113: Chapter 113 Returning to the Fourth Floor

Spiritless Ruins, slag discharge shaft.

Inside the dark and narrow refined iron pipe, Gu Shen slid downward rapidly like an agile spirit ape.

He did not use any tools. His dark golden fingers were like iron hooks; every time he exerted force, he could gouge deep finger marks into the hard shaft wall.

Thunder Bone Second Layer.

His Physical Body strength had skyrocketed. This hundred-zhang-tall shaft, which once left him panting, was now like walking on flat ground.

On his shoulder, the eight legs of the black mechanical spider were firmly attached to Gu Shen's robe.

Its detector head flashed with alternating red and blue light.

"My Lord, we are about to arrive at the fourth-level slag discharge port."

The Crab's electronic voice was extremely clear. After restoring full-power networking, its computing power had reached its Peak.

"According to cross-referencing thermal imaging and microwave radar, three Tactical Hunter Hounds are patrolling outside the exhaust port. Deeper inside, a large area of mutant vines is in a highly active state."

"The commotion we caused on the fourth level last time was too great; it stimulated that Mutant Matriarch. It has now turned the entire ecological zone into a high-risk hunting ground." The Crab's voice carried a hint of gravity.

"Open the door." Gu Shen was expressionless.

A hunting ground?

Today, the roles of hunter and prey should be swapped.

Click.

The mechanical spider extended an ultra-thin data cable, piercing it into the backup maintenance port on the shaft wall.

With a soft sound, the sealed louvers below slid open silently to both sides.

A thick, pungent smell of vegetation instantly flooded into the pipe.

Gu Shen did not pause.

He kicked off the shaft wall with both feet, crashing down from the slag discharge port in the ceiling.

Bang!

His feet slammed into the thick humus ground, splashing mud everywhere.

Almost at the same instant he landed.

"Beep—!"

A shrill mechanical alarm sounded in the dim jungle.

Three pitch-black Tactical Hunter Hounds, resembling giant wolves, instantly leaped out from behind huge mutant ferns.

Their scarlet electronic eyes locked onto Gu Shen.

The high-voltage arc emitters on their backs charged frantically, emitting a harsh buzzing sound.

If it were before, facing such coordinated killing machines, Gu Shen would have had to temporarily avoid their edge.

But now.

"Seeking death."

Gu Shen did not even make a move to draw his blade.

He stood quietly on the spot, his hands hanging low.

His left hand suddenly spread its five fingers.

"Soul-Pulling Threads"!

Three extremely yin, transparent threads, impossible to detect with the naked eye, shot out from Gu Shen's finger bones.

Like three venomous snakes lurking in the Void Realm, they instantly crossed a distance of ten zhang.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

There was no earth-shattering collision, only the faint sound of tearing silk.

The mechanical hound rushing at the very front was about to leap and pounce.

Suddenly, its massive steel body became misaligned in mid-air.

Its extremely hard titanium alloy head, like butter cut by a hot knife, slid smoothly off its neck. Immediately after, its four reverse-jointed mechanical legs snapped off in unison.

Severing gold and breaking jade!

The Soul-Pulling Threads, having undergone Fusion with the remnant embryo of a nameless Magical Artifact and the extremely yin energy of the Nine Nether Silkworm, had a sharpness that already surpassed that of a top-grade Magical Artifact.

Under such invisible cutting, the high-carbon steel armor of the Wasteland was ridiculously fragile.

The other two mechanical hounds' electronic eyes flashed red, just about to release high-voltage arcs.

Gu Shen's ten fingers moved slightly.

The transparent yin threads crisscrossed in mid-air like an inescapable net, strangling them.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The two mechanical hounds were instantly dismembered into dozens of pieces of scrap metal, slamming heavily into the muddy humus. Their arc emitters were severed, bursting with sparks from short circuits before completely extinguishing.

Three breaths.

Three Tactical Hunter Hounds were reduced to a pile of wreckage.

"Holy crap!"

The Crab on his shoulder let out a cracked exclamation, "My Lord! What did you just do? My microwave radar didn't capture any trajectory of kinetic weapons at all! How did the armor of these three hunters shatter on its own?!"

"The methods of the Cultivation World are naturally beyond the understanding of a piece of junk like you."

Gu Shen sneered.

He slightly curled his ten fingers, and the three invisible yin threads retracted into his finger bones like swimming snakes, lying dormant.

