Across the web, immortals and true beings, their thoughts and energy creating the heavens.

Chapter 141 Into the Land of the Mechanical Frenzy

The air was scorching hot, and the heatwave blew the dust and smoke into a distorted brownish-yellow veil. The floor of the palace hall had disappeared, leaving only a vast and deep pit more than ten meters thick, which connected directly to the levels below. The edges of the pit were covered with flowing, heavy magma, which gradually cooled into black rock, like thick wax tears.

Lin Zhuo stood beside the pit, like a beetle perched on the edge of a well. From beneath his feet, the destructive traces caused by the martial arts spread out in a fan shape. Because he intentionally controlled the force to spread away from himself, those closer to him were less affected by the falling star. Those farther away, however, suffered the greatest impact.

The palace built by the technological warlord was far larger, more solid, and more magnificent than any ancient palace complex, yet it was as cramped, fragile, and dilapidated as a thatched hut in the face of this incredible blow.

Opposite Lin Zhuo, only the edges and corners of the towering, colorful electronic screen wall of the main hall remained, the rest reduced to large pieces of debris scattered on the ground. Looking through this huge hole, the wall of the next hall had also been breached, and the next hall after that was the same.

From the main hall where the emperor summoned his ministers to his sleeping quarters where he and his family lived daily, the vast distance between them was no longer an obstacle. Everywhere one looked was a clear, unobstructed view; the splashing lava on the ground hissed and laughed, passionately narrating the brutal and terrifying nature of a certain warrior.

This attack buried countless mechanical imperial guards who had rushed from the depths of the palace. Their twisted and broken metal limbs, like weeds in a wasteland, stretched out from the rubble, pointing crookedly at the sky, with crackling arcs of electricity.

"Ha! Haha! That's it! Lin, how could this weak planet be a match for you? All weapons of war pale in comparison to you. Since this rebellious AI calls itself a god, then let even the gods fear you!" Akagami's cheerful laughter had never been so relaxed. Its joy had transformed into nerve impulses that surged through Lin Zhuo's cerebral cortex, bringing him a sense of shared euphoria.

"Calm down. I'm far from strong enough." Lin Zhuo's vision is naturally not limited to one time or place. In the vast universe, what is a mere level 5 Qi Gong master like him?

"I just wanted to compliment you, Kobayashi. You did a great job."

Lin Zhu shook his head and chuckled, then, aiming at the direction of the sleeping quarters, used his Leap Technique to shoot away like lightning.

The emperor's palace was located deep inside, so it was still relatively intact. The gilded gate was tightly closed, and the surveillance camera above the door frame stared intently at Lin Zhuo. The loudspeaker emitted a chaotic mutter of confusion from the rebellious AI. With the logic of an electronic soul, it was completely unable to understand how a dragon rider, a human, could create an explosion of such scale. The attack just now was as if a small tactical nuclear bomb had been dropped.

Chijiang noticed the electronic lock on the gate and asked with a smile, "Do you need my help to pick the lock?"

"I won't waste your precious computing power." Lin Zhuo channeled his inner energy and struck out with his palm.

Thump! A towering door flew off and crashed to the ground, a piercing door-breaking alarm sounded, and an automatic machine gun turret descended from the ceiling, focusing its fire on the black-armored dragoons.

Lin Zhuo strolled forward as if bathed in a gentle breeze. The rapid barrage of bullets swirled around him, not a single one touching his armor. Instead, the deflected bullets and stray shells shattered the machine gun turrets. By the time he passed the emplacements, these defensive weapons had fallen silent.

The palace was also quite large. The highly developed productivity gave the technological dictators the confidence to squander it at will, so layers of curtains and screens divided the space inside the palace into layers.

As Lin Zhuo passed by the spacious bed large enough to host a basketball game, he saw that the soft, cloud-like silver-white mattress had long since turned yellow, and in the very center of it bloomed a large patch of dark brown, old bloodstains, as vibrant as a peony in full bloom. A mangled and broken human skeleton lay quietly like a withered flower stamen.

"I suspect he was the emperor before the Un'Goro rebellion," Akaga chuckled. "Judging from the fates of all dictators in history, dying in one's own bed is considered lucky. Perhaps he even enjoyed a moment of pleasure before he died. Oh, these brutal pleasures will ultimately end in brutality," which is quite true.

Lin Zhuo stopped and looked at the hundred or so android concubines who came out from behind layers of screens and curtains. Many of these beautiful robots had no noses or eyes, and they held forks and knives as weapons. The smooth alloy surface was still stained with the emperor's blood.

"I've heard that people in other worlds are enthusiastic about robot companions, but I didn't expect that even the top echelons of society are no exception," Lin Zhuo said with some surprise.

"Kobayashi, you're underestimating the impact of AI-simulated love programs on humanity. In these hierarchical societies, every individual is ultimately empty, and the emotional support that a loyal mechanical partner can provide is precisely the only antidote they can find."

