Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 316 - 316 97 In the Blustering Wind

316: Chapter 97: In the Blustering Wind 316: Chapter 97: In the Blustering Wind A child, ordinary yet with infinite potential, traded their consciousness, life, and everything for the rebirth of a Martial Artist.

This Martial Artist, who was destined for greatness, created a form of Martial Studies that was equally promising.

But the child and the Martial Artist would never get to see this Martial Studies being honed and perfected through countless actual combats.

The future of the Martial Artist had dwindled to just over half an hour, as shown on the countdown.

What a heartbreaking reality this was.

The unfamiliar Hero could no longer bear it.

He collapsed to the ground, crying, “This is just too…”

“You can still escape if you leave now… The Burrow Dragons have tunnels,” Xiang Shan patted his shoulder.

A glimmer of hope ignited within the man: “If there’s a way out, then you should come with…”

Xiang Shan shook his head, smiling, “I’ve said it before, my time in this life is up.”

The man became anxious, “You…

you think that if you die, the Fire God will really spare Delacruz City?

You think…”

Xiang Shan interrupted, “For some reasons, yes.

That’s it.

If you don’t want to leave, then I’ll have to force you.”

“No…

you can’t…” the man screamed in agony, “Xiang Shan, stop…

No, you can’t…

A true Hero can’t force others!

You can’t!”

But his body betrayed his will and quickly stood up, running in the opposite direction.

Zheng Lunnao was standing in the corner.

Xiang Shan approached, “Teacher Zheng, it’s rare to see you here.

You actually came at this time?”

Zheng Lunnao pointed in the direction the Hero had left, “Is this also Inner Strength?”

Xiang Shan nodded, “It’s Inner Strength that has been cultivated to a very high level.”

“Impressive.

It seems there’s a reason why His Highness came to kill you personally.”

Xiang Shan nodded in agreement.

“Burrow Dragon.” Zheng Lunnao changed the subject, “You could escape.”

“Everyone has their fate,” Xiang Shan shrugged.

“If you really want to save the people of this city, why not let them escape through the Burrow Dragon’s tunnels?

Save as many as you can.”

“We’re not in ancient times anymore, Teacher Zheng,” Xiang Shan shrugged, “There are satellites watching from the sky.

A few might be fine, but hundreds or thousands would certainly be exposed.

And there are tens of thousands of residents in this city.”

“Saving one is still better than you going to your death.”

“Still not possible.

The exact location of the Burrow Dragons must not be exposed.

They are the foundation from which a new generation of Heroes will continue to emerge.

Even if King Aqini really massacres the city, I cannot let them come out,” Xiang Shan shrugged, “Their continued existence will save more lives.”

Zheng Lunnao said, “But if you were to survive, surely many would be saved as well.”

“Haha, that thing,” Xiang Shan scratched his head, “Some things cannot be judged by simple arithmetic.

Maybe, after weighing human lives on a scale, some might feel that their own life is not so heavy after all.”

The moment Xiang Shan looked up, Zheng Lunnao stiffened a bit.

“Alright, Teacher Zheng.

I’ve just deleted the last half hour of memory data from your hard drive.

I hope you’ve committed our recent conversation to your Biological Brain.

If you’ve forgotten, no worries—if you suddenly can’t remember what you came here for, just tell yourself ‘I just did a good deed.'” Xiang Shan patted Zheng Lunnao’s shoulder, “You should also consider running for your life.

Later when I’m exposed, your fate won’t be good either.

And that ‘delete’ is a bit too conspicuous.

There’s no time to forge traces now.”

“Who knows,” Zheng Lunnao said, “For students who perform well, I always remember them with my Biological Brain.

Even if I start with the hard drive, I’ll take the time to also store it in my Biological Brain later.”

“Many years ago, I couldn’t teach you much, instead, you taught me a lot.

Now I can’t claim to be able to teach you anything.

It’s just a farewell.”

Xiang Shan nodded and walked towards the edge of the city.

Zheng Lunnao followed Xiang Shan at a distance.

At the city’s edge, there seemed to be a riot.

The Lay Buddhist Fokong appeared to be trying to stop the crowd and also the Protectors.

The Protectors seemed enraged.

With the countdown ticking, even those Lords high above were growing impatient.

They even thought of killing Fokong along with everyone else.

In the end, Zheng Lunnao watched as Xiang Shan killed a Protector.

……………………………………

Doctor Hu sat in the corner, as calm as a devotee immersed in meditation.

There were only a cold-blooded Ranger and a Life-Chasing Cavalry left on guard, and on the prisoner’s side, at least he and Instructor Zheng remained.

On the surface, there was hope for a breakout.

But that subordinate of King Aqini was a bona fide Internal Strength Master.

Internal martial artists could kill from thousands, even tens of thousands of miles away…

No, if it were people like King Aqini and Turing, it probably would take a “light second” level distance to pose any obstacle.

