The scene from the prophecy arrived right on schedule.
Standing at the control console in the underground space of the World Tree, everyone stared toward the far east—fifty to sixty kilometers away, that dense, carpet-like mass of aircraft blotting out the sky like a swarm of locusts, left them all stunned.
"This is even more over the top than what you described..." Qi Xuefei grabbed Xu Xin’s arm and muttered.
"I just didn’t describe it well enough." Ji Chaoyang said apologetically.
"No, your description was already spot on. I finally understand why you said just seeing it kills any desire to fight."
Xu Xin sighed.
The scene really was too exaggerated.
Even though they were still fifty or sixty kilometers away, those dense black dots in the sky were already able to cover nearly half the heavens.
How many of them are there...
At this moment, the monster contacted Xu Xin as well.
"It’s about what I expected. I had that man you captured get in touch with the survivors over there. The intel is: even though they didn’t empty the nest, they still sent out more than half their forces. Right now is when their rear is relatively hollow."
"So that means there’s still nearly half the forces around the aliens’ base." Xu Xin said.
"Yeah. That’s for sure. Of course they’ll leave a portion to guard the house. But at least the difficulty of our infiltration has dropped a lot."
That’s good too...
Xu Xin explained the situation to the others.
"Before they get here, we should move out." Zhao Xiaochuan tore his gaze away from that enemy legion in the east that had almost pletely blocked the sunrise. "At their speed, they’ll probably be back soon."
"Not that soon, right?" Wang Lei studied the distance.
The speed of those distant aircraft really didn’t look that fast.
It felt only a bit quicker than the petrified behemoths’ marching speed from before.
"Hey, that’s a whole swarm of aircraft! Their speed should be insanely fast. You think it’s slow only because we’re inside the World Tree!"
"No, even relative to the outside of the World Tree, it’s not very fast." Xu Xin narrowed his eyes. "They seem to be... putting pressure on us?"
"I’m thinking the same." Ji Chaoyang nodded. "There’s no way their aircraft are actually this slow. This is not even faster than mutated beasts sprinting at full speed. They likely want to use this formation to put psychological pressure on us, to intimidate us with sheer momentum."
"Intimidate? Why? They scare us like this because they want us to just surrender? Win without a fight?" Zeng Tao asked, puzzled.
"Exactly." The tight frown on Xu Xin’s brow eased slightly, and the corner of his mouth lifted in a faint smile.
"Looks like they’re not that confident about this battle either." Shi Wanyun said softly, voicing what Xu Xin was thinking.
Yes. In Xu Xin’s view, if the enemy truly pletely outclassed them, there’d be no need for this. They’d just charge in and kill them.
The fact that they were putting on this kind of exaggerated show of pressure meant one thing: the enemy did not have absolute confidence in winning this battle.
"We can’t get overly optimistic."
As the person in charge of the World Tree encirclement operation, Ji Chaoyang poured a bucket of cold water on everyone.
"Maybe they just want to use this to flaunt their power. Predators like to play with their prey before they eat. It could be that kind of mentality."
That was possible too...
But Xu Xin didn’t quite agree.
If they wanted to intimidate, wouldn’t it be better to e right up and surround them?
Why stay so far away, unless they’re afraid of our attacks?
But...
Even at fifty or sixty kilometers, Xu Xin and the others could still hit them!
Their missiles’ range had been greatly reduced, but they could still accurately hit targets within a hundred kilometers, and their speed and power were unchanged!
At fifty times the speed of sound, those ultra-high-speed missiles only needed about three seconds to hit targets fifty kilometers away!
With that many enemy aircraft, it’d be very hard for them to dodge everything!
"You should go."
At this moment, Ji Chaoyang spoke to Xu Xin and the others who were about to infiltrate the enemy lair.
"Once you’re out, you’d better get away from the World Tree immediately, because... we’re going to strike directly. Whatever their reason for doing this, at this distance they’re already within our engagement envelope."
So Ji Chaoyang’s thinking coincided with his again.
Xu Xin nodded.
"Everyone, we really should get going."
As he spoke, he turned to Xu Ying. "Yingying, you..."
Xu Ying nodded. "I’m ready."
Xu Xin turned his head to Ji Chaoyang. "Take care. It all es down to this."
"You’re the key ones. You have to succeed."
...
Xu Xin and the others left.
The people in charge of surrounding the World Tree did not act yet.
They silently watched Xu Xin’s group reach the outside of the World Tree. Then Xu Xin said something, raised his hand, and put everyone away into his wristband one by one.
After that, Xu Ying grabbed Xu Xin’s arm.
In the next instant, the two of them were sucked into a suddenly appearing purple-black vortex and vanished.
In just a few simple movements, nearly an hour passed inside the World Tree.
For those who remained in the World Tree, that hour was hard to endure.
"They’re gone." Qi Xuefei spoke.
"Yeah, they’re gone." Ji Chaoyang took a deep breath. "It’s time for us to move."
Suddenly Ma Hongwei’s eyes narrowed. "The west! Over to the west, that... another portion of the enemy forces has appeared in the west!"
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