Deposed? I couldn't be happier! I wouldn't even be a dog to the crown prince.

Facing the three-meter-tall, cold-light armor, the scholar's eyes erupted with a frenzied fighting spirit.

The heavy black titanium mech slammed onto the bluestone slab with a chilling aura.

Ice-blue indicator lights flowed along the edges of the tracks and armor.

The blood on the long street shone brightly in the reflection.

The scholar's mouth, covered in bits of meat and foam, stretched wide to his ears.

His breathing became like a broken bellows due to high-frequency neuronal overload.

"Damn it! Drop the supreme divine weapon for me!"

He stood in the center of the ruins of the dilapidated painted pavilion.

The long robe at his feet had turned black from being soaked in sewage.

He did not look at the retreating people.

Those brain-computer interface eyes, whose brain code had been burned out, only saw the two pure steel killing weapons in front of them.

In his hallucination, the Tang Dynasty security mech in front of him was not a steel hammer at all.

That was a giant abyss monster with a deep red health bar, waiting to be harvested by the newbie village lord.

The scholar thought he was a war god, so he picked up half a brick and charged into the enemy's heavy steel shield.

"For the glory of the guild! Kill!"

He let out a sharp, dry roar that was completely unlike any human being.

He bent down and fished out half a muddy blue-red brick from the collapsed foundation of the cloth shop.

The five withered fingers had dug several deep, black holes into the brick surface from excessive force.

Without dodging or using any tactics, he simply moved his two thin legs, which were already spasming and deformed.

Facing the heavy black titanium alloy shield that could withstand heavy artillery fire, they launched a suicidal charge without fear.

The small merchants hiding behind the decorated building were all dumbfounded.

Everyone's mouths were agape, wide enough to fit a large duck egg, and their eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

A poor, mediocre scholar with only mortal flesh.

Using a broken brick to smash the steel shield of the Great Snow Dragon Rider?

The scene was so absurd it sent chills down your spine, conveying a sense of madness as you watched someone self-destruct.

The scholar's speed was pushed to its limit within a microsecond under the stimulation of dopamine.

His withered body left a blurry, dirty red afterimage in the air.

The heavy shield rapidly enlarged in the field of vision.

He raised the broken brick high, using all the strength of his bones and muscles, towards the hardest core symbol of the heavy shield.

It slammed down fiercely.

"Snap!"

Despite his broken arms and shattered bricks, he felt no pain and continued to laugh and charge forward, even biting the hydraulic hoses of the mech with his teeth.

The crisp sound of bone cracking was slowed down amidst the dense roar of machinery on the long street, sounding like a cruel silent film.

The moment the blue bricks hit the armored vehicle, they instantly shattered into a cloud of red dust.

The powerful recoil force, carrying thousands of Newtons of physical kinetic energy, flowed backward along his finger bones without any obstruction.

The faded white sleeve of the long gown was shattered into shreds within milliseconds.

Slow motion of bone fragments piercing the skin.

His forearm bones could not withstand the pressure and broke in two on the spot.

The sharp, white bone fragments, coated with dark red, viscous blood, pierced the skin.

It appeared so dazzling under the cold, flowing light.

But the scholar seemed completely oblivious.

Because the pain blocking system in his brain had long been burned away by the high voltage.

"Hahahaha! The shield's damaged! But my combo didn't break!"

He let out a nervous scream.

With his right arm already useless, he used his left hand to grip the gap in the shield.

The person resembled a giant black bat, tumbling and crawling along the edge of the heavy shield all the way to the mech's neck.

The harsh, acrid sound of teeth rubbing against metal.

He opened his blood-stained mouth, revealing a set of yellow teeth.

It viciously bit down on the special hydraulic lines exposed on the mecha's neck.

"Crunch! Crunch!"

The teeth scraped hard against the stainless steel wire mesh shell, making a harsh, teeth-grinding sound.

His gums burst open in large pieces as he bit down hard, and blood flowed down the mecha's shell in a line.

But he continued to bite wildly, like a rabid wild animal.

"Sir! This madman isn't afraid of pain at all! His brainwaves have completely lost their logical flow!"

Inside the mech's cockpit, the pilot, drenched in sweat, called for backup.

The monitor was filled with red pollution error messages, and alarms were going off incessantly.

The young knight gripped the control lever with both hands, his face covered in sweat that blurred his holographic mask.

He could blast apart the cavalry of foreign tribes with his heavy cannons, but he had never faced a suicidal mortal with steel wire in his mouth.

The security forces dared not use micro-particle knives against civilians, finding themselves in a frustrating defensive posture, which triggered widespread panic among the masses regarding the government's technology.

"No knives allowed! The Eastern Palace's Class A security regulations stipulate that the physical killing of Tang Dynasty citizens is strictly prohibited within the inner city!"

A cold and urgent special warning came over the public channel from Wu Zetian.

"Use high-frequency electric shocks to capture them! We absolutely cannot allow bloodshed on Suzaku Avenue to quell the rebellion!"

These restrictive commands left the two killing machines in a most frustrating, passive, and defensive position.

The mecha tried to reach out and pull the scholar off its neck.

He also feared that the giant mechanical hand, covered in thick calluses of alloy, might crush the scholar's spine in two with a single forceful movement.

They could only keep turning on the high-frequency oscillation module, trying to physically paralyze and stun people.

But the high-voltage current hitting the scholar only stimulated his burned nerves, making him grip even tighter.

The Chang'an residents who had been watching from the sidelines finally broke down completely upon seeing this scene.

"The Great Snow Dragon Rider's Iron Turtle is useless now! This monster can even bite through mechs!"

"The imperial court boasts every day about how powerful these long, gleaming iron boxes are, but in the end, even a mad scholar couldn't take them down!"

"This is sorcery! This is a plague brought about by new technology! Everyone, run for your lives!"

Panic spread like a plague among the people.

The common people began to have doubts about these black titanium mechs that once symbolized the empire's highest military power.

The technical trust that had been established was torn apart in milliseconds by the scholar's frenzied attacks, creating a bottomless rift.

The majesty of new technology was trampled to pieces by the teeth of mortals in the mud and water.

The two steel behemoths were clumsily spinning in circles in the middle of the long street, but they could not shake off the blood-covered ghost.

In the control room of Daming Palace, Wu Zetian's phoenix eyes flashed with a cold light that seemed to freeze the glass curtain wall in front of her.

The fear index on the stock market is soaring exponentially.

This is not just a problem of a madman.

This was a poisoned steel needle, stabbed into the rule of law and order of the Tang Dynasty by a powerful family hiding in the shadows of the underground tunnels.

"Your Highness, the defenses of Chang'an are crumbling. The dirty code of these old men is breaching the defenses in the real world."

She spoke through an encrypted transoceanic channel, her voice slightly hoarse.

The absurd surveillance footage was transmitted back to the Taiji Hall. Li Shimin looked at the madman covered in blood and felt a chill run down his spine.