Chapter 602: Machinery and Martial Dao (Two-in-One)

Chen Nian's game of choice was also Deathmatch: Family and Friends Edition.

Out of tens of thousands of games, the odds of two people selecting the exact same one were not high.

Aside from Chen Nian guessing that Chen Lan would likely pick it, this game was also the most suitable for him. If he wanted to give Chen Lan a vicious beating, his options were limited.

"Do you need some time to prepare that scrap metal of yours?"

Chen Lan's smile grew radiant.

"Or would you rather come straight up and feel your sister's love?"

A metal ball materialized in Chen Nian's palm. It instantly shattered into tiny fragments that surged over his body like liquid.

In the blink of an eye, Chen Nian's white-haired, white-clothed figure vanished, replaced by a pitch-black silhouette.

Black edges and angles covered this lightweight armor. In the dead center of the face, a massive, scarlet eye slowly opened. Countless tentacles thrashed behind him, their ends blooming into flower-like stingers.

An emotionless electronic voice rang out in the room.

"Slaughter Mode engaged!"

"[Weak] Lightweight module loaded!!!"

A split second later, Chen Nian blinked directly in front of Chen Lan.

He smashed his fist down.

Bang!

Chen Lan crossed her arms. Countless fine metal fragments swirled around them, easily blocking the strike.

{Bloodline: Metal}

Like Chen Mingkai's wind and sand, Chen Lan also possessed an atavistic bloodline of extremely high purity.

She reached out, grabbing toward Chen Nian.

But just then, sensing something, she hastily jerked her head to the side.

Boom!

A red laser beam erupted from the giant eye on Chen Nian's face, crashing down.

The beam was as thick as a steamroller's cylinder; merely turning her head wasn't enough to evade it.

The hum of metal resonated as ripples violently spread outward.

At the last possible moment, a thin metal wall deployed in front of Chen Lan, successfully blocking the blast.

Chen Lan smiled faintly. Drawing a breath, she spun around, condensing countless metal shards in her palm, ready to strike Chen Nian's vital point.

The next second, her body violently froze.

A spine-chilling sensation washed over her, instantly suffocating the flow of her weird energy.

Squelch!

Blood sprayed into the air.

The myriad stinger-like tentacles on Chen Nian's back had viciously pierced into Chen Lan's body.

"Argh!"

Chen Lan cried out in pain. She could feel the tentacles injecting some sort of fluid into her—likely a neurotoxin that infinitely magnified her agony.

Red light flashed in Chen Nian's eye, and he stepped forward to finish her off.

Bang!

A massive cloud of metal shards erupted around Chen Lan, expanding like a metallic storm. It swatted Chen Nian directly against the wall, causing his mechanical armor to dissipate.

Haa... haa...

Clutching her face with her right hand, Chen Lan slowly stood up. She truly hadn't expected Chen Nian to actually be capable of hurting her.

Blood streamed down her body. She glared at the swaying Chen Nian, the hatred in her eyes practically overflowing.

"To think you managed to get your hands on a neurotoxin of this caliber. Don't tell me someone in the family has been secretly backing you financially after you left?" Chen Lan sneered maliciously. Since his armor had vanished, she now viewed him entirely as a lamb waiting to be slaughtered at her whim.

Chen Nian violently shook his head.

His own tier was simply too low.

No matter how advanced his armor's materials were, his opponent only needed a single strike to severely wound him.

The difference between the Sixth Tier and the Ninth Tier was like the gap between an elephant and a rabbit.

Tap, tap, tap.

Chen Lan stalked toward Chen Nian with a savage grin. She was naturally going to repay the damage he had just inflicted upon her, twofold.

With a light flick of her finger, a metal shard instantly shot toward his neck.

Swish. A bloody hole the width of a finger appeared in Chen Nian's neck, blood pouring out.

Chen Lan laughed aloud.

"I win, Fifth Brother. I am the ultimate victor."

