V4C93: Scale Armour

There had been two issues with bringing in weaker combatants into the current battle: defence, and offence. Neither was sufficient for the battle, as the automatons had seventh realm offensive power and roughly sixth realm defensive power, making them completely unbeatable for ordinary members of the fifth realm and below.

With the creation of the railgun techniques, and the addition of the earth vein to power the rails, offensive capabilities were much more easily provided to every single person that required them, and some of the railguns obtained from railgun walkers could also be used by substituting the internal power core for the external earth vein. This had been in place even before the constructor orb appeared, but now that it was gone and its weaponry had been analysed, plasma weaponry could also be partially copied and put into the hands of other potential combatants.

Shields were not something that the Ascendant had figured out as a technique just yet, but both inscriptions and arrays permitted for the creation of something similar for anyone within reach of the earth vein, which would include every single person participating in battle.

When she had been making them, Wei Yi had assumed that the shield generators, as she called them, would be a relatively novel idea, but the otherworldly demons all got excited when she showcased them. Apparently, personal shield generators were a common idea in their science fiction, and so it just came as an expected thing for them despite the rather significant complexity of creating something so advanced in such a compact space. It was even limited to places where she could invoke the earth vein, meaning that they would not function at all in disadvantageous areas to them, and yet the size was still large enough to stand out in someone’s pocket.

The design was also blatantly created in a hurry, as there were numerous poorly formed segments that made it look more like an uncertain blob than something cohesive, but that also excited the otherworldly demons, so she figured that she might as well leave it for now and focus on optimising the internal structure itself.

For the moment, the shield generators were able to manifest either the hexagonal shield or the spherical one, with the first being used to resist multiple attacks more effectively while the spherical barrier was better at enduring a single powerful attack due to the entirety of the shield being devoted to a single cohesive structure rather than a number of multiple hexagonal barriers. They needed to be controlled with one’s planar energy and spiritual perception, so someone like Jia Rong could not make use of them, but the average population of the Chao, Bai, Ping and Luo Districts, as well as Paragon and the Kong Prison Realm, had no troubles at all with their energy and employing it in combat scenarios, so this was not an issue.

As such, she opened up a series of gateways to those four districts and quickly asked for any willing combatants to step forward and participate, then quickly travelled over to the Dimensional Domain and found Fu Zan, who had completed a project that he had been working on for some time.

“Does the otherworldly gift also allow you to precisely control the exact size and proportions of what you create, or do you just have a good sense for this kind of thing?”

“Working with the star metal is really difficult, but I think it is the latter,” Fu Zan replied, “Not that I’d say anything against myself, of course. It was quite hard to put them together in a way that properly functioned, but it has turned out well enough, I think. There is room to put this on, and it covers everything up to the neck.”

“And it looks to fit with the gauntlets and everything else, so that is convenient. Good work.”

She instantly vanished from the spot to put on the newly acquired set of skin-tight armour, but this was not unusual for her, so the otherworldly demon didn’t bother saying anything. It wasn’t like either of them had much time to talk with one another, given that there was a tide of automatons still attempting to emerge from the Ju District and overwhelm them, so there was nothing for him to do other than get back to work and attempt to make some contributions of his own by making more clothing for the people of Paragon and the Kong Prison Realm, as well as all of the active Arbiters.

For the purpose of changing, she arrived at an underground portion of the Kong Prison Realm, near the Realm of Potential, and quickly removed everything currently covering her body.

Then, she raised the connected pieces of metal and looked upon their currently blank and smooth surfaces, contemplating how it would be best to engrave her personal Armour Forming inscription upon each of the individual scales of the star metal. Naturally, she could work on each one individually, but there was a certain connection that could be created if something was made in perfect synchronicity with every other piece of an artefact.

In a way, refining something in one go was the ideal method for the creation of any artefact, array, talisman and so on, as it would minimize the differences between the individual pieces of a creation, and in turn boost its abilities if it relied on that connection to any significant degree. As her set of armour was meant to have countless individual scales that would resonate together and provide her with such an immense layer of Armour Forming protection that nobody beneath the seventh realm would be able to do a thing to her, it would be ideal for her to keep all of the individual parts as cohesive as they could possibly be.

