The Legendary Mechanic

Sagman and the others were stunned by Han Xiao's extraordinary energy levels. They did not expect Black Star to really strike. Shocked, they quickly took defensive measures.

Boom!

The next moment, the opposing Beyond Grade As were submerged under the sea of mechanical army.

As the battle started, they became even more astonished. They felt an incomparable level of pressure even from the mechanical army.

If it was the army of a normal Beyond Grade A, they would have been able to easily move in and out of it while destroying everything in their way. However, Han Xiao's mechanical army made them feel like they were trapped in a swamp and could hardly move, not to mention breaking out of it. Only Kasuyi and Sierron were able to move freely.

This was not only because the mechanical army Han Xiao's main body brought was dozens of times larger than the two other Mechanics' armies present but also because the mechanical army's strength far exceeded what they could imagine. The Mechanical Force gave the mechanical soldiers incredible levels of enhancements!

Han Xiao already had the [Perfect Mechanical Sense] talent, and now he activated Nero's Character Summon Card as well, stacking the two Perfect Mechanical Sense talents, increasing his Machinery Affinity to a completely new territory.

Facing such crushing pressure, the Beyond Grade As of the federation and the church had no time to think about anything else other than to subconsciously work together to fight the mechanical army.

Boom!

As soon as the battle erupted, it entered the climax and became a huge war.

Inside the endless mechanical army, there were over ten spheres of light moving within. Countless beams and attacks were gathering toward these light spheres, and these light spheres were the battlefields where each of the Beyond Grade As was under intense fire.

"How can he be this strong‽" Sagman said with a shocked tone.

"The last time Black Star went all out was during the Planet Lighthouse battle. After more than two decades, this is the second time he's used his full strength. It's shocking to think that he's become this much stronger!" Taylor was both panicking and jealous.

More than two decades ago, the few of them who had taken part in the Planet Lighthouse warfare still had a vivid impression of Han Xiao's performance back then. Now that more than two decades had passed, they knew that Black Star had definitely become stronger, but they never expected him to become so much stronger!

"This level of pressure is starting to feel similar to the Mechanic Emperor…" Kasuyi's expression was grave.

He was within Han Xiao's attack range as well, and he was mainly dodging attacks and slacking while thinking about the rest of the script.

He could understand the reason behind Black Star's sudden attack—being the party that was being attacked, Black Star could not just let them retreat easily and had to, at the very least, display his intention to counter-attack. However, the strength Black Star was displaying now exceeded Kasuyi's expectations.

At this time, Sierron said with a dumbfounded tone, "This is… Polar Channel Flow—Cellular Overdrive!"

Hearing this, everyone was shocked.

Isn't this one of the explosive abilities of the Pugilist class. Why can Black Star use it too? Isn't he a Mechanic‽

"I'm definitely not mistaken. The aura Black Star is giving off feels exactly like this ability. By squeezing out his own future potential, he's exchanging it for higher power!" Sierron said with a firm tone. "Not thinking about how Black Star can use this ability, its concept remains the same!"

This was quickly accepted. Everyone's expression became complicated. Their sights passed through the mechanical army and looked at Han Xiao with shock and astonishment.

This means that… in order to keep us here, Black Star is willing to burn his own potential‽

He could have totally made us retreat. Did he really have to do this much‽

If that was the case, they were not surprised as to why Black Star became this much stronger. After all, it was only temporary.

Nonetheless, such explosive power was still quite horrifying!

Seeing how firm Han Xiao was, many people intended to retreat.

Kasuyi sighed in his mind.

Initially, when he saw Han Xiao suddenly taking the spotlight and going off-script, he was a little unhappy and wanted to stop him. However, when he saw Black Star's firm attitude, he decided not to go all out.

Since Black Star had given his all, he planned to give him face and cut him some slack. After all, he believed that Black Star knew where to draw the line.

On the side, when Hila saw Han Xiao displaying his incredible power, she was excited and shocked, but when she heard this explanation, she was stupefied.

The next second, Hila's eyes turned red, with burning rage and murderous intent!

She did not think that Black Star would burn his own potential. Looking at the reason behind all of this, was Black Star not doing this just to save her‽

A stinging pain suddenly struck her heart and flooded her entire body.

Hila turned around stiffly. The way she looked at Han Xiao was different now. There was only remorse and apology deeply embedded in her bones.

"I…"

Hila was just about to say something, but Han Xiao waved and interrupted her.

