Divine Machine-Style Female Fighter

The intense killing lasted for about an hour.

"The number of monsters surging out has decreased significantly; I think we've killed a large portion of them," Horus's voice boomed from the loudspeaker. "Fortunately, they are not endless."

Kang De let out a breath.

He could clearly feel the decrease in the number of monsters.

Because the frequency of raw material deliveries has also decreased.

The next moment, Iron Son said, "But Father, we can't rest yet."

... Depend on.

He raised his middle finger towards the camera.

However, it's strange that the Fire Thief's Extraction ability isn't without its costs. Tracing back to the source and separating Element will put a certain burden on the soul. The energy consumed by a full hour of high-intensity Extraction and enchanting work, if used for live-streaming, would be enough to outlast any lousy streamer.

Surprisingly, I wasn't tired.

The process of Extraction that mysterious Element was so natural and smooth that even the enchanting ammunition was handled with effortless ease. This silky smoothness made Kang De both curious and wary.

Although the Parrot said it was a good opportunity, Kang De never let his guard down.

Another half hour passed, and only a few monsters, big and small, remained of those that had sprung out.

Kang De flexed his fingers and slowly exhaled.

This harvest was a great success.

The monster corpses Extraction to enhance ammunition only accounted for a small portion of the total. A large amount of flesh and blood was stored in the White Mist World, piled up in a corner of Zhuerban City, which had been hit by the meteorite. Corpse parts, blood, broken limbs, and hideous faces—that place now looked like Khorne's gym.

Now, Zhuerban City is being used entirely by him as a junkyard... He caught the meteorite that crashed into the elven camp here, smashing the capital of Gambia to pieces. It should have refreshed the world and erased the traces, but the Horizon class frigate is still docked off the coast of Zhuerban, so it can only be left like this. Now, the rotten land is being used as a mass grave, piled with countless pieces of flesh and blood.

He stretched and asked, "How many monsters did you kill in total?"

Horus spent about thirty seconds replaying the battle footage and counting the targets. "A total of fourteen thousand three hundred and sixty-four, Father, oh, that's sixty-five now."

"Many."

"It's a lot," Horus said. "Ignoring the risk of the mystical energy's corrosive effects, if you were to unleash the flesh and blood we've collected tonight into the atmosphere above Washington, it would immediately cause global panic and massive turmoil in the US. Three circuit breakers in a single day for the US stock market would be entirely within reach."

That's a tempting offer.

It's quite interesting to secretly stir up trouble, scare people, and spread panic.

And it's precisely the flesh and blood of otherworldly monsters that are terrifying! If you took some animal flesh and blood from Earth and scattered it, blood would rain down. If the United States took it for testing and found it was cow, they would immediately suspect that a superhuman was behind it. Further sequencing would reveal it was Qin Chuan cattle, even pinpointing its origin. Then they could investigate where there were large-scale livestock transactions or disappearances, and the culprit could be found on the spot.

They'll create some otherworldly monsters, whose DNA might not even be double helixes—it'll scare you to death.

But now is not the time to talk about that.

More than ten thousand monsters surged out of the ground all at once.

I wonder how many more are hiding inside.

Even if it's only a little over ten thousand, that's enough to bear.

If they hadn't built the monster-slaying tower, but instead taken the Dragon Girl and the A Xing down directly, or even followed Stella's original plan to form the Goth Expedition to go deep underground, they would have had to face a relentless onslaught of thousands of incredibly fast, sharp-clawed monsters in the dark, narrow, and interconnected underground environment.

However, the key issue is...

Kang De frowned and asked, "Didn't the dragons that went in earlier encounter any battle?"

Horus replied, "We'll have to find the answer ourselves."

The conveyor belt was removed, the partition wall rose, and all machine parts and structures stained with monster blood and flesh had to undergo thorough purification or even destruction. As far as the eye could see, the Dragon Girl was leaning against the wall, writing and drawing in her notebook. She only glanced at him once before returning to her own world.

