"Something’s controlling them from behind!"
Qin Feng’s voice was as cold as ice. "Shanyang He, Zou Yun, hold the line! Pang Chen, keep suppressing the beetles’ ranged fire! I need a three-second window to push forward! I’m going for the head!"
"Understood!"
The three replied in unison. They had complete faith in Qin Feng’s judgment.
"Hah!"
Shanyang He and Zou Yun exploded with power. One wielding a blade, the other his fists, they stood like two guardian gods, holding the line of Immortals firmly at bay, ten meters away.
Pang Chen also unleashed his full power. A storm of daggers shot from his body, a tempest of death that temporarily suppressed the barrage of green energy blasts.
Now!
Qin Feng made his move.
Instead of a direct frontal assault, he launched himself forward. Like a cannonball, he began sprinting at high speed along the smooth wall.
The powerful capabilities of his power armor boosted his physical strength by at least forty percent, allowing him to easily perform such physics-defying maneuvers.
His figure left a black afterimage on the wall as he instantly bypassed the Immortals’ front line.
It was then that he finally got a clear view. Behind the group of Immortals, a figure completely distinct from the other mechanical units floated silently in mid-air.
It was a taller, more ornate Mechanical Life Form.
Its body was made of a silver-white living metal, with smooth, elegant lines. Several pairs of arthropod-like auxiliary arms extended from its back, and in its hand it held a scepter that emitted terrifying Energy Fluctuations.
Flames of cold, calculating intelligence burned within its eye sockets.
This was a true Mechanical Life Form!
A Mechanical Lord!
The Immortals, Holy Beetles, and Ghosts were merely pawns in its grasp.
Innumerable data streams, invisible to the naked eye, flowed from its scepter, precisely controlling every unit on the battlefield.
This was Qin Feng’s target!
[Fierce Owl Chasing Shadow!]
While still running along the wall, Qin Feng twisted his body violently. The Thousand Army Spear in his hand, like a fierce owl swooping down on its prey, transformed into a black bolt of lightning. With unparalleled resolve and ferocity, it shot toward the Mechanical Lord!
The Mechanical Lord had obviously noticed the uninvited guest. The scepter in its hand flared with light, and a resilient Spiritual Shield instantly materialized before it.
However, Qin Feng’s spear thrust had already transcended the realm of mere ’Technique.’
Just as the spear tip was about to make contact with the shield, it trembled slightly, shifting at an unbelievable angle!
HUMMM!
The Thousand Army Spear ignored the Energy Shield’s barrier completely. As if passing through a phantom, it pierced with unerring precision from an impossible angle, plunging directly into the Mechanical Lord’s central energy core!
"SHLUK!"
With a soft sound, the entire Long Spear sank in up to its hilt.
Rampant power erupted within the Mechanical Lord’s body!
The flames of intelligence in the Mechanical Lord’s eyes died instantly, replaced by a chaotic stream of garbled data.
The next moment, every mechanical construct on the battlefield, which had been attacking relentlessly, froze in unison as if someone had hit a pause button.
The green light in their eyes flickered violently before extinguishing completely, turning them into piles of cold, lifeless scrap.
The first wave of the crisis was over.
"Whew... A beautiful takedown!"
Zou Yun gasped for breath, his heart still pounding with fear as he stared at the motionless mechanical wreckage littering the ground.
However, this was just the beginning.
...
The following days devolved into a seemingly endless, bloody cycle of steel and Spiritual Energy bombardment.
Their squad, like a sharp dagger, pushed relentlessly deeper into the ore vein.
Battle, battle, and more battle.
Every day, they faced several, sometimes even dozens, of ambushes and encirclements of the same intensity.
The variety of Mechanical Race units grew, and they became increasingly difficult to deal with.
They encountered Heavy-Duty Destroyers that could fire Spiritual Singularities, pinning their targets in place.
They had also faced cunning strategists leading entire Immortal Legions, attempting to sneak up behind them.
The fighting continued unabated for over thirty days.
Over these thirty days, the team’s coordination had been honed to perfection.
Often, Qin Feng didn’t even need to speak. A single glance or a gesture was enough. Shanyang He’s blade would seal off the most lethal line of attack, Zou Yun’s iron fists would shatter the strongest defensive point, and Pang Chen’s daggers would eliminate any threat from a blind spot as if they had eyes of their own.
They moved like a single, precise war machine, efficiently and ruthlessly executing their "decapitation" tactic.
They had advanced over a hundred kilometers through the silent, deep valley. If they hadn’t killed a hundred Mechanical Lords, they had at least killed eighty.
As they pushed deeper and continued to destroy the Mechanical Race’s forces, the enemy’s resistance should have logically weakened.
But the reality was the exact opposite.
The number of mechanical constructs hadn’t decreased in the slightest.
Even after they had just annihilated a local Mechanical Lord along with its hundreds of combat units, they only had to advance a few more kilometers before an even larger, more advanced Mechanical Legion would surge from the darkness to overwhelm them.
These cold killing machines seemed to materialize out of thin air. They were endless, impossible to eradicate.
「The thirty-second day.」
After annihilating yet another mixed legion—this one of unprecedented scale and commanded by three Mechanical Lords—the four of them finally had a moment’s respite.
They rested with their backs against a massive, faintly glowing Spiritual Crystal Cluster, panting heavily. They seized every available second to replenish their power armor’s energy and inject themselves with recovery Potions.
"Something’s wrong..."
Shanyang He’s voice came over the silent comms channel, tinged with undisguised exhaustion and gravity.
"This is way off. We’ve been fighting for days, but the more of these tin cans we kill, the more of them there are."
"That’s right."
Pang Chen added in a grim tone, "I did a rough calculation just now. The enemy density we’re facing is at least three times what it was when we first entered the Ore Vein Area. It doesn’t make sense. Unless... unless their ’factory’ is right here, and its production rate far outstrips our rate of destruction."
The usual defiant look on Zou Yun’s face was gone, replaced by a grave expression.
"It’s like we’ve kicked a hornet’s nest, and this nest is far bigger than we ever imagined."
Qin Feng remained silent, quietly pulling up his power armor’s passive energy sensor display.
The screen was covered in a dense cluster of red dots, each representing a hostile energy signature, all concentrated in the unexplored dark region ahead.
"There’s nothing wrong. This is just how the Mechanical Race operates. A single Mechanical Life Form can often churn out hundreds of thousands of mechanical constructs."
"Our tactics are sound. First, we take out the Mechanical Life Form, and the other constructs will naturally shut down."
"The reason there are more of them is that we’re approaching the core of the Ore Vein Area. I estimate we’ve cleared about one-fifth of it by now."
...
Qin Feng clapped them on the shoulders. "Keep taking the high-grade stamina recovery Potions. We just need to hang in there and push a little harder. It’s only been a month of high-intensity warfare. You’re not giving up already, are you?"
After a month of fighting, everyone had come to respect Qin Feng wholeheartedly.
"Who said anything about giving up?! We’re just venting."
Pang Chen chuckled. "There are just so many of these mechanical constructs, it’s a pain. But we’ve found the right strategy. Our teamwork is excellent, and our decapitation strikes are fast."