She closed the private terminal communication.
Xie Litang let out a long sigh of relief.
It might seem like she was giving too much for her younger sister, but things couldn't be calculated like that.
Xie Litang crossed her arms and said softly, "After all, she's my sister. It's better than those web novels where protagonists mindlessly dump resources on class beauties and school belles."
And most importantly, Xie Litang didn't really need those resources herself.
Giving her top-tier cultivation techniques or high-grade resources was truly inferior to giving her an ant nest.
Besides, was investing in Chen Linling really a loss? Chen Linling's ability was Cyber Sequence, whose ultimate potential could even reach 'the flesh is weak, mechanical ascension.'
Besides, she was currently a wanted criminal anyway; even if she made money, she had nowhere to spend it.
Xie Litang leaned against the doorframe, looking into the room at her younger sister, who was sitting at a small, makeshift workbench, earnestly repairing the tiny dents on her Crane Whisper Battle Armor.
"So."
"What other reason do I need? She's my sister, and that's enough."
The next day.
Xie Litang stole... er, "borrowed" a secondhand pickup truck and headed toward Fumu City.
Aside from the wheelchair inside a wooden crate and Chen Linling's array of wondrous toolkits, the truck held some daily necessities and seven or eight oil drums of fresh blood.
Fumu City, by the riverside.
Xie Litang dropped an oil drum into the shallow bank of the great river.
Once the two of them made their way to the top of an Old Era office building—
"Detonate."
Chen Linling pressed the button in her hand, and the several oil drums filled with blood floating along the riverbank quickly detonated.
The riverbank was instantly dyed red with blood. Each oil drum held two hundred liters of blood, meant not only to draw out the Corpse General, but also to test how many hidden dangers remained in the city.
Before long...
The originally azure river surface grew murky as a massive black shadow slithered beneath the water.
The monster's tail inadvertently swept across the river embankment, causing a section tens of meters long to collapse with a thunderous crash.
Even the two girls standing atop the distant building could faintly feel the tremor beneath their feet.
Chen Linling clutched her chest, trying to calm her wildly racing heart.
She lightly tapped the software on her laptop.
"Based on data modeling, the creature in the river is at least 150 meters long. Calculating from current displacement and gravity, its mass is at least two hundred tons."
"When its tail brushed against the embankment just now, it released over thirty million joules... roughly equivalent to ten kilograms of TNT."
Xie Litang frowned slightly. "So in other words, this riverside area is unusable?"
Chen Linling shook her head. "Not for now."
Pausing briefly...
"Actually, areas near the inner city river are better."
"Because the inner river flow is stable, we could build a small dam to supply power."
The two of them scouted around the city further.
After testing with seven or eight blood-filled oil drums...
The inner zone of Fumu City proved to be quite stable; aside from some Wandering Corpses, there were virtually no other threats.
They selected an office building adjacent to the inner river.
Night fell silently.
Unnoticed, the world turned blood-red, and a blood moon cast an eerie glow across the sky.
Chen Linling frowned slightly.
"Sis, do you see that?"
"I see it. A blood moon."
"Sis, don't let the illusory miasma blind your eyes. That's not a blood moon. Analysis suggests it's likely unknown substances or viruses polluting our retinas. It's a pity I don't have instruments to analyze it further."
"Linling, how do you know that?"
"My cybernetic eyes wouldn't lie to me."
Xie Litang whipped her head around, reaching out to touch Chen Linling's eyelids. "Your eyes... when did this happen?"
After a long moment...
...she let out a soft sigh.
Then, she peered deep into the darkness, where an eerie figure covered in red fur was slowly approaching.
Dumping seven or eight drums of blood had finally lured out the Corpse General.
Xie Litang focused her gaze.
A health bar appeared in her field of vision.
[Corpse General Vitality: 29,876]
Xie Litang chuckled softly. "Yang Yiyi's intel was wrong. This isn't an ordinary Corpse General at all. With nearly thirty thousand Vitality, it's about to break through to a Corpse King."
However, it didn't matter.
Xie Litang lightly crushed an ant between her fingers, clapped her hands, and looked at her panel.
[Name: Xie Litang]
[Ability: Teammate Sacrifice, Uses: 0]
[Class: Wind-Style Swordmaster]
[Skills: Wind-Style Swordsmanship (Major Accomplishment) 4256/100000, Sweeping Blade (Minor Accomplishment) 546/1000, Usable Enhancement Points: 4]
[Vitality: 397,845, Spirit: 45]
[Equipment: Heartsteel (Toggleable)]
[Gold: 1960]
Now that her base health was built up...
...after stacking Heartsteel on ants for a few days, Xie Litang's Vitality had reached nearly four hundred thousand.
A single Heartsteel proc dealt eleven thousand true damage and permanently increased her Vitality by eleven hundred.
Donning her Crane Whisper Battle Armor, she drew her sword.
One human, one monster—they walked toward each other.
A flash of confusion crossed the Corpse General's blood-red eyes. "Human... you court death," it rasped in a harsh voice.
A surge of red mist erupted from the Corpse General's body. As it swept over Xie Litang, a sizzle resounded—the red mist was corroding her armor.
"Humans... truly pitiful, weak—"
CLANG!
Confusion flashed once more through the Corpse General's newly awakened—and rather slow-witted—consciousness.
In the next instant...
...a tremendous force exploded across its chest, sending it flying backward.
Its iron-hard body crashed into the wall of the building behind it, fracturing into crisscrossing cracks.
Xie Litang twirled her sword gracefully, strolled up to the Corpse General, leaned down, and said, "What did you say just now? Something about weak? I didn't quite hear you."
"Roar!"
The Corpse General lashed out with its sharp claws.
Swish!
Xie Litang used Sweeping Blade, dashing smoothly behind the Corpse General.
She dodged several more times in rapid succession. The Corpse General's claws were terrifyingly sharp, slicing through concrete walls like soft tofu.
"3."
"2."
"1."
Heartsteel's cooldown for consecutive attacks on the same target had finished.
"Steel Tempest!"
Xie Litang thrust her longsword forward.
CLANG!
The Corpse General was blown backward once more. After just two Heartsteel procs, its nearly thirty-thousand Vitality was instantly dropped to critical health.
"Roar, roar!"
"Human... monster..."
The Corpse General felt a deep-seated fear toward the human girl before it.
Instinct urged it to flee, but the girl trailed leisurely behind it, impossible to shake off.
What on earth was she doing? Playing... a game of cat and mouse?
The moment Heartsteel's cooldown finished...
...Xie Litang executed Sweeping Blade directly.
Instantly dashing behind the Corpse General, she struck with her blade.
CLANG!
[Damage -12,007]
As her health pool grew, her damage scaled accordingly. If she had another ant nest...
...Xie Litang felt she could sever the Corpse General's head in a single blow.
The Corpse General wobbled and collapsed to the ground.
Xie Litang shook her head and muttered.
"It actually took three Heartsteel procs to kill it."
"Still not satisfying enough."
Turning back, she sat beside Chen Linling on the rooftop, watching the starry galaxy beneath the night sky together.
Together, they watched the morning sun rise.
Rate on N.U.
