Translator: CinderTL
Whoosh!
A gale reversed its course, and a comet plummeted from the sky.
The heavens of the Mental World shattered as a meteor struck, and a figure dove from the sky, his fist like a falling star.
The overwhelming force of the wind pressed down on the world, pinning everyone in place.
Boom!
Instantly, the Peak Flying General, who had been soaring high above, crashed to earth, his body crushed as if by Mount Tai, sinking inch by inch into the cracking ground.
The half-human creature collapsed to its knees, sinking into the earth as if trapped in quicksand.
"No!!"
Terror gripped them, and they frantically looked to the flame-clad man for help.
In stark contrast, Zhou Wuren, Zhang Hengshan, and the others far away remained untouched by the aftershocks.
"He actually came," the flame-clad man muttered, his brow furrowed as he glared at the descending figure.
Chen Feng, his cold eyes fixed downward, drew closer, his presence eclipsing even the blazing sun, casting the entire world beneath the shadow of his fist.
In that instant, he abandoned all restraint.
He forcibly shattered the wind pressure, channeling every ounce of energy into his body, and fully activated the Armament Module.
Boom!
The air exploded as the flame wings behind him surged forward, their fiery energy flowing into his arms.
He bent his elbow and clenched his fist.
His physical body crackled like a coiling spring, as if storing immense energy.
From a distance, the two figures about to collide looked almost identical, both radiating cold madness.
The oppressive aura of their confrontation was so intense that it seemed each occupied half the world, symbolizing sky and earth, neither yielding to the other.
"It's over," Liu Duanyun suddenly said, shaking his head.
Zhang Hengshan, who had pulled him away, wiped blood from his lips, puzzled. Zhou Wuren and the others who had dodged the blast were equally stunned.
The flame-wreathed man before them was undeniably powerful, clearly on par with some Legendary Flying Generals.
Even with Grandmaster Chen's terrifying track record, it seemed unlikely he could prevail in the short term.
"He has already broken through the Third Stage of Transcendence," a calm voice declared, tinged with relief.
Zhang Hengshan's expression froze. Then, high above, Chen Feng, plummeting from the sky, smirked coldly.
"Dare to clench your fist against me?"
Buzz!
A golden pillar of light crashed down, coalescing into layers of Gale Qi that pressed down like a mountain.
With a thunderous roar, White Cloud Mountain began to crumble under the crushing force.
Smoke and dust billowed skyward as countless fragments of rock erupted into the air. Hidden among them, several Utopia operatives were instantly vaporized, their bodies exploding into crimson mist.
The flame-wreathed figure high above paled, his posture collapsing as he doubled over, his carefully built momentum shattered in an instant.
"Impossible!"
His pupils constricted in disbelief, as if a thousand tons of weight had suddenly crushed down upon him. The air around him trembled violently, as if solidifying into tangible force. Inside his body, the Rainbow Iron Module clicked and whirred, its stored energy locked down as if frozen solid. His entire body shook uncontrollably, every ounce of his power suppressed to the brink of collapse.
Buzz!!
In the next instant, the meteor hurtled closer. Burning flames dyed the sky crimson, and the crushing wind pressure pulverized everything in its path.
On the ground, both the half-humans and the Peak Flying Generals screamed in agony as their bodies shattered, their remains exploding outward. Crimson mist mingled with the flying debris, and madness flared in the flame-wreathed figure's eyes as the crimson patterns on his face erupted with blinding light.
"This can't be happening!" he roared, defying the inevitable.
His bent knees straightened inch by inch, as if he were forcing himself to stand.
Behind him, fiery wings unfurled once more, and molten flames coiled around his clenched fist, as if he intended to strike the heavens with a punch to prove himself.
But.
Boom!!
The godlike figure finally descended.
The fist imprint merged with a meteorite high above, and even before it landed, the earth buckled, forming a crater a kilometer deep.
The man plummeted from the sky, kicking up a cloud of dust that seeped into the newly formed fissures.
"Remember this—"
Boom!
He dove toward the ground, his fist falling like a meteor.
Chen Feng's right arm lashed out, tearing through the air.
The scarlet-gold Cosmic Flame ignited like a comet, slamming into the flame-man's chest.
