Chapter 332: Chapter 332
332: Chapter 112 Black Valley 332: Chapter 112 Black Valley Xiang Shan retracted his Sonicon Blade which he had drawn.
He felt the blade had begun to dull — or rather, the molecular perfect crystal lattice structure had started to degrade.
“Is it the pressure of continuous battle that’s too great?
Or am I swinging the blade too fast?” Xiang Shan sighed faintly.
A Sonicon Blade’s edge really didn’t last long; he even felt as though he was playing some kind of RPG where the “weapon durability decreased rapidly.”
This effect was even more pronounced on the one-meter version of the Sonicon Blade.
It was unclear whether it was the influence of the Electromagnetic Draw Sword technique or if the one-meter version was different from the two-meter version to begin with.
He stopped thinking and looked at the two small Cybernetically Enhanced People hiding in the crevices between rocks, and asked, “Fellow allies, may I inquire if there is some forbidden area ahead of us that belongs to you?”
“Forbidden area?” The two Burrow Dragons looked at each other: “Right ahead should be a huge underground canyon…
The canyon has exposed quite a few ore veins, and we often go there.”
——Not a forbidden area…
Any place marked as “forbidden” on the map would be easily discovered by others.
Xiang Shan shook his head, “Then there must be some ‘valueless, seldom-visited’ places, right?”
It seemed indeed that was the correct direction.
Xiang Shan nodded inwardly and said, “Thank you, both of you.”
“This…” one of them stepped forward and said, “You flatter us, Great Hero.
You saved our lives; it is we who should be thanking you.”
Xiang Shan said, “Let’s not rush to thanks yet.
Could you perhaps help me with one more thing?”
The two Burrow Dragons responded, “If there’s anything you need from us, just say the word, Great Hero.”
“I will have to go deeper and fight with those people again,” Xiang Shan said.
“But I have an irreconcilable enmity with them.
If they recognize me and report my whereabouts, it would spell doom for all of us.
If you see a squad desperately making their way upwards, or data line robots attempting to leave the cave, please intercept them.”
After a moment of thought, the Burrow Dragon solemnly said, “Should such a moment truly arise, we will not hesitate to give our lives.”
Xiang Shan nodded and sent them the route from his memory: “This is the route I took to get here.
They descended along this line.
If they are to return, they might take the same path.
The entrance of this route is guarded by my friend.
If they haven’t found any other exits, they should leave through here.”
“Understood, Great Hero.
We must also aid our comrades in other regions; you be careful too.”
Although the direction Xiang Shan wanted to take was not where his kinsfolk were most densely located, it seemed to be where the battle was fiercest.
The two Burrow Dragons did not know how Xiang Shan had acquired his information, but they did not doubt him.
In reality, Xiang Shan was simply following the QR code guidance left by the Eighth Martial God.
These QR codes would lead him to his target.
This was just one of those inventions that hadn’t been circulated or recorded and had been discarded after creation.
Inside the laboratory, there was a plethora of such failed creations, too many to count, some only lying in the dust of the oldest database — perhaps one day, a new junior researcher would try to draft a paper on “why such a plan failed,” and by an extreme stroke of luck, one of the incredibly fortunate ones might thus make a huge discovery worthy of historical record, which could lead to promotion and a pay raise, starting good projects, and reaching the pinnacle of their careers.
But for the moment, this type of special QR code was simply something discarded during the laboratory phase, absent from the records.
At least the Rangers hadn’t found any relevant records.
But at least they knew one thing — since these Burrow Dragons truly didn’t think the Eighth Martial God had hidden a “Legacy” here, then the “Legacy” definitely wouldn’t be in the area where they normally operated. Latest content published on novel★fire.net
They had to search the nearby areas that they usually didn’t frequent.
They were not here to hunt down the Burrow Dragons.
The top priority was the Legacy of the Eighth Martial God.
If these Burrow Dragons knew about the existence of the so-called Legacy, then the Rangers would have specifically hunted the Burrow Dragons under the assumption that “Burrow Dragons might carry and move the Legacy.” But since almost all Burrow Dragons were unaware, their escape didn’t matter much.
That wasn’t their “task.”
The Houndhawks attacked the Burrow Dragons simply to prevent them from using underground Guerrilla Warfare to hinder their operations.
The direction of the Houndhawks and the major retreat route of the Burrow Dragon forces were different.
The direction Xiang Shan was heading was, indeed, roughly the same as the one they were searching for.
Xiang Shan silently made tactical computations in his mind.
“These guys work in groups of four to five.
Based on the information I got last time when I killed that small pepper pot… there might be about six to seven groups.”
“After entering, I eliminated two groups, and just now, another one.”
