Chapter 276: I Run on Clean Energy!

The powered armor descended in a blaze of fire, plunging through who knew how many traps and defenses that had been set up in vain.

With its sheer mass and terrifying acceleration, it instantly shattered the already failing defensive barrier and brazenly crashed into the observation center’s domain. Sharp snapping sounds rang through the air like strings breaking as the spirit circuits collapsed at once.

Relying on nothing but sheer mass and momentum, Assault Horsey smashed through all the layers of force-field defenses and blockades before plunging down from above. Nothing could stand in its way!

Weighing dozens of tons, the armor struck like a meteor, tearing straight through the workshop’s outer shell, walls, and defenses before crashing into its very center. The earthshaking shockwave alone brought down countless wall panels.

Even more devastating was the mercury buffer formed from overlapping coatings of hardened and fluid mercury. The metal vaporized on impact, filling the raging storm with shimmering silver, while countless fragments blasted outward at tremendous speed under sheer kinetic force.

Devastation stretched as far as the eye could see. Everything in sight, no matter what it had originally been, had been reduced to twisted wreckage. More than half the workshop was turned into ruins in the blink of an eye.

From the mercury vapor, raging winds, flames, and smoke, the shrill screech of grinding metal rang out. Completely unscathed, Assault Horsey strode forward. Its speakers blasted a jubilant, energetic beat, as well as a cheerful greeting. “Kids, I’m back!!!”

Unfortunately, there was no heartwarming song to accompany its return. Only a completely unhinged roar came from the heart of the workshop.

Beneath collapsed walls and shattered stone, Helmut dragged himself up in a filthy, battered state, his face streaked with blood. If not for the writhing shadows protecting him, the violent pressure shift and impact would likely have torn him to pieces on the spot.

“I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!!!”

The workshop he had ardently built had actually collapsed under this ridiculous assault, while the traps and illusions he had been so proud of had failed to accomplish anything at all.

Consumed by rage, Helmut no longer cared about conserving the workshop’s remaining spirit matter reserves. The shattered spirit circuits rapidly reconstructed themselves and reconnected, with many fragments rising against gravity and swiftly returning to their original positions.

Mist rushed forth like a raging flood, forming countless human silhouettes that surged forward in a ferocious assault, but suddenly everything fell completely still. Within the swirling mercury vapor, every fluctuation and movement of spirit matter was intercepted and suppressed.

“Out of tricks already?” Amid the countless frozen figures of mist, Assault Horsey slowly raised its head. Its scarlet eyes locked onto Helmut’s position as a disappointed sigh came through the loudspeakers. “Guess it’s my turn now.”

Clack!

Two completely drained spirit matter battery packs dropped from the armor’s shoulders. Many more batteries remained beneath its armor, continuously feeding power to its engines and supplying the enormous amount of mercury it consumed.

At that very moment, every flow of spirit matter within the ruined workshop had fallen under the interference of Solid Alchemy. Combat Plan Four transitioned into Plan Six, followed finally by Plan Three.

When facing a complex and uncertain situation, the first step was long-range bombardment to probe the enemy and determine the workshop’s defenses. Once the target had been thoroughly assessed, the armor accelerated to its absolute limit, turning its own mass into a weapon through gravity and acceleration before delivering a meteor-like blow.

Then, amid the thunderous crash and ensuing shockwave, the massive quantity of mercury injected into the buffer layer would vaporize and spread throughout the workshop. The mercury vapor, pretreated through Solid Alchemy, would become the natural enemy of every spirit matter construct. It would interfere with the workshop’s operation as much as possible and force its systems to slow, stall, and seize up.

Now this was a real EMP!

The instant Helmut noticed the change, his pupils contracted to pinpoints. He could barely breathe.

As the powered armor advanced, a gentle voice came from its speakers. “Now, I’m sure you must be wondering, with spirit matter interference on this scale, there’s no way to distinguish friend from foe. So how did my armor avoid being affected?”

For a moment, Helmut’s lips trembled, as though he could barely stop himself from asking.

