"Mm-hmm!"
Shen Potian nodded. "The underground secret chamber I mentioned before is also an ancient ruin of Mech City... Actually, your father and I chose to build Mech City in this place with almost no natural defensive barriers precisely because it's a mysterious ancient ruin!"
"Back then, after your father put a black box into the underground secret chamber I mentioned... he left in a hurry not long after, leaving behind many mysteries..."
"After your father left, there was no news for a long time... I guessed it might be related to that black box... so I decided to go and see what was inside the black box..."
"But what's strange is that the underground secret chamber disappeared... only the wall we just saw, and that rough large door, remained..."
"Later, I received a pile of miscellaneous supplies from the Fog Night Explorer's Guild... the person who sent the supplies happened to be your father..."
"After some searching, I found that among the miscellaneous supplies was a fragment of a special spatial rift. It contained your father's letters, and that ember called Cang Feng..."
Shen Potian sighed and explained to Shen Yun Yao.
"Bang! ~Rumble~"
Suddenly, there were loud explosions all around, and the entire passage seemed to shake.
"Grandpa, should we go back and check?"
Shen Yun Yao glanced at the teleportation gate not far behind them and looked at Shen Potian questioningly.
Shen Potian didn't answer immediately. He frowned, looked at the blackened banana peel on the ground to his front left, then finally looked at Ye Feng before speaking, "Let's go back first!"
"Okay!~"
Shen Yun Yao walked towards the teleportation gate first, with Shen Potian following closely behind.
Ye Feng, with Xiao Xiao, also followed. At this moment, Ye Feng was quite nervous. After all, the way Shen Potian looked at him after seeing the banana peel felt like it carried some hidden meaning...
Several beams of light flashed, and Ye Feng and his group returned to the main hall of the City Lord's Mansion.
"Woof woof!~"
As soon as they landed, a dog bark reached everyone's ears.
Ye Feng followed the sound and saw a fluffy, gentle, and cute mixed-breed dog, which was running towards Shen Yun Yao.
"Duoduo?"
Seeing the mixed-breed dog, Shen Yun Yao showed a hint of surprise.
"City Lord, save... save me!"
As Shen Yun Yao picked up the dog, a robust man in his 30s, covered in multiple injuries and bleeding, ran towards Shen Potian in a panic.
"Plop!~"
Less than a meter away from Shen Potian, the injured robust man tripped over his own feet and fell forward.
Shen Potian immediately stepped forward, ready to catch him. But at that very moment, a sinister smile flashed across the injured man's lips, and his body suddenly emitted a red glow...
Shen Potian's expression changed drastically. He immediately turned around, grabbed the mixed-breed dog from Shen Yun Yao's arms, which had also started to emit a red glow, and flung it far away!
"Bang! Bang!~"
Two deafening explosions rang out simultaneously – one from the injured man who had pleaded for help from Shen Potian, and the other from the mixed-breed dog that Shen Potian had thrown far away.
The fierce explosions caused the entire hall of the City Lord's Mansion to be engulfed in flames and thick smoke...
"Grandpa, how are you!"
Amidst the thick smoke, Shen Yun Yao's voice, choked with tears, rang out.
Ye Feng, not far from Shen Yun Yao, looked at Shen Potian, who was spitting blood with half of his arm's skin scorched, and his brows furrowed.
At the moment of the explosion, a green light flashed across Shen Potian's body, forming an arcane energy barrier. Although it blocked some of the blast wave, he was still hit by the explosion...
But Ye Feng felt something was off. With the speed he displayed when throwing the dog away just now, he could have easily dodged the explosion... yet he chose to endure it head-on...
The incident at the city gate earlier could be explained as protecting Shen Yun Yao, but this one was a bit hard to understand. Was Shen Potian doing it on purpose?
"City Lord, you're finally old!"
"To fall into the same trap twice, or is it that your granddaughter's safety makes you disregard yourself?"
As the flames and smoke gradually dispersed, a middle-aged man with multiple scars on his face and eyes as sharp as an eagle's slowly walked in from the entrance of the hall. It was Shen Potian.
"Whoosh!~"
"Clank!~"
A whistling sound came, followed by a blood-red mecha landing at the entrance of the hall. It was the same mecha that Ye Feng had seen earlier, which had shot down several mechas from Mech City and thrown glass spheres containing monsters.
"Kid, the mystery of Shen Lang's inheritance really needs you to crack it!"
Wang Batiyan looked at the somewhat dusty Ye Feng and smiled triumphantly.
"Kaka!~"
At this moment, there was a rattling sound from the head of the blood-red mecha, revealing the pilot. It was Sphinx, whose high, vertical red braid was still tied.
"Little girl, you're mine! Slurp!~"
Sphinx looked at Xiao Xiao, extended his long, narrow, scarlet tongue, licked his lips, and wore a sinister smile.
"Sphinx... Wang Batiyan, was the unrest in Mech City orchestrated by you in collusion with the Brad Base?"
"What do you want?"
Shen Yun Yao pondered for a moment and questioned aloud.
"What do we want?"
Wang Batiyan sneered, "Nothing much... We just feel it's time for Mech City to welcome a new City Lord!"
"Wang Batiyan, how can you do this after my grandfather took care of your family back then?"
"Can't we discuss anything openly? You're actually colluding with the Brad Base?"
Shen Yun Yao reprimanded again, her face filled with anger.
"Wang Batiyan, stop talking nonsense with this little girl. She's stalling for time for Shen Potian to recover!"
Before Wang Batiyan could respond, Sphinx chimed in. Even as he spoke, the mecha's head closed, and the heavy machine gun on his shoulder spat fire at Shen Potian and Shen Yun Yao.
"Bang bang bang!~ Keng keng keng~!"
The sounds of gunfire and impact were dense. Shen Yun Yao had thrown an arcane talisman, creating a large stone wall in front of them.
"Clang! Szzzz!"
As soon as the gunfire stopped, the stone wall blocking Shen Potian and Shen Yun Yao was instantly cut open. It was Sphinx, piloting the mecha, who had cleaved the stone wall with a single strike.
"Bang bang bang!~"
The dense gunfire erupted again, and Shen Yun Yao and Shen Potian instantly leaped away.
"Ugh!"
"Pfft!~ Sss!"
As Shen Potian landed, he let out a muffled groan of pain. Wang Batiyan had appeared behind him and thrust a fiery red dagger into Shen Potian's abdomen.
"Bang! Boom!~"
Wang Batiyan's eyes flashed fiercely. The fiery red dagger instantly exploded with a flash of red light. The wound on Shen Potian's stomach suddenly glowed red, and his flesh began to burn.
Shen Potian endured the intense pain and waved his hand, sending a dense green light towards Wang Batiyan. Wang Batiyan dodged and leaped a few times, easily evading it.
"Zzzz Zzzz!~"
The green light pierced deeply into the reinforced concrete pillars of the hall.
"Wood-attribute arcane energy... perfectly countered by fire-attribute arcane energy... How does it feel to have your arcane energy ignited from within!"
Wang Batiyan stared warily at Shen Potian from a short distance away, taunting him.
...