Chapter 26 The Metal Machine

Zhang Yuanqing and the others arrived at the water's edge. The water was clear, but the bottom was invisible, like a round, blue-black moon inlaid in the cave.

Hong Ji-ge lightly stepped on a rotten waterwheel, looking around.

"What's the problem here?"

"Speaking of which, it should be lunchtime. I wonder if there are any fish in the pool. Should we go down and have a look? Maybe we can have some sashimi, tsk tsk, fresh."

Please, don't let there be any fish, because after lunch, afternoon tea won't be far away. What if this guy wants to eat afternoon tea halfway through fighting the boss… Zhang Yuanqing thought to himself.

Guan Ya said, "We can't find any hidden passages in the entire mountain cave. This pool is the only possibility."

Zhang Yuanqing suddenly nodded, "You mean, the entrance to the next level is at the bottom of the pool?"

Guan Ya ignored him.

Princess Yinyao’s heart stirred, "The entrance is at the bottom of the pool?"

Guan Ya smiled and praised, "So clever."

Qiang Yuan said nothing.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Hong Ji-ge took out a large coat made of tanned fish skin and put it on, "Let's go into the water. I have a Water Ghost item now. It cost me five million."

He was saying this to Xiahou Aotian and Yuan Shi Tianzun.

Back in the Sea of Yashan, he had to borrow diving equipment from Yin Ji.

"I'll have the Yin corpse go down and scout the way first," Zhao Chenghuang said, taking out a bronze box. The lid opened, and a water-attribute Yin corpse leaped out, plunging headfirst into the pool.

"White waves and bubbles churned, and the calm pool rippled. The Yin corpse, like an agile fish, swayed its body and darted towards the bottom of the pool."

Zhao Chenghuang closed his eyes, wholeheartedly manipulating the Yin corpse.

Zhang Yuanqing looked at Sun Miaomiao, "Speaking of which, I haven't seen you use a Yin corpse all the way. Didn't you bring one?"

"Didn't bring one!" Sun Miaomiao replied affirmatively.

Zhang Yuanqing looked shocked, "I'm very happy that you have so much confidence in me, but isn't that a little too childish?"

Sun Miaomiao immediately rolled her eyes, "I'm only so-so talented in controlling corpses, but I have a high affinity with spirit servants, so I mainly train spirit servants."

Her eyes were big and round, and unusually pure and charming, with a child-like brightness and spirituality. Even when she rolled her eyes, she looked cute.

"Oh, I see," Zhang Yuanqing breathed a sigh of relief. "Then I'm relieved. I don't have to worry about you."

Sun Miaomiao said angrily, "Why wouldn't you worry about me?"

"Why would he worry about you?" It wasn't just one person speaking. Xiao Yuan and Guan Ya asked in unison.

Sun Miaomiao choked for a moment, snorted softly, and turned her gaze to the pool.

In reality, she was a well-behaved girl who wouldn't argue. If this were the internet, she would have already launched a heavy attack, letting these two women know what a strong person was with a keyboard.

Princess Yinyao folded up the small loudspeaker and put it in her pocket, tugged at Zhang Yuanqing's sleeve, and indicated with a flick of her face that she wanted to speak to him privately.

Zhang Yuanqing followed her to the side. Princess Yinyao used the Night Wanderer's unique way of communication, whispering, "Their crimes have all been recorded by the Cat King sound system. With this handle, you can drive them and control them. That's how Father controlled his cronies back then."

She paused, then said, "This trick works just as well on the concubines."

Online bullying Grandpa, cursing Mom, and giving Father birth control pills, what kind of handles are those.

Zhang Yuanqing said in a low voice, "Keep it safe. I'll show you how I'll handle them later."

As he spoke, he glanced at his teammates, gaining a deeper and clearer understanding of these friends.

Zhang Yuanqing was quite satisfied with this confession. Except for Hong Ji-ge, who was involved in the gang and had done a lot of bad things, everyone else was fine.

And even Hong Ji-ge had gradually stopped touching underworld activities in recent years.

"How much money can you make from lending at high interest rates, and the after-effects are so big. My old man just gives me a few projects, and it's enough for me to earn a few small goals, and it's all clean money," Hong Ji-ge said.

Secondly, there was Tianxia Guihuo. His problem was more serious. In the eyes of the Devil Eye Heavenly King, the shame of the Fire Master should commit seppuku to apologize.

But Tianxia Guihuo and Sun Miaomiao and others were different. He came from a common background. If he wanted to get ahead, he would inevitably be covered in mud.

As a high-ranking Saint, receiving bribes of several million wasn't enough to buy a decent house in Songhai. At most, it could be used to improve his life, so Zhang Yuanqing thought it was okay.

Princess Yinyao’s red eyes lit up, "Are you giving me the sound system to keep?"

