Chapter 970: Conjecture
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Kaboom!
Instructor Ya Ge used his mecha to display a dao art. The steel giant looked like a black mountain as it crashed down with a horrifying force.
The ground shook, and dust filled the air. The entire training grounds was in shambles.
Bang! Bang!
What astonished the students was that there were still intense crashing sounds coming from inside the cloud of dust.
Obviously, that student was still trading blows with the instructor after the dao art attack.
As the dust cleared, two giant steel figures appeared before them.
“Alloy Drill!”
Ya Ge’s Elite-grade mecha advanced in the blink of an eye. It closed its right hand’s fingers together and formed a giant alloy drill.
The mecha was so fast that it almost turned into a black line.
Sizzle!
The drill penetrated the Gundam’s defenses and landed on its chest armor, causing sparks to sputter.
“He won!”
The other students heaved a sigh of relief.
But immediately afterward, Jonas’s eyes widened.
The Gundam’s right leg had Ya Ge’s mecha’s knee.
Crack!
Sparks exploded, and the black mecha knelt down.
“Heavens, who is this expert? Even the instructor knelt!”
A busybody had captured the scene and published it on the school forums. A huge wave of replies immediately followed.
“Shock! A mysterious expert has appeared in the mecha department! He won fifty rounds in a row!”
“I stand witness! I’m a student from the mecha department. I just knelt before the expert!”
“I knelt too!”
“Eighteen consecutive kneels!”
“Expert! I kneel before you!”
“I used to be a formidable mecha pilot. Then I took a kick in the knee…”
…
One had to admit that there were many people good at wordplay in East Dragon University. They started playing word solitaire, and the audience did not know whether to laugh or cry.
“It’s reach!” Jonas suddenly started shouting after staring at the scene. “Since the Gundam is taller than the instructor’s Mecha, its legs are also longer. As a result, before the instructor’s attack could cause damage, his mecha was attacked instead!
“But this precise judgment and computing power, is his brain a photon computer?”
Having precise judgment and the ability to calculate continuously was a feat that was out of reach for the vast majority of mecha pilots.
Except… true aces!
“I misjudged you. You have more than the potential to become an ace. You’re more of a monster!”
Ya Ge crawled out from his mecha wincing. “My Black Moon… It’ll cost a huge sum of star dollars to repair it in the factory. Luckily, the damage was a result of lessons, and the school will reimburse me!”
After a cry of agony, he looked at the surrounding students. “What are you waiting for? Hurry up and clear the place!”
“Ah! Yes!”
The other students finally broke out of their astonishment and began shooing away onlooking students and teachers. Then they looked at the still-standing Gundam in earnest, wanting to know who exactly this expert was.
“Sorry… Instructor, I didn’t manage to stop myself in time!”
Fang Yuan walked out from the cockpit with a slightly apologetic expression.
He would never tell these students and the instructor that they were so weak that he unwittingly accomplished this feat.
“It’s him… Lin Meng!” Sunny recognized him and was immediately dumbfounded. “The student who skipped a grade?”
“Nooo!” The other students almost wanted to throw a tantrum in depression. “We knelt before a rookie?”
“Not only us, but the instructor too!”
“Cough cough!” Ya Ge’s face darkened. He said loudly, “Lin Meng, you need to know that despite your performance today, the situation was a bit peculiar… The main weapons on all the students’ mechas were removed. Otherwise, you couldn’t have done what you did with the long lock-on range of a laser cannon!”
“You’re right, Instructor!” Fang Yuan nodded. If the entire class’s mechas opened fire on him from all angles, it would indeed be a little troublesome.
“As for the rest of you!” Ya Ge looked at the other students and roared, “You lost to a newcomer! After cleaning the mechas and returning them, run a hundred laps with weights on!”
“Please no!”
The students cried out in agony. Jonas grumbled, “You lost too, Instructor!”
“Jonas, double for you!!”
Ya Ge’s face was pitch black.
…
At night, Fang Yuan was browsing the school web while checking his stats window.
“Name: Fang Yuan (Lin Meng)
Profession: Dream Master, East Dragon University Student
Cultivation: Mystic (Level 11), Arcanist (Level 1)
Techniques: Flame Control Technique, Breathing Holding Dao Art, Flying Sword Dao Art
Skills: Alchemy (Grandmaster), Mecha Control (Advanced)
Power Recovered: 66.2%!”
…
“Mecha Control has already reached advanced? All thanks to the students and instructor giving free proficiency…”
Fang Yuan felt very satisfied looking at his stats. “This skill seems to be similar to Alchemy, in the sense that there are no bottlenecks. After pushing through to grandmaster by accumulating enough proficiency, I should be on the same level as those ace mecha pilots, right?”
He contemplated for a while and began searching for information regarding mecha spiritual techniques.
