Chapter 52: The Modified

Chapter 52: The Modified

Even inside the starship, with high-firepower weapons at his disposal, Jera felt a chill running down his spine as he faced the towering figure of the exotic.

"Who is this guy, and where did he come from?"

Jera hadn't expected that ANKEN would have other accomplices, and that they would be so strong.

He was so close to bringing ANKEN under his control, but then this wild card showed up.

Seeing that almost all of the people of Luo Ri had lost their fighting ability, and ANKEN was barely standing, his face as white as a sheet, Jera didn’t want to give up just like that.

Capturing ANKEN would be far more valuable than stealing Simon's cargo.

Besides, he had already made an enemy out of ANKEN. If he couldn't subdue ANKEN, he would die.

So… either he got ANKEN, or he would end ANKEN.

Jera had no other choice.

Stay calm, keep your head.

The exotic in front of him, though strong, was still just one individual.

ANKEN was already at the end of his rope, and he still had a good chance to make ANKEN submit to him.

"This is all your fault, ANKEN."

Jera pressed a button.

The cargo door of the starship opened, and two cocoon-like survival pods were deployed.

These were trophies Jera had obtained from an abandoned laboratory, marked with an S-level danger rating.

Jera had seen the experimental videos of these trophies and knew how dangerous they were, which was why he had never released them before.

But today, he was going to use this ultimate weapon.

It was either submission or death between him and ANKEN.

Hilmeth reacted quickly, striking the survival pods as they were launched from the starship. The pods exploded, but the creatures inside emerged unharmed.

They opened their eyes.

They were 2.5 meters tall, their bodies covered in hard black scales.

Their legs ended in bird-like talons, one arm was mechanical, while the other was the clawed forelimb of a raptor star beast.

They dragged a lizard-like tail half the height of a human behind them, which occasionally slapped the ground, making a series of sounds.

These humanoid creatures had only one human-like eye; the other was a mechanical prosthetic.

These were the modified humans—war machines forged from human and alien DNA.

These beings were bred through a brutal process of genetic selection, where only the strongest survived.

The Canglan Star Region had once considered deploying these modified humans on the battlefield, but their lack of consciousness and unpredictable behavior made them too dangerous to control, always on the verge of turning on each other.

Fifteen years ago, this inhumane experiment was shut down, all researchers were dismissed and imprisoned, and the test subjects were destroyed.

Unexpectedly, there was still one that slipped through the net at the border of the Canglan Star Region.

Inside the starship, Jera's face contorted with rage. "ANKEN, you have no way out."

As soon as the modified humans appeared, Hilmeth wanted to rush to Cang Cheng's side.

These modified humans, who combined the ultimate combat genes of all races, were even a challenge for Hilmeth.

However, Jera controlled the starship to launch homing missiles and activate the beam cannons on the left and right wings, blocking Hilmeth's path.

Even as an S+ grade Spirit Warrior, Hilmeth struggled against the starship's firepower.

Hilmeth moved with urgency, his dark form darting through the air to evade the relentless attacks.

The starry blue wings behind him transformed into winged beam cannons, which Hilmeth directed to systematically dismantle the starship's defenses.

For a moment, it was hard to determine the winner between them.

Hilmeth's expression was cold.

He drew the dual guns equipped on his armor and aimed at the starship's main cannon.

With a few booms, the most destructive main cannon of the starship was destroyed.

The starship's threat was greatly reduced.

At this moment, Hilmeth had to juggle controlling the trajectories of the 12 winged beam cannons while manually aiming his dual guns.

But Hilmeth was not panicked at all; he controlled all the weapons in an orderly manner.

"Since you won't let me pass, then I'll destroy all your weapons."

Once the starship's weapons and thrusters were destroyed, it would be nothing more than a hunk of scrap.

He intended to completely eliminate this threat.

With that thought, Hilmeth stood in the air, continuously pulling the trigger.

On the other side, due to the sonic boom attack, Cang Cheng was still in a state of chaos, dazed and unsteady, feeling extremely uncomfortable.