"You don't have to say anything. I'm fine."

"… I'm so sorry."

Hila bit her lips, clenched her fists, and charged into battle without saying anything else.

Death energy rushed toward the church's Beyond Grade As together with her like a tornado. Her burning rage was all vented on the enemies!

Looking at Hila's uncontrollably murderous intent, Han Xiao did not know what to say.

The side effect of using Polar Channel Flow—Cellular Overdrive was a seven-percent permanent increase in the cost of leveling up his character and abilities, which was equivalent to burning his potential. However, what these people did not know was that Han Xiao was using the Tyrant's Character Summon Card. Although it only had one usage, the Character Summon Cards had zero side effects.

Sierron's misjudgment made everyone misunderstand the situation.

Let it be. Not like it's a bad thing. In fact, it's actually beneficial for me. Han Xiao shook his head. Of course, he was not going to explain this to anyone.

Some of these Character Summon Cards could only be used once to grant him extraordinary strength, and using them in exchange for permanent abilities was definitely worth it.

He was filled with a sense of power he had never felt before. The Tyrant's Character Summon Card made his basic attributes and energy strength far beyond the normal, reaching the standard of the next Promotion. While the double Mechanical Sense talents made the power of his mechanical army skyrocket. With these two together, he became terrifyingly strong.

Those that received the most enhancements were elite combatants such as the Apostle Weapons.

…

Swoosh!

Red Devil Tolaen's leaned back and barely dodged Psionic Prime's ordinary spear strike, which slashed his thick magic shield in half and opened a deep wound on his bone-spike-covered chest, exposing his dark brown chest bone.

Tolaen hastily swung the bones on his tail toward Psionic Prime's mechanical body, which Psionic Prime calmly blocked with his spear.

Bang!

As the bones and the spear clashed, a shockwave exploded!

Tolaen was a powerful melee combat mage with tons of spells that enhanced his various combat capabilities, yet Psionic Prime, who was covered in gold Mechanical Force, fought him head-on without even taking a single step back.

"Help! Quickly! His Apostle Weapons are too strong!" Tolaen yelled.

With the enhancements of two Perfect Mechanical Senses, just Psionic Prime alone gave him enough pressure.

Plus, Psionic Prime was not the only one fighting him—Heaven-Suppressing Banner, Purple Sky Spirit, Silver Flash, Scarlet Flame, and many other Apostle Weapons were all focusing their fire on Tolaen.

The strategy Han Xiao used was to restrain others with his mechanical army while focusing his elite troops on one target to defeat them one by one.

"Useless!" Sagman was heavily surrounded as well. He was frustrated to hear Tolaen's cry for help.

However, he could not possibly ignore his ally. He had no choice but to squeeze out some energy to provide assistance, launching some powerful light shockwaves toward the Apostle Weapons who were attacking Tolaen.

Buzz!

At this time, countless nanoparticles swarmed out in the middle and suddenly turned into an enormous fortress, splitting Tolaen's battlefield away from the others.

This enormous mechanical fortress was surrounded by streams of light that quickly merged into a light gold translucent curtain that stood in the path of Sagman's attacks.

Boom!

Sagman's attacks were all stopped by this light-gold curtain, and countless blinding light arcs erupted!

Very soon, the blinding light dissipated, showing the absolutely unaffected flickering light curtain, leaving the mechanical fortress completed undamaged.

"Such strong defenses!" Sagman was shocked.

This mechanical fortress was one of Han Xiao's Apostle Weapons. His name was Heaven's Wall. This light curtain was somewhat similar to the Psionic Prime Spear; it was also a weapon that was created together with the birth of the Apostle Weapon. This light curtain's name was 'Wall of Defense', and as its name suggested, it focused on blocking attacks.

Heaven's Wall had more than one weapon. He also had 'Ion Green Flame', which was used to attack.

Suddenly, a large number of barrels extended from this fortress, shooting out beams of green light at Sagman and the others. This was a special type of ion energy attack. It was not only destructive but also had many other attributes.

"Sh*t, I'm isolated." Tolaen was frustrated by this situation. Just as he was about to attempt to escape, he felt a chilling sense of danger.

In the blink of an eye, a tiny beam of light crept through the gaps between the mechanical troops around and easily penetrated his magical shield. Tolaen hastily tried to dodge it, but it still ended up landing on his shoulder.

Boom!

