Chapter 42: High-Stakes Gamble

Yet this was nearly her ultimate trump card, demanding a horrific cost—to drain her spiritual power to the point of weakness was equivalent to death itself.

Exposing the ability of the hourglass was also an immense hazard, especially within this chaotic instance trial where hearts remained unsettled and perils lurked on every side.

There was no time to delay!

The ramming of the bone arms did not cease; the hull's fractures were widening, the lights flickering, and the sea of blood closing in!

Su Liu abruptly snapped her eyes open, her gaze as sharp as a blade, as if the moment she had closed them just now was merely spent in lightning-fast processing of the observed data.

Facing the despairing gazes of the others, she spoke at a rapid tempo, pointing straight to the core that Moyu had discovered:

"Concentrate on one point! Attack that heart! Aya's [Abyssal Grease] and [Fluorescent Spore Cyst] are the keys!"

Chen Wu blurted anxiously, "We've tried! The bone arms are blocking it, and the sea of blood absorbs the damage! Moyu saw it too, that damned thing heals instantly the moment it's beaten!"

"The time gap!" Su Liu stated with absolute finality.

"Its regeneration has a 'rhythm'! Like breathing! Its defense is strongest at the moment of inhalation, and the 'turning point' from exhalation to inhalation is its most vulnerable window! The energy is flowing backward, and its new strength hasn't been born yet!"

She deliberately omitted any mention of time manipulation, entirely deriving her explanation from her recent observations and Moyu's intelligence to conceal her own Hourglass of the Hour of Chen.

"We need to deliver the fatal blow right at this 'turning point'! It must be synchronized! It must be precise!"

She looked at Lorraine, who had gathered her resolve. Though fear still lingered in the eyes of the latter as she tightly shielded Xiaoyue, she was no longer panicked:

"Lorraine! At this critical juncture, none of us may have the leisure to protect the kerosene lamp. Can this task be entrusted to you?"

Lorraine gave a start, then nodded heavily.

Su Liu immediately pivoted to Moyu:

"Mr. Moyu, can you and 'Crow' discern the precise timing of that turning point? We need your guidance! At the same time, try to disrupt the surrounding energy circulation."

Moyu nodded in silence. His black crow soared instantly into the air, its eyes blazing with a profound dark luminescence, locking dead onto the throbbing heart as if analyzing the invisible curve of its energy cycle.

Finally, her burning gaze fixed upon Aya:

"Aya! Mix all your remaining [Abyssal Grease] and [Fluorescent Spore Cysts] together to forge the largest possible 'burst bomb'! Take advantage of the instant when the core is marked, the turning point appears, and the bone arms are engaged by the others..."

She pointed forcefully toward the core, "Hurl it in with all your might!"

"Leave it to me!" Aya bit her lip, immediately rummaging through her materials. With Zhizhi struggling fiercely to assist her, she began crafting a mixed explosive of unprecedented destructive power.

"Brother Chen! We'll mount a feint on a massive scale to draw the fire of the bone arms! Create the opportunity and time window for Aya's throw!"

Su Liu commanded in conclusion.

"Fine! Let's gamble it all!" A resolute gleam erupted in Chen Wu's eyes as the phantom of the dark tortoise surged once more, crashing head-on toward a massive, sweeping bone arm!

The plan was set; the high-stakes gamble had begun!

Amidst the driving rain and raging thunderstorms, the Symbiosis Ship emitted the death rattle of impending dissolution within the encirclement of the ghost ship armada.

Moyu's black crow wove a silent countdown in the air, locking onto the life-or-death "turning point."

The mixed compound in Aya's hands emitted a dangerous, unstable energy fluctuation.

Clutching her dagger, Su Liu stood before Aya, her entire body's power held in reserve, her focus intensely concentrated as she awaited that single moment—

The power of the Hourglass of the Hour of Chen was already rotating and standing by within her spiritual space, waiting only for Moyu's signal or the confirmation of that "turning point"...

"—Right now!"

Moyu's low, urgent voice pierced like a sharp awl through the howling gale and the roar of the bone arms slamming against the hull!

Before his voice had even faded, the dark luminescence in the eyes of the black crow perched on his shoulder flared brilliantly, and an invisible mental imprint was precisely branded onto the violently pulsing mass of rotting flesh far away!

