The Number One Thug Under Heaven

"Fine words, but coming from a dog's mouth, they really are..." Xiang Shan shook his head and sighed. "Hard to put into words."

The welfare officer retorted, "What do you mean by that?"

He actually had little desire to clash with Xiang Shan. Intelligence records showed that the "Shan" before him was a monster capable of killing Silver Drive Shaft, proficient in both Inner Power and External Power, and difficult to handle.

Dealing with knights-errant was not part of a welfare officer's mandatory duties.

It was precisely because he had anticipated the possibility of a conflict with Xiang Shan that he had brought along so much combat power this time.

Martial arts did indeed have the problem of two fists being unable to defeat four hands. A prosthetic body with only two hands often could not defeat one with four, because the latter had more options and greater ease in its martial strategies.

Likewise, if a group of cyborgs could advance and retreat as one, with some hugging legs, some locking waists, and some twisting arms, then no matter what martial arts a knight-errant possessed, they would find them difficult to use.

The dense formations rendered obsolete by gunpowder were precisely the nemesis of martial arts.

The welfare officer's twenty-five guards appeared to be standing loosely in several rows, but their positions actually formed a battle array. The rear guards could swiftly unleash interwoven streams of bullets for suppression, while the front guards could swarm forward and restrict the space available for martial techniques.

These enhanced soldiers gave him a little confidence, enough for him to dare hear how Xiang Shan would respond.

In his view, if negotiation could make this knight-errant leave, that would naturally be best.

Xiang Shan merely looked at Enoch's Biological Brain and said, "Indeed, no person should stand above another. If a person commits a crime, another person should not pass judgment upon them; they should be entrusted to the law. But what if the law cannot judge correctly?"

The welfare officer sensed that something was wrong. He realized that a preset process in his mind had already begun.

This isn't an ordinary knight-errant...

A surge of alarm rose within the welfare officer.

Xiang Shan continued, "Your authority—this so-called public power—was originally formed when everyone gave up a portion of their private rights and gathered them together. Its purpose was to prevent people from being trampled upon. Yet from what I have seen, you masters are trampling others yourselves!"

At this point, Xiang Shan cast the welfare officer a sidelong glance. "In the end, can any of you meet even one of the basic requirements of equality, justice, and rule of law? If you could make me believe that you can achieve these things, I might even surrender without resistance. Unfortunately..."

"Is that why you killed people?" The welfare officer's voice trembled slightly. "Thug!"

"That's right, a thug!" Xiang Shan felt sparks of exhilaration erupt in his brain. More of his memories were stirred awake in turn. "I am the number one thug under heaven—because knight-errantry is violence! It is the violent action of the masses striking back against brutality!"

As he spoke, Xiang Shan hurled the metal rod in his hand with all his strength at Leif's Biological Brain.

The welfare officer did not hear the latter half of Xiang Shan's words. Alarms had already overwhelmed his senses.

"This guy is a fundamentalist follower of the Martial Ancestor!" The welfare officer was horrified. "After the Eleventh Defeat, there are still fundamentalist believers in the Martial Ancestor!"

The welfare officer hesitated no longer. The founding father of cybernetic martial arts was the greatest terrorist in this world, the source of all unrest over the past two hundred years.

All fundamentalist knight-errants of the Martial Ancestor's knight-errantry were enemies that the Human Gene Bank's forces had to eliminate.

At that moment, several shadows came flying in from afar.

The welfare officer's first reaction was to intercept them. The order traveled as electromagnetic waves, piercing the preset War Path processes within the guards. Several streams of bullets wove into a net and detonated the can-shaped objects in midair. Yet silver mist, centered on those cans, spread in an instant with the blast wave.

"Iron Blossom?" The welfare officer was startled. Iron Blossom was a very common tool used exclusively by knight-errants. One reason for its popularity was that it was easy to make. But no matter how common it was, this little village could not have produced it. Xiang Shan should not have had such a thing.

For martial artists like the welfare officer, who excelled at military formations, Iron Blossom was highly restraining. Conductive metal particles could refract electromagnetic waves, disrupting his commands and preventing them from reaching the guards intact.

"But what can Iron Blossom do?" The welfare officer sneered inwardly. If Iron Blossom alone could completely counter military formations, then the entire system of Military Martial Way would have to be cut in half.

The metal particle aerosol could limit a War Path martial artist's ability to command a military formation with electrical signals, but every soldier within the formation still retained some computational ability. So long as commands were preset upon detecting Iron Blossom, they could rely on those commands for limited coordination, fighting while moving out of the area covered by the metal particle aerosol.

Before the silver mist descended, ten tongues of flame lashed toward Xiang Shan. Xiang Shan used his footwork to evade them one after another, until his figure was completely covered by Iron Blossom.

Only the whooshing of wind flickered around the welfare officer.