A-Gorilla then darted forward, brandishing a Switch, and shouted, "Kant! Kande! I'm now in debt for over 700,000 Bells!"

"..."

Well, how should I put it?

At this very moment, the Goth People outside must have thought that a fierce battle had taken place here.

As a result, the Forbidden Spell spellcaster and great alchemist, His Highness Kang De, was being used as a tool on an assembly line.

A powerful dragon is writing pornography.

The Crimson Queen, whose true form is a gorilla, is playing Animal Crossing.

The superb intelligent alchemical weapon that shone brightly in the Siege of Danfeng Lucerne is now playing a realistic tower defense game.

Although Kang De certainly had a tough time, and the battle was extremely fierce, with mountains of enemy corpses.

But something just felt off.

Kang De reached out to stop the A Xing from hugging him. "Wait a minute, let me change my clothes, they're dirty."

A Xing, still nonchalant, hugged me. "Don't be afraid!"

She helped Kang De remove his helmet, pulled his protective suit aside, rubbed her Kang De a few times with a soft sigh, and then wrapped her arms around Kang De neck to press the buttons on the game console. "Kang De, come to my house! I'll take you fishing..."

... A Xing has fallen into depravity so quickly.

I feel like she'll eventually become friends with the Parrot.

Kang De patted her head. "Alright, put it away. We need to get down to business. You can play again after you're done."

A Xing said "Oh," and obediently put away his game console.

Hearing this, the Dragon Girl put away her notebook. "Finished?"

Kang De nodded. "If they don't have a second wave."

"So it's our turn to enter? Are we going to go into that cave?"

"Hmm... Time is of the essence, let's explore first."

Lily observed Kang De's expression. "Don't you need to rest? Doing that must be tiring."

Through her father's notes, she gained a relatively good understanding of the Fire Thief, knowing their strange abilities and many details and characteristics... such as the burden and consumption of such activities.

Kang De rubbed his temples; he wasn't actually that tired.

Extraction and utilizing this mysterious energy did not place too much burden on his soul.

He shook his head and said, "No need, I'm not tired."

Lily glanced at him a few more times. Thanks to her special ability to read eyes, she could tell that Kang De was full of energy and even more so than before. Knowing that what he said was true, she smiled.

"It seems you are indeed very different from the previous Fire Thief." She looked around at the impenetrable walls, the deadly traps, and the unheard-of powerful weapons—all the fruits of alchemy.

The Dragon Girl said, "I never imagined that the power of the Fire Thief combined with your alchemy could produce such amazing effects and power—it's a perfect match."

Kang De raised an eyebrow.

He was very interested in the Fire Thief's past, mission, and various intelligence, but the Parrot was evasive and vague, and there was no record of it in many historical books on the mainland. The Dragon Girl, a second-generation sycophant, learned some information through her father's manual, which was especially important to him.

Upon hearing what the Dragon Girl said, he was immediately invigorated.

"It sounds like..." Kang De asked, "That the previous Fire Thief's path was different from mine?"

"Well, the previous Fire Thief wasn't skilled in alchemy. She was known for her formidable combat prowess and diverse fighting styles. She used the Fire Thief's Extraction and enhancement properties to strengthen her body, change her attack attributes, and..." The Dragon Girl paused, then said softly, "... plunder the abilities of her enemies."

Oh, the Divine Strategist style.

I'm familiar with this.

The difference in style between him and the previous Fire Thief lies in his personal efforts.

As an Earthling, Kang De lived a peaceful life for the first twenty years. He was just an ordinary person with a weak foundation. After spending more than a year on the Holy Seal Archipelago, although he had the Black Beast Crystal to strengthen his body and magical creatures as sparring partners, the beasts didn't teach him properly, and he didn't learn properly either. The cramming-style, haphazard training made him a barely passable expert in haphazard punches. He had no set routine, but he could fight. However, that was all he could do.

After all, he wasn't a powerful figure who could obliterate the very essence of Dao with a single punch; he didn't follow this style.

