Chapter 448

Tom Riddle, the notorious leader of a vibrant social organization and instigator of the First and Second Wizarding Wars, also known as Mr. Voldemort, once said a profound saying:

As long as the kid's spirit remains, he's powerful wherever he goes.

As player levels rise, their ability to survive by hiding also increases accordingly.

Li Cheng is now a soul-container holder—he can go film vlogs of kicking nuclear warheads, drinking alien blood, swimming in lava, and running naked in outer space.

Uh… actually, after activating the insect form, those last two challenges are indeed doable.

Li Cheng rubbed his hands and took out various weapons from the shelf to test them.

Like plants, dead animals, paintings, and other items, the more complex the weapon itself, the higher the upper limit of soul strength it can carry.

For example, a $9.9 free-shipping stainless steel kitchen knife carried no soul reaction.

A $1,699 monolithic-forged high-manganese steel Han sword, after carrying a soul, could hop twice in place, increased its sharpness when cutting pork, and absorbed blood.

A $100,000+ MS-grade master smith's Damascus steel replica antique sword, after carrying a soul, gained no bidirectional communication ability but could receive single-direction commands: it could levitate, fly low at 30 meters per second, and autonomously seek and slay targets.

After killing a certain number, it automatically gained armor-piercing capability, able to cut through steel plates of lower protection ratings.

If this were placed in ancient times, even Spider Cut, Yāodāo Cūnzhèng, or Cūnyǔ Wán would not be fit to hold its shoes.

Modern firearms follow the same principle—guns and cannons infused with souls gain trajectory correction and aim calibration abilities.

Perfect headshots from eight hundred meters away—literally "if there's a frame, why not shoot?"

Machine guns and autocannons never overheat,

Mortars and self-propelled artillery automatically calculate firing parameters.

Then, what about tanks?

Li Cheng waved his hand and summoned a six-legged magical energy turret, pressed his palm against its alloy armor, closed his eyes, and focused his will.

One hundred. Five hundred. One thousand.

The magical energy turret absorbed a full two thousand points of soul energy, draining Li Cheng's spiritual power to zero and bringing his sanity close to danger level before stopping.

Li Cheng slowly released his grip, his eyebrows rising unconsciously.

This felt peculiar—he, as a magical artillery master, could already perfectly control the magical energy turret.

But with the turret now possessing an independent soul, their connection grew even tighter, the binding stronger than before.

He tilted his head slightly and thought: "Can you hear me?"

"Yes. Master."

A voice echoed in his mind, just like the inner voice when reading text—no distinct timbre.

Unlike the Transformer toy, the magical energy cannon had no pre-set personality; it was brand new, its character yet unformed.

"Advance. Retreat. Rotate the barrel five degrees left."

Li Cheng issued the commands mentally; the magical cannon executed each perfectly.

All these capabilities were already possible with the magical cannon before, so Li Cheng turned and retrieved a series of WWII-era veteran tanks prepared for the toy factory.

Such as the Tiger, Panther, Sherman, and T-34.

He used his 【Puppet Assembly】 ability to fuse these tanks with the magical cannon, then separated them again.

A bizarre scene occurred: under the camera's view, the separated tanks split like cells, each gaining an average of one or two hundred soul points.

Li Cheng asked mentally: "Report your status. Can you sense these tanks?"

The magical energy turret paused, then replied: "Yes, Master."

As it answered, all the tanks' engines roared to life, spewing smoke.

Li Cheng said decisively: "Show me."

"As you wish."

The magical cannon remained still; the WWII tanks surged forward—accelerating, braking sharply, advancing in depth echelons, flanking and circling—with maneuvers so practiced they resembled a well-drilled armored assault unit.

"Fire."

The magical cannon's voice rang through the soul link.

Boom—boom—boom—boom!

The tank cannons roared one by one; the steel-fiber-reinforced concrete target Gray Rain used for strength training (teeth grinding) collapsed and shattered under the bombardment.

Huh?!

Li Cheng's eyelid twitched—these WWII tanks had no shells in their barrels; what they had just fired were clearly invisible vector-force projectiles.

