Global Mining.

Chapter 876 Slaying Four Puppets, Chamber of Commerce Gathers
Da Chun followed the mermaid's song and headed towards the lava hell.

The singing grew louder, which meant they were getting closer to their goal, until Xiaomei's voice came: "We're here! Search around here!"

Looking at the empty space around him, Da Chun activated the laws of space.

The surrounding terrain reverted to its modeled form, but remained flat, with no trace of the so-called abyss.

Da Chun was a little confused: "Are there any other hints?"

Xiao Mei said, "The space here is distorted. It must be the result of several big-eyed demons working together. Their technique is very precise. I can only judge from the singing. Actually, the rhythm of my singing is very fast, but when it reaches you, it becomes very soft. It's because the space is stretched, which causes my singing to be stretched as well. That's how I judged it. With your abilities, you will definitely be able to find it."

"Furthermore, because my singing was mainly used to guide you, my control over the demon army weakened, and they launched a full-scale attack. I began to focus all my efforts on the battle..."

Has the final offensive begun?

My ability, of course, is to first pray to God.

Da Chun immediately asked Yun Tuan, "Judy, right here, what do you think?"

"It's Judias. Judia is a female name."

"Forehead……"

Yun Tuan said, "I can feel it. This is a stretched space, like a very elastic net. Once stretched, the mesh size increases, and some large fish can easily hide inside. I suspect those four suspicious guys are inside. In my current form, I can penetrate any opening. I will go in and search. Guild Master, be prepared to ambush them..."

As they spoke, the mist from the cloud began to seep into the ground and the surrounding area, and then disappeared.

The former guardian deity was indeed extraordinary, which greatly pleased Da Chun.

……

Shadow Abyss Space.

Alpha had just signed the invitation when he saw the fire dragon arrive nearby and begin to linger, clearly searching for the entrance to the Shadow Abyss.

At the same time, the mermaid's song suddenly intensified, becoming much louder than before. This sudden halt caused the legion, which had just launched its attack, to abruptly stop, making them once again the target of the magic tower's bombardment! Hundreds died from that single blast…

Alpha was stunned for a moment. Was the mermaid making a last-ditch effort?

But it wasn't over yet. The white mist outside successfully penetrated the space in an instant. Alpha was incredulous. Was it really that easy to find?
Overlord was also shocked: "This is..."

The other Demon Eyes immediately reported urgently: "We've gleaned information from this rising fire dragon that resembles that of the former guardian deity of Gem City!"

Overlord seemed to understand as well: "Then this white mist seems to contain information about the former guardian of the gems!"

Furthermore, the Demon Eye replied, "Even a guardian deity might not be able to find our Shadow Abyss Space this quickly..."

Alpha finally realized that... they were in cahoots!
After the Guardian God is defeated, he naturally goes to Hell and is recruited by Uriel. The vacant spot in Gem City should naturally be taken over by the mermaid of the Ten Elders. The Guardian God's transformation into a siege monster before Uriel's recruitment was a deliberate act to manipulate the mermaid and help her gain official status!

He was misled by the burning airship crash landing shown in the live stream, thinking that the fire dragon was sniping at the prince! That's not the case at all. In fact, the prince is also part of the Ten Elders' group. They couldn't openly ally with the fire dragon, so they staged a scene of being attacked by the fire dragon to cover the fire dragon's entry into the city...

So there is only one answer!
Alpha immediately understood: "My lord, it was these four princes in their Demon Gold Lightning Armor who were lurking here to scout and guide us, which is why they were able to infiltrate so easily. We must take action now and kill these four Demon Gold Lightning Armorers first!"

Overlord said in a deep voice, "That makes perfect sense. Activate the battle plan!"

Several Overlords stared at each other, their large eyes meeting, multiple rays overlapping and converging...

……

At this moment, Sariel and Raphael, who were constantly monitoring the battlefield from inside the magic tower, were both astonished: "Such a massive combination ray energy, is this a powerful attack right from the start?"

Eve said in a deep voice, "Don't worry! The magic tower has a thick mithril plating, which can deflect most of the projectiles!"

The mermaid continued singing and even raised her hand to envelop the magic tower in a giant water ball!
Sariel and Raphael also drew their corresponding passive defensive artifacts and prepared for battle.

Finally, the demonic eyes finished gathering their energy, and then four beams of light shot out into the sky...

The Ten Elders were dumbfounded. What was going on? Where were they attacking?

……

As Da Chun hovered and flew above the ground, the laws of space suddenly sensed several massive fluctuations, and the smooth model seemed to be pricked by several needles—BOOM! BOOM!

