What's Wrong With This Woman?

On the city wall, the Guard Corps soldiers locked in combat with the Feral Beasts caught the commotion and broke away from their opponents to look.

At the sight of Lu Yuan and Tracy cutting through the beast horde and rapidly closing the distance to the wall, the soldiers froze — then broke into grins.

"Is that... reinforcements?! We actually have reinforcements?!"

"So many mechanical beings! And they're devastating — one shot kills several beasts at once!"

"The one out front — that's got to be a Battle Venerable, right?! An actual Battle Venerable-level warrior came to help us — thank the heavens!"

"Move! We close in from both sides and encircle them — we can wipe out the beasts on this flank!"

"Right! Kill every last one of these animals!"

Two young Guard Corps soldiers on the wall — one a Guardian Type, one an Elemental Type — were both Talent Camp students, fighting back-to-back. When they spotted Lu Yuan in the distance, they both pulled up short.

"Wait — is that Lu Yuan? Our junior? What is he doing here?"

"Those Lord Grade Mechanical Guardians... aren't those from the Aier Mechanical Ruins? Is he controlling all of them? There are so many!"

Watching over two hundred Mechanical Guardians unleash volley after volley of Spirit Cannon fire, both of them stared wide-eyed.

In the thick of the beast horde, Lu Yuan was directing his Mechanical Guardians to cut down everything that lunged at them — and a quiet thrill ran through him.

Sure enough, this area had no shortage of Aberrant Feral Beasts. With each one killed, the Evolution Cube absorbed more of that unknown energy. He could feel it.

The Evolution Cube had already begun to tremble.

With Tracy's combat power supplemented by over two hundred Mechanical Guardians, the beasts massing outside the northern wall had no answer. The two of them drove through the horde like a blade, steadily pressing toward the wall.

In barely ten minutes they reached the base of the mountain and began climbing, cutting down beasts as they went.

Like Camp 257, the mountain base here was carpeted in carcasses. The slopes ran red with blood, and the heavy reek of iron filled the air.

Tracy charged ahead. The Mechanical Guardians covered both flanks and held the rear — clean, efficient, no gaps.

Soon they crested the mountain and reached the base of the wall.

Tracy, Lu Yuan, and the Mechanical Guardians leapt and vaulted over the parapet.

When over two hundred Mechanical Guardians landed simultaneously, the stone shuddered beneath the impact.

Ten-meter steel frames weren't exactly light.

The moment they touched down, Tracy and Lu Yuan swept their gazes across the wall and the city below.

Beasts were still swarming the parapet. Melee Guard Corps soldiers fought to hold them back, shielding their ranged teammates. The ranged fighters continued pouring fire down on the creatures outside. A portion of the beasts had breached the interior as well — the sounds of combat echoed from inside the city.

Tracy and Lu Yuan exchanged a glance. Lu Yuan spoke.

"Deputy Commander Tracy, I'll handle the beasts on the wall and hold the exterior. The ones inside the city are yours."

Tracy's smile curved. Spirit Power surged around her, sending her crimson hair streaming in the wind.

"Leave it to me."

She dissolved into a blur and shot into the city.

Lu Yuan reached out with his mind and scattered the Mechanical Guardians across the length of the wall.

Nearby, a Guard Corps soldier wielding a heavy greatsword was locked in battle with a Third-rank Iron-Armed Ape.

As a defensive camp stationed closer to the front lines, the 306th Guard Corps fielded soldiers who were considerably stronger on average than those at Camp 257. Even the Third-rank warriors numbered more here.

This soldier was one of them.

The two traded blows back and forth, the soldier's greatsword clashing against the Iron-Armed Ape's fists in a shower of sparks and ringing steel.

The Ape bellowed in fury.

Then a Spirit Cannon round, trailing a fierce pulse of Spirit Power, slammed directly into the top of its skull.

**Boom!!**

The shot punched straight through. The Iron-Armed Ape's massive five-meter frame swayed once and crumpled to the ground.

The soldier blinked, momentarily dazed, and turned toward where the round had come from.

A Lord Grade Mechanical Guardian thundered past at a heavy, ground-shaking jog, Spirit Cannon already cycling up for the next shot as it went. Wherever a Feral Beast appeared, a round found it. Anything below Third-rank Chief Grade dropped in a single hit.

And it wasn't alone. Dozens more swept past him with the same measured stride, clearing everything they touched. In moments, the beasts along this stretch of wall were gone.

