Chapter 44: Special Training Tonight

During this past month, Ming Xie immersed himself daily in a celadon jar within the forbidden zone to heal his wounds.

One day, after Zhuang Yun finished replicating the volumes concerning Daoist techniques for modifying mechas, she went to the repair room in Lin Yiwen’s villa to study them together.

Lin Yiwen knelt on an anti-static mat, his tactical belt outlining his lean waist.

His laser rangefinder swept across the chest cavity of the Qingluan mecha, suddenly pausing behind the third power conduit—

“This is...”

“Shh—”

A rustling sound of fabric came from above; as he looked up, the hem of a snow-white Daoist robe brushed against his nose.

Zhuang Yun hung upside down from the operation rack, her jade hairpin loosened, dark strands cascading like a black waterfall. The vermilion brush traced paths across the mecha’s outer shell, perfectly overlapping the energy circuit designs he had drafted three days prior.

She dangled from the steel frame by her toes, white ankles wrapped with red cords and copper bells. “Brother Lin, observe the circulation of the cosmic cycle…”

Lin Yiwen’s Adam’s apple moved.

His tactical goggles auto-focused on her swaying calves. Flustered, he lowered his gaze, only to see his breath condensing in mist on the bronze compass surface.

“Using Qi Men Dun Jia to calculate energy distribution?” He loosened his collar to cool down, pretending to adjust the lightbrain, but the lens remained fixed on the tips of her falling hair.

“Want to try the Federation’s latest quantum computing module?”

“Brother Lin, your words are mistaken.” Without warning, the vermilion brush’s tip pressed against his Adam’s apple, the cool handle pressing over his pulsating artery.

Lin Yiwen’s neck broke out in a fine sweat as he watched her draw a cloud seal on his collarbone. “Jia wood is yang, perfectly matching the Zhen trigram’s thunder method.”

Their overlapping reflections quivered against the metallic hull wall. Zhuang Yun’s jade hairpin had somehow slipped free, the strands brushing silver star insignias on his uniform shoulder.

Zhuang Yun pressed a crumpled talisman onto the control panel; the mecha’s chest suddenly displayed the pattern of the Big Dipper constellation. “This is a cyber variant of the Five Thunders talisman from Dragon Tiger Mountain.”

“Brother Lin, your hands are so hot.” Zhuang Yun suddenly gripped his wrist, pressing it against the heat vent; the residual warmth of the mecha burned her palm through the tactical gloves. “Are you catching a cold?”

“It’s an overload pulse in the mecha.”

He hoarsely lied, using his body to block her gaze from the main control screen—where abnormal data was displayed.

Outside the window, the slanting sunset pierced the bulletproof glass, pinning their shadows onto a whiteboard covered in formulas.

The lightbrain screen glowed faintly; the latest monitoring data showed that in the past three minutes and seventeen seconds, his adrenaline level was enough to sustain an interstellar jump.

Suddenly, Instructor Deng’s voice came through Zhuang Yun’s lightbrain:

[Attention, all new mecha pilots, bring your mechas to the training field immediately!]

“Ah, here we go again! Brother Lin! I’m heading to the assembly!”

“Tonight’s special training: reclaim the jump station seized by star pirates.” Instructor Deng’s light blade cut through the simulated night sky as a holographic projection showered the training field with acid rain.

“The Red Team will play the star pirates; the Blue Team must reclaim the station within two hours—Zhuang Yun! Put away those talismans!”

Reluctantly, Zhuang Yun folded the electronic talisman inscribed with “Urgent as the law’s decree.” The copper coin formations on the Qingluan mecha’s joints buzzed unwillingly.

“Cover me!” Peng Yan’s reconnaissance mecha suddenly became stuck in the eye of an electromagnetic storm.

“Zhuang Bansian! Your shamanic time is up!”

Zhuang Yun bit her fingertip, drawing a blood talisman on the control screen. Twelve copper coins shot out from the mecha’s chest cavity, forming a virtual armillary sphere in the acid rain.

Su Qingtian’s medical mecha took the chance to open a shield; the nanorepair fluid mixed with vermilion powder, condensing a Taiji diagram on the barrier surface.

“Qian triple strike! Kun six breaks!” The peachwood sword cleaved the control panel as the Qingluan mecha suddenly played the ancient guqin melody “Bixiao Yin.”

