The Legendary Mechanic

Three years ago, when the Mutation Disaster ended, all sorts of galactic financial groups followed Black Star and invested in Planet Aquamarine, which was nominally a Floating Dragon territory. The long-standing technological bottleneck had easily been broken as interstellar knowledge poured in, and the stalled progress of the civilization began to grow rapidly.

No one had forgotten the significance of Han Xiao's actions. In commemoration of the person that changed the fate of this planet, Bennett had led the effort to build a city named after Han Xiao based on Black Phantom Sanctuary.

That was Black Star City.

The survivors in the sanctuary became the residents, and countless people from the Six Nations moved to this city. Now, the budding Black Star City was the most popular city on Planet Aquamarine. The center of the city was the base of the Black Star Army. The tall, square-point tower pointed directly to the sky, with a huge Black Star Army sign carved on the tower's body. The height of the buildings decreased from the center of the city to the edge. The overhead electric rail bridges crisscrossed, where the magnetically suspended trains shuttled continuously. The lights were bright both in the day and at night.

The galactic financial groups had come for Black Star and Floating Dragon, so Black Star City received the most investments. The technological level of this city was the highest on Planet Aquamarine. The capitals of the Six Nations were like the countryside in comparison. Black Star City was the 'city of the future' on Planet Aquamarine.

Although the treaties laid down by the three major civilizations contained rules that forbade interfering with the progress of low-level civilizations, these were primarily aimed at protecting the low-level civilization from being violated. If they were supporting their development, as long as the region's governing civilization did not mind, no one would make any trouble. Of course, Godora would not prevent Han Xiao from rebuilding his homeland.

Under the protection of Han Xiao, the Six Nations were thriving, developing technology, supporting people's livelihoods, and restoring the environment. Compared to three years prior, Planet Aquamarine had changed dramatically. With Han Xiao's approval, Bennett had also changed the purpose of the organization and formed a new political system with Black Star City as the capital, forming the seventh nation in the world. They were gradually developing toward a Galactic Civilization.

The ten people including Stephanie landed in the wilderness outside Black Star City, looking out at the distant city.

"This is the home of Black Star. Based on the intelligence we gathered, his mother planet is of great importance to him, and he's devoted a lot of energy to it," one member said.

Stephanie slowly nodded.

After arriving in the Shattered Star Ring, she had not rushed into action but instead collected information for a while, learning about this mess that Albert had left behind.

The people that Albert caught had all been rescued by Black Star and were now connected to each other. If she acted carelessly, once she caught one of the freed men, the others would be alerted and become aware that someone else was hunting them again. Albert's failure had made Stephanie's job very difficult.

Stephanie was not planning to build a base like Albert did. She decided to stay in the dark, sending one target away right after she caught them, never staying in the same place for an extended time.

It was less efficient but less risky.

She was also not planning to seek cooperation from Klent. Klent had taken the blame for them, so it was highly likely that they would sell her out to clear their name. Furthermore, she did not build a base, so intelligence channels were less important to her.

In this case, the most difficult-to-deal-with target, Black Star, became the best first target. He had killed six people, including Albert, saved everyone captured, and made Albert's years of accumulation go to waste. Plus, he had become a Beyond Grade A seed. He had a lot of potential and was the best prey. His Excellency Thousand Shadows would love it very much.

"Black Star is in a war, so we won't have a very good chance of getting to him. However, as long as an enemy appears on his mother planet who only he can handle, he'll definitely come back and deal with it. I'm not as reckless as Albert, not taking advantage of things like this."

Instead of attacking Black Star's territory or taking the risk of messing with the secret war, Stephanie chose to set a trap to lure Black Star into an ambush. The battlefield was set on Planet Aquamarine, which seemed like the dominant battleground for Black Star, but would actually make him cautious and careful.

Including herself, ten Calamity Grade 'shadows' might not be able to kill the nicknamed 'Indestructible Body' Black Star, but capturing him would not pose an issue.