"[Old] Lightweight module loaded."

Brown armor instantly unfurled across Chen Nian's chest.

Energy surged.

Chen Lan's eyes narrowed, and she moved to strike first. But Chen Nian was already prepared. A muddy yellow aura bloomed, violently pushing her away. Chen Lan threw her hands out, intending to block it by force, but was directly blasted back several meters.

Amidst the swirling dust, Chen Nian's figure emerged, clad in the brown armor.

Compared to the previous suit, this armor clung much closer to his skin, appearing significantly lighter overall. Two coattails draped down his front and back, making it look as though he were wearing a grandmaster's robe.

Aside from that, there was no other unnecessary bulk.

Every mechanical component seemed compressed to its absolute limit, maintaining a lightweight profile.

Yet, Chen Lan's expression was far graver than before.

Earlier, the tier strength she had sensed from him capped at the Eighth Tier; only the final neurotoxin reached a Ninth Tier level. But this current suit of armor, despite its unassuming appearance, radiated an incredibly violent aura that pushed straight into the Ninth Tier.

"Playing with your own life?"

Chen Lan smirked.

With Chen Nian's tier, it was absolutely impossible for him to withstand energy of this intensity.

She didn't even need to make a move. As long as she stalled for time, that armor would drag Chen Nian into the abyss all on its own.

"Your sister is done playing with you."

Chen Lan smiled faintly, and a sphere of light materialized in her palm.

It flew out past the blue light boundary.

This was the family and friends support mechanic of the game.

First, the other party needed to have a deep enough relationship with you to surpass the system's threshold.

Second, the other party had to agree.

The orb of light didn't fly far.

Passing through the blue barrier, it landed directly in front of a distant figure draped in a black robe.

The hood was pulled back, revealing an aged face.

The Seventh Elder of the Chen family.

A white-haired old man. As the oldest of all the elders, the muscles in his face had almost entirely withered away. His skin stretched tight over bone, and his cloudy eyes looked as though they couldn't see a thing.

Yet, it was this seemingly frail old man who wielded the bloodline power: [Bloodline — Martial Dao].

The old man looked at the floating sphere, reaching out to tap it lightly in agreement.

The next second, motes of light drifted from his body into the orb, manifesting into a phantom of the old man.

Boom!

A frenzied power instantly swept through the center of the sphere.

He raised a hand, pointing lightly toward Chen Nian.

Strangely, there were no fluctuations of weird energy at all.

The two were separated by dozens of meters, yet the air between them seemed completely manipulated by that casual point. A terrifying pressure barreled toward Chen Nian.

But just as that pressure was about to reach Chen Nian, a figure materialized in front of him, reaching out to effortlessly dissolve the invisible force. Chen Lan's eyes darkened.

An old man appeared before Chen Nian.

Unlike the old man on her side, who clearly looked like an experienced martial artist, the old man standing opposite wore a tattered military overcoat and flip-flops, sporting a completely nonchalant, careless demeanor.

After blocking the strike, the old man glanced at Chen Nian, his eyes carrying a remarkably human trace of mockery.

Chen Nian coughed softly twice.

"Still in the developmental stage."

The phantom of Old Master Liu seemed to actually hear Chen Nian's words. Chuckling a few times, he charged straight at the martial artist old man. He threw a punch, a thick, dark yellow aura clinging to his body. Radiating pure, unyielding strength and holding nothing back, the strike aimed right for the Tenth Tier old man's face. The Tenth Tier old man raised a hand, his expression entirely casual, effortlessly blocking every punch Old Master Liu threw with relaxed grace.

As fists and kicks clashed, waves of terrifying sonic booms echoed through the air.

Chen Nian didn't hold back either, charging straight at Chen Lan.

The old man's strength couldn't possibly defeat a Tenth Tier, and even a draw was highly unlikely. The only reason he could exchange blows right now was because this was a clash of phantoms.

