Ming Dynasty, New Rome, and Infinite Divine Machine

He repeated the resurrection process with his front hooves once again, and the fourth demon left without saying goodbye again.

The corpse that had just broken its own neck stood up—and then fell down again. His head, held in his own hands, fell apart again.

“So the situation is now.”

"Damn it! Shangluo, this is no longer a matter of being engraved on the self. This is a deeper level, engraved on biological instincts. Even the most basic personality that sustains life has made such a choice without hesitation. This is almost engraved in the DNA."

Victoria was quite disappointed: "I didn't expect that after spending all my money, I would be ripped off in such a place, and I fell into the same trap twice."

"No," Shangluo shook his head. "You did a good job. This is actually an answer to the interrogation. I didn't expect to ask him about Xu Fu's situation. This is probably impossible. I was wondering if he could reveal some surrounding or external intelligence. But now this situation seems to directly prove a very important information: Xu Fu's influence on them is directly rooted in their biological instincts."

"You mean, Xu Fu's brainwashing in their training was very thorough?"

"I think we can make a bolder guess," Shang Luo replied, "Maybe it's a clone. Xu Fu edited their genes and wrote the message of 'loyalty' at the genetic level. So even if we repeatedly peel off the outer layer of personality and leave only the instinct, we still can't pry open this black box."

"There is such a thing?! Can magic reach this level?"

"I don't know if magic can do it, but I am sure that if anyone can do it, it is Xu Fu. After all, Xu Fu directly grasped the fathers, grandfathers, and even more distant ancestors of these people from the source. Under such control, things like rectifying personalities are simply a piece of cake. Perhaps this transformation was not completed in modern times, but has always existed."

“So Xu Fu actually wove a layer of memes???”

"It's hard to say." Shang Luo shook his head, "But I'm getting more and more interested now. This situation is actually a bit strange - it seems that we are not fighting with Xu Fu, but sparring with him. Everything here seems to be his way of dealing with us. He is conveying his will with actions, not words."

"How did you find such an opponent?"

"This really has nothing to do with me. From the very beginning, it was Xu Fu who provoked this matter first - hey."

Shang Luo felt a little strange when he said this: "It's like Xu Fu is luring us deeper step by step? He was the one who sent the ninja at the beginning, and that ninja completely exposed his existence. Then he started to feed us moves, one move after another, as if he was deliberately exposing himself step by step."

It's like two people fighting with swords. But it's not a life-and-death duel, it's training. The opponent is feeding the moves step by step.

"Who is he?" Shang Luo wondered, "Why would he give me advice? What on earth is he thinking?"

Shangluo was completely confused. He couldn't figure out what the relationship between him and Xu Fu was - if this was a fight, it was simply a fight with a swarm of bees. The opponent's limbs or worker bees were all bargaining chips that could be discarded at will and thrown here at will. And the current behavior was simply a greeting.

[Wow] Apollonia exclaimed, [So he took the initiative to ask us to come here? He wants to see you? ]

"Why do I always feel a little creepy?" Shangluo shook his head. "Why do I feel like I'm dealing with an inhuman thing?"

[After so many years, even if he was a human, he is no longer a human. Then he couldn't have called you here just to fight you, right? What if he wanted to fight you? ]

Chapter 1152

"So, Victoria, stop it. Everyone here is Xu Fu's puppets." Looking at Victoria who took out her wallet, Shangluo dissuaded her.

"No! I just can't swallow this!" She took out her wallet and counted the money inside. Her membership recharge limit had been used up, so she had to pay in cash this time. But even if she had to pay in cash, she still planned to come again!

Because she just couldn't swallow this breath. Especially in front of Shangluo and Master Wang. She had just asked everyone else to leave in a mysterious way, so she could only come up with an "indirect" conclusion in the end. Although the indirect conclusion also needed her magic as evidence to support it, it was still Shangluo's deduction after all.

A strong desire to win and a sense of shame drove her to open her wallet again!

[Hey, Victoria, you better think it through! I'm not talking about money. These three resurrections have burned all three layers of personality, and this body has become an empty shell. What's the point of casting a spell on an empty shell? Are you going to empty your wallet to set off a big firework?]

"Ah! I have been the emperor for 4282 days, 13 hours and 12 minutes. How can I swallow this!" She opened her wallet and stood in front of the magic circle:

"Samikina, the fourth demon god who commands 30 fallen angel armies! You are the one who controls the communication and the advent of spirits! Show your true self in front of my sacrifice!"

A thicker and more massive black fog rose from the candlelight. The horse poked its head out from the black fog.

