Chapter 613: Demigod (Two-in-One)

"Crack." The Pope instinctively tried to shift his body and break free from the spear piercing him.

But with just a slight movement, the light across half his body instantly dimmed.

The destruction of his mechanical core had compromised his entire frame; even the slightest motion could trigger a total collapse.

He turned his head to look at Yan Jing.

An instant later, Yan Jing's fist flattened his head, caving in the Pope's hat along with it.

That punch acted as a starting pistol. The other Mechanical Emperors sprang into action.

"Top right, diagonal 36.49 degrees. Arm, four cun above the wrist," Prodigy said.

Almost simultaneously, both Yan Jing and the female-shaped Mechanical Emperor moved.

Reacting with blistering speed, Yan Jing predicted his opponent's trajectory and twisted his body sideways.

But Mechanical Sovereign; Precision didn't seem to rely on reaction or prediction at all.

She simply appeared right where Yan Jing had dodged!

Exactly at the coordinates Prodigy had just called out.

A mechanical longsword materialized in her grasp and thrust straight for Yan Jing's neck.

Clang.

Precision's eyes widened.

The longsword in her hand hadn't pierced Yan Jing's neck as expected. Instead, it struck a pure white, petal-like disk. The disk morphed, slithering straight down the blade to entangle her body. Its initially rigid texture turned incredibly soft, flowing into the crevices between her mechanical parts. Precision's expression changed instantly. Countless fine tentacles extended from within her chassis to clear away this Power of the White Stone.

She had assumed this would be easy, a mess she could scrub clean in a split second.

After all, the Power of the White Stone was extraordinarily rare even in the Inner World. Rumor had it that the Fear family possessed the most of it, but even their "abundance" was measured in mere cubic meters.

Clearly, she was wrong.

This dense Power of the White Stone flowed like water, permeating absolutely everything. It quickly choked up every exhaust pipe, ventilation vent, and connecting joint across her body.

Precision's tentacles tore at it frantically, but it was just drinking poison to quench thirst.

How could there possibly be this much Power of the White Stone?!

Precision felt her mechanical core overheating. Her mechanical shell began to exude waste matter, looking as though she were sweating.

"Dodge! Top right! Activate cooling systems! Activate mental interference evasion!"

Prodigy's voice rang in Precision's ears once more.

Her chassis preemptively spun into action before she even needed to process the command.

In a flash, her slender frame drove her entire body into a twist to dodge Yan Jing's incoming fist. Simultaneously, massive clouds of chilling mist sprayed from her joints, attempting to freeze the flowing Power of the White Stone.

"Mental interference evasion ready. Weird Energy field deployed!"

A system alarm blared in her ears.

But Precision's face twisted in horror.

No, not now!!!

Buzzing roared from her frame!

The chilling mist was completely blocked inside her vents by the Power of the White Stone. Stripped of heat dissipation, her chassis temperature spiked drastically, causing her body to vibrate and hum.

At the same time, the Weird Energy field for mental interference evasion erupted from her chest.

As the most energy-intensive function of her entire body, the terrifying Weird Energy field triggered a violent explosion the instant it collided with the Power of the White Stone—a force that naturally countered Weird Energy.

A rare look of despair flashed through Precision's eyes.

Boom!

A deafening explosion tore through the air.

Precision was blown to pieces on the spot.

Countless scattered fragments, along with the Pope, were scooped up by Gentle Giant and stored within its chest.

Boom!

The elemental towers spewed out massive barrages of lasers to carpet-bomb the area once again.

This time, when Yan Jing stepped forward, he failed to cross completely out of the elemental bombardment zone.

Prodigy had taken control of the elemental towers.

Countless electronic circuits extended from his palms and jacked right into the structures.

Though he couldn't conjure these buildings out of thin air like Magic Emperor, his manipulation of them was far more exquisite.

Under his control, hundreds of towers coordinated perfectly. Their apocalyptic barrage rained down, trapping Yan Jing firmly within.

Meanwhile, Prodigy kept a constant vigil on his own position.

Guarding against any sudden ambush from Yan Jing.

This carpet-bombing lasted for over ten minutes.

Finally, the hundreds of buildings collapsed all at once.

Cut off from Magic Emperor's energy supply, their lifespans met a swift end under Prodigy's reckless squandering.

In that very instant, Prodigy retreated, leaping onto Gentle Giant.

"Run!!!"

Gentle Giant didn't hesitate. It turned and charged wildly toward the distant Central Region of the Mechanical Heavenly Kingdom.

Various alarms warning of abnormal hormone secretions blared frantically in Prodigy's ears.

He only had the tiniest bit of flesh-and-blood body left, yet he felt as if his heart was pounding wildly.

The enemy wasn't dead!

