I Outworked the Entire Cultivation World

Chapter 616: Chapter 564: The Assessment Begins (May Monthly Ticket 2500 Bonus)

Jiang Yuebai followed the group to the central plaza inside Zhuge Family’s inner city.

As she passed through earlier, she noticed that the mechanized giant pillar in the center of the plaza was even more grandiose than those around it. Rather than calling it a pillar, it was more like an octagonal tower, or even a winch.

There were a total of nine layers, stacked upon each other, with each layer rotating. Around each layer were connected eight chains, leading to different mechanized pillars, rotating and dragging the chains, allowing the large mechanisms within the city to operate.

Zhuge Shou personally walked under the mechanized tower and pressed the armored arm on his left onto the tower gate mechanism. After a sound from the mechanism, gears on the tower gate began to turn, gradually opening, revealing darkness inside.

Zhuge Shou withdrew his hand and stepped aside, signaling the three to enter on their own.

Fann Mingshan, very familiar with the route, glanced at Zhuge Ziyin and was the first to walk in and disappear.

Zhuge Ziyin nodded to Zhuge Shou and followed closely behind.

When it was Jiang Yuebai’s turn, as she was about to enter, Moh Baichun suddenly grabbed her, transmitting a message, ”Let them fight like immortals, don’t get involved. Just try to reach the passing mark, and be careful in everything.”

Jiang Yuebai nodded. Right now, she didn’t even know what the rules were; the main point was that if people didn’t offend her, she wouldn’t offend them. But if anyone did offend her, she’d fight back!

Jiang Yuebai quickly walked into the tower, and the tower gate immediately closed, leaving Moh Baichun looking tense.

Zhuge Ziqian comforted beside him, ”Senior Sister Wuchen, don’t worry. Fellow Daoist Wangshu reached the Early-Stage Nascent Soul before a hundred years old, which is rare in the Upper Realm. With her ability, she will surely pass this assessment smoothly.”

Moh Baichun sighed. In today’s assessment, the Master Zhuge’s thoughts were all focused on Zhuge Ziyin and Fann Mingshan. She was afraid Jiang Yuebai would suffer losses.

The Trial Tower was activated, and disciples on the plaza gathered around to watch from a distance, observing the lights flashing on the mechanized tower, projecting onto the blue bricks of the plaza, forming a miniature three-dimensional internal image.

A barren mountain valley, deep in the night.

The three stood together, surrounded by various damaged armors, some still relatively complete, others shattered into parts, scattered messily across the valley.

The three faced the same direction, with the mountain as a screen and three gorge paths leading outward, chilling wind howling and haunting cries echoing, giving a very dangerous feeling.

Seeing this setup, Moh Baichun’s heart sank, thinking Jiang Yuebai started at a disadvantage.

Zhuge Shou stood outside the tower, announcing the rules, audible also to the three inside.

”After a quarter of an hour, the Demon Clan will attack from all three paths in front of you. Your task is to defend the valley and prevent the Demon Clan from entering. As you may have discovered, your spiritual energy is sealed, leaving only your divine sense available. To resist the Demon Clan, you can only rely on the armors around you. Also, you must not leave the valley’s range.”

Jiang Yuebai looked at the gorge path three feet wide in front of her, sensing that her dantian was indeed sealed, with only her divine sense typical, and her body currently immobile.

She wasn’t sure if this was an illusion realm or grotto heaven magic treasure; everything felt very real.

She then looked at the surrounding damaged armors, indicating that she needed to repair them first and then control them to face the Demon Clan, which was her only reliance and the way of combat for an armored master.

Zhuge Shou’s voice came again.

”Fellow Daoist Wangshu, you only need to guard the path in front of you for an hour. Elder Fann and Ziyin, you need to control the armors to fight your way out. In the depths of the dense forest outside, there is a flag; the first one to obtain the flag wins. If you have any objections, raise them now. Once the assessment begins, unless you voluntarily give up, you cannot stop midway.”

Fann Mingshan glanced at Zhuge Ziyin, who remained expressionless, completely ignoring Fann Mingshan.

Being entirely overlooked, Jiang Yuebai thought for a moment and suddenly said, ”Master Zhuge, aside from the way of the armored master, may I attempt the way of the Yin Yang Family?”

