Chapter 376: Child of the Plane

Wu Chang and the others had already experienced the power of steam explosives when they were at St. George's Square.

The Executioner was different from the modified humans that appeared in the square; he stored steam explosives within his body, partly to power his attacks and partly to self-destruct upon failure, taking his opponent down with him.

This caused the steam explosives inside the Executioner to trigger extremely quickly, exploding in at most two seconds.

A massive amount of thick steam erupted from the Executioner's body, containing destructive power; according to the Omniscient Crystal's estimation, the power was enough to raze one-fifth of Grimland to the ground.

Under the pressure of the massive amount of steam explosives, the hearts of Leng Shan and Jian Xing, which had just settled, rose to their throats once again.

Even though Wu Chang had just displayed unfathomable power before them, facing the pure numerical value of the steam explosives, the two had little confidence in Wu Chang.

Two seconds; they had to decide immediately whether to rush out of the slum area and forcibly exit the instance.

This predicament left Leng Shan feeling very helpless.

As the former number one puzzle-solver of the Desolate Realm, the choices he faced before were always about whether to fight with all his might or play it safe, deciding between different strategies for clearing instances.

But in the Steam Phantom instance, his choices seemed to have turned into whether to exit the instance and how to leave the shielded area to exit the instance.

Let alone solving the instance, even clearing the instance or leaving it alive had disappeared from his options.

How did the Abyss Game he was familiar with suddenly become so strange?

While Leng Shan and Jian Xing were distressed by the Executioner's self-destruction, Wu Chang was also hesitating.

The Executioner's explosion speed this time was too fast; if he used his old trick of throwing the Executioner high into the air, the height might not be enough to avoid the blast radius.

Furthermore, if the Executioner were allowed to explode, the Anti-Magic Steam Press core on his head would be difficult to preserve, which made him somewhat reluctant.

Forget it, he had already pried out enough pearls from the crown of industry; one more didn't matter.

Just as he was about to act, Ailin's voice came from his spiritual world.

The next moment, large clusters of white flames appeared from all around, contracting toward the Executioner's corpse.

The white flames drove away the steam, as if sweeping trash overflowing from a trash can back into it.

The power of the source contained in the steam had no effect at all in front of the white flames; without even the qualification to struggle, it was stuffed back into the Executioner's body.

The white flames formed a shell on the Executioner's body surface, not letting a single gap leak out.

The scene before them left Leng Shan and Jian Xing, who also possessed the power of the source, stunned; they stood where they were, staring blankly at this change, not even bothering to decide whether to flee the slums and exit the instance.

It was also white flame; the Undying Holy Fire borrowed by the Priest only made them feel powerful, but the white holy fire appearing at this moment made them feel fear.

The power of the source within them trembled spontaneously before the white holy fire; it was an instinctive fear of a subordinate encountering a superior.

For this situation to occur, there was only one possibility.

The white holy fire before them was not a fake borrowed item, but the real thing, containing divine power, unleashed by a god.

1, 2...

Pop~

After a slight sound like a wine cork being pulled out, everything returned to calm.

The massive bomb that held the power to destroy the world two seconds ago, enough to blow up one-fifth of Grimland, suddenly became a dud.

Let alone blowing anything up, even the Executioner's corpse showed no damage.

Someone who didn't know better would think the Executioner had just suddenly risen from the dead and let out a fart.

This was the suppression of mortals by gods; even mortals who mastered the power of the source and could summon wind and rain in the Desolate Realm were still not worth mentioning in the face of a god's true means.

Let alone resisting, they couldn't even manage to self-destruct.

Leng Shan and Jian Xing said nothing, a question simultaneously surfacing in their hearts.

If it were them facing the white holy fire, what could they do?

Just by simulating it in their minds, they felt immense despair and suffocation.

The answer was, there was no way.

Although they were not corpses, if locked onto by the white holy fire, they could only watch helplessly as they were swallowed by the white flames, just like a corpse.

Previously, Wu Chang pulling the Executioner into a mysterious space and killing him in less than a minute was an unseen, unknown fear.

Then, the white holy fire effortlessly snuffing out the steam explosives was an unknown fear where, despite seeing the whole picture, they were completely unable to understand it.

In their memories, even the three Evil Gods could not use such dimensionality-reduction strike methods in the Desolate Realm.

They glanced at the Gray Church, thinking to themselves: Could it be that the three Evil God cults will become four after today?

For Wu Chang, Ailin revealing this hand also surprised him greatly.

Because he held the God-Slayer title, he did not fear divine power, nor did he feel pressure from gods.