Only a handful of Third-rank Chief Grade creatures still stood, locked in combat with clusters of Mechanical Guardians.

The soldier looked around and realized he wasn't the only one standing there with nothing to fight. Every melee soldier who'd been freed from their opponent wore the same dazed expression.

The sweep had happened so fast that none of them had quite figured out what to do with themselves.

Not long after, the last Third-rank Chief Grade creatures went down — taken out by joint assaults from Mechanical Guardians and senior Guard Corps officers working in concert.

The senior officers disengaged one by one.

A middle-aged man, who had just finished off a Third-rank Chief Grade Earth Fire Python with the help of nearly ten Mechanical Guardians, stood over the carcass and studied one of the massive steel figures for a long moment. Then he wheeled around and bellowed across the wall.

"Anyone with a free moment — snap out of it! Melee soldiers, find your ranged partners and cover them! Everyone else, get into the city or move to another section — help your comrades!"

The soldiers who'd been staring into the distance came back to themselves.

Some moved at once to stand beside their still-living ranged partners, the assignment unchanged. Others — those whose partners had already fallen — turned toward the bodies with red-rimmed eyes before wheeling away and charging toward the adjacent sections with a roar.

Lu Yuan was directing his Mechanical Guardians when several Guard Corps soldiers approached him, gratitude plain on their faces.

"Friend, which camp are you with?"

the middle-aged man asked.

"Camp 257." Lu Yuan smiled. "Lu Yuan — Commander of the Mechanical Corps."

He'd been about to say Vanguard, but then remembered Luo Xiu had established the Mechanical Corps for him, so that was what he gave instead.

"Mechanical Corps?"

The soldiers exchanged uncertain looks.

Defensive camps all ran on roughly the same organizational structure — and the 306th had no such thing. What exactly was Camp 257's Mechanical Corps supposed to be?

Catching their confusion, Lu Yuan explained.

"All of these Mechanical Guardians are my soldiers. Commander Luo Xiu established the Mechanical Corps specifically for me."

The words landed heavily. Every one of them fixed their gaze on the two hundred-plus Mechanical Guardians, something shifting in their eyes.

"All of them... belong to one person?"

The middle-aged man asked, barely keeping the disbelief from his voice.

He'd assumed this was some camp's carefully hoarded trump card fielded as a unit. The idea that it was a single individual's private army hadn't crossed his mind.

Lu Yuan nodded. "That's right."

"Commander Luo Xiu received Camp 306's distress signal," he continued, "and ordered me and Deputy Commander Tracy to reinforce you. All two hundred-plus of my Mechanical Guardians are here to help."

Relief broke across the soldiers' faces.

"Understood! Thank you, Commander Lu!"

He was young, which had given a few of them pause — but he'd come as reinforcements, and no one was about to question that now.

By this point, the Mechanical Guardians had spread across the full length of the northern wall. With the parapet cleared, their Spirit Cannons swung outward and began working through the beast tide massing below.

The rolling thunder of cannon fire filled the air. Devastating volley after devastating volley tore into the packed horde outside.

With that firepower added to the northern wall, the beast tide that had been battering at the gates was driven back within moments. The horde fell back to the base of the mountain, leaving a carpet of carcasses behind.

The pressure on the north wall collapsed.

Every Guard Corps soldier on the northern section stared in disbelief. The horde that had been hammering at their gates — that had actually gotten beasts inside the city — and it had been pushed back this cleanly?

The middle-aged senior officer shook his head slowly.

"Unbelievable firepower."

Over two hundred Second-rank Perfect Lord Grade Mechanical Guardians. Their combined output exceeded the entire northern wall's ranged fighting force. Combined.

With the beast tide suppressed, Lu Yuan turned to the still-stunned officer with a calm smile.

"The north wall line should hold for now. I'm leaving twenty Mechanical Guardians here to keep the pressure on — I need to move to the other sections."

The officer and the senior staff around him came to sharp attention at once and saluted.

"Thank you, Commander Lu!"

Lu Yuan returned the salute. "Just doing my job."

He was feeling pretty good about it, honestly. He'd absorbed a substantial amount of that unknown energy.

*The Evolution Cube's transformation feels close now.*

*Keep at it.*

He led the bulk of his Mechanical Guardians at a run toward the next section of wall.

South wall.

Even after summoning the Frost Giant, Si Tingxue held her line without pause.

