Full health is the kill threshold, no matter if you're a god or a demon!

Liu Nian stepped forward and looked up at the figure suspended in mid-air by energy chains. His footsteps were light, but in the empty laboratory, each step echoed clearly.

As he walked to the edge of the platform, the NPC hanging in the air suddenly opened his eyes.

Those eyes were also silver-white, and tiny sparks of electricity constantly flickered within them.

Those eyes were unfocused at first, somewhat vacant, and after several seconds, they slowly and laboriously moved downwards and landed on Liu Nian.

His lips parted slightly, emitting a hoarse sound, as if he hadn't spoken in a long time:

"Help...me..."

Liu Nian did not act rashly.

Who knows if the person rescued will be friend or foe?

He walked around the platform twice, carefully examining the energy chains—they extended from the inside of the spherical device, without any physical form, but purely in the form of energy, slowly flowing in mid-air like glowing snakes.

The ends of the chains sank into Morse's limbs, and fine arcs of electricity danced at the boundary between skin and energy.

Once Liu Nian confirmed that this was not a trap, he asked:

"How can we save him?"

Morse's throat made a dry sound: "All... needs to be... shut... down there."

His gaze moved with difficulty to a control panel on the left side of the room. The panel was covered with buttons and screens, one of which was flashing, displaying complex waveforms. In the center of the panel was a lever encased in red glass.

"What will you do after it's shut down?"

"Fell...down." Morse's voice regained some strength. "And then...you could move."

"I mean, if this thing is turned off, will it trigger anything else? An alarm? Self-destruct?"

Morse paused for a moment, then forced a smile: "You... are cautious. No... this is just... cutting off the energy supply."

Liu Nian was silent for a moment, then asked, "I found a diary in the shaft before. The diary's owner's name was Morse. Was that you?"

"Yes...yes." Morse's throat seemed to have regained some function, and his voice was clearer than before. "I left it...in the nests of those cavemen. It was...my record."

"But the diary says you should be a dwarf." Liu Nian looked up at Morse's physique, which was even more massive than a troll's. "Your head..."

"I am a dwarf," Morse said, a hint of helplessness in his voice. "My current appearance is due to my being immobilized in the 'Avatar' form. It's a kind of enhancement technology that combines engineering and arcane arts, which can greatly increase the size and strength of the recipient, but at the same time, it will permanently fix them in this form, and they can't go back."

Liu Nian was stunned. A divine descent—this was a skill most dwarves possessed, just like barbarians could be possessed by their ancestors, and trolls could regenerate limbs…

But he never expected that this skill could be permanently fixed; this was something he had never seen before.

"No wonder he looked familiar," Liu Nian muttered.

Why are you trapped here? How long have you been trapped?

Morse closed his eyes, seemingly lost in thought. After a moment, he opened them: "I don't know exactly how long. Maybe a few years, maybe longer. This place... has no concept of time."

"A few years?" Liu Nian frowned. "Are you sure it's not a few hundred years?"

"I wish I had found this place hundreds of years ago!" Morse said helplessly. "Then this war machine might still be intact! This thing is a relic from the Omnic Wars, and my ancestor, the Star Gnomes, was once its master. I spent a long time tracking the whereabouts of the Omnics, and finally found one here. But I didn't expect that its internal technology was so far beyond ours... I got trapped in it without even realizing it."

After processing this information, Liu Nian asked, "What exactly is your type of dwarf?"

"Engineering dwarf, Deputy Director of Research at the Royal Engineering Society of Gnomeregan."

Liu Nian raised an eyebrow.

He'd heard of Gnomeregan—that name before, from the Engineering Gnomes. They said it was their capital city, the birthplace of the Engineering Gnomes! Could it be…?

"Do you know an engineering dwarf named Gerbin?" Liu Nian asked cautiously.

Morse frowned slightly: "Gelbin...Gelbin? Which Gelbin? I know several people with the same name, what's their last name?"

Liu Nian really didn't know Gerbin's surname, so he said, "I don't know his surname, but he may have royal blood."

"Royal bloodline... Gelbin Nomo?" Morse's voice rose a few decibels.

Liu Nian thought for a moment and nodded: "Yes. That should be the name."

Morse fell silent, his eyes fixed on the ceiling, the electric sparks in his pupils flickering even more violently.

"Gelbin Nomo... the youngest son of Thorin Nomo, the Golden Beard. Is he still alive?"

"I'm alive and well."

Morse closed his eyes, exhaled a long breath, and then slowly said:

"That's quite surprising! Back then, when the Three Kings War broke out in the kingdom, Gelbin was implicated because he and the second prince were born of the same mother. After the second prince lost the struggle for the throne and was imprisoned, Gelbin was forced to secretly leave Gnomeregan with his mother's family, severing all ties with the kingdom."

Morse spoke calmly, as if recounting a distant history: "But fate is unpredictable. Although the eldest prince seized the throne, he was soon severely wounded by a poisonous dragon. He died before he could leave any heirs... So the elders were able to release the second prince, who had the blood of the Nomo family, to inherit the throne. But from then on, the whereabouts of Gelbin and his maternal clan became a mystery."

He opened his eyes and looked at Liu Nian: "Speaking of which, Gerbin should call me uncle."

Liu Nian was stunned.

"Thoryan Nomo, the mighty King Goldenbeard... he is my brother," he said. "Gelbin is my nephew, and I am also a member of the Nomo family. My full name is Morse Nomo!"

Liu Nian blinked.

So—the current Engineering Dwarf Emperor is Gerbin's older brother from the same parents? And this big guy trapped in the Omnic vehicle is Gerbin's uncle?

Isn't this just a coincidence that his mother opened the door for another coincidence, and that coincidence just happened to be at home?

"To be honest," Liu Nian said, "Gelbin and I have an extremely close relationship; we are very intimate allies. We are currently working together to build a new home."

Morse stared at Liu Nian for a few seconds, then smiled.

"No wonder. I sensed a familiar aura emanating from you!"

Liu Nian has a very high reputation and intimacy level with the Engineering Dwarfs, so it's normal for Morse to naturally develop a good impression of him.

Without further hesitation, Liu Nian smashed the red glass with a punch and pulled down the switch.

"Click."

The device's power supply was interrupted, and Morse fell from mid-air, crashing onto the platform with a dull thud.