The armor let out a gleeful laugh. “But why the hell would I tell you?!”

Boom!

The modified assault rifle that resembled an anchor gun roared, launching a searing metal spike that pinned the constantly shifting mass of shadows firmly in place. The engines thundered to life, radiating ferocious heat. The armor charged forward and smashed through a wall as thick black smoke billowed from the mechanical pack on its back, sparks scattering across the floor.

Realization finally struck Helmut. He was stunned speechless, and he felt utterly suffocated. He could almost hear Ji Jue’s mocking laughter echoing from somewhere far away.

Didn’t see that coming, huh, dumbass? This armor runs on hybrid power!

Ji Jue had specifically designed an external combustible reaction engine for this tactic. It wasn’t a full three-way fuel-electric-gas system, but it was more than enough to keep the armor running independently of spirit matter. Its fuel reserves were enough to keep the armor running under overdrive for fifteen full minutes.

Fifteen minutes didn’t sound like much, but if even a single intact roof tile remained in the workshop after those fifteen minutes, Ji Jue would consider it his loss!

As Assault Horsey smashed through the wall like a monster straight out of a horror movie, the only thing Helmut felt through his suffocating dread was absolute despair.

In his hand, a bizarre creation resembling an eyeball rose into the air. It spun overhead and unleashed beam after beam of searing light, but the mercury vapor refracted the scorching beams, hot enough to reduce flesh and blood to ash in an instant. More than half their power dissipated before they could even strike, and what little heat remained was not enough to leave so much as a mark on the armor.

Faced with a monster like this, the only thing Helmut could do was act like a victim in the very same horror movie, screaming in despair as he scrambled away on all fours. Calm down, Hel. Calm down.

This was only a temporary setback. Even if his opponent could suppress the flow of spirit matter on such a massive scale, a little calculation was enough to tell him that a creation like this had to consume an astronomical amount of energy. There was no way it could keep going for long!

His immediate priority was to keep himself safe and stall for as much time as possible, but the moment that thought surfaced, all he felt was icy despair.

Just as he had devised a strategy around the replica’s target-locking mechanism, the intruder had already locked onto him. Even if he fled to the ends of the earth, there would be no escaping it.

The only thing he could do was...

The craftsman who had been fleeing for his life abruptly stopped, letting out a self-deprecating sigh. Right. What else could he possibly do? At this point, struggling was pointless. For a craftsman, the moment their workshop slipped beyond their control, the outcome had already been decided. Now that the dust had settled and everything had become clear, there was only one thing left to do. He had to accept the loss.

And so, he turned around and looked toward the intruder advancing from the far end of the corridor. The armor looked savage and brutal, but the twitching in Helmut’s face gradually subsided, and his expression slowly became calm.

“To think that besides that stone guy, I’d actually run into another opponent this absurd.” Helmut sighed softly and raised a hand, tearing away the coat draped over him as if it had been woven from shadows. With one final infusion of spirit matter, the shadows shifted and crystallized, taking the shape of a blade. Helmut raised it and pointed it at his opponent.

“Come.” His expression turned solemn as he issued the challenge. “I’m Helmut, the youngest disciple of Whitesail. Show me what you’ve got!”

The armor said nothing, merely looking down at his composed face. As though it understood what he meant, it tossed aside the assault rifle and drew the crimson greatsword from its scabbard, raised it, and leveled the blade at Helmut’s face from afar.

Within the ruined workshop, darkness and crimson crossed in a flash. Then came a tremendous roar as blood sprayed through the air.

The loser fell onto his back. Following that, everything between heaven and earth rapidly dimmed, dissolved, and faded into nothingness.

The victor had been decided!

***

Meanwhile, back in Ji Jue’s workshop, silence had already stretched on for far too long. From the moment control of the workshop had been seized by the intruder, not another sound had been heard.

Helmut’s replica stood frozen in place as though petrified, no longer capable of moving. It had not even had time to take control of the workshop and crush the opponent before it into dust.