“There are likely still three to four active groups.”
“In this environment, they can’t possibly split their forces.
Any team of fewer than this number would truly be overpowered by the Burrow Dragons.”
“However, among these four teams, at least one of them contains a small pepper pot — and it’s definitely stronger than the one I faced last time.
While recalling the “feeling” from the last battle, Xiang Shan accelerated and ran forward.
“Three to four groups of Rangers, in this environment, can’t leverage their numerical advantage.
They are hardly a concern.
But I, who has not fully recovered my Inner Strength, may not be able to defeat that one.”
“In a life-or-death struggle, the Three Dragon-Slaying Moves can’t possibly remain hidden.”
“If the Pepper Pot had a pair, and they recognized the Three Dragon-Slaying Moves, King Aqini would spare no expense to airdrop troops.”
“But I can’t kill all those linear machine robots.
They also double as data lines, and if just one succeeds in getting up there, then King Aqini will become aware of this message.”
“If the Burrow Dragons are willing to help, then the biggest threat would be the remaining ranger squads.”
“I hope we can take out all the remaining rangers along the way.”
C·Shivaji-21 took a deep breath in his mind.
The squad he led had arrived at a deeper region of the area—a natural underground canyon.
The Mexican Plateau is located where the American, Antarctic, and Pacific tectonic plates converge, causing active geological movements.
Such underground wonders are not uncommon.
This particular valley is also the inspiration for the “Black Valley” in the “Black Valley Lineage.”
C·Shivaji-21 had left the sounds of battle far behind.
The gunshots and explosions seemed to come from another world connected by the caves.
In front of him there was only the silent, noiseless Black Valley.
“Once we get here, there’s no one to stop us,” C·Shivaji-21 said loudly, “The legacy of the Eighth Martial God…
If it really exists, then it must be nearby—this is practically a natural storage for hidden items.
As his thoughts shifted, a dense swarm of small drones poured out like ants.
They climbed along the rock walls.
And C·Shivaji-21 also flexed his spider-like leg expansions, stepping out of the cave and onto the rock face.
The underground canyon appeared to be only tens of meters deep and a few hundred meters long; it wouldn’t take long for him to find the target.
But at that moment, a ranger hesitated and said, “Commander…
there’s been an incident.”
“Hm?” C·Shivaji-21’s thoughts shifted, and he acquired the intelligence.
Three squads along with the personnel from the surface base had lost communication.
He couldn’t help feeling a tremendous headache.
This was approaching half of their combat strength.
If they were to form a battle array, these dozen-plus rangers could wipe out an ordinary Jianghu Sect.
“Damn, did they send any message?”
The man shook his head, “You should already know, sir.
They didn’t have the chance to send back any messages.
Perhaps the enemy has always managed to destroy the communication equipment one step ahead.
But one thing is certain, his external strength is definitely far beyond that of an ordinary ranger.”
“This also includes the terrain, right?
In the passages, you can’t leverage the advantage of numbers, nor can you rely on prosthetic body performance to dodge.”
“But the gap in individual combat strength is still significant,” the ranger said, “I think we should gather the remaining combat power and come into this Black Valley.
As long as we can leverage our numerical advantage…”
A “clatter” interrupted their attention.
It appeared so slowly, with hardly any sound of the wind, that the slight impact with the ground was virtually insignificant amidst the full cacophony of battle sounds in the cave.
So much so that the rangers only reacted after seeing it.
A cold-blooded rider threw himself on it without hesitation, using his back to cover the grenade.
The external armor on his back was thicker than the front.
The man was jolted violently, collapsing like a marionette with its strings cut, before then unsteadily rising to his feet, unable to recover to normal for a while.
Even if the armor had blocked the explosion, the residual impact had damaged his spine.
The cold-blooded rider could only switch to wireless control mode.
C·Shivaji-21 reacted quickly, immediately rushing towards where the grenade had appeared—from a crack in the rock that was originally impossible to hide a person.
But there seemed to be a secret passageway of the Burrow Dragon there.
C·Shivaji-21 only caught a glimpse of a figure.
The thick rock walls blocked all signals.
He couldn’t use Inner Strength to kill this Burrow Dragon.
C·Shivaji-21, in a fury, issued a command, and a ranger immediately threw a grenade of similar size into it.
A larger tremor followed.
The cracks in the wall seemed to grow.
The Burrow Dragon certainly wasn’t dead, but this secret passage was mostly unusable now.
“As expected, there are Burrow Dragons coming to interfere,” C·Shivaji-21 snorted coldly, “Leave the cave and go onto the rock face.
I want to see if these tunneling machines still dare to harass us after the rangers leave the cave.”