Chapter 82

Chapter 82

There were no superfluous, meaningless exchanges.

In the next instant, both human and insectoid charged, colliding with one another.

Psychic energy wrapped around him as a shield, yet Lin Fu still felt his arms go numb from the impact.

His black eyes grew even darker.

The insectoid's advantages were always evident in combat.

Strike and withdraw—after coming to his conclusion, the long blade shifted direction, held horizontally in front of him.

It was still a Tang sword, identical in make to the one used by his mech.

The difference lay in its refinement; the black blade was etched with intricate, dark golden patterns that glowed and seemed to move like a living entity as the blade shifted.

Mo Xie's gaze was fixated on the Tang sword in Lin Fu's hand, eyes filled with greed.

This time, his expression was devoid of any awkward imitation or strangeness; the greed was vivid on his face, vividly revealing the desires of his heart.

Lin Fu sneered, "You want it?"

Mole Xie made no attempt to conceal it: "The power you possess now, this blade must have been of great assistance, right? Human weapons are indeed fascinating."

Lin Fu refrained from responding, opting instead to let Mo Xie experience firsthand the wonder of human weapons.

At a certain speed, the sound of the wind being split arrives belatedly.

The blade struck Mole Xie’s skin, emitting a metallic clang that was painfully piercing to the ears.

Mo Xie's complexion shifted dramatically. His reaction was swift, raising his hand to shield himself the moment Lin Fu launched his attack.

However, his overconfidence in his own resilience led to a half-inch-long gash from Lin Fu's first strike.

The wound was shallow, oozing a trace of green blood which clotted into a scab within seconds. Perhaps in a few minutes, the wound would heal without even a scar left behind.

Lin Fu was not one to let an opportunity slip by.

Seeing Mole Xie taken aback, revealing a flaw, the Tang sword surged forward, the blade swiftly changing direction for a downward slash!

Mole Xie retreated over ten meters, but Lin Fu pursued relentlessly, the Tang sword in his hand shifting direction again, lunging towards its neck, aiming to sever its head.

The Insect race was evidently not proficient with humanoid bodies. It tilted its head to dodge, its entire body leaning backward, exposing its vulnerabilities. At that moment, Lin Fu’s blade took a steep turn, ruthlessly cleaving off half of the creature’s shoulder! Thick green blood spurted out, drenching both human and insect alike.

Having landed a successful strike, Lin Fu didn't pursue further but swiftly retreated.

The psychic energy wrapped around his body dispersed, shaking off the green blood. He remained in his dark blue military uniform, impeccably clean, presenting a stark contrast to the disheveled state of the insectoid.

The insectoid, previously disguised as human, could no longer conceal its true form. Clutching its wounded shoulder, its throat vibrated with a screech no human could emit.

Its brown-green eyes fixed on Lin Fu, filled with resentment, probably having never experienced such pain and humiliation.

This made it clear that all previous talks of a worthy adversary were nothing but a superficial and clumsy imitation of humanity.

Lin Fu sneered inwardly.

The creeping armor that had initially retreated to clear the battlefield surged from all directions upon hearing their king's screech, chasing after Lin Fu.

As for Moerxie, it stayed behind, clutching its wound, unlikely to approach easily again.

They were trying to wage a war of attrition against Lin Fu.

Frustratingly, Lin Fu is currently least capable of enduring a war of attrition!

He stepped on the segment of a crawling armored creature, leaped into the air, and moved through the living mountains of flesh like a tiny fly.

With each rise and fall, another crawling armored creature thunderously hit the ground.

With his current strength, even without piloting a mech, the crawling armored creatures couldn't pose a threat to him.

Between ascents and descents, he shifted from distancing himself to approaching Morxe.

The opponent, discerning his intentions, sent the crawling armored creatures in a frenzied rush to shield their king, using their bodies as meat shields to slow Lin Fu's advance and drain his stamina.

Morxe stood in the rear, squinting his slender eyes, fixating on Lin Fu as the green in his gaze intensified.

Lin Fu couldn't be held back for long, but this brief span was enough.

By the time they confronted each other again, the shoulder Morxe had lost was regrown; if not for the tear in his clothing and the thick green blood on his body, it would seem as though the wound had never existed.

Lin Fu's gaze shifted from the shoulder and met his opponent's, gripping the knife handle, his complexion even paler than before.

His physical recovery was faster than Morxe's, but the chaos in his mental sea was agonizing, far more severe than any physical strain.

Morxe's mouth split into a bizarrely shaped grin: "It seems General Lin is weaker than before. I wonder why?"

"Can you wound me again, like you just did?"

Lin Fu scoffed coldly: "Why not try and see? At worst, you can hide behind your kin, using them as meat shields; perhaps you won't get hurt then."

Morxe probably didn't expect Lin Fu to be so infuriatingly sharp-tongued. His mouth twitched several times without words, and he could only say: "I am surprised to find General Lin so bitingly articulate."

Lin Fu: "There's plenty more to surprise you!" Before the words were fully out, he was already in close range, the upward-tilted blade tip suddenly vanishing, replaced by a □□ that suddenly protruded.

This □□ had a unique design; the middle was the handle, and the end was another broken-toothed short blade. If not handled properly, it could easily cause self-injury.

