Chapter 22

Although Huaxia Jiu had a simple mind and could not lie, he was well aware of the negative aspects of human nature such as greed, deceit, jealousy, and fraud. He knew that there were good and bad people. Under the influence of these negative emotions, humans often killed their own kind and seized property to benefit themselves, especially in the cultivation world, which followed the cruel law of the jungle. Therefore, he had no doubt that Ma Zhikuo and Yu Mingfu would not hesitate to kill him once they discovered the value of the humanoid corpse.

Although Huaxia Jiu was influenced by the Three Laws of Robotics in his initial core program and would not easily harm humans, his brain had undergone a series of mutations due to the influence of the colorful meteorite and the soul of the striped tiger demon king. The Three Laws of Robotics no longer had any binding effect on him; at most, they made him dislike harming humans.

Therefore, if Ma Zhikuo and Yu Mingfu were to harm Huaxia Jiu, he would not sit idly by for self-preservation. Given his absolutely rational and cold-blooded thinking and style, he might even take the initiative to eliminate potential threats.

Huaxia Jiu's mind rapidly performed logical calculations.

Ma Zhikuo and Yu Mingfu clearly did not get along, so even if they both followed him, he did not have to worry about them teaming up.

However, both were powerful, and in a direct confrontation, Huaxia Jiu was no match for either of them. He would have to use his laser gun and sniper rifle to launch a surprise attack.

Huaxia Jiu quickly formulated a battle plan and immediately put it into action.

He took the longbow from his back, placed an arrow on the string, and cautiously approached the tall figure sitting on the boulder.

Ma Zhikuo's excitement was almost uncontrollable, even making his breathing heavier, which was detected by Huaxia Jiu's radar-like ears, exposing his presence.

"Dragon aura! This is the purest dragon aura, and it comes from a dragon that has transformed into a human form."

The value of a humanoid dragon corpse, given Ma Zhikuo's strength and knowledge, was immense. Even the combined resources of his sect, including all the heavenly treasures and cultivation secrets, might not match the value of this corpse.

Initially, he and Yu Mingfu had speculated that beyond the deep ravine, there might be a legendary hidden sect or treasures hidden by Huaxia Jiu.

If it were the former, he had decided to take a quick look and then leave, reporting the location of the hidden sect to the elders of his sect for unimaginable rewards.

If it were the latter, he would decisively kill Huaxia Jiu and take the treasures, then quickly leave, knowing that Yu Mingfu was likely lurking nearby.

But he never expected to find a dragon corpse, a treasure that could drive even the most powerful cultivators in the Great Wu Empire to madness.

Humans initially pursued immortality by studying magical beasts, and even the earliest cultivation methods and spells were imitations of these beasts. For tens of thousands of years, humans never gave up on studying magical beasts and demons. Dragons, standing at the top of the food chain, were particularly revered. A legend from ten thousand years ago told of the Tianxuan Sect capturing a young dragon by chance, after which the sect's elder became the first human to achieve immortality. This elder ascended to the heavens in front of many witnesses, and every generation of the Tianxuan Sect had at least one person who ascended. This story was widely known in the cultivation world.

Whether the Tianxuan Sect's high probability of ascending was due to the young dragon was unknown outside the sect, but this did not stop other sects from speculating. Given that ascending to the immortal realm was the ultimate dream of all cultivators, they often believed it to be true.

The opportunity to study a dragon, a divine creature, would make any cultivator willing to use any means. Moreover, the dragon's body was the most precious material for alchemy, forging, and puppetry.

Therefore, when Huaxia Jiu was completely focused on the humanoid dragon corpse, Ma Zhikuo decisively rushed down. He did not hesitate to act as quickly as possible.

Although Ma Zhikuo was excited, his actions were precise.

As he rushed down, his blood-colored longsword transformed into a bolt of lightning, piercing toward Huaxia Jiu's back.

Huaxia Jiu, despite reading many secular books, was unaware of the status and value of dragons in the cultivation world. He had no experience or knowledge to recognize the oppressive aura as dragon aura, so he did not expect Ma Zhikuo to attack so quickly.

Although Huaxia Jiu's radar-like ears detected Ma Zhikuo's approach, the speed of the blood-colored sword was too fast for him to dodge in time. The sword accurately pierced his back.

*Pierce—Clang—Pierce!*

Two sounds echoed. The blood-colored sword, sharp and cold, easily pierced through Huaxia Jiu's bio-skin and struck the titanium alloy skeleton beneath.

Although titanium alloy was hard, it could only slightly impede the sword before being pierced.

*Buzz—*

The cold blue light on the sword intensified, instantly turning Huaxia Jiu into an ice block, even freezing his soul.

Ma Zhikuo, knowing that Huaxia Jiu's soul was powerful and that powerful cultivators could make their souls explode, decided to use a secret technique to confine Huaxia Jiu's soul within his body to extract his memories and the information about the hidden sect.

Although Ma Zhikuo was surprised by the hardness of Huaxia Jiu's body, he did not dwell on it. Even a discarded disciple of a hidden sect could have some life-saving techniques or treasures.

In this world, although there were puppets similar to robots, none reached Huaxia Jiu's level in terms of intelligence, flexibility, and bio-skin, which was indistinguishable from a real human. At least, Ma Zhikuo had never seen anything like it. He never imagined that Huaxia Jiu was a puppet-like existence.

After piercing Huaxia Jiu's heart, Ma Zhikuo glanced at him and then ignored him.

Ma Zhikuo's eyes glowed with greed as he approached the humanoid dragon corpse, resisting the dragon aura and remaining vigilant for Yu Mingfu's possible appearance.

When he was two meters away from the corpse, he took a small bag from his waist, formed a hand seal, and a suction force emerged from the bag. The corpse floated up and shrank rapidly, finally entering the bag as a finger-sized object.

*Bang—*

In an instant, a dull gunshot echoed, and half of Ma Zhikuo's head exploded, spraying red, white, and black matter.

Not far away, Huaxia Jiu lay on the ground, a black gun barrel extending from his right hand, still smoking.

Huaxia Jiu quickly assessed the energy consumption of the shot and then rushed to Ma Zhikuo's body lying in a pool of blood.

Huaxia Jiu grabbed the small bag from Ma Zhikuo's hand and emitted two invisible electromagnetic waves from his eyes, enveloping Ma Zhikuo's entire head.

A blurry humanoid figure emerged from the remaining half of Ma Zhikuo's head, looking around in confusion, as if still in shock from his sudden death.

Although the figure's face was blurry, it still resembled Ma Zhikuo.

After looking around and seeing the body beneath him, the figure's expression showed disbelief and terror, and he let out a silent scream.

As he screamed, his soul's frequency fluctuated, allowing Huaxia Jiu to accurately calculate the frequency changes and adjust the electromagnetic waves from his eyes to resonate with Ma Zhikuo's soul.

*Buzz—*

The humanoid figure stretched and twisted, finally transforming into two beams of light that entered Huaxia Jiu's eyes.

In Huaxia Jiu's mind, a cluster of white light, dozens of times more concentrated than the soul energy of the colored iron lizard, appeared, forming a humanoid figure resembling Ma Zhikuo.

The figure flickered intensely, and countless images shot out, categorizing and entering various folders floating in his mind.

After more than ten breaths, the figure stopped flickering, and no more images emerged. The figure then trembled and merged into Huaxia Jiu's soul, growing by a third, with his nose, lips, and eyes becoming slightly clearer, and his aura strengthening nearly twofold.

Without hesitation, Huaxia Jiu picked up Ma Zhikuo's blood-colored sword and ran toward the deep ravine.