Chapter 98 Don’t look at anything inappropriate
It stood there quietly, cold and terrifying, with an overwhelming aura.
He didn't know if it was because of some kind of subjective filter, but Qi Huan felt that the mecha in front of him seemed to be of a higher level than the mechas of the sentinels in the sanatorium before. Of course, it was also more upright, powerful and handsome.
Jiufang Yu raised his head, his eyes filled with complex and obscure emotions.
A crimson light like an electric wave flashed from the eye mask of the mecha, and even at that moment, the golden light lingering and flashing around it seemed to come alive.
[Master, I thought I would never see you again.] The mecha's joints stretched and slid, and its head drooped slightly, as if it was looking down at the three of them. Its voice had a slight noise typical of electric waves, and its tone was a little strange, as if it was reading an exclamatory sentence with the tone of a declarative sentence.
Scarlet light flickered, and the mecha slightly adjusted its angle, locking onto Qi Huan and Yao Yao. [Ah, you finally brought a guide. I thought I would be an empty mecha for a thousand years until I was sent back to the furnace.]
It was a calm mechanical sound, but Qi Huan always felt that the ending of the sound jumped and sounded very happy. It was the kind of joy that a child would feel when he saw his favorite brother and wanted to hug him, or a dog would wag its tail and want to rub against its favorite owner.
"Qinglu, open the hatch." The black lines on Jiufang Yu's forehead almost turned into reality, and he deliberately ignored its words.
[Yes, Master.] The mecha responded obediently and opened the cockpit on its head.
Jiufang Yu was about to grab Qi Huan and Yao Yao by their collars and take them up, but the mecha shook its head, "Master, you are too rude to our dear guides, no, guides."
Jiufang Yu: ...
Qi Huan and Yao Yao were also speechless. Why did this mecha mastermind have such a familiar chatterbox feeling?
The tall mecha slowly leaned forward, knelt on one knee, and made a gesture similar to a knight's salute. It then stretched out the golden mechanical palm of its right hand and placed it close to the ground in front of Qi Huan and Yao Yao, gentlemanly and pious, "Dear guides, please allow Qing Lu to take you into the cabin."
Qi Huan and Yao Yao looked at each other, and only after seeing Jiufang Yu nod did they step onto the mecha's palm.
[Be careful, both of you.] The mecha considerately bent one of its fingers and placed it around the waists of the two men, which could prevent them from slipping and also serve as a handrail.
"Stop talking nonsense." Jiufang Yu stepped on his palm behind them and slapped it on the mecha's thumb knuckle, then signaled Qi Huan and the others to hold the mecha's finger.
[Yes, Master.] The mecha didn't make any unnecessary movements this time, and directly sent the three people to the cockpit at the head.
The space in the cockpit is not very large. The front cabin is arc-shaped. The lower one-third is a metal protective wall, and the upper two-thirds is a wide curved single-sided window. Judging from the position, it should be the "eye mask" area on the head of the mecha.
The top looks like an enlarged black chip, and you can vaguely see the occasional flash of energy inside.
The layout of the cabin looks strange no matter how you look at it. There are three seats in the front row, and a slightly smaller seat is placed on each side of the wide main driver's seat. There is only one chair in the second row, but its specifications are similar to the one in the main driver's seat.
"Stop messing around and change it back quickly." Jiufang Yu sighed helplessly and said to the mecha's main brain.
Qi Huan then realized that this guy probably couldn't tell who was Jiufang Yu's guide between him and Yao Yao. In order not to offend anyone, he temporarily moved the co-pilot seat to the second row, and then moved the two seats on the second row of substitutes to the front row, forming this layout of three seats in front and one in the back.
It must be said that its idea of balancing the two is first-rate, so as not to offend anyone.
"You two sit in the back and fasten your safety belts." After the mastermind put the four chairs back in place, Jiufang Yu raised his chin to the hesitant Qi Huan and Yao Yao, and gave them gentle instructions.
"Qing Lu, immediately scan the surrounding detectable range and identify attackable targets." When Jiufang Yu turned to give orders to Qing Lu, his voice became noticeably colder.
Qi Huan helped Yao Yao sit in the back seat, and the main brain automatically adjusted the seat angles for them and fastened the protective belts around their waists and legs, taking into account both safety and riding comfort.
Qi Huan couldn't help laughing. How should I put it? This mecha's main brain was probably a loyal and warm-hearted man, proactive, gentlemanly, and a bit considerate, except that he was a bit of a chatterbox.