As soon as the words fell, not only did Fann Mingshan but even the statue-like Zhuge Ziyin turned to look at Jiang Yuebai, with a slight furrow of brows, appearing somewhat surprised.

Zhuge Shou outside was also momentarily stunned, his gaze querying Moh Baichun.

Moh Baichun was uneasy but showed no discernible discomfort. Although unsure what Jiang Yuebai was up to, a half-baked puppet master daring to say such things, he still replied in a deep voice, ”My junior sister has studied Silk Control Technique, her divine sense is strong, and she’s always been interested in the way of the Yin Yang Family.”

Silk Control Technique was considered a highly advanced secret technique in the Earth Spiritual Realm, but in the Upper Realm, especially in the Zhuge Family, it was just a method within the armored master’s pathway, using divine sense silk to simultaneously operate multiple armors.

However, for cultivators with strong divine sense, the Silk Control Technique could be used to forcibly invade the bodies of beasts with cultivation lower than their own, achieving a control method similar to the way of the Yin Yang Family.

Zhuge Shou understood, ”As you wish.”

A slight smile appeared in Jiang Yuebai’s eyes, while Fann Mingshan only chuckled, not paying her much mind.

But Zhuge Ziyin’s eyes narrowed, staring at Jiang Yuebai, pondering something, and Jiang Yuebai promptly returned his gaze without a hint of politeness.

Zhuge Ziyin’s look clearly questioned her, doubted her daring to play with the way of the Yin Yang Family in front of him.

With no further objections, Zhuge Shou immediately announced the start, and the immobilization was lifted for the three.

Fann Mingshan moved swiftly, immediately gathering the relatively complete large armors around him behind him. Several of them were snatched by Zhuge Ziyin too, their divine senses colliding.

As a member of the Yin Yang Family, Zhuge Ziyin’s divine sense was evidently stronger, promptly staggering Fann Mingshan back and successfully seizing those armors.

”Ziyin truly employs good methods!”

Though Fann Mingshan carried some anger on his face, Jiang Yuebai keenly sensed a hint of a mischievous smile in his eyes.

Was this guy setting a trap for Zhuge Ziyin?

While the two contended fiercely, Jiang Yuebai found herself at a loss.

Relatively complete armors were certainly quick to repair, and once repaired they could be used, but after reading the books Moh Baichun gave her, she found that Zhuge Family’s armor crafting method was completely different from what she learned in the Earth Spiritual Realm.

The Earth Spiritual Realm still used Divine Mechanism Stone as the core to conduct power to the puppet’s entire body. Once the Divine Mechanism Stone’s power exhausted, it had to be replaced.

Although Top-Grade spiritual stones could serve as the Divine Mechanism Stone, the drawbacks were clear: limited capacity, slow conduction speed, and insufficient puppet agility in control.

The Zhuge Family had long abandoned such ancient methods, using more precise gears and linkage devices directly, absorbing spiritual energy with talisman array, driving the core mechanism, leading the small to drive the large, thus enabling the entire armor’s movement.

Saving time and effort, talisman arrays could continuously replenish energy consumption, making the armors’ combat endurance stronger.

This was akin to her research on Spirit Gathering Array for the planting puppet in Huaxi Valley, showing her direction at the time wasn’t wrong.

During these three days, she spent one day reading all the books and the remaining two days in the Lotus Platform Cave Heaven, using available materials to craft basic components.

She forgot what she learned before, using Zhuge Family’s methods to piece various small mechanisms.

Because time was tight, she attempted over ten thousand times, and she’s now somewhat proficient in assembling small items, but her few hundred tries with complete armors were far from enough.

If she directly took a relatively complete armor, she would first have to familiarize herself with the original assembly structure, then find problems and proceed to repair, which was too troublesome for her, and she may not be capable of accurately repairing.

Hence, the scattered small parts all over the place suited her better, allowing her to start from scratch and assemble freely.

Jiang Yuebai immediately expanded her divine sense. Amid the fierce battle between Fann Mingshan and Zhuge Ziyin, she swept all the small parts they didn’t want behind her, lifted her robe, and sat down to begin crafting and assembling.

While large armors could certainly hold their own, her little creations could absolutely win by quantity.