Chapter 1039: Chapter 1039: In-Depth Modification (Part 1)
With no other choice, Pei Yan took off his outer pants in front of everyone. Fortunately, the underwear issue he’d been worried about didn’t happen. Feng Tianhe had said that the Array for that part would be carved while he was in his mechanized state; when the two overlapped, the Array could be activated.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Pei Yan lay flat on the operating table and accepted the Array tattoo work carried out by a few of the most outstanding Disciples selected by the three elders. A burning sting came from his skin as the Source Qi Blade, stained with special multicolored Magic-element dyes, cut down and seeped into his body, bringing a bone-deep, drilling pain that made his facial muscles twitch nonstop. But for someone who had been through great storms, this level of pain was nothing worth mentioning; throughout the cutting process he didn’t even let out a muffled groan.
Even if his will could endure it, his body couldn’t help but feel somewhat overwhelmed. After two hours of drawing, they needed to rest for half an hour to let his body adapt to the newly carved Array. So this on-and-off tattooing process lasted for more than a full day before it was finally declared complete.
Standing in front of a mirror, seeing the Arrays carved all over his face, then turning around to look at the faintly visible lines beneath the short stubble on the back of his head, Pei Yan mocked himself, "I’ve turned into one of those prison-break male leads now! Covered head to toe in tattoos. Speaking of which, I really have to thank Sister Jun Zhao. She just gave me this buzz cut with green stubble, so now they didn’t even need to shave my head again and could just start tattooing on discount."
Engineer Li stepped forward and carefully examined the lines on Pei Yan’s body through a magnifying glass, sighing with emotion, "You don’t need to worry about your image. These tattoos only show on the surface of your body when they’re first drawn. Look, the parts we started with are already beginning to sink back into your skin. They’ll only appear when you activate them; normally they won’t affect your appearance. Astonishing, truly astonishing!"
Hearing this, Pei Yan lowered his head to look at his chest. Sure enough, the area where they’d started tattooing the Array had already returned to normal skin. When he used the Source Qi in his body to activate the Array again, a slight stinging sensation spread through his whole body as all the Arrays lit up once more and surfaced.
Seeing this, Pei Yan nodded in satisfaction and let out a breath. The normal-state carving was done. After a brief rest, he began the Array carving for his mechanized state.
In his mechanized state, Pei Yan’s Defense Power was greatly increased, and his perception of external pain was also reduced. As a result, he appeared far more relaxed during the entire carving process than before and didn’t ask to rest midway.
However, even so, the time spent on this round of Array carving still exceeded that of the normal-state carving. There were two reasons: first, during the process they needed Pei Yan to constantly switch back and forth between his two forms for fine adjustments; second, even though Pei Yan repeatedly softened the hardness of his mechanical surface, it still brought considerable difficulty to the Array carving. One Source Qi Blade after another, all ground from Source Qi Stone, was ruined before this arduous task was successfully completed.
By then, two days had already passed. After completion, Pei Yan did not receive everyone’s admiring praise. Feng Tianhe only left him with one sentence: "Mm, as expected of the chosen Child of Origin, to bear such pain without even a grunt." After this compliment, he once again joined the others in throwing themselves into the internal modification of Pei Yan’s body. Those Disciples responsible for carving Arrays on him didn’t get to rest either; with resentful eyes and endless complaints, they plunged into carving Arrays onto Pei Yan’s most important mechanical avatar—Pei San’s—surface.
At this moment, Pei Yan had once again become the idlest person in the entire space. Everyone else was busy with something; only he had nothing to cultivate and could only stand foolishly to the side. Listening to the various factions discuss the drastic overhauls about to be carried out on his body—while he couldn’t fully understand it—when he heard terms like heart, Mechanical Insect, meridian lines, and then saw the diagrams showing his body being disassembled into eight large pieces, Pei Yan just felt dizzy and quietly began to worry about his future.
This worry lasted for a full three months. Yes—just discussing the plan for his body modification alone exceeded the originally scheduled time. During this period, the plan was revised multiple times, and resources and materials poured in from the outside without end. Rare cross-plane materials that were once hard to see were casually piled in a corner of the room. To his surprise, Pei Yan found that quite a few of these materials were actually living creatures—ferocious beasts of all kinds, whose names he didn’t know but which exuded savage auras. Judging from the look of it, this was a big gesture from the Spirit Monster Plane.
Aside from these raw materials, there were even more finished products related to Mechanical Puppet production sent from the Mo Sect, the Alchemy Association, and the Hell Plane. Among them were fully intact Mechanical Puppets and Mechanical Beasts, as well as many partial components that were only half finished.
At this time, the modification space looked like it had turned into a multi-plane Mechanical Puppet expo. Curious, Pei Yan walked in front of each puppet, forcibly suppressing the urge to absorb them, gently running his fingers along their surfaces as he marveled at how the technological level of each plane was completely different from that of the Foundation Plane, and at how these craftsmen had created such unbelievably exquisite works.
"Pei Yan, we’ve ultimately decided that we still have to open up your body for modification." With Feng Tianhe’s cultivation, even he had become utterly exhausted from three months of high-intensity mental focus and excitement. Yet despite his words, there was still a feverish light in his eyes, full of expectation for the upcoming transformation.
At this point, Pei Yan had instead calmed down. Seeing the scale of this setup and having listened in for so long, he already knew what kind of fate he was facing. He sat casually on the operating table and said calmly, "How confident are you?"
"There won’t be a problem. Through our research, we’ve confirmed that your mechanical body can be modified internally. To be safe, we can start with the limbs first, using both manual mechanical modifications and your own autonomous fusion in parallel. Before the modification, with your teacher’s consent, we’ll upgrade your physique and bloodline once more so you’ll be better suited to the upgraded new body." Pei Yan’s calm attitude influenced Feng Tianhe, who was conversing with him. The old man quickly steadied his own emotions and patiently explained.
Lin Junzhao had mentioned this to him before. As Pei Yan nodded to show his agreement, he awakened Suzi in his brain. The soul Suzi had produced had now fused with him; what remained was a purely evolved artificial intelligence. Even so, she could still carry out meticulous, comprehensive monitoring of his body.
"Suzi, when the modification starts, you must monitor my body comprehensively and evaluate any changes happening to it at all times. If anything threatens my life, or if a given modification will leave hidden dangers for me, immediately alert me! If I fall into a coma during the modification and such a situation occurs in that period, you may autonomously take control of my body. Don’t harm others—just ensure my own safety! Understand?"
"Understood, Master!"