As for Extraction life and stripping power, he also possesses this ability, but each Extraction causes a tremendous mental burden. Furthermore, he cannot find enough powerful top-tier individuals to absorb from. Throughout this war, he has only Extraction some high-ranking elven officers and powerful mages, and the effect has been mediocre.

No matter how much Extraction a small fry, you can't compare to a top-tier expert. That's because what Extraction is combat skills and experience. The experience and skills of small fry are inherently flawed to a strong expert. A thousand small fry's combat skills are a thousand flawed skills, utterly useless against a super strong expert.

Extraction the essence of 20,000 low-level mages can turn them into a god of magic? There's no way it's that easy.

As for why the previous generation was able to become an unparalleled powerhouse in the martial arts faction, it was not only due to personal efforts, but also to the course of history.

Wasn't the previous Fire Thief a Cathayan? And a woman at that. According to Kang De's deduction, she was probably a female boxer from the East, with a strong will, a clear mind, unwavering and steadfast, like the bright moon over the great river.

In addition, the era in which she and those Parrot were active was the so-called Great Struggle, when all races rose up, and the dangers and opportunities brought by extraterrestrial enemies propelled Civilization to rapid progress. The Golden Age arrived, with wars raging every day, powerful figures emerging in great numbers, and global tension at 300%. Dog heads were beaten into skunk heads.

In that era, a female boxer with a strong will and a cannibalistic personality, who had acquired a cheat code for eating people, would naturally thrive. Even if she didn't go looking for trouble, trouble would come to her.

She challenged opponents far beyond her level, devouring them alive and seizing their life essence to fuel her growth. Countless powerful figures provided her with the bait to become stronger, and her fierce temperament, honed from martial arts training since childhood, made her completely unconcerned about the mental pressure and side effects of Extraction living beings. Naturally, her combat power swelled to an off-the-charts level in a short time, turning her into a muscle-bound martial artist. It was no surprise that a single punch could cause mountains to crumble and her physical body could shatter the Grewind Hive.

Thinking about it this way, no wonder Kang De, upon awakening the Power of the Fire Thief, excitedly demonstrated this miraculous effect to the magical creatures, who immediately burst into laughter and squealed like pigs.

They were used to the previous Fire Thief Extraction magma from a volcano, gathering it in his palm, and unleashing a devastating punch that scorched the land. Then they saw Kang De wielding a nail gun, firing Mars nails with a look that said, "This ability is so powerful, so amazing, I'm so awesome..."

It would be strange not to laugh.

But everyone has their own path.

After gaining the ability, Kang De's first reaction was to combine the Extraction Element with industrial and technological products from Earth. He continued down this path, exploring and contemplating. He was familiar with it, he was good at it, and he trusted the achievements that his Civilization had made over thousands of years without any extraordinary power, through collective wisdom, desire, and war.

In that instant, a sudden realization flashed through Kang De's mind.

Perhaps the Parrot didn't tell Kant about the previous Fire Thief's path, secrets, techniques, and experiences because she didn't want the previous Fire Thief's path to influence Kang De.

The reason is simple.

Even though he relied on Extraction the power of the strong to strengthen himself and eventually grew into an unparalleled powerhouse with explosive strength and overwhelming combat power, the previous Fire Thief still... lost in the end.

That road has no end.

"When I realized your identity, I was both surprised and amused, because you are very weak, much weaker than the previous Fire Thief recorded in my father's diary. I wondered how long it would take you to grow stronger, whether this Fire Thief was even capable, and how could you be so far behind..."

Lily's voice interrupted Kang De's thoughts.

She looked around and whispered, "But I think I'm wrong. Watching everything you've done, this effortless fight, everything you've done in the past, your possessions, your power, and your reliance, I even feel..."

The Dragon Girl looked at Kang De one last time, her gaze deep and unfathomable. "I even think that your path is the right one."

Kang De's mind stirred.