Compared to Executioners possessing the power of the source, it was actually easier to fight those native gods who had condensed divinity.

Over time, it made him forget the saying—only gods can defeat gods.

Seeing Ailin's actions now, it reminded him of this sentence, and through the reactions of the Executioner, Leng Shan, Jian Xing, and others, he understood that this sentence was not false at all.

It turned out that mortals other than him truly had no power to resist when facing gods.

He put away his sighs, came before the Executioner, and pried off the Anti-Magic Steam Press core embedded in the Executioner's head.

"Item Name: Anti-Magic Imprint Stamping Mold"

"Item Type: Special"

"Item Skill: Anti-Magic Imprint."

"Skill Description: An improved anti-magic imprint formed by researching and improving the anti-magic crossbow mechanism, combining mysticism and industry; can mass-produce anti-magic bullets via a steam press."

"Item Skill: Silver Crossbow Bolt" (Unlocked by King's Badge)

"Skill Description: When mist carrying the anti-magic imprint is driven by the power of the steam source, it will cause additional damage to the origin of transcendent beings."

Wu Chang looked at the Anti-Magic Steam Press core in his hand, a look of contemplation on his face.

Whether it was out of concern for Zhu Li's existence, or because as an official transcendent steam machine, it didn't look good to nakedly use human lives to amplify effects and production capacity.

The hidden ability of the Anti-Magic Steam Press core did not require life or flesh to activate; it looked quite normal.

But looking closely, one could discover the unusual nature within.

The name of the Anti-Magic Steam Press's hidden ability should refer to the prototype of the anti-magic crossbow bolt, and the effect was also similar to the anti-magic crossbow bolt; both could cause additional damage to specific types of targets.

It was precisely this point of causing additional damage to the origin that made the Executioner so relaxed when mowing down people on White House Street; even if players were hit by bullets, even if they didn't hit vital points, they could still die suddenly.

The effect of the Silver Crossbow Bolt was very strong, but the driving force required for activation was the power of the steam source.

And that was exactly where the problem lay.

Since entering the Steam Phantom plane, every step the power of the steam source influenced the plane's rules was because of the Steam Council and the Church of Tranquility; the steam explosives containing the power of the steam source also came from the Steam Council.

On the surface, the Stilane officials did not master the method of using the power of the steam source, so why would they set it up like this in the hidden ability of the Anti-Magic Steam Press?

Was it that the Stilane officials also mastered something similar to steam explosives, or was it that they also had a way to let the power of the source influence the plane's rules, but just hadn't implemented it yet?

He put the speculation aside; when the prompt "You have obtained a pearl from the crown of industry" popped up before his eyes, he threw the core to Leng Shan and Jian Xing, sharing the harvest.

The requirement for Main Quest 2 was to obtain at least one pearl from the crown of industry; the more obtained, the higher the instance exploration rate would certainly be.

Leng Shan and Jian Xing were very principled; once both saw the prompt, they handed the core to the Priest, helping the Priest complete Main Quest 2 as well.

After all, without the Priest, they really wouldn't have been able to hold out until inside the slums.

While the three's attention was on the transcendent steam machine core, Wu Chang checked the harvest from the two bloody last words on the Executioner.

Both bloody last words were deep red; the resentment was not small.

The two people's bloody last words combined provided Wu Chang with 3 points of Health, 1 point of Stamina, 4 points of Inspiration, and 2 points of Willpower.

Besides that, the resentment of the Jack-of-all-Trades left Wu Chang a colorful gemstone.

"Item Name: Heart of Adaptation"

"Item Type: Consumable"

"Item Grade: B"

"Item Effect: When the player activates the Heart of Adaptation, it will perform an adaptive modification to the player's physical body based on the current world plane, allowing the player to obtain a body more suitable for operating in that plane; the effect is removed after leaving the plane."

"Remark: A qualified warrior must adapt to fighting in any environment."

Wu Chang weighed the Heart of Adaptation twice and put it into his personal space. The effect of the Heart of Adaptation was equivalent to a single-use version of the Jack-of-all-Trades, which was the most useful ability on the Jack-of-all-Trades.

Although Wu Chang hadn't been to the Reason Realm and hadn't obtained relevant information about Reason Realm instances for the time being, it wasn't hard to see from the Steam Phantom instance that the power of the source and plane rules would be standard in high-difficulty instances of the Reason Realm.

