Chapter 121: Retreat

"Mr. Handy, can you crack this kind of magical equipment?"

Sun Licheng asked Mr. Handy while holding a bronze breastplate that had been worn by a hobgoblin. The bronze armor was crudely crafted but remarkably thick, with a crystalline halo shimmering across its surface; it was clearly a piece of magical equipment.

Mr. Handy used his electronic eyes to scan another bronze blade, which also pulsed with a blue light. Hearing Sun Licheng, he tilted his head and shook it. "I cannot do it. There are no traces of magical inscriptions on this equipment. The material itself must possess magical properties. In such cases, I am powerless."

Sun Licheng felt a sense of frustration at Mr. Handy's words, but then he thought of his own elemental guidance power. Although Mr. Handy’s electronic eyes were powerful, they could not penetrate the metal itself, whereas his elemental guidance could. Could he perhaps study it himself?

With this thought, Sun Licheng found a clean spot to sit in meditation. He held the breastplate flat in his palms, concentrated his spirit, and probed his consciousness into the interior of the armor.

Soon, a strange world appeared in Sun Licheng’s mind.

Sun Licheng was already very familiar with the internal structure of bronze, but this breastplate was vastly different from ordinary bronze. Beyond the metal elements that constituted the bronze, the interior was filled with many strange elements. These elements appeared metallic but were not; they were not only brilliantly colorful but also saturated with energy.

Sun Licheng tried to probe them with his consciousness, but to his surprise, he was blocked by the surrounding energy; his consciousness could not penetrate further.

After careful study, Sun Licheng confirmed that the reason the bronze breastplate possessed magical properties was precisely because of these strange elements inside.

These elements could not only absorb free energy from the world but also gather and release it outward. They even seemed to possess a certain vitality, responding to the guidance of Sun Licheng’s consciousness. However, Sun Licheng could not determine the specific rules by which these elements operated in such a short time.

"It seems that once I unlock the operating laws of these special elements, I will be able to master the method of enchantment."

Exiting his meditation, Sun Licheng stood up and looked at the large pile of magical equipment before him, feeling delighted.

As an engineer, although Sun Licheng was very interested in the magical equipment discarded by the Lunar Alliance, the most important matter at hand was the war.

Because the Lunar Alliance had employed powerful magical attacks, the defensive magic array, which had performed admirably on the first day, had been destroyed. After a fierce battle, the goblins of the Zhonghua Tribe had suffered nearly twenty casualties, and an equal number of mechanical puppets had been disabled.

Fortunately, they had won. The wounded could be properly treated, and the mechanical puppets could be hauled back to the underground fortress for repairs. All in all, only seven of his own had perished.

In contrast, the Lunar Alliance had left behind 2,256 corpses and had over a hundred prisoners taken. It was only because of Sun Licheng’s instructions before the battle that there were any captives at all; otherwise, given the brutal nature of the combat puppets and the goblins, there would have been none.

"Boss, what should we do with these prisoners?" Mr. Handy flew over and asked.

At this moment, Sun Licheng had arrived at the perimeter where the prisoners were held. Qinglong and the mechanical puppets had surrounded the goblin captives, while further away, the Zhonghua family warriors stood ready with their muskets.

When the prisoners saw Sun Licheng approaching, expressions of terror instantly appeared in their eyes, and they knelt on the ground, begging loudly for mercy. In their culture, killing captives was a perfectly ordinary practice.

Watching these men who had completely lost their will to fight, Sun Licheng gave a bitter smile and ordered Qinglong, "Let them all go." With that, he turned and walked away.

Soon, under the watchful eyes of the Zhonghua warriors, the prisoners helped one another and shambled out of the valley gate in a sorry state.

Seeing that the prisoners were gone, Sun Licheng convened a military meeting. The first item on the agenda was the strategy for their next move.

"Although this valley is easy to defend and hard to attack, it is, in reality, a dead end. We must evacuate as soon as possible," Mr. Handy said at the start, pointing to a 3D terrain map of the valley on the light screen.

Seeing the gourd-shaped valley, anyone with a normal level of intelligence nodded in agreement.

"But the question is, how do we evacuate?" asked Xiaobaicai.

"If we fight our way out, I think there is a chance, but the casualties will certainly be heavy. Plus, we would have to abandon everything in the camp, which would be a great pity," said Grant, who had been promoted to a junior officer due to his heroic performance.

Just then, Dogmeat ran in. Although he could not fly very far, he had taken his machine into the sky after the battle, and he must have brought back new intelligence.

"It seems they have just changed their tactics to maintain the siege. I wonder what their next move will be," Sun Licheng thought to himself, looking at the latest tactical map.

The goblins of the Lunar Alliance, though heavily damaged, had not gone far. Instead, they had formed a large perimeter around the area, clearly intending to wear Sun Licheng and his people down.

But as Grant had said, if they tried to break out blindly, they would inevitably suffer heavy losses. Just as everyone was looking distressed, Mr. Handy spoke up: "Boss, can we check the research facility? According to the design standards of the Goblin Empire, such an important military facility must have an emergency escape tunnel. If we find it, we have a great chance of escaping."

Hearing Mr. Handy’s words, Sun Licheng’s eyes lit up.

There were no goblins working in the mercury mines anymore; the place was empty. However, upon entering the bottom tunnels, Sun Licheng was surprised to find many large spiders. Fortunately, these spiders showed no hostility toward them, merely running about on their own business. Sun Licheng speculated that these spiders had been summoned by Huabei.

When he met Huabei, Sun Licheng found that the creature was living quite well, followed by four tall spider subordinates. If it were to take on a human form and wear a suit, it would truly have the air of a mob boss.

"Huabei, you've been living well lately," Sun Licheng greeted with a smile.

Although Huabei had a group of lackeys, it clearly knew who the real leader was and hurriedly bowed to Sun Licheng.

Through Huabei’s explanation, Sun Licheng understood that the large bead he had given it was a treasure, serving as a token of the spider tribe's chieftain. Whoever possessed this bead could summon other spiders to join them and quickly establish their own tribe. This was the reason Huabei had defected so decisively; the position of chieftain was simply too great a temptation.

Since Huabei was his recruit, the stronger it was, the more beneficial it was for him. Sun Licheng patted the spider’s body happily, telling it to keep working hard and strive to build a great spider tribe.

After exchanging pleasantries with Huabei, Sun Licheng arrived in front of the research facility. At that moment, with a rumbling sound, a large steam combat puppet emerged from the corner.

Sun Licheng smiled at the sight of the big guy and raised his hand to greet him. As it turned out, following the previous battle, Sun Licheng had taken over the entire facility, and this tall steam puppet had become his subordinate. Because of its massive size and the importance of the facility, it had been left behind to serve as a guard.

After saying goodbye to the steam combat puppet, Sun Licheng and his group entered the facility. Sure enough, after a search, they discovered that the facility had multiple emergency evacuation tunnels, one of which led directly behind the mountain, beyond the perimeter of the Lunar Alliance’s siege.

Arriving at that tunnel, Sun Licheng found that it had partially collapsed, but it was still usable. After consulting with Mr. Handy, he began to implement the evacuation plan.

To speed up the process, Sun Licheng even summoned Huabei’s subordinates, striving to take everything they could carry.

Watching the busy crowd, Sun Licheng sighed. Although the tribal camp had not been built long ago, it had cost them a great deal of effort. Leaving it behind, and even destroying it, was inevitably saddening.

Yet, looking at the sunset on the horizon, Sun Licheng clenched his fists and shouted silently in his heart: "I will be back!"