Boom!
A violent explosion accompanied by a deafening roar sent wild winds blasting through the sky. Flames illuminated the heavens as broken mechanical parts rained down like a meteor shower.
"H-How is this possible?!"
Seeing the image on the Remote Sky Mirror where Sword King Ryujinmaru had destroyed the Tablet-Carrying Bixi with a single strike, Fu Xuan couldn't help but take a step forward, utterly astonished.
The Tablet-Carrying Bixi was not a prototype like the Edge-Holding Yazi or the Fire-Controlling Bifang; it was a complete Ingenium War-Beast crafted by the Xianzhou's Master Artisans. Influenced by the Stellaron and the power of the Ambrosial Arbor, its strength likely exceeded its benchmark target: the Doomsday Beast.
Fu Xuan didn't think Team Star Rail would be helpless against the Bixi, nor did she think the Bixi was invincible. However, Fu Xuan had a clear understanding of the Tablet-Carrying Bixi's defensive capabilities...
If she had used an Ultimate to hack it apart, Fu Xuan would have accepted it. But that looked like a completely ordinary vertical cleave. The stone stele and turtle shell, possessing top-tier defense against both physical and energy attacks, just cracked open?
Fu Xuan found it somewhat inconceivable.
"King's Sword? Cuts everything? Why has This Seat never heard of such a divine sword existing in the Galaxy?"
Fu Xuan narrowed her eyes, staring at the black-and-gold painted Demon God Mecha in the mirror.
Inside the internal space of Ryujinmaru, atop the majestic and holy golden dragon head, Caelus was holding the King's Sword and showing off with Hachi-Stelle.
"This Young Lord is now Wataru!"
Caelus imitated March 7th's tone when she was deducing.
"Wataru? Who's that? Never heard of him?"
Staring at the cool, explosive, and heaven-defying sword in Caelus-cub's hand, Stelle's eyes lit up. She wiped the drool dripping from the corner of her mouth and lunged forward like a tiger to snatch it.
"Caelus, who is the little savior Wataru?"
A brisk and lively voice came from the darkness; March 7th blinked her big eyes curiously.
Welt also pricked up his ears to listen to Caelus's explanation.
"A savior who saved a world. Give him a Ryujinmaru, then give him a King's Sword, and he can hack his way from the opening scene to the grand finale," Caelus explained with gusto. "In the entire story, the protagonist team fought a total of 32 Demon God BOSSes. Sword King Ryujinmaru hacked down a full 26 of them."
"Moreover, Wataru only obtained the Power of the Sword King on the third level. If you remove a few first and second-level BOSSes from the 32, almost all the heads belong to Sword King Ryujinmaru! What do you call a Model Worker? This is a Model Worker!"
After experiencing it firsthand, Caelus felt that this couldn't be blamed on Wataru. When indecisive, use the Sword King—this sword was simply too broken! too bugged!
Super Granzort's Special Move condensed all the heat of the sun's fire into the magical sword. One strike, boiling at the temperature of the sun's core; nothing could withstand that heat.
The King's Sword was different. It was simply the power of the 'Sword'—Sharpness! Sharp enough to sever all things in the world.
"Be it flashy Time-types, Space-types, or Weird-types, I'll bring my sword down, and you just obediently crack in half and explode~!"
"If not for the final rebellious BOSS, Doakudar, getting all the humans of Soukaizan to use their 'Goodness' to create a set of armor, Super Mashin Ryujinmaru could have carried the King's Sword and hacked the final BOSS to pieces directly."
"Actually, even that 'Goodness' stuff, the King's Sword can cut. It's just that Doakudar morally kidnapped Wataru. A few slashes would destroy hundreds or thousands of 'Good hearts,' causing Wataru to be tied down and afraid to attack."
"General of the Army MacArthur once commented: 'I also want to pilot Sword King Ryujinmaru and slaughter everything in all directions!' The large-scale documentary 'The Legend of Sword King Ryujinmaru' continues to broadcast for you!"
