"A threat..." Qi Suian saw the youth holding an unknown spear-type Sacred Artifact, and his brow furrowed.
He sensed a strange sort of threat from him.
It felt strange because the boy himself was far too weak, but the threat came from the Sacred Artifact in his hands.
This feeling didn’t originate from Qi Suian himself, but from the Martial Dao intuition he’d gained through the Tai Sui God.
This was, in fact, the first time this ability had truly activated for him.
The reason was simple. Even Sharp, the Chief Judge of the Seventh Execution Chamber of the Eternal United States, couldn’t completely kill Qi Suian.
His Elemental Chalice couldn’t counter Qi Suian’s Death Recast talent.
So Qi Suian simply couldn’t die. How could anything be a threat?
As for being captured and inhumanely tortured? That was a problem for another time.
This time, however, he viscerally felt the threat of death.
’He couldn’t be a native protagonist, could he?’ Qi Suian stared at the boy, the thought quickly occurring to him.
Judging from the kid’s looks, it was a definite possibility.
The boy’s face was far more handsome than Qi Suian’s. A single glance told you he was no ordinary person.
Qi Suian’s own protagonist aura wasn’t innate—you could say it was practically something he’d stumbled upon.
So naturally, he had the unremarkable face of a random bystander. Without his Tai Sui Divine Armor, he was the type who would fade into any crowd, completely unnoticed.
He had no particular charisma or charm, either. The most one could say was that his looks were "comfortably non-threatening."
"In that case, AI, give him a Dark Energy Beam and kill him," Qi Suian said without hesitation.
’Since I feel threatened, I might as well strike first.’
He had no desire to clash with the boy head-on. What if the kid’s protagonist aura flared up and he took a spear to the chest, dying on the spot?
The kid had a home-field advantage. No matter how much Qi Suian’s own protagonist aura was enhanced, his opponent could erase it with the backing of the world itself.
A Floating Cannon silently appeared and immediately fired a Dark Energy Beam.
Meanwhile, Nalan You was suddenly overcome with a sense of unease. He snapped his head up and saw a dark beam of light streaking toward him from the distance.
His heart began to pound violently.
His instincts screamed that if that beam hit him, he would die without a doubt.
He wanted to dodge, but his intuition also told him, ’You can’t.’
A thousand thoughts flooded his mind, and everything seemed to slow to a crawl.
’Then, kill it!’
A voice rose from the depths of his being.
He didn’t know where the voice came from, but his body had already moved. Just before the dark beam could strike, he hurled the Destiny Spear from his hand.
Nalan You wasn’t trying to block the attack with his Destiny Spear; he intended to *kill* the beam of dark light itself.
A certain kill, a certain hit. The moment the Destiny Spear left his hand, it struck the dark beam.
In that instant, the dark beam began to fracture.
A fated death erased the beam and all it brought with it.
Qi Suian witnessed this, and his expression immediately darkened.
"Blanket coverage. Saturation strike," Qi Suian said in a low voice.
He could tell that the boy hadn’t confronted the Dark Energy Beam head-on. Instead, he had used his Sacred Artifact to forcibly *erase* it.
The AI carried out Qi Suian’s order, simultaneously providing a report on the incident along with some analysis.
"You mean, in a sense, that Dark Energy Beam... it died?" Qi Suian glanced at the report and said.
His gaze fell on the youth, who was continuously "killing" the Dark Energy Beams with the golden spear.
Clearly, the boy had a protagonist aura.
Otherwise, how could he possibly block the Floating Cannons’ attacks?
[Yes. That is why you felt the threat. This Sacred Artifact can, indeed, kill you.]
"Switch the Floating Cannons from beam mode to storm mode."
’If single-target attacks won’t work, I’ll just use an area-of-effect attack.’
Now that Qi Suian knew his opponent had the ability to kill him, he certainly wasn’t going to get hot-headed and charge in for a direct confrontation.
He would definitely hide at a safe distance and stick to ranged attacks.
By now, the Floating Cannons were far from the one-trick ponies they were at their inception.
They could attack seamlessly for twenty-four hours without overheating.
Did they really think the Sand Jiao Scale Pattern Shell and Black Dark Energy Crystal modules were just for show?
After switching to the Ghost Energy Storm, his opponent was clearly struggling to keep up.
Qi Suian’s plan was simple: wear him down and grind him to death.
He refused to believe the boy had infinite stamina.
And even if he did have infinite stamina, would his Spirit not grow weary?
Qi Suian, with the upper hand, could afford to make countless mistakes. His opponent only needed to make one for it to be fatal.
So Qi Suian was in no hurry at all.
Besides, rushing wouldn’t help. It’s not like he was going to go down there and fight him personally.
He was usually a reckless person, but when faced with a genuine, life-threatening situation, he was terrified of dying.
Everything Qi Suian did was for the sake of his own survival. Going down there now to fight to the death would be putting the cart before the horse.
[A large number of Xuan Empire elites have entered the reconnaissance network’s range. The preliminary assessment is that you are the target.]
[Combined with your theory about the enemy, it is highly probable that his protagonist aura has activated. Someone has come to rescue him.]
The AI’s warning was perfectly timed.
