Chapter 72: Speed ​​of Life and Death

The Catacomb Nightingale's final lament transformed into tangible sound waves that swept through the underground workshop on the brink of destruction. The crystal device at the cavern's center, having lost its core energy source and mental field restraints, finally succumbed to overwhelming pressure and began its irreversible collapse.The alchemical runes on the device's surface, which had previously gone dark, were reignited by the wildly out-of-control "spiritual fusion" occurring within its essence energy.

They no longer emitted the stable blue glow of normal operation, but instead flashed with dangerous crimson light.

Several thick energy arcs shot wildly from the cracks in the device.

They cut through the air, leaving behind the pungent scent of ozone, and struck the surrounding rock walls and machinery, leaving crystallized molten scars at the impact points.

"Run! It's going to blow!" Julian shouted in terrified warning.

His vast knowledge became his greatest torment in this moment, because he understood better than anyone that if this out-of-control "alchemical reactor" underwent "spiritual detonation," the released energy would be sufficient to erase all nearby matter at the fundamental level.

Watching the energy readings on the device's surface climbing exponentially, he announced their team's final "life countdown" with a voice trembling in despair.

"Five minutes at most! No! Three minutes! We only have three minutes to escape this place!"

Three minutes!

This oppressive number struck Lin Jie and William with full force.

From this moment on, they were engaged in a race against death itself.

"The passage! The one the bishop escaped through!" Lin Jie's mind became exceptionally clear under the stimulation of crisis.

William didn't waste words—this veteran was always the most reliable man of action in desperate situations.

He immediately supported Julian, whose legs had gone weak.

Then his eyes locked onto their only hopeful exit hundreds of meters away on the other side of the altar.

Yet fate seemed unwilling to let them exit this symphony of death so easily.

Just as they were about to start running, three battered figures still emanating chaotic energy rose from the battlefield filled with steam and electrical arcs.

These were three Ascendant survivors who had endured the internal chaos and mental storm through sheer willpower and sturdy armor.

Their living exoskeletons were covered with gruesome wounds left by their comrades' bone blades and claws.

Their movements appeared stiff and sluggish due to the UMA's final mental impact.

But their blood-red lizard-like vertical pupils beneath their helmets locked onto the three "culprits" attempting to escape.

They took heavy steps forward, blocking the entrance to the escape passage.

This was an impassable death barrier.

"Damn it..." William's face showed clear frustration as he looked at these three mountains blocking their path.

"It's fine, William."

Lin Jie's voice was unusually calm.

He stepped out from behind William, his face showing only absolute rationality that disregarded life and death.

"Only three of them. Nothing is impossible."

He looked at the three massive figures approaching, then turned to his two battle-tested comrades with a confident, brilliant smile.

"Gentlemen," he slowly raised his left arm bearing the Cursebreaker Vambrace and his right hand holding the Serene Heart that glowed with sacred blue light, "I think it's time to show these so-called 'new humans' who think they've ascended what us old-era mortals can accomplish with teamwork and intelligence... in our little performance!"

At his command, the "final breakout battle" for survival erupted fiercely.

"Smoke! Adhesive! Confusion!" Lin Jie's commands were clear and concise.

Julian transformed his backpack into a mobile "alchemical arsenal" in that moment.

He threw every last battlefield-altering potion bottle from his reserves toward the feet of the three approaching Ascendants.

Several crisp glass shattering sounds echoed as a black mist—composed of squid ink and ghost mushroom powder mixed together—instantly enveloped the area, depriving the enemies of all visual perception.

Immediately after, another potent slippery adhesive made from toad mucus and rhino fat formed a trap-filled quagmire on the ground.

The three Ascendants' charging formation was instantly disrupted. They lost their targets in the darkness while their feet were affected by the slippery mucus, making their heavy bodies slow and clumsy.

Sergeant William transformed into the "King of Ambush" from the darkness within this chaotic battlefield created by Julian.

He didn't engage in direct confrontation. His burly figure became a flickering shadow in the darkness, using the massive openings created by the Ascendants' impaired vision and hampered movement to continuously circle them in high-speed guerrilla combat.

He held a gun in his left hand and a knife in his right. The military knife, already stained with blood, now danced like the wind, each strike expertly aimed at the most vulnerable joint connections in the Ascendants' living exoskeletons.

Meanwhile, Lin Jie became the ultimate conductor of this magnificent performance.

He no longer relied solely on his brain, but steadily raised his Serene Heart from the battlefield's periphery.

His eyes, sharpened through numerous battles, merged with his tactical thinking that covered the entire battlefield, locking onto the fatal "rejection weaknesses" in the Ascendants' bodies caused by grafting alien biological tissues.

"The left one's elbow joint—its biomass interface overstretched for one second when it turned due to unstable center of gravity! Sergeant William! Create a shooting window for me!"

Upon hearing this, William forcefully threw bone fragment debris at that Ascendant's face!

The opponent instinctively raised its arm to block, exposing its already vulnerable joint to Lin Jie's gun muzzle!

"Bang!"

A decisive gunshot rang out!

An alchemical bullet penetrated the exposed fragile interface.

The purifying power of alchemy immediately destroyed the nerve bundles and spiritual flow in that area.

"Watch the middle one! Its back respiratory organs are swelling—it's gathering strength to use steam blast to disperse the smoke! Julian!"

Julian had already synchronized with Lin Jie's thinking.

Before Lin Jie finished his command, the blue potion he had prepared earlier traced a parabolic arc through the air, landing near the scorching Ascendant.

Amidst billowing white smoke, the imminent deadly counterattack was successfully prevented!

"The right one! The connection between its arm and body shows abnormalities from high-intensity swinging! Now it has brief stiffness after each attack! William! Now!"

Lin Jie's voice remained calm and clear as he precisely perceived the entire battle situation, preemptively informing his teammates of every enemy movement and weakness.

What should have been a difficult fight became a "dissection show" full of tactical elegance through the Iron Triangle team's precise coordination.

Finally, at the cost of William's left arm being cut by a shattered armor piece and Julian exhausting all his alchemical potions, they successfully incapacitated the three Ascendants in the final few dozen seconds before the crystal device's explosion and charged into the escape passage.

Behind them, the altar of sin, madness, and blasphemy exploded in a flash of white light.