Chapter 145: The Death of Yu Jin

The Xenomorph nest—this was Li Yu's true destination. On the surface, unless he utilized his precious trump cards, it would be almost impossible to defeat Yu Jin.

No matter how battered he was, he remained a B-Grade Mechanical Augmentation. The Purple-Winged Tiger had endured for nearly eighteen hours despite its horrific injuries, and Li Yu dared not underestimate a B-Tier Lifeform of this caliber.

Before Kemo and Shadow Kill could even react, wave after wave of Xenomorphs completely surrounded them. Unlike Yu Jin, they were far from fearless.

They were merely C-Tier Lifeforms, existing on an entirely different level than Yu Jin.

Hearing the sheer terror in Yu Jin's voice made their blood run cold. To think these creatures were being commanded by that man—just who exactly was he?!

Li Yu looked at the massive Xenomorphs before him. These were not the Alien Queen, but seemingly a native variant of this subterranean area, resembling giant turtles.

Their white bone carapaces bristled with jagged spikes. Their enormous bodies crawled close to the ground, sporting incredibly hideous heads and thick tails ending in spike-covered clubbed masses.

Judging from their current appearance, one could roughly guess what they originally looked like. These creatures had never appeared on the surface, likely because they were simply too clumsy and slow.

These turtle-like Xenomorphs were clearly much stronger than the Black Lizards. They unleashed low, rumbling growls, forcefully suppressing their violent and bloodthirsty instincts.

Li Yu's flippant, dismissive attitude made Yu Jin feel deeply insulted. He took a deep breath, even though, as a mechanical cyborg, he had long since lost the need to breathe.

His Energy Engine roared to life, and the Ship-breaking Blade in his hand extended segment by segment. No matter what, he was going to slaughter the man standing before him today!

"Kemo, Shadow Kill, cover me!" Yu Jin bellowed, charging forward once more. The massive turtle-like Xenomorph let out a deafening roar and lunged to meet him.

The massive Ship-breaking Blade reached nearly ten meters in length. Before its edge, the thick bone armor might as well have been wet paper. It sliced through effortlessly, sending torrents of acidic green blood spraying wildly into the air.

The strike lost none of its momentum as it crashed into the ground, carving a deep trench along its path. Magma erupted from the fissure, geysering upward as the glowing crack extended dozens of meters forward.

However, accompanied by the rumbling of the earth, more turtle-like Xenomorphs trudged straight out of the magma. There were not many of them, perhaps around a hundred in total.

These were no ordinary Black Lizard Xenomorphs. These turtle variants possessed enough durability to physically impede Yu Jin's advance, even if it only forced him to continuously swing his blade.

Slaughtering this herd of heavy Xenomorphs alone would drain a considerable amount of Yu Jin's time.

Meanwhile, Kemo and Shadow Kill were groaning in misery. Forget about providing cover for Yu Jin—they were struggling just to keep themselves alive. Although these turtle-like Xenomorphs had not reached the strength of a C-Tier Lifeform...

...their sheer size made them incredibly difficult to deal with. The two mercenaries could not dispatch them with Yu Jin's brutal efficiency.

Kemo in particular was severely hindered by the environment. The moment his thick ice pillars materialized, they immediately began to melt in the blistering heat, heavily restricting his combat strength.

"Hiss..." A bizarre screech echoed through the vast Karst Cave, accompanied by the rapid beating of wings as something dove from the darkness above.

It was four or five meters tall with a flat, bat-like head. Its body was streamlined, covered in rough, porous skin, and trailed a long, whip-like tail.

Both its forelimbs and hindlegs ended in thick, powerful claws. Bizarre skeletal appendages jutted from its back, stretching out into a pair of translucent, leathery wings.

Another specialized Xenomorph! Li Yu had not expected the Alien Queen to deliver such a pleasant surprise. The subterranean depths were truly teeming with strange and deadly creatures.

These bat-like Ferocious Beasts had also never been seen on the surface, though the reason remained a mystery.

Crash!

The bat-like Xenomorph fiercely beat its skeletal wings, rocketing forward at astonishing speed. In the blink of an eye, it crossed hundreds of meters and slammed directly into Yu Jin.