A translucent holographic display screen has lit up next to Jiufang Yu's driving seat. The right half is a spliced real-life scene of the outside of the mecha from various angles, and the left half is a mine map that is being scanned and expanded. A pea-sized red dot appears in the upper right corner of the screen, flickering. Countless tiny red dots are rapidly gathering towards their location, but they are cautiously keeping a distance and not moving closer, as if they are observing.
"By the way, where are Xiaobai and Xiaoba?" Qi Huan remembered the purpose of Jiufang Yu's coming in, and then remembered that he didn't see Heituanzi, and couldn't help feeling a little worried.
"Xiaobai has been rescued, but he is not in good condition and cannot go back for the time being. I temporarily placed him in the storage ring. Zhou Ba is too tired and is just sleeping."
Jiufang Yu said it lightly, but Qi Huan knew that he and Zhou Qiba must have experienced a fierce battle. The so-called sleep actually meant that Zhou Qiba had exhausted his mental strength and was forced to go back to "recuperate".
Does Jiu Fangyu also need to replenish his mental strength? The shop owner said that driving a mecha consumes a lot of mental strength. Where did he put the beast core of the stone beast last time?
Qi Huan was searching through a pile of snacks, ingredients, and kitchen utensils. Yao Yao had already taken out a box and handed it to Jiu Fangyu in the front row, "Use whatever you want."
"Thank you." In this extraordinary period, Jiufang Yu did not hesitate and took it directly.
Open the lid, and inside is a high-end chocolate-style sixteen-square grid layout, with a brightly colored A-level energy gem in each small grid.
Jiufang Yu frowned slightly and turned to look at Yao Yao, "Are there any S-level ones?"
Yao Yao and Qi Huan were both stunned, but then they realized that Jiufang Yu had fallen to A-level due to injury, and his original mental strength level was actually S-level.
Yao Yao didn't say anything. He took back the previous box, and quickly took out another slightly smaller box and handed it over.
This time there were only four small compartments in the box, but the gems in each compartment were rich in color, radiant in light, and their transparent and clear texture was even better than those that Yao Yao had previously inlaid on his belt.
"This is the best quality S-grade gemstone I have."
Although it only has four grids, it is a top-quality S-grade gem, a super-energy gem that many people will never see in their entire lives. It is truly priceless.
"Thank you, I will return it to you when I get out." Jiufang Yu picked up one and held it in his palm.
"Come on, young master's life is not more valuable than these things?" Yao Yao waved his hand nonchalantly. He wanted to say something else, but he hurt his swollen ankle in the movement, and his brow twitched in pain.
Qi Huan then remembered that Yao Yao's foot injury had not been treated yet, and he quickly took out the mini medical cabin to treat his ankle.
Jiufang Yu closed his eyes and concentrated, and wisps of white gas came out from between his fingers, like smoke and fog. When he spread out his palm again, the gem had turned gray and lost its luster.
He absorbed two more in succession before stopping and temporarily keeping the last one beside him.
Yao Yao opened his mouth, wanting to say something but stopped himself.
"Be alert, this opponent is very tough." Jiufang Yu patted the armrest.
[Yes, Master.] The mecha's tail tone was mixed with a jumping noise like radio waves.
A half-mast helmet hangs down from the driver's seat, with countless nearly transparent filaments on top, connecting to the enlarged 'chip' on top of the cockpit.
Jiufang Yu put on the helmet and activated the mental connection mode.
Those filaments suddenly lit up like optical fibers, and the entire cockpit trembled slightly. The huge mecha seemed like an enlarged version of Jiufang Yu. It straightened its back as usual, then leaped sideways into the air and flew towards the pea-shaped red dot on the upper right.
As if sensing his intention to attack, countless small red dots swarmed towards their route. There were black swarms of insects and vines, trying to block the mecha's progress.
Originally, the most dangerous thing about those vines was that they could move silently through the stone walls and suddenly emerge to attack, making it impossible to defend against them. However, on the energy body scanning screen of the mecha, they were almost nowhere to hide and were broken before they could get close, making this method of surprise attack completely ineffective.
However, the mucus that is the most troublesome for the spirit body is too small for the mecha shell and does not cause any pain or itch.
Qi Huan and Yao Yao were sitting in the back row, and saw Qing Lu sweeping his arms with the high-energy particle gun, crushing the way forward, leaving nothing behind wherever he passed, only insect corpses and pieces of charred vine fragments.
Just when Qi Huan and Yao Yao thought they had secured victory, the mecha suddenly trembled and staggered to the ground.
Qi Huan and Yao Yao were stunned by the shock, and looking at the holographic screen in front of them, they found that the right calf of the mecha was pierced by a vine!
