Gods Vanish on a Cloudy Day
Chapter 26 The Might of the Lan Armor
Su Zhou chose to place the first Arcanum Seed at his brow center.
As for why, it was because with his current physique, unless someone attacked through his seven orifices, a sharp weapon pierced directly into his brain, or he was concussed by a hammer, his skin and bones, reinforced with spirit energy, could withstand most physical attacks.
Therefore, defense should prioritize the head, which had the most weaknesses. The Arcanum Armor generated from the brow center could essentially encompass the entire upper half of his head, providing the highest comprehensive defense value.
"Let's try out the effects!"
After a night of arduous cultivation, Su Zhou was not tired but rather excited. Constructing such a semi-automatic spirit energy structure was akin to assembling an extremely complex robot model. He had to use the Qi Condensation Technique to condense tiny components one by one within a certain time, assembling them onto specific acupoints on his body, ultimately forming an intricate transcendent rune structure.
If Su Zhou hadn't consumed the Fruit of Wisdom, he would have needed to construct a complete diagram on a computer using professional software, listing all the dozens of structurally different runes separately, marking the order and assembly method. Then, he would have had to create an action plan and practice repeatedly dozens or even hundreds of times before succeeding... At that rate, several dozen days would probably have passed in reality.
Even considering that the assembly would become more and more skilled later on, achieving minor mastery of the Zhou Tian Arcanum Armor would still take more than three years, and Su Zhou's transcendent talent was already quite high.
However, the various mental attributes increased by the Fruit of Wisdom were perfectly suited for this task. Coupled with Su Zhou's extremely strong spirit energy control, high 'Wind Assist' affinity, and extremely fast Qi recovery, ordinary people would become tired and need to rest after a few failed attempts, or even experience spirit energy stagnation. He, on the other hand, remained energetic even after trying more than a dozen times, finally succeeding on the twenty-seventh attempt and forming the first 'Arcanum Seed.'
—Whoosh!
At this moment, a great wind sound arose. Su Zhou activated his spirit energy, causing the Arcanum Seed to use spirit energy as its base, absorbing the surrounding atmosphere and rapidly pulsating. In an instant, the upper half of Su Zhou's head was enveloped by an invisible air current. This air current was turbulent and powerful, circulating in a complex manner with various intersecting wind forces, forming an invisible, semi-transparent helmet!
As the generator of the Arcanum Armor, Su Zhou could clearly sense that the armor's shape was quite smooth, not deliberately imitating real armor. Its structure was similar to an octahedron, without overly sharp edges, but its angled sides could deflect most attacks.
At the eyes, there were two areas of weaker wind force that did not affect vision, appearing to be the only two weak points.
Su Zhou curiously extended his index finger to touch the Arcanum Armor. Because it was his own body, the spirit energy wind could recognize it and became much gentler. However, Su Zhou actively urged it to operate at full speed.
"Crap!"
In an instant, Su Zhou's fingernail was torn off, and he cursed aloud.
It wasn't that he was afraid of the pain, and he was prepared for injury, but Su Zhou really didn't expect his Rapid Regeneration to have this side effect. His index finger had only been inside the Arcanum Armor for no more than two seconds, and within those two seconds, his fingernail had regenerated three times! He had been repeatedly torn off his fingernail three times!
Moreover, the wound was blown by the strong wind, directly squeezing out a cloud of spiritual blood, causing the entire wind armor to turn blue and red! The feeling was too intense, and Su Zhou immediately gasped for air, subconsciously squeezing the insulated water bottle in his other hand out of shape.
Amidst Yala's gloating mockery of 'Only an idiot would use himself to test the power of a new technique~,' Su Zhou walked out of his tent with a dark expression. He tried to justify himself: "What do you know? Being able to hurt my finger at least proves that the Arcanum Armor's power is indeed remarkable. Even with just a momentary contact, there is at least the equivalent of two to three hundred kilograms of impact!"
It really wasn't that he was stupid. After all, there was nothing around that could directly demonstrate the Arcanum Armor's power. The Arcanum Armor was both offensive and defensive, and his body was harder than most materials. Being able to hurt him meant that it could also defend against most attacks.
Although reasonable, it didn't stop the greater laughter that echoed in his mind. Su Zhou's face darkened further.
But regardless, the Arcanum Armor's power was indeed strong. A single impact in any area of one Arcanum Armor shard had two to three hundred kilograms of force. The power of the entire Arcanum Armor combined was probably close to a ton of output.
