Chapter 91: Chapter 86: Lv16 Red Profound Flying Armor, Qin Hu Seriously Injured

While the Level 15 Armored Tank was undergoing its fusion Upgrade, Lin Feng ran to the trunk and opened the sealed hatch.

The Folding Space’s soundproofing was excellent now. Even if the only surviving Cyan-winged Zerg thrashed about and made noise, it would be difficult to notice from the outside.

Inside the trunk, only the Zerg and a pair of Membrane Wings from another of its kind remained.

Lin Feng planned to install the Membrane Wings onto his Red Profound Armor.

He wanted to add some new Attributes to the Level 15 armor.

’It would be another ace up my sleeve for escaping.’

As for the live Zerg, Lin Feng had other plans for it.

Cyan-winged Zergs were rare, their numbers only about one-fifth that of the Black Spine Zergs, and it was very difficult to capture one alive.

’I’ll try cutting off its Membrane Wings and then see if I can get it to grow a new pair by feeding it,’ he thought. ’That way, I can harvest them repeatedly.’

If it worked, he wouldn’t have to risk staying deep in Zerg Race territory, lying in wait for Cyan-winged Zergs to appear.

This time, they had nearly been surrounded by a Swarm led by Tiger Spine Zergs. It was all thanks to Chen Yanyan’s constant vigilance; she had scouted out the danger in advance, buying them precious time to retreat safely.

After taking out the last pair of Membrane Wings, Lin Feng called Han Yuxin and asked her to bring back a truckload of fresh meat when she returned.

Cheap, bulk-frozen chicken or duck would be fine.

He then closed the trunk and went into the repair shop to Upgrade his Red Profound Armor.

This Upgrade required fusing seven pairs of Giant Mandibles, but Lin Feng also added a pair of Cyan Wing Zerg Membrane Wings. With a flash of red light, the Upgrade was quickly completed.

Item Upgrades were faster than those for large equipment, a fact related to an item’s volume and the depth of fusion.

A few minutes later, the brand-new Level 16 Red Profound Armor appeared on Lin Feng’s arm. Its black-and-red exterior now featured a new ring of cyan-green scales.

When he activated the Full Body Armor form, a pair of folded, retractable Membrane Wings appeared on his back, just outside his shoulder blades, though they were much smaller than those of a Cyan-winged Zerg.

Lin Feng watched the stats refresh before him. As expected, upgrading with the Membrane Wings had added new Attributes:

[Red Profound Flying Armor LV 16/19, Red Quality]

[Durability: 10/10, Defense Power 110, Mutant Forms: Arm Guard (Unconditional), Full Body Armor (Unconditional), Absolute Defense (1/1 Back Armor) (10/1 Giant Mandible), Blast Scale Armor (Reflects 90% of Damage taken, Defense Power reduced by 10%)]

[New Mutant Form: Flight Mode. Consumes 1 Upgrade reserve to enable five minutes of flapping-wing flight at three hundred kilometers per hour. Cooling time: ten minutes.]

300km/h for five minutes translated to twenty-five kilometers. Used for a final escape, it should be enough to break free from a Swarm’s encirclement.

’The Cooling time is a bit long, though. Ten minutes to refresh is a long wait.’

Lin Feng guessed the high-frequency vibrations of the flapping wings caused structural overheating that required a Cooling period.

Although the Flight Mode was relatively weak at the moment with many limitations, he should be able to achieve sustained, long-distance flight with subsequent Upgrades.

’By then, if I combine it with the Level 19 Grenade Cannon, I could easily deal with an army of tens of thousands of Black Spine Zergs.’

However, while convenient, Flight Mode meant facing threats from the sky.

Cyan-winged Zergs were just ordinary Low Tier Zergs, equivalent to helicopters in the human military’s arsenal. Their upgraded version, the Tier Two Wind-winged Zergs, was a powerful type of Zerg that could rival human fighter jets.

Until his Red Profound Flying Armor was upgraded to a certain level, Lin Feng wouldn’t dare to fly around recklessly at high altitudes. Doing so would just make him a living target, to be hunted down by the Zerg Race.

As Lin Feng pondered this, he activated the Red Profound Flying Armor’s Flight Mode.

The Membrane Wings outside his shoulder blades slowly unfolded. The transparent film stretched over a cyan frame shimmered in the sunlight, refracting a rainbow of colors.

As the wings began to flap, a powerful gust of air blew out from the repair shop.

The lift generated by the airflow slowly raised Lin Feng’s feet off the ground.

Picturing how the Cyan-winged Zergs flew horizontally close to the ground, Lin Feng tilted his body slightly in mid-air, and the Membrane Wings on his back changed their flapping direction accordingly.

The resulting forward thrust gradually pushed him forward, and he slowly flew out of the repair shop.

As he picked up speed, the wings began to maintain a steady downward and backward beat, like a dragonfly’s, propelling Lin Feng faster and faster.

Fortunately, there was no one at the service area right now. After the outpost was completed, aside from a few soldiers guarding the weapons, only Shen Jie and his group remained, resting in the hotel.

Experiencing flight for the first time, Lin Feng cautiously explored its techniques.

