This is really not mechanical ascension
Chapter 668 - 349: Unexpected Gains, The Long-Awaited Upgrade!

Chapter 668: Chapter 349: Unexpected Gains, The Long-Awaited Upgrade!

Adas’s heart trembled; it was clear that Li Ming’s words were resolute, completely diverging from their original plan and expectations.

The possibility of this plan failing was extremely low; based on behavioral analysis, Li Ming was very likely to have Austin directly delivered to the target location.

However, they had not neglected to prepare for the contingency of failure—the most probable cause being Azure Dragon’s interference, leading to the plan’s downfall.

But such a catastrophic failure seemed almost impossible—Li Ming’s mecha and the accompanying mechanical body’s performances had already departed from the realm of conventional explanation.

Never once had she considered the possibility of death.

She had not imagined that Li Ming possessed such immense autonomy, that he could make decisions directly without needing to report to Azure Dragon.

"We can talk..." Adas said hastily, genuinely flustered: "If you kill me, you’ll end up in a deadly feud with the Holy Mother Church, which goes against your teacher’s intentions."

"My teacher’s intentions?" Li Ming countered.

"Your teacher is merely..." Adas started but abruptly stopped, her face clouded with suspicion, suspecting that the other party was deliberately intimidating her to extract information.

Li Ming shook his head, too indifferent to probe further, and simply absorbed the Genetic Essence in silence.

"You..." Adas couldn’t comprehend, watching as the mecha only gripped her arm without taking further action.

Although she had no idea what the other party was doing, relief began to wash over her; she was certain that Li Ming had only been trying to scare her.

After all, she was an S-level life form, crucially important—Li Ming couldn’t possibly kill her without informing Azure Dragon.

For the next hour or so, Adas repeatedly tried to speak, expressing a willingness to negotiate from different angles.

This was the Holy Mother Church’s genuine intent; if the talks failed again, they truly planned to negotiate with Azure Dragon.

Suddenly, Li Ming stood up. Adas was bewildered, and then her expression drastically changed.

The mecha in front of her lifted its right leg without saying a word and kicked toward her head.

Crack!

Her skull shattered, her face collapsed, everything before her turned dark, the ground thundered, kicking up ripples of dust that swirled incessantly.

Lift foot, drop foot.

The ground cracked, time and again, as Adas wailed endlessly—Li Ming truly hadn’t informed Azure Dragon!

"No, you can’t do this!"

"...You dare act on your own..."

With each indignant roar, Adas’s head became nothing more than a lump of flesh; her body continued convulsing.

With the vitality of an S-level life form, in such circumstances, there was still some chance of survival.

But soon, Li Ming completely turned the corpse into pulp.

"You didn’t want to talk; you were just afraid." Li Ming coldly stared at the mass of bloody flesh on the ground, shook his head.

Then he glanced at the distance, where Thunder had already completed the cleanup work.

Among those remaining, the strongest was Earth Mother, merely an A-level life form.

Li Ming then shook his body, releasing three or four dozen humanoid mechanical bodies—tools he’d brought out from the base, perfect as labor units.

Li Ming commanded them to organize the nearby ships and weapons.

His gaze fell on a massive palace embedded in the mountainside, though he didn’t head there immediately, instead moving toward another direction.

Quite soon, he landed in front of a small-scale base sitting atop the brown earth.

This base originally belonged to the Holy Silver Civilization’s Dimension Secret Castle, later occupied by the Star Abyss Empire, and now under the control of the Holy Mother Church.

The ground was strewn with the corpses of Empire soldiers, nearby sentry posts had been reduced to ruins.

The members of the Holy Mother Church had only performed basic cleanup, without establishing any detailed control.

Forcibly prying open the base’s doors, the entire system inside had fallen into a state of silence, not so much as an alarm sounding.

Walking through the corridors, streaks of blood splattered the metallic walls everywhere, corpses sprawled across the floor, leading him straight to the control core.

Shards of glass littered the ground; bullet holes pocked the consoles, signs of intense resistance.

Standing before the consoles, Li Ming gave them a glance before attempting a restart. The main screen flickered weakly, lighting briefly before fading back into complete darkness.

"The damage here is severe." Li Ming surveyed the surroundings and extended a data cable from Thunder’s palm, connecting it to a data port.

"Master, the base’s management system has suffered heavy damage; the data has been scattered and rendered irretrievable." From Thunder’s form, the soft voice of Vermilion Bird spoke.

"Can you take over the system?" Li Ming asked.

"Please give me a moment."

Li Ming waited at the spot, and about ten minutes later, the entire base’s lights suddenly flared to life.

On the nearby screens that were still functional, a delicate, lifelike image of Vermilion Bird surfaced.

"Master, I have successfully taken over the base, collecting the remaining data. Please proceed to the internal warehouse; there should be items of interest to you." Vermilion Bird offered proactively.

Li Ming raised an eyebrow and, following Vermilion Bird’s guidance, walked through several corridors until he reached the warehouse door.

Damage was minimal here; the walls gleamed as if newly minted.

With a hum, the metallic warehouse door slowly opened, revealing its spacious interior. Li Ming’s attention was instantly drawn to the object lying on a massive metal platform in the center.

Spanning over ten meters in size, he approached to get a closer look and felt a sudden surge of astonishment.

The object was entirely gray-brown, its surface bristling with sharp spikes. Most intriguingly, it seemed to have limb-like appendages with distinct signs of precise cuts.