Although the Soul-Pulling Threads were incomparably sharp, they consumed Divine Sense extremely quickly. They were naturally top-tier for precision kills and ambushes, but if one were to get bogged down in a group battle, the thunder pattern gold-slaying blade was more straightforward.

Just then.

Rumble!

The trembling of the earth interrupted the Crab's exclamation.

The sparks from the short-circuiting and exploding mechanical hounds were like sparks falling into a pan of oil, completely igniting the violent instincts of this mutant jungle.

"Screech—!"

From all directions, sharp shrieks resembling the crying of infants rang out simultaneously.

Countless mutant blood vines, as thick as buckets and covered in scarlet barbs, violently burst from the ground! Like venomous pythons choosing to devour people, they twisted frantically in mid-air, sealing off all of Gu Shen's retreat routes.

In the air, that strange sweet fragrance instantly intensified to the extreme. That was the paralyzing toxic gas released by the blood vines.

"My Lord, be careful! The concentration of toxins in the air has exceeded the limit! There are life signs all around!" The Crab warned urgently.

"No need to retreat. Today, I am here just to chop trees."

Gu Shen's eyes were as cold as iron.

He did not activate the Wood Armor Technique for defense.

Facing this sky full of toxic gas and sharp thorns, the dark golden skeleton within his body let out a dull, resonant hum. The terrifying poison resistance granted by the Thunder Bone Second Layer repelled all the toxic miasma attempting to bore into his pores.

Clang!

The thunder pattern gold-slaying blade was drawn fiercely!

Gu Shen gripped the blade with both hands, pouring his Qi Refining Level 7 mana into it without reservation.

The pure Thunder Bone power within his body resonated perfectly with the thunder magnetic fine sand on the blade!

Boom!

Deep blue thunder light exploded brightly in the dim jungle, like a blinding scorching sun.

A thick blood vine whipped down overhead like a long lash.

Gu Shen did not dodge or evade; he swung the blade with both hands, slashing upward against the momentum!

Rrrrip!

The thunder blade aura was like lightning tearing through the night sky.

That extremely tough blood vine was directly split in two by the thunder light. The extremely rigid and yang Thunder-Magnetic Force spread wildly along the incision, instantly electrocuting the ten-zhang-long vine into a ball of charred remains.

But this was only the beginning.

A dozen blood vines strangled in from the front, back, left, and right simultaneously.

"Thunder Sound Slash!"

Gu Shen let out a low growl like a wild beast.

He transformed into a blue thunder storm, charging frantically through this dense cage of blood vines.

No defense, only extreme offense.

The sharpness of the top-grade fierce metal tore through flesh, and the violent Thunder-Magnetic Force burned away the sinister evil.

Any blood vine that approached within three zhang of Gu Shen was shredded into pieces by this terrifying thunder meat grinder. The pungent green sap splashed everywhere, but it couldn't even get close to Gu Shen's body before being evaporated into white smoke by the high temperature of the thunder light.

Kill! Kill! Kill!

Gu Shen stepped over the charred remains, advancing step by step toward the deepest part of the ecological zone.

He was like a tireless bulldozer, forcibly plowing a straight, charred path through this living mutant jungle.

"My Lord is mighty! Thirty zhang to the front left, there is a high-density spiritual energy reaction!" The Crab acted as the perfect tactical radar.

"Those broken branches and fallen leaves have no value. What I am looking for is their secondary mother plant!"

Gu Shen slashed a second-tier Corpse Dog, which had been hiding in the vines attempting an ambush, in half with one stroke.

His trip this time was to gather enough "flow-conducting fluid" to carve formation patterns for the fifteen Iron Corpse Puppets. The wood marrow extracted from ordinary mutant blood vines was too little. Only by finding the mother plant of this area and draining its Origin could he solve it once and for all.

"Detected! My Lord, four hundred zhang directly ahead! There is an extremely massive thermal life source there, and it is beating!" The Crab's voice carried a hint of trembling.

Gu Shen raised his head.

The thunder light on the gold-severing saber illuminated the darkness ahead.

In the deepest part of this underground jungle, beneath the collapsed steel dome.

A dark red mother plant, fully ten zhang tall and pulsating constantly like a giant heart, stood quietly amidst pools of blood and white bones. Countless thick blood vines connected to its main body like blood vessels.

Sensing Gu Shen's undisguised, violent thunderous killing intent.

The mutant mother plant stopped pulsating.

Rumble!

The mother plant cracked open a huge gap, and countless spear-like thorns aimed in Gu Shen's direction.