Qi Suian’s eyes narrowed. ’This isn’t surprising.’
After all, when a protagonist is in a pinch, someone always shows up to help.
Qi Suian had been in that situation himself.
Just like when someone helped him hold off Sharp. It was only later, when Qi Suian caused too much of a ruckus, that it became impossible to create the conditions for another rescue.
But this boy was different from Qi Suian. He was a native, giving him a far greater advantage.
The other protagonists he’d encountered in the past also had this passive ability, but for them, either the conditions or their circumstances never aligned.
Aside from the survivor-type protagonists and the dual protagonists from the Cold Winter World, the most "authentic" protagonist he’d met was the final survivor from the Polar Day World.
But by the time Qi Suian encountered him, they were the only two people left alive in the Horizon Realm.
How could he possibly call for backup then?
And when he killed the protagonist of the Wasteland World, he was already one of the most powerful people there; no one could have stopped him.
So it was only here, in the Sacred Artifact World, that he finally got to experience a native protagonist’s ability to call for backup.
"Only the Xuan Empire?"
"They’re not enough." Qi Suian knew it was just a matter of everyone serving their own side.
[You’ve guessed correctly. The Eternal United States is also involved.]
[Based on intelligence reports, it is highly likely that Duke Feng is the one pulling the strings.]
[Factoring in the losses you previously inflicted upon the Eternal United States, a short-term alliance was formed.]
[In a way, you are truly remarkable.]
Qi Suian just laughed. "It’s definitely not just about me."
"Think about it, the native protagonist showing up so coincidentally, and both nations making a move at the same time."
"It’s absolutely connected to the missile silos and ICBMs we’ve been building."
"The more the enemy opposes it, the more it proves we’re doing the right thing!" Qi Suian quickly figured out the reason he was being targeted.
This was happening on the eve of the completion of his missile silos and ICBMs.
They would be finished in eight hours, at most. The timing of this attack was so coincidental, he couldn’t help but be suspicious.
"AI, what’s the solution?"
"The Floating Cannons can’t be redeployed; they’re needed to kill the protagonist."
"So we’ll have to kill the rest of them ourselves," Qi Suian said.
While the Floating Cannons suppressed the protagonist, Qi Suian and the Tai Sui God would have to face the Xuan Empire and the Eternal United States on their own.
But if he diverted the Floating Cannons, who knew if the protagonist might seize the opportunity to land a fatal blow.
So he would rather the fight be more difficult than risk redeploying them.
He was determined to kill the native protagonist, but the people hunting him had to die as well.
[Deploy the Mad Cathedral against the Eternal United States. I will take control.]
[The Tai Sui God is yours to command. You will eliminate the enemies from the Xuan Empire.]
The AI instantly assigned their roles.
The reason the AI couldn’t handle everything itself was because the enemy force was formidable in both numbers and power.
It needed to counter a large number of "puzzle-piece" Sacred Artifacts, which required a significant amount of its processing power.
If it tried to multi-thread, the lack of processing power could easily lead to a catastrophic failure.
Therefore, the remaining forces from the Xuan Empire had to be dealt with by Qi Suian himself.
But as long as he wasn’t facing an enemy who also possessed a protagonist aura, Qi Suian’s "hidden" win rate was one hundred percent, no matter how low his apparent chances seemed.
When his life was on the line, Qi Suian had never lost, no matter how powerful the enemy. At worst, he could always escape with his life.
"Alright." Qi Suian agreed. Things had reached this point. It was time to kill first and ask questions later.
-----------------
Duke Feng of the Xuan Empire, Feng Yu, sat in a sedan chair, his expression unchanging.
This time, he was not only seeking personal revenge; he was also using this as an opportunity to annihilate the army dispatched by the Eternal United States.
He was indeed the one who had orchestrated this, but the "personal revenge" was merely a pretext.
His daughter was dead. No matter how much he had doted on her, her death had to be turned into an asset.
If he could use it to achieve a great military honor, then Feng Yaxian’s death would serve to strengthen the foundation of Duke Feng’s Mansion.
As for her body? To be blunt, where could it possibly be found at this point?
It wasn’t as if he hadn’t had sons die on the battlefield before.
The reason Duke Feng’s Mansion had endured as long as the empire itself wasn’t just because they were descendants of its founders, but because every generation had earned its place through military achievement.
Martial prowess was the most fundamental skill for any decorated noble.
If their martial spirit wasn’t strong enough, their line would be culled within three generations at most.
Lasting prosperity didn’t come from shrewd maneuvering alone; it required real, tangible ability.
"Your Grace, a commotion has broken out at the Eternal United States’ position. The Iron Armor Man attacked them first," a soldier reported, hurrying to his side.
A smile touched Feng Yu’s lips. "Good news. The plan is proceeding without a hitch."
Feng Yu was not surprised by this turn of events.
After all, in his view, the Iron Armor Man had more reason to hate the Eternal United States than the Xuan Empire.
And he was right. Otherwise, Qi Suian wouldn’t have deployed the Mad Cathedral against their camp.
However, there was one thing Feng Yu had miscalculated: Qi Suian had no intention of letting them off the hook, either.
Just then, a black shadow plummeted from the sky, crashing down directly toward Feng Yu’s sedan chair.