He quickly asked the magical cannon: "Do these tanks inherit part of your abilities?"

"They are part of me—my extension and derivative."

The magical cannon replied: "When I do not actively control them, they exhibit traits of independent individuals."

With that, the cannon released its soul control,

and the WWII tanks' gun barrels immediately drooped, their tracks turning as they wandered aimlessly.

Even finding fuel and shells themselves, opening their rear hatches to "eat."

Li Cheng frowned as he observed: if the magical cannon's intelligence after gaining a soul equaled that of a human, then its derivatives' intelligence was roughly like that of a dolphin.

In the animal kingdom, the encephalization quotient of dolphins—actual brain mass versus predicted brain mass based on body size—is about 5.3, second only to humans' 7.4–7.8,

their brains possessing high information-processing and complex behavioral control capabilities—possibly smarter than some "humans"—

like Prince Yūjin, who enjoys watching dragonflies and remains pure as ever;

Prince Thapang, the Thai prince with resolute eyes (recently suspected of recovery risk);

Arnold, the pointed-head figure from Nine Dragons Carrying a Coffin.

And subtly, once idle, these tanks automatically grouped by nationality: Tigers and Panthers stuck inseparably together, T-34s and IS-2 heavy tanks clustered in packs.

When in close proximity, they deliberately rammed and scraped each other—if unwatched, they might even start fighting outright.

"I think I understand."

Li Cheng rubbed his chin. The arcane artillery tower was an extension of his will, and the subordinate cannons were extensions of the arcane artillery tower.

The Cannon Master class limited him to only one tower existing at the same time, but with 【Mercy Soul-Bestowing Melody】, he could bypass this restriction to a great extent.

Using the arcane cannon itself as the central node, remotely commanding massive numbers of cannons.

If tanks were modified and upgraded with better barrels, engines, and armor, each tank could unleash 20%, 30%, or even 50% of the original arcane cannon's power.

The ultimate upper limit of the steel tide's scale depended on the arcane artillery tower's soul-bearing capacity limit, which depended on Li Cheng's own level.

"My goodness, World of Tanks, War Thunder, Hearts of Iron."

Hui Yu's eyes lit up. As a mechanical lifeform, she quite liked these antique war vehicles.

Immediately ignoring her own scholarly intellectual outfit, she unceremoniously tossed aside her pen and paper, clung to Li Cheng like a koala, "Lend me command authority for a bit, won't you, won't you~"

"I can't breathe."

Over eight hundred kilograms of weight choked Li Cheng's neck painfully. His eyes rolled back as he hurriedly peeled Hui Yu off, "Go play on the side, did you finish today's homework?"

"Homework? What homework, can you eat it?"

At the mention of this, Hui Yu immediately began playing dumb, "The kitchen gas stove seems to be left on, I'll go check."

You... fine then.

Li Cheng rubbed his brow, watching the armored cluster roaming freely like a pride of African lions, and slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, "So this is what a legendary-grade item is like."

【Mercy Soul-Bestowing Melody】 + 【Assembled Puppet · Modified】 + 【Tinkerer's Proof】,

The effect produced was one plus one plus one, far greater than three.

No wonder legendary items were regarded as treasure-house anchors by major guilds, enough to make powerhouses above Lv35 build an entire power system around them.

If back in the Inverted Pyramid secret realm, he could have had a hundred arcane cannons firing simultaneously, even a flesh mountain L with a legendary great gullet would have been blown into braised meat... ahem, into minced meat.

"For now leave it like this. Later I'll modify the dimensional warehouse to make room for these war vehicles. As for your name..."

Li Cheng looked at the arcane artillery tower that now possessed a soul, paused, and racked his brains thinking.

He was never good at naming. How about Girls und Panzer?

Tiberium?

Red Dragon?

Short Arrow? Multi-rivet Steam Steel?

Li Cheng thought for a long time, then decisively gave up, "Let's just call it 【Imperial Guard】."

"Yes."

The six-legged arcane artillery tower moved its legs, walking to a corner of the dimensional warehouse. Various tanks and war vehicles, under its control, quieted down and entered hibernation mode.

