168: Chapter 168 Test Driving the New Armor and Familiarizing Myself with the Operation

As the morning light just spilled over the stone steps of the Martial Arts Arena, the po xu type-2 mecha still shimmered with the faint light from the previous night. The runes on its shoulder interface were still slowly circulating, like a beast that had just woken up and was stretching its limbs.

Chen Wuwang stood before the command platform, the blue light of his Mechanical Prosthetic Eye flashing lightly. In his field of vision, the triple energy flow diagrams were as stable as ever—the skeleton held up, the energy stabilized; now, it was time to see if the person could keep up.

"Xiao Dao." He raised his hand and beckoned. His voice wasn't loud, yet it pierced through the morning mist. "Enter the cockpit."

Chen Xiaodao had long been waiting by the mecha's feet, dressed in a form-fitting light combat suit. His left mechanical prosthetic limb gleamed with a cold silver light, and his fingertips moved slightly as if preheating.

He looked up at the nine-meter-tall steel body, took a deep breath, and without a word, stepped directly onto the preset boarding ladder.

The cockpit door opened with a light hydraulic sound, and he crawled inside.

The space inside the cockpit was compact. The main control interface floated before his eyes, with three layers of light screens nested together: the outermost was the Spiritual Qi diversion dynamic map, the middle was the arc-drive matrix, and the innermost layer was the nano-resonance regulation ring.

The information was dense, and the data stream scrolled extremely fast; an ordinary person would get dizzy just looking at it.

"System self-check beginning," a mechanical female voice sounded.

Chen Xiaodao closed his eyes, placed his fingers on the neural interface ring, and let his consciousness sink in.

In the first second, his brow furrowed sharply.

Too fast.

The feedback was too sensitive.

Every minute command was instantly amplified. Just as the foot thrusters showed a tendency to start, his body felt like it was about to fly out.

He subconsciously tightened his muscles, forcibly suppressing the movement. As a result, the right arm armor jammed with a 'clack,' freezing halfway in the air.

"Damn," he cursed under his breath, fine sweat breaking out on his forehead.

"Don't rely on the auxiliary modules," Chen Wuwang's voice came through the communicator, calm as a piece of iron. "Turn it off. Use your Sword Intent to perceive the joint fluctuations—treat it as a sword, not a machine."

Chen Xiaodao bit his teeth and reached out into the Void Realm to trace a shut-down gesture.

[Auxiliary Stabilization System: Deactivated]

Instantly, the entire world changed.

There was no buffer, no delay correction. Every trace of vibration from the mecha was transmitted directly back to his nerve endings, like walking barefoot on the edge of a scorching blade.

He could feel the energy accumulation in the shoulder thrusters, hear the friction between the spiritual runes on the soles and the Spiritual Qi of the ground, and even sense that tiny bit of phase shift in the middle resonance ring.

"Good grief..." He caught his breath, yet the corners of his mouth curled up. "You really dare to play big."

He no longer rushed to move, but sat quietly, eyes closed, his breathing slowing down.

What a Sword Cultivator practiced was Intent, an extension.

Where the sword tip pointed was where the heart directed.

Now, this mecha was his sword.

He imagined himself holding that wooden sword that never left his side—the half-broken one he had picked up from the ruins. His Sword Intent slowly probed out, following the neural connection, along the energy channels, section by section, permeating into every part of the mecha's body.

His left foot lifted slightly.

The thrusters hummed.

A shallow crack appeared on the ground.

It worked.

He opened his eyes, a sharp light flashing in his pupils.

"Stand up."

The mecha's knees slowly straightened, its metal joints making a low 'clack' sound as it stood firmly.

"Turn around."

A three-hundred-and-sixty-degree rotation, smooth as wind circling a tree, without a single stutter.

"Raise arm—punch!"

The right arm swung out violently, tearing the air with a sonic boom. The fist stopped ten centimeters away from the test target's bullseye, as precise as a ruler's measurement.

"Ha!" Chen Xiaodao couldn't help but laugh out loud. "This thing really can understand me!"

On the command platform, the corner of Chen Wuwang's mouth twitched up imperceptibly. His fingers tapped lightly on the control panel, pulling up the synchronization curve—it had climbed all the way from an initial 37% and was now stable at 82%, still slowly rising.

"Don't get cocky," he spoke. "This is just the beginning. Try running."

Chen Xiaodao gave an affirmative and started the propulsion System.