But Cang Cheng knew that he couldn't fall down at this point; the people who came to support him and Luo Ri were waiting for him to protect them.

He bit his lip to stay clear-headed for a moment.

Magic gathered at his fingertips, and a Blade of Wind sliced across Cang Cheng's wrist.

Blood flowed, and the intense pain helped Cang Cheng stay alert.

His pure black eyes snapped back to clarity.

"Roar!"

The awakened modified human roared and charged at Cang Cheng, its massive form moving with terrifying speed.

They moved with incredible speed, nearly matching Hilmeth's, making it impossible for Cang Cheng to follow them with his eyes.

Cang Cheng skillfully drew the Wind Wing rune, and wings made of wind began to form behind him.

He soared into the air as the two modified humans collided head-on.

They let out a series of furious roars, clearly enraged by each other's presence.

“Roar!”

“Ha!”

“Roar roar!”

“Ha-oo-ha!”

……

Seizing this opportunity, Cang Cheng began drawing Spirit Runes.

His left hand formed the Earth's Fury, and his right hand formed the Water Runes.

With a light touch on the final stroke, both Spirit Runes were completed in unison.

In an instant, the ground shook violently, and a towering wall of water, nearly ten meters high, erupted from the air.

The miracle of nature was accomplished in the blink of an eye.

The ground beneath the modified humans crumbled, forming a massive pit that trapped them both.

The water followed closely, instantly filling the pit.

However, this was not the end.

Cang Cheng continued to manipulate his magic, causing the water and earth to mix together, forming a thick, sticky mud bog that was nearly impossible to escape from.

This was the result of his water-earth magic.

Cang Cheng did not stop his assault. His right hand continued to draw Spirit Runes.

A brilliant blue light flickered, and a chilling frost began to gather, causing the temperature to plummet.

The moisture in the air froze into shards of ice, which fell onto the mud and instantly blossomed into delicate, crystal-clear ice flowers.

The ice flowers spread rapidly, and with a series of sharp cracks, the surface of the mud began to freeze over.

This was a water-based spell, “Freeze.”

After using three Grade B Spirit Runes, Cang Cheng felt a significant drain on his magical energy.

He lowered his gaze to observe the frozen earth, not relaxing for a moment.

Cang Cheng intended to trap the two modified humans with the combination of the mud and freezing.

However, the effect… did not seem to be very good.

With the ice cracking and the mud bubbling, two figures exploded out of the bog, rocketing into the sky.

“Roar!”

“Ha!”

The modified humans were gathering energy cloaks around their bodies, which isolated them from the mud swamp environment, their movements remaining completely unaffected.

The frozen mud swamp created by Cang Cheng was easily neutralized by the modified humans.

The modified humans stood in the air, defying gravity with ease.

This was an advanced technique of an A-grade Spirit Warrior, levitation.

Unexpectedly, the modified humans could do it too.

After the two modified humans exchanged roars, they suddenly targeted Cang Cheng, their eyes focused and filled with destructive intent.

With a roar, the two figures lunged at Cang Cheng, their sharp claws poised to tear through his flesh.

When the claws pierced Cang Cheng's body, it turned into water, and with a 'shua,' the water exploded outward.

The modified humans, splashed with water on their faces, looked at their claws in confusion.

They were confused, trying to figure out how the person had vanished so quickly.

After that, the two modified humans started fighting each other again.

"Roar!"

"Ha!"

"Roar!"

"Cough, cough..."

Cang Cheng, having successfully deceived the modified humans with his Water Transformation, coughed softly.

The lingering effects of the soundwave attack, along with his bleeding arm and the high magic output combat style, left Cang Cheng in a very bad condition.

Although the Energy Gathering Rune was replenishing his magic, the output far exceeded the supply.

The consecutive victories in the arena had led Cang Cheng to believe that his strength was quite good, but only today, facing off against A-grade and above combatants, did he realize how far behind he truly was.