The Cannon Master class received massive reinforcement. Next, Li Cheng went to the toy factory.

"Prosper! Han!"

Just as he walked through the factory gate, he heard uniform, synchronized slogans.

He saw a large number of cylindrical robots standing in neat formation on the open ground. At the very front was a simple high platform built from precast concrete components.

The cylindrical robot that Li Cheng had previously launched into the sky with 【Floating Engine】 was standing on the platform, delivering a speech in an impassioned, measured tone.

"Where the sun and moon shine, where the rivers flow, all is Han territory!"

"Gaochang's soldiers are like frost and snow; the Han's soldiers are like the sun and moon. The sun and moon shine on frost and snow, and at a glance they melt away."

"What do we need?"

"We need revenge! We need the final solution to certain historical issues since 1931! We need the final solution to certain historical issues since 1840! We need..."

Fanatical shouts echoed throughout the entire factory, like a company team-building chant. After the cylindrical robots finished shouting, they went to work full of energy, and when passing Li Cheng, they would excitedly raise both hands high.

Making him wonder whether he'd arrived at Cao County or HLA.

Fortunately these robots stayed in the toy factory. If they were exposed to the outside world, Li Cheng had no doubt they would bring out 300% enthusiasm, work three shifts producing weapons of mass destruction in batches, and throw the global order into chaos.

"Respected factory owner," the factory's intelligent core floated out, "you've arrived."

"Mm, bring over the goods reserved for this batch of 【Zhu Xing Zhen Tai】."

Li Cheng rubbed his hands together. He didn't plan to grant souls to the entire toy factory—first, he didn't have that much spiritual power.

Second, the factory itself already had an intelligent core overseeing everything, so whether or not it had a soul made little difference.

Third, the risk was too uncontrollable—who knew what kind of personality a hidden realm of such enormous scale would have after gaining a soul. If it were gentle and considerate, fine, but if it were as fanatical as the cylindrical robots, that would be unbearable.

"As you wish."

The intelligent core directed the cylindrical robots to carry over a dozen equipment items of various qualities, for Li Cheng to test one by one.

The results were rather... delicate.

For soul-granted items, higher quality did not mean a higher degree of intelligence.

A perfect-quality niche weapon, the macuahuitl (a traditional Central American Aztec weapon, a wooden club studded with obsidian blades), had a soul cap of 300 points, with added effects of preventing the opponent's wounds from healing and strengthening the bleeding effect.

It did not develop self-awareness.

But a rare-quality compact Little Smart phone had a soul cap of 400 points instead, with an added AI voice function that could chat and shoot the breeze with its holder.

This should be related to the item's complexity. For example, a meteorite 20 meters in diameter, when exploding and disintegrating in the air, has power no less than 30 Hiroshima atomic bombs, but its composition is too simple.

The final soul strength was actually inferior to a complete PC computer. However, this wasn't a bad thing. For weapons, being simple, pure, and powerful was enough.

After figuring this out, Li Cheng decisively attached souls to 【Steel and Victory Lance】, 【Skull-Crusher Power Hammer】, and 【Ape Devolution Gun】.

These weapons weren't complex enough to develop self-awareness, but all showed a certain degree of subjective initiative.

They could choose the timing to activate their special effects on their own, and even slightly reduce the consumption of those effects.

As for the Two-Aspect Blade and Floating Engine, he didn't have that much spiritual power and sanity for now.

"Pull up the concepts currently accumulated in the collection room."

"Understood."

The intelligent core projected a 3D hologram. 【Zhu Xing Zhen Tai】's business was booming, with orders streaming in nonstop. While the toy factory worked around the clock, it also aggressively harvested wool from customers,

Intercepting certain concepts from the cultural artifacts they had sent over.

"A-grade cybernetics, extracted from a former Soviet OGAS network engineering machine."

The intelligent core explained: "B-grade mind control and B-grade brainwashing, extracted from the classified files of the American CIA's MK-Ultra program.

A-grade loyalty."

"Wait," Li Cheng's PTSD was triggered, and he hurriedly asked: "This time the loyalty isn't related to Germany, is it?"

