Chapter 826 - 182: Combat Puppet
Su Changxing believed that Zhong Mingrui had already sensed the disparity between them, yet he still launched an attack without hesitation, like a warrior charging forward, knowing full well he would die, but still rushing towards the battlefield.
Soon after.
His figure vanished from the original spot, not as a blade, but as thousands of silver lights, colliding forward.
Zhong Mingrui was shocked upon witnessing this scene, unable to comprehend how Su Changxing managed to do it, unleashing an ability identical to his own.
The two clashed violently, the silver light forming fine lines, instantly engulfing the blade Zhong Mingrui had transformed into.
The outcome was already clear.
Zhong Mingrui’s body turned into blood, raining down onto the ground, not even leaving behind any remains.
He had to admit that the opponent’s combat strength was indeed formidable, beyond his expectations; even an ordinary Tier Six Extraordinary would likely not be his match.
He couldn’t fathom how Zhong Mingrui possessed such warped abilities, which likely limited his progression, preventing him from entering the next realm.
All things balanced like a scale.
The more one possesses, the more one bears; overly powerful combat strength burdens the Extraordinary like a massive weight.
Then,
He walked towards the settlement, uprooting the giant Bronze Tree standing in the center, its branches and leaves lush, alongside the thundering collapse, a multitude of structures rendered into ruins.
He turned to shout at the players gathered at the entrance of the settlement: "Tell the settlements behind to act wisely, uproot these things, or I won’t be polite once I see them again."
Someone shouted loudly: "Leader Su, these things facilitate our swift progression, the drawbacks outweigh the benefits, there’s no necessity to uproot them!"
Su Changxing simply responded: "I can’t manage so much. Choose whether to uproot or not."
Humans are greedy and harboring delusional thoughts; with just these words, surely no one would comply.
He understood this principle but still felt the need to express it.
These outsiders, apart from the wars on the front line, have never engaged in a wanton massacre, clearly intending to integrate into their world.
Their world is far from ideal, brimming with rolling black mist and monsters everywhere.
Yet, these outsiders still desire to enter their world, indicating only one thing: their world must be even worse.
The timing of these outsiders’ invasion was very crafty, with them being invisible when the Wizards entered their world, only appearing after they left.
With Su Changxing’s departure, those standing at the settlement’s entrance exchanged glances, merely sending messages to the forums, making the entire Chenzhou region aware of the battle.
Su Changxing’s strength was immense, so strong that Zhong Mingrui, who claimed invincibility in Chenzhou, was not his match at all.
Defeating the invincible means perhaps becoming the next invincible, but Su Changxing’s name was already a divine name; since the battle of Donglin City, everyone in every region was familiar with Su Changxing.
The forums still had many who harshly criticized Su Changxing, siding with Chenhe, believing Su Changxing uprooted more than just the Inheritance Tree but also their future.
...
Walking on the path amidst the black mist, Su Changxing instinctively raised his head to look at the sky; earlier, he had tried to suppress his strength as much as possible, yet at the moment of action, he still felt as if something was watching him, making his skin crawl.
That thing seemed to be observing with a curious mindset.
The more often he acted, the higher the probability of being discovered became.
Thinking of this made him somewhat heavy-hearted, opting to refrain from acting frequently and let Hua san take over.
Upon reaching a wilderness, after clearing the monsters from the surrounding black mist, he began further optimizing Hua san, inscribing more rune patterns.
His understanding of rune patterns differed from average people; most learned from simple to complex, step by step, whereas he initially encountered Divine Text.
This is the advanced form of runes.
Runes were presumably derived from simplified Divine Text, every world bears rune traces as the Divine Spirits once populated every world, leaving ample Divine Text behind, from which crudely mimicking could yield runes.
Every world has a different rune system, yet they share the same essence; they all originate from Divine Text.
Different Divine Text evolved into different rune systems.
Su Changxing deeply understood Divine Text, able to etch his true name, thereby more effortlessly mastering and understanding rune patterns, and extending his understanding.
Though his rune knowledge was inherited from Eric, now through constant integration with himself, it has undergone significant changes, further improved.
It can be said, his prowess concerning rune patterns was higher than Eric during his lifetime.
Runes and organisms are mutually repulsive, yet with semi-organisms like Hua san, they can achieve perfect integration, exhibiting astonishing combat strength.
