969 Combat Skills and Spiritual Techniques

On the spacious training grounds was a majestic row of steel mechas, each standing at over dozens of meters tall.

"You need to experience real battle and accumulate operating hours in order to become an excellent mecha pilot!"

A single-eyed instructor was giving a lecture to the students with a solemn expression. "Other schools use outdated models for training. Some even use ancient first-generation machines. But here, all of you will use the K9999 model! You're lucky to have this! It'll be a seamless transition when you get into the military, and you will not require familiarization! You…" He pointed at a student at random. "Recite the specifications of K9999!"

"Yes, Sir!" A young man crossed his hands behind his back and yelled, "Gundam K9999, height, 24.5 meters! Weight, 177 tons! Its armor is made from Norman alloy, it uses a third-generation psionic reactor, and its main weapon is a shoulder-mounted laser cannon. It can carry additional weapons such as a photon clutch blade, nuclear sledgehammer, alloy battle saber…"

"Excellent! Return to your position!" One-eyed Ya Ge was rather satisfied with the answer. His gaze shifted, landing on Fang Yuan. "Discipline and obedience are the core values of my lessons. All my orders, no matter how unreasonable, must be completed at all costs. Understood?"

"Yes, Sir!" the students yelled.

"Now, enter your mecha. Be careful not to step on the wrong valve. If anyone makes this kind of amateur mistake, I will make him clean the training grounds and toilets for a month!" Ya Ge shouted and entered his instructor mecha.

His mecha was a different Gundam model. It was around a dozen meters tall and black from head to toe, presenting an elegant and smooth yet slightly ferocious beauty of brutality.

It was obvious that it was an Elite-grade mecha that cost an arm and a leg.

The K9999 series that students piloted was the best option that balanced price and performance. Their cost had been reduced to around a hundred million star dollars. On the other hand, Elite-grade mechas could easily cost a few hundred million!

The even higher King-grades could not be mass-produced and had to be custom made. The materials were very precious, and it might not even be possible to gather them all.

Mecha pilots that could order custom-made mechas were surely loaded.

Emperor-grade ones required the effort of the entire Human Alliance to produce.

After knowing this, Fang Yuan's heart sank. "Damn… it's hard to say if there are even a thousand Emperor-grade mechas in the entire Human Alliance… Looks like I'll have to dig deep into the mines. However, the Devil Galaxy is on the frontlines and not open for traveling. Is joining the military the only option?"

With these thoughts in mind, he entered the cockpit of a K9999 from the back and felt a sensation entirely different from when he was in the Wings of the Sky.

Emperor-grade mechas were completely operated with spiritual will, even creating the illusion that the mecha was your own body.

However, Soldier-grade mechas were obviously not that sophisticated, and he had to put on a helmet to establish the neural connection. There was also a slight latency to the connection.

There were even groups of levers and valves to assist in operating, making it much harder to pilot than the Emperor-grade mechas.

"Activate!" Fang Yuan followed the textbook and activated the psionic reactor. The mecha's eyes lit up immediately.

The monitors around him showed the view outside, providing an immersive experience. A large stream of data appeared in the air and displayed all kinds of information.

"The efficiency of the psionic reactor is too bad! Negative review! There's delay in the neural connection! Negative review! Even the seat is so hard! Even worse negative review!"

Fang Yuan's face was brimming with disgust. He slightly regretted handing over the Wings of the Sky.

If the Wings of the Sky was a five-star hotel, the K9999 was not even a road-side motel. It was at most a lousy cardboard box, making him very aggrieved.

It is easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but difficult to go from extravagance to frugality. After piloting a top-grade mecha, he was immediately disgusted beyond measure by this type of basic mecha.

"Also, how big is the psionic crystal in this reactor? Is it merely the size of a grain of rice? It doesn't even pique my interest in the slightest…"

There was an entire practice field of training mechas, but Fang Yuan did not feel the slightest desire to devour them at all. Even Ya Ge's Elite-grade was no different.

It was clear that the psionic crystals in these mechas were too small. All of them combined was negligible in comparison to that of the Wings of the Sky.

"Damn… psionic crystals might be more valuable than I thought!"

Fang Yuan piloted the Gundam gloomily, moving it around.

With his talent and foundation, even piloting Emperor-grade mechas was easy. Piloting the military's Gundam required only some familiarity.

It did not take long before he made the mecha bolt around while executing smooth battle techniques.

"Hmm?" Ya Ge, who was piloting the black Elite-grade mecha, saw Fang Yuan's actions upon turning his head. "This student who skipped a grade really does have talent. He has the potential to become an ace!"

Ace mecha pilots had taken the lives of hundreds of high-ranking star beasts at the very least. They were the pride of the Human Alliance!

There was something to be said about a student that made Ya Ge feel that he had that potential!

