Chapter 1 A Desperate Gambit

A few minutes prior, the high-altitude battlefield above Beacon Star.

Seven Super-A Grades were locked in a chaotic battle. Fire clashed with water, psionic power tangled with magic, machinery fought against flesh and blood, and beams of arcane energy crisscrossed, leaving behind countless scorching and distorted energy trails in the sky.

With the situation at three against four, the enemy’s offensive had to slow down. Han Xiao’s pressure was greatly reduced. Relying on his own powerful recovery speed, he had gradually stabilized his position and was now skirmishing with the enemy.

Han Xiao’s mechanical troops, Austin’s Arcane Sanctum, Tailledi’s summons, Cisco’s psionic power, Dillon’s water manipulation, Bioni’s ignition… Aoe damage permeated every corner of the battlefield.

Among them, the mechanical army possessed the strongest Aoe power. With a scale of over ten million, arcane energy cannons almost covered every inch of the sky. The [Perfect Mechanical Sense] greatly increased the battle power of the legion, and with the true damage attached to the [Legendary Combat Technique], Cisco and the other three did not dare to relax their vigilance, always maintaining their defensive capabilities.

Even Super-A Grades could not emerge unscathed in such an environment, and the mechanical troops and summons, which adopted a human wave tactic, suffered massive damage.

Mechanical troops could be repaired, summons were inexhaustible; both sides had their own advantages.

In a one-on-one fight, Han Xiao, without activating [Perfect Mechanical Sense], could probably defeat Tailledi without his Mage Tower. Now that [Perfect Mechanical Sense] was activated, he was even more certain of victory.

However, Tailledi had teammates who restrained Han Xiao’s mechanical army, making it easier for him to cast spells and summon an endless stream of helpers.

Various forms of summons now existed on the field, including demon bats, lapis lazuli statues, plasma hydralisks, spirit stalkers, phantom hermits, and so on. Their combat methods were bizarre and varied, all being monsters that Tailledi had cultivated after signing contracts. A powerful summoner’s summons must possess diversity.

Han Xiao separated two or three million mechanical combatants, commanded by combat AI, to specialize in fighting these summons.

The scene of a mechanical war against a beast tide was like a battle between two armies. The mechanical troops cooperated tacitly and their tactics were precise, constantly shooting down waves of summons. The attrition rate was far lower than that of the summon army.

In the chaotic battlefield, a mechanical life combat team led by You Zu was speeding through the intersecting fire.

Combat AI Sparta did not take over the bodies of the mechanical lives, only issuing tactical instructions to them. Specific actions were left to the mechanical lives to exert subjective initiative, so that the mechanical lives could exert one hundred percent of their battle power.

The powerful data processing and battlefield analysis module operated at high power, displaying the gaps in the hail of bullets and planning evasion routes. You Zu’s flying posture was lithe and agile. The entire combat team followed behind him, avoiding the beams of energy that came and went. If they really couldn’t avoid them, they would use arcane energy shields in advance. The team’s traveling speed was extremely fast.

The direction of advancement for this combat team was towards a battlefield where a group of elite summons was located.

Their target was a team of powerful, commander-level demon bat people, guarding a hundreds-of-meters-tall lapis lazuli statue that continuously fired laser beams. All were blessed with the summoner’s status auras, and their attributes had exploded, already taking down many ordinary mechanical combatants and hovering turrets.

“Attention, everyone. Our mission is to eliminate the enemy’s elite units.”

In the mechanical life’s communication network, You Zu’s emotionless mechanical voice sounded.

This team of demon bat people noticed the rapidly approaching mechanical life squad and immediately turned to meet them.

“Distance is closing, prepare for battle!”

“Target locked, fire!”

The mechanical lives belonging to the ranged attacker formation transformed back into their main bodies. There were models like dark energy turrets, arcane energy cluster spray cannons, firepower fortresses, high-energy short-range missile launchers, and so on, firing a series of ranged attacks at the target with a rumble.

Bang bang bang!

The group of commander-level demon bat people opened their red arcane energy shields one after another, charging forward against the attacks. From time to time, someone’s shield was broken, pierced and shattered by the mechanical squad’s ranged attacks, and casualties constantly appeared.

