The golden light was bright but not dazzling, continuously floating around like gently undulating water waves.
But suddenly, it began to stir, to boil, as if sensing something.
Li Ming was puzzled, not yet clear on what was happening when he found the ocean-like golden light receding to both sides.
In an instant, his vision infinitely pulled away, a towering surge of shock rising in Li Ming’s heart; he then realized, this wasn’t some golden ocean, but the very center of a giant eye’s pupil.
Then, all at once, darkness returned before his eyes, and a tangible feeling of his body surfaced—he was back in the studio.
He couldn’t help but clench his fists, taking a long deep breath, noticing only now that his heart was beating at an unimaginably rapid pace.
He hurriedly deactivated his ability, his brows furrowed tightly.
"It must be that heart causing the abnormality... What place is that, some dimension world?" Li Ming speculated, attempting to use the [Transplant] ability once again.
Fortunately, this time everything was normal.
"It seems to be only the first time it does this, this heart holds other secrets." Li Ming’s eyebrows remained tightly knit, without any clue.
Continuing to speculate aimlessly was of no use; since the heart was in his possession, he would inevitably come to understand what was really happening.
"For now, there is another matter."
Li Ming pondered, removing the Mimic Mask from his face—translucent and thin as cicada wings, the underside lined with dense circuits.
He intended to upgrade this item, for as the lives he encountered grew more advanced, his covert identity became increasingly insecure, and there was no knowing when it would be exposed, so naturally, his stealth capability had to be enhanced.
However, this item wasn’t top-notch to begin with, and its upgrade would only cost six million.
Li Ming, now wealthy and ambitious, strove for perfection and was far from satisfied.
He decided to redesign the blueprint thoroughly and push the disguise to the extreme, including aspects like hair, pupils, ears, vocal cords, skin tone, fingerprints, and even blocking infrared, sonic, electromagnetic, and other various detection devices.
After a busy round of work, by the following day, a brand-new Mimic Mask was finished.
[Mimic Mask--C Level: A specially designed disguise mask.
Control Conditions: 8,000 metal energy points
Just being a C-level Controlled Object, it required 8,000 points of metal energy; a bit of strengthening with Mother Ore and it became top-tier.
With lots of cash to burn, Li Ming went straight to upgrading it to A-level, enhancing with Mother Ore, consuming metal energy, assisted by Mutated Energy, aiming for external Materialization in the upgrade route.
Mostly because even though he controlled it during use, it was just a layer of Mimic Mask over the skin, not much difference.
[Deceitful Human Skin--A Level: A top-tier disguise mask, nearly fusing with the living being.
Control Effect: Fundamental Disguise
Control Ability--Mimicry: Change any appearance]
[Fundamental Disguise: Provides a 1000% Concealing Blessing and converges lifeform information state.]
Simply put, this relieved Li Ming.
Converging the information state, that was the ability he needed, and thankfully he managed to achieve it.
Meanwhile, inside the main ship’s command room, a sudden burst of urgent alarm sounded.
"Alert, an unknown flying object is rapidly approaching. Please verify the identity of the comer as soon as possible."
Hearing the alarm, the originally drowsy staff instantly awoke, fumblingly operating the systems and accessing the other party’s channel:
"Warning, incoming party, please quickly disclose your identity. You have entered our alert zone..."
"I come from Lord Azure Dragon." A dull voice suddenly emerged from the channel, and the previously tense atmosphere in the command room fell into silence.
"It seems there is such a person, Lord Azure Dragon specifically mentioned him a couple of days ago," someone murmured.
"Then let them pass," the Commander said with a complicated expression, raising his hand.
The slender shuttle-shaped transport ship quickly docked on the main ship, the hatch opened, and Monroe looked around thoughtfully: "Is this the fleet of the Torch Organization? Why does it seem so... small?"
While contemplating, his mechanical eyes flickered slightly, and a familiar figure was standing not far away.
"Lord Azure Dragon..." Monroe breathed a sigh of relief; his coming here was essentially a bit of an adventure, after all, this was the fleet of the Torch Organization.
