Chapter 401: Hero

The spear struck Kaiyang in midair like a shooting star—a streak of absolute, dazzling black.

Sparks showered from the friction between thorns and steel. Drops of molten alloy rained down. In Kaiyang's ears, warning alarms blared frantically.

"Warning!!! Chassis overheating! Core damage at 3%! Organic body damage at 17%! Warning!"

Searing pain flared from his wounds. Kaiyang immediately injected painkillers into his system. Those damn threads were still squirming, multiplying by the second. His internal systems had already started clearing them out, but it would take time.

His thruster exhaust ports were gradually clogging, forcing his altitude lower and lower.

"What are you trying to do?"

Clinging to his last shred of hope, Kaiyang watched Yan Jing walking toward him step by step.

"Kill you all."

Three more spears, wrapped in the Power of the White Stone and thick fog, drove straight through Kaiyang's legs and abdomen.

Kaiyang had never imagined that as the strongest of the Seven Stars behind only Tianshu, he would be rendered utterly defenseless by a mere thread.

And to make matters worse, his opponent was a full tier lower than him.

This guy was a monster.

"Why?"

He raised his head to look at Yan Jing, his eyes filled with bitter reluctance.

"She tried to kill me."

Yan Jing pointed at Tianxuan cradled in Kaiyang's arms and spoke flatly.

Kaiyang had no retort to that. But a moment later, he asked, "Then what about me?"

"As for you—"

Yan Jing's expression remained calm. "I can't rule out the possibility that you will, either."

"Wait, wait!"

Facing Yan Jing's raised spear, Kaiyang threw his hand out. "I still have something to say."

Without waiting to see if Yan Jing would stop him, he rapidly continued, "You've seen this country, right? I don't know how much you understand about it, but it's nowhere near as glamorous as it looks on the surface."

Kaiyang pointed toward the distant skyscrapers hidden in the clouds and mist. Each building was like a pillar supporting the sky, standing at least several hundred stories tall.

"What do you think lives inside those buildings? Monsters. The bloodsuckers draining this country."

"The people at the bottom actually live miserable lives. Every single day, they just work, pay rent, work, buy enough food to stay alive, sleep, and then work some more."

"We in the Seven Stars aren't the villains you think we are. We want to reform this place."

Desperate for a final sliver of hope to survive, and trying to stall for time, Kaiyang abandoned all restraint.

He wasn't usually good with words, but facing life and death was a different matter entirely. Besides, he felt it would be completely unjustified if he died here. He genuinely hadn't done anything. Even though Tianxuan had told him to kill Yan Jing, he hadn't actually made a move yet.

He was only spilling all of this because he was completely out of options.

He didn't understand Yan Jing at all. He could only guess—since Yan Jing had effortlessly slaughtered criminals during the Sin Live Broadcast, and was now hunting down the Seven Stars, he most likely harbored a deep hatred for criminals.

So, he wanted to prove that the Seven Stars weren't bad people.

"So you're saying you aren't bad people?" Yan Jing smiled faintly.

"Right, exactly!"

Kaiyang nodded eagerly.

Yan Jing chuckled. "So, what have you actually accomplished?"

"We've assassinated plenty of high-ranking officials!"

Speaking of this, Kaiyang grew animated. "Those corrupt officials embezzled and took bribes—they did every dirty deed imaginable!"

A mechanical wire extended from his chest, pulling out a list and unfolding it right in front of Yan Jing.

"They're all right here!"

Yan Jing took the list, glanced at it for a moment, and put it away.

"I acknowledge that you're a good person now."

Yan Jing nodded. The very next second, just as Kaiyang joyfully thought the two of them were saved, Yan Jing thrust his spear forward, directly striking Tianxuan in his arms.

That head—one that could easily be called beautiful—simply exploded, splattering all over Kaiyang.

Kaiyang froze in a daze. Then, blinding fury rushed straight to his head.

"I told you! We are heroes!!!"

The stubborn threads had finally been mostly cleared from his body. Light bloomed from his chest as his spinning mechanical core pushed to its absolute limit, roaring like a stampede of ten thousand wild horses.

The mechanical components across his body continuously retracted, interlocked, and shifted. His massive frame condensed from a giant several meters tall down to a normal stature of about two meters.

If he had been a mechanical monster before, right now he looked more like a work of art.

Streamlined arcs of light flowed across his body. Every mechanical part fit together seamlessly, but this compression absolutely did not mean a decrease in his power.

He lightly clenched his fist, instantly producing a booming explosion of sound.

"I've killed two Seventh Rank experts before. You've really kicked a steel plate this time."

Kaiyang's voice was low, laced with a raging inferno of anger.

The next instant, he charged straight at Yan Jing.

