Chapter 170: The Core Space (Fifth Update)

Jiang Chen was completely unaware of the birth of the "newborn Machine race."

After spending decades of time, Jarvis finally controlled his team of mechanical miners to carve out a passage leading directly to the core region of the Death Star.

However, the moment they entered the core zone, the miners digging ahead suddenly suffered a devastating blow.

Before any rescue could be attempted, a group of miners and the Gundam mechs protecting them were completely wiped out under a barrage of laser fire.

"Enemy attack!"

Jiang Chen reacted instantly, his clone directly "digitizing" his spiritual willpower as he controlled several immortal puppets to step forward and test the waters.

Bolstered by the blessing of machine affinity, the attributes of the immortal puppets surged dramatically. They charged into the cavern entrance, braving the volley of lasers, and completely cleared out all the defense weapons inside the chamber on the other side.

Yet, in just this brief moment, all the immortal puppets had sustained moderate injuries.

Parts of their armor were destroyed, and their divine bodies suffered varying degrees of damage.

Fortunately, none of it was too severe; while their combat power would experience a slight drop, they could still maintain combat strength at the immortal tier.

One immortal puppet brought back the wreckage of several destroyed mechanical puppets.

Jiang Chen took them and carefully inspected them, immediately confirming that the combat power of these puppets had reached the immortal tier.

In terms of individual strength, they were even significantly stronger than his own immortal puppets, barely approaching the level of Marquis-grade immortals.

It was only because they lacked the "machine affinity" bonus and were outnumbered that they were defeated by his immortal puppets.

"It seems we are approaching the core region. The outer areas didn't have defensive forces this strong," Jiang Chen said casually, storing away the wreckage of the disabled mechanical puppets.

Although these items were damaged, the raw materials alone were of extremely high value, so they naturally could not be wasted.

With the enemy's defensive strength enhanced, Jiang Chen's actions became even more cautious.

Over a thousand immortal puppets were deployed, controlled by his clone to form a perimeter defense against sneak attacks by hidden enemies.

Meanwhile, the miner team continued to press on, carving out passages through the walls and pushing deeper toward the core of the Death Star.

To Jiang Chen's surprise, after the initial ambush, the subsequent path turned out to be remarkably smooth.

They easily passed through chamber after chamber. Not only were there no further sneak attacks, but even the regular patrolling mechanical soldiers were nowhere to be seen.

This anomaly did not put Jiang Chen at ease; instead, it heightened his vigilance.

Whenever something unusual happens, there is bound to be a demon—this adage held true in the universe as well.

Regardless, Jiang Chen never wavered from his objective, advancing slowly and steadily toward the depths of the Death Star.

***

Deep within the core region of the Death Star, inside a massive space.

This space was extremely vast, spherical in shape, and over ten thousand miles in diameter.

Various devices of unknown purpose were distributed across every area of the spherical space, some even suspended directly in mid-air.

The newborn Machine race sat upon a throne.

Before it stood an army of puppets.

These puppets were forged by melting down and remanufacturing every single material inside the Death Star that did not affect its main structural integrity, creating the most powerful army possible.

Every single puppet barely crossed into the threshold of Marquis-grade immortals, numbering just over a thousand in total.

After initially probing the strength of the intruders, it had ceased its attacks, recalling all the puppet armies to the core region while patiently waiting.

In the other regions of the Death Star, the battlefield was simply not large enough to unleash their full might.

Only this core space was best suited for large-scale legion warfare.

Time passed imperceptibly.

Finally, bolts of current pierced through the wall.

With a deafening boom, a large chunk of alloy material was knocked loose from the wall by a tremendous force, flying into the core space and revealing a passage.

An immortal puppet flew out from the passage.

The next instant, a dense barrage of attacks directly engulfed this immortal puppet.

At the other end of the passage, receiving the telemetry transmitted by the puppet, Jiang Chen's pupils contracted slightly.

Over a thousand mechanical soldiers, every single one possessing formidable combat power.

And within that space, devices of unknown purpose—it remained uncertain whether they possessed some special function capable of turning the tide of battle.

Looking at the passage ahead, which was about a hundred meters in both height and width, Jiang Chen could not help but frown.

Although this passage was not small, the number of troops that could pass through at any given time was strictly limited.

Blocked here, the mechanical legion could only squeeze out a few units at a time, instantly vaporized by a concentrated volley, making it impossible to deploy.

