Lu Sheng fell silent.

There was no way he could stay here and accompany Esha. The only thing he could do was to give Esha a better place to return to and make the arrangements for her future.

“Let’s talk about something else.” He changed the topic. “Let’s see where the Iron Screen’s members are? Oh, there’s also the Poison Dragon Gar Kandi from before.”

He looked down from his high vantage point. He quickly found the White Feather Army’s soldiers who were scattered in retreat.

The multitude of the White Feather Army’s forces had now been reduced to a handful of infirm soldiers hiding in the corners. From where he stood, they appeared like scattered white grit.

A few likely scenarios of this world’s arrangement came across Lu Sheng’s mind. Everything else was easy, except Esha.

He heaved a long sigh. He controlled the huge figure so that it slowly extended its arm.

This huge armor which he had named the Grieving King actually had his first basic armor for a core.

Then, he utilized the large number of external parts from the Sha Group and completed the external mineral mining and refining equipment on it.

With this equipment, Lu Sheng ordered the Sha Group’s engineers to prepare armor ores in great amounts.

The technology of manufacturing armors was kept a secret, but its raw materials were not expensive. Many kinds of materials could be made into the armor’s main body.

The Sha Group was involved in such a business. Although the father and son at the helm of the group were unsure of Lu Sheng’s intentions, the ores were not something significant for them. They were but crude ores meant for refining, and were not too expensive.

Hence, the Grieving King installed the huge amount of crude ores onto itself as if it was installing external parts.

Although the linking systems were not ideal, Lu Sheng had his expansive Harmonizing Power to make up for it.

Harmonizing Power was an amazing thing. Even if there were problems or cracks in the armor, as long as a person’s Harmonizing Power was strong enough, it was possible to continue the fight through sheer willpower alone.

Lu Sheng had nothing else but his strong Harmonizing Power.

He used the Grieving King to continually devour crude ores. Then, from the lake, he had it dig its way to the Platinum Academy. Here, it stumbled upon a mineral vein under the Platinum Academy.

In a month, the Grieving King kept expanding its body and extended countless arms that resembled tree branches which it used to dig deeper under the Platinum Academy.

The tunnels which had to be prepared beforehand were easily built in this manner.

Not even the Sha Group which was in charge of assisting him had any idea of this.

The only person who knew about this plan was Lu Sheng.

The possible problems and loopholes that could arise from this mammoth undertaking were all easily resolved by his expansive Harmonizing Power.

The Grieving King was a terrifying being that was the product of his Harmonizing Power, which had reached a certain threshold, and the sheer accumulation of mineral ores.

At the moment, the Grieving King’s body actually spanned the entire underground of the Platinum Academy. The huge humanoid figure exposed above ground was only a part of it.

“Go. Destroy everyone from the Iron Screen and the White Feather Army.” Lu Sheng pointed to the White Feather Army which had played a part in this operation.

“Pccht!”

A huge mass of black arms surged out of the huge figure’s body and went after the remnants of the White Feather Army.

After a series of weak wails, the remaining survivors were completely wiped out.

“Now, for the Iron Screen Army.” Lu Sheng shifted his gaze toward a ruin nearby. There was a dense cluster of black spots gathered near the rubble of the gymnasium. They were using the shadow of the gymnasium to evade the searching black hands.

“Go.” He willed.

The waist of the huge figure behind him suddenly erupted. Metallic arms quickly took form and charged toward the gymnasium like branches and tendrils.

“Bam!”

From afar, the mechanical hands seemed to be crushing ants as they pressed down heavily from above the gymnasium.

Huge sections of the ruins crumbled. Many of those with slightly slower reaction speed were overwhelmed in the blink of an eye.

Some of them wore their armors and dashed out in an attempt to flee the scene. However, they were caught by the wandering mechanical arms in no time, and none of them were spared.

In mere seconds, everything ended.

Only a few who were extremely powerful managed to escape. Lu Sheng could not have cared less about them. He searched for his next target.

“Let’s see, the Iron Screen Army’s Screen Master is the Light of the Northern Mountain, the deputy is… Quan Shihui?” His expansive Harmonizing Power allowed him to know every movement within 1000 meters with great detail.

The conversation between Quan Shihui and that principal did not escape his senses.

“For the federation!” All of a sudden, a furious shout came from below.

Lu Sheng looked in the direction of the voice. He saw that a white figure shot toward the skies to where he was.

There seemed to be some thrusting equipment behind the white figure, which allowed it to defy gravity.

Other than the white figure, in another direction, the Poison Dragon Gar Kandi had also leapt toward him from the top of a damaged teaching block. He tossed a ball of white radiance at him.

The white radiance and white figure shot toward the skies and closed in on Lu Sheng at high speed.

“Pooh!”

Suddenly, a black palm appeared before Lu Sheng, precisely blocking the white radiance and white figure.

The palm was penetrated in the blink of an eye. However, the white radiance had barely passed through the palm when a dense cluster of mechanical arms took up positions behind the palm.

The white radiance broke through five palms, and eventually lost all its energy as it wedged into the sixth palm.

“Meaningless struggle.” Lu Sheng looked toward the Poison Dragon Gar Kandi who had tossed the white radiance. He raised an arm and made a grabbing gesture.

“Boom!”

