Invasion of the Mechanical Clan

How much power a person could control depended not only on their gene count, but even more on the strength of their mental power. As he pondered this, Tang Yu's consciousness unconsciously sank into the black crystal between his brows.

The moment he entered, Tang Yu saw the version of himself inside abruptly rise to his feet. A wooden board appeared before "him," and like a movie replaying, that other self repeatedly gathered primal force and attacked the board. Every time the board shattered, it reformed, while that Tang Yu seemed to possess an inexhaustible supply of primal force. Repeating the same motion countless times appeared to cause "him" no exhaustion at all.

Gradually, the scenes of flying wood chips became less frequent, while the palm print on the board grew clearer and clearer. In the end, the target no longer cracked, leaving behind only a distinct palm imprint.

Whoosh!

Tang Yu sprang to his feet, picked up another wooden board, lightly brushed its surface with his palm, then exerted a little force and pressed down with the last trace of primal force in his body.

Creak!

It sounded like a wooden door opening. When Tang Yu lifted his hand, a clearly visible palm print had appeared on the board. Though cracks still spread around the imprint, Tang Yu had already grasped the timing for releasing primal force.

"So that's how it is!"

Letting out a long breath, Tang Yu finally understood why he had failed after so many previous attempts. It was not because his power was insufficiently concentrated, but because he had failed to control the timing of his primal force release. After personally watching "himself" demonstrate it over and over, Tang Yu had finally found the trick and grasped that crucial moment. Now all he needed to do was become proficient in using the technique. Unfortunately, the primal force in his body had already run dry, leaving him unable to continue training. Thinking of this, Tang Yu could not help sighing. If only he had energy crystals to replenish his primal force whenever he wanted.

So cultivation was a money-burning business too!

By then, it was already late at night. When Meng Xuanxuan entered the training room again and saw the floor covered in wood chips, her eyes widened in shock.

"Was all this your doing?"

Meng Xuanxuan could hardly be blamed for being surprised. Everyone knew that the primal force in human cells was limited. Tang Yu had only just awakened, and his gene count was barely over one hundred, so his primal force was naturally limited. Shattering Heart Palm also consumed an enormous amount of primal force. Yet under such circumstances, Tang Yu had destroyed nearly a hundred wooden boards using only the primal force in his own cells.

"Ah, too bad I can't afford energy crystals. Otherwise, I'd definitely master the secrets of Shattering Heart Palm within three days!" Tang Yu did not answer Meng Xuanxuan's idiotic question. He merely sighed and said this.

"A single energy crystal stores one thousand points of primal force. That's already equivalent to the primal force reserves of an expert at Qin Bo's Transcendence level. You might not even be able to buy one for a million federal credits, yet you actually want to use them for training!" Meng Xuanxuan could not help teasing him. She knew Tang Yu's financial situation well. His total bank savings were not enough to buy even two energy crystals. Using energy crystals for cultivation was basically wishful thinking.

"Qin Bo had an urgent matter and already left. He asked me to give you something." As she spoke, Meng Xuanxuan took out a paper book, the old-fashioned thread-bound kind. Three large brush-written characters adorned the cover: Shattering Heart Palm. Tang Yu casually opened it and saw that it contained all the variations of each move, the changes in primal force within them, and Qin Bo's own notes and explanations.

This was truly precious. The martial art Shattering Heart Palm could be bought with money, but Qin Bo's personal insights and understanding could not. Without the annotations Qin Bo had marked out, Tang Yu would not have been able to understand this book at all.

"Why did Qin Bo suddenly leave?" Closing the book, Tang Yu voiced the doubt in his heart. He had only just agreed to guide Tang Yu for a while, so why had he left in such a hurry that he did not even have time to say goodbye?

At Tang Yu's question, Meng Xuanxuan's delicate brows furrowed as she revealed an unbelievable piece of news.

"Pluto and Neptune have been conquered by an alien civilization!"

"How is that possible?" Tang Yu's first reaction was disbelief. Humanity had prospered for more than three hundred years and had only encountered ruins left behind by alien civilizations. They had never truly encountered an alien civilization!

Moreover, Neptune and Pluto were the gateways to the Solar System. How could such important places fall so easily?

"I'm telling the truth. The Federal Government has urgently summoned every Transcendence-level martial artist and all mech pilots above B-rank to converge on Jupiter. A great war could break out at any moment!" Meng Xuanxuan had not believed it at first either, but the news reports had confirmed it.

"Look at this afternoon's news!"

As she spoke, Meng Xuanxuan turned on her computer and pulled up the relevant video footage for Tang Yu.

"More than three hundred years of peace have made humanity let down its guard, leading to the instant fall of two major planets in the Solar System!"

"An unknown mechanical civilization has invaded the Solar System. Neptune and Pluto have fallen. Can humanity hold on to its homeland?"

"The mechanical civilization may have mastered wormhole construction technology. The Main God galactic defense system has been activated. Whether this system can stop the Mechanical Clan from continuing its invasion remains unknown!"

