Mecha Battle: Why Do You Use Body to Destroy Stars?

Jiang Chen didn’t need to invest much effort into it.

He only needed to mention the condition for the elevation of a level 3 civilization authority to Li Xiao, and the big shot would naturally adjust the structure and rules, urging the rookie mecha pilots to successively cross the abyss.

He himself could then devote his whole heart and soul to the “Asura Martial Arts School”.

To learn martial arts techniques from Master Luo, receive materials and equipment, and consolidate his personal attributes.

In this process, his proficiency in martial arts, along with his basic attributes, saw a soaring growth!

But…

The consolidation of basic attributes was a triple effort of Jiang Chen, talent, and mecha.

There was no bottleneck, no slowing down; just genuine linear improvement and infinite stacking, as long as he was willing to put the effort into it!

Martial arts proficiency, however, was different.

Although Jiang Chen possessed the [Weapons Master] trait, equivalent to possessing the ultimate martial arts talent, combined with his own high computational capacity, he could quickly learn and master various skills…

But there were limits to this learning.

Initially, Jiang Chen’s skills were vastly inferior to those of the Purgatory Asura, revealing many weaknesses during sparring that could easily be exploited.

He could continuously learn and enhance his own techniques by addressing his own flaws.

However, as his martial arts skills grew closer to perfection and his weaknesses diminished,

The speed of his improvement slowed down, even nearing stagnation.

Even for an ordinary martial arts master, this “stagnation” still signifies progress.

But for Jiang Chen, who was accustomed to rapid growth, such sluggish advancement was intolerable.

He simply paused the battle and told the Purgatory Asura:

“Master Luo, I want to learn your martial arts techniques—”

“Let’s start with hand-to-hand combat.”

“Put away those orbs, stop using those treasures.”

“We’ll fight with the most primitive weapons [fists and feet], a true flesh and bone battle!”

The Purgatory Asura was somewhat dumbfounded by this request.

Having experienced so many years and battles, it was the first time it had encountered such a mecha pilot.

Not only had he trained an Asura body, but he also wanted to treat himself as a whetstone, learning combat techniques from it?

This was really…

“Fantastic!”

As an Asura who reveled in battle, it had already recognized Jiang Chen’s strength, skills, and learning ability,

And thus held nothing back of its own martial prowess.

Even knowing that Jiang Chen wanted to learn its skills, it readily put down its weapons and imparted them without reservation—

“How can one grow stronger without challenging the mighty?”

“Come on, learn from me, surpass me, defeat me!”

“And then, become the nourishment for my growth!!”

In the midst of Master Luo’s unrestrained fighting instruction and exchange,

Jiang Chen’s previously stagnating understanding of hand-to-hand combat skyrocketed!

Only when he came extremely close to Purgatory Asura, nearly indistinguishable in skill, did he stop!

Still, Jiang Chen was not satisfied.

Because, this was only [almost].

Even if it was just hand-to-hand combat, there was still a slight gap between him and Master Luo.

To ordinary people, this gap could be almost ignored.

But in the eyes of a martial arts grandmaster, it was the difference between heaven and earth.

After a standoff for some time,

Jiang Chen didn’t insist on hand-to-hand combat and changed his approach.

He took out six perfectly quality Shadow Orbs, all transformed into Shadow Daggers.

“Master Luo, come, dagger battle!”

The Purgatory Asura didn’t care where Jiang Chen had gotten these Shadow Orbs from, it simply spread its six arms and grabbed the six daggers.

It replied cheerfully.

“Sure!”

Master one, master a hundred.

When Jiang Chen previously used fists and feet to engage Purgatory Asura in weapon combat, he had already mastered many techniques and knowledge of combating various weapons.

Now, learning dagger techniques was even faster, and soon he hit another bottleneck.

“Sword!”

“Knife!”

“Spear!”

“…”

As Jiang Chen switched from one weapon to another, his learning speed increased.

Towards the end, he had barely picked up a new weapon when he mastered it in a matter of seconds.