For other people, this might not be worth the investment, especially since typical Armour Forming inscriptions were only able to provide one layer of metal defence based on the strongest metal used. With ten, hundred, or even a thousand scales of star metal, working on one was no different from working on all of them at different times, as they would have no use other than being given out or sold.

As with most things in this life of hers, the standards didn’t really apply to her, and so it was absolutely key for her to have all of the scales be completed in the best manner possible, or else she would have wasted quite a bit of star metal on a sub-standard item that might be unable to exert its power in full. This was something that she had to do personally, as she was easily the best in the field amongst the Ascendant’s Arbiters for the moment, and since she was going to be wearing the armour on her own body and making use of her own energy to support it, she might as well go all out on this.

‘I have the Red Shaper’s Grasp, so I might be able to place the inscription onto the scales while I wear the set of armour, and I might be able to improve the metal while I do so. Indeed, that seems to be the best approach to this,’ she concluded, splitting the scales at the back to open the armour and then attempting to find her way inside, ‘It would be a pain to take off, but with the Armour Forming inscription, it should be possible to cleanse my body at any time without taking it off, meaning that there would be few times when I truly need to… Hm. Spatial storage could allow for instantaneous removal and equipment afterwards…’

To be able to jump into the air, have a set of armour appear around oneself and a weapon throw itself into one’s hand was the dream of many cultivators that did not like to constantly travel around in all of their equipment, and it was especially prevalent due to the rarity and mysticism of spatial storage methods. It was a known technique that was possible, so far as everyone knew, but few ever had the chance to practise.

Wei Yi was not about to do so either, as it simply required far too much accuracy in order to put on a set of armour that was so tight and close to her skin. This was something that certainly required a careful technique to put on and take off the armour so that most of the adjustment that is otherwise needed could be avoided by repeating the same movements each time. It would be far easier to predict every single detail of her body, skin and musculature with a specific pose intended for equipping the new set of armour, and so that would lead to a so-called changing technique which would involve rapidly undressing and dressing from common equipment to something specific to battle. Contrary to something imagined by an otherworldly demon – Miyu, to be more specific, when she had heard about the possibility – there would be nothing akin to frozen time to allow for some kind of animation to play out.

Most cultivators would likely appreciate the opportunity to stop time and perfect their movements, however, as utmost precision was necessary, and usually in a realm when most abandoned directly cultivating their body and physique. Since the Ascendant had not done that, this was not as much of an issue for her, but the accuracy was still a difficult thing to attain.

After all, while most spatial methods, especially safe ones like the House of Gold, weren’t going to cut her in half if her accuracy was a little off, as that would make them incredible weapons instead, it was still going to fail if not done properly. Stripping off was the easy part, so most would be able to pull it off with ease so long as their spatial storage method did not permit living entities to be stored inside, but if one failed to put on a different piece of clothing afterward, it would lead to one leaping onto a scene with nothing to cover their bodies. Depending on their appearance, that might not be desirable.

While Wei Yi was not someone who was opposed to showing herself off if it happened to be necessary or unavoidable, given that the whole world would get an image of her naked sooner or later due to the occurrence in the Chu District being recorded, but it was not necessary in this instance.

For that reason, she put on the armour properly, as one should, without resorting to spatial methods…

She did make use of other methods, however. Everything was affected by law, so she might have used it to skip ahead a little and make it so that the armour would put on itself due to being in the process of being placed around the body. It was a relatively simple trick within her current comprehension of the Dao of Law, but an effective one as it spared her nearly fifteen minutes of effort that she would have otherwise needed.

‘If using such methods didn’t tend to rip apart my insides, I would be constantly using the Dao of Law for every little thing, wouldn’t I?’ she asked herself, knowing that she likely would.

Still, what mattered was that the armour fit, and it fit strangely well. If someone wasn’t aware of her identity, they might even assume that she was the descendant of a dragon, as the set of black metal looked like scales that belonged right on her body, as if they had originated there from the very beginning. It was a highly pleasant image, to be sure, but it was still blatantly unfinished. The glow of the inscriptions was absent, and without it, she looked to be no more than a pathetic imitation of the real thing.

