The person who walked into the warehouse looked strange, dressed in a black hooded robe.
When he lowered his hood, half his face was revealed to be skinless, replaced by a silver steel alloy. One of his electronic eyes glowed red as it locked onto Qin Annian and analyzed him.
"Your Life Development Power should still be under 20."
"But your combat power can explode past 100. No wonder you're the Security Bureau's genius in fist techniques."
He took off his robe, revealing an upper body that was bare, with machinery and flesh intertwined.
"You've got guts. You actually dared to come here. I respect a man like you."
The Cultivation Holders Association's cyborg gave a savage grin and charged forward.
"So."
"I'll smash every bone in your body!"
Boom!
A terrifying aura erupted.
The Cultivation Holders Association member attacking him had a Life Development Power of at least 25. On top of that, he had undergone extensive implant modification surgery, making him incredibly powerful.
Soon, Miss Ju Zi found information about him in the database and quickly relayed it to Qin Annian:
[Codename: Sickle. Life Development Power: 32. Known normal combat power: 121.] [A member of the Cultivation Holders Association's core fighting force.] [Target is extremely dangerous!]
Sickle swung his right hand at Qin Annian's head like a hammer, laughing wildly as he said:
"If it weren't for you,"
"would the Old District have turned into this hellhole?"
"Everyone who died, everyone who suffered—it's all your fault!"
He was trying to unsettle Qin Annian and gain the upper hand in the fight.
Bang!
Qin Annian gripped his short spear and thrust forward.
Sickle stared into Qin Annian's eyes and saw not a trace of emotion in the young man's gaze. That left him so frustrated by his failed taunt that he was almost seething.
"Die!"
Facing the sharp spearhead, Sickle neither dodged nor retreated.
His mechanical arm was incredibly sturdy. Ordinary cold weapons could never...
Whoosh!
The spearhead pierced through Sickle's fist with ease, as though it had gone through a sheet of paper.
The modifications had left Sickle unable to feel pain.
Yet he still stared in disbelief at the spearhead glowing blue.
"How is this possible?!"
Bang!
The next moment,
Sickle felt a strange, tenacious force flow from the spearhead. It was gentle, yet impossible to dispel, and sent his whole body reeling backward.
As he realized Qin Annian was about to pin him to the ground, Sickle let out a roar!
"Get away from me!"
Click!
The coupling connecting his fist snapped. As the mechanical components whirred, a sharp bayonet suddenly sprang out from his bare mechanical wrist.
He had seized the moment when Qin Annian's strength from his previous move had not yet faded, but he had not yet gathered strength for the next one, creating a deadly trap with no escape.
The blade shot toward Qin Annian's throat, incredibly fast.
However,
to Sickle's disappointment, he still saw no trace of panic on Qin Annian's face, even as death seemed imminent.
"Hm?!"
Suddenly,
Sickle's remaining eye widened as he watched Qin Annian sink down in an impossible posture, then assume the Iron Plank Bridge from the Standing Posture stance.
At the last possible instant, Qin Annian evaded the blade as it skimmed past the tip of his nose.
"You..."
That was his trump card.
Even seasoned martial artists with plenty of real combat experience, and those with greater Life Development Power than him, had fallen to that blade.
Sickle had never once failed with that move!
But somehow,
he had never imagined someone as young as Qin Annian could dodge it.
Sickle was still reeling from shock, his words unfinished, when—
Boom!
A sharp, tremendous force struck his jaw.
Qin Annian's left leg swept up with the motion, kicking Sickle into the air.
That kick could have killed Zhao Wang, the Iron Rod Gang's leader, with ease. But Sickle twisted in midair and landed unharmed.
His expression darkened as he reached out with his other hand and rubbed his deformed jaw.
"You're pretty strange!"
"That kick just now had over 100 combat power, didn't it?"
"But unfortunately, 100 combat power is only my normal level."
As he finished speaking,
a mechanical roar suddenly sounded inside Sickle's body!
The modified organs within him kicked into overdrive, and his body temperature rapidly rose!
Soon,
white steam began to billow around Sickle.
"I'm not like those trash."
"Sixty percent of my organs have been modified. I could crush even a veteran security officer with over 30 Life Development Power without breaking a sweat."
Sickle spoke with ferocious confidence. He moved faster now, appearing in front of Qin Annian in the blink of an eye.
A wave of scorching heat wrapped around his body as he charged like a steam locomotive.
"My peak combat power is now just shy of 200!"
Sickle's voice came out in an almost hysterical shout.
"Come!"
"Kneel and accept your death!"
Qin Annian's eyes grew brighter and brighter, like two blazing suns slowly rising.
"Combat power close to 200?"
With the awareness of a Fist Technique Grandmaster, Qin Annian engaged every muscle in his body.
In his deep-set eyes, the towering figure before him, as burly as Savage Bear, was riddled with openings!
He clenched his hand into a fist and drew it in toward his chest and abdomen.
Whoosh!
He, too, exhaled a mouthful of scorching, turbid air.
Boom!
Immediately afterward,
he threw a punch!
Fast!
Too fast!
So fast that even Sickle's electronic eye couldn't track its trajectory.
All Sickle could make out was something like a cannonball hurtling toward him at supersonic speed!
The terrifying aura made his whole body go cold!
An illusion?
The thought had barely surfaced when—
Boom!
Sickle felt an immense, irresistible force slam straight into the right side of his lower chest.
Crack—creak—
The modified organs in his body suddenly seized up, their mechanisms grinding to a halt.
Then his body flew backward like a rag doll.
"How is this possible?"
That was the only thought left in Sickle's mind.
He might not have been the very strongest fighter in the Cultivation Holders Association, but as a member of its core fighting force, he was unquestionably among the best!
With all his strength unleashed, he could go toe-to-toe with a martial artist whose Life Development Power reached 50!
Although his Life Development Power could no longer increase much, his combat power could still grow as the modification surgeries improved!
He had never feared even the Security Bureau's veteran security officers.
That was exactly why,
when Sickle, who was nearby, got word from Zhao Wang, he had rushed over impatiently, eager to claim Qin Annian's head.
He knew full well that the Cultivation Holders Association was finished.
The powerful figures who could stand in the sunlight had already abandoned them. They didn't dare show themselves again to act as the Association's shield.
But the Cultivation Holders Association had spent over a century growing in the shadows of Taiyu City, and they still had other cards up their sleeves.
They were sure to lose this war, but the Association's members wouldn't all be wiped out.
The survivors could simply leave Taiyu City, lie low somewhere else, and slowly rebuild under new identities.
Where there was light, there was darkness.
Plenty of people would be willing to turn the Cultivation Holders Association into their own black-glove outfit.
As a member of the Association's core fighting force, Sickle was confident its leader wouldn't abandon him.
If he took Qin Annian's head, he could receive even more advanced modification surgery.
To him, this war was an opportunity.
An opportunity!
But he hadn't expected Qin Annian, whom he should have been able to defeat easily—so easily that he'd even had time to mock him—to suddenly become such an incomprehensible opponent!
His combat power had actually surged until it matched his own?!
"Are you human?"
"Or a monster?!"
Before you continue