"...Let's leave the hot-blooded adventure story for later."
Hearing Caelus only start the intro, Welt spoke up to interrupt. He was very interested in the story Caelus was telling; perhaps it could be a reference for making mecha games or anime. "We must solve the trouble here first."
Many ancient trees within the Artisanship Commission were growing due to the Ambrosial Arbor's revival. Thick vines, dozens of centimeters in diameter, spread and extended, while the gnarled roots of old locust trees overturned the bluestone slabs.
Welt pushed the bamboo-shaped control stick, and Senjinmaru, holding the Falcon-shaped Fork, sliced through the python-like winding vines.
"Leave it to me!"
Watching helplessly as Caelus-cub hacked a large elite monster, Stelle's 'chopping addiction' had kicked in. She desperately wanted to chop something! Even if the dog from the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus's second aunt's, third uncle's, fourth aunt's house came out, she would chop it in half!
"Ryujinmaru, let's go!"
Stelle twisted her shoulders vigorously, tilted her head to use it as a battering ram, and headbutted Caelus. After knocking Caelus away, she grabbed the dragon horns.
She piloted Sword King Ryujinmaru to hack at the surrounding Denizens of Abundance and Mara-struck Ingeniums.
For these small mobs that could be insta-killed with one sword, Caelus felt there was no fun in hacking them, so he handed the control rights to Stelle.
"Ah Qi, you can see most clearly flying in the sky. Report the location of any trapped artisans to everyone," Caelus directed.
Sword King Ryujinmaru's coolness and combat power could be said to be maxed out, but... it wasn't perfect. It was another Groudon; it couldn't fly.
"Roger that, leave it to this young lady!"
March 7th, full of energy, piloted Torijinmaru to circle to the rear, maintaining a flight altitude of seven or eight meters above the ground. She shouted, "Bronya, Seele, and Miss Tingyun, do you want to come onto Torijinmaru? I see the road ahead is blocked by particularly huge roots."
"Many thanks for Miss March's kindness, but this little woman lacks the strength to truss a chicken; I'm afraid I won't be able to stand firmly on this mecha," Tingyun said softly.
"Lacks the strength to truss a chicken," indeed. Tsk tsk.
Silver Wing glanced sideways at Phantylia, then quickly returned to her normal smiling expression. "I'll protect Miss Tingyun. Seele, you go help save people."
"Okay, Sister Bronya."
The indigo-haired girl nodded obediently. Having tasted the Ancient-style Stellaron Spirit and the Ancient-style Duck-Duck, how could she miss out on the Ancient-style Seele?
Seele had bought Xianzhou clothes suitable for herself early on, planning to 'night raid' herself with 'White' Seele later. She was currently wearing a white period-costume dress. She had the temperament of the most doted-upon junior sister in a sect.
Butterfly phantoms fluttered. Through Quantum flash, Seele leaped onto Torijinmaru's sharp claws and was carried high into the sky by March 7th.
"Watch my Wind Breath!"
Inside Torijinmaru's cockpit, March 7th held the control stick with one hand and made a gun shape with her other small hand, posing as if firing. Two spheres of wind energy converged in Torijinmaru's mouth and fired, hitting two Mara-struck Ingeniums that were attacking an injured artisan below.
"Seele, that person looks heavily injured."
Using Torijinmaru's super vision, March 7th zoomed in on the image of the fallen artisan, enlarging the view of the man with a ferocious expression clutching his shoulder.
"I see branches seem to be growing out of his body. Can he still be saved?"
"Seele doesn't know either. Sister March 7th, take me over to try."
Seele's body was most compatible with Black Abyss White Flower. The power of creation and withering was the most suitable and useful ability for the current situation in the Artisanship Commission, whether for saving people or destroying the vitality-surging plant clusters.
"Okay! Sit tight."
Torijinmaru dragged out an azure, thread-like arc in the chaotic sky. When Torijinmaru descended to a height of just over ten meters from the ground, Seele leaped down lightly.
