383: A perfect causal closed loop

“Bang—!!!”

A dull, tooth-aching boom exploded within the silent primeval forest.

There was no flash of magical radiance, nor any burst of battle qi. It was the purest kinetic energy, the most primitive violence. That fragment of 'Void Armor,' still radiating two thousand degrees of heat, was like a meteorite from beyond the heavens, smashing unceremoniously onto the Wyvern's massive forehead.

Time seemed to stand still at this moment.

That twenty-meter-long ferocious beast, at the top of the food chain, didn't even have time to let out a scream. Its iron-hard dragon scales shattered instantly, and its massive head, like a watermelon struck by a heavy hammer, was pressed directly into the soil, smashing out a deep crater dozens of meters in diameter.

Dust rose everywhere, and rubble flew.

The Dragon Knight clad in silver armor was flung away like a flicked flea, tracing a pathetic parabola through the air before landing in a distant thicket with a 'clang'.

“This...”

Wang Peng (Fatty) shrank his neck, looked at the still-smoking crater, then at Lu Chen standing by the edge, still weighing that armor fragment in his hand, and swallowed hard.

“Brother Chen, you're being a bit... too unsportsmanlike, aren't you?”

“The guy is a dragon after all, doesn't he deserve some dignity? Smacking him in the face with a brick the moment you meet?”

“Dignity?”

Lu Chen casually tossed the dragon-blood-stained armor aside, letting out a crisp metallic sound. He patted the dust off his hands, his tone as flat as if he had just swatted a mosquito.

“In my hometown, this is called 'physical mediation'.”

“Besides, we're newcomers in this new map and haven't established a new energy cycle yet.” Lu Chen pointed to his head. “Saving energy and solving problems through physical means is the most environmentally friendly way.”

Su Qingying had already walked to the edge of the crater. She took out her portable analyzer and scanned the twitching Wyvern inside, a flash of surprise appearing in her eyes.

“Lu Chen, your physical data... isn't right.”

“The instantaneous explosive force of that strike just now exceeded three hundred tons. Furthermore, your skin's surface formed a high-frequency oscillating 'Biological Force Field' at that moment.”

Su Qingying looked up at Lu Chen, her beautiful eyes reflecting deep thought.

“Even though the 'pangu' system is gone, your body... seems to have remembered that 'god-like' state.”

“Every one of your cells is unconsciously simulating high-dimensional rules. You yourself are now a humanoid divine artifact.”

Hearing this, Lu Chen looked down at his hands.

His originally fair and slender fingers now faintly shimmered with a jade-like luster under the sunlight. Though the vast, sea-like energy was no longer in his body, it had been replaced by a life force pure to the extreme.

“I see.”

Lu Chen clenched his fist, and the air in his palm let out an explosive pop.

“The system is gone, but the body it modified remains, and the experience it left behind is still here.”

“I sent the system back to the past, which made me who I was back then. And the past me cultivated step by step, eventually forging this body, only to lose the system now...”

A relieved smile curled at the corners of Lu Chen's mouth.

“This is a causal loop.”

“The system was just a catalyst, meant to temper this piece of iron into steel.”

“Now that the steel is forged, the hammer is naturally no longer needed.”

“I am my own cheat code.”

Having understood this, the aura on Lu Chen's body became deeper and more restrained. If he was previously a divine sword with its sharpness fully exposed, he was now a towering, majestic mountain.

Unobtrusive, yet unshakable.

“Cough, cough... cough...”

In the distance, the Dragon Knight who had been knocked dizzy finally crawled up.

His helmet was dented, his face was covered in blood, and the long spear he took pride in was broken into two pieces.

“You... who exactly are you people?!”

The knight looked at Lu Chen in terror, as if he were looking at an ancient demonic beast in human skin.

“One strike... just one strike defeated my 'Green Venom'?! Are you Archmagi? Or the legendary descendants of Titans?!”

Lu Chen ignored his questions.

He walked slowly to the knight and looked down at him from above. In those black eyes, there was no killing intent, only an indifference that made the knight's soul tremble.

“It doesn't matter who I am.”

Lu Chen extended a finger and pointed at the Wyvern still twitching in the crater.

“What matters is that your mount ruined my mood.”

“More importantly, my brother is hungry.”

“So...”

Lu Chen turned and waved to Wang Peng, who had long been waiting impatiently.

“Fatty, inspect the goods.”

“See if this thing is edible. If the meat is too tough, strip the armor off this knight. The metal looks pure enough to be used as a grill.”

“On it!”

Wang Peng was instantly excited. He pulled out a multi-functional military knife from his pocket and rushed toward the Wyvern, salivating.

“Dragon meat! This is the legendary dragon meat! Don't worry, Brother Chen, I'll go remove the tendons and skin it right now. We're having a full dragon feast tonight!”

“You... how dare you!”

The knight trembled with rage, his eyes full of humiliation. “This is the property of the Black Iron Duchy! I am from the Grand Duke's Third Knight Regiment...”

“Slap!”

A loud slap directly interrupted the knight's blustering.

Lu Chen retracted his hand and looked at the knight, who had been slapped so hard he spun three times in place, shaking his head helplessly.

“Too noisy.”

“Since you are a knight, you should know the rules.”

“The defeated have no say.”

Lu Chen grabbed the knight's collar armor, lifted him up like a chick, and stared at him face-to-face.

“Listen.”

“We're newcomers here and need a guide, as well as a place to stay.”

“You mentioned that this 'Black Iron Duchy' is very wealthy?”

Looking into Lu Chen's eyes, which seemed capable of swallowing everything, the knight's initial bravado instantly collapsed. He stammered in reply:

“Ye... yes... it is the most prosperous city for a thousand miles around...”

“Very good.”

Lu Chen let go, helped the knight straighten his crooked breastplate, and showed an extremely 'kind' smile.

“Lead the way.”

“Take us to your city.”

“Since we're going to open a shop, how can we not go to the most prosperous place?”

“And...”

Lu Chen turned to look at Wang Peng, who was skillfully butchering the Wyvern, and then at Su Qingying, who was collecting plant samples.

“We're bringing more than just barbecue.”

“We also have some...”

Lu Chen pointed behind him at the spaceship 'spaceship name' which, though crashed, still radiated a terrifying sense of high technology.

“Local specialties... that are slightly ahead of your world by tens of thousands of years.”

The knight followed Lu Chen's finger.

When he saw the half-exposed cannon barrel on the warship and the flickering eerie blue light upon it, he fell completely silent.

As a high-ranking knight, his intuition told him:

That pitch-black tube was ten thousand times more dangerous than a Forbidden Curse scroll!

“As... as you command, My Lord.”

The knight lowered his noble head; it was submission to absolute power.

Under the setting sun.

A group of four (plus one captive) walked toward the plains outside the forest.

Wang Peng carried a large piece of dragon meat, Su Qingying held her data tablet, and Lu Chen walked at the very front.

“Brother Chen, does this count as a 'Dimensionality Reduction Strike'?” Wang Peng asked as they walked.

“No.”

Lu Chen stopped and looked at the magnificent city in the distance, its magical lights flickering in the twilight.

In his eyes, the spark of 'civilization' flickered.

“This is called...”

“Technical poverty alleviation.”