15. He had already won the moment he drew his sword.

```

The second form of Annihilation Mode, this is also the strongest state that had been agreed upon before; going beyond this would involve large-scale lethal weapons and light kinetic weapons. Under this form, the strength of the exoskeleton was three times the original, sacrificing some speed, but the power was nearly quintupled.

"Junior brother, your armor is way cooler than Iron Man," Xin Chen said, holding his sword with the blade resting on his arm. "Let's finish this quickly, then you get your work done, and I'll ask little junior sister to join us for a meal, so you two can get to know each other."

Gu Tao ignored him and charged toward him with heavy steps. Xin Chen slightly frowned, but this time he didn't move, just stood there and threw out Mengxiong, with both hands forming the sword gestures.

The soaring Mengxiong suddenly transformed into a roaring tiger, its thunderous roar even flipped the ground over. The tiger pounced toward Gu Tao at an extremely fast speed as he was about to reach Xin Chen, like a jungle hunting monarch, with an air of disdain for the world.

Gu Tao and the tiger Mengxiong collided fiercely, the metal twisted with a grating sound. The tiger, transformed by Mengxiong, bit into Gu Tao's shoulder, its teeth sinking deep into the armor, while its hind paws left a deep mark on the ground due to the impact they carried from Gu Tao's charge.

"External armor damage at thirty-seven percent. Activate third form? Summon Titan components?"

No!

Gu Tao was also a stubborn guy. Even though the analysis just now suggested he was likely to lose to Xin Chen, he refused to go against the promise he had made himself, decisively rejecting the command to further strengthen his armor.

The metallic tiger struggled to rip apart Gu Tao's external armor, but instead of stopping, he triggered the thrusters and shot straight into the sky. After reaching a certain height, he abruptly changed direction, carrying the tiger transformed by Mengxiong and crashed straight toward Xin Chen's position.

Xin Chen slightly rolled his eyes, sighed, and said, "Junior brother, you are still naive."

No sooner had the words left his mouth than the tiger suddenly morphed into a swarm of birds, furiously assailing Gu Tao. Such impacts caused the integrity of his armor to plummet crazily, bottoming out in a few seconds, but just when his armor became tattered, Gu Tao exploded in mid-air.

This sudden turn of events stunned Xin Chen, but when he came to his senses, a short light sword had already pierced through his shoulder, and Gu Tao's voice came from behind him, "I won."

Xin Chen looked at the light sword protruding from his shoulder and pursed his lips, "Junior brother, don't you understand? From the moment you were filled with anger, you had already lost."

As soon as he finished speaking, Gu Tao felt a lightness in his hand. Xin Chen disappeared, most likely because the protective mechanism was activated, and Xin Chen's consciousness was transferred back. Seeing himself victorious, Gu Tao sat on the ground with a grin, his armor in shambles. The last move had been his ultimate limit, and if even the recoil force from his own explosion combined with the last thrusters on his limbs couldn't get him close to Xin Chen, then his second form had been completely defeated.

"Really impressive," Gu Tao sighed, "But I prefer..."

He was speaking to himself when he suddenly looked down as if realizing something, only to find that his shirt had been completely torn apart, probably caused by the iron birds that blocked out the sky during his descent. Strangely, there was not a single scratch on his skin...

"Replay the last five seconds of footage!"

Picking up his broken helmet from the ground, he checked its recording function, then rewatched Xin Chen's death record. It was only the last five seconds, but those seconds could be called super-maneuvering seconds. In this brief time, Xin Chen and Gu Tao had both completed over a hundred and forty moves, and the speed of Xin Chen's hand forming the sword gestures was so fast that even a high-speed camera couldn't capture it... that was the level of speed.

"Play frame by frame."

Under frame-by-frame playback, Xin Chen's hands were still a blur, but Gu Tao's focus wasn't there. He noticed a problem – when he burst out of the explosion, even though he had a force field shield, at such speed, the shield's only function was to prevent him from being smashed to death. If he faced a direct attack from those iron birds, just that brief time would've been enough to be shredded to pieces.

However, under frame-by-frame playback, he saw that the overwhelming iron birds didn't attack, but instead avoided his body at high speed. Those that couldn't dodge in time passed through the thin shield and came close to his body, but the birds that touched his skin instantly exploded. These tiny fragmenting blasts were negligible compared to the explosion of his armor, but they were crucial because... Gu Tao's own constitution was very poor. If those iron birds had not avoided him, Gu Tao would have been pierced during the fall, and not just pierced but turned into a sieve.

"Is he that strong?"

Gu Tao sat there dumbfounded. He unwillingly broke down the footage again, comparing the movements of the iron birds with Xin Chen's hand movements, realizing every time Xin Chen moved his hands, a group of iron birds would leave his vicinity, meaning... his supposed suicidal charge was entirely the result of Xin Chen clearing the path for him.

"How embarrassing..." Gu Tao's face instantly turned red, his previously wild expression disappearing. He finally understood that Xin Chen had held back at the last moment. If not for that, he could not have possibly won against the man with the title of Earth Immortal in his second form.

With a deep sigh, he cancelled the simulation and exited the Virtual Arena. As soon as he took off the helmet, he leaned back in his chair without moving.

"Junior brother, why is everything here so unappetizing?"

Xin Chen, who had come out about fifteen minutes before him, was holding a can and eating. The contents were emergency rations for scientific explorers, which were never meant to be delicious – just being able to fill one's stomach was impressive enough.

"Did you calculate that I would be behind you?"

