Eerie Shadows of the Demon Cult

When the huge bang sounded behind him, Geliad realized that he might be finished.

Xiang Shan's speed was only slightly below the speed of sound. By the time the sound reached Geliad's auditory receptors, he had no time left to react.

One of the machine guns behind Geliad suddenly swung upward. Xiang Shan reached out with both hands, gripped the barrel, and used the force to slip aside. Flames burst from the muzzle, but the bullets merely grazed past Xiang Shan.

Seizing the chance, Xiang Shan lashed out like the wind and kicked the machine gun apart.

Geliad let out a tiger-like roar. An opening above his treads slid open, ejecting a cylindrical bomb.

The moment Xiang Shan saw the bomb, he had intended to retreat at once. But reason instantly overpowered instinct.

Geliad's head was positioned right between Xiang Shan and that "bomb." If it truly were powerful enough to harm Xiang Shan, then Geliad would only be injured more severely than him.

Of course, it was not impossible that this tank's brain was not housed inside its cranial cavity. But that possibility was unlikely.

When Geliad had used Inch Force earlier, he had fully activated his internal power system to gain that burst of acceleration. Xiang Shan had clearly sensed the location and type of Geliad's power system.

Like Will Grand Dog, Geliad could not have placed his brain too close to the chassis.

Therefore, this could not be a bomb.

Just as that thought flashed through Xiang Shan's mind, the cylinder suddenly burst apart, and a mass of silver light expanded outward.

Geliad's thoughts nearly ground to a halt. Behind him was his blind spot, beyond the reach of either his guns or shield-arm. It had never been much of a flaw to him; practitioners of the Gunfire Way were meant to eliminate enemies either from a thousand paces away, or within a hundred paces at five steps' distance.

If he failed to kill an enemy within that range, then it should have been his defeat.

And one shot of metal-particle aerosol was already his last means of retaliation.

The silver glow drifted toward Xiang Shan. Yet at that moment, Xiang Shan seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

He released the seal on his cooling system.

A piercing sound rang out from inside him. Superheated steam immediately blasted from the many gaps in Xiang Shan's outer armor.

It was boiling coolant.

He released the pressure in the cooling system.

The coolant formed high pressure within Xiang Shan's body, creating a pressure differential between inside and out. The aerosol was slowly forced away.

Metal-particle aerosol, nicknamed "Iron Blossom," was also called "Flash Dust." Some even teasingly referred to it as a "Good Wife."

Metal-particle aerosol generally consisted of nanoscale metal particles mixed with high-pressure gas and dispersed through a special method.

It was called a "Good Wife" because it had so many uses. It was truly an essential supply for home, travel, and acts of Vagrant justice.

First, metal particles were excellent conductors. If they entered circuitry, they could easily cause a short circuit. Throwing the stuff into a building's electrical system could paralyze an entire area. Second, as excellent conductors, the particles could form a structure similar to a Faraday cage in the air, allowing them to resist electromagnetic pulse weapons. Furthermore, the particles' refractive properties could effectively defend against laser weapons. Mixed evenly with a powerful oxidizer, they could also serve as explosives in enclosed spaces. With a suitable heating tool, they could even repair minor damage to outer armor.

Most importantly, it was cheap. Sometimes, early Vagrants even used it as a smoke bomb.

Coolant gushed from the gaps in Xiang Shan's outer armor, then mixed with the metal-particle aerosol and condensed into droplets again.

Geliad, meanwhile, stared at the shadow on the ground.

Behind him, the figure amid the swirling mist looked like an immortal, like a saint.

With a clang, Xiang Shan seemed to tap the armor on Geliad's back with his fingers.

Then came a string of clang clang clang clang taps.

Geliad knew that Xiang Shan was probably determining the alloy composition of his outer armor and adjusting the high-frequency vibration waves used to destroy its crystal lattice—just as he had done to that final bullet. But he still adjusted his auditory receptors to block out the sound.

He screamed, "Spare me!"

In this era, every line of code could contain malicious intent.

No prosthetic body was ever truly undefended. Open-source code was full of backdoors, and even tutorials found online could hide traps.

Even if one rewrote the underlying framework oneself, there was no guarantee that no unforeseen security vulnerabilities remained.

Judging from the intelligence Leif had relayed before his death, Xiang Shan's Inner Power had reached an unimaginable level. He might well have mastered backdoors beyond Geliad's comprehension, then used overwhelming Inner Power to ravage Geliad.

"Spare me, great Vagrant, spare me!" Geliad shrieked. "I was once a Vagrant too! I had no choice! It was loyalty! Loyalty drove me here! I wasn't... Give me a chance! For the sake of who I used to be, give me..."

