The Legendary Mechanic

In the torn-up battlefield, the second living Mechanical Deity appeared. The weapons and equipment it had were almost exactly the same as Han Xiao's Mechanical Deity, like a carbon copy of him.

This replica Mechanical Deity had a poker face and stood opposite Han Xiao. Powerful energy was released from its body continuously.

This startled countless galactic residents, and their shocked eyes all focused on Wuornos.

"Another new Beyond Grade A? I don't seem to recall seeing this person before."

"What ability is this? Seems strong…"

"I know this guy! He's the Arcane Church's Grand Priest!"

Countless galactic residents opened their eyes wide. The extinguished hope in their hearts was rekindled.

Among the Beyond Grade As, Wuornos was an oddity. He rarely fought others or appeared in public, nor did the Arcane Church promote him. His presence in the outside world was not high at all. Without deliberately searching for his information, ordinary people would not even know he existed in the universe. However, in the Beyond Grade A circle, he was recognized by all as the strongest.

Seeing Wuornos arrive, Oulou heaved a sigh of relief but was also a little unhappy.

"You've finally decided to come. I thought you'd just watch till the end."

Tsk, we've been exhausting ourselves and fighting Han Xiao for six days and six nights. Did you deliberately only now join us to 'turn the tide' alone?

Wuornos looked around at the many direct members, sighed, and said, "You guys have fought hard. I'll take it from here. Go and rest."

"You still want to fight him alone?" Clotti frowned.

"I don't like to bully the few." Wuornos shook his head.

"You think we like it?" Clotti frowned. "This is an order from above. If you join the fight, we'll have the highest chances of taking down Black Star. Aren't you too cocky to want to fight him alone now?"

Wuornos glanced at him and calmly said, "Earlier, I was given an absolute order to help, but I told them I won't join the fight unless I'm fighting alone. They agreed. If you have objections, you can convey them to the Crimson Dynasty's Ruler. If you guys don't need help, I'll be going back to the ship."

Clotti frowned, opened the channel, and shared a few words with the dynasty's upper echelons. He then gave Wuornos a deep look, turned around, and flew back to the main ship without saying a word.

The others also received orders from above, glanced at Wuornos with complicated looks, and left the battlefield.

Suddenly, other than the wreckages everywhere, Han Xiao and Wuornos were the only two people left on the battlefield.

Han Xiao had been watching on the side. Seeing that the other direct members had left, his eyes gleamed, and he said, "Your ability is interesting."

Wuornos did not respond to this. He changed the topic and said slowly, "I've been observing you for the past seven days. You're probably already half a step into the higher territory. I'm not someone who likes to fight. If possible, I really wouldn't want to fight you, but…"

This time, Han Xiao waved his hand and interrupted him.

"We don't know each other. You don't have to explain anything to me. Many people have been saying you're recognized as the strongest Beyond Grade A. I've always wanted to see how strong you are personally."

He turned to look at the other living body Mechanical Deity, narrowed his eyes, and said, "I have to say, with this ability, you can indeed be considered the 'strongest'. However, a fake will always be just that, a fake."

When Wuornos used his ability earlier, a notification had popped up on Han Xiao's interface too. It showed that he was affected by an ability called [God Embodiment—Granted]. Although the ability worked, it did not deal any damage to him or any debuffs.

Planning ahead, before the Mechanical Race territory was surrounded, he had already expected that he might have to fight Wuornos. Hence, he had asked about the detailed intelligence of this person from Kasuyi and the others, finding out that 'granting Gods' was one of Wuornos' abilities. He could materialize the concept of some 'Gods' into powerful physical forms, which were called 'God Embodiments'.

The God Embodiments were independent from their original body, usually called by the name of the original God. They had the various abilities the original 'God' conceptually had but not all of them. The number of abilities and their power were not only related to Wuornos' strength but also the number of believers that worshipped this 'God' and the depth of their faith.

However, the targets Wuornos could grant also included anything that was deified. Therefore, peak Beyond Grade As who were going through the God's Trait Transformation were also included. When the target of the granting was not a 'concept' but something with physical form, the God Embodiment would then be able to inherit the target's most strength and abilities, even without believers of faith.

According to the upper echelons of the association, if they were to fight Wuornos, they would have to first face a mirrored version of 'themselves' while at the same time fight with Wuornos' other God Embodiments. This was one of the reasons he was recognized by all as the strongest; he would become stronger against stronger opponents.

Furthermore, what was more disgustingly strong was that, if a God Embodiment that had a physical original body was destroyed, the damage would be reflected back to its original body. This meant that when peak Beyond Grade As killed their mirrored 'self', they would suffer damage too.

A few Ancient Ones shared a secret. Very long ago, Wuornos' success rate of granting Gods was limited, and it did not work every time.

However, Wuornos' ability was nothing short of a perfect fit with the Arcane Church. After being given many Universal Treasures related to his ability by the Arcane Church and forming strong Soul Links with them, the success rate of his granting ability was fixed at a hundred percent. In the players' terms, this basically meant that the judgement process was skipped.