His weapon changed so abruptly that Morxe was taken aback again, not expecting to be caught off guard by the same trick twice.

Seeing Lin Fu's attack was unavoidable, its pupils shrunk to the size of needle points, and the iris turned a thick green, as if the blood from within its body surged to fill its eyeballs. One arm stretched forward to block the □□, while the other aimed for Lin Fu's neck, its skin visibly crawling with a brown-grey hue.

Lin Fu's hair stood on end, his gaze fierce, and his attack unaltered. His psychic energy condensed, almost materializing, shielding him upfront.

At the same moment, a pitch-black panther leapt from above, landing behind Morxe, baring its ferocious fangs and viciously biting into its neck!

Moershe instinctively withdrew his hand aimed at Lin Fu, swiping it behind him, the dun-grey color of his skin spreading even faster, almost in the blink of an eye crawling up his face as his body swelled in an instant.

The black panther was slapped aside by this brutal palm, rolling several times on the ground, whining a few times before vanishing.

A mouthful of fresh blood spurted from Lin Fu's mouth as his weapon fiercely pierced through the heart of the insect race. Twisting inside, he used the serrated blade to rend its insides apart, nearly cleaving the creature in two at the chest.

Green blood splattered all over Lin Fu.

The insectoid's eyes bulged, its throat emitted a frantic shriek, and its body grotesquely expanded in an instant into an ugly mountain of flesh. Its limbs pierced through Lin Fu's abdomen and chest.

In its original form, its wounds appeared even more ghastly, the flesh mountain split in half, held together only by a layer of brownish-gray skin.

Green blood gushed like a fountain, almost enough to drown the dark thorny forest. It writhed in agony on the ground, and Lin Fu, caught in the turmoil, was flung to the nearby ground, his mouth and chest incessantly leaking red blood that mixed with the green on the ground.

Propping himself up from the ground, he slowly rose to his knees, his tang sword in hand supporting his weight.

Seeing their king grievously wounded, the surrounding creeping armor attacked Lin Fu in a frenzy, and he could only barely evade.

His wounds healed at a jaw-dropping pace, with flesh sprouting, knitting together, forming muscle and skin at a rate even more terrifying than the insectoids' regenerative abilities.

Yet, blood kept pouring out of his mouth nonstop.

Clutching his mouth, he stumbled and swung his sword to slaughter the wriggling beetles.

Moershe's reverted original form struggled in the distance, its broken wounds futilely sprouting tendrils of flesh in an attempt to connect to other skin and close the gashes.

But after waving aimlessly in the air for a few times, failing to find anything to connect to, they drooped lifelessly, becoming strands of dead flesh.

The sharp and shrill cries from its mouth gradually weakened.

Lin Fu watched intently, ensuring not a spark of life remained in the insect king, before turning and taking slow, deliberate steps towards the periphery of the thorny forest.

There were too many wriggling beetles here, a blanket of them, wailing for their king.

Knowing their king had perished at the hands of a human, they tried to make him join their king in death.

Lin Fu vaguely heard the system in his mind saying something to him, but pain muddled his consciousness, leaving him to rely on instinct to slash at the surrounding insectoids.

Swarming, a dense mass.

From afar, an incessant, unending tide, more numerous than the black thorns within the forest itself.

He swung his blade mechanically, cutting down his foes without even the spare energy to dodge, as more wounds and holes appeared on his body faster than they could heal.

His scarlet blood seemed determined to drain from his body entirely, leaving behind nothing but a shell paler than paper.

Too weak to move forward, his body leaned and he collapsed to the ground. Blood flowed into his eyes from a cut on his forehead, blurring his vision.

He gasped for breath, inhaling the iron-tinged air, his upper body swaying before falling forward.

He collapsed into an embrace.

He faintly heard someone calling him: "Lin Fu!"

The voice was laced with sobs.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say, "Don't cry."

Blood gushed forth instead.

……

Cheng Jiu held Lin Fu, who was drenched in blood, and the redness filled his vision, staining the bottom of his eyes.

He held the person tightly, afraid that even loosening his grip a little would cause him to disappear, "Hold on for a bit, I'll take you back..."

Surrounded by high-level insectoids swarming in all directions, Cheng Jiu carried Lin Fu back into the mech and activated the shielding device. Ignoring the frenzied insectoids, he trembled as he placed Lin Fu into the healing pod he had brought.

The dark blue military uniform was drenched in blood to an almost black hue, tattered and barely recognizable as something someone as distinguished as Lin Fu would wear.

Cheng Jiu had first stepped onto the battlefield at a much younger age than Lin Fu. In all his years at the front, this was the first time he felt such fear, a cold that seeped into his very blood.

His eyes red, he stowed the healing pod and piloted the mech back towards the inner city.

Inside the mech, the communication channel flashed frenetically. Cheng Jiu pressed it, and Milton Su's voice burst through: "General, please provide your current location; we will arrive immediately to assist!"

Above planet S177, the reinforcements of the Ninth Legion had just arrived.

Their commander, breaking away from the group, took the most reckless and costly action of his life, plunging alone into the insect tide in the wasteland, soon overwhelmed.