The Murder Shrine…
Xia Fan couldn’t help but tremble when he heard these words.
‘New gods rise when old gods die!’ was the strange slogan of the Murder Shrine.
!!
The enigmatic Murder Shrine was an organization of special ability users who had betrayed the three great federations. They had all gone through superb elite training, and many of them had once held important posts in the three federations.
A Murder Shrine fleet wasn’t the same as a pirate fleet or warlord fleet. When one saw the formation of this fleet as it approached, one was able to keenly understand how horrifying the Murder Shrine was.
The three battleships were in the very center of the formation, the six cruisers fanned out around them. The remaining support ships charged out from the flanks, rapidly approaching Xia Fan’s Disaster.
This was only to deal with a single frigate, but this fleet was still using the standard formation. It showed that the fleet was very disciplined and had set strategies for dealing with different situations.
If these were fleets belonging to native pirates or warlords, they would have charged out in complete disarray.
The fleet was organized with nine warships serving as the main source of firepower and twenty-three smaller ships supporting them.
There were Ariet-class superspeed interception frigates, Firefox-class assault frigates, Whaleshark-class interceptor destroyers, Silverpeak-class electronic warfare ships, Vitabird-class logistics destroyers, Night Demon-class stealth bombers…
Even the elite fleets of the three federations weren’t as comprehensively manned as this Murder Shrine fleet.
This was no guerilla force. It was a well-trained regular fleet!
The Murder Shrine had quietly established such a powerful fleet in the Outer Frontier? Just what were those abominable grave robbers trying to do!?
Just the composition of the fleet revealed by the radar scan revealed to Xia Fan that he was dealing with a tough opponent and that it would be hard to escape this.
While the Disaster was an elite frigate equipped with a powerful mech core, it was impossible for it to hold out against an entire regular fleet!
Moreover, an enormous question loomed in Xia Fan’s mind: why would the Murder Shrine fleet appear here?
Was this a coincidence, or were they coming for him? If they were coming for him, what was the reason?
Or was it because they were after Traveling Buddha?
The Buddha Clan was famous throughout Ashen Moon, but Traveling Buddha hadn’t exposed his identity this time, right?
Moreover, while many people recognized Traveling Buddha’s father and grandfather, the number of people who knew Traveling Buddha could be counted on one’s hand. Traveling Buddha was a lazy sort who had lazed about in Blue Boiling Point for many years. The intelligence reports and rumors about him were almost non-existent.
When they had run into the assassins from the Murder Shrine at Blue Boiling Point Traveling Buddha had used his Battle Buddha’s Golden Light, which had allowed the Murder Shrine’s people to recognize him. Before that, the Murder Shrine had been clueless as to who he was. Thus, it could be seen that the Murder Shrine probably didn’t have any intelligence on Traveling Buddha.
Xia Fan thus concluded that the Murder Shrine probably wasn’t coming for Traveling Buddha.
But if they weren’t coming for Traveling Buddha, why had they come to this exact place? And with such force?
In a flash of insight, Xia Fan remembered how the Jiang Company of Beacon City had been wiped out three days ago.
In one day, the most powerful company of the Char Star Region had been completely annihilated. Only an incredible power could pull off such a big job!
Had the destruction of the Jiang Company been the Murder Shrine’s work?
And he had just obtained a priceless treasure from the Jiang Company, the Immortal Wine made from Yggdragon blood!
The Murder Shrine had destroyed the Jiang Company and then appeared here. It was very possible that they were coming for the Immortal Wine!
Xia Fan’s thoughts were working rapidly. Even though he had ascertained the reason why they were surrounded, he couldn’t find a way to escape.
The Disaster was floating in space, completely motionless. Moreover, there was powerful electromagnetic interference around him, preventing Xia Fan from using a random warp or other such emergency escape methods.
The situation simply couldn’t be worse. They couldn’t win in a fight, nor could they escape. Would they be captured by the Murder Shrine?
The accelerator clacked as Xia Fan pushed it to the max, and the Disaster’s engines erupted with blue flames, picking up speed as if it had gone crazy.
But Xia Fan knew that acceleration wasn’t enough.
A regular fleet was completely capable of controlling a large region of space. No matter where he fled, he would run into an interceptor.
Just by the name, it was true that interceptors were designed to hold down the enemy. They would definitely activate their warp disruption fields and prevent the Disaster from entering any warp tunnels.
There was no time. He had to make a decision. He either broke through the net, or let himself be captured!
The counter-surveillance system blared, a signal that the enemy had locked onto them.
