novelbin Chapter 688: Silver Nightmare
Chapter 688: Silver Nightmare
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The sky violently fractured as a succession of deafening, thunderous roars echoed from the upper atmosphere, sounding like the rapid detonation of supreme cosmic cannons. The dense clouds were instantly torn to shreds as three massive, terrifying hulls broke through the barrier, their colossal shadows plunging the entire mountain sector into an artificial twilight.
Looking up at the descending behemoths, Ethan’s knuckles turned white as he violently clenched his massive fists, his amethyst eyes burning with a dark, suffocating fury. Invictus-class dreadnoughts.
His body instinctively stiffened as a flood of raw, visceral memories threatened to overwhelm his internal pathways. It was this exact, devastating class of spiritual warships that had systematically exterminated his entire home world, obliterating his civilization and ruthlessly forcing him to separate from his most cherished loved ones. A single Invictus possessed more than enough unhinged firepower to thoroughly erase a continent without leaving a single survivor. And right now, three of them were simultaneously descending upon his coordinates, acting as a mere defensive escort for a primary flagship that was even larger.
However, as the warships drew closer, Ethan’s mind quickly note a distinct structural difference. Unlike the blood-red hull plating of the armada that had systematically butchered his home planet, these three warships were forged from a brilliant, polished silver alloy. Their chassis were sleek, elegant, and shaped exactly like massive, floating divine swords cutting through the heavens.
Trailing directly behind the triangular formation was a colossal flagship. Its majestic silhouette immediately reminded Ethan of Princess Isabella’s legendary Rhino cruiser, though this specific vessel appeared slightly sleeker, narrower, and optimized for high-velocity capital transport rather than raw, heavy siege.
The three silver Invictus dreadnoughts smoothly drifted into a perfect, impenetrable triangular blockade over the peak, locking their defensive arrays to secure the local airspace while the massive flagship began its heavy descent toward the ruined courtyard.
As the primary vessel neared the landing threshold, the three surrounding dreadnoughts suddenly tilted their massive forward batteries toward the high heavens.
*BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!*
Each Invictus systematically discharged three thunderous ceremonial salvos into the empty sky. The atmospheric explosions were deafening, sending violent, crushing shockwaves rippling across the mountain peaks and shattering the remaining glass within miles. Watching the blinding flash of the plasma bursts, Ethan felt the hairs on his arms stand up; his physical vessel still perfectly remembered the terrifying potency of those super-cannons in his bones.
"Dual-Vortex Runic Core..." murmured Ethan, his gravelly voice dropping into a dangerous, freezing register as he tightly gritted his teeth, his eyes locked onto the massive cannons of the flagship.
The colossal silver vessel smoothly completed its heavy descent, settling with an immense, echoing thud directly onto the main external plaza of the sect’s branch headquarters. The ground violently trembled under its weight, kicking up vast clouds of dust that were immediately blasted away by the ship’s cooling vents.
The moment the primary boarding ramp hissed open and hit the stone floor, an entire, high-tier elite squad of heavily armored cultivators marched out in perfect formation. Every single one of them kept a firm, white-knuckled grip on the hilt of their divine swords, their cold, razor-sharp eyes scanning the perimeter, entirely ready to unsheathe their blades and execute a bloodbath at the minimum provocation.
Following closely behind the vanguard, a powerful old master smoothly descended from the main deck. He was fully clad in his grand ceremonial armor, draped in a brilliant silver robe adorned with intricate deep blue speckled patterns along the flanks, and five gleaming gold stars stamped directly across his chest.
The Vice Sect Leader immediately glided forward across the plaza, a faint, polite smile playing on his lips. "General, what an miracle to witness your presence in this frontier sector."
"Direct operational orders from the supreme Sect Leader, Vice Leader," said the General, offering a formal, disciplined martial bow.
To an uneducated onlooker, it might have appeared deeply bizarre that a high-tier General would travel with such immense, world-shattering pomp and heavy armor, while a Vice Sect Leader moved alone without an escort. However, in the high-stakes calculations of the cultivation world, it wasn’t strange at all. The Vice Sect Leader possessed the terrifying power of a Sea Spirit Realm master; across the entire continent, the number of individuals capable of defeating him in a one-on-one duel could be counted on a single hand.
In fact, his raw movement velocity was astronomically faster than an Invictus-class dreadnought. The advanced super-thrusters of the warship could never hope to catch up to the Vice Leader’s flying speed, and even the automated targeting arrays of the super-cannons could not easily lock onto his coordinates or score a hit. This reality did not mean the Invictus was weak—it simply meant a Sea Spirit Realm master was an unmatched force of nature.
"What exactly are the directives of my old friend?" asked the Vice Sect Leader, his eyes narrowing slightly as he gestured toward the colossal warships overhead. "I firmly that we would execute a discreet, low-profile voyage. Why on earth did the central command mobilize a full battle fortress group for this extraction?"
"We are currently facing much larger structural problems that aggressively require our military presence in this specific sector," the General replied, his voice dropping into a grim, professional whisper. "Our intelligence arrays detected that the Thunderdragon Sect is actively mobilizing their border fleets. They operating under the false assumption that our ongoing conflict with the Crimson Sect has left us incapable of fighting back on a second front."
He adjusted the heavy strap of his ceremonial gauntlet, looking up at the silver dreadnoughts.
"Taking advantage of our deployment to collect the Immortal Doctor, we traveled slightly further into the northwest territory to inspect a strategic border outpost that was recently reported under attack," the General explained. "Unfortunately, we uncovered nothing. The fortress itself was intact, with zero structural damage or enemy footprints. I have already transmitted the primary report directly to the Sect Leader, and we are currently waiting for fresh operational directives."
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From this moment forward, to avoid confusion regarding cultivation ranks, I will include this footer with the current established levels.
Note: These are only the ranks mentioned so far to avoid spoilers.
Body Refinement Realm
Skin Refinement / Bone Refinement / Organ Refinement
Spiritual Gathering Realm
Spiritual Perception / Spiritual Mist / Spiritual Condensation
Spiritual Core Realm
Core Solidification / Core Awakening / Spiritual Collapse (Half-step Spiritual Core)
Spiritual Soul Realm
Spiritual Soul Awakening / Soul Nourishing / Soul-Core Fusion
Golden Core Realm
Prime Fusion / Core Perfection / Core Destruction
Spiritual Sea Realm
Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??
Dao Manifestation Realm
Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??
Spiritual Transcendence
Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??
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Sword mastery levels
Sword Intent.
Sword Aura.