A Card In Hand

Chapter 80: What Happened to the Intense Training?

The massive hand, completely assimilated from a giant octopus’ tentacle by Ban Claw, angrily reached for Li Ao.

The entire void was filled with the shadow of his enormous hand.

If it had been just Ban Claw, Li Ao wouldn’t mind letting loose and engaging in a fierce battle to push his limits.

However, Li Ao knew that hidden in the darkness was an even stronger figure, the president of the Rift.

This crafty old man not only possessed king-level strength but was also exceedingly cunning.

From the beginning, he hadn’t shown himself, just lurking somewhere, watching the entire battlefield, waiting for the best moment to strike.

Before the Green Python was killed, if the Rift President had intervened to rescue it, Li Ao might not have succeeded.

Even if Li Ao’s surprise attack could sever the Green Python’s neck instantly, the subsequent blow that crushed its head would also have been impossible.

Yet, to gain a deeper understanding of the capabilities of the mechanical killer Li Ao was masquerading as,

The Rift President remained unmoved.

He watched as Li Ao crushed the head of the Green Python underfoot.

As for the Dark Bat that had escaped into the shadow dimension, it too received no support or warning from the Rift President.

As a result,

Li Ao blasted it head-on with a cannon.

Such a restrained approach made the Rift President far more challenging for Li Ao to deal with than the impulsive Ban Claw, whose combat power was also significantly less than that of the Rift President.

Szzzzz…

Li Ao’s armor, disguised as a mech, sparked with electric currents.

Just as Ban Claw’s massive hand was about to crush him, he vanished transparently.

Boom!

Ban Claw’s second strike missed, causing the ground to tremble violently.

Szzzzz…

A circle of light formed by electric currents began to expand slowly from a hundred meters above the battlefield.

Li Ao emerged from the inside, his armor transitioning from a transparent state to a solid form.

At the same time, a pair of energy beam wings, totaling eight tubes, extended slowly from his back, allowing Li Ao to hover in the sky.

To outsiders, it appeared as a large and heavy mecha, floating with its energy beam wings spread wide, but in reality, it was the activation of Li Ao’s flying skill.

The energy beam wings accelerated slightly, and Li Ao circled in mid-air, deliberately avoiding attacks from ground enemies while looking for an opportunity to strike.

The shoulder-mounted cannon was raised again on Li Ao’s shoulder, its muzzle flashing as countless energies furiously converged within.

The muzzle’s fiery glow grew increasingly intense.

“You can have a taste of my Giant Rock Burst Bomb first!”

A giant hand with mottled claws was raised high, pointing at Li Ao.

A massive amount of Rock Source Energy gathered into a sphere on the terrifying giant hand covered in suckers.

Before Li Ao’s shoulder-mounted cannon could fire, the mottled claw had already taken the initiative.

It furiously hurled its Giant Rock Burst Bomb at Li Ao.

Li Ao, like a machine devoid of emotions and fear of death, completely ignored the Giant Rock Burst Bomb and continued to gather energy… Only when the edge of the Giant Rock Burst Bomb touched his body did the shoulder-mounted cannon’s energy round fully explode with a ‘boom’, bombing the ground fiercely, the two energy shockwaves colliding head-on.

At that moment, a transparent, invisible giant maw in the sky, revealed by the terrifying energy shockwaves, began to close.

Unknown to others, Li Ao had already fallen into its mouth…

The Giant Rock Burst Bomb and the heavy energy cannon’s wild collision triggered a tremendous explosion.

The closing of the giant maw was obstructed.

Sizzle!

Li Ao, who had long planned an escape route, successfully retreated through a space vortex.

The moment Li Ao disappeared, a hundred-meter-long arm appeared out of nowhere, savagely reaching into the space vortex, attempting to pull back the fleeing Li Ao.

As an ancient monster, Li Ao would not make the rookie mistake again.

After his body slid into the space vortex,

He fired his cannon immediately.

Boom!

He fiercely blasted the savagely grasping giant hand, simultaneously shattering the space vortex completely, cutting off any possibility of being tracked.

Li Ao knew that some spatial-type war beasts had very special abilities.

They might not be able to enter an enemy’s space vortex for the same spatial jump, but they could peer into the destination from inside.

Although such war beasts were rare, at least the Venomous Fang’s slit mouth could not possess it, but Li Ao absolutely did not want to encounter such a nuisance, severing all troubles with one shot!