He realized he had severely underestimated the combat strength of the Canglan Star Region.

Cang Cheng didn't have time to reflect on himself.

He continued to draw Spirit Runes with both hands.

One hand drew the Fireball rune, while the other drew the Water Flow rune.

A red fireball and clear flowing water gathered around the two modified humans.

The red and blue elements danced together, creating a mesmerizing display of contrasting forces.

When the two elements clashed, a sizzling sound filled the air, and scalding hot steam instantly billowed up, enveloping the area in a thick, burning mist.

Cang Cheng then condensed a Wind Wall rune and threw out the Wind Wall Darts.

Amidst the 'ding ding dong dong' sounds, the Wind Wall Darts struck the modified humans.

In the virtual world, this could cause damage to the exoskeleton, but on the modified humans, it only left a few minor scratches.

However, the Wall of Wind was not Cang Cheng's primary attack.

The scalding steam blew straight into the modified humans' faces. Their bodies were covered in hard scales, with their eyes as the sole weak point!

The searing steam made contact with their eyes, causing the two modified humans to let out agonized screams.

“Raaah…… Raaah!!!”

They clawed at their eyes in pain, their hard nails scraping against the scales on their faces, producing an ear-piercing sound.

The modified humans clutched their faces and wept, unable to react for a moment.

Finally, this magic had some effect.

Cang Cheng breathed a sigh of relief inwardly.

It was a good thing he enjoyed studying the application of fused elements; otherwise, relying solely on simple elements wouldn't have been enough to handle these modified humans.

Then, Cang Cheng sent a mental message: [Mo!]

The next moment, a reassuring shadow rushed over. He charged directly at the modified humans, followed by a line of homing missiles and starship attacks!

Just as the starship attack was about to hit Hilmeth, he instantly teleported 90 degrees downward.

The homing attacks couldn't adjust their direction in time, and all hit the two modified humans with an explosive 'boom.'

The blast sent gusts of air outward, causing flying sand and colliding stones to make a rattling sound.

Hilmeth held Cang Cheng in his arms, one hand protecting the back of Cang Cheng's head, using his own body to shield Cang Cheng from the aftershock of the explosion.

Once the shockwave cleared, Hilmeth released Cang Cheng and stood guard beside him.

His gaze fell on Cang Cheng's arm, which was already stained with blood. Under the damaged clothes, the vicious wounds continued to ooze.

Hilmeth winced with concern.

“Are you alright? Cang Cheng.”

Cang Cheng wanted to stand on his own, but due to excessive magic consumption and physical discomfort, his vision darkened, and he collapsed against Hilmeth.

He weakly shook his head, indicating he was fine.

Too weak to speak, he communicated telepathically.

Cang Cheng: [I’m okay, thanks to you showing up. Otherwise, these two were quite difficult to handle.]

Hilmeth tightened his arm around Cang Cheng: [I'm here.]

A few minutes earlier, when Cang Cheng realized he couldn't handle the two modified humans, he communicated with Hilmeth, asking him to lead the starship attack here, using their own weapons against them.

This led to the starship attack bombarding the modified humans.

Without Hilmeth, Cang Cheng would likely have had to shed more blood and call upon the Gate of Truth once more.

As the smoke from the explosion cleared, both modified humans lay on the ground.

One of them was missing half his body, his breathing shallow and labored as he clung to life.

The other modified human had large areas of scales peeled off, revealing human skin that was pale in contrast. He lay on his back, coughing blood from the corner of his mouth, a black eye flickering between focus and haze.

The starship's artillery fire couldn't even destroy these two modified humans.

What kind of monsters is the Canglan Star Region producing?

"I'll deal with the starship, first."

Seeing that the modified humans were temporarily out of commission, Hilmeth shifted his attention back to the starship.

The once majestic steel behemoth was now riddled with holes, most of its weapons already destroyed by Hilmeth.

Once those remaining cannons were destroyed, the starship would be neutralized.

