Soul Land IV (Douluo Dalu) : Ultimate Fighting

910 – Deep Underground
TL: BluVerse

Tang Yuge said in a deep voice, “The concentration of metal elements here is extremely high, probably exceeding ninety percent. Although these Dragon Source metals can only be considered low-grade rare metals, the quantity is enormous. Just mining and refining them alone would be a tremendous harvest.”

“There are many Source Dragons outside, and many of them are extremely powerful. They are very sensitive to the metal element, but I’m simulating ourselves with Metal Escape in the form of Dragon Source Gold. So they should perceive us as Dragon Source Gold and not notice our presence. The magnetic field here cannot detect the situation underground, so it’s reasonable that they can’t perceive us, but I must maintain Metal Escape.”

Lan Xuanyu asked, “With your cultivation, how long can you maintain it?”

Tang Yuge replied, “No problem, I have my Soul Core support, and with the abundance of metal elements here, it’s enough for me to absorb and transform. Without fighting, it’s no problem to maintain Metal Escape for a long time. Shall we continue deeper?”

“Let’s go. With your Metal Escape technique, it seems our chances of completing the mission have greatly increased,” Lan Xuanyu said with a smile. The ability to use Metal Escape to infiltrate was their unique advantage, something many Sky Fighters didn’t have.

Even in this dangerous gray area, as long as Tang Yuge could use Metal Escape, unless they encountered Source Dragons head-on, they wouldn’t be discovered; they would only be mistaken for Dragon Source Gold. That was the strength of Tang Yuge.

A faint green light emanated from Lan Mengqin’s body, enveloping the four of them, and boosting their spirits. This was pure life energy, capable of keeping them in their optimal state.

Tang Yuge led the three deeper into the gray area. They didn’t have a clear direction, but Tang Yuge could find the way back based on her memory of the metal elements, so there was no need to worry about getting lost in the gray area.

As Tang Yuge led the three deeper into the gray area, she also used her perception of the metal elements to sense everything outside.

There were also many Source Dragons in the gray area. Judging from their aura, level eight Source Dragons, which were rare outside the gray area, were extremely common here. There were also some with particularly strong auras, and Tang Yuge didn’t dare to use her spiritual power mixed with metals elements to probe them.

“Xuanyu, something’s not right,” Tang Yuge said in a low voice.

“What’s wrong?” Lan Xuanyu asked hastily.

Tang Yuge said, “We’ve been advancing for almost half an hour, and in the place we just passed, I sensed at least five suspected level-nine Source Dragons. Level-nine Source Dragons are at least equivalent to the Hyper Douluo level when wearing Battle Armor, or even stronger. There are also over a hundred level-eight Source Dragons.”

“And the area we’ve explored so far is at most one percent of the gray area. If we calculate based on this density, the number of high-level Source Dragons in this gray area would be a terrifying figure. With such terrifying strength, why don’t they attack the Dragon Source Base?”

Lan Xuanyu immediately understood Tang Yuge’s meaning. It was obvious that the Source Dragons knew of the existence of humans, otherwise, they wouldn’t frequently launch Source Dragon Tides to attack the Dragon Source Base. While the base was well-equipped and had many strong individuals, if within this gray area, there were not just 1 or 2 level-nine Source Dragons, but hundreds, what would that mean? If they launched a full-scale attack, they would be able to destroy the base. But why didn’t they launch an attack and instead allow humans to hunt them?

According to the records of the base, even during Source Dragon Tides, at most, only one level-nine Source Dragon would appear each time.

On the base side, the interior of the gray area had never been deeply explored, meaning the Federation military didn’t know about the number of level-nine Source Dragons here.

Just discovering this situation, Lan Xuanyu and his team had essentially completed half of this Level 5 team mission.

“If we can find the cause of this situation, we should consider the mission accomplished,” Lan Xuanyu said, his tone serious.

According to the Federation’s assessment, Source Dragons were creatures without intelligence, relying solely on instinct in battle.

However, when they first came to Dragon Source Planet, Lan Xuanyu felt something was odd. If Source Dragons truly had no intelligence, how could they judge the timing of advance and retreat? If their instinct was only for fighting, why had there never been cases of them killing each other? And the Source Dragon Tides didn’t seem like completely unguided battles either.

Now, within this gray area, they had discovered so many powerful Source Dragons. Did this mean that Source Dragons had intelligence, and perhaps plotting something?

The Dragon Source Crystals produced on Dragon Source Planet were extremely important to the Federation government, being pure energy that could directly serve as the core energy source for warships. This greatly satisfied the Federation’s needs for ship energy, allowing them to allocate more resources to ship manufacturing.

The fact that Lei Junze, who guarded this resource planet, was about to be promoted from Rear Admiral to Vice Admiral showed just how important the resources of Dragon Source Planet were to the Federation.

This resource planet itself was near several administrative stars of the Federation, so there was no need to worry about attacks from external forces or interstellar pirates. Everything seemed perfect.

The more Lan Xuanyu thought about this, the more uneasy he felt. Somehow, he felt like he had grasped something, yet couldn’t fully confirm it.

“Let’s continue deeper, and you keep probing, recording the number of level-nine Source Dragons you discover,” Lan Xuanyu said solemnly.

The four of them continued deeper, and the underground world seemed to have become their domain, with the ability of Metal Escape perfectly suited for them to hide here.

They even removed their Battle Armor to reduce Tang Yuge’s burden as much as possible.

Continuing forward, constantly changing directions for exploration, Tang Yuge’s expression became increasingly serious.

She could sense that although the Source Dragons on the ground were not distributed very evenly, there were numerous powerful Source Dragons. She had sensed the aura of level-nine Source Dragons time and time again. She had no doubt that if they appeared on the ground now, they would be torn to pieces by the Source Dragons above, because there were just too many powerful Source Dragons up there.

You see, when Source Dragons reached the ninth level, with their mastery of the metal element, they were capable of launching terrifying attacks like Metal Storm on a large scale at any moment. If there was only one Source Dragon, they could still try to resist. If there were two Source Dragons, they would almost certainly die, let alone with so many level-eight Source Dragons around.

“Sixteen,” Tang Yuge reported each time, and Lan Xuanyu’s expression became one notch more serious. They had already discovered sixteen suspected level-nine Source Dragons.

Fortunately, they hadn’t found any level-ten Source Dragons yet, beings whose strength was at least comparable to the Ultimate Douluo level, or even possibly at the level of god tier. Otherwise, the other side might have discovered them.

Suddenly, Tang Yuge stopped and turned her head to the right, looking surprised.

“What’s wrong, Yuge?” Bai Xiuxiu asked.

Tang Yuge replied, “Something’s not right over there. My spiritual power sensed a pause over there. It seems like there’s a cave.”

“Hmm? Let’s go check it out,” Lan Xuanyu immediately said.

In fact, he was already prepared to have Tang Yuge lead everyone in retreat. Even though they were only moving underground, this discovery was truly astonishing! There were so many level-nine Source Dragons in the gray area that even god-tier experts would probably find it difficult to escape unscathed. Moreover, they didn’t even know if there were level-ten Source Dragons present. With so many powerful Source Dragons, why hadn’t they attacked the base? This was puzzling.

Just this news alone was enough to prompt the Federation to mobilize its forces.

Tang Yuge led the three of them to move to the right. Suddenly, she stopped and turned to look at Lan Xuanyu, her expression becoming unusually serious.