Beginning with the Ubume Bird-Chapter 566 - 62 Mechanical Ascension (Part 3)

Chang Yu stood on the edge of the high tower, his flesh-and-blood body swaying back and forth in the strong wind as if it would fall at any moment.

The cigarette butt between his fingers scattered drifting white ashes, red sparks falling haphazardly onto the ground.

"Bang!"

The fully armed officers burst through the locked iron door, and upon witnessing the cigarette in Chang Yu’s hand, they grew furious and didn’t hesitate to shoot large armored bullets at him. The round bullets struck the arm armor with a feeble ding.

Chang Yu was slightly pushed back by the force of the bullets, then the greaves on his feet launched three sharp claws that hooked onto the smooth wall. With a loud bang, a cloud of steam burst from beneath his feet, and he leapt up high with the momentum.

"Open fire."

The Chief Inspector, taking the lead, drew his pistol and poured bullets toward Chang Yu mid-air. The various calibers of gun barrels also extended from the airships overhead, all spitting out tongues of flame together.

Chang Yu did his best to shield his body, but bursts of blood still exploded on him. The blood vessels in his eyes receded a lot, shimmering under the murky moonlight. Struck by several bullets and without the energy to move about, his arm guard’s elbow suddenly opened a black hole, from which a flame grenade trailing smoke awkwardly launched and landed right on top of a pile of oil drums and cardboard boxes marked with explosive signs.

"No!"

All the officers on the scene were filled with rage.

The Chief Inspector, without a moment’s hesitation, leaped out, arms open to meet the flame grenade, which was flying at a moderate speed and curled into a ball on impact with his chest, rolling forward. A muffled thud was heard. Red flames enveloped the Chief Inspector’s chin and hands, and even with the protection of the steam-powered suit, the delicate flesh was severely burnt by such high temperatures. In the end, however, the dangerous explosives were not ignited.

Pain caused the Chief Inspector to convulse violently, but he held firm, lifting his square face, desiring to see the despairing expression on the face of the lunatic criminal before his death. However, he was disappointed. He only saw a stunned and delicate face, only a pair of dusty, exhausted eyes.

Soaked in blood, Chang Yu fell from the high tower. His luck was much better than St. Yves, as he happened to crash onto the soft balloon of an airship. Nonetheless, with most of his organs shattered, he almost had no hope of survival.

His vision reddened by the warm, wet blood, Chang Yu struggled to blink, and suddenly, he saw a familiar face.

"Didn’t we agree to deliver the goods today? How did you end up like this?"

Li Yan’s face was equally pale, but he was still smiling as if nothing could stop him.

"..."

Chang Yu blinked and blinked again; his consciousness grew more scattered. The moon and occasionally hidden stars spun in front of his eyes.

"The goods are below. I’m sorry, I used it without asking you, and I also damaged it... But, cough cough, but I promise. It’s the best. Better than anything I’ve ever handled before."

Li Yan stared at the horrific smile of Chang Yu, and suddenly his own smile vanished, his face becoming much more solemn: "I lied to you about one thing, I am not a Jacobin at all. That was just a lie to trick you into joining me, I am sorry." 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

The smile on Chang Yu’s face grew stiff, and the surrounding scenery rushed past rapidly. It took a long while before he managed to rasp out, "Can you do me a favor?"

"You say," Li Yan replied without a second thought, making this kind of promise to someone else for the first time in this world: "I will do everything I can."

Several airships approached, and the officers raised their guns and shouted something at Li Yan, who sat beside Chang Yu’s body, unperturbed, quietly watching Chang Yu’s lips move.

"No problem."

Bullet after bullet fell powerlessly after hitting a wall of water, and the airship carrying Li Yan and the corpse of Chang Yu began to descend slowly.

A large number of Steam Guards surrounded the descending airship completely.

"Put your hands up! Right now."

Before the officer could finish, Li Yan had disappeared without a trace.

"Where is he?"

The officers were startled and alarmed.

The giant Ymir, standing dozens of meters tall, still stood in the same place, exuding an aura of hostility that kept strangers at bay, its black crystal lenses reflecting Li Yan’s face.

"How can I use it when it’s in such bad shape?"

Li Yan squatted in front of a pile of wreckage. At his feet lingered dissipating red steam.

This was the wreckage of a steam-powered suit trampled into shambles by immense force, barely recognizable apart from a wrinkled flat iron shell and a tarnished but intricately ornate steel spine.

Li Yan targeted the gorgeous spine amidst the wreckage with A Fleeting Glimpse.