The Red Team’s mechas stiffened for two seconds—the soundwave weaponry modification on the Soul-Calming Bell had taken effect.

Instructor Deng’s lightbrain sparked violently.

Peng Yan’s scout mecha “Night Owl” flung out an electromagnetic cable, the end tied to a special Five Thunders talisman crafted by Zhuang Yun.

When the talisman stuck to the station’s outer wall, the entire training field’s lighting suddenly shifted to a ghostly green, like a summoning banner.

“You call this electronic warfare?!” The Red Team captain roared over the public channel as his mecha danced uncontrollably in a ritualistic mask dance—the electromagnetic pulse had been modulated with Yubu footstep frequencies by Zhuang Yun.

Zhuang Yun positioned herself on the seven stars, and the Qingluan mecha traced the twenty-eight lunar mansions in the storm, each star corresponding to a teammate’s tactical coordinate.

“Friend Zhou, move off your position quickly!” Zhuang Yun’s robe caught in the mecha hatch as her compass needle spun wildly.

“I’ve told you eight hundred times, I’m Zhou Fanyi!” The silver-haired youth cursed, smashing three light screens. His engineer mecha “Treasure Box” sprayed nanorepair fluid. “Dr. Su! Give this crazy Daoist a sedative!”

Tactical commander Li Yun adjusted his goggles. “According to calculations, we should… wait, what did you stuff into the energy chamber?!”

“Earth talismans of Wu and Ji, specifically to counter electronic curses!” Before she finished, all the red dot markers on the holographic sand table turned into skull emojis.

Peng Yan’s scout mecha dove from the acid rain clouds. “Can you all just fight normally?! What the hell talisman is stuck in my thruster?!”

Five mechas collided in a tangled heap amid the storm.

Zhuang Yun’s Qingluan took off from Zhou Fanyi’s repair platform, its mechanical arm flinging out a binding immortal rope that ensnared Su Qingtian’s medical pod.

Li Yun’s quantum shield, empowered by the talisman, transformed into a semi-transparent Bagua mirror, refracting enemy lasers into a shower of joyful papercut characters.

“Ancestor! Your thunder talisman attracted real lightning!” Zhou Fanyi screamed, deploying twelve lightning rods, each tip stuck with glutinous rice cakes Zhuang Yun bought on credit.

Peng Yan suddenly burst out laughing on the public channel. “Look at Old Li’s mecha!”

Outside Li Yun’s tactical command cabin, the lightning strike had charred four seal-script characters onto the armor: “Early Prosperity”—a protective charm Zhuang Yun had carved last week, its reflective effect shining through.

Zhuang Yun maneuvered the Qingluan in a mask dance, dodging lightning aimed at her teammates. “This is a heavenly blessing of fate; once we clear this, we’ll all advance in cultivation!”

...

“Now’s the time!”

Seizing the moment, Su Qingtian replaced the medical needle with a peachwood stake, precisely firing it into the station’s ventilation shaft.

As the acid rain ceased, the training field transformed into a scene of metaphysical science education:

Zhou Fanyi’s repair fluid had frozen into an ice sculpture of the Bagua formation; Li Yun’s quantum computer was exorcising the undead of the graphics card; Peng Yan’s scout mecha was braiding Zhuang Yun’s hair with its mechanical arm.

The only one intact, Su Qingtian was writing her experimental report: “On the Psychological Pollution Levels of Metaphysics in Modern Warfare.”

“Mission accomplished...” Instructor Deng crushed his fifth electronic pen.

“Next special training theme: Breaking through the space meteor belt.” Teacher Zeng Yuan’s light blade smoked. “Zhuang Yun, no more than three talismans allowed.”

“Teacher, your words are mistaken.” Zhuang Yun pulled five thunderproof pills from her alchemy furnace to distribute to teammates. “I just cast a divination—on the seventh day of next month, the mecha’s consecration is auspicious; interstellar operations are inadvisable...”

Four hands simultaneously covered her mouth, and Zhou Fanyi’s mechanical arm stuffed a silencing magnet into her robe.

At dawn, Zhuang Yun was roasting soaked talismans with thunder techniques.

Suddenly, her lightbrain received a message from Zhuang Qitong.

What! They had been expelled?!