The Universal Treasures given to him also included a core treasure seen by the Arcane Church as their 'National Treasure'. It could be said to be the foundation of how the Arcane Church united all the religions in galactic society. Wuornos matched with it perfectly, as if he was born for it.

The only good news was that when the interface showed he was 'Granted' one time, it also showed that he received a prolonged immunity to it. This meant that Wuornos could not continuously 'Grant' the same target in a short time. Plus, the time the God Embodiments could exist also had limits.

Even with Han Xiao's knowledge, he had to say that Wuornos' ability was extremely powerful, almost like a cheat, like himself!

Scary, this ability is somewhat like a weird version of the Character Summon Cards…

Han Xiao was surprised.

Seems like we're both professional cheaters… Our battle will be legendary!

As all kinds of information flashed past his mind, Han Xiao's movements were no slower. He gathered the remainder of the mechanical army and launched attacks at Wuornos.

At the same time, controlling the Mechanical Deity, he charged forward and struck with his spear.

At this time, another mechanical spear stopped in the path of Han Xiao's spear, the tips of the spears clashed.

Bang!

A powerful psionic shockwave erupted, the two spears stacked together and stopped each other.

"Your opponent is me."

The fake Mechanical Deity with Wuornos' face spoke coldly.

"Yo, you can even speak."

Han Xiao's eyes gleamed. He suddenly twisted the handle of the spear. The spear started spinning rapidly. Tremendous energy erupted and instantly pushed the other spear away. Then, like a drill, it penetrated into the fake Mechanical Deity's chest. Compressed psionic energy gushed out from the tip of the spear, launching flesh and metal everywhere.

However, like it had no sense of pain, the fake Mechanical Deity instantly retaliated, swinging its heavy spear forward. Seeing this, Han Xiao pulled back his spear and blocked it. Blinding electronic arcs exploded from the point of contact, and the powerful force pushed Han Xiao back.

Han Xiao looked up and saw that the fake Mechanical Deity had a gory wound on its chest that almost went all the way through his body. However, the next moment, the flesh and machines near the wound started to move and slowly grew back.

Han Xiao tutted. "Tsk, as expected, it's as difficult to kill as me."

His own extraordinary regenerative ability was also duplicated by this God Embodiment. The fake Mechanical Deity had an Indestructible Body. Only a few abilities were not duplicated. Although its strength was a lot weaker than him, from the way it looked, it definitely had an Energy Rank above ten thousand. It was stronger than top-tier Beyond Grade As like Clotti and Oulou, definitely capable of fighting him.

At the same time, the Apostle Weapons who were all wounded started to focus fire at Wuornos's original body, and attacks rained like a storm.

Wuornos calmly put his hands together like he was praying. Colorful spiritual lights appeared on his body and rapidly expanded, turning into bright symbols, forming an enormous protective shield, and protecting him from the rain of attacks.

He separated his hands. Eight faint-gold spiritual lights appeared and jumped into his mouth.

The next moment, eight God Embodiments with varied appearances detached from Wuornos' body, all giving off the presence of powerful Beyond Grade As. They charged toward the mechanical troops around and displayed their strength.

"I'll have to worship these again when I get back."

Wuornos shook his head. Having summoned eight God Embodiments at once, he felt a little heartache.

A few days ago, when he got urgently summoned, he had harvested the 'deifications' of about ten God sculptures from the Temple of Ten Thousand Gods and stored them in the church's 'National Treasure' in his body. When he had to fight, he could summon the God Embodiments any time. If there was no need to fight, he could put the 'deifications' back.

He was the only one who knew that every time he summoned the God Embodiments from the God sculptures in the Temple of Ten Thousand Gods, it would consume the 'deifications' in these God sculptures that took a long time to accumulate, and he would not be able to summon another God Embodiment from the same sculpture again in a short time. The Gold sculptures' 'deifications' would only recover through praying and worshipping for a very long time. Only then would he be able to summon God Embodiments from them again.

The strength of these God Embodiments also relied on how many 'deifications' their sculptures had, and accumulating 'deifications' was extremely troublesome and time consuming.

To him, the Temple of Ten Thousand Gods he was stationed at was his weapon inventory, and the God sculptures were his ammo… However, he liked to think of the Temple of Ten Thousand Gods more as a farm, every God sculpture as a crop that needed to be taken care of every day. Unless absolutely necessary, he did not want to harvest any crops.

Knowing himself well, he knew he could not easily grant eight God Embodiments at once easily. However, the Church National Treasure already fused with him perfectly. Even if he did not use it actively, the passive bonuses it gave him still increased the strength of his ability to an unbelievable height.

Han Xiao narrowed his eyes, suddenly charged forward with his body, and knocked the fake Mechanical Deity away. Drill-shaped machinery shot out from his waist and bit onto the fake Mechanical Deity's waist like charge cabins. The Psionic Deterioration modules were activated immediately, absorbing the fake Mechanical Deity's energy.

