72: Chapter 72 The Mysterious Weapon Forging Hall! The Possessed Killing Mechanism

Spiritless Ruins, 6th Underground Level.

With a teeth-grinding, heavy grinding sound, the steel gate leading to the 6th Underground Level was pushed open by Gu Shen.

There was no pungent stench or dampness like on the 5th Underground Level. Instead, a bone-dry air mixed with the strong scent of machine oil and metallic rust rushed towards him.

The mechanical spider resembled a bolt of black lightning as it was the first to drill through the door gap. The red light of its sensor head scanned back and forth in the darkness.

"Master, it's safe. There are no toxic spores in the air, and the radiation concentration is much lower than above."

The terminal iron plate strapped to Gu Shen's left leg conveyed the report from Crab. "This place used to be the military industry and heavy machinery manufacturing area of the Shelter. The entire floor was built with extremely strict moisture-proofing and electromagnetic shielding."

Gu Shen stepped over the threshold, his gaze sweeping over the surroundings.

This was an extremely massive underground workshop. There was no rotting vegetation, nor were there any disgusting aquatic Aberrations. What caught his eye were rows of assembly line machine tools lying dormant in the darkness like steel beasts. The walls were covered with thick cables, and countless unformed metal parts were scattered on the ground.

"An Artifact Refining stronghold of an Ancient Sect." Gu Shen understood in his heart.

"Crab, go figure out the terrain of this floor and the entrance to the lower level." Gu Shen ordered in a low voice.

"Understood! Master, there is a main control console fifty zhang ahead. As long as I connect to the interface there, I can download a high-precision map of this floor!"

The mechanical spider exerted force with its eight legs, nimbly traversing several scrapped machine tools, and leaped onto a towering control console in the center of the hall. It used its mechanical legs to pry open a dust-covered cover plate and inserted a very slender data probe.

Gu Shen held the thunder pattern gold-slaying blade, standing guard below the control console.

However, just at the third breath after the probe was connected.

"Ah—!!"

The terminal iron plate on Gu Shen's leg suddenly let out an extremely shrill electronic scream, and the originally faint blue light instantly turned into a blinding, frantically flashing red light!

"Cut it! Quickly cut the physical connection! Something is tracking me in reverse along the internal network!"

Crab's voice was filled with extreme, ghostly terror. "Master! Help! There is an extremely massive, malicious logic virus trying to overwrite my underlying core! It wants to devour me!"

Gu Shen's eyes sharpened. He didn't understand what a logic virus was, but he understood the word "devour".

"Possession!"

Without any hesitation, the shadow shoes under Gu Shen's feet flashed with black light, and his whole body rushed onto the control console like an arrow off a bowstring. Without even channeling the lightning power into the long blade in his hand, relying solely on the sharpness of the high-grade fierce gold, he accurately severed the iron interface connecting the control console and the mechanical spider with a single strike!

Ssh!

Sparks flew in all directions, and the physical connection was forcibly severed.

The mechanical spider twitched violently on the control console a few times, the red light of its sensor head gradually subsided and returned to a tranquil blue.

"Hoo... hoo..."

Crab's heavy, electronic panting came through the leg bone, as if it had just returned from the gates of hell.

"Thank you, Master, for saving my life! Just a little more, just a tenth of a second more, and my consciousness database would have been completely locked by that thing!"

"What was that thing?" Gu Shen's eyes were extremely cold, his long blade held horizontally in front of him, his Divine Sense scanning the surrounding darkness like a radar.

"I don't know... It has no concrete form; it is just an extremely massive, aggressive data stream!"

Crab's voice was still trembling. "Its source is on the Thirteenth Underground Level! Master, that reactor on the Thirteenth Underground Level is definitely not just a simple radiation leak. The one that controlled the sewage pump station to pump water in reverse... was it!"

Gu Shen's pupils contracted sharply.

First, it reversed the Formation to extract Yin water and poisonous light, and now it could even possess a spirit of an artifact remotely along the array veins of this Ancient Sect!

The thing lurking on the Thirteenth Underground Level actually knew how to control the Formation hub of these ruins!

Just at this moment.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

A series of extremely heavy, uniform metallic footsteps suddenly came from the depths of the dark Artifact Refining hall.

It was as if some sleeping steel beast had been completely awakened by Crab's network probing alert.

"Warning! Master! Four heavy riot control robots have been activated! Their original friend-or-foe identification System has been overwritten by the virus just now, and now the only goal in their eyes is to eradicate us!" Crab screamed.

In the darkness, four pairs of mechanical electronic eyes emitting bloodthirsty red light lit up simultaneously.

Four human-shaped Puppets, standing a zhang tall and made entirely of dark gray alloy, walked out from behind the machine tools with extremely heavy footsteps. Their arms were not palms, but two thick black gun barrels.

"Not a shred of flesh and blood, all refined iron dead objects."

