You promised steampunk martial arts, but you've got an internal combustion engine in your chest

Thick smoke billowed from the deck, and the flames illuminated most of the sky, turning it scorched.

Hua Xiangrong watched as several warships in the distance were engulfed in a series of explosions, her face beaming with joy.

It's a success! It's really a success!

You made the right bet!

The rootless ferry fleet was carrying something unknown, and it exploded with a single bomb!

However, this joy didn't even last for a second.

The smile on Hua Xiangrong's face had just appeared when a gust of cold wind swept up from behind her head.

Before she could turn her head, a skinny hand reached out, grabbed the back of her neck, and then pressed down hard!

boom! !

With a heavy thud, Hua Xiangrong's face slammed into the steel deck, blood gushing from her mouth and nose, her vision going black, and she let out a painful groan.

She laboriously turned her head to look to the side.

Right beside her, Tie Niu lay dead in a pool of blood.

His chest armor was now shattered into pieces, and the flesh on his chest... was also shattered into pieces. His eyes were wide open, and he was dead beyond any doubt.

Further away, Pei Qigeng and Song Tonghu had been completely surrounded and killed by the red-robed cultivators.

At this moment, there was no longer any firelight or the sound of swords clashing within the encirclement.

Hua Xiangrong struggled to lift her head and saw Wu Yan'an's face.

At this moment, the skull's face was ashen, almost dripping with ink.

Hua Xiangrong laughed, her voice hoarse and weak:

"Haha...hahaha...Wu Yan'an...you're finished...your entire fleet is gone...it was worth it..."

Wu Yan'an remained expressionless. He raised his right foot, aimed it at Hua Xiangrong's head, and was about to crush her skull.

Hua Xiangrong closed her eyes and quietly awaited death.

However, as time passed, the expected excruciating pain and darkness did not arrive.

She opened her eyes in confusion, only to find that Wu Yan'an had already withdrawn his foot and was squatting beside her, his cold eyes staring at her with a glint in them.

Hua Xiangrong forced a charming yet cold smile:

"What... you've taken a liking to me? Give me a break. Your body is too bony and weak. If I squeeze you with my leg, you'll break in two."

Wu Yan'an ignored her, simply raising his hand and waving it lightly.

A moment later, several red-robed cultivators strode over and threw the two bloodied and mangled figures next to Hua Xiangrong.

It is Pei Qigeng and Song bronze pot.

They weren't dead yet, but their condition was no different from that of the dead.

Their bodies were covered in countless knife wounds, and all the steam-powered mechanical components on their bodies had been violently dismantled, revealing large chunks of cracked and rolled-up flesh. Both of them were unconscious, with only their chests still rising and falling slightly.

Wu Yan'an slowly stood up, looking down at the three people on the ground, then turned his head and asked in a cold voice:

"Where's the inside man?"

A subordinate approached, his brow furrowed, and shook his head: "Fifth Brother, we still haven't seen him. I'm afraid... something has happened."

Wu Yan'an remained silent for a moment.

"She must have been discovered."

He lowered his head again and glanced at Hua Xiangrong and the other two on the ground:

"These three might still be of some use... Send a few men here to keep an eye on them and make sure they don't die. The rest of you, come with me into the cabin."

"Fifth Brother, our fleet..."

His subordinate couldn't help but glance at the sea, his tone anxious.

"The things are destroyed, so be it. There's nothing we can do. Tell the remaining brothers not to risk their lives to put out the fire; it's beyond saving."

Wu Yan'an said in a deep voice, "As long as we can capture those three mechanics alive today, we won't lose money on this deal, and we can still fight this battle! Let's go!"

Having said that, he took the lead, leading dozens of red-robed cultivators through the iron door that led to the depths of the ship's cabin.

……

Inside the cabin, the air was cold and damp.

In the empty steel corridor, the heavy footsteps of the Wugendu people echoed.

The boatmen had all disappeared; we hadn't seen a single one along the way.

