When the Yunhe号 had not yet departed, Ou Zhanpeng knew that the mysterious existence was bound to be extraordinary. But only now did he realize that by merely unintentionally tearing open a corner of the mysterious existence's veil, everyone present had been utterly stunned, their thoughts in disarray.
The power of the mysterious existence far surpassed ordinary imagination, even giving the illusion of transcending science.
In fact, Ou Zhanpeng was unsure if his guesses were entirely correct, but he believed it to be the closest answer to the truth.
Lost in thought, a large hand suddenly waved before his eyes. Snapping back to reality, Ou Zhanpeng looked up and met Ling Xiao's face. "Hey, hey, thinking of your Xu Qing? So lost in thought?"
"No," Ou Zhanpeng smiled. "Many questions I couldn't find answers to before, but now that I've sorted through the current line of thought, all the answers are perfect!"
He glanced at the frozen battlefield on the terminal, his tone filled with emotion.
"What are you talking about?" Ling Xiao was confused. With all these questions and answers, what was going on?
"Can we talk properly? Are you unable to handle such great stimulation, has your brain gone haywire?"
Ou Zhanpeng laughed even more heartily, "I'm fine, I've never been better!"
Ling Xiao strongly disagreed, "Really? I don't see anything good about you!"
Ou Zhanpeng smiled without answering, suddenly feeling a sense of clarity, as if everyone else was drunk while he alone was sober.
At this moment, his thoughts were as follows: A group of space pirates, for some reason, discovered the solar system. Their warships passed through a wormhole and appeared at the edge of the solar system.
The appearance of the pirates alerted the mysterious existence that had been guarding the solar system. It immediately dispatched gray and white warships to intercept and, at the critical moment of the fierce battle, activated time weapons to trap the enemy.
However, blocking the pirates was not enough. To awaken the apathetic humanity, the mysterious existence deliberately held back, allowing the broken warships to reach Earth.
Thus, the broken warships suddenly appeared in Earth's sky, single-handedly crushing the two major fleets and nearly annihilating humanity's space combat capabilities.
Only through personal pain could humanity understand how precarious its situation was.
Having achieved its purpose of warning humanity, the mysterious existence intervened in time to destroy the broken warships, buying a little time for Earth and humanity.
It was also at that moment that the mysterious existence quietly planted a seed within him, leading to a series of subsequent changes, eventually drawing him here!
At this moment, Ou Zhanpeng could not say whether he was fortunate or unfortunate. He possessed the satisfaction of understanding everything, of hearing the Way in the morning and being content to die in the evening, but also the anxiety of a path fraught with thorns and dangers.
"Don't worry, I'm fine," Ou Zhanpeng calmed himself and began to consider the current difficulty. "We can't let this black warship reach Earth. We must sink it!"
His voice was calm, exactly as it had been when Xu Qing decided to stay.
Humanity had already lost half of North America. If the black warship descended again... no, even approaching it was dangerous. Who could guarantee that the Eastern Hemisphere would not disappear? Only by blocking alien species outside Earth could humanity's safety be ensured.
Ling Xiao was shocked, but all his expressions quickly turned to determination. "Then let's sink it!"
He was often sarcastic, joked around, and was rather unreliable, with a long list of flaws that could be enumerated. But no matter when, he never forgot that he was a soldier.
"Bridge!" Ou Zhanpeng opened communications. "Maintain a safe distance and give Target One a full salvo!"
"Bridge understands!" Xu Qing replied. "Zeng Qiao!"
"Leave it to me!" Zeng Qiao operated swiftly. A low-energy laser, invisible to the naked eye, was shone onto the surface of the black warship. Following this, the ship's four triple-barreled turrets locked onto the target, and twelve beams of light pierced the void, simultaneously hitting the aiming points on the black warship.
The beams continued to shine for seven seconds, but when the bombardment ended, the black warship showed no change.
Ling Xiao became restless. "Why no change?"
Ou Zhanpeng analyzed seriously, "These temporal changes must not be as simple as we imagine. It's likely a gradual change from the outside in. So much time has passed, and the explosion's flames haven't changed much. A few seconds on our side is ten or even several months on theirs. Therefore, the energy that should have been concentrated at one point might have dispersed after passing through the temporal barrier, which is why we can't see the effect... Let's try the electromagnetic cannon again!"
"Armor-piercing round loaded... power at one hundred percent, fire!"
