Chapter 617 Further Information on the Artificial Saintess

When Yu Sheng said he was going to call an expert over, Xu Jiali and Lingdang didn't react at first. But then they saw Yu Sheng casually open a door leading to No. 66 Wutong Road. When they saw the figure walking out from the other side of the door, they immediately understood what was going on.

Luna walked over—followed by Huli and Eileen, who had come to watch the commotion.

The moment she saw the tall figure stepping through the door, Xu Jiali, who was lying on the bed baring her teeth, subconsciously shifted her body. She immediately gasped and almost cursed out loud. The cat-headed girl next to her meowed and instinctively arched her back. Her tail suddenly grew at least twice as thick, and even the fur on her ears stood on end...

Of course, Bell knew Luna—however, her reaction of getting flustered was instinctive. It can only be said that the psychological trauma left by the previous encounter was too great. The terrifying pressure that an artificial saintess, a killing machine, brings when facing an opponent is not so easy to dispel.

"I might have nightmares these next couple of days, meow," Bell realized after her initial instinct to bristle. She muttered to herself, turned her head, grabbed her tail, and vigorously stroked its fur. "This was all so sudden..."

Luna was also a little confused at this moment. She glanced at Yu Sheng, then turned to look at Xu Jiali, who was lying on the hospital bed covered in holes. After a long while, she finally managed to stammer out a few words: "Who, did this to me?"

"What's going on? What's going on? Hey, I can't see..." Eileen had followed along in a daze, and now she was standing on the ground, anxiously spinning around. She turned around and climbed onto Yu Sheng's shoulder before she could see what was happening on the hospital bed. She exclaimed in amazement, "Wow! This knife has been modified..."

“We ran into Luna’s former colleague,” Yu Sheng sighed and began to explain, “It was in a dark alley again, and this time, in addition to a full-strength knight order, an artificial saintess also appeared…”

He then gave a general account of what he had learned from Baili Qing and Xu Jiali. Xu Jiali herself added many details—mostly the specific details of the encounter, and a small part to emphasize her superior skills. In the end, even Eileen couldn't stand it anymore, and the little doll condescendingly retorted, "Superior skills, my foot! You got sliced ​​up like a squirrel mandarin fish and you still have the nerve to talk back..."

"That depends on who the opponent is, okay? Fighting an artificial saintess in close combat, especially under a surprise attack, is a win if you don't die, haven't you heard?" Xu Jiali lay on the bed, speaking with great conviction. Perhaps the pain pump was working again, because he even sounded much more energetic at this moment. "And among you guys, is there anyone who can beat Miss Luna in close combat?"

Yu Sheng, listening from the side, wanted to complain but dared not interrupt. After all, when he fought Luna before, he was stabbed twice and had eight holes in two exchanges, a record that was both verifiable and shameful.

Furthermore, Xu Jiali spoke very carefully, specifically emphasizing the words "close combat"—because if a real fight broke out, Hu Li would be the most lethal member of the hotel. After all, even Luna's armored shell couldn't withstand an orbital strike that re-entered the atmosphere. Under the impact of the fox carrot, all beings are equal; the cyber fox spirit doesn't reason with you...

Luna, the person in question, didn't react much—her attention was now completely focused on "another artificial saintess." When Eileen mentioned "squirrel mandarin fish," she had already moved closer to the hospital bed, carefully examining Xu Jiali's injuries. After observing for a while, she even raised a hand and reached for the deepest wound.

Xu Jiali almost broke out in a cold sweat on the spot. She stopped emphasizing her superior skills and stared wide-eyed, saying, "Hey, wait a minute..."

However, it was just a false alarm. Luna did not reach out and press down—she simply swept her palm across the air, as if scanning something, with a slight buzzing sound coming from her body from time to time.

Seeing this, Yu Sheng leaned closer and asked, "How is it? Can you tell anything from the wound?"

Luna remained silent for a moment, then gently shook her head after several seconds.

Within the connection established by blood, Yu Sheng gleaned even more information from her memories—

What he saw was a magnificent temple and a glorious battlefield. He saw the legion of Templar Knights and Saintesses gathering in the Glory Fortress and marching out to conquer the battlefield filled with demons. In those scenes filled with holy light and hazy imagery, all faces seemed to be shrouded in a thin veil. The "comrades" were just various radiant projections formed after being filtered through a cognitive mask.

Luna's voice stammered into my ears: "I...don't know...what they...look like."

The Secret Order created a cognitive veil that covered the minds of the knights and saintesses, so they had no correct understanding or memory of their past experiences. As a result, even if they were standing face to face now, Luna could not recognize some of her former "comrades-in-arms"—even though in past illusions they had celebrated and trained in the same temple.

