Chapter 134: Simon, the Arm of God

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Romeo and Pinocchio could sense just how powerful and terrifying the destructive lightning surrounding Laxia was as she evolved and transformed.

If the two of them had been struck by that lightning, their fatal weakness against electricity would have killed them before they ever reached Laxia.

Yet Li Nanke charged straight into it without hesitation, resisting the destructive lightning with nothing but his flesh and blood.

He had seized the brief moment during the enemy’s evolution, when it was unable to retaliate, and taken the opportunity to kill it by force.

Using such a desperate tactic against the destructive lightning had come at a considerable price.

Romeo stared at the strange armor covering Li Nanke’s body, its surface riddled with web-like cracks. Once the armor receded, Li Nanke looked like a piece of charred wood brought to life. His entire body was blackened and carbonized, giving off a thick, acrid smell of burnt flesh.

Through the fissures in his skin, one could clearly see that the flesh beneath had turned brownish gray, as though his entire body had been cooked by electricity.

No ordinary person could possibly have survived injuries this severe. Yet Li Nanke remained alive and well, his physical body so powerful that he seemed less like a creature of flesh and blood than something entirely different.

Such courage—to stake his life against another’s—and such decisive ruthlessness could only come from absolute confidence that his body was strong enough to withstand the destructive lightning and kill the enemy by force.

“Boss, can you hold on?” Pinocchio’s voice trembled slightly. Anyone who saw a living man transformed into walking charcoal would likely feel a chill in their heart.

“I’m fine. They’re only superficial wounds.”

Li Nanke carefully assessed the damage to his body.

The skin covering his entire body had almost completely carbonized. In other words, both the epidermis and dermis had essentially died. The subcutaneous tissues, connective tissue, fatty tissue, superficial blood vessels, lymphatic vessels, and other parts of the superficial fascia had also suffered varying degrees of damage.

By the medical standards of his former life, burns covering virtually the entire body at this severity would amount to a death sentence, with pitifully low odds of survival.

But Li Nanke knew perfectly well that, for him, these injuries could only be considered somewhat serious superficial wounds.

The muscles beneath his skin and his internal organs remained untouched, like an egg whose shell had been burned while the white and yolk inside remained perfectly intact.

Still, although the injuries were not life-threatening, they severely affected his combat ability.

The death of the Complete One, Laxia, had granted Li Nanke a vast amount of source energy.

After a moment’s hesitation, he gritted his teeth and poured the energy into Pain.

[Primary Essence: Pain]

[Level: 8 (23%) → 10 (MAX)]

As the second-tier bestial primary essence, Pain, rose to its maximum level, searing agony erupted from the depths of his soul and swept through his entire body.

No matter how formidable Li Nanke’s willpower was, he could not help curling up on the ground in agony, beads of cold sweat appearing across his forehead.

The intense pain brought more than torment. It also produced an extraordinarily powerful excess regeneration effect.

The excessive regeneration granted by Pain was like the endorphins naturally secreted by the human body after suffering, bringing intense pain relief and euphoria.

The sensation was so comfortable and pleasurable that it nearly made him moan aloud.

The stem cells within his body seemed to have been violently stimulated. They rapidly differentiated and multiplied, replacing damaged skin cells and filling the injured areas.

Blood surged through his veins, accelerating cellular repair and metabolism. His immune system became highly active, producing white blood cells in great numbers to resist the inflammation and infection caused by his severe burns.

Li Nanke’s entire body grew hot, like a steam engine operating at full power.

Anyone who came within a few steps of him could feel the astonishing heat radiating from his body.

Sweat and bodily fluids evaporated into white mist, rising continuously from his skin.

Visible to the naked eye, the charred skin covering his body cracked and peeled away inch by inch. The flesh beneath healed at incredible speed, and smooth, pale new skin rapidly grew over the wounds.

Even his burned hair and fingernails grew back, becoming indistinguishable from how they had been before the injury.

No—Romeo could faintly sense that the man seemed even stronger than before.

It was as though he had shed a blackened shell, been reborn in flame, and emerged from a cocoon transformed into a butterfly.

The excessive regeneration brought by Pain reaching its maximum level was not merely healing Li Nanke’s physical injuries. It was also raising the strength of his body in every aspect.

Before long, Li Nanke rose to his feet as though nothing had happened.

It was impossible to imagine that only moments earlier he had suffered such grievous injuries.

“This guy really is an alien. Otherwise, how could any normal human be this monstrous?”

Romeo could not help muttering the complaint. Then Li Nanke suddenly turned his head.