The next moment, an enormous wound suddenly appeared on Tolaen's shoulder. This attack had dealt True Damage to him.

He quickly pressed on his wound and dodged around the other attacks. In moments of panic and horror, he looked in the direction that the beam of light came from, where he saw a human-shaped Apostle Weapon aiming a special firearm at him.

The moment Tolaen looked over, this Apostle Weapon suddenly disappeared without a trace.

Dark Shadow was a sniper-type assassin Apostle Weapon. His weapon was 'Godly Camouflage', which gave him extremely powerful stealth and infiltration abilities. The firearm in his hands was also a highly condensed sniper that could deal a ton of damage to single targets.

"Damn it, what weapon is that? My regeneration ability is suppressed…"

Before Tolaen could catch a breath, Mysterious Energy Host arrived. He launched a huge beam of light at Tolaen from far away, and Tolaen could only barely activate his magical shield to block it.

However, Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy had psychic attributes as well. Although Tolaen blocked the physical attack, his mind was shocked, and his channeling was interrupted.

With this golden opportunity, Hila did not hold back at all. She bombarded death energy beams on Tolaen like a thunderstorm. Tolaen was soon covered in wounds and bathed in blood.

"Why are they all attacking me?" Tolaen was frustrated.

Looking around at the entire battlefield, the one in the worst situation was none other than him.

I'm just a young new Beyond Grade A. This is bullying!

As Tolaen was in grave danger, Sagman and the others were also troubled and discussing what they could do.

"Black Star's mechanical army is way too large and powerful. We can't be restrained by him here. We have to make moves on Black Star himself. Taylor, use the forbidden spell scroll on him."

"He has an indestructible body. Will that be able to damage him?"

"It's not like we have any better choices. Let's focus our fire together with the forbidden spell," Sagman said furiously.

Taylor then tore open an attack-type forbidden spell scroll without any further hesitation.

Whoosh!

Magical meteors dashed out from within the scroll one after another, penetrating the multiple layers of psionic shields in their path, heading directly toward Han Xiao. This spell had an excellent penetrative ability. It was originally planned to be one of the trump cards to heavily wound Hila.

At the same time, Sagman and the others focused their fire at Han Xiao together with the forbidden spell. Light energy shockwaves, Pugilist Impacts, spells, psionic cannon beams, and other forms of attacks formed a tide of attacks thrown right toward Han Xiao.

The enormous energy here attracted the attention of the people of the federation not far away. They all looked over at this wave of attacks and were shocked. When facing attacks like this, most of the Beyond Grade As would have no choice but to try to escape.

With the ferocious attack dashing right toward him, Han Xiao, however, was not affected at all. All he did was raise his hand, and many sphere-shaped mechanical discs quickly gathered and formed two layers of shields that stacked on top of each other in front of Han Xiao. There was a piece of the Spacetime Amber on each and every one of those discs.

Swoosh!

Like a river stream hitting a reef, all the energy attacks slid away on the surface of the Spacetime Amber, not dealing any damage to Han Xiao at all, making the others feel both grave and jealous.

The existence of the Spacetime Amber was no secret. The fact that Han Xiao's main body was there meant that this Universal Treasure was there too.

It could even block the attack of the Ten Thousand Deity Scepter, so the threat of this wave of attacks was negligible to Han Xiao. Furthermore, even without the Spacetime Amber, he was tanky enough to take on all these attacks.

It was way too difficult to hurt Black Star's main body!

"We can use psychic attacks on his main body," Hades said hastily.

Both Crystal Soul and Hades were Psychics. They quickly summoned their maximum psychic energy output and attacked Han Xiao. Kasuyi thought about it for a moment. He then decided to do his job on paper as well and used psychic energy attacks on Han Xiao while holding back.

Psychics were professionals in terms of psychic attacks. They could attack the target's soul from afar, which was very difficult to guard against.

"I fixed my weakness long ago."

Unaffected, Han Xiao immediately activated Psyker's Character Summon Card, [Wall of Mind]!

The result of that was, he was completely unaffected, while Crystal Soul and Hades were both suddenly heavily wounded mentally. Their body shivered, and they became much weaker.

Psyker's Character Summon Card could reduce the attack damage dealt by psychic attacks while reflecting some of its damage. Hades and Crystal Soul did not hold back at all, so they ate their own attacks. On the other hand, Kasuyi, who deliberately held back, was not so unlucky.

It was not too horrible for Crystal Soul, as he was stronger and even had the psychic type Universal Treasure, Star Crown, so he was only a little wounded.