Before long, it began convulsing uncontrollably, as if suddenly struck by a seizure. It collapsed to the floor, letting out shrill screams as it writhed and vomited great quantities of black and crimson fluid. The Blessed Creation slipped from its hand, while its limbs rapidly melted like candle wax, mutating and twisting out of shape. Clusters of tumors and aberrant bone growths rapidly spread across its body.

“Not bad.” Ji Jue sighed in genuine admiration, offering a heartfelt suggestion. “Maybe don’t do it again next time.”

Well, assuming there would be a next time.

Twenty-five evil creatures had had their souls and brain tissue extracted and made into spirit-matter batteries to supply power. More than sixty key pieces of equipment and modules throughout the workshop had been constructed from their bodies and tissues.

Over the course of building the workshop, Ji Jue had hunted and killed a total of seven hundred and thirty-three large aberrant creatures. The amount of aberration contamination generated in the process was simply too vast to count.

At this point, his entire workshop could practically be said to have been built upon evil creatures and aberration contamination. As for the price for that, hidden beneath its gleaming, pristine appearance was a level of horrific aberration dozens, hundreds of times worse than the heavily contaminated zone outside.

The purified mercury Ji Jue had used just to construct the isolation and filtration layers amounted to more than twenty tons. Saying that Ji Jue was sitting on top of a volcanic crater wasn’t even an exaggeration. Every waking moment, he had to devote part of his attention to maintaining the delicate balance between contamination and purification. Even the slightest mistake could lead to a fate far worse than death.

Under circumstances like these, the replica tried taking over his identity, connecting to his workshop, and then voluntarily opening up the flow of his soul and spirit matter. How was that any different from willingly jumping beneath the Maelstrom and sticking your head straight into the jaws of a Great Abomination?

Impressed, Ji Jue sighed in amazement. “You’ve really got guts.”

The workshop shuddered menacingly. As the intruder lost control and succumbed to aberration, Ji Jue’s features returned to the blank face it had stolen.

Finally, the intruder, having swollen and proliferated to its absolute limit, exploded. Thick black blood and contamination burst forth like a waterfall, only to freeze in midair. The moment Ji Jue waved his hand, streaks of mercury came howling in and plunged into the intruder’s body, completely freezing everything that was on the verge of collapse and locking it down completely.

Ji Jue forcibly kept that fading spark of life from going out. He refused to let the intruder die just yet and sighed.

“To be fair, your luck really was terrible. If it had been anyone else... No, if it had been anyone other than me, this whole combo would have probably worked. You were just ridiculously unlucky. It can’t be helped. The examiners this time around really do love making things difficult for people.”

Once the initial shock had passed and Ji Jue had calmed down, he carefully analyzed what had happened and more or less figured out his opponent’s strategy. To be fair, the strategy really was formidable. It had even exploited the underlying mechanics.

But the real key had never been the mechanics. It was Helmut’s own skill and ability.

Ji Jue had tried to dismantle and analyze his creation, but there simply had not been enough time. He had not even managed to reverse-engineer a third of it, and the sheer complexity and ingenuity of its internal structure could only be described as breathtaking.

The craftsman who had made it seemed to have been overly stubborn in his own assumptions and far too prone to obsessing over minor details, but there was no questioning his skill. In fact, he was considerably more capable than many of the craftsmen Ji Jue had encountered in the Depths.

Ember was merciless and showed no mercy to the mediocre. By this point, every apprentice who had managed to survive this far into the examination had already surpassed the level of an ordinary apprentice. Each of them had reached the level of a typical craftsman, and some had even exceeded it. If victory had truly been decided by the traditional method of judging the completion and quality of their works, there was no telling who would have won.

Perhaps only Ember could push people to compete this fiercely.

Ji Jue bent down and lifted the remaining head from the aberrant wreckage, holding it in his hands as he slowly said,. “Come to think of it, I’m actually a lot like you. I’ve also had a few... rather inhumane ideas about how to exploit the mechanics. For example...”

He paused as a smile etched on his face. “Would you like to see what this world really looks like?”