The Yunhe号 vibrated slightly as the armor-piercing round flew directly towards the target. However, this time it was worse than the laser. The moment the shell contacted the barrier, it was fixed in the void and then, like the sand transformation special effect in movies, it simply vanished into thin air.
Witnessing this, everyone's eyes widened in disbelief.
"What's going on?" Ling Xiao scratched the back of his head vigorously. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he would never have believed it.
Ou Zhanpeng's mind raced, and he voiced his conjecture, "Perhaps it's because of the speed."
"What do you mean?"
It was difficult to explain. Ou Zhanpeng scratched his head, "I guess the temporal flow rate on both sides of the barrier is different. The shell's head and tail are in different times. The front suddenly slowed down, while the rear's speed didn't change. These two forces interacted, causing the shell's micro-structure to collapse. That's roughly what I mean."
"Why is it so complicated?" Ling Xiao complained immediately, but he generally understood. "That's not right. The temporal flow rate is different on both sides of the barrier, but the shell's speed should be the same on either side. How could its micro-structure collapse? Look at the satellites; they're fine, aren't they?"
"I already said it's my guess. I haven't studied this thing, so how would I know why?" Ou Zhanpeng extricated himself cleanly with a single sentence. "Or perhaps the temporal barrier itself has some special property that doesn't allow high-speed passage, only low-speed travel."
At this point, his voice abruptly stopped. He suddenly thought of a possibility, "The weapons on the asteroid can't lock onto targets. Could it be because their power is too great? If a single shot destroyed the barrier, time would return to normal on the battlefield, and we'd be completely finished!"
"Impossible, right? That's time, how can it be destroyed?" Ling Xiao immediately objected.
"But the temporal barrier isn't real time. It must utilize some principle we don't yet understand, and altering time surely requires enormous energy!" Ou Zhanpeng's thoughts became clearer and clearer. "What if the weapon's energy interfered with the barrier, disrupting its originally stable energy structure?"
"Damn!" Ling Xiao sized Ou Zhanpeng up. "Ou Fei, you're something else, talking like it's real! But is thinking about this useful? Can it destroy the black warship?"
"How is it not useful? If we understand the principle of the barrier, we'll know how to destroy the black warship!"
"I can't argue with you!" Ling Xiao sighed helplessly. "But after all that talk, have you thought of a solution?"
Ou Zhanpeng deflated instantly. "No."
Ling Xiao didn't want to discourage his friend and racked his brain for ideas. "Our shipboard weapons are useless, and the weapons on the asteroid can't be used. Unless we find a weapon that can destroy the black warship without affecting the barrier..."
Before he finished speaking, Ou Zhanpeng looked up abruptly. "The Horizon, we can use the Horizon cannon!"
Ling Xiao was taken aback. "You mean that broken warship?"
The real Horizon was still on Earth, but there was a broken warship outside the asteroid, and it should still have the Horizon cannon!
The problem arose again. Ling Xiao asked doubtfully, "It's not that I doubt you, but can just us few people do it? Besides, we're both stuck here!"
All the assumptions were based on the premise of leaving. If they couldn't even open the door, what were they talking about?
"Maybe we should let others land," Ling Xiao suggested. "Bring explosives, blow open... the compartment... chamber..."
Mid-sentence, Ling Xiao's voice suddenly elongated and distorted. Before Ou Zhanpeng could figure out what was happening, his vision went black, and he lost consciousness.
Ling Xiao was greatly alarmed and quickly supported Ou Zhanpeng, connecting to the terminal to read his physical information. The result showed that all his physiological indicators were excellent.
Young Master Ling was furious. He himself had a bit of low blood sugar, but this guy was as strong as an ox.
But how could he just faint like that?
As he was wondering, the holographic projection filling the cabin quietly disappeared, and the long-lost door appeared on the cabin wall.
Ling Xiao almost ground his back teeth. So, the door only opened when Ou Zhanpeng fainted? Whose mischievous child designed this?
He hoisted Ou Zhanpeng up and walked out, passing through the compartment and back into the passage, finally letting out a long sigh of relief.
Regardless of the situation, the priority was to get out of here!
When Ou Zhanpeng regained consciousness, he was already back on the Yunhe号. As soon as he opened his eyes, a group of people immediately surrounded him.
"You're finally awake!" Ling Xiao's eyes were red.
Ou Zhanpeng was deeply moved. What a good brother! He looked so anxious.
He didn't expect Ling Xiao's next sentence to completely dispel his感动. "If you didn't wake up, I would have had your Xu Qing tear me to pieces!"
