This is really not mechanical ascension
Chapter 328 - 178: The Devil Who Plays With Human Hearts

Chapter 328: Chapter 178: The Devil Who Plays With Human Hearts

"A few friends," Li Ming explained, "thank you for taking action."

As if a great calamity had just been averted, a sweat-drenched Blake heard these words and couldn’t help but freeze for a moment, before slowly exhaling.

"Friends?"

The reactions of several individuals did not escape Ulrich’s attention, his expression meaningful, yet he did not say much, retracting his gaze.

In his heart, Blake couldn’t help but feel a sense of gratitude for his narrow escape from death.

Although before their arrival, they had boasted about how they had the support of the interstellar alliance and feared no A-level life forms, Blake knew clearly that it was all bluster.

If their operation had been successful and they had managed to escape, then it was unlikely that the Collector would have left the Land of Stars to hunt them down.

But likewise, if they had been killed here by the Collector, it was equally unlikely that the interstellar alliance would have done anything for them.

Moreover, given the attention the Collector paid to this person, if they had actually made a move just now, this A-level life form might indeed have burst forth from the Land of Stars to hunt them down.

One could say that their lives had hung by a thread, entirely at the mercy of this individual’s will—but that person’s words had saved them.

Thinking thus, Blake’s attitude underwent a subtle change, and he looked at Li Ming with much more complexity in his eyes.

He wasn’t a bad person, quite the contrary, he was rather upright. With the debt of a life saved laid out in front of him, this matter became difficult to handle.

Ya Ro, too, let out a sigh of relief. He didn’t want to see Li Ming and the people from the interstellar alliance slaughtering each other, and he was partly to blame for the current situation.

If Blake and the others had died, Ya Ro didn’t know how he would have faced himself.

Ulrich, meanwhile, assured Li Ming, "Don’t worry, the trouble has been dealt with. Sandro likely won’t make another move against you."

"I’m grateful to you," Li Ming said with "appreciation," while Ulrich smiled, feeling a bit surprised in his heart.

Sandro’s men hadn’t even managed to set foot on the Floating Island before they were detected by the Azure Dragon; it was certain that they had been targeted, a skill that was no easy feat.

Yet Ulrich felt that the situation was still under Control, not paying it too much mind, and instead, he looked up toward the Red River Starfall, "I almost forgot, this is your first time participating in the Red River Starfall, and you’re not very familiar with it. You probably haven’t gained much—I’ll help you."

"That would be great," Li Ming immediately agreed.

The others, including Blake, tried to make themselves as unnoticeable as possible, and were shocked upon hearing what Ulrich had said.

Not content with being a bodyguard, he was also playing the role of a nanny?

Blake couldn’t quite understand why this newcomer to the Land of Stars was so valued by Ulrich.

Ulrich smiled, his demeanor ever so graceful. He lifted his hand as if grabbing an invisible curtain and yanked it down sharply, unleashing a terrifying presence that surged forth.

Just a breath away, everyone could feel the might of the A-level life form. The mere aftereffects were so intense that they found it hard to breathe.

Parts of the vast, limitless Red River Star Stream began to ripple. More than a dozen meteors were pulled out, their crimson trail blinding, descending upon the small Floating Island like a world-ending event.

Blake’s heart lurched. The overwhelming sense of oppression was so strong that he found it difficult to breathe, and the entire Floating Island was shrouded in shadows, as if it would be shattered to pieces in the next moment.

Ulrich clenched his fist, and in an instant, all the meteors came to a halt in mid-air, no longer plummeting, and began to rotate slowly.

As the red light faded, various kinds of wreckage and ruins of structures became visible, the most striking being the wreckage of an extra-large battleship-class starship.

Li Ming’s expression tightened. The terror of an A-level life form was even beyond his expectations.

Capable of drastically altering the ecosystem, destroying continental plates, given enough time, they could wipe out all life on a planet’s surface, their destructive power breathtaking.

"Ha..." Ulrich chuckled lightly, "Lucky, there’s even an extra-large battleship among the haul, just its scrap material is worth a few billion."

Since Ulrich’s own powers related to gravity, his gains from every Red River Starfall were usually the greatest, not even wasting a single second.

His odd behavior of returning midway this time drew the attention of several life forms.

Many raiders, aboard gravity ships, had been observing the scene here through telescopic lenses.

"The Collector seems to be capturing meteors for that small Floating Island. Just now, Sandro appeared too..."

"Quite curious indeed, who is that guy? Seems pretty new to the scene."

"It’s the Mechanic—Azure Dragon. No wonder things were quiet; turns out he was taken under the Collector’s wing. There had been many speculations before that he might be a Grand Mechanic."

"I heard he took down Atom from the Star Hunters..."

"That snake is dead? No wonder I haven’t seen him around recently."

Discussions broke out across various channels as many interstellar outlaws, previously unaware of the "Azure Dragon Mechanic," gradually got the gist of who he was.

"A Grand Mechanic, huh..." Saber sat in his chair, scrolling through his smart terminal, the discussions surrounding the Azure Dragon constantly refreshing with each new comment.

A flicker of flame seemed to light up within his murky eyes, "If he’s a Grand Mechanic, he might just be capable."

...

Back on the Floating Island, Ulrich had already left, continuing to harness his ability to pull in a massive number of meteors from the Red River Starfall.

The duration of this Red River Starfall wasn’t particularly long, just a day and a half, Li Ming estimated.

Ulrich had pulled in at least two hundred meteors—a staggering number.

Li Ming was even more astonished; no wonder an A-level life form that did not much indulge in slaughter and preferred to collect things was hiding in the Land of Stars. It was indeed a super treasure trove.