CHAPTER 234: CHAPTER 234 INGENIOUS CRAFTSMANSHIP (SEEKING SUBSCRIPTION)

At the same time they captured Zhao Liben alive on this side, Ye Ruozai also joined the encirclement of the gray-haired boy on the other end of the battlefield. Jiang Feiyang, having snapped out of his daze from watching, turned to his companions and asked, "Who should we help?"

Pei Yan’s gaze revealed his inner thoughts; after observing Han Jia Ru’s battle, his eyes were fixed on the mechanical puppet, the cold light glinting off its exterior and slightly stiff movements capturing his immense interest.

This thing seemed to operate autonomously without any control.

Seeing Pei Yan’s eye sparkling with excitement, the others understood his thoughts. Jiang Feiyang turned to Peng Lang and said, "My abilities aren’t suited for one-on-one fights; Peng Lang and I will go to the outer wall to clear the remaining forces. Who wants to join us?"

"Count me in!" Ye Jiumu glanced at his brother fighting in the sky and shook his head dejectedly.

Liang Qian and Wang Wenze stepped forward simultaneously and said, "And us!"

After Wang Wenze finished speaking, he patted Pei Yan on the shoulder and remarked, "Hey, you’re getting stronger! But also remember to stay safe and not to overdo it!" He looked around the battlefield and muttered, "The ones fighting here are no easy opponents, you know!"

"Don’t worry, I get it! Safety first!" Pei Yan replied with a smile. Today, he had already completed the tasks exceedingly well. Fighting with Liang Guangsheng just moments ago was for his friends, to eliminate the biggest threat to him. Now, with the major conflict settled, he could choose targets that interested him.

With this thought, Pei Yan exchanged a glance with the three who chose to stay, deciding to charge toward the puppet together!

Zhu Guangyi, fighting the puppet, was grateful he had chosen this opponent. Compared to others fighting life-and-death battles, his fight was almost leisurely. This mechanical puppet from another dimension was quite powerful, but ultimately not human and lacked intelligence. Although he couldn’t defeat it outright, keeping it occupied wasn’t an issue. Seeing victory already leaning in their favor, he only needed to wait for others to finish off enemies and come to support.

Isn’t that what’s happened now?

Seeing the four rush up to help, Zhu Guangyi frowned slightly—though their intentions were good, wasn’t their awakened level a bit too low? Only Shangxing’s power, who frequently caught people for the Secret Prison, seemed adequate.

While he was lost in thought, Pei Yan had already run under the puppet and stood firm. With a flick of his hands, two mechanical ropes shot from his arms, wrapping around the puppet’s feet before pulling down hard.

Under the immense force, the puppet’s body shook and plummeted straight down. As it was still in the process of falling, Xiayu raced up with several jumps, wielding a massive hammer and smashed down on the puppet’s head.

"Boom!" A deep pit was smashed into the ground, sending mud flying everywhere, with half of the puppet’s body embedded into the muddy earth.

"Shangxing, your subordinates? Not bad! But be careful; this thing isn’t easy to deal with!" Zhu Guangyi floated down, standing beside Shangxing, kindly reminding him.

Without needing his reminder, Pei Yan and Xiayu had already sensed something unusual about the one beneath them. Pei Yan, who had tightly seized the rope, felt it suddenly loosen; the puppet’s bound body separated on its own, letting the mechanical rope fall slack.

Seeing the puppet below gradually disassemble and merge into the surrounding mud, Xiayu raised his double hammers and jumped back quickly, glancing at Pei Yan in amazement, "Can your eye see what this thing is made of?"

Xiayu didn’t arrogantly think his two hammer strikes had destroyed the opponent.

Pei Yan, staring at the bog with high vigilance, regretfully shook his head, "No idea, the data is too sparse, and this thing is too bizarre!"

Amid their confusion, a figure slowly rose from the mud; as the surface mud shed off, a brand new mechanical puppet appeared before everyone.

Zhu Guangyi stepped forward and sighed helplessly, "I told you this thing is hard to deal with, just like a sticky plaster, can’t be smashed or killed!" As he spoke, he grabbed a swirling mass of mud from the ground with one hand, molding it with the infusion of his inner power into a liquid black ball exuding an asphalt odor.

At the same time, the recovering mechanical puppet wasn’t idle. Amidst a series of creaking noises, it raised both arms and slowly opened its palms.

"Careful, it’s about to release those things again—mechanical wasps, very annoying. They can paralyze the flow of inner power; if one stings you, half your body will be immobilized!" Having suffered before, Zhu Guangyi jumped back and flung the heated asphalt glob down.

Although Pei Yan retreated, his sight never left the mechanical puppet. Just as Zhu Guangyi said, the puppet’s arm panels lifted, releasing a dense swarm of mechanical wasps. After a third of them were coated by the asphalt, the rest swirled upwards and, after circling midair, charged toward Pei Yan and the others.

"Nanomechanical insects!" Pei Yan also stretched out his arms, releasing countless nanomechanical insects even smaller than the mechanical wasps into the air. The two swarms clashed with a buzzing sound.

But Pei Yan had no time to check the battle result. As the mechanical wasps rose, two bright lights appeared in the puppet’s palms, manifesting two talismans.

"It’s an ice spike attack! Not small in power! Retreat behind me! Formation!" Zhu Guangyi called out while jumping back, his asphalt glob turning gray in his hand. He swung his arms, throwing masses of liquid gray cement that quickly solidified, forming four high walls in front of him in an instant.

Pei Yan wasn’t idle either; iron flowed out from his body, building another layer of metal wall behind the cement wall. Just as the wall settled, a roar came, and with a slight tremor of the ground, everyone felt the air temperature drop. Two rows of ice spears whizzed along the sides of the wall, stopping only after smashing through the two prison walls behind.

"Phew! I nearly lost my life to that move earlier!" Zhu Guangyi breathed with lingering fear behind the metal wall, recalling how he was first paralyzed by the wasp sting, then caught off guard by the sudden ice spike attack. If his superior hadn’t noticed his plight and hastily used a whirlwind to shatter the ice spike, he might have truly met his end.

Meanwhile, the sky battle was nearing its end. Pei Yan’s nanomechanical insects, at a great cost, had eradicated the mechanical wasps. Bending down, he picked up a wasp incapacitated by the nanomechanical insects, examining it carefully in his palm. In terms of appearance, these wasps resembled ordinary ones, even their eyes carved out with lifelike detail. Closely inspecting the paper-thin wings, complex patterns were etched on them, and magnifying the sting with his mechanical eye revealed its eerie dark color with twisted patterns.

"Truly a masterpiece!" Pei Yan inwardly admired, then picked up over a dozen relatively intact wasps and stored them in his spatial ring. Engineer Li and Director Yao would undoubtedly find these fascinating.