Chapter 165: Lord of Eclipse Palace Makes a Move (5-Episode Release)

The efficiency of the Immortal Temple was far lower than Jiang Chen had anticipated.

It took a full several months for the Immortal Temple to realize that something had gone wrong with the fifty-member team of immortal spirits.

Yet, the Immortal Temple still had no idea what had happened. After a series of discussions, the final decision was to dispatch more powerful individuals to investigate.

Those who could become powerful beings were no fools.

However, insufficient information could lead them to make severely erroneous decisions.

This time, the Immortal Temple dispatched two hundred immortal spirits, divided into two teams, maintaining a certain distance from each other.

The first team was responsible for investigation, while the second team was responsible for providing backup or relaying messages—the latter depending on the strength of the enemy.

The two teams maintained an appropriate distance, one behind the other, and kept in constant contact.

If the first team discovered the enemy, they would quickly report the enemy's strength to the second team.

Based on the enemy's strength, the second team would then decide whether to abandon the first team and bring the news back to the Immortal Temple, or to rendezvous with the first team and defeat the enemy.

If they were dealing with normal enemies, this strategy would certainly have been flawless.

However, Jiang Chen was monitoring the entire Blood Rock World using satellites.

The movements of the Immortal Temple held no secrets whatsoever in Jiang Chen's eyes.

The moment the two teams left the old lair of the Immortal Temple and headed toward the outskirts of the Ancient God Ruins, Jiang Chen immediately made the decision to split his forces and intercept them.

His true body and clone acted separately, each leading a mechanical legion to intercept the teams from the Immortal Temple.

Aside from the time spent traveling, the entire battle concluded in less than half an hour.

Faced with overwhelming technological suppression, all communication methods were completely blocked, and the Immortal Temple's teams had no way to transmit any information out.

Until their entire army was annihilated, the Immortal Temple did not receive a single piece of news.

It was only several months later, when the two teams failed to make contact with the Immortal Temple again, that they sensed something was amiss.

By that time, Jiang Chen had already cleared out all the scattered immortals in a vast area surrounding the Ancient God Ruins and entered a mode of explosive, all-out military production.

Constrained by the number of immortal spirit corpses, the number of "Immortal Puppets" did not increase by too much, rising only from the one thousand he had when he first entered the Blood Rock World to over one thousand three hundred—an increase of just thirty percent.

The number of Void Dragon Mechas showed no change at all.

However, the quantities of fighter jets, Gundam mechas, Warp Arbitrators, Dark Archons, Starport platforms, and other "strategic special units" experienced explosive growth.

Just as the higher-ups of the Immortal Temple were still discussing the origin of the unknown enemy in the shadows and how to deal with them, Jiang Chen had already decided to take the initiative and completely wipe out the threat of the "Immortal Temple."

From Jiang Chen's perspective, the outcome of this war was actually very simple.

It did not depend on how many troops Jiang Chen could produce using the resources of the Blood Rock World, but rather on just how formidable the high-end martial might of the Blood Rock World truly was.

Initially, Jiang Chen's development plan for the Blood Rock World was prepared based on the assumption that the world possessed immortal spirits at most at the ordinary Sector Lord level.

If the high-end martial might of the Blood Rock World exceeded this threshold, no matter how many resources Jiang Chen looted from the world, it would be impossible to defeat an entity above the peak Sector Lord level.

Even though the combined fire of tens of millions of mechanical legions would be enough to obliterate an existence at the invincible Sector Lord level, that assumed one could actually hit the enemy.

Peak Sector Lord powerhouses would, in all probability, have mastered powerful abilities such as "Teleportation" and "Time Stasis." Without interfering or constraining methods of the same tier, no amount of combined fire from mechanical legions could hit the opponent; instead, they would be constantly worn down by the enemy and slowly annihilated.

However, as long as there were no powerhouses at the "Peak Sector Lord" tier, once the number of mechanical legions in Jiang Chen's hands exceeded three million, no matter how many powerful individuals the Blood Rock World had or how strong their personal combat prowess was, none could survive the combined bombardment of the mechanical legions.

Relying on the massive resources of the Blood Rock World, within less than ten years of entering the realm, Jiang Chen had accumulated sufficient resources to produce a mechanical army totaling over three million units.

"Whether we completely wipe out the resistance forces of the Blood Rock World and plunder the resources of the entire continent, or have all our hard work reset overnight and be forced to painfully rebuild our foundation from scratch, all hangs on this single battle..."

As he rode a spaceship with his mechanical legion toward the core region of the Ancient God Ruins, a rare trace of tension emerged in Jiang Chen's heart.

It was not out of fear of death.

With the [Three Souls Soul-Transfer] specialty, as long as a single clone remained undestroyed, his true body would not die.

