The Geared Immortal

Chapter 864

(Unedited)

…

Bang! Bang!

Loom continuously shot while her small figure escapes from the relentless bug that is chasing after her. The giant ant suffered many fatal wounds but it still tried to bite her like it was crazed or something.

While running away, she noticed that the mouth of the ant is actually foaming with red and green slime coming out of them. Then she suddenly recalled the thing that the village would harvest every now and then and would use as part of the bait for their prey.

That fungus grows nearby and is supposed to be toxic when consumed alone. But if they are combined they produce a weird aroma that seems to attract insects.

From this conclusion, she knew that the ant has consumed their stock of baits that would make a creature turn berserk once it enters the blood.

"They might have consumed too much…" she muttered as she observes the slowly weakening giant ant as it slowly stops moving.

She suddenly remembers Shin Jiao who is still outside fighting against those thousands of ants. As she turns around, she was greeted with a figure that leisurely walks inside the ruined village. His dark blue robe does not have any traces of damage or stain from the battle.

"It seems that he is stronger than I thought." She muttered as she walks towards Shin Jiao.

"Master Shin… I'm glad that you are fine." Loom said with a sigh of relief in her expression.

Shin Jiao just nodded while still scanning the small village. His attention was then caught by a certain location in the village. With hands clasp behind him, he leisurely walks towards that place while his spiritual sense is checking the surroundings.

Upon seeing the area, he suddenly fuses his spiritual sense with his absolute sense which now turned into divine sense. Then he scanned the area once again.

And this time, he could clearly see everything. The clear traces of footsteps the lingering mana in the air and the traps laid by the people who set everything up. Though he could clearly see everything, it is still taking a big toll on him and is causing him some mental stress. But for him, it is worth it in doing this as he discovered something in the village.

Shin Jiao is sure that the trap is meant for either the villagers who escaped or those that would try to enter the village and pillage the remaining things inside of it.

"It seems that the people who set this up are very familiar with the village and its underlying terrain and structures. This place is one big death trap." Shin Jiao commented as he suddenly expands his divine sense.

His eyes squinted as he could feel his mind throbbing with slight pain. And after doing this, he found something hidden deep within the ground.

"I think the survivors are the ones who set everything up. We should find the secret cave." Shin Jiao said as he turns his attention towards a particular direction.

But before they could move, a shadow suddenly blotted the sun.

"Sca… Sca… Scavengers!" Loom suddenly said with a trembling tone.

She did not expect that they would encounter these horrible beings that killed her village people. She wanted to be angry, she wanted revenge. However, a deep-seated fear suddenly envelopes her heart as she is unable to move as if rooted on the spot.

The string killing intent coming from the flying creature made her paralyzed in fear.

"Hmmm… Echo attack…" Shin Jiao muttered as he also feels the strange vibration in his body that prevents him from moving.

He then looks at the giant bat with a rider behind it which is around a 7-foot tall red-skinned troll.

With a slight smirk in his mouth, Shin Jiao suddenly expanded his divine sense and made Loom recover from the sonic attack.

"That is a 4th level beast and a level 40 warrior… be careful…" Loom suddenly said as she slumps on the ground.

"Hmm… I know… Just stay here. I will greet our welcoming committee." Shin Jiao said as he suddenly jumps into the air.

When the rider and its flying mount saw the man was still able to move and could even fly in that matter, the rider's complexion suddenly changed.

This is because he recognized that the man is actually a human and he seems to be a powerful mage as the man is already able to fly.

The red-skinned troll wanted to escape because of the possible disparity in their fighting prowess. However, he suddenly saw the human taking out a thin black sword.

"A warrior… eh?" the red-skinned troll suddenly showed a faint menacing look on its face.

Then instead of retreating it suddenly made its mount fly faster towards Shin Jiao grabbing the long spear on his side.

Swoosh!

The troll threw the spear and it flew in the air like a bullet. But it was not able to hit the human as if it just went through his body.

This made the troll's expression changed. But he did not want to give up, so he grabs two more spears and threw them towards the human. The same thing happened, and it went right through the human body.

The troll angrily glared as Shin Jiao as is unsheathes the large scimitar on its side.

This time, the distance between them has already shortened to around 20 meters. The troll did not hesitate to swing his weapon and creating an energy wave that flew towards Shin Jiao's body.

But the same thing happened; it still passes through and did not hit Shin Jiao. But this time, the troll was able to perceive what is happening.

With the close proximity, he could see the fast movement of his opponent even in the air as if he is stepping on land. But this realization came too late. This is because a line suddenly appears in the middle of his head and it went through bisecting him and his mount in half.

Shin Jiao landed on the ground and walk closer to Loom who look at him in agape.

"Let's head to the cave now…" Shin Jiao said as the two then walks deeper into the village where the side of the mountain is.

In that place, one could not actually see the cave from the outside. However, after going through an array of stones, one could then find a cave covered with a large boulder.

Shin Jiao walks closer and tried to remove the boulder, but for some reason, he actually could not remove it. Even after using 50% of his strength, the stone did not budge.

"Hmm… How are they able to assimilate a natural array with an artificial one… Interesting…" Shin Jiao muttered as he discovers that the boulder is actually protected by an array.

"If I move this boulder, then the mountain will actually move with it… This is truly an interesting but dangerous concept…" he muttered.

Then the two of them discovered a large number of bug corpses on the side of the mountain.

"These things could not enter the mountain even if they try to chew on the rocks… everything in this place is connected as one…" he muttered while he began to check the array formation.

Loom looks at the large boulder and then bit her lower lip. She feels a bit anxious and could not contain her resentment towards those that hid in the hidden kingdom of the dwarves.

"How could they just abandon their people and hide like cowards…" she muttered with tears in her eyes.

"Sigh… they just choose to save the many… It is a hard decision to make Miss Loom, but sometimes, you have to think what could be best for the many than to try and save a few and lose everything." Shin Jiao said trying to console her.

"But... still…"

"Once you lead a large number of people, you will understand that to save the masses a few would become heroes, martyrs, and saints… It is a difficult concept to understand, but that is the reality of things." Shin Jiao said as he patted her head.

"Ah… there it is…" Suddenly Shin Jiao said as he walks towards the side.

Loom was a bit stunned and then saw him walking to a large stone that is around 1 meter tall.

"Hmm… I guess this passage would only fit dwarves…" Shin Jiao said as he began touching the side of the wall using his psychokinesis.

His divine sense would not work on the mountain because of the strange effect of the array. So he would rely on his psychokinesis to detect the secret opening mechanism.

Soon he found four secret button combinations made of four different sized pebbles on the wall. It was cleverly designed to look normal, but Shin Jiao could already see them with his psychokinesis. After seeing the buttons, Shin Jiao suddenly frowns.

"I could locate the buttons, but the problem is the combinations… Hmm… This is tricky, very tricky…" he muttered as he tries to analyze the puzzle in front of him.