Atlas of Heaven and Man.

Chapter 1524 The Demon Shell Conceals Hidden Wonders

After talking with Chen Chuan, Scalson quickly walked out and used his telescope to check the situation outside the island.

He found that the sky was like a gray sheet of iron, the sun was isolated behind thick clouds, the boundary between the sea and the sky was extremely blurred, countless seabirds skimmed low over the shore, and the tide was blown by the wind in gusts.

Based on his experience, this meant a blizzard was approaching. Normally, they wouldn't need to worry about this, as the massive secret ritual and surrounding walls would keep the blizzard out of the island.

But now he has to worry: if the ceremony is disrupted, it could affect the rest of the island.

The environment on the island, which has been maintained for decades, may suffer considerable damage, and those precious plants and classical buildings may never exist again.

But he immediately put all of that aside. Why think about such things? Every single person here is a combatant, and Huan Suo Island was originally the front line against a powerful enemy.

There's nothing to regret. As long as the people are still alive, if things are gone, we can just rebuild them.

He quickly called all the people who were training back, assigned them tasks, and put them in charge of evacuating the crowd.

There are many small islands surrounding Huan Suo Island, which serve as navigation, rescue, and outposts.

He has now recalled all of these people, leaving only some dogs that can withstand extreme environments there to prevent the invasion of mutated animals after the rift is opened.

Soon, non-combatants were transferred one by one to outposts in both directions. Of course, it was impossible to evacuate all of the hundreds of thousands of people on the island, and there simply wasn't enough time. So, a few elderly, weak, and non-combatants left, while the majority of people took refuge in underground shelters.

The shelter's materials are designed to resist various forms of alien invasion. In the original design, even after the outer rituals were completely breached, they were still able to continue their resistance here.

After two full days of relocation, Scalson found Chen Chuan: "Advisor Chen, we are all ready."

Chen Chuan was wiping Xuejun's Blade. He nodded and said, "It's about time."

He checked the time; it was 8:50 a.m., but the sun had not yet risen, and the lights throughout the island were still twinkling like stars.

He said, "Then let's stick to the original plan, have everyone go to their assigned positions, and enter combat mode at 10 o'clock an hour later."

“Good!” Scalson said, “I’ll go and give the order right away.”

After receiving orders, the personnel responsible for guarding the nodes on the island arrived at their designated positions one by one ahead of time, following the pre-issued diagrams and instructions from the active consciousness entities.

Most of them felt a little uneasy. Although they held certain positions in their respective countries, they were not military personnel, and most of them were participating in a battle against extraterrestrial beings for the first time.

They didn't know what they were going to face.

They had never participated in an armed operation involving so many fighters before.

They weren't worried about their own safety; if they were, they wouldn't have come. They were just afraid of performing poorly and affecting the overall situation.

Scalson looked around. Because manpower was being used to its fullest extent, everyone had to take charge of a specific area, so they were spaced far apart from each other. However, within his field of vision, he could still see Lily and the other fighter.

Behind him was an auxiliary team, because they could currently communicate with each other through the boundary token, but that might not be the case once the area became chaotic, and they might need to use telephones and human messengers. These people were there to assist with communication and medical personnel.

Beneath his feet was a node platform. As long as he was on it, he could merge with the ritual field beneath him and become part of the entire defensive structure.

There is also a sturdy tent here, containing some stimulating drugs, so the preparations are quite thorough.

Looking at the tall, thick circular rock wall in front of him, and feeling the quiet yet slightly tense atmosphere around him, he was honestly surprised to feel a surge of excitement, as if he were participating in a major event.

He shook his head, exhaled, sat down, and waited quietly.

At nine o'clock, the sun rose from the sea, casting its rays on the cliffs of Huansuo Island, creating a unique reflection that the rolling waves crashed against and shattered.

The seabirds were unusually noisy today, flying in large flocks around the wall, seemingly trying to avoid something, but they were unable to enter the inner area.

Chen Chuan arrived alone in front of the inner wall of the ring rock. His spirit, which had been attached to it, continued to exert its influence on the opposite side, so the demons did not approach for a long time.

But he could sense that they were constantly testing each other, and gradually getting closer in the process.

These circumstances also show that the demons on the other side had a specific purpose in coming here; otherwise, they would not have bothered to force their way in once they realized the difference in their strength.