Sixty-four Arcanum Armor shards flowed around the entire body, transforming into a wind armor. Coordinated exertion amplified each other, and the force could reach a hundred tons. That power, whether used for defense or attack, coupled with the armor wearer, was enough to withstand a car crash and dismantle tall buildings as easily as cutting cake. And this was just minor mastery.
The Great Zhou Tian Arcanum Armor at Great Mastery, according to the classics, could destroy cities, break armies, sever rivers, stir up waves, and slay demons. The martial saint expert from the military strategist school used this method to kill a White Tiger demon beast of the Xiantian realm, taking its demon core and refining it into an external Arcanum Seed.
"No wonder the martial saints who cultivated this technique could be invincible in the cold weapon era... Compared to masters and grandmasters of the Houtian realm, the output is simply on two different levels."
Su Zhou looked forward to the future and couldn't help but sigh, "Transcendence, truly transcendence! The secret technique of a Xiantian martial saint, its reputation is well-deserved!"
"It's just a pity that this thing consumes too much spirit energy. Even an Awakened like me with a deep foundation can only condense three or four pieces at most. Each Arcanum Armor shard requires at least ten thousand points of spirit energy. Without cultivating to transcendence, it's really impossible to afford."
Su Zhou muttered in his heart about the power and terrifying consumption of the Xiantian secret technique, while also slowly deactivating the Arcanum Armor, collecting the dispersed blood mist.
It was, after all, highly spiritual blood, and couldn't be wasted. He could use it as a material for inscribing runes next time. Why not take advantage when it was offered?
After doing all this, Su Zhou went out for breakfast to restore his mood, and then went to the shooting range to practice archery for a while to clear his mind and stabilize his aim. Under the guidance of Wei Zongshi, who had come specifically, he tried to learn a faster way to draw the bow. Using brute force to pull the bow back and forth with both hands like he did before was too much for both him and the bow.
In the Taibai Mountain Righteous Army camp, Su Zhou's life was actually quite fulfilling. After practicing archery, he went to have lunch along the way. Just as he was preparing to practice the combination of lightness skill and marksmanship in the afternoon, he received a request from Li Daoran, hoping that Su Zhou could patrol the mountains around the fortress to observe the movements of the demonic soldiers below.
"Last time we fought against the Redlands, we deliberately let some demonic troops escape so they would know that there are four grandmasters in the fortress. One of them—that is, you—can even kill a demonic general in a one-on-one duel, and that we suffered almost no losses. We wanted all this information to be completely transmitted out."
Li Daoran explained to Su Zhou while holding a Taibai Mountain terrain map, "In this way, the demonic troops camping by the river should hesitate and not dare to directly prepare for an attack. Instead, they will first try to test our strength... This will indirectly slow down their offensive rhythm, and we will have more sufficient preparations. For example, Craftsman Mo Ganxiu will produce more lava bombs, and Wei Lie Zongshi's injuries will recover better."
"If we can delay them for three or four days until Wei Lie recovers, the demonic soldiers, no matter how fierce, will be frightened when faced with two grandmasters who can use the Penetrating Shot technique."
Of course, this was just an ideal scenario. After all, demonic soldiers and generals were a bunch of lunatics. Who could guess what lunatics were thinking? Therefore, scouts were needed to go to the demonic troop positions to scout the situation.
Originally, this mission was to be carried out by Wei Lie, who had the best lightness skill and excellent eyesight, but now that Wei Lie was injured, Han Zongshi had good eyesight but poor lightness skill, and Li Daoran, who had the strongest inner Qi cultivation, had to occasionally replace the Grand Craftsman to maintain the stability of the Divine Weapon Qi Forging technique. This left Su Zhou as the only grandmaster capable of leading a reconnaissance mission.
"Su Zongshi may not be familiar with the surrounding terrain. Even with a map, it may be difficult to know the details... Let us go to assist."
Zhou Buyi was also cultivating in the camp at this time. After hearing Li Daoran's plan, he volunteered. Li Daoran and Zhou Buyi were both among the builders of the Taibai Mountain Fortress and knew the entire Taibai Mountain area in great detail.
"No problem."
With such an experienced guide, Su Zhou was happy to save some brainpower in memorizing these things and immediately agreed.
Thus, a quarter of an hour later, Zhou Buyi, the healed warrior monk Fang Hui, and the trio of the swordsman Liu Xizhao left with Su Zhou to gather intelligence.