The pitch-black chains of Abyssal Bind were effortlessly torn free by the Mechanical Slaughterer, and its serrated greatsword descended in a cleaving strike.
Compared to the first swing it had unleashed, this cut sliced clean through the air itself.
The air-blades that shot outward were purer and sharper, their speed even greater.
"The rate of improvement is insane."
Shi Feng hadn't expected Abyssal Bind—the very technique that could restrain a High-rank Leader like the Nebula Tiger—to have no effect whatsoever. But what was even more terrifying was the sheer leap in the Mechanical Slaughterer's combat power.
"Looks like this is as far as I can play."
Shi Feng watched the storm of wind-blades hurtling toward him. There was nowhere to dodge. Every survival skill he had was already spent dealing with the Mechanical Warden, and even if he still had them, none would be enough to block this. Without hesitation, he switched the Seven Luminary Ring's Ring of Wind to the Ring of Space.
Instantly, a rift split open in the space before him, revealing a scene utterly different from the Blood Hand Society's stronghold. In the blink of an eye, the tear was wide enough for a person to slip through freely.
Shi Feng dove in without a word.
The air-blades sliced into the spatial rift and vanished without a trace, like a stone dropped into the ocean.
This technique was the Ring of Space's Spatial Shift. It wasn't as convenient as an Elementalist's Teleport, but in terms of distance covered, it surpassed Teleport by an immeasurable margin.
Aberrants were different from ordinary monsters. Being killed by a monster or an NPC merely resulted in a normal system penalty. But being killed by an Aberrant firsthand could cost a player their life.
The death penalty was doubled, and the revival wait time was a full natural day—even a priest's resurrection wouldn't work; you simply had to wait. On top of that, after reviving you'd suffer a weakened state: all attributes reduced by 30%, experience gain reduced by 50%, lasting two natural days.
In the early days of the Divine Realm, where time was money, wasting three days was an enormous blow to any guild—no first-rate guild could absorb that lightly.
Watching Shi Feng vanish into the spatial rift, a flicker of suspicion crossed the Mechanical Slaughterer's steel-cold expression.
For a newly awakened Mechanical Slaughterer, this world held far too many unknowns.
In its eyes, Shi Feng was nothing more than an ant, easily crushed. Yet this ant had not only dealt it minor damage and frozen it for a considerable time—it had actually escaped right before its eyes, using a method it had never seen before.
"You think you can flee, you damned ant?" The Mechanical Slaughterer bared a disturbingly human-like sneer. "No matter how far you run, you'll never escape my grasp."
It swung its greatsword in a single arc, cleaving straight through the ceiling, then leaped upward and departed the Blood Hand Society's stronghold.
"So this is how flight works." The Mechanical Slaughterer hovered in midair, a faint smile on its face.
If Shi Feng had heard the words the Mechanical Slaughterer spoke—and witnessed its newly acquired ability to fly—chills would have run down his spine. Because the Mechanical Slaughterer had not only undergone a revolutionary transformation in intelligence, it now possessed a terrifying capacity to learn. It had merely observed Shi Feng's Aerial Flight, and already it could replicate the ability on its own…
"It's gotten quite far." The Mechanical Slaughterer hovered above the Blood Hand Society's stronghold, gazing toward the northwest with an amused curl of its lips, then shot off in pursuit.
Back inside the Blood Hand Society's stronghold, Shui Se Qiang Wei, Huo Wu, and the others still hadn't processed what had just happened.
The ceiling of the underground space had suddenly fallen away, exposing the entire subterranean chamber to the open sky. The Mechanical Slaughterer hovered high above, then transformed into a streak of light and departed Stream Town.
"Sister Shui Se, I'm not seeing things, right? Was that the Mechanical Slaughterer flying away?" Xue Yan rubbed her eyes uncertainly.
"It was the Mechanical Slaughterer, no mistake." Shui Se Qiang Wei nodded slowly.
A steel colossus over ten meters tall soaring through the sky—it was practically a flying fortress. Not only did it possess terrifying destructive power, but its speed far exceeded any player's. Facing such an enemy, any player would feel utterly helpless, let alone those who had witnessed the Mechanical Slaughterer's strength firsthand.
Though the Mechanical Slaughterer had already left Stream Town, the group still shuddered with lingering fear.