The Jack-of-all-Trades' job transfer wasn't prominent in the Desolate Realm; its combat power was weaker than combat-type job transfers of the same level, and in terms of survival, it couldn't compare to the Priest, but that was only because they hadn't entered the right instance, and the instance difficulty was too low, causing the job transfer's specialty to not be displayed.

Instances with plane rules were the stage for the Jack-of-all-Trades to perform.

For example, in the Steam Phantom plane, under the shroud of the Grimland Great Smog, even ranked players had their ability usage greatly restricted, but the Jack-of-all-Trades, by transforming into a mechanical life form, could move freely within the steam rules.

Not only was combat power unaffected, but it could even obtain steam rule bonuses to a certain extent.

If used well, the Heart of Adaptation would not live down its B-grade consumable item rating.

Wu Chang's attention turned to the attribute panel; the bloody last words of the Gun God didn't drop an item, but a skill.

"Skill Name: Gun of Flesh and Blood"

"Skill Grade: A"

"Skill Effect: Integrate firearms into your own flesh and blood to enter the Gun God form; during the Gun God duration, reduce maximum Health by 1 point per minute, duration 24 hours."

"Status Name: Gun God"

"Status Effect: Condense any part of the body into a huge, transformable firearm; load yourself or flesh and blood from other sources into it to transform into blood bullets."

"Blood Bullet: Depending on the flesh and blood loaded, the blood bullet will condense different tags; choosing one tag to retain can serve as a special effect for the blood bullet. If using your own flesh and blood as bullets, you can retain two tag effects."

Although there were only two bloody last words on the Executioner, the rewards dropped by both were what Wu Chang wanted.

The Gun of Flesh and Blood skill was the second A-grade skill he had obtained since Blind Abyss.

This skill not only supplemented his long-range output ability but also made the output effect flexible and varied; more importantly, looking at the Gun of Flesh and Blood skill, a bold guess popped up in his heart.

He didn't just drop the Gun God's job transfer skill, did he?

Not only the effect when the skill was activated, but even the status was directly called Gun God, which was clearly the core skill of the "Gun God" job transfer.

It turns out that job transfer skills can also be dropped? Then, having obtained the job transfer skill, wouldn't that be equivalent to obtaining half a job transfer?

Furthermore, if one were bolder, one could even burst out the construction skills for a job change; so, is there also a probability of bursting out the ultimate skills for a job change?

Thinking of this, his eyes became fervent.

The battle in the slums had come to an end, but battles elsewhere were still ongoing.

St. George's Cathedral was currently caught in a bitter struggle.

The matter traces back to when Leng Shan and Jianxing fought their way out of the Steam Council stronghold, and Xavier sent the Executioner to hunt them down; at that time, the remaining Steam Councilors in the stronghold continued their original plan, heading to the Stilan Palace to launch an attack on Queen Olivia.

Over the past few years, relying on her gradually increasing power and her say in the field of extraordinary steam engines, Olivia had raised a group of extraordinary individuals loyal to her in secret.

Some of them helped Olivia carry out missions, such as posing as pine coal mine thieves, while others acted as guards, stationed near the Stilan Palace.

The level of these extraordinary individuals was limited, and they were completely unable to withstand the group of Steam Councilors who had undergone modifications and obtained semi-mechanical bodies.

The situation was not as one-sided as it was on White House Street, but the palace gates were still breached quickly.

Seeing that the situation was dire, Olivia could only escape through a secret passage and head to St. George's Cathedral.

Originally, with the strength of St. George's Cathedral, it would have been very difficult to block the Steam Councilors; coincidentally, Randy was visiting Zhu Li inside the cathedral to discuss the election.

Hearing that someone was rebelling and openly attacking the Empress, Randy immediately drew his sword and rushed out.

As the pinnacle of the indigenous extraordinary individuals in the Steam Phantom dungeon, Randy displayed the same power of the occult source as Wu Chang.

Unlike Wu Chang, who was a half-baked Secret Knight, after five years of hard training, his power of the occult source was stronger than Wu Chang's.

Under his full exertion, he could use his own source power to expel most of the steam rules around St. George's Cathedral.

With individual strength, expelling the rules of the plane—even a top-tier player like Leng Shan could not achieve this level of source power.

Standing at the entrance of St. George's Cathedral, Randy felt as if he had returned to the day he took action at the Moonlight Sanatorium; regardless of what extraordinary power or semi-mechanical modified body they had, as long as they were struck by his sword edge, they would be cut in two.

With the strength of one person, he forcibly suppressed more than half of the Steam Councilors, driving them from the entrance of St. George's Cathedral to the square.

