The Terrifying Mechanical Control

Compared to Black Obsidian Light, White Jade Spirit Body had multiplied Lu Yuan's defensive capability by several times over — and that was just the beginning. The gene itself carried an inherent affinity with Spirit Power, pulling in Spirit Power faster than raw numbers alone would suggest.

After the evolution, the Evolution Cube still held Spirit Power equivalent to over seventy million First-rank Spirit Crystals. He had a one-day closed cultivation window arranged with Amy, and a thousand bottles of Spirit Power Gene Fluid sitting in reserve.

*The limiting factor is always resources,* he thought. *But right now, I have work to do.*

His next target: the Seed of Nature.

The evolution consumed roughly twenty million First-rank Spirit Crystals' worth of Spirit Power — somewhat less than Black Obsidian Light had demanded. When the process completed, Seed of Nature crossed into Lord Grade.

**Lord Grade Combat Technique Unlocked: Nature's Touch**

Compared to Seed of Nature's regenerative output, Nature's Touch was a full tier higher across every dimension. More than that, Lu Yuan realized he could — provided his spirit could bear the strain — sustain simultaneous treatment on a large number of people at once.

The physical stat boosts were just as broad: beyond the original spirit-sensing enhancements, strength, defense, and agility all climbed with meaningful gains. Higher gene quality meant more well-rounded growth. One domain might lead the charge, but everything else rose alongside it.

He stopped evolving once Nature's Touch reached Lord Grade. There was no point pushing further — not yet.

Now for the third gene.

He'd been going back and forth on the Mechanical Disruption gene. Its direction was unusual. But he'd made his decision.

He drew it out: a swirling sphere of deep blue light, pulsing quietly in his palm. He'd already studied its mechanics before committing to inscription — no need to field-test it on an actual target.

The Evolution Cube activated. He began again.

The pain was present, but noticeably milder than the White Jade Spirit Body evolution had been. Two Lord Grade genes already anchored his Gene Chain, forming a cushion that softened the threshold. The massive physical augmentation White Jade Spirit Body had given him had also stabilized the Gene Chain itself, making subsequent evolutions less punishing.

Strands of deep blue light wound into the third segment of his Gene Chain. Spirit Power hemorrhaged outward in torrents.

The final cost: roughly fifty million First-rank Spirit Crystals. By the time Mechanical Disruption fully integrated, the Evolution Cube was nearly drained dry.

*Even more extreme than the White Jade Spirit Body evolution.*

The consumption rate made him blink.

The white mist rose.

He stepped through.

A shape coalesced from the rolling white — five meters tall, built entirely of machine. Its body was black and gold, every polished surface gleaming with cold precision. Its mechanical eyes blazed with golden light, carrying an air of rigid nobility utterly unlike the Mechanical Guardians scattered throughout the Aier Mechanical Ruins.

Its aura dwarfed every Mechanical Chief he'd faced before. It pressed close to Lord Grade.

*The residual will of the Transcendent Gene.*

The mechanical chief manifested a greatsword in its massive hands and charged with a roar.

The Mechanical Sentinel armor and greatsword materialized on Lu Yuan's body simultaneously. Faint tendrils of white jade light rose from his skin.

*Stand in my way and die.*

He vanished.

A single sword flash crossed the space where the mechanical chief's will stood.

The will was cleaved in two.

The severed halves bellowed and forced themselves back together through sheer spite —

Then a cascade of sword flashes tore it apart completely. Fragments, scattered, too small and too dispersed to cohere into anything. The will dissolved. The white mist settled.

Lu Yuan's consciousness snapped back into his body.

He was genuinely surprised at himself.

He could see how ordinary Gene Warriors would struggle here. Through conventional inscription, the residual will of a gene would typically outclass whatever the warrior could immediately handle — they'd have to suppress it first, then grind their power upward until they could finally extinguish it for good. That was the standard path.

Lu Yuan's situation was the opposite. Every gene he already carried outclassed the one he was inscribing. The will never stood a chance.

*Only a freak like me can do this,* he thought — and barely managed not to feel too smug about it.

Fusion completed.

Mechanical Disruption was fully inscribed. A surge of power welled up from the gene and flooded through every channel, stats climbing again across the board.

Then the Combat Technique feedback arrived through the Gene Chain.

Lu Yuan's eyes went wide.

**Combat Technique: Mechanical Control**

Mechanical Control — the name said it plainly.

Against mechanical lifeforms whose mental strength fell below his: direct behavioral override. Full control of their actions. If he wanted, he could command them to self-destruct.

Against mechanical lifeforms matching or exceeding his mental strength: interference. Disruption. Degraded performance, fractured focus, chaos injected into their systems — even if the target was stronger than him overall.

The precise degree of control or disruption depended entirely on the gap between their mental strengths. If a target's mental power vastly outstripped his, forcing an override would backfire — the disruption would turn inward.

One additional detail in the feedback: the ability extended beyond biological mechanical lifeforms to mechanical constructs in general — war machines, golems, automated weapons — provided they weren't immune to this type of control or so vastly higher in grade that he couldn't reach them.

