Chapter 182: Stirring

Lei Ao's heavy sword seized the chance to strike down, the duke hastily blocked, but was knocked back several steps. He suddenly looked up, gazing toward the manor, and a hint of panic finally appeared in his eyes.

"No… impossible! The Nightwatcher is second‑rank, how could it be?"

"You underestimated him." Lady Ai Sha Er said softly, "Luobin Gabriel… has mastered the Dragon Devouring Breathing Method; his rate of progress far exceeds our expectations."

Lady Ai Sha Er was also puzzled in her heart.

The Dragon Devouring Breathing Method is indeed extraordinarily overpowered, but simultaneously practicing several breathing methods, while making combat power high, also hampers the speed of advancement.

How exactly did Luobin achieve it, becoming a second‑rank Order Knight at such a young age?

The central system completely collapsed, and the star‑marrow control network disintegrated.

The first to fall were the mechanical colossi on either side of the ceremony platform.

Their towering metal bodies suddenly went rigid; the star‑marrow crystals embedded in their spines emitted a rapid hum, and a pale blue light flickered like a faulty bulb.

When the first crystal exploded into powder, the colossus's alloy joints moaned with metal fatigue, the rivets at its knees burst outward, and its thirty‑ton steel body, as if its soul had been drained, crashed to the ground with a roar, shattering half of the viewing platform.

The chain reaction erupted in every corner of the battlefield.

The charging mechanical warhorse lifted its front hooves, its hydraulic system suddenly locked, and the rider was flung a hundred meters by inertia.

The energy cables extending from their spines snapped in midair, and the star‑marrow light scattered and fell like dying fireflies.

The automatic crossbow cannons on the city wall collectively lowered their heads; the barrels still glowed red in the chambers, and the final energy bolt smoldered due to power loss, the rising black smoke resembling funeral banners.

A controlled knight's lance slipped from his grasp and fell. His gilded pupils rippled, and the alloy faceplate implanted during his mechanical augmentation suddenly popped open, revealing a pale face beneath.

When the first ray of morning pierced his eyes, which had long not seen daylight, this executioner curled up and wailed like a baby.

"My hand, my eyes," he tore open his chest armor, clawing at the chest cavity embedded with star‑marrow crystals, his fingernails flipping over without noticing.

Amid the rising and falling sounds of metal hitting the ground, more and more knights began to convulse.

The implants at their spines automatically fell off, and the flesh‑bound mechanical interfaces emitted blue smoke, as if fleeing some Curse.

The star‑marrow barrier enveloping the battlefield began to crumble.

The pale blue energy dome burst like a fragile soap bubble, and the previously hidden sunrise finally poured down.

Where the light reached, the star‑marrow patterns on the mechanical wreckage faded rapidly, peeling away like dried moss.

Lady Ai Sha Er lifted her hand to catch a falling star‑marrow fragment; the poison of the purple acacia flower etched a scorch mark on its surface: "Huo Ke, did you hear?" Her staff pointed at the puppet knights rolling on the ground, "This is the true… rebirth."

Lei Ao's heavy sword drove into the stone slab at the duke's feet, its blade reflecting his twisted silhouette.

"Impossible, my Undying Legion," Duke Huo Ke shouted wildly, then lunged at Lady Ai Sha Er and Lei Ao.

Deprived of the central system's augmentation, Duke Huo Ke's former peak power as a second‑rank Order Knight had already fallen to second‑rank elementary.

Now he could not possibly match Lady Ai Sha Er and Lei Ao.

Duke Huo Ke's mechanical wings exploded with a roar, fragments scattering like a rain of knives.

The star‑marrow crystal in his chest burst forth with a blinding crimson light, causing the shattered stones within a hundred‑meter radius to levitate and become a raging energy storm.

"Be a sacrifice!" he roared, lunging at Lady Ai Sha Er, his right‑arm mechanical bones exploding segment by segment, revealing boiling star‑marrow magma inside, "Starburst!"