Encountering the attack, the giant lapis lazuli statue immediately turned, both eyes gathering white energy. The next moment, a thick beam of concentrated arcane energy spewed out, blasting apart the cannon fodder-type mechanical combatants and summons that blocked its path. The undiminished arcane energy beam shot towards You Zu’s mechanical squad.

“Giant King Kong, attack!”

Behind You Zu, a huge shadow loomed. Countless mechanical components combined to form a giant soldier-type mechanical life hundreds of meters tall, named Giant King Kong.

He held up a huge arcane energy barrier, sheltering all team members, and forcibly blocked the arcane energy beam’s bombardment.

Bang!

The light expanded, causing a rumble explosion. He only suffered a little external armor damage.

Behind Giant King Kong, the thrusters’ power was pushed to its peak. The massive body launched itself like a catapult, smashing away the summons that came to block it, and landed on the lapis lazuli statue after crossing a large section of the battlefield. The two behemoths collided with a bang!

Rumble!!

It was as if the earth was shaking and the mountains were swaying!

The lapis lazuli statue was pressed down by Giant King Kong and beaten violently, blue fragments falling like rain. The two giant creatures were entangled in combat, and the small units below also began a fierce battle.

These mechanical lives were basically elite units, having grown for a period of time. There were many individuals with small-Boss templates among them. As a vanguard force, their combat power was extremely outstanding, and they were Han Xiao’s most powerful small elite combat force.

Armed steel cavalry, Oathkeepers, beast-type combatants, and other models of mechanical lives launched a charge, engaging in close combat with this group of elite demon bat people. It was a completely one-sided crushing. One commander-level demon bat person after another was cut into pieces by various advanced melee mechanical weapons.

The enemy’s spirit stalkers who could blink joined the battle, but they were captured and controlled by the mechanical life’s restraint devices and easily reaped.

You Zu constantly split and recombined, his dazzling offensive easily cutting the demon bat people captain into a pile of minced meat. After reassembling, he turned his head and looked around, his teammates had basically ended the battle, completely annihilating the enemy’s elite summon squad.

“Hmph, easy.” Silver Flash released the corpse of an elite demon bat person, letting it fall to the surface, and said, “It’s a pity that it’s a planetary defense war. If it were an offensive, I could have gone all out with my cannons and the battle would have ended long ago.”

“Bragging! Bragging!” Crimson Fire rolled in the air.

Silver Flash ignored him and turned to look at the battlefield of the seven Super-A Grades in the distance, simulating a regretful tone, “It’s a pity that we’re not strong enough, I really hope to get closer to that battlefield and help Father.”

Hearing this, Giant King Kong dropped the shattered lapis lazuli statue and replied, “Father is protecting us.”

“We are clearly weapons made by Father, yet he is protecting us. Is this what those biological organisms call fatherly love?” Silver Flash asked curiously.

You Zu was about to speak when a sharp whistling sound came from the sky, echoing through the clouds and attracting the attention of many people.

Shoo——

Numerous mechanical lives looked up.

They saw a giant dragon spinning and falling from outer space in the distance, leaving behind a large patch of dragon blood like heavy rain. Its whole body was burning with flames like a meteorite, crashing through a large number of mechanical combatants and summons. In an instant, it pierced through the altitude where the high-altitude battlefield was located, and crashed toward the ground, rapidly shrinking into a tiny red dot in the eyes of the onlookers.

Rumble!!

The fallen giant dragon was like a space-based kinetic weapon striking the surface, bursting out with a huge shockwave, shaking up mushroom cloud-like smoke and dust. Large swaths of buildings collapsed!

…

“The one that fell just now was Milizaus? Was he severely injured?!”

Han Xiao, Bioni, and Austin all had a shock in their hearts when they saw this scene.

It shouldn’t be, Milizaus’ strength was enough to hold off Sagman and Niger. How could he be so badly injured and defeated so quickly?!

The three were suspicious and uncertain, tacitly diving toward Milizaus’s location, dragging the battlefield toward the ground. Cisco and the other three followed closely behind. The distance from high altitude to the surface was only a blink of an eye for them.

The next moment, Han Xiao and Bioni landed next to the giant pit. Austin manipulated the Arcane Sanctum to hover in mid-air. After seeing Milizaus’s current state clearly, the three of them suddenly changed their expressions.

