Chapter 827: Chapter 827

Inside a pitch-black, decaying building, two gigantic tentacles slowly writhed and entwined together.

Although in principle, He Ao could borrow the power of the fallen War God, in practice, this "operation" required extreme caution.

The higher the activation degree of the body, the more power borrowed, the more violently the War God’s insane will would pour into this body, attempting to seize control.

The greater the difficulty He Ao faced in controlling the body.

Furthermore, the power of a Divine Being was not so easy to "control," even though He Ao himself was the master of this body and had a high affinity for the War God’s power after "merging" with him. Controlling these powers still demanded a vast amount of spiritual force.

Under normal circumstances, He Ao could not control the specific paths of these powers, and he nearly lost control of his body to the War God’s insane will while trying to guide the powers.

After activating Super Memory, with the mental amplification from Super Memory, he was barely able to resist the erosion of the War God’s insane will on his body and control a small portion of the power.

This was the capability of B-level Super Memory. If it were the un-upgraded Super Memory, even if he could resist the contamination of the War God’s insane will, he would not be able to control the power drawn from the essence of the War God.

Perhaps, this was why the system had only unlocked ’The Presumptuous’ character card after he reached B-level.

Before B-level Super Memory, even if he could enter this body, he could do nothing and might even lose control immediately to the War God’s insane will.

Feeling the subtle powers flowing within, He Ao took a deep breath.

The power inside the War God was not "abundant." It had perished for who knows how many ages. Its power compared to a normal Divine Being might be like a drop of water to the ocean.

But to He Ao, this "drop of water" was as vast as an "ocean" compared to his own power.

Merely the thin strands of power he could currently control, drawn from within the War God, already surpassed any B-level he had ever encountered.

If considering the tier of energy, at the peak of his power activation, this body might, in an extremely short period of time, possess combat capabilities on par with weaker "angels."

Of course, he was a fixed artillery unit in this comparison.

His current spiritual force was far from enough to control the fully activated body or to move it, so he could only exercise his strength from this fixed location.

In special circumstances, forcefully drawing the War God’s power, directed by the War God’s insane will dominating this body and releasing all of its energy, might also play a critical role.

However, that tactic probably could only be used once. If the War God’s power fully entered this body, it would completely eradicate the residual power left by a good friend, and the "balance" of this body would be utterly destroyed. He Ao would find it difficult to regain control.

Within his controllable range, he could maneuver those powers he controlled, trying not to touch the residual powers of his friend to avoid breaking the body’s "balance." But, if the War God’s power fully invaded, he couldn’t control it anymore.

Even with his current controllable state, he still had to constantly divert some attention to restrain the internal powers to prevent balance disruption, resulting in his energy utilization not being very high.

His current feeling was like an immature child operating a precision machine that could explode at any moment—powerful, yet equally fraught with crises. A single misstep, and the entire situation could collapse.

Of course, with the growth of his soul and spiritual force, the situation might improve somewhat. But for now, he had to carefully control these powers.

He lowered his gaze, looking at the few tentacles he had full control over, as numerous thoughts flashed through his mind.

Along with the War God’s power came not only tremendous strength but also some fragmented knowledge about the "War God."

This reminded him of the first time he "saw" the War God’s "remains" on that hill and acquired the fragmented knowledge of the Talent Sequences of the War God’s path.

It seemed that the strength of a Higher Being also carried some knowledge?

At this moment, He Ao recalled the "Truth Vision" seen by the ’Secret Watcher.’

Perhaps, the powers of Higher Beings were inherently composed of some incomprehensible knowledge, and the "knowledge" that accompanied these powers was merely the projection of that incomprehensible knowledge into reality.

This was already beyond his current reach.

Shaking his head to clear the thoughts in his mind, He Ao refocused his gaze on the tentacles in front of him.

Among the pieces of knowledge that came with the power were some abilities that only Higher Beings could operate.

The two intertwined tentacles in front of He Ao suddenly broke apart. Two massive masses of flesh intertwined and then continuously twisted and deformed, eventually outlining a simple "humanoid" shape.

He Ao continuously controlled the power, fine-tuning this "humanoid" form, and eventually, a slender "youth" appeared in front of him.

This youth differed from his current body in appearance and stature merely in lacking skin and eyes, having only blood-red flesh and empty eye sockets.

Usually, a "lifeform" directly "molded" by a Higher Being has a professional designation, "offspring".

He Ao no longer possessed the power to create offspring himself, but with the help of the War God’s power, he could still mold one.

Creating offspring required either blood meals or extraordinary items, and the subsequent power of a Divine Being.

However, He Ao was currently unable to find any blood meals or extraordinary items, so he had to sever his own appendages to use them as a ’base.’

He Ao gazed at the human-shaped figure and, after a short contemplation, he began to make some changes to it.