Even the slightest scan confirmed it—after that massive carpet-bombing, an overwhelmingly powerful life sign still remained in the center of the blast zone! Thus, without any hesitation, Prodigy ordered Gentle Giant to carry him and retreat.

He glanced back toward the smoke-filled crater.

Sure enough...

A blood-drenched figure stood tall in the center of the gunpowder smoke.

The moment he cast his gaze over, that vengeful-ghost-like figure stared right back at him.

And then... a maddened dash!!!

Charging!

Charging!!

Relentless charging!!!

Like an insane evil spirit, Yan Jing appeared behind the sprinting Gentle Giant in mere seconds.

The blood coating his body currently radiated a faint dark gold.

First ability of the Imperial Sacrificial Rite Demonic Blood: Blood Emperor.

[You can utilize any of your own blood. The more blood you shed, the greater the boost to your strength, speed, and physique. Simultaneously, you can convert the blood of other organisms into your own.]

Empowered by that blood, Yan Jing's speed soared to unprecedented heights.

Paired with his boosted spatial traversal...

...he caught up to them in an instant.

"Turn around!! Let them out!!!!"

Prodigy felt his chassis temperature spike, experiencing the mechanical equivalent of a human's heart leaping into his throat.

The moment his voice faded, Gentle Giant turned and opened its chest.

Magic Emperor's figure emerged.

The head he had lost was back on his shoulders. Though lacking cosmetic polish and reduced to a bare silver-white, it looked fundamentally the same as before.

Compared to Precision and the Pope, he had taken the lightest damage. The second he appeared, he materialized a staff in his hand.

In the next breath, countless mechanical structures rose from the surroundings once again, tightly encapsulating Yan Jing.

Yan Jing didn't speak. He simply conjured a bowstring in his palm.

His hand twitched slightly.

The technique he had used to defeat Xue Kai reappeared.

[Godspeed]. [Shattered Moon].

Two arrows fired as one.

This time, they aimed for the staff in Magic Emperor's hand.

"Magic Shield, right side one—"

Before Prodigy could finish, Magic Emperor's body jerked violently backward in the air.

He had already been hit.

Godspeed was just too fast.

Moreover, it had the fourfold enhancement of the Fear Stance, the Power of the White Stone, the Fear Bird Form, and Peerless.

This strike was immensely more terrifying than the one used back then. Shattered Moon tore straight through Magic Emperor's final defenses, and Godspeed pierced to the core. Even though the arrow had struck the staff in his hand, Magic Emperor reacted as if he had been shot through the heart.

His entire chassis abruptly dimmed as he plummeted toward the ground.

"Fire!"

Prodigy once again commandeered the mechanical structures Magic Emperor had summoned. Gentle Giant scooped up Magic Emperor alongside his own body, sprinting wildly into the distance once more. "About twenty minutes to go."

Gentle Giant noted, looking at the clearly rattled Prodigy to remind him.

Only then did Prodigy seem to snap out of his shock. Without any hesitation, he declared:

"Contact Castle!!!"

Twenty minutes wouldn't be nearly enough to trap that monster.

If the enemy seized an opening, Prodigy calculated that they would all die thousands of meters away from the Central Region.

Mechanical Emperor; Castle.

As the first-ranked Mechanical Emperor, his processor paused for a microsecond the instant he received Prodigy's message.

But once he understood exactly what had happened, he stood straight up, walked over to the massive, tombstone-like mechanical construct behind him, and pressed his palm against it to access its controls.

Yan Jing arrived before Prodigy and Gentle Giant once more.

Now he understood how these guys were capable of fighting a Demigod.

Gentle Giant's repairs, Prodigy's command, Precision's direct assassination strikes, and Magic Emperor's covering fire—coupled with the versatile Killer, the immensely strong Strongman, and a Pope whose use remained entirely unknown.

Seven against one. They could just barely manage it.

Of course, actually winning would be impossible.

Unless...

Yan Jing's instincts flared, and he blasted backward.

A second later, a gigantic mechanical claw thrust out from the exact spot where he had just been standing. It rose into the air and crushed inward.

That grip detonated space itself. Pitch-black fissures appeared, and a massive void frantically sucked in the surrounding matter.

It wasn't over. A gigantic cannon materialized in the distance. An indescribably thick laser beam shot forth, instantly melting the ground it passed over and carving out a broad avenue out of thin air.

Yan Jing used Blink three consecutive times, barely dodging the blast.

In the distance, Prodigy and Gentle Giant stared at Yan Jing across this newly formed "avenue."

"Goodbye."

Prodigy said, his eyes ice-cold.

Gentle Giant also glared at Yan Jing with immense killing intent.

Both of them harbored overwhelming murderous desire toward the monster before them.

Were it not for today's special circumstances, neither of them would have even considered letting Yan Jing go.

They knew that once this Xue Family Heir stepped into the Tenth Tier, he would very likely upend the entire structure of the Heavenly Kingdom, and perhaps even the future of the Inner World.

