Chapter 119: Chapter 26: The Might of the Gale Armor
Su Zhou chose the spot between his eyebrows for the first Gale Seed.
As for why, it was because with his current physical constitution, unless an enemy attacked through his seven facial orifices with a sharp weapon that pierced straight into his brain, or he was hammered into a concussion, his flesh and bone—fortified by Spiritual Power—could withstand the vast majority of physical attacks.
That being the case, his defenses should focus on his head, which had the most weaknesses. The Gale Armor generated with the point between his eyebrows as its center could basically cover the entire upper half of his head, offering the highest comprehensive defensive value.
"Let’s test out the effect first!"
After a night of arduous cultivation, Su Zhou wasn’t tired at all. In fact, he was quite excited. Constructing a semi-automatic Spiritual Power structure like this was equivalent to assembling an extremely complex robotic model. He had to use the Qi Condensation Technique to gather tiny components within a certain timeframe, assemble them at a specific acupoint on his body, and finally form an intricate, Extraordinary Rune structure.
If Su Zhou hadn’t eaten the Wisdom Fruit, given the complexity of the Circulation Mist Armor, he probably would have needed to build a complete diagram with professional software on a computer. He would have had to list out all dozens of structurally different Runes, mark their sequence and assembly method, then create an action plan for himself, and practice it dozens or even hundreds of time before he could possibly succeed... At that rate, dozens of real-world days would have passed.
By that calculation, even considering that he would get more proficient with assembly over time, it would still take more than three years to reach Minor Achievement in the Circulation Mist Armor. And this was despite Su Zhou’s already high Extraordinary Talent.
However, the various mental Attributes enhanced by the Wisdom Fruit were perfectly suited for the task. Coupled with Su Zhou’s extremely strong control over his Spiritual Power, his high affinity for "Wind Aid," and his incredibly fast qi replenishment, he was able to persevere. An ordinary person would get tired and need to rest after a few failed attempts, their Spiritual Power even stagnating. But he remained full of energy after more than ten consecutive tries and finally succeeded on the twenty-seventh attempt, forming the first "Gale Seed."
WHOOSH!
At that moment, a strong wind howled. Su Zhou activated his Spiritual Power, causing the Gale Seed to use it as a foundation and draw in the surrounding atmosphere, which then began to churn rapidly. In an instant, the upper half of Su Zhou’s head was enveloped by an invisible wave of air. This wave surged and billowed, forming a complex, interlocking cycle of wind forces that created an invisible, translucent helmet!
As the creator of the Gale Armor, Su Zhou could clearly sense that its shape was quite streamlined. It didn’t deliberately imitate real armor; its structure was similar to a regular octahedron, without overly sharp edges, yet its slanted sides could deflect the vast majority of attacks.
At his eyes, there were two areas of completely transparent wind where the force was weaker but didn’t obstruct his vision. These appeared to be the only two weak points.
Curiously, Su Zhou reached out with his index finger to touch the Gale Armor. Because it was his own body, the spiritual wind actually recognized it and immediately softened. But Su Zhou deliberately pushed it to operate at full speed.
"HOLY SHIT!"
In an instant, his index fingernail was ripped off, and he cursed aloud.
It wasn’t that he was afraid of a little pain—he had been prepared to get injured. But Su Zhou truly hadn’t expected this side effect of his rapid regeneration. His finger had been inside the Gale Armor for no more than two seconds, and in those two seconds, his damned fingernail had regenerated three times! His fingernail had been ripped clean off three consecutive times!
Furthermore, the strong wind blew on the wound, squeezing out a glob of Spiritual Blood and staining the entire Wind Armor a bluish-red! The sensation was so exhilaratingly agonizing that Su Zhou sucked in several sharp breaths on the spot, unconsciously crushing the thermos he was holding in his other hand.
Amidst Yara’s gloating taunt—’Only an idiot would test the power of a new Cultivation Technique on himself~’—Su Zhou walked out of his tent with a dark expression. He tried to argue, "What do you know? The fact that it could hurt my finger proves the Gale Armor’s power is nothing to sneeze at. Even for a moment of contact, that was at least an impact of two to three hundred kilograms!"
It wasn’t that he was stupid. After all, what else around here could give him a direct feel for the Gale Armor’s power? The Gale Armor was for both offense and defense, and his body was harder than most materials. If it could injure him, that meant it could also defend against most attacks.
Though his reasoning was sound, it didn’t stop a louder laugh from echoing in his Sea of Consciousness. Su Zhou’s face grew even darker.
But regardless, the Gale Armor’s power was indeed formidable. A single impact from any random section of one piece of Gale Armor carried a force of two to three hundred kilograms. The combined power of the entire piece was likely close to a ton of output.
