210: Chapter 210 The hunting dog went down the well to smell the scent, and its head was pressed and rubbed until it was smashed.

Hearing that someone wanted to chop off its dog head, the Hound mech's four limbs suddenly sprang open.

Its red-and-black abdominal core contracted, and the entire mech scurried deeper into the vein, hugging the crystal sand layer.

Rows of gray-white bone spikes burst from its back, piercing into the mine walls on both sides.

Clack, clack, clack!

Bone spikes sprouted horizontally, instantly sealing the passageway into a forest of chaotic thorns.

At the same time, the old mining slave corpses hanging in the crystal walls all woke up.

Those corpses with hollowed-out spines had gray-white light glowing in their eye sockets, dragging broken legs and arms as they crawled forward.

The number of them was sickening.

Shen Wanxing hugged her blanket and took half a step back, her little face pale.

"It's running away, so why did it call so many people..."

Mio screamed over the comms.

"Those aren't people! They're mining slave mechanical corpses! The Grey-White Sanctuary uses them as disposable delay units!"

Su Xiaoqi looked at the dense swarm of corpses crawling toward them and swallowed the last piece of Crystal-Armored Earth Dragon meat.

"This doesn't taste good."

Mio was silent for a second, then broke down.

"You're actually evaluating enemies based on food standards!"

Chen Chen didn't stop.

He raised his hand and pressed the sea-stabilizing needle against the side wall.

Blue-gold patterns spread along the mine wall, forcibly suppressing three crystal sand flows that were about to go berserk.

From the main shaft control console, Yi Chang's voice cut in urgently.

"The main node pressure has dropped."

"I can take over the stabilization valve."

Jiang Jiuyou then squeezed into the channel.

"Chen Chen, the Hound's route will pass through the mine's main node."

"If you force the chase, the crystal sand core might explode."

Yi Chang immediately replied.

"It's not 'might'."

"If the main node explodes, the last twelve hours of dismantling in Meteor Crystal City will have been for nothing."

Chen Chen held his blade in his right hand and released the sea-stabilizing needle with his left.

"I want the ore."

His feet sank, and a 25x Gravity Domain pressed backward.

"I also want the dog head."

The next second, he launched himself forward.

In the 3x gravity mine shaft, the mine cart tracks collapsed halfway down under his step.

Bone spikes blocked the path ahead.

Chen Chen swung his blade horizontally.

The Space-Shattering Gravity Anti-Ship Sword swept across, shattering swaths of bone spikes.

Su Xiaoqi rushed up right behind him.

The strength from her Gluttony Evolution was still active; she picked up a broken crystal rail and swung it with all her might into the group of mechanical corpses.

Bang!

A dozen old mining slave corpses were swept away, crashing into the mine wall and shattering into parts.

Su Xiaoqi muttered as she smashed them.

"This dog is quite bad."

"It runs away itself and lets these inedible things block the road."

Mio immediately delivered a finishing blow.

"You finally realized the enemy is bad? And your reason is that they aren't edible?"

Jiang Yanxue swept past the left mine wall.

Her Shadow Instant-Kill Blade sliced along the spines of the corpses.

Chen Chen killed a mechanical spider lunging at him in front, and the movements of the corpses within thirty meters of Jiang Yanxue simultaneously stalled for a beat.

She immediately seized this half-beat.

One slash cut through three of them.

System notifications scrolled across the edge of Chen Chen's vision.

[Abyssal Plunderer triggered.]

[Additional drop +1.]

[Additional drop +1.]

Shen Wanxing had been hiding behind Shen Wanbing.

Seeing the notifications, she felt terrible.

"Why is there an additional drop..."

"This isn't a reward, this is an overtime notice!"

Jiang Yanxue killed her way to the front of her and kicked a corpse aside.

"Just treat it as saving up a dowry."

Shen Wanxing almost cried.

"Whose dowry is made of mechanical corpses!"

Blood Rose followed behind, her face still pale.

Her poison threads had just been burned off by a purification pulse, and her control range was noticeably shorter.

She tried twice, but before the poison threads could reach the distant corpses, they were scorched by the gray-white nerve bundles in the mine walls.

Jiang Yanxue snorted coldly.

"If you can't hold on, go back."

Blood Rose gritted her teeth and raised her hand, slicing open her palm.

Pink blood threads surged from her palm.

She didn't release them outward but instead wrapped them directly onto the back of Jiang Yanxue's blade.

Jiang Yanxue paused her steps.

