A Moving Treasury?

The plaza before the kilometer-tall building cluster, beneath one of the Floating Cities.

A tall Baro led a combined force — his own people flanked by warriors from several other races — pressing hard against the Mechanical Guardians arrayed across the plaza. Row after row of formidable Guardians fell under the assault. Before long, only the Mechanical Chiefs at the main gate and four Mechanical Hounds remained.

Every one of those Baro was a peak Boss Grade fighter.

Bai Yesi — heir to the Baro's Battle Emperor Liefen, and a Chief Grade warrior in his own right — regarded the lead Mechanical Chief with measured gravity.

"I hold the Mechanical Chief. The rest of you take down those four Hounds at maximum speed — then we close in together and finish the Chief."

"Yes, my lord!"

The others spread out to engage the Hounds.

Just as Bai Yesi drew breath to give the order to attack, a distant rumbling rolled in from the horizon.

Everyone stopped.

A swarm of aircraft cut across the sky in tight formation, escorting a central black diamond-shaped craft at blinding speed — headed straight for the Floating City overhead. The Floating City's own guardian fleet parted immediately, opening a clear passage.

Bai Yesi's eyes went wide. "What is *that*?!"

His Baro subordinates exchanged uneasy glances, uncertainty etched across every face.

Then every Mechanical Guardian in the plaza went rigid. Electric sparks cascaded across their frames. They crashed to the ground almost in unison.

Including the Mechanical Chiefs.

Dead silence.

A Baro spoke carefully into the quiet. "...What exactly is that diamond-shaped craft? It commands other aircraft as an escort *and* causes the Mechanical Guardians to drop dead as if self-destructing... Could it be the King of the Aier Mechanical Ruins?"

The others murmured in tentative agreement.

A robed Baro added with some uncertainty: "But if it's the King of the Aier Mechanical Ruins, why would it be taking the treasures from the buildings? The ruins were prepared by the Land of Origin for Gene Warriors like us, weren't they?"

Bai Yesi's gaze sharpened. An excited light flickered across his purple face.

"A moving treasury," he said, almost to himself. "It entered *our* Floating City." He straightened, voice rising. "I, Bai Yesi, am clearly destiny's chosen here. There must be extraordinary treasures inside — enough to send me soaring, enough to let me become an invincible Battle Emperor like my ancestor!"

The more he thought about it, the more convinced he became. This was the opportunity the Aier Mechanical Ruins had prepared for him specifically.

"Kill these guard dogs — fast! I want that treasury *now*!"

"Yes, my lord!!"

Fueled by visions of treasure, Bai Yesi threw himself into battle at full strength, single-handedly suppressing a first-rank peak Mechanical Chief while his subordinates dispatched the Hounds.

Elsewhere across the iron city, teams from dozens of different groups had already stopped to watch the spectacle with stunned disbelief.

A swarm of aircraft, escorting a central black diamond-shaped craft at impossible speed, cutting across the sky toward the Floating City. The Floating City's guardian fleet parting to let them in without a fight.

"What was *that*?!"

"Those aircraft — how are they flying so fast??"

Breaths caught. Voices went hushed.

Some guessed it was a powerful, unique mechanical lifeform. Others speculated it was the Aier Mechanical Ruins' fabled mobile treasury. No one — not one team across the entire iron city — considered the possibility that it might be a Gene Warrior just like themselves. Because who could field a hundred aircraft as a personal escort, with every other aircraft in the ruins automatically making way?

At a five-hundred-meter tower, Yang Ping's group had also stopped to watch.

Zha Bo stared after the retreating formation, genuinely stunned. "Normal aircraft just drift around up there — but those ones are orbiting the central craft. It's almost like..." He paused. "Guards?"

He seemed baffled by his own deduction.

Yang Ping smiled. "Not a bad read."

A tall youth leaned forward eagerly. "If someone brought that thing down, just imagine the loot—"

Min'er's lips curved slightly: "Come back when you can fly."

The youth felt everyone's eyes on him and glanced around, confused. "What? Why is everyone looking at me?"

Yang Ping's gaze stayed on the sky, eyes flickering. "That central craft looks completely different from the others. Too high-end. Could it be some kind of special mechanical lifeform?"

Lin Wei's group was elsewhere in the iron city when the spectacle hit.

Lin Wei had just laughed: "I wouldn't dare dream of something that good. Let's just take our time with the hundred-meter and five-hundred-meter buildings."

*Just follow Lei Feng's lead.* That was the general attitude.

Then the sound arrived — a distant rolling thunder from somewhere overhead.

Lin Wei's head snapped up. "What is *that*?!"

"Those aircraft — moving *that* fast—"

Several members of the group went rigid, breathing suddenly ragged.

After a long moment:

"Rested up? Let's go in."

The group turned and filed into the five-hundred-meter building.

Meanwhile, Lu Yuan and Amy had been running the same loop for a while now.

The process was fast: land, exit, collect.

Amy's Tianrao Purple Vine erupted outward, tendrils lashing toward the Mechanical Guardians in the plaza — and before they could even reach their targets, every Guardian went motionless. Sparks crackled through armored chassis. Bodies toppled in near-perfect unison.

Amy: *???*

She stared at the pile of fallen Guardians, mind blank.

Then the Guardians twitched back to motion — stowing their weapons, climbing upright — and right in front of Amy's thoroughly baffled face, trotted across the plaza to begin picking up glowing loot orbs one by one.

She tracked their movements in silence.

She still couldn't figure it out. She had originally assumed Lu Yuan had inscribed Mechanical Disruption — but Mechanical Disruption definitely couldn't pull something like this off. So what was it?

