Chapter 47: The Four Symbols Battle Armor

The forbidden area indicated by the compass was one Zhuang Yun had never discovered before.

The bronze door slowly opened under the red glow of the compass, and the musty air was thick with nano-scale defensive dust.

As Second Senior Sister’s paper talisman robot extended halfway into the chamber, the silver dust suddenly coalesced into humanoid guardians.

“It’s a nano-defense system,” Third Senior Brother said as his mechanical arm deployed a scanner. “For every 1°C rise in temperature, the aggression intensifies...”

“At the Kan position, retreat three and advance one!” Zhuang Yun flung three copper coins, pinning the guardians’ joints, then turned and shouted, “Shang Yao, your turn!”

Second Senior Sister’s fingers danced swiftly, manipulating the paper talisman robot to dismantle the core of the guardians.

“Use this!” Zhuang Yun suddenly tore off the lining of his robe, revealing ice silk stitched inside.

Second Senior Sister immediately commanded the robot to weave the silk into a bagua net. The cold instantly caused the dust to crystallize into frost, falling like petals.

When the last gear was removed, a hidden compartment in the guardian’s chest popped open, revealing a half-rolled, yellowed fragment of the *Tiangong Kaiwu*—the design blueprint of the very first talisman armor.

“This is...” Second Senior Sister traced the ink strokes on the paper. The talisman patterns perfectly matched the improvements she had made to her paper puppets.

At the bottom of the blueprint was a lotus-shaped lacquer seal, but the inscription was an inverted emblem of the Yun Yin Sect.

Following the guidance of the blueprint, the group reached the circular library at the heart of the forbidden zone.

Three hundred mech suits stood arranged like terracotta warriors, sealed in amber-colored solidified resin.

Suddenly, Third Senior Brother’s mechanical arm vibrated at high frequency, pointing toward a display case in the southeast corner—there stood a delicate silver-white bronze mech, with jade talisman modules embedded in its joints.

“Azure Dragon Talisman Armor...” First Senior Brother read aloud the inscription on the base, “Manufactured by the Institute of Daoist Studies, Star Calendar Year 89, with a neural interface deviation of 0.0001%.”

Second Senior Sister’s pupils reflected the trigrams etched on the mech’s chest armor—this was the *Qimen Dunjia* formation she had researched for three years.

As she affixed her modified talisman paper onto the interface port, the solidified resin suddenly vaporized, and the jade crystal eyes of the mech lit up one by one.

“This is...” She reached out to touch the gel, and her fingertip was instantly drawn into the cockpit.

At the moment of neural connection, the mech’s jade crystal eyes projected a holographic interface:

【Azure Dragon Talisman Armor Activated】

【Detected *Qimen Dunjia* Level Seven Computational Mode】

【Activating Seventy-Two Earthly Fiend Talisman Formation】

Second Senior Sister’s eyes reflected the streaming data flow as the improved dust-avoidance talisman automatically flew to the mech’s arms.

The bronze armor folded back layer by layer, revealing concealed talisman launch ports. Seventy-two luminous talismans formed a bagua array in midair.

“Charge at the Kan position!” she instinctively chanted a Yun Yin Sect incantation, and a torrential downpour suddenly fell at the center of the formation.

The academy guards pursuing them slipped on the wet floor; their stun guns’ energy was amplified tenfold and reflected by the array, instantly knocking them out of the library.

After stowing away the talisman armor mech, the group continued following the compass’s guidance.

In the underground vault of the History Museum, the Black Tortoise heavy armor lay dormant behind bulletproof glass like a slumbering beast.

Third Senior Brother’s mechanical arm suddenly adhered uncontrollably to the glass, his eyes flashing a string of encrypted codes.

“This is... the mechanical cipher of the Yun Yin Sect?”

He stared in shock at the bronze gears visible through the armor’s seams—their interlocking mechanism was identical to the ancient armillary sphere passed down through the sect.

Zhuang Yun swung his broken sword to pry open the display case, and the tortoise shell behind the armor suddenly shattered into 360 individual scales.

The jet-black dragon scale armor sensed the vibration frequency of the mechanical arm and automatically unfolded a docking interface.

“Careful!” First Senior Brother pushed Third Senior Brother aside as five particle beams grazed past them, embedding into the wall.

