Y'zaks pulled his head out of the wall, together with some debris and stones. He spat them out and said, "I don't want to fight in this place. I can easily cause the entire tunnel to collapse."
Uruk looked at the enormous man with a strange expression and found that he was preety much squatting. "Can you still fight?"
"Don't underestimate him. He can beat everyone here even if he's lying on the ground, let alone when he's squatting," said Nangong Wuyue.
Hao Ren waved his hand and said, "Stop mumbling about. Be careful of your surroundings."
The mechanical sound came from a branch pipe on the left. Everyone was on guard, but they did not find any enemy. It sounded just like the operational workings of a transmission device. Nangong Sanba went up and took a quick look cautiously. He then waved to everyone and said, "There's a gate here!"
Everyone rushed there and saw a brighter light at the end of the pipe, and the mechanical sound was coming from that direction. It seemed to be an exit.
After confirming that no enemies were lying in ambush, Hao Ren was holding the shield and led the team through the long tunnel. They came out of a circular gate and then found themselves in an unusually broad, tall corridor. It was a square and solemn corridor, with a width of more than ten meters and a height of more than ten meters. And if you looked up, it would almost make you feel dizzy. The corridor was brightly lit. The walls were cast with some kind of grayish white metal, while the bare rock could be seen where the metal was not covered. It seemed to be a place that was not completely finished yet.
Y'zaks was stretching his arms. He was happy to come out of the narrow cramped pipe. "Finally I don't have to cramp inside... Errr, this place is a little too wide."
This huge corridor was clearly not made for humans. Hao Ren immediately remembered the kind of giant that he had discovered on Io. He knew that the brain monster was the result of the mutation of that kind of giant. However, the brain monster had lost its body, does it still need to live in a lair of this size?
Uruk was stunned at the scene before his eyes. "There's such a thing in the depths of the sacred mountain?"
"These things may have existed before you came here," Vivian looked at Uruk and said, "I can understand how you feel. In a sense, the brain monster and his servants should be the natives of this place. And you all just moved here thousands of years ago."
Uruk waved his hand. Apparently, he did not want to talk about this topic. Ophra ordered the knights around her, "You guys, go and check the situation in front and back in a moment. The rest of you, stay here and rest for a while and wait for other soldiers. We don't know the situation here, better not go too fast."
Hao Ren agreed with the arrangement, but the size of the underground stronghold made him feel anxious. He was holding the data terminal scanning everywhere. Lily saw it and asked curiously, "What are you doing?"
"The space here is surprisingly large," Hao Ren said while looking at the results of the data terminal. Although the powerful energy disturbances in the mountains had reduced the accuracy of the data terminal, it still managed to collect some data as they went deeper. "There is a huge hole in the area hundreds of meters away from here... but can't detect its boundary."
Lily stuck out her tongue and asked, "Is it possible that this mountain is hollow inside?"
Hao Ren was just about to say something, and suddenly, they heard noises coming from the end of the corridor. The knights who had just gone to check the situation in front were retreating while fighting from the corner of the corridor. The thing that was fighting with them was the chimera that they saw on the ground before!
As soon as Ophra saw this, she drew her sword and rushed forward without hesitation. The long sword was blazing in holy flame. The female marshal's silhouette flashed in the air like a shadow and a couple of chimeras were burnt to ashes by the holy flame before they could react. Several of the knights reported loudly before they could catch their breath, "A lot of monsters are coming out of the gates. They seem to be blocking this place!"
As soon as the knights had finished speaking, the alarm went off, and then came the sound of mechanical friction coming from every corner, sounding like more mechanical gates had opened. Everyone immediately understood what was going on: the base's controller sounded the alarm and began releasing the chimeras to stop the intruders.
The defense system of the entire underground stronghold was activated and quickly targeted the site of the invasion. More gates were slowly opened, as well as the exits for counterattacking in the corridors. A large number of chimeras roared out of the bio-modification factory hidden deep underground. And as these defenses were activated, they heard voices in the pipe behind them: more Knights had finally arrived.
"Good." Ophra nodded to Elson and said, "It seems that the defenses here have been activated. All we need to do is to rush in. Bring your men and come with me."