They were both shocked. That was a mecha, how could it be penetrated by the vine? Moreover, how did it appear? Why couldn't it be seen on the scan?
The only difference from the previous one is that the vine in front of me is brown, and the surface has wrinkled stripes like bark.
Yao Yao took a deep breath, "Level suppression, its level is higher than Qinglu, so it can be invisible relative to it."
Now they are almost certain that this thing is SS-grade.
Qi Huan stared at the brown vine on the screen and silently grasped the armrest of the chair. Could it be that this brown vine was the true form of the soul-eating dark beast? Was it just using those cannon fodder bugs and green vines to play tricks on people?
Just now, for a moment, he was still thinking, since those vines can't beat the mecha at all, why doesn't Jiufang Yu just rush out. Now he realized that Jiufang Yu knew very well that if they didn't kill that thing, they couldn't get out at all.
Qing Lu opened and closed the armor compartment of his arm, replacing the particle gun with a golden halberd, and swung the halberd to cut off the vines on his right leg.
The moment the vine broke, seven or eight vines suddenly emerged from the surroundings, attacking Qing Lu's head, neck, chest and feet respectively from top to bottom.
The mecha wielded the halberd in its hand with great force, and began to fight with the vines.
Five or six minutes later, Qing Lu cut off the vines and had another wound on his body.
From then on, their progress slowed down.
Those brown vines appeared and disappeared mysteriously, endlessly, completely slowing down their progress, and Qing Lu's body was covered with more and more wounds.
Qi Huan and Yao Yao had no idea what to do about the situation and could only worry.
Just when the situation was becoming tense, three mechas of different colors, red, blue and gold, caught up from behind. They were all unfamiliar mechas that Qi Huan had never seen before.
He also quickly realized that it must be Senior A Luan and No. 2, No. 4 and others who received the news and rushed in to rescue them, or Xu Zhi. There are not many sentinels with mechas on the waste planet. Those who can come in after hearing the news brought out by Diwuyuan must be advanced mechas.
They were the only ones who had advanced mechas, and like Jiufang Yu, they had never taken them out before.
"Double S-level, everyone must be careful!" Jiufang Yu's hands were clacking at the keyboard, reminding everyone concisely. His tone was steady, and he did not show any fatigue or abnormality. He did not look like someone who had just been in a long battle.
Before he finished speaking, dozens of brown vines emerged from the surroundings and attacked the four mechas one by one.
Everyone tacitly took control of one corner, taking charge of one direction respectively, and worked together to repel the vines.
"Retreat first." The person in the golden mecha spoke.
The four mechas took off and flew outside.
"Fasten your seat belts and sit tight." Jiufang Yu suddenly said to Qi Huan and Yao Yao behind him.
Before they could understand Jiufang Yu's meaning, there was a huge shock beneath them, which made them dizzy, followed by a loud clanging noise.
After more than ten seconds, Qi Huan and Yao Yao finally calmed their dizzy minds. Looking at the receding stone wall beside them and the external image on Jiufang Yu's side, they realized that Qing Lu was being dragged forward by the vines.
The situation of the other three mechas was similar to theirs, with some in front and some in the back.
The bumpy and fast movement soon made Qi Huan feel carsick. His head was a mess and he didn't notice Qing Lu stopped immediately.
"Look!" Yao Yao patted Qi Huan's arm, motioning him to look outside. The treasure-hunting mouse squeezed in his spherical head cover and also looked out excitedly.
Through the single-sided window in front of the cockpit, they could see a huge stone forest in front of them.
One after another, rugged stone pillars rise from the ground, standing quietly like giant swords pointing straight to the sky, with their tops connected to the dome of the caves. It is empty, desolate and silent.
Wherever the light passes, there is a refreshing rich green color.
Since this is the vine's "base camp", it is undoubtedly the top-notch mineral deposit that it guards.
Countless curved black shadows were coiled on the stone pillars, tightly entangled like black snakes, making it hard to breathe.
"Find the main vine!"
As soon as Jiufang Yu spoke, Qinglu and the surrounding mechas all stood up and flew into the stone forest in different directions like lightning.
Qi Huan and Yao Yao then realized that Jiufang Yu and others had been captured on purpose in order to find the location of the main vine and destroy it in one fell swoop.
The vines also realized that they had fallen into a trap, and immediately separated their vines to intercept the four mechas.
"Don't fight, pay attention to those hiding in the back. The main vine must be hiding in the back." Jiufang Yu and several other people created a temporary channel, commanding Qinglu while reminding the others.
"A suspected main vine was found at position 17 in area 1. The coordinates have been shared."
"A suspected main vine was found at position 8 in area 4. The coordinates have been shared."
