The sound of the cha warriors fighting was particularly unique; the noise from the steam boiler could be heard from afar.
From a distance, Su Lun watched the fires of battle and imdiately guessed there was a problem at the auction house.
Moreover, as expected, he surmised it was the designs bought by those from the Mafa Empire that were being attacked.
After all, Bluul Turner, the regint commander of the "Imperial Hamr," was representing a powerful empire at the auction. His bid was so high that no one but the Lurian royal family could afford it.
Upon further thought, Su Lun also wondered what exactly the people from Mafa had used as a bid to win those designs. He instantly guessed in his mind, "Could it be that the auction included so top-tier extraordinary materials, or perhaps... power?"
Winning those designs was definitely not just a matter of money.
The pirates wouldn’t be satisfied with such a small appetite; otherwise, they would have directly sold the designs to so arms dealer, eliminating the need for an auction.
Especially since it was only money involved, those arms dealers certainly weren’t lacking.
It must have been a special bid, such as a title or sothing.
Like how Liangshan’s heroes were recruited under false pretenses, they could use this group of pirates to create so trouble behind the scenes for Lurian.
A flash of thought crossed Su Lun’s mind, but he didn’t dwell on it.
This had little to do with him.
The noise from the battle was terrifying; Mafa’s technology in the realm of firearms had a crushing advantage over Lurian. The dense explosions were like carpet bombings, causing buildings on Oak Street in the distance to collapse in swathes.
The streets were filled with people fleeing in all directions, and screams and cries pierced the tranquility of the night at Gadronte Harbor amidst the fire.
Facing such intense battle, Su Lun had no intention of getting involved; he climbed atop a tall tower on the docks and observed the battle from a great distance.
...
The area around Oak Street, where the auction house was located, was lit up by flares and flas like broad daylight, making it possible to see clearly without any need for night vision.
Su Lun looked over and saw the Mafa’s cha warriors being surrounded and attacked by various groups.
Count Osaca’s "Fla Lion Legion" had also joined the fight, along with the city defense forces, navy, security forces, and various other professionals of unknown origins.
Corners and alleys were filled with fighting figures.
All the firepower was directed at the group of cha warriors.
Yet, those hundred warriors were pressing and retreating against a force ten tis their size.
"These battle chas are so strong..."
Su Lun watched the heavily targeted battle chas, his eyes reflecting admiration.
He had speculated about so of the functions of these chas when he first saw them, but seeing them in actual combat impressed him even more.
No matter the spell or physical attack, if it couldn’t breach the cha’s defense, they simply couldn’t hinder these iron clumps at all.
Even high-damage ans like rocket launchers were neutralized by alloy shields with a re pause in motion, causing no harm whatsoever.
The counterattacks from these cha warriors, however, were particularly sharp.
In terms of firepower alone, the two sides were simply not on the sa level.
Su Lun watched as various parts of the cha armor that had been initially closed sprang open, revealing small missiles, fla throwers, electric arc guns, high-pressure air cannons, steam hinges, and six-barrel cannons emitting blue fire...
All kinds of technical and magical equipnt were like a Poison Snake opening its wide jaws, showing off its sharp fangs.
Especially those steam-enchanted weapons designed for breaching fortresses and ships, these were truly lethal threats even to high-level professionals!
Knives, hamrs, axes, saws...
An infused steam hamr charged with magic runes could collapse solid brick walls several ters thick with a single swing, leaving no one daring to face its sharp edge head-on...
A battle knife as long as two or three ters, with a trembling alloy blade that could easily slice off half a building...
An electrically charged chainsaw, whose high temperature could effortlessly lt steel...
Returning axes...
Each set of cha was like a mobile fortress, showcasing the cutting-edge military technology of Mafa.
Moreover, though there were not many of them—just over a hundred—they were all well-trained, with a coordinated elite of fighters.
Groups of three, lines of ten, in an organized offense and defense, their combat effectiveness multiplied several tis.
....
Yet, despite the formidable prowess of Mafa’s cha warriors, the "Lion Knight Squadron" charged again and again with flesh and blood against the chanical armor.
It seed they had been given a command at the risk of their lives, that they must keep this Mafa delegation at all costs.
In monts, the ground was littered with bodies.
The battle was brutally fierce.
....
Su Lun watched the debut of these battling weapons on the cha, and it was truly eye-opening.
The Mafa Empire had advanced far on the chanical alchemy dark tech path.
This was a pure weapon of war.
However, he had also made inquiries beforehand, and this batch of battle armors was not Mafa standard military equipnt.
