Chapter 1604: Smoke vs. Li Changgong

Silver Armor traveled all the way to the towering building housing the Command Center.

This was the tallest building in Chang'an City, and Li Changgong's Command Center occupied its highest floor. Only from such a vantage point could he overlook the entire city and observe every movement within it.

Only from there could he savor the feeling of holding everything firmly in the palm of his hand.

Silver Armor arrived in utter silence, slowly infiltrating the building through the ventilation shaft.

But the moment he stepped inside, alarms blared throughout the entire structure!

"BOOM!" "BOOM!" "BOOM!"

The entire building sealed itself shut in an instant. Heavy alloy doors slammed down, encasing the whole structure into an impregnable fortress.

Li Changgong turned around, a fanatical battle lust curling at the corner of his mouth.

"He's here!"

On the visor of his combat suit, Silver Armor's figure materialized.

What Silver Armor didn't know was that at this very moment, every corner of this building, every single movement within it, was under Li Changgong's complete control.

"Daring to come and decapitate me? You really don't know what it means to die!"

Having risen through the ranks of the military, Li Changgong's caution far exceeded that of an ordinary regional commander.

He had long prepared for the possibility of his headquarters being attacked, so Silver Armor's intrusion didn't surprise him in the least.

He had even planned to catch the rat in the trap.

The moment Silver Armor entered the building, he was immediately sealed off by the heavy metal doors.

His surroundings now resembled a cubic metal box with not a single gap to be found.

Seeing this, Silver Armor merely raised his right hand and spread his palm open. A stream of black smoke spiraled out from the center of his hand.

"Hiss—"

After a barely audible sound, the meter-thick alloy wall ahead was sliced open with a smooth gash. The heavy metal wall slid down, clearing a path forward.

Silver Armor stepped forward, advancing slowly toward the front.

"Whoosh—"

Suddenly, nozzles opened up on the walls ahead, and the entire room was engulfed in searing temperatures of thousands of degrees. The blazing flames even took on a terrifying white hue—heat intense enough to melt metal in an instant. That was why the room was lined with aerospace ceramics.

Silver Armor's pace didn't falter in the slightest. The black smoke formed a spherical shield around his body, completely isolating him from both the flames and the extreme heat.

He continued forward, blasting through one door after another.

In every subsequent room, he encountered a brand-new trap.

Liquid nitrogen, gunfire, poison gas, hypnotic gas, flooding.

Yet no trap could slow his advance by even a single instant.

One by one, the doors before Li Changgong slid open. He and Silver Armor were closing in on each other rapidly from two different directions.

Soon, only a single metal door remained between them.

Silver Armor raised his hand, black smoke coalescing in his palm, ready to pierce through the metal door before him.

Li Changgong slowly lifted his head, a bloodthirsty smile curling at his lips.

He suddenly drew his blade and slashed at the metal door ahead of him first!

The twin blades crossed mid-air, a cross-slash screaming through the void!

I AM THE DECREE OF HEAVEN!

ALL THOUGHTS SHALL BE CUT!

The metal door remained completely unmoved, but Silver Armor behind it suddenly had his body slashed apart!

"CRACK!"

A massive "X" appeared across his chest armor, and his body shattered into four pieces along with it.

For the first time, a look of astonishment flashed across Silver Armor's face.

He never expected that his personal battle armor would be so fragile!

"CLATTER!"

The shattered armor pieces fell to the ground, but Silver Armor's body dissolved into a wisp of smoke, dispersing, then recondensed back into a whole.

"RUMBLE!"

The metal door before him slid open, and Li Changgong appeared before Silver Armor with twin blades in hand.

No—perhaps Silver Armor could be called by a different name now.

Because his armor had been destroyed by Li Changgong's two slashes, revealing his true form.

It was a humanoid creature with crimson-red skin all over, standing a full three meters tall, fully capable of looking down on Li Changgong.

Unlike humans, his red skin was covered in fine, dense scales, and a thick, long tail extended from his back.

But the most striking feature was the dozen or so horn-like protrusions growing from his head.

"So you really aren't human! This is what creatures from the underground world look like?"

Li Changgong furrowed his brows slightly.

"Why doesn't he look like the ones I encountered before?"

Under the Qinling Mountains, the Bai Longzi he had seen was clearly a creature with a serpent's head and a human body, capable of taking human form.

"Seems like they're two different races after all!"

Li Changgong laughed. "Whatever you are, since you've come here, don't even think about leaving!"

He appeared before Silver Armor in an instant, his twin blades slashing out like lightning!

Silver Armor's body was sliced apart once again, but he quickly turned into smoke and recondensed into form elsewhere.

"Incredible attack power... it seems I cannot block it."

Silver Armor's gaze held a hint of curiosity. "Unfortunately, this kind of ability is useless against me."

Li Changgong also realized that the enemy's ability allowed him to turn his body into smoke—an ability type that happened to be particularly difficult for his own powers to handle.

He frowned, keenly aware that this opponent had come fully prepared to deal with the Northwest Major Region.

Silver Armor raised his right hand, black smoke gathering in his palm before rapidly forming into a blade that stabbed toward Li Changgong!

Li Changgong raised his sword and cut through the smoke blade in a single stroke!

Silver Armor remained unflustered. More black mist began to condense in his right hand, and then, with a sudden burst, the smoke exploded outward, transforming into a frenzy of wild, dancing lines in the air, like rapidly fluttering butterfly wings.

"Go!"

Silver Armor swept his hand, and hundreds of attacks surged toward Li Changgong from every direction!

A cold smirk tugged at the corner of Li Changgong's mouth. Both blades came out together—no matter how formidable those smoke attacks were, under the power of [I Am the Decree of Heaven], there was nothing that could not be cut.

Even attacks themselves!

Silver Armor stared at Li Changgong, pondered for a brief moment, then opened his mouth and spat out a massive cloud of black smoke directly at him.

"Against this kind of attack, will your slashes still work?"

How do you cut a wisp of smoke with a blade?

Clearly, Li Changgong didn't have an answer either. His expression grew several shades more solemn, and then he directly used [Boundless Across the Six Realms] to teleport outside the building.

"Indeed, he's a troublesome opponent!"

Li Changgong curled his lips into a smile. "But don't forget, this is my turf! Haven't you noticed that there's no one else in this building besides me?"

The intelligent system responded to him, and an instant later, a terrifyingly immense force erupted from beneath the Command Center building, shooting straight up into the sky!!

A blinding pillar of light rose like a colossal jade column piercing the clouds. The Command Center was completely obliterated!

As a military strategist, Li Changgong naturally understood the importance of armed force.

Perhaps in terms of scientific advancement, the Northwest Major Region couldn't match the East Sea, Shengjing, or Jiangnan.

But simply stacking up explosive yield wasn't such a difficult task.

And directly beneath the Command Center, the stockpiled explosives converted from [spirit stones] carried a yield comparable to Love of Death!