Chapter 483 – Confrontation

Following the valley forward led to a massive cave entrance, with visible signs of excavation all along the way.

There was little resistance encountered, and under the leadership of Sea Wolf, the pirate group quickly advanced deep into the cave.

Lu Yuan consistently maintained his position near the back of the first echelon of the pirates, moving neither too fast nor too slow.

Along the way, he hardly had to intervene, casually disabling a few hidden energy cannon emplacements.

However, as Alfonso, Sea Wolf’s younger brother, he remained a subject of close scrutiny despite his attempts to keep a low profile.

Lu Yuan noted that aside from the “red-bearded man,” several level 7 mental power probes frequently and nonchalantly focused on him. These were likely from other pirate factions planning to conspire against Sea Wolf.

Noting a few identities, Lu Yuan continued to blend in with the main pirate force as if nothing were amiss.

“Boom!”

A nearly solidified scarlet energy light pillar struck the alloy door ahead as if slicing through butter, leaving a several-meter-wide hole.

Amidst the billowing smoke and heat, a black Mecha with a blood-red wolf head totem stepped forward through the molten steel. Its powerful alloy giant arm grasped the edge of the hole, and with some effort…

“Crack, crack-“

With a teeth-grinding sound of metal twisting, Sea Wolf tore open the thick, seven to eight-meter alloy door, creating a large entrance enough for several level 5 Mechas to move through side by side.

The massive pirate force fell silent for a few seconds, even the previously noisy level 7 pilot channel fell into a mutual understanding of silence.

Although Sea Wolf’s vicious reputation was well-known, witnessing his immense power up close left the pirates once again in awe.

“So this is the power of level 8…”

Lu Yuan narrowed his eyes slightly as he watched Sea Wolf forcefully clear the path with his Mecha.

Alfonso’s memories told him that the Blood Cry Mecha, custom-made for Sea Wolf, wasn’t designed for strength.

But from the power Sea Wolf just displayed, his strength wasn’t inferior to Lu Yuan’s own state when activating level 2 grandmaster exertion under his Mecha’s form.

An level 8 Mecha, based solely on its basic performance, was enough to crush a host of ordinary level 7 Mechas, not to mention the mental power boost from an equally level 8 pilot and techniques like Resonance Technique.

“The existence of Mechas makes the combat power gap between each level increasingly exaggerated as one progresses…

And this is just below the star spirit realm. If one enters the Star Lord Realm, where a pilot’s mental power undergoes a transformation and Mechas evolve into Star Lord Mechs, the gap between realms would be unimaginably huge…” Lu Yuan thought silently.

The downside of his Mecha body was exposed at this point. Other pilots could undergo a qualitative transformation in combat power merely by upgrading to a higher-level Mecha as their mental power advanced.

However, even if he devoured higher-level Forging Materials, the overall strength change in his Mecha body wouldn’t be particularly noticeable.

The impact of technology was continuously increasing.

“Move,” came Sea Wolf’s icy voice through the terminal channel, and the space pirates filed in through the gap.

Lu Yuan followed the crowd of space pirates into the interior.

Upon entering and seeing the scene before him, he was momentarily taken aback.

On the way here, Lu Yuan had silently memorized the path they took, aware that after entering the valley, their direction of travel was consistently inclined downward.

At this point, he estimated they had descended more than two hundred meters below ground level.

However, he suddenly realized that after overcoming the barrier of the alloy door, they, the invaders, were actually positioned at a high point.

Led by Sea Wolf, the space pirates now stood on a white platform.

For ordinary people, they, all piloting Mechas, appeared as giants.

Yet, the white platform, accommodating nearly a hundred intermediate Mechas, still seemed spacious, possibly needing everyone from the back to fully enter to barely fill it.

And this white platform didn’t even seem conspicuous within the space they found themselves in.

Along with Lu Yuan, all the space pirates were slightly taken aback by the colossal space of the ancient ruins before them.

Massive.

Absolutely massive.

Beneath the heavy rock dome lay an expansive black square, exuding an ancient aura.

They resembled a group of ants that had accidentally wandered into a giant’s tomb, momentarily overwhelmed and lost in the spectacle.

“Ancient… ancient ruins… is this what they call ancient ruins?” Lu Yuan heard a level 7 space pirate muttering through the terminal channel.

Scanning his surroundings, he noticed that the walls of the enormous ruin cavern were tinged with a faint green hue, and the air was filled with an unusually refreshing and pleasant scent.

