Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 578 - 222: The Era

Chapter 578: Chapter 222: The Era

Underground.

"Native" looked at "Eight," "So you just let Kotoba escape?"

"What else?" Eight shook his head, "Indeed, I was outwitted by that girl. From the moment you and I executed the Mystic Tortoise True Gang, we only had a few minutes to fight. Her sole purpose was probably to drag out this little bit of fighting time, waiting for that Old Dog to react."

Perhaps Kanhara Shinhara hadn’t anticipated that Xiang Shan wasn’t in perfect condition and would be mentally unsettled by her appearance. Nonetheless, given Xiang Shan’s personality, upon seeing Kanhara Shinhara, he would likely have said a word or two.

That word or two had been enough to regroup the desperate protectors of the Six Dragons Sect.

After knowing Xiang Shan’s identity, those protectors of the Six Dragons Sect no longer had the will to resist, making it vastly more difficult for Xiang Shan to kill them.

"If they didn’t know who we were and still had the mindset to resist, then it might have been possible to annihilate them all. With this decrepit prosthetic body, if Kotoba focused solely on escaping, we couldn’t have stopped her."

"There was a chance, right?" Native said, "In the melee phase, controlling two or three protectors..."

"Hartman’s army was about to arrive. In front of Hartman, using that move on two small pawns?"

"But Kotoba might be the highest-ranking member of the Six Dragons Sect closest to us."

"Think carefully about how the Six Dragons Sect cowers before that old dog Hartman," Eight said, "In terms of the degree of evil, the Six Dragons Sect might even be worse. But if we talk about existing power and threat level, the Protector is our prime enemy."

Internal Martial Art Mastery relies on the "Mystery" for its existence. Whenever a secret technique is used, there is the potential for exposure. Once exposed, masters will come to decode it, creating counteracting patches.

The Eighth Martial God, through Xiang Shan’s perspective as a developer and Zhu Xinyu’s viewpoint, carved into the "Underlying Protocol" to an extent unreachable by predecessors.

But its power also stemmed precisely because it was "unreachable by predecessors."

Since no one had ever attacked from this path, Hartman wouldn’t be conscious of "defense."

Once Hartman became aware and created counteracting patches, that move would become ineffective.

If Xiang Shan truly intended to use that strategy, he needed to be sure to "destroy all puppet core modules before breaking away."

"Moreover, considering this, we don’t have much time left. We’ve exposed the existence of the Six Dragons Sect in front of the government; the Six Dragons Sect can retaliate using the same method by simply informing the government that we are alive. The government’s investigational focus will then shift towards us. If we want to save Nine, we need to act quickly."

Native appeared somewhat disheartened, "Kotoba, ah... how could she be like this? How could she do this? How could we let her leave like that?"

"It’s not entirely without benefits. I can steal data from surveillance satellite network records," Eight said, "Perhaps we can track them down and find other strongholds of the Six Dragons Sect."

"If it were that simple, then Hartman would have dug out the Six Dragons Sect long ago," Native shook his head, "How could she do this?"

"What else can we do? Jader is a most contributive Hero. Let him die? Think of it positively," Eight said, "Jader helped us to unveil Kotoba’s identity, which is a pleasant surprise. In this era, ’Kanhara Shinhara’ is also a historical figure. Just by investigating history, perhaps we can find some clues."

"Hmm."

Xiang Shan closed his eyes.

Xiang Shan restarted his Prosthetic Eye.

This was an underground area.

In a last resort, Xiang Shan simply took apart Jader’s lower half, letting Jader’s lower half wander in any direction to attract attention, then removed Jader’s arms to reduce burden. Only then did he manage to catch up at the meeting point with Cain.

Under Cain’s guidance, they found this long-abandoned underground shelter.

It was said that this place was a stronghold of Green Forest thirty years ago. A Hero who came to hunt a Burrow Dragon for its nuclear battery had annihilated it, and then reported this location to Cain.

The place was designed well, to begin with, mainly because it was deep enough. Normal weapons couldn’t penetrate it. Cain had also planted landmines everywhere and maintained them regularly. Plus, the stockade had secret tunnels for retreating.

It was a good place to rest up.

Jader was downcast. Seeing Xiang Shan stand up, he shifted to the side.

"Damn, when did you first find out who I was? There were hints back with Apricot Forest Duke, right? Don’t tell me you didn’t catch on." Xiang Shan shook his head, "I warn you, don’t get too sappy with me. I have this quirk—I see people who treat me like parents as dogs. Those who revere me like a god, I see them as a pile of shit."

"No, it’s just that, I’m heartbroken..." Jader patted his head, "That person, he’s ’Flower of Rhetoric,’ right?... The famous female hero, right? A great senior? How could she... how could..."

Jader covered his prosthetic eye, "I really don’t know what to say. But I’m just..."

Xiang Shan sighed, "The progress of history is just like this."

Jader asked, "What do we do next? Should we go after them?"

"We can’t. We either hope that Old Dog’s subordinates are competent enough to kill them all, or we just have to slowly follow this clue."

Jader sighed. He looked at Xiang Shan, "Boss, that..."

"She can’t turn back now. Unless the next time we meet, she personally destroys the Six Dragons Sect," Xiang Shan shrugged.

"So what’s next..."

"Wait a bit longer. We need weaker monitoring so Cain can send us off. Then we take the cooler," Xiang Shan tapped his forehead, "And then... weapons, what kind of Martial Studies firearms did I use again?"

Right, more importantly, he still needed to recover his memory.

If next time was as easily a Defense Break as now, it wouldn’t just be a ’live mishap.’

Xiang Shan closed his eyes again, "Speaking of which, which old friends have I actually killed?"

Xiang Shan cared about this sentence.

He had been emotional at the moment, so he naturally blurted it out.

He had definitely killed old friends. Not to mention, Yawgmoth could be considered amongst the ’old friends’. During the ’Elevation War,’ he had definitely gone into battle with the intention to kill this person.

But who else was there?

Xiang Shan pondered over this question.

The dark side of Zhu Xinyu’s heart could all be reflected in the Eighth Martial God. That was an visage he himself, as ’Martial Ancestor Xiang Shan,’ had never witnessed while he was alive.

Time could turn a person into anything. In the end, maybe only his image, which everyone remembered and continuously downloaded from the internet, remained unchanged as a ghost.

The ’old friends’ he might cut down along with the other ten Martial Gods seemed indeed quite numerous.

"Forget it, let’s load the next memory," Xiang Shan shook his head, "There’s no network now, and I can’t download from elsewhere. Let’s just look at this segment."

Xiang Shan closed his prosthetic eye and immersed his mind into that file.

His thoughts went back to the year 2044.

For Xiang Shan, those years also meant the departure of friends and family. But in the memories of most people, those were exciting and intense years.

The first Number One Martial Arts Tournament, which was about to change the course of human history.