The Road of the Martial World Is Long

When Xiang Shan picked Youji up, he discovered that his disciple's breathing was gradually weakening.

He looked at the at a loss village chief, then at Doctor Schultz, and finally sighed inwardly.

There was no way he could leave his disciple here without worry.

This child's mother had already died, and the only person who had promised to care for him free of charge was gone. There probably were no institutions like orphanages in a place like this. Even if there were, Xiang Shan might not dare trust them.

Besides, in front of these townspeople who lived in constant fear of the Father of All Machines' majesty, he had attacked a Civilization Protector, and Youji was closely connected to him. He truly did not dare gamble on how the townspeople would treat Youji.

The man sighed. "Fine, kid. You were right, and I was wrong. You really should become a knight-errant."

Holding Youji and slinging the welfare officer's body over his shoulder, he walked toward the ground-effect aircraft the officer had flown in. He connected several of the officer's driver chips to his prosthetic hand and activated his Inner Power.

Unexpectedly...

Oh? A language I don't recognize at all...

Xiang Shan nodded. This was probably more in line with his understanding of technology.

In the era Xiang Shan knew, the industrial world's updates to programming languages lagged several steps behind academia. In this era, that gap might have widened without limit.

Doctor Schultz's civilian products still used some variant of C that had apparently been around for hundreds of years, while martial artists' drivers were written in a later language that Xiang Shan still knew. The Civilization Protectors' drivers, however, were written in a language Xiang Shan did not recognize.

Still, the "strength" of a programming language only mattered in direct confrontations between Inner Power experts. Against a simple Turing Machine entirely based on Boolean operations, an Inner Power master could make alterations at a more fundamental level.

Very quickly, he completely hacked the welfare officer's chips, connected to the aircraft, and escalated his privileges.

But several seconds later, he sensed outside interference.

"An Inner Power expert is attacking through a satellite... Judging by this latency, the other party should be on Earth."

Xiang Shan thought this to himself.

Since cybernetic humans required fewer survival supplies, humanity had expanded its space industry on a massive scale while undergoing cybernetic conversion. There should be people on the Moon by now. Therefore, the possibility that an Inner Power expert was launching an attack over the network from the Moon could not be entirely ruled out.

Of course, Mars and Venus were too far away. The latency was too high, making them unsuitable for Inner Power combat.

"Since the latency is under a second, this Inner Power expert should be one of a nearby lord's subordinates." Xiang Shan started the aircraft and silently calculated something.

Under the horrified gazes of all the townspeople, Xiang Shan launched the ground-effect aircraft and flew away from the area at low altitude.

A few minutes later, several missiles came flying from the direction of the big city.

Then faint flashes appeared on the horizon.

About four hours later, a massive Austrian Black and Tan Hound nudged the head before him with his nose and said teasingly, "Oh? So you actually had your head taken off in a single move..."

"It was because... bzzz... Iron Blossom... bzzz... countered military martial arts..." the welfare officer shouted angrily. But his brain had been damaged when Xiang Shan removed his head, so his language functions had also been affected.

"Tch. If Iron Blossom could counter every battle formation, military martial arts would have nothing left but heavy tanks and giant warships." Grand Daug said disdainfully. "This is simply your own problem, sir."

The dog's tone was equally lacking in respect.

Then the dog looked at the kneeling village chief and Doctor Schultz. "And then? You just saw a streak of fire fly through the sky?"

The village chief nodded repeatedly.

"The... bzzz... knight-errant... must... bzzzz... already be dead... bzzz..."

"You should talk less in your condition, sir. The more you say, the more embarrassing it gets." Alster Grand Daug, the Mad Hound, laughed. "A knight-errant who could crack the martial art I passed down without relying on algorithms, using only a Biological Brain, must be a famous hero of his generation. There's no way he could be killed so easily by those missiles."

As he spoke, the dog casually kicked the welfare officer's head into the village chief's arms. "Watch this head carefully. If other Protectors arrive later, there'll be rewards for you."

Grand Daug did not actually care what happened to this welfare officer, but he had to put on a show. The welfare officer was an official member of the Protectors, entitled to protection and permitted to exercise executive authority under special circumstances. Even with brain damage and only a fraction of his martial prowess remaining, the welfare officer could still be sent to some retirement home beyond Earth to enjoy a comfortable life.

Alster Grand Daug was different. He was a martial artist who had renounced protection and merely attached himself to a lord personally.

Although Alster Grand Daug possessed considerable authority due to the lord's favor, his status was still different from that of a welfare officer.

"What are you... bzzzz... going to... bzzz... do..."

