The Mech Touch

When Ves exited the System Space, his entire demeanor drastically changed.

In reality, virtually no time had passed. Neither Major Jankowski nor the Elegant Rage noticed that Ves had secretly spent hours inside a completely different space.

Enlightened by knowledge related to withering curses, Ves had painstakingly deconstructed one of them and made many alterations based on other theories and reasonable inferences.

His work was anything but clean or elegant. Ves lacked the immense knowledge and experience of his mother, so he encountered many difficulties in trying to rework a mysterious means of attack that he only understood on a shallow level.

It didn't matter. Ves was a good improviser. This was not the first time that he tinkered with cultivation techniques. He possessed a broad enough understanding of cultivation science to be able to see through the surface of most techniques and dissect them as if he was studying the source code of a software program.

Although the 'programming code' of cultivation techniques was a lot more complicated, any professional software engineer should be able to understand them and change their operations much easier by relying on familiar methods.

As a mech designer, it was essential for Ves to know how to program his own mechs, so he was able to work on dissecting the withering curse before repackaging it into a completely different technique.

Ves had no idea whether it would work. There was no way for him to try it out for himself as he completely tailored the improvised technique for the Elegant Rage. No other mech or individual was able to perform a similar reverse curse because they lacked the unique conditions of the first Woodsap mech.

This was why he did not waste too much time in the System Space. There was little point in lingering when he did not have a solid goal to work towards.

Ves immediately became immersed in battle again. Elegant Rage was on the verge of losing one of her tonfas, and the other one was not too far away from breaking apart either.

The momentum of this bout had shifted so much in the alien swordsman's favor that Major Jankowski looked as if he was already starting to think about pulling the ejection lever!

"I am sorry, professor. My skills are not enough to outfight this alien sword wielder. Your mech..."

"It's okay." Ves quickly replied with a confident grin. "You have fought well so far. You managed to buy enough time for me to figure out a way to boost the Elegant Rage's performance. Sit tight and be prepared to cooperate with the mech when she begins to show initiative."

There was no time for explanations. Ves ignored Major Jankowski's confusion and instead began the vital process of enlightening the Elegant Rage to an entirely new method of drawing power.

"Elegant Rage, accept my data transfer!"

Ves utilized his cranial implant to transmit a long and very detailed text document that contained a lot of theory and instructions.

As a machine, the Elegant Rage was able to read and understand most of the contents of this document in just a fraction of a second.

Although she was not as intellectually strong as a true scientist, the Elegant Rage's inherent information processing capabilities were not weak. The sapience of a third order living mech also enabled her to gain true comprehension of all of the easy insights that could only be understood by other sentient beings.

The Elegant Rage immediately began to regain a lot of confidence.

"What did you share with her, professor?!"

"You'll find out soon enough. Give the Elegant Rage time to process the information that I have sent."

"PROGENITOR. THIS TECHNIQUE IS AMAZING. CAN I TRULY USE IT TO BECOME MORE POWERFUL?" noveℓ.com

"I can't say for sure whether it will work, but we may as well try it out." Ves responded. "Be aware that trying it out on a wide scale will have grave consequences for yourself. The more you damage the environment, the more you are at risk of provoking a backlash. I am only teaching you this because your survival is at stake."

"THANK YOU. AS MUCH AS I WANT TO MAKE USE OF IT RIGHT AWAY, I AM NOT CONFIDENT I CAN EXECUTE IT. THERE ARE MANY STEPS IN YOUR INSTRUCTION THAT REQUIRES PROFICIENCY THAT I DO NOT POSSESS." "Don't worry. I already thought of that. Let me give you a small upgrade."

"Mrow"

Blinky emerged from Ves' head and began to release a ball of wood energy that the Star Cat had prepared beforehand.

The ball was actually a spiritual construct that Ves had specifically designed for easy absorption.

As soon as the Elegant Rage swallowed the ball of wood energy, the living mech's spiritual foundation changed and became a little more complex.

The Woodsap mech integrated a handful of the core operations of the new technique, allowing her to execute it a lot easier and with less chance of accidents!

There was nothing stopping the Elegant Rage from applying what she just learned!

"GET READY!"

The fight outside continued to push the Elegant Rage back. The power of fire and ice intermittently slammed towards the battered living mech, making it seem as if she was on the verge of getting engulfed by a firestorm and an ice

Storm all at once.

Crack!

One of the tonfas of the Elegant Rage finally snapped! The resilient ebony wood could no longer handle the alternating exposure to high heat and extreme cold. Although the living mech was put at an immediate disadvantage, the machine made a surprising move that interrupted the alien swordsman's rhythm and temporarily forced him back.

The thorns on the Elegant Rage's exterior abruptly began to glow as the living mech concentrated a lot of wood energy into the abnormal growths!

At the same time, the aura of the Woodsap mech changed as the living mech began to conduct a ritual that she had only recently learned.

The mech made a few incomprehensible movements that somehow seemed

Oddly sacred.

