Chapter 1370: Ruins Ambush

## Chapter 1371: Ruined Ambush

Just as Chen Ling thought the memory fragments would end there, several dim and blurry images reappeared in his mind.

Embers flickered over the ruins; the entire domain had become a desolate wasteland. All the figures who had initially fled in every direction had vanished, leaving only a lone silhouette bathed in dazzling aurora, standing solitary in the barren world.

He stood there blankly, staring at his hands, as if utterly unable to comprehend what had happened. Behind him, countless tragic souls intertwined into a brilliant sea of aurora, continuously pouring into his body...

The splendid aurora expanded behind him, gradually outlining the form of an incredibly powerful soul, whose silhouette... bore a striking resemblance to Yang Xiao.

Yang Xiao looked at his surroundings and the ethereal remnant of the woman behind him, which had also been sublimated. He howled in agonizing despair, clutching his head with both hands as if trying to tear himself in two.

The final image showed a figure streaking across the aurora-lit sky, departing in a certain direction.

After receiving all the information within the aurora, Chen Ling slowly opened his eyes...

"Could it be..." Chen Ling's gaze was complex, as if he had realized something.

He could probably guess what Yang Xiao had experienced there. If so, Yang Xiao's current condition must be quite dire. He had to find Yang Xiao as quickly as possible.

Chen Ling looked in the direction Yang Xiao had last departed in the memory fragment. Just as he was about to pursue him, two lines of text floated before his eyes...Audience Expectation Value: 3Current Expectation Value: 32

Chen Ling's eyebrows raised slightly.

A low hum resonated from all directions. Chen Ling turned his head to see over a dozen dark, shadowy figures rapidly moving through the ruins around him, like a swarm of killer bees relentlessly fixated on their prey.

"Drones?" Chen Ling asked, surprised.

At the same time, a calm voice spoke from an encrypted combat channel: "The Wuzhen-8 high-speed drone cluster has reached the target location. SAR synthetic aperture radar is locating... Target heat signature locked. Precision-guided operation initiated."

The drone cluster appeared only for a moment before deftly maneuvering into the surrounding rubble and broken walls, using the structures to conceal themselves. Their onboard radar seemed capable of detecting heat signatures through walls, allowing the entire battlefield's topography and Chen Ling's precise location to be displayed in a command center thousands of miles away.

*Boom!* A specialized shell was suddenly fired with a roar. Hundreds of meters away, an armored vehicle recoiled slightly, and faint smoke wafted from its specialized cannon. The whistling shell traversed the entire street in an instant, striking precisely towards Chen Ling's body!

Yet, the moment the shell left the barrel, Chen Ling's gaze had already fixed on its origin. Faced with the sudden projectile, Chen Ling showed no intention of dodging. His right arm transformed directly into a giant hand made of red paper, which firmly caught the shell head-on!

*Thud—!!* The two collided, and a dense network of cracks spread from beneath Chen Ling's feet, yet his body didn't budge an inch as he effortlessly gripped the shell.

For Chen Ling, a vehicle-mounted shell posed too little threat to warrant evasion. However, just as he prepared to casually fling the shell away, he suddenly realized something was amiss... A slight sensation of paralysis spread from the red paper appendage, affecting half of his arm.

"This is..." Chen Ling murmured to himself.

"The microwave pulse cannon hit its target. Just as we expected, he was too careless," the voice in the combat channel resumed. "The microwave pulse cannon can instantly heat the water in biological tissue to 300 degrees Celsius, but the target doesn't appear to be injured. His body's water content must be extremely low... However, the interference with his nervous system should be effective. After all, he's still a neurological organism."

Chen Ling casually crushed the shell into scrap metal. Just as he was about to counterattack, a roaring aircraft flew over him!

Missiles trailing fiery exhausts were launched in quick succession, precisely blanketing the ground around Chen Ling. This time, he didn't arrogantly try to withstand the assault head-on, realizing his understanding of this era's thermal weapons was too limited. He had initially thought thermal weapons were just simple missiles, explosions, or indiscriminate barrages, but that last shell proved him wrong.

The engagement with modern thermal weapons in contemporary warfare was far more complex than he had imagined. He didn't understand the characteristics of these weapons, so it was best not to be blindly overconfident... at least not before activating his second personality.

Chen Ling's figure flickered across the ground like a phantom. Not a single missile sweeping down could touch his body. Successive explosions shook the earth, causing nearby ruins to directly collapse...

With no other living beings present, and no need to consider the impact on civilians or buildings, this was virtually the ideal testing ground for thermal weapon warfare.

"All Red Arrow-10 anti-tank missiles missed. His speed is too high; we can't assess the defensive capability of his outer carapace... This is problematic." The voice paused briefly before rapidly issuing new orders:"He's become alert. Non-contact fire probing ends now. Proceed directly to heavy firepower saturation... Deploy the squadron equipped with CM102 anti-radiation missiles to target his nerve ganglia with directional fragmentation attacks.The target has aerial combat capability, so Squadron Two should focus on launching TL20 intelligent loitering munitions for autonomous target acquisition, trying to prevent him from taking to the air.In air-to-ground strikes, we have an absolute advantage."

Chen Ling looked up. Amidst the fierce roar, numerous fighter jets plunged from the clouds. Countless missiles streaked forth, resembling an overwhelming net descending upon the earth, leaving Chen Ling no space whatsoever to ascend.

Chen Ling had previously faced large-scale thermal weapon attacks, but those were always chance encounters. This time, he had openly declared war on humanity of this era and exposed his whereabouts. They had likely been preparing in Tongzhou for a long time; this was a complete ambush.

Audience Expectation Value: 3Current Expectation Value: 35

Facing heavy firepower capable of obliterating this district several times over, Chen Ling licked his dark lips and chuckled, saying: "Indeed, it's only truly stimulating when played like this..."

"Too bad..."

"I no longer have time to contend with you."

Countless missiles rained down around Chen Ling, accompanied by a furious surge of intense fire and lethal shrapnel. Amidst the deafening roar, Chen Ling slowly closed his eyes...

His grand red opera robe began visibly turning black. Chen Ling's second personality, suppressed deep within him, along with an incomparably powerful calamitous body, took control of the battlefield!