66: Chapter 66 Monster Dojo! Slaying Through the Biochemical Hell

Spiritless Ruins, Underground Third Level, the Qi vein passage above the severe infection lockdown zone.

A pungent, acrid stench, accompanied by the faint scent of rotting flesh, poured in continuously through the gaps in the ventilation duct.

Gu Shen lay prone before the blinds, which were covered in dark green fungal mats, suppressing his breathing to a state akin to turtle-hibernation. The protective Spiritual Qi on his body surface shimmered slightly, shattering all the poisonous gas attempting to bore into his pores.

He peered down through the grid, his gaze cold.

The moment he saw the scene below, Gu Shen's pupils constricted into pinpricks.

There was no chaotic slaughter of dancing demons as he had imagined, nor were there mindless zombies crawling everywhere.

Below was an extremely vast, semi-circular domed hall, easily several mu in size. In the center of the hall stood an extremely thick, half-shattered transparent glass pillar. Inside the pillar, a blinding, eerie green world-extinguishing poisonous light was continuously radiating outwards.

And surrounding this pillar of poisonous light, dozens of humanoid monsters were sitting cross-legged in a dense formation!

Their bodies were bloated and deformed, their skin covered in translucent pustules of acid, and some monsters even had seven or eight eyes growing on their faces.

But what was hair-raising was that they were actually sitting cross-legged like Cultivators in the Great Yu Cultivation World, forming concentric circles around the pillar of poisonous light. Accompanied by a strange rhythmic breathing, the pustules on their bodies expanded and contracted, greedily inhaling the rich poisonous light in the air!

"Monster Dojo?!"

Gu Shen's heart shook violently, and he felt a chill rush straight to his brain.

These monsters were actually Cultivating!

The black terminal strapped to his left leg grew slightly warm, and Crab's voice, suppressing extreme terror, traveled through the leg bone into Gu Shen's ear:

"My Lord... this is hell. These are the first-generation test subjects from the Ascension Project back then! Even though their genes have collapsed, the subconscious instructions implanted in their brains to absorb radiation are still running! They have turned this place into a petri dish and are collectively absorbing the energy from high-concentration nuclear waste!"

"Moreover, the security door at the end of the hall with the red warning light is the only entrance to the Fourth Underground Level. If you want to go down, you must pass through this dormant array of mutants."

Gu Shen's eyes were like blades, staring fixedly at the security door a hundred zhang away.

"Forcing my way through means death."

Dozens of Grade 2 or higher mutant poisonous creatures, and even those monsters near the center of the pillar of poisonous light, had bloated to nearly a zhang in height, radiating the terrifying pressure of a peak Grade 2. Once they were awakened, even if Gu Shen had achieved Major Achievement in his Bone Refining Art, he would be melted into a puddle of blood by the endless acid.

"I must assassinate them. Clean them up one by one from the edges."

Gu Shen was extremely calm. He did not use his thunder pattern gold-slaying blade, because the lightning light was too bright; in this dark hall, it would be no different from a torch in the night.

He flipped his right hand, and a Grade 2 bone spike slid into his palm—that shadow cat bone spike.

Click.

The blinds were silently severed.

Gu Shen, like a weightless falling leaf, dropped silently from the ten-zhang-high ceiling. When his feet touched the fungal-covered floor, not even a speck of dust was stirred up.

The black light on his shadow shoes flowed, and Gu Shen completely merged into the shadows of the surrounding refined iron machinery.

Like a patient cheetah, he crept silently toward the outermost mutant that was inhaling the poisonous light.

Three steps. Two steps. One step.

Gu Shen's left hand shot out like an iron pincer, clamping tightly over the monster's fang-filled mouth.

At the same time, his right hand drove the bone spike from bottom to top, with extreme precision, through the gap in the spine at the back of the monster's head!

Puchi!

The monster's bones were extremely hard, but Gu Shen now possessed terrifying strength augmented by the Bone Refining Art. The bone spike sank in to the hilt, directly shredding its central nervous system.

The monster stiffened, not even letting out a struggle before collapsing limply into Gu Shen's arms.

A few drops of green acid blood splashed onto Gu Shen's arm, immediately emitting a sizzling, corrosive sound. To remain hidden, he hadn't even deployed his protective Spiritual Qi, but Gu Shen didn't even frown; although his skin was scorched red, it couldn't damage the iron-hard bones beneath.

"The first one."

Gu Shen gently laid the corpse flat and, following the same method, crept toward the next target.

The slaughter proceeded efficiently in absolute silence.

One, two, five...

For a full half-hour, Gu Shen, like the Grim Reaper calling names, relied on his monstrous Physical Body strength and the micro-control of the Soul-Shocking Spike to assassinate all twelve mutants on the periphery without alerting the core area!

But the mana and spirit within him were also rapidly depleting in this high-intensity tension.

Gu Shen hid behind an abandoned medical pod, his Divine Sense probing into his Storage Ring, and he decisively took out a drop of essence white dew (inferior) and swallowed it.

Pure Spiritual Qi dissolved, nourishing his parched Meridians.

Just as he prepared to continue pushing forward.

Crack!

In the center of the hall, beside the cracked glass pillar of poisonous light, a mutant monster with the largest body and a head swollen like a tumor suddenly opened its dozen or so scarlet compound eyes.

Its nostrils twitched violently, and it jerked its head around, staring fixedly at the medical pod where Gu Shen was hiding!