Therefore, the old man directly ignited his own origin source.

But he wouldn't last long like this.

He had to take down his opponent before the old man's phantom vanished.

Coincidentally, Chen Lan had the same idea.

Chen Nian gave her a very unsettling feeling. He had been wandering those low-level Domains for so many years, yet he could still summon a phantom of this caliber. It made her suspect he had other trump cards hidden away.

She needed to end this quickly.

Bang!

Countless metal shards morphed into blades, violently slashing down at Chen Nian.

This was a calculated strike from Chen Lan.

It was based on the speed and strength Chen Nian had previously displayed, multiplied twofold.

But to her surprise, Chen Nian sidestepped, actually dodging a strike Chen Lan had deemed unavoidable.

He reached out and pressed his hand against Chen Lan's body, a ring of air currents rippling outward from his palm.

"Useless."

The corners of Chen Lan's mouth curled up as a metallic shell materialized around her.

This time, to prevent him from using any more bizarre abilities, she had even sandwiched a layer of weird energy between two layers of metal plating, effectively isolating mental contamination.

But a moment later, Chen Lan's pupils shrank drastically.

She felt some kind of qi slip through the gaps in the metal, bypass the layers of weird energy, and burrow straight into her body.

She felt as if she had been struck by lightning. Those air currents instantly threw the weird energy inside her into chaos, plunging her into a state of near paralysis.

Now was the time.

The killing blow Chen Nian had hidden in his right hand fired instantly.

Time seemed to pull back to several days ago.

"You want to watch this old man practice martial arts?"

Old Master Liu crouched inside the village, looking at Chen Nian, who stood outside.

Beside him, his master, the white-haired old man, was angrily sulking and chugging from a wine gourd.

One of them had finally left, and now a new one had shown up.

And to make matters worse, according to the information he had received, this kid also came from a formidable background, no less impressive than the last one's. He truly couldn't afford to provoke him. "You are not allowed to leave the village."

That was his final prohibition for Old Master Liu.

He had to leave himself some dignity, after all.

"Little Chen, it's not that I'm trying to hold out on you, and it's not that I don't want to teach. The thing is, this isn't something you can learn overnight."

The old man scratched his head.

"It's fine." Chen Nian's expression was calm as he placed several small, camera-like devices on the ground in a semicircle. Beams of blue light erupted from the tops of the machines, enveloping the old man within.

"Just practice your routines normally."

"This..."

The old man was a bit uncomfortable with it, but eventually nodded.

"Alright."

He began his usual martial arts practice.

At first, it really did feel strange, but once he got into the zone, he was no longer distracted by the outside world. It had been this way since he was a child. He practiced straight from dawn until the moon was bright in the sky.

Chen Nian watched as the sweat dripping from the old man formed a small puddle, the ground beneath his feet compressed several inches deep. He looked over at the master. "Does he do this every day?"

"That is what practicing martial arts entails. Day after day, if you do not advance, you regress. You cannot slack off, and you cannot stagnate." The master chuckled coldly, taking the Smoking Pipe from his mouth and tapping it against Chen Nian's shoulder.

"Do you think you can secretly learn some skills just by relying on these gadgets? The martial dao relies on practice."

Chen Nian nodded.

"I accept your guidance."

But even though the master said so, Chen Nian still came every day during daylight to record all of Old Master Liu's practice sessions.

Until one day, Old Master Liu couldn't hold it in anymore. After finishing his routine, he looked at Chen Nian.

"Little Chen, you can't learn anything this way, right?"

"It's fine. I don't need to learn it. This armor just needs to learn it."

Chen Nian opened his palm, showing Old Master Liu the fruits of his labor over this period.

Looking at the yellow armor, Old Master Liu's eyes filled with astonishment.

"My fist techniques are inside this thing?"

Chen Nian didn't waste time on words. He simply put on the armor and demonstrated a few moves for Old Master Liu.