Even if killed, he would simply resurrect at the location of a clone.

Coming to the Blood Rock World this time, Jiang Chen had not brought along his clones "Uchiha Shisui" or "Urthos."

Having an extra true body had a very negligible impact on individual combat power in the grand scheme of the battle, almost to the point of being negligible.

However, the buffs of "Mechanical Affinity" and "Mechanical Force Overload" allowed a portion of his mechanical units to unleash combat capabilities far exceeding normal standards, which still had a significant impact on the balance of the battlefield.

With Jiang Chen's current strength, direct control through spiritual telekinesis allowed him to command over a thousand mechanical units simultaneously.

His true body combined with a clone meant that at least the core units of the mechanical army—such as the Void Dragon Mechas, Immortal Puppets, Warp Arbitrators, and Dark Archons—could enjoy the buff of Mechanical Affinity, resulting in a massive surge in combat power.

After exchanging for [Legendary Mechanical Affinity], Jiang Chen's Mechanical Affinity attribute had soared to over 72,000%, equivalent to a bonus of more than 720 times.

For certain mechanical units that were already quite powerful on their own, this kind of enhancement was quite substantial.

After a long flight, Jiang Chen stopped hundreds of millions of kilometers away from the old lair of the Immortal Temple.

The spaceship ascended above the eighteenth layer of clouds, and one mechanical unit after another flew out from the World Ring, dispersing their formation and floating high in the skies.

Outside the Blood Rock World, a group of staff members inside the Tianshi Palace noticed this scene and could not help but feel astonished by the scale of the mechanical legion under Jiang Chen's command.

"Is that His Excellency Jiang Chen?"

"His Excellency Jiang Chen has this many mechas?!"

"The quality of these mechas isn't low either; they all seem to be Grade E. Just how much would this cost?!"

"You're focusing on the wrong thing! To control so many mechas, just how high must the intelligence grade of His Excellency Jiang Chen's system be? Ordinary intelligent life forms wouldn't be able to pull this off, right?"

"What on earth is His Excellency Jiang Chen planning to do by releasing such a massive army of mechas?"

The staff members watched Jiang Chen's actions, discussing it animatedly amongst themselves.

Suddenly, a staff member shouted loudly, "Look over there, there's movement!"

They saw that above the clouds, twenty "Void Dragon Mechas" were flapping their wings, opening their jaws while surrounded by rows of Immortal Puppets and Gundam mechas.

Terrifying energy fluctuations gathered within the jaws of the Void Dragon Mechas.

Over three million Gundam mechas acted entirely as "energy generators," transmitting their own energy to the Immortal Puppets, which was then converted and passed on to the Void Dragon Mechas.

"Mechanical Force Overload!"

With a thought from Jiang Chen, the twenty Void Dragon Mechas and over a thousand Immortal Puppets simultaneously activated "Mechanical Force Overload," causing their attributes to surge by yet another massive margin.

An inexpressible, terrifying oppressive force began to radiate outward.

That was the unique fluctuation characteristic of primordial psionic particles, posing a supreme threat to any life form, energy, matter, and even the universe itself.

If a cluster of primordial psionic particles was not annihilated or controlled the moment it was born, and was allowed to continuously absorb energy from the universe to expand, the rate of expansion might not be overly outrageous. However, once it grew to a certain degree, attempting to control it again and force the psionic particles into a "dormant" state would become virtually impossible.

With the continuous expansion of the psionic particles, one day, the entire universe would be swallowed and assimilated by the endless primordial psions.

Among countless parallel worlds—especially "technological-side" parallel worlds—there was no shortage of cases where the entire universe was destroyed due to the abuse of psionics.

This special energy was also the first piece of knowledge Jiang Chen had encountered in the system library that was marked as "ultra-high hazard."

And now, Jiang Chen intended to use twenty "Psionic Cannons" operating at ultimate power to greet the higher-ups of the Immortal Temple.

Even Sector Lord immortals faced nothing but certain death in the face of an attack of this magnitude.

Bountiful energy continuously converged within the wide-open jaws of the Void Dragon Mechas, faintly emitting heart-pounding fluctuations.

Even across hundreds of millions of kilometers, within the old lair of the Immortal Temple, various powerful beings felt as though a layer of shadow had been cast over their hearts, as if some extremely terrifying event was about to occur.

At this distance, they could not possibly sense the fluctuations of the "Psionic Particle Cannons."

Yet an innate intuition filled them with incomparable unease and terror.

Inside the Tianshi Palace, Lord Tianshi saw Jiang Chen's actions, and his eyelids twitched violently.

"This kind of fluctuation... Could this brat be planning to destroy my Blood Rock World?! He's playing way too recklessly!"