*The Aier Core Fragments, maybe? Could they just be a medium — with some other treasure doing the real work?*

She turned to look at Lu Yuan, eyes wide.

Lu Yuan scooped up the loot the Guardians had helpfully collected, then glanced over at Amy — standing there with her mouth open, expression completely adrift — and smiled.

The reason was simple: his Mechanical Control was on a different level entirely. No Mechanical Guardian could resist him for even a second. They didn't just fall — they ran errands for him.

"Let's go," he said.

Amy gave a vague nod.

They ran into the kilometer-tall building together, swept through every room at speed, stripped it bare, and emerged in under a minute — faces flushed with delight.

Amy's mouth twitched. "You're a monster, aren't you?"

*Does that count as an insult?*

Lu Yuan's eye twitched. He said nothing.

This scene had played out many times already. They boarded Black Bear No. 1, reached the next building in seconds, and began a new loop. Arrive. Everything drops. Collect. Leave. Roughly one minute, every time. That was the main reason for their speed.

After collecting the loot from the final set of Mechanical Chiefs, the two of them entered the three-thousand-meter central tower.

Inside, Lu Yuan obtained three more Aier Core Fragments. He absorbed them on the spot. After each one, he felt his connection to the Aier Mechanical Ruins deepen a fraction — as if a channel between him and the ruins were slowly opening wider. He was growing increasingly curious about what would happen if he kept going.

On their way out, a patrol of Mechanical Guardians turned onto the street behind them, spotted them, and moved to attack.

Then the patrol froze. Sparks flew. They dropped.

All of them. The patrol's Mechanical Chief included.

Amy stared.

By now she was numb to it. She stood there looking at the collapsed forms, decided once again that she simply wasn't going to think about it, and followed Lu Yuan.

Although she had correctly guessed that the Aier Core Fragments were useful to Lu Yuan, she had the reason entirely wrong. Lu Yuan, naturally, had no idea what she was thinking.

The two boarded Black Bear No. 1. Lu Yuan was about to set course for the next Floating City when something occurred to him.

"Wait. Let's circle the core zone once."

Amy blinked. "What for?"

Lu Yuan just smiled.

Amy nodded, somewhat puzzled.

One circuit of the core zone later, guided by the Evolution Cube's prompts, Lu Yuan located two more Aier Core Fragments he would otherwise have missed entirely.

"Does taking those do you any good?" Amy asked, watching him pocket them.

He nodded. "Yeah."

Amy nodded back, vaguely.

The real time cost in each Floating City wasn't the buildings — it was hunting down Core Fragments scattered through the core zone. Everything else was almost automatic.

From entering the Floating City to departing: fifteen minutes.

They boarded Black Bear No. 1 and set course for the next Floating City. In terms of scope, they had only cleared four kilometer-tall buildings and one three-thousand-meter tower — there was still plenty left, but their objective was elsewhere.

The harvest had been exceptional.

About half an hour after Black Bear No. 1 departed, the Sky Elevator rose from the iron city below and arrived at the Floating City's plaza.

Bai Yesi's group stepped off.

The kilometer-tall building cluster greeted them in silence. Every room in every building: already searched. Already empty.

All four sectors. Every kilometer-tall building in the city. The same.

Bai Yesi had refused to believe it at first. He went in himself and checked — room by room, floor by floor. Every last one already cleared. He had no choice but to accept it.

A subordinate approached carefully: "My lord... the corpses here are the same as what we found before. No wounds on any of them. Not a trace of a battle anywhere nearby."

Bai Yesi stared hard at the fallen Mechanical Chief corpses. The atmosphere turned to stone.

His face had gone dark — the purple of his Baro complexion mottled with an ugly undertone. His subordinates bowed their heads, not daring to speak, barely daring to breathe.

After a long, grinding moment, bloodshot threads crept into Bai Yesi's eyes. His voice pressed out through his teeth:

"Who did this."

Then louder:

"*Who did this?!*"

His roar shook the entire core zone.

"The Sky Elevator was in *our* hands! No one else used it! So who got up here and stripped these buildings clean?!"

Dead silence.

A subordinate ventured carefully: "My lord... could they actually fly?"

"Only that diamond-shaped craft flew up here!" Bai Yesi bit out.

Silence again.

Then, slowly, he drew a long breath. He composed himself.

"Damned it — we wasted too much time below. That moving treasury got away."

"My lord, none of us know either."

More quiet. Then Bai Yesi's eyes narrowed, and he spoke.

"It doesn't matter. We've noted this. There's still time — we go to other Floating Cities. Whatever it takes, we're getting Aier Core Fragments. That is our entry ticket to the Central Floating City, and we are *not* missing that feast."

His subordinates all nodded hard.

"My lord will be the greatest genius in all of Baiyun Prefecture!"

Bai Yesi waved his hand: "Enough. Time is short — gather what's left and let's move."

He paused, gaze still fixed on the empty gate.

"Besides — once I secure a Core Fragment and break through to Second-rank, the entire Aier Mechanical Ruins will be mine to walk through however I please. I'll track down that moving treasury sooner or later."

"My lord's right!" a subordinate called out. "None of us got it — which means no one else did either. We still have a chance!"

With fresh resolve, Bai Yesi led his group out of the Floating City without another word. They descended to the iron city and set out at speed toward a different Floating City — one well clear of Black Bear No. 1's route.

"Search for Floating Cities nearby," Bai Yesi ordered. "Avoid any that lie along the route that strange diamond-shaped craft is traveling. Cities on its route may already have been picked clean."

"Yes, my lord!"

Lu Yuan knew none of this, of course.

Black Bear No. 1 was already blazing its path toward the next destination.