Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 923 - 916: Hindsight

Chapter 923: Chapter 916: Hindsight

After a brief rest overnight, the Advance Team packed up and set out on their journey back to Aunt Axia’s residence the next day. Before leaving, they moved all the large stones over to completely block the entrance, to prevent anyone from accidentally wandering into the tomb and encountering an undeserved disaster.

This retreat from the battlefield could indeed be considered a defeat for the Advance Team, with the Snow God and the metal puppet serving as two major roadblocks inside. Even though Luo’er had already seen what he wanted, he had no choice but to retreat fully intact. To use Hu Daoke’s words to describe it, it was a case of "the situation being so dire that they had to call for help while beating a hasty retreat."

The group rode back on horses, and because Baiyue was unwell, she couldn’t ride alone and had to share a horse with Luo’er. Although this was a happy circumstance, due to what happened the day before, the two found nothing to say to each other and were exceptionally silent.

"What exactly is the origin of that metal puppet, that even Feng can’t defeat her?" On the road, Cheng Ziang furrowed his brows, unable to help himself from asking.

In his mind, Feng’s combat ability might not be the first on the Continent, but a spot in the top ten was absolutely guaranteed. Yet such a strong individual had been embarrassingly injured by a metal puppet, which was what Cheng Ziang found most incomprehensible.

"No choice, that thing’s defense was just too good," Hu Daoke shrugged alongside, as a witness he knew many details, "The puppet’s body must be made of Kedal metal, then the surface is engraved with mixed Defense Runes. When I fired Kedal metal bullets, they were deflected by the Runes. So I switched to Breaking Method bullets, but the bullet heads shattered upon impact. Thinking about it, only Kedal metal could reach such a strength."

Saying this, he couldn’t help but let out a long sigh, "Why isn’t there a Kedal core Breaking Method bullet, with that we might have had a fighting chance."

"Are you sure it’s Kedal metal?" Cheng Ziang asked seriously.

"What else would it be, you think I like to lie to you?" Hu Daoke shrugged as he spoke.

"Even if we had some Kedal core Breaking Method bullets, we wouldn’t be able to do anything to that thing. Kedal metal has a self-tightening repulsive property when it comes to the same type of metal. Kedal metal bullets fired at her would at most be deflected, they couldn’t possibly penetrate," Tangmo joined the discussion as well.

The so-called self-tightening repulsive property is actually a physical concept corresponding to the concept of impeding resistance. Specifically, when Kedal metal strikes traditional metals, due to impeding resistance, the Kedal metal continually breaks down the structure of the target, while enhancing its own strength through self-tightening.

As for the repulsive property, it refers to the repulsive reaction that Kedal metal has when it comes into contact with the same type of metal. When a Kedal metal bullet head hits a Kedal metal plate, due to the repulsive reaction and self-tightening, the bullet head would be directly deflected.

Because the target that is hit will also produce the same reaction as the bullet head, the strength of the target itself is also brought up. Even when struck by powerful kinetic energy, not even a trace is left.

Such physical properties are called the self-tightening repulsive property of Kedal metal. This property perfectly solves the problem of the spear and the shield, because the spear cannot penetrate the shield and the shield will not deform as a result. It could be said that this is a metal that brings offense and defense towards perfection.

"Then in this way, isn’t that metal puppet invincible?" Cheng Ziang pondered, inevitably turning to look at Tangmo.

"As of now, that seems to be the case. The metal puppet, reinforced with mixed Defense Shields, can withstand both magic and physical attacks and it was thanks to her nearly invincible defense that she managed to easily defeat Feng," Tangmo nodded as he spoke.

Upon mentioning this, Feng couldn’t help but lower her head, feeling ashamed for the failure of this mission.

"This is not your fault, Feng." Seeing her ashamed look, Cheng Ziang gently tugged at her sleeve and said.

"Actually, we all should have been able to see that that individual only had simple physical attacks. Although she did release shield magic, from the actual combat situation, she should not be capable of using lethal magic," Tangmo continued to say.