With a swift swing of his blade, the beast was cleaved in two. Although the Xenomorph failed to inflict any significant damage, Yu Jin found no joy in the kill.

Even though he could slaughter these bizarre creatures with a single strike, they were not like the Black Lizards that he could simply ignore and power through.

Every swing he was forced to make cost him momentum. These creatures were successfully stonewalling his advance, making it nearly impossible to close the distance to Li Yu.

The cannon barrel mounted on his right arm was twisted and ruined, completely stripping him of his standard long-range attacks. This only fueled his mounting frustration, forcing him to mechanically raise his blade and hack away at the endless horde.

Meanwhile, Li Yu stood there as calm as an old monk, leisurely forming an orb of power. Blue energy rapidly condensed in the palm of his hand, sending Yu Jin's anxiety into overdrive.

In his current battered state, he absolutely could not withstand another one of those condensed thunder spheres. For the first time, his life was in genuine peril!

Yu Jin glanced at Kemo and Shadow Kill battling nearby and cursed under his breath. He could not count on those two for anything.

In reality, that terrifying thunder sphere from earlier was practically impossible to replicate. Li Yu could only forge it under very specific conditions.

He was only mimicking the gesture to feed Yu Jin's panic. Once panic set in, mistakes would inevitably follow!

Just as Li Yu predicted, Yu Jin was growing increasingly desperate. A ceaseless swarm of bat Xenomorphs rained down from the cavern ceiling, using the immense kinetic force of their dives to slam into him. If he ignored them, the sheer impact would stagger him backward.

If he raised his blade to cut them down, each strike robbed him of another precious second or two.

In that moment, Yu Jin suddenly found himself envying the Purple-Winged Tiger's colossal size. If he had that kind of mass, he could just trample these pests into paste or ignore them entirely.

As the situation continued to deteriorate, the swirling blue energy sphere in Li Yu's hand grew larger and larger. Yu Jin could no longer hold back.

His Ship-breaking Blade flared with violent purple Electric Arcs. Its internal structure became highly unstable, and glowing fissures began opening along the metal every two centimeters.

Finally, the massive weapon shattered completely, bursting into a cloud of razor-sharp shrapnel. The Ship-breaking Blade was Yu Jin's primary method of attack, and it possessed several combat forms.

The searing super-heated form for brute-force cleaving, the Black Crystal form designed to resist energy attacks, and now, the fragmentation form.

The fragmented blade shards were tethered to Yu Jin's body by tendrils of magnetic lightning. The high-speed orbiting shrapnel transformed him into a walking meat grinder, shredding every creature that dared approach.

He charged straight at Li Yu. Nothing in his path could hinder him anymore. Wave after wave of Xenomorphs lunged forward, only to be instantly pulverized into bloody mist. In that moment, Yu Jin looked like an unstoppable God of War.

Li Yu's eyes narrowed. Instead of standing his ground, he immediately shifted his position, darting away as Yu Jin locked onto him with a death glare.

"Kemo, Shadow Kill!" Yu Jin roared at the top of his lungs.

The very next second, the two mercenaries realized to their absolute horror that Li Yu was rushing straight toward them. If he could not handle Yu Jin, was he planning to butcher them first?!

Kemo thrust out both hands, ignoring the encroaching Xenomorphs around him as he frantically unleashed a surging torrent of absolute cold.

However, upon colliding with the blistering subterranean air, the vast majority of the frost simply vaporized into harmless steam, barely affecting Li Yu at all.

Shadow Kill vanished, reappearing right beside Li Yu. Two flashes of lethal starlight erupted as her blades clashed heavily against his Mechanical Arm, sending a shower of sparks and Electric Arcs into the air.

Li Yu's lips moved slightly—though it was impossible to hear what he whispered—and after a single exchange of blows, Shadow Kill was sent flying backward. She crashed to the ground, utterly devoid of life, lying perfectly still.

She died just like that?! Kemo was paralyzed with shock. He quickly glanced at his System display. Since their squad's vital data was linked, he could clearly see that Shadow Kill's Life Signs were completely stable.

'Playing dead?!' Kemo cursed furiously in his mind. It was an undeniably brilliant tactic. Even if Yu Jin demanded an explanation later, she could just claim she was biding her time for an ambush.

