Destruction!

The Radiant Knight gave Xia Lin no more time.

As a robot, once it received its master's orders, it had to carry them out perfectly.

In an instant, the energy circuits across its body lit up, and lasers erupted once more.

Streams of pale blue light burst from twelve laser emitters in all: ten fingers and two eyes.

Xia Lin couldn't dodge.

Because they moved at the speed of light.

He could only lower his head and raise his left hand to shield his eyes, charging straight at the Radiant Knight like a bull as he endured the lasers.

In an instant, marks appeared across Xia Lin's skin.

The scorched scars were grisly, but the damage was slight.

Over a distance of less than ten meters, Xia Lin took more than a hundred lasers head-on-the Radiant Knight's firing rate was absurdly fast.

By the time Xia Lin reached the Radiant Knight, he looked as though he had been flayed alive. Not a patch of skin remained intact.

But that was all...

He could endure the pain.

Xia Lin had always had tremendous endurance!

His constitution, which was as high as 61, had also greatly improved Xia Lin's cellular activity, self-healing ability, and capacity to withstand damage, making them inhuman.

He threw a powerful right punch at the Radiant Knight's forehead.

But just as the missile appeared, three jets abruptly opened across the Radiant Knight's body!

Scorching flames gushed out, propelling the Radiant Knight rapidly away from Xia Lin.

The fist and the missile struck empty air.

The explosion erupted, only to be completely blocked by the Radiant Knight's built-in force field generator, leaving it unscathed.

A low hum came from the Radiant Knight's head, heart, and lower abdomen.

Three high-energy batteries supplied the Radiant Knight with power at full tilt.

With its energy reserves, the Radiant Knight could sustain a fight of this intensity for more than half an hour.

And in half an hour, whether or not it could kill Xia Lin, the North Wind Consortium would have enough time to wait for support from the other consortiums.

Xia Lin had broken Fierce Martial City's rules today.

As a result, he would inevitably face retaliation from the entire Fierce Martial City.

The combat intelligence module installed in the Radiant Knight had clearly assessed how the situation would develop.

Thus, it had no need to fight Xia Lin to the bitter end, because time was on its side.

A fierce wind howled as Xia Lin lunged at the Radiant Knight again.

But as it fired laser after laser, jets kept opening at different points on its body, sending the Radiant Knight rapidly darting and turning.

Unpredictable, erratic, and incredibly fast!

As a machine, it was actually faster and more agile than Xia Lin!

It was walking the dog...

Just three seconds later, Xia Lin realized he was being led around by the nose.

He threw punch after punch, explosions sounding one after another.

But against the Radiant Knight, Xia Lin's East Wind Divine Fist was like impotent rage, unable to harm it in the slightest.

For now, Xia Lin couldn't break the deadlock.

He could do nothing against the Radiant Knight.

His thoughts racing, Xia Lin made a quick decision.

He turned and charged toward the stairwell.

At that moment, Xia Lin paid no heed to the Radiant Knight's lasers as they continued sweeping across his back!

A red light flashed in the Radiant Knight's eyes.

It realized what Xia Lin was after.

Xia Lin no longer wanted to remain entangled with the Radiant Knight... He wanted to strike at the heart of the enemy, charge into the president's office, and kill all the North Wind Consortium's executives there!

So, obeying its highest-priority directive-to protect the North Wind Consortium's executives-

The Radiant Knight stopped dodging. Five jets opened on its back, and it sped after Xia Lin with long trails of flame, successfully intercepting him at the bend in the stairs.

But what greeted it was Xia Lin's sinister, cold sneer as his plan succeeded.

"A machine is just a machine!"

He wrapped both arms around the Radiant Knight's waist.

Then he lifted the Radiant Knight and slammed him to the ground.

Xia Lin turned to pin it from above, sitting astride the Radiant Knight's waist.

A tremendous force surged from beneath him, but Xia Lin didn't budge!

The Radiant Knight's power output was about the same as Xia Lin's strength attribute, at most ten points higher.

With Xia Lin using technique to pin it down, that difference of less than ten points wasn't enough for the Radiant Knight to break free!

Xia Lin pressed his left hand against the Radiant Knight's head, covering its eyes, and raised his right fist high before smashing it down!

"Dodge!"

"Dodge!?"

"Go on, dodge!!"

"Let's see how you dodge this time!!"

