Chapter 15 The Collapse of the City

The words of Tianxia Guihuo caused the deceased squad to sink into contemplation. Indeed, according to Lingjing's past mechanisms, the instance would give a prompt after completing the task.

Hongji-ge saw his teammates contemplating, and he also contemplated for a moment, then said:

"I think you, the shame of fire masters, are just arguing!"

Tianxia Guihuo kept a straight face and said coldly, "The heads on our necks aren't just for show. Think about it. Lingjing won't make mistakes, so we must be wrong. There must be another reason for the destruction of the Mechanical City."

Hongji-ge was unconvinced, "Can't it be that we've already completed the task, but the mechanism of the Mechanical City is that it must be cleared and there's no turning back, so we can only trigger the Lingjing prompt after we defeat the Boss?"

Tianxia Guihuo retorted, "Then explain why there was a prompt after completing the side quest 'Enter the Mechanical City before dark'? We had already entered the Mechanical City at that time."

Hongji-ge thought for a while and came up with a clever idea, "That's because the gate hadn't closed yet."

Tianxia Guihuo was speechless for a moment.

Hongji-ge is still quite witty occasionally.

Zhang Yuanchu pondered, "Could it be that the black-robed wraith's memory is wrong, and it's specifically used to mislead us?"

Xiao Yuan nodded, "That possibility can't be ruled out."

The team was silent for a few seconds, and Guan Ya said, "If Hongji-ge's guess is true, then we're in danger. According to the wraith's memory, the one who led the troops to attack the Mo Sect was the ancient God of War. The final Boss of the Mechanical City is likely to be him."

"Impossible!" Zhao Chenghuang's expression changed slightly, "It's impossible for us to encounter a Ruler-level Boss. The final enemy of the Mechanical City is either two or three level sixes, or a weak Ruler-level."

Everyone was born into "prominent families," and their understanding and knowledge of Lingjing's mechanisms far exceeded that of wilders.

If it's an all-level-six peak instance, the Boss must be Ruler-level, otherwise how can Lingjing Xingzhe be tempered? A Boss of the same level might not be a match for Lingjing Xingzhe.

But in their team, level-four Saints account for the majority, so the final enemy cannot be a Ruler.

Considering Yuan Shi's strength, two or three level sixes would hardly pose a fatal threat to him, so the Boss of the Mechanical City is likely to be a weak Ruler.

Guan Ya said, "What I mean is, it's likely to be a weakened ancient God of War. Even so, that's still an evil profession with peak combat power, and it'll be difficult for the team to avoid casualties."

Zhang Yuanchu said, "It's useless to worry. Let's go see the Boss first. Logically speaking, we still have to go through another level."

After a short rest, the team set off again, and found a cave leading to the interior of the Mechanical City on the cliff on the east side of the valley.

They advanced along the winding cave, sometimes upwards, sometimes downwards, with many twists and turns. Along the way, there were many corpses. Based on the distribution of the corpses, they avoided mechanisms such as poisonous needles and hidden arrows.

The further they went, the stronger the mechanisms became. The poisonous needles and hidden arrows were smeared with a highly poisonous substance that even Xiao Yuan couldn't withstand, and they also had an armor-breaking effect.

After cautiously advancing for fifteen minutes, they finally walked out of the cave, and the front suddenly opened up.

This was a huge space that had been almost hollowed out of the mountain belly, filled with Song Dynasty-style buildings, arranged in an orderly manner, and the streets were well-divided, resembling a small ancient city.

The small city also had a developed water supply, ventilation, and lighting system. There were several large pools of water at the edge of the city, and next to the pools were rows and rows of waterwheels, as well as several water houses.

The water houses diverted some of the clean water to artificially excavated river channels for the disciples' daily use.

A huge crystal disc was embedded in the high and wide mountain cave's top. It was about sixty meters in diameter and focused the light from outside the mountain, bringing light to this underground city.

Layer upon layer of corridors were built on the stone walls, spiraling upwards to the top of the mountain cave. Every ten meters along the corridor, there was a hole with a diameter of two meters, which was initially estimated to be a ventilation system.

However, there was no sound of exhaust fans running. Perhaps because it had been abandoned for too long, the living systems here had stopped working long ago, or perhaps the ancient people's ventilation method was simply to open holes.

"It's really spectacular. This should be the headquarters of the Mo Sect, right? If it wasn't damaged, it would be even more spectacular," Sun Miaomiao said in a low voice.

Yes, all of this was broken.

The Song Dynasty small city seemed to have been violently demolished. Most of the buildings had collapsed. The outer areas were still okay, and many remained as they were, but the further in they went, the more serious the ruins became.

A earth-shattering battle should have taken place in the center of the city back then.

The layers of corridors in the stone cave were also fragmented, broken section by section. The iron cables hanging down from the corridors should have been hanging treads, wooden buckets, or something similar for lifting objects. At this time, they had also become strips of varying lengths.

In addition, judging from the traces on the ground, there should have been many strange and bizarre mechanical creations here, because the team saw something similar to iron tracks.

But now it was a ruin.

While Sun Miaomiao was sighing, Zhao Chenghuang, Zhang Yuanchu, and Guan Ya each used Soul Devouring and Insight techniques to observe the auras of wraiths and living people.

"There's no aura of wraiths," Zhang Yuanchu said.

"I've detected the aura of living people in the central area of the city," Guan Ya had a discovery. She looked at her boyfriend and said, "Give me a boost."

Zhang Yuanchu understood and bent down, exposing his knee.

Guan Ya took a few steps back, sprinted, stepped on Zhang Yuanchu's knee, and her lithe and tall figure soared into the air, jumping more than ten meters high.