"Concentrate your firepower in pairs and attack aggressively to test the enemy."
…
"What the hell, they're all fake." Someone cursed in the channel.
Qi Huan and Yao Yao sat in the back row and listened to the noise on the channel, not daring to disturb them. But from the voices, they recognized that the other mechas were Senior A Luan, No. 2, and No. 4.
But those vines were indeed very cunning. In the past ten minutes or so, Jiufang Yu and his team checked three rounds of seven suspected main vines, and they were all fake.
Those vines are backed by the gem mine and can replenish their energy at any time. If they continue to consume their mental strength like this, they won’t be able to hold out for much longer.
Qi Huan frowned as he looked at the vines outside that had pierced into the stone pillars. If chasing and absorbing energy was their instinct, then wouldn't the huge gem mine in front of them be enough for them?
They got stuck because the vines initially caught Xiaobai.
So can we say that special spirits are more attractive to these vines than energy? Maybe we can try to use someone's spirit to lure out the main vine, such as Jiujiu from our family?
The little guy usually dodges the fastest when encountering trouble. When he wants to hide, even the black ball can't pounce on him. He is also well prepared, and with the protection of four mechas next to him, he should be able to escape safely.
Qi Huan tried to summon Jiujiu who was still sleeping, communicated with it about the current situation, and asked it if it was willing to go.
Yao Yao was surprised to see that his spirit body was in human form, but he knew that now was not the time to ask more questions, so he did not say anything.
Xiao Bai Tuanzi was originally bleary-eyed, but he immediately perked up after hearing this. He glanced at Jiu Fangyu in front of him with concern, and nodded solemnly, "I agree."
Qi Huan then told Jiufang Yu what he meant.
"No!" Unexpectedly, not only Jiufang Yu, but several people on the other end of the channel also spoke up in unison to object.
"How can we let the guide's spirit body take risks at this time?" No. 2 hammered somewhere and heard a muffled 'bang' sound.
However, Jiujiu sneaked out while they were talking, and when everyone noticed it, it was already standing on Qinglu's arm.
Afraid that its target was too small and not conspicuous enough, the little guy also put on a set of gold-removing jewelry made for it by the owner, and its whole body was shining with gold.
Qi Huan was speechless. A few days ago, he felt it was too troublesome to pick up toys and jewelry every day, so he asked the owner to open a back door for it to enter the storage bag for the jewelry. He didn't expect that it would be used in reverse now.
In an instant, countless vines turned towards the direction where Jiujiu was as if attracted by a magnet.
The little white ball shook his white hair and appeared on the shoulder of the golden mecha. The vines trembled and turned together.
How to describe the next scene? From Qi Huan's perspective, his Jiujiu's white hair was leaping all over the field like a wave-breaking ship. The little guy must have a special talent for playing games, with graceful movements and first-class kite-flying skills. In addition, with his small size and agile body, he actually slipped into the vines all over the field and chased him until they were tangled!
Jiufang Yu and the others quickly locked onto a vine that was completely unattracted and unmoved. Under the strong attack, all the vines went crazy and rushed back to defend themselves, confirming that it was the main vine without a doubt.
The four mechas immediately joined forces to start the encirclement and suppression. Three mechas blocked the vines that wanted to rush up from the outside, and Qing Lu waved his halberd and rushed towards the main vine with unstoppable force.
Little White Tuanzi finished his work and returned to Qi Huan. Qi Huan reached out and touched its head, "Jiujiu, you've worked hard. You've done a great job."
The little white ball raised his head proudly and rubbed Qi Huan's fingertips, then sat on top of his head and watched the battle outside with him.
The main vine was SS-level after all. Qing Lu hit it twice but was unable to cause any damage to it.
Jiufang Yu frowned and absorbed the last S-level gem. After a moment, he felt it was not enough and asked in a deep voice, "Are there any SS-level ones?"
Yao Yao naturally knew that he was asking himself, "There are only two pieces, but they are not top quality. One is grade B, and the other is grade C, but can you use..."?
"Lend it to me." Before Yao Yao could finish the last word, Jiufang Yu reached out his hand behind him.
Yao Yao didn't waste any time and immediately took out two boxes the size of watch boxes, poured out the two gems inside, and stuffed them all into Jiufang Yu's hands.
Jiufang Yu clenched the two gems tightly, and white mist rose from between his fingers, making his fingertips look even paler.
"Could it be that you had already reached the SS-level threshold before you were injured?" Yao Yao looked at the scene in front of him, suddenly realized, and couldn't help but exclaimed in a low voice.
