CHAPTER 541: CHAPTER 334: STANDPOINT, EVOLUTION, WRATHFUL BUDDHA

"Alright, I won’t hold you up anymore. In any case... let’s find a cool place to stay, this damned Light-Eating Bee situation has nothing to do with us."

As the words fell, Black Cocoon pushed Urushibara Ryuri off the beach, taking her to the rear of the towering rock mountain.

Urushibara Ryuri’s mouth was covered by a restraint belt, her body tightly bound, unable to release her superpower. At this moment, she was completely exhausted of tricks, having no choice but to obey Black Cocoon’s directions.

Reaching the back of the rock mountain, she stood in the vast shadow, lifting her eyes to see a ten-meter tall, luxurious Clock Tower standing desolately on the sand.

The Clock Tower was just a few meters shorter than the rock mountain, which is why she couldn’t see its silhouette earlier from the beach.

"So the clock chime from earlier came from here?" She pondered silently.

Black Cocoon retracted the gigantic Clock Tower. Then he sat down behind the rock mountain, suddenly raising his right hand to release a Restraint Incarnation onto the ground.

The restraint belt piled on the ground, gradually forming a twisted human shape.

Clone? Urushibara Ryuri thought, does he really have such a bizarre ability... although Sanwu Girl mentioned it in a report before, I didn’t pay much attention.

Black Cocoon still had to keep Urushibara Ryuri bound, restricting her superpower, so he commanded the Restraint Incarnation to head to the island’s center.

After issuing the order, the dark incarnation dangled the restraint belt, heading to the island center, closing on the beehive.

It grabbed onto the rock mountains on the way with the restraint belt, traversing the turbulent desert while raising its head to look at the vast night sky.

In that moment, the incarnation saw the massive red and blue mecha, saw the pink-haired girl "Jiushijiu" in Russian military uniform, and the young man in a Tang suit "Fan Dongqing" standing on a dragon boat.

"Quite lively," Black Cocoon thought, yet he was most concerned about Su Wei and his group.

A minute earlier, after placing Black Cocoon on the island’s edge, Yaguba carried Su Wei and his group, rushing to the island’s center at full speed.

From the start, Su Wei had expressed his stance; he didn’t plan to intervene in the war between Rainbow Wings and Light-Eating Bees, as it went against his principles.

He couldn’t help a group of cannibalistic aliens defeat superpower users who represented humanity, despite the deep-seated hatred between him and those superpower users.

It’s a stance based on racial lines, where race always takes precedence over the individual, an insurmountable boundary for Su Wei.

If he succeeded in avenging Rainbow Wings but allowed the Light-Eating Bees to escape, leading humanity into a catastrophic disaster, Su Wei would indeed blame himself from the bottom of his heart.

Even so, Su Wei tacitly agreed to Black Cocoon capturing Urushibara Ryuri in advance.

This way, when the Rainbow Wing members fell into danger, Urushibara Ryuri wouldn’t be able to use her superpower to bring them back to the island’s edge.

Thus, those Rainbow Wing members who thought they’d be protected by Urushibara Ryuri and thus acted recklessly on the island, if they encountered a fatal situation, then only one road awaited them:

—Death.

Of course, Gu Qiye was also one of the Rainbow Wing; if Gu Qiye encountered danger while fighting Light-Eating Bees, Su Wei naturally wouldn’t let him die.

Therefore, at this moment, Yaguba was flying at full speed to the island’s center.

If necessary, Su Wei would definitely step in to help Gu Qiye defeat the Bee Race’s king;

But if there was no need to intervene, that would naturally be the best outcome. Once Rainbow Wings dealt with the Light-Eating Bees on the island, they could launch a long-planned assault on this weakened and tired Rainbow Wings.

Their goal was singular: kill the Father of Puppets, and if possible, seize the other three Salvation Society undercover agents alive and take them back to Osaka.

...

...

At the same time, on the island’s center ground.

A short while ago, the arriving palm of the Mechanical Buddha sent the Great Bee Lord Qiao flying to the island’s ground.

Meanwhile, the Father of Puppets and his Catastrophe Level puppet "Ajaya" sat on the Buddha’s shoulder, descending together with the Mechanical Buddha from several hundred meters up.

Enveloped in large swaths of steam, the Buddha descended with crossed legs, like a golden mountain falling.

After landing with a boom, the Mechanical Buddha created a hundred-meter spread crater, dust shrouding everything in all directions.

The Buddha sat cross-legged on the ground, its eye shields emitting a cold golden light in darkness, gazing loftily at the earth, its internal gears clicking.

At this moment, the six palms of the Mechanical Buddha were each oriented in different directions—two upper palms raised high, palms outwards, fingers together pointing upwards; middle two palms clasped together in front of the chest in a devout praying position; the lower two palms spread apart, with thumb and index finger of each hand touching, thumbs forming circular shapes.

