Underground Space

Diving into the slope and descending through a dim corridor, the darkness trailing them gradually receded as the underground space opened up, revealing dots of faint lavender bioluminescence.

Inside the underground space of the circular gallery, Xu Xiaoyou and her group advanced hurriedly; while the roar of artillery gradually faded and they had temporarily escaped trouble, their enemies would soon catch up again.

Above them, Nine Dragons Street had entered a state of full martial law, with long-sealed war machines continuously pouring onto the battlefield, the chaotic situation escalating by the second.

Xu Xiaoyou’s eyes darkened; she had certainly expected the major guilds that suffered losses in the world dungeon to seek revenge against Light-Chaser Garden during this Visiting Battle by Overstepping Authority, but she did not understand how they had locked onto her position.

The appearance of those war machines was no accident; the rolling iron torrent was advancing directly toward her current location.

Xu Xiaoyou had seen it with her own eyes: a twin-tailed disciplinary officer was following the ranks of the Pilot Army.

Did they take a disciplinary officer hostage and use her to track Xu Xiaoyou’s real-time coordinates?

However, that would violate the rules of the New Gospel Book; how on earth had they convinced that twin-tailed disciplinary officer to help them?

Could it be that the disciplinary officer herself had some kind of "fault"?

Previously in Pangard, they had been restricted to grade 3 by the rules, but in the league, the elites of those major guilds were all genuine grade 5, each capable of liberating their divine endowment, no different from tigers released from a cage.

Nevertheless, she was not entirely unprepared for this.

Regardless, they had to leave this place first.

The underground network of Nine Dragons Street extended in all directions, occupying a massive space like a giant maze, where dragon-child pillars seen everywhere stretched upward into the darkness.

Strange-looking energy plants grew everywhere, with purple-black plants like a carpet of grass covering every inch of the ground, their vines trailing along grates and massive metal fan blades up to the ceiling.

A lavender mist rolled across the ground, and pink bud-like plants slightly curled and writhed as they approached, venting a faint pink aerosol that distorted the air with hallucinogenic effects.

"They are contaminated," Cervantes warned.

At the same time, he scanned the surroundings, his brow furrowing as he looked at the energy plants covering almost the entire underground network.

The seeds of these plants came from the "Garden"; they were projections of some weak miracle, collectively known as energy plants due to their ability to produce large amounts of contaminated energy.

These plants required no nutrients themselves; they only needed to be "placed" somewhere to take root and grow, even in reinforced concrete.

The Huabei Research Institute believed they were connected to the "Garden," acting like a small hourglass opening—though this opening faced outward—where energy from the "Garden" would periodically erupt from these plants in the form of mist.

Kowloon Information Enterprise held the core technology of "Communication," while its subsidiary, Huabei Energy, monopolized most core technologies related to energy; they had researched these types of energy plants deeply and were the only giant enterprise in the world capable of collecting and utilizing this contaminated energy.

However, due to their dangerous nature, most energy plants were located in the bottom levels of Skyline City, in uninhabited zones; why were such quantities of energy plants being grown under Nine Dragons Street?

Something occurred to Cervantes, causing his expression to shift; Sancho noticed the change in the youth and stepped forward to ask, but the youth had already masked his expression and nodded to him.

In the darkness, the sound of trickling water echoed as a stifling atmosphere descended, the pervasive pink aerosol emitting a sweet fragrance that forced everyone to hold their breath.

As they moved forward, Xu Xiaoyou noticed that the dragon-child pillars supporting the dome would light up from time to time; looking closely, purple-black light flowed upward along the vein-like carvings.

Skyline City received a massive amount of contaminated energy every day through the transmission network to every giant building for daily production use.

Yet few knew where the contaminated impurities were discharged after the energy was extracted and used.

At that moment, Cervantes, who was walking in front, stopped.

The girls also halted their steps; in an area shrouded in shadows not far from their sight, several "Hanging Man" mechanical puppets were wandering aimlessly.

These puppets had slender bodies, four legs and two hands, wore bamboo hats, and stood on a single hand with one leg coiled in front of their chests.

Unlike the Shuipi guards, these were riot-control mechanical puppets produced by Kowloon, and their model was relatively old.

The red paint on the surface of these Hanging Men was severely peeling, their movements were sluggish, and they swayed as they hopped, their components clashing with the sound of a wooden puppet; transparent silk threads connected them to higher ground, and no one knew why they were here.

"If they sound an alarm, it will travel very far; I have the authority to shut them down," Cervantes said.

Saying this, Cervantes stepped forward, but the terrifying scene that followed froze the youth in his tracks.

Those Hanging Men slowly turned around; their fronts were old and peeling, but their sides were covered in countless writhing pink buds.

Between the tangled vines, they looked like pairs of eyes staring intensely!

"Twee—!"

A shrill cry erupted from the mouths of these Hanging Men, resembling a bird's call and possessing extreme piercing power, spreading into the distance in an instant.

One of the Hanging Men stared intently at them, its body trembling before it suddenly lunged in a violent attack; its four legs acted like dancing blades, the edges flashing with sharp white light in the darkness.

"Damn it, what's with these guys!" Sancho shouted, stepping forward to kick away the Hanging Man that had pounced toward Cervantes.

The movement attracted twenty or thirty wandering Hanging Men nearby; their silk threads disturbed, they all took flight, their jointed limbs a chaotic blur in mid-air as they pounced toward the group in a grotesque, twisting fashion.

Battle broke out instantly.

Tang Xin did not hesitate, chanting to bestow buffs on everyone as blue and purple double star-rings expanded beneath the girls' feet.

The giant hammer in Bai Youyou's hand transformed and swept out, instantly smashing a Hanging Man that had pounced toward the blue-haired girl into countless components.

The two looked at each other, nodded, and coordinated to clear the first wave of Hanging Men.

Angelina brandished her long spear, her spear intent transforming into a storm that sucked several Hanging Men in and tore them apart.

Akabane passed by her side, emerging from the shadows to crush the head of a Hanging Man, triggering Unchecked Rampage; a wheel of blood-colored wind spun through the darkness, dismantling every monster it touched.

"Solve this as quickly as possible; those guys are looking for us, and we must cross the underground passage quickly," Xu Xiaoyou said.

The commotion here had already attracted attention from afar, with swarms of drones and enemy search units rapidly closing in on their position.

Xu Xiaoyou loaded bullets into the Rose Flower one by one; when a monster pounced close, she used her long whip to slice it in half.

She then raised her gun, picking off the twisted figures in the darkness one by one; the muzzle flashes tore through the dense gloom, illuminating the girl's calm face.

The scale of the monsters diminished at a visible rate every second; in less than half a minute, they had cleared the vast majority of them.

Cervantes and Sancho were stunned by the combat power the girls unleashed, standing dazed until the last Hanging Man was pinned under Xu Xiaoyou's foot and shot through the head.

It seemed the other party did not need their protection at all; on the contrary, they were the ones who seemed like they were being protected.

At that moment, several more Hanging Men emerged from the shadows of a corner; Xu Xiaoyou picked them off with her gun.

Looking at the twisted monsters surfacing in dense numbers and living in symbiosis with the energy plants, she turned to Cervantes.

"It seems the problem of internal negligence in your disciplinary officer department is quite serious."