Chapter 459 - 303: The Eerie Song Rises, Celestial Wave Falls into the Sea, Jiangbei’s Great Retreat

"Nobody panic! Hold formation and keep working!" he roared, trying to sound composed.

But as the second and third stone pillars fell, the situation took a sudden, bizarre turn.

A faint, ethereal song suddenly echoed in everyone’s mind.

The melody was ethereal and ephemeral, unlike anything of this world. It held an indescribable allure, like a siren’s call beckoning a weary traveler home.

"What’s that sound... It’s so beautiful..."

A soldier operating a cutting saw suddenly stopped, a captivated smile spreading across his face.

"Hey! Wang Sanpao! What the fuck are you doing? Get back to work!" his teammate yelled over the channel.

The soldier called Wang Sanpao didn’t respond. He just smiled dazedly as he piloted his Mecha, slowly turning around.

He raised his high-frequency particle cutting saw, aiming it at the teammate who had just been yelling at him.

"Wang Sanpao! Are you crazy!?"

The teammate screamed in terror, but it was too late.

PSHCHT!

The searing particle beam instantly pierced through the relatively weak cockpit of the Titan Battle Armor.

A cloud of blood mist erupted inside the cockpit.

The gruesome scene instantly stoked the fires of terror in everyone present.

"Enemy attack! Wang Sanpao has betrayed us!"

"No! It’s not just him!"

Another three or four Titan Battle Armors stopped their work. Like puppets on strings, they mechanically turned and aimed their weapons at their comrades beside them.

That strange song grew clearer and more beautiful.

"So beautiful... It’s... It’s Mom, calling me home..."

"I see them... So many pretty girls waving at me..."

The channel began to fill with all sorts of delirious chatter.

Panic spread like a plague.

"Snap out of it! This is a Spiritual Attack!" Chen Meng’s eyes were bloodshot with rage as he roared into the communicator.

He mobilized all the Qi Blood in his body, trying to resist the song’s corrosion, but it had little effect.

All sorts of illusions began to appear in his mind too: money, beautiful women, supreme power...

"No! Get out of my head!"

Chen Meng slammed his fist hard on the control console. The sharp pain cleared his head for a moment.

He saw that the Divine Hall had descended into total chaos.

Soldiers still loyal to their duty were locked in a chaotic battle with their enchanted comrades.

Particle Cannons, Plasma Balls, High-Pressure Water Sabers... All kinds of weapons were being fired wildly in the confined space.

Mechas were constantly being blown up, turning into brilliant fireworks.

"Retreat! Everyone, retreat immediately!"

Chen Meng finally realized they had kicked a hornet’s nest of astronomical proportions.

Piloting his own machine, he blasted a Mecha trying to grab him with his shoulder cannon while frantically rushing towards the Divine Hall’s exit.

However, the thirty-six stone pillars now seemed like thirty-six harbingers of death.

As they collapsed, an invisible barrier seemed to be slowly closing in.

"Hurry! We have to break out!"

Chen Meng’s adjutant, Ma Liu, piloted his Mecha right behind him.

But just as he was about to burst out of the Divine Hall’s arcade, a Battle Armor next to him suddenly self-destructed without any warning.

BOOM!

The terrifying explosive shockwave violently threw Ma Liu’s Mecha, slamming it into a pillar that had yet to fall.

"Captain... save me..."

Ma Liu’s voice cut out abruptly over the communicator.

Chen Meng glanced back and saw Ma Liu’s cockpit had been reduced to a heap of burning scrap metal.

And the Mecha that had self-destructed was piloted by the very technician who had been warning him to be careful earlier—Engineer Wang.

’They’re insane... Everyone’s gone insane...’

A chill ran down Chen Meng’s spine. He didn’t dare hesitate for another second, pushing his Mecha’s thrusters to maximum as he charged headlong back down the tunnel they came from.

Behind him was a hellish sea of fire and that bizarre, deadly song, growing ever clearer.

In the end, only he and two other Mechas that had been farther away managed to escape the underground palace.

"Surface! Full speed, surface!"

The three battered Titan Battle Armors shot towards the surface like beaten dogs.

SPLASH!

When his Mecha broke the surface and he could breathe in the salty sea air, Chen Meng finally felt like he was alive again.

He looked back. The waters around the Broken Star Reef had returned to calm, as if everything that had just happened was merely a nightmare.

But he knew that the more than twenty brothers he had brought with him were now trapped below forever.

"Calling the Jingluo! Calling the Jingluo! This is Chen Meng! Come in, do you copy?"

He screamed himself hoarse into the communicator.

"There’s... there’s a Ghost under the Broken Star Reef! A Ghost!"

However, the only response was the crackling of static.

The connection was lost, and silence fell once more.

Chen Meng’s heart sank. He realized that the problem wasn’t just below—the communications for the entire Broken Star Reef Area had likely been affected by that bizarre song.

At that moment, high in the sky, a streak of black light tore through the air at supersonic speed.

Ghost Squad Captain Zhao Tianlan, piloting an X-02 fighter jet, quickly arrived over the Broken Star Reef Area.

Through his fighter’s screen, he could clearly see several large pieces of wreckage floating on the sea below. They were fragments of a Titan Battle Armor from Jiangbei City.

"Just as I thought. There’s a problem." Zhao Tianlan’s tone was calm, but it carried a sharp edge.

He knew that for Jiangbei City to lose these Heavy Mechas, they must have encountered an unusual opponent.

He didn’t recklessly approach the sea’s surface. Instead, he made a low pass, circling the reef area once.

Soon, he discovered the massive cavern that the Jiangbei City Titan Battle Armor had entered.

Waves crashed against the cave mouth, and a faint, eerie blue light could be seen from within.

Zhao Tianlan was as bold as he was skilled. Relying on the X-02 fighter’s incredible maneuverability, he immediately lowered his altitude.