Summoning three times in a short period of several minutes. Even the busy demon god took a second look at Victoria:

"Your balance is insufficient and the instruction cannot be accepted." The old voice echoed in the room.

"Here! It's for you!" She took out a black card from her wallet and handed it to Junma. Junma leaned forward and pressed his forehead against the card.

"Thank you for your business, Victoria of Isauria. The invoice will be sent to your house shortly."

The black horse touched the repeatedly pulled up corpse with its hoof again, and then disappeared as quickly as before.

"Hey~~Hey hey hey~~" Victoria opened her empty wallet, cold sweat on her forehead. But the corpse stood up again, and this time did not choose to end his life immediately.

"I succeeded! Shangluo, look, I succeeded, he was resurrected!"

[Yes, he was resurrected, but was it worth it? If you didn’t know, you would think you were resurrecting your own dog. ]

"Oh, yes, that's right." Shangluo looked at the corpse in front of him.

In fact, this was his first time to watch a spell like "Resurrection of the Dead" up close. It was just that the process was so simple that it was shocking - and he also knew that although the process looked simple, it was probably a huge price paid behind it.

"Are you happy?" Shangluo asked.

"I am extremely happy~"

"That's good." Shangluo replied, "Being happy is the most important thing."

"Ah~~ Now that I've had enough fun, I'll go back. I feel a little sleepy suddenly. I'll leave the rest to you." After saying that, she unfolded the canvas and somersaulted into it.

[So she really can’t be in charge of the money! She is completely different from Phaethon.]

"Happiness is the most important thing." Shang Luo shook his head. "If you can buy happiness with money, why not do it? What's more, the money you spend on the demon god will always 'flow' back, right? Just think of it as stimulating the economy of the spirit world."

[You really spoil her.]

"It's not my money, so what can I say? I'm not her father, why should I care? Anyway, the money has been spent, and it's useless to persuade her now. It's better to say something nice to her and give her positive feedback, which is good for her mental health."

[So you actually want to see what the fireworks look like when they are released. ]

"Don't you want to see it?"

[Okay, you got it right. Then, let's take a look.]

This broken corpse is standing here. Objectively speaking, this shape is still quite scary, after all, "this thing" has just died several times - after all this, this person can only be referred to as "this thing" now.

However, because I watched the whole process and saw the huge difference in strength, it didn't seem that scary.

"After being washed three times over and over again, this soul should be as clean as a blank sheet of paper."

[I don't know, so what's the use of it now? I need to deal with it. ]

"Let King Ao Zang handle it. Doesn't he want some small soldiers and crab generals? Letting him handle it will make the best use of his resources."

Shangluo went out and called back Fu Yuanshan and Ao Zangwang who had avoided the situation - although there was actually nothing to avoid. Although it was very valuable to conclude that "Xu Fu had the ability to fundamentally control these assassins", this was indeed not something Victoria had asked directly from the dead. After all, Xu Fu had the ability to shut up the dead.

And more importantly, Xu Fu seemed to be attracting Shangluo here step by step. Through the method of "feeding moves", he had gathered the high-end combat power of the royal division here - although this was not directly asked by Victoria.

But having said that, Shangluo still intends to save some face for Victoria, ignoring the process and only talking about the results.

"So that's how it is." Fu Yuanshan nodded repeatedly after hearing the information, "This shows that Xu Fu's existence has been deeply rooted here. And he has the ability to control the soul so thoroughly. This is indeed the power of alchemy. And, you are right."

He looked outside: "Although Xu Fu is hiding here, he seems to be everywhere. He is indeed trying to attract us to a certain place step by step. Or to put it more directly, he probably wants you to go there. So be careful."

"Understood. I will keep an eye on it. With today's test, no, with today's interrogation, I have obtained key intelligence."

"Come to think of it, this body is no longer useful, right?" Fu Yuanshan looked at the empty shell, "Shangluo, what are you going to do with it?"

"Me? I don't drive corpses. Didn't King Ao Zang say he wanted shrimp soldiers and crab generals? Do you think it's possible?"

"Let me take a look." Ao Zang took out a magnifying glass and looked closely at the dead fish eyes of the dead man. "It can be washed so clean. It will take a long time to wash it even if it is placed in the Dragon Palace."

[So after all this trouble, it's like restoring the factory settings, right? I spent three times the price but still couldn't save the bricked machine. All the data inside was gone, and only a usable piece of hardware was left. In the end, I planned to sell it second-hand for a discount, right?]

"Well, it's better to be useful than useless. I think this body is also very important to the Dragon Palace."

