"Oh? And how exactly do we join you?" Priest Lang Jiao crossed his arms, the contemptuous smile returning to his face.
This bizarre Flying Shuttle had actually invited them to become "Divine Offspring" together and advance as priests.
The imposing momentum it had just built up vanished in an instant.
Would a Divine Offspring Priest need the help of others to become a Great Wizard?
Ridiculous!
"You merely need to be absorbed into our body."
The moment the Flying Shuttle's voice faded, its physical form began to change.
Metallic particles shifted around wildly like building blocks.
They possessed both the smooth fluidity of water and the sharp edge of metal.
"Deliver your heads into the passage, and the fusion will be complete."
Several priests barked out angry laughs at those words.
"Isn't that just asking us to hand ourselves over? You certainly dare to dream! Did you absorb too many consciousnesses and go insane?"
The Flying Shuttle didn't answer immediately. Instead, its outer shell shifted, forming a screen right above the cylindrical passage.
The screen flickered, and a human face appeared on it.
A face many of the priests recognized.
Priest Qian Que's face!
"Li He, it's been a while." Priest Qian Que wore a faint smile, looking exactly like an old friend of Li He's reuniting after a long separation.
"Priest Qian Que!" But the most surprised person present was Zhu Yao, who stood beside Li Ban.
She leaned forward, as if wanting to rush over, but ultimately didn't move, only staring over in absolute shock.
"Oh, Zhu Yao." Priest Qian Que's gaze shifted toward her, gentle and tinged with apology. "I'm sorry. Because of my incompetence, after I died in battle, you were forced to leave the Sea of Monsters in terror and despair, even exhausting all your spiritual rhinoceros. You must have suffered greatly these past few years."
Zhu Yao's eyelashes trembled, her lips trembled, her fingertips trembled—
Her entire body was practically shaking, rendering her speechless for a moment.
Li Ban silently reached out and grasped her left hand.
Their equally cold hands clasped together, yet they acted like a small furnace, warming Zhu Yao's heart.
She raised her head and spoke with a voice that was shaking yet resolute. "You aren't Priest Qian Que."
Qian Que smiled. "Of course I am Qian Que. I have merely changed my state of existence. I possess all my past memories; you may ask me anything you like."
The figure on the screen tilted his head. "Or would you rather I be dead than see me become a Divine Offspring?"
Zhu Yao puffed out her chest, no longer trembling at all.
"Knowing someone's memories does not mean you are them. The fact that you could even ask such a thing proves you aren't him at all!"
Just as the Priest Qian Que on the screen was about to say something else, two streaks of silver-blue lightning materialized out of thin air beside the Flying Shuttle.
Those two streaks of lightning ambushed the Flying Shuttle from the left and right.
At that moment, the figures of Priest Lang Jiao and Priest Li He standing in front of the group vanished like bubbles, reappearing on either side of the Flying Shuttle.
They had used Zhu Yao's emotional conversation with the enemy to leave fake illusions in their place, while their true bodies flanked the Flying Shuttle to unleash an electromagnetic beam ambush.
Though they rarely visited technology-based minor worlds, they still knew how to destroy complex metal constructs that relied on electrical power.
Even if their opponent wasn't relying on electricity but some other energy source, these searing, piercing electromagnetic beams could still deal massive damage.
However, just before the two electromagnetic beams could strike, a semi-transparent barrier flared to life over the metal Flying Shuttle's surface.
It was one of the most basic spells—the Protection Spell!
And this Protection Spell was incredibly strong; a joint ambush by two Solar Priests actually failed to pierce its surface.
Once the two electromagnetic blasts faded, the transparent shield dissipated along with them.
The Flying Shuttle hadn't suffered the slightest bit of damage throughout the entire exchange.
Such terrifying defensive power seemed to prove that it truly possessed the strength to call itself a "Divine Offspring."
An uproar broke out among the crowd.
Even Priest Lang Jiao and Priest Li He's expressions turned rather ugly.
'It's conserving energy?' Li Ban thought, his heart stirring. Over ten White Seeds instantly appeared in his palm. 'It didn't attack us first, but came out to demand our surrender after showing off a certain level of strength. Every spell it casts stops right at the limit. All these actions suggest it doesn't have enough energy. Otherwise, it could have just killed everyone and harvested our brains one by one.'
Li Ban immediately distributed the White Seeds in his hand to the priests around him.
Though there weren't many White Seeds, they clearly demonstrated his stance.
They could fight a war of attrition, and if necessary, he could provide spiritual rhinoceros to his companions.
Just as everyone gathered their strength, ready for a forceful assault...
Priest Qian Que on the screen suddenly let out a sigh.
"Alas, you don't actually think I'm negotiating with you because I can't kill you, do you?"