"Yes!" Zhang Yuanqing said softly, "But you and it must be within my sight. You can't take it out of my sight."

Princess Yinyao nodded happily, then said suspiciously, "You're suddenly being a little nice to me… We agreed, don't expect me to serve you in bed."

You have no chance, because you're cold～

Zhang Yuanqing didn't say much to her, and returned to the pool.

At this time, Zhao Chenghuang opened his eyes and said, "There is a passage at the bottom of the water. There is no danger in the passage. It leads to another pool, and outside the pool is a cave. There is a strange metal machine in the cave."

"There are two stone tablets standing by the pool, one with ‘Feiming’ (Against Fate) and ‘Feile’ (Against Music), and the other with ‘Jingzhongbaoguo’ (Serve the Country with Utmost Loyalty)."

Xiahou Aotian stroked his chin, "Feiming means not believing in fate, my fate is up to me, not heaven."

Hong Ji-ge was uncharacteristically witty, "Then Feile must mean not believing in music, right?"

"Obviously not. Can you read more?" Xiahou Aotian said disdainfully, "Music is just the appearance. The 'Le' character in Feile refers to the ritual and music system. The ritual and music system is cumbersome and extravagant, wasting money and manpower, which is not in line with the Mo family's philosophy of thrift and burial, so we must resist the ritual and music system."

"Then what does Jingzhongbaoguo mean?" Hong Ji-ge was unconvinced.

Xiahou Aotian pondered for a moment, "Perhaps it's... the beacon fire rises, the country looks north, the dragon rises, the horse neighs, and the sword is as frosty? There is no such thing in the Mo family's ideology... today..."

"Okay, shut up!" Zhang Yuanqing, as the gang leader, interrupted the meaningless bickering in time, and said, "Zhao Chenghuang, use the Yin corpse to test it out and see what dangers you encounter."

Zhao Chenghuang nodded slightly and closed his eyes again.

After half a minute, he suddenly opened his eyes, his tone grave, "The Yin corpse has broken contact with me."

Zhang Yuanqing knew that for a Night Wanderer, this meant that the Yin corpse had been destroyed, so he quickly asked, "What did it encounter?"

Zhao Chenghuang's expression suddenly became a little strange, "I only saw the machine turn, and then my spirit body returned. I don't even know what happened."

"This…" Zhang Yuanqing also became serious. The unknown danger was the most terrifying.

Because you can't make targeted preparations, and when danger comes, you will die without understanding why.

Guan Ya and Xiao Yuan and others also understood this principle, so their expressions were a little serious. Only Hong Ji-ge was still fearless and full of fighting spirit, "We'll know if we go down and take a look, right? It's useless to speculate here."

You know, sometimes the words of a brainless person are actually undeniable...

But Zhao Chenghuang still felt that he should be steady, gritted his teeth, and said, "I'll try again." After saying that, another Yin corpse jumped out of the bronze box and plunged into the pool.

Amidst the dense white bubbles, the Yin corpse awkwardly paddled its hands and feet, diving towards the bottom of the pool.

While everyone waited in silence, Zhao Chenghuang, who had been closing his eyes, suddenly said, "I saw the previous Yin corpse. It was beheaded and completely destroyed."

Guan Ya immediately said, "Observe whether there are hidden blade mechanisms nearby. Observe whether there are any knife or sword marks left at the 'death' location of the Yin corpse."

Sword marks and knife marks, like ballistics, can be used to infer the direction of the attack and find the location of the mechanism."

"No..." Zhao Chenghuang frowned.

"Try controlling the Yin corpse to get closer. This time, pay attention and see clearly what the danger is," Tianxia Guihuo said.

Xiao Yuan and Asano Ryo remained silent, watching attentively.

Because of their profession and nationality, the two were out of place in the small team, so they were silent all the way.

Zhao Chenghuang, who was keeping his eyes closed, gave an "Mm" sound.

A dozen seconds later, he suddenly opened his eyes, his mouth twitching a few times, "The connection is broken again. This time, I still didn't see where the danger came from, but I noticed a detail."

"What detail?" Zhang Yuanqing asked for everyone.

"The text on the metal machine seems to have changed."

"What text?" Zhao Chenghuang's mouth twitched again, "I don't recognize the ancient text."

Everyone looked at Xiahou Aotian, who put his hands on his hips and raised his head, saying, "Write it down."

Zhao Chenghuang took out a short blade from his item pouch and wrote a character in the mud by the pool.

Everyone looked blank.

Xiahou Aotian "Oh"ed, "Bronze inscription, this character means dog."

"Dog?"

Everyone still looked blank.

Xiahou Aotian shrugged, "Anyway, that's what the character means."

"Enough, your dawdling is unbearable. Let's go into the water!" Seeing that it was all useless information, Hong Ji-ge couldn't bear it any longer and plunged into the pool.