No way was he going to let that starship threaten Cang Cheng.

With that thought, Hilmeth aimed his artillery at the starship once again.

Originally, 12 energy wings transformed into beam cannons. 4 sets had been destroyed, leaving 8 remaining—but that was enough.

They blocked the incoming fire, giving Hilmeth a moment of respite.

Flames flickered behind him, and the swirling air currents tousled his black hair.

The flames spread.

Hilmeth dashed forward and stood on the hull of the starship amidst a barrage of gunfire.

He drew his dual guns, aimed at a cannon, and fired.

With a deafening explosion, the cannon was obliterated.

Hilmeth moved to another gun port and continued firing.

Only after the dual guns' energy was completely depleted did he stop dismantling the starship's weapons.

In just two seconds, Hilmeth tore apart the guns, using their remains as igniters, and shoved them into another gun port.

The energy at the gun port reacted violently upon contact with the gun fragments, and another explosion erupted, destroying yet another gun port on the left side.

With the dual guns' energy depleted, Hilmeth switched to a rifle.

Once the rifle's energy ran out, Hilmeth drew his lightsaber.

When the lightsaber's glow faded, Hilmeth ripped the weapon port apart with his bare hands. His sharp, black nails snapped and regrew, but he felt no pain.

The temporary armor Hilmeth wore rivaled the strength of old mechs and even approached the durability of an exoskeleton.

But even this wasn't enough to take on the massive starship.

The wing-mounted beam cannons were decimated by the relentless barrage, leaving only two intact.

Boom! A white beam slammed into one of the remaining beam cannons, obliterating it.

A shard of debris slashed across Hilmeth's cheek, leaving a bloody gash, but he had no time to tend to it.

He panted softly, glancing down at his left hand. It was covered in wounds and bleeding nonstop, but that wasn't important. What mattered was that part of his hand had turned transparent.

Time was running out.

He needed to remove all obstacles for Cang Cheng within the limited time.

*

Jera frantically pressed the attack buttons in the control room.

That alien was like a fly, impossible to blast away no matter how many times he tried. It was driving him insane.

"Die! Die!"

Jera pressed the main cannon attack button.

The starship system coldly prompted: "Main cannon damaged, unable to attack."

"Damn it! Damn it!"

"Starboard tracking missiles 6 through 11 are damaged."

"Starboard plasma energy cannons 3 and 4 are damaged."

"Ventral energy cannon damaged."

"Right engine damaged, kinetic energy loop compromised..."

The relentless alerts and the flashing red warning lights in the control room were driving Jera into a frenzy.

"Where is ANKEN?! Has ANKEN been taken out by those two modified humans?!"

"Confirmed registered individual ANKEN, vital signs stable.

Confirmed registered individuals modified human 1 and 2, vital signs weak, near death."

"Damn it! Those S-rank modified humans can't even take down a weak Spirit Rune Master?!"

Jera slammed his fist on the screen.

He had been sure the modified humans would finish off ANKEN. Who would have thought they’d end up on the brink of death?

"Port tracking missiles 1~8 are damaged."

"All port side cannons are damaged."

……

"Shut up!!"

"AI0159, switch to silent mode."

The starship's energy was running low, and the damage was extensive. It was currently impossible to take off and escape.

If this kept up, the starship could be completely dismantled by this alien. Without the starship, Jera knew he would be finished.

So… while there’s still power, I’ll take out ANKEN and this damn alien once and for all.

"Prepare the outer armor detachment for Main Cannon 1, charge simultaneously, and target ANKEN for continuous fire!"

This starship's main cannon had been modified to a certain extent.

The dual-cannon design allowed the starship to have a comeback even if the main cannon was destroyed.

Jera knew no one would suspect his starship had a second main cannon.

ANKEN was finished!

*

Cang Cheng leaned on a stone to recover his spirit.

His vision blurred and went dark for a moment before gradually clearing up.

He watched Hilmeth charge into the starship's barrage, his black figure flashing past, followed by an even larger explosion.