The mecha stepped forward, cautious at first, one step at a time. Then its speed gradually increased, from walking to jogging, and then to a full-speed sprint.

Eighty meters per second, ninety meters, a hundred meters—

Suddenly, a brief delay appeared in the data stream at the edge of his vision.

He was about to make a sharp turn, but the System feedback was half a beat slow. The machine's inertia increased, and it almost crashed into the energy shield at the edge of the training field.

"Damn!" He yanked the control stick hard, forcing a tilt. The mecha slid over a dozen meters against the shield before stabilizing its form.

"Where's the problem?" Chen Wuwang asked.

"Navigation delay," Chen Xiaodao panted. "My Sword Intent's prediction is faster than the System; it can't keep up."

"Normal," Chen Wuwang nodded. "You're used to using Meteor Sword Intent to predict trajectories, but the mecha relies on real-time data feedback. The thinking doesn't match up."

"Then make it match." Chen Xiaodao wiped his sweat, his eyes frighteningly bright. "I won't speed up all at once; I'll do it stage by stage."

He started again. This time he wasn't greedy for speed. Every time he increased a speed level, he would stop for ten seconds to let the System calibrate and his consciousness adapt.

From a hundred meters to a hundred and twenty, then to a hundred and fifty, the data stream gradually synchronized with his neural rhythm.

Then, he started adding flourishes.

Serpentine movements, Z-shaped turns, mid-air rolls followed by instant stops. Upon landing, both feet stepped precisely onto the eight preset spiritual rune points, without a hair's breadth of error.

"Beautiful!" a maintenance worker by the side couldn't help but shout out.

The mecha leaped into the air, arms wide, back thrusters fully open. Silver electric arcs traced two afterimages in the sky, then suddenly contracted. The machine fell vertically, and at the moment it was about to touch the ground, it used reverse thrust to ascend, completing a nearly impossible 'roundhouse kick'.

The bullseye shattered, and crushed stones flew everywhere.

"This isn't driving anymore, this is dancing!" another person murmured.

Chen Xiaodao landed. The mecha was as steady as a rock, though his breathing was somewhat hurried.

High-intensity control placed a massive burden on the spirit, but his gaze remained sharp, staring at the final high-difficulty project in the distance—the Precipice Simulation Zone.

There was a thirty-meter-wide rift there with steep rock walls on both sides. Conventional mecha needed to bypass it or use levitation devices, but the design of the po xu type-2 allowed it to cross through continuous wall-kick jumps.

"Patriarch." His communication connected. "I want to try that."

Chen Wuwang was silent for two seconds then nodded. "Granted. Remember, don't force it."

"Understood."

The mecha accelerated toward the cliff. As it neared the edge, it suddenly leaped. The first foot kicked off the rock wall, using the force to catapult itself. The second jump was higher, and the third jump almost skimmed over the cliff top. Upon landing, it performed a roll to dissipate the force and stood steadily.

The entire field was silent for a moment, followed by scattered applause.

"He... he did it?"

"Three coherent jumps, a 0.5-second adjustment period in between, perfectly utilizing inertia and reverse thrust!"

Chen Xiaodao sat in the cockpit, his chest heaving, sweat dripping from his chin onto the control console.

He smiled, laughing like a youth who had just won a fight.

"One more time," he said.

The second time was steadier, the third time faster. On the fourth time, he even added a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree rotation in the air and struck a pose of sheathing a sword upon landing.

"You kid really aren't afraid of death," Chen Wuwang finally spoke, his tone carrying a rare hint of a smile.

"Those afraid of death don't live to see today." Chen Xiaodao unbuckled his seatbelt, pushed open the cockpit door, and jumped down.

The mecha slowly shut down its Systems, the light patterns on its surface extinguishing layer by layer, like a tired giant beast quietly lying down.

Chen Xiaodao stood beside it, looking up at the steel combat body, and said softly, "It can understand my sword."

Chen Wuwang walked down from the command platform, his boots making a rustling sound on the crushed stones.

He stood beside Chen Xiaodao, and the two of them gazed at the po xu type-2 side by side. Neither spoke.

A moment later, Chen Wuwang raised his hand and patted the youth's shoulder.

"There will be a mission tomorrow," he said. "Are you ready?"

Chen Xiaodao turned his head to look at him, his mechanical left arm moving slightly, a cooling blue light flashing and vanishing.

"I've always been ready."