Zhang Yuanqing thought for a while and said, "Let's go into the water. It's useless to guess here. Zhao Chenghuang has already lost two Yin corpses, so it's the same to let the Yin corpse be cannon fodder again. It's just a waste."

He put on the Yin-Yang magic robe and plunged into the pool, following Hong Ji-ge into the water.

Everyone by the pool took out their Water Ghost props and jumped into the water one after another with a plop.

The water in the pool was cold and clear, with many dust-like microorganisms floating in it. After five meters, the bottom of the pool completely lost light.

The members of the gang team lightly swayed their bodies, controlled the water flow, and went all the way down, reaching the bottom of the pool in two or three minutes.

Zhang Yuanqing saw Hong Ji-ge's figure in the distance. The brainless Fire Master was drilling into a dark tunnel.

He quickly followed, entering the tunnel one after the other with Hong Ji-ge. The tunnel twisted upwards, and it was over in a few minutes.

"Splash!" Hong Ji-ge jumped out of the pool, looking around cautiously.

Zhang Yuanqing emerged from behind him, gently supporting himself on the edge of the pool and leaping out.

Dark red flames rose, and the moisture on his body made a "hissing" sound. Zhang Yuanqing scanned the cave while drying his wet body.

The cave wasn't too big, about twice the size of the "Thrift" and "Minggui" caves.

In the center of the cave stood a three-meter-high metal machine, with a heavy, bronze-cast square base, one meter in length, width, and height.

A crescent moon cast in brass stood on the base, like a crescent moon boat floating on the water.

Between the two pointed crescents, a football-sized brass ball floated, made up of small square blocks, like a Rubik's Cube.

Each Rubik's Cube block was printed with twisted bronze inscriptions.

"Splash, splash…"

The sound of emerging from the water rang out one after another, and Guan Ya, Xiao Yuan, and others jumped out of the pool one after another.

Tianxia Guihuo held down Xiahou Aotian and Zhao Chenghuang's shoulders, using his outstanding fire control ability to dry the moisture, while observing the scene in the cave.

"Dry the water," Zhang Yuanqing said, throwing the Yin-Yang magic robe to Guan Ya.

"There really is ‘Jingzhongbaoguo’ (Serve the Country with Utmost Loyalty)," Hong Ji-ge kicked the stone tablet, then pointed to the metal machine in the distance, saying, "Is the danger coming from that thing?"

The usually silent Xiao Yuan suddenly said, "Not necessarily, it could be above." She pointed to the top of her head.

Everyone looked up, and the top of the stone cave was covered with black holes the size of water tanks.

"Why?" Sun Miaomiao asked while looking up.

"The death locations of the two corpses are different," Xiao Yuan explained. "The first Yin corpse died under the hole, and the second Yin corpse died next to the machine."

"That makes sense," Sun Miaomiao nodded.

Guan Ya snorted, "Both Yin corpses were beheaded with sharp blades. If the danger came from above, there would be sword marks on the ground, but there aren't any. Therefore, the danger comes from the metal machine."

Xiao Yuan glanced at her, "Whatever you say."

Guan Ya smiled insincerely, "Thank you!"

"Ahem!" Zhang Yuanqing interrupted the "dispute" in a timely manner, saying, "Zhao Chenghuang, use the soldier figurine to try. The most important thing now is to figure out the rules of this stone cave, its attack method, attack intensity, and so on."

Zhao Chenghuang immediately took out the bronze box, summoned the spirit servant, and manipulated a bronze soldier figurine to approach.

Everyone stared at the soldier figurine, waiting patiently. At this time, the benefits of having a Night Wanderer in the team were highlighted. There was always cannon fodder to step on the mine.

The soldier figurine passed the metal machine unimpeded, circled around the stone cave, and didn't encounter any attacks.

This result left everyone both bewildered and surprised.

"Yin corpses are attacked, but soldier figurines aren't? What's the difference between the two?" Zhang Yuanqing asked.

"Soldier figurines are inanimate objects, they are items, while Yin corpses, although they have no life, Yin objects are also a kind of creature," Sun Miaomiao's professional knowledge was still very solid.

"What if I put you in Little Red Riding Hood and then used the Item Manipulation ability to throw it over?" Zhang Yuanqing had a sudden idea.

Thinking of it, he immediately took out Little Red Riding Hood and summoned Yi Chuanmei, using the spirit servant's Item Manipulation ability to throw Little Red Riding Hood out.

Under everyone's gaze, Little Red Riding Hood floated forward. When it passed the metal machine, the inside of this mechanical weapon suddenly made a buzzing sound.

As well as the sound of gears turning and connecting rods pushing.

Zhao Chenghuang reminded in a deep voice, "That's the sound. It's going to attack."