His eyes were filled with a savage, soul-shaking killing intent. He looked like a beast wearing human skin.

Thud, thud, thud.

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Romeo instinctively retreated several steps, raising his sickle blade with fierce resolve as he assumed a battle stance, as though facing a great enemy.

“What’s wrong?” Pinocchio’s voice sounded beside him.

Romeo rubbed his mechanical eye, only to find Li Nanke looking perfectly normal. His expression and gaze were calm, as though everything Romeo had just seen had been nothing more than an illusion.

Li Nanke turned his gaze toward Laxia’s charred corpse. A strange greatsword was embedded beside the crater amid the rubble.

The weapon, which had previously transformed into a lightning spear, had returned to its greatsword form after losing its master’s control.

It emitted none of the white glow characteristic of a reward. Without gaining a true owner, it could not be taken out of the Forbidden Dream.

Li Nanke strode forward and pulled out the giant sword.

[Thunder Judgment Greatsword]

[Type: Weapon / Blade]

[Quality: Rare+]

[Rating: 72/100]

[Details: The spine of this greatsword is hollow, fitted with twenty-three sections of sharp metal electrodes. By driving the sword with special energy, its wielder can cause it to release powerful electric currents. The greatsword can transform into an even more powerful spear form, raising its quality and might by one level. Its electrical current will also transform into golden destructive lightning. This powerful weapon was forged by Simon, leader of the Alchemist Order, for the nun Laxia, with whom he was infatuated.]

[Note: Class, pay attention. I’m transforming.]

The Bloodied War Hammer was a heavy bludgeoning weapon. Though its power was formidable, it was still less effective than a bladed weapon against certain large enemies.

This was especially true when the Bloodied War Hammer released its weapon art and transformed into the roots of a thorn jungle. During that time, the weapon could not be used, leaving the Chainsaw Sword as his only substitute for a primary weapon.

Even after Philip reforged the Chainsaw Sword, the improvement had been extremely limited. Its power had long since fallen far behind the rate at which Li Nanke was advancing.

The weapon before him was both a greatsword and a spear. Li Nanke found it quite appealing.

However, when he tried using the greatsword, he could not make it erupt with lightning like Laxia had, nor could he make it transform into a spear.

The Thunder Judgment Greatsword clearly required self-element energy to operate.

After thinking for a moment, Li Nanke threw the greatsword to Pinocchio inside the cockpit of the War Machine. The puppet boy could wield self-element energy, and sure enough, he was able to use it to control the greatsword.

“Let’s go.”

Time was pressing, leaving no opportunity for prolonged rest.

After healing his injuries, Li Nanke picked up the special Universal Elixir left behind by Laxia and led the way into the circular tower.

Inside the tower was a vast open-air platform. Directly overhead hung a colossal arched metal apparatus, resembling a gigantic birdcage without a base.

A thick antenna descended from the center of the arched structure.

Through the metal apparatus, they could clearly see the enormous vortex high in the sky. Azure energy surged and gathered within it, all converging upon the antenna of the metal device.

The apparatus collected an endless supply of self-element energy, then poured it through the descending antenna into the twisted figure crouched at the center of the tower.

The grotesquely swollen humanoid body was as powerful as Champion Victor’s, but its skin was deathly pale.

Its left sleeve hung empty. On its back was a huge object resembling a hump. A cloak concealed it, making it impossible to tell what the thing actually was.

The monster wore a tall silk top hat. Its gentleman’s suit had been stretched until it bulged and tore apart. A scar crossed its left eye, whose gray-white pupil had gone blind.

Simon, once the normal leader of the Alchemist Order, had now become this inhuman, distorted creature.

It crouched on the ground with its body hunched over, enduring what seemed to be excruciating agony as self-element energy poured into it without end.

Li Nanke’s arrival forced the apotheosis ritual, which was evolving Simon into a higher life-form, to come to a temporary halt.

“Look. This is self-element energy—beyond imagination!”

Simon Manus’s expression was feverish. He rose to his feet and gazed up at the endless energy gathered by the metal apparatus. His twisted, gigantic body was utterly terrifying.

“This is the essence of immortality. The key to becoming an eternal life-form... the key to opening the path of true evolution!”

Li Nanke frowned deeply. A sapphire butterfly rose from his shoulder, its wings leaving a trail of glittering motes in the air.

Sophia’s voice echoed through the circular tower.

“Simon, look at yourself! Evolution is not supposed to be like this. You’ve taken the wrong path!”

