Chapter 342: Brave Takeover
Translator: Subudai11 Editor: Chrissy
"What the hell is this thing?"
Wang Lu looked at the black sphere under his feet in consternation. However, before he could think of anything, with a 'whizz', the sphere flew up with a ferocious momentum, and the sudden large gravitational field change nearly pulled Wang Lu into the air.
In a flash, the black sphere had already suspended in mid-air, pausing for a moment. Then, it began to tremble violently, as if something inside fervently wanted to be released after being imprisoned for years. The black sphere rotated crazily in the air, but after a while, it just rushed madly to a certain direction, and sometimes, it returned with the same high speed, like a helplessly trapped beast.
At the same time, the gravitational pull from the black sphere became unstable, sometimes strong and sometimes weak. Gradually, Wang Lu found out that the black sphere was aiming the gravity in a certain direction, seemingly pulling something over. However after it tossed about for a long time, in addition to causing landslides on both sides of the canyon, it did not seem to have achieved the desired result.
"What's this guy doing?" Wang Lu asked Autumn Beam, "Can you understand it?"
Autumn Beam has been concentrating her attention on the black sphere. After a long time, she sighed with emotion. "What a fierce spiritual object. Although its spirit has been scattered, the traces of the existence of the spirit has been deeply engraved on its body. It still retained its spirit lifetime's obsession."
Wang Lu tried to understand. "In other words, what we are now seeing is something akin to the sudden movement of the corpse?"
"... If you want to say it like that, then yes." Autumn Beam attempted to explain further to Wang Lu, "This black sphere should be an energy core of astonishing level, which can provide inexhaustible supply of energy for puppets, cloud wave boat, and other things. Its grade is very high, and in accordance with the standard of Nine Regions, it almost reaches the level of immortal treasure. In addition to being an energy provider, it can also become the central core of a huge implement, responsible for assisting or substituting the users, which better display the function of the implement. For example, the modified version of the cloud wave boat of Ten Thousand Arts Sect, normally, it needed over a hundred Xudan Stage cultivators to control it, but because it has a spiritual treasure-level central core, quite possibly it only needs one or two people to drive it."
"I see." After hearing the explanation, Wang Lu finally could understand. "So this thing should be the central core of something that has been seriously damaged a long time ago. The initially complete thing became torn apart, its fragments scattered in various places and it is unfortunately buried in a valley. Being seriously injured, its spirit eventually died, but before dying, it thought of using the great gravity to restore its broken body. Unfortunately, as the core black sphere was buried in the ground, the strong gravity instead made the soil and the rock into its prison, until after many years I finally dug it out."
With that, Wang Lu watched that thing move in the air, as if it was a demented black sphere. He couldn't help but smile. "Then let's see if it's thousands of years of wait is worth it."
While speaking, that black sphere finally seemed to catch on something. Its body startled, then it began to violently swing back and forth. The black sphere stirred the air, sending a terrifying burst of muffled sound in the valley. Then, from afar, there was a landslide, a moment later, a glittering giant bell-like part covered in soil was pulled by the gravitational force of the black sphere. It flew up and moved towards the black sphere and covered it.
Although the black sphere has been covered by that thick giant bell, its gravitational force has instead become stronger. From the opening of the bell, it released an extremely strong gravitational pull, which distorted the entire valley and even destabilized Wang Lu's footing. He hurriedly launched his Non-Phase Method to isolate the outside pulling force, but just barely.
However, this was just the periphery of the gravitational pull. The direction of the gravitational pull was obliquely pointed upward towards the sky.
Soon, an oval disk came through the clouds in the sky and then floated underneath the large bell.
…
After that, one after another, the black sphere attracted its body parts through gravitational pull. There were many scars that have been accumulated over the years on these parts, some even survived only a little. However, when they converged and slowly moved around the black sphere, these scars faded away and they gradually restored their original shape.
This was an armored vehicle that could repair itself. Although it was physically shaped like an armored vehicle, it did not have thick wheels nor a sharp impact angle. At first glance, it looked like a tower with a large oval chassis that has a pad with a slightly convex surface at the bottom. It slowly spun horizontally. Above the chassis was the black sphere which functioned as the core that was hidden underneath the bell canopy; it was wrapped by a thick shield from the bottom and continued upward until eventually, it shaped like a pointed cone. There were also openings on the surface of its tower-like body for people to enter and leave. Its internal space, even without considering space expansion spell and other things, could accommodate four or five people.
At the same time, that smooth line, the eye-catching appearance, especially its glorious golden light, was enough to let Wang Lu determine its identity.