"Then I'll take it. Thank you, Lord Tian. I'll send someone to get it later."

"Speaking of which, King Ao Zang, what use do you have for this empty body?"

"For the servants of the Dragon Palace, consciousness is superfluous. After planting the Crab Slaves, we can use them to control the bodies and control the Crab Generals. Such a blank and pure body should be able to become a Crab General with no distractions."

"Can I go and take a look? Because later you said you wanted the soul of the Japanese?"

"Yes, yes, Lord Shang Tian, ​​please come this way. It's only right for you to come and take a look. It's also a good opportunity to see how 'efficient' the future of those Japanese people should be. Under the command of the Dragon Palace, they will definitely become more valuable."

Chapter 1153 The Power of Crab General

Crab General, Shangluo met Crab General that day.

Similar to the Roman phlogiston divers - especially the cyberized phlogiston divers - the so-called "Crab Generals" are a group of powerful warriors wrapped in shells.

Like the Phlogiston Submarines, the essence of these Crab Generals is in their shells. It doesn't matter if the outer shell is broken, as long as the essence is not damaged, the outer shell can be replaced at will.

This form was relatively obscure in the past phlogiston soldiers. It was usually manifested as resurrection with the help of a clone, but in fact, it was to make the body replaceable while the soul was immortal. Although there are many forms of expression, "the essence of the soul transcends the body" is the common feature of all phlogiston soldiers.

"Speaking of which." Shang Luo suddenly asked Apollonia while following the Dragon King, "I know that the essence of the phlogiston submersibles is the same. But their power manifests in different forms to me? What is the principle behind this?"

【Because it is a difference in physical strength. Although the essence is the same, the phlogiston soldiers of different systems drank the divine blood from different sources and transformed their bodies differently, so the power system is different. For example, the blood of the Hydra troops who can split themselves comes from the blood of the Titans. Compared with the divine blood of Olympus, they will show more changes in physical strength - of course, the previous differences are not important. The premise for blood to take effect is at least a physical body. After cyberization, the Romans have become the underworld in the full sense, and things like divine blood are irrelevant. 】

What Apollonia felt sorry for was that no matter what blood they drank before, everything would be the same after cyberization. After all, based on physical transformation, after the physical body no longer existed, no matter what kind of blood they drank before, everything would be the same now - and they didn't even need to drink blood before. It was not difficult for the Romans to preserve themselves spiritually, and it was even easier than becoming a qigong practitioner in the East. They just needed to become a magician.

The problem that Rome had difficulty overcoming was the perishable nature of the human body. All previous reforms had been done in various ways to improve the human body. However, after Rome chose this path, all previous efforts were wasted.

No matter what kind of phlogiston submersibles they were, after cyberization, they were all similar to the Crab Generals. They all used armor to restrain their souls, allowing them to appear in the sun, and moved like diving suits. The visual effect was even more like that of villains. If they were blown up, they would be teleported to cyberspace, leaving only equipment scattered all over the ground.

But no matter what, it is still a powerful force after all - but compared with the tens of thousands of similar forces in the Dragon Palace, even Rome pales in comparison.

[So I am very curious about how Ryugu managed to produce so many phlogiston submarines.]

"By the way, how many are there in Rome?"

[It was difficult to count in the past, because it was difficult to count the various troops blessed by supernatural powers into a unified whole. Now it is easier to count after cyberization - it has been cyberized, and the data obtained from Victoria is 482 people. ]

“So there are less than 500 people?”

Yes. While this number will ultimately be around 1000, many still haven't entered Cybernetics. But compared to the Dragon Palace's nearly -strong force, the Roman Empire lags behind by an order of magnitude. If the two sides are truly identical, then the Roman Empire's future is incredibly bleak. With a monopoly on half the Earth's resources, if it can't even compete with the East China Sea, I wonder how Rome will cope in the future, facing the Messiah, an elven invasion, the advent of a demon, or even an automaton rebellion.

"So you hope that the power of the Dragon Palace is at least limited? Like being extremely powerful in certain areas?"

[I don't hope so. Just because the Romans couldn't do it, we can't assume that the East China Sea can't do it either. That would be too arrogant. Although I don't dare to believe it, maybe the East China Sea really has a high-end combat capability that is an order of magnitude higher than Rome.]

——The facts confirmed Apollonia’s guess.

I saw with my own eyes the "crab generals" preparing to land. There were more than 500 crab generals gathered in the hangar of this ship alone.

