45: Be the sixth one and destroy the Master of Machines

“Lin Chen, are you not taking me with you?”

“????????”

Lin Chen looked bewildered at Bai Wuyue, who had darted to his side. He was indeed planning to activate Spiritual Stealth and quietly infiltrate deep into Mechanical Star to destroy the nine known Mechanical Lord consciousnesses.

His thoughts had only just formed in his mind, yet Bai Wuyue seemed to have some premonition, which was somewhat terrifying.

“You know what I’m going to do?”

“I don’t know, but following you means I can win and get a high score. That’s the information my intuition tells me.”

As expected, one cannot underestimate the heroes of the world.

Bai Wuyue’s intuition was very accurate; this was her unique trait and her reliance throughout her journey.

“Are you sure you want to follow me and be a target to absorb firepower?”

Lin Chen said, activating Spiritual Stealth and adjusting his presence.

The fourth stage of Spiritual Stealth had a very strong cognitive shielding effect on those of the same rank. Even though Bai Wuyue was a prodigy with accurate intuition, she lost her perception of Lin Chen and had to concentrate to barely and vaguely perceive his presence.

“I can’t even be a slacker; you’re practically cheating! I can’t even sense you, and my mind can’t clearly perceive your existence. How am I supposed to follow you?!”

Bai Wuyue was very sad. The 'big thigh' was right in front of her, but she couldn’t latch onto it; it was too painful.

“Goodbye, Student Bai.”

Lin Chen’s voice lingered in her ears, but his figure had vanished. Bai Wuyue’s perception of Lin Chen in her mind also became increasingly blurry until his existence faded from her memory.

Perhaps only when she heard news of Lin Chen again would she recall this experience of meeting him.

Meanwhile, Lin Chen moved through the Mechanical Clan combat units besieging the stronghold as if he were in an uninhabited land.

At his current stage, Lin Chen could ignore certain collision volumes. He could completely pass through some low-energy Mechanical Clan constructs.

When he tried to burrow into the planet, he found that Mechanical Star’s energy level was very high. He couldn’t ignore the collision volume and pass through the thick metal surface to sink into the planet’s interior.

“Could it be that Mechanical Star has also awakened a consciousness, becoming an existence similar to a Planet Consciousness?”

It was normal for Lin Chen to have this conjecture.

Planets giving birth to consciousnesses was a very common situation; at most, it depended on the intelligence level of this consciousness.

A Planet Consciousness with intelligence would eventually evolve into an emotionless Heavenly Dao of a realm, treating all living beings with indifference, and evolving emotion from emotionlessness.

An ordinary Planet Consciousness was, at most, a nascent existence. It would dislike foreign objects invading the planet and guide all existences within the planet to attack the foreign objects.

The Mechanical Clan originated from consciousness born from metal blocks.

Therefore, it was evident that such a massive metal mechanical body like Mechanical Star could give birth to a consciousness.

Now, it was unknown whether Mechanical Star’s consciousness possessed the same kind of consciousness as the Mechanical Clan or was a nascent Planet Consciousness.

The former would be very terrifying. A Mechanical Clan existence the size of a planet would undoubtedly be a demigod-level existence. If there were also Mechanical Clan members who believed in it, then it would be an existence on the Ascension to God path.

The latter, however, was fine. Even if the Mechanical Clan were eliminated and Mechanical Star’s body was ravaged, Mechanical Star’s consciousness would be powerless.

“It’s probably a nascent Planet Consciousness. If it were truly a Mechanical Clan life form, it wouldn’t be our turn to participate in this war. The Federation Mechanical Research Institute wouldn’t let go of such excellent research material.”

Lin Chen comforted himself and began to search for an entrance to the underground passage.

A few minutes later, Lin Chen had entered the underground passage.

His mental power extended, covering a five-kilometer radius around him, analyzing the paths of each tunnel to determine the route forward. If there was no path, he would directly destroy the metal walls to clear a downward path.

It wasn’t that his mental power could only expand five kilometers, but rather that within this range, consumption and recovery were balanced.

However, as Lin Chen delved deeper underground, the mental power consumed would increase. The underground space had pressure, the environment was overly complex, and there were various energy field interferences, requiring more mental power to maintain the perception range.

Time passed minute by minute. Lin Chen had already delved five hundred kilometers underground. There were no more deep underground passages here, only horizontal metal acceleration tunnels connecting countless Mechanical Clan core cavities.

Five hundred kilometers was the current survival limit for the Mechanical Clan.

The Mechanical Lords of the Mechanical Clan, and countless Mechanical Clan consciousnesses, were stored within this stratum.

The Mechanical Clan, developed over countless years, had given birth to nine Mechanical Lords, each of whom could be considered a seventh-rank existence. Each Mechanical Lord commanded countless Mechanical Clan consciousnesses.

The nine Mechanical Lords of the Mechanical Clan were equals, jointly ruling the entire Mechanical Clan.

Before the appearance of the Human Race, there were conflicts between them. After the Human Race appeared, they united against the common enemy, putting aside their differences.

