Chapter 868: Mechanical Ascension! Flesh Transformation.

The bronze pillar is engraved with ancient characters that no one recognizes, carrying a clear sense of futurism and technological feel, with many patterns resembling various equations and schematic diagrams.

Through his Eyes of Time, Zheng Yi opened the secrets hidden deep within the earth, but the cost was great, leaving him quite fatigued as he closed the third eye at his brow once more.

His figure concealed in the void, watching the steadily arriving external experts and pondering how they might deal with the situation.

In fact, if Zheng Yi doesn’t act personally, given the sheer number of experts continuously arriving from the outside world, someone will surely notice the peculiarities.

Moreover, Zheng Yi felt this place was extremely bizarre, left behind by a technological civilization that had developed to a very powerful state. He was utterly unfamiliar with it and dared not to lightly tread in as a guinea pig.

Thus, it might be better to get ahead of things by exposing the place’s secrets to public scrutiny, letting these external experts explore first and pave the way for him.

Zheng Yi would then enter afterward.

After all, even if there are secrets here, they’re not easily obtained.

The first to take the plunge may not necessarily benefit the most and might even end up poisoned!

Since entering the Great Cosmic World, Zheng Yi has always maintained a cautious attitude. There are too many top-tier experts in this world, and upon stepping into the Void Realm, his awe toward the supreme entities of the world only grew stronger.

At this moment, Zheng Yi was hidden in the shadows, watching as external experts gathered, crowding under the four giant heaven-reaching bronze pillars for continuous research.

After a while, it seemed those people indeed had some methods and truly activated certain mechanisms.

The four bronze pillars began to shake violently, and then numerous equation-like patterns along their surfaces started flashing with thunderous electric light, as if activating certain programs.

Towering light beams penetrated and shot out, directly reaching into the infinite darkness of the cosmos, and then in the center of these four giant bronze pillars, a faintly discernible Light Gate was formed.

The Light Gate was initially rather weak, only showing an outline, but then it nearly solidified, forming a gigantic bronze door with a diameter of several thousand feet.

In the very center of the bronze door lay a rotating passageway that flickered with eerie light.

The vortex was shrouded in endless mist, leading to unknown regions.

Clearly, the relic of this technological civilization wasn’t closed off, nor was it meant to prevent outsiders from entering. On the contrary, it always left a passage for the outside world, even opening its doors wide.

However, once you step inside, where you’ll be transported and what dangers await outsiders remain unknown.

But it wasn’t long before someone lost patience—a Cultivator clad in Mechanical Battle Armor, relying on his strong defense, forced his way into the vortex.

Unexpectedly, no unforeseen danger occurred; instead, the individual was instantly transported to an unknown location.

That stirred the beehive, as everyone feared the other would seize the relic’s core first, prompting them all to enter rapidly.

As the outside crowd surged in, Zheng Yi used his Eyes of Time to carefully examine the teleportation trajectory and found no danger.

Later, unnoticed by anyone, he moved to this core region.

Within his perception, there were others hidden too—not just him—with at least three entities of Void Realm Level simultaneously blocking causal links and observing secretly.

As for those at Half-Step Void Realm, there were even more.

This caused Zheng Yi to curse out, “A bunch of old schemers!”

Then, without hesitation, he stepped forward, transforming into an imperceptible light that entered the passage within a moment.

During this process, aside from the three Void Realm level entities sensing something amiss, when a powerful consciousness swept through space-time, it found nothing.

Soon after, these entities also entered the teleportation passage beyond the bronze vortex.

“Where is this?!”

Zheng Yi looked around.

After stepping out of the teleportation passage, he found himself in the core area of this technological civilization relic.

What unfolded before him was not exactly what he expected, but rather a massive Metal Beast Fighting Arena.

All around were towering circular stands, layer upon layer, reaching well beyond a thousand feet high, nearly to the heavens.

The entire venue seemed to be compressed by some space-folding technology, looking small yet covering an area no less than a small planet.

High arched gates surrounded the arena, through which giants a thousand meters tall could pass smoothly.

Given such a grand scale, one could tell it wasn’t an ordinary beast fighting arena.

Likely only Cosmic Giant Beasts are qualified to enter and fight within.

This made Zheng Yi look upon this technological civilization even more highly, fearing it’s reached the pinnacle of technological marvels, even achieving mechanical ascension.

Otherwise, it would be impossible to construct a spatial arrangement such that even a third-step Void Realm Cultivator like him couldn’t discern the slightest trace.

Then, sensing something, he raised his gaze to see a gigantic arched Light Gate trembling, slowly opening ahead.

From within the endless darkness, six blood-red eyes suddenly flickered into view.

Those eyes were simply too enormous, akin to a colossal arched gate standing dozens of meters high, emitting chilling coldness and cruelty, chilling to the touch.

“It’s this, after all?”

Zheng Yi had anticipated this scene, lifting his eyes to see words flash across the monitors above the ancient Metal Beast Fighting Arena.

The characters were unintelligible, but they were translated into the universal cosmic language.

“Welcome to the Heaven-Reaching Tower! Stanmodale Empire Fifth Fleet War God Fortress Core area…”

“Welcome to the challenge, failures will be expelled.”

Following the translation of this information, the entire Metal Fighting Arena rumbled, and from within the gigantic arched gate opposite, endless black fog dispersed, unveiling an utterly terrifying head.

It was akin to a Hellhound-like Cosmic Giant Beast, yet eerily its body was enveloped in cold armor.

A long seam ran through its skull, zigzagging and embedded with enormous metallic skulls. It wasn’t just a Cosmic Giant Beast but a Mechanical Hellhound reformed by Mechanical Civilization.

Looking at the Mechanical Giant Beast before him, Zheng Yi was still in awe of the powerful mechanical technology it displayed.

“When a technological civilization reaches its peak, mechanical ascension becomes possible, involving the domain of genetic life, merging Cosmic Giant Beasts’ flesh with machinery to form formidable combat power!”

“This level achieved here is indeed remarkable!”

The apparent mechanical Hellhound, clearly modified, had mysterious vibrations within, with Blood Qi and Star Power intertwining, emanating overwhelming might, yet outwardly encased in cold, heavy steel armor.

Layer upon layer of frigid metal machinery covered its enormous body, and even at a glance, one could sense a mysterious quality from the fusion of metal and flesh.

Especially the armor on its body, which Zheng Yi observed was based on Star Meteorite Gold and forged into a new alloy through technology, giving an impression of indomitable strength.

In his estimation, the external heavy metal armor alone was a defense that cultivators below Void Realm couldn’t break, being hard-pressed to cause any real harm to the mechanical three-headed giant beast before them.

“But this style doesn’t seem like the new technological civilization in this Star Realm, more like the product of an ancient mechanical civilization?!”

Despite the Great Cosmos harboring not only prominent Cultivators but flourishing a myriad of different civilizations.

Yet mechanical life developed to such a pinnacle remained extremely rare.

Although mechanical ascension was potent, it had its weaknesses, emphasizing collective strength, whereas an individual’s power, like that of Cultivators who wield great power single-handedly, was comparatively lacking.