If it does not reach SS level, even if it is an SS-level gem, its use is no different from that of S-level, which is a pure waste. A sentinel of Jiufang Yu's level cannot be unaware of this truth, so the only possibility is that his upper limit is not S-level at all, but SS-level!
SS level! Qi Huan was also surprised. No wonder Jiufang Yu was so calm and composed when facing stone beasts and star beasts in the past. If he had not been injured, he could not imagine how heroic the star master would be on the battlefield.
Jiufang Yu did not answer Yao Yao's question, but just turned around silently.
The silk threads above the helmet suddenly became bright as snow. After the battles just now, Qing Lu's body was already covered with scars and dust, but at this moment, he seemed to be reborn, and was shining.
The surging fighting spirit seemed to become real in an instant, lingering around the mecha, and finally turned into a surging red light, rushing towards the tip of the golden halberd.
Qing Lu held a long spear in his hand and stabbed at the main vine with the force of thunder and wind like a tidal wave.
The moment the tip of the halberd touched the vine, a dazzling red light burst out, and countless vines in the stone forest stretched their tips at the same time, trembling wildly, with heavy black shadows, as if they were making a silent roar.
Qi Huan felt as if there was an earthquake and was dizzy. When he came to his senses, the main vine had been nailed firmly to the stone pillar by Qing Lu's halberd.
It was still flapping its wings, struggling to extend its main vine into the stone pillar. As it struggled, the gap it pierced became larger and larger, and the translucent liquid that flowed out soaked most of the stone pillar.
As if they had received an order, the vines plunged into the stone pillars one after another, trying to absorb energy. No. 2 was stunned, "This thing is too strong, it actually wants to make a comeback?"
"This is the only chance to kill it. We can't let it succeed." Senior A Luan's golden mecha swung its sword and cut off several vines around it.
"Yes, cut them off!" No. 2 and No. 4 also began to cut the vines around them.
"How many of the energy bombs you took earlier?" Jiufang Yu asked Yao Yao.
"About ten or so." Yao Yao answered, and his hands began to take out consciously.
"Put it all in."
The opening of a tubular channel moved near Yao Yao.
Yao Yao asked as he put the energy in, "You want to use a lot of energy to blow it up?"
"It wants to absorb energy and counterattack, so let it absorb as much as it wants!"
Qing Lu inserted the other end of the tubular channel into the "throat" of the main vine that extended into the stone pillar, and stuffed the energy bombs in one by one.
The vines twisted excitedly at first, and then gradually grew thicker and swelled as if they were blown up.
"It's not enough. If you have any energy gems, throw them all in. Anything with energy will do." Jiufang Yu opened his storage ring and threw the beast cores into it.
Yao Yao rummaged through his storage bag, opened the box of sixteen-grid gems, and poured them into the spout. Later, when he took out other gems, there was no time to close the box, so he simply opened the box and threw them down one by one.
Qi Huan also reached into his storage bag and threw the few beast cores he had into it.
Jiujiu followed suit and grabbed things from Qi Huan's storage bag and threw them into it.
All the gems and animal cores with any energy on the three people were thrown in. Finally, Yao Yao even took off his belt and the ornaments on the treasure-hunting rat and threw them in.
"Bang!!!"
The main vine, which had expanded to its limit, finally couldn't bear it anymore and exploded with a loud bang. Broken vines and mucus were scattered everywhere, and Qinglu, who was standing nearby, was the first to be splashed all over.
[That’s why I hate people who can’t be beaten hard.] Qing Lu lowered his head and looked at his dirty body, complaining helplessly.
"Don't worry, I will help you clean it up." Jiufang Yu's breath was weak, and Qi Huan frowned worriedly.
The vine that was nailed by the halberd was blown into half, and it trembled, and finally drooped down helplessly.
"Dead?" No. 2 asked everyone.
After a few seconds of silence in the communication channel, No. 4's cheer was finally heard, "Hahaha, he's dead, finally dead!!!"
"I'm so tired." The red mecha No. 2 sat down on the ground exhausted.
Senior A Luan's golden mecha also leaned against the stone pillar next to it exhausted.
"Are you okay?" Qi Huan quickly unbuckled the safety belt and rushed to Jiu Fangyu's driving seat in the front row.
Jiufang Yu didn't even have the strength to take off his helmet. The gap between his forehead and the helmet was covered in cold sweat, and his face and lips were extremely pale. Jiujiu pounced on him and kissed him on his bloodless lips.
"Ouch, don't look at anything inappropriate." Yao Yao originally wanted to come over to ask about the situation, but when he saw this, he quickly covered half of his face in a mischievous manner.
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