"... It must be Golden King's. With how flashy this looks, if it's not Golden King's, I will eat it all." Wang Lu looked at the fully recovered Golden Vehicle that quietly floated in mid-air and could not help but laugh. Although it was completely different than the one painted on the mural, Wang Lu was not going to fuss over the details. No matter how exotic this vehicle look, it was, after all, infinitely better than his Flying Pigeon and Everlasting. There was no doubt that this was a high-grade vehicle; Golden King obviously disdained to build a low grade one.
However, it was also only Golden King who could casually throw aside such a luxurious thing in the sea of clouds. Initially, when he went out to explore, Wang Lu didn't dare to hope that he would pick up a complete vehicle. He just hoped that he could assemble some broken parts which could allow them to survive the rest of the journey. However, his luck was good enough that he could step in the footsteps of Golden King.
This was like being a friend to the local new rich guy. Something that the rich guy throws aside might still have a high value and could be used by his friend.
"Let's see if this vehicle is willing to accept a new owner."
With that, Wang Lu flew up, lightly approaching the vehicle. Then his hand reached out towards the surface of the vehicle.
Many spirits of the spiritual treasures only followed one master for life; it was either because it was prohibited by its master, or because the spirit was particularly loyal. However, this vehicle of Golden King seemed to have no limit. When Wang Lu put his hand on the vehicle's armor and let his primordial spirit sank into the vehicle, the whole vehicle quivered. A stream of energy gushed out from its core, flowed throughout its body, and then made a contact with Wang Lu's primordial spirit.
Bam. His primordial spirit felt a strong shock, as if it was about to be destroyed. Wang Lu immediately launched his Non-Phase Method to protect his primordial spirit, however, under the impact, his defense circle was somewhat shaky.
Previously, in order to dig this black sphere, he fought back the ten thousand times weight, which already overloaded his Non-Phase Method. However, now, the impact to his primordial spirit was sudden, therefore, in a rush, his magical power circulation was not smooth, which caused his defense circle to become unsteady. But the primordial spirit was the most crucial thing to a cultivator. In order to ensure the defense would not collapse, he could only increase his magical power output, fighting hard to resist the impact.
Wang Lu immediately felt a burst of contraction due to emptiness on his Jade Mansion. However, this contraction gave him a flash of inspiration.
Why should he fight off all the impacts? Primordial spirit was indeed a vital thing, and because his cultivation base was not sufficiently high enough, his primordial spirit was still fragile. However, his physical body and Jade Mansion were actually a piece of wilderness. If he could guide the impact, letting it evenly distributed towards his body and Jade Mansion, though he would bound to receive injuries, but he could keep his defense from collapsing. The key here was that he would not lose. And as a Void Spirit Root cultivator, the path within his body was completely unimpeded. Therefore, guiding the impact on his primordial spirit towards his physical body would only need a bit of effort on his part.
In short, this was a selling blood method. He relied on his young age, abundant innate vitality and the ability of Non-Phase Method to quickly heal the injuries, to bear down the impact and be injured. This was the perfect method to compensate for not being able to gather enough magical power for a moment.
After thinking about it, Wang Lu immediately changed his strategy. He diverted and guided the impact from the vehicle towards his physical body and Jade Mansion. Immediately, his two hundred and six Non-Phase Sword Bones groaned in unison, and numerous cracks also appeared on his Jade Mansion. However, no matter how fierce the impact of the vehicle was, it could no longer shake his primordial spirit.
Of course, this was not a long-term solution. However, it was enough to persist through the immediate difficulty. This was not a life and death struggle, but rather a slightly harsher test. The impact from the vehicle lasted for some time before it began to gradually ease. And after a while, the force that gushed out of the black sphere suddenly became mild and soft, without any sign of hostility.
"Does this mean you… yield?"
As an ownerless thing, that gushing impact was a necessary assessment for a new master from the vehicle.. If he could not endure it, naturally he would not have the qualification to be the new master. The grade of this vehicle was quite high and generally unbearable even for a high order profession. However, the strength limitation in the sea of clouds was enough to shield the overwhelming majority who participated in the trial. Unfortunately, this vehicle happened to encounter Wang Lu, who has yet to condense out a golden core and couldn't even be counted as a high order profession in Western Continent but has the endurance that was far above the common high-level cultivator of Nine Regions.
The vehicle trembled a bit as if in response to Wang Lu's question. The spirit of the vehicle has disappeared, so it didn't have spiritual knowledge nor command. It was also torn apart and buried in the soil for years. However, at this time, it actually appeared to be intelligent. It was indeed a rare fine vehicle.
"Considering that you've had a master and I basically just picked up his plate, can I call you Tray?"
The vehicle slightly trembled, evidently dissatisfied.
"Or golden mushroom?"
The vehicle trembled violently.
"Tsk, since you look like a lightning tower, I'll just call you Tata (Ta here means tower)."
This time, there was no objection from the vehicle, apparently, it has a soft spot for repeating words.