As the fake Mechanical Deity was restrained, Han Xiao suddenly turned and swung his spear toward Wuornos. He planned to target him first.

Seeing this, Wuornos released two more God Embodiments. This time, these two God Embodiments did not materialize but melted and fused with Wuornos as if he was possessed.

His energy presence suddenly rocketed. He raised his energy-covered arms in front of him, not dodging the attack at all.

The next moment, the heavy spear swept onto him like a truck ramming toward an ant.

Clank!

An enormous shockwave exploded. However, the result was completely different from when Clotti got sent flying.

Wuornos' hands remained in the same position; his body did not even move back a single inch. Instead, the enormous mechanical spear was stopped. It was as if the ant had stopped an entire truck.

Wuornos glanced at Han Xiao and did not say anything. He only put down his hands and slowly backed off, as if he did not take the attack earlier seriously at all and was not worried about Han Xiao continuing to attack him.

"It's tough to beat, as expected of the National Treasure of the church…"

Han Xiao frowned.

According to the description of someone who knew about the church's National Treasure, it had the trait of 'Unbreakable' and extremely high resistance, which were given to Wuornos too.

God only knew what percentage of Wuornos' strength came from the church's National Treasure. Fighting with him was not just that but also fighting with the pinnacle technology of a Universal Civilization!

Therefore, when Beyond Grade As were compared with each other, they rarely ever considered Wuornos because it would simply be unfair!

At this time, the fake Mechanical Deity got rid of his restraints and pounced at Han Xiao again, dragging his Mechanical Deity back.

Having fought for six days and six nights, Han Xiao was not at his peak. His mechanical army had suffered heavy casualties; most of it had been sent into the Dimension Factory for repairs. At this point, only about twenty percent of his army still had combat capabilities. Plus, all of them had gone through a few times of Waste Modifications. In the face of Wuornos' many God Embodiments, the battle was getting tough.

Dealing with the fake Mechanical Deity's attacks, Han Xiao glanced at the worsening situation on the battlefield and narrowed his eyes.

"Wuornos indeed deserves the praise. Looks like it's going to be a tough fight… Luckily, I have more things up my sleeve!"

…

In the three Universal Civilizations' main ship, Clotti and the other direct Beyond Grade As had already finished attending to their wounds. They were all gathered at the bridge watching the intense fight between Black Star and Wuornos.

Seeing how Wuornos could match up with Black Star who fought all of them alone, they all felt bitter.

"How many years has it been since we saw God's Chosen fight? He's still extraordinarily strong." Guzar sighed.

"Humph, if I had a Universal Treasure as strong as the church's National Treasure, I could be that strong." Oulou's tone was sour.

"That's given that the Federation of Light can build one like it." Francisco shrugged.

"Who you looking down at?" Verena snorted.

They chatted casually, slightly flushing away the heavy atmosphere.

Oulou turned around, realized that Clotti was not speaking, and said, "We fought Black Star for six days and nights, exhausting him. Now that Wuornos has come out to fight him alone, maybe he just wants to have the fruit of victory for himself. If he defeats Black Star, not only will he gain all the reputation, we'll even be his steppingstone. Aren't you angry about that?"

Clotti glanced at him and said with a poker face, "I don't care about these trivialities, as long as the mission given to us is completed. As for who defeats Black Star in the end, it doesn't matter."

"Tsk. If words get out that Wuornos defeated someone we couldn't even defeat together, we'll be humiliated. You might not care about face, but I do!" Oulou clenched his teeth.

Clotti gave him a weird look and said, "You fled with your tail tucked between your legs after fighting Black Star alone. Your face is already non-existent. What are you talking about?"

"… F*ck!"

Oulou wanted to argue, but a change suddenly occurred!

Suddenly, an even stronger energy presence suddenly exploded from Black Star. His energy readings rocketed visibly, breaking the record every second!

Black Star's Mechanical Deity's strength soared. The next second, the enormous fake Mechanical Deity was thrown out into the formation of the three Universal Civilizations' fleet, toppling rows of battleships!

As if they were on steroids, the Apostle Weapons and the mechanical troops' power suddenly shot up. The God Embodiments that were originally overwhelming them suddenly could barely fight back, and their wounds grew rapidly.

Then, Han Xiao turned around and slashed down with his spear. The one God Embodiment he attacked instantly shattered and turned into light particles, as if it suddenly evaporated!

"Hmm‽" Wuornos' calm expression disappeared immediately.

The sudden change startled Clotti, Oulou, and the other direct Beyond Grade As. Their sights were instantly attracted by Han Xiao. Everyone opened their eyes the widest, their faces filled with shock.

He became stronger‽

He clearly held back earlier!

At this point, they shockingly realized one thing, and shivers shot up their spines.

"We fought with all we had for six days and six nights, yet we couldn't even make him go all out‽"