“Slaying dragons… huh?” Wen Yuncheng glanced at her experience bar and maneuvered the Mechanical Throne closer to the Star Cannons. With one hand, she continuously chugged an intermediate MP potion, while the other swept over the bodies of the cannons, recharging them. In full-fire mode, the Star Cannons, with only a single energy core each, were at a disadvantage; their energy depleted too quickly.

Resigned, Wen Yuncheng refilled them one by one. By the time the Star Cannons were done, her Air Wings were just about due for another recharge. Although the damage output at full power was immense, the consumption was frighteningly high. Wen Yuncheng was a bit helpless and couldn’t resist poking 1947: Do other Mechanical Masters really have to recharge their machines one by one like this during battle?

[How could that be? Don’t worry, you’ll unlock the Mechanical Domain at Level 70. Then you won’t need to recharge them individually anymore.] 1947 soothed her. [The skill designs are very reasonable. After Level 70, you also won’t need so many storage rings to hold your machines.]

Then, is there a factory for fully automated machine assembly?

[No, thank you. As a Mechanical Master, assembly is a good way to foster a bond with your machines.]

Wen Yuncheng couldn’t help but curse inwardly. Compared to whatever design saved on storage rings, she would much rather free up her hands.

[Aren’t the Mechanical Apostles helping you assemble them? You should be content!]

“…” Wen Yuncheng was speechless. After having her Air Wings fly back in batches to replenish some energy, she once again selected a heavily injured dragon and dropped a mark on it.

She herself sat securely in the rear. It was highly unlikely that either the Dragon Race or the Huanling people could break through the Empire’s layers of defense to reach her. Unfortunately, after those two dragon slayings, both the Dragon Race and the Huanling generals had developed countermeasures. They consciously grouped together, no longer spreading out. As soon as an ally was marked, they would immediately rush to their aid and defend them. Although they would be injured by the firepower and the Star Emperors’ attacks… at least they wouldn’t be killed outright.

Wen Yuncheng was quite helpless about this and could only temporarily focus her firepower on the Huanling armies.

[Beep! Invader killed. 1000-kill milestone achieved!]

[Obtained 10,000 EXP, 500 Points.]

Host: Wen Yuncheng

Race: Human

Age: 22

Class: Mechanical Overlord

Level: 68

Experience: 6685/101000

Points: 18258

Leveled up! Level 68! Wen Yuncheng was quite excited, but she had also chugged a lot of MP potions, so her points hadn’t increased by much. But these were minor details.

The battle lasted until evening, when both the Huanling and the Dragon Race showed signs of retreating. The front line began to pull back, and the Empire’s side did not pursue them blindly. The day’s battle in this city came to a temporary end.

Wen Yuncheng also began to retrieve her Star Cannons, Mechanical Barriers, and Air Wings. A few of her Air Wings had been blown up by a petty Huanling general. The half-step Star Saint had clearly been doing his best to tie that guy down, but just as he was retreating, the general actually chose to be wounded by the half-step Star Saint just to destroy a few of Wen Yuncheng’s Air Wings. That move was truly…

Wen Yuncheng was utterly speechless. If that general was so amazing, why didn’t he take her head from amidst the ten-thousand-strong army? He didn’t even dare to destroy her Air Wings with his bare hands, instead attacking from a great distance, afraid the explosions would hurt him. He truly lacked the bearing of a general.

With the battle temporarily over, Wen Yuncheng went to greet each of the Star Emperors to familiarize herself with them. She didn’t see Protector Chu Han in this town; the one here was Mo Dingtian. Although she didn’t know him well, this Protector was extremely friendly to her.

Wen Yuncheng temporarily stayed at an inn in the town. The innkeepers here had already evacuated, and many buildings were vacant. The Dragon Tiger Guard and the Star Emperors were all staying here.

“Strange, is this battlefront only for Star Emperors?” Although Star Emperor-level dragons gave a ton of experience, gaining it by kill-stealing like this wasn’t very reliable. There was even a half-step Star Saint guarding this place, so it was clearly their main point of attack. In that case… maybe she could go check out other towns. With her Floating Magnetic Disk, she could move extremely fast. She could hang around this town today, then go to the next combat zone tomorrow to leech some kills… They wouldn’t be able to accurately lock onto her location either.

Guerrilla warfare?

Wen Yuncheng gave her idea a thumbs-up and then told Lin Jinyu about it.

“How far are you from Star Venerate?” Lin Jinyu didn’t comment on Wen Yuncheng’s idea, instead asking about her level.

“Two more levels. About two hundred thousand experience.” Wen Yuncheng glanced at her mission log and mentioned the missions she could currently get experience from. “This kind of chaotic battlefield is very advantageous for me, but I don’t feel entirely at ease being constantly under the nose of a half-step Phantom Saint…”

“The overall strength of the Huanling is unknown, but Dragon Island’s strength… with every dragon that dies, Dragon Island’s power diminishes a little.” Dragon Island was definitely cooperating with Huanling for some benefit, but if more of their dragons died than Huanling’s people, this partnership… would become very unstable. “Use your trackers to lock onto the dragons. We’re going dragon slaying.”

“!!!” Wen Yuncheng was shocked. She never expected such a plan of action to come from Lin Jinyu. What’s wrong with the Little Ice Mountain? Wasn’t she dead set against me taking any risks?

