Chapter 522: Pinwheel Sword
Translator: Irene Editor: X, TYZ
Seeing the word "Boss" at the end, Ai Hui’s rascally face emerged in Shi Xueman’s mind. A smile blossomed on her face, but vanished almost instantly.
She quickly diverted her attention and pondered over the words in Ai Hui’s letter. Although there were certain parts she couldn’t quite understand, she believed in Ai Hui’s talent and foresight when it came to combat. She had complete confidence in him.
To her, Ai Hui was simply a genius born to battle. He had a beast-like instinct, extraordinary perception, and was extremely brave and firm.
Silver Solder and Karakorum Polaris walked over.
Silver Soldier handed a battle report over to her and said in a rather complicated toned, "There’s been some changes. This is a news report sent over by the Surveillance Division."
Shi Xueman took the report and read it carefully.
"… an old man is dead in the enemy country, a lone girl is fighting at the front line, new soldiers are defending our territory…"
Senior Le Buleng really wasn’t afraid to rebuke. How satisfying. Shi Xueman felt herself letting out a long held breath. It was very liberating.
She returned the report to Silver Soldier, looking straight at him. "What do you mean?"
Silver Soldier said honestly, "We’re here to discuss this matter. If it turns out to be true, do we still need to take this risk? We only have to wait for a while and we will have three God-subduing Peaks. We can also fight alongside the Judgment and Dread divisions. Capabilities on both sides will undergo fundamental changes."
Ai Hui’s words floated into her mind unknowingly.
"… do not listen to others’ commands…"
"… do not get involved in fights, maintain flexibility…"
She responded straightforwardly, "I disagree. It is true that our power will increase, but there won’t be a fundamental reversal. The enemy, too, is vigilant and on guard, so we won’t catch them by surprise. Now that Ye Baiyi is still comatose, we must use this time to eliminate all of their forces. Otherwise, the retreating army will confront us and we will be dragged into a deadlocked battle. Our army isn’t as strong as the enemy’s, so the moment we get dragged into a deadlocked battle, we will sink into a disadvantageous situation."
Silver Soldier was now clear-headed. He inhaled a deep breath. "You’re right."
He was alarmed by the good news in the battle report. Not only was there a strong combat weapon like the God-subduing Peak, but there were also two strong allied divisions, which explained the joy he felt.
Shi Xueman’s words brought him back to reality.
Karakorum Polaris nodded her head slightly in agreement.
Silver Soldier wasn’t a timid person. He responded firmly, "Then we’ll go according to the plan."
Sword, spear, and iron fist collided in the air.
The three made eye contact, their gazes steady. All three shouted in unison.
"Victory!"
…..
Central Pine Valley.
Ai Hui was in trouble. Previously, he had been fully confident of dealing with the Ring of Life, but during the later tests he kept running into problems.
Theoretically speaking, the Ring of Life wasn’t complicated, but in order to produce Ring of Life force, there had to be a very subtle balance between the five types of elemental energy. This unique Ring of Life was known as the Shouchuan Ring, named in commemoration of Wang Shouchuan and his theory.
Today, more and more people were starting to see the major impacts of his theory.
The Shouchun Ring wasn’t very challenging for Ai Hui.
The difficult part was maintaining the ring force.
Sustaining the force meant maintaining its balance.
The Shouchuan Ring was a kind of Ring of Life, so it naturally had similar characteristics. A special characteristic of the Ring of Life was that it was always in a state of mobility and fluctuation. It changed unpredictably, making it difficult to control.
The God-subduing Peak’s enormous bulk contained abundant elemental energy. In the energy circulation process, other than the ring force, it could also mobilize elemental energy to use and consume. Having ring force and elemental energy at the same time meant that a God-subduing Peak could be in a consistently stable state.
The price to pay for a surplus of force was an alarming quantity of precious materials.
The Elders Guild was wealthy, so cost wasn’t a problem.
Ai Hui, on the other hand, was poor. He would’ve long since been broke if he had followed the refinement process of the God-subduing Peak.
Ai Hui felt that the ring force had greater prospects because once the Shouchuan Ring was completed, elemental energy consumption would decrease drastically. In the past, it was easy to obtain elemental energy in the Avalon of Five Elements and cost was low. Today, it was much more difficult to obtain and afford elemental energy. Ring force produced by identical elemental energy could be more plentiful.
The most pressing question for Ai Hui was how he could maintain the Shouchuan Ring’s stability.
Blind He had always been interested in the things Ai Hui made. The White Cluster Flames, Hellfire Pagoda Cannon, and Metal Basket Sword Pagoda were all embodiments of a super imaginative mind.
Blind He’s familiarity with materials was always helpful to Ai Hui.
Mu Lei followed Ai Hui since he was also very interested in what Ai Hui was refining. Coming here was wise and, although he wasn’t sure what Ai Hui was making, he had a feeling that it was going to be something very powerful.
Five strangely shaped leaves were placed in a row. It was a rather magnificent sight.
These five leaves were the result of Ai Hui and Blind He’s consecutive days of hard work.