Slowly, she made use of the energy within her and brought it to her skin, allowing the star metal to adjust to the presence of her immensely powerful cosmic energy while she prepared a mental image of the exact way in which the inscriptions would need to be created. It was a highly challenging endeavour, even with the Ascendant’s Library, as she would need to synchronise every single plate within her mind and ensure that they were all refined in perfect accordance with one another.

Hence, she turned to the Realm of Potential.

“I am using this as a bit of a crutch, aren’t I? My brain can’t handle something at a perfect standard, so off I rush into that place… Even the Dao of Law came from it, although that still felt like an idea that was entirely my own… Odd, but I have no time to ask questions. Shaper’s Grasp time.”

With the exact procedure locked into her energy, she quickly jumped into the Realm of Potential with her mind, and began to practise some techniques of her own.

All at once, a thousand inscriptions came to life, all of them glowing with the wonderful radiance of the chained cosmic energy used by the Ascendant. The many scales of her armour ignited at once, and a layer of nebulae appeared upon her body for a brief moment before they faded. Of course, this was the light of the Armour Forming inscriptions, and they wouldn’t do a good job of providing constant and quiet protection for the wearer if they blatantly advertised their presence with such a vibrant light as that of the nebulae.

She had succeeded in her project, even if it was only due to the Realm of Potential, and even managed to adjust some of the metal scales slightly to suit her body even more precisely, meaning that they looked even more natural than before. If she ever met a metal dragon, one capable of transforming into human form, she might confuse them with the scales.

Of course, there were differences between the human form of dragons and the scales currently covering her body. For instance, humanoid dragons would rarely have their breasts obscured by their scales, instead covering the other flatter portions of the body, if they had many scales at all. Sometimes, all that would be present were horns or unusual eyes, leading to dragons being historically difficult to identify if they do not wish to be found. This was all according to the various tales she had studied, so it could easily be incorrect, but she had little reason to doubt parts like this. Now, if there was a tale of the dragons and phoenixes supporting the Great Families, then she would suspect the validity of the stories.

Aside from her obvious bias against them, she also did not believe that the great dragons of legend would succumb to the blatant nonsense of the Greats and support them in any fashion.

In fact, if the dragons had any investment in a human behaviour at all, it would only be for the sake of the world as a whole, and so they would have no reason whatsoever to believe that making the whole world weaker would be a positive thing. That also applied to every other neutral force that had existed in the world, including the phoenixes, qilins, and even the Primordial Deities should have no reason at all to desire the world to be weakened.

Unlike the normal human cultivators of the world, which had a self-contained mass of energy within their bodies, the Primordial Deities were said to have a far greater connection to the world around them, and so they would desire the quantity and density of planar energy – or the degree that was permitted to the world, if her theory was accurate – to be as high as possible for their own power to be maximised. They would not care as much about the power of the humans, except that they would wish for them to be as weak as possible in a way that did not interfere with their own operations, or the exact opposite of what the Great Families were seeking to achieve.

‘Not important now, either, unfortunately. I have the scale armour, I have the Armour Forming inscriptions, and I know what enemy I intend to oppose. From now on, I should push forward until the various debates and questions can be raised in a genuine manner, rather than me spending all of this time considering all kinds of nonsensical questions that hardly require such thought,’ Wei Yi sighed, moving her body as to get acquainted with the exact limitations the scale armour imposed upon her flexibility, ‘The thing with the dragons can be answered with one simple question if they ever appear, so it hardly requires this degree of effort.’

Although she had done her absolute best to ensure that the armour would not restrict her any more than necessary, there were still some clear flaws, as unfortunate as that was. There were some issues with the scales at the elbow, where bending the arm resulted in the scales scraping against one another and partly compromising not only her ability to move quietly, but to fully bend her arm.

In order to minimize the first issue, she modified some of the scales to contain sound muting inscriptions so that they would no longer cause as much noise, then further adjusted their shape as to give her as much free room to move around as possible. Without completely compromising the physical aspect of the star metal scales and making herself more vulnerable at points like these if the Armour Forming inscriptions ever broke, it was impossible to fully correct the issue, and she was still concerned about the potential fallibility of planar energy to the degree that she did not want to risk it.

