I'm New Energy!

In an instant, having bypassed who knew how many wishful traps and defenses, the power armor plummeted amid blazing fire. With its immense mass and terrifying acceleration, it crushed the teetering protective barrier in a split second, barging boldly into the observation post's domain. In the air, crisp snaps reminiscent of snapping zither strings echoed without pause. That was the sound of who knew how many spiritus circuits collapsing in the span of an instant. Relying on sheer mass and weight, having breached layer upon layer of force field barriers and blockades, it descended from the highest heights! Like crushing dry twigs—utter ruin! Weighing dozens of tons, the armor struck with the impact of a meteor, tearing through the workshop's outer shell, walls, and defenses as it breached straight through the center. Amidst earth-shaking convulsions, the blast wave kicked up in its wake alone blew apart countless wall panels. Even more lethal was the mercury buffer layer alternating between hardened and fluid states; vaporized into silver metal, it dyed the storm in dazzling hues, while a torrential hail of shrapnel sprayed outward via pure kinetic force. Everywhere lay in utter shambles. Everything within sight, regardless of what it had originally been, was now reduced to twisted scrap. More than half the workshop was reduced to ruins in an instant. Amidst the mercury vapor, howling gale, and smoky blaze, the sharp screech of grinding metal rang out. Assault Niuma strode forward, entirely unscathed. Over its loudspeaker, amid festive, energetic drumbeats, a booming greeting resounded: "—Kids, I'm back!!!" Alas, no moving song echoed in return—only a completely frenzied roar from the core of the workshop. Beneath collapsed walls and rubble, a soot-streaked, disheveled Helmut scrambled up, his face covered in streaks of blood. Had the writhing shadows at his side not protected him, the violent pressure shifts and shockwaves would have torn him to pieces in an instant. "I'm going to kill you!!!" The workshop he had painstakingly constructed had collapsed under such an uncouth, chaotic impact; the traps and illusions he took such pride in hadn't proved useful in the slightest. In his fury, the master of the workshop no longer cared to conserve his remaining spiritus reserves. In the void, fragmented spiritus circuits rapidly reconfigured and reconnected. Countless pieces of debris rose against gravity, beginning rapid repairs. Mist howled like a deluge, instantly condensing into countless figures that surged forward in a brazen siege. Yet immediately after, everything ground to an abrupt, screeching halt. As if frozen. Stagnation. From within the swirling, dancing mercury vapor, every fluctuation and shift of spiritus was thoroughly intercepted and suppressed! "Out of tricks?" Amidst the countless frozen phantoms of mist, Assault Niuma slowly raised its head, its crimson eye lenses locking onto the artisan's position. A regretful sigh came over the speaker: "My turn—" Click! Two drained spiritus battery packs ejected from the armor's shoulders, but even more batteries were distributed throughout its chassis, endlessly supplying the engine's operation and the consumption demanded by the mercury! At this moment, within the battered workshop, every flow of spiritus had fallen entirely under the interference of Solid Alchemy! Operation Plan No. 4 transitioning into No. 6, and finally No. 3. Under complex, unclear conditions, probe first with long-range bombardment to test the waters; once the reality was assessed, accelerate the armor to its limit, relying on gravity and acceleration to turn its own mass into a weapon and execute a meteor strike of total devastation. In the roar of impact and the blast wave, the massive volume of mercury injected into the buffer layer vaporized and spread, invading the workshop. Pre-treated with Solid Alchemy, the mercury vapor became the natural predator of all spiritus constructs, hindering the workshop's functions to the greatest extent and grinding it to a stuttering halt. This was a true EMP! The instant he sensed the change, Helmut's pupils contracted to pinpricks. Needle-thin. Suffocating. "Now, you're bound to ask—" As the power armor strode forward, a gentle voice issued from the speaker: "With spiritus interference on such a massive scale, it's impossible to distinguish friend from foe, so how does my armor avoid being disrupted?" For a fraction of a second, Helmut's lips trembled as if he couldn't help but ask. But right then, a gloating chuckle rang out: "Why would I ever tell you?!" Boom! Amidst the roar of the anchor assault rifle, a red-hot metal spike shot forth, pinning down that shifting expanse of shadow! The engine revved with an eruption of wild, searing heat as the armor charged forward, smashing through the wall. Billowing smoke poured from the armor's mechanical backpack, scattering sparks across the floor. In that instant, realization finally dawned on Helmut. His vision swam in darkness, choking him. In his ears, mocking laughter seemed to echo from afar. Dumbfounded, aren't you? —Daddy's armor is a hybrid! While it couldn't manage tri-fuel flexibility between gas, electric, and steam, Ji Jue had still specifically designed an external phlogiston reaction engine for the armor to accommodate this very tactic! And the fuel reserve was sufficient to keep the armor running in an overloaded state for fifteen minutes! Fifteen minutes... It sounded brief, but if a single intact tile remained in the workshop after fifteen minutes, Ji Jue would consider it his loss! Now, as Assault Niuma broke through the wall like a monster straight out of a horror film, all Helmut felt amidst his asphyxiation was sheer despair. An eerie, eyeball-like creation rose into the air from his hand, spinning in midair to unleash bursts of blazing light. Yet the scorching jets capable of incinerating flesh and blood in an instant were refracted by the mercury vapor, dissipating by more than half before they could even hit. The remaining thermal energy couldn't even scorch a mark onto the armor. In the face of such a monster, the only thing Helmut could do was play the part of a victim in that same horror film—screaming in despair as he scrambled away on all fours. Calm down, Helmut, calm down— It's just a temporary setback. Even if he can freeze spiritus operations on a large scale, a quick calculation shows that a creation like this must consume an astronomical amount of energy; it can't possibly last long! The priority right now is staying alive and stalling for as long as possible... Yet the moment that