209: Chapter 209 The Hound Mech Goes Down the Well to Smell Something and Gets Its Head Chopped Off

The explosive sound at the bottom of the main well directly shook half of the mining transport line to a halt.

The Star Core Crystal Sand that had just been loaded onto the carts rolled out, clattering and crashing all over the ground.

The bottom-level mine slaves were the first to lose their footing, collapsing in droves.

The positioning collars on the convicts' necks lit up with red light, and the overlapping alarm sounds made one's scalp tingle.

Yi Chang stood before the main well console, pressing her finger onto the authorization ring.

"Seal off branch lines three, five, and seven."

The next second, a row of gray-white garbled code popped up on the console.

[Authorization being overridden.]

[Main control of the mining vein bottom layer is transferring.]

Yi Chang's vertical pupils constricted sharply.

"Someone is seizing the mining vein authorization."

Jiang Jiuyou's communication cut in immediately.

"The external demolition cannot stop; the first batch of Crystal Rail Cannons is already on the ship."

Yi Chang stared at the branch line map on the panel, which was rapidly turning gray.

"The bottom of the main vein has been locked."

"If they rush up along the crystal sand flow, the transport line will be severed."

Almost simultaneously, Shen Wanbing threw the Radar map onto the main screen.

"It's not coming from the outside."

She zoomed in on the bottom layer of the mining vein.

Seven Tier 5 peak red dots were surrounding a half-step Tier 6 high-energy point, moving within the crystal sand layer.

"A squad split from the Star-Splitting Hunting Group has come in, using the backup mining vein transport pipes buried thirty years ago by Meteor Crystal City."

Mio's projection glitched for a moment, then bristled.

"Backup mining vein transport pipes?!"

"The Gray-White Mechanical Holy Court has been raising Meteor Crystal City as a bait mine for thirty years!"

"There isn't just a resonator down there; there's a Mechanical Hound nest!"

"They didn't come to steal ore; they're waiting for the Fragment holder to get close so they can hollow out the city from within!"

Su Xiaoqi was chewing on half a Earth Dragon leg when she heard the word "Hound" and looked up.

"Is dog meat edible?"

Mio almost disconnected.

"That's a mecha! A mecha!"

Su Xiaoqi nodded seriously.

"Iron dog meat."

Mio went silent for two seconds.

Chen Chen stood at the main wellhead and glanced at the main vein cutting progress.

Sixty-eight percent.

If it stops again, the safety window that was seized earlier will be squeezed away.

Yi Chang had already forcibly cut off three branch lines.

The vibration of the mining vein eased a bit, but the cutting progress also stalled.

The sound of gun mounts locking came from Jiang Jiuyou's side.

"Three hours."

"If the main vein isn't retrieved within three hours, the city demolition plan will be delayed by at least six hours."

"The time the Tier 6 Hunter King was tricked away by Scrap No. 1 will be halved."

Chen Chen raised his hand and pressed the communication button.

"External demolition proceeds as usual."

"Jiang Jiuyou, you continue to coordinate the artillery vehicles and transport."

"Yi Chang, hold the transport line. Kill anyone who crosses the line."

Yi Chang didn't waste words.

"Understood."

Chen Chen turned around.

"Jiang Yanxue, Su Xiaoqi, Qin Hongye, Shen Wanbing, down the well."

Blood Rose leaned against the Ghost Fortress cabin door, an inhibitor needle still stuck in her wrist.

She hadn't fully recovered from the backlash of the purification pulse earlier.

But hearing "down the well," she pulled the needle out directly.

Pink blood beads emerged from her fingertips.

"Master, could you leave out one name?"

Chen Chen looked at her.

"You stay on the vehicle."

Blood Rose licked the blood off her fingertips. Her red dress clung to her long legs, and she looked incredibly lazy, yet she carried a stubborn Spirit.

"I'm not some delicate vase."

Jiang Yanxue rested her blade on her shoulder.

"You're a bit better than a vase right now; at least you can leak poison."

Blood Rose turned her head and retorted.

"I'll poison two of them later; don't be jealous."

Chen Chen didn't stop her again.

"Follow along, don't be reckless."

Blood Rose laughed immediately.

"If Master is worried about me, just say it."

Chen Chen glanced at her indifferently.

"One more word, and you're going back to the bottom hold for inspection."

Blood Rose shut her mouth on the spot.

Shen Wanxing had already curled up in the temperature-controlled rest cabin, and the aromatherapy was already on.

Hearing "down the well," she lay flat, pulling the blanket over her head.