The surface of bright red flesh began to harden into a silvery-white ’bone shell,’ which was the War God offspring’s inherent ’armor.’

The offspring of the War God did not possess the powers of disguise or charm, but they did have some defensive and combat skills, one of which was this armor.

He Ao continuously adjusted the thickness of this bone shell, making it look lighter and more delicate. The bone shell armor was inherently flexible, and after continuous adjustments, it covered the human figure like a white ’film.’

Then He Ao used the wriggling flesh to mold an ’eyeball,’ using the whiter bone shell to mimic the whites of the eyes and the bright red flesh for the crimson pupils.

The offspring didn’t use eyes to ’perceive’ their surroundings, so this eye was essentially just for show.

When everything was complete, He Ao looked over his ’work’ again.

Now, at least it looked human.

Though the whitish-red ’skin’ and bright red pupils still looked rather frightening.

But that was the extent of the War God’s capabilities; if it were the offspring of the Witch of Desire, one might be able to mold templates of handsome men and beautiful women directly, but for the War God’s offspring to even look human was already the limit.

If he had cosmetics, mechanical colored contact lenses, and synthetic skin, He Ao might have been able to use his aesthetic cultivation to make it almost indistinguishable from a real person, but he indeed had no other options available here.

Subsequently, he felt the ’connection’ with his ’offspring’ and controlled the offspring to lift its head and look at him.

A raspy, sharp voice came from the offspring’s ’mouth.’ The offspring did have vocal cords, but they didn’t seem very effective.

After several more adjustments, the bare offspring looked at He Ao and emitted a raspy voice, "Hello."

The voice was still harsh and unpleasant, but the syllables were clear.

He Ao sighed in relief.

If Eve had been there to provide references for human anatomy, he might have been able to completely simulate a full physiological structure.

The offspring of the War God did not possess intelligence, but He Ao could ’control’ the offspring directly through his connection with it and provide it with ’grace,’ differing from controlling a clone; it was more like controlling a puppet.

He Ao controlled the offspring to take a few steps, then cut off the ’grace’ to the offspring.

The body of the offspring immediately showed signs of collapse but did not disintegrate right away. He Ao roughly estimated that this offspring’s body could hold up for about an hour after he cut off the power supply; during this time, he could still control the offspring.

Moreover, the offspring of the War God all had the capability to sacrifice, and if there were problems with the offspring, He Ao could ’sacrifice the offspring,’ directly transferring the extraordinary items that composed the offspring back to the ’parent body.’

Within a shift of thought, He Ao controlled the offspring to throw a punch at a nearby building column.

Accompanied by a loud boom, the entire building column shattered instantly, splintering into countless small rocks.

Its physical fitness alone should be close to a strength type B-level, and in addition, it could briefly release pollutants to create ’panic.’

After approximately understanding the offspring’s abilities, He Ao manipulated the offspring to search around the building.

This building had once been the headquarters of the Rock City Mining Group. It was contaminated by Divine Beings during Rock City’s last divine battle, then was severed by the Miners’ Mutual Aid Association and transported deep into the wilderness by giant mechas.

Naturally, this contamination mainly came from the War God and the God of Knowledge.

There were many items in the building that hadn’t been taken away in time. Finally, He Ao found a set of brand-new tailcoats with a top hat and a gold-inlaid solid wood cane in a director’s office.

Originally, the director’s board of the Mining Group had been cleanly slaughtered by the Grim Reaper’s believer, Elijah; the owner of this outfit was probably among them.

He Ao controlled the offspring to change into this set of clothing and put on the top hat.

Then he discovered there was even a new wig in the office, and he also fixed it onto the offspring’s bald head.

After changing into this entire set of clothing, the offspring once again ’returned to’ He Ao’s ’presence,’ now looking about eighty to ninety percent similar to He Ao’s current ’body.’

Just like the tender apprentice Nell back then.

I wonder how my third and fourth brothers are doing.

Although He Ao could understand the situation of Rock City, the Miners’ Mutual Aid Association, and Nell’s two brothers through Eve’s reports, electronic data and actually seeing them were completely different things.

The ’young man’ dressed in a tailcoat lifted his top hat and took the gold-inlaid cane, bowed slightly to He Ao, then turned and walked towards the outside of the building.

Although He Ao himself could not leave this place, he could control his offspring to leave here.

The figure in the tailcoat quickly disappeared into the vast darkness.

While He Ao lowered his head and shut off his Super Memory, he manipulated the tiny tentacles, and with the ’knowledge’ conveyed by those forces, he started trying to draw patterns on the ground.

Once again, the entire dark building fell into profound silence.

And as the surging power converged, the bright moonlight also shone through the broken top of the building, casting down into the ’shaft’ that ran through the entire building, illuminating the young man ’suspended’ in mid-air by red tentacles.