“…What are you thinking? I’m talking about Star Venerate and Star King-level dragons.” Lin Jinyu sighed. Wen Yuncheng’s expressions were too rich, making her far too easy to read.

“Oh, oh… okay.” Wen Yuncheng scratched her head. But if she could find one of their bases… sneaking in, setting off an explosion, and then teleporting away seemed like a pretty good method for a surprise attack. If she detonated energy cores directly, how many would it take to blow up a Star King-level dragon?

The front line between Huanling and the Empire continued to stretch, and the Dragon Race gradually stopped appearing on the battlefield. The dragons began to launch constant sneak attacks on various cities in the Empire. Although they didn’t strike central locations like the Imperial Capital, the other towns were greatly disturbed. The Sect Alliance was reactivated. The first-class sects, led by the Flowing Cloud Sect, began to travel to various regions to surround, pursue, and kill the dragons that had invaded the Empire’s territory.

The Empire’s main forces focused on resisting the large-scale Huanling invasion, while the sects patrolled the interior to deal with the harassment and incursions from the Dragon Race.

The Huanling side tried to expend resources to use their portal again, but the Empire was now able to completely detect the portal’s location and the amount of energy within it. They had the half-step Star Saints lie in ambush at the planar portal’s location, and the moment the Huanling general appeared, they killed him instantly and destroyed the portal. After this defeat, the heavens bestowed another reward.

After this loss, the Huanling side knew that the Empire could now pinpoint the location of their planar portals. From then on, they no longer used portals for surprise attacks, instead continuously reinforcing their troops from their original base on Dragon Island.

Meanwhile, Wen Yuncheng and Lin Jinyu roamed from place to place, hunting down the dragons that would quickly flee after raiding a city. Most of these dragons were at the Star Venerate level, with a few at the Star King level. They didn’t engage in direct combat; the moment they sensed trouble, they would immediately flee, leaving the sects’ Star Venerates and sect masters feeling utterly helpless. However, this wasn’t a problem for Wen Yuncheng. Any dragon she saw was marked by her trackers.

When night fell, Wen Yuncheng and Lin Jinyu would head to the dragon’s hiding place together. Wen Yuncheng would first use a camouflage skill to scout the dragon’s hiding spot. After confirming there were no other dragons or helpers, she and Lin Jinyu would directly surround and kill it. Star Venerate and Star King-level dragons no longer posed a threat to the two of them. Lin Jinyu’s sword intent could directly shatter a dragon’s scales, and Wen Yuncheng’s Airstrike Support and magnetic pulses were also very effective against them.

At one point, when they had beaten a dragon to near death, Wen Yuncheng even tried out her Launching Slide skill. When she discovered that a light tap from the slide against the massive dragon’s body… actually made the entire dragon float into the air, Wen Yuncheng herself was a bit dumbfounded.

This kind of mandatory effect… was not to be trifled with, truly not to be trifled with. She had thought the special effect would be weakened against such a huge enemy, but she never expected… no matter how big the enemy was, if it was supposed to float, it would float. So, in the subsequent battles, Wen Yuncheng began to actively use her G-3 Predator. After all, with those random negative buffs, landing any of them was a win.

These abilities… if they’re also effective against Emperor-level opponents… Wen Yuncheng thought, if my luck is good enough, it might not be impossible to slay an Emperor directly without resorting to the point self-destruct method.

The second phase of the war was clearly going to be a very long process. While Wen Yuncheng continuously locked onto, ambushed, and assassinated dragons, she also paid attention to any news from the Empire about the three missing sovereigns from the Demonic Beast Great Forest. Oh, right, and the Fu organization. The people from that organization… seemed to have disappeared for a long time.

Wen Yuncheng refused to believe they weren’t secretly stirring up trouble.

Amidst this constant tracking and killing, Wen Yuncheng welcomed her 23rd birthday. In the current situation, it was obviously impossible to do anything special for her birthday, like relaxing or going on a date. However, Lin Jinyu was by Wen Yuncheng’s side at all times. Perhaps that was the best gift of all.

“Speaking of which, you could say my wish came true,” Wen Yuncheng said with emotion. The wish she had made on Lin Jinyu’s birthday back then had now been completely fulfilled.

Host: Wen Yuncheng

Race: Human

Age: 23

Class: Mechanical Overlord

Level: 69

Experience: 15855/104000

Points: 19101

Every dragon was a huge amount of experience. Two Star Venerate dragons were equivalent to one Star Emperor dragon. And although a Star King-level dragon was only worth 5,000 EXP, the key was that they were easy to kill.

The Dragon Race was supposed to be invincible among those of the same rank, but unfortunately for them, they had encountered Wen Yuncheng and Lin Jinyu, two people who couldn’t be measured simply by their cultivation level.

The Plane Consciousness had left a mark on Lin Jinyu. This mark allowed her to easily borrow the power of the Stars for battle. With the Stars’ blessing, her Star Power was almost never in danger of being depleted. Although she was only at the Star King level, her communication and connection with the Stars were no different from a Star Emperor’s. With this blessing, while Lin Jinyu still couldn’t face a Star Emperor head-on, she had no problem fighting a first or second-layer Star Venerate. Furthermore, the insights she gained from communicating with and borrowing the power of the Stars meant that Lin Jinyu no longer had any bottlenecks in her cultivation. As long as she accumulated enough power, breaking through was a natural process.