Previously, he wanted to buy time to prepare, but now that it's almost done, he can let the other side in to fight, so there's no need for him to maintain the status quo anymore.

With a slight thought, the spirit above was instantly withdrawn.

At that moment, everything around became quiet, and after a short while, light was seen shining from inside the rock wall.

Two days ago, this light might have only illuminated part of the rock ring, but now...

When it reappeared, it was larger and spread faster than before, quickly occupying most of the rock ring and continuing to extend outwards. Then, the enormous black shadow reappeared and slammed heavily against the rock wall.

With a loud bang, the violent impact made everyone's heart skip a beat, and then they felt a violent tremor beneath their feet.

Commander Newmand was sitting at the very bottom of the tower fortress, which was also the entrance to the rift.

When he was subjected to the violent impact, he could feel a strong shock. The force was extremely powerful. In order to resist it, his mutated tissues were stretched to the limit. His muscles were tense all over, and veins bulged on his face.

Fortunately, the impact would disappear quickly after it happened, giving him time to recover.

Based on his previous experience, he knew that once this impact occurred, it would not stop and would come one after another. If the intervals were even shorter than last time, he would definitely not be able to withstand it.

But as the commander, he wouldn't leave for even a moment. He took a bottle of medicine, opened it, and poured it all into his mouth.

He then exhaled a scalding breath, and blood vessels appeared in his eyes.

Standing on top, Chen Chuan could clearly sense his condition. He knew that because of the vast difference in strength between the two sides, all of this was in vain.

If this were all it took to hold the line, then countries around the world wouldn't need to send Dongxuanguan fighters out on their own.

He didn't stop them, though. He learned from Scalson that Scalson had promised Meteora that as long as he was still alive, he would never allow any enemy to break through the defenses. Although this choice was too rigid, he respected it.

Several minutes later, another impact came, and it was clear that the pace was much faster than before.

Half an hour later, Newmand exhausted all his strength, his withered body no longer able to resist, and was then burst out by a flash of light.

As this light appeared, fine cracks could be seen appearing on the rock face.

At that moment, Skarsson's intermittent voice came through his ear: "The commander has fainted... Now... I'll take over, Advisor Chen... From now on... I will follow your plan..."

Before he could finish speaking, the call was cut off because a strong fluctuation of the alienated field seeped out from the cracks in the rock wall, completely disrupting the information field here.

Chen Chuan stared ahead and saw that the entire rock ring was radiating a dazzling light, just like molten gold under high temperature.

One of the areas slowly bulged up, and very obvious cracks appeared there. After a moment, a black, ink-like mass was forced out from it, and large swathes of lava flowed onto the ground, while billowing black smoke rose into the sky.

He sensed the aura of this thing, his gaze deep and calm, just as he had expected.

In fact, when he probed with his mind earlier, he sensed something was wrong, and based on this, he made those arrangements in advance.

This is no ordinary demon; an unknown anomaly is also attached to its body.

This suddenly made the situation much more complicated.

Dealing with a single demon or an anomaly is not too difficult, but when the two are mixed together, one must be more cautious.

If not handled properly, it could cause even bigger trouble.

Previously, he was unsure of what kind of anomaly it was, so he set up a basic ritual to guard against anomalies outside. Now that the other party has appeared, he can investigate it up close.

At this point, half of the thing had already come out, while the other half seemed to still be trapped inside the rock ring, and was now trying to squeeze outwards.

Its surface resembles a large fish, but its material form is composed of countless jet-black liquids. At the same time, an even stronger field of attack emanates from it.

Chen Chuan had been observing its movements. At this moment, his body radiated a strong light like the sun, and an invisible force enveloped the field, preventing it from leaking out.

He didn't directly ram into it, but instead tentatively restrained it, and only targeted the area around it. This was to guard against the anomaly, but even so, there was no guarantee that no problems would arise.

Fortunately, this probing did not trigger any unusual reaction. As the two made contact, he also gave an instruction to Kaiyangzi's consciousness within the boundary token:

"Kaiyang, analyze the anomaly on the other side."

"Kaiyang received it."

In the next instant, Kaiyang gave an accurate reply: "Advisor Chen, through database retrieval, we have found the corresponding target, whose field characteristics match the anomaly codenamed 'Wandering Child'."

……

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(End of this chapter)