196: Chapter 196 Iron Guard Paralyzed

Deep beneath the ground, an underground river surged and roared.

Gu Shen's figure was like a heavy stone, diving rapidly along the turbulent and icy underground water veins. The surrounding water current, laden with silt and sharp gravel, constantly scraped against the black flood dragon black gold armor on his body, emitting bursts of friction sounds.

The Cold Jade Bone steadily stabilized his figure beneath his skin, dissipating the violent impact force of the water current entirely.

Having escaped into such a subterranean water network where the sun never shines, the Divine Sense exploration of ordinary Cultivators would be like a clay ox entering the sea, making it impossible to lock onto his Aura. However, Gu Shen's spiritual platform did not relax in the slightest; instead, the sense of fatal crisis lingering in his heart grew increasingly intense.

"My Lord, the physical parameters of the water body have experienced abnormal turbulence!"

Inside the black iron buckle clinging to his collar, Crab's single-player electronic voice turned into a subtle bone-conduction vibration frequency, reaching Gu Shen's ears directly. Its tone revealed undisguised terror, "The surrounding water pressure distribution is showing high-frequency alternations of Peaks and troughs! An extremely powerful high-energy infrasonic wave is rapidly converging toward our location, utilizing the upper rock walls and the water medium!"

Gu Shen's gaze turned cold abruptly.

That strike of "Kui Ox Mourning" released by Core Disciple Qin Wuyan playing the Mountain-Quaking Bone Zither seemed to have been blocked by the ground fissure on the surface, but in reality, the lingering sound echoed, utilizing the nature of the earth veins and soil to channel the entire hidden force of the killing move into this underground river.

Sound transmission in water is ten times faster and more powerful than on land.

The surrounding water, which had been surging, suddenly experienced an extremely eerie stagnation. The water body seemed to be forcibly compressed by an invisible giant hand, and countless tiny bubbles imploded instantly under the sudden change in water pressure, emitting a continuous stream of dull, explosive sounds.

An overwhelming and irresistible frenzy of infrasonic resonance, like invisible sharp blades, came strangling in from all directions.

There was nowhere to hide, and no way to escape.

Gu Shen made a decisive decision and flipped his wrist.

"Appear!"

As a dark light flickered, three massive shadows resembling iron towers slammed into the bottom of the water.

The Thunder Cloud Snow Leopard, Golden-Horned Rhinoceros Beast, and Flame Poison Crocodile King—three elite Cyber Iron Guards embedded with the bones of Rank 3 Great Demons—formed a triangular formation, firmly guarding Gu Shen in the center.

The miniature Fusion batteries operated at full power, and the titanium-tungsten alloy armor glinted with a cold metallic luster in the dark water.

Facing the overwhelming sonic strangulation sweeping in, the three Iron Guards were like three indestructible steel breakwaters, standing firmly at the very front.

"Hum——!!!"

The invisible sound waves slammed heavily against the thick bodies of the Iron Guards.

The surrounding water area instantly exploded into a ring of white vacuum cavitation layer under this collision.

It was just as Gu Shen had expected. This kind of Divine Ability that strikes directly at the resonant frequency of material molecules treated external armor as if it were nothing.

The titanium-tungsten alloy shell remained intact, not even leaving a white mark, but the fatal shockwave had already penetrated the armor, driving straight in and raging madly inside the bodies of the Iron Guards.

"Click, click, click..."

The first to show abnormalities was the Golden-Horned Rhinoceros Beast Iron Guard in the center.

The energy wires inside its body, smelted from refined red copper and acting as spiritual power Meridians, generated terrifying metal fatigue under the extremely high-frequency resonance. The originally seamless array nodes collapsed one after another, bursting out clusters of dark blue electric sparks.

The electric light darted around within the enclosed chest cavity, illuminating the high-energy miniature Fusion battery inside that was running at an overload.

"Alert! My Lord! The internal physical structures of No. 3, No. 7, and No. 9 Iron Guards are suffering from destructive resonance!"

Crab's computing core was nearly overloaded, and error messages came one after another, "The breakage rate of the refined red copper transmission circuits has reached 40%! The servo motor rotors are jammed due to resonance!"

This was not the most fatal part. The destructive power of the sound waves was like maggots on bones, continuing to spread toward the Iron Guards' core power source.

On the explosion-proof shell wrapping the miniature battery, several hair-thin cracks actually burst open during this ceaseless vibration!

The dark blue nuclear Fusion halo spilled out along the cracks, the light flickering in a highly manic and disordered manner.

"The stress of the battery protection cabin has failed! The probability of a Fusion reactor thermal runaway is skyrocketing! If it is allowed to continue resonating, it will inevitably trigger a chain reaction explosion within ten breaths!"

Cyber Iron Guards, these killing machines that fused the highest craftsmanship of both worlds, completely exposed the fatal Achilles' heel of their pure physical construction in front of the infrasonic Divine Ability of a top Prodigy from the Cultivation World.

The outer shell was harder than diamond, but the inside was riddled with holes under the resonance.

