Chapter 97 Fu Mei's Strength

Usually, enemies Xuan faced would all have some level of Soul power. But seeing as how this one was a pure machine, that was naturally out of the question. The problem here was that this thing had physical stats on par with that of a Saint-realm master who specialized in body tempering and the physical side of cultivation—not to mention the electrostatic shield that it could deploy around itself to absorb attacks.

In other words, dealing damage to to this gatekeeper was going to be somewhat of a pain. Since all of its attacks were physical, Xuan's Devouring Qi would not do him much good here. On the surface, there seemed to be no good way through apart from brute forcing it, but… Xuan had a feeling there was something else at play here. A faint trick, so quaint that it was almost impossible to notice without thousands of years of experience…

"Tch… so it even has a shield?" Ming Hao muttered, clenching his fists tight around his spear. "What a tough gatekeeper—whatever it's guarding, it better be good."

"It's best to retreat for the time being, I think," the old senior interjected, frowning at the machine. "This 'thing'… it's not so simple to defeat."

At his words, everyone nodded in agreement, and the group fell back. Surprisingly enough, the moment they were a good distance away from the door, the ruined gatekeeper suddenly appeared to power off on the spot, and it sat back down on the floor. The light in its eye faded away, and its gears and sawblades stopped spinning.

"… So, it only activates when we're within a certain radius of that door?" Another of the Eight Great Family's young masters said—his name was Yun Laikan, if Xuan remembered correctly. "How interesting."

"Let me have a go at it, young master!" An underling of Yang Tze spoke up, pumped up and ready to burst. He wielded an ax, and apparently just wanted to challenge the mech in a battle of pure strength… like that was going to work.

"Enough," Yang Tze said grimly, glaring at his servant. "You do not stand a chance against that creature. Know your place."

At this, the servant was immediately shunned, and backed away in embarrassment. Perhaps he was a bit infuriated, but Yang Tze just saved him from his own overconfidence.

"There is something odd about this whole scenario," Xuan decided to point out, leading the group in the right direction. "Consider—this mech has just laid like this beneath molten hot lava for an incredibly long period of time, presumably. I just performed a clean inspect of its abilities, and it would seem that it has no Soulpower—in other words, no access to Qi, which is only natural. But if that is the case, then…"

"… How is it still running after all this time?" The old senior concluded, led on by Xuan's logic. Indeed—that was Xuan's goal. He didn't want to be the one to expose everything outright, since that would make him stand out. By doing this, he could redirect everyone's attention to the old senior, who now had the baton and would be the one forced to come up with a plan given this information.

"It powers off instantly after we leave its protection radius as well," the Chen family young master pointed out. "Clearly, it is attempting to preserve power."

"No… I don't believe that is the case," Zi Xiruo objected, eyes sharp. "It's not that it is trying to preserve power—it's that it has no extra power to preserve."

At this, everyone turned to her.

"… What are you implying?" The old senior asked, brows furrowed.

"Earlier, when standing near the mech, I could feel my Qi being drained—just a tiny bit, nothing more. The ones who were fighting couldn't feel it because it was so faint, but I am quite sensitive when it comes to things like this."

"So… you mean to say the only reason it was able to move was by draining us of our Qi, and converting it into power for itself?"

"Something like that, yes."

"… What a cunning design," the old senior murmured. "We cannot approach, otherwise we will activate it, and we cannot destroy it from here either due to how strong its armor is."

"Then what do we do…?" Yun Laikan asked, the question hovering above everyone's heads. Xuan, for one, had a suitable idea that might work, but doing so may cause some… unforeseen collateral damage.

At that moment, someone unexpected stepped forward—Fu Mei. With a sigh, she spun her scythe around between her fingertips several times, and heaved a heavy breath.

"Mere humans… this is why I cannot stand you lot. I will take care of it."

Clearly, this caught everyone by surprise—she didn't come off as the type to take the initiative when a problem occurred like this—especially not after the enmity between the two halves of the group. But little did they know, Fu Mei was doing this simply for her own gain. As much as she wanted the Eight Great Families' heirs to die, she needed to move forward too. Priorities—she could always kill them later.

Before anyone else could react, Fu Mei's eyes suddenly flared red, brighter than ever before, and two massive black wings shot out of her back. They were feathery and demonic, curved at the ends with horns and as beautiful as a raven in the night. No longer disguising herself, she let her true strength show—and using her scythe, she carved out a circle in the air.

"Begone."

Saying her mother's signature phrase before mass destruction, Fu Mei swung her scythe. The circle that she drew in the air suddenly shot out of her weapon, and flew towards where the Ruined Gatekeeper was, sitting below with its power set to off. The hole didn't hit the mech directly—in fact, not at all. But that was fine—her target was not the mech itself, after all. It was the ground around it.

The circle of energy cut deep into the ground, like an exacto knife on styrofoam. The platform levitated for a brief moment, before pummeling into the abyss below, and what was once where the Ruined Gatekeeper lay was now nothing more than a hole leading to the void.

"… There," Fu Mei said nonchalantly, landing back on the ground as her wings retracted. "Now, let's go."