Next, from single weapon to multiple weapons.

Then, from multiple to switching at will between weapons.

The sparring between Jiang Chen and Purgatory Asura entered a sublime phase. The combat became increasingly smooth, a thousand exchanges in an instant, dead even—

This was not like before, when he used the power of time to fight at quadruple speed against single speed to barely match up.

Instead, Jiang Chen suppressed his own attributes and strength, maintaining speed and power at the same level as Purgatory Asura.

And he still managed to come out evenly matched.

It was at this moment.

The so-called “bottleneck” silently vanished.

Unknowingly, Jiang Chen’s combat skills had reached the same realm as Purgatory Asura’s.

He could masterfully wield any and all weapons to their ultimate effectiveness!

And it was at this time.

The Abyss Rune’s information appeared before his eyes.

[Your trait has undergone a change.]

[Weapons Master has been upgraded to Weapon Grandmaster.]

…

[Weapon Grandmaster]

[Type: Trait]

[Effect: Grants the mecha pilot the Weapon Grandmaster trait, enabling effortless mastery of any weapon, any ability, thereby doubling its efficiency.]

[Description: The mountains are still mountains, the waters are still waters.]

The trait had actually leveled up?

Jiang Chen had only intended to supplement his Weapons Master skills while consolidating his attributes.

Unexpectedly, he had directly trained Weapons Master into Weapon Grandmaster.

The upgraded trait had undergone significant changes in effect.

The original Weapons Master trait could only enhance external equipment and weapon-type modules.

Now, even abilities like Destruction Ray could benefit from the trait’s enhancement.

The power boost had also increased from 1.5 times to 2 times!

“Master Luo is awesome!”

Jiang Chen was incredibly moved. Looking at Purgatory Asura’s fierce face and towering six-armed form, he felt an overwhelming sense of kinship.

The Purgatory Asura seemed to sense Jiang Chen’s transformation and smiled.

“It seems you have thoroughly comprehended my moves and learned my strength.”

“Next, will you continue to fight with me to hone your martial arts skills?”

Jiang Chen nodded, then shook his head.

“It’s a fight with you, but not entirely you.”

“Are you going to challenge the more powerful Legendary Shadow now?”

Purgatory Asura’s words were startling.

Seeing the surprised expression on Jiang Chen’s face, he smiled.

“Don’t be so surprised.”

“After battling you for so many years, many mecha pilots who die fall into the Purgatory and become one with it…”

“We naturally know everything about you.”

“If you can challenge me with my own orb, it means the current me is just a shadow.”

“Oh?”

Jiang Chen asked curiously.

“How do you know that you are a Legendary Shadow and not some ordinary Age-Old Shadow?”

Purgatory Asura laughed.

He looked around at the land that had been turned into a bottomless pit, spread out his six arms, and laughed loudly.

“Do I even need to think about it?”

“The future me will surely become a legend!”

He said, looking at Jiang Chen and speaking.

“Your name is Jiang Chen, right?”

“I will remember you.”

“The Way of Battle is endless, keep moving forward, and challenge the future me, a stronger version of myself.”

“At that time, I will definitely possess more exquisite skills, stronger techniques, and more formidable methods.”

“Grow as much as you like on the strength you’ve drawn from me.”

“Then…”

“Come before the real me and become my opponent.”

The smile on Purgatory Asura’s face was wild and fierce.

“When that time comes, either you will defeat me, bringing me supreme joy!”

“Or, I will grant you death, making you the most powerful Asura!”

No wonder Master Luo was so easy to talk to.

He let you fight however you wanted, learn however you wished.

Apparently, he had long understood his identity and wanted to cultivate through this method a formidable opponent worth looking forward to in the future.

His emotions also affected Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen revealed a smile even more ferocious than Purgatory Asura’s and stretched out his Three Heads and Six Arms Asura Body.

“Then it’s a deal.”

“I will be the one to grant you the joy of death.”

Bang!!!