The welfare officer calmly retreated. At the same time, fifteen guards kept firing around them to maintain fire suppression while the entire unit moved.

The area covered by Iron Blossom was not large, only several dozen square meters. Soon, half of the guards had left its range.

The welfare officer also received extremely faint response signals.

Under these circumstances, he could not use those guards' vision, so he could not confirm Xiang Shan's location. But the welfare officer knew that the instant he stepped out of the Iron Blossom was Xiang Shan's best opportunity to attack him.

His mind was intensely focused. Internal chips adjusted his sense of time. At that instant, signals transmitted through metal-based nerves emerged from his chaotic consciousness.

One step... two steps...

The welfare officer saw sunlight.

I'm out? He didn't keep pace?

He's unfamiliar with War Path martial arts?

At that instant, his vision linked to the cameras of fourteen guards.

But at that very moment, a sharp howl suddenly erupted before him. The entire metal particle aerosol was violently stirred.

About forty centimeters above the ground, a mass of air thrust out like a sharp blade. The welfare officer instantly pictured a grandmaster of the Bionic Fist Technique advancing in a low crouch.

At that instant, two points of red light flashed in the aerosol.

Prosthetic eyes... Inner Power!

The welfare officer immediately understood. The metal particle aerosol would also refract infrared signals, but at the instant Shan rushed out of its range, he could launch an Inner Power attack against him!

Unfortunately, because you're unfamiliar with War Path martial arts, you were about 0.5 seconds too slow...

Now the welfare officer had regained control of the guards' prosthetic bodies. As he leapt backward, eleven guns once more interwove streams of bullets, cutting off Shan's charge path!

Unexpectedly, Shan showed no intention of dodging... No!

When the source of the red light flew beyond the aerosol, the welfare officer finally saw that they were indeed prosthetic eyes—but they were not on Xiang Shan. They were two prosthetic eyes attached to batteries, thrown by Xiang Shan with concealed-weapon techniques.

And the thing creating that immense piercing whistle was not Xiang Shan himself, but an iron rod spinning like a boomerang—Enoch's drive shaft!

"No!"

At that instant, another terrifying sharp howl suddenly arose. Xiang Shan, hidden within the silver mist, abruptly broke the sound barrier, exerted force in an instant, and crashed into the group of guards.

Xiang Shan had not used his full strength when he first dodged, in order to confirm the parameters of these guards' prosthetic bodies. After avoiding the first volley, he had silently stepped into the aerosol, then thrown the iron rod and prosthetic eyes—the eyes had been gouged from Geliad. Connected to the battery of a small drone, they could emit a little frightening red light.

The guards relied on numbers to win. Their prosthetic bodies were far inferior to Xiang Shan's, which had been assembled from multiple martial artists, and their gun barrels could not turn in time.

The bullets originally aimed at the prosthetic body missed the iron rod. It continued flying low, knocking down the three guards with the best attack angles.

And Xiang Shan had already slammed into two guards.

At that instant, the welfare officer completely forgot about commands. He saw an unimaginable application of External Power. In that stretched-out moment, Xiang Shan merely opened his arms slowly and pushed at the guards. Yet no matter which part of his body collided with them, it instantly destroyed their balance and bounced them a foot into the air. These guards had no Vector Thrusters and could not adjust their posture in midair.

In the welfare officer's eyes, Xiang Shan was like a martial god, unstoppable!

After sending twelve guards flying, Xiang Shan shifted direction slightly and walked straight toward the welfare officer.

The welfare officer realized that his position blocked the firing lines of the remaining guards. He instinctively sprang backward while rapidly calculating how to rearrange their positions.

But Xiang Shan was faster. Before the welfare officer's feet had risen twenty centimeters from the ground, Xiang Shan stomped down at even greater speed. The welfare officer was knocked to the ground by that blow, and inertia threw his stance into disarray.

Xiang Shan's right hand thrust out almost simultaneously, piercing the welfare officer's neck.

Thus, the welfare officer's cameras were forced to aim at Xiang Shan's prosthetic eyes.

In that instant, the welfare officer felt it... he saw it...

Some terrifying will crashed through intangible code into his chips!

"Ah!" The welfare officer let out a brief scream. The guards around him all convulsed.

The next second, Xiang Shan suddenly exerted force and tore the welfare officer's head from his body!

His spine was ripped apart, and even the welfare officer's cerebellum suffered severe damage. The welfare officer let out a mournful cry, while Xiang Shan once again used Inner Power to search for a gap he could invade.

Then the welfare officer's skull sprang open, exposing the brain-machine barrier.

Xiang Shan leisurely pulled out the chips and storage units. "Master, don't forget your original duty. Remember to declare sanctuary."

The man tossed the welfare officer's head into the village chief's arms, then bent down and picked up Youji.