The unified Mechanical Clan, relying on some conventional forces, temporarily resisted the attacks of the Human Race examinees.

Various manufacturing factories in the stratum were fully activated. Conventional weapons were produced in batches and sent to the surface battlefield through underground passages to be used as cannon fodder to deplete the Human Race examinees.

Various sub-peak weapons were also being manufactured overtime. As long as the Mechanical Clan could hold out for one day, the sub-peak weapons joining the battlefield would definitely stop the Human Race examinees and drag the war into a protracted mode.

However, there were many tricky examinees on the Human Race side who didn’t want a protracted war.

There were also many examinees like Lin Chen, a total of over twenty thousand people, and dozens of examinees like Lin Chen who had delved five hundred kilometers underground.

Lin Fan and Oriental Red Sleeve were also in this group. Dozens of people were scattered in the stratum five hundred kilometers underground, all diligently searching for the areas where the Mechanical Lords were located.

The more advanced the Mechanical Consciousness, the more massive and intricate the mechanical body it required as a host. The simpler the Mechanical Consciousness, the smaller and cruder the mechanical body needed for survival.

A consciousness born from a piece of iron certainly couldn’t compare to a consciousness born from a high-precision factory.

The structure and intricacy of a mechanical body reflected, to some extent, the rank of the Mechanical Consciousness.

“A small control node. It seems to be garrisoned by many Mechanical Clan consciousnesses. Destroy it, and maybe I can follow the clues to find the nearest Mechanical Lord.”

Lin Chen wandered through the stratum and found a small cavity. Breaking through the metal layer, he entered the cavity and saw a heavily guarded mechanical construct.

This mechanical construct was connected to countless pipes, and within the pipes were countless energy lines as fine as hair.

Energy lines could both transmit and output energy, as well as receive and send information. Moreover, they were extremely tough and could recover even if broken by spreading energy.

These energy lines were very useful and widely applied within the Mechanical Clan, and they were also very suitable for Lin Chen’s decapitation strike by following the clues.

It wasn’t that the Mechanical Clan didn’t want to use energy signals to transmit messages and energy, but the environment didn’t allow it.

Everywhere were metals of mixed types, and no energy signal could travel through the complex metal stratum without losing information.

“Abyss—Void Burial.”

Lin Chen didn’t hesitate. Using his hand as a blade, he struck, and the massive mechanical construct shattered into pieces, scattering across the ground.

He seemed to hear miserable wails, but he didn’t care. A mental shock swept through, and everything quieted down.

Not of my race, their hearts must be different.

Before their death, the enemies didn’t even detect Lin Chen’s presence, as if they had been attacked by a ghost, completely bewildered.

Following the largest pipe, Lin Chen traveled several hundred kilometers before entering a new underground cavity.

“Good luck, I’ve already encountered a Mechanical Lord.”

The underground cavity was vast, shaped like a disc with a diameter of over a thousand kilometers and a height of thirty kilometers.

At the very center of the disc was a sci-fi city with a diameter of over five hundred kilometers. The entire city was the Mechanical Lord’s mechanical dependent body.

Countless energy lines, countless pipes transporting metal blocks, and countless small mechanical bodies were busy within the sci-fi city, constantly repairing and supplementing. The expansion of the sci-fi city had not stopped.

“Abyss—Extremity Devour.”

“Mental Shockwave.”

“Mirror Cut.”

Lin Chen unleashed his full power, using the most powerful techniques from the Martial Dao, Mentalist, and Profession paths.

A Mechanical Lord comparable to a seventh-rank existence was enough to command his most serious attention and was worth him using his full power to kill.

The Mentalist skill Mental Shockwave was the first to take effect. An invisible mental force swept through the entire sci-fi city. Except for a few sixth-rank Mechanical Consciousnesses and the Mechanical Lord, all other Mechanical Consciousnesses collapsed into corrupted data and died.

The few sixth-rank Mechanical Consciousnesses and the Mechanical Lord were not unaffected; they experienced a certain degree of confusion, losing control over their mechanical dependent bodies.

The most direct manifestation was that countless orderly mechanical constructs lost their movement, and the entire sci-fi city fell silent, as if it had died.

The Profession skill Mirror Cut then began to take effect.

A massive mirrored sci-fi city was born, then cut into two halves. Corresponding to the sci-fi city in reality, a perfectly smooth cut appeared.

The Martial Dao skill Abyss—Extremity Devour, arriving after being cast, struck the core of the sci-fi city along the path of the Mirror Cut.

An invisible Abyss appeared, devouring the core dependent body that contained the remaining core consciousness of the Mechanical Lord.

As the Abyss dissipated, the core of the sci-fi city vanished.

The entire sci-fi city lost its last vitality and instantly died.

“Such a cool scene, but no audience. It’s a bit of a shame.”

Lin Chen felt a bit regretful that his impressive display wasn’t recorded. He killed a Mechanical Lord by himself, using only three moves throughout, and the Mechanical Lord couldn’t even react.

Even if the Mechanical Lord had countless methods, Lin Chen instantly killed it. There’s nothing more to say; if you’re weak, practice more.