"Greater demon?" Princess Nankang murmured, "What exactly are you..."
"Human, I suppose," the other party casually replied.
"Human?" Princess Nankang sneered.
"Yes, new humans," the figure's silhouette elongated into countless lines in the air, as if light were being distorted, making it impossible to pinpoint its exact location.
"Although you contemptuously call us demons, but..."
"...we consider ourselves more suited to represent the future of humanity than you weak, primitive individuals who rely on external things."
"Are you planning to take over our territory and expel us from the human race?" Princess Nankang shifted her gaze.
She suddenly leaped, soaring over ten meters high.
A massive invisible blade swept swiftly beneath her, completely pulverizing all obstacles in her path - ruins, debris, and car wrecks - into dust or cracking them into dense cracks.
"Psychic impact?" She grabbed the exposed steel bars on the third floor, then gracefully turned around and landed on the cross-section of concrete, stopping steadily. "Telekinesis? Or manipulating airflow?"
"Neither, actually." The voice from the other side was elusive, its distance uncertain. "Do you think I would explain the principles of my moves to you like a character in an anime?"
"Oh, so demons still watch anime?" Princess Nankang suddenly had two firearms in her hands, spraying bullets ahead, making dust fly in the air.
"Of course I watch," the other party said, then suddenly she was hit by several shots.
The kicked-up dust clung to her body, dispelling her concealment spell, and Princess Nankang's bullets took the opportunity to hit her.
"Does it hurt?" Princess Nankang smiled charmingly, her twin guns still firing wildly as the bullets surged towards the direction where the dust was swirling, like a venomous snake tightly biting its prey. "It seems even greater demons bleed."
"Not only does it bleed," the other party replied, "it's even better at making other people bleed."
Immediately after saying that, in the tightly contracted pupils of Princess Nankang, her right arm was suddenly thrown straight out.
Instead of any blood flowing from the wound, it exposed steel-like cutting cracks and intense electric sparks, looking exceptionally sinister.
With the firearm in her right arm lost, her firepower immediately halved, giving the other party the opportunity to escape from the dusty space and disappear without a trace.
The demon's voice still echoed around, unable to discern the direction,"Turning the body into machinery to compensate for one's own weaknesses... But then, what's the difference between you and robots?"
"Stubbornness leads to stagnation." Princess Nankang extended her left hand, pressing down on her right shoulder. With a forceful pinch, she violently closed the mechanical gap on her shoulder. "Humans have feet to walk, but cars are faster; they have hands to move, but tools are more convenient. Temporarily using them instead of flesh, does that not still count as being human?"
"The gentleman is not different from others; he uses what is good. This should be a saying from Xunzi." The other party sneered, "But don't you also say that the body is inherited from one's parents and should not be harmed? Destroying one's own limbs and replacing them with cumbersome machinery, can this also be considered as using 'what is good'?"
"There are spare cloned limbs that can be replaced," Princess Nankang replied. "It's you who can't turn back to being human after becoming demons, right? If we're not mistaken, you can't reproduce either, can you?"
"It's meaningless for our clan to reproduce." As if hitting a sore spot, the tone of the other party instantly cooled down by a hundred and eighty degrees. "Only short-lived species would consider the boring notion of self-replication..."
As the words trailed off, Princess Nankang suddenly rushed out from the third floor again!
She suddenly soared high into the air, with steel gliding wings popping out behind her shoulder blades. Jets inside the wings quickly expelled gas, propelling her speed to around 60 miles per hour, shooting her up nearly a hundred meters into the sky. A complex cubic device with intricate wiring emerged from her left arm, with a dark barrel inside.
Subsequently, numerous micro-missiles rushed out from the device, trailing white smoke as they surged toward the ground below. This was followed by a series of massive explosions, sending shockwaves cascading in all directions. Buildings within a radius of nearly a hundred meters were flattened like toy blocks, instantly leveled by the shockwaves, with countless fragments of steel and concrete raining down like debris.
A figure dashed out from the thick smoke in a panic, its silhouette still blurry and unclear, but seemingly injured.
Princess Nankang continued to glide through the air, swiftly passing through the falling debris of buildings. She grabbed a broken steel bar and, with the momentum of her dive, hurled it towards the figure's back!
Suddenly, a hot red light flashed from a distance, forcing her to urgently ascend to avoid being hit. With just half a second to spare, she adjusted her posture and redirected her gaze downward once again.
There was no one in sight, only the steel rods she had previously thrown, half deeply embedded into the ground. The other half of the steel rod rolled onto the ground nearby, with melted golden-red traces at the cut.
Some kind of high-temperature witchcraft... Princess Nankang landed on the ground, pulled out the steel rod, scanned the incision, and silently stored the information in the database.
Let's take it back for testing.
She gazed down the street, her expression somber and solemn.
The demon, even if it's considered a high-level demon, still falls into the category of 'glass cannon' with high attack but low defense. If we can seize the opportunity to kill it and then bring its body back, that would be ideal.
Perhaps the mystery of the undying demon will soon be unraveled through research.
Forget it.
After driving away this greater demon, the siege of Changzhou Town by the puppet army will temporarily cease, which can be considered as indirectly achieving the goal.
Let's first report to Father Emperor and take a look at the situation of Jinyang on the way back.
.......
Cheng family estate, Tingyu Pavilion
"Are you two going to join Tianluo as partners?" Wang Wanrou asked as she thought for a moment.
"Will there be any problems?" Cheng Jinyang humbly asked for advice.
"It's like this," Miss Wang sighed, "You see, Tianluo's operations are mainly military fieldwork, including raids, sabotage, and assassinations. So, if you encounter any problems during a mission, my extraordinary wisdom won't be able to help you."
The two remained silent.
"It is said that although we can join Tianluo, we are currently only at the ninth grade and are not qualified to be involved in formal combat," Xing Yuanzhi corrected, "Basically, it's just odd jobs, such as negotiating with employers or informants, or standing guard on the sidelines during senior battles. So even if you can't accompany us, you can still communicate through the phone."
"That won't work either," Wang Wanrou shook her head.
"Why?" Cheng Jinyang asked, puzzled.
"Because during phone calls, you can't see my face," Wang Wanrou said matter-of-factly, "and my beauty and intelligence are inseparable."
"Do you understand what she's saying, Yuanzhi?" Cheng Jinyang asked, turning his head.
"She's too lazy to make phone calls," Xing Yuanzhi sighed.
"Then how about a video call?" Cheng Jinyang suggested.
"No, video calls won't work," Wang Wanrou shook her head, "No matter how high the video resolution is, it can't fully showcase my beauty. Video calls are an insult to my looks."
"That's okay," Cheng Jinyang joked, "I'm face-blind, I can't tell beauty from ugliness. Even if you were photographed with a 30-billion-pixel camera, it would look the same to me as a 360P resolution."
"Since that's the case, having Xing Yuanzhi give you advice would be no different from me personally guiding you!" Wang Wanrou exclaimed angrily.
Xing Yuanzhi: ???