Milizaus’s huge dragon body was extremely miserable. There was a large, everted flesh wound on his chest, and the broken bones and organs inside could be seen. Dragon blood gurgled out, and broken dragon scales hung on the edges of the wound.

This terrifying wound seemed to have been caused by a single attack. Bioni was shocked. It was difficult to imagine how terrifying an attack it would take to cause such a wound to Milizaus’s tough body.

The injuries were not limited to this. New cracks were constantly appearing on Milizaus’s body, as if some kind of energy was causing continuous damage inside his body, constantly destroying his cells.

Seeing this, Han Xiao’s mech’s fingertips popped out a needle again, inserted into the flesh, and injected Milizaus with a dose of Aurora’s life potion, but it only slowed down the speed of the wound’s deterioration, and there were no signs of recovery.

Because it was stuck in the wound, combat information was triggered. Han Xiao looked at the panel and felt a thump in his heart.

The panel showed Milizaus’s current state. His health was only about 63% left, and it was still gradually decreasing. Many negative statuses appeared in the status bar, among which the two most terrifying were:

[【Cell Activity Suppression-High】: The effect of any treatment method is reduced by 70%, duration unknown – From Niger]

[【Dual Erosion】: Receives 12,582 points of physical damage and 15,733 points of mental damage per second, duration unknown – From Niger]

“Ugh…” Milizaus groaned, raised his dragon head, and looked at Han Xiao and the other two, weakly saying: “Be careful, they brought the Pantheon Scepter…”

Before he could finish speaking, Sagman and Niger landed, and the enemy’s six Super-A Grades converged!

Han Xiao and the other two looked up and immediately saw the weapon that had injured Milizaus, which was the Pantheon Scepter floating next to Sagman.

It was actually this famous Universal Treasure… Han Xiao’s face darkened.

The Arcane Church had put down a lot of capital!

“They even took this thing out?” Austin’s face changed drastically, and he immediately had the intention to retreat.

He had fulfilled his promise to help and felt that he had already done his best, but he didn’t want to die for it. Relying on the defense and mobility of the Arcane Sanctum, he had the confidence to intervene in this battle where the enemy’s strength was vastly different from his own. However, the Pantheon Scepter’s attack nature was strange and could ignore most physical or energy shields. It could only be dodged and could not be blocked, which meant that the Arcane Sanctum could not help him block the Pantheon Scepter’s attack.

Austin thought it through very clearly. The Arcane Church’s target was Black Star and the Empire. He was not their target. If he was determined to retreat, the enemy would not waste Super-A Grade combat power to pursue him, and he could definitely escape.

He didn’t want to taste what it was like to be hit by this weapon that posed a fatal threat to Super-A Grades.

“That old codger wants to run…”

Although he didn’t know how to read minds, Han Xiao knew what Austin was planning when he saw Austin’s hesitant expression, and felt helpless in his heart.

The appearance of the Pantheon Scepter was beyond his expectations. If he had known that the enemy had this trump card, he would not have let Milizaus separate from him.

Han Xiao’s face was solemn, and he stabbed Milizaus with a few more needles, and his injuries stopped deteriorating and gradually recovered.

Although [Cell Activity Suppression-High] weakened the effect of Aurora’s life potion, Han Xiao had a large stock of potions, so injecting it a few more times would have the same effect, but it would take longer to recover.

However, the enemy had six Super-A Grades, so they obviously wouldn’t give them much time.

Swish——

The six of them surrounded and looked down at Han Xiao, Milizaus, and Bioni in mid-air. The shocking pressure was comparable to the fall of the sky, as for Austin in the air, they were isolated outside.

“Don’t continue to interfere, this is the last warning.” Cisco looked at Austin.

“…”

Austin looked at Han Xiao, pursed his lips, and didn’t dare to act again.

The Pantheon Scepter floated to the front of Sagman and tilted downward, the tip pointing at the immobile Milizaus.

A look of despair appeared in Milizaus’s dragon eyes. He knew his own situation. Although Han Xiao didn’t know what magical potion he used to start to recover his injuries, if he was hit again, he would probably enter a near-death state and be at their mercy.