"This is my true power."
Bang!!!
The bio-mimetic skin instantly disintegrated, and the mechanical body exploded violently.
Magnetic sparks flashed as shattered metal fragments crashed into the cracked rock, scattering debris across the ground.
A bio-mimetic eyeball rolled to a stop, its gaze frozen in place. Chen Feng seized the alien consciousness attempting to flee.
His eyes narrowed, and Wrath of the Storm activated instantly.
Space froze, and a cone-shaped mental attack, sharp as an invisible blade, shot forth in an instant.
"You—!"
A furious roar echoed in his ears, followed by a wet splatter—as if some intangible entity had been cleaved in two.
A muffled groan echoed through the void.
All the strange phenomena vanished instantly, unnoticed by Liu Duanyun and the others in the distance.
Only Chen Feng frowned slightly, his gaze fixed on the shattered mechanical wreckage on the ground, lost in brief contemplation.
Meanwhile, in the Platinum Federation, within a secret underground base known to no one:
"I can't believe we've alerted Master Velatu. The enemy must be stronger than we anticipated, capable of severely damaging Raius and the others."
"Fortunately, Raius was well-prepared and brought one of Master's modified bodies to the Red Nation in advance."
"It's a pity the electronic interference from the shield is distorting the visuals. Judging by the time, the battle should be nearing its end."
Buzz!
Suddenly, the signal on the electronic light screen vanished.
The conversation abruptly ceased. The research personnel and experts, who had been relaxed moments before, exchanged uneasy glances and immediately turned to the monitoring data displays.
Row after row of data rapidly reset to zero and froze.
The two peak sixth-tier Cyborgs had fallen simultaneously. The bar graphs representing their energy, Life Energy Fields, and defense systems instantly emptied, as if wiped clean by an invisible hand.
"What's happening?"
In the base's monitoring room, everyone's pupils contracted, and the security personnel guarding the area paled.
What's going on?
Hasn't Master Velatu already descended his consciousness and personally taken control of his clone?
Why is this still happening?
A flurry of bewildered thoughts arose as someone frantically manipulated the virtual keyboard, attempting to retrieve additional data.
But before they could react—
Crack!
A crisp shattering sound suddenly echoed through the room.
Following the sound, they saw cracks spiderwebbing across the crystal display screens of the precision instruments.
As if signaling the beginning, the shattering sounds continued relentlessly.
The crowd watched in horror as other experimental devices began to fail one after another, cracks spreading across their surfaces.
Even the blue light screen suspended at the center of the monitoring room flickered violently, its brightness fluctuating wildly. The entire underground base shook and trembled as if struck by an earthquake.
"What's going on?!"
"It's... it's like the Deep Sea!"
Amidst the panicked cries, an experienced research expert identified the source of the anomaly. He swiftly manipulated the controls to project a virtual representation of the Deep Sea into the monitoring room.
Instantly, a flash of light transformed the room into a virtual ocean of blue light, teeming with Light Orbs of varying sizes and densities.
This was the Roth Family's legacy—the collective consciousness of countless Cyborgs, replicated and uploaded into this digital realm.
The closer one approached the center, the sparser the Light Orbs became.
Yet, correspondingly, their radiance intensified, emitting pure white light, with several Sixth-Tier entities among them.
Even more striking were the handful of Light Orbs that blazed like suns in the Deep Sea, radiating an aura of transcendent dominance.
"No, something's wrong!"
The research and Security Personnel quickly noticed the anomaly, their faces paling as they stared at the very heart of the Virtual Deep Sea.
One of the sun-like consciousness Light Orbs, once blindingly brilliant, was now rapidly dimming.
Its radiant heat plummeted, and violent energy fluctuations emanated from it—the unmistakable signs of a Legendary-grade consciousness collapsing and dissipating.
The entire Virtual Deep Sea erupted in a tsunami of energy, engulfing countless replicated consciousnesses in its wake.
In the end, though the Light Orb barely managed to stabilize its energy field level and retain its glow, it appeared significantly weakened compared to the other sun-like entities around it, as if a portion of its Origin energy had been severed.
In a daze, the crowd seemed to hear a weak, furious roar.
Their eyes widened as if the sky had fallen, overwhelmed by disbelief.
