Lin Xian estimated briefly that just the enormous and complex control cabin and the common-state-driven scanning would take at least 7 to 8 hours. Adding the repairs, the time would surely exceed 12 hours, possibly even more. Considering the severe damage to the left arm, his Preparation Center would have to wait until the scanning was complete to carry out material transformation preparation. To save time, he could only prepare in advance according to the materials from the previous scan of the composite armor.
"Hurry, hurry, hurry!"
By this time, Xilan City had long entered the night of the 31st. Because the Superpower Hunting Team needed to use the Hell Black Chrysanthemum alone to lure the enemy, the situation everyone faced was certainly more perilous than last night. At such a time, every minute and second could affect the battle situation and the life and death of the caravan.
At this moment, Lin Xian directly took out a Cold Dark Reagent. Without thinking, he gulped one down.
Upon entering the mouth, it was like some strange chemical with a pungent taste flow directly into the stomach. A kind of extremely high energy density brought a release like a high-temperature burn, spreading quickly throughout the body.
Absorbing through the body’s digestive system was already considered a very conservative plan, at least slightly better than intravenous injection, but even so, Lin Xian could feel an extremely burning sensation quickly reacting in the body, making him cannot help but begin to have some stress-induced spasms, twitching non-stop.
However, this feeling quickly calmed down. After a while, Lin Xian began to feel a sense of excitement as if he had taken adrenaline, his head felt hot, and his energy seemed to be recovering rapidly, his heartbeat unnaturally speeding up, and even his concentration improved somewhat.
"Damn it, such high-end stuff feels like drinking fake liquor..."
Though he complained inwardly, Lin Xian indeed felt his spiritual power becoming more focused. Whether it’s stronger or not was hard to feel, but the refreshing effect was very obvious.
With this strength, the cold brought by the wind and snow was significantly repelled, and Lin Xian began to devote himself wholeheartedly to the mecha scanning.
Meanwhile, in the Emperor Plan Team’s camp below, tents had been set up, and various instruments were being moved in continuously. Lights flickered in the cold wind valley, and Sun Kai, Jingtian, and other members of the guard squad began patrolling and keeping vigilant around the clock.
As the center of the Extreme Cold Vortex continued to approach, the blizzard grew larger, oppressively blowing the camp tents, making them rumble, and six space warplanes were covered with layers of snow.
For convenient and timely response, all the main control systems of the warplanes weren’t shut down, and snow was cleared periodically by someone.
At this time, in Xilan City during daylight, tens of thousands of survivors and soldiers of the Investigation Corps did not relax for a moment; that sense of impending doom’s pressure only became heavier.
The tracks and evacuation roads were all blocked, partly for defending the Monster Tide, and partly as a point of no return, signifying to everyone that there was no other path to choose, only fight to the death!
The Phoenix Society’s transport vehicles continually shuttled throughout the city, delivering ammunition to the three major lines of defense. All over the city, various survivor caravan trucks were searching for items that could be used to strengthen defenses.
"Take down all those doors, railings, security windows, iron frames—whatever can be moved, put it on the car!"
"All these signal towers need to be dismantled. The transport planes are arriving soon; they need to be transported to the radar station for conversion into machine gun towers."
"Quick, quick, all abandoned vehicles should be towed away to block roads."
"Gather all useful things in the city; this concerns the survival of everyone, so stop wasting time."
Rumbling, rumbling sounds.
Over in the East City Industrial Zone, excavators, breakers, and various engineering equipment of the Engineering Corps were all roaring, digging trenches and burning moats. Soldiers wearing gas masks were embedding napalm bombs into pre-made slots, the clashing of metal and the rhythmic pounding of hydraulic hammers reverberating repeatedly within the blast walls.
In the Southern City, several high-rise buildings collapsed with a massive explosion, with shock waves carrying tempered glass cascading down like a waterfall, directly blocking the streets, with rubble turning into shock-resistant fortifications.
Inside the radar station’s camp, tens of thousands of people busily worked in an intense flurry.
Loading ammunition, checking weapons, men and women alike were tirelessly preparing for war; even young children were helping move cargo boxes, and elder women hurriedly arranged hot meal supplies.
In Mitchell Church Command Center, Zhao Yu continuously monitored the preparation status of the various defense lines.
"All remaining ammunition has been dispatched; there’s genuinely no stock left now."
He Zhen hurriedly approached from outside, stating: "But we did have time to train these survivors on how to use weapons. Ordinary people without military training rely a lot on trial and error. Lao Zhao, do you think we’re just desperately grasping at straws?"
Zhao Yu, looking cold and solemnly at the holographic sand table, muttered, "Having something to hold onto is better than nothing. The more prepared we are, maybe we can save a thousand fewer lives."
He pointed with his command rod at several locations on the sand table: "Rough statistics from last night show that the death toll exceeded 6,000, with over 40 caravans entirely wiped out. The remaining ones were temporarily reorganized by the rescue team, some joined other caravans, and some are currently under the temporary care of our Phoenix Society."