So, he was afraid of being disciplined, which was why he looked like he was about to cry?
Xu Qing grabbed Ou Zhanpeng's arm and felt him all over. "Are you okay? Does anything hurt?"
The others also looked at him with concern.
Ou Zhanpeng patted Xu Qing's hand and managed a strained smile. "Don't worry, I'm fine. Let's deal with the black warship first!"
Ling Xiao noticed something was off. "Ou Fei, are you really okay? You don't seem quite right to me."
Hearing this, Ou Zhanpeng showed no reaction, but Xu Qing became very worried.
These two grew up together, and Ling Xiao understood Ou Zhanpeng better than she did. If Ling Xiao said something was off, there must be something off.
"I just had a dream, a very long dream," Ou Zhanpeng pursed his lips. "We'll talk about what I dreamed later... Zeng Qiao!"
"Here!"
"Target the black warship, fire the electromagnetic cannon at full power, and fire all the shells!"
"Yes!"
Zeng Qiao executed the order without hesitation. Shell after shell was fired, and they all vanished after hitting the barrier, leaving everyone baffled.
"I don't understand, what's the point of firing like this?" Xu Qing asked, confused.
Ou Zhanpeng replied immediately, "The time on both sides is inconsistent, which causes them to disappear, but they don't completely disappear. Instead, they decompose into fundamental particles. From our perspective, the speed of the shells passing through the barrier becomes very slow, but from the battlefield's perspective, the shells' speed doesn't decrease."
Ling Xiao felt a bit dizzy. "Stop with all the useless talk. Are you going to lecture us on quantum mechanics or something? Speak plainly!"
Ou Zhanpeng didn't care, but Xu Qing glared fiercely at Ling Xiao.
"The shells decompose into countless metal atoms and hit the black warship at extremely high speeds. What do you think that's like?" Ou Zhanpeng asked.
Ling Xiao's reaction was extremely fast, and he gave a somewhat uncertain answer, "Low-speed particle cannon? Is that right?"
"Close enough," Ou Zhanpeng stood up. "You guys stay here and keep firing. Ling Xiao, come with me!"
"Again?" Ling Xiao was completely displeased. "Can we get someone else?"
Ou Zhanpeng stopped. "We're not going into the asteroid, we're going to dismantle the cannon!"
"Oh!" Ling Xiao immediately breathed a sigh of relief. "That's fine then!"
It was unavoidable, as there were only eight people on the ship, and they had to split up.
The shuttle flew out of the warship. Ling Xiao asked worriedly, "We don't have to go back to the asteroid, do we?"
"We definitely have to go back, but not now," Ou Zhanpeng said.
This statement made Ling Xiao's heart sink. "Next time, let your Xu Qing go. I'm not participating."
He still managed to tease while refusing, which was typical Ling Xiao.
Ou Zhanpeng was surprisingly agreeable. "Fine, stay and accompany your Coco."
"Don't talk nonsense, there's nothing between us," Ling Xiao said.
Ou Zhanpeng let it go in one ear and out the other, paying no attention. "What's your relationship, and what does it have to do with me?"
As they spoke, the shuttle arrived at the broken warship. However, the Horizon cannon was located beneath the ship's hull, and this area was covered by thick ice and snow.
But it didn't matter. Ou Zhanpeng was very aware of the broken warship's strength. He disengaged the safety, revealed the cannon, and unleashed a barrage of firepower.
This was actually not advisable, as the bullets and ice shards would remain suspended in the surroundings, artificially creating a lot of debris that could negatively impact the shuttle.
But at this point, he couldn't afford to worry about that. The priority was to dismantle the cannon as quickly as possible.
Once the cannon barrel was exposed, Ou Zhanpeng's actions became much gentler. He used a thermal lamp to melt the remaining ice, freeing the cannon barrel, and then carefully dismantled it with mechanical arms, taking the cannon apart!
Having participated in the dismantling of the Horizon cannon at Luojiang Mountain, the process was somewhat familiar. It took more than four hours to complete the dismantling.
By this time, the Yunhe号 had finished firing all its shells and had flown nearby to pick them up.
Ou Zhanpeng continued his efforts, spending another few hours installing the cannon onto the Yunhe号. The first test was a success!
It had to be said that alien manufacturing was indeed quality assurance. No matter how many years it had been idle in this place, this cannon was still perfectly intact.
Returning to the warship, Ou Zhanpeng, ignoring his exhaustion, said, "Let's change our angle and keep firing, blast them to hell!"