Volume 5, Chapter 29 – Imperial Dao

Hanmeng?

Instinctively, Bai Xiang began searching the memory-bank data recorded by “Yuming.” She quickly pulled up several entries connected to that name.

Some of those records came from the strategic materials she had browsed online while traveling to Xia Capital. The rest came from the two federal second lieutenants she had killed in an instant.

And according to those records, if this man was not lying, then he should be one of the five permanent Executive Governors of the Star Sea Federation, and also the owner of the S-rank, or Saint-grade by the standards here, construct mech known as the “Radiant Emperor.”

That was right. The Star Sea Federation claimed to the outside world that it was a democratic republic, but in truth it was nothing more than a gigantic puppet controlled and guarded by one corporate giant after another. After ten years of war, Eastern Xia had already reached its weakest point. The Federation had long wanted to swallow up Eastern Xia’s territory, so naturally it would choose a moment like this to send someone of sufficient weight to negotiate cooperation with the other factions.

At that thought, Bai Xiang narrowed her eyes slightly.

She remembered clearly that the Star Sea Federation had more than one construct mech on the level of the Radiant Emperor.

Five permanent Executive Governors meant that the Federation could bring out at least four more machines like this.

A mech that called itself Saint-grade and dared crown itself with such a title… did it truly possess strength equal to that Sacred Court Holy Lord? Or was it merely putting on a show?

Words were pointless.

Let me see what you are worth.

To everyone else, Bai Xiang appeared to remain motionless where she stood. But the brown-haired Hanmeng frowned abruptly, his body shooting backward through the air as a blinding white radiance burst from him.

The light was far too dazzling. As it spread, the outline of his entire body began to warp and swell bit by bit. And when the brilliance weakened slightly and one looked again, his whole body had actually transformed into an enormous mech, pure white from head to toe, with luminous blue lines flowing continuously through every welded seam of its armor while the white armor itself constantly radiated halos of light outward.

“So, Sacred Weapon Clan, is it?”

Bai Xiang appeared above the mech at the same moment. Looking down proudly at the body below, she swung her sword down in a full arc with her right arm.

Void-Imagination Divine Sword, Mountain-Cleaving Form!

Yu Wenyue and the others frowned as they stared at the scene. They saw only the Radiant Emperor suddenly draw in the “light” around its body and gather it above its head into a beam of white radiance, which in the next instant slammed into the descending sword-light.

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Szzzt!

A gigantic sphere of white light swelled into being where they met. The glaring brilliance drowned out everything, and what followed was an unprecedented explosion. Violent winds flung everything nearby outward, and even the high-rise buildings were stripped down to their bare frames.

What kind of technology is this? It can actually gather and compress light-energy to this extent?

Retreating a few steps in midair, Bai Xiang was a little surprised.

Since beginning her lone northern campaign, this was the first enemy who had taken one of her sword-strikes head-on and still appeared to have suffered no real damage.

Below her, Hanmeng, now fully mechanized, wiped a cold sweat from his heart and inwardly cursed the woman for being insane. Who started fighting without saying a single word first?

On the surface, the Radiant Emperor truly showed no damage at all. Hanmeng raised the mech’s head, and beneath the sharply sculpted helmet armor, handsome in a stern and martial way, two blue targeting lights lit up. At the same time, he grew deeply wary of how troublesome Bai Xiang was.

Through cutting-edge photonic technology, combined with the mindstream control created through Dao-Void Methods, the Radiant Emperor could devour and absorb most of the light-energy produced by the explosion just now. That was the real reason it had been able to keep up appearances.

But what about Bai Xiang?

From Hanmeng’s observation, not only was she uninjured, not even the hem of her black robe-dress had been torn.

Then to what extent had she controlled her power?

Could the Radiant Emperor alone really suppress her?

Before coming here, Hanmeng had been nearly certain of this mission’s success. But now a shadow had fallen over his heart. He kept using magnetic radar to scan the surroundings, waiting for the promised reinforcements.

“Interesting.”

Bai Xiang tipped her chin at the Radiant Emperor.

“Then let’s continue.”