The flashing position of that imprint pointed directly to the tiniest interval within its energy cycle where the old strength was exhausted and the new strength had yet to be born!

Su Liu, who had already poured her entire mind and soul into Moyu's guidance, made a resolute choice in that exact same split second!

Deep within her spiritual world, the [Hourglass of the Hour of Chen]—swirling with starlight micro-glows—suddenly burst into an unprecedented, dazzling radiance!

The blue radiances at both ends of the hourglass instantly reversed, collided, and annihilated—not accelerating or decelerating, but plunging into a powerful stagnation!

Su Liu poured every ounce of spiritual power she could currently summon, including a portion of her latent potential, into it without reservation, transforming it into an invisible, intensely focused command of sheer will:

"Slow down—at the transition point of the core energy cycle!"

"Hum—!"

A strange ripple, invisible to the naked eye yet potent enough to shake the laws of energy, was like a massive boulder cast into the river of time. It crossed space instantaneously and struck the rotting flesh core with absolute precision!

At the very nick of time, just as its "breath" was about to complete its cyclical transition and violently erupt with regenerative force, the shifting sands of time were forcibly slowed in their flow!

This ten-thousandth of a second was virtually negligible in the physical world.

Yet for those who were fully prepared and had seized this exact "moment," it was a window that decided life or death!

The group moved into action!

"Break through!!!"

Chen Wu's hair and beard stood on end as he let out a heaven-shaking roar.

The heavy phantom of the dark tortoise was driven to its absolute limit. Instead of clashing head-on with the bone arms, it charged like the most formidable battering ram straight toward the energy core point marked by the mental imprint and slowed by time!

Wherever the phantom passed, the blood-sea barrier churned violently and dissolved as if meeting its nemesis!

The instant Su Liu issued her command, all fear vanished from Aya's eyes, replaced solely by the final throw into which a mechanist poured her entire conviction!

"Go—[Abyssal Grease Spore Rupture Bomb]!!"

With every ounce of strength in her body, she transformed the dark green sphere in her hand—which fused the unstable combustion power of [Abyssal Grease] and the ultra-high-temperature eruption of [Fluorescent Spore Cysts]—into a precise trajectory, hurling it fiercely toward the doubly locked core!

Lorraine tightly embraced Xiaoyue, pressing both hands against the violently fluctuating kerosene lamp at the prow, pouring her entire will into it:

"Hold on!!"

A pale blue halo expanded outward fiercely with her as the center. Though it lasted merely a fraction of a second, it precisely neutralized the most powerful corrosive backlash of the blood-sea barrier, clearing the final obstacle for Aya's throw and Chen Wu's charge!

The moment the mental imprint landed, Moyu's black crow transformed into a streak of black lightning, its sharp beak thrusting directly into the roiling, filthy blood vessels surrounding the outer core!

It was no reckless attack; acting like the most exquisite surgical scalpel, it instantly disrupted the energy transmission pathways between the heart and the surrounding ghost ship armada, further widening that instantaneous core "vacuum."

The ghost ships disintegrated!

There was no earth-shattering explosion.

The time-stagnation effect shattered after lasting only a single ten-thousandth of a second, but that frozen "point" had already borne the brunt of all superimposed impacts!

Splat... Boom...!

Aya's rupture bomb detonated first.

The abyssal grease was ignited into an ultra-high temperature by the instantaneous triggering of the spores, and the dazzling deep green intertwined with orange-red firelight bloomed to its heart's content within the rotting flesh core!

The searing molten current ruthlessly incinerated the corrupted tissues within.

Immediately afterward, the dark tortoise phantom—condensing Chen Wu's full strength and conviction—crashed heavily into it. The ten-thousandth-of-a-second lag allowed the force to erupt entirely without attenuation upon the most vulnerable tissue of the core!

The once-resilient rotting flesh shattered apart instantly like rotted wood struck by a heavy mallet!

The very second the core fractured—

Wail... Roar...!!!

Every single ghost ship emitted a lament that pierced deep into the soul!

The terrifying bone arms encircling the Symbiosis Ship instantly lost their source of power, hanging limply before shattering inch by inch and plunging as pale, broken bones into the churning sea of blood.

The roiling, dark red sea of blood lost its nauseating vitality and corrosive potency as if its backbone had been drawn; its color began to fade, and its turbulent surges subsided.