With Sun of Light Lena's all-out rescue,
Mao Shen was pulled to safety.
With Lena supporting him, he rapidly climbed to a higher altitude.
The two hid five thousand meters above the ground in the night sky.
"Mao Shen."
Lena looked anxiously at Mao Shen beside her.
At that moment,
the armor unique to the Lieyang Army had been blasted to pieces by that last attack.
His upper body was bare, and the armor on his lower half had been blasted into a metal miniskirt.
His muscles were charred black and bleeding.
He was covered in wounds.
"Goddess Lena! Please, please let go of me!"
When Mao Shen regained consciousness, he caught sight of himself in such an indecent state.
And being supported by the Lieyang Imperial Daughter, no less.
He was so alarmed that, ignoring his injuries, he pushed Lena away.
"It's right to show the Goddess respect. How badly are you hurt?"
Lena brushed the grime from her hands and asked proudly.
"I am Pan Zhen's Vanguard. My body has been tempered by Stellar Energy since childhood. That beast's attack was fierce, but it only caused me some superficial injuries."
Mao Shen clasped his fists and reported.
Although Lena could tell Mao Shen was forcing himself to sound confident,
she didn't call him out.
Then,
Lena looked down at Ye Yang, the Great Ape, five thousand meters below.
After losing sight of his target,
the Great Ape kept opening his mouth and firing energy beams at the mountain forest.
Every blast lit up the distant dark horizon with a brilliant, blazing explosion!
Nearby,
one enormous crater after another was blasted into the ground.
Silver energy beams streaked in every direction.
The mountains and forests within several kilometers flickered on and off like a nightclub.
"Damn, does this guy have unlimited stamina?"
"Every blast is as powerful as my medium-grade Solar Flare bombardment."
"It'd be a real shame to kill him when he's this strong. Mao Shen, think of a way to restrict his movements, then I'll hit him with a Solar Flare."
Lena's proud expression faded.
She gave the order with a serious look.
"I'll try fighting him head-on."
Mao Shen realized that attacks from a distance wouldn't work.
At once,
he began drawing on the Stellar Energy stored inside his body.
A thin, pale-gold film appeared over his entire body.
This was his Gene Ability,
one of the many types independently developed by the Lieyang Civilization.
Gene model: [Yang Kun]
A low-grade, simplified version of the Sun of Light gene.
It could absorb Stellar Energy to temper the body, or channel Stellar Energy in battle.
Now transformed into a little golden man, Mao Shen seemed like a Heavenly God descending to earth.
He shot downward like a golden arrow.
On the ground,
the rampaging Great Ape also sensed the hostility of the enemy approaching from the sky.
His enormous red eyes fixed on his target.
He puffed out his chest, clenched both fists,
and opened his mouth to unleash a thick silver energy beam.
Mao Shen, flying at high speed, was now at the peak of his strength.
He spiraled around the beam in a dazzling show of aerial maneuvering.
In the blink of an eye,
he slammed a fist into the long, pointed bridge of Ye Yang the Great Ape's nose.
The energy beam was cut off mid-blast.
The Great Ape was left reeling from the blow and staggered backward.
Clutching his injured nose, he made a distinctly human expression of pain.
His blood-red eyes fixed on the little golden man hovering in the air.
Then,
he leaped up and swung a fist at him.
The ground couldn't withstand the Great Ape's leap. With a boom, it collapsed into a huge circular crater.
Whoosh!
Mao Shen used nimble aerial footwork to dodge the enormous fist.
The Great Ape twisted his massive body in midair.
Behind him,
his long, black-haired tail lashed out like a divine whip.
Mao Shen, completely off guard, was struck squarely by it.
Thoom!
The golden figure shot down from the sky and slammed into the ground.
Several layers of milky-white atmospheric halos burst along his path.
Chunks of earth the size of basketball courts exploded into the air like shattered watermelons.
That tail strike—
it had the force of a blow delivered at five times the speed of sound!
"Heh heh~"
Ye Yang the Great Ape slowly descended through the air, making a distinctly human chuckle.
Then,
Ye Yang the Great Ape opened his mouth and aimed at the roiling dust below.
Boom!!!
A huge silver energy beam blasted into the ground.
"Mao Shen!"
Lena, high above, was shaken.
Without another moment's hesitation, she dove straight down.
She had confidence in Mao Shen's abilities.
But the strange Great Ape before them
was powerful enough to threaten Mao Shen's life!
Inside the command room of the Giant Gorge,
Lian Feng and Yu Qin watched the scene.
Still reeling with shock,
the two pulled up Mao Shen's file from the Database.
[Name: Mao Shen] [Position: Vanguard Officer of the Lieyang Army] [Personal History: Once followed Lieyang King Di Hongkun and Pan Zhen to Earth, where he performed admirably.] [Installed Gene: (Yang Kun), simplified version of the Sun of Light] [Overall Evaluation: Trained personally by Pan Zhen, the Lieyang God of War. The Yang Kun gene installed in his body gives him combat abilities surpassed only by the Lieyang Four Great Sacred Guardians.]
"Even a God of War of this caliber was completely overpowered by Ye Yang. I'm more and more curious about the gene inside him," Yu Qin said with a sigh.
"Back then, when Du Ka'ao decided to spread the genes in the Super Seminary and Denuo Civilization databases across Earth, it wasn't just to ensure the continuation of civilization. They also foresaw that there would be gene mutations like Ye Yang and Qi Lin."
Lian Feng spoke calmly.
But she chose not to say the rest aloud.
Watching the Great Ape on the screen descend while firing energy beams, she thought to herself,
I'm afraid that even Space Principal couldn't have foreseen that a mutant gene warrior like Ye Yang would appear in a later generation.
Suddenly,
Lian Feng changed her mind and quickly ordered,
"Yu Qin, concentrate all the computing power of the Deno System No. 3. Help me calculate this Great Ape's weaknesses. It'd be a real shame if such a powerful fighter were killed by Lena just like that!"
"Understood!"
Our cat suddenly died, so the update's a little late. Sigh~
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