"What are you doing?"

Blood Rose had sweat on her forehead, but her tone remained tough.

"Borrowing your blade for a moment."

"I'll provide the poison, you're responsible for stuffing it inside."

Jiang Yanxue glanced at the pink threads on the back of her blade.

"Don't drag me down."

Blood Rose chuckled.

"Just make sure you don't slice crookedly."

Both of them moved at the same time.

Jiang Yanxue's blade sliced into the joints of the mechanical corpses, and the pink poison threads drilled into the gray-white nerve bundles through the gaps.

The corpses were just about to self-destruct when their movements suddenly spasmed, and they turned to hug their nearby companions and exploded.

Boom!

A swathe of corpses was blown over.

Jiang Jiuyou paused for half a second on the remote channel.

"Keep it up."

"Don't disturb us."

Blood Rose immediately replied.

"Don't worry, Commander Jiang, I'm being very professional today."

Jiang Yanxue cut off a corpse's head with one slash.

"You'd be even more professional if you shut up."

Up ahead, the Hound mech had already dashed past the third branch line.

Its abdominal upload core was blinking constantly.

[Upload progress: 78%.]

Shen Wanbing stared at the data, speaking rapidly.

"Every time it jumps, it opens its abdominal heat dissipation vent for 0.2 seconds."

"But the angle is too tricky; normal rays can't hit it."

High up on the mine track, Qin Hongye had already found a position.

Blood was seeping through the repair tape on her right shoulder again.

The Meteor Orbit Sniper Cannon was mounted on a tilted mine cart, the gun body constantly shifting due to the tremors in the mine vein.

She reached out and pressed down on the stock.

"I can hit it."

Chen Chen was chasing the Hound, not even turning his head.

"Do you still want your shoulder?"

Qin Hongye gritted her teeth, her voice steady.

"If I hit it, I'll add training tonight."

Chen Chen crushed a row of bone spikes under his feet.

"If you hit it, you win tonight."

The channel went quiet for half a second.

Blood Rose couldn't help it.

"Sister Qin, you really know how to pick the timing for these pre-battle rewards."

Qin Hongye ignored her.

She suppressed her breathing.

There was no Hound in the scope.

Only mine walls, tracks, crystal sand cracks, and constantly vibrating suspension cables.

The Hound mech jumped again.

The abdominal heat dissipation vent flashed.

Qin Hongye pulled the trigger.

Boom!

The Meteor Orbit Sniper Cannon roared.

The stock slammed back into her shoulder, and the repair tape split open.

The Gauss projectile didn't chase the Hound directly; instead, it grazed the first mine cart track, sparking on the curved rail.

In the second stage, the projectile drilled into the crystal sand layer of the mine wall.

In the third stage, it shot out from a gap in a pile of bone spikes and precisely pierced the Hound's abdominal outer armor.

Clack!

A layer of gray-white armor was pierced.

The upload core sprayed sparks everywhere.

[Upload progress: 81%.]

[Upload interrupted.]

Shen Wanbing looked up sharply.

"It's interrupted!"

Qin Hongye supported the gun body, her fingers trembling, but her voice was still spirited.

"It looks quite ugly when it exposes its belly."

The Hound mech emitted a harsh mechanical screech.

It stopped running.

Its mechanical spine flipped open, and a gray-white tracking spear locked onto Qin Hongye.

"Long-range threat, eliminate."

The tracking spear launched.

It was too fast.

Qin Hongye had just reloaded, and her shoulder injury hindered her movement.

Chen Chen intercepted it midway.

He raised his hand and grabbed the spear shaft.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!

Gray-white energy burned in his palm, and hot smoke rose from the surface of his skin.

His 247 constitution withstood it head-on.

Chen Chen flicked his arm.

"Here, take it back."

The tracking spear flew back and nailed through one of the Hound mech's hind legs.

Boom!

Half of the Hound's body crashed into the pile of crystal sand.

Shen Wanbing seized the opportunity and connected the gray-white olfactory reverse-writing sample into the data needle.

"The leakage signal is open."

She injected the sample into the crack in the Hound's leg.

A few seconds later, she frowned.

"Not enough."

Jiang Jiuyou immediately asked.

"What's missing?"

"Living creature aura disturbance."

Shen Wanbing looked up at Shen Wanxing.

"Without that last bit of living creature disturbance, we can only fool short-range tracking; we can't fool the Tier 6 Hunter King itself."

Everyone in the mine shaft looked at Shen Wanxing.