"His name was… Lin Meng? He's even self-funded…"

After looking through Fang Yuan's information, Ya Ge was even more surprised. "Is he the second generation of some plutocrat? Otherwise, how would he build his own mecha after graduation?"

Dealing with mechas consumed a huge amount of resources. The consumption of resources for regular training was, in fact, the smallest portion.

After graduation, those that signed agreements with the military would join them and pilot the Gundam K9999 without any problem.

However, self-funded students would be at a total loss. The school would naturally not rent Gundams to them, so their only option was to purchase or even build their own mecha. The cost was astronomical.

To Ya Ge, it was apparent that Fang Yuan was the son of a wealthy family, ambitious and ready to make his own mecha.

"Which organization is it? New Fokkers? Aladdin? Doesn't look like it…"

With some doubt, Ya Ge shouted, "Now… In twos, begin combat training!"

Bang! Bang!

With his order, the steel monsters instantly began fighting.

Of course, the Gundams that the students piloted had had their most powerful main weapon removed.

The destructive force would be too great otherwise. Most importantly, it will accelerate the scrapping of Gundams to a level that even East Dragon University would find hard to sustain!

Despite that, the battles between the steel giants were still very exciting.

All around the training grounds, students and even instructors stopped to spectate.

Fang Yuan's opponent controlled his mecha to rush at him with strange footwork. The curved blade in its hands flashed with intense electric sparks.

"Spin Dance Step! Arc Blade!"

Fang Yuan's eyes flashed, recognizing the two mecha combat skills.

Evidently, this opponent would give it his all no matter who he faced and would not rely on luck.

"But… I haven't studied specialized mecha combat skills!" A light glinted in Fang Yuan's eyes as he shifted the mecha a few meters to the side to dodge the Arc Blade by a hair's breadth. He then pulled a valve, and the metal giant took a step forward to deliver a kick.

Smack!

The next moment, the hostile mecha that had rushed to Fang Yuan's front received a kick in the knee joint, as though it had purposefully delivered its knee for the blow.

With a loud crash, the opposing mecha's knee broke, losing its balance and falling to the ground.

"Hmm? What precise judgment!"

Ya Ge almost wanted to applaud. Such precise judgment was rarely found in even experienced mecha pilots.

The student did not understand why he had lost, but he was well aware of the difficulty.

Ya Ge thought for a bit and called another student. "Jonas, you go next!"

A Gundam felled its opponent with a single punch and approached slowly. There was even a slight momentum gathering around him that made him appear skilled.

However, he was still fodder before Fang Yuan.

Fang Yuan had given it thorough thought. Compared to the talent that he showed earlier, there was absolutely no need to hide at this point.

Furthermore, the school's higher-ups all knew that he had piloted the Wings of the Sky and defeated Wu Wudi. There was no need to cover things up anymore.

Therefore, despite Jonas's strong boxing skills, Fang Yuan kicked his mecha's knee after three rounds and caused the humongous mecha to fall to the ground with black smoke spilling out.

"Stand up!" Ya Ge's face twitched. Jonas was his prized student, yet he was defeated by a rookie. It was quite disgraceful.

Being competitive, as well as curious how long Fang Yuan could last, the one-on-one warmup turned into Fang Yuan's round-robin fight.

Fang Yuan wanted to raise his mecha control proficiency as well, so he took everyone on.

"Who is piloting that mecha?"

"H-he looks like he doesn't know any combat skills at all! He just uses that kick no matter what!"

"That kick alone is scary enough. He defeated Jonas and a few other top students with his kick. It isn't a senior playing a prank on us, right?"

…

More and more mechas fell on the ground. They were all dumbfounded, looking at their mechas that were all damaged in the same manner.

On the other hand, Fang Yuan started to yearn for a challenge. No matter who the opponent was, he had broken their knee with a single kick. The logistics department would be in despair tonight.

"Good lad!"

After some time, the only mechas remaining standing were Fang Yuan's and Ya Ge's.

Ya Ge advanced slowly. "Show me your true strength!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the black mecha exploded with unparalleled speed. Only an afterimage appeared as it vanished into the sky.

Fang Yuan raised his head and saw the black mecha aggressively crash down from midair.

A layer of radiance was shining on the mecha. "Dao art—Immovable Mountain!"

The power of a dao art when used by a mecha had its power amplified tens of times!

"Heavens, it's a dao art!"

"To use a dao art through the mecha, the instructor is serious!"

"Standard mechas can only use combat skills. Only Elite-grade mechas and above are able to use magical powers and spiritual techniques… And their strength will increase dramatically!"

The surrounding students all exclaimed in amazement as they watched Ya Ge's mecha, which had seemingly turned into a mountain, crash down while running to safety.

Fang Yuan's eyes lit up. "I see. A high-grade mecha can form a combination with a cultivator to increase the power of spiritual techniques… What kind of power would immortal techniques have when combined with an Emperor-grade mecha? Would it be able to destroy planets?"