Chapter 77 The Contract of the Divine Beast, The Dawn of Mechanical Life
The Lake of Life is at the very heart of the Starry Sky Forest.
The air here was so thick it was almost dripping with water; it was an extremely concentrated source of life. The lake was as calm as a mirror, reflecting the towering ancient trees that could be embraced by several people. However, when Ye Feng and his group stepped into this area, the once tranquil lake began to ripple wildly.
"Humans, you have crossed the line."
A deep, thunderous sound rose from the depths of the lake, followed by the slow emergence of a massive bull's head, over four meters in diameter, its blue scales gleaming with a cold metallic luster in the sunlight—the Azure Bull Python, from the Ming Dynasty.
On the lakeshore, the Titan Ape "Erming," as large as a small mountain, let out a low growl, each step it took causing a small tremor in the ground. Hu Yanli subconsciously tightened his grip on the machine gun shield on his arm, and the hydraulic system of his exoskeleton armor emitted a warning hiss.
"Ali, put away your weapon." Ye Feng patted Huyan Li on the shoulder and walked calmly to the lakeside. "We're not here to fight, we're here to talk business."
"Ye Feng? It's you?"
A soft voice rang out, and a girl in a pink dress gracefully leaped down from the Titan Ape's shoulder. Xiao Wu's bright eyes were now filled with surprise and wariness; she naturally recognized this boy who had shone brightly in the Continental Elite Tournament and whom even Tang San couldn't defeat.
"Xiao Wu, it's been a long time." Ye Feng put away the Thousand Chance Umbrella and stuck it upside down in the soil to show his sincerity. "Tang San couldn't take you away because he was too weak; but I'm here because I have a way to make you stronger, strong enough that you no longer need to hide."
Xiao Wu was slightly taken aback, then her eyes reddened. She had already learned of Tang San's miserable state outside Wuhun City through Da Ming's senses, and that sense of powerlessness broke her heart.
"What do you want? A spirit ring? Or a spirit bone?" Da Ming's eyes were scrutinizing. It could sense the strange mechanical aura on Ye Feng's body, an unknown power that belonged neither to spirit beasts nor traditional spirit masters.
"I don't need your sacrifices." Ye Feng pointed to the shimmering, intricate parts he had brought with him. "I just intercepted Bibi Dong outside. Her desire for you has reached a pathological level. Even if I can deceive her today, she will come back with all the retainers of the Spirit Hall tomorrow."
Ye Feng squatted down and drew an extremely complex structural diagram on the ground.
"Xiao Wu's current body is human, but her foundation is that of a 100,000-year-old soul beast. This makes her extremely vulnerable before she reaches maturity. My solution is—'mechanical soul stripping'."
The entire room fell silent. Even the Ming Dynasty, which had existed for tens of thousands of years, had never heard of such a theory.
"I will create a 'virtual core' made of ten-thousand-year-old cold iron and spirit rhinoceros ore. Through this medium, I will temporarily separate Xiao Wu's soul beast essence from her human body. Her human body will continue to cultivate, while her soul beast essence will reside in my mechanical martial soul. In this way, even if she stands in front of a titled Douluo, the other party will only feel that she is an ordinary human and will not be able to detect any trace of her soul beast aura."
Seeing that everyone was still hesitating, Ye Feng gave Hu Yanli a wink.
"Ali, show these two big shots what it means to be 'a mortal body that rivals the gods'."
Hu Yanli chuckled and took a sudden step forward. He pressed the energy core switch on his chest, and the exoskeleton armor instantly entered overload mode.
"First Soul Skill: Mammoth Power! Mechanical Amplification: Five Times Power!"
Hu Yanli clasped his hands together and, without using any high-level soul skills, actually managed to catch a palm strike casually slapped down by the Titan Giant Ape.
Bang!