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The instant the words fell, her figure blurred, trailing a string of overlapping afterimages stretching forward, and she rushed before the Radiant Emperor in an instant, bringing down the exact same full-force sword-stroke again.

Hanmeng’s expression sharpened. He controlled the Radiant Emperor to raise an armored forearm, and the light across its whole body condensed into a round shield of white radiance.

Szzzt!

Sword met shield, and another sphere of light erupted.

The explosion spread outward. In the next moment Hanmeng’s heart jumped as a fatal warning came over him from nowhere. Before he could react, he felt an enormous force smash into his chest and abdomen. He plunged diagonally from midair and crashed through the city, plowing a deep trench through it with a thunderous roar.

“It didn’t even fall apart.”

Bai Xiang remained suspended in the air, drawing back the leg she had just kicked out, a flicker of excitement flashing through her eyes.

“So it really is one body?”

“There’s no pilot inside?”

“Am I dreaming…?” Down below, on a wrecked street, the girl in the green dress who had earlier bought beast hide huddled behind a piece of cover with the middle-aged man in utter disarray. Wiping blood from the corner of her mouth, she stared dumbfounded toward the sky, toward the cloud of dust raised by the Radiant Emperor’s fall.

That was the Radiant Emperor, a federal Executive Governor who could suppress a demon tide in the hundred-thousand range by itself!

Northern Yu’s propaganda about the Federation was mostly positive. She often saw news online about technical exchanges and all kinds of cooperation between the two sides, so she was naturally very familiar with the Radiant Emperor’s performance. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined that someone in this world could contend with it using flesh and blood alone.

How could this be?

The girl in green was filled with shock and incomprehension.

It was one thing for the others earlier to be unable to beat Di Xiang, but even the strongest of the Sacred Weapon Clan could not win?

Didn’t the news say the Sacred Weapon Clan was a higher race?

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It was supposed to be an “evolved” people combining the Dao-Void human race with the weapon-engineering Dao… capable of using technology and divine abilities at the same time. How could they fail to subdue Di Xiang?

She could not understand the situation at all. She was completely stunned.

Damn it…

With a boom, Hanmeng drove the Radiant Emperor out of the dust cloud. The radiance over its whole body condensed in its hand, forming a gigantic sword of light dozens of meters long, which it hacked at Bai Xiang in fury.

This woman…

As if deliberately testing its output, Bai Xiang raised her sword to block and made no move to evade.

Bang!

Crack!

Szzzt!

Boom!!!

The two crossed paths again and again in midair, force against force, hard against hard. Nearly every collision produced a small-scale explosion of light.

“That’s about enough.”

After several rounds of fierce battle, Bai Xiang felt she had tested enough.

This construct mech that claimed to be Saint-grade did indeed have its marvelous aspects. For example, that metal body had gained the authority to run Dao-Void Method pathways by fusing with flesh, allowing it, in terms of power output and certain traits, to withstand attacks at this level.

But it was incomplete.

It had abandoned the human race’s innate body, only to hand the core determinants of power over to metal, over to technology.

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That did make for quick results, granting powerful strength in short order. But what about your twelve hidden great meridians?

How were you supposed to excavate your three Origin Orifices?

And above all, the Hidden Spirit Orifice. How were you supposed to make up for that most crucial element, the one that determined the strength of your soul?

“Don’t say I’m bullying you.

“This flaw of yours is self-inflicted.”

The airy chant slipped quietly into Hanmeng’s heart.

What…

Hanmeng stared in shock. But in the next instant, Bai Xiang suddenly burst out of the drifting light-dust. With one hand she used her sword to knock aside the light-shield, and with the other she lightly planted her left palm against the Radiant Emperor’s chest.

Bang!

Caught completely off guard, with no mental preparation whatsoever, a half-transparent soul-shadow was shaken out from inside the Radiant Emperor’s body. It fell into the air wearing an astonished expression, and it was none other than Hanmeng’s earlier human form.

“Federal Executive Governor, colluding with Northern Yu without authorization.

“You too deserve death.”

The cold pronouncement came from above his head. He looked up in shock and saw only a pair of majestic golden eyes.

The person gazing down at him raised her sword again.

The sword-light fell.

Like the sun casting down its crown.