Chapter 234: I’ll Slaughter My Way Straight to Machine City!

In the depths of the hundred-mile-deep underground cavern, Lu Yan slowly rose from his meditation, casting a glance at the pile of spirit crystals beside him.

Hundreds of spirit crystals lay scattered across the stone floor, their once pure white glow now faded into dull gray. The essence within had long since been fully depleted.

In the ruins of Dongxuan Blessed Land, where the spirit veins had been destroyed and the rules were incomplete, there was no ambient spiritual energy to support regular cultivation. Thus, Lu Yan could only rely on the spirit crystals he had brought from the Xianxia Version.

Compared to the vast spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth, a few hundred spirit crystals were practically negligible—but Lu Yan had never intended to use them to break through in cultivation.

His true rise in power came from something else entirely.

Sweeping his gaze over the storage pouch containing the remaining spirit crystals, Lu Yan counted just over two hundred left. His brows relaxed slightly.

“That’ll be enough.”

Then, Lu Yan slowly raised his right hand and sliced open a spatial rift in the underground cavern.

In the next moment, he vanished from the cavern.

The underground cave was extremely deep, and without empowering his spatial teleportation with the Supreme Divine Ability Seed, it took four or five jumps for Lu Yan to finally return to the surface.

The scene that met his eyes was still the desolate ruin of Dongxuan Blessed Land. In the distance, he could make out the ruined palace that had fallen from the heavens, and nearby, several heaps of scrap metal—once mighty war fortresses.

Without a doubt, these were the very fortresses he had destroyed. He hadn’t strayed far from the battlefield of his last great battle.

His divine sense silently swept across dozens of miles. Within its range, he detected only a few construction machines dismantling the fortress wreckage for salvageable materials.

Other than that—no scouting units, no monitoring war machines.

“They didn’t even leave anyone to monitor the site? Looks like Machine City thinks I’ve already fled.”

Lu Yan raised a brow and smiled faintly.

After confirming his direction, he invoked the Divine Power of the Abyssal God to conceal himself, merging seamlessly with the surrounding world. He then sped westward, deeper into the ruins of Dongxuan Blessed Land.

Over the past month, the ghostly figures such as the Giant Spirit God had been sorting through the data extracted from the sub-grade fortress cores. Among the information was an overview of the current state of the Great Collapse Version.

The battle between the Immortals and the various “this world’s only ones” had spilled across countless versions—not just the ones directly involved in that battle, but also many powerful versions unintentionally drawn into the fray.

Factions began forming around each version: the Immortal Alliance, Machine City, the Divine Nation, and others.

In the early days of the war, all major version factions had followed the will of the “this world’s only ones” and launched a coordinated assault on the Xianxia Version’s Immortal Alliance, while the rest looked on gleefully, waiting to scavenge the spoils.

But over time, even the “this world’s only ones” couldn’t maintain control of the Great Collapse Version. Its overall trajectory began to shift.

The weakened Immortal Alliance dragged neutral factions into the conflict, turning the Great Collapse Domain into a massive free-for-all.

Today you raid my mines, tomorrow I seize your resource points. Skirmishes and wars broke out endlessly.

Due to the chaotic convergence of so many versions, the rules within the Great Collapse Domain were unstable. Only within the core territories of each version could their native rules hold sway.

This meant that in their home ground, factions could use their rules to fight at peak power, while outsiders would be suppressed.

And if a faction’s forces collapsed, the survivors could simply retreat into their core territory—untouchable to the enemy.

In this way, no faction could ever fully eliminate another. The chaotic war—spanning dozens of versions—had raged for tens of thousands of years.

Dongxuan Blessed Land was once an outer territory painstakingly developed by the Immortal Alliance during its peak. They had paid a steep price to establish order here.

But their growing power drew fear and envy. Multiple factions joined forces and laid siege to Dongxuan, shattering its rules and destroying the region.

Now, the ruined Dongxuan Blessed Land was jointly occupied by Machine City and the Divine Nation. According to the fortress data, Machine City was the faction most effective at countering cultivators—and the Immortal Alliance’s main enemy.