These were accompanying military officers in the delegation, representing Mafa’s facade, equipped with "officer level" cha. The materials and weapons used were tailored according to individual capabilities.
On the other hand, although technology was strong, alchemy was not weak either.
While the chanical battle armors had amazing defense and fierce firepower,
they still had noticeable shortcomings — limited ammunition and energy.
It’s like firearms needing to change magazines, the load that battle armors can carry is limited, making them incapable of sustaining high-intensity output. Their movent trajectory and speed could largely be predicted.
Since Ru Ying’s side dared to make a move, they evidently ca prepared.
Quicksand Technique, Swamp Technique, Slow Technique...
The high-level spells cast by magical magicians turned large swathes of the city outskirts into mud and sand. Even if those chanical armors had short-range jet propulsion abilities, the escape routes were already blocked in advance. No matter how they dodged, they couldn’t escape the overwhelming magic.
Apart from control spells, there were also various mysterious attacking techniques, such as various Curse Magics, Illusion Techniques, hypnosis, fear, weakness, mind control, and plague...
This was the most effective thod of attack against cha, capable of directly ignoring the armor’s defense to target the soldiers themselves.
Even if the fully covered armors isolated most auditory and visual illusions, so special asures were still unforeseeable.
These mysterious techniques had been waiting for a long ti, hidden and casting spells from the shadows. Once cast, they imdiately caused most of the low-level battle armors to collapse on the spot.
The Mafa people were also very decisive. Seeing their companions "crashing," they did not hesitate to activate the self-destruct program, directly blowing up their cha.
Su Lun watched as the cha self-destructed, frowning slightly.
With them all self-destructing, the idea of scavenging was also shattered.
In an instant, he turned his attention to the more than ten high-level officer armors still fighting, his gaze landing on the runes that faintly glowed during battle, analyzing inwardly, "Composite rune scripts and shielding coatings, able to significantly weaken mysterious spells. These are unseen rune encodings, Mafa indeed innovated a lot on traditional runes to suit cha..."
Su Lun sighed internally with only one real thought: I want it!
He imdiately thought of his "Iron Man."
The ancient runes clearly did not suit the iron cha, but Mafa’s chanical revolution over the past century had advanced far on this path.
Su Lun’s gaze identified the materials of the armor once more, growing increasingly covetous, "No wonder it can resist, the helts of fourth-tier and above officer armors are mixed to so extent with ’invigorating divine tal,’ capable of blocking spiritual power to different extents. Not only materials and runes, but the energy systems are also filled with advanced technology. Ah... If only I could get a set to study."
With these more than ten armors surviving the first round of attacks, unless the enchanted runes or sothing similar were worn out, destroying them later wouldn’t be easy.
The battle quickly beca a fierce struggle for survival.
Both sides fought fiercely, with high-order magicians also entering close combat.
When they used their powerful abilities, the battle shifted from a high-tech weaponry conflict to a high-level spell duel.
Su Lun watched in amazent.
He looked at the distant sixth-tier chanical warrior who raised his hands, a white alchemy formation lighting up beneath his feet. Upon a closer look, countless bullets shot towards him were blocked three ters in front of him, as if deterred by an invisible force. Then with a push, the bullets accelerated back the way they had co.
Swords, firearms, shields, iron fences... anything that was made of steel was manipulated at will, either as an offensive tool or a defensive asure...
One man, like a War God.
This guy was not only strong in his armor, but his personal combat power was also formidable.
Su Lun was sowhat surprised and realized it was a type of innate ability, "So the talent of Legion Commander Bluul is the control of magnetism, and he’s a dual-power user?"
[B-071-Magnetic Field], this talent is strong.
But the reason it’s still ranked lower in the B category is that this magnetic field almost exclusively affects "iron."
However, in this era of steel and steam, it’s definitely one of the talents that can most effectively transform ability into combat power.
Thinking of this, he remarked, "It really is a talent with an extrely high compatibility with the chanical warrior..."
Watching Bluul control the steel around him, covering his teammates as they withdrew and blocked the enemy, a man in a suit also unwilling to show weakness leapt down directly from a building.
In the midst of the fall, he pinched a sorcerer’s seal, and flas imdiately blazed up around him. In a blink, the drifting cold flas grew in length, and quickly coalesced into a massive blue fla armored giant. The giant of fla glared with angry brows, holding a fire spear, while behind it gathered six spheres of blue cold fire.
The suit-clad man, protected by cold flas, fearlessly engaged the battle cha.
Su Lun recognizing the familiar cold flas, imdiately guessed that these were people from the Ru Ying royal family, and marveled, "Indeed, it’s the culmination of the ’No Servant’ Secret Technique congealing into a Servant God. Very strong!"