Given her minimal chest, that part of her body posed no issues in terms of movements and comfort, and the rest of her body was likewise sufficiently suitable for the kind of armour that she had ended up receiving. Most issues were either minimal or unavoidable, and so, after a little time passed, she was ready to emerge, with the rest of her clothing put back onto her body and her various movement arts and techniques quickly recalculated as to take into account the difference in mass and exact proportions brought about by the addition of the star metal armour. It was not heavy nor particularly thick, but it still made a difference that could prove to be fatal if she ever got into a battle against a significantly difficult opponent without the appropriate preparation.

She vanished from the Kong Prison Realm and appeared on the battlefield, where a number of combatants and warriors had already arrived and were paying attention to the instructions that the others were giving them.

Despite intentionally avoiding every single impressive visual that could have possibly occurred upon her appearance, the attention of the cultivators that had arrived at the wall was immediately turned to her, as if she was a shining star among the darkness of the world. Given her cosmic energy, this wasn’t necessary too inaccurate, but since she had not even displayed that, the thing that had actually prompted them to turn was her armour.

It simply stood out too much due to the unusual texture and appearance of star metal, including the way in which it soaked up light. Her gauntlets had previously caught quite a few eyes via the same method, and now that she had mostly completed the set, it looked even more outstanding. The scales fit well with the claws on the gauntlets, and created that exact draconic aesthetic that she had observed previously. The fact that only one of the hands was clawed at the moment also resulted in a certain asymmetrical appearance that further drew attention.

“Ascendant!” someone from the crowd exclaimed, although they hid the moment she looked over to them.

“I did catch who that was, but for the sake of moving onto something important, I will pretend that I did not,” she stated in response, appearing before the gathering army in an instant, “As was proclaimed by that fifty-four year old man with a green robe and a sword made out of copper, for whatever reason, I am indeed the Ascendant, and this is a battlefield. Over there, invaders were attempting to overwhelm the Jiang and Chao Districts, and they would have continued if we had not stopped them. Now, we must push back, we must speak with the Ju District’s Patriarch, and we must, in the end, come together to fight against the Great Families. Whether this is done through battle, or through talking, we must not forget about the true enemy that has spent so long bringing down our entire world.”

“Hey, can I ask something?” a strange figure appeared, rising a little into the air to be above the crowd.

Only one glance was needed to conclude that his cultivation was abnormal, as his energy was not quite the same as that of the people of the Western Continent. Despite being in the fourth realm, his anchor and core both looked to be made out of gaseous planar energy rather than the typical solid matter, and traces of lightning were still upon them.

Without a doubt, this was someone from the Eastern Continent, and since they were not yet attacking, they were not as unpleasant as those other cultivators from the east.

“Sure, you can do that, although if you intend to take too much time, we will not look kindly upon your actions, easterner,” she said, “Of course, if no hostility was intended, then we shall show none to you, either.”

“I did not come here with hostility. Instead, I wished to know whether the words that I had heard about you were true. There are rumours that you are able to bring back energy to the world, slowly resuscitating the planar energy that had long begun to seep away from the world, and I need to know whether this is true,” the easterner said, “If it is, the Eastern Continent can offer their support in exchange for the resurrection of the world.”

“You can represent all of the east?”

“No, I cannot. I was sent here as a representative of a major sect of the Eastern Continent, and they do have the ability to persuade the majority of the strongest forces present there. If word of you is truly the truth, then I doubt that most sects would oppose allying themselves to you temporarily, just so that we may all live in a better world.”

“Well, whether you speak the truth or not, I can still display this ability with ease, and you might have already noticed it as a result of all of the recent fighting. The world’s energy had been rising consistently and greatly, and provided that we succeed against the Greats…”

She raised her hand and clicked her fingers, instantly consuming a number of anchor points that she had saved up in order to create a vast wave of energy that quickly covered everyone, allowing them to breathe in a wonderful amount of energy which distinctly different from before. Even if someone didn’t want to admit it, they would be unable to miss the surge in energy that she had heralded, so all that had already expected this looked to the easterner to see what his response to the phenomenon was.

“It… So, it is true! Fantastic! The Flaming Wyrm Sect shall be sure to speak in your favour!”

“Do you intend to stick around and participate in the fighting, or will you run off to the sect as quickly as you can?”