What surprised Lu Yan, however, was that the Machine Version behind Machine City lacked a “this world’s only one.”

The Machine Version pursued mechanical ascension—abandoning individual strength in favor of overwhelming war capabilities.

Even so, Machine City ranked among the top-tier factions in overall strength.

But none of that mattered to Lu Yan.

After the last great battle, Lu Yan had realized how incredibly effective the Three Yin-Seal Slaughters were against Machine City.

Compared to the godlike individual might of the Divine Nation, Machine City was clearly the better target.

After flying for half a day across the ruined Blessed Land, the barren terrain began to change. Towering mines replaced wasteland, stretching endlessly into the distance.

Millions of machines were extracting ore and transporting it to nearby factories. Warehouses, refineries, and assembly plants filled the entire plain.

This was the core base established by Machine City in Dongxuan—one of their three most important resource centers, supplying a steady stream of mid- to high-grade minerals.

But these war factories weren’t Lu Yan’s true target.

Slowing his flight, Lu Yan raised his head toward the sky.

Above the clouds hovered six colossal metal giants, gleaming with cold luster—like floating islands blotting out the heavens.

Two satellite-class war fortresses, and four sub-grade war fortresses, suspended in the skies, radiated suffocating pressure.

Such a force could crush a weaker faction outright.

And these terrifying machines—were precisely what Lu Yan had come for.

He slowed further, inching toward the behemoths cloaked in clouds. The Abyssal God’s divine power veiled his presence completely, making him invisible even to Golden Core cultivators. Standard technological detection had no effect.

“Close enough.”

Lu Yan formed a hand seal, targeting one of the sub-grade fortresses, and unleashed a long-prepared spell.

Heavenly Might: Three Yin-Seal Slaughters!

Without pause, he cast the same Demonic technique again.

Heavenly Might: Three Yin-Seal Slaughters!

Within the span of a single breath, four Yin-Seal Slaughters slammed into the four sub-grade fortresses.

Even with the support of his Divine Ability Seed, using the technique repeatedly left Lu Yan slightly fatigued—but the results came quickly.

The first to falter wasn’t the nearest fortress—but the third.

The massive fortress suddenly lost power, plummeting from the sky as its anti-gravity systems failed. Over a kilometer long, it fell like a meteor, crashing into the heart of the base below—where millions of machines toiled.

BOOM!!!

The impact carved a massive crater into the ground. Explosions rippled out, engulfing the land in flames.

“What’s going on?!”

Inside one of the satellite-class fortresses, a Machine Tribe officer shouted in alarm, demanding answers from the central AI.

But before any reply came, a terrifying scene unfolded.

The remaining three sub-grade fortresses exploded in sequence, their high-energy cores erupting into blue fireballs, devouring everything inside before any system could activate.

A second later, the satellite fortress’s AI delivered its report:

“Four sub-grade war fortresses have suffered simultaneous internal failure!”

“Warning! High-risk anomaly detected. Cause suspected to be SSS-ranked Immortality Cancer, possessor of the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, likely a Demonic Dao successor!”

“Activating core modules! Initiating counter-attack! Reporting incident to Machine City—requesting maximum support!”

In that instant, Lu Yan sensed a massive invisible field envelop the sky.

Immortal Hunter Modules: Tidal Surge, Spiritual Extinction Field, Spell Annihilation Matrix!

Godslayer Modules: Godspawn Protection, Faith Interference, Godslayer Spear!

The two satellite fortresses unleashed six core modules in full.

At the same time, swarms of suicide drone bees burst from their hangars, flooding the sky in search of Lu Yan.

He gazed calmly at the fortress that reacted first and murmured:

“As expected.”

Lu Yan hadn’t used Yin-Seal Slaughter on the satellite fortresses first, because he knew they had powerful countermeasures. If he failed to suppress their core modules, his attack would be wasted—and alert the enemy prematurely.

Instead, he chose to destroy the unprotected sub-grade fortresses first, then focus entirely on the satellites.