With his current strength reduced to barely one-tenth, any mishap would spell real doom.
But judging by how freely Azure Dragon can move around here, there shouldn’t be much of a problem.
"Here he comes..." Li Ming had already walked over, with a simple greeting they didn’t say much more and he then ordered the staff beside him: "Move everything from this flying ship to the front of my workshop."
"Yes!" The staff behind him nodded, among them was even the familiar figure of Zog.
"Lord Azure Dragon..." Monroe’s appearance had already turned into a Mimicry humanoid form and seeing this, he couldn’t help feeling a bit worried, after all, it was a Torch Organization member, whom he did not trust.
"Don’t worry, it’s fine." Li Ming smiled, Monroe had his own hidden worries, but it wasn’t his place to say more, so he stepped aside.
"You’ve arrived two days later than I estimated," Li Ming said casually.
"I encountered a tidal storm of the Red River Star Spirits on the way, and had to stop."
The two chatted intermittently as they entered the main ship from the deck entrance.
"Lord Azure Dragon..."
"Lord Azure Dragon..."
Monroe’s gaze was strange as he watched the Torch Organization members who stopped to pay their respects to Azure Dragon.
Is Azure Dragon’s status this high?
Monroe was slightly surprised; he certainly knew that Azure Dragon was rumored to be a Casting Star Mechanic, but his own strength wasn’t that formidable. He shouldn’t need to show it off .
Suddenly, his expression paused, those mechanical pupils disguised as a deep blue pair of eyes became much more profound.
He saw an old acquaintance, Grey Eyes--Theo.
Once he was his top enforcer, unyielding and unafraid of any sacrifice for vengeance.
More than forty years had passed, and it was said that his development progress had already exceeded 90%, approaching his past self very closely.
The unexpected encounter now stirred a wave of complex emotions in his heart.
And then, he tensed up, noticing that Theo had stopped.
Although, until his battle with Reina, his few subordinates were very loyal, so many years had passed, Ulrich had changed beyond recognition, let alone Theo.
If the other party discovered him, the trouble would not be small.
Theo’s gaze indeed was strange, but it merely brushed past him and looked towards Azure Dragon, then nodded slightly.
Monroe was slightly stunned, then somewhat astonished; Theo had been under his command for many years, and he understood him well.
He was a man of few words; getting him to show respect was almost impossible.
This attitude was already quite polite and even respectful from him.
"Has Azure Dragon already won him over?" Monroe was secretly amazed and curious about what had happened during this time.
How come that person’s gaze felt so familiar, Theo looked back, and a glint flashed before Monroe’s eyes.
As a Mechanical Transformation, Monroe could naturally change his behavioral characteristics at will, making it impossible for anyone to spot anything amiss.
Walking through, Monroe became more and more astonished to find that Azure Dragon was as comfortable and casual here as if he was in his own home.
"Lord Azure Dragon..." Suddenly, a call came from behind, turning to look, Monroe was taken aback by this person who seemed unremarkable.
Yet, he couldn’t scan any data on him, not even basic data such as height.
Blocked from information state, Monroe was greatly shocked and then puzzled; for a natural Life Form to reach this level, it must at least be an S-level Life Form.
"Who is this?" Dark Night looked at Monroe with a probing gaze.
"An old friend, absolutely no problem," Li Ming explained.
Dark Night nodded slightly, not afraid of Azure Dragon betraying him, as he was confident that he could take with him anyone who dared to Backstab at the last moment.
Dark Night just looked up and down at Azure Dragon, his gaze becoming increasingly strange, then couldn’t help saying, "Lord Azure Dragon, you really are a cautious person."
He actually couldn’t detect any informational state from Azure Dragon.
"Better safe than sorry," Li Ming grinned, neither party delved deeper into conversation.
"Who was that just now?" Monroe was still in shock, there was an S-level Life Form within the Torch Organization.
"Dark Night..." Li Ming explained casually.
"Dark Night?" Monroe frowned at first, and then his mechanical pupils rotated at high speed, emitting a blue glow, he blurted out: "The one who assassinated Duke Guya!"