Chapter 612: Battle Against the Five Emperors (Two-in-One)

Killer's face froze. Before he could realize what was happening, a terrifying force transmitted from the chainsaw, lifting his entire body directly into the air.

"Bang!"

Killer's vision blurred.

An intense wave of pain shot up from below as his head made brutal contact with the hard ground.

But before he could even react,

"Bang, bang, bang!!!"

Three more heavy blows landed in quick succession.

The earth cracked apart, web-like fissures spreading in all directions.

Killer felt a wave of relief well up from the back of his head.

His cybernetic frame's emergency system was injecting him with the necessary medicine—having detected that without an immediate injection, he was going to have a major problem!

In that very instant, his counterattack began.

Countless spikes erupted from the section of the chainsaw Yan Jing was holding. Each one gleamed with a dark light, piercing through space the moment they appeared as scorching black flames rose into the air.

"Sizzle."

Black smoke billowed from Yan Jing's palm.

He let go of the chainsaw, opened his hand, and looked at his palm.

Wisps of blood were seeping out.

In the next instant, he raised his hand and blocked Killer's next slashing attack.

"Die!!!"

Killer's mechanical body was far more agile than it looked. The treads on his lower limbs churned, thrusting out several electric drills that shot straight toward Yan Jing's abdomen. "Snikt!"

The drills pierced into the relatively soft flesh of his abdomen, but they failed to go too deep. A tremendous resistance pushed back, and a moment later, Killer was flung directly backward.

With a sharp clack, the treads beneath Killer shifted again, re-forming into sharp claws. They struck a boulder, using the momentum to flip his entire body until he landed firmly on the ground.

"Didn't you say you wanted me to get close?!!"

Killer looked at Yan Jing, who was covered in blood opposite him, and laughed. His smile was utterly unhinged.

"So why did you throw me off?"

Yan Jing didn't answer.

He was spaced out.

Genuinely spaced out.

Right now, his physical body sat at the absolute peak beneath the Demigod Realm, but when facing these Tenth Tier beings fighting for real, he would still bleed.

He had bled when fighting Strongman earlier, and now he was bleeding again against this weird-looking guy.

Then what would happen if he faced a true Demigod?

He hadn't been careless. Even though his physical body had already reached the Tenth Tier, he had still activated his Fear Bird Form and the Fear Stance First State.

Yet he still bled.

He frowned.

He felt that he had definitely been living too comfortably lately.

Otherwise, it wouldn't have come to this.

He would start changing that with this very battle.

Yan Jing made up his mind, deciding to take this fight a little more seriously.

However, in Killer's eyes, Yan Jing's frown meant something entirely different.

It was over.

Killer let out a savage sneer.

Once an opponent lost their confidence in battle, he saw no need to keep things going.

He snapped his fingers.

"Thump! Thump! Thump!"

Countless plumes of black smoke erupted from all over Yan Jing's body, and black veins started spreading from his fingertips toward his heart.

Yan Jing had been poisoned.

It was from the spikes on the chainsaw earlier.

Yan Jing pursed his lips, reached out, and wiped a hand over his heart.

Praying for Death Evolution.

In the next instant.

He appeared directly in front of Killer.

Killer couldn't react at all. Just a second ago, they had been hundreds of meters apart.

"Bang!"

Yan Jing slammed a punch right into the joint connecting Killer's upper and lower body.

Then, his Bow materialized.

"Thwack, thwack, thwack, thwack, thwack, thwack!!!"

Five arrows sank completely into the connective joint in a single breath.

Killer's eyes went wide. His ears were currently ringing, as noisy as a crowded opera house letting out.

"Alert! Alert! Severe chassis damage!"

"Warning! Warning! Connective joint mobility drastically reduced!"

"Warning! Warning! Abnormal spatial rift detected inside the chassis!!"

"Warning! Neurotoxin gas detected!!!"

With absolutely no time to react or execute a command, Killer's face turned beet red. A second later, a violent explosion erupted from his mechanical frame, drowning him in billowing thick smoke.

Yan Jing turned around, not even glancing at the explosion.

Several threads shot out, snatching Killer's head and bringing it straight into his palm.

The reason he had been able to instantly close the distance just now was because, after his Mao Si persona had comprehended one's own path, the abilities he had originally gained from the security officer had also risen with the tide, reaching the exact same tier as his current Mao Si identity.

"There's someone else behind you, isn't there?"

Yan Jing looked at the barely clinging to life Killer, his face expressionless.

"Emergency meeting!!!"

The figure of [Mechanical Sovereign; Prodigy] appeared as a holographic projection in front of every Mechanical Emperor.

"We have a problem!"

Prodigy directly pulled up the footage just transmitted from Killer's side, broadcasting the tragic battle to everyone.

Everyone's pupils contracted.

"How is this possible?!"

