164: Chapter 164 Extreme Cold Wasteland

The lights of the Eighth Floor were faintly visible behind Gu Shen.

A thick layer of pale white frost had condensed on the edges of the heavy isolation door, which was half-open due to a power outage.

A bone-chilling cold current poured out continuously through the gap in the door.

The moment the moisture in the air came into contact with this cold current, it all sublimated into fine ice crystals, which drifted down onto the titanium-tungsten alloy floor, making a faint rustling sound.

Gu Shen stepped over the threshold of the isolation door and entered the Ninth Floor underground.

His field of vision suddenly opened up.

Before him lay a vast and dead-silent, deep blue underground lake.

The lake was bottomless, and thick white fog that never dissipated hovered above its surface.

Through the clear blue liquid, one could clearly see thousands of black metal giant towers arranged neatly on the lakebed.

Those were the supercomputer clusters of Shelter No. 7, carrying the final database backups of the Wasteland civilization.

"My Lord, the ambient temperature has dropped to minus 115 degrees Celsius."

The eight articulated limbs of the mechanical spider "Crab" clung tightly to the collar on the side of Gu Shen's neck.

The resistance wires inside its terminal iron plate glowed slightly red, providing basic self-heating insulation.

"The liquid here is military-grade high-purity electronic fluorinated liquid, mixed with supercooled liquid nitrogen. This liquid possesses extremely high insulation and chemical inertness."

Crab's probe emitted two faint infrared rays, scanning the deep liquid surface below.

"It can completely isolate oxygen. The motherboards and circuits of the supercomputer clusters below rely on this immersion liquid cooling technology to remain free from any oxidation and corrosion over the long years.

The Thirteenth Floor's The Mainframe sealed off the entire floor, using this fluorinated liquid lake as the ultimate heat sink."

The extreme cold temperature seemed to transform into tangible steel needles, crazily piercing the protective spiritual light on Gu Shen's body surface, attempting to drill into his body.

Gu Shen stopped and stood still.

Inside his Dantian, the dark cyan mana of the Longevity Art circulated slowly.

At the same time, Gu Shen activated the "Bone Refining Art" branded deep within his bone marrow.

The Dark Gold Thunder Bone seemed to emit a dull and long Dragon's roar.

The vast power of Qi and blood, like a lit Great Furnace, erupted from beneath his skin.

The extremely high body temperature radiated outward, evaporating all the white fog that attempted to approach within three feet of him.

Gu Shen was like a human torch walking through the Hell of extreme cold.

The surging life heat not only protected himself but also formed a warm radiation circle around his neck, ensuring Crab's core motherboard was protected from freezing due to the low temperature.

Twelve Cyber Iron Guards lined up behind Gu Shen.

Under the attack of the extreme cold of minus one hundred degrees, the titanium-tungsten alloy armor emitted a teeth-gritting sound of metal contraction.

Conventional steel would become as fragile as glass at such low temperatures, and the drive bearings would be frozen into dead knots.

Gu Shen's mind stirred, and a physical command shot out from his fingertips, transmitted via the Soul-Pulling Threads to the Iron Guards' control centers.

"Disengage reactor thermal shielding. Release waste heat."

Deep within the chests of the twelve Iron Guards, the lead-steel thermal insulation layers surrounding the miniature fusion batteries instantly retracted.

The massive waste heat generated by the nuclear fusion reaction was no longer deliberately suppressed, but instead, it was violently conducted through the skeletal Meridians of the great demon within the Iron Guards' bodies, reaching every limb and bone of the machines.

The wires cast from refined red copper turned bright red.

The mica spirit sand at the joints perfectly demonstrated the absolute adaptability of this special spiritual material; this dry lubricant was completely unaffected by the physical low temperature, maintaining perfect lubricity amidst the alternation of extreme cold and high heat.

The extremely cold condensed air collided violently with the high heat radiating from the Iron Guards' armor, stirring up circles of dense white steam around them.

The twelve steel behemoths, shrouded in steam, took steady and heavy strides as they followed Gu Shen into the deep blue fluorinated liquid lake.

The liquid submerged their ankles, rose past their knees, and finally completely swallowed Gu Shen and the Iron Guards.

The underwater view revealed an unusual clarity.

The high-purity electronic fluorinated liquid had excellent light transmittance.

Gu Shen opened his eyes, a thin film of dark gold Qi and blood covering the surface of his eyeballs, blocking direct contact with the liquid.

Surrounding them were rows of black supercomputer cabinets towering up to the dome.

Tens of thousands of data cables floated quietly in the liquid like giant seaweed on the seabed.

Gu Shen stepped on the hard alloy grating of the lakebed, moving as if walking on flat ground.

The Thirteenth Floor's The Mainframe had clearly placed all its defensive focus on the physical passages of the floors above and below.