A hint of intense killing intent flashed in the depths of Gu Shen's eyes.

The unknown entity on the Thirteenth Level, having discovered it couldn't possess Crab, had directly controlled these killing Puppets on the Sixth Level to silence them!

Click, click, click!

The four riot control Puppets raised their arms, and the pitch-black gun barrels began to spin crazily.

"Retreat!" Gu Shen shouted internally.

Whoosh—!

Gu Shen grabbed the mechanical spider on the control console and leaped backward toward a huge forging press machine like a night owl spreading its wings.

Almost the moment his feet left the ground.

Da-da-da-da-da!!!

An extremely terrifying metal storm instantly tore through the darkness! Countless finger-sized armor-piercing bullets poured down like a rainstorm onto the control console where Gu Shen had just been standing!

The extremely hard steel surface was instantly riddled with holes like paper under the barrage of such terrifying hidden weapons, with scrap iron flying everywhere.

"What a tyrannical rapid-fire hidden weapon! Its power is definitely not inferior to the bombardment of a Late-Stage Qi Refining Spell!"

Gu Shen hid behind the machine tool, feeling the kinetic impact that could easily penetrate the shield of an ordinary Magical Artifact, his expression cold.

"Master, their armor is titanium alloy composite plate! Bullets cannot penetrate it; only ultra-high temperature or strong electric current can paralyze their neural circuits!" Crab quickly provided the weakness.

"Strong electric current?"

Gu Shen sneered. "The thing I lack the least is thunder."

He did not hide behind the cover and be passively beaten. In the gap between the crossfire of the four Puppets, Gu Shen moved.

"Rise!"

The high-grade Magical Artifact black turtle shield was instantly deployed, turning into a half-person-high earth-yellow stone shield blocking the front.

At the same time, Gu Shen slammed his right foot onto the ground, and the dark golden bones of the Bone Refining Art erupted with extremely terrifying physical strength. His whole body turned into an afterimage, rushing out against the hail of bullets!

Bang, bang, bang!

Dozens of armor-piercing bullets smashed fiercely onto the black turtle shield. The spiritual light of the high-grade Magical Artifact flickered violently, and the huge counter-shock force made Gu Shen's arm go numb, but he managed to withstand this round of concentrated fire.

Ten zhang distance, arrived in an instant.

Gu Shen cut directly into the blind spot of the two Puppets on the left.

"Thunder Sound Slash!"

The thunder pattern gold-slaying blade roared out of its sheath!

The violent, tranquil blue lightning exploded into a blinding sun in the pitch-black hall. Gu Shen held the blade with both hands and, following the mechanical stiffness of the Puppet as it turned, slashed horizontally at its waist armor gap!

Ssh-la—!

The high-grade fierce gold sliced through the titanium alloy armor, and the Thunder-Magnetic Force, like a bursting flood, instantly roared into the Puppet's internal circuits.

Zzz, zzz...

That Puppet exploded with a large burst of electric sparks, the red light of its electronic eye dimmed, and the massive metal body collapsed.

"The first one."

Gu Shen did not stop for a moment. Using the momentum of the blade swing, his figure spun violently like a spinning top. The second-tier shadow cat bone spike in his left hand turned into a black light, viciously stabbing into the electronic eye monitoring probe of the second adjacent Puppet which was flashing red light!

Puff!

The probe burst, and Gu Shen delivered a heavy whip kick with his right leg, kicking it fiercely to the ground.

In the blink of an eye, two killing machines were scrapped.

The gun barrels of the remaining two Puppets had already turned, but Gu Shen had already approached like a ghost. Once such fully armed long-range heavy firepower Puppets were approached by a melee Body Cultivator, they were left with nothing but to be slaughtered.

The blade light was like a training, and the thunder roared.

It took no more than five breaths.

The last two Puppets also turned into a pile of burnt-smelling scrap iron under the ravages of the Thunder-Magnetic Force.

Gu Shen stood holding the blade, his chest heaving slightly.

Clean, cold, without wasting a shred of excess Qi.

"Master..." Crab's voice came again, this time with a hint of extreme, heavy unease. "I took advantage of them crashing to read the last virus command they received."

"That command was not just to kill us... It was also signaling all the forging assembly lines on this Sixth Level."

Gu Shen frowned. "What signal?"

"That thing on the Thirteenth Level is controlling all the automated equipment in this hall, frantically smelting high-strength alloy armor plates! Then, through the central freight elevator, it is being continuously transported to the deep underground!"

Crab's voice was trembling. "It... it is down there, using the resources of this entire Shelter to build some extremely terrifying giant monster!"

Gu Shen's gaze, following the mechanical arms that were still automatically operating in the depths of the hall, slowly shifted toward the pitch-black abyss leading to the underground.

The unknown entity on the Thirteenth Level.

Not only did it understand Formation, understand Possession, but now, it was actually refining artifacts!