Zhang Yuanchu's knee shattered with a "crack."

That kick was a little bit of personal grudges. Zhang Yuanchu grimaced and hugged Sun Miaomiao beside him, "Help me, help me..."

At this juncture, he didn't dare to touch Xiao Yuan.

Sun Miaomiao symbolically resisted a few times, then took the initiative to support his waist and stopped her slender waist from acting as a crutch.

Xiao Yuan glanced at Sun Miaomiao and looked at Zhang Yuanchu, saying, "Do you want this little sister to help you too?"

She was referring to Asano Ryo.

"Aunt Xiao Yuan, don't be sarcastic... Guan Ya is down."

Guan Ya landed with a "thud" and said quickly, "There's an open space in the center of the city, about 1.2 kilometers away from us. There's a... mecha in the open space. There are signs of life inside the mecha. Other than that, no other enemies have been detected."

"Mecha? Are you sure you said mecha? 1.2 kilometers, can you see clearly?" Hongji-ge looked disbelieving, but was also very interested, "What style is it, tall or a Transformer?"

"Are you men all so boring? I said the enemy is a mecha, and you care about whether it's a Gundam or a Transformer?" Guan Ya said coldly, "I'll put it another way, it's a three-meter-tall mechanical creation, humanoid. As for whether I can see clearly, the eyes of a scout don't need you to worry about."

"Stop talking nonsense. Now that we know who the enemy is, let's follow the old rules and send out cannon fodder," Zhang Yuanchu ordered, then looked at Hongji-ge, "I say the coolest Transformer is Optimus Prime, right?"

"I think it's Bumblebee," Hongji-ge retorted.

Zhao Chenghuang silently took out the bronze box, summoned an extraordinary yin corpse, and manipulated it to walk through the messy streets and into the center of the city. The range of the terracotta warriors was limited, so they couldn't be remotely controlled.

Sun Miaomiao didn't play with yin corpses, and Yuan Shi's yin corpses were at the Saint stage, so it would be too wasteful to use them as cannon fodder. Even if Yuan Shi agreed, Zhao Chenghuang wouldn't.

He couldn't stand this kind of spendthrift. Yuan Shi was still loyal and left him a level-5 yin corpse. Zhao Chenghuang planned to buy Sun Miaomiao's one as well, and give her a 40% discount because they were childhood sweethearts.

Zhao Chenghuang cut off his diverging thoughts, entered the yin corpse, cautiously stepped over bricks and tiles, broken wood, and avoided large and small potholes. Before long, he arrived at the central area and saw a three-meter-tall humanoid mechanical creation standing quietly.

He finally understood why Guan Ya called it a mecha. Compared to the puppet people he had seen before, this mechanical creation was simply a dimensional reduction strike.

The three-meter-tall body was made of bronze, and the joints such as elbows, knees, and wrists were made of strong brass components.

Its body was tall, but not crude, and could even be called beautiful. The shape was a standard inverted triangle, with broad shoulders, a slender waist, and long legs. The bronze body was carved with exquisite and retro patterns.

The details of the construction were extremely fine. The forearms were embedded with mechanical packs for storing bows and arrows, and the chest and abdomen were bulging, so it was impossible to see what was inside, but it must have been well-stocked.

One hand was carrying a two-meter-long steel saber, and the other hand was holding a door-like bronze shield.

Zhao Chenghuang withdrew his gaze and examined the core area.

Under the mechanical creation's feet was a Bagua diagram with a diameter of one hundred meters, cast from brass, bronze, and black iron, and it was standing on the Taiji fish.

There were no buildings in this area, similar to a city's citizen square.

Of course, there was no such saying in ancient times. This cast iron Bagua diagram was cast in the center of the city, indicating that it was an extremely important "building."

Zhao Chenghuang walked out of the street and came to the edge of the Bagua diagram. He saw three stone tablets standing on his left, each engraved with "Universal Love, Non-Aggression," "Heaven's Will, Shared Standards," and "Expel the Jin Invaders."

"Two stone tablets... then the mechanical creation is the Boss. Is the big Boss of the Mo Sect Mechanical City not the ancient God of War? Is the villain of the instance actually the Mo Sect?" Zhao Chenghuang was taken aback.

According to the rules of the Mechanical City, two "thoughts" were one level. They had passed three levels and six thoughts. There were four thoughts and two levels left.

Now all four Mohist thoughts were here, and it was obvious that this mountain cave was the final map, the final level.

This was different from what they had thought before.

Zhao Chenghuang withdrew his gaze and looked at the mechanical creation in the center of the Bagua diagram, wondering whether to rush to the front of the machine, jump up and hit its knee, to test the attack method of this Boss.

The next second, his eyeballs vibrated violently. The mechanical creation didn't know when, but it was already standing two meters away from him, and raised the cast iron machete high.

Zhao Chenghuang's yin corpse was a bewitching demon, retaining the battle instincts, possessing surpassing reaction, coordination, and explosive power.

The moment he saw the mechanical creation, his body acted faster than his reaction, making evasive movements. But his tense body suddenly became uncontrollable, and the tension and sense of crisis in his heart disappeared for no reason. The mechanical creation in front of him seemed to have turned into an amiable elder, a close friend, a reliable family member...

The next second, the cast iron long knife fell, and the yin corpse was split in two.

Zhao Chenghuang, on the outskirts of the city, suddenly opened his eyes, looking dazed.

Guan Ya examined his expression, "You look like you've been betrayed by a brother, had your name written on a high-interest loan by your father, and your wife cheated and the child isn't yours. It's rare to see such a rich expression... What did you encounter?"

Zhang Yuanchu and others were shocked, they didn't expect that Zhao Chenghuang went to the city and actually encountered so much harm.