"Even if he has the potential to be a Beyond Grade A Super, he isn't Beyond Grade A now." Stephanie's expression was cold and calm.

Looking out into the azure sky, Stephanie took a deep breath and felt the coldness in her lungs. She narrowed her eyes with pleasure, smiled faintly, and said, "Hehe, I never thought that I would miss the whole war era after sleeping. This place is like my hometown, a prosperous planet… I really want to smash it."

The other nine people glanced at each other and did not speak.

They were not familiar with Stephanie, but they knew that this captain was not a 'shadow' of their time.

…

Whoosh!

The Blacklight Stealth landed on an unpopulated planet, and Han Xiao, Desoro, and the others walked out of the hatch.

"Here will do. The space is big enough, and there's no need to worry about the damage caused." Han Xiao smiled.

He did not choose the base as the sparring venue. With just one accidental impact released during a fight between Calamity Grades, the base would vanish. Besides, the walls of the training room were not necessarily strong enough, and he did not want to incur unnecessary losses.

Desoro was silent and expressed his attitude with actions. His hands were reached out sideways, bright golden magic patterns appeared on his black robe, and magic forces surged. The robe was flapping as if it had rolled up a typhoon. His pupils under the hood were flashing with lightning, and anticipation for battle filled the air.

Lagi and the other two Forbidden Sorcerers retreated from the battlefield.

Feeling the immense fighting spirit, Han Xiao pulled on his necklace with his Mechanical Force. A brand-new mechanical suit model instantly covered his whole body. It was more beautiful than the Berserk Ape. It had a streamlined, silver-black shell with glowing blue patterns.

Despite being more aesthetic than Berserk Ape, it was much more violent.

This was an updated version of the Berserk Ape, also a Nano Transforming Mechanical Suit of the Ape series. Its name was [Mountain Ape]!

While the level requirement for Berserk Ape was 135, for Mountain Ape it was 165, a whole 30 levels higher. Han Xiao had used a great deal of rare raw materials and integrated new technology, which greatly increased the attributes of this mechanical suit.

Its armor value was over 110,000, and its Power Level was close to 5,000. Its performance was extremely strong.

While the Berserk Ape specialized in having strong power, Mountain Ape specialized in having strong energy. This was due to the superiority of the psionic reaction furnace. While the Berserk Ape was more focused on close-range combat, Mountain Ape used psionic energy to battle and could excel in both close and long-range battles; it was more versatile.

"Come on!" Desoro yelled. A magic jewel on his collar sparkled brightly. The next moment, a dazzling magic array appeared under his feet, turning into a giant black vortex that seemed to connect to another dimension.

A giant twelve-fingers palm emerged from the vortex. Its texture was like obsidian, full of glowing golden cracks. The hand alone was close to a hundred meters long. It slammed violently on the ground.

Bang!

The ground trembled!

"Summoner Mage? Superior Magic Colossus?" Han Xiao raised his brows.

The Summoner class was as unreasonable as the Army Style. All the Forbidden Sorcerers were magic masters and knew spells of many styles. It seemed like Desoro was mainly a Summoner.

Using a large summoner spell right in front of me? Do you think I don't exist?

Han Xiao curled his lips and crossed his hands, forming an oval shape and aiming at Desoro. A blue, azure light particle appeared between his palms. It then expanded rapidly with a blinding light, shooting out a huge blue beam!

As Desoro maintained the Summoning spell, the pattern on his robe lit up. A high-energy magic shield appeared in front of him, and the blue beam crashed into it. At that moment, Desoro felt an immense sense of danger. His pupils constricted, and he immediately withdrew the Summoning spell, teleporting a few hundred meters away.

Boom!

The blue light beam instantly swallowed up the magic shield and then went into the ground. The ground cracked rapidly, and blue light emitted from the cracks and shot up into the sky.

Rumble!

A blue pillar, dozens of times larger than the beam, shot out from the ground, rising up like a fountain.

