172: Chapter 172 The Last Armored Beast

In the space of the Thirteenth Underground Level, three five-zhang-tall Executioner mechs, like three moving steel fortresses, stepped onto the narrow alloy catwalk.

Their heavy footsteps caused the entire Thirteenth Floor space to tremble slightly. On their massive bodies, high-pressure steam, accompanied by the violent contraction of dark red distorted muscles, gushed wildly from the armor exhaust vents.

Of the two remaining, the Executioner on the left was the first to attack.

It raised its right arm, and the several-meter-long high-frequency plasma blade erupted with blinding, ghostly blue electric arcs. The intense heat instantly overcame the surrounding air resistance, and the heavy giant blade slashed straight toward the Iron Guard array at the front.

No. 11 Iron Guard lunged forward, crossing its arms high above its head, attempting to block the strike head-on with its titanium-tungsten alloy arm guards.

"Chila—!"

The screeching sound of melting metal exploded across the catwalk.

The titanium-tungsten armor, capable of withstanding conventional armor-piercing rounds, was like fragile parchment paper in the face of the thousands-of-degree high-frequency plasma blade. The plasma blade smoothly sliced through the outer armor and struck fiercely against the Sea-Splitting Profound Whale arm bone inside No. 11 Iron Guard.

The spirit-negating property of the Tier 2 Sea-Splitting Profound Whale bone had little effect against pure physical high heat. The bone snapped with a boom under the terrifying kinetic energy.

The plasma blade continued its momentum, slicing diagonally through No. 11 Iron Guard's chest cavity. The internal formation circuits shattered instantly, and the protective casing of the miniature fusion battery was completely severed.

"Boom!"

A violent, ghostly blue fireball expanded across the catwalk. The sympathetic detonation of the fusion battery completely blew No. 11 Iron Guard's upper body into metal fragments that scattered across the sky.

The intense shockwave sent No. 6 and No. 8 Iron Guard, who were following closely behind, flying.

The remaining Executioner seized the opportunity, its massive biochemical lower limbs exerting sudden force, and its thick lead-steel mechanical foot stomped heavily onto the chest of the fallen No. 6 Iron Guard.

Accompanied by the teeth-grinding sound of shattering bone, No. 6 Iron Guard's chest cavity was crushed flat. The load-bearing limit of the Tier 2 Sea-Splitting Profound Whale bone was exceeded, and a series of dazzling sparks erupted from the internal pipelines as the red light in its eye sockets flickered out completely.

Immediately after, the Executioner backhanded its plasma blade, cutting No. 8 Iron Guard—which had just managed to lift its upper body—in half at the waist. Another fusion battery underwent a violent sympathetic detonation in an extremely unstable state.

In the span of a mere two breaths.

Three standard-configuration Tier 2 Demon Bone Iron Guards were completely reduced to useless wreckage under absolute power suppression.

The catwalk was filled with the most primitive sounds of metal colliding. The remaining Iron Guards, led by the Tier 3 Demon Bone Iron Guards No. 3, No. 7, and No. 9, continued to engage in desperate close-quarters combat, fearlessly holding back the pace of these three armored behemoths.

Gu Shen stood in the rear, dark gold Qi and blood surging across his body. A thick layer of cyan vine phantoms appeared outside his black flood dragon black gold armor; this was the ultimate defensive form of the Wood Armor Technique, deflecting all the metal fragments from the detonations ahead.

The destructive power of the Executioners had been ascertained.

The ghostly blue electric light on Gu Shen's thunder shadow boots surged, and he transformed into an elusive afterimage, actively cutting into the chaotic battlefield.

He did not choose to compete in brute force with the five-zhang-tall mechs; the battles of cultivators emphasized striking the vital points.

He opened the five fingers of his right hand, and a bone-chilling coldness faintly seeped through the gaps between his finger bones.

Six strands of icy, chilling Soul-Pulling Threads, spun by the Nine Nether Silkworm, were driven by his Qi and transformed into six transparent Qi currents invisible to the naked eye, shooting precisely toward the right arm joint of the lead Executioner.

The Soul-Pulling Threads ignored the heat-dissipating airflow from the high-temperature plasma, drilling with extreme cunning through the gaps in the mech's armor plates to tightly coil around the high-pressure power supply line driving the plasma blade.

Gu Shen abruptly clenched his five fingers, and the Wood-element magic power in his Meridians pulled frantically.

"Snap!"