In fact, Hao Ren was not surprised at the activation of the defense system, because this was the inevitable thing. The brain monster that could sense their minds must be able to sense that someone had invaded his territory. The only thing Hao Ren felt strange was why the alarm did not go off until now. The brain monster's slow reaction made him feel weird. He expected that they should have been attacked fiercely when they entered the underground stronghold.
"Data terminal, try to navigate as far as possible." Hao Ren put his doubt aside and threw the data terminal in the air. "Take us to the depths."
The data terminal would not talk much in this kind of situation. It whistled, and then dashed to the front.
All of them immediately followed the blue lightning blue. The knights raised their swords. The mages were surrounded by the brilliance of magic. The priests held the holy object and the Bible aloft. This 'cleansing force', driven by faith and justice, ignored the eerie alien surroundings. They left all doubts behind and charged at the end of the corridor that was blocked by monsters.
The data terminal tried to eliminate the ubiquitous energy disturbances in the underground stronghold as much as possible. It tried to trace out the road map to the depths of the cavern, leading the team swiftly through the gates blocked by monsters. However, sometimes there were some errors in the navigation: Some sort of automatic system in this stronghold seemed to be aware of the existence of data terminal. It was consciously using strong interference to disturb the route. But those errors did not affect Hao Ren's team. When they saw a thick wall in front of them, and the road was right behind the wall, they would not find another route. Y'lisabet threw a super hell lava ball two times larger than her at the wall. And the wall was gone.
That's right. This was how they dealt with a maze. They did not care about the gates or the obstacles.
Over time, more backup soldiers penetrated the area through several tunnels. The new soldiers were ordered to take a different route to sweep away the chimeras, while also relieving pressure on the main forces. Soon, the underground stronghold was filled with explosions and shouting. But the other troops did not move as fast as Hao Ren's team, so most of them stopped at the outer corridor blocked by layers of alloy gates. In the end, only Hao Ren's team got into the core of the underground stronghold.
The monsters were constantly coming out of all corners. The knights formed a defensive line on both flanks, resisting the monsters and ensuring that the team could maintain the tempo of bombardment and able to march quickly. Meanwhile, Ayesha and Nangong Wuyue, as powerful healers, were constantly healing the wounds of the knights and dispelling the poisonous stench of the chimeras. Watching Y'zaks and Y'lisabet were bombing the way in front of them, they got a little worried and asked, "What if the sacred mountain collapses?"
"Do you think that since the brain monster has dug such a huge hole in the sacred mountain, how could it forget to reinforce the outer frame?" Hao Ren replied loudly in the explosion, "The sacred mountain has been hollow for several thousand years, it will not collapse!"
Bang! As soon as he finished talking, they felt the ground was shaking as if it was crumbling.
"Landlord! Look what you've just said…" Lily immediately screamed.
Hao Ren was also startled, but soon he realized that something was not right. "Wait a minute, the mountain is not collapsing! It doesn't sound like earthquake…"
The loud crash lasted only a few seconds, and the quake around them soon calmed down. But after a while, a similar quake and loud noise came again!
As Hao Ren said, it did not sound like the sacred mountain was going to collapse, but it was definitely not a good phenomenon!
They heard roars of chimeras coming from the front. Hao Ren saw a heavy gate at the end of the corridor that seemed unable to close. He immediately lifted his lance and strode forward. "Hurry up!"
They went through several gates and a few corners, and the space around them seemed more and more spacious, making them wonder if the whole mountain had been hollowed out. And that weird quake sound was still going on and on and on, sounded as if some super huge device was warming up and ready to start. Suddenly, a thought flashed through Hao Ren's mind. At the same time, he found that he came to the end of the corridor.
At the end of the corridor, there was a platform hanging in the air. A shockingly huge cavern was in front of them, and they were stunned by the thing in the middle of the cavern.
Hao Ren now knew what the brain monster was doing in the sacred mountains for tens of thousands of years.
"He's fixing the spaceship… and it's fixed…" said Lily.
Rollie also glanced at it, and then immediately rolled up into a ball at Hao Ren's foot and said, "We're going to die meow!"