"I just didn't want to waste any more energy collecting a bunch of broken brains. Freshly deceased, relatively intact brains have a high fusion success rate. Severely damaged ones can only serve as lubricant for our outer shell."
"It seems this attempt at persuasion has failed once again. No matter, we will eventually find like-minded companions."
The screen twisted, and Priest Qian Que's face vanished from it.
Suddenly, vast amounts of a black, tar-like substance began oozing from the cracks between the silver metal particles on the Flying Shuttle's surface.
Priest Li He waved his hand, immediately signaling the attack.
The group of priests instantly charged forward.
Right behind the Flying Shuttle was the spatial rift.
As long as they could defeat it, the exit was right before their eyes.
As soon as the group sprang into action, all the dormant monsters within a 50-meter radius also began to roar, baring their fangs and brandishing their claws.
The black liquid dripping from the Flying Shuttle's surface broke away; the bulk of it coalesced in midair into a black shadow.
A smaller portion landed on the neck of a headless priest, forming a black human head.
Both figures simultaneously erupted with powerful spiritual rhinoceros fluctuations.
Shockingly, both possessed the strength of 8th Tier priests.
Yet seeing this, the furious Zhu Yao let out a sneer.
"Excellent. Now everything is exactly as we anticipated."
It was merely fighting two 8th Tier monsters—this was their area of expertise.
Priest Li He and Priest Lang Jiao each took on one of the 8th Tier monsters, both supported by 7th Tier Priests at their sides.
Even Zhu Yao and Priest Dong Yi, who had exhausted a massive amount of energy, didn't stay back.
As the most powerful combatant among the 7th Tier Priests, Priest Yu Hai currently stood guard, preventing the other monsters from interfering with the battle while keeping his eyes locked on the Flying Shuttle.
He quickly realized that, after generating that 8th Tier monster, the Flying Shuttle made no further moves.
'That monster's energy really is limited,' Yu Hai thought, the corners of his mouth curling up. He glanced at the spatial rift behind it, boundless battle intent surging in his heart.
They were about to succeed and escape the Recycling Station!
As a 6th Tier Star Glow Priest and the supplier of vast amounts of spiritual rhinoceros, Li Ban was silently protected in the center of the formation by several priests.
Although there were inevitably those harboring selfish ulterior motives among the group, they all knew what choices were best for the battle.
Li Ban didn't sit idle in the center, either. Every now and then, he would unleash his Starlight Domain to fend off monsters that were about to harm his companions.
While his Starlight Domain couldn't trap the two 8th Tier monsters in front, it was incredibly effective against the lesser beasts.
However, even though the monsters within the 50-meter radius were sparse, their overall numbers were still overwhelming for a group of just over twenty people.
No matter how vigilant Li Ban was, he couldn't protect everyone.
Just as he rapidly cast a guiding art to divert an attack aimed at Priest Dong Yi's back, Ming Kai, who was fighting in the rear, encountered a crisis of his own.
With so many ordinary people and a small number of priests having died in battle, he was already at the absolute bottom in terms of strength among the survivors.
The only reason he had survived this long was pure luck, along with a few instances of protection from the priests.
This time, however, with so few people against so many monsters, the two 8th Tier entities drew away the vast majority of the priests' attention.
There were no priests left to notice his peril.
A massive, razor-sharp two-fingered claw ambushed Ming Kai from behind and to the side, aiming straight for the spine at the back of his neck.
The claw didn't even need to pierce his brain; as long as it snapped his spine, Ming Kai would lose all ability to fight back, reduced to an immobile head ripe for the slaughter.
It seemed the monsters here had been trained by the Flying Shuttle, taking care to preserve intact brains during combat.
Right at that critical juncture, Tail suddenly struck.
She kicked the two-fingered claw away while grabbing Ming Kai's arm with one hand, yanking him out of the danger zone.
Kicked an inch off course by Tail, the claws merely scraped a layer of skin off Ming Kai's neck.
Having narrowly escaped with his life, Ming Kai had no time to rejoice. He hurriedly spun around, seizing the opportunity to strike at the monster's weak point.
At that moment, Li Ban also noticed the commotion behind him. He threw a Rending Technique over his shoulder, completely resolving their crisis.
Catching his breath, Ming Kai looked at Tail in surprise.
Despite being companions for almost half a year, Tail had always been a loner.
Aside from her penchant for seeking out the black dragon Dila to pet his tail, she rarely mingled with the others.
Only Li Ban could occasionally exchange a few words with her.
He hadn't expected her to actually risk herself to save him this time.
Tail shot Ming Kai a glance before turning back to the fight, leaving behind a faint sentence.
"We're still partners, for now."
Ming Kai suddenly broke into an unusually bright smile. As Tail turned around, he reached out and patted her on the head.
"Thanks, partner."
Tail was just about to clash with another monster when Ming Kai touched the back of her head, causing her to freeze for a second.
