Chapter 299

Chapter 299: It Got Away?

The artificial saintess’s shell had been pierced. At her side, a fist-sized hole smoked gently, and something like living liquid metal writhed rapidly inside the gap, as if trying to seal the wound.

This killing machine from Holy Revere Hermitage had terrifying defenses. Her outer armor could resist “high heat” in any ordinary sense, but Irene’s beam clearly wasn’t just heat. Whatever that power was, it carried a corrosive, decomposing trait that evaporated the metal around the impact point and left that horrifying hole.

And Irene still looked dissatisfied.

“Man, I thought I could punch clean through,” Little Doll muttered from Yu Sheng’s shoulder, faint heat steaming up her arm. “Turns out I only got through the first layer.”

Click.

Metal heels tapped the ground, cutting off her complaint. The artificial saintess adjusted her posture and raised her blades again.

That gaping wound didn’t seem to affect her at all. She showed no pain, no hesitation, no visible impairment.

Yu Sheng, who’d relaxed a fraction after the hit, tensed immediately. Almost at the same time, he felt the steel doll’s “gaze” settle on him.

There was no emotion on the pale metal mask, but Yu Sheng still sensed it—through the faint connection of blood, through the tiny shifts in her movement.

Surprise.

Confusion.

She was staring at him, unable to understand why he was still alive. She remembered the injury he’d taken in their last fight. On any normal human body, that wound should have been fatal.

Even if it hadn’t killed him, no normal person would be back here, alive and moving, so soon.

Yu Sheng weighed the tetanus staff in his hand, adjusted his stance, and gave her a provoking look. “Surprised? It’s me again. Now that you’ve got my blood on you, you’re stuck with it for life.”

The moment he finished speaking, his vision flashed.

The artificial saintess turned into a blur and lunged at him without hesitation.

At the same time, the remaining bronze knights that could still move attacked in coordination, swords and warhammers swinging as they surged in from all sides.

“Damn it,” Yu Sheng swore under his breath. “These things really do work together.”

He met the sword coming down from a bronze knight, lifting the staff to block. But in the corner of his eye, the artificial saintess’s blades were already in.

Last time, she’d been missing an arm. Now she was fully intact—repaired somewhere, somehow. And whether it was his imagination or not, Yu Sheng felt her attacks were sharper, deadlier, more precise…

As if she had reviewed their last fight.

As if she’d learned his habits.

Metal shrieked against metal. Sparks burst. Yu Sheng dodged the first strike, blocked the next two thrusts and a kick, then retreated, slipping past two bronze knights trying to cut him off.

And then black silk filled his periphery again.

Irene’s spiderweb spread through the space around Yu Sheng, weaving and reshaping like a living thing. It bound and suspended bronze knights one after another, shrinking the artificial saintess’s room to maneuver.

But the steel doll’s agility was terrifying.

She forced routes through layered spider silk with ghostlike footwork, slipping into dead angles and breaking in close again and again. Despite her metal body, her steps were like wind the net couldn’t catch.

“Ahhh, this is so annoying!” Little Doll yelled, furious. “How can a C Buckle be this flexible?!”

She finally managed to clamp down on the saintess’s movement again and didn’t bother aiming with finesse. She raised a hand and fired a dense volley of bright beams.

The Irene beams hissed through the air, threading through gaps in the spiderweb and stabbing toward the enemy.

But this time, the artificial saintess was ready.

The instant Irene lifted her arm, the steel doll’s body softened in ways it had no right to. Joints folded, snapped, reshaped. Limbs bent into angles that looked like they should break—and then flipped through a space nobody would expect.

With a few sharp hisses, the beam volley only grazed her thigh and back, carving ugly wounds into the black alloy shell.

Even injured, she tore free from the spider silk and did a light backward flip, landing several meters away.

But before she could steady herself, a white blur slammed into her.

Foxy had been waiting for this moment from the instant the steel doll appeared. Last time, watching Yu Sheng get cut down—stabbed through, holes punched in him—had left something heavy in her chest. This time, she didn’t waste her chance.

She didn’t use foxfire.

She went straight into nine tail acceleration and crashed in with a rocket headbutt.

The artificial saintess had just landed. She was already wounded. Her injured leg screeched as she tried to twist away, but she couldn’t dodge cleanly in time.

Boom.

The impact was thunderous. A visible shockwave burst from the point where Foxy’s head met the artificial saintess’s chest.

The steel doll flew like she’d been hit by a cannon, body twisting into a strange angle as she slammed across the street.

Foxy shook her head once, growled low, and charged again.

She pinned the artificial saintess to the ground and beat her down relentlessly.

Little Doll stared, stunned. It was the first time she’d seen Foxy fight like this. Her jaw dropped. “…Silly Fox’s skull is harder than starship armor?!”

Yu Sheng was stunned too, but then he saw the artificial saintess’s arm twist into a bizarre angle. Blades unfolded and stabbed toward Foxy’s back.

“Foxy, watch out!”

Foxy had already reacted. Before Yu Sheng’s shout finished leaving his mouth, she released the steel doll, dropped to all fours, and darted forward.

The blades only sliced off a few tufts of silver fur from her tail.

Xuan Che stepped in.

The artificial saintess staggered back to her feet. After taking repeated hits, her movement finally slowed. She noticed Xuan Che in front of her, but she couldn’t create distance with a few light steps anymore.

All she could do was raise her blades and face him.

Her pale steel mask still held that beautiful, hollow smile. It was impossible to tell whether she felt fear, hate, or nothing at all.

Xuan Che flicked his icy sword and let it hover behind him again. Then he stepped forward half a pace, lowered his stance, raised his hand—

And threw another plain, unadorned straight punch.

It looked almost casual, but he avoided every blade and landed the punch directly on the artificial saintess’s arm.

A low hum sounded.

Layered, obscure patterns surfaced on the steel doll’s arm. Dense runes and strange lines lit up beneath the black alloy shell, like light shining through skin. A powerful force pushed back against the punch—some kind of anti-magic secret art embedded in her armor lining.

Xuan Che’s cultivation was clearly far beyond the “ordinary cultivators” he’d mentioned. Even with that resistance, his simplest, most direct punch broke through after a brief struggle.

The layered runes collapsed in a chain reaction. Strange explosions and tearing sounds burst from inside the artificial saintess’s arm.

Starting at the fingertips, the limb shattered inch by inch, popping apart with small detonations until it finally broke away and fell.

Nearby, the remaining bronze knights dropped again under the punch’s shock, their presence snuffed out like candles in a storm.

Yu Sheng’s breath caught.

This time, it’s over.

Then he saw the shimmer.

A rippling distortion spread over the steel doll’s surface, like water skimming across metal.

Before either Yu Sheng or Xuan Che could react, the artificial saintess flickered—once, twice, three times—

And vanished into nothing.

Xuan Che’s punch met empty air. The remaining force, already stored and unstoppable, detonated forward.

Everything on the road—everything within a hundred meters ahead—turned silently into dust.

Xuan Che turned his head and stared blankly at Yu Sheng.