CHAPTER 993: CHAPTER 511: A SMALL GAIN FROM THE ATTACK (PART 2)

The flame tendrils coiled around the purple giant hammer like serpents, trying to transform its destructive power into nourishment for a shield.

However, this was only an ideal state. Under the crushing force, the tiny vortices collapsed one by one, and the flame tendrils wrapped around the hammerhead disintegrated into particles, turning into glowing dust clouds swirling around the hammerhead.

Boom!

Rolling firelight surged and spread, the hammerhead irresistibly smashed into the chest, Beckett’s face filled with horror, experiencing firsthand how terrifying Rupert was at that time.

The chest shattered instantly under the impact of the heavy hammer, blood and flesh scattered like fireworks, ribs twisted and deformed under the mighty force, breaking like fragile branches.

The heart burst within the chest cavity, the mouth opened instinctively, blood and flame intertwined into a crimson fountain, the spine protruded, even piercing through from the back, spraying out a series of blood pearls.

As an X-Level Life Form and a flame superpower user, his blood remained hot, flames rising, not frozen into ice crystals by the cold starry sky.

With just one strike, his consciousness began to dissipate.

Li Ming’s heart remained calm, the hulking mechanical body suddenly dispersed, totaling five units, plus the two that went to pursue Lair before, making seven in total.

Over the past three months, the accumulated metal energy had already elevated one of the newly constructed mechanical guards to S-Level.

One of the mechanical guards picked up the dying Beckett, while the other four suddenly dispersed, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Soon, in the distant starfield, fireworks-like explosions occasionally erupted, leaving only some small fry triggering traps, easily handled by the mechanical guards.

He turned and headed in another direction, the mechanical transformation had already been intercepted by his mechanical guards, engaging in a skirmish.

"It’s over..." Seeing Beckett pierced by a hammer, Lair’s heart sank to the bottom.

He himself was blocked by these two mechanical bodies, although not stronger than him, they were sufficient to delay time.

When Azure Dragon arrived before him, he already knew the outcome, resistance was meaningless.

Heckler Prince fell into the pit again this time, he couldn’t help but lament inwardly, instinctively attempting to activate the self-destruct device, but a large number of arcs exploded at the faceplate, the combat system crashed.

The surrounding quantum interference field and ultra-ionization still played their roles, his body severely damaged, invaded during continuous combat.

"The universe is helping him too..." Lair despondently gave up resisting.

Li Ming gestured, one of the mechanical guards stepped forward and removed Lair’s energy engine, his entire aura drastically weakened.

[Star Core Fission Secondary Heart--X-Level: Advanced semi-mechanical transformation engine

Control Conditions: Three hundred million metal energy

Control Effect: Additional loading

Control Ability--Second Heart: When the body suffers severe injury, consuming the integrity of controlled objects can quickly repair injuries.]

A mediocre energy engine, control requiring only three hundred million, naturally not good.

Li Ming looked at it briefly, discovering that the life form in front of him hadn’t undergone full mechanical transformation.

Under the alloy shell at the chest, a faintly visible biological heart beat, its surface covered by a metallic mesh structure of reinforcement.

Every contraction of the heart pumped out from the connected hydraulic pipes a mix of luminous blue liquid and dark red blood, forming a bizarre purple-black fluid, flowing into the energy engine for secondary fission.

Moreover, other parts retained plenty of muscle tissue.

"Semi-mechanical transformation..." Li Ming’s eyes flickered.

He knew that within the Three Civilizations, there were specialized mechanical transformation departments.

There existed people with development potential neither high nor low, just enough to support them surpassing the threshold of X-Level Life Forms, yet insufficient to sustain further development.

The Three Civilizations had no shortage of lower-tier X-Level Life Forms.

To them, Genetic Seed would be an enormous waste.

They leaned towards semi-mechanical transformation for life forms at this level, with their muscle strength sufficient, only requiring additional armor and the installation of a sufficiently strong energy engine.

At a very low cost, they could obtain a not-too-strong X-Level Life Form, worthwhile.

But this guy in front of him, his inherent strength had clearly reached X-Level, likely a special case.

Amidst contemplation, threads of flowing shadow approached from all directions.

The mechanical guards had almost cleared out the small fry, dragging behind them various large equipment, core devices of trap generators.

"These things, should yield quite a bit of metal energy when reclaimed." Li Ming raised an eyebrow, feeling somewhat relieved.

The mechanical guards escorted these few individuals back to the spaceship.

Buzz--

The hatch opened, Robbin and Feder stared at Li Ming in Tank Guard attire, their hearts trembling.

"Lord Azure Dragon..." Luo Bing stammered, rarely interacting with the big boss, feeling troubled in his heart.

They saw the combat scene clearly, only two hammers ended the fight, too daunting.

"Lord Azure Dragon." Feder looked composed for a long time, inadvertently recalling certain past events.

Li Ming nodded faintly, then the armor retreated, Li Ming subconsciously shook his body, as if awakening from a dream.

"Vermilion Bird, let’s leave here first." Li Ming instructed.

"Do we need to calculate a new route according to the planned itinerary?" Vermilion Bird inquired.

"No need, just find a place to stay for now." Li Ming’s eyes flickered.

Feder looked over, "Not going to Dinner at Dusk?"

"Not in a hurry." Li Ming shook his head, "I need to figure out some things first."

The spaceship activated its stealth system, slowly departing from this core area.

Only long afterward did the highest commander of the Star Gate Node dare to approach, looking around frightfully.

All blockades had vanished, yet he could still faintly sense the turbulent remaining energy here.

........

In the small laboratory on the spaceship, Lair was bound on the experimental bed, Li Ming clad in Tank Guard spoke calmly: "...your brain hasn’t undergone mechanical transformation..."

Removing the facial armor of this mechanical transformation, its left side was a precise mechanical structure, the electronic eye flickering with data flow.

The right side retained human skin and features, embedded with glowing neural interfaces below the skin, the biological eyeball and electronic eye’s rotation frequency highly synchronized.

This guy’s degree of mechanical transformation was lower than Li Ming imagined.

The metal fingers of Tank Guard gently pinched, the three-dimensional simulated image covering the opponent’s cheek peeled off like a thin veil.

The holographic images formed by holoparticles recomposed mid-air, gradually condensing into a clear human photo.

The man in the photo appeared around thirty years old, with a resolute face and eyes showing a hint of fatigue.

Lair looked up, involuntarily revealing a trace of nostalgia.

"Cannot find your information..." Li Ming remarked curiously: "An X-Level Life Form, should not be so obscure."

Lair remained silent, with the self-destruct device dismantled, he couldn’t even decide his life or death.

"Hmm... the muscle strength is definitely X-Level, not a Genetic Evolution Body..." Li Ming employed various means to extract information from him.

"Was it due to severe injuries that this semi-mechanical transformation was conducted?"

"I have few enemies, even fewer willing to target Li Ming." Li Ming spoke, dismantling a large number of metal structural components from Lair.

"Only so many forces are capable of conducting X-Level mechanical body transformations, Reynolds and Mikhail are highly unlikely, the Star Alliance’s two individuals have already been gravely injured, plainly leaving the Federation and Empire." Li Ming paused cautiously, extracting a thumb-sized crystal structure.

"I have tangled much with the Empire, but even the Star Alliance mysteriously acted against me, the Federation doesn’t seem impossible either." Li Ming pondered aloud, suddenly saying: "Hence, I have a simpler method."

Casually creating mimicry from the dismantled metal parts, he opened the intelligent terminal, found Reynolds, and sent it over directly.

"Have you seen this modification style?"