The shockwave uprooted the surrounding bushes. Although Hu Yanli's legs were deeply embedded in the mud, his armor remained unmoved. On the contrary, Titan Giant Ape Erming felt a slight tingling sensation in his palm.
"This is the power of machinery," Ye Feng said calmly. "It doesn't care about bloodline or age; it only cares about logic and strength. Da Ming, Er Ming, if you're willing, I can forge you a set of armor powerful enough to withstand the true form of a Title Douluo's Martial Soul."
"Not only that." Ning Rongrong stepped forward, the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda shining even brighter in the sacred aura of the core circle. "The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School will officially recognize the 'sovereignty' of the core circle of the Star Dou Great Forest. We will use trade to cut off all supply lines of the Spirit Hall into the forest. This place will become Captain Ye Feng's 'joint experimental base'."
Ning Rongrong's words carried significant weight. As the wealthiest of the three upper sects, their defection was a fatal economic blow to the Spirit Hall.
Daming's enormous eyes darted around, then turned to Xiaowu. It knew this decision concerned Xiaowu's future.
"Brother, I want to try." Xiao Wu looked into Ye Feng's deep and confident eyes. "Although Ye Feng is ruthless, he never lies to the weak. And... I want to become stronger, I want to save Third Brother."
"Save him?" Ye Feng sneered. "That depends on whether he can still be considered a 'human' after returning from the City of Slaughter. However, if you want to kill Bibi Dong, I can lend you a hand."
On the island in the center of the Lake of Life, Ye Feng set up a temporary mechanical operating table.
All members of the Glory team stood guard on the perimeter. Huo Wu was responsible for providing stable forging firepower, while Shui Bing'er was responsible for stabilizing energy fluctuations with ice at critical moments.
"Xiao Wu, close your eyes."
The Thousand Manifestations Umbrella in Ye Feng's hand transformed into hundreds of probes as fine as hairs. Without using the system, such precise operations were extremely taxing on his mental energy. Fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, and his eyes were bloodshot from the intense calculations.
"Peeling...begin."
As soul power was injected, Xiao Wu emitted a soft red light. That was the essence of a 100,000-year-old soul beast. Ye Feng guided this light and slowly injected it into a jet-black sphere covered with miniature magic arrays—a "soul containment device" that he had created using half a year's worth of production from Gengxin City.
Just as the stripping process entered its final stage, the sky suddenly darkened.
As a 100,000-year-old soul beast, this "reshaping" that defied the laws of nature caused violent fluctuations in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. A black bolt of lightning tore through the sky and rushed straight towards the island in the center of the lake.
"Is it this kind of 'divine will' again?" A hint of hostility flashed in Ye Feng's eyes. He hated this so-called "fate" the most.
"Ali, turn on the radar and lock onto Thunder's coordinates!"
"It's already aiming!" Hu Yanli stood on high ground, and two huge lightning rods extended from the exoskeleton armor on his back. At the same time, the machine gun muzzles on his arms switched to blue light energy output.
"Electromagnetic deflection gun, fire!"
A blue column of electricity shot into the sky, colliding violently with the black lightning in the atmosphere. The intense light from the explosion instantly turned the entire core area into daylight.
An hour later, the red light on the operating table completely disappeared.
Xiao Wu slowly opened her eyes, and to her surprise, she found that the faint sense of crisis she had felt earlier had disappeared. She couldn't sense the origin of her soul beast, but she could feel a more stable and surging power flowing through her body.
Beside her floated a spherical machine the size of a fist.
"That is your original core." Ye Feng weakly leaned on the operating table. "It is now not only the dwelling place of your soul, but also a fully automatic tactical aid. When you enter combat mode, it can provide you with real-time data analysis, and can even materialize any weapon you want through my 'Thousand Manifestations Umbrella Fragment'."
Xiao Wu reached out her hand, and the mechanical sphere obediently landed in her palm, then transformed into a stream of light, becoming an exquisite silver wristband that fastened to her right hand.
