Chapter 214: Martial Arts Against Machines
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It wasn’t just one of them; it was at least ten. In a ratio with the beasts, they were one in over fifty. But they kept appearing, sneakily emerging from the bushes and behind the trees. Their humanoid forms and their heads, which were slightly animal-like and varied with each one, gave me an unnerving feeling.
Their cold, neon blue eyes shine brightly, and their bodies creak with metallic limbs and bones. Their movements felt like they were trying to imitate the living beings of this world, the people. And perhaps these beasts were very similar in that regard.
[You have been spotted by over ten [Advanced Android (S+ Rank)]!]
[They silently approach; be careful!]
“Those things, are they similar to what I’ve become?” Wondered Fang Shuan. “People, but made of metal like me.”
“No, Fang Shuan, you’re more akin to a magical golem of sorts, an Undead.” I said. “Those things are not Undead, they’re other things, something more bizarre. Something more unnerving too.”
“What?” He muttered. “What could they be, master?”
“Those golden cores in their chests…” I muttered. “…So this is what they’ve been doing to regain their forces even after their Constellations were defeated, huh?”
“…!”
The Androids leaped into battle the moment they got close enough, while being cautious of my attacks. They waited for the right moment, just when I was busy slicing and punching through the mechanical beasts. Their almost weightless bodies appeared above me. Some stretched their legs, pointing them at my face; others gathered energies into their fists, unleashing a barrage of punches.
They were using Martial Arts!
“Good time to finally use this!”
However, I was not afraid, summoning a huge golden shield out of my Inventory. All blows were quickly tanked by the giant shield, and explosions of golden, silver, blue, and purple Ki erupted over the shield all at once.
BAAAM!
The shield was unscathed, and the Androids stepped back after realizing their attacks were useless, looking at their own hands and legs, finding out they were pulverized by the very force of their attacks against my incredibly tough equipment.
This was, of course, the [Harmonious Yin Yang Dragon Heavenly Shield]!
“Tough, isn’t it?” I smiled, the shield suddenly overflowing with all the accumulated energy; it just happened to be enough for a little counterattack. “Take it back with you. {Divine Heavenly Harmony Dragon’s Breath}!”
By activating the shield’s ability, all the accumulated energy erupted as a blast of golden flames, engulfing the Androids in front of me. The beam kept going, so I quickly moved the shield around me, blasting and pulverizing any foe within the range of the explosion.
BOOOM!
The attack only lasted three seconds, but it helped me eliminate over half the foes around our surroundings, easily lessening the burden of fighting so many foes.
“T-That shield’s powers go beyond the nine heavens!” Fang Shuan gasped.
“KRIEEH!” Even Violet had to agree here.
“Hah, well, there’s now a cooldown, so I sadly can’t spam this as much as I would love to.” I sighed. “Nonetheless…!”
CLASH!
I managed to quickly lock down an attack coming from above. Three Androids attempted to kick my head off at the same time, but only hit my shield. I quickly imbued the shield with Ki and bashed them down into the floor before I activated Gram’s Abilities, a black Dragon Aura surging from within.
“It’s good enough equipment to easily stop incoming attacks, and well, it helps me buy time so I can pulverize them like this too!” I smiled, swinging Gram against the paralyzed androids, which I was holding back with the force of my body and the shield’s enormous weight. “{Sunless Arc}”
SLAAASH!
With a horizontal attack loaded with both Gram’s dark demonic powers and my own Inner Martial Core’s black Ki, I cut through the bodies of the Androids not once, but several times at once. Thousand Blades activated as well, multiplying a single powerful slash into seven more. This was the Skill’s passive ability, actually. To activate the stronger effects, Mana was required. But the passive ability was more than enough.
“Alright! Who’s next?! All of you, come to me! You’re all becoming my damn Experience Points. We’ll clear this entire section of the island while the sun is high above the clouds!”
Cheering for my tea, we all clashed against the mechanical beasts and the androids. Explosions of Electric discharges, Ki, and many other abilities were activated one after another. Fang Shuan was slowly progressing more into getting used to his new form, utilizing his Holy Undead-only Skills as well.
His first Skill was [Holy Nether Golden Shields], which allowed him to spend Ki to conjure shields made of Holy Nether around him that could take hits for him. And also explode into light beams to blind and paralyze foes for a second. Then there was his second Holy Undead-only Skill, [Phantasmal Light Chains Of Magic Sealing], which helped him conjure sealing chains that temporarily paralyzed foes, binding them in place and decreasing their strength.
They worked wonders against such a huge army of foes, and with the Androids sneaky approach, mighty martial arts, and their deadly combination of Ki and Electromagnetic Energies, we were constantly on high alert, without a second to rest. However, this was also a good test by itself.
It allowed me to go a bit more all-out, testing my equipment abilities while also testing my Martial Arts. Kicks, punches, and roars quickly led me to the conclusion that the Celestial Golden Dragon Divine Fist Technique had this approach; an endless repetition of these three created a synergy of sorts.
“Kick!” I kicked two Androids away, and an eruption of draconic ki energies surging from my powerful attack broke their stomach areas.
“Punch!” As more came to fight me, I punched them with several attacks, their bodies slowly gaining countless cracks.
“Roar!” And as they tried to stand back up, the mighty roar of a dragon echoed from within my Aura, weakening and paralyzing even the robots.
“Kick! Punch! Roar!” I kept doing the same, kicking them to break their balance, punching them to deal great damage, and roaring to paralyze them.