In truth, the flapping-wing structure was extremely stable and excellent for turning and hovering. The problem was that material-strength issues had never been solved, which was why human aircraft had never been able to match the performance of natural insects like dragonflies.

After getting used to the sensation of flying, Lin Feng checked the flight countdown—two minutes remaining—and then flew up toward the sky, climbing to an altitude of five hundred meters.

The wind speed was strong here, but Lin Feng could still maintain a steady hover.

A Cyan-winged Zerg had once used this exact method, hovering above the Armored Tank in a hidden ambush, and had nearly carried off Jiang Yun’er.

Now, as Lin Feng hovered here, his field of vision suddenly opened up. The entire Jiangnan Plain was laid out before him in an unobstructed view. He could even perceive the curvature of the horizon. The scene was like looking through a wide-angle lens, allowing him to see for more than ten kilometers.

And soon, he spotted a fierce battle on the outskirts of Wu City. A rookie company sent out by the Thirteenth Division was clashing with a Black Spine Zerg Swarm on the edge of Zerg Race territory.

Although the distance was too great to see clearly, the flashing points of light, the smell of gunpowder, and the sound of explosions carried on the wind all indicated that the intensity of this battle far exceeded a mere skirmish.

This was the prelude to the Battle of Wu City.

The rookie company led by Qin Hu had unfortunately encountered a Tier Two special squad sent by the Zerg Race to capture Lin Feng. Without heavy weapon support, those three Tiger Spine Zergs would bring absolute annihilation to the rookies.

’I wonder if Qin Hu, who I warned in advance, was prepared.’

As an alert sounded, his first five-minute flight was about to end.

Lin Feng skillfully controlled the movement of the Membrane Wings and descended safely from the five-hundred-meter altitude.

Back outside the repair shop, a cloud of white vapor billowed from the armor on his back, just outside his shoulder blades—a sign of overload and overheating. Even through the layer of the Red Profound Armor, Lin Feng could feel a high temperature of forty to fifty degrees Celsius coming from the flapping-wing structure.

Lin Feng immediately retracted the Full Body Armor form, converting it back to the Arm Guard on his arm. The ring of cyan scales at the top glowed with a fiery, glass-like luster, as dazzling as a gemstone.

Fortunately, thanks to the thick layer of Armor underneath, he barely felt the heat, which was over a hundred degrees.

After experiencing this brief Flying Ability, Lin Feng was even more excited about the Armored Tank’s Upgrade.

As a bound piece of equipment, its fusion was deeper than that of the Red Profound Flying Armor, so the Extra Attributes it would awaken would be even more powerful.

Of course, just two pairs of Membrane Wings couldn’t possibly give a multi-ton Armored Tank the ability to fly.

But it was very possible they could reduce the pressure on the tires and increase its driving speed.

Once its performance was enhanced, the Tank’s environmental adaptability would also be greatly improved.

It would no longer be limited to flat roads; it could tear through muddy terrain and mountain forests without issue.

After eating the lunch Chen Yanyan had made, Lin Feng glanced at the time. Four or five hours had passed since the new recruits deployed. The battle should be about over.

So, he called Qin Hu to get an update on the situation.

But to Lin Feng’s surprise, the person who answered was not Qin Hu, but his subordinate, Lieutenant Li Ran.

"Brother Lin, Brother Qin is injured!"

"To secure the Tiger Spine Zerg’s corpse, his left leg was severed by a Tier One Late Stage Black Spine Zerg! He’s in the rear field hospital right now, receiving emergency treatment..." Li Ran’s voice was rushed, even a little incoherent.

Lin Feng’s brow furrowed. He hadn’t expected trouble to come so quickly. Just two hours ago, Qin Hu had reached Level 19, and now he was severely wounded on the battlefield...

"Don’t panic. Has the fighting on the front line died down?"

Lin Feng said reassuringly. He needed to understand the situation first before making a judgment.

Li Ran took a deep breath.

"It’s over. Thanks to your advance warning, we brought in several truck-mounted rocket launchers and blanketed the three Tiger Spine Zergs with fire. They were too big to hide in the caves."

"After a few volleys, two of them were severely wounded and went down."

"Brother Qin then led an elite squad deep into the Swarm, trying to finish them off for good. In the chaos, one of the wounded Tiger Spine Zergs was killed by the other, and Brother Qin managed to kill the last one..."

"But the Zerg Race didn’t want to leave the corpse behind. In the fight over it, Brother Qin lost his left leg, and the elite squad suffered heavy losses."

"Thankfully, we managed to secure the body in the end..."

Hearing the details, Lin Feng breathed a sigh of temporary relief and continued to console him:

"Don’t worry. Since Major Qin killed that Tiger Spine Zerg, it will definitely trigger an evolutionary Awakening. A Tier Jumping Awakening should allow his injuries to recover quickly. He might even be able to regenerate his lost limb."

"I’ll head to the hospital as soon as I’m done here."

Li Ran seemed to nod on the other end.

Lin Feng hung up the phone, a million thoughts racing through his mind, before tapping on Ding Chenghai’s profile picture.