I take life very seriously 93. Godzilla-Class Demon Beast (3)

Fortunately, for construction management and safety, all transport vehicles here were equipped with autonomous driving software systems, so in barely a minute, more than a thousand trucks had been mobilized by the living social network.

One after another, the trucks entered the factory and came out laden with mixed cement, asphalt, paint, white latex glue, and every other adhesive material that could be loaded.

Not only that, but thousands of empty trucks were still rushing in from nearby to keep the transport going.

Meanwhile, the beast had not stopped its wild charge. At its current speed, it was expected to reach the ambush zone in thirty-five minutes.

Zhang Mingjing and the others were still doing everything they could to hinder its advance. Catherine directed her light swords to flash in and out before its eyes, disturbing its vision; Jamiro kept smashing its head with a light hammer; and Zhang Mingjing, together with the three satellites, kept up the assault as well. Even so, the effect was still far from ideal, and they could only gain about eight extra minutes to set the trap for the living social network.

Fifteen minutes later, the trucks arrived one after another and began dumping building materials at the site.

But after everything had been poured out, the layer spread across the ground was still thin. Forget trapping the beast’s limbs; it did not even seem possible to ensnare a horse.

A great many trucks continued hauling over more adhesive materials, but time was running short. At this pace, what they produced in the end would never be enough to hold the beast.

“What do we do?” Zhang Mingjing asked. “Does your social network have any other experts?”

The living social network was searching with all its might.

And truly, when heaven leaves a path open, there is no dead end. It quickly reported, “Five kilometers from the ambush site, there is a reservoir. If the soil at the ambush ground is blasted apart and the reservoir water released, it could quickly turn the place into a quagmire. Add in all that cement, paint, asphalt, white latex glue, and so on, and it should have some effect.”

At this, Zhang Mingjing was both delighted and astonished. The living social network’s words once again shattered his worldview; he had never expected it to have become so intelligent.

Even the five-dimensional thought model marveled, “This living network is truly unfathomable.”

“Ha...” Zhang Mingjing laughed, a faint chill creeping up his spine.

Zhang Mingjing had already ordered the three satellites to bombard the two-kilometer ambush zone with laser fire, and the War God satellite had also sent the plan to the commander of the War God detachment, requesting support.

Though the War God forces still did not know what power was truly protecting Earth and destroying monsters and beasts, they were certain that this power deserved their assistance, so they immediately began mobilizing the War God detachment’s weapon systems to bomb the ambush stretch.

Under the concentrated bombardment of the three satellites and the War God detachment’s large forces, seven minutes later the two-kilometer-long, one-kilometer-wide ambush zone had its ground thoroughly loosened. Most of it had been blown into clods of earth, and the loosening reached more than twenty meters deep.

“Once the water passes through, it will seep in without fail. And the living social network already had over a thousand engineering vehicles dig crude drainage channels,” Zhang Mingjing said.

By then the reservoir had also been opened, and water began surging out. Soon, much of it indeed seeped into the soil, but the bombardment did not stop. Only in this way could the entire area be churned together and turned into a genuine mud pit.

After more than thirty minutes of effort, the ambush ground had finally become a vast quagmire, filled with large amounts of cement, asphalt, white latex glue, paint, and other strongly adhesive building materials.

By now, the beast was only six kilometers away, and would likely arrive in another five or six minutes.

What Zhang Mingjing and the others had to do now was ensure that the beast would fall into this super quagmire. So long as there was even the slightest chance it might veer off course, they would drive it back with full firepower. At the same time, the three satellites, along with the War God detachment’s missiles and unmanned combat aircraft, did their utmost to assist.

Fortunately, although the space-time monster code was intelligent and possessed many superpowers, the host it had created had an innate fatal flaw, the kind no amount of strength could make up for.

That flaw was that the beast’s brain remained an animal brain, which nearly crippled the superpowers of the space-time monster code. Thus it failed to notice the quagmire and kept charging straight toward it. Or perhaps it simply looked down on everything before its eyes and held all obstacles in contempt. In any case, five minutes later, it leaped into the quagmire.

By then, the depth of the mire was just slightly higher than its four feet. After it plunged in, it floated there, unable to touch the ground, able only to struggle forward at a sluggish pace.

By this point, the Bagua Formation of Zhang Yidao and Xiao Nuxia had already siphoned off the beast’s energy twice, and this was the third round. After this round, the beast’s excess energy would be exhausted by the formation. With each subsequent drain, it would grow weaker. This was a tremendous chance of victory for the Daoist team, so the longer the beast remained trapped in the quagmire, the better.

At the moment, if one calculated by the beast’s speed, the energy sphere was only forty minutes away. If it managed to leave the quagmire, they would be in serious trouble.

The quagmire ahead was no more than two kilometers long and one kilometer wide. For the beast, it was like a slightly larger bathtub, and it was now slowly making its way toward the opposite bank of mud.

Cement, asphalt, paint, and the like were still being hauled in by truckload and dumped into the mire, but for now the effect was not very obvious.

At that moment, Zhang Mingjing said, “We must keep expanding the quagmire, or it will be out in no time.”