But Kemo had no such luxury now. Thick pillars of ice materialized out of thin air, crisscrossing as they violently hurled themselves toward Li Yu.

Before the ice could even reach him, the blazing ambient heat melted them down by half. Li Yu's Mechanical Arm brandished a Light Blade, effortlessly dicing the weakened pillars into nothingness with a few casual swipes.

However, that brief delay was all Yu Jin needed. Enveloped in a maelstrom of magnetic shrapnel, he finally closed the gap.

The relentless Xenomorphs had all been reduced to minced meat. His metallic chassis was thoroughly stained with corrosive green blood, continuously emitting harsh, violent sizzling sounds as the acid ate away at him.

"Die!" When he was less than twenty meters away from Li Yu, Yu Jin raised his empty left hand. Moving as if he still gripped the ten-meter Ship-breaking Blade, he viciously cleaved down.

The storm of shattered blades swirling around him instantly converged. Starting from the hilt, the metal fragments snapped together at blinding speed, instantly reforming into the massive Ship-breaking Blade.

By the time the blade fell, its tip was less than five meters away from Li Yu's face—a trivial distance for a warrior of Yu Jin's caliber.

He could already visualize the satisfying image of Li Yu being bisected from head to groin.

At that exact moment, the corpse of Shadow Kill suddenly sprang into action! It was as if she had been waiting for this perfect window to deliver a fatal strike!

'Perfect timing!'

Yu Jin felt a surge of profound relief. Shadow Kill had finally made her move when it mattered most, creating a flawless, inescapable death trap!

Yet, under Kemo's utterly horrified gaze, Shadow Kill hurled herself directly into Yu Jin's back! The immense physical impact violently shunted Yu Jin's trajectory, causing his devastating overhead cleave to miss Li Yu entirely and smash into empty space!

Kemo could hardly process what he was seeing, and Yu Jin was even more stunned. Because his guard was completely lowered around his own subordinate, he took the brunt of the collision head-on.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Yu Jin roared furiously. But Shadow Kill acted as if she could not hear him, launching a ruthless flurry of attacks against her own commander. Suddenly, a dark shadow loomed over Yu Jin.

Li Yu descended from above, gripping a blinding blue orb of pure energy, and ruthlessly slammed it directly into Yu Jin's face. It was the third time he had weaponized energy point-blank against his skull!

Boom!

A pale blue Energy Vortex erupted with apocalyptic fury. Yu Jin's auditory sensors screamed with piercing static, and his combat HUD flickered violently in a sea of errors.

He knew instantly that his cranial cybernetics were critically damaged. After suffering continuous, catastrophic blows, his mechanical chassis was finally reaching its breaking point.

Crack!

A fracture spiderwebbed across his head armor. A sudden, agonizing chill pierced his skull as something razor-sharp stabbed into the back of his head. Searing Electric Arcs flared as the needle rapidly destroyed his internal neuro-processors.

This was Shadow Kill's signature technique, designed specifically to assassinate Mechanical Cyborgs. She utilized micro-metallic needles to bypass external armor and fry their internal circuitry.

"Why?!" Yu Jin was completely baffled. Shadow Kill had absolutely zero reason to betray him; he had always treated her well!

Could it be... An impossible thought suddenly surfaced in his fracturing mind. That man!

If Li Yu could control those bizarre Ferocious Beasts, perhaps he could override Shadow Kill's cybernetics as well!

In reality, the one who was most terrified right now was Kemo. He watched helplessly as Shadow Kill stood squarely within the center of the energy blast. Thick smoke billowed from her body, her entire frame glowing cherry-red from the intense heat.

Her face was literally melting off. She was only a C-Grade Mechanical Augmentation; her skull had not yet undergone cybernetic replacement. Her synthetic skin sloughed off like hot wax, exposing blackened, desiccated flesh underneath. Her eyeballs had already been vaporized by the sheer heat.

Yet even as she burned alive, Shadow Kill relentlessly continued her furious assault on Yu Jin.

'Where did Shadow Kill get such deep-seated hatred for the Boss? She is pushing herself to literal death just to kill him! She was always so respectful...'

'Was her loyalty completely faked this whole time?'