Surprisingly enough, the grace imparted by the Lobis Fragment gem happened to help the Elegant Rage during this critical moment!

If the mech was forced to perform a ritual dance by herself, then she would have moved like a malfunctioning bot.

Yet with the help of the elegance of a different existence, the living mech instantly knew how to perform the ritual dance in a way that greatly

Harmonized with the surrounding environment!

Once the dance reached a key moment, the Elegant Rage suddenly opened a

Port and began to spill Emperor Tree Sap into the air!

This sacrificial step raised the Elegant Rage's harmonization with the power of heaven to a peak, allowing her to empower her thorns with greater wood

Energy!

"FEEL MY PAIN!"

The thorns suddenly launched in every direction, causing the immediate air around the Woodsap mech to turn into a killing field!

Most of the thorns ended up hitting nothing but empty air, but a handful of

Them soared straight forward and threatened to penetrate the alien

Swordsman!

However, the alert lightning manifestation responded quickly. The alien warrior

Rapidly swung his two sword in front of his body, causing the fire and ice

Energies to form two protective layers of energy curtains!

The thorns that threatened to impale the alien first began to get exposed to a huge amount of heat, causing the wood energy attached to them to burn and

Shrink.

The half-burned thorns then struck a rapidly solidified ice curtain.

This not only caused the thorns to encounter a physical obstacle, but also cooled them so rapidly that many of them already started to shatter! Although the alien swordsman successfully defended himself against a costly area attack, trying to poke the tribulation manifestation with thorns had never

Been the point.

Thunk.

Thunk.

Thunk.

Thunk.

Many thorns soared at different heights and angles, but all of them eventually obeyed the call of the planet's local gravity and fell from the skies.

A lot of thorns struck different trees, causing them to punch straight through

Their fragile trunks before slamming into the soil.

As soon as the thorns dug themselves into the ground of the surrounding forest environment, they began to glow brighter as they tried to influence the trees in their surroundings!

If the trees were mutated plants that developed rudimentary sapience, then they would have figured out that they were under attack. Any intelligent individual would have been able to put up active resistance against the weird effect propagated by all of the thorns.

However, the story was different for trees that were just ordinary in many

Aspects. Each of them may have been exposed to energy E energy radiation to grow a little stronger and more remarkable, but without undergoing a promotion in life, they did not have the capital to resist!

The glowing thorns easily overcame the weak and instinctual resistance of the trees and began to siphon their wood energy at a steady pace.

The thorns acted as makeshift totems at this junction. Each of them became

Vessels of an ongoing ritual that required the absorption of a huge amount of wood energy from 'unresisting sacrifices'!

The technique imparted by Ves did not have the power to force unwilling subjects to cooperate with the ritual, but trees had no wills in the first place!

As such, the entire forest began to age and dry out at a rapid speed. Many sections of the forest visibly began to change as hundreds if not thousands of plants started to grow weaker at once.

Their leaves turned yellow and brown. Their bark started to crack. Their trunks started to droop and dry out. All of the green and vitality that characterized this forest were disappearing at a rapid rate.

The thorns grew more and more vigorous in the meantime. They became so

Flush with mixed wood energy that glowing runes even began to appear on their surface!

It turned out that one of the ways the Elegant Rage prepared her thorns for the new technique was to 'carve' them with a handful of runes!

Ves only designed a modest alteration to the thorns to selectively boost their

Intended functions. Adding a couple of runes was the limit to what he could do for the time being.

It took a lot more expertise in traditional crafts as well as more specialized knowledge in withering curses for him to be able to apply more relevant runes

To the thorns!

However, the simple meanings associated with the runes that Ves happened to be familiar with already made enough of a difference.

As the trees all around the Elegant Rage began to die in large numbers due to

Overdrafting their energies, the Woodsap mech rapidly started to accumulate a lot of power!

With each second that passed, the Elegant Rage increased her resemble to the once-mighty Emperor Tree!

The Woodsap mech felt as if she had almost gone back to the time where Venerable Lanie broke through and and managed to empower her battle partner with forced resonance!

Although the effect this time was nowhere near as strong in many aspects, the Elegant Rage at least enjoyed one overwhelming advantage. She commanded a lot more wood energy than before!

She became flooded with so much power that a lot of excess wood energy

Started to spill into the environment and disperse at a rapid rate!

It appeared that there was a limit to how much wood energy the Elegant Rage

Could control at any one time.

Even so, this was already enough!

The Elegant Rage immediately started to wrangle some of the borrowed wood energy by concentrating them onto her broken tonfa.

The ebony wood shaft magically started to stretch and grow until the entire

Tonfa grew whole again!

It only took up to a dozen seconds at most to make the weapon whole again!

Although the newly grown portions looked a lot cruder, darker and imperfect than before, this did not change the fact that the Elegant Rage successfully utilized the power of the forest to enhance her own performance!

The momentum of the Elegant Rage began to grow. The living mech felt a lot stronger and more confident than before!

"LET NATURE'S BENEDICTION GRANT ME THE POWER TO SMITE THIS FOE.""

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