“While I do not quite appreciate the wording, I will choose the second option. If I perish here for any reason, then I will be unable to report back, and the sect may have some concerns about the alliance, and drop it as a result. This would not be in the favour of either of us, so I hope that you do not restrict me from exiting this conflict.”

“I will not. Anyone can participate, and anyone might, so as long as you do not cause something undesirable, I have no issue with that. If you wish, spread the word that the Ju District has finally stopped being quiet and subtle, and that whatever has been happening inside will finally be revealed. Whether the many things that they had done inside will benefit us or not, we will see, but everyone can rest assured that the Greats shall not be forgotten about until every single one of them is gone and everything that they had stored away is released back to the world.”

“I will take note of that, Ascendant. Thank you for your permission,” the man lowered himself back to the ground and bowed, the space around him having been emptied out by those in his vicinity from the beginning of the conversation, “May the Great Dao reveal itself to you.”

“Let us hope it shares some details with your Eastern Continent as a whole when the time comes.”

He raised an eyebrow, but did not dwell on the statement and quickly headed off, leaving everyone to return their focus back onto the most significant person amongst them, who also didn’t look to care too much for the conversation that they had just had. This wasn’t truly the case, of course, as she wouldn’t dismiss something as potentially significant as this no matter what, but she did also understand the current priorities.

As the man from the Eastern Continent had spoken, she had paid attention to his mind and surface thoughts, and confirmed a number of memories that did look to verify his words. There could still be some memories deeper than the ones that she had seen which completely changed the way in which those images could be perceived, but for now, all that mattered was that he was not here with the active intent to act against her. If he truly belonged to some other group with no direct bias towards either her or the Greats – or maybe even the Ju District’s forces – then it would still be fine, especially if that convinced them to act in her favour.

In the event that every word spoken was true, then she would obviously not oppose having the assistance of an entire continent, with countless talents being hidden away on the Eastern Continent where a completely different type of cultivation was practised, permitting for different stars to shine.

If not, she still believed that she would make do. She would survive, she would succeed, and she would win in the end, and if it cost her far more than it was worth, then she would have little choice but to accept it and go on with it, if she was given the chance to do so. There was no need to restate her view of the world and her own actions, so she would not do so, but she would not allow herself to be stopped by anyone other than her own lacking ability. In the even that nobody was interested in helping her, she would never blame her own failure on them, not after everything that she had done to ensure that her own strength would be as high as it could possibly be.

“Everyone, I believe that you have heard what I said to that man, so I will not repeat myself. Instead, let me explain what you shall be doing here. As a result of the earlier battle, an earth vein that was within the ground was raised up, and now we all have access to nearly infinite planar energy from it. You will get to make use of it with a new invention obtained during the battle, based on a technique employed by both sides,” she said, manifesting a pair of railgun rails with a few adjustments for the people to be able to hold onto it with ease.

She turned around and quickly aimed it at an automaton in the distance, firing it at the infantry robot and demonstrating exactly how easy it was to destroy one of them.

“This is a railgun, and it fires bolts of energy at enemies at a rapid speed. It can pierce the barriers of the enemy, and it can defeat them if you successfully strike their bodies. Then, I also have a set of shield generators, which you can wear and control with your own energy, switching from a purely spherical shield and a hexagonal shield, like the one that you had seen on that automaton that I had just destroyed,” the Ascendant continued, bringing out and showcasing the shield generator as well.

The people were still rather shocked by the sudden firing of the railgun, given that it was an incredibly loud weapon, but their ears still caught her words well enough to comprehend the function of the defensive measure. It was not difficult to use, and the earth vein functioned simultaneously to allow them to function nearly indefinitely on the road to the Ju District, and would be unusable outside of the battlefield unless someone with fifth realm energy or above actively sought to contribute to the equipment with all of their power for as long as they wished to maintain the shield.

Most likely, it would still be effective as a special tool for particular situations, like if someone was facing a powerful foe and needed to endure one last attack that they would otherwise have no chance of surviving, but nowhere near as simple or versatile as these things would be in the battle against the Ju District.

“Now, I will not waste your time with needless speeches. You know what you want to protect, and you can see what is trying to attack it. Let us ensure that they do not get the chance to do so!”