"Don't worry. I have no interest in torturing my enemies," Xiang Shan said calmly. "I'll give you a quick death."

As he spoke, he pressed his entire palm against the outer armor atop Geliad's head.

High-frequency vibrations surged forth. The lattice structure of the metal crystals was repeatedly jolted by mechanical waves of the proper wavelength, causing instant metal fatigue. The metal armor shattered like a biscuit.

Xiang Shan had no interest whatsoever in information. Whatever he wanted to know, he could dig it out of Geliad's storage devices himself.

Mechanical waves burst from his hand, smashing through the alloy as he moved to take Geliad's life.

But to Xiang Shan's surprise, there was no electronic equipment beneath the outer armor.

A pink shadow suddenly lunged out. The thing seemed incredibly soft, completely absorbing the mechanical waves emitted from the fingertips of Xiang Shan's prosthetic hand. The pink thing abruptly contracted, forming two tentacles that bound Xiang Shan.

Hahahaha! This is my reversal move!

Geliad instantly started his engine.

These cephalopod-like tentacles had only recently been implanted in him. They were a newly developed project of the mysterious Demon Cult. Two years ago, someone claiming to be an apostle of the Demon Cult had come to him, leaving behind precious weapons and secret manuals to recruit him. These tentacles were one of the Demon Cult's newest creations.

Geliad knew that he had become an experiment for the Demon Cult, helping them test their latest research.

But that was precisely what wilderness bandits craved.

Apart from an exceptionally thick nervous system and a mantle, the insides of these two tentacles contained only muscle tissue. Like ordinary soft-bodied creatures, this muscle tissue could spread thin and lie concealed beneath the armor's inner layer, taking up almost no space while serving as a "buffer layer."

Once the armor shattered, the tentacles immediately rushed out.

Certainly, metallized muscle tissue could not be stronger than steel. But modern Vagrants rarely had experience dealing with flesh. Techniques like high-frequency waves were all designed with enemies in metal shells in mind. Soft muscle tissue could absorb high-frequency mechanical waves, making it less easily damaged than metal.

Xiang Shan's lightweight prosthetic body weighed only around three hundred kilograms. It was very light. These two tentacles could lift him. As long as Xiang Shan's limbs left Geliad's body and lost their foothold, Geliad could use Inch Force to fling him away.

Even if these tentacles were completely ruined after this battle, it would be worth it!

Humanoid prosthetic bodies were far inferior to vehicle-bodied forms like Geliad's when it came to long-distance pursuit.

Like this... it will definitely work...

A wave of agonizing pain struck him.

Blue blood sprayed everywhere. Xiang Shan's five fingers had already torn open the tentacles.

In that instant, Xiang Shan suddenly remembered something else.

He had studied "how to efficiently kill flesh."

Yes, it sounded absurd. Prosthetic bodies held overwhelming advantages over flesh, and cybernetic martial artists seemingly needed only a few punches and kicks to kill a natural human. But Xiang Shan seemed to have fought enemies of flesh before, under the assumption that they would be protected by massive armed forces and that he might have only one chance to strike.

He knew how to better use force to tear apart flesh.

"Ahhhhh..." Geliad screamed and rammed backward viciously.

Xiang Shan's prosthetic hand drove forward with force.

This time, the victor truly seemed to have been decided. Xiang Shan felt that he had destroyed some soft tissue made of accumulated proteins.

He reached upward, his fingers tearing through the brain-machine barrier. He yanked out the storage unit and martial arts chip, then immediately retreated, maintaining a certain distance from Geliad.

No rule said that a cybernetic body could contain only one brain, nor was there any rule saying that a cybernetic martial artist could not install a "revenge program" far from the brain.

Of course, self-destruction was out of the question. Every idiot who gave their body a function like "if I die, self-destruct" had their self-destruction mechanism triggered in advance by Inner Power experts.

Still, Xiang Shan thought that someone with Inner Power as mediocre as Geliad's might not know that trick, so he might have set up a self-destruct function for himself.

He kept a distance of thirty meters and observed carefully.

No second brain, no artificial intelligence control, no self-destruction.

And no missile came flying at him either.

Only then did Xiang Shan walk toward Geliad.

"Military martial arts..." Xiang Shan looked at Geliad's prosthetic body and sighed.

Compared with the ordinary concepts of "Inner Power" and "Outer School," military martial arts emphasized "specialized prosthetic bodies" rather than "algorithms." This had once been a martial art created by the world's rulers to deal with Vagrant uprisings.

"And now even bandits can use War Path martial arts? What bizarre path of development did this world go through?" Xiang Shan shook his head, then climbed onto Geliad's back and tore open the wound pierced through by his own arm.

At that moment, he desperately wanted to use the facial language of a frown to express his confusion.