She could only recognize those "knights" who, like herself, had broken free from the cognitive shield, and even this recognition was based on the premise that their blood "connected" their minds together.

"Tsk..." Xu Jiali, lying on the hospital bed, clicked her tongue and made an annoyed sound.

As a victim of the skirmish, his feelings were quite complicated. He was naturally wary of the "artificial saintess" who attacked his squad, but he was even more furious at the controllers behind the artificial saintess and the knights. As a senior deep-sea diver, he always respected opponents who attacked head-on, but many times he was dealing not only with honorable enemies, but also with cultists hiding in the gutter.

“This cut is a bit shallow,” Luna broke the silence again, pointing to a wound on Xu Jiali’s side. “Did the other person miss?”

“At this moment, Bell let out the psionic shriek,” Xu Jiali quickly came to her senses and explained after roughly recalling the situation at the time. “The psionic shriek can suppress the mental activity of all enemies, and this move is also effective against the artificial saintess—I also took advantage of this to successfully counterattack.”

Upon hearing this, Yu Sheng raised his eyebrows: "A successful counterattack? You injured the opponent?"

“I was already in bad shape at the time, so I didn’t see very clearly, but I felt that I stabbed at least four times. Two of them must have pierced through the opponent’s armor shell,” Xu Jiali tried hard to recall, and then, despite the pain in her wound, she raised one hand and gestured to Luna the angle at which she had stabbed. “I used the Special Operations Bureau Type 26 Enhanced Beam Dagger. One of the stabs must have been in the opponent’s rib area—although I’m not sure if the artificial saintess has ribs. The other stab may have been in her lower back or side waist.”

He sighed, looking regretful, "She finally slowed down then. If only I hadn't been injured in the first place, I could have won."

Bell muttered beside her, "The boss's mouth is harder than power armor, meow."

“Under the ribs… there’s a seam, lining, living metal,” Luna tugged at Yu Sheng’s sleeve and pointed to the corresponding spot on her body, “A beam dagger, with a chance of piercing through.”

"It really works?" Yu Sheng blinked, then asked, "Is this place considered a vital spot?"

“No,” Luna shook her head, pointing to herself, “My whole body is safe and sound, with no vital organs.”

Yu Sheng: "..."

Just then, a voice suddenly came from the doorway of the ward, interrupting Yu Sheng and the others' conversation: "Let me speak."

Yu Sheng turned his head and saw another familiar face—Song Cheng, the captain of the second brigade.

It was obviously Baili Qing who arranged for him to come.

Song Cheng greeted the people in the room, then told the grimacing Xu Jiali to lie obediently on the bed. He then turned his gaze to Luna, and after a moment of hesitation, he sighed softly.

"We have recently been collecting information about the Abbey of Saints from various sources, and we have also found some intelligence related to artificial saints from the Hermitage of Barmossa and Terra Academy. In short, 'artificial saints' is an extremely complex technology that includes biotechnology, artificial intelligence, mechanical engineering, and several fringe technologies that can be classified as 'dark psionic energy,' and even some of the power that may come from the warp... We don't know how those hermits came up with this, but it is clear that their so-called 'great sages' have obtained incredible 'knowledge.'"

"The outer shell of the artificial saintess is already an outrageous piece of black technology, but the inside of that armor is even more unbelievable—living metal and biomass coexist without a clear life cycle system. This internal structure is like some kind of... 'distributed life,' completely eliminating the concept of 'vital points,' which is why Miss Luna said that she has no vital points."

"The artificial saintess is indeed without any vital points. Theoretically, unless it is completely disintegrated and pulverized in a short period of time, no matter how many wounds the enemy leaves on it, even if they are penetrating everywhere, it will only change the appearance and structure of this 'distributed life' and cannot be considered fatal."

At this point, Song Cheng's gaze fell on Yu Sheng again.

"...Of course, it's just that your ability is a bit too strange, allowing you to ignore this characteristic of artificial saintesses."

Yu Sheng's lips twitched, unsure of what to say, so he could only give an awkward laugh and reach out to grab Luna's hand.

The metal hand was a little cold, but I still gently squeezed it back.

"Then... what about consciousness? Where is consciousness?" Yu Sheng looked into Song Cheng's eyes and asked cautiously.

“This involves a forbidden technology—something akin to black magic, where the soul is extracted from a living person and transformed into something like an ‘artificial machine soul’ or ‘artifact spirit,’ attaching itself to the entire structure of the artificial saintess,” Song Cheng raised his hand to touch his clothes, seemingly subconsciously wanting to light a cigarette, but then instantly realized he was in a hospital room and abruptly withdrew the movement. “Like I said before—there are no vital points or weaknesses, and it’s just that you, Yu Sheng, are my ‘nemesis.’ You’re a natural nemesis.”

(End of this chapter)