The Heavenly Martial Empress Returns: An OP Xianxia Returnee LitRPG

Chapter 143: Hekita’s New Friend

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At the end, while the boys didn’t trust me enough, the girls did. I suppose there has always been more trust between women than between men and women. Whatever the case, I’m sure I’ll change their minds as this continues. They’re promising hunters, and I need as many strong, trustworthy, and honest people in my Heavenly Court.

Ahmed might seem rash and have a severe lack of manners, but his heart is at least in the right place, and he’s ultimately a good person. His manners are just, well, not good. But that can be easily fixed with some good education.

And Mohamed, I understand him; he has many responsibilities. To suddenly become the disciple of someone else would probably make other people, especially some higher-ups, look down on him or ask him questions.

Anyways, there was still someone else I had yet to ask, little princess Merneith, who had been rather silent this entire time as I explained everything.

“Bing Xue,” she muttered. “W-Will you really do it? Even knowing full well that I could just go on my own and solve this? It’s not like we’ve ever met for long; it has only been a day! Why go so far?”

“Because I am not so coldhearted as to let you sacrifice yourself for others…” I said. “And well! It’s not like I’m weak; I’m super strong. So I don’t really mind dealing with them myself. I kind of wanted to do that anyway. So don’t worry; if anything, think of it as my own selfish desire rather than out of... goodwill.”

Although it’s certainly out of goodwill, I did talk a lot with Merneith after everything ended, and I got to learn about her past and everything.

And to be honest, after learning her sob story, I just can’t let her go.

It’s not like they can return to their timeline yet anyway; those portals only bring things from there, but it won’t let them return normally.

“O-Oh! Is that so?” muttered Merneith. “W-Well! If you insist so much, it can’t be helped! I’ll have to assist you as well. When do we begin, though?”

“Not yet,” I said. “I’ll first move onto awakening Ki on everyone here that hasn’t yet, including you, Merneith. Then we’ll move to the pyramid with your brother. I want to check that Mechanical God in more detail.”

“Awakening Ki?” wondered Mohamed. “Even to me?”

“Yeah!” I nodded. “It is so you can taste its power… You get a free trial of it. Of course, my disciples get it permanently, for free too!”

I walked towards them with a single, strong slap in their back.

FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!

All four of the hunters awakened auras of Ki of varying colors. Ahmed gasped and coughed, though; maybe I should have been gentler.

“Woah, what’s this!” said Sara. “It’s all glowy and sparkly! My body feels… somehow full of energy! Has my magic perhaps improved perhaps? Hmm, I don’t feel it improving, but my body has improved.”

“This is incredible…” Heba gasped, looking at her own hands in silence. “This golden Aura… It is as if I can feel every single grain of sand around me now? My senses have been heightened, and so has my Mana Capacity, somehow?”

“This is…” Mohamed gasped, noticing how powerful he had become. “My abilities were all about physical strength, so this is… Have I become twice as strong out of nowhere?”

“Cough, ugh! Did you have to slap me so hard?!” asked Ahmed angrily. “I- Ugh! What’s this red aura? Ki, huh?”

They seemed to be enjoying their new toy.

Now.

“Merneith, do you also want a taste of Ki?”

“Uh… I-I have not thought about it, but can I even use this power?”

“Yes, at this point, you must have also been assimilated by the system or something, right?”

“Ah! Yeah, there was that thing that appeared… But my Level… it said I was like Level 12,” she said.

“So people from your world are still just normal humans, huh?” I wondered. “You rely completely on the power of the Mechanical Gods.”

“Yeah, even our powers can only activate while piloting them,” she said. “Though I’ve heard about Enhanced Soldiers, who merge with nanomachines that strengthen their bodies; however, the Golden Bloodline aren’t like that; they’re specialized on allowing us to pilot the Mechanical Gods without facing any backlash and with even the power to enhance or awaken their powers.”

“I see!” I nodded. “Ra is very powerful, and without a doubt, I am sure you could handle most foes... However, with that alone, it won’t be possible for you to win against the foes that this world might throw at you in the future, Merneith. So, let me give you the power of Ki.”