Twenty mechs crashed through the skylight, their leader raising a shock blade as he charged.

Amid the blaring alarms of the History Museum, Third Senior Brother flipped into the cockpit; his mechanical arm perfectly docked with the Black Tortoise armor, unleashing a storm of tortoise shell scales like a torrential downpour.

The dragon scale patterns on the dark armor stood on end, forming an electromagnetic shield the moment the particle blade struck.

Each scale traced the trajectory of trigram patterns midair, pinning the enemy mechs at the four directions of Qian, Kun, Zhen, and Xun.

“Recoil factor 300%!” he exclaimed, delighted as he watched the monitoring data.

“Recoil system engaged,” the Black Tortoise armor emitted a low mechanical rumble.

When the twenty patrol mechs opened fire simultaneously, the tortoise shell behind the Black Tortoise armor divided into floating blades, cutting precise equilateral triangles in the exhibition hall—the foundational formation of the Yun Yin Sect’s mountain defense array.

Zhuang Yun pried open a concealed weapon cabinet and tossed a pulse rifle to First Senior Brother. “Show them the Yun Yin Sect’s battle tactics!”

The dragon scale patterns shimmered with rippling blue light; all attacks were reflected along their original trajectories, and the hall was instantly engulfed in chaotic energy flows.

Amidst the ruins, Zhuang Yun unearthed a half-broken stone stele engraved with the inscription of the original Black Tortoise armor: “Defend to attack, embrace virtue to bear the world—just as Master always said!”

When the titanium alloy doors of the Military Archives were blasted open, the White Tiger armor emitted a low hum.

First Senior Brother stroked the tiger stripes on the armor; an old wound resonated with the neural interface port.

“Memory data of the border defense battle detected,” the armor’s AI suddenly announced, “Activating plasma tiger claws.”

As the heavy mech sent by the guards smashed through the wall, the White Tiger transformed into a silver lightning bolt.

At the moment the tiger claws tore through the opponent’s armor, First Senior Brother caught a surveillance video—the pilot who had annihilated the star pirates fifty years ago in this very armor was none other than his long-missing father.

“So you’ve been waiting for me all along.”

He wiped the dust off the control screen; light photon wings unfolded from the armor’s back. “Zhuang Shangxiao, pilot of the Yun Yin Sect White Tiger armor, requesting reactivation!”

The mountain of scrap metal in the junkyard gleamed coldly under the moonlight. The compass in Zhuang Yun’s hand suddenly wrenched free from its magnetic suspension.

The broken crimson armor of the Vermilion Bird rose from the heap of scrap iron; the shattered reactor core on its chest resonated with the key to Zhuang Yun’s Azure Luan mech.

“Use this!” Second Senior Sister threw out seventy-two luminous talismans, forming a lightning summoning array.

When the lightning struck the armor, the rusted shell peeled away like a snake shedding its skin, revealing a brand-new hull flowing with molten lava patterns beneath.

The instant Zhuang Yun leapt into the cockpit, the Vermilion Bird’s wings spewed pale blue flames, merging with the Azure Luan mech.

Radiation warning lights extinguished one after another, and the scorched earth sprouted tender green shoots.

“Four Symbols Resonance System activated,” the four mechs simultaneously emitted mechanical sounds.

The White Tiger armor’s photon wings, the Black Tortoise armor’s floating blades, the Azure Dragon talisman armor’s bagua array, and the Vermilion Bird armor’s purifying flames interwove into a colossal Tai Chi diagram in the sky.

The four ancient mechs shattered the dome above.

“Now we’re complete.” She embedded the compass into the cockpit, and the four mechs resonated in unison.

The Azure Dragon talisman armor traced the battle formation in the air, the Black Tortoise guarded the ley line, the White Tiger ripped the clouds apart, and the Vermilion Bird ignited its purifying blue flames to cleanse radiation.

The patrolling junkyard security team stared in disbelief as the radiation levels dropped to zero. Zhuang Yun’s voice echoed through the mech’s external speakers, ringing out across the night sky:

“Mechs may age, but the heart to protect will forever remain vibrant!”

Suddenly, Zhuang Yun’s neural interface brain could not stop receiving messages. Opening the principal’s avatar, the old man’s furious voice came through:

“Zhuang Yun! I told you to find suitable mechs for your senior brothers and sisters, not to steal and snatch them!”