Chapter 168: The Final Mission: Death Star! (Triple Update)

Jiang Chen shook his head and said, "Regarding the laws, they are not my core path; they can only be considered minor auxiliary disciplines. Since they are all auxiliary, naturally there is no distinction between primary and secondary."

"They're all auxiliary..." Lord Tianshi was left speechless.

A path that wasn't even considered primary achieved accomplishments countless times greater than those of other geniuses and monstrous talents.

Even Lord Tianshi felt an incomparable sense of envy toward such innate talent.

"Forget it." Lord Tianshi started to speak, stopped, and finally waved his hand, saying, "Your combat power is already far from weak, but let me give you a piece of advice. If you fail to make significant breakthroughs in the laws of time and space, it will be very, very difficult to step onto the next higher tier."

Jiang Chen bowed respectfully and replied, "Thank you for the reminder, Lord Palace Master. This junior understands."

Purely from the perspective of "destructive power."

The combined attack of three million mecha legions was completely capable of obliterating immortal kings.

However, precisely because of the lack of powerful means regarding the crucial laws of space and time, Jiang Chen found himself entirely helpless against peak immortal lords or stronger entities who had mastered "teleportation" or other equivalent-level techniques.

The "Stasis Field" of the [Warp Arbiter] relied not on the laws of space, but on the "psychic power" of psionic technology, whose intensity fell far short of true "spatial confinement."

If he could truly comprehend powerful abilities like "spatial lockdown" or "temporal stasis," the combat power of the mecha legion would rise to another major tier.

"I excel in the fire and space beast god laws. If you have any doubts in this regard in the future, you may come and consult me once. As for when to use this opportunity, you decide for yourself." Lord Tianshi looked at Jiang Chen and said, "In addition, I have set a trial. If you can complete it, you may consult me once a year regarding cultivation matters. As for the specific details of the trial, you can check your virtual universe email after you return. Whether you have the interest to complete it is entirely up to you."

With that, Lord Tianshi waved his hand and said, "Alright, the Virtual Universe Company's spaceship has arrived, you should leave."

Jiang Chen was completely baffled, somewhat failing to understand what Lord Tianshi actually intended to do.

Nevertheless, Jiang Chen respectfully bowed and took his leave.

Boarding the Virtual Universe Company's spaceship, Jiang Chen first entered the virtual universe and indeed received an email sent by Lord Tianshi.

The content of the so-called "trial" was not complicated.

Before breaking through to the World Lord level, pass the 16th floor of the Tongtian Bridge corresponding to the "Fire and Space Beast God Laws."

Alternatively, before breaking through to the Immortal level, pass the 20th floor of the Tongtian Bridge to be considered as having completed the trial.

This tier standard was based on Jiang Chen's true physical body.

Jiang Chen was not puzzled as to how Lord Tianshi knew about his true body.

Although his true body had always been hidden within his world ring, with Lord Tianshi's discernment, a world ring naturally could not conceal it from him.

"Sixteenth floor, twentieth floor. The difficulty is indeed not low." Jiang Chen smiled slightly.

The 16th floor of the Tongtian Bridge corresponded to the law comprehension of a Marquis-level immortal.

The 20th floor corresponded to the invincible king level.

Achieving these two accomplishments respectively at the Domain Lord and World Lord stages was no small feat in terms of difficulty.

However, Jiang Chen was confident.

To say the least, regarding the standard of the "16th floor of the Tongtian Bridge," Jiang Chen was confident that after comprehending the chaos monument a few times and "integrating" the fire-type and space-type laws he had already mastered, he would be able to break through it.

However, this would have to wait until he left the Primal Secret Region and had another opportunity to enter Chaos City; there was no need to rush for the moment.

After flying in the dark universe for over a year aboard the spaceship, Jiang Chen returned to the Primal Secret Region.

Next, dealing with excess supplies, purchasing the resources he needed, and replenishing key units of the mecha legion took some more time.

Only then did Jiang Chen accept the "Dead Star" mission.

It was not just his true body.

Aside from the "Euso" avatar remaining in the Glory Secret Region as a fallback for "resurrection," his other two avatars followed his true body into the "Dead Star" to strive for the special opportunities hidden behind this mission world.

Having one more avatar meant that the number of units that "Mecha Affinity" and "Mecha Power Overload" could buff was doubled.

The overall combat power enhancement for the mecha legion was quite obvious.

