My Infinite Cultivation System-Chapter 83: Inside the ruin

Alex stood silently in front of the massive ruin gate.

His eyes were fixed on the enormous door before him.

The ruin gate towered nearly forty meters high, embedded directly into the rocky cliff face. The material was unlike any metal Alex had seen before. Its surface was a smooth dark alloy that reflected faint silver lines under the dim light of the underground chamber. Thousands of microscopic patterns covered the entire structure, forming intricate circuits that seemed both mechanical and organic.

The moment Alex focused on them carefully, he realized something unusual.

The patterns were moving.

Extremely slowly, the thin silver lines shifted across the surface like flowing rivers of light, constantly rearranging themselves into new geometric formations.

"This is definitely not something built by humans," Alex muttered quietly.

He stepped closer.

The moment he came within ten meters of the door, the surface suddenly emitted a faint humming sound.

The silver patterns began to glow.

A deep mechanical vibration spread through the entire ruin gate.

Then a sharp beam of blue light suddenly scanned across Alex’s body from head to toe.

Alex instantly tensed.

All his defensive mechanisms were ready to activate at any moment, but the scanning beam disappeared as quickly as it appeared.

For several seconds, nothing happened.

Then the gate suddenly spoke.

A cold mechanical voice echoed through the chamber.

"Biological entity detected."

"Unknown species."

"Gene structure incompatible."

"Access denied."

The glowing patterns on the door abruptly dimmed.

The humming stopped.

The gate returned to its previous silent state as if nothing had happened.

Alex stared at it with a slightly darkened expression.

"So that is how it works," he said slowly.

The ruin clearly required some kind of biological identification system.

The Mecha Race must have designed the gate to recognize only their own genetic structure.

Alex frowned slightly.

"I could destroy the door," he considered briefly.

However, the idea disappeared just as quickly.

The material of the gate was extremely strange. Even with his current strength, Alex was not confident he could break it. More importantly, if the ruin was truly built by a cosmic mechanical civilization, there was a high possibility that destroying the gate would trigger a defensive protocol.

That could be far more troublesome.

Alex placed his palm on the metal surface.

It felt perfectly smooth and unnaturally cold.

"Rafael," he said calmly.

"Analyze this gate."

A faint glow appeared in Alex’s pupils as the soul system began scanning.

Several seconds passed.

Then Rafael replied.

[I cannot hack this system.]

Alex raised an eyebrow slightly.

"Oh?"

[The technology level of this ruin is extremely advanced. The core control network is located inside the ruin, not within the gate itself.]

[The door is only a biological recognition terminal.]

Alex slowly withdrew his hand.

"So unless I have the correct genes, the door will never open."

[Correct.]

Alex crossed his arms and stared at the gate in silence.

Several minutes passed.

Then his gaze slowly shifted toward the surrounding cliff walls.

"If the door is only an entry point, there should still be ventilation channels, maintenance tunnels, or energy pipelines connected to the ruin."

He began carefully inspecting the surrounding rock surface.

The chamber was enormous. The cliff walls extended nearly two hundred meters upward, disappearing into darkness.

Normal martial artists would have problems to find anything here.

However, Alex’s perception was far beyond ordinary limits.

His divine sense spread outward like an invisible net.

Every inch of the cliff wall was scanned.

Stone.

Stone.

More stone.

Then suddenly Alex’s eyes narrowed.

He found something.

Nearly eighty meters above the ground, hidden behind a thick layer of rock, was a thin cylindrical structure.

It was extremely small compared to the gate.

Barely two meters in diameter.

But its internal structure was clearly mechanical.

Without hesitation, his body rose into the air.

Within seconds he reached the location.

Alex placed his palm against the rock surface and released a focused gravitational pulse.

The stone disintegrated instantly.

A hidden tunnel was revealed.

Inside the opening was a long metallic pipeline that extended directly into the cliff.

Alex leaned forward and examined it.

The interior walls were filled with mechanical grooves and small energy nodes.

"This looks like a maintenance tunnel," he said. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Rafael responded almost immediately.

[Correct.]

[This structure is likely used by maintenance drones.]

Alex smiled slightly.

"So I can enter from here."

He crouched down and stepped into the narrow tunnel.

The moment his body fully entered, the pipeline suddenly lit up with red warning lights.

A piercing alarm echoed through the tunnel.

"Unauthorized intrusion detected."

"Defense units activated."

Alex’s expression instantly changed.

Before he could even react, the tunnel walls split open.

Dozens of mechanical panels unfolded simultaneously.

From within them emerged sleek metallic weapons.

Energy cannons.

Hundreds of tiny barrels instantly aimed at Alex’s body.

"Warning."

"Exterminate intruder."

The next second the tunnel erupted with light.

BOOM!

A terrifying beam of condensed energy blasted directly toward Alex.

The power contained within that single attack was enough to vaporize an entire mountain.

Alex’s pupils contracted.

The space around him twisted violently.

The energy beam bent slightly as if striking an invisible wall.

However, the force behind it was still overwhelming.

BOOM!

Alex’s body was blasted out of the tunnel like a cannonball.

He crashed directly into the stone ground below.

The entire chamber trembled.

Dust and shattered rocks filled the air.

Several seconds later Alex slowly stood up from the crater.

His clothes were partially burned and faint blood appeared at the corner of his mouth.

His expression was no longer calm.

"That attack...," he muttered.

"That was definitely at the Star Realm level."

The tunnel above him continued flashing red warning lights.

More mechanical weapons extended outward.

Another wave of attacks began charging.

Alex immediately moved.

His body vanished from the crater and reappeared several hundred meters away.

The next instant dozens of energy beams rained down onto the ground where he had been standing.

Each explosion created massive craters.

Alex looked at the devastation with a dark expression.

"If I stayed there for one more second, I would have died."

The ruin’s defense system was far more dangerous than he expected.

Even with his current abilities, those attacks were lethal.

Alex stared at the tunnel above.

For a moment he considered abandoning the attempt entirely.

"There is no point risking my life here," he thought.

"Whatever treasures are inside the ruin are not worth dying for. I’ll comeback later after becoming powerful enough."

He turned slightly, preparing to leave the chamber.

Then Rafael suddenly spoke.

[Wait.]

Alex stopped.

"What?"

[I may be able to control them.]

Alex frowned.

"What do you mean?"

[These robots are operating on a centralized command network.]

[If I can access their data stream, I may be able to override their authority hierarchy.]

Alex crossed his arms.

"And how long will that take?"

[Thirty minutes.]

Alex looked back at the tunnel.

The warning lights were still flashing, but the weapons had returned to standby mode after losing their target.

"Thirty minutes," Alex repeated slowly.

"And during that time?"

[You must remain within signal range.]

[If you leave the ruin’s communication field, I will lose access to their network.]

Alex’s eyes narrowed slightly.

"So basically I have to stand here and hope they do not fire again. What a bullshit!"

[Correct.]