After watching, the old man couldn't help but sigh in admiration.

"You're quite the genius, kid..."

But a moment later, his tone shifted.

"But it still lacks its soul."

Chen Nian frowned.

"What do you mean by lacking its soul?"

"Perform the 'Scooping the Moon' technique."

Old Master Liu instructed.

Chen Nian moved immediately. He twisted his waist and shifted his hips. The armor drove his body, unifying the force from his toes all the way to the tips of his hair. He stepped forward, twisted his side, raised his arm, formed a claw, and viciously swiped upward.

Bang!!!

A sonic boom erupted, directly shooting a pillar of light up into the night sky, obscuring the bright moon above.

It truly looked as if that strike had plucked the moon right out of the sky.

"Not bad. Watch me."

The old man praised, and then he made his move.

Chen Nian watched closely, his eyes narrowing.

The old man's execution of the technique was entirely different from what he had displayed before.

There was no obvious twisting of the waist or shifting of the hips. It simply looked as if his entire body shuddered for a split second, after which he formed a claw with his hand and exerted upward force.

Whoosh.

After the strike, the moon was bright and the stars were sparse.

There was no wind, no ripple of power.

But the next second, the bright moon in the sky exploded.

Countless air pockets burst in midair, thoroughly shattering the image of the bright moon.

Chen Nian was dumbfounded.

It wasn't that Old Master Liu had been hiding his true skills.

That older master was right—Chen Nian had never actually practiced martial arts.

What he had learned was merely superficial.

This was different from other Pathways. It wasn't something that could be achieved just through simulation and calibration.

The intricacies within required him to actually practice martial arts to truly comprehend them.

"Old Liu, teach me martial arts. Just this one move is enough."

Chen Nian took a deep breath, recalling the time he spent practicing martial arts with Old Master Liu a few days ago.

This one move.

He had only learned this single move.

And moreover...

He still hadn't grasped the essence of it.

It made sense, as his talent did not lie in this path.

But he had comprehended something else entirely.

No one could have imagined that the most gifted genius of the Chen family from the Pure Blood Heavenly Kingdom would follow a martial artist, practicing martial arts day in and day out for a whole month. Within those falling drops of sweat, he had grasped the true mysteries of the martial dao.

That sense of solidity, forged through meticulous chiseling and polishing, shared the exact same underlying principle as his daily, repetitive mastery of machinery. He immersed himself in it.

Feeling the truest feedback his body gave him.

Every shred of muscle, every single bone.

Only through endless practice could he clearly hear their responses—just like the sounds of mechanical components that only he could hear.

Twist the waist, sink the hips, drop the shoulders, raise the elbows...

Chen Nian narrowed his eyes, his body entering a state of absolute, natural perfection.

Machinery and flesh resonated at this moment. He felt the collision between two entirely different souls.

This strike was no longer called 'Scooping the Moon.'

Chen Nian rested his hand on Chen Lan's paralyzed back.

An invisible pillar of air erupted upward.

Off to the side, both the phantom of the Tenth Tier old man and the true body of the Tenth Tier old man outside the blue light stared at the scene before them in disbelief.

The next second, the Tenth Tier old man's phantom tried to rescue Chen Lan, but was immediately intercepted by Old Master Liu's phantom.

Throwing his head back, Old Master Liu let out a roaring laugh. Bubbling weird energy ignited all over his body, causing his entire figure to rapidly dim.

Yet, his imposing aura skyrocketed.

In an instant, he arrived right in front of the Tenth Tier old man.

It was the exact same motion: twisting the waist, sinking the hips, raising the elbow, forming a claw.

For a split second, the old man's silhouette and Chen Nian's figure seemed to overlap perfectly.

This strike was called [Falling Moon].

"Come!!!"

Just like that night under the moon, the two figures—one old and one young—used the entrance of Huang Family Village as their dividing line, simultaneously taking a step forward.

Sweat flew.

And the moonlight shattered.