The second Mechanical Emperor, a figure appearing as a woman, shot to her feet.

She had been in the middle of maintenance on her cybernetic frame, but seeing this scene, she could no longer sit still.

The others all remained in dead silence.

The footage of Killer being defeated so easily was no less impactful to them than seeing half the Mechanical Heavenly Kingdom destroyed.

For most of the people present, if Killer couldn't win, then it was impossible for them to win either.

"Strongman is definitely gone too."

The third figure, that colossal entity, spoke up.

[Mechanical Sovereign; Gentle Giant]

That was his title.

The "Gentle" in his title wasn't just a moniker; it was an accurate description of his true personality.

Although his chassis was the largest among them, a frame of that size actually wasn't entirely suited for combat.

Back then, he had two paths to choose from. One was to mount a massive arsenal of ranged weapons onto his gargantuan shell.

The other was to use that massive shell to carry all sorts of medical and maintenance equipment.

He ultimately chose the latter.

But right now, as he watched that footage, a bleak, freezing glint shone in his eyes.

"The opponent's strength is a bit too overwhelming."

[Mechanical Sovereign; Pope] spoke up:

"Pure Blood City has gone mad, actually letting someone this strong wander around outside."

"Perhaps... they just want to start a war," [Mechanical Sovereign; Magic Emperor] said coldly.

Even though two of their comrades were gone, everyone's tone right now could still be considered calm.

As members of the mechanical species, they had long since discarded the vast majority of their emotions. They had either replaced their nerves with bionic electronic circuitry, or they had simply excised the superfluous neural units linked to feeling.

Only by doing so could they ensure that, at critical moments, they could rely purely on their mechanical frames to make the most rational decisions.

"We can't let the enemy keep running amok."

The figure who sat in the very first seat finally spoke.

"Let's attack together."

"As long as we kill this guy, Pure Blood City can simply be declared out of the running for this Advent Day."

The other figures stood up, placed their hands over their chests, and bowed slightly to that figure.

"I'm telling you, is that kid out of his mind?!!!"

Xue Shi was still muttering complaints.

It had already been several full hours since Xue Mo went to wage war on the Mechanical Heavenly Kingdom alone.

She still couldn't hold back her furious curses.

"Does he think just because he beat a few councils of elders, he can beat the Mechanical Heavenly Kingdom?!"

"Back in the day, the Life Heavenly Kingdom used all of their strength—even deploying a Demigod—and still couldn't force those eight iron lumps to back down. Just how naive is he?!"

"Calm down, Second Sister."

Xue Wan handed a bottle of water over to Xue Shi.

"Third Brother definitely has his own considerations."

It would have been better if she hadn't said that. The moment the words left her mouth, Xue Shi grew even more furious. She didn't even drink the water, instead tossing it right out into the empty air below.

"Considerations, my ass!!!"

Helpless, Xue Wan watched the water spill down toward the boundless earth below. Sighing, she had no choice but to poke the Third Elder, who was carrying her by the collar.

But how could the Third Elder dare to speak? Provoking the Second Young Miss's wrath right now was just asking for a scolding, wasn't it?

He simply pretended not to hear anything.

At this moment, the five elders were currently bringing the Xue Family's second, fourth, fifth, eighth, and ninth siblings toward the Mechanical Heavenly Kingdom.

According to the grand patriarch's orders, this trip had only one objective.

And that was to bring Xue Mo back.

But...

The elders all wore dark expressions.

They understood the Mechanical Heavenly Kingdom far better than these kids did.

That was a horde of endlessly multiplying monsters.

If they were on the offensive, they might not have any particular advantage, but once someone entered their territory, any kind of tactic was possible.

Yan Jing had conquered yet another city.

He looked at the map. Close to half of the entire Mechanical Heavenly Kingdom had already been taken.

If he took another two or three cities, he would just about finish the mission.

The crux of the problem now lay in...

How could he guarantee that these cities would still belong to the Xue Family after he left?

He decided to have Xiao Xin take a message back and see if they could arrange for people to take over these territories. Otherwise, constantly guarding them himself would actually be quite exhausting. He gazed into the distance.

He didn't know if it was just his imagination.

But at the edge of his vision, those silver-white cities seemed to have grown far denser than before.

Rippling waves of invisible Weird Energy blanketed the skies above those cities.

"Are they coming...?"

Yan Jing's face was calm.

He had no plans to push any deeper. Of course, if the enemy chose to make a move now, he had no intention of just retreating either.

After thinking for a moment, he tossed the silver-white iron ball directly onto the ground.

Survivor immediately set to work.

Every time he had reached a new location just now, Yan Jing had used Survivor to completely devour the surrounding mechanical resources to upgrade it.

At a conservative estimate, Survivor's strength should have reached the Ninth Tier by now.

And its coverage range was remarkably broad.