```

"Of course." Xin Chen set the can aside and wiped his mouth, "But I still think I lost. I could cope with your first level, but at the second level, I had to combine forces with Mengxiong. And I reckon you probably have a third and even a fourth level, right? I can't beat that."

Xin Chen was quite frank, not the least bit smug about holding back, "However, junior brother, you need to let go of your obsession and anger. A calm-minded you may very well beat me the second time around."

Actually, Xin Chen wasn't wrong. If Mode Three was initiated, he might have had to exert all his effort to cope, and might even lose. As for Mode Four... without a doubt, that's when the Titan Mecha would make its appearance.

How much of a difference is there between a Titan and a regular combat suit? That's a tough comparison, but if one must compare, it's probably akin to the gap between a bulletproof vest and a heavy tank. And in the ultimate stage, Gu Tao could even summon a Centaur-class Destroyer to join the battle, while Xin Chen... he might not even be able to breach the Titan's defenses.

But, when all is said and done, Gu Tao still didn't activate those terrifying contraptions that followed. In this regard, Xin Chen was very satisfied, truly very satisfied because although his junior brother seemed a bit odd, he was a man of his word.

"Junior brother, I lost."

"No," Gu Tao shook his head, "It's me who lost."

After saying that, he sighed, "I promise you, I'll let them rest in peace."

"There's actually no need to rush." Xin Chen waved his hand, "In the Taoist Sect, although there is no way to bring the dead back to life, there's a way to keep someone in a state of neither living nor dying."

Gu Tao was taken aback, "What do you mean?"

"It's said that an elder in the Taoist Sect had a child in late life, but the child died young at the age of nine. Heartbroken, he spent twenty years researching a method to resurrect his son. Although he didn't succeed in reviving him, he created a method that can keep the deceased in the state they were at the moment of passing. They can't speak or communicate, but their bodies won't decay, they can move independently, and even retain their memories from life. Although they cannot live as the living do, they can still enjoy a life similar to others and stay by his side until three hundred years after his death. That child is still alive but then disappeared without a trace, his whereabouts unknown."

Upon hearing this, Gu Tao's eyes widened with amazement, "Really? How is that done? Do you know how?"

"Of course, I don't," Xin Chen spread his hands, "The Taoist Sect has myriad mysteries and thousands of techniques. Not to mention I'm just a twenty-something young man; even immortals can't learn them all."

"So, isn't that a pointless remark?" Gu Tao's mood dipped from hopeful back to disappointment, "Still no solution then."

"Of course, it's not pointless," Xin Chen replied with a cryptic look, "If the Taoist Sect is restored one day, won't all those lost arts return?"

"But you said they were lost!"

"Don't you understand the meaning of neither dead nor alive?" Xin Chen said with a slight smile, "I think that the animated corpse should still exist, and apart from him, no one else knows how to use that technique."

"That sounds very evil. Could it go wrong? Produce zombies or something?"

"Techniques are not inherently evil or good; only people are," Xin Chen patted his shoulder, "Junior brother, you still have a long road ahead."

"Then why didn't you say so earlier? Why did we have to fight a match?"

"Senior brother hasn't moved for a long time and feared getting rusty. Besides, didn't you want to try as well? So I let you have a look. And your contraption is good stuff. You should come over more often. Senior brother hasn't had such a thrilling battle in a long time."

"Next time, it's hard to say who will win or lose."

"Do you know the story of Mengxiong? My sword is named after it, destined never to be king. The best outcome would be for you to surpass your senior brother. But next time, unless you also use the abilities of the Taoist Sect to beat me, it will be pointless. After all, that thing of yours can't be seen, nor would disciples of other sects acknowledge it."

Although aware that he had won the duel only because the other had held back, Gu Tao felt good, relieved of pressure. Moreover, after practicing in the Virtual Arena, Xin Chen's data had been better uploaded, and Gu Tao could evolve his combat suit further from this data—these were all good things.

"You get to work, ha. I'm going to call the little sister apprentice and arrange to have dinner together tomorrow."

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The contract has arrived, and the status will change within this week. I will update more then—remember to reward and vote, got it! Ah... those are my little wishes.