Psionic Impact—Whale!

One of the Mountain Ape's abilities!

The energy beam vanished into the sky, and the ground turned into a circular crater hundreds of meters in diameter. As the summoning spell had ended early, only one arm of the Magic Colossus was summoned, which was nearly shattered by the explosion.

"You can use psionic energy‽"

Desoro's tone became extremely grave.

A Mechanic that could use the psionic and a Mechanic that could not were two completely different concepts!

"Wouldn't that happen…"

Before Han Xiao finished his sentence, his body suddenly became blurry. Powerful impetus infused with psionic energy turned him into a lightning bolt, leaving a blue shadow behind. Han Xiao flashed in front of Desoro in an instant. His fist wrapped in psionic shield crashed down on Desoro's magic shield with the second half of the sentence!

"… sooner or later?"

Bang!

The two of them crashed into each other!

An enormous amount of energy came from the psionic shield. The magic shield was shattering piece by piece!

Desoro was heavily hit, and he flew out like a shooting star. Leaving a blue trail, Han Xiao caught up with Desoro midway and caught him by the back of his head. His hands gripped Desoro's neck and threw him up into the sky.

Mountain Ape Throw!

Compared to Berserk Ape's [Berserk Throw], the Mountain Ape version gave fifty more Strength but a lower damage count. Also, it had an extra 0.5-second stun time. Generally, it was more of a disabling ability now.

Squeak!

Han Xiao stopped instantly. The mechanical suit on his arms turned into joint energy cannons. The dozens of barrels aimed at Desoro in the sky.

Bang bang bang!

In the blink of an eye, psionic beams rushed out of the barrel one after another, catching up with Desoro. The light illuminated his fearsome eyes.

Boom!

Continuous blue explosions appeared in the sky!

The bright light lit up the Mountain Ape's helmet, and the scorching hot air was swirling.

Under the mask, Han Xiao smiled.

A Mage's weakness was also close-range combat!

Whoosh!

With a flash of light, Desoro teleported out of attack range once again. He was injured and rather flustered. Then, he started casting a spell without a word. After all, he was an elite Mage under Austin's command. Although the situation was not looking good, he would not be so easily defeated.

However, Desoro had to admit that, although he did not look down on Black Star, Black Star's combat capability was still beyond his expectations.

Zoom!

With the light of summoning spells, strange and weird creatures were summoned one after another. Desoro even cast dozens of instant enhancing spells on himself to guard against Han Xiao from closing the distance again, only to find that Han Xiao had no intention of stopping his summoning.

Han Xiao smirked. As he clapped, the space around him suddenly started to ripple and buzz.

"Channeling spell? I can, too!"

Hum!

A beam of light flashed around him, and twenty-two Army Boxes appeared out of thin air.

In order to improve the efficiency of the army, Han Xiao did not care about the cost and equipped the Army Boxes with energy stoves and hyperdrive engines. This way, the support range and speed of the mechanical army increased greatly. He did not need the Blacklight Stealth to airdrop them anymore.

Most importantly… it looked so much cooler!

The purpose of sparring with these people was not only for the Promotion mission but also to test the combat ability of the new mechanical army. Thus, of course, he was going to use everything he had.

As Han Xiao pulled with his fist, a Mechanical Force lightning chain grabbed onto every Army Box.

Boom boom boom!

The Army Boxes vibrated, and they were opened. Countless compressed orbs were sprayed out, turning them into a mechanical army.

In front of the large mechanical army, Desoro's summoned creatures were like lambs surrounded by wolves, weak and helpless.

"Get him!" Han Xiao pointed at Desoro, who was panicking.

Boom!

The Mechanical Army swallowed Desoro's summoned creature army.

The scene became chaotic instantly.

As soon as the two armies clashed, the strength difference became crystal clear—Desoro's army could only hold on for a few seconds. The situation turned into a one-sided thrashing!