The three Iron Guards, who originally had an Aura as deep as an abyss, were now as stiff as rotten wood, their limbs twitching, unable to even complete basic tactical movements like raising their arms to block, becoming completely paralyzed lumps of iron.

This was the gap in foundation. The Great Yu Cultivation World had a Legacy spanning tens of thousands of years; those Magic Treasures and Divine Abilities that had undergone the precipitation of time were specifically designed to counter all kinds of clever tricks in the world. Although Wasteland technology had the power of dimension reduction, if it was not supplemented and improved, there would eventually come a day when it would suffer and be constrained.

"Retrieve."

Gu Shen's lips parted slightly, uttering the single word of power.

He knew deeply that if he allowed these three miniature batteries to explode at the bottom of the water, the combined power and the sonic resonance would be enough to completely blow this underground water System for several miles around into nothingness, and he himself would be left with no bones remaining.

With a wave of his large sleeve, the Storage Ring shone with a great green light.

At the very last moment before the Iron Guards reached their critical point, the three massive shadows were forcibly dragged into the static space within the ring.

Losing the physical obstruction of the Iron Guards, the remaining infrasonic ripples were like wild horses breaking free, pouring entirely onto Gu Shen.

The Cold Jade Bone erupted with a thunderous resonance that was extremely dull. Deep cyan True Qi flowed crazily through his Meridians, desperately protecting his internal organs.

"Bang!"

Gu Shen only felt as if his chest and abdomen had been struck by a giant hammer, and a thick, metallic sweetness surged in his throat.

A trace of dark red blood spilled from the corner of his lips, instantly washed away by the underground river current.

He did not linger in the fight, and borrowing this shock thrust, he turned and followed the turbulent water current, diving into the deep darkness of the underground river without looking back.

... Three days later.

In the western part of the hinterland of Mang Mountain, inside a karst cave that never saw the light of day all year round.

Thick stalactites condensed on the cave walls, and a pool of water at the bottom of the cave emitted a faint fluorescence.

"Splash."

The water surface broke, and Gu Shen, dragging his slightly heavy steps, walked out slowly from the cold pool.

Water droplets slid down the texture of the thousand-tough black silk armor; his complexion was slightly pale, which was the internal organ injury left by forcibly resisting the sonic resonance of the "Mountain-Quaking Zither".

He sat cross-legged on a piece of dry bluestone and took out a drop of [essence white dew (medium)] from the Storage Ring to consume. The pure and gentle vitality dissolved within his body, slowly repairing his damaged organs and shaken Meridians.

After his Qi and blood gradually calmed down, Gu Shen gently stroked the Storage Ring, his thoughts flowing.

The three massive remains of the Iron Guards slammed heavily onto the cave floor. The once majestic Puppet killing weapons were now extremely miserable. Although the external titanium-tungsten alloy armor was intact, if one looked closely, one could smell a pungent burnt odor from the gaps in the armor.

Gu Shen pointed his fingers like a sword and pried open the chest armor plate of the Golden-Horned Rhinoceros Beast Iron Guard. The inside was a mess. The wires smelted from refined red copper were broken into several sections, hanging powerlessly like torn blood vessels. The biological neural cords condensed from mutated wood marrow had turned into a lump of black ash under the high-temperature short circuit. On the core miniature battery protection shell, those few cracks were shocking, emitting an unstable, dark blue residual light.

It was completely scrapped.

"My Lord, the damage rate of the internal transmission System of the machine body is as high as 85%. Before solving the anti-resonance physical protection, it is not recommended to be deployed again in such high-frequency sound wave battlefields." Crab's detector head flashed red, conducting a detailed battle damage assessment.

Gu Shen lowered his eyes to examine these damaged mechanisms, with no sign of discouragement on his face at all.

The path of Cultivation is originally about constantly completing the Dao amidst life-and-death trial and error. Today's defeat was due to the mutual restraint of physical properties.

The skeleton of the Rank 2 Peak Mountain-Quaking Kui Ox appeared in his mind.

"That Kui Ox constantly induced earth vein resonance all year round; its main life-bone must possess the characteristic of perfectly isolating physical resonance."

Gu Shen's eyes were deep, and he carefully deduced in his heart, "If I can extract the physical properties of that demon bone and combine it with the polymer energy-absorbing gel from the Wasteland to formulate a sound-insulating coating that can completely isolate sonic resonance transmission, and inject it between the armor and the battery..."

A flash of insight into the truth suddenly dawned in his Sea of Consciousness.

This is not just a repair, but will be a cross-dimensional leap in the combat power of the Cyber Demon Bone Iron Guards.

"It seems I have to go back to Shelter No. 7."

Gu Shen stood up and retrieved all the damaged Iron Guards.

The surroundings were desolate, with only the sound of water dripping in the cave reaching his ears.

He kept his mind focused, and the deep cyan True Qi returned to the depths of the [Nirvana Star Core].

An ancient and heavy [Heaven and Earth Furnace] emitted a vast and desolate vibration in the Void Realm of his Sea of Consciousness, and the pale white fire of rules poured out like a tsunami, as if it could swallow Gu Shen's figure in an instant.