23: Chapter 23: Initial-Level Mechs, Everyone Was Amazed

The skeleton of the first Mid-tier Mecha slowly rose in the morning light, the hydraulic rods locking the final segment of the spinal structure with a "clack". The weld joints were still smoking, and the runic guide rails glowed a cooling dark red, like a steel behemoth that had just crawled out of a furnace, panting heavily.

Chen Tiezhu stood before the console, his hand hovering over the start button, his fingertips trembling violently.

He didn't dare press it.

It had taken seven days and nights to refine the core, but that was just the heart. Whether this shell could live depended on this single moment—power connection, System self-check, and cockpit response. If one of these three steps went wrong, the entire mecha would be paralyzed here, turning into a pile of red-hot scrap metal.

A crowd had already gathered below the platform.

The men from the Medicinal Field stood at the very front clutching their hoes, sentinels stood on tiptoe with spears tucked under their arms to watch, and apprentices from the Artifact Refining Workshop crowded in a circle. Even the old craftsmen, who usually didn't show their faces, had come leaning on their canes. They were silent, their eyes fixed on the mecha, their breathing light.

It was too heavy.

This thing weighed on people's hearts more than a mineral vein.

"Uncle." Chen Wuwang's voice came from the side, neither loud nor hurried, "It won't explode."

Chen Tiezhu's Adam's apple bobbed. "I'm not afraid of it exploding... I'm afraid... it won't move."

After saying it, he felt like laughing. A man who had swung a hammer for thirty years was actually afraid that something he built wouldn't move? But he knew it was no joke. This was exchanged for lives; it was a gamble involving his craft, his reputation, and the future of the Chen Family.

He gritted his teeth and pressed the button.

"Vroom—"

A low-frequency vibration rose from the ground as the Spirit Energy Circuits lit up segment by segment. Blue light climbed along the guide rails, finally flowing into the energy hub beneath the cockpit. The dashboard's green lights flashed in unison, and the self-check was complete.

The mecha's right arm lifted slightly, its joints making the light sound of metal interlocking.

Someone in the crowd sucked in a cold breath.

"It's alive..." a man from the Medicinal Field muttered. "It's actually fucking alive."

Just then, a black shadow suddenly leaped out from the crowd.

Chen Xiaodao landed silently and rushed to the side of the mecha's leg in a few steps. Looking up at the half-open cockpit door, his eyes were terrifyingly bright. He didn't look back, only tossing out a sentence: "I'll test it."

No one stopped him.

Everyone knew he was the first youth brave enough to charge into the insect swarm and the only one who drew his sword before the family head gave the order. He wasn't afraid of death, and he certainly wasn't afraid of machines.

He flipped into the cockpit, the door closed automatically, and the transparent shield descended, reflecting his tense jawline. His hands gripped the control sticks, his knuckles turning white.

"Energy stable, output normal." Chen Tiezhu stared at the screen, his voice suppressed with excitement. "You can test the cannon."

Chen Wuwang stood by the stone table, unmoving and silent. He simply raised his right hand and lightly tapped the tabletop.

Three times.

Crisp and sharp, like a bell.

Chen Xiaodao took a deep breath, and the Spirit Energy Cannon on the shoulder began to charge.

"Vroom— Vroom— Vroom—"

Three breaths.

The blue light at the muzzle compressed like a stellar core, the air distorted, and the fine sand on the ground spontaneously gathered into circular patterns, forming a miniature vortex around the mecha.

"Boom!!!"

A stream of light tore through the sky, tracing a blinding trajectory and slamming violently into the rock wall of the Abandoned Mineral Vein on East Mountain.

In that instant, time seemed to skip a beat.

And then—

BOOM!!!

The entire mountain seemed to be split open by a giant axe; the rock layers exploded, debris shot into the sky, and dust rose like a furious Dragon, dozens of zhang high. Cracks spread rapidly from the point of impact, piercing through the mountainside, and half of the mountain collapsed with a roar, crashing into the valley and shaking the very ground of the testing field.

The aftershock swept through the crowd; hats flew, clothes fluttered wildly, some people stumbled back, and others sat directly on the ground.

Silence.

For three full breaths, no one spoke.

Then, someone finally spoke, their voice trembling: "This... this is even more powerful than the 'Nine Heavens Thunder Seal' of a Nascent Soul Old Ancestor..."

"When Blood Butcher invaded back then, he used Yao Beasts to ram this rock foundation for three days without moving it... and now a single shot has shaved off half the mountain?"

"Was that... done by a mecha? Not a Spell?"

The young clansmen stared with wide eyes and open mouths. A child of about ten pointed at the still-collapsing mountain in the distance, his finger shaking: "Brother... can we drive this in the future too?"

His brother didn't answer, only staring fixedly at the mecha standing in the dust, his lips moving but unable to utter a single word.

Chen Tiezhu still stood at the console, both hands propped on the metal edge, his head tilted back.

His face was covered in dust, but the corners of his mouth curled up.

It wasn't a smile, but a look of triumph.

He saw that the guide rails he had welded by hand hadn't snapped, the runes he had carved hadn't cracked, and the energy valve he had adjusted steadily held the peak value—the thing he built had truly stood up.

"It's a success," he whispered, as if speaking to the mecha, or perhaps to his twenty-year-younger self who had forged his first Flying Sword blank. "My fire has not been extinguished."

Chen Wuwang finally moved.

He walked forward slowly, the soles of his boots making short crunching sounds on the gravel. He came to a halt by the stone table and raised his right hand again.

This time, it wasn't a light tap.

But a heavy slam!

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Three sounds, so loud the blueprints on the table jumped.

Everyone went silent instantly.

His gaze swept across the crowd and finally landed on the mecha. His voice wasn't loud, but it was like a blade striking stone:

"Within seven days, mass-produce twenty units!"

No one questioned him.

No one hesitated.

A man from the Medicinal Field slammed his hoe into the ground and roared, "Good!"

A sentinel pulled out his spear and thrust it into the ground, shouting along, "Good!"

Apprentices jumped up and clapped, the old craftsman leaned on his cane and stomped the ground hard, and even the wind seemed to carry a sense of ruthless determination.

Chen Xiaodao sat in the cockpit, hands still gripping the control sticks, his knuckles white.

He looked at the canyon ahead where the dust had not yet settled, his breathing slightly heavy, his gaze so hot it seemed ready to burn through the ruins. That shot just now hadn't just awed the others with its power; it had also ignited his own spirit.

It turned out that technology really could allow a Mortal to lift an immortal sword.

Chen Tiezhu didn't leave.

He still stood by the console, looking up at the mecha, unable to suppress the smile at the corner of his mouth. His body was so tired it was ready to collapse, but his mind was as clear as if it had been struck by lightning.

He knew that from today on, the Chen Family would no longer be a small clan surviving on its ancestors' shadow.

They had their own path.

A Cyber Cultivation path paved with iron, fire, code, and lives.

Chen Wuwang stood where he was, his right hand still hovering over the edge of the stone table he had struck.

The wind blew from the direction of East Mountain, carrying the scent of scorched earth and metal.

He didn't give the next order.

Nor did he tell anyone to stop working.

He just stood there like a war hub that had not yet been activated, quietly waiting for the moment the first finished product truly touched the ground.

In the distance, the hydraulic System of the first Mid-tier Mecha made a slight pressure-release sound.

Inside the cockpit, Chen Xiaodao's finger twitched slightly on the control stick.