“Mechas require at least Elite-grade before they can use spiritual techniques. They are specially made to be able to resonate with the mecha pilot! And special construction is imperative. Due to the prohibitive price, standard soldiers have never had them. There are also some issues with the Dao of Array… Of course, in modern times, that would be the research into the talismans of integrated circuits!”
Fang Yuan then looked up large amounts of information to get a grasp on the fundamental concepts of mecha spiritual techniques.
“By using the Dao of Talismans to inscribe the Dao Patterns of the corresponding spiritual techniques onto the mecha beforehand, when the mecha pilot uses the spiritual techniques, the mecha would then use the technique through synchronization!
“This type of technology has very high requirements for the inscriber. It even gave birth to an entire profession called mecha inscriber! Each job is expensive!
“The better the inscriber, the more Dao Patterns they can inscribe onto the mecha’s limited space! These types of mechas would then be able to use many spiritual techniques. Their prices will multiply for each additional spiritual technique!”
There was also an issue with load. For example, Instructor Ya Ge’s Black Moon model had the Immovable Mountain Dao Art inscribed by an ordinary inscriber. If more techniques were added, then it would affect the power of the already present dao art.
However, if a true master had been able to add a speed or attack-type dao art on top of the Immovable Mountain, the outcome of today’s fight might have been different.
Unfortunately, these types of experts would never work on General-grade mechas. The least they would settle for would be King-grade.
“For King-grade mechas, it is best to inscribe magical powers! Their patterns are more complicated, but their power is greater as well…”
Fang Yuan nodded and looked at some additional secret knowledge.
“Resonance is the research topic of high-grade mecha!
“According to refiners, mechas… are, in essence, large magical weapons! You can train their spirits to connect with the mecha pilot’s will and unleash great power! A few mecha pilots had followed the examples of ancient cultivation and mixed their own flesh and blood into their mechas. These types of mechas often perform well, but research data to back up their actual efficiency is lacking…
“Renowned mecha engineer Fu Hongxue has stated that the perfect mecha is built by its pilot… However, this theory remains in the conjecture phase. There has never been a mecha pilot who was simultaneously proficient in the study of piloting, propulsion, materials science, energy, and Dao Pattern inscriptions…
“Professor Lan He of Sky University has expressed the opinion that Fu Hongxue’s method is the reverse of progress, incorporating all the drawbacks of ancient cultivation! The Scientific Cultivation Method has already proven that specialization is mainstream in today’s cultivation world…”
…
“Refining your own Mecha. Interesting…”
Fang Yuan’s eyes gleamed.
Perhaps there was a limit on the people of this world. No matter how smart they were, they were unable to master so many fields to become an interdisciplinary grandmaster.
But for him, it was only a matter of putting in slightly more effort.
“Resonance, Dao Patterns… the things that Soldier-grade mechas are barely in touch with are instead the essentials of high-grade mechas…”
He contemplated in silence and decided to use his connection with Qi Yunshan to enter Fu Hongxue’s research team for deeper studies.
There had been no news about the Abominable Lord so far. He had to prepare a trump card for himself.
“Speaking of trump cards… it’s time I improve my levels in the Arcane.”
Fang Yuan had been engrossed with cultivation, and Arcanist was at a pitiful level one. It was embarrassing to even talk about.
Despite not putting any emphasis on his Arcanist level, the presence of the Arcane Smart-Brain did provide him many conveniences.
Although his school was a cultivation university, low-level students could not even get their hands on the academic content of western universities. But after his jurisdiction increased, he could purchase the relevant information.
After all, both cultivation and the Arcane required knowledge from other fields at higher levels. Buying each other’s information and analyzing it was normal.
“The improvement of Arcanist! I can improve my rational thinking through all kinds of detailed research, publishing papers, and so on… I have not delved into the Arcane at all. There’s still a brute force method to raise my Arcanist level, which is to forcibly analyze arcane spell models that are one level higher!”
This was the path of ancient Arcanists. Today, people recognized it as an arduous yet fruitless method. After all, forcibly analyzing high-level arcane spells was not only strenuous and time-consuming, but there was also the possibility of getting nothing in return, or even sustaining injuries.
In contrast, the modern method was to improve rational thinking and raise the Arcanist level automatically. Only then would the Arcanist naturally form the corresponding arcane spell model. As a result, the ancient method was gradually abandoned.
However, Fang Yuan was a marvel!
Although his Arcanist level was at a mere one, with the support of a level ten Mystic’s spiritual will, his willpower was on par with level six and seven Arcanists. Analyzing the models was a piece of cake.
Not to mention, he had not even utilized his Demon God intrinsic quality.
No one in this world had concurrently practiced both cultivation and the Arcane. The terrifying potential of this path that he had chosen had only begun to rear its head.