"He can even reflect psychic attacks‽"

Hades' face was pale. He was horrified.

Does this guy not have any weaknesses‽

Unconvinced, the two of them continued to attack. However, the more they attacked, the more damage they took from Han Xiao's damage reflection. Han Xiao remained at ease while the two Psychics kept receiving damage.

With the Great Mechanic Han's Psychological Resistance, he could actually block a lot of those psychic attacks. However, reflecting the damage was clearly much better than him just enduring the attacks. In the face of more than ten enemies, he was not going to give up any opportunity to weaken them.

…

As the fight lasted for a while, the many members of the federation and the church still had yet to get out of their difficult situations. Moving inside the mechanical army was extremely difficult.

The impact of such an enormous mechanical army, which continuously procced Han Xiao's True Damage talent, was much larger than being able to merely restrain Beyond Grade As. If they did not deal with it cautiously and got focused on, they would die right on the spot. Therefore, everyone was on edge.

If they were facing an ordinary Mechanic, they would have rushed to him long ago. However, there was absolutely no point in doing that when facing Black Star.

He was too tanky, so much so that they did not even think about closing the distance on him!

However, Sierron was the exception. As a peak Beyond Grade A Pugilist, he could easily be unstoppable in the midst of the mechanical army.

Just like the Tyrant, he also had a True Damage immunity talent, so he could ignore the focus fire of the mechanical army. However, the damage he could deal to the mechanical army was nothing given the sheer scale of the mechanical army.

The muscles on Sierron's arms expanded as he sent a Pugilist shockwave strong enough to obliterate an entire planet right toward Han Xiao, but it was still reflected by the Spacetime Amber. Seeing this, he clenched his teeth, suppressed his anger, and spoke with Kasuyi.

"Let's work together. You restrain the mechanical army to help me get close to Black Star. I'll try to restrain him instead of killing him.

"I'm out of energy," Kasuyi replied.

Sierron was speechless.

You were so energetic earlier when you fought me as if you had infinite energy, but now you're saying that you're out of energy? Who the hell are you trying to fool‽

Sierron was furious, so he left Kasuyi alone and charged toward Han Xiao alone, destroying the mechanical soldiers in his path. All four of his arms were covered in highly condensed Pugilist flames like they were coated with black paint.

"Humph, I knew you were going to do this."

Han Xiao was prepared. He activated his ability instantly. Some of the mechanical soldiers flew toward him and quickly assembled.

In the next moment, the Mechanical Deity descended!

As soon as it appeared, the Mechanical Deity swung its arm and launched its fist toward Sierron. It was shrouded in a white light energy field that was created by psionic energy and force fields.

Four black fists clashed with the mechanical fist that was millions of times larger.

Boom!

A gigantic shockwave exploded and expanded in the cosmic space!

The Mechanical Deity's arm quickly shattered, and tons of mechanical parts exploded. Sierron, on the other hand, due to his size disadvantage, was sent flying at a speed even faster than before.

Shockingly, the two sides' strength was on par.

"This punch of mine would have even destroyed the core of a planet, yet Sierron took it head-on. That's the power of a peak Beyond Grade A Pugilist, I suppose."

At this time, 'Mechanical Catastrophe' Francisco saw the Mechanical Deity and quickly contacted the federation's 'Mechanic Empress' Mornisa.

"He has used the Mechanical Deity. This is our chance. You, me, and Romo, the three of us shall use Virtual Mechanic on the Mechanical Deity right now. Even though Han Xiao is a Virtual Mechanic, he still has to deal with that carefully."

"Okay." Mornisa nodded.

At this crucial point, the Beyond Grade As of the federation and the church had no choice but to work together temporarily to fight Black Star, who was 'burning up his future potential'.

The three Mechanics quickly formed an alliance and attacked Han Xiao's virtual firewall.

Han Xiao noticed this instantly and smiled with mockery.

"Oh, they're trying to hack me?"

With all the bonuses plus the fact that he was a Virtual Mechanic, Han Xiao's ability in the Virtual Technology field was extremely high.

Among the three enemies, only Romo was a Virtual Mechanic, and he did not even send a Lord's Avatar.

In the virtual world, Han Xiao confronted the three of them. The three of them kept trying to break through Han Xiao's defenses, while Han Xiao's firewall stood strong.