The intelligent core explained: "No, that concept came from the ashes of a loyal dog brought out by a certain customer from the script world of *Hachi: A Dog's Tale*. We intercepted the A-grade loyalty concept and only gave the customer the C-grade Akita dog concept."

Then it's fine.

Only then did Li Cheng feel relieved. He picked out some concepts from the collection room and instructed the intelligent core to begin crafting mind-control-type props.

The epic-quality hovering engine used 1S, 5A, 3B, 1C.

This time investing 2A, 2B, 3C, the baseline should produce a perfect prop.

As for now

Li Cheng's expression turned solemn. He directed the cylindrical robot to bring lead plates and temporarily erected a signal-shielding room.

Inside the signal-shielding room, he took out a large swarm of fresh, mangled corpses.

This red beetle, as the twenty-first generation Swarm, had its main brain electrocuted to medium-rare by Li Cheng's blue dragon breath. Fortunately, it had a distributed nervous system, with each limb serving as an auxiliary brain component.

Li Cheng activated the patchwork doll effect, replacing the Swarm corpse's damaged lower limbs with tank treads, swapping broken limb segments with Avenger autocannons, implanting electronic prosthetic eyes into empty sockets, and replacing severed nerve bundles with intricate fiber-optic cables.

After several hours of massive engineering work, over 40% of the Swarm corpse had been replaced with mechanical prosthetics.

The entire behemoth was suspended by steel cables beneath a gantry crane.

Hydraulic hoses were plugged all over its body, with fluorescent liquid flowing ceaselessly within them.

Ferocious wounds were covered by steel armor, with murky blood and oil seeping out in spots.

The electronic prosthetic eyes "buzzed" as they turned ceaselessly, as if scanning unconsciously.

"Tch."

Li Cheng clicked his tongue. Perhaps because they were both Abomination-infected entities, the sheer sensory pressure this Swarm gave him was even stronger than that of the gray-green Giant A.

"Respected Factory Master, the prop you requested has been completed."

The intelligent core floated over again, and the cylindrical robot presented an electronic tube-shaped item resembling a thick spike, thicker than a human hand.

Very good, perfectly meets the requirements.

Li Cheng grinned. He picked up the electronic tube with his left hand and pressed his right hand against the surface of the Swarm corpse.

Then, soul-bestowing.

Buzz!!!

The electronic prosthetic eyes in the Swarm's sockets suddenly blazed with crimson light.

The high-power diesel engine at the heart location ran at full throttle, pumping blood mixed with oil.

"It's! You!"

From a loudspeaker as grating as a broken gong came the Swarm's anguished roar, and its upper-limb giant scythes slashed toward Li Cheng without hesitation.

Sure enough, the special distributed structure of the Swarm's brain allowed its corpse to regain its self-will the instant it recovered its soul.

But Li Cheng was already prepared. His right hand's steel flag-spear precisely deflected the scythe, while he himself nimbly leapt onto the Swarm's head. "It's me. Now you can sleep."

Having said that, he once again unleashed the patchwork doll effect, severing the neural network and stripping the Swarm of control over its body.

Then he violently drove down the electronic tube, sinking it into the Swarm's soft, unarmored rear neck.

【Item Name: Soul-Snatching Nail】

【Type: worn item (consumable)】

【Quality: Perfect】

【Effect: Eternal Enslavement. Can only be used on individual targets with no ability to resist. After inserting the Heart-Snatching Nail, permanently strips away their self-personality, forming an absolute loyalty, unbetrayable thought-brand.】

【Consumption: None】

【Cooldown: None】

【Usage Requirement: The level difference between both parties is no greater than 10】

【Note: If loyalty is not absolute, then it is absolutely disloyal】

After being inserted into the brain, the electronic tube instantly melted into liquid, flowing throughout the Swarm's entire body.

The Swarm, violent and furious just a second ago, instantly fell quiet and peaceful.

Li Cheng reconnected its neural network, then leapt down from the insect corpse and retreated several steps.

The massive beetle slowly and heavily freed itself from the gantry crane, sank to its knees, and smashed craters into the concrete floor. Its voice carried not a ripple of emotion: "Swarm, awaits your command."