67: Chapter 67 Underground Spirit Plant Garden

In the Spiritless Ruins, the refined iron passage leads to the Fourth Underground Level.

A heavy lead-steel blast door completely sealed off the biochemical Hell of the third level.

Gu Shen leaned his back against the cold iron wall and slowly slid down to a sitting position.

After successive bloody battles, even with the support of the black iron skeleton from the Bone Refining Art, his internal Meridians and Qi and blood were experiencing an intense tearing sensation.

With a movement of his Divine Sense, Gu Shen took two dragon-eye-sized Medicinal Pills from his Storage Ring.

One was a Blood Crystal Pill, entirely crimson and radiating a rich bloody aura; the other was a Pulse Protecting Pill, gentle in color and containing a cooling essence.

He threw his head back and swallowed them both at the same time.

Boom.

The domineering bloody aura dissolved in his abdomen, rapidly replenishing the depletion in his Physical Body.

Immediately following, the cooling medicinal power of the Pulse Protecting Pill was like a layer of frost, tightly protecting his throbbing Meridians and smoothing over the hidden injuries left by the violent circulation of his magical power.

Half an hour later.

Gu Shen exhaled a breath of foul air tinged with a faint metallic scent, his eyes regaining their cold, sharp edge.

The terminal iron plate strapped to his left leg grew slightly warm, and the voice of Crab, acting as his highly conscientious "strategist," transmitted through his leg bone:

"My Lord, below us is the Fourth Underground Level, the ecological planting zone.

This place used to be the hydroponic farm for the entire Shelter, possessing an independent full-spectrum artificial sun System."

"But the bad news is, the reactor on the Thirteenth Floor leaked back then, and the cooling water circulation System was contaminated.

The plants here absorbed high-concentration radioactive water, and combined with long periods of wild growth, it has likely turned into a terrifying, mutated primeval jungle."

Gu Shen stood up and straightened his tattered black tunic.

He did not retreat in the slightest.

Since it was a Spiritual Planting Garden, even if it had mutated, it would definitely contain unimaginably vast amounts of mutated spiritual medicine.

This was excellent nourishment for his Cultivation of the second level of the Bone Refining Art.

Gu Shen strode to the iron door at the end of the passage.

It was unlocked.

The moment he pushed the door open, an extremely thick scent of vegetation, mixed with decay and a strange, sweet fragrance, rushed toward him.

What met his eyes was an extremely vast underground cavern space.

Embedded in the dome above were hundreds of large glass plates (full-spectrum fill lights) emitting a faint white light.

Even after a thousand years, these ancient Formations were still stubbornly operating, providing false sunlight to this pitch-black underground.

And under this pale light was an extremely mad, twisted, ink-green jungle.

Huge vines as thick as buckets coiled like winding dragons around refined steel supports, their wide leaves edged with saw-like barbs.

The ground was covered with a thick layer of humus, and piles of white bones were vaguely visible.

"My Lord, be careful! Although the thermal imaging module is broken, the concentration of spores in the air is extremely high.

These plants are alive, and they have a very strong sense of territoriality!" Crab warned.

Gu Shen's eyes were like knives as his right foot stepped into the thick humus.

Whoosh—!

Without any warning, the seemingly dead, ink-green vine beneath his feet suddenly erupted!

Like a poisonous python breaking through the water, it opened its oral cavity at the tip—which was filled with dense, sharp teeth like a lamprey—and lunged straight at Gu Shen's face!

The speed was comparable to the sneak attack of a Flying Sword from a Foundation Establishment Initial Stage Cultivator!

But Gu Shen had long been prepared.

He did not draw the gold-severing saber, which would have made too much noise.

Flipping his left wrist, a shadow cat bone spike—about a foot long, pitch-dark, and radiating the terrifying Evil Qi of a Tier 2 Yao Beast—instantly slid into his palm.

This bone spike was the very Sharp Weapon he had used earlier to assassinate mutants on the third level.

It was not only extremely tough but also possessed the innate armor-piercing and stealth effects of a Shadow Cat.

"You seek death!"

Gu Shen did not retreat but advanced instead; his bones emitted a muffled groan, and his terrifying physical strength was fully poured into his left arm.

The shadow cat bone spike turned into a streak of black light, arriving before the attack could even reach him!

Pfft!

It pierced with extreme precision right into the center of the mutated vine's open oral cavity!

"Screech—!"

The vine let out an extremely piercing scream, like the wailing of an infant, and writhed violently.

A large amount of green liquid, emitting a strange fragrance, sprayed from the severed end.

But Gu Shen's movements did not pause for even a second.

