"You're forcing my hand..."
Within the electric net, Bai Jie silently sighed.
He had intended to slip away unnoticed, but was forced to deploy the electric net barrier against the rockets—and once he channeled spiritual power, his "Stealth Camouflage" automatically deactivated.
Ever since the fourth evolution, Bai Jie felt he was becoming more and more like a "monster."
His mastery over spiritual power had grown increasingly adept. Through that mysterious spiritual power, manipulating thunder and lightning had also produced more variations.
Aside from the basic Arc Expansion form, along with "Thunderous Might" and "Lightning Spear," this "Electric Net Barrier" was the third variation.
The "Thunder Control" ability had already reached the inconceivable realm of divine arts and spells.
Thud!
Bai Jie's eight spider legs sprang, soaring over ten meters into the air. A white spider web shot forth, hurtling toward Xingtian and rapidly expanding—in the blink of an eye it had multiplied several times in size.
This was precisely the skill awakened after the fourth evolution—Ten Thousand Binding Threads!
The web, under the sunlight, appeared faintly translucent, its patterns intricate, containing some mysterious regularity.
By the time the web reached Xingtian, it had already expanded to the size of a basketball court. Xingtian had no time to evade and shoved out a shield to intercept.
But when the web covered the surface of the giant shield, it continued to stretch and expand, as if it possessed its own vitality!
In a single breath, the web enveloped Xingtian's upper body.
Amidst the furious roar of the mecha's straining machinery, no matter how Xingtian tore at it with shield and arms, it could not break free—as if trapped in a quagmire.
Unfortunately, Xingtian's giant axe had not been retrieved after destroying the flesh mountain monster before pursuing Bai Jie.
"Sorry, but the tenacity and adhesiveness of the Ten Thousand Binding Threads can't be broken by brute force alone. White silk yyds..."
Swoosh! Swoosh!
As the demon spider mused, two more giant white webs shot out, covering Xingtian's legs and shoulders. Now Xingtian had completely lost its freedom—no matter how great its strength, it could not be exerted.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The sound of tearing wind erupted. Bai Jie's aura condensed, sensing the threat of missiles from above.
"Expand."
The space dimmed, blue-violet crystal light shimmering. The semi-circular electric net expanded its coverage range by another two meters, intercepting every missile bombardment.
But Bai Jie clearly felt his spiritual power plummeting rapidly, and the electric net barrier began to tremble, weak points appearing.
"Expanding to seven meters around my body... is that the limit?"
This was the first time he had used this variation at full strength.
Boom!
Suddenly, amidst violent twisting, Xingtian's massive body lost balance and toppled like a demolished high-rise, crashing down with surging dust clouds and shaking the earth.
Thud. Seeing this, the only girl present collapsed onto the ground, her eyes stretched to their limit, both hands covering her mouth as she sobbed.
She could hardly believe her eyes! That spider, so "tiny" compared to Xingtian, had immobilized Xingtian with just three webs, rendering it helpless?
This was the Axe-Wielder: Xingtian, hailed as a "weapon of war"!
"Not a bad effect. If only I could change the silk color to black..."
"After all, I still like black the most..."
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Two strange thoughts had just flashed through Bai Jie's mind when he saw a group of Enforcers rapidly surround Xingtian, simultaneously raising their bayonets and the gun muzzles in their palms to aim at him.
They were clearly worried he would continue attacking Xingtian.
Facing the gleaming metal mechanical crowd, Bai Jie was completely fearless, but had no desire for unnecessary complications.
If not for Xingtian's giant axe being damaged in the battle with the flesh mountain, the Ten Thousand Binding Threads might not have restrained Xingtian so easily.
Getting the meteorite fragment was enough! The top priority now was to extract its spirit essence.
The demon spider was about to withdraw—
But then he saw Xingtian's headless neck shoot two jet-black warheads into the sky. The warheads rose halfway, then burst open, dispersing into a silver-gray cloud before vanishing.
"What is that?"
Doubt arose in Bai Jie's mind, accompanied by an intense palpitation—every bristle on his body stood on end.
Danger! And far greater danger than rockets and missiles!
Yet he saw nothing at all.
Then the problem must lie in the silver-gray cloud that had just vanished.
Straining his perception to the maximum, Bai Jie finally "saw" countless things invisible to the naked eye flying towards him.
At the same time, he also discovered that the Ten Thousand Binding Threads binding Xingtian's mecha body had begun to collapse.
No, "dissolve" would be a more fitting description.
One by one, cracks too fine to see appeared on the spider silk, then these cracks expanded, converged, and ultimately snapped the Ten Thousand Binding Threads!
The next second, the invisible swarm in the air also crashed against his "Electric Net Barrier," producing crisp crackling sounds—like an electric fly swatter hitting a row of flies.
"Could it be... nanite insects?"
A thought flashed by, and the demon spider's wariness toward Xingtian and human technology deepened.
"This place is not safe to linger. Time to scram."
Crackle. A burst of blue-violet electric light exploded around Bai Jie's body.
After the flash, Bai Jie's figure had vanished from its original spot, reappearing dozens of meters away, then turning invisible as he carried the bucket-sized meteorite fragment and swiftly fled.
In the blink of an eye, the demon spider was nowhere to be seen.
The Enforcers then slightly relaxed, since it would still take some time for the nanites to undo the bindings of those eerie threads.
They had genuinely feared the mutant spider would continue attacking Xingtian or them.
But as the Enforcers gazed at Xingtian, entangled in webs like a silkworm cocoon, they fell into deep thought...
At that moment, Xingtian had given up struggling. A hatch slowly opened from the center of its chest, and a human figure crawled out.
The female streamer, exhausted and collapsed on the ground, gasped sharply and forced herself to raise her phone to record: "There's someone inside Xingtian?!"
The figure that emerged was a man, tall and upright, wearing a special combat suit. Removing his helmet revealed a cold, stern face with a dark expression.
If Chen Zhang were here and saw this face, he would certainly cry out in shock.
Because the man was none other than Liu Wei of Gaia Technology's Security Division.
Liu Wei's icy, tangible gaze swept sharply toward the female streamer's face, and the latter instantly felt as though she had fallen into a freezing cellar.
He raised his right hand—a black hole appeared in his palm, a flash of fire, and the female streamer's phone exploded with a crack.
The woman trembled in terror, her face paper-white.
"Are you... are you from the military or the government?!"
"How dare you fire upon a civilian?!" the woman cried out accusingly.
Hearing this, the gloom on Liu Wei's face grew even heavier. He sneered: "What kind of nobody are you?"
"I'm nothing more than a law-abiding citizen, employed by Gaia Technology's Security Division. Feel free to file a complaint against me!"