Chapter 378: Reviving Han

The sheepskin scroll dissipated on its own, and Li Cheng took out the automated three-dimensional warehouse, went inside, and began testing the power of his new skill.

The target was still the high-strength concrete wall laced with steel fibers, and around the earthen wall stood a ring of instruments, including but not limited to a gas detector, a temperature sensor, an airflow shadow imager, a laser Doppler velocimeter, and so on.

"Hiss—"

Li Cheng stood twenty-five meters from the target, drew a deep breath, and immediately a phantom image of a red dragon's head materialized behind and above him, mirroring his inhalation.

"Roar!!!"

The next instant, a cone of searing flame erupted from Li Cheng's mouth, engulfing the target and fiercely scorching the concrete wall.

'1, 2, 3'

Li Cheng fired out bat-like grappling hooks, driving his feet deep into the ground to counter the powerful recoil, while silently counting in his heart until twenty seconds.

His own breath lasted far longer than 20 seconds, so this time limit should be the skill's cap.

As for the power—

Li Cheng walked up, touched the target's slightly cracked surface, and simply pried off large chunks of embrittled concrete.

"The core temperature at the tail end of the Red Dragon's Breath can reach three thousand degrees Celsius, comparable to an acetylene welding torch or a rocket engine, and roughly on par with the highest setting of the 【Nuclear Lighter】; its advantage is greater range and stronger thrust.

At the same time, the detectors did not pick up any new gas being generated from my mouth—only plasma appearing out of thin air, which matches expectations."

Li Cheng rotated the target, retreated again to twenty-five meters away, switched to the Black Dragon's Breath, and spewed out a stream of acid.

Testing showed the acid had even longer range, with corrosive properties akin to xenomorph blood, capable of melting the vast majority of known materials.

Green Dragon poison gas, Blue Dragon lightning, White Dragon cold breath—the remaining three breaths were roughly equal in power.

"Whoa, one skill, five kinds of satisfaction."

Li Cheng couldn't help but start rubbing his hands together like a fly; even among perfect-grade skills, this 【Dragon's Breath】 counted as the strongest tier.

The five breaths could handle a variety of situations; notably worth mentioning was the Green Dragon's poison gas—

primarily chlorine gas, with small amounts of phosgene, mustard gas, soman, sarin, and VX mixed in.

Its lethal range covered both vertebrates and invertebrates—even cockroaches couldn't survive.

The crucial point is that gas is formless and can spread with the wind; if you took a breath at a major city—say, the center of New York or Tokyo—the kill efficiency would be no worse than a tactical nuke.

"No wonder they say poison gas is the poor man's nuke."

Li Cheng clicked his tongue in wonder, gaining a few more degrees of understanding and sympathy for the Special Affairs Bureau.

In an environment where superhumans run rampant, maintaining social stability and strict law and order is no easy feat.

A level 21 player like himself could already wield a means of mass destruction; those level 40 superhumans were probably each the equivalent of a human-shaped Tsar Bomba.

Finished testing the new skill, Li Cheng opened his character panel.

After this battle, he had triggered a new title and a new trait.

【Title Name: False God Slayer】

【Activation: Active】

【Effect: Godslayer. Can launch a guaranteed-hit pursuit attack that ignores distance, one time, against all mythical creatures, divine office holders, and holders of divine authority or divine rank.】

【Cost: 70 Spirit Points】

【Cooldown: 6 minutes】

【Note: Gods are fabricated.】

Uh. Big balls.

Li Cheng scratched his head, and obediently swapped in the new title.

Divine office holders and holders of divine rank could be set aside, but the scope of mythical creatures was quite broad—Western griffins, elves, dragons, and Eastern yao, demons, spirits, and monsters were all included.

Compared to 【Desperate Gambler】, it was more stable and had broader applicability.

Next, the new trait.

【Imperial Favor Ground-Smashing Fist: +2 Strength】

"Hmm?"

Li Cheng's eyes lit up; as player level rose, the boost from base attributes also rose with the tide.

Two extra points of strength were far more effective than grinding yourself to death at the gym.

"This should indirectly prove that my arrangements before leaving were successful, right? After all, if the Yong'an Emperor returned and fell ill, suffered complications, and ultimately dropped dead, the Great Ming would still perish soon enough.

The new trait popping out precisely proves the Yong'an Emperor didn't die in the short term. The plan is still proceeding smoothly."

Li Cheng rubbed his chin; the Yong'an Emperor had clung to life, and with the assistance of Tu Wangjuan—another long-liver who could also live over two hundred years—

then the later Manchu invasion, the sinking of the Divine Land, the two Opium Wars, and the carve-up by the powers probably wouldn't happen—this time it was the Great Ming's turn to be the powers, sending battleships around the world to demand free trade.

"More provinces, more battleships; more battleships, more provinces."

Li Cheng muttered to himself, shifting his gaze to the Frog God statue and the bronze giant ship.

Just as he had estimated during the scenario mission, the Frog God's true body should be a mythical being similar to the Headless Reindeer, with a Mystery rating around lv33.

Unfortunately, it had first fallen from the moon to the ocean floor during a celestial disaster three thousand years ago, and over those three thousand years had never rested or recuperated; the hastily assembled flesh body also came from Tu clan members.

After being weakened again and again, it was ultimately picked off by Li Cheng.

He put on his information-integration goggles and carefully scanned, managing to confirm several facts.

One, the Frog God was truly dead through and through, with no possibility of resurrection. However, the statue fragments and the divine-shed scales still contained a considerable amount of Mystery and could be taken for refinement.

Two, the bronze giant ship's engine did not possess the ability to generate an anti-gravity field; instead, it achieved something close to an anti-gravity effect by amplifying the Frog God's spatial control ability.

The essence of gravity is the curvature of spacetime; matter tells spacetime how to bend, and spacetime tells matter how to move.

"So, without the Frog God's true body, this bronze ship can't be started."

Li Cheng was rather regretful—after all, cruising into a mission in an anti-gravity space battleship would have been pretty flashy.

Wait—if the normal method couldn't be used, could he find another way around?

Thinking of something, his eyes lit up; he immediately returned to the study, brought the three-dimensional warehouse, logged into the Killing Ground, and teleported to the toy factory.

The moment he stepped into the toy factory, he saw a cylindrical intelligent mechanical servant raising its right hand high toward him. And the factory was hung everywhere with extremely conspicuous black and red banners.

"???"

Li Cheng's eyelid twitched violently. He couldn't help but demand, "Didn't I tell you not to mess around with Adolf's Daoist ideology? What is going on here?"

"This is not Adolf's Daoist ideology."

After being retuned by the intelligent core, the cylindrical mechanical servant could now produce human speech. It said calmly, "Esteemed Factory Master, you are a Han person. Liu Bang established the Han Dynasty with Water Virtue, so the black banners are hung. Liu Bei established Shu Han with Fire Virtue, so the red banners are hung."

Having said that, all the mechanical servants snapped to attention in unison, raised their right hands high, and shouted at the top of their lungs, "Rise! Han!"

Damn it all, you've all learned to feign one thing while doing another, haven't you?

Li Cheng rubbed his forehead and said to the factory intelligent core that had hurried over floating, "How many more points do I need? I want to upgrade the factory to level one."

(End of this chapter)