"I'm asleep."

Shen Wanbing stood outside the cabin door.

"There might be Gray-White Mechanical Holy Court blind box fragments in the Hound nest."

There was no movement from under the blanket.

Chen Chen walked over and lifted her up, blanket and all.

Shen Wanxing poked her face out from the blanket, her eyes almost red.

"Chen Chen, I am a human, not a treasure-hunting rat!"

Su Xiaoqi hugged her meat and leaned in, looking very serious.

"Sister Wanxing, you are better than a treasure-hunting rat."

Shen Wanxing was stunned for a moment.

Su Xiaoqi added.

"A treasure-hunting rat can't find a hundredfold multiplier."

Shen Wanxing buried her face into the blanket.

"Thanks, I don't feel comforted at all."

...

The bottom layer of the mining vein was much narrower than above.

The crystal sand passages were propped open by gray-white mechanical skeletons, and the walls were covered in metal wire harnesses; every few dozen meters, one could see the corpses of old mine slaves hanging on the crystal walls.

The spines of those corpses had been hollowed out and stuffed with small alarm modules.

Shen Wanbing squatted down and scanned them.

"They are converting the mining vein into a tracker."

"These corpses are nodes."

Mio's voice came through the communication.

"Don't touch them!"

"These types of mine slave alarm nodes record biological heat sources and Spirit frequencies!"

Su Xiaoqi had wanted to reach out and poke one, but upon hearing this, she immediately pulled her hand back.

"Then I won't poke."

Shen Wanxing hugged her blanket and muttered softly.

"Finally, there is something I don't have to touch."

The words had barely fallen.

The crystal wall in front suddenly split open.

Two gray-white afterimages lunged at Shen Wanbing.

Two others bypassed everyone and charged at Shen Wanxing.

The remaining three pursuers jumped down from the top, their exoskeletons unfolding, locking off the path ahead for Jiang Yanxue and Su Xiaoqi.

Shen Wanbing's data needle had just been raised when a bone blade slashed down right past her fingertips.

Chen Chen's feet sank.

A twenty-five-fold Gravity Domain pressed down instantly.

The two Tier 5 peak pursuers charging at Shen Wanxing had sparks explode from their knees on the spot, and half their bodies were pressed into the crystal sand ground.

Shen Wanxing was so scared she hugged her blanket and hopped backward.

"Why are they grabbing me again!"

Chen Chen carried his blade and walked past her.

"Because you are valuable."

Shen Wanxing felt even more aggrieved.

"I don't want to be valuable at all!"

Jiang Yanxue had already started fighting.

The Shadow Instant-Kill Blade sliced into the pursuer's shoulder axis; she didn't fight the exoskeleton head-on, but only targeted the power lines.

Su Xiaoqi hugged a pursuer's mechanical leg, swung it with force, and smashed it against the nearby crystal wall.

"This one is too hard; not good for biting!"

The pursuer's chest cavity sprayed high-pressure crystal sand blades.

Su Xiaoqi ducked to avoid it, and puffed up with anger, punched its abdomen.

"Still spitting sand!"

On the other side of the tunnel, the pursuer that Qin Hongye encountered was the most troublesome.

The opponent's outer shield kept refracting, cutting her aiming line into several segments.

In the narrow tunnel, the Meteor Orbit Sniper Cannon couldn't gain distance, and her shoulder injury hadn't healed.

The pursuer closed in to twenty meters.

"Ranged unit, lost distance advantage."

The gray-white mechanical voice had just finished.

Qin Hongye slammed one knee to the ground, pressing the gun stock against her shoulder lock.

Red seeped from the repair tape near her wound.

She forcibly angled the gun muzzle toward the left crystal wall.

Mio shouted in the communication.

"Aiming at the wall again?!"

Qin Hongye didn't reply.

She pulled the trigger.

Boom!

The projectile drilled into the crystal wall, passing through three layers of crystal sand in succession.

The next instant, the core in the back of the pursuer's head exploded, and its entire body lunged forward and collapsed.

[Long-range penetration correction triggered.]

[Weak Point Break triggered.]

Qin Hongye's shoulder sank backward from the recoil, and her fingers went numb.

She gritted her teeth and reached for the second energy cartridge.

Chen Chen sliced off the arm of the pursuer pinned down by gravity and turned his head to look at her.

"Retreat."

Qin Hongye gasped for air, her voice still hard.

"My gun can still fire."

Chen Chen glanced at her.

"Firing is fine, but if you ruin your hand, tonight's extra training is canceled."

Qin Hongye's movements paused.