Not just that one, many masters showed up, erging one after another...
This was a battle between old-school magicians and new-school magicians.
....
The distant battle grew more intense, varying masters, enhancents, and abilities collided in a never-ending sequence, profoundly opening Su Lun’s eyes.
It finally gave him a clear understanding of the ground world’s professionals’ combat power.
The earth’s professionals were not all as weak as those mixed up with the Poison Snake gang; nobles holding absolute social resources had cultivated professionals, each with rarer talents and more unique enhancents...
Intense as the fight was, it had little to do with Su Lun, who was rely watching the excitent.
Looking for a chance to scavenge, he found none.
Yet, as he watched, Su Lun eyed the chanical warriors retreating towards the docks and suddenly harbored a doubt, "Mafa’s chanical warriors are strong, unlikely to be defeated quickly, but escaping will not be easy..."
That group of chanical warriors seed intent on breaking towards "Dock Number One."
There lay the private dock for nobility, occupied by a battleship from the Mafa delegation.
At this very mont, Dock One had also transford into another battlefield.
Not only were people sabotaging the ship, but naval vessels from outside the harbor were closing in as well.
Once Ru Ying’s forces took action, there seed to be no intention of letting these individuals escape by boat.
No matter how one looked at it, there was no way that battleship was leaving the harbor.
Considering this, Su Lun watched the chanical soldiers who were fighting while retreating ponder, "Sothing’s off — why does it seem like they’re deliberately stalling for ti?"
Logically, having abandoned the lower-ranked cha soldiers, now hitting the elite forces would be the perfect opportunity to break through.
But observing this conservative tactic of fighting while retreating, sothing was clearly amiss.
Moreover, since the Mafa people dared to seize that object, they must have confidence in taking it away.
Su Lun suddenly beca intrigued, his thoughts rapidly turning, "They can’t escape by land, and the harbor is blocked. There aren’t many options left. To escape, it would have to be from the sky..."
He glanced at the clear, starlit night sky, then imdiately shook his head.
If it were a steam airship, those slow-moving and large target flying objects would probably be shot to pieces by the city’s artillery before even landing.
With that thought, Su Lun’s gaze fell on the vast sea, and he suddenly guessed, "Or rather, it’s... beneath the sea!"
....
Things not present in one’s world are hard to envision existing.
But for Su Lun, a transmigrator, he naturally knew of the existence of submarines.
The technological level between Ru Ying and Mafa now resembled that between late Qing China and contemporary Arica in his previous life.
One already had modern submarines, while the other was still frowned upon by the old-fashioned rulers as "foreign techniques leading the country astray."
Land routes... were a dead end.
Sea routes... although the ironclad is strong, its speed is slower than sailing ships, making escape impossible.
Su Lun felt that, aside from "submarines," even if those from Mafa grew wings, they could not fly away today.
Even if he annihilated everyone present now, experts from other territories would continue arriving for reinforcent, certainly not allowing them to leave alive.
Although Su Lun wasn’t entirely clear on the current extent of Mafa’s technology, seeing their chanical armors, he knew they definitely possessed the capability to construct submarines.
The technology wasn’t a problem, and with the need in naval war, this direction of warfare product developnt, "submarines", was bound to erge!
The more Su Lun analyzed, the more he felt his conjecture was correct, "They’re dragging out ti not to retreat, but to buy ti for the submarine to enter the harbor!"
However, he guessed the beginning but failed to predict the process.
He thought of submarines as Mafa people’s ans of escape, yet he didn’t expect that a submarine would erge right in front of his eyes!
While the battle concentrated around the ironclad at Dock One of the noble district, nobody noticed that in the anti, the water surface at Civilian Dock Seven suddenly surged quietly.
A dockworker suddenly shouted, "There’s a monster coming up from underwater!"
As the massive object erged, it caused the boats in the dock to bob violently.
Su Lun, staring at the dark object rising from the sea like a giant whale, his gaze sharp, "They really did develop it..."
Upon seeing the submarine surface, he did not hesitate and quickly withdrew.
Because the center of the battlefield was shifting in that direction!
Clearly prepared, the dozen Mafa chanical soldiers upon seeing the submarine surface, with steam boilers building up pressure, obscured by a great deal of smoke underfoot, left a few to cover the rear, and then altogether rushed towards Dock Seven.
Ru Ying’s encirclent was mainly around the route from the auction place to Dock One, and this move caught the encircling forces completely off guard!
....
Su Lun watched the astonished looks of the pursuers, evidently having never seen a "submarine."
