Battle fort no.9 had been destroyed in the explosion, and all the mech soldiers had fallen in the frontline base. To Slayer, this mission was a complete failure.
The Supreme Master had always been fair with his rewards and punishments. Once Slayer returned to the Mech Kingdom, he would be severely punished. His consciousness might even be wiped out by the Supreme Master, turning him into a mindless mech.
Slayer didn't have the courage to betray the Supreme Master, and he didn't want his consciousness to be wiped out. He knew he couldn't just go back to the Mech Kingdom like this.
There was only one path in front of him, and that was to personally explore the mech ruin and get what the Supreme Master wanted. This way, he could at least make up for his mistakes and prevent his consciousness from being wiped out.
Although the mech ruin was dangerous, under the efforts of many explorers, the outer perimeter should have been explored. They had also concluded some rules.
The mech ruin had a unique defense mechanism. The more powerful an existence was, the easier it was to trigger a dangerous counterattack.
Weaklings would only become cannon fodder if they entered.
Even if a rank 7 strength entered, it was still not enough to guarantee their safety. Starlight's death had already proven this point.
Only a rank 6 strength could barely deal with the normal defenses of the mech ruin without triggering those extremely dangerous defense mechanisms.
Slayer stood by the elevator shaft for a long time in silence. Finally, he made a decision.
There was a series of clicking sounds of parts grinding against each other. Beams of golden light leaked out from the gaps, and Slayer's giant body suddenly disintegrated into a pile of basic parts.
These disintegrated parts were covered in the golden light. As if they had a life of their own, they quickly assembled into human-sized mechs.
When the golden light disappeared, all the parts were assembled. Slayer was gone, and in its place were ten different types of mechs.
The ten mechs that Slayer had disintegrated surrounded the elevator shaft. Their energy was faintly resonating with each other, and they were emitting a powerful energy wave.
Although these mechs didn't have the extreme pressure that Slayer originally had, and they weren't at rank 7, the energy wave they emitted was no weaker than the Meteor and Furnace of Death.
Although Slayer was heavily injured by Duanmu Longxiang, and he didn't have enough energy, he still managed to disintegrate ten commander level mechs. This was the difference between a high-rank and a mid-rank.
Without any words, the ten mechanical bodies of different shapes and sizes jumped into the elevator shaft one after another, never to appear again.
Slayer did not notice that in the ruins of the ruined fortress, there was a seemingly broken detector. The detector's lens was already aimed in the direction of the elevator shaft. The faint energy waves emitted by the detector were completely covered by the remaining chaotic energy, so Slayer did not notice anything unusual about it.
It was only when the last decomposed mechanical body jumped into the elevator shaft that the motionless detector suddenly came to life.
A mechanical spider the size of a palm crawled out from the ruins. It carried the information recorded by the probe and quietly left the ruins of the fortress, heading towards the frontline base.
Frontline base.
Duanmu Longxiang had already done a headcount. Although they had won the battle, it had been a pyrrhic victory.
The nearly 90% casualty ratio was enough to explain everything.
Except for Pang Jiuchuan, who was lucky enough to survive, the rest of the deputy ministers had all been killed by the mechanical army.
Although Pang Jiuchuan survived, he was severely injured in the battle and fell into a deep coma, never to wake up.
Qi Yuan was discussing with Duanmu Longxiang about how to deal with the aftermath of the battle when he suddenly received a private message.
Seeing the message, Qi Yuan's eyes flashed, and he couldn't help but frown.
The private message was from Ajiu.
She had found the trail of the seraph!
"What happened?" Duanmu Longxiang asked.
Qi Yuan did not hide his emotions. Duanmu Longxiang sensed something from Qi Yuan's expression. Qi Yuan's change must have something to do with the seraph.
Battle fort No. 9 had been destroyed, and all the mechanical army had died. Only Slayer had escaped. Qi Yuan deserved at least half of the credit for this victory.
To Qi Yuan, the only regret was that Slayer had taken the seraph away.
Qi Yuan leaned back and heavily exhaled a mouthful of turbid air.
"Just as I expected, the Slayer took the Blazing Angel away to absorb his energy. He didn't go straight to the Mech Palace. Instead, he went to the Mech Ruins under the No.9 battle fort."
"If that's the case, then let him die in there!" Duanmu Longxiang said.
"Although Carnage managed to kidnap Blazing Angel, he has already been heavily injured by me. His strength will definitely be greatly reduced. Since he has entered the underground mechanical ruins, I will go in and catch him like a turtle in a jar. I will kill him inside and take Blazing Angel back."
Qi Yuan shook his head and said, "You can't go in there."
"In the Mechanical Wasteland, the most dangerous thing isn't the Slayer, but the Mechanical Wasteland itself. The Slayer has already sent a large number of exploration teams to explore the place, and they discovered that there are many traps that specifically target high-level powerhouses. Once a high-level powerhouse steps in, it's very likely that the Mechanical Wasteland will launch a dangerous counterattack."
"There are already high-tier apostles in the Mechanical Palace that have fallen in there. You still need to bring the surviving soldiers back to the Black Steel Shelter. I can't let you take this risk."
Duanmu Longxiang frowned.
"Since the mechanical ruins are so dangerous, Slayer will die if he goes in."
Qi Yuan crossed his arms in front of his chest. His gaze was deep.
"Slayer has found a way to deal with it. He decomposed himself into multiple captain-level peak rank 6 machines. He should be able to avoid triggering those traps."
Duanmu Longxiang looked deeply at Qi Yuan. After the battle, Qi Yuan didn't even leave the frontline base. Seraph was also captured by Slayer, but Qi Yuan clearly knew Slayer's whereabouts. He even knew the details. Duanmu Longxiang wondered why.
"What are you going to do?" Duanmu Longxiang asked.
"Seraph is mine. I won't let Slayer take her away. I will enter the mechanical ruins myself, kill Slayer, and bring her back!" Qi Yuan said.
"Isn't that too risky?
Slayer is a rank 7 apostle after all. "
"Not anymore!" Qi Yuan said.
"Slayer is already injured. Without the help of machines, he can't reassemble himself from his decomposed state."
"Slayer's decomposed state is only at the peak of rank 6. It's just a little troublesome for me, but it's not impossible!"
There was another reason that Qi Yuan didn't say.
The Tier 5 checkpoints had respawned. Just as he had guessed, these checkpoints had all respawned in the Mechanical Ruin.
Duanmu Longxiang fell silent. In the final battle, Qi Yuan had personally killed Meteor and Death Furnace, the two peak rank 6 captain-level captain-level. Now, Qi Yuan's strength was obviously stronger. He indeed had the strength to kill Slayer in his decomposed state.
However, he still felt that Qi Yuan's decision was a little rash.