Chapter 611: The Mechanical Emperors (Two-in-One)

"Bang!"

The expected crash landing did not happen.

Instead, the collision only produced a muffled thud, lacking any earth-shattering force.

The "silver-white arc of light" raised his head in disbelief to look at Yan Jing.

Yan Jing had both hands stretched out, pressing them firmly against his silver-white shoulder blades.

No matter how fiercely the jet thrusters on his back erupted with flames, he couldn't advance a single inch.

This completely contradicted the information he had received.

According to intelligence from Central Mechanical, the red-haired man before him specialized in archery, making close combat his relative weakness. Even if that weakness was only slight compared to his archery, it provided enough of a breakthrough point.

That was exactly why Central Mechanical had dispatched him.

His mechanical body was the strongest in close combat out of all their models. To equip larger counterweights and crucial torque-transfer devices, he had abandoned all long-range methods to retain the chassis's absolute maximum physical power.

His strength would never fall short, even compared to same-tier entities from strength-related Pathways.

Furthermore, his close-combat techniques were a comprehensive art—the strengths of a hundred schools encoded right into his chip.

This typically allowed him to instantly kill opponents the moment he closed the distance.

[Mechanical Sovereign; Strongman]

This was his title.

As one of the eight Mechanical Sovereigns of the Mechanical Heavenly Kingdom, his appearance signified that the faction wanted to put an end to this farce.

But...

Clearly, something had gone wrong.

Strongman looked at the calm-faced man opposite him. His gaze darkened as his massive mechanical body's weird energy skyrocketed.

The roar of his mechanical core echoed like a revving street-racing engine. The exhaust vents at his rear tail fin went into overdrive, blasting out rings of blue flame as he tried to completely overpower Yan Jing.

Yet Yan Jing remained perfectly composed.

"Do you have a recording device?"

Yan Jing asked softly.

"What?"

Strongman suspected his audio receptors were malfunctioning.

A second later, Yan Jing nodded:

"I suppose you do."

He reached out and made a swift slicing motion.

Strongman completely failed to track Yan Jing's movement. He only saw a pitch-black rift materialize in front of him before both of them vanished from the spot. "This is..."

Strongman looked around at the boundless darkness, an indescribable sense of unease welling up in his heart.

He had a vague feeling that something had gone wrong.

This was supposed to be an ambush.

But now, he had completely lost the initiative.

Strongman immediately channeled his weird energy to the absolute limit, externalizing the mechanical core hidden in his chest.

Blue streaks of light erupted from the fissures on the Rubik's Cube-like structure. His already heavy mechanical armor began to transform. Mechanical parts shifted and assembled along his arms, piece by piece, while mechanical circuitry surfaced across his body.

In an instant, he transformed into a "monster" several meters tall.

Explosively powerful mechanical components armored every part of his body, making him look like a massive Buddha. Only, this Buddha had a green face with sharp fangs, an exposed chest, and... an entire body of "steel and iron."

Most notable was his pair of hands, with a silver-white iron plate loaded into each palm.

It was one of the hardest metals in the Inner World.

It required a Tenth Tier to mine and a Demigod Realm to finely polish—an absolutely rare divine artifact.

Strongman stared coldly at Yan Jing.

At this level, he naturally wouldn't underestimate any battle.

The slightest hint of carelessness could cost him his head, which was why he immediately revealed his strongest form.

"Transforming..."

Yan Jing nodded:

"I can do that too."

In the next instant, thick, billowing smoke poured out from his body.

Strongman's expression changed, and he charged straight at Yan Jing.

This was his intuition regarding power.

The sharp instincts he had honed over years of immersion in this path warned him not to let his opponent fully unleash this ability. Otherwise...

He might die.

But a split second later, he was sent flying backward.

Around Yan Jing, thick black smoke surged from his eyes, and his cold expression took on a bizarre twist:

His eyes were still freezing cold, but the corners of his mouth had split wide open, stretching all the way to the roots of his ears.

Tentacles sprouted out from between the fibers of his muscles.

[Fear Stance] First Layer + [Fear Bird Stance]

Yan Jing looked expressionlessly at Strongman.

"Let's end this here."

Strongman's face fell drastically as he continuously backed away.

A second later, Yan Jing blinked right in front of him and raised his hand...

Strongman's pupils trembled for the final time.

"Why is he taking so long?"

Several figures sat gathered around a massive round table.

The largest of them looked to be hundreds of times the size of the table itself, so tall that their peak couldn't be seen at a glance.

Meanwhile, the smallest was roughly the size of a three- or four-year-old child, its arms barely able to reach the tabletop.

Beneath each of them sat a throne of varying styles.

There were eight in total.

However, at this moment, the second-to-last seat, counting from left to right, was completely empty.

It was a seat draped with a cushion and silver-white metal. Both its backrest and seat cushion bulged, resembling chunks of muscle. The one who had just spoken was the figure sitting next to this seat.

That figure looked like a young boy, wearing a top hat.

He sat cross-legged on his throne.

The seat beneath him was adorned with stars, moons, and a variety of other elements...

[Mechanical Sovereign; Magic Emperor]

This was his title.

"Who knows? Could he have fought his way straight into Pure Blood City?"

The figure in the second seat spoke up.

She appeared to be a woman.

Of course, only in appearance.

Many of the mechanical species didn't have a defined gender. Their outer appearance was merely a shape they favored; discerning their true inner nature required careful observation. "If you ask me, even if that guy really did do it, he wouldn't be wrong."

The fourth figure laughed, exposing a set of gleaming white teeth.

"If it were me, slaughtering the entirety of Pure Blood City wouldn't even be going too far."

His appearance was bizarre. A solitary flesh-and-blood head was mounted on a mech that resembled a logging machine.

Two massive iron saws were equipped on both sides of the mech.

Dark red bloodstains still clung to the sharp teeth of the iron saws, deliberately left uncleaned as if to flaunt something.

[Mechanical Sovereign; Killer]

This was his title.

Strictly speaking, he was the entity with the highest kill count among all the Mechanical Emperors.

This was because he never spared any [machine workers]. Whenever he conquered a Domain, he would simply massacre the entire city.

"That is wrong."

The eighth figure spoke in a slow, leisurely tone.

He appeared to be the second tallest among them, but unlike the muscular Strongman, his build was exceptionally proportionate.

There wasn't a single part of his body that could be called flesh. Aesthetically pleasing metal plates adorned his long, slender mechanical skeleton. His legs alone were several meters long, and his arms were the same, as long and elegant as a work of art.

On top of his head sat a pope's hat forged from metal, with a white cross right in the center.

[Mechanical Sovereign; Pope] spoke thus:

"We need [machine workers]. As long as they sincerely like machinery and love it from the bottom of their hearts, we should allow them to keep their lowly lives."

"Even if this makes us feel uncomfortable, it is something we must do for the sake of machinery."