However, as Kemo glanced at Li Yu—who was standing off to the side looking as light as wind and cloud—he finally realized the terrifying truth. This man was the one pulling the strings.

After his initial shock, Yu Jin finally retaliated. He violently swung his Ship-breaking Blade in a wide arc, sending Shadow Kill hurtling through the air. Half of her abdomen was sheared cleanly open, exposing highly intricate mechanical components that spat fountains of sparks.

It was only at this moment that she seemed to regain her consciousness. Unfathomable agony tore through her remaining organic neural pathways. She let out a blood-curdling shriek, completely oblivious as to how she had ended up in such a horrific state.

Her final memory was charging forward to assassinate Li Yu. Then, a strange, guttural phrase echoing 'Hear my command' whispered into her ear... and her mind had gone completely dark...

Yu Jin was now totally blind. Worse still, his System had completely crashed. Shadow Kill truly lived up to her reputation as a master assassin; her sabotage was incredibly precise and ruthlessly efficient.

His mangled head twitched violently. One of his optical sensors was missing entirely, spewing a steady stream of sparks. His cranial plating had peeled back, exposing large chunks of his exposed mechanical structure.

Gripping the Ship-breaking Blade tightly, Yu Jin swung blindly at his surroundings, terrified of an impending ambush.

Crash!

The endless tide of Xenomorphs surged over him once more. Although every desperate swing of his giant blade held devastating lethality, he lacked any target to aim for.

"Come out and fight me!" Yu Jin roared in miserable despair. Was he really going to meet his end in this godforsaken pit?

"You despicable coward! Face me in a fair fight!"

Li Yu was left utterly speechless. "You are a mighty B-Tier Lifeform, yet you are demanding a fair head-on fight with me? Do you have no shame?"

Smash!

Yu Jin barely managed to balance his ruined chassis, violently swinging his sword toward the source of the voice. He hit nothing but empty air. Instead, a concussive blast exploded against his skull.

Eight Light Blades hacked mercilessly at Yu Jin's exposed and vulnerable joints. The synchronized strikes filled him with agonizing pain and an overwhelming sense of humiliation.

He swung his massive Ship-breaking Blade in a frenzied panic, hitting absolutely nothing.

His consciousness began to rapidly fade. The highly corrosive Xenomorph blood had seeped through the cracks in his cranial armor, violently eating away at his delicate internal circuitry.

He knew his life was coming to an abrupt end. Because Shadow Kill had scrambled his System, he could not even initiate a final, suicidal engine overload.

"Haha..." Yu Jin let out a miserable, hollow laugh. Surrounded by an ocean of shrieking monsters, he cleaved through scores of Xenomorphs with a lazy flick of his wrist, but it was all utterly pointless.

"You will not escape either... None of you will! This entire planet will become my grave! Everyone will die... Hahaha... Everyone is going to burn..."

Li Yu watched silently as Yu Jin's Life Signs flickered out. The towering cyborg collapsed to the ground, lying perfectly still.

"Go check on him," he ordered the terrified Kemo standing nearby.

Kemo broke out in a cold sweat. Yes, Yu Jin looked completely dead...

And yes, since the three of them had their Systems networked, his HUD clearly confirmed that Yu Jin's Life Signs had flatlined. But this was a B-Tier Lifeform!

Who knew if the monster had some twisted contingency plan hidden in his chassis?

But if he refused, he knew Li Yu would slaughter him on the spot. Trembling uncontrollably, Kemo stepped forward. The surrounding Xenomorphs stared covetously, unleashing low, rumbling growls, but none made a move against him.

Mustering every ounce of courage he had, Kemo nudged Yu Jin's body with his boot. No response. He finally let out a long sigh of relief. But the exact second he turned his head... his pupils shrank to pinpricks.

A dull grey blade punched cleanly through his chest. He stared down in absolute disbelief as his strength instantly vanished.

Squelch!

The Ship-breaking Blade rapidly retracted segment by segment, and only then did Yu Jin truly breathe his last. Kemo slumped to the ground, clutching the massive hole in his chest as the light faded permanently from his eyes.

He had forgotten one fatal detail: once Yu Jin's System crashed, it could no longer broadcast or detect vital signals. The data Kemo had relied on was false.