[Ascender’s Organ] (Incomplete)

Category: Legendary

Note One: A grand creation by the steam engineer Chang Yu, who replicated the pinnacle of natural science technology of the R’lyeh City-State with perpetual motion as the goal, the finished product of an Ascender. It pushes the natural creation’s ability to turn everything in the world into unique property steam to the extreme, but it was also one of the prime causes of the Ambota Major Pollution.

Note Two: It needs a sufficiently fierce soul to unleash its perpetual power.

Somehow, a tin canister had appeared in Li Yan’s hand. He gestured with it, inserting the canister into a groove in the wreckage’s neck, a design that Chang Yu had questioned as superfluous, but which Li Yan had insisted on.

After lining up the groove, Li Yan pushed hard and inserted it. Boxun’s Soul Awakening Bottle shattered inch by inch, and purple smoke, accompanied by a sudden rise in Sanskrit chants, rose and slowly faded...

"You have used [Boxun’s Soul Awakening Bottle]. Remaining uses: zero, Boxun’s Soul Awakening Bottle is now completely destroyed!"

"You have transferred [Fierce Ghost] into an unclaimed husk."

"Unclaimed husk strength assessment in progress..."

"Assessment failed."

"Transfer successful."

Boom!

Ferocious howls accompanied by sharp, horrifying laughter rang out as black and white flames spread out from the spine, interlinked by twenty-eight Tri-Orb Devices, as a blood-red steam coursed through the bottom-most part of the spine, penetrating the twenty-eight Tri-Orb Devices.

Li Yan stepped back a few paces, only to see that the steam single-soldier, which was almost physically impossible to move again, was supported by the glow and red steam and had actually stood up once more. Where the neck should have been, a black and white flame-formed face appeared; from the front, facial features formed of black flames, and from the back, those of white flames.

All the damaged areas of the single-soldier were held together by condensed red steam. The red cracks spreading over the metal surface were reminiscent of magma on the verge of eruption.

[Ascender (Renamable)]

Category: Summoned creature

Quality: Unique

Based on the fierce ghost as a blueprint and prime mover, combined with steam technology and ultra-ancient natural creation’s technic, the twenty-core Ascender’s Organ breeds a peculiar life form, whose power cannot be estimated with common sense. It inherently has two temperaments: one fierce and loyal, the other cunning and proud.

Its characteristics are as follows:

[Hero in Times of Chaos]: A natural-born hero adept at wielding battlefield weaponry and engaging in melee combat with cold weapons.

[Wupozi Witchcraft]: Proficient in sixty-three kinds of eerie and terrifying Wupozi witchcrafts, including soul-binding, bone-disassembling, gu-poisoning, and instilling nightmares, all extremely alarming.

[Ruyi Tricks]: Can shrink as small as a cucumber or eggplant, or expand as large as buildings and vast spaces.

[Boxun’s Fire]: Reborn through the torment of Boxun’s Fire, it can naturally wield Boxun’s Fire.

[Craft Instinct]: The Ascender will use the Tri-Orb Device’s properties to find and adapt equipment that can strengthen itself.

[Supreme Power]: Capable of high-temperature decomposition of most materials in the world into corresponding steam and endowing it with various powerful abilities.

[Ambota Major Pollution!]: When the activity of the Ambota Volcano Bacteria reaches a certain level (linked with more than twenty Tri-Orb Devices) or accumulates to a certain limit, it will fully revive from its usual anaerobic dormant state, decomposing everything it touches into steam. Only the cradle of the past, Soul-forgiving Water, can calm the activated Ambota Volcano Bacteria.

"Roar!"

The Ascender bellowed towards the heavens, its flames and steam searching through the wreckage for something.

Li Yan was in tune with it, aware of what the newly born Ascender was looking for. He took out a few items from his personal mark.

Among them were the knuckleduster: Fire Rakshasa, plundered from the Red Mountain ring fight; the Nameless Greatsword, given to him by Zhan Yuejin, but never used due to various concerns; the black Dragon Flag that Li Yan had almost forgotten at the bottom of his trunk. And various other metal artifacts which Li Yan couldn’t even remember the names of, all tossed to the newborn Ascender.

Surrounded by red steam, these odds and ends all merged into part of the Ascender’s body.

The Ascender’s fiery and steel frame swelled in the wind, and something seemed to flash in the black crystal mirror of the Giant Ymir; six robust mechanical arms pressed down together. Two hands, resembling human fingers and covered with red cracks, braced against the arms, and the Ascender’s frame continued to swell, grappling with the strength of the Giant Ymir.