"Obviously, find that brat and kill him." Alster Grand Daug sneered.

His prosthetic eyes were no worse than those of a Gunfire Way practitioner, and his nasal cavity contained an exceptionally sharp chemical detection system capable of gathering information through scent molecules in the air—in simple terms, a sense of smell more sensitive than a dog's.

Since he had anticipated the need for "tracking," he had specially implanted a brand-new sensory reagent kit before setting out. The trace chemical reagents inside could react with the chemical molecules collected by his nasal cavity. Those reactions could be monitored by mechanical locks.

Combined with components such as a gas chromatograph, Alster Grand Daug's nose possessed a sense of smell a hundred times sharper than a canine's.

He quickly found Geliad's remains. The main chip and storage devices had been dug out of the body, but it could still receive certain commands. Xiang Shan had used prearranged commands to order the corpse to deploy "Iron Blossom" at a set time.

Here, Alster collected the scent of a living organism.

I absolutely will not allow anyone to crack my martial art like that...

Thinking this, Alster Grand Daug ran in the direction from which the missiles had been launched.

Youji vaguely dreamed of his mother.

That must have been a very, very long time ago. Back then, his mother had not yet become a truck. Youji should not have been able to remember that period, but the chip had remembered it for him. He had been a small child then, not even as tall as his mother's knees. There also seemed to have been an older brother at home...

Youji did not remember what his relationship with his brother had been like, either. The chip's records showed that he had indeed cried often back then. And at those times, Yulia would hold him and softly hum an unknown tune, telling him that all dangers were fake, and that humans protected by the Father of All Machines would not be attacked by illusions.

Perhaps Yulia did not understand what it meant, either. It seemed to be some kind of spell that gave people a sense of security. Her mother had done the same for her. It was as though humanity had always been like this, generation after generation, since ancient times.

In the dream, it seemed that only beneath his mother's knees was there light, only there could make him feel at peace.

But...

Those hands... those legs... that warm scent...

"Mom... Mom..." Youji murmured.

"Yo, disciple. You're awake."

A voice.

Youji barely moved his eyes and saw a silver person. It took him several seconds to remember who it was.

"Master..."

"Alright, save your strength. You're badly injured right now, so talk less."

Only then did Youji notice a cable extending from beneath Xiang Shan's neck and plugged into his chest.

"Your lungs are damaged." Xiang Shan shook his head. "The compatible organ housing your internal battery was damaged, so you still need my battery to keep supplying power. Endure it until a new battery arrives."

Tears streamed down Youji's face.

"Hey, kid, I told you you're weak right now. Don't waste water resources... Hey." Xiang Shan scratched his head. Only now did he remember that he seemed never to have studied child psychology. He knew a little educational psychology, but that was probably for teaching students over twenty years old. He truly did not know how to comfort a child under these circumstances.

"Fine. If this can make you feel better, then cry if you want." Xiang Shan sighed. "At least tears contain some water and inorganic salts."

When he left the village, he had also taken Copper Sugar, drinking water, inorganic salts, and amino acids. However, those supplies, along with the spare batteries, had all been placed on the automated walking robot, Mule.

Before the battle began, Xiang Shan had given Mule instructions to advance along a predetermined route. After bringing Youji aboard the ground-effect aircraft, he had flown at high speed for several minutes before immediately jumping out.

After Xiang Shan left, the aircraft continued flying automatically for less than a minute before a missile blew it apart in midair.

Then Xiang Shan gave Youji simple treatment here and waited for the drone and Mule to arrive.

But Youji's condition was truly serious. The child's heart was still alright and could be powered by Xiang Shan's battery, but his lungs were in terrible condition. Only one lobe remained functional. Blood loss was another major problem.

Xiang Shan himself had no lungs. His remaining Biological Brain had also been heavily modified, allowing it to use electric field energy to replace part of the energy produced by ATP hydrolysis. His need for respiration was very low, and the built-in biological filtration membrane within his skull was enough. When he consumed nutrients such as sugar and protein, only part of them was expended; the rest replenished brain damage.

That was one of the advantages of maximizing one's modification rate.

He had no circulatory system, not even more than a few drops of blood. He could not keep Youji alive by "connecting their circulatory systems together." Even if he were willing to give up some of his own components, his fully modified prosthetic body did not contain the organs needed by a partially modified cyborg.

Due to the lack of oxygen, Youji could not keep thinking. After crying for a while, he fell asleep again.

Humans after metallization were more resistant to hypoxic damage than Homo sapiens. That was at least something to be thankful for.

Meanwhile, Xiang Shan began examining the things he had taken from the welfare officer.