Their battle moved from the ground into mid-air, then quickly shifted back to the ground again.
The Advanced Technology Company’s building was massive and sturdy, but before Li Chang’an and the black-robed, masked man, it might as well have been made of paper-mâché.
If the two of them hadn’t kept changing battlefields, the entire Advanced Technology Company building would have likely collapsed.
...
The battle raged for the better part of an hour before Li Chang’an’s fist finally shattered the head of the black-robed, masked man, revealing a bizarre and savage face beneath.
The face belonged to a young man, not Andre.
This came as a slight surprise to Li Chang’an. Without wasting any more time, he went straight back to the fiftieth floor of the Advanced Technology Company.
The fiftieth floor was sealed by an impossibly heavy door.
Even a missile might not have been able to breach it.
But that was hardly an obstacle for Li Chang’an. He found a relatively weaker section of the wall, punched a hole straight through the metal with sheer brute force, and charged inside.
Behind the door was a vast, silver-white room.
In the center of the room lay a massive, grotesque arm. The arm was connected to an old man submerged in a nutrient solution, his body riddled with a dense network of tubes.
Li Chang’an’s gaze first fell upon the massive, grotesque arm. The instant he saw it, he felt a heart-stopping aura wash over him.
It was like a primitive human facing a primeval god or demon.
It was a form of suppression that stemmed from a higher order of life.
After a struggle, Li Chang’an snapped back to his senses. He tore his gaze away and turned his attention to the old man connected to the divine arm.
The old man was as withered and gaunt as a piece of deadwood, yet Li Chang’an recognized him at once.
Founder of the Advanced Technology Company, the Father of the Extraordinary—Andre Grant!
As Li Chang’an watched, Andre slowly opened his murky eyes from within the nutrient pod. Seeing Li Chang’an stride toward him, he coughed twice and pressed a button at his side.
The nutrient solution slowly drained away, and the tubes disconnected one by one.
Andre struggled to sit up. He glanced at the arm behind him and said, "What do you think? Doesn’t it make you want to fall to your knees and worship it? This is a remnant of a God, the source of everything Extraordinary in this world!"
At his words, Li Chang’an glanced at the arm, then back at Andre.
His gaze also swept over the dozens, or perhaps hundreds, of fetuses in various stages of development beside Andre. He couldn’t help but sneer, "A God... I don’t see one. But I do see an old dog barely clinging to life in a nutrient pod!"
At that moment, Li Chang’an understood why so many Extraordinary monsters with the exact same aura had attacked him.
They were all parts of Andre.
Or rather, they were vessels Andre had created with his own hands, meant to contain his aging soul.
Andre ignored Li Chang’an’s taunt. His murky eyes scanned Li Chang’an from head to toe, as if examining the world’s most precise instrument.
After a long moment, Andre spoke, his voice hoarse with genuine admiration. "You are special. Your physical body is even stronger than the Demigod Body I poured my heart and soul into creating. It’s a pity I haven’t been able to replicate a true Divine Body. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be the one standing here looking down on me today!"
Li Chang’an had fought his way all the way up.
Meanwhile, the Advanced Technology Company’s core group of Transcendents had been dispatched across the globe to hunt for the Night City Extraordinary Church. Left with no other choice, Andre had to act personally, attempting to use his failed, discarded creations to kill Li Chang’an.
But he had never imagined Li Chang’an would be so terrifyingly powerful.
He had carved a path all the way up, and even Andre’s trump card had been of little use.
This filled Andre not only with profound terror and disbelief, but also an overwhelming unwillingness to accept defeat.
Li Chang’an paid him no mind.
Instead, he turned to examine the various embryos in the laboratory, none of which were fully developed.
Among them were not only fully formed men and women, but even more infants and adolescents who looked to be thirteen or fourteen.
They were all labeled with the same family name.
Li Chang’an said coolly, "It seems your Andre family is truly pathetic. So many of your own kin, turned into specimens and vessels by an old monster like you."
Andre yanked out all the tubes piercing his body, rose to his feet, and said, "I gave them status, power, honor... everything an ordinary person could ever want. It was only natural that they serve me with all their might!"
"Once my research succeeds, the glory of the Andre family will shine across the eternal cosmos, instead of being lumped together with a bunch of blind, worthless trash as it is now!"
He didn’t dwell on the topic, but continued unsteadily, "I’m about to die, but I still haven’t created the perfect Divine Body. I can’t die with this regret..."
To this, Li Chang’an offered no comment.
Andre was born before the Fourth Corporate War.
He was nearly three hundred years old. Even with all the available life-extension drugs, to have clung to life for so long made Andre a truly stubborn old tortoise.
A complex mix of emotions flickered in Andre’s eyes as he watched the unflappable Li Chang’an.
’He had been so close. So close to possessing a body comparable to that of a God, and with it, an eternal life.’
’But now, the appearance of this young man had mercilessly shattered all of his dreams.’