Apocalypse Gachapon

Chapter 2351: Mechanical Genius's evolution method

While Dark Direction's three core members were concluding that Ye Zhongming was the proxy of the Taros Red Dwarves' God Smith, Ye Zhongming quietly returned to Cloud Peak Manor.

The gains were substantial, but many "debts" remained unpaid.

The entire manor was a bustling construction site—even the first phase, since it was the manor's core, with many hubs that needed connecting during the second and third phases.

But the area belonging to Ye Zhongming was still quiet.

These days, the various material suppliers Ye Zhongming had found were delivering to him one after another. Not to mention Helsky and the small-race alliance—the Su Clan, through the arrival of so many formation masters, also brought the materials he'd requested, including those purchased with the fifty-million-Moonspan-Gold loan.

The Su Clan thought Ye Zhongming had gone mad when they saw him repeatedly raising his material loan limit.

But they still gave him maximum support.

Now, the materials in Ye Zhongming's hands were worth over a hundred million Moonspan Gold—with another fifty million on the way!

Material markets on many survivor fortresses had seen prices driven up a full ten percent by him!

Fortunately, since those outer-space attacks, everything had been rising in price—the material price hike was masked.

After returning, Ye Zhongming didn't immediately enter a frenzy of crafting. Instead, he met the Mechanical Genius, who had arrived.

"Your... Meiao?" Ye Zhongming deliberately teased, looking at the youth who had emerged from his battle puppet.

"She's the one who wants me to be her Meiao—I'm not her Meiao!" the Mechanical Genius shouted. But his real voice wasn't as shrill as when he was inside the puppet; to Ye Zhongming, he seemed like a slightly older shota.

Whether a slightly older shota was still a shota wasn't something Ye Zhongming concerned himself with.

"She's actually good to you—even willing to betray her race. You could try accepting her." Ye Zhongming dropped his smile and spoke seriously.

The Mechanical Genius shook his head. "Not until I can beat her."

Ye Zhongming said irritably, "When will you ever beat her?"

"That depends on what kind of battle puppets you give me!" The Mechanical Genius's expression suddenly changed, giving Ye Zhongming the feeling he'd been tricked.

"Tell me." Ye Zhongming saw this as a chance to understand the Mechanical Genius. He'd been curious before, but hearing it from the man himself was clearer.

"It's actually simple. My evolution method changed after I became a nine-star evolved—I can't level up through my own cultivation." The Mechanical Genius sat across from Ye Zhongming. From years spent inside his puppets, his face had an unhealthy pallor.

"Life Link." The Mechanical Genius suddenly said four words to summarize his trait.

"I grow stronger through my battle puppets, and weaker when they're destroyed—as if they're part of my body. When they exist, I'm whole. When they don't, I'm incomplete."

Ye Zhongming recalled his battles with the Mechanical Genius and hadn't noticed this issue.

Seeing Ye Zhongming's expression, the Mechanical Genius said, "Many changes started after I came to the myriad races—after learning some things in Ferosong and taking some things."

Ye Zhongming's mouth twitched. Though he didn't speak, his meaning was clear.

"I know you can't just take anything, but..." The Mechanical Genius suddenly scratched his soft, half-length hair. "I wanted to be strong, and I had no predecessors with my profession and bloodline to learn from, so I had to experiment myself."

Ye Zhongming nodded, understanding the youth's frustration and confusion.

"So it became like this." The Mechanical Genius looked up, his gaze firming.

"It became a life link between you and your battle puppets—they're essentially extensions of your body. When they're destroyed, you're severely injured, and to recover, you need to cultivate new puppets to the previous level?"

Ye Zhongming asked.

The Mechanical Genius nodded. "Yes. And the cultivation method became more varied, but the goal is the same: make the puppets strong, any type. So now, as long as a puppet links with me—no matter how many—I have to cultivate all of them, or it's pointless and drags me down. After all, at my current strength, there's a limit to how many puppets I can link."

"Raising." Ye Zhongming summarized the Mechanical Genius's state in one word.

"Yes, collective raising." The pale youth cursed. Since he used English, Ye Zhongming—who hadn't heard that most popular mantra in the country for a long time—felt a pang of familiarity.

"It requires my stamina, mental energy, even blood essence. I can also modify the puppets themselves—they're like bottomless pits, constantly draining my cultivation resources."

The Mechanical Genius said, "I haven't evolved in a long time, all to cultivate them. But I found this process takes too long—and I found a shortcut."

"For that, I destroyed all my previous puppets except Number One. So my Furelai is now only a thousand or so!"

Ye Zhongming looked at the Mechanical Genius, knowing his pallor wasn't just from staying in his puppets too long.

"The shortcut is: you make custom puppets for me—Raini-grade ones. That way my starting point is high, and even if cultivation is slow, I'll have patience."

"And you can make puppets according to my preferences, which greatly boosts my combat power!"

At this, the Mechanical Genius grew animated, as if seeing a fast path to strength.

"Can it really improve?" Ye Zhongming was skeptical.

"Yes, definitely. My current puppet limit is four. If they're all Raini-grade, each can boost me by about three thousand Furelai—four is twelve thousand. And for every ten thousand Furelai I gain, I can probably carry one more, so five puppets, fifteen thousand total boost. Plus my own, I'd reach nearly seventeen thousand. Cultivate a bit more, and before long I'd exceed twenty thousand—then I can carry another."

Ye Zhongming listened, marveling at the diversity of cultivation methods in the universe.

"Don't worry—if you make these puppets for me, I'll listen to you from now on." The Mechanical Genius patted his chest. He had enough emotional intelligence to know he had to offer something in return.

But Ye Zhongming thought for a moment, then asked quietly, "How do you know the mechanical war beasts I make will definitely link with you?"

The Mechanical Genius opened his mouth and couldn't answer for a long time.

"I think your neurosis has gotten worse..." Ye Zhongming sighed.