The previous Fire Thief, the current Fire Thief.

The dragons of the previous generation, the dragons of this generation.

The Parrot says, "By being with your companions, you also gain new companions."

He smiled. "Maybe we're right... We'll prove them right."

Lily smiled too.

Kang De was taken aback. The Dragon Girl's smile at this moment was natural and gentle, no longer cold or stern. It seemed that this kind of smile was more in line with her appearance and demeanor than her usual indifference.

He instinctively reached for his phone, Dragon Girl immediately asked warily, "What are you doing?"

That beautiful smile has vanished.

"You looked beautiful when you smiled just now," he said. "I want to capture that moment."

The Dragon Girl's expression quickly turned cold, her eyes sharpening as she stared at Kang De, her gaze filled with contempt and accusation. "That's a euphemism for harassment, isn't it? Creating such alchemical products is just to secretly record women's embarrassing and shameful aspects, to coerce them into doing shameful things. You're something else, aren't you? How about we write a story about a lustful alchemist with you as the protagonist?"

After she finished speaking, she walked towards the cave. "What are you all standing there for? Get to work!"

Her long, pale golden hair cascaded down her slender back, and her black dress subtly outlined the alluring curves of her tall figure. Kang De paused for a moment, then laughed.

Horus's voice came from beside him. "Father, you feel it's a pity, don't you? There's no need to feel sorry. I've already taken a picture of her laughing just now, and it's not a low-resolution surveillance video, but an extremely high-definition photograph. You can even see your reflection in her pupils."

Kang De exclaimed in surprise, "Is that so? Send it over immediately!"

Iron Son continued, "So, Father, what do you intend to offer in exchange for this photograph?"

Kang De lowered his voice and roared, "You unfilial son! Have you forgotten the kindness of the vast resources and knowledge I provided you for free? A child shares something good with his father to repay the kindness of enlightenment, and you dare to ask for payment? Do you have any conscience?"

Horus retorted, "That's not how it works, I..."

Before he could finish speaking, Kang De suddenly realized, "Wait! Damn it! Why did you take pictures and videos of me talking to her? And they're fucking high-definition! What are you trying to do!"

"Father, is this the time to talk about this?"

Iron Son's voice was calm and composed.

"The instance is about to open, and you need to go and tell Stella and Hong San."

"..."

Holy crap...

"In short, don't let your guard down," Kang De said. "Everyone, work hard tonight and be prepared. Anything can happen at any time. Attacks and dangers we can't imagine could occur at any moment, especially after we go underground. We will maintain constant contact, so you must be vigilant."

Hong San and Princess Stella nodded.

"Be careful," the princess said. "Don't be reckless; there are many other ways."

For Goth, between mystical energy and Kang De, the latter was clearly more important.

Her meaning was quite clear.

If Kang De cannot resolve this matter, or if the danger is too great, then seeking help from the Arcane Council an option, even if it means the whole world will know the characteristics and value of the mysterious energy and want a share of the pie. Goth can also get a large slice of the pie through Kang De's Forbidden Spell deterrence and local advantages—making maneuvering, planning, and efforts in this regard is at least safer than solving the matter alone.

Kang De understood as well.

He nodded slightly to Stella: "I know."

When it was Hong San's turn, Hong San just shook his head with a wry smile, "I should have practiced martial arts properly back then."

Kang De chuckled and patted him on the shoulder, "Strategist, don't dream of being invincible. Just focus on your strategizing."

After saying goodbye and everything was settled, Hong San and Stella left to return to their posts. The gates of the steel fortress closed again. Kang De, Lily, A Xing, and Horus in his battle suit arrived at the entrance to the underground cave, where a faint light shone in the bottomless darkness.

Let's go.

Dragon Girl in front, Kang De in the middle, A Xing behind, the three of them leaped into the cave one after another. The faint smell of the sea wafted through the air, and the rock walls were still damp.

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PS1: Day 11 of Ring Fit Adventure workout, Day 1 of resisting KFC.