Raising his hand, the Human Emperor Banner appeared in his palm and unfurled.

Instantly, dark golden energy surged from the banner like a tidal wave. The Qi of the Human Emperor spread across the sky, covering a hundred-mile radius in ancient, mysterious power.

The Immortal Hunter modules’ domains had no effect against the Qi of the Human Emperor, blessed by the Heavenly Dao.

Ripples appeared in the air, and squads of Yin Soldiers stepped forth—half-ethereal, clad in black armor glinting with eerie light, leaving ripples in the void with every step.

The Ghost Generals rode spectral horses, their spears wreathed in netherfire like avatars of death.

Each of the six thousand Yin Soldiers had reached early Foundation Establishment, while every Ghost General stood at Foundation Peak.

Above them floated the five mighty Ghost Gods, now at late Golden Core. Under the light of the Human Emperor’s Qi, their towering forms loomed like mountains, devouring even light.

As the army emerged, countless mystical runes wove themselves into a massive formation in the sky:

Grade Four: Yellow Springs Grand Formation!

This was the fruit of Lu Yan’s efforts over the past month.

Back during the End-Times Version, Lu Yan had slaughtered over twenty million zombies, gathering countless souls and rare essences.

But due to the hidden danger of the Gate of Mystery Womb, the Human Emperor Banner had to be used to suppress it within the Xianxia Version, leaving those resources unusable.

That was why, upon arriving in the Great Collapse Version, Lu Yan had been caught off guard by two Nascent Soul-level enemies and barely escaped.

So this past month, his first goal had been to liberate the Human Emperor Banner and use its stored resources to enhance the Underworld Army.

And now, the army had transformed.

From late Qi Refining to early Foundation Establishment. From weak pawns to a terrifying force.

Lu Yan also pulled out another trump card—the Grade Four Formation manuals he had found in the Taiyi Dao Repository.

Using his Taiyi status, he had gathered eleven full-grade manuals, comprising over fifty Grade Four formations and hundreds of Grade Three ones.

He handed them all to the Giant Spirit God, who used his immense soul-processing power to derive the ideal formation for the Underworld Army.

And so, with the five late Golden Core Ghost Gods and the upgraded army, they had successfully formed the Yellow Springs Grand Formation.

As the formation activated, an overwhelming nether aura descended.

Massive amounts of Human Emperor Qi poured into the formation, converting into torrents of Yellow Springs Water falling from the sky.

This water, modeled after the legendary Nine Nether Yellow Springs of the previous life, devoured all vitality and corroded space itself. Only the Underworld Army remained unaffected.

The ghostly host charged forward across the skies, trampling the Yellow Springs as if a legion of death incarnate.

Suicide drones that touched the water instantly corroded and fell—unable even to self-destruct.

Even powerful plasma cannons were melted by the water. Any holes in the formation were immediately filled by more Yin Soldiers. The Yellow Springs tore open a path through the sky, finally reaching the satellite fortresses.

Wherever the water touched, metal died. Even special alloys rusted instantly.

The armor of the fortresses showed patches of decay and were pierced by ghostly spears. The Underworld Army carved a bloody path straight through the fortress.

“What… what is this?!”

Within the fortress, a Machine Tribe commander cried out in despair.

“The High Council’s report said he only had a soul banner—far from a true Ten Thousand Souls Banner. They exaggerated it for fearmongering!”

“So how could a mere soul banner pierce a satellite fortress head-on?!”

No one replied. The moment the Underworld Army breached the fortress, nothing could stop them.

Defense systems, machines, alloy walls, energy shields—all dissolved in the Yellow Springs.

The command center’s defenses were overrun, and the commander barely saw the ghostly general approaching before he screamed:

“I surrender! I—”

The Yellow Springs engulfed him mid-sentence. The ghost steed trampled on without pause.

One satellite fortress fell. Even its spatial field generator was destroyed.

Lu Yan seized the moment.

High above, the Ghost God Qiongyuan controlled the formation and opened a spatial rift. Lu Yan stepped in and appeared above the second satellite fortress.

