lerbook Chapter 319 Purification?
Chapter 319 Purification?
The sonar picked up a signal.
Very big.
Deepest within the ruins.
It's exactly the same location as when Xuanwu was sleeping last time.
Zhang Yan took a deep breath.
He reduced the power of the Sea Devourer to the minimum, turned off the searchlights, and only kept the passive sonar and low-light modes enabled.
Like a true deep-sea predator, the mechanical shark silently slid into the depths of the ruins.
The passage is very long.
Last time I came, the star crystals on both sides of the wall would automatically light up to illuminate the way for visitors.
Now it's different. All the crystals are dark, with only one occasionally flashing, like a dying firefly.
Zhang Yan counted the turns in the passage.
After the third bend, the temperature began to rise.
No—it's not that the temperature is rising. It's that the energy density is increasing.
On the system panel, the pollution concentration reading kept jumping up.
12%.
19%.
27%.
He continued onward.
The fifth turn.
Light appeared at the end of the passage.
Dark red light.
It's not the cold blue of star crystal, nor the warm golden light of the Heart of Heaven.
It's the color of ruins.
Zhang Yan stopped.
The mechanical shark hovered at the end of the passage, less than 30 meters from the entrance to the core area.
From this angle, he could see part of the core area—the huge domed space that was once used to store Xuanwu.
Xuanwu is still there.
But it's different now.
The Xuanwu I saw last time was covered with thick bronze armor, with intricate Mohist gear sets at its joints, and its shell surface was engraved with dense ancient runes.
Now, those runes are glowing.
Dark red.
Each rune was filled with a scarlet energy, winding across the bronze surface like blood vessels.
Xuanwu's limbs were half-stretched from their curled-up state, its huge turtle head was slightly raised, and red light shone through its closed eyelids.
Its shell was expanding and contracting.
It is completely synchronized with the vortex at the entrance of the ruins and with the pulsating signals detected by the system.
Zhang Yan's lips were pressed into a thin line.
The worst-case scenario.
Xuanwu has been corrupted.
The last line of the system panel has been refreshed with data.
"Xuanwu's current status: Void energy erosion rate 58%, core will remains, and it is resisting."
"An erosion rate exceeding 70% will be irreversible."
Zhang Yan tightened his grip on the control lever.
58%.
There is still hope.
But the window is not big.
He closed his eyes, then opened them three seconds later.
He released his hand from the joystick and pressed the start button on the Thousand Machine Arm on his wrist.
"System, retrieve the chapter on the Four Spirits Purification Protocol from the Mo Family Mechanical Arts Fragment: Earth Vein Chapter."
The panel flashed.
An ancient line of text appeared.
Zhang Yan finished reading the line of text.
Then he made a decision.
He opened the hatch of the Sea Devouring Shark.
The moment the hatch opened, compressed medium rushed into the cockpit, causing the temperature to drop sharply.
Zhang Yan climbed out of the cabin and stepped onto the metal floor of the ruins passage.
The Thousand-Machine Arm unfolded on the left arm, with a faint blue light flowing between the joints.
He walked out of the passageway.
The core area was larger than I remembered—or rather, the dark red light blurred the boundaries of the space.
High in the dome, one-third of the originally neatly arranged star crystal array has broken off, and the debris is scattered on the ground, covered by a thin layer of pale scarlet film.
Xuanwu is right in front of us, less than eighty meters away.
It is more striking up close than from a distance.
It's too big.
The turtle is over forty meters long, from head to tail.
Four thick mechanical limbs were half-supported on the ground, and the gear sets at the joints were slowly turning—not the orderly rotation of normal operation, but a pause, a spasm.
Each time the dark red runes on the carapace pulsed, a heavy, oppressive feeling filled the air in the core area.
Zhang Yan stood eighty meters away and brought up the system panel.
The conditions of the "Purification Protocol" are clear—it requires a fundamental connection protocol between the Heart of Heaven and the Four Spirits as a channel to directly inject pure energy into the core power furnace of the Four Spirits, replacing the polluted energy eroded by the Ruins.
The principle is not complicated.
But there are two problems.
First, during the injection process, he must maintain physical contact with Xuanwu, and the disc of the Heavenly Craftsmanship Heart must be attached to the core interface of Xuanwu.
The interface was in the very center of the turtle's abdomen, which meant he had to crawl under the belly of the forty-meter-long mechanical giant turtle.
Secondly, an erosion rate of 58% means that Xuanwu's core will is still resisting, but the control of its body has already been largely taken over by the polluted energy of the Void.
In other words, when he gets close, Xuanwu's body is very likely to attack him on its own initiative, even if Xuanwu itself does not want to.
Zhang Yan glanced at the storage space list.
The Tyrannosaurus Rex was too big to be displayed in the ruins.
The Vermilion Bird and Azure Dragon cannot be used in enclosed spaces.
White Tiger is acceptable.
However, the White Tiger is an offensive unit, and its purpose in approaching the Black Tortoise is to purify it, not to kill it. If it attacks too hard and crushes the core will of the Black Tortoise, the erosion rate will jump directly to 100%.
You can only use skillful techniques.
Zhang Yan made a decision that seemed extremely risky to outsiders.
He summoned the White Tiger, but not to fight it.
The silver mechanical tiger unfolds from the storage space, standing 2.8 meters tall at the shoulder and 5 meters long.
Zhang Yan leaped onto the tiger's back and patted the white tiger's neck armor.
"Roaming mode, speed at the lowest setting, no weapons."
The white tiger's electronic eyes switched from the cool blue of combat mode to a warm yellow of low power.
Four mechanical legs took steps, silently approaching Xuanwu.
The system refreshes Xuanwu's status data every ten meters.
Seventy meters. Breathing rate stable, no signs of attack detected.
Sixty meters. The dark red runes on the carapace surface pulsed faster.
Fifty meters.
The tortoise head of Xuanwu moved.
Slowly and heavily, it turned towards Zhang Yan's direction.
The closed eyelids split open a little.
Inside wasn't the normal blue optical sensor of a mechanical beast—it was a murky dark red, like a glass ball soaked in blood.
But in the deepest part of that dark red, Zhang Yan saw a faint bronze light.
That was Xuanwu's own will.
Still.
"I'm not here to hit you." Zhang Yan's voice echoed in the empty dome space.
He wasn't sure if the four spirits of the Mo family could understand human speech.
However, last time in Changbai Mountain, Tengshe entered standby mode after receiving the bronze thumb ring—the underlying program of these mechanical beasts has the logic to identify "friendly forces".
The disc of the Heart of Heaven is useful.
Zhang Yan took out the golden disc from his pocket.
The Heart of Nature lit up in the air, its light soft and steady, like a small sun.
A faint bronze light flickered in Xuanwu's eye slits.
Then, the dark red runes suddenly glowed brightly.
"Warning - The pollution energy of the Ruins is causing a rejection reaction to the Heart of Heavenly Craftsmanship. Xuanwu has entered a state of stress."
coming.
Xuanwu suddenly raised its right forelimb and slammed it towards Baihu's position.
The limb was over three meters in diameter, and its gears, driven by dark red energy, spun wildly, enough to smash the white tiger into scrap metal.
"flash."
The White Tiger's reaction speed far surpasses that of a giant mechanical beast with a height of forty meters.
The mechanical tiger rolled to the left, its forelimbs slamming into the ground, causing the metal floor to cave in like paper. The shockwave sent debris flying within a ten-meter radius.