As Lu Yuan wasn’t a typical Mecha pilot, he lacked the barrier of a fresh-air filtration system, allowing him to instantly sense…

With each breath, the air he inhaled into his lungs was suffused with an unending influx of incredibly pure Life Energy.

His vision seemed to be swarmed with numerous fluorescent green light spots.

At that moment, Lu Yuan suddenly understood-

On his initial arrival at Planet Lirva, during a nighttime excursion, he had encountered a tide-like fluorescent sea.

It emanated from the massive ancient ruin cavern before him.

Perhaps the rampant vegetation growth on Planet Lirva over the years, transforming it from a desolate barren star into a scenic tourist resource planet, was also because of this.

Truly… unbelievable.

“Life Source Ore… it’s Life Source Ore…” someone in the group of space pirates said with a trembling voice. The Mecha’s alloy arm rose, pointing at the walls tinted green, unable to contain the excitement, almost shouting, “It’s everywhere! Life Source Ore is everywhere! We’ve struck it rich this time!! Haha…”

Clearly, more than one person had realized this, and the platform was buzzing with agitation.

One by one, Mechas leapt off the white platform, flying toward the nearest walls, some even opening fire directly at the cavern walls.

Hearing the eerie, wailing sounds echoing through the terminal channel, Lu Yuan furrowed his brow and decided to turn it off entirely.

Of course, his emotions were just as stirred.

He licked his lips slightly, took a deep breath, and slowly shifted his gaze away from the green-tinted cavern walls before him.

Lowering his eyes, he even took a couple of steps back.

He knew that at times like this, it was crucial to control his…desires.

“Boom! Boom…” As the booms echoed, more and more space pirates began firing at the cavern walls.

Unexpectedly, the walls, which were laden with Life Source Ore, were extraordinarily hard.

Even the firepower from level 7 Mechas could only knock off a few specks of stone dust, revealing a deeper layer of green underneath, without the large chunks of Life Source Ore the pirates had imagined falling.

“Buzz-“

A strange, vibrating hum suddenly resonated within the cavern.

Just as Lu Yuan looked up, he witnessed several particularly “active” space pirate Mechas hovering mid-air being swept by a streak of crystalline purple light.

Their movements halted immediately, flames spewed from their bodies, and they split in half, falling from the air like stones.

Seconds later, the muffled sounds of Mechas crashing echoed from below.

In an instant, the bustling atmosphere among the space pirates froze. Everyone pulled back and directed their gaze downward.

On the vast black square below, a large number of combat Mechas had appeared unnoticed.

These Mechas were entirely coated in a crimson gold hue, with extravagant designs, and even had semi-transparent energy cloaks behind them, resembling a unit of well-equipped, highly-trained ancient court knights.

At the center of these crimson gold Mechas stood two figures quietly.

Gazing up at the space pirates, their expressions seemed as if they were watching a group of ridiculous, laughable clowns.

Lu Yuan immediately recognized them as the Spirit Court Guard youth and the Gem Lord he had encountered at the spaceship landing site and in Red Diamond City.

Judging by their demeanor, they seemed completely unperturbed by the space pirates’ raid, exuding a sense of confidence as if they had lured them into a trap.

“Fools.”

At that moment, Sea Wolf’s voice echoed in the ears of the space pirates.

“Life Source Ore requires special technology for extraction. Instead of wasting your energy, go down and take what’s already there…”

“They haven’t had time to transfer all the ore yet, so there must still be a large amount inside the cavern…”

“I get it.”

A space pirate exclaimed, “Sea Wolf, you want to capture the Gem Lord alive because of his extraction technology. You knew this was a gold mine that we couldn’t empty in one go!”

“Hmph.”

Sea Wolf snorted lightly but didn’t say anything more, though his silence spoke volumes.

It now dawned on everyone why Sea Wolf had promised only a thirty percent share of the spoils before the operation. The real treasure wasn’t just the Life Source Ore, but the technology to extract it efficiently.

And that technology… was in the hands of the Gem Lord!

“Stop wasting time!”

“Whoosh-“

Sea Wolf, at the forefront of the formation, turned sharply, his enormous and massive black mecha with a blood-red wolf head and scarlet eyes emanated an overwhelming and cold dominance, swirling menacingly like a hurricane above the space pirates’ heads.

“An immense fortune lies below. If you want it, go and seize it!”

With that, the twelve-meter-tall black mecha soared skyward, emanating a strong red glow all over, resembling a burning black meteorite, and shot toward the cavern’s bottom.

The landing spot was right in the direction where the Gem Lord and the Spirit Court Guard were guarded by the crimson gold mechas.