After jumping a few times from the tops of the lining buildings, Seele landed beside the artisan who had passed out but was showing a painful expression due to the tree growing from his body.
'My parallel world self, can we save him?' 'White' Seele asked gently.
"Should be no problem."
Seele acting personally was to conduct a small experiment. She took out the Tiger Talisman and aimed it at the artisan undergoing Mara-struck transformation.
"Can I ask you to split apart~? If you don't answer, Seele will take it as you agreeing~!" Seele said softly to the unconscious artisan, maintaining her gentle and cute persona.
Using the Yin-Yang dividing line as the boundary, the Tiger Talisman split in a flash of white light. The artisan illuminated by the white light split into two.
One was a bewildered and confused artisan, the other a Mara-struck monster who had lost its mind like a beast.
"As expected, it can be used like this."
Seele put away the two halves of the talisman. Smiling yingying, she separated the Black Abyss from the black and white lance. Under the horrified gaze of the artisan, she began an inhumane beating of the Mara-struck half.
As long as the 'Yin' half—the Mara-struck body—was beaten half to death or left with only one breath, and then merged back, she could see if this treatment method was effective.
Old Yang drove Senjinmaru to clear the roadblocks and the Stellaron-corroded Ingeniums on the shortcut to the Alchemy Commission.
The most common things in the Artisanship Commission were various Ingeniums, mostly objects for daily use. Things like the incense burners used to purify air, the Golden Cloud Toads, or the lamps used to illuminate the darkness, the Illumination Dragonfish—these had been briefly 'granted life' by the Stellaron.
Threatening to ordinary people, but in front of Demon God Mechas, these small mobs could be trampled to death with one foot.
What was worth noting were the original combat-type Ingeniums within the Artisanship Commission: Entranced Ingenium: Obedient Dracolions, Custodian Chiwens, and so on. Although they couldn't compare to the three giant Ingenium War-Beasts designed for war, they counted as medium combat power. Compared laterally with the Antimatter Legion, they were roughly on the same level as Tramplers.
"Caelus-cub, what's Ah Wei's master called again?"
With the King's Sword resting on the shoulder, Stelle poked the soft flesh of Caelus's waist with her hand and asked.
"Mother Shu?"
"It's Gongshu."
"How can you assume Ah Wei's master's gender?"
"Of all things to learn, you learn to punch?"
"Fam, who understands? Met a generic confident guy today who wants to control everything. Truly a turn-off. Sisters, I'm literally speechless-zi."
Caelus delivered a chop to Stelle's head.
"Before you turn into a green watermelon bar, can you give me the King's Sword?"
"No!"
Stelle hid the King's Sword behind her back: "Shaking and cold..."
"Do you also have the innate ability to love others?"
"Mhm!" Stelle held her head high and chest out. "Lord Caelus is truly amazing!"
The two gray-hairs spoke words in their own exclusive world that would make outsiders' brains crash. March 7th wanted to say, 'Can you two stop flirting and being lovey-dovey on the public mic?'
But no matter how she thought about it, she felt their conversation couldn't be considered romantic. It was a conversation between two mental patients, two abstraction cancer patients.
"Wait, situation ahead."
Releasing the tightly gripped star and the mouths biting together, Caelus held down the Stellaron Spirit's head.
"Hmm?"
The messy gray-haired girl first gave Caelus a kick before looking up ahead, her little expression becoming somewhat colorful.
Up ahead, a man wearing a high-ranking artisan uniform of the Artisanship Commission, with a thick beard and glasses, was shouting.
"Iron-Armored Pangolin! Use Protect, block the opponent's attack!"
"Thunder Axis Rodent! Use Discharge!"
The man was commanding normal combat Ingeniums to battle against Mara-struck Ingeniums.
"Good lord, I'm straight up saying good lord. This bro is playing a Pokémon battle here!"
Stelle and Caelus looked at each other, exchanging glances.
"Holy crap, where did Ryujinmaru send us? Is this still the Xianzhou?"
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