In the next second, Li Ao silently returned to the skies above the New Light Mansions of Silverlight City, a thousand miles away.

Two Void Fish shook their heads and swam around him.

Li Ao waved at them.

Dissolving the illusion,

He reverted from his mecha form to his original appearance.

Sliding into the shadows, while leaving the Shadow Halberd in the Shadow Path, he returned to his own bed.

Rock Bear, seeing his master reappear, excitedly rushed over to show off his achievements, only to see Li Ao raise a finger to his lips in a hushing gesture, causing Rock Bear to suppress his excitement and find a comfortable spot to lie down in front of the bed…

In Windstorm City, an elderly man with white hair and a slender, refined appearance stared thoughtfully at his right hand. His index and middle fingers were injured, trickling fresh blood.

This was the result of a treacherous shot before Li Ao’s return.

“I’m so angry!”

The bald man named Spotted Claw appeared infuriated, slamming his tentacle-like giant hand on the ground helplessly. “What’s the deal with this mechanical race? So cunning? Can’t you even stop it? On the Tianfeng Continent, aside from summoning war beasts, it’s rare to encounter such self-thinking mechanical races. Suddenly, one appears, targeting only us. It’s too suspicious!”

“Perhaps there’s not just one…”

The slender old man, known as Rift, was the president of the Black Cross Summoners’ Association and, secretly, the regional head of the Venomous Fang in Windstorm City.

“Not just one?”

Spotted Claw was slightly taken aback.

“There should be three of them,” Rift stroked his long beard, nodding slightly while sorting through the useful information he had gathered. “If I’m not mistaken, there’s an invisible mechanical leader hovering above, commanding the others. Its combat power is unknown, but the mechanical assassin we’ve encountered manages to succeed repeatedly due to its instructions. The one fighting us doesn’t have its intelligence; it merely follows orders. If we encounter it again, we need to find a way to disrupt its external communications. Cutting off its connection with the invisible leader will revert it to a clumsy machine, drastically reducing its combat effectiveness.”

“And the third mechanical assassin?”

Spotted Claw, better at fighting than analyzing, was puzzled.

“That would likely be a very special scout with the ability to teleport through space, hiding within a spatial vortex, unresponsive no matter how we attempt to lure it,” Rift hypothesized.

“How did you find it?” Spotted Claw asked, deeply respecting his superior.

“At first, I was just suspicious. But do you know why I still reached into the spatial vortex to pursue it, knowing it was impossible to succeed? It was to probe whether a third mechanical being was indeed there! Indeed, because I pursued too quickly, the ground-based mechanical assassin, having just fired its shoulder-mounted cannon and unable to recharge in time, couldn’t stop me. The one with teleportation capabilities fired prematurely, and as soon as my hand entered, the cannon fired, effectively stopping me!”

Rift concluded, fully convinced of the third scout’s existence.

“Couldn’t it have been the ground-based assassin or the invisible leader?”

Spotted Claw scratched his bald head.

“The invisible leader must be very small in size; otherwise, the energy consumption for prolonged invisibility would be immense… The energy cannon of the ground combatant and the scout with teleportation capabilities are not the same; the former emits light, the latter fire, specifically a dark flame resembling the abyssal green flames. Light and dark fire are incompatible, especially unlikely to coexist in mechanical races, so I’m confident a third mechanical being exists,” Rift asserted confidently.

“Why are so many mechanical beings targeting us?”

Spotted Claw couldn’t comprehend who their formidable enemy could be.

The Pantheon of Myriad Realms, perhaps?

“This is just the beginning!”

Rift shook his head and sighed.

“What?”

Spotted Claw was startled by his words.

“I recently received information from above that our emperor is waging war against the God of Mechanics,” Rift revealed this highly confidential information even Spotted Claw wasn’t aware of.

“… ”

Spotted Claw suddenly realized why the mechanical assassin was so aggressively attacking; there was another layer to the situation.

“Today was just a probe; the future may not be so simple!”

Rift sighed lightly.

“We must immediately report this mechanical invasion upwards!”

Spotted Claw, now alert, was sweating profusely.

“It has already been reported!”

Rift nodded.

The next day.

Li Ao lazily walked out of his room, yawning while reaching for the sweet wheat cakes on the table to stuff into his mouth.

Fuxi was left staring in astonishment.

Little Li Ao, how could you get up even later than me? Wasn’t it different before?

What about the rigorous training?

Oh, my God! Could it be that your great demon king’s strength all came from sleeping?