"Xia Yu, stop them! Don’t let them leap ashore! Eyes of Golden Fla!" Faced with the frenzied creature again, Shangxing shouted, grabbing the neck of the monster rushing beside him. As their eyes t, Shangxing’s large black eyes suddenly began to emit crimson beams, and soon two scorching rays shot out from his eyes into the monster’s eyes.
The creature, usually indifferent to pain, scread miserably this ti, covering its eyes and rolling on the ground. Not long after, its body spontaneously combusted with a bang, and a cloud of black smoke drifted towards Shangxing’s body.
Seeing the monster fall, Shangxing’s eyes returned to their normal state as he slowly closed them. It was clear that even with his current state, he couldn’t execute such attacks continuously. Ignoring the black smoke entering his body, Shangxing turned his head and asked, "Jiumu, how are things on your end?"
There was no response because Ye Jiumu had no ti to reply. He was focused on undoing a section of the protective array around Pei Yan in the thick fog, allowing Zhao Yuanhu to evacuate him quickly.
On another front, despite Xia Yu and Wang Wenze’s best efforts to hold back six creatures, two managed to break through their defense, leaping past them and pouncing forward.
Seeing this, Xia Yu was overwheld with grief and rage, unable to heed the precondition of not killing the creatures, only incapacitating them. With a sharp yell, a flash of light appeared on her fingers, and two massive hamrs, the likes of which are only seen in films, materialized in her hands.
She turned and smashed them down on the creature that dared challenge her. With the enhancent from her awakened ability, the hamrs’ weight doubled. The creature’s arms, raised to block, instantly bent out of shape, and the protective array on its body shattered into luminous shards. The hamr smashed directly onto its grotesque head, splitting it like a thousand blossoming peach blossoms.
Not stopping, Xia Yu swung the hamrs horizontally in a sweeping motion, sending any creature in its path with broken bones and tendons, their muffled grunts echoing as they were flung away. As the hamrs completed their arcs, two wisps of black smoke rose and passed through an inner barrier, surging into her body.
As she tried to swing the hamrs again, the insides of her body churned violently. Without the inner source to support her, her arms holding the hamrs hung limply. Xia Yu, sweating profusely, rested her hand on a hamr’s handle, cursing with bitter regret, "If it weren’t for this black smoke, I’d mop the floor with these monsters all by myself!"
In the blink of an eye, the two remaining creatures had reached the pond’s edge, their claws reaching for Zhao and Pei. Seeing the imminent danger and burdened by Pei Yan, Zhao Yuanhu couldn’t defend effectively. Without much thought, she tossed Pei Yan aside and flicked her long sleeves. Nurous thick black cables shot out, tangling the four claws of the two creatures and binding them tightly together.
However, doing so neutralized Zhao Yuanhu’s advantage in Body Technique. With the injured behind her, she had no room to retreat. Facing the creatures’ imnse strength, her own was gradually waning.
"Do I still have to reveal that ability in front of everyone?" Zhao Yuanhu hesitated, thinking as she felt the creatures starting to break free. Determined, she steeled herself, ready to make her choice.
Just as she was about to activate her ability, a gust of wind ca from behind her before she could react. One of the creatures on her left abruptly broke free from her binding and was tossed backward.
"Ah, sorry! I dozed off for a bit, how embarrassing!"
A familiar but utterly exhausted voice reached the ears of everyone present. Their eyes lit up, seeing over Zhao Yuanhu’s shoulder to where the voice ca, spotting Pei Yan, clutching his head and staggering out slowly from behind her.
Wang Wenze’s initial joy was quickly replaced by shock, seeing Pei Yan’s injured, now hollow left eye, which hadn’t healed back to human form. Inside the eye socket was replaced by a glimring blue chanical Eye.
Seemingly still unaccustod to the transformation, after a couple of steps, Pei Yan’s body lurched, and he landed on one knee, clutching his left eye in agony with his left hand.
Noticing the anomaly, Ye Jiumu turned to see Pei Yan kneeling behind him and imdiately ran to support him, asking with delight, "Pei Yan, are you alright? How do you feel now?"
"System, are you there?! Co out!" Ignoring Ye Jiumu’s concern, Pei Yan covered his left eye, enduring the surges of excruciating pain while calling out softly.
However, no matter how he called, the system voice that once spoke in his mind didn’t reappear, as if it had been nothing but a hallucination of a near-death experience.
Watching Pei Yan kneeling and muttering to himself, Ye Jiumu was puzzled, "Pei Yan, what’s wrong? What are you saying?"
Pei Yan, his head throbbing violently, couldn’t hear the voices around him. As he kept calling for the system in vain, a word suddenly flashed in his mind. Initially, he didn’t notice, but as he prepared to fully chanize and return to battle without awaiting a response, the unfamiliar term erged again in his consciousness.
In an instant, Pei Yan recalled Wang Wenze’s words at the dinner table! A na, the na of the ability!
"Celestial Craftsmanship - Human Agency!" Without hesitation, Pei Yan shouted the phrase!
Upon hearing it, Ye Jiumu was montarily stunned, but quickly realized the implication, his eyes brightening. He imdiately stepped back a couple of paces as the transforming Pei Yan verified his suspicions.
Pei Yan’s first-tier awakening had occurred!
Amid a series of chanical assemblages and tallic friction sounds, Pei Yan once again completed full-body chanization. As the tarp tied to his waist flew off on the breeze with his changing chanical form, a newly chanized Pei Yan stood before everyone.
This ti, Pei Yan hadn’t evolved to gain more height or a larger physique. Post-transformation, his height and body hadn’t altered much from his fleshly form.
Without the intimidation brought by height and mass, Pei Yan’s chanical form now exhibited smoother lines, the previous stiffness and sluggishness in his movents gone as he swung his arms around. The entire machine perfectly obeyed his will. Every inch of the machine glead silver under the moonlight.
Most shocking was his head. The once hefty faceplate now thin as a cicada’s wing, lightly covering much of Pei Yan’s face. The right eye’s shield grew narrower and more delicate, while the left eye abandoned the shield completely, a blue chanical Eye peering intermittently through the mask’s gaps.
"Pei Yan, are you okay?" Ye Jiumu asked tentatively, sowhat on edge, as he approached the newly transford and imposing Pei Yan.
Pei Yan remained silent. Ye Jiumu waved a hand through the mask’s slits at the constantly rotating chanical Eye. Suddenly, Pei Yan snapped his head to the side, the chanical Eye rapidly contracting, startling Ye Jiumu into two retreating steps. Before he could respond, Pei Yan extended a chanical arm, pressed it against the face of the creature struggling with Zhao Yuanhu, and without further action, the creature convulsed and fell unconscious.
"I’m perfectly fine now!"
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