If not for the absolute necessity of leaving an avatar in a safe place to prevent the worst-case scenario where resurrection would be impossible if things went south, Jiang Chen would have wanted to bring all his avatars into the "Dead Star" world.

According to various pieces of information Jiang Chen had gathered, as well as intelligence provided by Phantom King, this mission world had a tremendous connection with the Automaton race, making it most suitable for Jiang Chen, who followed the "technology flow" path.

---

In a peculiar place in the universe, within a palace suspended in the void.

The divine power avatar of the Giant Axe Creator received the news and couldn't help but be slightly stunned.

"Dead Star? This kid chose this mission world?"

"I thought he would choose the Purgatory Abyss or the Labyrinth Nebula..."

"It seems this kid has set his sights on the 'inheritance' of the Automaton race?"

Curiosity arose in the heart of the Giant Axe Creator, and he couldn't help but begin paying attention to the process of Jiang Chen's operation.

---

Dead Star, a mysterious planet floating in a cosmic secret region.

The planet was not very large, roughly comparable in size to Jupiter in the solar system.

However, the entire planet resembled a gigantic starry sky fortress; its outer layer was covered by heavy alloy armor, with countless complex and profound secret patterns engraved on its surface, and massive gun barrels protruding outward.

In appearance, it was an immensely terrifying war machine.

This clearly was not a natural planet, but a weapon crafted by someone into the shape of a planet.

Yet, the surface of this planet was covered with various huge cracks and deep craters, splitting the armor on the planet's surface into a tattered state.

Clearly, it had experienced an extremely fierce battle and remained unrepaired to this day.

Outside the Dead Star, another palace floated in the void, even a size larger than the Dead Star itself. A strange gravitational interaction occurred between the two, orbiting each other in flight with orbital trajectories filled with a wondrous sense of beauty.

"Your Highness, according to the rules, we can only send you this far." A staff member of the Virtual Universe Company said to Jiang Chen: "Your Highness must remember, entering the Dead Star requires following those normally opened entrances, and you must not enter through the damaged areas torn apart by attacks."

"Thank you." Jiang Chen nodded slightly, left the spaceship, switched to his own spacecraft, and flew toward the Dead Star.

Passing through a long passage, Jiang Chen entered a spacious hall inside the Dead Star and rendezvoused with the "Uchiha Shisui" avatar.

The "Uchiha Shisui" avatar had arrived a step earlier than the true body and had already conducted a preliminary reconnaissance.

However, the interior of the entire Dead Star possessed extremely powerful sensory shielding, with every room resembling a completely independent world, making it impossible to sense anything outside the rooms.

At least with Jiang Chen's capabilities, he could not achieve this.

"The walls are all F-grade alloy. Such a huge planet built entirely out of F-grade alloy, just how much money must this cost?!"

Jiang Chen couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.

And this was merely the armor material of the Dead Star itself.

Not counting the weapons inside.

For a war weapon like this planetary fortress, various weapons and attack systems were what burned the most money.

Jiang Chen glanced at the "Uchiha Shisui" avatar.

This avatar had arrived about a month earlier than the true body and had initially probed the planet's environment.

Inside the Dead Star, it was not devoid of "natives"; rather, a large number of mechanical soldiers patrolled throughout the entire planet.

The strength of these mechanical soldiers varied.

The weak ones were only at the Universe Level or Domain Level.

The strong ones could reach the Immortal level.

Moreover, because they were entirely mechanical units without souls, they were completely immune to illusions and soul attacks, and could only be obliterated through physical attacks.

Dealing with them was still somewhat taxing for the "Uchiha Shisui" avatar.

If Jiang Chen hadn't equipped every avatar with a Void Dragon mecha, this "Uchiha Shisui" avatar might well have died here during this mere single month.

Even among "Desperation-grade" mission worlds, there were very few with a terror level this high.

Furthermore, the emergence and strength distribution of the mechanical soldiers seemed to have no discernible pattern whatsoever.

At least during this past month or more, the "Uchiha Shisui" avatar had not summarized any valuable patterns.

For safety's sake, he could only hide in the outermost perimeter, waiting for the true body to arrive and rendezvous.

Through the consciousness sharing with his avatars, Jiang Chen had long since understood this intelligence and formulated some plans.

"Let's use this hall as our base and explore slowly."

Jiang Chen opened his spatial ring, released a batch of Gundam mechas, and commanded Jarvis: "Jarvis, split off some sub-routines to control these mechas and scout the environment inside the Dead Star."