Zhu Li was not as aggressive as Randy, but when she took action, it was discovered that she, who had always been quiet, actually possessed source power as well.

Every time she launched an attack after charging up, she could cause a Steam Councilor's body to twist from a distance, causing them to lose their combat effectiveness.

If Wu Chang were on the scene, he would definitely recognize that Zhu Li's source power was precisely space.

It could be seen that in the use of space magic, Zhu Li relied entirely on talent and was not as refined as Wu Chang, who had mastered space magic systematically, but the effect was not inferior at all.

Relying on the two of them joining forces, the Steam Councilors blocking the area around St. George's Cathedral gradually found it difficult to hold on and were defeated.

Seeing that they could not break through the two of them today, the Steam Councilors fought and retreated, wanting to leave.

Before they could leave St. George's Square, screams came from the rear of the Steam Councilors' formation.

The short, fat man at the front, responsible for monitoring Leng Shan and Jianxing, looked toward the source of the screams and saw that the space behind was almost filled with blade light.

Behind the crowd, the sky was filled with afterimages of blades, but every afterimage seemed to be solid; as long as they were touched by an afterimage, limbs would be severed by the blade light.

The Phantom, who had escaped from White House Street and hidden to treat his wounds, arrived just in time to join forces with Randy and Zhu Li, quickly finishing off all the Steam Councilors.

They originally wanted to leave some survivors, but when they stopped, they discovered that whether the Steam Councilors were already dead or still alive, steam began to emanate from their bodies.

Since Xavier could set self-destruct programs in the bodies of the Executioners, he naturally would not forget this group of ordinary Steam Councilors.

It was just that this move had been used once during the final battle for the invitation, and Zhu Li was already prepared.

Before the steam source power emitted by the steam explosives became concentrated, she used her space source power to teleport everyone into the sky.

Unfortunately, Wu Chang's space magic had not yet reached the source level, and he could not even break through the lowest concentration of steam source power; otherwise, there would have been no need for Ailin to take action to stop the Executioner's self-destruction in the slums.

Bang!

Pop!

The Steam Councilors, teleported to the high altitude, exploded one by one, not only shaking away the large patch of smog overhead but also bursting into brilliant firelight.

A self-destructive attack that should have destroyed St. George's Cathedral, and even the entire West District, just like that, turned into a fireworks show.

Zhu Li looked at the returning Phantom and asked in surprise, "Why are you back? Wasn't Prime Minister Grade attacked?"

The Phantom opened his clothes, revealing a gruesome bullet hole on his chest that had just stopped bleeding, and said helplessly:

"An extremely powerful monster went to White House Street. According to the people from the Police Department, he is the serial killer who has been wandering the nights of Grimlan, the Executioner. All of us attacked together, but we couldn't stop him in the slightest."

"I suffered a fatal wound while fighting him in close quarters and had to leave first to find a place to treat the wound."

"They are now..."

The Phantom sighed and said, "They are probably finished now."

After hearing this, Randy frowned and said, "White House Street is not far from here. If that's the case, the Executioner will be here soon. You go and rest; I'll go and see the situation there."

After Randy finished speaking, he picked up his sword, mounted his horse, and rushed toward White House Street.

Zhu Li, who was left behind, took the Phantom into St. George's Cathedral.

The Executioner was dead, and the Steam Councilors were wiped out; it seemed that the battle tonight had ended.

In reality, the battle was far from over; one could even say it had just begun.

All the Steam Councilors were killed, but Xavier, who led them, had been slow to appear.

Where was Xavier?

At this moment, he was floating high in the sky, overlooking the Gray Cathedral slums beneath his feet.

He had followed behind the Executioner and witnessed the Executioner's battle from start to finish.

He muttered, "There are anomalies in the slums, and the steam rules cannot intrude, but the anomalies there can only be confined within the slums."

"Since that's the case, wouldn't it be fine if I just don't go in?"

After Xavier finished speaking, he spread his arms, took a deep breath, and inhaled a large amount of mist into his chest.

As the mist poured into his body, the source power on his body condensed crazily.

As the Son of the Plane, he was born with steam rules; even before Olivia established Grimlan University to study extraordinary industrialization, he had already researched the prototype of the extraordinary steam engine himself.

He had always firmly believed that he carried a mission, especially after the Executioner finished off Grade; the mission within Grade had also converged upon him.

Now, he was going to fulfill his mission.

With the help of the plane's rules, the steam source power in his body condensed to the limit; he slowly opened his eyes, and a pale golden light flickered within them.

This kind of golden light is called divinity!

(End of chapter)