Upon seeing this, the white-haired man's face revealed a look of uncertainty and shock, and his footsteps slammed to a halt.
He subconsciously turned his head, looking toward the shadows on the other side of the hall, seemingly asking for instructions.
An old voice came from that direction: "Back away."
A trace of unwillingness flashed across the white-haired man's face, but his body began to slowly retreat, backing all the way into the shadows at the edge of the hall.
Columbina raised her voice again, shouting at the empty hall: "Return the Authority you stole from me!"
Silence reigned outside the hall; there was no response. The bindings of the formation beneath her remained, and she could sense no sign that the stolen portion of her Authority was returning.
It seemed she could not threaten them into doing anything more. The agonizing pain from her core came in continuous waves, forcing her to curl up, lying powerlessly on the cold cushion, her arms hugging herself tightly.
But she dared not relax completely. She ceased not for a moment in sensing any energy fluctuations or footsteps within a ten-meter radius, giving those people outside no chance to approach silently.
She did not intend to wait passively like this. These people definitely had other methods. Since her teleportation ability could still be used outside this abnormal space, perhaps... she could teleport things from further away to this vicinity, letting those things destroy this place and the formation. For example, some powerful monsters...
Enduring the discomfort, she once again sank her consciousness into the Ley Lines, probing outwards in search of suitable "tools."
However, this time, even the "vision" of the Ley Lines had become as blurred as the surrounding spatial structure. It was as if a thick gray fog had completely shrouded everything; she could perceive nothing.
Columbina withdrew her consciousness in despair. Now, she truly had no options left.
*
With the Moon Essence, Coppelia no longer worried about energy.
She undid the front of her loose black robes, reached into the open cavity in her abdomen, and gently pulled out the supply Moon Spirit huddled inside, placing it on the sand nearby. Then, she picked up the Perpetual Moon Essence, which emitted a soft blue light, and carefully fitted it into the vacancy in her abdominal cavity.
The Moon Essence was slightly small in size. She raised her right hand, and a faint Geo-yellow light lit up on her fingertips. Geo elemental creations filled the gaps between the Moon Essence and the edges of the cavity, firmly sealing the entire opening.
The energy provided by this Moon Essence was surging and stable, like an inexhaustible lake. However, Coppelia did not believe that this alone would allow her to confront the power of a Khaenri'ah base head-on. Moreover, this item was crucial to Khaenri'ah's experiments; losing it meant the other party would inevitably send their true elites to give chase. Regardless of the circumstances, she could not stay here any longer.
She walked up to the Moon Spirit that was curled around the storage bronze mirror and pointed at the mirror: "We are leaving immediately. Fly east. The goal is to find a very, very big tree. That tree has many houses growing on it; you should have some impression of it. If you cannot distinguish the direction after flying out, let me out, and I will guide the way."
The Moon Spirit holding the bronze mirror bobbed up and down, indicating it understood. It used its braids to hold the mirror high, and the mirror surface swept over Coppelia and the other three Moon Spirits in the room one by one. White light flashed repeatedly, and their figures disappeared in succession, stored within the mirror.
Having done all this, the Moon Spirit did not linger. It drilled out through the hole in the room's wall, its body transforming into a faint streak of white light. Leaving the complex underground passages, it identified its bearings by the sun, then immediately began to fly rapidly toward the east.
*
Deep underground, in another area covered by sand and soil.
Ikhtiyar knelt on one knee on the sandy ground, one hand casually sifting through the items in the sand.
There were a few tattered strips of black cloth and some tiny mechanical fragments shimmering with metallic luster. This was the exact spot where Coppelia had fallen.
"She actually didn't smash into a pile of scrap iron," she said, picking up a thin piece of metal with twisted edges and examining it against the dim light. "Sturdy enough. Even I have a slight urge to become a machine."
She tossed the fragment back onto the sand pile, stood up, dusted the sand from her hands, and turned to several researchers who were operating portable equipment nearby: "Have you found their traces?"
A researcher with a steady expression stared at the jumping data on the screen of the instrument in his hand and shook his head: "The residual Lunar Force is too faint."
"If you ask me, let's just stop looking," Ikhtiyar said, crossing her arms. "The Moon God is still in our hands. That robot can't run far; eventually, she'll definitely have to come back on her own to find her 'God.' We should just return to the base and wait."
Another researcher looked up and retorted in a whisper: "What if she runs outside and attracts more troublesome fellows?"
"Heh," Ikhtiyar scoffed. "If one comes, I'll beat one. Could she possibly call an Archon from the outside?"
"Hard to say," the researcher who feared trouble muttered.
"There's a reaction!" the steady researcher suddenly announced.
The others nearby immediately crowded over, their gazes focusing on the screen in his hand. Ikhtiyar also took a step closer.
"Where?"
"Above," the steady researcher pointed to a high-intensity signal dot that had suddenly appeared on the screen. "Almost near the surface. This depth..."
The researcher who feared trouble stared at the unusually high reading and sucked in a breath of cold air: "This reaction is a bit too massive."
The steady researcher nodded, his fingers sliding quickly across the screen to pull up comparison data: "Indeed, the reading is abnormally high."
Ikhtiyar's brows furrowed: "Can that kind of white little Seelie have such a high energy reaction?"
Her question had not yet been answered when the striking high-intensity signal dot on the screen flickered a few times and then suddenly vanished. It was as abrupt as its appearance.
The voice of the researcher who feared trouble tightened: "It came fast, and it went fast... could it be that the Moon God has run away?!"
The steady researcher stared at the screen, which had returned to calm, and was silent for two seconds: "There is that possibility. The signal characteristics overlap partially with the Moon God's power."
Ikhtiyar's face sank. "Something might have happened at the base." She made a prompt decision. "I will go back immediately to check. You lot, bring more machines and go inspect that location above."
After speaking, without waiting for a response, her body rushed into a tunnel that had obviously been excavated recently, sprinting toward the experimental base.
The remaining few researchers glanced at each other, daring not to delay. They immediately picked up their handheld control devices and began to operate them, fingers tapping rapidly on buttons and touchscreens.
A vibration suddenly came from the sandy ground beneath their feet.
The next second, the rock wall in front of them bulged violently and shattered! A massive mechanical giant serpent, equipped with sharp gears on its head and dragging a giant drill at its tail, burst out from the rock strata! Its diameter was fully one or two meters, and its metal shell gleamed with a cold, hard luster in the dim light.
The giant serpent turned its direction. The gears on its head and the drill at its tail spun simultaneously at terrifying speed, emitting an ear-piercing screech as it slammed ruthlessly into the solid rock wall ahead!
"BOOM——!"
Crushed stones flew, and dust filled the air. This mechanical giant serpent actually relied on pure physical force to forcibly excavate a tunnel sloping upwards right on the spot! The rock strata were pulverized, and the passage extended forward at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Once the churning dust settled, the few researchers drilled into the tunnel that had just been violently opened up.
____
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