The two turned around, walking toward the Central Region.

With Castle stepping in, it was impossible for the enemy to keep pursuing them.

Castle could mobilize the machinery of the entire Mechanical Heavenly Kingdom.

Offense and defense channeled through the power of an entire nation would give even a Demigod a headache.

There was absolutely no way the enemy could break through.

But Yan Jing didn't speak. He simply conjured a Bow and drew the string.

Prodigy's mechanical core violently flared.

Then, his supreme processing system immediately realized something was wrong.

He looked in horror at Gentle Giant, who was holding him.

"Run!!!"

A massive bow, large enough to eclipse the sun and moon, materialized in the sky. An arrow capable of piercing the clouds flickered on its string.

Starlight and scorching sunbeams adorned the arrowhead and fletching, respectively. As the string was drawn back, pitch-black fissures manifested in the air, looking as if the firmament itself was cracking open.

White silk ribbons wrapped around the bowstring.

Winged tentacles extended from the bow's body.

Pair after pair of crimson eyes opened within the spatial fissures.

Crimson blood sprayed across the sun, moon, stars, and the earth below.

A blood-stained Crown coalesced atop Yan Jing's head.

Finally, the shadow of a tree closely resembling the Thorn spread open behind Yan Jing.

As Yan Jing pulled the string back, the forces from Pure Blood City arrived just in time.

They stared at the scene before them in utter disbelief, rendered speechless—incapable of forming a single word.

What they were witnessing was Yan Jing in slower time.

But within Faster Time, the arrow had already left the string.

There was no earth-shattering boom, no spectacular explosion.

Wherever the arrow passed, everything seemed incredibly ordinary.

So ordinary that when the breeze blew, the mechanical structures crumbled into sand. So ordinary that Gentle Giant couldn't even make a move before the majority of its mechanical chassis dissolved into ash.

Faster Time ended.

But that arrow was not finished.

Like a slowly descending meteor, it shot toward the group of Mechanical Emperors that Gentle Giant had thrown aside, as well as the city behind them.

Admittedly, a meteor is not fast.

But if you thought you could dodge it, you were dead wrong.

Alarms blared in the ears of every Mechanical Emperor present.

Yet none of them could muster an effective response.

This arrow was far too absurd; having just sustained heavy injuries, they lacked the power to resist it entirely.

Right at that moment, a massive mechanical hand reached out from the distant machine city and caught the arrow in its palm.

Clang.

The screech of clashing metal echoed out.

The arrow capable of tearing the sky apart ground to a halt.

Yan Jing's expression remained perfectly calm, but his body blasted into a furious retreat.

The Tenth Tier experts from Pure Blood City did exactly the same.

Everyone's faces changed wildly. Before the Xue Family sisters could even react, the elders grabbed them and rocketed backward.

"Advent Day has not yet commenced. Forces reaching the Demigod Realm are not permitted to be used. I will not make this exception again."

An emotionless mechanical voice resounded from afar. It sounded like a warning, yet also like a simple statement of fact.

Yan Jing was expressionless; he merely reached his hand toward the distance.

Peerless: Theft.

The remaining shell of Gentle Giant fell into his grasp.

He couldn't possibly let Gentle Giant return to the enemy's hands.

Among the Mechanical Emperors, Prodigy and Gentle Giant served as the core nexus.

Gentle Giant, in particular, was the key to completing their cycle.

The voice from the other side fell silent for a moment before speaking again:

"Audacious. You deserve death."

The next second, the gargantuan hand slammed down toward Yan Jing.

Yan Jing stayed completely calm, extending a finger to point.

Praying for Death Evolution.

Then, he threw a punch.

[Tailao Rite Ability 1: Crown of Victory]

[In life, the owner of this Crown defeated nearly all of his opponents. Victory was his lifelong pursuit.

For every opponent you defeat, you accumulate one point of Momentum of Victory. This Momentum of Victory grants you the courage to face even a Deity without fear, bolsters your physical attributes—including Weird Energy—and allows you to acquire the final ability used by the opponent you defeated.]

[Sheji Rite: Universal (Gold Quality) (Unique)]

[Ability 1: Universal - Fear and Dread]

[When you face fear, the needle of Universal will automatically turn to the direction of dread for you.

Your abilities related to the Fear path will automatically receive a boost of one Tier, while the enemy's fear-related abilities will automatically be reduced by one Tier. You can freely choose to enter the Universal - Fear state, shielding you from all fear (0 cost).]

[Demonic Blood Ability 2: Blood Demon]

[Wounds you inflict on the enemy will not heal. The enemy cannot stop the wounds from bleeding until their blood is entirely drained.] Finally, there was the Old Man's ability.

A single punch!

A punch thrown at the cost of shattering his own life!