The monster in front of her lunged forward with its jaws wide open. Tail hastily sucked in her chest and stomach, narrowly dodging the blow, before her five fingernails instantly lengthened and pierced straight into the monster's skull.
Flicking her arm, she spun around and hurled the monster's corpse back, narrowly brushing past Ming Kai's head.
"We aren't that close. Try something like that again, and I'll cut your head off myself."
Ming Kai threw his hands up in surrender. "Sorry, sorry."
Tail couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, but after shaking her head, she still couldn't figure it out.
A third monster was already right in front of her. With no time to overthink things, she returned her focus to the battle.
Zhu Yao struggled to dodge a magical attack. Seizing the momentary opening, she retreated two steps.
Although the "Divine Offspring" was currently only controlling two priest monsters, because its puppets had no brains, they lacked their most vital weak point.
To defeat them, one had to either drain them of their spiritual rhinoceros or completely destroy their physical bodies.
Yet the two priest monsters had been fighting for quite some time with no sign of their spiritual rhinoceros waning; they had likely prepared a substantial reserve.
This was especially true for the second priest monster. Composed entirely of an unknown black liquid, ordinary spells couldn't do any real damage to it.
'If we used fire spells, we could definitely deal heavy damage, but the Recycling Station is completely devoid of fire. I'm afraid that's exactly why the Flying Shuttle released it,' Zhu Yao thought.
Relying on its immunity to physical damage, the black liquid priest monster used Shrinking Ground to an Inch almost non-stop.
At the very start of the battle, it had used this exact technique to instantly kill two 7th Tier Priests supporting from the rear.
Upon seeing this, Priest Li He had immediately summoned three of his subordinates, pulling them from frontline combat to constantly cast Spatial Oscillation Spells behind the group, preventing the enemy from teleporting close to them.
But because of this, there were even fewer priests free to fend off the surrounding monsters.
The ordinary Spirit Practitioner warriors, who were already stretched thin, suffered massive casualties once again.
In the end, only four remained.
Among them were Tail and Ming Kai, who were occasionally watched over by Li Ban.
The situation was growing increasingly perilous.
Zhu Yao turned her head to look at Priest Dong Yi beside her and sent him a voice transmission.
Priest Dong Yi, who was currently fighting, immediately nodded and flew over toward Zhu Yao with his two priest escorts.
With the frontline suddenly missing four priests, the battle became all the more arduous.
However, the rest of the group—including the domineering Priest Li He—didn't complain. They simply stepped in to fill the gaps in silence, stopping the two monsters from breaching their defensive line.
Seeing this from the rear, Li Ban immediately understood that Zhu Yao and Priest Dong Yi were planning to cast the Spatial Guidance Art again.
When used well, this art was highly efficient and incredibly lethal against hard-to-kill monsters.
It hadn't been long since they last cast the Spatial Guidance Art, and neither Zhu Yao nor Dong Yi had recovered much of their strength. As a result, they would jointly cast a single Spatial Guidance Art this time.
Li Ban spoke to Tail and Ming Kai in a low voice. "Be careful, you two. I have to go protect Zhu Yao."
When casting the Spatial Guidance Art, Zhu Yao had to devote her complete focus to it, leaving her entirely incapable of defending herself.
Last time, she'd had the priest guards of Lanying Camp by her side.
But after several grueling rounds of combat, their priest numbers had also dwindled by nearly half. Now, she only had a single priest guard stationed next to her, one recently dispatched by Chief Yu Hai.
Priest Li He's subordinates were practically all occupied supporting his battle, and Priest Lang Jiao was similarly working with his own men to pin down the other priest monster.
However, he had assigned his last Bottled Person to Zhu Yao's side.
It was none other than Chao Lu, who had yet to be detonated as an explosive.
Just as she arrived beside Zhu Yao, she saw Li Ban flying over as well.
Chao Lu murmured, "Priest Ban, if the opportunity arises, please do not hesitate. Detonate me immediately."
Both Li Ban and Lang Jiao held detonators for the explosives inside her body.
Yet for some unknown reason, during the previous battles, Priest Lang Jiao had detonated all the other Bottled People, leaving only her behind.
And Priest Li Ban hadn't even taken out his detonator once.
Chao Lu wasn't afraid of sacrificing herself.
Especially after seeing Priest Huinv take down the monsterized Priest Chu Zhan all by herself, her conviction had only grown stronger.
Ever since all her companions died overnight, she had lost all desire to leave the Recycling Station.
If it weren't for the fact that she didn't want her death to be completely meaningless, Chao Lu might have been just like the other broken humans, allowing herself to become a monster and turn on her companions.
Looking at Chao Lu's numb expression and hearing her resolute tone, Li Ban didn't refuse. He gave a slight nod.