Chapter 122 - 107: Straight Up to the Celestial Abyss
Then, before the monster could turn, he leaped, clinging silently to the underside of the massive platform like a gecko.
He pressed his body tight against a cold metal beam.
He suppressed all fluctuations of his Qi and Blood, even holding his breath.
Blinded in one eye, the Giant-Winged Demon spun its massive body wildly on the platform, swinging its sharp claws and fleshy wings, lashing out at everything around it.
It was roaring, searching.
Lin Ye hung upside down in the shadows beneath the platform, feeling the violent tremors from above as he forcefully suppressed the churning Qi and Blood within him.
He was injured.
More severely than ever before.
His Spiritual Power and stamina were both on the verge of depletion.
Now, he needed time.
He just needed ten seconds to pass, and the system would register him as having left the combat state.
The Healing out of combat mechanic would then activate.
Hanging beneath the platform, Lin Ye felt every tremor from above—each one more frantic and furious than the last.
Fortunately, having lost its vision, the Giant-Winged Demon truly couldn’t see Lin Ye for the time being.
Even in its frenzy, there was nothing it could do in the short term.
[Ding! You have left combat. Recovery initiated.]
At almost the exact same instant the system notification sounded.
BOOM!!!
The piercing sound of tearing metal erupted from not far away!
A huge, grotesque claw, imbued with unparalleled force, suddenly stabbed down from above, ripping a massive hole straight through the alloy platform.
The entire platform trembled violently.
Lin Ye’s pupils contracted.
He knew he couldn’t hide for long, but he hadn’t expected to be found so quickly.
Immediately after, Lin Ye heard the heavy thud of the Giant-Winged Demon’s feet stomping on the metal plating.
The next moment, a hideous head caked in blood and gore suddenly thrust down through the massive hole.
Its one remaining bloodshot left eye stared intently into the darkness below.
Suddenly, it jerked its head back.
A warning klaxon blared in Lin Ye’s mind.
Acting on pure instinct, he propelled himself with all four limbs, scurrying sideways five or six meters along the metal keel of the platform’s underbelly like a silent gecko.
BOOM!!!
Another deafening crash.
The demon’s claw stabbed down furiously, precisely piercing the spot where he had just been hiding and sending a shower of metal fragments flying.
"RAWRRR!!"
The attack missed.
From above came the enraged, frustrated roar of the Giant-Winged Demon.
It knew it had been tricked by this cunning human once again.
The next moment, the heavy footsteps and roaring suddenly vanished.
The entire space fell into a momentary, deathly silence.
Immediately after, an unparalleled sound of something tearing through the air came from high above.
It was the sound of some colossal object plummeting at high speed!
A chill ran down Lin Ye’s spine; he didn’t dare be careless for even a second.
He stopped hiding, kicking off hard from the metal keel with both legs.
His entire body shot out from under the platform like a cannonball, lunging toward the top of a metal pillar on the giant machine more than ten meters away.
The instant his body left the platform...
an unprecedented, terrifying crash descended behind him!
The Giant-Winged Demon had flown high into the air, and with the full force of its massive body, it had smashed down from above, completely reducing the suspended metal platform to a heap of twisted scrap!
Countless metal fragments of all sizes rained down into the bottomless darkness below.
Lin Ye threw his arms around the cold, thick mechanical pillar, barely managing to stabilize himself.
This brief recovery and maneuvering had already allowed him to restore nearly half of his stamina and Spiritual Power.
He looked back.
He saw the Giant-Winged Demon beating its wings, hovering in mid-air and staring in his direction, but it didn’t charge him immediately.
Lin Ye thought for a moment and instantly understood.
’It’s holding back, afraid of hitting the machine.’
It wasn’t him that it feared, but the impossibly large machine beneath him.
Lin Ye looked down to observe it.
He had been too far away before and hadn’t realized just how enormous this thing was.
The entire apparatus was composed of three giant metal pillars, each dozens of meters tall.
He was now clinging to the top of one of them.
Through the translucent shell, he could see countless streams of ethereal blue energy racing through conduits inside.
The bases of the three pillars were rooted deep in the giant Source Crystal.
Hundreds of needle-like energy extractors, like probes, continuously drew power from the Source Crystal, channeling it upward along energy grooves inside the pillars.
’What in the world is this thing used for?’
The thought had barely crossed his mind when Lin Ye saw the hovering Giant-Winged Demon suddenly turn toward the distant darkness.
Staring intently and using the brilliant blue light radiating from the Source Crystal, Lin Ye saw a control console.
A writhing mass of flesh detached from the Giant-Winged Demon’s back, rapidly coalescing in mid-air to form the Doctor.
"Acti... vate...!"
The hoarse command was forced from the Giant-Winged Demon’s throat.
The Doctor gave Lin Ye a complicated look—one filled with admiration, anger, and indignation, but mostly, it was the madness of someone nearing their final moments.
He reached out and resolutely pulled a red lever on the console.
VWOOM—!
Lin Ye felt the entire vast, underground space begin to tremble violently at that moment!
The giant Source Crystal, which served as the power source, suddenly erupted with a blue light a hundred times more brilliant than before, like a supernova on the verge of exploding.
Visible torrents of energy were drawn out in a frenzy, converging at the top of the three metal pillars where Lin Ye was perched.