"In their world, do people no longer love each other?"

"That place is the end times."

Lin Zhuo's thoughts flashed by in just a few moments, and the mechanical concubines, controlled by the rebellious AI, were already rushing over with graceful steps. They raised their knives and forks and launched an attack on the intruder, opening their cherry lips to let out sharp howls, as if a wronged ghost was trapped in a mechanical shell.

The chain hammer pierced the air, and the golden dragon danced wildly. A casual and simple strike had already stirred up a violent wind. The surging power, like a raging torrent, swept up the oppressive atmosphere in the hall, blowing the mechanical concubines who were coming towards them into disintegration and shattering in the wind. Their bionic organs and mechanical skeletons were scattered on the ground.

Beyond the barrier shattered by the aftershocks of the attack, more mechanical concubines were revealed. They were all missing limbs and covered in dust, but they had not yet stopped operating. They stared at the living person who had stepped into this palace again after many years, their bionic electronic eyes filled with scarlet light.

Lin Zhuo didn't linger for a moment on these defenseless enemy soldiers. He continued his advance to the elevator shaft deep inside the palace, tore open the door, smashed through the floor of the elevator car, and plunged into the deep shaft.

The distance from the top floor of Golden Village to the surface is a full seven kilometers, and the core server array is even deeper underground.

Lin Zhuo hadn't been falling long when he suddenly crashed into a pile of concrete debris. The elevator shaft had long been destroyed, like a pipe riddled with blood clots, with debris everywhere. This was an emergency plan designed at the beginning of construction to prevent enemy dragoons from advancing unimpeded after the top floor fell.

However, these thick concrete fragments posed no threat to Lin Zhuo. The entire megastructure was filled with rock energy, making it the perfect battlefield for him.

Using his minor supernatural powers, the pile of stones blocking his path turned into flowing water at Lin Zhuo's feet.

As he began to sink, the local armed personnel lying in ambush outside the shaft were completely unaware. It wasn't until they hesitantly brought their guns and weak flashlights closer to the collapsed opening that they saw a neat, smooth round hole in what had been a solid concrete rubble, just like the ground. The intruder had already gone to the lower level.

Thump! Thump! Thump! Lin Zhuo passed through one obstacle after another, each time he landed on the slag heap with a muffled thud, alerting the locals nearby that something was rapidly descending.

After a long few minutes, suddenly, Lin Zhuo's feet slammed onto the flat cement ground.

He arrived.

"The straight-line distance from here to the core array is no more than one kilometer," Akagami reminded him at the right moment.

The surroundings were pitch black, and the air was hot and stuffy. Just as Lin Zhuo was about to activate the vision-shaking mechanism, suddenly, layers of lights gradually lit up, illuminating the endless drone and robot production and recycling lines in this vast area.

Around the assembly line, hooks hung like those used to hang animal carcasses in a slaughterhouse, with unfinished mechanical parts hanging from them. More scrap materials were piled up into small mounds, while the assembled mechanical soldiers stood slumped beside the assembly line.

"The emperor's elevator goes directly to the production workshop?" Lin Zhuo was stunned for a moment.

"It might have been modified by that rebellious AI later."

Before Chijiang could finish speaking, the incoherent shouts of the rebellious AI erupted from all directions: "It's over! You stinking outsider, you can't live, you might die! My messengers are here, they are war! They are tsunamis! You might unleash another explosion, but I also have explosions, explosions far more terrifying than yours! Explosions of the ocean!"

The piercing, loud broadcast echoed with lingering electrical resonance. All the mechanical soldiers suddenly activated, their eyes bloodshot, already prepared with self-destruct programs. They would activate if they got close to Lin Zhuo, or if they were destroyed.

Tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of mechanical bodies are just a drop in the ocean for a miraculous mega-structure like Golden City, which gathers more than 90% of the population of a planet and houses two billion residents. However, Lin Zhuo advanced too quickly, and the troops from other places simply did not have time to be mobilized.

"If they were normal dragoon warriors, I would order them to immediately warp away or fight their way out, but you're different, Kobayashi." Akae laughed excitedly again, "I only look forward to your carnage."

The black-armored dragon rider slowly raised his palm, and the golden rope wrapped around his palm lifted a crimson moon to rise.

100,000? 200,000? 300,000? No matter how many mechanical beings there are, none can withstand his advanced weapons. Do you think you can defeat Lin Zhuo and survive his Celestial Martial Arts just by sheer numbers?

Lin Zhuo's previous moves were uncharged. Currently, he can only control a maximum of five layers of the Dragon Subduing buff, but that is more than enough. With the nine-layer charge-up bonus from the Dragon Summoning Chain Hammer, once it reaches its peak power, the move "Pulling Down the Stars" that he used at the top level is nothing more than a child's firecracker.

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