138: Chapter 138 Returning to the Fourth Floor

For the next three hours, the security room was filled with the dense sounds of cutting and the pungent smell of welding.

When Gu Shen cut the final refined red copper wire and closed the chest of the twelfth Iron Corpse, twelve "High-Energy Battery-Powered Cyber Iron Corpses," their eyes glowing with a faint blue light, stood neatly before him like an indestructible wall of steel.

"Whew."

Gu Shen wiped a layer of fine sweat from his forehead.

He looked down at his Storage Ring; he had consumed forty catties of refined iron, five catties of refined red copper, and twelve miniature batteries.

But this consumption had brought about an absolute qualitative change in his combat power.

"My Lord, our armaments have finished upgrading. Should we go straight down to the Sixth Level arsenal now to settle the score with that unknown existence on the Thirteenth Floor?" Crab crawled onto Gu Shen's shoulder, sharpening its blades.

"No rush."

Gu Shen sheathed the thunder pattern gold-slaying blade back at his waist.

In his eyes, hidden beneath the shadow of his bamboo hat, a cold calculation flashed.

"The essence of the Dao of Survival is to never leave your back exposed to unknown dangers."

"The deeper we go into this underground base, the more dangerous it becomes. Before we descend, we must completely clear out any hidden dangers in our base camp."

Gu Shen raised his head, his gaze seemingly piercing through the thick rock layers, looking toward the upper part of Shelter No. 7.

"The 4th Floor Above Ground, the biochemical laboratory."

"Last time, I retreated because those Aberrations soaking in the glass cylinders were about to wake up."

"Now."

Gu Shen patted the shoulder of an Iron Corpse beside him, which felt like it was cast from fine steel.

"It's the perfect time to test my blade on them."

Swish!

The shadow shoes on Gu Shen's feet shimmered with a dark light.

He leaped, darting into the ventilation duct once again like a ghost.

The twelve Cyber Iron Corpses moved without the slightest hesitation; like spiders, they used both hands and feet to climb crudely up along the ventilation duct, emitting a hair-raising metallic grinding sound.

All the way up.

Underground 1st floor, above ground 1st floor...

The path was silent. The low-level Aberrations, Corpse Infants, and other monsters that had previously occupied this area had long since been thoroughly cleared out by Gu Shen months ago.

It took less than half an incense stick's worth of time.

Gu Shen, leading the Iron Corpse legion, stood once again at the entrance of the 3rd Floor Above Ground.

In the dim corridor, the sound of heavy, uniform metallic footsteps echoed.

Gu Shen walked at the very front.

Draped in a grey robe and wearing a bamboo hat, the viscous mana of his Qi Refining 9th Layer Great Perfection was perfectly locked deep within his Dark Gold Thunder Bone.

Behind him, the twelve Cyber Iron Corpses that had just completed their "biochemical mechanical modification" followed closely, like twelve cold killing machines.

Their chest cavities had been welded shut by Gu Shen using the Great Furnace's void fire. In the position where their hearts used to be, high-energy fusion miniature batteries were outputting violent kinetic energy with extreme stability.

Faint blue electronic light flickered coldly in their eye sockets.

"My Lord, the physical parameters of the bodies are operating perfectly. The battery output power is stable at three percent. This is simply epoch-making biochemical armored infantry."

From the black iron button at Gu Shen's collar, Crab's electronic voice revealed undisguisable technical fanaticism.

Gu Shen did not speak, only nodding slightly.

He did not use the Soul-Pulling Threads for micro-manipulation, nor did he consume even a shred of mana to issue commands.

He merely sent a simple physical follow signal through the corpse-control iron plate. These twelve Iron Corpses, weighing over a thousand catties each, were able to execute tactical movements with extreme precision.

This was the dimensional reduction strike of Wasteland energy.

In the Cultivation World, even a Cultivator at the Late-Stage Qi Refining Great Perfection could not simultaneously control twelve Foundation Establishment-level Puppets for prolonged combat, as the consumption of Spirit Stones and the drain on Divine Sense would be terrifying.

But in this spiritless Wasteland, as long as the batteries had power, they were perpetual motion machines.

Ahead, the corridor came to an end.

A huge, perfectly smooth stone door, dark grey in color, tightly sealed the path to the 4th Floor Above Ground.

Behind the door was the 4th Floor Above Ground—the biochemical laboratory filled with unknown aberrant stitched monsters.

Gu Shen stopped and looked up.

The door was incredibly thick, its surface without even a single seam, as if it had been cast in one piece. In the lower right corner of the door, there was a tiny, charred crack.

That was the mark left months ago when Gu Shen first explored this place and blasted it with a precious Medium Grade 'Sky Lightning Talisman'.

"Back when I was in the Early Stage of Qi Refining, I exhausted all my trump cards and couldn't even blast a single layer of skin off this Dragon-Severing Stone."

Gu Shen looked at the charred crack, his eyes dark. "The Dragon-Severing Stone used to Seal the aberrant test subjects in this Wasteland biochemical laboratory is truly well-deserved of its reputation."

"My Lord, if I may be blunt."

The mechanical spider "Crab" crawled out from Gu Shen's collar and onto his shoulder, its red microwave radar beam quickly scanning across the huge door.

"This isn't some 'stone,' nor is it a creation of the Cultivation World. This is a standard military-grade polymer composite explosion-proof door."

Crab's electronic voice revealed absolute physical confidence.

"Microwave detection shows that the thickness of this door reaches an absurd eight hundred millimeters. The main material is a titanium-carbon alloy, with three layers of polymer energy-absorbing gel and radiation-proof lead plates sandwiched in between. It was originally designed to withstand close-range tactical nuclear strikes."

"The high-energy plasma explosive you used before, called a 'Sky Lightning Talisman,' while having an extremely high instantaneous temperature, lacked sustained physical piercing kinetic energy, so of course it couldn't completely blast it open."

"Titanium-carbon alloy? Explosion-proof door?"

Gu Shen chewed on these two unfamiliar terms, a thoughtful expression appearing on his face.

He was an extremely pure Cultivator. In his understanding, hard stone was a Dragon-Severing Stone, and a glowing panel was a Formation.

But Crab's analysis was slowly tearing apart his inherent Cultivation common sense, forcing him to face the true might of this Wasteland.

"Whatever it's called. If it blocks my path, it must be shattered."

Gu Shen gripped the hilt of the blade at his waist, his gaze extremely cold.

"Crab. No Spells, pure physical demolition. Can you cut through it?"

"Of course, My Lord!"

Crab responded with great excitement, "The miniature batteries have an extremely abundant reserve of energy! As long as we activate the high-frequency particle oscillation modules in the Iron Corpses' arms, the molecular bonds of this titanium-carbon alloy will undergo metal fatigue under the extremely high-frequency resonance, and finally be forcibly liquefied!"

"Then begin."

Gu Shen stepped back three paces and pointed forward casually with his right hand.

Boom!

The order was given.

The twelve Cyber Iron Corpses, which had been standing still, suddenly had the faint blue light in their eye sockets flare up intensely!

Their thick legs stomped forward violently, their heavy weight causing the alloy floor of the 3rd floor to sink deeply.