All warships would use fire control radars before firing, locking onto their opponents. Without a lock, there was no guarantee that they would actually hit the enemy once they fired.
The Disaster was very small, so taking aim at it was like trying to narrow one’s target down from a skyscraper to a little sparrow. It was a process that took some time.
Thus, the enemy had yet to completely lock onto the Disaster, but there wasn’t much time available to Xia Fan, only a few seconds.
Once the Disaster was locked onto, the battleships and cruisers would use their super-long-range warp disruptors and stasis webifiers to completely restrain the ship, after which the support ships would converge on the Disaster and seize it!
Xia Fan glanced at Traveling Buddha and saw there was a bitter smile on his face.
The Little Old Buddha could not fall into enemy hands, or the Murder Shrine would definitely use him to threaten his father and grandfather.
To avoid the worst scenario, Traveling Buddha was highly likely to commit suicide!
Heavens!
Suicide…
Xia Fan could not just watch as his best friend died in front of him!
What sort of crisis could be worse than this one!? There was no other choice…
Perhaps the Skywing trait of never giving up hidden in his genes finally erupted…
Xia Fan turned the ship around, pointing the Disaster at the cosmic storm!
A moment later, Xia Fan pushed the large red button on the control panel, activating the overload system.
Overloading was an ability exclusive to high-level elite warships. Advancing at seventy percent of engine power was called cruising, a hundred percent was full speed, and anything past that limit was called overloading.
In the blink of an eye, the red line on the screen that was at maximum efficiency of 100% began to shoot up like a rocket!
110%!
120%!
130%!
140%!
150%!
The load massively increased, and in just 2.7 seconds, it reached a shocking 200%!
If Xia Fan had been in the engine room, he would have heard the engine howling, the metal parts turning red from the heat. That was the consequence of overloading. The engine would sacrifice its lifespan to reach speeds far above the norm.
A blazing blue light erupted from the rocket engines at the tail of the ship, the power of the two thrusters making the Disaster tremble as they pushed forward with explosive speed!
Traveling Buddha glanced at the terrifying cosmic storm in front of them. He said nothing, only sighing softly.
He knew what Xia Fan was doing.
Before this, Xia Fan had already explained to the technically-illiterate him that plunging straight into the cosmic storm was not doable, as they would run into the powerful wall of cosmic wind.
The only method was to orbit the storm at speed, borrowing the storm’s frenzied power to push the ship to the limit and then enter at an angle.
Xia Fan had also said that it was very risky for the Disaster to enter the cosmic storm. Although this ship was made from valuable Koro Alloy and was reinforced by a mech core, it wasn’t a ship designed for diving into the cosmic storm.
A specially-designed ship would be needed to enter this powerful cosmic storm!
This ship would need special armor that was several times thicker than normal, and its windows would have to be very small, as steel glass might shatter from possible impacts.
In short, a ship designed to head into the cosmic storm needed to shed irrelevant systems like weapons and fire control systems and maximize defense.
But the Disaster was a warship. Combat was its primary purpose, not entering a cosmic storm.
Xia Fan was essentially gambling with their lives!
But Traveling Buddha could do nothing except give Xia Fan moral support. He couldn’t let himself be taken hostage by the Murder Shrine, nor could Xia Fan. Even if Xia Fan wasn’t the young master of the Buddha Clan like him, he was still an investigator of the Special Investigation Bureau. Once the Murder Shrine captured them, the two of them would both face horrifying fates.
Several seconds after Xia Fan turned the Disaster toward the cosmic storm, the first stasis webifier locked onto the ship, a powerful white energy beam grabbing the Disaster like glue.
A battleship had fired this stasis webifier. As the distance was rather extreme, only the larger battleships had stasis webifiers with sufficient power to grab the Disaster. The smaller ships had shorter ranges, and they had yet to get into offensive range.
But the stasis webifier had still come too late!
The Disaster had already entered the edge of the cosmic storm. The circular storm was spinning like a top, the swift rotation pulling in the Disaster.
The strange golden warship wasn’t slowed down by the stasis webifier at all. On the contrary, it only got faster and faster!
The Disaster’s speed had already surpassed its limits, surpassing the theoretical speed of a ship of its class.
The Disaster was no longer being moved by its engines, but by the centrifugal force of the cosmic storm, and the cosmic storm was far more powerful than any engine in the universe.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A second, third, and fourth stasis webifier was fired.
But the Disaster still didn’t slow down. It had already entered the area of effect of the storm’s outer centrifugal force.
