Survival of the Nation: My luck was a tiny bit worse.

The one-hour flight passed quickly amidst casual conversation and tactical confirmations.

Soon, a massive, entirely black mountain gradually emerged from the horizon in the distance.

That's what Douglas called "a mountain with a living heart that still beats and a strange smell."

From a distance, its outline is no different from an ordinary mountain peak—a cone-shaped mountain with a steep southern slope, and the summit is hidden in the clouds and mist.

But once you get closer, you can see that the surface of the mountain is not the color of rock at all.

It was a substance with an eerie sheen, somewhere between dark purple and deep black, like the shell of some kind of...inorganic organism?

The mountain's surface is covered with dense lines, each line being tens of meters wide, extending from the mountaintop to the foot of the mountain, like blood vessels, like roots, like the neural network of some giant organism.

And those patterns are glowing.

One light and one dark, one light and one dark.

It does resemble a heartbeat.

The group of people on the helicopter looked at each other in bewilderment, not daring to breathe.

"Brother Chen, did you see that?"

Leng Ruolan's voice was very low, as if she was afraid of waking something.

"I've seen it, and I'm recording it."

Chen Hao's voice was also somewhat tense, "His heart rate is about six beats per minute, far lower than the heart rate of a normal living being..."

"The intensity of the light emitted by the pattern fluctuates periodically, with the difference between the peaks and troughs being about 40%. This doesn't resemble the heartbeat of a healthy organism; it's more like an energy cycle in a low-power state."

Ou Yun said "Oh," and then asked, "Power saving mode?"

Chen Hao said it was similar, "Just like a bear hibernating, it slows down its metabolism to the minimum and reduces energy consumption. If our speculation is correct, and the mountain itself is a super-giant abyssal creature, then its normal energy consumption must be extremely astonishing."

That's probably why I turn on power saving mode when there's no external threat!

"Will the bombing wake it up?"

Chen Hao fell into deep thought: "Based on the speed at which the Abyss Bone Demon awakened last time—if its size is several hundred times that of the Abyss Bone Demon, then it might take three to five minutes to fully awaken..."

Leng Ruolan said, "Don't rush. Awakening? The main body might not wake up for a while. Are there any defensive mechanisms around? Like a small monster or an anti-aircraft gun or something?"

This is not a good thing.

Chen Hao was startled: "If we do it that way, it might only take a few dozen seconds!"

"A few tens of seconds..."

Leng Ruolan quickly calculated the time window in her mind.

"So from the start of the bombing to the time it organized an effective counterattack, we only had a few dozen seconds?"

"Theoretically, yes? But we can use that missile with the crystals attached to it to buy more time!"

Chen Hao quickly added, "If the defense mechanisms are misled by false signals, their reaction speed will slow down!"

"Then let's do it this way."

Leng Ruolan pushed the control stick forward, and the helicopter began to climb, heading towards the predetermined bombing altitude.

"Ivan, prepare for the first round of bombing. Launch the second missile first, give it ten seconds to react, then the remaining two from the first round and the two from the second round follow up."

"Deploy after the bombing, don't linger. If it gets really bad—"

Leng gave a wicked smile. "Let's just throw our leader down there!"

Chen Hao, standing behind, facepalmed. "Captain Leng, are you serious?"

"you guess."

"..."

Ou Yun, taking a nap in the passenger seat: Zzzz...

*

"Number two, fire!"

On the side rack of the helicopter, a missile detached from the locking device and flew towards the target mountain, trailing a white plume of smoke.

The purple crystal on the side of the projectile shimmered eerily in the sunlight.

The missile detonated precisely at the predetermined altitude.

boom--!

The explosion illuminated the entire valley.

The purple crystal vaporized under high temperature, and the energy fluctuations it released spread outwards from the point of explosion.

When the wave reached the surface of the mountain, the glowing patterns paused noticeably—the rhythm of their heartbeats was disrupted.

Then, on the south slope of the mountain, those patterns began to flash intensely.

As if stung, the intensity of the pattern's light suddenly increased several times, changing from dark purple to a dazzling purplish-white.

Immediately afterwards, the black outer shell of the mountain began to crack.

But it wasn't blown apart by a missile; it's more like it cracked open on its own.

Countless cracks spread outwards simultaneously from the intersection of the lines, like the skin of some creature being torn apart from the inside.

Thick purple mist surged from the crack, condensing in the air and instantly transforming into flying abyssal creatures.

Some look like snakes with three pairs of wings, some like a hybrid of a mantis and a bat, and some are simply a rolling lump of flesh with five or six eyes embedded in it.

There are at least several dozen of them, and the number is constantly increasing.

But they didn't rush towards the helicopter.

They all flew towards the point of explosion of the second bomb—towards the residual energy signal still in the air.

"Success! They were fooled by the false signal!" Chen Hao's voice was filled with barely suppressed excitement.

"Now's the time!"

Leng Ruolan immediately gave the order, "Two missiles left from the first round, two more from the second round, fire them all! Bomb them hard!"

Ivan's fingers flew across the panel.

Four missiles simultaneously detached from their racks, tracing four precise arcs in the air before falling towards the same spot on the southern slope of the mountain.

boom!

boom!

boom!

boom!

Four consecutive muffled bangs blasted a huge gap, nearly 100 meters in diameter, into the southern slope of the mountain.

The black outer shell was blown to pieces, revealing what was underneath—

Layer upon layer of skeletal structure, a dense network of blood vessels, and large swaths of dark purple muscle tissue.

The muscles began to tremble slightly upon contact with the air, like living organs exposed to cold air.

And deep within these layers of structure, something is glowing.

A purple, round object, exactly the size Chen Hao had predicted—about the size of an adult curled up.

"core!"

Chen Hao practically shouted it out.

"I see the core! It's about 300 meters directly below the breach! It's encased in bone and muscle tissue, but part of it is exposed!"

"Three hundred meters—"

Leng Ruolan quickly assessed the distance.

"The helicopter can't fly in... we have to go in by ground. Ivan, prepare for the rope descent, Nanbei follow me. Big brother, you—"

She turned her head and found that Ou Yun was no longer in his seat.

"?"

Leng Ruolan was stunned for a moment, "Big Brother—"

"I've reached the hatch."

The voice of the European transport came through the headset, accompanied by the whooshing sound of the cabin door sliding open.

"You're talking too much nonsense. I'll go downstairs and wait for you."

"???"