"Very good." The other party seemed relieved, though their tone remained unpleasantly polite. "To avoid any misunderstandings, we'll continue to address you as 'Heifu' for now. I regret to inform you that you—and the area you're in—have already been surrounded."
"Now, please hand over the [Mo Mei] in your possession. As long as you cooperate, I can personally guarantee that I'll do my best to secure a lenient outcome for you. You're a rare talent. You shouldn't meet your end here."
Chen Jin pondered for a moment, then suddenly understood what had happened earlier:
"Interesting..." he muttered to himself. "You deliberately sent those guards to me so I'd kill them?"
"No, I should say it's a chain of schemes. If I surrender without a fight, you get what you want;
if I resist and kill them, that just proves I'm 'a vicious criminal who slaughtered my comrades and defied the law.' Then you have even more reason to bring in greater force to crush me, or even 'kill me on the spot.'"
"Either way, whether I kill them or not, you come out ahead."
Even this conversation was likely just a pretext to keep him in place.
In the distance, several streaks of fire came hurtling toward him, trailing thick plumes of smoke.
Without warning, an extremely shrill whistle rang out from the sky.
The sound rushed closer, ripping through the clouds.
Every hair on Chen Jin's body stood on end!
He didn't even have time to look up. Purely on instinct, he sprang sharply to the side and back.
The instant he left his spot—
BOOM!!!
A massive, strange object gleaming with cold metallic light slammed down like a meteor where he had just been standing.
A tremendous shock wave, carrying flames and dust, burst outward. The ground caved into a deep crater, and shattered stones flew everywhere.
Chen Jin dodged the direct impact, but the blast still sent him stumbling.
He quickly steadied himself, horrified. What the hell was that?!
He suddenly remembered Nuonuo! He whipped around—
The little one hadn't had time to react. She might not even have understood what was happening before the flames and shock wave swallowed her whole.
"Nuonuo!" Chen Jin called sharply.
As the dust began to settle, a small figure lay beside the crater. Her once-clean little dress was now charred and tattered, and the exposed skin across much of her body had been burned black. Her small body lay motionless, as though she had truly become a corpse reduced to ashes.
Chen Jin's pupils contracted, and his heart tightened for some inexplicable reason.
But he immediately remembered Nuonuo's ability: [Resurrection of the Remains].
Sure enough, the surface of her charred body began to writhe at a visible speed. Dead flesh peeled away as new, pale skin rapidly regenerated beneath it.
Chen Jin jerked his head up, looking toward the source of the attack.
A bizarre-looking "giant bird," made entirely of some kind of bronze and wood construction, was roaring past at low altitude.
It had no feathers. In their place were a cold metal frame and a complex system of spinning gears and connecting rods. Its "wings" on either side were fixed-wing structures, while a ghostly blue stream of energy flickered from the nozzle at its tail.
So the Mohists of this Fruit could take the Puppet Art this far?
In Chen Jin's eyes, black ripples suddenly spread.
Glance of the Startled Swan activated!
[Vermilion Bird-Type Mechanical Annihilation Wing]
[Category]: Mechanism Construct
[Affiliation]: One of the three branches of the Mohist School, the Qin Mohists (Xiangli Mohists)
[Notes]: The Xiangli Mohists prioritize technological research and practical application, and are extremely pragmatic. They believe that the Qin State's system of farming and warfare, along with its strict laws during the Warring States period, came closest to the Mohist ideals of "promoting unity" and "promoting the worthy." Thus, they devoted themselves to assisting Qin, becoming a vital technological pillar behind its conquest of the Six States and unification of the world. Today, Qin Mohist mechanisms are deeply integrated into Great Qin's military system and are one of its core sources of power for intimidating the world.
As Chen Jin read the information, more synchronized, heavy metallic impacts rang out from the sky and the surrounding streets.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
More than ten Mechanism Warriors, over a zhang tall and shaped like humans, built from bronze and sturdy wood, leaped down from rooftops and emerged from alleyways. They planted their heavy feet on the flagstones, completely surrounding Chen Jin and Nuonuo, who was still regenerating.
Their mechanisms were precisely engineered. Gears meshed and turned at their joints, producing a teeth-grating mechanical clatter.
Their arms were fitted with sharp bronze claws, and holes for unfired crossbow bolts lined their wrists.
Their cold "faces" had no expression systems at all. Only the red glow of the crystals embedded within them remained, fixed relentlessly on the two people in the street.
"We have received a report that you may be in possession of a weapon of mass destruction. Cease your resistance and submit to an inspection!"
A synthetic mechanical voice came from the speaker on each machine.
"Yeah, right... Weren't you the ones who dropped a bomb without even giving me a chance to speak? You never planned to leave any survivors." Chen Jin spat.
[Xuanhu-type Mechanical Garrison Warrior]
[Category]: Heavy Mechanism Defense Unit
[Affiliation]: One of the three branches of the Mohist School, the Qin Mohists (Xiangli Mohists)
[Notes]: The Xuanhu series was developed by the Qin Mohists as a garrison unit to complement the Great Qin Elite Soldier combat system. Its name comes from a divine beast in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, which presides over the defense of borders. Each warrior can be remotely controlled through a Law Eye system, and can synchronize as part of a formation in battle by means of resonance jade within its body. During the night battle of the Xianyang Palace coup, they set a record by suppressing a hundred swordsmen from the former Six States' noble houses. They are regarded as a paragon of the Qin Mohists' principle of "replacing soldiers with machines."
Chen Jin slowly straightened, shielding Nuonuo, whose body was still twitching as it regenerated. His gaze swept coldly across the circle of these murder machines from beyond his time.
"The Qin Mohists..." he murmured.
Rain had begun to fall again at some point, pattering against the flagstones and splashing into fine droplets.
Low, leaden clouds hung over Langya, shrouding the whole city in a gloomy veil of mist and rain.
There really was too much rain in Great Qin.
"Clank, clank, clank—"
The heavy metallic footsteps echoed through the wet alley.
More than ten Mechanism Warriors made of bronze and hardwood advanced in an orderly, lethal formation, tightening the circle around him.
Gears meshed and turned at their joints, making a teeth-grating "click-clack." The crystals embedded in their faces glowed with merciless red light, locking onto Chen Jin.
Rain slid down their cold shells, adding to their grim menace.
"I see... What a fine scheme to kill with a borrowed blade."
Cen Qing, the Shark Person princess, had shoved the [Mo Mei], the "Token of the Grand Master," into his hands. She had never meant well from the start.
The Qin Mohists had long since bound the Mechanism Art to the Empire's hegemony. They wanted this token, the symbol of the highest authority in the Mohist School, more than anyone else.
No—not just the Qin Mohists. Which of the divided Chu Mohists or the hidden Qi Mohists wouldn't covet it?
It was just that, for now, only the Qin Mohists, backed by Great Qin, could summon war machines so brazenly and openly to seize it by force.
And Cen Qing... That woman had probably foreseen all this from the very beginning.
She didn't want the Mo Mei to remain in his hands, but she also didn't want the Qin Mohists to obtain it and use it to unify the Mohist factions, making them even harder to control.
What she wanted most was for him and the powerful Qin Mohists to cripple each other, so she could reap the benefits—eliminating a major threat while weakening the Qin Mohists.
Hah, she certainly thought highly of me.