Chapter 157: Ally with the Weak to Defeat the Strong, Use Small to Overcome Large

Chapter 157: Uniting the Weak to Defeat the Strong, Staking the Small to Win the Great

"Cao Cang, wanting to draw a final conclusion now is a bit too hasty, isn't it?"

Gong Qinghong smiled faintly upon hearing this. "The climax hasn't even arrived yet; where does this talk of a curtain call come from?"

Cao Cang spoke in a cold voice. "A hard mouth cannot change the result."

"This is fact. For now, it is merely your side performing; next, it should be my side's turn to take the stage."

The moment Gong Qinghong's voice fell, that toppled great tree suddenly flew horizontally through the air, whistling as it smashed toward Cao Cang.

*Bang!*

The tree trunk was shattered by a single swing of his staff. Through the horizontally flying wood chips, Cao Cang once again saw that tall, powerfully built figure.

A man who should have had his mechanical body shattered, lying on the ground waiting for death, had actually stood up once more.

"So you've already swapped for a Grade Seven mechanical body. No wonder you dared covet my Mechanical Heart."

Realization dawned on Cao Cang's face, followed swiftly by disdain. "But no matter how much of a beating you can take, Wei Meng, it cannot change today's ending."

Wei Meng laughed heartily. "In a duel, you are indeed somewhat stronger than I. But who told you the only ones taking the stage today are the two of us?"

Someone else?

Cao Cang's heart suddenly sank. The three reconnaissance units disguised as hair strands atop his head all activated, yet the feedback results showed only four humanoid lifeforms within a one-kilometer radius.

That half-dead Mohist Sequencer? Impossible. With his current vital signs, stepping on stage would be suicide.

"Hey, what do you mean by that look?"

Cao Cang paid no heed to the indignant Zhao Qingxia. His gaze fell upon Gong Qinghong, his expression turning momentarily strange.

"You have the guts for this?"

"The world misunderstands me greatly," Gong Qinghong smiled helplessly, slowly drawing his hands from his sleeves. "Though 'Bai He' is the true meaning of the Vertical and Horizontal School, if I feared death, how would I dare to revolt?"

"Uniting the weak to defeat the strong, staking the small to win the great—this is the Vertical and Horizontal Sequence's favorite plot."

*Hiss!*

A sound of tearing silk suddenly rang out in the forest. A strand of freezing white line manifested from thin air, shooting toward Gong Qinghong.

*Clang!*

Wei Meng's figure blocked the path before Gong Qinghong. His arm curved into a shield, bracing against the long staff which, due to its rapid swinging, resembled a white line.

"For the strong, accumulate from the weak!"

A low, heavy voice rang out behind Wei Meng. An invisible force field, undetectable to the naked eye, rapidly expanded.

Simultaneously, a sharp, piercing howl of a Mechanical Heart pumping at overdrive frequency erupted from Wei Meng's chest, reaching the overclocking threshold in the blink of an eye.

But what shocked Cao Cang even more was that this howl actually showed a trend of continuing to rise!

Gong Qinghong could actually increase the degree of a Mechanical Heart's overclocking?!

"Ha!"

With a violent shout, Wei Meng's entire body surged with ferocious flames. He raised his hand, swung his arm, and threw a fist at Cao Cang.

Cao Cang's wrist slid downward, gripping the middle of the long staff, shaking his arm with a shudder.

Only a light *crack* was heard. The long staff snapped in two from the center, iron chains dropping from the break.

The long staff had actually transformed into nunchaku, lashing out toward Wei Meng's fist!

"For the straight, accumulate from the curved!"

Another layer of force field descended. Cao Cang's vision suddenly twisted and distorted. The staff body that should have struck Wei Meng's fist instead lashed out into empty air.

*Bang!*

Cao Cang took a fist to the chest, flying backward.

Gong Qinghong's voice continued, "For the surplus, accumulate from the insufficient."

*Hum.*

Mid-air backflip, landing and unloading force—Cao Cang had just touched the ground when his figure suddenly swayed front and back, nearly collapsing.

He raised a hand to press against his chest. That 'Mind Monkey' hidden deep within actually accelerated its pumping on its own at this moment. A massive pressure crushed his mechanical body until it groaned *zi-ya*.

Cao Cang dared not overclock; he didn't even dare easily increase his Mechanical Heart's operating power.