With his left hand, he opened the Gate of Mystery Womb.

From within the purple vortex came the crushing power of law that bound even rules themselves—suppressing the fortress’s core module.

This was the Godslayer fortress. Once its rules were suppressed, Lu Yan unleashed his technique again.

Heavenly Might: Three Yin-Seal Slaughters!

Heaven, Earth, and Man—the three truths descended. The fortress’s intricate ultra-string power system fell into disorder and finally collapsed.

Tiny spatial tears appeared and widened. A storm of space erupted from within, tearing the entire fortress apart.

It fell like the other three sub-grade fortresses—ruined and crashing down.

All of this happened so quickly that even a Nascent Soul True Monarch couldn’t have destroyed a satellite fortress this fast.

But without the protection of rules, these machines were no more durable than cultivators.

The first fortress, breached by the Underworld Army, was next.

Its power circuits dimmed. Its colossal structure, corroded by the Yellow Springs, became a rusted wreck and fell from the sky.

Where it landed, the earth turned into a permanent dead zone, devoid of all life.

A force capable of leveling entire factions—wiped out.

Looking down at the ruined war factories, Lu Yan didn’t rush to leave.

Machine City had only so many satellite fortresses. Most of the ones stationed in Dongxuan were now destroyed. Even if Machine City received the alert, reinforcements wouldn’t arrive in time.

He had plenty of time to complete his objective.

He descended amid the burning wreckage.

Before the remains of the fortress torn apart by space, Lu Yan extended a finger and tore open a spatial crack.

After searching for a bit, he retrieved a massive metal slab.

It was forged from a strange alloy and carved with chaotic patterns that invoked dizziness and revulsion.

At its center were two characters:

Godspawn!

This was the Godspawn Protection, one of the core modules from the Godslayer System—extremely effective against faith power, divine artifacts, and divine fire. It countered demigods.

“So Machine City deployed two Immortal Hunter fortresses and one Godslayer fortress here—not just to guard against the Immortal Alliance, but also to keep the Divine Nation in check.”

Lu Yan chuckled, then fed the Godspawn Protection to the Gate of Mystery Womb.

Then, closing his eyes, he sank his consciousness into his body.

On his ten-layer Supreme Dao Foundation, the Divine Ability Seed—shaped like a chaotic sun—had begun to transform after a month of focused cultivation.

On its surface, strange runes were forming—reflections of countless Daos—slowly spreading across the seed.

It looked like a sun illuminating all of existence.

This was the result of refining the fragmented laws devoured by the Gate of Mystery Womb.

And with the absorption of the Godspawn module, more runes appeared, filling the gaps.

“As I thought!”

Lu Yan’s eyes flew open, gleaming with excitement.

After destroying the first satellite fortress, he had sensed something entering the Divine Ability Seed.

Now, his guess had been confirmed.

Before he came to the Great Collapse Version, Jiang Zhiwei had told him this world would help him complete himself.

Only now did Lu Yan understand what that meant.

Jiang Zhiwei had seen that the Divine Ability Seed needed vast amounts of rules and Daos to evolve.

Obtaining such things from complete versions was nearly impossible.

But here, in the chaotic Great Collapse, countless versions swirled together—and their broken laws and Daos became a supreme resource.

Machine City had used those very fragments to craft their core modules and rise to the top.

It was difficult—but far easier than harvesting from whole versions.

After retrieving the other five core modules and feeding them to the Gate of Mystery Womb, Lu Yan saw the Divine Ability Seed’s pattern grow again.

Eyes flickering, Lu Yan murmured:

“Machine City rose to power by hoarding rule-based items and building countless satellite fortresses. No doubt, they’ve got more hidden away.”

“Right now, I can use the Human Emperor Banner to contend with Nascent Soul-level foes from other factions—but that’s still far less efficient than tearing apart these fortresses.”

To others, they were war machines of terror.

To Lu Yan—they were ripe fruits.

“If that’s the case… then I’ll slaughter my way from Dongxuan’s ruins straight into Machine City itself!”

(End of Chapter)