thought surfaced, all that settled into his heart was freezing despair. Just as he had designed his tactics around the mirror-image lock-on mechanism, he had long been locked on by the intruder. Even if he fled to the ends of the earth, he couldn't shake him off. Now, the only thing left for him to do was... In that instant, the fleeing artisan suddenly halted in his tracks, letting out a silent, self-deprecating sigh. Indeed, what else could he do? At this point, futile struggling was meaningless. For an artisan, victory and defeat were already decided the moment the workshop spun out of control. Now that the dust had settled and the truth was laid bare, All that remained was to accept defeat with grace! And so, he turned his head and looked toward the end of the corridor, where the intruder strode forward step by step. The armor was hideous and ferocious. Yet Helmut's twitching expression gradually calmed. "Never thought that aside from that lump of stone, I'd encounter an opponent this absurd," Helmut murmured with a soft sigh. He raised a hand and tore off the mantle woven of shadows from his shoulders. With a final infusion of spiritus, the shadows shifted and crystallized into the outline of a blade. He raised it and pointed it at his foe. "Come—" He made a solemn invitation: "Helmut, youngest of White Sail. Please instruct me!" The armor said nothing, looking down at that calm face. As if understanding, it waved a hand, tossing aside the anchor assault rifle. Then, it drew a crimson greatsword from its scabbard, raising it to point directly at Helmut's face from afar. Inside the battered workshop, darkness and crimson crossed in a fleeting flash. Amid a thunderous clash, blood spurted. The defeated fell backward onto the floor. Then, everything in the world rapidly dimmed, dissolved, and returned to nothingness. The duel was decided! *** Meanwhile, on the other end, in Ji Jue's workshop, a long, dead silence had persisted for far too long. From the moment the intruder wrested away control of the workshop, not a sound had been made. It was as if he had petrified. Helmut's mirror image stood frozen in place, unable to move... He hadn't even had the time to take command of the workshop and crush his opponent into dust. Soon, spasms seized his body against his will. As though suffering a sudden stroke, he convulsed violently and collapsed to the floor. In an unconscious haze, he screamed shrilly, writhing as he opened his mouth and vomited copious amounts of pitch-black and crimson fluids. The blessed artifact slipped from his grasp, while his limbs rapidly melted, mutated, and warped like candle wax. Clusters of tumors and aberrant bones sprouted at a pace visible to the naked eye. "Nice job," Ji Jue marveled in admiration, offering sincere advice: "I recommend you don't do it again." Well, assuming there ever was a next time. Twenty-five evil spirits, their souls and brain matter extracted to form spiritus batteries and provide power. Over sixty key devices and modules in the entire workshop were crafted from their bodies and tissues, and during the construction process, a grand total of seven hundred and thirty-three large aberrations had been slain! The amount of corrupted pollutants consumed in the process was practically beyond counting! As it stood, Ji Jue's entire workshop was practically built upon evil spirits and the pollution of corruption. And as the price, hidden behind this glamorous, glittering facade was a horrific aberration dozens or even hundreds of times more exaggerated than the heavily polluted zone outside! Ji Jue had poured in more than twenty tons of purified mercury alone just to build the isolation and filtration layers! At present, Ji Jue was practically sitting right on top of a crater, having to divide his attention every second to maintain the delicate balance between pollution and purification. A single misstep, and dying without a burial site would be the best-case scenario... Under these circumstances, usurping his identity, connecting to his workshop, and actively opening the flow of soul and spiritus—how was that any different from diving straight into a vortex and sticking one's head right into the maw of a Great Calamity? "You really have guts," Ji Jue marveled, feeling the tremors running through the workshop. As the intruder lost control and corrupted, his original features gradually returned to the blank face, until at last... with a tremendous bang! The intruder, having swollen and proliferated to the limit— Viscous black blood and pollution erupted like a waterfall, only to freeze in midair a moment later. The instant Ji Jue waved his hand, streaks of mercury shot forth, piercing into the intruder's body and utterly freezing everything that teetered on the brink of collapse. Locked tight! Forcefully keeping that faint breath of life intact, refusing to allow him to die just yet. "Honestly, your luck is just terrible," Ji Jue sighed. "If it had been anyone else—no, anyone other than me—this combo probably would have worked. You're just extraordinarily unlucky. But what can you do? This year's examiners love targeting people too much..." Having gotten past the initial shock and calmed down, Ji Jue performed a careful analysis and pieced together the opponent's strategy. In all fairness, a tactical routine that even weaponized the exam's mechanics was indeed impressively formidable. Yet the key did not lie in the competition's mechanics, but in Helmut's own skill and capability. Ji Jue had tried to dismantle the other party's work, but time was too short; he couldn't even reverse-engineer a third of it. Its intricate and ingenious internal structure was truly breathtaking. Although the artisan who made it was overly wishful and too fond of splitting hairs, his skill was undeniably impressive—even far superior to many artisans Ji Jue had seen in the Profound. Embers was brutal, showing no mercy to mediocrity. By now, every apprentice who had survived in the exam up to this point had exceeded apprentice-level standards, reaching and perhaps even subtly surpassing the realm of ordinary artisans. If victory were judged traditionally by the craftsmanship and completion of their works, the outcome might still have been uncertain. To be rat-raced to such an extreme... only Embers could pull it off. "Speaking of which, I'm actually just like you." Ji Jue bent down, lifting the remaining head from the mutated wreckage, and spoke slowly: "I also have a rather inhumane little idea regarding the mechanics." "For instance..." He paused, looking down with a sudden smile: "Would you like to see what this world looks like?"