Because his current mechanical body was only Grade Eight, fundamentally unable to withstand the pressure brought by this Grade Seven limited-edition Mechanical Heart, 'Mind Monkey', when it pumped!

So Cao Cang had always been very carefully controlling the degree of his Mechanical Heart's operation. This was what he called 'Subdue the Mind Monkey, Tame the Idea Horse'.

But now, Gong Qinghong could actually forcibly catalyze his Mechanical Heart. His strength was absolutely not that of an ordinary Sequence Eight, but half a foot already stepping into the threshold of Sequence Seven.

"This bastard hides really deep!"

*Whoosh!*

Wei Meng lunged to kill, leaping through the air. His fists opened and closed widely, carrying roar after roar of tearing air as they bombarded Cao Cang.

Cao Cang's nunchaku flew up and down, weaving a staff net before him, barely catching Wei Meng's fists.

But his complexion grew uglier and uglier. The immense pressure made every move feel like he bore a thousand jin. His usually perfectly obedient mechanical body actually showed a slight tendency to slip from his control.

Gong Qinghong shouted loudly, "Cao Cang, it is time for you to exit the stage."

*Thud!*

The berserk Wei Meng resembled a land-walking behemoth. He thrust his bare hands into the staff net. The whistling nunchaku struck his body, yet only scraped off sparks.

In his overclocked state, he finally fully unleashed the power of a Grade Seven mechanical body.

Amidst a series of tooth-aching *zi-la* sounds.

Cao Cang failed to dodge in time. His right arm was seized by Wei Meng, five fingers clenching, crushing it directly into scrap metal.

"This 'Mind Monkey' is mine!"

Wei Meng's face revealed wild joy. His left hand clawed directly at Cao Cang's chest, aiming straight for the heart hidden beneath the mechanical bone armor.

With his right arm pinned, Cao Cang had no strength to struggle free from the shackles. It seemed he could only watch helplessly as his chest was carved open and his heart taken.

*Hum.*

Right at this life-or-death moment, Wei Meng suddenly saw a pair of pitch-black prosthetic eyes.

In the depths of those abyss-like pupils, specks of golden light suddenly flared.

"This is... over... overclocking?"

Wei Meng's heart surged with horrified waves. A fear originating from his very genes enveloped his whole body.

He instinctively flung away Cao Cang's right arm, turning to flee.

"Gong Qinghong, you son of a bitch! Didn't you say he wouldn't dare overclock?!"

Gong Qinghong's expression froze, then he reacted, cursing in a panic: "He's bluffing you! If he dared overclock, would you and I still be alive right now?!"

*Bang!*

Wei Meng's charging figure suddenly stalled. His abruptly halted footsteps stomped a deep pit into the ground.

He glanced back; sure enough, those terrifying eyes were nowhere to be found behind him.

"Son of a bitch, daring to bluff me?!"

A pounding heart and swimming vision made Cao Cang’s gait stagger and sway, as if he would lose his balance and collapse into the dirt at any moment.

Wretched as he looked, his speed was not slow; in the blink of an eye, Cao Cang had already crashed to Zhao Qingxia’s side, his only functioning left hand lunging for the man’s shoulder.

Since he couldn’t kill Gong Qinghong, he would drag back this man named by the rumors.

*Crack.*

Suddenly, a hand appeared from nowhere and clamped onto Cao Cang’s left arm.

Under Cao Cang’s horrified gaze, his entire arm instantly disintegrated, disassembled into tiny fragments.

Thrown violently off balance, he pitched forward, sliding across the ground in an ugly face-plant.

"Apologies, I’m late."

Zhao Qingxia looked up in shock, staring blankly at the unfamiliar face before him, yet those eyes were achingly familiar.

"Where’s Master Ma?"

A complex expression, caught between laughter and tears, crossed Zhao Qingxia’s face. He slowly opened his palm, revealing a broken blade the length of a finger.

"Old Ma’s tired. He went to sleep first."

"Then you rest, Master Ma. I’ll slaughter these people first."

Li Jun’s expression visibly stiffened, flames seeming to dance in his eyes.

"Qingxia, who first?"

Leaning against the tree trunk, Zhao Qingxia extended a trembling finger. "That big dumb oaf, and that Zongheng... Huh? Where’d that grandson run off to?!"