By the time the crowd of Chinese Empire evolved people rushed up to the temporary palace, too late to save their sovereign, the fight was already over.

The head of the Chinese Empire's Shoulder-to-Shoulder King, Zhang Qi, lay discarded off to one side, eyes glaring wide, refusing to close in death. His Emperor for the Ages had fared worse still: the pyramid battle-truck had been more than half taken apart and lay crippled in the mud.

"Assassin! Protect the sovereign—" one evolved person bellowed at the top of his lungs.

He clearly hadn't taken in the situation.

Thwock!

A throwing knife came ripping through the air, quicker than thought, and buried itself in his head. Squelch—the head didn't burst; the knife only punched a hole through it and flew on toward the horizon.

Thud.

The body went down, splashing muddy water.

Standing on top of the wrecked pyramid battle-truck, Shen Cong stirred up his terrifying particle-grade pressure and spread it in every direction. "If you don't want to die, drop your weapons and stand at attention right where you are! Anyone who so much as moves ends up like this man!"

Luo Shouhai wasn't dead yet. When he sensed people coming to save their sovereign, he shouted at the top of his lungs, "Quick, quick, somebody save this emperor! This emperor will make him a Senior General on the spot!"

Sure enough, at the words Senior General, the evolved people who had always been loyal to Luo Shouhai pushed down their fear of Shen Cong and charged in without a thought for their lives.

Every kind of long-range weapon opened up on Shen Cong.

"A pack of scoundrels!"

Shen Cong gave up hunting Luo Shouhai for the moment. The truck was nearly dismantled anyway, so there was no danger of him getting away. His radiative core blades had worn their coating off and were plain jin-core short blades again. They hummed in his hands, and the surge of Activity lit a brilliant sharpening reaction along them.

The next moment.

Shen Cong vanished from the top of the pyramid battle-truck and…