“But I need to join you as a disciple first, right?” she asked. “I… Um, I don’t know if I should do that. Am I even worthy? I am really weak physically…”

“That can be fixed with Ki Cultivation; don’t worry,” I said. “Here.”

I gently patted her head, spreading Ki into her body, which then awakened it instantly. Despite everything, she’s still a human. Although her Golden Bloodline seemed to react to Ki in strange ways.

FLUOSH!

“Woah!”

Merneith gasped, glancing at her own hands and then her body, particles of gold mixed with her newly awakened Ki, and also some Mana she now possessed thanks to the System’s Integration.

“What is this?! It’s so weird!”

It seemed her Golden Bloodline might improve and grow stronger through her Cultivation… and perhaps also Leveling. This means that the Mechanical gods she pilots could also progressively become stronger than they were originally made.

“It seems your innate bloodline responded well to this,” I said. “Not only you, but Ra could also become stronger as you Level Up and Cultivate. You could even learn new Skills and Martial Arts to use your Mechanical God with.”

“Oooh! Wow! This is amazing…” Merneith gasped. “T-Thank you so much, Bing Xue… I never imagined this world could offer so many wonders and, well, so many beauties!” she said, holding my hand.

“Huh?” I felt slightly surprised that she flirted with me like that.

“Bing Xue! You’re as strong as you’re beautiful!” she said, her eyes sparkling. “Once this is all over, please become my beloved mistress! I will treat you well!”

“Merneith… A-Are you proposing to me?!” I gasped. “And I thought you were saying that a day wasn’t enough for you?”

“T-That’s a completely different thing!” she said. “A-Ah, well, I mean… Um, dammit, where did I leave it?”

She started looking around her clothes and pockets but was unable to find it.

“Uwah! I lost it! The ring…”

She was even going to give me a ring…

“Hmm… For now, Merneith, let’s leave such things for later,” I said. “We must first concentrate on the important things, alright?”

“Ah, fine…” she sighed. “I should probably aim to conquer your heart, right? I’ll work hard towards that goal then! Mother always said that once that special person appeared in my life, I must do anything to conquer their hearts!”

“Aren’t you cute?” I giggled, patting her head and caressing her fluffy ears. “Fine, do as you want. For now, however, why won’t we go meet your brother? Then let’s go to the pyramid. That’s where Anubis was placed, right?”

“Ah yes!” she nodded. “Let’s go then!”

Merneith quickly stood up, summoning the two hands of Ran out of the spinning golden portals that emerged around her; one of them held her and the other grabbed me.

“Let’s go!”

Then we flew out of the building by breaking through the window, shocking everyone who was still eating!

“M-Merneith?! At least let the rest finish their meals! They also have to come with us!”

“A-Ah, really?! I thought this was a way to conquer your heart!”

“Well, it’s working terribly, young lady!”

“Eep! P-Please forgive me!”

She quickly went back and apologized. With a flicker of my hand, I fixed the window, and once everyone finished eating, we finally moved towards our next destination.

I used my Immortal Aura to hold everyone and easily fly across the skies, reaching the pyramid resting in the desert.

There was a strong force field barrier wrapped around it, but it had been completely shattered, and several of its parts were also broken or destroyed.

The propulsors it used to hover in midair, which surrounded its lower side, were mostly ruined; there were also big cracks over the golden pyramid, and more damage accumulated over it.

The door was shut down and sealed, but once Merneith touched it with her hand, she was granted full access immediately.

“Let’s go! My brother and the rest of his surviving crew must be waiting for us inside. They have already surrendered anyway.”

The large gate leading inside the pyramid opened, revealing a long, golden hallway. Neon blue circuits illuminated the hallway, covering the ceiling, the floor, and the walls.

“Akhenaten! Where is he?”

Merneith quickly entered the large hall inside, which resembled an Egyptian Temple, with a small pond in the middle, plants decorating the sides, and a huge throne where Akhenaten would be sitting, usually.