His eyesight wasn't great, so he couldn't clearly see what was happening over there, only thick smoke rising continuously.

Maybe he should’ve gotten those high-tech AI lenses like Ming Bai.

That way, he could at least get a good look at Mo's movements.

He might also want to learn how to use Canglan Star Region's high-tech products, so that even if he couldn't gather enough magic to form Spirit Runes, he wouldn't be at a disadvantage.

Cang Cheng thought, his mind wandering.

Ever since he arrived at the Canglan Star Region, everything had been going smoothly, whether it was the Spirit Runes or the development in Luo Ri Star. But today's encounter had dealt him a heavy blow.

His strength was still far from enough.

If it weren't for Mo, he would have been seriously hurt—maybe even worse.

Thinking of Mo, Cang Cheng felt a sudden unease.

He pressed his hand to his chest, feeling a strange emptiness, like something had been pulled out of him.

Cang Cheng tilted his head, confusion etched on his face.

Was Mo in some kind of danger?

Just as Cang Cheng was about to get up and check on Mo, a beam of light pierced the sky, heading straight for him.

It was the starship's Main Cannon attack!

Cang Cheng immediately activated the Wind Wing Rune.

However, the Main Cannon's attack range was vast, and Cang Cheng's Wind Wing Rune wasn't fast enough.

The beam hit the ground, and Cang Cheng, who had only flown a few meters high, was grazed by the edge of the Main Cannon.

He plummeted from the sky like a bird struck down, crashing to the ground.

His back was torn and bleeding, the skin and flesh mangled from the impact.

Cang Cheng barely had time to register his pain before the second Main Cannon attack was already incoming.

He endured the pain and drew the Spirit Runes.

The first to take effect was Earth's Fury, generating instantaneously 5-meter-tall earthen walls, which created a defensive barrier protecting the severely injured Cang Cheng.

The Main Cannon made contact with the earthen walls.

In less than a second, the walls were reduced to powder.

The earthen walls crumbled under the impact. They couldn’t stop the Main Cannon's attack, but they did manage to weaken its force slightly.

Cang Cheng continued to draw another rune.

The Sealing Rune took effect!

A field of energy nullification was generated with Cang Cheng at the center. As soon as the white energy beam entered this space, its energy was absorbed and disintegrated.

Under the effect of the Sealing Rune, the main cannon's energy beam shrank but did not completely disappear.

Cang Cheng continued to draw the third Spirit Rune. A fiery red color suddenly lit up the air in front of him.

Fireball Chain!

Cang Cheng countered the cannon's blast with an explosion of his own, mitigating its force.

The main cannon's attack was indeed intercepted, but the massive recoil from the collision of energies burst into flames just a few meters away from him.

Cang Cheng barely had time to summon a Wind Wall rune to shield himself from the damage.

The recoil of the main cannon and the impact of the explosion sent Cang Cheng flying back several meters, leaving sporadic traces of blood along the way.

He was gasping for air, coughing uncontrollably. The explosion's blinding light left him momentarily sightless, and his ears rang, unable to hear anything.

Every part of his battered body screamed in pain, with his ribs and legs likely shattered.

He was severely injured.

But Cang Cheng knew he couldn't stay still. He had to move.

Because in the midst of the previous explosion, he had seen the third cannon shot forming.

The intense heat was rapidly approaching. Cang Cheng could feel the heatwave coming towards him.

At that moment, unable to see or hear anything, Cang Cheng could only rely on his instincts to once again gather Earth's Fury.

Is this how it ends?

Would he be torn apart into nothingness?

Would he be blasted back to the Siaxi Continent?

As the heat closed in and the blinding white light threatened to consume him, Cang Cheng's mind wandered.

In the next instant, a blinding, apocalyptic white light descended upon him.

A dark figure swooped down and enveloped Cang Cheng in a protective embrace.

He whispered, "It's okay, I'm here." But in that moment, Cang Cheng heard nothing.