Light and shadow, clear yet blended here.

Rock City・First Mine Site

A lofty small wall kept the wind and snow outside, and beneath this wall, in a simple wooden hut, a young man with round glasses and a slight beard slowly took out a piece of packaged chocolate from a drawer and then turned to gaze at the holographic projection on the table.

Another young man, tall in stature, suddenly pushed open the wooden door, snow clinging to his boots as he stepped onto the cabin’s floorboards, and walked anxiously up to the glasses-wearing young man, "It seems there’s been an exotic beast disturbance in the wilderness; I don’t know what happened."

"Were there any casualties?"

The glasses-wearing young man looked up at the taller young man.

the taller young man shook his head, "A few night shift explorers were frightened, but it’s nothing serious."

"Did you send out radio messages for the field workers in the wilderness to return?"

The glasses-wearing young man continued to ask.

"According to the safety manual, yes, they are currently retreating to the nearest mine site."

The tall young man quickly answered.

the young man with glasses smiled at the taller young man, walking over to the fireplace and tossing in a few pieces of wood, "Maintaining regulations and adhering to them is crucial for safe production. This time you didn’t rush in recklessly or lose your composure, good job, you’ve shown improvement."

the tall young man rubbed his head and chuckled, "Making me sound like I’m brainless."

The glasses-wearing young man looked up at the tall young man, "It would be good if you could keep working on that impulsive temper of yours,"

He picked up the teapot by the fireplace and walked to the edge of the holographic projection on the table, gently raising his hand, and the entire holographic projection swiftly shrank to reveal towering mountains.

Among these mountains, golden markers were strewn, indicating various mine site numbers.

To the south of these mountains, the towering projection of a city flickered in and out of visibility.

"Which direction did the exotic beast issue occur?"

The glasses-wearing young man lifted the teapot, pouring hot water into the iron teacup beside the map while softly asking.

"Northwest direction."

The tall young man immediately approached and pointed to the edge of the map.

"Northwest direction?"

The glasses-wearing young man handed a cup of hot tea to the tall young man, looking puzzled at the map, he roughly gestured with his hand, "A bit further, and it’s the snowfields."

"Northwest Snowfield..."

Seeing the young man with glasses gesturing, the tall youth paused as if he remembered something, "The contaminated Mining Group building is over there, right?"

The bespectacled youth nodded, holding chocolate in one hand and an iron tea mug in the other, looking at the map in front of him, lost in thought.

The tall youth watched his older brother deep in thought and paused before changing the subject,

"Brother, the Cain-type light mecha and Abel-type heavy mecha we ordered from the Nolanka Group have already been delivered, and they also sent us a few heavy transport vehicles."

"As previously planned,"

the bespectacled youth’s eyes did not leave the map, slowly lifting the tea mug, "send half to the City Defense Army, Mayor Wright needs them."

the tall youth nodded, and then paused briefly, asking curiously, "Do we really need to prepare so many weapons and troops?"

"Who’s been whispering in your ear again?"

the bespectacled youth finally looked up at him.

the tall youth scratched his head, "I just heard some people saying that we’ve spent too much money on this equipment in the past two years, and recruited so many security personnel for training, but most of them haven’t been put to use, which seems a waste."

"Some things are better unused,"

the bespectacled youth blew on the tea in his cup, the light mist slightly blurring his glasses,

"We have not been targeted by big consortia only because they have more important targets; the temporary peace does not mean permanent peace. If we put down our weapons, when the real war comes, we won’t be able to resist.

"In fact, we should seize this brief opportunity to continually expand the alliance’s power. Look, the Nolanka Group has been doing just this. As close allies, we should cooperate with them. We’ve trained for so long, it’s time to actually practice.

"True peace only comes on the battlefield, not through compromise and weakness," he continued, and looked at his younger brother’s increasingly lost gaze, sighed softly.

He paused in his speech and casually asked, "How long has it been since Nell left?"

"Almost two years now..."

the tall youth quickly regained his composure, his voice slightly low.

"Let’s go see him in a few days,"

the bespectacled youth watched the map before him, saying softly.

The tall youth nodded slightly, "Brother, the dead cannot be resurrected, don’t think too much about it."

He had actually wanted to change the subject to avoid his brother dwelling on this issue, but inadvertently ended up bringing it up again.

His brother was smarter than him, and had more time to grieve.

The cramped wooden cabin gradually quieted down, leaving only the sound of moist wood exploding in the fire.

The crisp knocking sound slowly echoed outside the door.

The tall youth wanted to turn and open the door.

The bespectacled youth put down the tea mug, holding the chocolate, peeling it as he walked to the door and pulled open the wooden door, "Who is it?"

The figure outside shook off some snow from his shoulders, slowly took off his bowler hat, revealing a pale face with a slight smile,

"Long time no see, third brother."