The next instant, Lord Tianshi's figure vanished directly from the hall, reappearing in the center of the mechanical army.

Seeing the abrupt appearance of a figure, Jiang Chen was startled, momentarily thinking that some powerful entity within the Blood Rock World who had mastered "Teleportation" had sensed his attack and struck preemptively.

Without the slightest hesitation, Jiang Chen issued the command: "Attack!"

Although the power of the psionic particle cannons had not yet brewed to its absolute limit, a slightly weaker attack was still infinitely better than being interrupted by the enemy and failing to launch the assault at all.

However, the moment Jiang Chen's command was transmitted, the Void Dragon Mechas showed no reaction whatsoever.

They merely saw the formidable newcomer wave a hand, and instantly, the heavens and earth changed color.

Space was locked and frozen.

The three million-strong mechanical army was completely immobilized by terrifying spatial forces.

The intensity of this lockdown was vastly more powerful than the static field of the [Warp Arbitrator] by who knows how many times!

"Stop." Lord Tianshi pointed a finger, and the formidable power gathering within the jaws of the Void Dragon Mechas was instantly snuffed out like a tiny flame.

Lord Tianshi looked toward Jiang Chen, speaking softly: "The power of this strike is too great; the Blood Rock World cannot withstand it."

His voice was very gentle, delivered at an even tempo, echoing directly within Jiang Chen's consciousness.

By this time, Jiang Chen had also reacted. The formidable entity before him was definitely neither a native of the Blood Rock Continent nor an enemy of his own.

A powerful being who was not an enemy, could appear here, and possessed peerless strength—he didn't even need to guess; there was only one person.

Lord Tianshi.

One of the three top universe overlords of the human race.

"Greetings, Lord." Jiang Chen flew out from his mecha and bowed deeply.

"Put these things away first. I'll wait for you inside the Tianshi Palace," Lord Tianshi instructed. With a flash of his figure, he vanished completely.

Jiang Chen wore a bitter smile. Lord Tianshi's attitude was obvious: he was not allowed to use a mechanical legion barrage of this scale to "ambush" the old lair of the Immortal Temple.

Although this left Jiang Chen somewhat displeased, facing an expert whose strength vastly exceeded his own by an unknown margin, Jiang Chen had a very clear understanding of his own standing. Without the slightest hesitation, he chose to obey obediently.

Spending some time recalling the mechanical legion back into his World Ring, Jiang Chen flew toward the Tianshi Palace.

Soon, a staff member came out to welcome him, leading Jiang Chen into a vast hall.

Lord Tianshi sat upon the throne in the center of the hall, looking at Jiang Chen with a half-smile.

"Greetings, Lord." Jiang Chen bowed once more, then straightened up and stood there in silence.

Unclear of Lord Tianshi's purpose in summoning him, Jiang Chen had nothing to say.

Explain his previous actions?

It was meaningless.

Lord Tianshi seemed to perceive Jiang Chen's thoughts and spoke softly, "You can call me 'Lord Tianshi.' This Blood Rock World can be considered my territory. Of the revenues produced by the Blood Rock World, I take half, and the clan takes half."

Jiang Chen: "..."

No wonder Lord Tianshi had stopped him from going all out.

It turned out his actions were harming the other's financial interests.

"If it were just normal sparring, I wouldn't bother meddling. But your legion bombardment possesses far too destructive an attack power; it might potentially destroy an artifact of vital importance to the Blood Rock World, which is why I intervened."

Lord Tianshi looked at Jiang Chen and continued, "Regardless, it was ultimately I who disrupted your plans. As compensation, you may make one request of me."

"Compensation? A request?" Jiang Chen was stunned.

Could this Lord Tianshi actually be a soft-hearted benefactor? Willing to offer so-called "compensation" to a junior like him?

Seeing Jiang Chen's expression, Lord Tianshi assumed he hadn't understood and spoke again, "A request from me holds immense value. For example, you could have me round up all the powerhouses of the Blood Rock World and leave them to your disposal, or ask me for an incomparably precious treasure, and so on. As long as it is within my power and not too excessive, I will grant it."

Jiang Chen felt a slight surge of temptation.

Yet he quickly calmed himself, shaking his head as he replied, "Lord Tianshi, since you stopped me, you naturally had your reasons. It's already a mercy that I'm not being punished for doing wrong; how could I possibly ask for compensation?"

"Are you always this cautious?" Lord Tianshi looked at Jiang Chen, shaking his head. "Since you don't know what you want, I will make the decision for you: I'll suppress the powerhouses of the Blood Rock World on your behalf, allowing you to freely mine resources throughout the continent. That was originally your goal in coming to the Blood Rock World anyway, wasn't it?"