If the Murder Shrine ships fired now, they still had a chance of hitting the Disaster, but for some reason, they didn’t fire. It appeared that they wanted to take the Disaster intact rather than destroy it.
The enemy’s hesitation gave Xia Fan one last chance.
There was no more time. A small ship like the Disaster couldn’t remain long in the storm, or else it risked being torn apart.
Leaving the storm was no longer possible. Xia Fan’s only choice was to turn them into the storm!
One outcome was to break through the cosmic and smoothly enter the heart of the storm.
The cosmic storm vortex differed from others in the extreme intensity of its outer wall. But because of its spin, the center was a region of calm. If they could make it there, Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha had a chance to survive.
The other outcome was to die, the ship and its crew obliterated!
Xia Fan adjusted the ship’s trajectory and then grabbed the steering wheel with both hands. His eyes started to fill with blood. At this moment, there was no thinking, as their gruesome reality made it impossible for him to think about too much.
The ship’s shuddering reached a peak, and Traveling Buddha grabbed the alloy handlebars in front of the window so that he wouldn’t be thrown around by the ship’s vibrations.
The energy shield’s numbers began to plunge, the shocks rendering the barrier weaker and weaker.
70%…
60%…
After only a few seconds, the energy shields had been completely drained. A heavy groaning came from the lower equipment hold, the sound of the energy shield projector going up in flames.
But Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha paid no attention to the noise. At this point, they no longer cared about equipment damage. Their only problem was that of survival!
A warship had three major defensive systems: the outer energy shield, the medium armor layer, and the final structural layer.
With the energy shield gone, the cosmic storm began to batter the armor.
Through the window, one could see the golden Koro Alloy armor rapidly reddening and even shredding.
It wasn’t long before the golden armor was covered in dents, and the Disaster was constantly shedding small pieces of armor.
The temperature of the command deck was beginning to rise. The temperature control system was doing its best, but it was unable to bring down the heat. Large beads of sweat rapidly formed on their foreheads, palms, and backs.
The screen indicated that only forty-seven percent of the ship’s armor plating was still in working condition!
Once the armor plating was destroyed, what was left was the ship’s structure. If the structural layer was destroyed, the ship would disintegrate, and Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha would become stardust!
The multicolored storm surrounded them, and they could no longer see the surrounding space. Presumably, the Murder Shrine members were flabbergasted that Xia Fan’s small ship would dare to charge into the cosmic storm.
After all, it wasn’t everyone that had that sort of courage. When it came time to surrender or suicide, the vast majority of people would choose to surrender, as it would let them live a little longer.
Traveling Buddha looked at Xia Fan’s hands.
His hands were as stable as a robotic arm, steering the Disaster so that it maintained the perfect angle to dive into the center of the cosmic storm.
If the angle was too big, the impact would tear the ship apart. If the angle was too small, the Disaster would spend too long in the storm and suffer disaster.
Traveling Buddha suddenly laughed. Regardless of the result, he wouldn’t blame Xia Fan. He knew that this guy who was just as young as him had already done his best.
Suddenly, Traveling Buddha found himself lost in his thoughts, thinking about how sad his father and grandfather would be to learn about his death. After all, his older brother had left home, and there had been no news of him since. If Traveling Buddha also died, the mighty Budda Clan would be without male descendants.
At this moment, he heard a bang. The ship stopped vibrating so intensely, and the rainbow of colors outside began to retreat.
Could it be? Had they succeeded?
Xia Fan had managed to get the Disaster into the center of the cosmic storm through pure skill and courage!?
Traveling Buddha looked at Xia Fan in shock. He saw Xia Fan wiping the sweat off his forehead with his right hand and making a relieved and happy smile.
When Xia Fan saw Traveling Buddha looking at him, he smiled sunnily. “That was close. Only thirteen percent of the ship’s armor is left.”
Traveling Buddha’s jaw dropped in shock.
Xia Fan continued, “I want to kiss the engineers of Imperial Shipyards. Their desire to build this ship with high-class alloys no matter the cost now appears to be a most wise decision.”
Traveling Buddha listened to him, then rushed up and gave Xia Fan a big hug, lifting him up into the air!
“You did it! You really did it! You’re really something else!”
The joy from surviving this near-disaster had Traveling Buddha’s blood pumping.
At this moment, the Disaster finally broke through the wall of cosmic wind and entered the center of the storm. Traveling Buddha suddenly saw Xia Fan’s eyes fill with confusion as they looked into the distance.
Xia Fan raised his right hand and pointed, his eyes suddenly shining with a bright light. “Look there!”