“Howl-“

With Sea Wolf leading the charge, all the space pirates went wild. The atmosphere became instantly tense, with hundreds of space pirate mechas following suit, descending from the sky toward what they saw as their source of wealth.

At the same time the space pirates launched their assault, the crimson gold mechas below in the cavern also began to take flight, one after the other.

The two groups of mechas met in mid-air, about a hundred meters above the cavern floor, clashing like two steel torrents, one from above and one from below, crashing into each other with immense force.

“Boom!”

With just a single encounter, the black mecha piloted by Sea Wolf tore through the encirclement formed by several crimson gold mechas.

Under the might of a level 8 mecha, the three level 7 crimson gold mechas standing in his way were tossed aside like toys, crashing heavily into the distance.

But before Sea Wolf could press forward further, the Gem Lord, who stood below watching the scene unfold with a calm demeanor, suddenly took two steps back with a smile.

Following closely, the young man with light gray hair beside him calmly lifted his gaze.

“Buzz-“

A blinding silver light pierced through the dimness of the cavern, causing everyone engaged in battle to instinctively squint.

As the dazzling silver light faded, a visible white shockwave expanded from the sky, stirring up a massive whirlwind.

At the heart of the battle group, two mechas-one pitch black and the other silver-white-were locked together in a fierce struggle.

Around them, a scene like violently rippling water waves appeared, the manifestation of a level 8 mental power force field clashing.

This was… a battle between level 8 warriors!

“Whoosh-“

Lu Yuan exhaled a deep breath, leaping down from the white platform.

In the air, the mecha resembling the Blood Night Butcher carved a graceful arc, swiftly approaching a magenta mecha ahead.

“Don’t stray too far from me. Be ready to follow my orders at any moment.”

Lu Yuan quickly relayed his command to Sonis via the terminal, maneuvering skillfully through the swarms of mechas as he closed in on the deepest part of the cavern.

“Whoosh-“

A crimson gold mecha emitting level 7 energy field fluctuations suddenly charged in from the side, aiming directly for Lu Yuan.

It was intercepted effortlessly by Sonis, who flashed in carrying her crimson dual blades.

Lu Yuan casually locked onto another level 7 mecha, engaging it in a mock battle, while his gaze remained fixated on the Gem Lord and the edges of the black square below.

Although Lu Yuan’s mental power was only at level four, he possessed an unrivaled advantage-his heightened sensitivity to the aura of Life Energy.

The core of his being craved Life Energy so intensely that it was like a unique hormone, continuously stimulating his brain.

With every breath he took, this longing grew stronger.

In Lu Yuan’s consciousness, the vast cavern of the ancient ruins was gradually being stripped of its visual façade.

It was reminiscent of how he perceived the drifting evil deity factors in the secret realm on his Home Planet.

Bit by bit, the Life Energy permeating the cavern became distinctly mapped out in his mind-the distribution of its concentration and its source.

“I see it…”

Lu Yuan suddenly raised his hand, the alloy arm extensions manifesting as claw-like weapons that danced with a skilled and elegant arc. They effortlessly tore through the opponent’s level 7 energy barrier, leaving deep, crisscrossing gashes on the opponent’s mecha.

As the level 7 crimson gold mecha retreated, shock evident in its gaze, Lu Yuan closed his eyes and murmured softly, “I see where you’ve hidden them.”

In Lu Yuan’s perception, the pervasive Life Energy within the cavern had an extraordinarily intense source located somewhere behind the Gem Lord.

There appeared to be a concealed hidden door, and beyond it lay what seemed to be a hollowed-out storage space.

A substantial amount of mined Life Source Ore was stored there.

While Lu Yuan couldn’t precisely quantify how much was there, he knew it was a lot-far exceeding his previous expectations.

Having successfully identified the location of the Life Source Ore, Lu Yuan opened his eyes, but his face bore little joy; instead, an unusual calmness took over his expression.

From the moment the space pirates launched their attack, breached the ruin cavern, to the fierce battle with the crimson gold mecha bodyguards, quite some time had passed.

Logically, the Gem Lord should have had enough time to secure and relocate the Life Source Ore.

Yet, inexplicably, he hadn’t.

He hadn’t even used any spatial storage tools to store the ore; it was simply left out in the open, barely two kilometers from the battlefield.

“Is it because there’s too much, and he couldn’t transfer it in time, or is it…”

“Deliberate.”

Now, as Lu Yuan reconsidered the location of the Life Source Ore, a realization dawned on him.

In his eyes, this massive pile of Life Source Ore seemed like an enticing bait, emitting an alluring aroma, waiting…

Waiting for them to take the bait willingly.