Shen Wanxing hugged her blanket and retreated three steps.

"No."

"Don't look at me like that."

Su Xiaoqi comforted her earnestly.

"Sister Wanxing, petting the dog head is more polite."

Shen Wanxing broke down.

"Is this a matter of politeness!"

Blood Rose leaned against the mine wall, her shoulders shaking with laughter.

"Little Cat, you've evolved from petting boxes to petting dogs."

Shen Wanxing's eyes turned red.

"I don't want this evolution path!"

The Hound mech began to struggle.

Its abdominal core lit up again.

[Upload resumed.]

[Upload progress: 84%.]

Chen Chen walked over.

His Mental Power spread out.

Silver ripples suppressed the Hound mech.

Mental Deterrence triggered.

The Hound mech's movements stalled for a second.

Chen Chen summoned with his left hand, and the sea-stabilizing needle pulled out from the distant mine wall and flew back to his palm.

He swung the blue-gold short staff and smashed it onto the bone armor of the Hound's neck.

Thud!

The first hit, the bone armor cracked.

Thud!

The second hit, the mechanical spine bent.

When the third hit landed, the Hound mech's dog head was forcibly smashed down.

Chen Chen stepped on its nape, grabbed the mechanical muzzle with his right hand, and pressed that ferocious dog head in front of Shen Wanxing.

"Pet it."

Shen Wanxing closed her eyes and extended a finger.

"I hate you all."

She poked it gently.

Hum—

Golden light exploded.

The next second, a purple-gold beam of light exploded from the bottom of the mine shaft, shooting straight toward the main shaft.

The light could be seen from the mining slave transport line.

System notifications popped up frantically.

[Lucky Critical triggered.]

[100x multiplier activated!]

[Obtained: SS-Grade Hunter King Olfactory Misdirection Brand.]

[Additionally generated: Super Bait Scent Target.]

[Target characteristics: Fragment fluctuations, sea-stabilizing needle aura, Sea Scale core heat source, host's blood qi residue.]

Shen Wanxing opened one eye and, discovering she hadn't been blown up, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'm done petting it."

"Can I cry now?"

Su Xiaoqi patted her shoulder.

"Sure, go ahead and cry, then continue looting corpses."

Shen Wanxing wanted to cry even more.

Shen Wanbing had already connected the misdirection brand into the data needle.

She directly stuffed the brand back into the Hound's upload chain.

The gray-white signal twisted violently.

A burst of harsh static sounded from deep within the mine shaft.

Shen Wanbing stared at the screen, her speaking speed getting faster and faster.

"Writing successful."

"The Hunter King has received the incorrect scent."

"The feedback image is out."

In the mid-air projection, a red tracking line pulled away from the vicinity of Meteor Crystal City and plunged toward the depths of the northwest wasteland.

On that fake trajectory, a false target was displayed.

A heavily damaged main vehicle.

A "Chen Chen" carrying the fragments and the sea-stabilizing needle.

The Sea Scale core heat source was also pulsing on it.

Mio stared, dumbfounded.

"This is so comprehensively fake..."

"The Hunter King's nose is going to be stuffed with junk information by you guys."

Short, quick breaths came over Jiang Jiuyou's remote channel.

"In the northwest direction, the Star-Splitting Hunting Group's forward reconnaissance team has changed course again."

"It succeeded."

The Hound mech's upload chain was in chaos, and its abdominal core was flashing erratically.

It attempted to self-destruct.

Chen Chen didn't give it a chance.

His left hand pressed its head down with the sea-stabilizing needle.

His right hand slashed its body with the Space-Shattering Gravity Anti-Ship Sword.

The blue-gold heavy pressure and the golden blade aura fell simultaneously.

Boom!

The half-step Tier 6 Hound mech was severed from head to tail.

Its abdominal core was twisted into fragments by Gravity Collapse.

Its mechanical spine exploded segment by segment.

A large swathe of loot notifications scrolled through the mine shaft.

Shen Wanxing just wanted to shrink back into her blanket.

Chen Chen was already looking at her.

Shen Wanxing quickly raised her hand.

"I just petted the dog head!"

"Really!"

"According to labor laws, I should be resting now!"

Before Chen Chen could speak, the Hound mech's chest suddenly split open.

A blood-red crystal chip rolled out.

A hound tooth mark lit up on the surface of the crystal chip.

The communication channel connected automatically.

A low laugh came from the crystal chip.

"The scent is very fake."

"But I like clever prey."