Beneath her stretch of wall, nearly every Feral Beast had been reduced to a frozen statue — and the statues to glittering powder. Across the entire perimeter, her section was the only one where no beast had made it to the parapet.

Everywhere else, beasts had climbed up.

Si Tingxue wasn't only managing the creatures below. She was simultaneously picking off beasts encroaching on nearby sections. Even for her, a day and a night of unbroken combat was beginning to tell.

She had rested briefly at the very start. After that, she had gone the entire night without stopping.

Medicines kept her physical condition stable, but nothing fully offset the drain on her concentration.

Then a wave of distant thunder reached her from the direction of the northern wall. Si Tingxue's brow knitted slightly as she looked that way.

*Had the beasts surged again over there?*

Her expression tightened. She cast a glance skyward. It all depended on Ye Zhenghao — he was the only one positioned to break the current deadlock.

High above, with the Frost Giant now in the fight, the tide had shifted in minutes. The Venom Demon Giant Lizard was riddled with wounds and wouldn't last much longer before Ye Zhenghao finished it. The Pale Blue Rat remaining in the fray posed no real threat on its own.

All things considered, spending the Frost Giant Summoning Stone had been worth it.

Then, without warning, massive mechanical figures came thundering in from both sides of the wall, converging on the south section. They swept through everything in their path — every beast on the parapet killed in passing — and within moments, the chaos that had ruled the wall began to settle.

Si Tingxue watched it happen, her eyes widening slightly, a flicker of shock crossing her cool features.

"These are..."

Then she saw a face that had absolutely no business being here.

"Lu Yuan?"

Lu Yuan had made for the south wall with purpose.

Of all four sections, the south wall faced the Endless Mountain Range directly — the heaviest beast concentration, the greatest pressure, the greatest need. And more beasts meant more Aberrant ones, which meant more unknown energy to absorb.

Simple arithmetic.

He'd left twenty Mechanical Guardians each on the east and west walls and brought the rest here.

The moment he arrived, he noticed the air on this section was markedly colder. And there, standing out from everyone around her like a lone crane among common birds, was Si Tingxue.

She'd clearly spotted him too. For the first time in the month he'd known her, her expression actually shifted — something visibly moved across her face.

*Her eyes widened noticeably more than usual. That's new.*

He kept moving, directing his Mechanical Guardians to cut down beasts along the wall as he made his way toward her.

He reached her side and smiled.

"Si Tingxue. What a coincidence."

Si Tingxue glanced at the wave of Mechanical Guardians tearing into the beast positions. Something flickered in her gaze.

"These came from the Aier Mechanical Ruins?"

"True to Si Tingxue," Lu Yuan said, grinning. "Sharp as always."

"Yes," she said simply. "I know."

Lu Yuan's smile stiffened.

*...Has she always been this self-satisfied? How did I miss that before?*

He looked at the frozen tableau beneath her section — the ice sculptures, the drifts of pulverized frost, the hundreds of meters of wall exterior from which every living creature had been erased. Anything that wandered into her domain barely managed a few steps before it was encased and then shattered.

Something flickered in his eyes before he steadied himself.

Self-satisfied, yes. But she had the evidence to back it up.

Lu Yuan spread his Mechanical Guardians along the south wall, cleared the parapet, and turned their fire outward. The beasts that had been constantly pressing onto the wall were driven steadily back.

Si Tingxue watched it happen.

"Why are you at Camp 306?" she asked, genuine curiosity in her voice.

"I'm the Mechanical Corps Commander from Camp 257," Lu Yuan said. "Our commander dispatched me and Deputy Commander Tracy to reinforce you. That makes me part of the relief force, I suppose."

Si Tingxue's lips parted slightly. Surprise flickered clearly in the look she turned on him.

"Mechanical Corps Commander?"

Lu Yuan flashed a grin. "They're all my soldiers. I raised enough of them to fill a corps — why not form one?"

Si Tingxue had nothing to say to that.

She stood in silence and turned it over in her mind. Her elder sister's student, standing right in front of her — and he now had his own corps.

She didn't have a corps.

Something about that thought made the air around her drop another degree. A volley of ice spears erupted from her hands and tore into the beast lines — more forceful than before, the frost mist rolling further, the kill radius wider.

Lu Yuan stared at the sudden outburst, genuinely at a loss.

*What is this woman's problem?*

*She just snapped? What happened?*

*Doesn't she care about her Spirit Power?*

She wasn't him — she couldn't replenish Spirit Crystals nearly that fast.