The sound of an explosive vacuum.

With one strike from Jiang Chen, the earth was blasted into a huge rift, and Purgatory Asura was completely reduced to dust.

Accompanied by the appearance of the settlement page.

His body also disappeared between the earth.

…

Soon after leaving the abyss, Jiang Chen didn’t pause for a moment.

He immediately set his sights on the 6th Rank difficulty of [Purgatory Asura].

What just took place was merely the graduation ceremony for Master Luo’s first martial arts course.

Just as he said, upgrading the difficulty of the Legendary Shadow isn’t about simply adding attributes or increasing strength to the Legendary Overlords.

It is capturing another part of their growth experiences.

If the growth rate is slow, the time span between 5th Rank and 6th Rank difficulty could be thousands, even tens of thousands of years.

After such a long time, Teacher Luo must have understood even better martial arts.

It was just the right time to start the second phase of the course.

“The 5th Rank strength of Teacher Luo helped me comprehend the special trait of the Weapon Grandmaster…”

“What about 6th Rank strength Teacher Luo? Can he further upgrade the Weapon Grandmaster trait?”

“What about 7th Rank strength?”

Jiang Chen was very much looking forward to it.

As for attributes,

he had spent almost three and a half days, or close to 84 hours, at Luo Family Martial Arts School,

During this period, he had consolidated a total of sixteen rounds of attributes.

[Attributes]

[Strength 2.83 million→22.67 million]

[Agility 2.83 million→22.67 million]

[Defense 3.08 million→22.92 million]

[Enigmatism 850,000→2.069 million]

[Special Abilities: Infinite Core, Limitation Unlock, Boulder Form, Return to Primal State (3rd Rank), Mode Switch, Three Lives Skull, Continuous Attack, Shadow Assault.]

[5th Rank Abilities: Blood Demon Transformation*6, Thorns Overgrowth*6, Ion Engine*6, Danger Sensing*6, Energy Overload*2.4, Destruction Ray*1.3.]

Such a high accumulation of attributes, combined with Time Deceleration Fusion, had also dramatically advanced the capabilities of Zero, Yun, and Yuu.

Although they didn’t have Jiang Chen’s exceptional learning capacity,

they were capable of using their coordination to achieve the goal of defeating Purgatory Asura within a short burst of time.

Yuu’s damage ability was also growing—

Although Destruction Ray only accumulated 1.3 times the 5th Rank power, it could be combined with the Three Lives Skull to inflict triple damage!

Plus, with the bonus from Shadow Assault and Continuous Attack, her short-term burst capability had completely surpassed Zero and reached the level of Yun.

“If you also consider the double bonus from the Weapon Grandmaster…”

“Yuu’s actual burst ability has already exceeded Yun’s.”

Jiang Chen was pleased with Yuu’s growth.

With Yuu’s damage ability growing, it meant he finally had a strong ranged attack capability, adding richness to his attack methods.

As for their problem of overpowering the 5th Rank Master Luo, it was easily solved.

They could unleash a few waves of damage, bully the Purgatory Asura with their new strength, and enjoy it.

Then, challenge an even stronger Legendary Overlord.

Once they entered the consolidation phase, Jiang Chen could continue returning to Luo Family Martial Arts School to study and consolidate without any delay.

Now, having completely finished the first course and having consolidated enough attributes,

Jiang Chen had finally started the second course.

He challenged the 6th Rank difficulty Purgatory Asura, successfully traversed the abyss, and arrived at a new world.

The environment of this world was slightly different from the 5th Rank difficulty, clearly indicating it was a different planet.

However, the Purgatory Asura clad in crimson golden armor, as well as the mountain range arena he had crafted, showed little change.

The mechas were in a phase of consolidation.

Eager to learn, Jiang Chen directly manifested his Asura Body and took out his orb weapon.

“Master Luo, it’s time for class.”

Understanding the situation, Purgatory Asura laughed and walked into the arena, stretching out his six arms.

“Come, enjoy the battle with me.”