Afterward, Yan Jing sat cross-legged on the empty ground in front of Survivor, closed his eyes, and began to meditate.

He was waiting.

Waiting for those guys to lose their patience.

They were waiting for him to walk into their trap, but they would never be able to win this game of patience.

Because he wasn't the one whose territory was being devoured.

As long as he waited until the Xue Family arrived, the enemy would have no choice but to admit total defeat.

Yan Jing was absolutely certain they wouldn't be able to wait.

And indeed, that was exactly what happened.

Yan Jing looked at the five figures that surfaced opposite him.

From left to right: one entity was as massive as a mountain peak; one had a gorgeous figure and moved with enchanting grace; one was petite like a child; one wore a long robe and a top hat; and the final one was tall and gaunt like a freak, wearing a steel papal hat adorned with a cross.

"A decree from the Mechanical Sovereign."

Pope stepped forward, his expression solemn.

"Sinner Xue Mo. Bow your head and confess your crimes now, and you may spare your corpse from being incinerated."

Yan Jing's face remained calm.

"Just the few of you dare to call yourselves emperors?"

"Heh heh, do you have a problem with that?" Pope gave a slight smile, his splitting grin revealing itself from beneath his electronic mechanical helmet.

Yan Jing sighed.

"You are the most pathetic emperors I've ever seen."

"Even Li Qinghe ought to know that in this world, if you're going to be an emperor, you have to be the only one."

"Do you know Li Qinghe?"

"Never mind, you probably don't know him."

Unexpectedly, upon hearing the name Li Qinghe, traces of peculiar expressions bled into the demeanors of the assembled figures.

Simply because they had not only heard that name before, but were incredibly familiar with it.

The recent rampant rise of the Life Heavenly Kingdom was not unrelated to that very name.

Rumor had it that this person was originally a hostage from Minhu. After being brought to the Life Heavenly Kingdom, it was discovered that the blood flowing through his body was exceptionally suited for brewing Gene Potions, which went on to forge quite a few existences above the Summit.

There was even a candidate in the Life Heavenly Kingdom who directly broke through to the Tenth Tier after consuming his potion.

"It seems you do know him?"

Yan Jing blinked.

"Then you should understand even better."

"The Mechanical Heavenly Kingdom doesn't need so many emperors."

"Cut the crap," Giant said, his voice ice-cold.

He was the most furious out of everyone here.

In his eyes, the fallen Strongman and Killer had been his comrades.

Toward the opponent who had murdered his comrades, he only had one thought—to make him taste that exact same agony.

"Energy loaded."

Suddenly, Magic Emperor spoke.

Time seemed to freeze for a split second.

The next second, countless mechanical structures rose up around him, transforming into towering steel monsters.

There were pitch-black lightning towers flashing with electricity, energy-gathering cannons burning so intensely they distorted space and incinerated the air, and wheel towers resembling waterwheels... "Acti—"

Magic Emperor opened his mouth, but before he could even finish chanting the activation...

In the next instant, he lowered his head and looked at the hem of Yan Jing's clothes, which was mere inches away.

Where was he...?

Yan Jing wiped his bleeding mouth and completely obliterated Magic Emperor's head with a single slap.

Just as the buildings had been rising a moment ago, he had utilized a steal skill empowered by Peerless.

The target of his theft was the enemy's head.

Though he had paid a certain price for it.

In the end, it was still a success.

Only... facing their headless comrade, the expressions of the others didn't change.

Mechanical tentacles extended from Giant's chest, sweeping Magic Emperor's chassis inside to begin repairs.

Pope walked over to where Magic Emperor had just been standing. As if inheriting Magic Emperor's authority, he directly ordered:

"Fire!"

A tempest of countless elemental strikes rained down from the structures.

Yan Jing sighed.

He knew it. The head wasn't the critical point. For the mechanical species, their mechanical core was the most vital part.

However... doing that had just been to serve as a bit of a deterrent anyway.

He activated the Blink ability of Mao Si, unlocked after discovering one's own path.

He wove through the countless elemental blasts as casually as taking a stroll through a courtyard.

Ultimately, he arrived right in front of Pope, who had talked the most just now.

"You're courting dea—"

Before Pope could even finish his sentence...

Yan Jing activated February's Faster Time.

Several punches rained down.

Since he temporarily couldn't pinpoint the mechanical core.

Then he would just hit everything.

The head. No.

The chest. No.

The abdomen. No.

The top hat on his head. Not that either.

The right hand. No.

Countless afterimages of fists bloomed in the air.

This was time that belonged solely to Yan Jing.

Finally, just as Yan Jing struck a certain spot on the spine of Pope's back, he felt a distinct sensation.

Found it.

Yan Jing's face remained calm.

Faster Time ended.

Pope stared blankly at the black spear that had pierced completely through him from his lower back, deafening blares of alarms ringing in his ears.