Gu Xuan and others, who were training, were chased out of the Metal Basket Sword Pagoda. Everybody stood at the side, curiously watching what Ai Hui was coming up with. The Metal Basket Sword Pagoda had initially been ridiculed for its weird shape, but its might eventually shocked everyone.
The night battle on the peak of Blackfish Mouth Volcano had transformed their mindset thoroughly.
The fact that Ai Hui was always able to create unexpected things was now common knowledge.
Ai Hui and Blind He jumped into the Metal Basket Sword Pagoda, stood at the rear end Chalawan position, and started refining. Blind He stretched out his palm, and the eye on it opened, shooting out a beam of light.
The light beam shot onto the thick and solid metal frame, instantly turning it red and soft. It was like clay, constantly changing shape. Next, an even brighter light beam shot out from the eye on the hollow of his palm and landed on the heated metal frame. Sparks flew everywhere as an exquisite elemental trace extended upward like moving clouds and flowing water.
Everyone knew that Blind He’s refinement standard was very high, as evidenced by the Unity Swords, but none had actually seen him at work, so they felt overawed.
The materials piled up beside him flew toward the light beam from his palm like moths flying to a flame, melting amid the light and transforming into molten iron that permeated the red metal.
When the last ingredient was consumed, the light beam from Blind He’s palm disappeared and the eye shut slowly. As Blind He stood up, his body swayed a little, almost causing him to fall over.
Lou Lan was quick enough to support him in time.
Seeing how Blind He was sweating from head to toe and how his breaths were messy and hurried, Ai Hui knew his elemental energy had been depleted. He said with all sincerity, "Thanks for the hard work, Master He!"
Blind He nodded his head laboriously without making any sound. With Lou Lan’s help, he landed on the ground and meditated to recuperate.
Lou Lan then walked over to Ai Hui. "What next?"
Ai Hui observed the part that Blind He had refined. There was an additional drum kit on the Chalawan position. It was flat and looked like closed mussels and scallops. Behind it was a long and round stick.
Ai Hui pointed to the row of leaves and instructed, "Let’s start from the fire leaf."
Lou Lan shouted loudly, "Okay!"
With a poof, Lou Lan transformed into a giant sand palm and grabbed a red leaf from the row. It seemed to be rolled up from a thin layer of red crystal.
This was when everybody realized that there was a round hole at the tail of the red leaf.
Additionally, there was a yellow sand leaf, a transparent shiny silver leaf with petals, a cloud leaf that emitted white cloudy mists, and wooden leaf woven from green vines.
"Why do I find this familiar?"
Someone shouted and everyone else nodded in agreement. The object before them was oddly familiar.
The lightbulb in Gu Xian’s mind lit up. He cried out, "Pinwheel. Isn’t this a paper pinwheel?"
Everyone gasped. It was no wonder it looked so familiar. It was a paper pinwheel they’d all played with when they were young, except that this pinwheel was made from multicolored leaves so it was pretty to look at.
Why install a "paper pinwheel" on the Metal Basket Sword Pagoda?
Everyone was puzzled.
Only Gu Xuan and a few wiser ones opened their eyes wide in surprise.
It had to be said that the originally simple and crude Metal Basket Sword Pagoda looked much better with this colorful pinwheel on it.
The installation process took longer than expected. Ai Hui adjusted the position of each leaf meticulously, which took a total of four hours.
Blind He had regained most of his energy by now. He stood at the side and watched.
He was also very curious to see how Ai Hui would be able to rely on this large paper pinwheel to make the Metal Basket Sword Pagoda fly.
He found it difficult to believe. As a master weaponsmith, he was extremely familiar with flight equipment and hadn’t heard anything about paper pinwheels.
The installation was complete and everyone looked on in anticipation.
Ai Hui felt very emotional as well. He shouted, "Open the shell cover, Lou Lan."
Lou Lan answered loudly, "All right!"
Then, he walked to the shell-shaped cover and opened it. It was empty inside.
Ai Hui added, "Pour the snow lava in, Lou Lan!"
"All right!"
Lou Lan took out the snow lava he’d already prepared and poured it in.
The onlookers finally realized what was going on, especially Blind He. He was involved in the refining process, so he had more knowledge and immediately connected the dots. He started to feel emotional.
Snow lava filled up the cover.
Lou Lan closed the lid.
Hoo. The red fire leaf sprayed a ball of flame onto the sand leaf. The sand leaf quickly became heated, as if it was melting into snow lava. Following that, the petals on the shiny silver leaf became brighter. The silver light blinked and a strong metal wind gusted from the rolled up leaf. The metal wind blew onto the cloud leaf, instantly turning it into curling mist. The wood leaf woven from green vines absorbed the mist continuously and sprouted. Strands of green light rays shot out from the soft stem and into the fire leaf.
The five colored paper pinwheel started to spin.
Vroom, vroom, vroom.
The paper pinwheel spun increasingly fast, to the point where people could no longer distinguish between the leaves. All they saw was a ball of brightly colored, spinning streaks of light.
Ka, ka, ka.
The Metal Basket Sword Pagoda trembled violently and, just as people were getting worried that it wouldn’t hold up, it gradually lifted off the ground and hovered.
It was beyond overwhelming to witness such a colossal object hovering in midair!
Everyone was dumbstruck.