“Ah, Lady Merneith is here?!”

“C-Call the prince!”

“Yes!”

The Egyptian people here were all wearing gold and black-colored full-body suits, and they seemed to always carry golden headphones and tiny floating robots with them.

To the north of this hall, there was an entrance to a huge area full of computers, whose very aesthetics were all shaped and based on ancient Egyptian art and color schemes.

Floating Eyes of Ra-shaped computers showed information made of blue and red ancient Egyptian letters.

There were huge monuments just sitting there, resembling Anubis in his pure jackal form, with screens attached to them and buttons.

There were cables here and there, but it was overall a very clean place.

“How incredible! So this is the technology of a parallel Earth!” Heba said, looking around.

“It’s sure amazing…” Yanisse nodded. “There’s not a single thing that doesn’t catch my attention.”

“Indeed!” said Peperina. “I have to take as many photos as I can!”

She kept taking selfies and photos of everything…

“Merneith, so you’re back…”

Akhenaten arrived after a couple of minutes of making us wait.

“Of course, brother, we have a lot to talk about,” said Merneith. “But first! Show me the way towards Anubis; we want to see how it is.”

“Anubis?” sighed Akhenaten. “It is regenerating slowly, but it seems much more damaged than I thought. I doubt it’ll be repaired any time soon; this pyramid has the technology to reconstruct and repair most machinery, but the Mechanical Gods were constructed with the Ancient Machine Crafting Arts, it’s not easy to rebuild them.”

“We’ll see about that!” Merneith said angrily. “Now, quickly! Bring us there!”

“A-Ah, yes…”

Akhenaten acted humbly and obediently, thankfully, and with the oath I had placed on him, it was impossible for him to betray us before dying instantly.

So he had to behave and be a good boy.

“There it is.”

He pointed at the large hall where we just arrived, which was where they stored the rest of the machines. Every Divine Machine that was caught and destroyed was then recovered and placed here, where they were being repaired to be used as Merneith’s forces after she took over her brother’s crew and made them her own.

Anubis was sitting over a large golden table, its pieces slowly fusing together, with tiny metallic tentacles and small swarms of black-colored nanobots around it. But it seemed rather ruined; the head was split in half, both arms were torn to pieces, and the rest of the body was cut down into many slices.

“Indeed… We might not be able to count on Anubis help for what’s coming,” she sighed. “Akhenaten, your mother appeared, by the way! And she threatened to destroy four cities if you didn’t go back to her with Ra and Anubis.”

“S-So mother got here too?!” gasped Akhenaten. “But her demands… so exaggerated, as always… She simply doesn’t know when to hold back…”

“Hmph! Yes, just like her son, I would say!” Merneith glared at him angrily.

“Uh… sorry…” sighed Akhenaten. “Look, I don’t know if I’ll be able to help you…”

As the siblings talked, I noticed Hekita exploring the place and then suddenly glancing at Anubis.

“Wow, a big robot like in the TV shows!”

She ran towards it and suddenly touched a part of it.

FLUOSH!

“Let me repair you!”

And suddenly, sparkles of her spiritual energy started seeping into Anubis metal, dramatically improving its regeneration.

RUMBLE!

The entire ground trembled as Anubis enormous pieces began merging with each other at a staggering speed.

“Hekita?!”

And Urbosa and I were shocked to see our girl imbue her spiritual powers into the machine, happily helping it repair itself through her Spirit Creation Ability.

Until Anubis was…

Completely repaired and reborn anew!

“AWOOOO!”

Akhenaten smiled in fascination.

“Anubis?! You’re back!”

He tried to call for the giant Mechanical God, but Anubis didn’t even glance at him.

Instead, the giant humanoid jackal mech glanced at Hekita.

And he kneeled in front of her, opening its chest to reveal the interior of the machine.

“Mas… ter.”

“Oh? I’m your master? No need; let’s be friends instead!”

“Fri… ends.”

Anubis was even speaking now!

What the hell just happened?!

Even I am speechless!

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