"Why are you so certain?" Curious, Cheng Ziang could not help but ask.

"Because she is not human," Tangmo stated flatly.

"This..." Hearing this sentence, Cheng Ziang and Hu Daoke looked at each other, showing embarrassed smiles.

"I’m not cursing, I’m telling the truth," Tangmo said seriously.

"Considering the situation then, she was probably not using Spells magic but Rune Magic," Tangmo paused for a moment, then continued his analysis, "Simply put, she actually activated magic through the Runes inscribed on herself, not by chanting spells like us."

"But even if she only uses physical methods, we’re still not her match," Cheng Ziang shrugged.

"Eh, if I remember correctly, Xiao Fula once fought her and even gained some upper hand!"

"Don’t call me Xiao Fula!" Fulajie’er suddenly popped out of thin air and then said frantically.

"Xiao Fula, what was that magic you used yesterday to ensnare that guy called? Why have I never seen such magic before?" Hu Daoke looked up at her curiously.

"It’s just shield magic, how come you’ve never seen it?" Fulajie’er scratched her head, confused.

"Then your shield is a bit soft," Hu Daoke paused for a moment and then said with a bitter smile.

"I’m used to it, because I always use shield magic like that. After all, those bullets can’t hurt me," Fulajie’er shrugged as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

As mentioned before, Fulajie’er is completely immune to physical attacks due to her spirit body, so she often plays around with her magic.

Like the shield magic, for instance, that allows the adjustment of the shield’s hardness, and can even catch bullets that hit it. Actually, all mages know how to do this; it’s just a question of whether they dare to use it. Since Fulajie’er is not afraid of bullets, she can boldly try such things.

"Wait, that’s right, Fula can use her shield magic to trap that guy, restricting her movements. This gives us a lot of opportunities. It means, there must be a way to defeat her," Tangmo said as if he had an epiphany.

"No can do!" Fulajie’er shrugged her shoulders and pouted.

"Why not?" asked Tangmo.

"Because the magic inside that passage runs out too quickly, especially easily drained. Once it’s depleted, I won’t be able to cast any spells," Fulajie’er explained truthfully.

"It seems that the terrain is indeed one of the reasons that affects our ability to defeat that metal creature," Cheng Ziang nodded in agreement.

"Actually, after thinking about it briefly, there are many ways to solve the troubles inside the tomb; the simplest one is to just kill the Snow God, then figure out how to lure that creature into a trap, giving us enough time to grab the ancestors’ holy book. But thinking about it, Luo’er would definitely not like this suggestion," Tangmo sighed.

"Don’t say that," Hu Daoke glanced at Luo’er, then said earnestly, "After all, the Snow God did save us once. If we went in and killed it right away, then when we’re in trouble, there would be no one to save us."

The Advance Team was truly stunned by that metal puppet, so they felt it was invincible. But upon careful thought, just the experience gained by the Advance Team should be sufficient not only to fight the metal puppet on their own but also to restrain her for a while.

If they go in again, Tangmo is confident he could control the metal puppet and obtain the ancestors’ holy book. But they clearly didn’t have a chance anymore; not to mention Luo’er had already terminated the mission, the Snow God had also expressed they were not allowed back in the tomb. If they were to trespass into the tomb again, they wouldn’t just be facing the metal puppet.

"Let’s drop it, after all, Aunt Axia has already agreed to take us to the next tomb, let’s just leave this place be for now," Hu Daoke sighed and shook his head.

"Speaking of which, who would use Kedal metal to make a metal puppet and then engrave it with complex defense runes?" Tangmo couldn’t help but muse.

"What are you getting at?" Cheng Ziang asked, looking at her.

"Such an intricate one, made of Kedal metal, capable of moving freely, powered by a magic crystal, it seems unlikely even with the magic technology of the Otherworld mother. So, that leaves us with only one reason," Tangmo said and looked up at Cheng Ziang.

"Ancestors!" Cheng Ziang said in a daze.