The sole limitation: organic lifeforms were completely unaffected. It only worked on mechanical entities.

*Thank everything for that,* Lu Yuan thought. *If it worked on normal living beings, that would be completely broken.*

He sat with the realization for a long moment.

Against mechanical opponents near his level of power, he was effectively their lord and master — direct dominion over their existence. He could command their death with a thought. That was the only way to describe it.

*This is terrifying.*

And it wasn't limited to the Aier Mechanical Ruins. Beyond these walls, mechanical lifeforms were scattered across the wider world. In the cosmos itself, there were entire mechanical civilizations — and those civilizations had a historically contentious relationship with the Human Race. Wars happened with regularity. Against those enemies, Mechanical Disruption would be nothing short of a divine technique.

With his current mental strength, same-level mechanical lifeforms with spirit-type enhancements would likely crumble under his interference before they could mount a meaningful fight.

Yes, the applicability was narrow. But the Lord Grade stat boosts were real regardless of whether the combat technique itself saw use in any given battle — Lu Yuan had known that going in.

What actually surprised him was the *shape* of those boosts. Unlike White Jade Spirit Body — which had hammered defense above everything else — Mechanical Disruption's amplification was remarkably even. Strength, defense, agility, spirit: all improved by roughly equal margins. The total increase across all metrics even approached what White Jade Spirit Body achieved at its second amplification tier.

Higher quality meant more well-rounded growth. A dominant aspect, but everything rising together.

*Three Lord Grade Transcendent Genes.*

A chill ran through him at the thought — not fear, but something close to vertigo.

He had three. Three.

The power rank correspondence ran through his mind: Zero-Rank Trainee Warriors corresponding to Common Grade Transcendent Genes. First-Rank Warriors to Elite Grade. Second-Rank Battle Masters to Boss Grade. Third-Rank Battle Generals to Chief Grade. Fourth-Rank Battle Venerables to Lord Grade.

A Battle Master Rank Gene Chain absorbing Lord Grade genes was already operating at its absolute ceiling. Push further and the chain would collapse.

He was sitting at that ceiling — three times over.

Once he fully tempered all three, his overall capabilities would be two to three times those of a Lord Grade warrior carrying only a single Lord Grade gene. That gap made him a genuinely terrifying presence even among Lord Grade ranks. And that was before accounting for his Gene Armament.

He caught himself grinning.

*Three times the Lord Grade genes. Three times the Spirit Crystal cost. Three times the headache.*

He pushed the headache aside and started drinking.

Spirit Power Gene Fluid. One bottle per minute, without pause.

The fluid was exceptionally easy to absorb, and the Lord Grade Gene Chain was hungry in proportion to its power. Between the baseline absorption speed and White Jade Spirit Body's Spirit Power affinity, his absorption rate had tested out at roughly three times his original capacity — what used to take two seconds to absorb now happened in under one. Even so, a fully Lord Grade Gene Chain demanded everything he could pour into it.

This absorption speed would have made other Gene Warriors weep with envy.

Ten hours later, a distinct pulse of saturation rippled through his White Jade Spirit Body Gene Chain.

He stopped.

Six hundred bottles. Ten continuous hours, one bottle every sixty seconds, without rest. Six million First-rank Spirit Crystals' worth of Spirit Power — equivalent to six thousand Fourth-rank Spirit Crystals.

His White Jade Spirit Body tempering had risen from 8% to 19%.

He surveyed the state of all three genes:

- **Nature's Touch** — the highest tempering degree. It had already reached Chief Grade perfection before evolution; even after crossing into Lord Grade, it retained just over 20%. - **White Jade Spirit Body** — 19%. - **Mechanical Control** — lowest. Essentially zero. Freshly inscribed, untouched.

He did the math.

Based on his experience tempering genes across different quality tiers, full tempering of a single Lord Grade gene required somewhere between tens of thousands to millions of Fourth-rank Spirit Crystals, depending on the gene's complexity and power. And that cost only escalated as tempering progressed — early stages were the cheap part.

Three Lord Grade genes.

He currently held Spirit Power Gene Fluid equivalent to twenty million First-rank Spirit Crystals. Converted to Fourth-rank: twenty thousand.

Full tempering for three Lord Grade genes would need a minimum of three hundred thousand Fourth-rank Spirit Crystals. Probably more.

He had twenty thousand. (One Fourth-rank Spirit Crystal equaled one thousand First-rank. He'd run the conversion twice hoping the math would change. It hadn't.)

*I thought I'd struck it rich.*

Lu Yuan stared at nothing for a moment.

*Turns out the joke's still on me.*

A beat of silence.

He laughed anyway.

Even without completing the tempering, his combat power already matched a peak Second-Rank warrior at Chief Grade perfection. That was the floor. The ceiling was the problem — and the ceiling was staggeringly high, if only he had the resources to reach it.

*Resources.* Always resources. Not talent. Not aptitude. Not the Evolution Cube's limits. Just resources.

Which meant the plan hadn't changed.

His gaze steadied, resolve settling in behind his eyes like iron.

*Back to the Floating City. More Spirit Power Gene Fluid. More tempering.*

The city still had plenty left to give.