After delving deeper, Li Hai discovered that the unknown skill called “Crimson Dragon Claw” was actually the digitized representation of those mechanical arms on Zeng Ying’s personal interface.
At the same time, this pair of mechanical arms was not merely as sturdy and sharp-clawed as they appeared at first glance.
In fact, they possessed special functions such as retractable claw blades, expandable arm gauntlets, elbow thrusters, high-pressure flamethrowers, and high-energy rapid-fire cannons.
In particular, the so-called high-energy rapid-fire cannons hidden within the deep structures of the two mechanical arms could continuously fire high-explosive warheads at a speed of a thousand zhang per second, posing a threat to many Steel Grade and even some Thousand Army Grade Martial Artists.
It was simply too cyberpunk.
Even more interestingly, the skill “Crimson Dragon Claw” corresponding to this pair of arms did not have any evolution system.
It belonged to an extremely rare non-system skill.
In other words, Zeng Ying, who possessed this skill, would not gain an additional cultivation system because of it, but only an additional entry trait—【Machinery Level 2】.
That’s right, this pair of mechanical arms, clearly artificial creations, could actually grant a person an entry trait.
This situation completely shattered Li Hai’s cognitive understanding of concepts like skills, traits, and evolution.
Could mechanical modification also be considered evolution?
What further broke his understanding was that Zeng Ying, the owner of these Crimson Dragon Claws, surprisingly did not know that the contraptions installed on him were pure scientific mechanical creations, but instead believed them to be some kind of ancient Divine Armory.
Yes, according to Zeng Ying, this pair of arms was not made by contemporary people at all.
Instead, they were excavated from the mountains by a department of the Great Jing Dynasty called the Divine Armory, and there was more than just one or two of them.
This caused Li Hai to fall into deep thought.
He was intensely perplexed about which era of civilization the Great Jing Dynasty, a feudal Dynasty, should be equated with.
He remembered when he first Transmigrated to this world, Li Hai naturally assumed it was just an ordinary ancient world.
But the appearance of firearms made him think it might be a world with a technological development level similar to the Ming Dynasty or the early Republican era.
However, a series of seemingly contradictory things—such as electric lights and electric kettles in the Zhou Family manor, the large elevator at the Demon Slayer Division outpost in Niujiao Town, the Commandant token molding machine in the underground training ground, and some unfamiliar engineering machinery in various corners of the Wolf's Nest fortress, as well as the power transmission network covering all levels of the Wolf's Nest underground palace—all made Li Hai’s understanding of the technological era of this world increasingly blurred.
Finally, upon seeing this pair of mechanical arms, it became completely Chaos.
Just think about it, in a world where streetlights, radios, televisions, penicillin, and submachine guns either don’t exist or are not widespread, there are actually truly usable and safe mechanical arms… This is simply too absurd.
However, fortunately, the information Zeng Ying mentioned about the Divine Armory and that the Crimson Dragon Claws were excavated from underground quickly salvaged Li Hai’s understanding.
He instantly understood why this world was so strange.
Because the scientific and technological development of the Great Jing Dynasty, which ruled this Yu Continent, did not rely on scientists at all, but on… archaeological excavation.
Once he understood this, everything became clear.
There were already a large number of prehistoric civilizations in this world, so it was perfectly normal for the Great Jing Dynasty to dig up some prehistoric relics and use them as ancient Divine Armories.
Because even if the operating principles are not understood, as long as the quality of the prehistoric technological civilization relics is good enough and durable enough, it does not hinder the people of this era from using them.
Who wouldn't use them?
However, because of this, Li Hai couldn't help but begin to suspect that his own pair of freely retractable steel whips… might be products of prehistoric nanotechnology.
“Nanotechnology…”
As soon as he thought of this word, a sentence automatically popped into Li Hai's mind— “Nanomachines, son.”
Along with the appearance of this sentence, there was also a powerful BGM.
“What are you thinking so wildly about?”
Shaking his head abruptly, Li Hai thought of another question.
Since Zeng Ying’s personal interface and the “Crimson Dragon Claw” skill could be seen by him, it meant he could copy and learn it, and even consume Strongman Fragments to upgrade it.
Then, if he upgraded this skill all the way to Level 10 or Level 20, wouldn’t he become a… pure mechanical life form?
If so, what kind of evolution path would that be? Mechanical Ascension?
Li Hai dismissed all the chaotic thoughts and, in an instant, learned all of Zeng Ying’s skills, then extended his perception to encompass the entire Demon Slayer Division outpost outside this huge tent.
He then discovered that the other dozens of Demon Slayer Commandants in this outpost were merely ordinary Martial Artists of the Qi Body Circulation Grade.
It was just that these Martial Artists had all also cultivated Qimen Arts, so they had more methods than ordinary Martial Artists and were more difficult to deal with.
For ordinary people, a lineup of several Steel Grade Martial Artists plus dozens of Qi Body Grade Martial Artists, with all of them also cultivating Qimen Arts, might be considered luxurious.
But in Li Hai’s eyes, this lineup was as weak and insignificant as children playing house.
Greatly puzzled by this, he couldn't help but murmur to himself:
“Excluding Commander Gai, whose situation is unknown for now, how did these few Martial Artists, who are merely Steel Tendons Iron Bones Grade, become the backbone of the Demon Slayer Division?
Tsk~ If it’s really this childish, then what about someone of my Grandmaster level? Do I just become the big leader directly?”
This jocular speculation made Li Hai, who had never been a high-ranking member of society in either his past or present life, somewhat disbelieving.
So he speculated again:
“Could it be because Dragon Mountain is located in a sparsely populated, remote border area, leading to low top-tier combat power and a low average combat power?
So the Demon Slayer Division here is forced to pick the tallest among the short, allowing mere Steel Grade Martial Artists to stand on their own?”
…
Putting aside those wild thoughts for now, Li Hai learned that Commander Gai Fu, who governed all the Demon Slayer Commandants in the entire Dragon Mountain area, was still on his way here and had not yet arrived.
So during this period, Li Hai conversed and interacted with the few Demon Slayer Commandants.
And it was through this exchange that Li Hai belatedly realized what level of strength he possessed after his Transmigration to this world.
It turned out that even in the Great Jing Dynasty to the north, Martial Artists of his Grandmaster level were considered true experts, not some weaklings that anyone dared to offend.
In fact, let alone Grandmasters, even Thousand Army Grade Martial Artists, who had initially reached the level of a normal supersonic life form, were actually enough to dominate a region.
This was simply too not Xuanhuan!