With sixty-four pieces of Gale Armor circulating around the body to form the Wind Armor, they could synergistically amplify each other, their power reaching a hundred tons. Whether used for defense or attack, this power, combined with the Armored Person himself, would be enough to block the impact of a car and demolish skyscrapers like cutting a cake. And that was just Minor Achievement.
At Great Success, the Great Cycle of Heaven and Earth Wind Armor, according to the classics, could raze cities, crush armies, sever rivers, stir up waves, and slay demons. The great Martial Saint from the Military School had used this technique to slay an Innate White Tiger Demon Beast, taking its Demon Core to refine an external Gale Seed.
’No wonder a Martial Saint who cultivates this technique could be invincible in the age of cold weapons... Compared to Grandmasters and Great Grandmasters of the Postnatal Realm, this output is on a whole other level.’
Looking toward the future, Su Zhou couldn’t help but feel moved. ’Extraordinary is truly Extraordinary. The Innate Martial Saint Secret Technique truly lives up to its name!’
’It’s just a pity that the spiritual power consumption for this thing is a bit too high. Even a deeply endowed Awakener like me can probably only form three or four pieces at most. Each piece of Gale Armor requires at least ten thousand points of Spiritual Qi. Without reaching the Extraordinary realm, it’s truly impossible to afford.’
As Su Zhou muttered to himself about the power and terrifying cost of the Innate Secret Technique, he was also slowly deactivating the Gale Armor, collecting the blood mist that had dispersed within it.
This was Spiritual Blood with extremely high Spiritual Energy, after all. It couldn’t be wasted. It would be foolish not to take advantage of his own resources and use it as material for inscribing Runes next time.
After finishing all this, Su Zhou went out, had breakfast to lift his spirits, and then went to the archery range to practice for a while, seeking to clear his mind and steady his aim. Under the guidance of Grandmaster Wei, who had come specifically to see him, he tried to learn a faster way to draw his bow. The way he had been doing it before—using brute force with both hands, one pushing and one pulling—was sustainable for him, but not for the bow.
Life for Su Zhou at the Hundred Schools’ Righteous Army Camp in Taibai Mountain was actually quite fulfilling. After finishing his archery practice, he went to grab lunch. Just as he was planning to practice combining his Qinggong and Spear Technique in the afternoon, he received a request from Li Daoran. He hoped Su Zhou could patrol the mountains around the fortress and observe the movements of the Demon Soldiers below.
"During our last battle with the Red Land, we deliberately let some of the Demon Army escape. This was to ensure that the news—that there are four Grandmasters in the fortress, and one of them, you, can even kill a Demon General in a one-on-one duel with almost no losses on our side—would be fully delivered to them," Li Daoran explained to Su Zhou during the mission briefing, holding a topographical map of the Taibai Mountain Area.
"This way, the Demon Army camped by the river will surely hesitate. They won’t dare to prepare a direct assault, but will first try to probe our strength... This will, in turn, slow down the pace of their attack, giving us more time to prepare. For instance, Master Mo Ganxiu will be able to produce more Molten Rock Bombs, and Martial Master Weilie’s injuries will heal more completely."
"If we can drag this out for three or four days, Weilie will fully recover. Faced with two Grandmasters capable of using the Rigid Shooting Technique, no matter how ferocious the Demon Soldiers are, they will be terrified."
Of course, this was just the ideal scenario. After all, the Demon Soldiers and Generals were a bunch of madmen. Who could guess the thoughts of a madman? Thus, it was necessary to send scouts to the Demon Soldier encampment to investigate the situation.
Originally, this task would have been led by Weilie, who had the best Qinggong and good eyesight. But now Weilie was injured. Grandmaster Han had good eyesight, but his Qinggong was poor. And Li Daoran, who had the strongest Inner Qi Cultivation, had to occasionally fill in for the Grand Master to maintain the stability of the Divine Weapon Forging Method. That left Su Zhou as the only Grandmaster available to lead the reconnaissance mission.
"Grandmaster Su is probably unfamiliar with the surrounding terrain. Even with a map, the details might be hard to grasp... Let us go and assist."
Zhou Buyi, who was also cultivating in the camp, happened to overhear Li Daoran’s plan and volunteered himself. Both Li Daoran and Zhou Buyi were among the builders of the Taibai Mountain fortress and knew the entire Taibai Mountain Area like the back of their hands.
"No problem."
With such an experienced guide to lead the way, Su Zhou was happy to save himself the brainpower of memorizing all that. He readily agreed.
And so, a quarter of an hour later, the three-person team of Zhou Buyi, the now-recovered Martial Monk Fang Hui, and the Swordman Liuu Xizhao, set out together with Su Zhou to gather intelligence.