Sagman was about to activate the Pantheon Scepter when Han Xiao suddenly took a deep breath and said loudly:

“Don’t you want the Evolution Cube?!”

Sagman stopped, narrowed his eyes, and didn’t immediately activate the Pantheon Scepter.

“You want to hand it over voluntarily in exchange for a chance to live?”

“That’s right.” Han Xiao let out a breath, took out the Evolution Cube, secretly lifted the sealing effect of the Time-Space Amber during the process, and raised it up.

The eyes of the six people focused on the small silver cube in Han Xiao’s hand.

Cisco’s expression changed. In this instant, he regained his psionic induction of the Evolution Cube, his eyes lit up, and he asserted, “This is the real thing.”

Hearing this, Sagman nodded, looked at Han Xiao indifferently, and changed the topic.

“But do you have the capital to negotiate now? If we kill you, we can still get the Evolution Cube. Why should we agree to your request? Whether we capture you as prisoners or kill you is up to us. Do you think you have the power to choose?”

“No, you’re wrong.” Han Xiao tightened his fingers slightly and said in a deep voice, “If I destroy the portable shell of the Evolution Cube here and release its huge main body… Hehe, can you take this thing away before the Empire’s reinforcements arrive?”

Sagman narrowed his eyes, but he was not surprised by this.

Before the operation, the Arcane Church had guessed that Black Star might destroy the portable device of the Evolution Cube when he was at the end of his rope, so they had been prepared for it.

The Heretic God had advanced a portion of the information from the Evolutionary Civilization, which was their bargaining chip for cooperation, so that the Arcane Church could manufacture a special device to transport the main body of the Evolution Cube, which was now in the fleet. However, the Heretic God had held back, and he would only provide the information about turning the Evolution Cube into a portable mode after the transaction was completed.

Therefore, if Black Star was willing to voluntarily hand over the Evolution Cube in its portable state, it would save a lot of trouble.

“Alright, as long as you surrender and hand over the Evolution Cube, we won’t kill you. The higher-ups would be happy to see the Empire pay a price to exchange for you prisoners.”

Sagman agreed to this request, and he controlled the power of life and death of Han Xiao and the other three. He had an indifferent expression, as if he was high above everyone else.

He was the representative of the six people and could make temporary decisions. Capturing them was better than killing them. Although it would also anger the Empire, the former had more bargaining chips to deal with the Empire.

Although Milizaus was annoyed by the crisis that Han Xiao had brought, he couldn’t help but feel sad when he saw Han Xiao hand over the Evolution Cube to beg for everyone’s lives.

At this time, he suddenly noticed that Han Xiao had secretly stepped on him, and his heart stirred. He knew that Han Xiao had a plan, so he used magic to link the minds of the three of them to communicate.

Han Xiao didn’t show any abnormality, as if he was relieved, and said, “As a sign of surrender, I’ll tell you the activation password for the portable mode of the Evolution Cube.”

As he spoke, he didn’t care about Sagman’s reaction and directly started entering the activation program, his hand speed was extremely fast.

The information given by the Heretic God showed that a special method was indeed needed to activate the Evolution Cube. Han Xiao’s words were correct. Verifying it on the spot might avoid being deceived by the Heretic God’s information.

“Hmm? After you become a prisoner, we’ll have plenty of time to demonstrate…” Sagman didn’t notice the problem at first, just frowned and casually said a word, but in the next moment, he suddenly realized something, his face changed, and he shouted sternly:

“No! Stop!”

Han Xiao turned a deaf ear and completed the activation program.

Whoosh——

The next moment, without saying a word, he activated the evolution energy inside, and it surged overwhelmingly towards the six people in mid-air.

The six people’s expressions changed, and they hurriedly released their respective shields. If they were hit by the evolution energy, they would turn into black cocoons and enter the evolution process. Although they could forcibly interrupt the evolution process and regain their actions, they would also be controlled for a certain period of time.

Sagman’s killing intent towards Han Xiao instantly soared to its peak.

——I gave you a chance to live, but you didn’t cherish it. You even wanted to resist and plot against us. You’re simply courting death!

“Courting death!”