Instead of being attacked, Han Xiao even followed the connection to use Virtual Intrusion on the three of them. The two members of the federation could barely stop Han Xiao's hacking with the help of their main artificial intelligence, but the same could not be said for Francisco.

Francisco was alone, and he was not even a Virtual Technology professional. His defenses were weak and were shattering by the second.

His machinery became traitors one after another and turned on their former teammates.

"I'm going to lose!" Even the movements of Francisco's Lord's Avatar started to stagger.

At this moment, an enormous mechanical hand appeared and grabbed Francisco's Lord's Avatar before he could dodge.

Ka-cha!

Francisco's Lord's Avatar turned into a pile of trash instantly.

Han Xiao curled his lips.

"Hehe, paper."

Mechanics who were using Lord's Descent could deactivate their ability any time they wanted, so there was no way to catch them. In order to get rid of them, one just had to destroy their Lord's Avatar.

After all, not every Mechanic's Lord's Avatar was as tanky as his.

Seeing this, Mornisa reluctantly gave up on the idea of trying to hack into Han Xiao's army and focused on strengthening their defenses to not let Han Xiao break through.

Suddenly, the situation of the battle took a turn.

Under the focused fire of many Apostle Weapons and Hila, Tolaen could not hold on.

The damage output of the mechanical army around him was the main source of damage he received. After all, he was not immune to True Damage. His health plummeted under the focus fire of the mechanical army, and his teammates had no way of helping him.

Bang bang bang!

"Ahhh!"

Tolaen was flooded by bullets and cannons once again. This time, he was at his limit.

Not one area on his body was unharmed. His demon horns were broken, and his mind was fuzzy from the attacks of Hila and Mysterious Energy Host. He had lost the ability to fight.

Just as Hila was about to end him, Han Xiao's Mechanical Deity stopped her.

"Don't."

"Why? They made you…" Hila clenched her teeth and dared not complete the sentence.

"He's more valuable alive."

Han Xiao shook his head and grabbed Tolaen, who had almost lost all his senses. He absorbed him into the Mechanical Deity and brought him to where his main body was.

Han Xiao took out the Spacetime Amber and sealed Tolaen right away.

Looking at the agony on this guy's face that was now fixed, Han Xiao smiled with satisfaction like a farmer counting the harvest of an entire year.

"That's one."

…

"Tolaen's been captured!"

Sagman was enraged. He looked at the Mechanical Deity, which had captured his teammate, and a sense of panic appeared in his mind.

He did not even have to think to know that Tolaen was definitely going to get a taste of the Spacetime Amber, and he felt bad for him.

Due to how uniquely tanky Black Star's main body was, they could not deal with Black Star the same way one would deal with other Mechanics. There was only one path in front of them, which would take the most effort—to eliminate Black Star's mechanical army.

However, Black Star was fighting on his own grounds. He had even burned his future potential. Given the unique combat style of Mechanics, he was extremely powerful at this point, which was due to three key components—his Mechanical Deity, his elite Apostle Weapons, and his enormous mechanical army.

The strength of Mechanics in the later stages depended on their ability to fight multiple battles at once, creating a numerical advantage in one or more battles through the suitable distribution of their troops. In this battle, the Mechanical Deity had fought Sierron on even ground, restraining a peak Beyond Grade A; the mechanical army had restrained the many Beyond Grade As; and the Apostle Weapons had focused their fire on one target at a time to defeat them one by one.

If this lasted any longer, he could not even estimate how many of them would be left there.

In the past, Black Star's only strength was his regenerative ability. Now that his attack had become this strong, Sagman's impression of him became someone who was on a completely different level that gave him nothing but despair!

"Your Excellency Kasuyi, what should we do now?"

Sagman looked at his captain.

In times like this, the person he trusted most was the leader of his team… but he did not know how much Kasuyi was holding back.

"Black Star only obtained this strength through burning his potential. It won't last long. The operation has failed. There's no point to continue fighting. We're retreating," Kasuyi said slowly.

"What about Tolaen?"

"Even you might not even be able to walk away. Why are you thinking about others?" Kasuyi shook his head.

Although he was the leader, he did not mind Black Star capturing some of them to vent his anger. The way he looked at it, since Black Star had burned his potential, the Universal Civilizations should give him some compensation. He was not the one paying for it anyway.

All these Beyond Grade As coming to kill Hila had already insulted Black Star. If he could not vent his emotions, it would not align with Kasuyi and the Mechanic Emperor's plans.