"Master Velatu... injured?"
Whoosh!
Two minutes later, near White Cloud Mountain in the Nanjiang Suburbs.
Several military aircraft descended rapidly, leaving the wilderness scarred and ravaged.
The earth was cracked and barren, the once-lush Greenfield now desolate.
Twisted, cratered soil bore charred burn marks, and White Cloud Mountain itself had been shattered into fragments.
The remaining mountain peak was riddled with fissures. Though Han Chao and his team had anticipated this, the sheer devastation still stunned them, leaving them frozen for several seconds.
As the aircraft landed, the Flying General barely managed to regain his composure. He immediately led his team to fan out, searching for traces of the enemy and examining corpses to ensure no survivors remained.
"These people are truly audacious, daring to ambush and assassinate us."
"And they even bypassed our Sky Eye System's standard Legendary-grade threat detection protocols."
Regaining his senses, Han Chao approached Chen Feng, a lingering fear in his eyes.
After all, their initial information had been based on speculation, and their cooperation was merely a precaution against the worst-case scenario. No one could guarantee the Roth Family would actually launch an ambush.
Looking at the shattered wreckage scattered across the ground and recalling the sudden leap to Legendary-grade power, Chen Feng felt a chill run down his spine.
Legendary-grade modified humans were exceedingly powerful, and the Sky Eye System maintained far greater vigilance against them than against other threats, maintaining nearly 24-hour, comprehensive surveillance over most of the Red Nation's territory.
This was especially true in border defense zones and similar areas.
Yet somehow, the Roth Family had managed to infiltrate undetected.
If this capability were used to assassinate other Council Speakers or high-ranking military officers, the consequences would be catastrophic.
Chen Feng sensed something was amiss.
Chairman Li Yun had mentioned that Legendary-grade beings found it nearly impossible to evade the Sky Eye's surveillance and infiltrate foreign territory.
This was because modified humans at that level possessed immense power and correspondingly intense consciousness fluctuations.
Moreover, unlike Martial Artists who could perfectly control their physical bodies, Cyborgs struggled to completely conceal their life magnetic fields using shielding devices alone.
Before he could even ask, the Star Spirit provided an answer.
"The Platinum Federation truly possesses hidden depths. They've somehow obtained our legacy consciousness descent technology."
The crisp, slightly surprised voice echoed in Chen Feng's mind.
"Consciousness descent?"
"Yes."
Star Spirit nodded, her petite form quickly materializing in Chen Feng's mind.
"Consciousness descent is a method used to bypass temporary electronic lockdowns, and it's also a specialized technique for Legendary-grade Second and Third-Tier beings."
"At this level, a Legendary-grade consciousness becomes far more stable. It possesses unique characteristics that prevent it from falling into dormancy when separated from its mechanical body, unlike lower-tier Cyborgs who require a rebuilt body and consciousness download to revive."
She consulted her database, explaining earnestly, "This forms the foundation of consciousness descent. Afterward, through specially constructed mechanical bodies, advanced intelligence, and pre-programmed instructions, normal activities and combat can be carried out."
"In its dormant state, the system can conserve energy, allowing the life magnetic field to be concealed at a low-tier level, evading detection."
"Moreover, it preserves the Source Consciousness to the greatest extent possible, avoiding the Origin depletion associated with replication and consciousness downloads. The descent can also be aborted at any time, preventing the Source Consciousness from being sealed or trapped if the body is lost."
After her explanation, Chen Feng narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.
No wonder he hadn't been able to completely eradicate that Legendary-grade modified consciousness earlier.
This Cyborg was undoubtedly far more formidable than any he had encountered before, making a one-time kill nearly impossible.
"Legendary Second or Third-Tier, then..."
Recalling the Star Spirit's crucial insight, he once again felt the profound depth of the Platinum Federation's resources.
Just as he was about to ask a few more questions,
Rustle!
New footsteps sounded behind him. Liu Duanyun and the others approached.
(End of the Chapter)
---
📖Read (MF) on Pa.treon@CinderTL - c608. [+5.2k]
🔑Early Access at $5.
💥Translated (6) Series, (4.6K+) Chapters, (6.7M+) Words.