Because the moment he repelled the vine, a sound of extremely heavy metal grinding came from the jungle ahead.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

A behemoth (heavy agricultural harvester mech) two zhang tall, covered in thick refined iron armor, crashed through the thick roots blocking the way and appeared before Gu Shen.

This steel giant had long lost its original paint; its mechanical joints and cockpit were densely packed with the same mutated vines from before.

Those vines, like nerves and blood vessels, had forcibly taken control of this extremely heavy machine!

The mech's right arm was a refined steel alloy saw blade, over a zhang long, spinning crazily!

"My Lord! It's a runaway fully automatic harvesting unit! It has been parasitized by mutated blood vines! This thing's armor can't even be pierced by heavy machine guns!" Crab shouted.

A trace of fanaticism flashed in Gu Shen's eyes.

"The vines have become sentient and can actually manipulate this Ancient Sect's armored puppet? A fine trick!"

Clang!

The thunder pattern gold-slaying blade roared out of its sheath, deep blue lightning leaping wildly along the blade.

Facing such a heavily armored puppet, ordinary bone spikes were useless; only this top-grade fierce metal imbued with thunder could work!

Hum—!

The harvesting Puppet controlled by the blood vines emitted a huge roar, and the alloy saw blade, carrying a gale capable of tearing everything apart, slashed down at his head.

"Rise!"

Gu Shen instantly summoned the black turtle shield with his left hand, transforming it into a massive, earth-yellow shield that he held firmly above his head.

Clang!!!

An extremely piercing sound of metal clashing rang through the jungle.

Sparks flew everywhere.

Under the crazy cutting of the alloy saw blade, the spiritual light on the surface of the top-grade defensive Magical Artifact, the black turtle shield, trembled violently, and it was actually cut into by an inch!

The immense recoil force slammed down through the shield; if not for the iron bones Gu Shen possessed from the Bone Refining Art, any ordinary Late-Stage Qi Refining Cultivator would have had their arms broken!

"Get lost!"

Gu Shen withstood the blow, kicked off hard with his right leg, and his entire body, like a shadow gliding along the ground, instantly cut into the harvesting Puppet's defensive blind spot.

Thunderous sounds exploded!

Gu Shen gripped the blade with both hands, aiming at the gap in the mech's abdomen, which was the drive hub wrapped in countless vines.

"Slash!"

The crescent-shaped thunder blade aura, like a bolt of lightning tearing through the dark night, fiercely slashed into that gap!

Crackle—!

The Thunder-Magnetic Force instantly exploded within the narrow mechanical cavity.

The mutated blood vines parasitizing the inside, in the face of the supreme, rigid, and yang thunder, were like dry grass meeting a raging fire, instantly electrocuted into a pile of charred remains!

Having lost the control of the vines, the massive harvesting Puppet emitted an extremely piercing short-circuiting sound and collapsed with a boom, kicking up dust to the sky.

Gu Shen sheathed his blade and stood still, panting heavily, his eyes gleaming with intense light.

Crisp, sharp, a fatal blow in one strike.

He walked to the pile of machinery and charred remains, pressing one hand onto the thickest fragment of the mutated blood vine.

The Great Furnace phantom fire swept over it.

[Extraction complete. Obtained: two drops of essence white dew (inferior). One lump of mutated wood marrow. Current inferior white dew: twenty-one drops.]

This mutated wood marrow radiated an extremely rich essence of vegetation and a trace of extremely subtle, violent power; it was absolutely excellent supplementary material for Body Refining!

Gu Shen put it into his Storage Ring.

Just at this moment, his peripheral vision swept across the depths of the jungle that had been crashed open behind the Puppet.

The ground there had been violently ripped open into a massive fissure.

And all the thick mutated vine roots in this Spiritual Planting Garden were like greedily sucking blood vessels, following that fissure and piercing tightly toward the deeper underground!

"My Lord, the detector shows that the mutated plant roots in this area have already pierced through the floor slab of the fifth level and are still extending downward..."

Crab's voice was extremely grave, "They... are directly absorbing the energy leaked from the Thirteenth Floor reactor as nourishment!"

Gu Shen's breath hitched slightly.

The entire thirteen levels underground, from the live experiments on the third level to the spiritual plant mutations on the fourth level, were no longer isolated floors.

The Thunder Pool Hub located on the Thirteenth Floor was using that terrifying mutated Origin to assimilate this entire Ancient Sect underground palace into an extremely massive, living Hell ecosystem!

"The further down you go, the richer the nourishment, but the more lethal it becomes."

Gu Shen sneered, the ambition in his eyes like a prairie fire.

Not only did he want to slaughter his way through this jungle, but he also wanted to turn all the fortune of this underground into stepping stones for his path of Body Refining.