One of King Aqini’s students was in the city.

Any slight movement and their Prosthetic Bodies would be locked down.

However, Doctor Hu was a licensed Cultivator of the Internal school, free to use Inner Strength to circumvent all forms of surveillance on brain activity—if King Aqini really wanted to question him, he could counter with “protecting the secrets of the Scientific Knight Order.”

After the EMP event, the relationship between the Scientific Knight Order and King Aqini had been tense.

If something like that were to happen, even the Knight Commander of the Sanctuary might face consequences.

However, that EMP event was quite lucky for those who had once had dealings with the Eighth Martial God.

That EMP paralyzed the entire city, and naturally, it wiped away most of the stored intelligence.

Otherwise, many people, including Zheng Lunnao and himself, would simply not have been able to preserve what’s called “civilization’s sanctuary”.

So, the only freedom Doctor Hu had was his “thoughts”.

Of course, he also had to be careful.

Some spillover thoughts would still be encoded by storage devices and automatically saved.

Well aware of this, Doctor Hu nearly forced himself not to think about that day’s events.

Only now, under this nearly controlled and highly tense mental state, did he dare to recall the incidents of that day.

Doctor Hu always found it strange.

Was Xiang Shan really the sort of person who would obediently accept death because of hostages?

Did he truly believe that King Aqini would stop his actions after his own death?

Did he really think that this was a good ending?

It seemed that the Martial Gods of history had made the opposite choices.

Was it the child’s primal emotional impulse as a special variable that led the Eighth Martial God to make that decision?

Doctor Hu even doubted his own memory at times.

The hard drive memories of that day were all wiped out by the EMP, and the memories in the biological brain were too unreliable.

The brain would forget things at random without choice, and would also edit memories on its own.

He wasn’t clear whether the “dubious points” were due to deviations in his own memory, or if he was simply unwilling to accept the death of that person.

He still remembered that day.

On the city’s edge, a group of overburdened civilians began to vent their emotions—in the form of violence.

They were quickly classified by the system as people who had lost sanctuary, becoming things without personal rights—others could unleash violence on them at will.

The chaos just expanded infinitely.

Doctor Hu didn’t really want to get involved in this kind of trouble.

He was in a hurry to find Xiang Shan, who should have had a way to escape.

But as the turmoil grew, threatening his medical station and orphanage, he had to step forward to stop those people.

Perhaps as a result of many years of providing medical consultation, several people who recognized him actually backed off.

Then, the Protectors arrived.

But Doctor Hu did not feel happy.

He was well aware of the methods of the Protectors; those Houndhawks would simply kill rampantly those who had lost sanctuary, just to deter participants.

There were already signs that the situation was calming down, and he did not want to cause more bloodshed.

However, the leader of the Protectors—a local official—was already half-mad.

His direct superior had just been eliminated by King Aqini.

His mental state was not normal, and he even attacked Doctor Hu along with the others.

Doctor Hu indeed hadn’t expected that the quality of the Protector squad had deteriorated to such an extent, behaving so irrationally.

He didn’t have time to fight back before he was knocked to the ground, about to be swarmed and killed by a group of Protectors.

Then, he saw an odd sight.

All the Protectors froze in place.

The crazed Military Officer, who seemed to have been Empowered by a master and had Inner Strength by his side, struggled for a moment.

A long stick appeared as if from the heavens, piercing the officer’s neck and pinning him to the ground.

The force of the blow shattered his brain.

Then, Xiang Shan descended from the sky.

Doctor Hu saw Xiang Shan.

In that instant, he knew Xiang Shan’s intentions.

“No…” he struggled on the ground, “don’t do this… you are more valuable than they are… don’t do this…”

But Xiang Shan just glanced at him—as if unintentionally shifting his gaze.

Afterward, he pulled out the long stick, slung it over his shoulder, and said, “Don’t panic, my brethren.

I am Xiang Shan.

The real deal.”

He pointed the long stick toward the sky and said, “Well met, Hartman.

But all this is meaningless.

One day, another will inherit this Legacy—I will return.”

Having said that, the Martial God pulled out the long stick, carried it on his shoulder, and walked unhurriedly towards the Iron Dust-covered area.

A gust of wind kicked up a cloud of dust.

Moved by a whim, the Martial God even began to sing softly, “I stand in the fierce winds / Wishing I could / Sweep away the perpetual pain of my heart.”

“Looking to the heavens with clouds shifting / Sword in hand / I ask who in this world is a true hero.”

“I stand in the fierce winds / Wishing I could / Sweep away the perpetual pain of my heart.”

“Looking to the heavens with clouds shifting / Sword in hand / I ask who in this world is a true hero…”

The singing faded into the metallic aerosol.

Then, from the sky fell a golden divine punishment.

The memories from there began to blur.

Soon, the EMP would sweep across the land.