As soon as he finished, he had already sent the order to the Daoist group, and everyone began extending the mire farther in front of the beast. Explosions rang out one after another ahead of it, smoke and dust billowed skyward, the earth was once again blasted loose, and then thousands of engineering vehicles began channeling the reservoir water toward that spot.

Who could have guessed that just when everything was progressing with such fervor and everyone was thrilled, the beast suddenly spat out streams of white light, attacking the incoming missiles and the nearby drones, attacking Zhang Mingjing and the others, and even attacking the satellites overhead.

In the end, however many missiles came, they were all shot down by the white light from its mouth.

Though the three satellites were not struck, they had no choice but to adjust their coordinates and leave the vulnerable attack zone. As a result, they could no longer bombard the ground in front of the beast.

Zhang Mingjing, Catherine, and Jamiro also had to dodge the beast’s attacks, which prevented them from continuing to expand the quagmire.

Worst of all, the transport convoys and engineering convoys were nearly obliterated by the white light spat from the beast’s mouth, and the situation suddenly seemed once again to be very unfavorable for the Daoist team.

Although the beast’s forward speed was painfully slow, it was still moving, and the quagmire was too small for it. At that pace, it could be out in five or six minutes.

Just then, the five-dimensional thought model suddenly reminded Zhang Mingjing, “Have you noticed? Its speed is slowing.”

When Zhang Mingjing looked again, he indeed saw the beast’s speed decreasing. The change was tiny, but absolutely real.

At the same time, he saw that the cement, asphalt, paint, and other materials in the quagmire had become slightly harder than before, which meant they were starting to solidify. Zhang Mingjing instantly understood why the beast was slowing down.

So he said to Zhang Yidao, “Zhang Yidao, release some of the energy in the Bagua Formation into the quagmire. Just a little, only a little!”

“Just a little? Why?” Zhang Yidao asked.

“Don’t ask now. Do it quickly—the beast is only one step away from getting out.”

“All right!”

As Zhang Yidao answered, even before the last syllable had fallen, his intention had already moved, and the eight trigrams of the formation began releasing energy.

In an instant, the quagmire suddenly solidified.

In that same instant, Zhang Mingjing shouted for them to stop.

And in that same instant, Zhang Yidao had the Bagua Formation cease releasing energy.

It turned out that when the formation had just released energy, though only a little, it was still enormous by ordinary standards. If they continued, it might bring disaster to the three-dimensional world, and the beast would seize the chance to escape the quagmire.

The burst of energy had brought about high temperatures in an instant, and in that same instant, it had evaporated the moisture in the mire.

The mixture of soil, cement, asphalt, paint, and the like in the quagmire hardened at once, and the beast seemed to be firmly trapped.

At last the beast could no longer move. Zhang Yidao directed the two Bagua formations to accelerate the absorption of its energy.

But no one thought the battle could end there.

Sure enough, the beast began spitting white light again, blasting the hardened matter around its body.

The five-dimensional thought model said, “It should be able to get out in about fifteen minutes. By then, the Bagua Formation will complete another round of energy removal, stripping away one-fifth of its power. But it will need two more rounds before it becomes weak enough for you to kill.”

“Damn it! How wide does my imagination have to be to keep it pinned down for another forty minutes?” Zhang Mingjing complained, then began firing the Star-Sucking Fist toward the beast.

“It really is difficult... We’d better hurry up and think of something!” the five-dimensional thought model sighed.

At that moment, the beast’s white light bombarded the concrete and mud around its left and right sides with irresistible force. Its front legs were already able to move, but its hind legs were still firmly fixed, because it could not use the white light to bomb the concrete behind its rear end.

Zhang Mingjing and the five-dimensional thought model seemed to sense the opportunity at the same time, though neither said so.

Zhang Mingjing immediately had Catherine and Jamiro transmit the energy from their battle armor into him. He gathered that energy together and transformed it into a massive light drill.

“It’s been a long time since I used this!” Zhang Mingjing laughed, then began directing the light drill to bore into the beast’s rear.

Once that light drill penetrated the beast’s body, it would instantly devour a vast amount of its energy. The five-dimensional thought model calculated that the energy absorbed was nearly equal to two rounds of absorption by Zhang Yidao’s Bagua Formation. Combined, the two would leave the beast weak enough for the Daoist team to destroy.

At that moment, the beast could neither turn its head nor move its body, so at first it could only let the light drill bore mercilessly into its rear. Then it began frantically shaking the front half of its body, hoping to loosen the concrete around the back half.

The trick actually worked a little. The concrete was shaken this way and that, trembling violently, and the cracks began to widen. Yet the beast’s skin was hard and sturdy, as if not of this world. For the light drill to pierce it would take more than a moment’s effort, and if it broke free before then, trouble would follow.

Fortunately, the beast’s tail, more than forty meters long, was tightly wrapped in a hardened mass of soil, cement, paint, and other mixed materials. Even though it kept violently shaking its rear, it still could not escape. Moreover, the amplitude of its movements was not very large. This bought Zhang Mingjing a crucial window of time.