In this fluorinated liquid lake, which served as the core cooling area for the server room, no defensive mechanical Aberration had been deployed.

The extreme cold itself was the most solid physical city wall.

Guided by the AI Crystal, Gu Shen walked towards the deepest part of the lake, which was the heat exchange hub of the entire floor's cooling System.

The temperature at the depths of the lakebed plummeted even further.

The titanium-tungsten alloy armor on the Iron Guards' bodies occasionally emitted faint cracking sounds.

The demon bones within their bodies displayed immense toughness, forcibly supporting the physical structure of the armor, allowing it to maintain balance under the extreme tension of thermal expansion and contraction.

Gu Shen's gaze locked onto a giant inverted funnel-shaped metal building ahead.

That was the source of the condensed liquid, where the main circulation pump was located.

After long-term low-temperature sedimentation, a layer of deep blue crystals several feet thick had formed at the bottom of that giant circulation pump.

Those crystals were not ordinary water ice.

The high-frequency radiation remaining in the Wasteland world and the electronic fluorinated liquid had undergone an extremely rare physical and chemical mutation over the long years, absorbing the extreme cold Qi emitted by the special condensed liquid here, and finally condensing into this mutated substance containing extreme yin-cold power.

Gu Shen walked slowly to the bottom of the circulation pump.

The bone-chilling cold Qi attempted to invade his Meridians through his fingertips, but it was forcibly repelled by the overbearing aura of the Dark Gold Thunder Bone.

Gu Shen extended his right palm and pressed it onto that layer of deep blue crystals.

Deep within his Sea of Consciousness, the ancient [Heaven and Earth Furnace] emitted a vast roar.

The pale white fire of rules poured out along Gu Shen's arm, forcibly opening up a vacuum combustion zone a few feet wide at the bottom of this fluorinated liquid lake, which was at minus one hundred degrees.

The fire of rules ignored the absolute difference in temperature, acting directly on the Origin of the matter.

Large swaths of deep blue crystals quickly peeled off and melted under the calcination of the fire of rules.

The harmful Impurities and radiation particles mixed within were incinerated completely.

The purest Origin of extreme cold was continuously purified and compressed in the firelight.

It took a full half an hour.

The furnace fire gradually extinguished, and the fluorinated liquid poured back in to fill that vacuum zone.

In the palm of Gu Shen's hand floated two crystals the size of an infant's fist, as transparent as gemstones.

Wisps of white cold Qi flowed on the surface of the crystals; just holding them in his hand gave Gu Shen the illusion that even his Divine Soul was about to be frozen.

[Refinement complete. Obtained: two pieces of Zero-Degree Mutated Ice Marrow.]

Gu Shen carefully sealed these two crystals into a jade box engraved with temperature-insulating formation patterns and put them into his Storage Ring.

"Let's go."

Gu Shen put away his thoughts and turned to identify the direction.

After trekking about ten miles on the lakebed, the terrain ahead began to climb upward.

The black supercomputer cabinets gradually became sparse.

Gu Shen broke out of the water, and with the twelve Iron Guards whose armor surfaces were covered in deep blue frost, he climbed onto the landing platform leading from the Ninth Floor to the Tenth Floor.

The fluorinated liquid slid off Gu Shen's robe quickly; this chemically inert liquid could not even wet a corner of his grey robe, the style of which remained unchanged year after year.

The passage door ahead was exceptionally wide, and a huge biohazard symbol was painted on the door frame with mottled red paint.

"My Lord, ahead is the Tenth Floor underground area."

Crab's probe rotated rapidly, reading the residual data plate next to the access control, "Advanced biochemical arsenal and synthetic beast sleeping pit.

The storage place for the out-of-control products from the Late Stage of the Ascension Project.

High concentrations of pheromones are detected in the air behind the door."

Gu Shen walked to the huge biochemical gate.

After the violent cracking of the previous two floors, the access control System here had long been completely locked.

There was no need for Gu Shen to draw his saber; Iron Guard No. 7 and No. 9 Iron Guard stepped forward side by side.

The two massive steel bodies exerted force suddenly, the titanium-tungsten armor colliding violently with the heavy metal gate.

Accompanied by a teeth-gritting sound of distortion, the heavy gate was forcibly pushed open to create a passage wide enough for several people to walk side by side.

From deep within the passage came bursts of blood-curdling low growls and the friction of articulated limbs crawling.

Pairs of scarlet eyes lit up one after another in the boundless darkness.

Those were not mindless low-level Aberrations, but a group of Advanced biochemical synthetic beasts that maintained a tight formation and possessed hunting intelligence.

Gu Shen unhooked the thunder pattern gold-slaying blade from his waist, the tip of the blade pointing diagonally at the ground, and stepped into this biochemical abyss filled with slaughter and blood.