The deafening explosion instantly drowned out Da Chun's torrent of curses. The previously empty Hell Plain suddenly erupted into four metallic shapes...

Holy crap, the Fourth Prince?!

As expected of the former guardian deity, he took care of things right away!

Da Chun shouted, "Di Lian, don't let a single one escape!"

"receive--"

The earth lotus swooped down, intercepting the nearest clump in mid-air, biting it with its mouth and tearing with its claws. It suddenly realized it couldn't tear it apart!
But Di Lian's movements didn't stop; the fire dragon hurricane swept towards the second mass of metal, instantly engulfing it and preventing its escape. Then, in the same manner, it swept up the other two masses of metal, creating a three-way encirclement, leaving the opponent utterly powerless to resist!
Just then, Da Chun saw the light on the metal part of the machine he was biting begin to flash!
—Mechanic Profession Alert: Warning! The target machine is suspected of initiating a self-destruct escape procedure. Your Master Craftsman level Mechanic skill can be used to attempt to sever the high-energy circuit.

As soon as the prompt appeared, several glowing wires were indeed visible in the damaged parts of the machine.

This wound, which looks like it was welded through by an electric welder... was it caused by a cloud?
Without thinking twice, the Earth Lotus, which had also received the notification, stopped trying to bite and instead tore off several wires with its teeth, causing the machine to immediately start smoking.

System notification: Congratulations! You have captured an unknown, damaged puppet machine, and defeated its pilot, Prince Aragorn of the Empire! You have gained a large amount of combat experience, your level has increased to 81, and you have gained 30 reputation points…

The results are finally in!
But the other three machines exploded with a muffled roar, blasting out a pile of fragments, which did not fly away but remained swirling in the hurricane.

—System notification: You have defeated and captured three unknown puppet machines. You have gained a large amount of combat experience and your level has increased to 83.

Holy crap, it was too late to stop the other three from self-destructing! So, if the self-destruction succeeds, the prince's identity and name won't be displayed, right? But displaying one is fine too; that means the system will recognize that I've earned fame by defeating the prince. The mechanic the prince uses must be kept and repaired when I have time.

Da Chun was quite pleased: "Di Lian, put the patented product and all the fragments into your inventory."

Because the curses inside her were too loud, Da Chun was afraid she wouldn't hear him, so as he spoke, he wrote in a light talisman: "Collect all the spoils!"

Dilian: "Received!"

The hurricane contracted, gathering all the damaged mechs and debris. Now, it was time to wait for Judy to continue her work. Meanwhile, she also needed to report to Mei: "I've eliminated the four prince assassins! One of them revealed his identity; his name is Aragorn."

Xiao Mei was overjoyed: "As expected of my dearest warrior, now we can go all out!"

But I couldn't get in, so I couldn't give it my all!

The management was still left to Di Lian, and all Da Chun could do was look at the spoils of war.

The machine that had just managed to stop the damage suddenly displayed a notification—Mechanic Profession Notification: You have inspected the damaged machine and discovered a device that appears to be a psionic core. Your master craftsman level mechanic can attempt soul repair.

Damn it! ?
A psionic core? Isn't that the jar containing souls from the mechanical raven that the old raven gave us at the Dragon's Rest Temple? Soul repair means...

Da Chun focused his attention again and suddenly a progress bar for repairing 1% appeared. Surprisingly, the progress bar was scrolling quite slowly.

This is incredibly advanced! This is the first time I've encountered a situation where you can repair machinery with your gaze. Isn't this similar to the neural network system in the helmets of high-end fighter jets that can be operated with your gaze?
But how can you repair a few broken wires? Or are the broken wires just the leads for the self-destruct mechanism, and don't affect the overall performance of the machine at all?

Just as I was thinking that, the progress bar reached 10%.

—Mechanic Profession Notice: Congratulations! You have successfully repaired and activated some functions of your mechanical body, gaining the mechanical ability "Elemental Ionosphere". This ability allows the machine to absorb electricity from the elemental ionosphere.

At that moment, Da Chun really felt a thin layer of electric grid beginning to cover the machinery.

This is incredible! Could it be that it can be repaired and put to use right now?
Very good, continue...

……

At this moment, watching as the four Demon Gold Electric Armored vehicles that had been successfully blasted away were intercepted and killed by the Fire Dragon until they were completely destroyed, Alpha was a little dumbfounded!

They should be working together, right? Or did I make a mistake and help this fire dragon kill it?
That's impossible. Their alliance must be very fragile. Once they realize the other is failing, they'll simply turn on them and devour them.