As the dust settled, the figure of the Great Bee Lord Qiao dashed forward instantly, like a black whirlwind, his pupils narrowing fiercely, his cold claws pointing directly at the Father of Puppets’ head.

"Coming for me, bee... more intelligent than I imagined," said the Father of Puppets.

A thunderous crash sounded, Qiao’s eyes widened, the right palm of the upper arms of the Mechanical Buddha struck him, sending him flying hundreds of meters away.

However, as Qiao was knocked back, he twisted his body, adjusting his position, landing on the edge of the deep pit. He slightly bent his knees, stomped the ground, and shot forward like a black cannonball, aiming straight for the Father of Puppets.

Yet another palm from the Buddha struck, sending Qiao’s body flying back several hundred meters once more.

He bounced off the edge of the pit repeatedly, trying ten times before finally understanding just how terrifying the Mechanical Buddha was. The speed of its palms almost surpassed the speed of sound, with continuous rumbling sounds echoing in the pit.

But Qiao showed no intent to retreat. Each time he was sent flying, he stepped on the edge again to shoot out, continually confronting the palms of the Mechanical Buddha. From being unable to fight back initially, he gradually adapted to the opponent’s speed, clearly seeing the Mechanical Buddha’s movements.

He began to be able to lift his claws before the Buddha’s palm struck and tore a trench in the metallic palm, with gears flying and steam spraying out.

The corner of Qiao’s mouth revealed a cold smile. He knew that the opponent’s destructive power couldn’t harm his exoskeleton. As long as he repeated this a hundred times, his claws could completely tear apart the six palms of the Mechanical Buddha.

And after that, this Mechanical Buddha would become a shell at anyone’s mercy.

The Father of Puppets and the monk in the red robes hadn’t moved from the Buddha’s shoulder from start to finish, indicating they likely had no combat power. Once the Mechanical Buddha was destroyed, killing them would just be an incidental task.

But just as Qiao was thinking this and shooting forward once more from the edge of the pit, a mutation occurred!

The giant Mechanical Buddha suddenly opened its mouth, the centers of its six palms opened a gap, and blistering white steam spewed out, followed closely by a tongue of fire erupting from the Buddha’s mouth!

Qiao hesitated for a moment, then quickly raised his arms to shield himself. At that moment, the steam ignited by the Buddha’s fire tongue exploded completely, and the overwhelming flames engulfed Qiao’s body, ravaging every inch of his exoskeleton!

He was enveloped by the explosion’s airflow, sent flying hundreds of meters, crashing into the edge of the deep pit, his back deeply embedded as if crucified, unable to move.

Moments later, Qiao slowly extracted himself from the pit, landing on the ground. He glanced at his charred, broken exoskeleton, looking like he had just been dug out from coal, his body blackish-red all over.

His arms had borne the brunt of the impact and flames, with the exoskeleton covering them completely shattered. Blood flowed from his arms, dripping onto the ground.

Yet Qiao’s face remained expressionless, his gaze hollow and icy. He knew with his regenerative ability, the exoskeleton would soon regenerate, and his current injuries were trivial.

A prolonged battle was his advantageous area. Humans didn’t have his adaptability or regeneration capabilities. Despite the minor incident, the outcome of this fight would not change—he would win, completely.

Qiao once again stomped the ground and shot out, as swift as lightning, showing no signs of slowing down due to injuries. Instead, he fought more courageously, his claws reflecting a sharp, cold light, tracing a dangerous and dazzling arc in the air.

But at this moment, a deafening roar suddenly came from the sky, followed by a tragic howl.

"Guli?"

Qiao heard the roar, immediately halting his forward surge, and looked up sharply.

He saw Guli engulfed in flames from the dragon boat, plummeting meteoric to the ground, then thousands of barrages descended, blasting Guli’s body into fragments. The world lost its color, and a huge mushroom cloud rose.

In that second, everything in his eyes turned white, as if the night sky turned into daylight.

Qiao snapped back to reality, his gaze returned to the collapsing hive in mid-air, his expression turning extremely dark.

"I need to go back, the Queen Bee and Malvite need me." This thought emerged in his mind.

But at this moment, the gears of the Mechanical Buddha turned, scorching steam sprayed from the gaps, and another palm swung, crashing into Qiao at supersonic speed.

"Boom—!"

But this time, Qiao did not dodge. Knowing the opponent couldn’t hurt him, he used the recoil from the palm strike to propel himself backward, rebounding hundreds of meters into the air.

Then, in the air, he spread his hexagon wings, shooting straight toward the night sky, aiming directly at the collapsing hive.

The brightly lit building grew closer and closer, the shadows and ferocity in his pupils reaching a peak.

"Did he escape?"

At the deep pit on the ground, the Father of Puppets looked up, peering through bandages at the departing Qiao, his voice hoarse from beneath, "Forget it... let’s leave him to the others to deal with."