Wu Yan'an walked at the front with a gloomy expression. When he turned a corner, he suddenly stopped, and the red-robed cultivators behind him also stopped.

When everyone looked ahead, they saw a young woman's corpse lying on the steel floor.

The deceased was dressed in a blue robe belonging to the Caobang (a type of official in the Grand Canal). Her eyes were wide open, with a trace of fear still lingering in them. A small crossbow bolt was stuck in the center of her throat, about an inch deep, almost piercing through.

The deceased was Huanhuan.

Wu Yan'an slowly walked forward, squatted down, glanced at the scene briefly, and frowned:

"It was an inside man... She was discovered, shot through the throat, and given no chance to resist."

A leader in red approached, his face grim. "Fifth Brother, now that our inside man has been exposed, it means those mechanics are on guard. Shouldn't we make more preparations before going deeper?"

"Big brother can't wait that long."

Wu Yan'an stood up: "No matter what their preparations are, we have to take them away today... Let's go!"

The group from Wugendu didn't give Huanhuan's corpse a second glance, stepped over it, and continued deeper into the corridor.

Before long, the group finally arrived at the tightly closed workshop door.

Wu Yan'an stepped forward, reached out and stroked the iron gate with his palm, then raised his iron claw and scratched it fiercely!

squeak...

A metallic scraping sound rang out, and only five shallow white marks remained on the door, not even a single iron filings could be scraped off.

As solid as a rock.

Wu Yan'an narrowed his eyes, and the steam core within his body began to rumble slightly, preparing to forcefully break down the door.

However, when he placed his palm on the door and tentatively pushed it forward...

Click.

With a soft click, the door opened.

Wu Yan'an was stunned for a moment.

He clearly hadn't expected that this heavy door wouldn't even be locked with a chain.

But he quickly calmed down and carefully pushed the door open little by little.

Behind the door, however, was not a position filled with guns and cannons.

There was only an empty room with a blood-stained iron bed in the center. Around it were a lot of parts, wrenches and pipes scattered haphazardly, and a wooden barrel on the floor was piled with blood-stained gauze.

But there wasn't a single person in sight.

"Fifth Brother, what's going on here?" someone asked.

Wu Yan'an did not answer, his eyes filled with doubt.

While he was still pondering, one of his subordinates couldn't contain himself and took a step inside.

Wu Yan'an's pupils contracted sharply in an instant, and he shouted, "Wait!"

But it was too late.

The red-robed cultivator's right leg had already crossed the threshold, and at the same time, it snapped a nearly transparent silk thread.

collapse……

A click of a mechanism opening rang out above everyone's heads.

The next second, disaster struck!

"Aaaaaah!!"

"My eyes! Ah!!"

Countless tiny holes suddenly popped open on the walls on both sides of the corridor outside the main gate!

Immediately afterwards, thousands upon thousands of tiny steel arrows shot out from the walls like a torrential rain, forming an impenetrable barrier that pierced through the entire corridor!

Those red-robed cultivators crammed into the narrow passage didn't even have time to utter a few screams before they were riddled with arrows and fell like wheat being harvested.

"Damn it!!"

Wu Yan'an was greatly alarmed.

He transformed into a black lightning bolt, leaving several afterimages in the corridor as he dodged the rain of arrows. Then, he ducked into the empty workshop to hide.

However, as soon as he landed, he felt an unusual sinking sensation under his feet.

Wu Yan'an looked down and saw that he had stepped on a floor tile.

"Oh no!"

A huge fire vent suddenly opened on the ceiling directly above the room!

boom!!

A crimson pillar of fire erupted violently downwards, instantly transforming the entire room into a fiery inferno!

"roar!!"

Wu Yan'an roared and started to run away, but he couldn't pick up speed at all for the first few steps. By the time he rushed into the next room, half of his body was already on fire.

He rolled on the ground more than a dozen times before he finally managed to extinguish the flames.

"Huff... huff..."

Wu Yan'an was breathing heavily, but before he could even stand up, music suddenly came from the surrounding walls.

"Ding-dong... Ding-dong..."