Lady Ai Sha Er's purple‑acacia cloak carbonized instantly; the tip of her staff blossomed with an eerie black‑purple bud, and poisonous vines erupted from the ground, frenziedly forming a cocoon: "Embrace of Decay."

The moment the poisonous‑vine cocoon enveloped the duke, Lei Ao's heavy sword, sheathed in pale flame, cleaved down.

When the blade cut into the fissure of the star‑marrow crystal, the duke's gilded artificial eye suddenly popped out, turning into two laser beams aimed at Lei Ao's brow.

"Clang!"

Lady Ai Sha Er's silver‑threaded glove precisely intercepted the lasers, and white smoke of charred flesh rose between her fingers.

Lei Ao's sword continued unabated, the pale flame flowing along the crystal fissure into the duke's body.

"You… don't understand at all," the duke's mechanical vocal cords were shredded, emitting a hoarse human voice, "My… great work."

The star‑marrow crystal exploded with a roar, the shockwave hurling the three of them away.

Lady Ai Sha Er crashed into the half‑collapsed wall, and Lei Ao's heavy sword drove into the ground, carving a hundred‑meter trench.

When the smoke cleared, Duke Huo Ke knelt at the center of the deep pit, his mechanical torso disintegrating, only his human left arm clinging desperately to the mud.

Lei Ao drew his sword and approached, the tip lifting the duke's shattered jaw: "The sins of the Western Realm shall be repaid."

Lady Ai Sha Er's blood‑stained staff pointed at his back heart: "Farewell, my former husband."

The purple‑acacia poisonous vines and the pale flame simultaneously pierced his body, and Duke Huo Ke turned into scattering specks of light amid the energy turbulence.

When the last speck of star‑marrow dust fell, the sunrise happened to pierce the clouds, and on the plaza, Duke Huo Ke's banner also fell amidst the sea of fire.

This war ultimately drew its curtain.

As the pivotal figure in all this, Luobin remained completely unaware.

Luobin sheathed his Tang Sword, looked at the wind chime, and said, "Mission accomplished, withdraw."

The fragments of Duke Huo Ke's star‑marrow crystal had not yet cooled, and the news of the Western Realm's upheaval rode on the metal wings of mechanical carrier pigeons toward every corner of the continent.

The Eastern Realm Grand Duke's bronze scepter hammered heavily onto the star chart, shaking twelve whale‑oil chandeliers that swayed. His fierce gaze swept over the kneeling spy, "Within three days, I want to see what status the royal family holds in this campaign, and simultaneously expand the knight order."

"But the treasury—" the finance officer began, when the grand duke's hunting hound at his feet leapt up, snapping his throat bone.

"Use the Southern Realm's grain, the Northern Realm's ore." The grand duke patted the hound's head, "Send a message to the orphan of the Frostwolf clan, tell them this duke is willing to help them retake the Northern Realm."

Outside the window, thirty towers were being fitted with gear crossbow cannons; the artisans carved not the Eastern Realm's emblem on the barrels, but the gear insignia of the long‑extinct Mechanical Church.

"What a clever use of a borrowed blade!" the Southern Realm Duchess crushed a crystal cup, the rose‑red wine dripping down the gilded table, "First the old wolf of the Northern Realm, then the mad dog of the Western Realm."

From behind the curtain, an astrologer wearing a raven mask appeared: "The latest star chart shows that the Purple Acacia and the Knight Guild's allied forces have taken control of the entire Western Realm."

The duchess's jade‑green nails scratched the parchment map, gouging a crack at the spot marking the royal directly‑governed territory: "All forces, prepare for war! With that emperor's temperament, I'm sure it'll be my turn soon!"

"Yes!" the people kneeling before the duchess answered in unison.

Compared to the brutal Eastern Realm Grand Duke, the Southern Realm Duchess's prestige and popular support far surpass those of the other three realm grand dukes.

(End of Chapter)