The Mech Touch

After acquiring numerous enlightenment fruits over the years, Ves had learned that the Tree of Possibilities never undercharged its products.

If a fruit was priced at 555 AP, then it was most definitely worth the high price.

The Karnasis Seed Planting Manual Enlightenment Fruit seemed tailor-made to solve many of his recent problems.

It could serve as an extremely comprehensive introduction to the wood element. Ves could also learn a lot about demonic cultivation and how to quickly gain power by depriving it from others.

Although these so-called demonic seeds could certainly be used to disrupt a lot of human lives and throw a society into chaos, Ves didn't consider it to be an evil method anymore.

Part of it depended on who it was used on. If Ves mastered the knowledge of this enlightenment fruit but made sure to plant the demonic seeds into alien lives, then who could possibly object to his actions?

The more alien lives he drained with these deadly seeds, the better!

Not only would he be able to kill a lot of native aliens that posed a threat to red humanity, but he could also grow stronger in the process!

"This is no different from a buy one get one free deal!"

The difficulty with this demonic cultivation technique was to maintain enough discipline to avoid targeting any humans.

From the moment he attacked the people that belonged to the same group or civilization as himself, Ves would undoubtedly cross an unforgivable line!

"It's not a big deal. There are way more aliens than humans in the Red Ocean. Only an idiot or a weakling would think about targeting innocent people."

He no longer wasted his time on enlightenment fruits that were way out of his budget. There were still a lot of fruits hanging on the branches of the Tree of Possibilities that were much more affordable.

Ves possessed a lot more strength and courage than that. If he managed to master the Karnasis Seed Planting Manual one day, he would definitely unleash his new methods towards the many aliens whose lives were ripe for the picking!

He took one last longing look at the enlightenment fruit before decisively turning his head.

"Maybe next time."

He no longer wasted his time on enlightenment fruits that were way out of his budget. There were still a lot of fruits hanging on the branches of the Tree of Possibilities that were much more affordable.

Of course, their benefits paled in comparison to the likes of the Karnasis Seed Planting Manual, but there were still a few interesting bargains in his opinion.

[Evil-Breaking Peach Wood Sword Manual]

Price 100 Ascension Points

Imparts a method to carve suitable wood into an Evil-Breaking Peach Wood Sword. This is a sword that does not possess a strong cutting edge, but is highly effective when used to fight against negative existences. The Evil-Breaking Peach Sword is also effective when used to fight energy-based lifeforms and other energy constructs.

Evil-Breaking Peach Swords that are excellently carved and made with high-quality materials can be enhanced by lightning. When empowered by any source of lightning energy, the Evil-Breaking Peach Sword not only becomes much more deadly against immaterial enemies, but also receives physical tempering that strengthens its physical properties.

"Damn."

Ves felt tempted to purchase the Evil-Breaking Peach Sword Manual Enlightenment Fruit almost immediately after reading its description.

Was it a coincidence that this enlightenment fruit just so happened to be available?

It seemed quite serendipitous that the Tree of Possibilities granted him the option to learn how to make these so-called Evil-Breaking Peach Swords.

Although these swords were probably not designed to fight against tribulation manifestations, Ves nonetheless believed that such a weapon should be highly effective against the alien swordsman!

The enemy that was giving the Elegant Rage such a hard time was not an actual living alien powerhouse. He was actually a simulation generated by the ongoing lightning tribulation.

The Evil-Breaking Peach Sword should still enjoy a bonus when attacking the alien swordsman, especially given that lightning directly empowered it so long as its power level remained within tolerance.

Ves seriously felt tempted to purchase this enlightenment fruit, but he eventually decided against this choice.

The Evil-Breaking Peach Sword may be effective in defeating the alien swordsman, but what about the next opponent?

When the ninth tribulation manifestation that was 30 percent stronger than the alien swordsman showed up, the gap in power would become so wide that a special sword alone could no longer make up the difference.

"I can't overlook the fact that the fundamental reason why the Elegant Rage is falling behind is because she is not utilizing as much E energy."

Ves believed that as long as the Elegant Rage gained a lot more energy and knew how to effectively make use of it, she should easily be able to overcome the alien swordsman and whatever tribulation manifestation that came next!

Ves did not forget about the Evil-Breaking Peach Sword Manual, but he set it aside for the time being in the hopes of finding a more fitting alternative.

He would only go back and evaluate this enlightenment fruit if the Tree of Possibilities disappointed him with its selection.

Soon enough, Ves came across another interesting fruit.

[Introduction to the Withering Curse]

Price: 77 Ascension Points

Imparts basic theory on the concept of withering and teaches several related techniques and curses. Withering is a process that relates to the decay of organisms and most notably plants. It can be used as an offensive application of the wood element that is especially effective on organic targets.

The Introduction to the Withering Curse does not contain a large quantity of curse techniques, but they are versatile and can be changed to adapt to specific demands and conditions. Withering curses are highly effective against weaker organisms, but can easily be resisted by strong and healthy targets.

"That sounds closer."

Introduction to the Withering Curse was close to the kind of basic knowledge package that Ves sought.

