As the Mechanical Mother’s voice fell, she abruptly raised her hand towards the sky, with streams of data cascading like a waterfall in her silver-white pupils.

Tens of thousands of glowing prismatic crystals flew out from her sleeves, forming a massive computational matrix in the void.

"I have already deciphered the spatial data within the Eye of the Void."

The Mechanical Mother’s voice was icy, seemingly capable of cutting through space.

"Breaking the array will require one hundred thousand tons of Star Essence Gold and eighty thousand units of Jade Marrow."

Whether it is Star Essence Gold or Jade Marrow, both are rare cosmic treasures, and also high-grade materials for the Mechanical Clan to shape their bodies. To produce so much material at once is difficult even for the present Mechanical Mother.

After all, she is merely a body outside the body.

"It’s still not enough."

Zhan Feng gently shook his head and continued to speak,

"This is merely the cost for you to break the array, but we must also settle accounts for the death of our War Alliance’s supreme genius."

Upon hearing this, the Mechanical Mother’s eyebrows furrowed, and she shook her head saying, "That has nothing to do with me, and I indeed don’t have much on me now."

Compared to her previous assertiveness, her refusal now could be considered as conceding.

Before she finished speaking, Zhan Feng suddenly smashed the spatial fragment beside him with a punch.

The Power Dao condensed into a dark gold tiger head at his fist’s edge, the roar reverberating against the shielding of the Mechanical Clan’s base and causing ripples, as he shouted, "Are you War Alliance going to declare war on our clan?"

"Brother."

Zhan Yun gently patted Zhan Feng’s shoulder, then turned to the Mechanical Mother, saying,

"Mother, if you truly intend to clear the suspicion on yourself, it would be better to produce the Mechanical Essence belonging to our junior so we can see your sincerity."

As these words were spoken, the surrounding crowd gasped audibly.

Mechanical Essence is the cornerstone of the Mechanical Clan, rumored to be able to reshape a cultivator’s bones.

Right at this moment, Jiang Shu noticed that Yu Tianming had somehow arrived next to him, the profound battle robe bearing bloodstains that hadn’t dried yet, indicating some kind of severe injury.

"Your Highness, the corpses within the Eye of the Void are rather strange, they don’t seem like the work of the Mechanical Clan; it appears someone is framing them."

Yu Tianming transmitted secretly, his voice very light.

Though Yu Tianming’s race belongs to the Jiuyu Commerce Alliance, she excels in socializing, and Yu Tianming’s biological mother is a lady from a powerful faction within the Inner Ring of the Star Ruins Realm, thus her perspective is top-notch, not to mention she harbors the Heavenly Snake Law, able to glimpse subtle Dao Rhyme.

According to her, she initially intended to wait for Jiang Shu’s arrival before entering the Eye of the Void, but as the others set out, Jiang Shu remained absent, forcing Yu Tianming to venture in alone.

Fortunately, she waited at the outskirts for Jiang Shu for some time, avoiding the true lethal zone of the trap, only suffering minor injuries, so she stayed in the Eye of the Void, investigating the situation within.

Jiang Shu naturally knew this, and simply nodded lightly without further words.

He raised his head, looking at the still-standing Mechanical Mother.

Suddenly, the Mechanical Mother tore off her left arm fiercely.

Silver-blue energy liquid congealed into ten mercury-like droplets of essence at the severed end, floating before Zhan Feng.

"For you."

Zhan Feng accepted with a cold sneer, turning away as his battle robe swept over the essence’s surface, the dark strength creating fine cracks as a precaution against tampering by the Mechanical Clan.

"Brother, this is for you."

Zhan Feng’s current demeanor still appeared furious, seemingly only because the Mechanical Mother wisely surrendered a large sum of precious cultivation resources, forcibly restraining his inward anger; it was merely a façade.

The Mechanical Mother was not the true culprit, Zhan Feng merely sought greater benefits while remembering his good brother, immediately giving four droplets of Mechanical Essence to Jiang Shu silently.

Such conduct might deceive other supreme geniuses or ancient monsters, but could hardly escape the Mechanical Mother’s discerning gaze, whose expressionless face finally showed some fluctuation.

Dividing cultivation resources in front of her, even she couldn’t stabilize her emotions.

Jiang Shu weighed the Mechanical Essence in his hand, discovering inside it an aura of Life-giving Qi so profound even he was moved, indeed a supreme treasure of the Mechanical Clan.

With a flick of Taichu Dao Rhyme at his fingertips, Jiang Shu discreetly erased any tracking runes possibly hidden in the cracks.

"Let’s go."

The Mechanical Mother seemed resigned to her fate.

Currently outmatched, she had no choice but to turn around, ascending into the sky, with her severed limb rapidly repairing due to her action.

Zhan Feng, equally intrigued by the powerful Mechanical Array, followed instead of the Mechanical Mother, reaching the vicinity of the so-called Eye of the Void.

The Eye of the Void appeared like a torn wound across the center of Deep Space Sea, its originally slow-turning spatial vortex now frozen like amber, its surface crawling with web-like mechanical patterns.

Thirty-seven corpses floated at the vortex’s edge, surrounded by fragmented space.

Each had a triangular core glowing red in their chest.

These were the supreme geniuses and ancient monsters who perished in the Mechanical Array; as for the other bodies, most had been reclaimed by their respective factions or were shattered by sharp spatial fragments, leaving only these thirty-seven corpses.

"Your Highness, look, this is the Mechanical Clan’s self-destruct program."

Yu Tianming crouched, prying off a metal piece from a corpse’s chest with her fingertips, offering it to the air.