Chapter 578 - 242: Earth-Shattering Punch, Stage 4

THUMP! THUMP!

The mechanical heart, silent for who knows how many centuries, let out its first powerful beat after merging with the Ark Fire Seed Source.

It was like the pounding of a war drum, heralding the birth of a new god.

Or perhaps, the awakening of a peerless, malevolent demon.

VMMMM—

Outside the massive porthole, the colossal structure built over the planet’s core, long dormant, reignited at this very moment!

Countless thick pipes lit up once more with an eerie blue light, like a forest of greedy straws, frantically draining the last of the dwarf planet’s core energy!

At the same time, throughout the entire Earth Core Space, the tens of thousands of soldiers from the Intelligent Mechanism Race army that had surrounded Qin Feng and the others suddenly froze.

One after another, the light in their eyes dimmed rapidly, like candles being snuffed out.

Their internal core energy, along with all the data that defined them as independent individuals, was forcibly extracted in an instant by a supreme authority. It transformed into a torrent of the purest energy, surging across space toward the one and only king!

Not even the dozen or so omni-functional combat units, which radiated A-class fluctuations, were spared.

Their smooth metal bodies trembled violently, letting out unwilling cries of grief, but they could only watch helplessly as the power within them was ruthlessly plundered, ultimately turning them into piles of soulless scrap metal.

Endless energy converged upon Noah!

His form swelled once more in mid-air as silvery-white liquid metal and newly-formed flesh and blood frantically proliferated, intertwining and finally reconstructing themselves!

His handsome features were twisted and distorted. Beneath his fair skin, menacing black bone spurs bulged outward.

Four metallic bone wings, like those of a demon, extended from his back. The edge of each wing-bone shimmered with an ominous light capable of slicing through space itself.

His height finally settled at around three meters, his body covered in a strange, dark purple armor that seemed to contain the birth and death of stars.

And in the center of his open chest, the newborn black mechanical heart was perfectly embedded with the constantly shifting Fire Seed Source cube. With every breath he took, it unleashed an earth-shattering pulse of energy.

It was bizarre, menacing, and possessed an ominous beauty, like a desecration of the divine.

Noah slowly raised his head. His once-azure eyes were now replaced by a torrential flow of crimson data. He looked at Lin Ye, who was hovering not far away, and a cruel arc formed on his lips as he uttered two words.

"You fool."

His gaze was filled with the taunting pity of a cat playing with a mouse. "Allowing me to become the complete Sigma Will... will be the final, most regrettable oversight of your life."

The moment his voice fell, a faintly lazy, yet crystal-clear female voice echoed without warning in the vast, empty Earth Core Space.

"Are you trying to train with weights on?"

The voice wasn’t loud, but it seemed to possess a strange, piercing quality that made both Noah and Lin Ye involuntarily turn to look.

Not far away, a slender figure was now standing silently in mid-air, her arms crossed over her chest. The hem of her black combat suit fluttered gently in the aftershocks of the energy bursts.

Behind her, a spatial ripple that had not yet fully closed was slowly dissipating.

The newcomer was none other than Yin Liulan.

And what she was talking about, of course, was the fact that Lin Ye had stood by and watched Noah complete his ultimate, supreme evolution.

The smile on Noah’s face instantly faded a little.

In his crimson eyes, data streams flickered wildly at an unprecedented speed as he ran a threat assessment.

The energy signature of the human woman before him actually made his perfect body—a fusion of the entire ruin’s power—feel a strong sense of dread!

"Mr. Yin!"

Below, Qin Feng and the others, who had been trapped in a desperate situation, had looks of ecstatic relief wash over their faces the moment they saw the figure.

It was the thrill of seeing a savior suddenly appear in the deepest darkness and despair!

In their hearts, as long as Yin Liulan was here, no matter how catastrophic the situation, it could definitely be brought under control!

"I guess you could say that."

Lin Ye replied calmly to Yin Liulan’s teasing remark.

A playful smile touched the corners of Yin Liulan’s lips. She kept her arms crossed, showing no intention of intervening, looking more like an intrigued spectator.

"Well then, try not to crash and burn."

"This thing... although it hasn’t reached the true Celestial Human Realm, it has one foot in the door."

"Ten cultivators at Divine Realm Perfection combined wouldn’t be enough for him to kill. Even a newly ascended early-stage Celestial Human would have a tough time taking him down without paying a price."

Above the Divine, yet not quite Celestial!

With a single sentence, Yin Liulan had assessed Noah’s current power level.

"Arrogant!" Noah scoffed, his crimson gaze sweeping between Yin Liulan and Lin Ye. "Your so-called human realm divisions are worthless before the supreme evolution of my race!"

"I’ll kill him first, then I’ll deal with you!"

The instant the words left his mouth, Noah’s figure vanished from his spot!

This time, his speed had reached its absolute limit.

So fast that even Lin Ye’s dynamic vision could barely catch an afterimage!

A terrifying fist wind, powerful enough to tear a soul apart, was already rushing toward him, aimed straight for his head!

Faced with this punch, Lin Ye didn’t even have the slightest thought of blocking it.

The moment the fist was about to make contact, his figure became illusory.

[Phase Shift]!

Noah’s punch, powerful enough to shatter mountains, passed through Lin Ye’s illusory form without any resistance.

BOOM—!!!

Several kilometers behind Lin Ye, a section of the Earth Core’s rock strata exploded as if it had been hit head-on by a mini-nuke!