Through such a narrow passage, the "Void Dragon mech," which possessed the strongest defense, simply could not fit.

Expand the passage?

Even as Jiang Chen thought this, a ball of fire suddenly surged through the passage, radiating intense heat.

Jiang Chen hastily controlled an immortal puppet to step forward and block it.

"No, there's no time to widen the passage. The enemy on the other side can just concentrate their firepower and strike right here; even counterattacking would be difficult."

Jiang Chen's gaze swept across his current chamber. While the chamber itself was not small, it was far too cramped for battles at the immortal tier.

The enemy on the other end could easily direct their attacks into the passage and blanket the entire room without any difficulty.

Unless Jiang Chen retreated, he would have no choice but to take a beating.

With a thought, a massive "iron ball" flew out from his world ring.

The [Starport Special Operations Platform].

At this point, Jiang Chen could no longer worry about energy consumption.

The [Starport] activated instantly, bestowing "plasma shields" upon each of the immortal puppets.

Combined with stacked "psionic shields," this dual-layer defense allowed them to brave the enemy's incoming fire and charge out of the passage.

Jiang Chen's two clones also seized the opportunity to mingle inside a Gundam mech, rushing out of the passage under the protection of the immortal puppets.

Their very first action upon entering the massive space of the Death Star's core region was to release an army from the world ring.

The number was not particularly large; combined with the immortal puppets that had charged through the passage, the total was just over two thousand.

Aside from the immortal puppets, every single one consisted of "special units."

Void Dragon mechs, support-type Gundam mechs equipped with auxiliary modules instead of frontline weaponry.

As well as [Warp Arbiters], [Dark Archons], and the [Starport Special Operations Platform].

Covered by the immortal puppets, the clones rapidly shifted positions, transferring from the Gundam mechs into the Void Dragon mechs.

Though his main body did not follow, the troops carried by the two clones alone were already sufficient to fight a high-intensity war.

Releasing only two thousand units was not due to a lack of troops carried by the clones.

Upon arriving at the Death Star and rendezvousing with the "Uchiha Shisui" clone, Jiang Chen had immediately split his forces evenly between his main body and his two clones, leaving over a million mechanical troops in the possession of each clone.

However, the moment he entered this space, Jiang Chen had noticed the extraordinarily unique life form sitting upon the throne.

Its entire body was crafted from metal, yet imbued with a sense of "vitality."

Although its aura was slightly weak, without a doubt, this was a member of the Machine race.

In the presence of the Machine race, a mechanically controlled legion ran a high risk of being hacked and having its control usurped. Jiang Chen naturally would not deploy all his forces at once.

Otherwise, wouldn't it be a joke if his own mechanical legion turned around and attacked him?

Only mechanical units directly controlled via spiritual willpower were "absolutely trustworthy" and "incapable of betrayal."

This was also one of the common troubles faced by "mechanical legion-style" powerhouses when battling the Machine race.

However, possessing the ability to "digitize" his spiritual willpower to directly control mechanical units, Jiang Chen did not need to be like other mainstream mechanical legion powerhouses who, upon encountering the Machine race, dared not use their mechanical legions at all and had to resort to other means.

At the very least, within the range controllable by his spiritual willpower, this fraction of the mechanical legion could still be utilized.

Although the numbers were somewhat sparse, it was more than enough to pilot the core and most powerful units of the mechanical legion.

Without any declarations, from the very instant they locked eyes, Jiang Chen and the newborn Machine race—born in the core of the Death Star just moments ago—engaged in a fierce battle.

After his two clones drew the enemy soldiers' firepower, Jiang Chen's main body immediately seized the opportunity to charge through the passage, releasing the remaining Void Dragon mechs and immortal puppets.

Twenty Void Dragon mechs and over a thousand immortal puppets clashed against more than a thousand mechanical soldiers.

Comparing individual combat strength alone, even with the bonus of "machine affinity," 1,300 immortal puppets could barely manage to handle just over 1,000 mechanical soldiers, and winning would undoubtedly be a pyrrhic victory.

However, the moment Jiang Chen realized the enemy's strength, he disregarded the resource consumption and activated "Mechanical Force Overload."

Activating "Mechanical Force Overload" for over a thousand immortal puppets, even if sustained for just a minute, required expending massive amounts of resources afterward to repair the damage caused by the "overload mode."

If left unrepaired, the immortal puppets would scrap themselves after being used a few times.