With a thunderous boom, a powerful shockwave expanded from the center of their clash. This time, Yan Jing was forced back several meters.

He had lost the exchange.

In terms of pure strength, even with the buffs from his Fear Stance and the Power of the White Stone, he still hadn't reached a level where he could overpower a Seventh Rank.

But Kaiyang gave Yan Jing no chance to breathe. In a flash, he lunged forward again.

He couldn't maintain his current state forever, either; every extra second placed a severe load on his mechanical core.

He rushed straight up and violently collided with Yan Jing once more.

The clash of steel and flesh whipped up a fierce gale.

"Do you know what justice is?! Do you know what a sinner is?! Do you have any idea how much effort we've put in?!"

Kaiyang's usually cynical face was now contorted with rage. It was as if he were venting all the doubts and criticism he had suffered over the years onto Yan Jing, battering him back continuously. "You people understand absolutely nothing! We are the true heroes of this country that has rotted to its very core!"

"They should build a monument for us! Our names should be praised for ten thousand generations!!!"

Looking at Yan Jing, who was completely on the defensive against him, a gleam of excitement flashed across his face. "Including you! You're a sinner too! A destabilizing factor for the Peace Heavenly Kingdom!!!"

"Die! Once I kill you, the Heavenly Kingdom will be one step closer to stability!!"

However, just as Kaiyang immersed himself in the joy of his impending victory, Yan Jing's words splashed over his head like a bucket of ice water.

"So, is the Anthill any better now?"

"What did you say?" Kaiyang froze, looking across at Yan Jing, whose arms were now crossed.

Yan Jing's eyes were mocking. "I asked you: has the Anthill gotten better because of you?"

"Or has it gotten worse?"

"What do you know! You human—" Kaiyang grew even more furious, raising his fist to forcibly shut Yan Jing up.

But Yan Jing's next sentence made his pupils shrink. "Did the Happy Water incident triggered by Tianji make the Anthill better? Or did Tianxuan manipulating the stock market improve the lives of the Anthill's residents?"

"Do you know how many people died in the Happy Water incident? Do you know how many children died in Nuochen Biotech's pollution spill this time?"

"You claim you are heroes of the Peace Heavenly Kingdom, but it doesn't seem like you ever bothered to ask the dead if they needed you."

Yan Jing's words were like a barrage of steel needles piercing straight into Kaiyang's chest.

"You—who are you?!"

He stared at Yan Jing in shock, an unshakable dread welling in the depths of his eyes as he registered Tianji's name. "You were the one who killed Tianji?!"

"I'm asking you a question." Yan Jing's gaze darkened. "Don't change the subject."

An oppressive aura suddenly surged around him, and his displayed weird energy levels skyrocketed exponentially.

Sixth Tier, Seventh Rank, Eighth Tier!!!

Boosted by the Stone Immortal, he unleashed the suffocating pressure of the Eighth Tier. The aura belonging to someone at the Summit utterly terrified Kaiyang.

"I'm asking you. Did you make the Anthill a better place or not?"

"I'm asking you, did Tianxuan make her money off the anthill people or not?"

"Let me ask you again—were the anthill people the first to die from the Happy Water?"

"You want me to see justice, but where is this justice?"

"I don't see it."

At this moment, Yan Jing seemed to transform into a transcendent being. His every movement carried an indisputable majesty, as if a Deity were whispering.

The wrath of a Deity was rarely shown on the surface.

Behind him, an inky shadow materialized. It reached out its right hand, and a row of floating piano keys appeared beneath its fingers.

Then, the sound of a piano flowed out like a clear spring, only to turn violent in an instant, transforming into monstrous, towering waves. Finally, the massive waves subsided, leaving a tranquil calm in their wake.

Everything in the surroundings seemed to freeze amid the piano music.

Moonlight—March.

For two seconds, the only ones who retained their consciousness were Yan Jing and Kaiyang.

"You are not heroes."

Yan Jing looked at Kaiyang, whose body was trembling uncontrollably under the crushing pressure. "You are just criminals, same as me."

As his words fell, he drove his spear straight through Kaiyang's throat.

Tears seeped from Kaiyang's eyes.

Not just from the pain, but because Yan Jing's words had violently torn open the thoughts he had always been too afraid to face deep in his heart.

Amidst that agonizing pain, his eyes gradually lost their focus.

Two seconds later, in the corner, Papa Rat—who had followed Yan Jing out—stared in pure shock at Kaiyang, who had died at some unknown point, and at Yan Jing, whose aura was soaring to the heavens. Alarm bells rang wildly in Papa Rat's mind.

This human...

...was an Eighth Tier!

Moreover—

This was an ability that manipulated time!