However, this Demon Gold Electric Armor doesn't seem to possess the god-slaying power of the old version, which could be easily defeated by a few lord-level enemies. It's probably because a thousand years have passed, and the equipment has deteriorated and can no longer unleash its peak power.

Just then, the Eye Demon reported: "The Guardian Demon God is about to appear in the Shadow Abyss!"

Alpha breathed a sigh of relief; this was a sure thing! Both Uriel's ragtag army and the fire dragon were isolated outside the Shadow Abyss. As long as they couldn't break through this space, they were useless.

……

Inside the magic tower.

The mermaid excitedly announced the news: "Everyone, the enemy has just eliminated the four assassins who were chasing us. Now we can go all out."

The crowd erupted in uproar: "She's inside the tower and can't see outside, how did she know?"

Sariel and Raphael were incredulous: "Has the other side made a mistake?"

The old women immediately exclaimed excitedly, "Sage, our prophecy states that the Divine Throne will surely prevail!"

Sariel was both amused and exasperated: "So, it's all thanks to astrology again?"

Uriel couldn't laugh: "Those four shots really scared me. I think since the mermaid isn't under much pressure anymore, I won't rush forward. I'll clean up the tail behind me first to avoid being attacked from both sides."

Michael said, "Just follow your gut feeling. Logically, the guild leader should be around here by now. Try contacting him through the guild channel. It would be even better if you could hear him."

"it is good!"

Chamber of Commerce Channel [Vice President Uriel]: President! Are you there?
Da Chun was focused on repairing his eyes when he was startled.

Clearly, his journey down from Gem City was being broadcast live, and the Ten Elders must have known. But he hadn't expected Uriel to be nearby to meet him—what a loyal subject!
As an NPC, I should at least pretend: "Vice President, did you know I was here?"

[Shareholder Aimee]: Dear President!! You're really here!
[Shareholder Metadisia]: President, we're here to help you catch the city's most beautiful woman. We want to see how human women could possibly be prettier than us!
[Shareholder Orica]: Everyone, don't be really jealous of human women. No matter if they are better than us, once the chairman catches them, they become the chairman's slave property. We must cherish them and put the chairman at ease.

[Shareholder Yulia]: Of course...

Da Chun was completely dumbfounded. Did these Ten Elders bring all my female mercenaries? Although they have evolved over thousands of years, is this kind of scene appropriate?
[Shareholder Kasha]: President, we've actually run into some trouble. We're preparing to go to war with a mercenary group that's several times larger than us. Please help us, President!

As expected! Then we'll just have to wait until the teams reunite before the final battle.

Da Chun hurriedly asked, "Where are you?"

[Shareholder Orica]: Coordinates... I'm releasing a signal flare...

As they were speaking, a ball of flame indeed rose into the sky in the distance!

"I see it, I'm here."

Da Chun immediately sped away.

Uriel breathed a sigh of relief: "Then, Chairman, we're going to war! Let's catch them off guard and create an opportunity for you to reap the rewards."

Actually, they're hoping for a bunch of slackers to die, to see if it's just plot-driven death. Even if it isn't, just being out of contact for a while might save them a lot of money on drinks.

At this moment, Amel, who had been poised to strike, unleashed a massive cloud of pink mist across the battlefield, an area far exceeding Uriel's expectations!

At the same time, Metadisia's orbium mechanical tail burrowed into the ground, causing the ground within a hundred meters to rumble and shake. A rock and earthen wall with a radius of a hundred meters instantly rose from the ground, trapping thousands of our troops inside. No, this was clearly a temporary battlefield fortress! Our numerical disadvantage was instantly offset.

The thousands of demon soldiers and the viewers watching the live stream exclaimed in shock: "Is this god-level strength?"

Before Uriel could even be shocked, the ground beneath his feet began to rumble and tremble. A rocky cliff with a radius of over ten meters rose from the ground, instantly reaching a height of several tens of meters! Uriel and his five mercenaries stood atop the cliff, looking down at the battlefield outside the earthen fortress!
Uriel was stunned: "You guys are...that strong?"

Metadisia laughed and said, "We're not usually this strong. It's mainly because the president is here, so he can compare us with the City Flower!"

Yulia laughed and said, "I can only let the president see mine when he comes over!"

Kasha sighed, "It seems I have to give it my all too."

[Shareholder Olica]: President, hurry up! I'm really holding it in!
Da Chun saw the billowing dust rising from the ground in the distance and was truly astonished! So, this is the power of a thousand years of evolution. Libnashi was so obviously strong even after being sealed for a thousand years, so they are even stronger. It's a sure thing!
The only problem is, we can't actually arrest the city's most beautiful girl, right? We need to find a reason to let her go.

(End of this chapter)