Wearing black power armor, the Crab Generals come in a variety of styles. In addition to the heavy chassis with six legs, there are also more ordinary two-legged ones. Regardless of the number of legs, the structure of these Crab Generals is similar. They are all surrounded by an opaque glass ball like an aquarium, wrapped in black armor. The armor presents the minimum standard of "armor", with simple and smooth lines, without a trace of superfluous parts.

All of these crab generals have an appearance similar to "heavy diving suits", which is very similar to the phlogiston divers, and the same is true for the divers on submarines that Shangluo saw.

Depending on the species, these crabs also carry various types of light and heavy firearms as weapon platforms. As commandos, crabs usually have two legs, which are lighter than six-legged ones. They hold these easy-to-move medium-caliber firearms, which are direct-fire firearms between guns and cannons with a caliber of about 20 mm. It is not wrong to call them "handheld machine guns."

However, although they are more "filial" versions, these crabs are more than 2 meters tall, standing there like a wall. The six-legged ones are even closer to 3 meters tall, with the huge six legs supporting the body like a turret. In fact, they are faster and more flexible than the two-legged ones, and can even move sideways. It's just that because of their large size, Ryugu still retains the two-legged crabs for street fighting.

[It's over. They are really at the same level of combat power.] Apollonia felt despair. [All the extraordinary combat power of the entire Roman Empire is standing here, and there are about this number. In other words, the people standing in this hangar alone have surpassed the entire Roman Empire.]

"Victoria, did you see that?"

【She saw it. She didn't want to talk now. The past history of the Roman Empire seemed unimportant in the face of this order of magnitude gap. It seemed as if the Romans had been slacking off. You could say that the Roman Empire had many magicians and other combat forces, but the Roman Empire was half the size of the earth after all. Half the earth is not as big as the East China Sea. This is really... As a citizen, I feel sad about this. I wonder what the Romans were doing. Why can't the Romans solve the problems that the Dragon Palace can solve.】

"By the way, how did you tell at a glance that this was a battle of the same level?"

[Because no matter before or after cyberization, the problem that troubled Rome was always the same: the number of immortal bodies. ]

Chapter 1154 The Crisis of Rome

"Number of husks?"

[Yes.] Apollonia continued to explain:

[Whether before or after cyberization, there is only one problem that bothers Rome - immortal souls are easy to find, immortal and tenacious souls are a little harder to find, and souls that can maintain their original hearts during repeated transmissions are even rarer. But for the entire Roman Empire, these are not very important, because there are always enough souls that are enough to become phlogiston submarines, even hundreds of thousands. However, the Roman Empire cannot gather so many immortal bodies that can carry these souls. Whether it is the previous transformation based on divine blood, or now these human-shaped fish tanks. ]

Shangluo remembered that the cost of the "fish tank" was actually quite expensive. After all, it was a container that could hold souls in the sun, and a "new body" that allowed the deceased to experience the world again. Although it looked a little different - for example, the Romans' phlogiston submarines did not seem to have the obvious "spherical" weakness of the crab generals, but in the face of absolute numbers, this problem was not important at all.

Thousands of powerful soldiers, they are equipped with heavy firepower beyond mortals, and the most important thing is the immortality of the flesh. These soldiers who cannot be destroyed or killed are a living nightmare for mortals. With the help of this powerful body and this framework, the spirit can directly interfere with the world under the sun. As long as these indicators can be achieved, it doesn't matter if there is an obvious weakness like a fish tank.

"So, how did the Dragon Palace do it?"

[You can tell at a glance that they are using mirage. Yes, the Romans had to spend a lot of effort to make armor that could hold souls, but here they can be made with just mirage. That's why I feel desperate, because I already know what mirage is, so I know it really works. ]

"Actually, mirages are afraid of high temperatures?"

[This reason is enough to deceive oneself and others. Although the wording is not appropriate, I think it is important to "prepare the enemy with leniency". After all, if we really want to fight, we can't expect the Dragon Palace to always choose a battlefield suitable for the Romans to attack with fire. Although they are afraid of high temperatures, they can create a suitable environment by themselves and actively transform the environment. It's just temperature, not a physical quantity that is so difficult to change.]

"Ah," Victoria said, "That makes sense. Saying 'Mirages are afraid of high temperatures' is just an excuse to comfort yourself. Shangluo, you can say it, but if I really convince myself of this, then my self-esteem would be too cheap."

"So, what are you going to do next?"

"Tsk, it doesn't matter. Life goes on. Even in the face of such a huge blow, I still have to keep living. It's just that this makes it difficult for us to deal with ourselves in front of Zhendan. After all, if Rome is not even as good as a vassal state of Zhendan, then it's over, completely over."