He had thought that with this clever tactic, the Mafa chanical soldiers could successfully escape.
However, Ru Ying’s intelligence departnt had plenty of tricks up its sleeve, knowing they were targeting chanical soldiers, and were already prepared.
As the people began to flee, they finally released their contingency plan.
At this mont, on a distant high-rise, a person suddenly pulled out a long bow stored in a sealed box.
Holding the long bow up, he imdiately perford a drawing motion.
Right then, a miraculous scene unfolded!
On the previously empty bowstring, an alchemy formation lit up briefly, swiftly condensing a milky white light arrow.
Su Lun curiously observed this movent and upon identifying it, realized it was yet another "sealed item."
And it was specifically designed to target chanical soldiers.
[Chronos’s Bow of Ti Curse]
Quality: Legendary
Description: Ti flies like an arrow, fleeting in a mont
Curse properties: An Arrow of Ti shot at a target ignores obstacles that are not higher than the regulations of bow and arrow themselves, stealing the target’s lifespan upon hitting; those who have not mastered the Ti laws need to use their own lifespan to condense the arrows; the lifespan consud from the target is related to fate;
Detailed explanation: If your fate is not as strong as the target’s, you need to consu more of your lifespan;
"Ignoring obstacles," this attribute is specifically aid at cha warriors.
Su Lun looked at the detailed explanation. This Cursed Bow was sowhat similar to his black scythe; both had the existence of killing a thousand enemies at the cost of self-damage of eight hundred.
However, this arrow’s curse backlash was quite special.
It’s not about reducing a hundred years of soone’s lifespan and reducing a hundred years of your own.
There’s an additional condition—fate.
"Fate" is a very special existence. Su Lun had seen its definition in ancient texts, but it was very vague.
It’s roughly explained as "the quality of lifespan".
For example: a beggar’s hundred years of lifespan is roughly equivalent to one month of an emperor’s lifespan (no occupational discrimination intended, just an example).
The rough description is, the greater a person’s influence in this world, the stronger their fate.
A person with strong fate, using this bow, might consu one year of lifespan and might take away all the lifespan of soone with weaker fate.
A person with weak fate, using this bow, might consu a hundred years and might only injure soone else’s lifespan for a year.
Since fate and lifespan are both "uncertain factors," no one can clearly state whose fate is stronger.
This cursed item truly involves gambling with life!
....
Su Lun watched as Lu Ying’s side brought out this bow and identified its attributes. His gaze also turned very strange, "This bow indeed counters cha warriors, but it’s not easy to kill soone..."
Those from Mafa are all officers, who might beco Grand Generals in the future, which ans their fate is not comparable to ordinary people.
Using this bow to kill, the cost is not small.
However, Su Lun still underestimated the deterrence of imperial power.
These people clearly received a deadly order to keep those individuals.
He watched as the cursed longbow was taken out and the person drawing the bow shot an arrow without hesitation.
One arrow per second.
Pull once, change to another person.
"Whoosh" "Whoosh" "Whoosh"...
The arrows of light were shot out ceaselessly.
Those drawing the bow had just put down the longbow when their bodies visibly aged, transforming from their pri to decrepit old age in an instant, so even dying on the spot.
Watching this made bystander Su Lun’s scalp tingle and his eyelids twitch, "There really are many sinister thods in this world..."
Not everyone is the main character dood to survive till the end.
The fate of most ordinary people is roughly the sa.
Besides, no matter how strong your fate, how many people’s lifespans can it withstand?
If one isn’t enough, then bring ten!
Is the Ti Bow powerful?
Are the suicide soldiers strong?
No, Su Lun deeply felt the power of authority.
However, the effect was imdiate.
cha warriors move fast, but their ability to change direction is a weakness, lacking agility, very easy to predict.
The royals from Lu Ying didn’t bring out this curse bow to let so low-level soldiers shoot the arrows.
That would only waste the precious opportunity to pursue.
Su Lun noted that those who were shooting the arrows were all not weak in spirit, and highly aware, clearly being of officer rank.
This was truly exchanging life for life.
Both sides were sacrificing high-level talents in the fray!
And so, life for life, sotis just two or three arrows were enough to take down a cha warrior.
When those dozen high-level cha warriors reached Pier No. 7, only five or six were left.
Su Lun wasn’t concerned about who won or lost.
If he was not mistaken, that ti arrow was only hitting the people controlling the chas, and the chas were unscathed?
Furthermore, just by chance, one ended up falling into the sea at Pier No. 5?
Seeing this, Su Lun quietly sneaked over.
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