That main power supply line, capable of withstanding several tons of tension, was forcibly severed by the Soul-Pulling Threads. The plasma blade on the Executioner's right arm instantly dimmed, and after a few muffled short-circuit explosions, it extinguished completely.

Having lost its primary weapon, the Executioner emitted a mechanical roar resembling that of a beast, and its massive biochemical left arm clenched into a giant fist, smashing toward Gu Shen, who was moving around its side like a flying insect.

Gu Shen slid close to the ground, extremely smoothly evading this strike that felt like Mount Tai pressing down.

He stabilized his figure at the knee joint of the Executioner's thick right leg. Pressing his index and middle fingers together, he gathered all the Geng Metal Qi accumulated in his Dantian at his fingertips, transforming it into an extremely brilliant pale golden point of light.

"Golden Light Finger."

"Break."

Gu Shen pointed with one finger.

The extremely condensed Geng Metal Sword Qi was like an indestructible steel needle, piercing directly through the exposed dark red distorted muscle at the Executioner's knee joint and driving deep into the internal metal drive shaft core.

The sharp Sword Qi wantonly wreaked havoc inside the body, instantly grinding the biochemical mechanical device inside the knee joint into a pulp of flesh and metal.

This hundred-ton Executioner's right leg was instantly paralyzed, its massive body lost balance, and it knelt heavily on one knee onto the alloy catwalk, smashing out a huge crater.

Strike while it's down.

The immense power of Gu Shen's Divine Sense surged out from his Sea of Consciousness, directly coiling around the thunder pattern gold-slaying blade in his hand.

The long saber flew out of his hand.

Under the control of his Divine Sense, the top-grade Magical Artifact transformed into a stream of light interwoven with ghostly blue and pale gold. It traced a perfect arc in mid-air, avoiding the giant arms flailing wildly by the Executioner, and precisely pierced through the gap in the mech's neck armor, ferociously penetrating its head's sensory hub.

The thunder magnetic fine sand triggered a catastrophic electromagnetic storm inside the mech's hub.

This Executioner convulsed violently, its various optical sensors burst one after another, and it finally turned into a pile of smoking scrap metal.

Gu Shen raised his hand in a summoning gesture, and the thunder pattern gold-slaying blade flew back into his palm automatically.

He tapped his toes lightly on the catwalk railing, his figure rising once more.

The other two Executioners were being tightly entangled by nine Iron Guards. Iron Guard No. 7 (Golden-Horned Rhinoceros Beast), at the cost of its chest armor melting over a large area, hugged the plasma blade of one of the Executioners tightly with both arms. No. 9 Iron Guard (Flame Poison Crocodile King) sprayed all its highly corrosive poisonous fire onto the mech's back engine.

Gu Shen locked onto the tactical opportunity in mid-air.

The Soul-Pulling Threads shot out again, this time directly coiling around the hydraulic connection on the neck of one of the Executioners. Gu Shen used the momentum to swing, his figure landing like a ghost onto the broad shoulder armor of that Executioner.

He raised the thunder pattern gold-slaying blade high, compressing the Thunder-Magnetic Force to its limit, and drove the blade fiercely down along the seam of the mech's head armor.

The violent thunder light melted directly through the Executioner's head sensory hub. The second Executioner collapsed to the ground with a boom.

The last Executioner was already covered in wounds under the beating of the nine Iron Guards. After Gu Shen landed, the Soul-Pulling Threads shot from his fingertips, forcibly stripping away and pulling back the miniature fusion battery that had not yet detonated from the wreckage of the waist-severed No. 8 Iron Guard.

Subsequently, the Golden Light Finger was pointed out again, piercing through the power core of the last Executioner.

The intense battle came to an abrupt end within the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.

The alloy catwalk was covered with a thick layer of mech wreckage, and the ocean of nuclear waste liquid continued to boil and churn below.

Gu Shen put away the thunder pattern gold-slaying blade, calming the surging Qi and blood in his body.

The battle was extremely tragic; No. 6, No. 8, and No. 11 Iron Guards were completely reduced to unrecoverable scrap metal, and only one miniature battery was retrieved.

He stepped over the scattered wreckage of the Executioners.

Several zhang ahead.

The Mainframe, soaked in light yellow preservative fluid, was still pulsing powerfully within the cylindrical nutrient tank.

Gu Shen cast his gaze toward that silicon-based Fusion entity that had once dominated everything.