Jumping onto the still intact cement wall, she looked up and saw her path blocked by a curtain of icicles. Three sides of the cement wall that faced forward defense were shattered. Xia Yu picked up the large hammer in her hand and forcefully swung it, managing to smash a path through the ice mountain behind the wall. Yet, the mechanical puppet remained standing in place, its emotionless eyes calmly watching the few people leaping out from behind the wall.

Pei Yan now had a keen interest in this "technological product" from another dimension and eyed the materials composing it. He wondered whether he could absorb the metal from this other dimension?

Then let's try!

Determined, Pei Yan hesitated no more. His form instantly vanished from the spot. He was long accustomed to relying on speed to gain the upper hand in combat, savoring this combat method. Watching the enemy stand in place, allowing himself to strike, had become one of his few mischievous delights recently.

Unfortunately, this time his mischievous delight was going to be thoroughly handled by this "thing"!

His punch, aimed with precision, was easily caught by the puppet-man, leaving Pei Yan stunned. At the same time, a knee and elbow attack came in close, but was stopped! Elbow strike, continuous elbow strike, side kick, throat strike, hip thrust, shoulder throw, straight punch – a dazzling series of attacks flowed like clouds and water, all directed against it. Yet, the mechanical puppet used its fists and feet to counter steadily, its defense impregnable and flawless.

Watching the two of them exchange blows like a textbook, Xia Yu, who had been itching to join, lunged with a quick step. The two of them, left and right, coordinated seamlessly to attack alternately. Faced with the combined attack of the two, the mechanical puppet still displayed ease, its moves organized and its steps unshattered.

Until Zhao Yuanhu joined the fray!

This elusive young lady, though not as skilled in combat as Pei and Xia, was exceedingly nimble with her abilities and body technique. She maneuvered freely among the trio's attacks without disrupting her companions' strikes. Her elusive and peculiar movements sometimes entwined around the puppet's body like a seven-gilled eel attack, finally causing a flaw in the puppet's defense.

Seizing the opportunity, Pei Yan delivered a powerful elbow strike to the opponent's jaw, a fierce spark erupted amidst the intense metallic clash. The puppet-man's head spun three full circles on the spot, while Xia Yu, standing beside, landed a heavy side kick with a boom on the opponent's belly.

As the puppet's body flew backward, its rotating head corrected its direction in the air. A wide mouth opened toward the trio, revealing a long tube from which dark purple smoke billowed out.

"Watch out! It's about to exhale toxic fog!" Zhu Guangyi, who had been observing, shouted loudly.

Hearing this, Pei Yan stretched out his mechanical arms, releasing two long mechanical whips that wrapped around the waists of the two young ladies, forcefully flinging them backward. He then put on his mask and switched to internal oxygen supply.

Zhu Guangyi and Shangxing caught Xia and Zhao respectively as they looked at the mechanical puppet's toxic fog engulfing Pei Yan's body and threatening to spread further. The two jumped back simultaneously, Zhu Guangyi asking as he retreated, "Why isn't he coming out? Wouldn't there be a problem?"

"There shouldn't be; he has an air reserve within him!" Zhao Yuanhu, gazing within the toxic fog, replied with a worried but uncertain tone.

After retreating to the edge of the toxic fog, setting the two girls down, Zhu Guangyi looked toward Pei Yan and the mechanical puppet vanished in the mist, now filled with regret. Earlier, seeing these three young people's outstanding combat abilities, he had let his guard down and watched a bit too long. If anything happened to Pei Yan, not only would it be a loss to the organization, it would also cause him inner remorse.

Just when the group was fraught with worry, a burst of machine gun fire came from within the toxic fog. Watching the faint blue-lit beams, Shangxing and the others let out a sigh of relief simultaneously. Rubbing her arms, Xia Yu laughed, "That kid's still alive!"

Her words had just fallen when a figure from the toxic fog drew near and leaped out—it was Pei Yan himself. Zhao Yuanhu wanted to rush forward to check on him but was pulled back by Zhu Guangyi, who covered her nose, and harshly reprimanded, "Don't get close to him just yet!"

Stopped in his tracks, Zhao Yuanhu watched Pei Yan break through the fog with strands of the toxic mist clinging to him, falling to the ground in disarray. The once gleaming silver-white mecha surface was now tarnished black and pocked with dents.

"Pei Yan, are you alright?" Shangxing approached once the poison mist dissipated from him, supporting him up and inquiring.

"I'm fine! Damn it, this toxic fog is corrosive! Luckily I ran fast enough, but I wonder if my skin will become pockmarked after I regenerate! But that thing gained nothing from me! Cough, cough, cough! Is there any water?" Pei Yan stepped away from the fog, removed his faceplate, and asked while coughing.

Zhao Yuanhu took out two bottles of mineral water from her storage ring and handed them to him, watching as he drank the water and activated the metal stored within him to repair his corroded surface. She then looked concerningly at the toxic fog and asked, "Has that creature been destroyed?"

"That thing can't be destroyed so easily!" Zhu Guangyi, having battled the puppet half a day, well understood its tenacity, answered with a shake of his head. Although not top-tier, he was notoriously troublesome within the Secret Prison, usually causing headaches for ordinary superpowers encountering him, and alone, he could delay three to four superpowers with no problem. His task of inspecting the prison to prevent escapes was well suited.

But advantages come with drawbacks; Zhu Guangyi's major weakness was a lack of instantaneous destructive power. Now facing an unrelenting, indestructible puppet-man, he could only attempt to delay and wait for reinforcements.

When the toxic fog gradually dissipated, the puppet-man's figure standing firm confirmed his judgment. However, its current state was no better than Pei Yan's after emerging from the fog; half of its body was shot through and shattered.

Yet this battered state did not last long. With a flash of dazzling white light, its body restored to its original condition. Whether the previous attack had angered it or triggered some mechanism inside it, the emotionless mechanical eyes responded for the first time, locking its sight directly on Pei Yan.

"It seems your attack worked on it! Can you do it again?" Zhu Guangyi asked excitedly.

Without wasting words, Pei Yan stood up, setting off a storm of metal. Bullets with automatic targeting spewed out wildly. This time the bullets did not succeed in shattering the opponent's body as before but were stopped by a layer of azure light halo on its surface, stirring up a cascade of ripples.

"Defense Array! Why didn't it use this earlier?" Pei Yan gritted his teeth, recognizing the familiar scene, and asked.

"This Defense Array also consumes energy; it might derive its energy from some advanced Spirit Stone in the Daoist Realm. To save energy, it probably will not activate until absolutely necessary!" Shangxing analyzed, focusing on the puppet being blasted by bullets, then looked at Zhu Guangyi and nodded to each other.

They understood that since the puppet was forced to use the Defense Array, it indicated Pei Yan's attack was effective. The opponent was pushed to the brink, and now their task was to put in more effort. If they cooperated with Pei Yan's attacks to deplete its internal energy source, it would become nothing more than scrap metal.

With these thoughts, the two moved together to flank from both sides.