It should probably teach Ves the basics on how to impose the terrible force of withering onto other organisms.

Curses were generally regarded as attacks that could be launched from a distance, so Ves did not have to worry too much about range when trying to wither an entire forest that stretches for kilometers in every direction.

As for the fact that curses were ineffective against powerful targets, Ves did not really care. The trees planted all across New Constantinople VIII were all weak and vulnerable!

Even if a few trees somehow managed to turn into a mutated plant, the Devos Ancient Clan would detect it right away.

One of the reasons why New Constantinople VIII never suffered any attacks related to the random emergence of mutated beasts was because its security services eliminated any animal that showed any sign of abnormality!

Perhaps it might be acceptable for hunting preserves such as Ocanon VI to keep so many mutated beasts alive, but this was not acceptable for a fast-growing planet occupied by lots of Terrans.

Without any tree on the planet that was comparable to the Emperor Tree in terms of power, the Elegant Rage should not be able to encounter any resistance when trying to wither all of the surrounding trees.

"Withering alone is too wasteful, though."

What Ves sought was not to cause the Elegant Rage's targets to decay and cause their energies to disappear.

Instead, he wanted his Woodsap mech to gain the ability to harvest those energies and power up her own attacks.

Ves rubbed his hairless chin in thought. "It would be nice to obtain a more comprehensive enlightenment fruit that can make up for this absence, but… do I really need to spend more AP?"

Cultivation techniques were alive. There was never a single absolute right answer on how to do stuff.

Ves already became accustomed to absorbing the knowledge contained within different enlightenment fruits, but then went on to tinker with the different theories and techniques to produce different outcomes.

He was confident that if he absorbed this particular enlightenment fruit, he could 'complete' the process by figuring out a mechanism for the Elegant Rage to absorb the energies lost by the plants that were withering on a wide scale!

The premise to all of this was that the so-called withering curses did not destroy all of the juicy wood energy that the plants originally contained.

Ves frowned a bit. He was not quite certain whether this fruit would give him the building blocks he needed to turn the Elegant Rage into a true nature predator.

He decided to postpone his decision and look for other suitable fruits.

Several minutes went by as Ves inspected a lot of fruits that weren't relevant to the current situation at all. The only ones that interested him a little more were the ones that promised to teach him various darkness-related cultivation methods and techniques.

As much as Ves felt personally interested by them, it was hard to impart any of the techniques to the Elegant Rage, so he skipped the over.

In the end, Ves couldn't help but return to the Evil-Breaking Peach Wood Sword Manual and the Introduction to the Withering Curse.

They presented two completely different ways to break the current situation.

The Evil-Breaking Peach Wood Sword Manual was obviously an upright and honorable way to empower the Elegant Rage.

The Introduction to the Withering Curse likely contained a lot of underhanded, dishonorable and maybe outright evil techniques!

Yet that did not stop him from taking the latter seriously.

Of the two choices, Ves felt a lot more drawn to the Introduction to the Withering Curse despite the fact that it did not present a complete ready-made solution.

As Ves weighed his decision, he ultimately decided to reach out and pluck the Introduction to the Withering Curse Fruit.

"I need this more than the other."

It was related to both the wood and the darkness elements. It was a thoroughly negative method that was also related to ominous concepts such as death and decay.

As Ves held a wrinkled and half-rotted purple fruit in his hands, he did not show any sign of disgust as he bit into it and ate all up in a couple of quick bites.

Before the dry and awful taste of the fruit registered on his taste buds, he winced as he received an abrupt infusion of knowledge in his brain!

The changes came and went quickly. Ves instantly mastered the basics of a small collection of withering techniques.

"How wonderful. I didn't know how vulnerable life can be to a cultivator who knows how to manipulate life."

Ves' horizons had widened now that he became burdened with greater knowledge. His understanding of the negative side of life had expanded enormously, making him feel that spending those 77 Ascension Points was the best decision he had made!

Among the most useful lessons he learned from the fruit was to learn how to cast curses.

These were particularly dark and underhanded means of manipulating or attacking enemies.

Ves recalled that during one of the later waves of the epic tribulation of the Dominion of Man, the Bloodfire dreadnought confronted a massive mirror beast that managed to bypass everyone's spiritual defenses and cause them to turn against each other.

Back then, Ves completely remained ignorant how the mirror beast was able to fool so many entities, up to and including Caramond and Furia!

Now he knew. The god beast excelled at casting curses that affected the entire crew and other life forms of the Dominion of Man.

By intermittently showing up and presenting its cursed mirror at the dreadnought, the lightning manifestation of the powerful beast refreshed its curse.

"When it comes down to it, a curse is a more indirect and subtle means to attack a target."

Just as Ves suspected, they were completely useless against an opponent like the current tribulation manifestation, but it was possible to cast the same curse to a large swathe of weak and vulnerable targets!

It was so easy to cause a lot of harm as long as he was willing to pay a price!

In fact, if Ves wanted to, he could use the knowledge he learned from this fruit to make a lot of people in a city sick!

"It is no wonder that demonic cultivation has become so persecuted by the mechers and fleeters! The capacity to do harm is too great!"

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