"Thank you... Ye Feng." Xiao Wu's voice was filled with an unprecedented firmness.
Seeing that Xiao Wu was safe and sound and her strength had greatly increased, the Azure Bull Python and the Titan Giant Ape completely lowered their guard.
"Human, you have won our friendship." Da Ming lowered its head, gesturing for Ye Feng to look at its broken scales. "You said you could help us contend with Title Douluos, is that true?"
"Of course." Ye Feng pointed at Hu Yanli. "Ali's armor is just the civilian version. For beings of your size, I plan to implement the 'War Fortress Project'."
A crazed light flashed in Ye Feng's eyes.
"Er Ming, I will install two large-caliber soul power cannons on your shoulder blades, and your fists will be covered with alloy armor. Daming, I will build a set of 'fluid dynamic armor' for your body, so that every impact you make will have the force of sound."
"We will turn the Star Dou Great Forest into a nightmare for the Spirit Hall."
However, just as Ye Feng was planning his grand ambitions, a dark figure quietly disappeared from the shadows on the edge of the inner circle.
That was a ghost. He hadn't actually retreated; instead, he had been using the unique properties of the Ghost Shadow Martial Soul to spy from the edge.
"Mechanical soul…war fortress…" The ghostly voice trembled with extreme fear, "He's gone mad! That Ye Feng is a complete madman! He's actually teaching soul beasts to use human weapons!"
He had to bring this message back to the Papal Palace. This was no longer a simple academy competition or a battle for spirit rings; it was a clash between two civilizations. If Ye Feng succeeded, the Spirit Hall's so-called "eternal foundation" would crumble completely before these cold, hard steel walls.
"Captain, someone is watching."
Zhu Zhuqing's figure appeared eerily behind Ye Feng. The high-frequency vibrating short blade in her hand was still dripping some kind of viscous black mist—the traces left when she tried to intercept the ghost.
"It's a ghost," Zhu Zhuqing said coldly. "He was very fast; I only severed one of his ethereal tentacles."
Upon hearing this, Ye Feng was not alarmed; instead, he revealed a playful smile.
"It's better that he ran away. If he hadn't gone back to report, how would Bibi Dong have felt that imminent suffocating feeling?"
He looked at his companions: Hu Yanli was competing in strength with Er Ming, Ning Rongrong was on the phone with Si Long reporting on their progress, and Huo Wu and Shui Bing'er were researching a new fusion technique.
"For the next three years, we will disappear from the world's sight," Ye Feng ordered. "Deep in the Star Dou Great Forest, we will build our first 'Iron Fortress.' Until we possess the power to sweep through the entire Spirit City."
Three years have passed in the blink of an eye.
There was no further news of Ye Feng on the mainland, and Shrek Academy declined day by day due to Tang San's disappearance and Dai Mubai's departure. Although the Spirit Hall officially established the Spirit Empire under Bibi Dong's leadership, they discovered that the once prosperous Gengxin City had become a ghost town, and all the mines and high-level blacksmiths had mysteriously vanished.
Deep within the Star Dou Great Forest, a colossal steel beast covered in dense vines slowly opened its crimson eyes.
That was a fully mechanized Titan Ape. Behind it, hundreds of warriors in exoskeleton armor were silently slithering through the forest.
"Captain, weapon testing is complete. All one thousand sets of 'Glory Type I' power armor have been distributed." Hu Yanli's voice echoed through the valley through the loudspeaker, heavy and powerful.
Ye Feng sat on the giant ape's shoulder, and the Thousand Manifestations Umbrella in his hand had transformed into a longsword that shimmered with aurora colors.
"It's been three years."
He looked at the rising sun on the horizon, which was pointing in the direction of Wuhun City.
"It's time to collect the interest that's rightfully ours."
With his command, countless gliders filled the sky, blocking out the sunlight. The steel torrent of the Starry Sky Forest officially unleashed its first earth-shaking roar towards this stale world.
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