"My Lord! We've been exposed! That is the Mutant Matriarch with thermal sensing and pheromone olfaction!" Crab's shrill scream exploded in his mind.

Roar—!!!

The Mutant Matriarch let out an extremely shrill and piercing roar, the sound wave echoing through the hall like a tangible force.

In an instant, the remaining thirty-plus mutants in the hall awoke simultaneously, turning their heads in unison; their dead eyes were instantly replaced by crazed, bloodthirsty killing intent.

"Since I can't assassinate them, then I'll cut through!"

A terrifying aura of ferocity erupted in the depths of Gu Shen's eyes. The Way of Caution did not mean cowardice; when there was no retreat, only extreme violence remained!

He threw away the dagger and yanked the thunder pattern gold-slaying blade from his waist with his right hand.

Clang!

Eerie blue lightning exploded in the pitch-black hall, like a blinding blue moon!

"Those who block me die!"

Gu Shen exerted force with his legs, and the refined iron floor beneath his feet shattered with a boom. Instead of retreating, he advanced, like a violent Vicious Beast, charging directly into the dense tide of mutants!

"Solidify!"

Green light surged on his body surface as he fully activated the Wood Armor Technique! His left hand held the black turtle shield, which transformed to half a person's height, held in front of him.

Puchi! Puchi! Puchi!

A sky full of sickly green acid sprayed over like a rainstorm, smashing against the turtle shield and Wood Armor, sending up large clouds of pungent white smoke. The Wood Armor was being consumed rapidly, but Gu Shen's speed did not slow down in the slightest.

The thirty-zhang distance was covered in an instant!

"Thunder Sound Slash!"

Gu Shen gripped the saber with both hands, his thick Qi Refining Level 7 mana pouring out without reservation.

Chirp—!

A terrifying, two-zhang-long crescent-shaped lightning blade aura, carrying the extreme sharpness of top-grade vicious metal, swept out.

The four mutants rushing at the front were cut in half by this violent lightning! Their remains were charred by electricity in mid-air, not even having the chance to self-destruct their acid sacs.

But these monsters knew no fear. More mutants threw themselves forward recklessly, their sharp claws slamming hard into Gu Shen's back.

Bang!

The thousand-tough black silk armor deflected most of the force, and the remaining impact collided with Gu Shen's iron-black bones, emitting a dull, bell-like sound.

"Get lost!"

Gu Shen used the momentum to spin, delivering a fierce, matchless roundhouse kick that caused a mutant's chest to collapse; it flew backward, knocking down a large group of its own kind.

The horror of Dual Cultivation of body and magic was vividly displayed at this moment.

He did not fear the sporadic splashing of acid, nor did he fear ordinary blunt weapon strikes. He was like an indefatigable meat grinder, pushing forward crazily through the swarm of monsters.

Ten zhang! Five zhang!

The Mutant Matriarch could no longer hold back; its massive body, like a heavy tank, rumbled forward. The three huge pustules on its abdomen suddenly lit up with blinding green light, and a stream of ultra-high-pressure acid capable of melting Magical Artifacts was about to erupt.

"I've been waiting for you!"

Gu Shen's eyes were cold as iron. Deep within his Sea of Consciousness, that Soul-Shocking Spike, refined to the extreme, struck like a viper's tongue, slamming into the Matriarch's swollen skull!

The Matriarch's movements froze for a split second. The eruption of the pustules was forcibly interrupted.

"Die!"

Gu Shen leaped high, his figure tracing a full moon in mid-air.

The thunder pattern gold-slaying blade, carrying an unyielding determination, slashed down from the crown of the Mutant Matriarch's head!

Boom!

Lightning pierced the body. The Mutant Matriarch's massive body was split in two, and before the foul-smelling fluids could splash out, they were completely vaporized by the violent lightning power.

With their leader dead, the remaining twenty-plus mutants fell into a brief chaos.

Gu Shen did not linger to fight; a flash of black light appeared at his feet, and he transformed into a blur, breaking through the blockade of the monster swarm and pouncing toward the security door at the end of the hall.

The door wasn't locked.

Gu Shen kicked the door open, flashed inside, and pulled the half-foot-thick lead-steel gate shut, locking the handle.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Outside the door came the sound of mutants crazily ramming the gate, but they were all firmly blocked by this anti-nuclear-explosion-grade lead-steel gate.

In the passage, silence finally returned.

Gu Shen leaned his back against the cold door, his chest heaving violently as he gasped for air. He was covered in green blood and charred grime, his Wood Armor long since shattered, but his eyes were extremely bright.

Cut through!

"My Lord is mighty... this combat power is simply non-human..." Crab's voice carried sincere awe.

Gu Shen didn't talk nonsense. He walked to the corner of the passage, and with a thought of his Divine Sense, he had conveniently used the Great Furnace to refine the remains of the Mutant Matriarch during the charge.

[Obtained: essence white dew (inferior) three drops. One mutated poison crystal.]

He put the essence white dew into his Storage Ring. The mutated poison crystal was ink-green all over, radiating extremely pure toxin fluctuations; it was clearly a top-grade Material for refining poison-type Magical Artifacts or hidden weapons.

Gu Shen closed his eyes, adjusted his breath for a moment, and then looked toward the end of the passage.

There was the entrance to the Fourth Underground Level. The deeper underground palace was opening up to him.