Accompanied by the clear music box melody, the hidden compartments on the surrounding walls popped open one after another.

Immediately afterwards, seven or eight exquisitely crafted wooden puppets with smiling faces wobbled out of the hidden compartment and surrounded Wu Yan'an in the center.

They are indeed cute, but of course, we have to ignore the steam iron saws that are spinning wildly in their hands.

"this!!!"

With bloodshot eyes, Wu Yan'an roared and charged forward with his sword.

……

An unknown amount of time passed.

The workshop door was slowly pulled open.

Wu Yan'an stumbled back into the corridor.

At this moment, he was in utter misery.

His left side was covered in blisters from the burns, and his entire body was covered in wounds. Blood completely soaked his clothes, and many mechanical parts on his body were broken. Exposed copper pipes were hissing out exhaust fumes.

But he survived in the end.

Wu Yan'an's face was worse than a ghost's. He glanced at the corridor... and then coughed violently in pain!

The dozens of red-robed cultivators he brought in had all been wiped out, and the ground was littered with corpses riddled with arrows.

Wu Yan'an gritted his teeth and slowly bent down to pick up a long knife from beside the corpse of one of his men.

What should we do next?

Should we delve deeper?

Are there more mechanisms inside?

or……

Before he could figure it out, he suddenly heard several people talking deep in the corridor.

First, it was the voice of a young man:

"Hey guys, I just had surgery! You want to put me at the very front?"

Then came an aged voice:

"You know nothing, kid! This ship isn't our private workshop; how much material could we possibly have? We've used up all the mechanisms!"

Immediately following was a soft, mournful voice, pitifully saying:

"Oh dear, that's the [Swift Shadow Flowing Light] physique of the third level of the Qi Heart Realm. Ordinary methods can't hurt him. Can we not count on you, young man...?"

Then, a woman let out a chilling laugh:

"Alright, alright! Stop lying to him! You just wanted to test his blood circulation, constitution, and internal combustion engine, right? Kid, get to it!"

The old man started cursing:

"Why are you digging up our secrets?! If we weren't determined to fight to the death, we wouldn't be able to push ourselves to the limit and unleash our full potential, then the data would be useless!"

The woman sneered and loudly retorted:

"Are you out of your mind?! That skeleton ghost is already burned to a crisp, how can you expect it to reach its limit? There was no hope to begin with! Basic data is enough!"

Immediately afterwards, another boy's voice broke in:

"Brother...please listen to me for a moment..."

Then, the discussion gradually subsided.

Wu Yan'an's eyes twitched. Carrying his knife, he walked step by step in the direction from which the sound came.

After walking a few steps, a figure slowly emerged from around the corner ahead.

It was Baili Jing.

Wu Yan'an's hand holding the knife suddenly froze, and his pupils contracted sharply.

What is that on this person's chest...?

At this moment, Baili Jing was naked from the waist up, the flesh in the center of his chest was torn open, and the skin and flesh at the edges were rolled up, stitched together with a strange machine in his chest cavity.

The machine looked extremely strange.

It was not a typical steam furnace, nor did it have exposed, complex gears; instead, it was a streamlined, unknown mechanical core that was entirely black.

The only thing that was somewhat understandable was the dial embedded in the machine.

At this moment, however, the hands on the dial were quiet, lying motionless at the very bottom of the scale.

Baili Jing glanced at Wu Yan'an, took a deep breath, and slowly asked:

"My brother told me that you led a group to kill everyone on the deck, and Sister Hua... also suffered because of you?"

Wu Yan'an narrowed his eyes and spat out a mouthful of blood:

"Hua Xiangrong? That bitch isn't dead yet. If you miss her, I can send you to see her."

Upon hearing this, Baili Jing smiled:

"Really? Then I'll leave it to you."

boom!!

The moment the words left his mouth, the two figures moved almost simultaneously!

Baili Jing did indeed rush towards Wu Yan'an.

Wu Yan'an, however, suddenly turned around and ran back the way he came!