Dozens of palms advanced toward the Poison Dragon. In the blink of an eye, the arms formed an iron chunk around him.

“Dragon Teeth!”

“Pcchht!”

The Poison Dragon broke free from the iron chunk in an instant. Dense rows of sharp sawteeth appeared on its body. With his body now resembling a porcupine, the sawteeth tore violently at the huge hands around him as he broke free.

However, this eruption of power had injured him greatly as well.

The impact from his sudden spurt of force was more than 100 tons. In addition to that, there was a great number of iron arms which collectively exerted a great pressure. Even the Poison Dragon was almost taken out by it.

The Poison Dragon was completely covered in blood. Thin cracks started appearing on the surface of his armor.

“Bai Shi!” he howled. He detached a section of sawteeth from his armor again and tossed it at Lu Sheng in the skies with all his might.

“Kill!” After being swatted away, Bai Shi charged into the skies again from the side. While Lu Sheng was occupied with the Poison Dragon, he had actually gotten within dozens of meters to Lu Sheng.

“Lion Roar Cannon!”

Bai Shi spread his right arm. A bright ball of white radiance boiled and surged in his hand.

“Boom”

Particle-sized light beams gathered together and shot toward Lu Sheng’s torso from the side.

There were only several dozen meters between them. None of the huge mechanical hands could make it in time to guard him. The light beam charged toward Lu Sheng in an instant, and connected with his right shoulder.

“It’s done!” Bai Shi and the Poison Dragon felt relieved.

The Lion Roar Cannon possessed an extremely powerful rocking force in itself. It could make the target lose consciousness almost immediately. The target would feel disoriented.

“What a powerful rocking force.” The light beams faded and dissipated. Lu Sheng and Esha looked calm.

“That was close. I was almost hit.” Lu Sheng displayed a look of disappointment.

“Boom!”

Then, there was a sudden second shot of the cannon.

Bai Shi had seemingly worn out his power source in an extreme short span of time and fired a second shot.

This time, the light beam charged toward Lu Sheng without any distractions. The tip of the shot closed in quickly on Lu Sheng’s head.

However, the peculiar thing was that the closer it got to Lu Sheng, the dimmer the light beam became, and the more difficult it seemed for it to move forward.

When the light beam was only a few meters from Lu Sheng, the light beam finally dimmed, and was completely extinguished with a final puff.

“Defensive force field…” Bai Shi widened his eyes. He was hit with the sudden realization.

With such a gigantic armor, the defensive force field it possessed had to be at a strength that was never-before-seen throughout history.

Who could break through such a powerful force field?

Bai Shi was not the only one who realized this. On the ground below, the Poison Dragon had also noticed this depressing fact.

‘Retreat!’ Seemingly at the same time, this notion appeared in both of their minds.

Their opponent was already someone they could never hope to defeat. With just the two of them, they could not even break through the defensive force field.

The two of them were quite far away from each other. However, they retreated backward speedily in tacit agreement. Bai Shi retreated from the skies, while the Poison Dragon dashed toward the outside of the academy along the rubble-strewn ground.

“Idiots.”

Lu Sheng controlled the Grieving King which hurled its right arm toward the Poison Dragon.

The huge black mechanical arm that was several hundred meters long suddenly erupted in midair. It turned into countless densely packed mechanical tendrils, which advanced toward the Poison Dragon while they blotted out the heavens and the earth.

“Screech!”

Suddenly, there was a deafening sound of a speaker from afar.

Lu Sheng narrowed his eyes and looked in the direction of the noise.

Far across the night skies, a dozen scarlet spots of light were advancing toward them.

…

“Is there no other way?”

Within the Federal Defense Department, several white-haired federal generals stood up and looked at the Poison Dragon who was being entangled by countless black tendrils.

“The entire Platinum Academy is showing signs of high energy. Fortunately, most of the students aren’t on campus thanks to the holidays.”

“The principal, Earl Pella, has fallen in battle.”

“The casualties of the White Feather Army exceeded 90%!”

“The final weapon, the Radiant King, is experiencing functional damage as high as 84% percent. It can’t repair itself!”

“The high energy signal is about to spread to the secret underground laboratory!”

The few military generals of the Alan Federation’s highest authority were silently watching the screens which showed the Poison Dragon and Bai Shi.

The aquiline-nosed general, who was the leader, was silent for a long time. He stared deeply at the Poison Dragon on the screen.

“Prepare… the Termination Plan…” He closed his eyes. His voice was so gloomy that everyone could sense weakness in it.

“We can still dispatch our special elites and engage the enemy—”

“Carry out the order!” The aquiline-nosed general interrupted.

“But… Major General Gar Kandi and Lieutenant General Bai Shi are still there…” one of the major generals spoke weakly.

“Kandi… will understand.” The aquiline-nosed general said no more. He had an exhausted look on his face.

That was his only son, and his family’s sole heir.

However, at this moment, even he…

“Very well… Carry out the Termination Plan.” The other generals exchanged glances and equivocally agreed.

The five of them pressed on the black crystal rings they wore on their fingers.

The surfaces of the rings’ crystals were imprinted with their fingerprints.

“Final authority clearance, unlocked.”

“Strategic Intercontinental Death Beam, unlocked.”

“Target, Platinum Academy. Target locked.”

“Ready to fire. T-minus…”

“Ten…”

“Nine…”

“Eight…”