Chapter 325 There's a Big Guy Hidden Underground
Gongshu Ming turned and walked to a metal wall, reached out his hand, groped around and pressed down a few metal plates on the wall.
With a teeth-grinding sound of mechanical turning, the thick wall actually cracked in the middle and slowly retreated to both sides, revealing a bottomless stone staircase extending downwards.
"Everyone, please come in," Gongshu Ming picked up a lantern by the wall and walked down first. "No one has walked down this road for many years."
The passage is very long and spirals downward.
The surrounding walls are engraved with complex mechanical patterns, and every few meters you can see a huge gear set that has stopped working and is quietly embedded in the mountain.
"These... were all made by your Shenji Pavilion?" Chu Xuanyi couldn't help but ask.
"Yes," Gongshu Ming walked ahead, lantern in hand, his voice echoing in the empty passage. "This was once the outermost defense passage of Shenji City, capable of withstanding a million-strong army. Unfortunately, our true enemy doesn't come from the surface."
The further they went, the tighter Ah Jiu held Xiao Yu.
"Brother Xiongxiong," her face turned pale, "there's something down there. It's so cold and I'm so hungry."
Xiao Yu wrapped her hand in his palm and comforted her with his body temperature, "Don't be afraid, I'm here."
After walking for an unknown amount of time, Gongshu Ming stopped when he saw a glimmer of light in front of him.
"arrive."
He blew out the lantern in his hand and led everyone out of the end of the passage.
The scene before them made everyone hold their breath.
They were standing on a high cliff platform, beneath which was a huge underground cavity.
This is the real ruins of the Divine Machine.
It's like a huge metal tomb buried underground.
Everywhere the eye could see were broken walls and ruins. Countless ruined pavilions and towers collapsed to the ground, their surfaces covered with thick rust. All sorts of bizarre mechanical parts lay scattered on the ground, along with many humanoid mechanical puppets several feet tall. They lay on the ground in various twisted postures, their bodies badly broken.
"Oh my god..." Chu Xuanyi muttered to himself, "This..."
Gongshu Ming ignored Chu Xuanyi's shock, his eyes looking straight to the center of the ruins.
"Your Majesty, please look there."
Following the direction of his finger, Xiao Yu's pupils suddenly shrank.
In the center of the ruins there is a huge energy furnace like a crater. Although it has long been extinguished, one can still feel the terrifying power it once contained.
There was something floating just above the furnace.
It was indescribable. It resembled an irregular black crystal, or a twisting vortex of darkness. It emitted no light, yet its energy was richer than the deepest night.
It just hovered there quietly, emitting a heart-pounding aura.
"That is... the evil demon's sign." Gongshu Ming's voice was extremely dry.
Ajiu hid in Xiao Yu's arms, not even daring to raise his head, and kept shaking.
"Bad thing... That big black stone is a bad thing..."
An even more terrifying scene is yet to come.
Thousands of black spider-like energy threads extended from the bottom of the evil beacon.
These threads hang down and connect to the war puppets neatly arranged in the square below the furnace.
That's an army.
An army composed of thousands of hideous humanoid puppets.
Each of them is about ten feet tall and made entirely of black iron. At this moment, they are all kneeling on one knee, standing still.
"The Tiangang Puppet Army." Gongshu Ming's eyes flashed with pain. "This is the most powerful creation our Shenji Pavilion has painstakingly crafted. Each Tiangang Puppet has the power to defeat a hundred enemies. This army was originally our last trump card against the Dao Biao."
Chu Xuanyi's face had turned pale.
"But now, they seem to be... connected to that signpost."
"Yes," Gongshu Ming closed his eyes in despair. "We failed. Not only was the beacon not destroyed, but it occupied the core energy furnace that drives the entire legion. It is... transforming them."
He pointed at the puppets, his voice trembling.
"Your Majesty, do you know what the Demon Dao Biao has been doing for the past hundred years?"
"It is absorbing the power of the dragon veins of the Great Zhou." Xiao Yu said slowly as he looked at the energy threads.
"That's right," Gongshu Ming nodded. "The power of the dragon vein is its nourishment, and these Tiangang puppets are the evil fruits it is about to bear."
"Once it absorbs enough power, or in other words, once it completes the complete transformation of this legion, it will awaken them."
Gongshu Ming turned his gaze to Xiao Yu and spoke word by word.
"By that time, this Tiangang Army, once born for protection, will transform into an invincible demonic army that rushes out from underground, completely destroying the entire capital and even the entire Great Zhou."
Chu Xuanyi's face turned pale and then blue. Looking at the silent puppet army below, he felt a chill rushing from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.
If an army composed of thousands of invulnerable and tireless iron lumps loses control and rushes onto the ground, the consequences will be unimaginable.
The capital city, the majestic city that gathers the prosperity of the world, may turn into a real hell on earth overnight.
"So," Xiao Yu's voice broke the silence, his tone still calm, "For over a hundred years, you've just been watching here and doing nothing."
Gongshu Ming's burly body trembled violently. He raised his head, his eyes full of bloodshot and unwillingness.
"Your Highness, do you think we don't want to?" His voice was hoarse, filled with suppressed anger. "Every man in our Gongshu family is itching to rush down and smash that damn thing to pieces, and then be buried here with these creations of our ancestors."
"But we can't," he pointed painfully at his heart. "This damn curse is like a chain. The more we try to use the power of the divine machine, the tighter it locks us. If we forcefully mobilize our power to fight against the Dao Beacon, we'll be turned into mindless puppets before we even get close. We might even be controlled by the Dao Beacon and become its accomplice."
"We've tried countless methods, using the most primitive tools to dig a tunnel around the markers to cut those energy threads. However, those threads appear fragile but are incredibly tough, and even ordinary iron can't damage them in the slightest. We even considered using kerosene and explosives, but this place is connected to the capital's underground veins, and a violent explosion would be equally devastating."
"All we can do is take turns coming here every day, using the little remaining strength in our bloodlines to interfere with the speed at which the Dao Beacon draws its energy from the dragon vein, delaying its awakening." Gongshu Ming's voice was filled with despair. "We're like prisoners watching the fuse of a powder keg burn. We know it's bound to explode, but we can only watch helplessly, trying our best to slow the burn even more slowly."
These words left Chu Xuanyi silent.
He put himself in the other person's shoes and thought, if it were him, burdened with such a vicious curse and faced with such an unsolvable dilemma, he would probably have gone crazy long ago.
And these people have been silently persevering for one hundred and thirty years, generation after generation.
Xiao Yu listened quietly, and his gaze slowly moved from the puppet army below back to Gongshu Ming's face.
"In other words, the current situation has become a deadlock."
"We can't forcefully attack that beacon, as that might detonate the dragon vein or prematurely activate the puppet army. We also can't just sit back and do nothing, as that demonic army will awaken sooner or later."
Chu Xuanyi added, "And our greatest helper is the descendant of your Shenji Pavilion. They have been crippled by this blood curse and their martial arts skills are useless. Not only can they not help us, they may even be a ticking time bomb."
As he spoke, he felt a headache coming on.
"This shit is so troublesome no matter how I think about it," he couldn't help scratching his hair. "This won't work, that won't work. Are we just going to sit here and watch helplessly like the rest of you, waiting for everyone to be doomed?"
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