What was the reason of our existence? In the freedom that felt beyond the bounds of nature, there was no pain and no worry. All problems could be solved with the snap of a finger. This place seemed like Nirvana in Buddhism, a place so free and peaceful.
Yet, was it true to what he was feeling?
Zheng finally realized why the gap between him and his clone was so wide. It was a gap that was more than just strength. There was a difference in mindset and in perseverance. He was far, far behind his clone in these aspects.
The hibernating genes from the ancient times were awaken at the beginning of the fourth stage in order to optimize one’s body. These awakened genes would inevitably affect the person’s mind, or even seize control of it. The enormous killing intent that filled Zheng’s mind was one of such cases.
This influence only grew more intense as one advanced further into the fourth stage. Then once it reached the point where the person was on the brink of crossing over to the intermediate fourth stage, the condition that Zheng was experience would struck him. It was an opportunity. Because if he could overcome this condition, his will and mind would be tempered to the degree where he could easily suppress the negative effect from the fourth stage.
However, if he were to fail, then his mind might perhaps fall into a bottomless abyss. There, he would keep fighting until death took him, or he would go insane and slaughter everything in sight, or his personality becoming totally different, and maybe even trigger a chaos of the energy inside his body, leading to an explosion. This condition was similar to the Heart’s Devil that was mentioned in legends and literatures, and similar to the path of Cultivation. Every major breakthrough would be accompanied by illusions, whether they were of women, killings, pleasure, or freedom.
Zheng was experiencing that utmost freedom. Freed of all boundaries and omnipotent.
Perhaps when a mortal ascended from the peak of the fourth stage to the energy manipulation of the fifth stage, the chain effect generated by the rebound of energy was what a Heavenly Tribulation was.
Zheng only pondered up to this point. He had even given up his body control in this freedom. It felt as though all he wanted was freedom. Fortunately, the consciousness that governed his body seemed like one born for combat and killing. Its combat intuition was much stronger than his. Every movement and every genetic adjustment brought forth immense power. His body had killed over a thousand high level robots and yet, it hadn’t even entered Explosion. This power was way beyond what Zheng possessed.
However, if this were to continue, he didn’t know how much longer would his consciousness persist. It might merge into nature and then disappear… just like his clone.
The bat wings spread open as countless bullets blasted him in the air. Red flames rose from the wings just like the ability he exchanged, although in a deeper color and more concentrated. If this color were a little deeper and concentrated, it would become dark red, or even black. The flame enveloped around the dargonshard barrier. The seemingly intense explosions did not cause any damage to him, although people were not able to see it from outside.
Back to Xuan who disappeared in front of Gando after he pressed his glasses. His speed exceeded the visual detection from the Valkyrie’s system. It was on par with Zheng’s Soru. Gando was shocked for a moment because it was impossible for Xuan to possess such power.
Xuan was over fifty meters away on the boarder of the open space the next second. Even the robots were not able to catch his movements. He flicked his hands then two Gauss pistols appeared in his palms. The pistols glowed as he crossed the pistols in front. A peculiar wave enveloped his whole person.
Several heavily armored robots carrying large barreled cannons were the first to notice Xuan. They quickly turned around and aimed their cannons toward Xuan’s direction.
Once Xuan crossed his arms, he sprinted forward. The pistols fired at every direction without him looking. His hands moved so fast that they seemed to leave behind a trail of afterimages. Clanking sounds came from the robots without rhythm. The front most one suddenly felt its legs trembled. The legs started to break apart from the joints. The break down moved to its hip, arms, head and chest. Needle sized holes filled its body. And then it exploded.
The other robots near Xuan fell in the same fate. They did not even get to fire their weapons. As Xuan ran past the robots, they were all pierced with countless needles then exploded. He approached a hundred meters to the AllSpark in just a few seconds.
“Stop him! Thundercracker!” Megatron roared from next to the AllSpark. Xuan was still far away but it was only a matter of minutes if he were to continue at this pace. The power of his pistols struck fear into Megatron. The robot that had been destroyed by them so far did not possess phase shift armor but if such power hit the AllSpark, the outcome was destructive.
A huge multi-barreled tank turned around. Its armor was vibrant, obvious to the eye that it possessed the phase shift armor. The shots through its barrels were not physical bullets but energy beams.
Xuan was surrounded by robots. Endless bullets were firing at him. The path that he ran past was filled with craters from the explosions which never paused for even an instant. The physical shells, energy bullets, anti-tank missiles, and now the energy beams cut off all possible paths of escape. The tiny amount of energy within the dragonshard had no way of defending them.
Under the vision of all the robots, Xuan jumped before the energy beams hit. He stepped onto the beams, causing waves of ripples. Yet, there was no explosion. Xuan leaped again from the energy beams as if they were physical objects. He dived into a group of robots. Gun-kata using the Gauss pistols shredded these robots in one round.
“No! Impossible!” Megatron and over a dozen robots possessing phase shift armors cried. Their scientific knowledge could not explain this phenomenon that broke the laws of physics. A physical object did not melt or cause any explosion when it stepped on energy.
(I can leap through!) Xuan activated the hypnotizing device when he pressed on his glasses. Its effect did not reach his expectation but it could still allowed him to enter a hypnotized state for five minutes. The hypnosis was confidence, unparalleled confidence! The belief that he could overcome any difficulty in front of him.
Xuan could only come up with a hypothesis behind the theory that operated Lambda Driver. The process and application impossible to realize. But that was enough. When this belief pierced through the law of cause and effect, it could definitely achieve the outcome!
(I can make the jump!) Xuan jumped over twenty meters high, beyond what his body would have allowed. He aimed the pistols at Thundercracker, who also turned its barrels at him.
(I can pierce through it!) The two parties fired their weapons simultaneous. The needle bullets collided with the energy beam. A rainbow of colors burst from the point of collision. There was a peculiar field covering the the needle bullets. Time felt as though it slowed to a halt. All the robots turned their vision to the center of the collision. The needle bullets pushed through the energy beam bit by bit. As the energy beam scattered, the needles hit the main body of the tank.
The needles ignited sparks on the vibrant phase shift armor, but that was only the beginning. They then drilled through the armor and pierced into the tank. Thundercracker exploded the same time Xuan landed on the floor.