Hua san lay on the rock, taking off her clothes, revealing a delicate body.
Her body was also a human-sized puppet, with obvious traces of joints connected. The maker of this puppet had exceptional skills, connecting the joints in such a way that they could flexibly move in all directions.
Hua san’s skin was then covered with a kind of realistic gel that made it look and feel almost indistinguishable from real flesh and skin.
Su Changxing judged that Hua san was inherently a mechanical puppet created by someone. By some chance, she gained an undead soul, fusing with the body and evolving into this flesh puppet.
Existences like her are likely unique, having infinite upward potential when combined with mechanical rune technologies.
It was precisely due to this consideration that Su Changxing brought Hua san along.
Since Hua san couldn’t be placed into the Pocket Galaxy, he could only manually operate her, though feasible, the speed and precision would be significantly lower.
Something that could be perfectly completed in ten minutes inside the Pocket Galaxy would take him half a day outside.
This is likely due to his hand speed unable to keep up with his thoughts.
Subsequently, Su Changxing began to disassemble Hua san’s arms and parts of her body, which brought considerable pain to her.
Yet, Hua san endured it, remaining silent throughout, watching Su Changxing’s operation quietly.
"The main objective is to enhance the strength of your arms, as well as the speed at which rune energies aggregate, allowing you to fight more smoothly without too many concerns."
Su Changxing explained while operating quickly, throwing the parts needed for modification into the Pocket Galaxy after disassembling all components, processing them with demon flesh and bones.
After dividing the demon flesh and bones tens of thousands of times, some silver powder-like material is formed, and then much like steel refining, the disassembled parts from Hua san were melted into semisolid, enhancing their strength by adding this powder.
The parts that were strengthened turned from brown to silver-white color, without much change in appearance.
Then, Su Changxing reassembled these parts back, due to the change in these parts, both of Hua san’s arms now exhibit silver fluorescence, resembling glitter sprinkled on them.
"Now it should be about right, I’ll assemble them back, then you can try it out. Initially, don’t exert too much force, otherwise, the whole body might collapse if something goes wrong."
Su Changxing advised, pressing the connection of Hua san’s left arm.
Upon completing the installation, Hua san’s entire body seemed electrified, persistently trembling and convulsing.
"Is this the influence of demon flesh? Residual will?"
Su Changxing couldn’t help but frown; this outcome was far from his expectation. In theory, integrating high-level demon flesh into her arms shouldn’t have too much of an impact.
"Could it be because the soul of a flesh puppet differs from that of normal beings?"
He was unsure of the exact reason, actually, it was due to the move in Late Summer, his knowledge in this aspect was not complete.
The Rune Warriors created by Eric are actually still considered purely mechanical rune technology.
For this situation, he didn’t have much of a solution, only stepping back two steps, looking at Hua san vigilantly.
If Hua san showed any signs of mutation, he would have to ruthlessly destroy her.
This worst-case scenario didn’t occur.
After twitching on the ground for a while, Hua san regained composure, though her expression remained somewhat dazed.
"Seems there’s a problem, how do you feel now?" Su Changxing asked.
Hua san sat up from the rock, calmly said: "Seems there’s no problem, I am indeed much stronger."
She could distinctly feel her power significantly stronger than before.
"Then that’s fine."
Su Changxing nodded, noticing that Hua san’s tier had also changed.
[Combat Puppet: Tier Seven, Flesh Puppet, Combat-type Puppet Maid, despite being combat-type, lacks much combat skill.
Possesses unexpectedly powerful strength, can easily destroy enemies while having an agile posture, and extreme resistance capabilities.
Demon Rune Arm: Arm infused with high-level demon flesh, capable of crossing the boundaries between reality and illusion, physically destroying illusory objects.]
Who could have thought Hua san was just a plain flesh puppet not long ago, possibly not better at fighting than a Ghoul, yet now reached such a level.
Thinking of it this way.
Hua san’s existence is extraordinarily privileged; for an ordinary human to reach this level, massive time investment and overcoming numerous obstacles would be required, along with a bit of luck.
"What you need to do now is improve your combat skills and learn how to utilize your abilities. Otherwise, combat effectiveness will be significantly reduced."
Su Changxing didn’t have much of a solution for this either, leaving Hua san to learn by herself; she surely could learn through constant fighting, albeit needing some time.