With this synergy between techniques, I was able to become almost unparalleled, even against Androids. And that’s without including my equipment. No matter how hard they tried to learn my patterns, these Divine Martial Arts simply always came on top.
And the best thing? Thanks to all my Skills that helped me gather Ki more rapidly, I wasn’t running low on Ki any time soon! My breathing techniques allowed me to constantly cultivate Yin and Yang Ki within me, creating an endless rotation close to my heart.
Ki energy slowly filled my lungs, flowing across my Meridians and making me feel like I simply couldn’t run out of stamina. Compared to Earth, cultivating Ki inside a Murim world was leagues better!
“HAAAH!”
With a mighty dragon roar, I combined several techniques at once, and four Androids were blown away as a giant golden dragon surged from my aura, engulfing them and then exploding. Golden flames were left behind, burning their destroyed bodies.
CRAAASH!
Littering around us were over a thousand mechanical beasts and androids, now torn to pieces. No more were coming at long last. Whoever was leading them quickly told the soldiers to simply avoid me for now. They clearly didn’t want to lose more soldiers.
[Step 1: Hunt one thousand Mechanical Beasts: 0/1000 -> 1000/1000]
“It’s done. Let’s go pick up the grass now.” I smiled. “The day hasn’t even ended yet; we’re quick.”
I stored the mechanical beasts’ bodies inside my Inventory. Instead of leaving them behind just so they can be picked back up by the other soldiers and recycled into new ones, the reason they must be pissed off is because I am slowly taking away their resources. It must be an essential part of their “endless” production of soldiers to recycle already destroyed ones.
“The Starlight Grass Hill, where is it?” Wondered Sepa, appearing above me. “Somewhere within those mountains near the tree, right? This island is sure huge.”
“Yeah, around there. I can already see them.” My Divine Eyes of Truth were easily bringing me there. “Let’s go, quickly!”
I used my wings to soar the skies as fast as possible, only to be quickly intercepted by almost a hundred flying mechanic beasts. This time they resembled a mix between dragons and planes, and they looked strong, but flying creatures will always be frail to strong attacks.
[You have been spotted by the [Mechanical Draconian Drones (S)]!]
[Their speed is unparalleled, but their bodies are easy to break; target the wings!]
“I don’t really need the tips, but thanks nonetheless.” I unsheathed Gram, releasing a slash in midair as I spun downward. Waves of cutting black winds engulfed the approaching Mechanical Draconian Drones, their wings easily being cut off their bodies.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
They fell from high above, hitting the ground below and quickly breaking down into pieces. Those that didn’t die right away died after I fired Dark Spears, conjured out of my Darkness Ki, directly into their half-destroyed bodies.
“At this point, not even S Rank Monsters are a threat to you, Anna!” Sepa said. “I am so proud of your growth!”
“Proud? You’ve barely done anything to help me…” I muttered.
“What?! How come! If it wasn’t for my help, you wouldn’t have survived the replacement of your heart for a cosmic crystal heart!” Sepa complained. “A-Also, I help you easily regulate and control your Cosmic Energy! And without me, remember that you would have never been able to get inside of Anubis Dungeon!”
“…Right, okay, maybe you DID help a lot.” I laughed a bit. “Thanks Sepa. We’re here.”
I quickly moved down, landing over a beautiful golden grassland. The sunlight reflected over these yellow grasses, which resembled small, flowing mirrors from far away. Without a doubt, these were the Starlight Grass, a Martial Treasure that grows in not only this Murim worldline but many others.
It might even be rather popular among weak Constellation as a cheap Treasure containing minuscule, yet useful quantities of Cosmic Attribute Essence within them. By absorbing this grass, they can enhance their Cosmic Energy production speed and even fuel the growth of Traits and Dao Branches and Roots.
“This should be more than enough.”
[You have collected [Starlight Grass (S Rank)] x47!]
[Lucky! The quality of the gathered products has increased by one!]
[Step 2: Gather Starlight Grass from the Starlight Hill: 30/30]
“SS Rank Starlight Grass… This’ll sure make her happy.” I stored the grass inside my inventory, as I noticed the gigantic silver-colored mountain was beginning to slowly move.
After all, I had just stepped into its range.
RUMBLE!
The gigantic mechanical beast, over two hundred meters in height, started to move. It quickly made the surroundings tremble as if a huge earthquake were coming. Its enormous body slowly started to shapeshift. The silver-colored plates covering it began to shift and turn, revealing huge, black-colored cannons hidden inside.
It was at least a hundred such cannons, all pointing at me. They slowly started to charge electromagnetic energy, firing a myriad of blue-colored beams of pure concentrated electricity. I had the [Thunder Queen] Skill to control, absorb, and become lightning.
The thing is, it required a lot of Mana, and I wasn’t going to waste my Ki on this. And well, evading these was good training as well!
“Stay inside the Purgatory Realm for now.” I said as my Familiars ran inside except Goldie, who refused to go away and remained on top of my head, camouflaging as a pin. "Alright, Goldie, if you’re so stubborn, I hope you don’t regret it later! {Heavenly Dragon’s Steps}”
Imbuing light quantities of Ki into my foot, I started leaping in midair, evading the incoming beams of blue lightning that struck the earth, shaking and destroying everything. I had managed to get a good distance from Starlight Hill, so that place should be alright.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
“You sure like making a fuss, don’t you?”
As a myriad of beams chased me down, I started running around the gigantic mech, charging my weapons with more and more Ki and Celestial Energy.
“How about this?!”
I leaped high above the skies and then descended by reinforcing my body’s strength and durability as much as possible, with my shield down.
CRAAASH!
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