"Firefly, you’re finally back." The woman had a wild air about her, and one could see a faint resemblance to Firefly in her features. In a calm voice, she asked, "Is this the one from your mating hunt?"

A flicker of panic crossed Firefly’s eyes. She glanced at Shen Feng and quickly explained to her mother,

"No, Shen Feng is just my friend. I... I didn’t go on a mating hunt."

"A friend?" The woman’s voice turned icy. "He’ll do as a sacrifice to the Mighty God."

With that, she walked over to Shen Feng and reached out with her slender fingers. A look of delight slowly spread across her face.

"This is... a Flawless Seed Source!?"

Her hand was like a nimble fish.

The other Night Women gathered around as well.

Not a single sign of mutation!

This man was, without a doubt, a precious Flawless Seed Source!

"Mother! Shen Feng is my friend! I won’t let you do this!" Firefly yelled, struggling to break free from the net, but the more she fought, the tighter it became.

The net was primarily made from the silk of an underground Spider, which was incredibly tough and difficult to break free from.

"It’s all right," Shen Feng said, giving Firefly a reassuring look to tell her not to worry. At the same time, he relaxed his body and offered no resistance.

He was in no hurry to clash with the Night Woman Tribe. What truly captivated him was this enormous underground space!

This must be near the lowest level of the Iron Country, completely different from the stations and other areas above. It looked more like a massive underground warehouse.

It was the size of several football fields. A forest of thick concrete pillars rose to support the vaulted brick ceiling above.

No lights were needed at all—not even much fluorescent moss.

Thousands of Night Women were gathered here, each emitting a soft fluorescent glow, like so many walking night-lights.

Their tall, slender figures glided through the darkness, like the Succubi or Elves of legend.

There were no men here, a clear sign of a matriarchal clan society.

As for any male infants, they were likely all exiled from the Night Woman Tribe, eventually forming other tribes of their own.

They held various metal tools in their hands—wrenches, steel pliers, screwdrivers, and so on—seemingly repurposed as weapons obtained from somewhere within this lost nation.

With its countless underground metal facilities and railway tracks, the Iron Country had no shortage of metal. Still, the sight of these standard-issue tools surprised Shen Feng.

The Night Women bound Shen Feng tightly with ropes, stringing him up between two massive stone pillars with his arms outstretched, like one suffering upon a cross.

The ropes were woven with iron wire, spider silk, and tough plant roots. They were so sturdy that, in his non-combat state, Shen Feng found it difficult to even twitch.

"Redstone, let him go!" Firefly cried out desperately. "Shen Feng has a mission! He has to save the world!"

Firefly’s mother, Redstone, looked at her daughter expressionlessly and said,

"What? You place so much value on a lowly, useless man? Even as a Flawless Seed Source, he is nothing more than a vessel for seed... As for ’saving the world’... Absurd! The Mighty God is here. This world will be saved by its power alone."

Firefly quickly retorted,

"Not just the world of the Iron Country! The Iron Country and the outside world—the entire world! There will be no more Rebirth Days, no more new Cursed Lands. Everyone will be able to live in peace on the surface!"

Hearing Firefly’s words, the surrounding Night Women exchanged glances before bursting into uproarious laughter. The sound, like crystals clashing together, echoed far into the underground space.

"No new Cursed Lands? People can live peacefully in the outside world?"

"What a joke! Those poor wretches on the filthy surface would kill to live in the Iron Country, to escape the omnipresent curse."

"There’s no such thing as a true Peach Blossom Spring. The Iron Country *is* Peach Blossom Spring!"

"Rebirth Day is a gift from the Divine Spirit. Do you think this man can challenge a Divine Spirit?"

Just then, the shield tunneling machine, which had been sitting silently to one side, roared to life. It rumbled forward and onto a smooth, flat platform.

The platform was made entirely of metal, and on it sat a huge metal cradle. The machine came to a stop in the cradle, like a weary person resting in bed.

At this, the surrounding Night Women all adopted expressions of reverent trepidation.

Redstone shouted,

"The Mighty God rests! It is time for the ritual; He requires our service! Quickly!"

The host of Night Women immediately swarmed over to the shield tunneling machine’s side.

Shen Feng then discovered, to his astonishment, that the Night Women had begun to repair the shield tunneling machine, striking it with the tools in their hands!

With varying rhythms, their tools beat out a primitive melody upon the machine’s hull.

They were remarkably skilled, swiftly removing damaged parts from the machine and replacing them with new ones.

Surrounding them were even more Night Women, prostrating themselves on the ground in the darkness. They swayed their hips, their bodies emitting a soft glow that illuminated the great machine as they performed a wild dance.

Metal gears were rolled out from the darkness, one after another, to replace various components of the machine.

Even one of the large cutter blades from the main cutting face was removed. Several Night Women carried it on their shoulders with pious expressions, dragging it to one side.

The Night Women now looked like a crew of mechanics, yet at the same time, a group of priestesses from some ancient era.

Judging by their rote techniques, the fixed, rhythmic striking, and even the seemingly pointless ritual dancing, this was less a mechanical repair and more of a religious ceremony.

Shen Feng watched this scene with rapt fascination.

’Clearly, these Night Women inherited the knowledge of the original shield tunneling machine mechanics. Or rather, they’re likely the descendants of that very crew.’

’But after being passed down for hundreds of years across a dozen generations, they’ve long since forgotten the true purpose behind the repairs. The process has evolved into a rigid, ritualized pattern.’

’Even some of the incidental noises from the repairs, perhaps even some accidental movements, have been incorporated as part of the pattern—part of the ’effective procedure,’ so to speak.’

’It’s like an ancient, secret dye recipe that includes prayer rituals, burning incense, stirring the mixture exactly three hundred times, and even all sorts of things that resemble Witchcraft.’

’The ancients didn’t know which specific step produced the unique color, so they preserved the entire process. Only in modern times was it discovered that the effect was caused by an oxidation reaction from iron filings flaking off the iron vat during stirring.’

’It’s similar to the most common criticism leveled against traditional medicine: the difficulty in isolating the active ingredients from the ritual.’

’For all these years, this was how the shield tunneling machine had been maintained, allowing it to continue traversing the Iron Country and carving out new territory.’

Soon, the damaged parts were brought to a nearby metal platform.

A group of Night Women performed an energetic dance, and the metal platform immediately lit up. It then pulled the damaged metal parts into an opening.

Immediately after, several mechanical arms rose up. Strands of gleaming metal wire were extruded and began to rapidly wind and solidify, forming a new part.

Shen Feng’s eyes widened. ’It’s a metal 3D printer!’

’This is also part of the machine’s maintenance system!’

The part replacement was complete. The Night Women caressed and touched the machine’s cylindrical body, and with a great roar, it started up again.

Then, with a pious expression, Redstone raised a Scepter-like object with both hands. It appeared to be one of the shield tunneling machine’s sensors.

She held the Scepter before her, and the massive machine now followed it, rumbling toward Shen Feng.

The final step of the ritual for the Mighty God: a living sacrifice.

Human sacrifice.