Deposed? I couldn't be happier! I wouldn't even be a dog to the crown prince.

Black dust fell in a flurry into the foul-smelling muddy water of the basement.

The Great Snow Dragon Knight had lost the support of his heavy black iron armor.

He collapsed to the ground like a lump of mud.

He stared in horror at his bare left arm, with only his combat uniform underneath.

"General... my armor..."

His voice trembled, and he was on the verge of crying.

This was the pinnacle of military technology in the Tang Dynasty, and it has been reduced to ashes.

Xu Xiao's face was extremely ugly.

He maneuvered his mech forward and crouched down, revealing its massive body.

The mecha extended a miniature scanner from its finger and swept it across the black dust on the ground.

Two beeps.

Data collection is complete.

"Seal off the area immediately!"

Xu Xiao roared into the communication channel.

"No one is allowed to touch that dust! Tie these people up tightly!"

He couldn't even care about Li Chengqian, who was far away in Hawaii.

The collected sample data was packaged and sent directly to the highest emergency channel of the Donggong Cyberspace Administration.

"Chief Steward Wu, something's happened!"

Chang'an, Daming Palace.

Inside the top-secret biochemical laboratory beneath the headquarters of the Cyberspace Administration of China.

The cold white operating lights shone on the control panel.

Wu Zetian has changed into a fully enclosed white protective suit.

She wasn't wearing an official hat; her hair was tightly tucked into the hood of her protective suit.

His face was even paler than the metal panel on the control panel.

She stood in front of a high-magnification electron microscope.

His eyes were fixed on the magnified image of the dust sample on the screen.

"This is not hacking."

Wu Meiniang's voice came through the communicator in her protective suit, trembling noticeably.

"General Xu, this is not a computer virus at all."

On the holographic screen.

Under magnification a million times, the black dust revealed its hideous true form.

Those are not metal particles.

Instead, it is a microorganism with an eerie dark red color and fine flagella.

They are devouring the last remaining traces of pyrite molecules in the sample at an alarming rate.

Devour, split, devour again.

The speed was so fast it made your scalp tingle.

"This is a physical-biochemical fungus!"

Wu Zetian slammed her fist on the control panel, causing the microscope to shake.

"And it's a variant strain specifically targeting superconducting graphite and carbon nanotubes!"

"The black iron contains a large amount of graphite, which is why the armor collapsed instantly."

On the other end of the communication line, Xu Xiao gasped.

"Biochemical fungi? How could these scoundrels possibly have such a thing!"

"Not a commoner."

Wu Meiniang gritted her teeth, cold sweat streaming down her forehead.

It ran into her eyes, stinging painfully, but she couldn't wipe it away.

My back was soaked with cold sweat, and the protective suit clung to my body, feeling icy cold.

"They are remnants of Rome and Persia."

She stared at the red demons that were splitting apart on the screen.

"They went bankrupt. They couldn't win in the virtual world, and they couldn't compete with the Great Snow Dragon Riders on the front lines either."

"A cornered dog will do anything, so it might as well poison people in real life."

Xu Xiao swore in the communication.

"Those Western scoundrels! They poisoned the slums, trying to destroy Chang'an's underground power grid?"

"No."

Wu Meiniang shook her head.

She suddenly thought of something, and her face instantly turned deathly pale.

A tremendous fear gripped her heart.

"The slums are just the beginning."

She quickly pulled up a holographic map of Chang'an.

Red markers lit up in the western part of the city, then followed a simulated route through the underground ventilation ducts.

It spread all the way out of the city.

"This fungus corrodes ordinary metals very slowly."

"Their favorite food is high-purity carbon nanotubes!"

Wu Zetian's voice suddenly rose, almost screaming.

"Their ultimate goal is neither mechs nor electric grids."

"It's the 'Jianmu' space elevator under construction outside the city!"

Jianmu (建木).

That towering carbon nanotube skyscraper.

The Tang Dynasty poured all its heavy industrial resources into this interstellar infrastructure marvel, which has just reached the stratosphere.

Its main structure is 90% made of ultra-high purity carbon nanotubes.

For these fungi, it's like the most lavish buffet in the world!

Wu Zetian suddenly turned around.

They lunged toward the main control console, preparing to sound the highest-level physical defense alarm for the Tang Dynasty.

All personnel at the construction site outside the city were evacuated, and a high-temperature isolation area was activated.

Her hand had just touched the red alarm button.

It hasn't been pressed yet.

Boom—

A terrifyingly loud bang.

The sound came from outside Chang'an City, along the Wei River.

The sound didn't sound like thunder, nor like an explosion.

It is a dull, teeth-grinding sound of metal fibers breaking.

It's like ten thousand steel wires stretched to their limit snapping at the same time.

The piercing sound penetrated the thick city walls and the underground biochemical laboratory.

It drills directly into everyone's eardrum.

Followed by.

The entire earth's crust of Chang'an was affected by this loud noise.

They trembled violently.