"All extragalactic Interstellar Navigation Towers have lost contact. Our compatriots wandering beyond the stars, are you all right?"

Countless pieces of information flooded Tang Yu's vision. For the first time, he truly learned about humanity's most advanced technological achievements, including Main God, the Interstellar Defense System, and the Interstellar Navigation Towers—top-tier technologies that had always existed only in rumors. Yet judging from the news reports, the situation remained grim. Whether humanity could resist the invasion of the mysterious Mechanical Clan was still unknown.

He entered keywords into a search engine.

Main God: the central main server of humanity's interstellar network project, jointly controlled by the Federal Government and Dream Domain Network. It was currently humanity's most powerful supercomputer.

Interstellar Defense System: the most powerful defensive system humanity had constructed since the founding of the Federal Government to defend against attacks from unknown civilizations. It covered all space within Jupiter in the Solar System, designed to protect humanity's homeland.

Interstellar Navigation Towers: interstellar beacons established by humanity based on the alien civilization technology it had mastered. They covered more than ninety percent of the Milky Way's starfields, as well as parts of the M31 Galaxy, the Milky Way's satellite galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud, the Centaurus Galaxy, and many other galaxies. They had now all lost their signals. In other words, human compatriots exploring among the stars could no longer rely on the Interstellar Navigation Towers to return, while humans in the Solar System could no longer contact explorers in other galaxies.

He searched for information on the Mechanical Clan. According to online reports, the Mechanical Clan had likely mastered wormhole technology. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for them to evade the detection of the Interstellar Navigation Towers and appear directly in the Solar System, because even warp travel would produce massive energy leakage that could be detected. In addition, the Mechanical Clan likely possessed a supercomputer on the same level as humanity's Main God as its central brain...

Main God: humanity's most powerful supercomputer, representing the pinnacle of human technology and the crystallization of technological wisdom since the founding of the Federal Government. It integrated the technological legacies of many alien civilizations as well as fields of technology pioneered by humanity itself. It was the key factor in whether the Interstellar Defense System could function properly. The Mechanical Clan possessed a mainframe equivalent to Main God, which was hardly good news for humanity!

"The Federal Government can hold them back, right?" Tang Yu did not realize that even he himself could not sound entirely certain when he said that.

"Don't worry! They definitely can! In truth, this is also a test for humanity's rapid development over the past three hundred years. Ever since we entered the age of interstellar navigation, everything has gone smoothly. We have overcome every obstacle and remained invincible wherever we went. I believe that once we get through this crisis, humanity's overall civilization will advance to another level!"

As the young mistress of Dream Domain Network Group, Meng Xuanxuan knew far more than Tang Yu about humanity's technological level. Thus, she had great confidence that humanity could withstand the Mechanical Clan's attack.

"I hope so."

At No. 21 Lincheng Estate, Tang Yu was training in the basement. After more than a week of practice, he had become highly proficient in the force-generating techniques of Shattering Heart Palm. Although there had been no obvious improvement in his gene count or primal force output, if Tang Yu encountered Yuan Chengwu now, he was one hundred percent confident he could kill him in a single strike.

"Hmm? So many missed calls and emails?" He had not paid attention to the outside world for more than a week. He wondered what the situation with the Mechanical Clan was now.

"Have you seen the news about the Mechanical Clan's invasion?"

"The Federal Government's mech forces and many of humanity's experts have all rushed to Jupiter!"

"Why aren't you replying to my messages?"

After reading Xia Linlin's messages, he found more from Wang Meng. Their general meaning was asking why Tang Yu had not come to see him, then saying Jin Taian had left due to an urgent matter. Wang Meng did not mention the Mechanical Clan, but Tang Yu could guess why Jin Taian had suddenly left Earth. He had probably gone to Jupiter too.

Next was a message Meng Xuanxuan had sent yesterday, asking Tang Yu to accompany her to Ruins City to hunt Mutant Corpsefolk.

Tang Yu's scalp tingled when he saw that message, but Meng Xuanxuan had also piqued his interest. After training for so long, it was time to go out and test the results.

The final message was from Qin Bo. Its general meaning was that the situation was still unclear. Although the Mechanical Clan was extremely powerful, the Federal Government remained confident it could resist, or even defeat, the invading enemy. He told Tang Yu to train hard and study well, so that he could have a chance to leave Earth and see more of the outside world in the future.

After reading everything, Tang Yu took out his mech and performed maintenance on it again. Once he confirmed that none of the equipment was damaged, he packed everything up and loaded it into his secondhand pickup truck.

"Weren't you planning to go to Ruins City? When are we leaving? Let's set off today. In a few days, the exam results will be out, and we won't have time." He checked the date. It was the seventeenth, while the college entrance exam results would be released on the twenty-fifth. There was only one week left.

Before long, Meng Xuanxuan's email reply arrived.

"Fine. I'll come over right away. Wait for me at home!"