Yet, the formidable combat power brought by the mechanical force overload was entirely worth Jiang Chen's expenditure.

Main battle units like the Void Dragon mechs and immortal puppets unleashed their respective abilities, launching powerful offensives against the enemy.

Meanwhile, the "strategic-grade units" in the rear also executed their "skills" under Jiang Chen's command.

Static stasis fields, energy combustion, plasma shields, energy pulses.

All sorts of peculiar methods manifested across the battlefield.

Lasers, plasma cannons, frost, fire, hurricanes...

Potent barrages of attacks plunged the entire battlefield into chaos.

"In front of us, the Machine race, you dare play with a mechanical legion?!"

The Machine race sneered, broadcasting special signals in an attempt to capture Jiang Chen's mechanical legions and hack their intelligent cores.

However, the next moment, the Machine race widened its eyes in disbelief.

"Unable to hack?! How is that possible?! Is there an intelligence in this universe that the Machine race cannot hack?!"

Though young, due to the traits of the Machine race, it had been instilled with vast amounts of knowledge upon birth.

By human standards, it was certainly well-traveled and knowledgeable.

Yet, throughout endless ages, no "intelligence" in the entire universe had ever been immune to Machine race hacking.

The sole exception was the human Virtual Universe.

Even then, that was because the core intelligence of the Virtual Universe was originally a Universe Master of the Machine race.

Coupled with the heaven-defying secret techniques of Primordial Chaos Ancestor, the Virtual Universe possessed absolutely zero flaws.

Or rather, it was at least capable of resisting Machine race hacking.

Aside from that, so long as something was an intelligence, there was nothing the Machine race could not hack.

Naturally, this also depended on the tier of the Machine race entity.

A weak member of the Machine race obviously lacked the capability to breach an intelligent core guarded by a top-tier intelligent life form.

Yet this Machine race born within the Death Star, despite its youth, possessed stellar "foundations." From the moment of its birth, it stood at the World Lord level.

Had it not been for the fact that breaking through to the immortal tier required profound comprehension of the laws, the intrinsic resources of the Death Star could have propelled it straight to the level of an immortal god right at birth.

Even if it hadn't reached immortality, a World Lord-level Machine race confronting unhackable intelligent cores in the universe was an extreme rarity.

Even if such cores existed, it would be due to their excessively formidable defensive capabilities preventing a breach.

Not like this—where it couldn't even "establish a connection."

Perhaps due to its extreme "youth," despite possessing vast knowledge and legacies, the newborn Machine race possessed a temperament far inferior to cultivators who had grown up through normal cultivation.

Realizing it could not establish a connection with Jiang Chen's mechanical units, it froze on the spot, causing an immediate flaw in its control over the mechanical soldiers.

Jiang Chen did not let this opportunity slip. A Void Dragon mech opened its maw, spewing a nearly uncharged "Psionic Particle Cannon" at the army of mechanical soldiers ahead.

The power of the "Psionic Particle Cannon" depended on its charging duration; if charged to its limit, it could even slay Marquis-level immortals.

An "instant-cast" version suffered a notable drop in power.

Even so, under the dual blessings of machine affinity and mechanical force overload, its destructive power remained terrifying.

A mass of primeval psionic energy swept across the battlefield, absorbing the chaotic energy turbulence flying about the center of the battlefield and growing ever larger.

As it swept over the mechanical soldiers controlled by the Machine race, without a sound, over a hundred mechanical soldiers were assimilated by the primeval psionic particles and vanished directly from the space.

Energy evaluated by the system as "ultra-high-hazard" naturally possessed might worthy of that rating.

Witnessing this scene, the newborn Machine race fell into a panic.

With its intelligence, it was not difficult to calculate that its "trump card"—this army of over a thousand immortal-level mechanical soldiers—was simply no match for the enemy.

"Human!" The Machine race attempted to initiate negotiations. "If you retreat now, I can guarantee I won't kill you!"

Human language was recorded within its database.

A newborn life form, despite mastering vast "knowledge," remained entirely naive in all aspects. Its negotiation tactics were exceptionally clumsy, nearly making Jiang Chen laugh out loud.

Ignoring the Machine race's display of weakness, Jiang Chen directly commanded the mechanical legion to intensify its offensive.

He even dispatched a Void Dragon mech to personally hunt down the Machine race.

"Human!"

The Machine race could not help letting out a shriek, hurriedly turning to flee for its life.

(End of this chapter)