The buildings within the Dead Star completely isolated perception and communication; without splitting off sub-routines, Jarvis wouldn't be able to remotely control these mechas either.

Jiang Chen's "spiritual force digitization" couldn't achieve it either.

"Yes, Master." Jarvis immediately split off individual sub-routines, entered the optical brains within the mechas, and controlled the mechas to enter a passage at the other end of the hall.

The moment they entered the passage, Jiang Chen perceived that these mechas had completely lost connection with himself and Jarvis's main body.

Regardless of whether they could discover any valuable information, he would have to wait until these mechas returned to confirm it.

"Let's wait..."

Jiang Chen sighed.

The environment of the Dead Star was truly very unfriendly to geniuses from the various secret regions.

It was even more unfriendly to technology-flow practitioners like Jiang Chen who relied excessively on "information."

The previous mission worlds he visited were all places where Jiang Chen held absolute advantages in information and intelligence, completely crushing the native factions.

But upon arriving at the Dead Star, the situation was completely reversed.

Based on the experiences of the "Uchiha Shisui" avatar over the past month or so, Jiang Chen deduced that there should be an intelligent program operating inside the Dead Star.

This intelligence likely possessed an extremely high level of control over the interior of the Dead Star.

In terms of intelligence and information, Jiang Chen was at a complete disadvantage.

He was even entirely in the dark regarding his surrounding environment.

Exploring the Dead Star would likely be a very arduous task.

---

The number of mechas Jiang Chen sent out for "scouting" the first time was not large, only a few thousand units.

The preset instructions were also simple: explore a maximum of ten kilometers and return, bringing back all gathered intelligence.

The internal environment of this planetary fortress was far too complex, resembling a labyrinth, and Jiang Chen first needed to map out a rough "map."

Even if it was just a tiny area, it was better than knowing nothing at all.

After waiting for a while, mechas began to return one after another, transmitting the intelligence to Jarvis's database for compilation.

However, Jiang Chen noticed at a glance that the number of returning mechas was only slightly over eighty percent of those sent out.

Out of five thousand mechas, hundreds were lost on the very first scouting run.

Although the cost of Gundam mechas was nothing to Jiang Chen's wealth, hundreds of basically configured mechas combined amounted to tens of thousands of mixed elemental units, which was not a small sum of money.

Even without considering financial issues, E9-grade mechas, under the control of Jarvis's sub-routines, possessed combat power that could reach the peak World Lord level.

Mechas capable of wiping out his own forces meant at least that these units had encountered combat power at the Immortal level, or were swarmed by a large number of enemies at the World Lord level, leaving them unable to even escape.

"Master, among the returning mechas, seventy percent of them encountered enemies. Here are the specific details." Jarvis submitted a file recording the number and strength of the enemies encountered by these mechas, including video recordings of the battles.

"The number of enemies is rather high," Jiang Chen remarked.

Most of the mechas did not encounter single enemies, but rather squads ranging from a few to over a dozen members, all of whom were soldiers shaped like mechanical puppets.

The strength of these mechanical puppet soldiers also varied unevenly, with the weakest possessing only Star-level combat power.

He had no idea why such weak mechanical soldiers were produced inside the Dead Star.

Judging by their structure, they didn't look like "engineers" responsible for logistical repairs; they were clearly all combat-type units.

From the Star level to the Immortal level?

This span of strength was simply too vast.

"The ones that didn't return must have been eliminated by the enemy," Jiang Chen said with absolute certainty.

Jarvis also agreed, saying, "The probability of this is over 88.9%."

"Has the map been mapped out?" Jiang Chen asked.

Jarvis immediately projected a 3D terrain map, displaying the terrain of a small surrounding area.

Cabins of varying sizes were connected by a series of passages.

Most of the cabins were empty, while a small portion contained various types of equipment.

There were also some cabins that simply served as garrison points for mechanical soldiers.

The style of those technological equipment clearly did not belong to the technological system of the human race; judging solely by their appearance, Jiang Chen couldn't tell their purpose and would need to study them properly to find out.

"Master, based on my judgment, there shouldn't be anything too important in this area; this probability reaches 99.45%." Jarvis suddenly spoke up: "If you want to explore the true secrets of the Dead Star, you still need to go deeper. I suggest dispatching more mecha legions for deep reconnaissance."