This Radiant Knight was far too troublesome, so Xia Lin had planned to destroy it first from the very beginning!

Thunderous explosions rang out in the stairwell.

Under the barrage of heavy punches, the entire building began to shake uncontrollably.

Amid the billowing dust, the pounding and explosions never stopped.

Even when the stairs collapsed and Xia Lin and the Radiant Knight plummeted from the thirty-second floor toward the ground, Xia Lin kept his legs locked tightly around it, maintaining his advantage over it!

In the president's office, the North Wind Consortium's executives turned pale as the tremors continued.

Terror filled the room.

As it happened, the North Wind Consortium was holding a meeting today—an impromptu meeting about the three gold mines Suzuki Wan had obtained in a deal.

How to divide them was a question worth wrangling over, while how to cling to the Suzuki Consortium's coattails afterward had even greater implications for the North Wind Consortium's future strategy.

As a result, virtually all the North Wind Consortium's executives were here.

Fortunately, although the president's office wasn't as insanely well defended as a nuclear shelter, its defenses weren't weak either.

The main structure of the North Wind Consortium's headquarters had also managed to preserve its dignity.

The tremors gradually subsided.

The people in the room felt both hope and worry.

"We won, right... The Radiant Knight won, right?"

Kitano Ao, the North Wind Consortium's eldest young master, murmured.

Beside him, Kitano Kai, the North Wind Consortium's second young master, had a different opinion.

"Not necessarily. What if even the Radiant Knight can't stop that guy..."

"I think we'd better get out of here."

"That's enough. Say no more."

Kitano Tetsu, the man at the helm of the North Wind Consortium, cut his second son off.

He looked around the room and spoke coldly.

"Run? We absolutely can't run! If we do, North Wind will be a laughingstock for the rest of our lives!"

"It would be better if the Radiant Knight wins, but it doesn't matter if it loses. It only needs to hold out for five more minutes..."

"In just five minutes, people from the other consortiums will be here."

Kitano Ao and Kitano Kai nodded repeatedly.

"That brat killed the Suzuki heiress. How could the Suzuki Consortium let him off? I reckon it won't take five minutes. Their SSS-class combat robot might be here in three."

Kitano Tetsu nodded as well.

"But the Suzuki Consortium wasn't the quickest to respond... Aoluosi Pharmaceuticals was."

"Just now, I received a call from Aoluosi Pharmaceuticals. Their people will be the first to arrive."

Kitano Tetsu delivered his verdict coldly.

"When that happens, this brat will die without a burial place!"

"Boom!"

The alloy doors of the president's office were blasted open.

Xia Lin, scorched from head to toe, walked through the doorway carrying the Radiant Knight's head.

The atmosphere instantly dropped to freezing.

Xia Lin swept his scarlet eyes around the room.

Then he grinned.

"Boom!"

A violent blast blew out the floor-to-ceiling windows of the president's office and completely destroyed its exterior wall.

Sunlight poured through the breach at the top of the North Wind Consortium's building, illuminating the scene in the president's office.

Everything was shattered.

Every piece of furniture and every person had been pulverized by a single East Wind Divine Fist.

Only Xia Lin remained standing in the room, facing the sunlight and the helicopters outside with a fierce smile.

He sat down on the floor, basking in the sunlight as he enjoyed the system notifications in his ears and his last moment of leisure in this Ash Zone.

[Backstab effect activated.]

[You have backstabbed your affiliated faction: North Wind Consortium. Effect assessment: destruction!]

[The North Wind Consortium no longer exists.]

[You have gained 25 points in all attributes.]

[Backstab effect activated.]

[You have backstabbed your affiliated faction: Fierce Martial City. Effect assessment: tremendous!]

[You have gained 15 points in all attributes.]

[Strength: 101]

[Constitution: 101]

[Agility: 101]

[Spirit: 105]

His attributes had already surpassed 100.

This gain finally calmed Xia Lin's restless heart and left him satisfied.

"Then... return?"

The thought had just crossed his mind when it was interrupted by two voices.

One was a system notification.

[You have annihilated the North Wind Consortium. Clearance mission activated.]

[Clearance mission: Iron Curtain...]

Before Xia Lin could listen closely, another voice sounded from the shattered doorway behind him.

"Wait, young Ash Zone Walker, please don't return just yet."

"My name is Aoluosi. I have something I want to tell you."