The next second, she carried her gun and retreated behind the crystal wall cover, starting to reload.

Blood Rose happened to hear it and laughed, enduring the pain of the backlash.

"Sister Qin is really obedient."

Qin Hongye's gun muzzle shifted half an inch toward her.

Blood Rose immediately focused her attention back on the battlefield.

"I'm working, I'm working."

She didn't spread poison mist this time.

The pink blood threads seeping from her fingertips were compressed to be extremely thin, drilling into the gray-white nerve lines inside the crystal wall.

A pursuer was just about to backstab Jiang Yanxue when its movements suddenly paused; it turned around and slashed at its companion.

The other pursuer's exoskeleton power line was cut by it, and half its body went limp.

Sweat broke out on Blood Rose's forehead, but she wore a look of triumph.

"See that?"

"Even iron turtles have nerves."

Jiang Yanxue casually sliced off the head of the paralyzed pursuer.

"This time it's decent."

Blood Rose's tone lifted at the end.

"Miss Jiang finally knows how to speak human language—"

Before she could finish, a mechanical claw swiped from the side.

Chen Chen raised his hand and pressed down.

Gravity smashed down.

The mechanical claw snapped in mid-air.

Blood Rose immediately stopped talking and stuck half a step behind Chen Chen.

"I was wrong, I was smug too early."

Su Xiaoqi had already dismantled the third pursuer until only half was left, and she hugged its head and asked.

"Can this core be stewed?"

Mio broke down.

"No!"

Shen Wanxing hugged her blanket, shrinking behind Shen Wanbing.

"I'll answer for it: no."

The seven Tier 5 peak pursuers were quickly cleared.

But the mining vein didn't quiet down.

The crystal sand at the bottom suddenly collapsed to the sides.

A huge gray-white skeleton crawled out from below.

It didn't have a humanoid upper body.

Its limbs were on the ground, its back was a full mechanical spine, and the white bone shell and Star Core Crystal Sand were embedded together.

When its chest opened, a red-black core pulsed inside.

Mio's voice dropped instantly.

"Half-step Tier 6 Hound Mecha."

Shen Wanbing stared at the scan data.

"Living olfactory core."

"It can directly capture the fluctuations of the Fragment and the sea-stabilizing needle."

The Hound Mecha didn't lunge.

Its chest cavity opened.

A red-black hunting mark popped out and landed at Chen Chen's feet.

The hunting mark bit onto his shadow.

A system prompt popped up.

[Warning: Tier 6 Hunter King has obtained a close-range scent sample.]

[Relocation time shortened.]

Shen Wanbing's expression changed.

"It didn't come to fight."

"It came to let the Hunter King smell the scent!"

The Hound Mecha crouched low in the crystal sand, and a mechanical voice squeezed out from its chest.

"Fragment holder, confirmed."

"Pseudo-artifact anchor pin, confirmed."

"Living scent uploading."

Chen Chen didn't rush toward the Hound first.

He turned and pointed to a gray-white nest core deep in the mineral wall.

"Shen Wanxing."

Shen Wanxing froze completely.

"Me again?"

Shen Wanbing reacted immediately.

"Yes, there is a reverse olfactory chain in the backup nest core!"

"Wanxing, touch it!"

Shen Wanxing moved over with a miserable face and poked her fingertip onto the mineral wall core.

Golden light lit up.

[Lucky Critical triggered.]

[Tenfold multiplier activated.]

[Obtained: Gray-White Olfactory Reverse-Write Sample.]

Shen Wanbing caught the ejected gray-white sample and connected it to her data needle.

"It can contaminate the tracking chain."

"As long as we write it in, the Hunter King will smell a bunch of fake scents."

Mio reminded urgently.

"Hurry! The Hound's upload isn't full yet!"

Shen Wanbing was just about to act.

The Hound Mecha's chest cavity suddenly closed.

Crack!

It actually snapped its own sternum and swallowed the living olfactory core into its abdomen.

Red-black light patterns lit up all along its mechanical spine.

"Sample upload at seventy percent."

"Continuing upload."

Shen Wanbing's fingers stopped.

"It transferred the core into its body."

"I can't write into it from the outside!"

The Hound Mecha lowered its limbs, and the core in its abdomen emitted rapid vibrations.

"Seventy-five percent."

Chen Chen stepped and shattered the crystal sand ground, dragging out a golden blade aura with his Space-Shattering Gravity Anti-Ship Sword.

"Then before it finishes uploading."

He carried his blade and charged out.

"Chop the dog's head off."