235: Flesh Furnace

It was very easy.

Lin Chuping merely possessed it; he did not directly attempt to gain control of this small leader, known as the “Butcher.”

He simply attached himself, like a silent passenger, sharing its sensors and some non-core data streams.

Command confirmed: Patrol Route 7. Alert Rank: Standard.

Cold commands flowed into its “mind.”

The Butcher took heavy steps and began to move along its predetermined route.

Lin Chuping observed this world through its sensors.

Towering metal domes, pipes flowing with dark red energy snaked like blood vessels across the walls and ceiling, and the air was filled with a scent that combined ozone, metallic rust, and an indescribable putridity.

This scent made Lin Chuping’s Divine Thought slightly pause.

This did not belong to machinery.

The deeper he went, the more intense the putrid smell became, even overpowering the metallic scent.

At the same time, the hum of negative energy from deep underground became increasingly clear.

It was the wailing of Holy Spirits.

Filled with despair and pain.

Almost shattering the Soul.

“Something is indeed wrong,” Lin Chuping thought, on alert.

***

The Butcher turned a huge corner, and the sight before him caused Lin Chuping, even in his possessed state, an unprecedented shock.

This was a cavern so vast it stretched beyond sight.

At the center of the cavern was not a cold mechanical construct.

But a mountain!

A living mountain, forcibly forged and compressed from flesh, metal, and shattered bones, slowly pulsating!

Countless thick, dark red energy pipes, like the proboscises of giant parasites, were deeply inserted into the flesh mountain, greedily sucking.

On the surface of the mountain, twisted faces, struggling limbs, and incomplete melted carapaces of exotic beasts were vaguely visible… all faintly twitching and trembling.

Further away, dense transport machinery was carrying captured beings—humans, beasts, and other intelligent races—like fodder, delivering them to the mountaintop via conveyor belts.

Then, cold mechanical arms mercilessly pushed them into the churning, bloody magma!

Screams were drowned out by the roar of machinery.

Fear, despair, ultimate pain… these negative emotions were amplified to the extreme the moment they were devoured, then furiously extracted by an invisible force field and transported along the dark red pipes to every corner of the mechanical network, becoming the ultimate nourishment for this steel Hell!

And the remnants, drained of all emotion and Soul energy, were melted at high temperatures at the bottom of the furnace, separating into basic organic and inorganic matter, to… construct new mechanical units!

Everything from living beings—flesh, Soul, emotions—was utilized one hundred percent, with no waste.

An extremely efficient, extremely cruel, self-sufficient… Life-Machine Conversion System!

This was the source of the Mech-Devils’ energy!

This was their heart!

They were not plundering resources; they were transforming the entire living world into a part of their cold order!

“So… this is the truth…”

Lin Chuping felt a tremor from his Soul.

The truth far exceeded his imagination.

“Using all living things as fuel to nourish these iron-shelledwoodworms!”

In an instant, a bold and ingenious plan formed in his mind.

He couldn't attack head-on; he had to pull the rug out from under them!

The Star Isolation Grand Formation!

He just didn't know how many such flesh-and-blood furnaces existed within the Underworld Demon Abyss.