“Stop... Simon.”

Sophia’s words clearly enraged him. Thick veins bulged across his forehead as he suddenly flew into a rage and roared:

“What do you know? You understand nothing!”

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“Yes, my research was indeed misguided from the very beginning. Without borrowing the wish-granting power of the stars, mortals could never use their own flesh and blood to become eternal, undying gods... But now I have found the correct path!”

“As long as flesh and machinery are combined, they can withstand the erosion of endless time and become an immortal god!”

“Did Gipetto think I didn’t know he had stolen some divine flesh? No. I know exactly what he intends to do!”

“He wants to resurrect his son, Carlo. Using divine flesh and transcendent metal, he created the only power core in the world.”

“I was unable to master the technique of perfectly fusing flesh with machinery, but Gipetto succeeded.”

“That heart is inside Puppet P. With the Black Rabbit leading Puppet P through battle after battle, the power core has grown stronger and stronger, while the fusion between flesh and machinery has gradually approached perfection.”

Simon’s research had begun on the wrong path. He had started with petrification disease, conducting experiments solely on human bodies in an attempt to evolve flesh-and-blood creatures into higher life-forms without relying on the wish-granting power of the stars.

But the facts had proven that no matter how hard he tried, he could never succeed. At best, ordinary test subjects could be turned into failed products similar to Victor.

Laxia’s unusual constitution had been the most successful among countless test subjects, making her a Complete One found only once in ten thousand.

Yet even after sacrificing her life to force an evolution, she had gained only a brief fraction of divine power. Compared with a true god, the difference remained as vast as heaven and earth.

Simon realized that his research had taken the wrong direction. Then, inspired by the cathedral’s prayer book, The Chronicle of the Stars, he finally found the correct path.

Only by combining machinery with flesh could one achieve eternal immortality and overcome the limitations of wishing to become a true god.

Combining machinery and flesh was easy to say, but extraordinarily difficult in practice.

His countless experiments all ended in failure. He did not even gain a single valuable clue. Yet he understood that the problem did not lie in his research direction, but in the inadequacy of his alchemical skill.

Although Simon was the leader of the Alchemist Order, his attainments in alchemy were inferior to those of the genius alchemist Gipetto.

He sought Gipetto’s help, but the other man arrogantly refused him and dismissed his evolution plan as worthless.

How could Simon endure such humiliation?

He placed Gipetto under house arrest in an independent laboratory on the northern side of the island. Unless Gipetto surrendered and agreed to help him complete his research, he would never be allowed to leave.

But as the days passed, Gipetto showed no sign of yielding.

Simon was anxious, yet he could not torture Gipetto or force him to complete the research.

If Gipetto harbored resentment and secretly tampered with the experimental data, Simon would be the one forced to swallow the bitter consequences.

And so Simon began plotting—a perfect conspiracy that would make Gipetto complete the research of his own accord.

That conspiracy led to the accidental death of Gipetto’s only son, Carlo.

To resurrect his son, Gipetto had no choice but to steal divine flesh from Simon, who was supposedly unaware of everything. He fused Carlo’s corpse with machinery and transformed his son into a puppet.

However, the plan ultimately deviated slightly from what Simon had imagined.

Gipetto did not directly turn Carlo’s corpse into a puppet.

Instead, the genius alchemist extracted a small portion of Carlo’s flesh, combined it with divine flesh, and used transcendent metal to create a power core.

Using that power core as its center, Gipetto created a special puppet resembling Carlo as he had been in his youth...

“Black Rabbit, hand over Puppet P’s power core. I am only one step away!”

Simon extended his enormous hand toward Li Nanke, though his feverish gaze remained fixed on the colossal puppet.

“Once I become a god, I will grant you endless power and limitless life, allowing you to become part of the divine world as well!”

There were two optional hidden paths: oppose Simon and seize the Arm of God, or follow Simon’s route and hand over Pinocchio’s power core.

Li Nanke had just killed Laxia, completely turning against Simon. Even if he obediently surrendered the power core now, Simon would never let him off easily.

He coldly shook his head.

“Give me the Arm of God.”

Simon burst into laughter. His laughter was wild and icy, echoing through the circular tower.

The twisted leader of the Alchemist Order filled his eyes with murderous intent. With one sweep of his hand, he threw back the cloak covering his spine and revealed the terrifying object beneath.

“Since you want the Arm of God, come and take it yourself!”

“Let’s see whether I can obtain Puppet P’s power core—or whether you can seize the Arm of God from me!”

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