Without saying a word, Sagman directly used the Pantheon Scepter and shot it towards Milizaus—cut off his wings first, and then there would be plenty of time to slowly torture Black Star!

Buzz buzz buzz——

The Pantheon Scepter floating in the air vibrated again, and suddenly launched an attack. The divine spirit phantom gathered into a pillar of energy and poured out with a bang!

Milizaus thought of Han Xiao’s words just now and could only choose to believe him. He secretly gritted his teeth, ignored the Pantheon Scepter’s attack, and instead released offensive magic to attack Sagman and the other six people at the same time.

Bioni also took the same action, launching attacks to restrain the six people.

The surrounding mechanical troops also received the order to fire at the same time!

On the other side, Han Xiao spread his arms and released mechanical balls, which floated in the path of the Pantheon Scepter’s energy pillar and formed two layers of sky-covering screens. Because they were all spheres, the second layer was used to block the gaps in the first layer, making up for the gaps.

Immediately afterwards, these mechanical balls rapidly underwent nano-transformation, retracted their outer shells, and revealed semi-transparent amber balls inside.

After staying on Beacon Star for more than half a month, Han Xiao had already created a large number of amber balls with Time-Space Amber!

The six members of the Arcane Church retreated to avoid the evolution energy, while defusing the attacks of Han Xiao and the other three, and paying attention to the results of this attack.

Seeing this scene, a playful smile appeared on Sagman’s face.

“Shields? Shields are useless in front of the Pantheon Scepter… What?!”

Before he could finish speaking, the scene in the next second made all six people, including Sagman, widen their eyes and look astonished!

The energy pillar shot by the Pantheon Scepter didn’t pass through these semi-transparent spherical “shields” as they had expected, but slid off the barrier and shot in all directions, like a stream of water hitting a lotus leaf, without passing through at all!

Milizaus and Bioni also widened their eyes in disbelief. Just now, Han Xiao said that he could block the Pantheon Scepter’s attack. They could only believe him, but now that he had really succeeded, the two of them couldn’t help but be stunned.

The reason why Han Xiao was so confident was not because he blindly believed in the effect of the Time-Space Amber, but because during the World Tree Civilization War in the later versions of his previous life, the Arcane Church had used the Pantheon Scepter, and had failed against the Time-Space Amber!

Bang!

In the instant of astonishment on both sides, Han Xiao, who had known that the Time-Space Amber could block the Pantheon Scepter, seized the short opportunity and allowed the amber ball barrier to spread out all over the sky with a bang, bouncing towards the enemy and turning into a moving shield.

The six members of Sagman’s group had already recovered and hurriedly used ranged methods to try to grab the Pantheon Scepter back.

However, the amber balls scattered in mid-air moved to the front of these ranged attacks under the propulsion of micro-thrusters, blocking all of the enemy’s psionic power, magic, and light energy shocks, and deviating from the target!

The six people didn’t expect that this kind of semi-transparent spherical “shield” could block all of their energy attacks and be undamaged, and they were suddenly shocked.

“What exactly is this weird thing? It can block all attacks?!”

It wasn’t until they discovered that although physical attacks were ineffective, they could use kinetic energy to knock these amber balls away that it was too late!

Han Xiao used a void leap and flashed away a distance before being interrupted, directly grabbed the Pantheon Scepter, and then soared into the sky!

The Pantheon Scepter was taken away, and the six members of Sagman’s group didn’t hesitate to throw down the others and chased after Han Xiao, vowing to take the Pantheon Scepter back.

You chase after me, and the six people used all kinds of methods. Han Xiao had only escaped for less than a minute before being caught up by the six people.

The power of six Super-A Grades focusing their attacks was something he couldn’t block at all, and he was blasted away without any room to fight back.

His health dropped sharply in an instant, and Han Xiao gritted his teeth and threw away the Pantheon Scepter in his hand, tossing it out.

Seeing this, Sagman immediately grabbed the Pantheon Scepter with light energy tentacles and took it back.

However, before he could breathe a sigh of relief, he was stunned to find that the Pantheon Scepter had been sealed into a semi-transparent spherical substance at some point.

No energy could penetrate it! It was the same substance as those spherical “shields” that blocked the Pantheon Scepter!

Sagman’s expression changed drastically!

“You… what did you do?!”