Quantum Cultivation by Jace Kang (simple e reader TXT) 📕

when they’d fought up close, why hadn’t they used their light blades?

She watched the simulation play back, noting how he’d hit them with a water technique, then attempted to follow-up with Xingyi Fire Fists which never landed. More importantly, the shocktroopers’ close combat skills improved the longer they fought Ryu.

Of course.

The Ministry of Defense wanted the power armor AI to learn Ryu’s techniques.  Like the Peacekeeper combat AI she’d copied, it could both copy and come up with solutions. They’d even sacrificed their men’s health in order to do so. More impressively, it was becoming more obvious that the shocktroopers’ armor AI had networked them into a cohesive whole, coordinating their attacks to maximize their efficiency.

Not even Ryu’s incredible martial skill could defeat eight shocktroopers and an assassin.

Where was the other one?

She shifted her attention to the present, where Kentaro had engaged the wiry man with a smooth transition between the various Xingyi Fist forms. His combination of punches were a thing of grace and beauty, but the assassin was just too fast with its cybernetic eyes and wired reaction time. Kentaro was losing ground, saved only by Keiko’s timely shots to distract the assassin’s killing blows.

As for Siena, half her hair was singed off and the side of her face was burnt. The eight shocktroopers were moving to surround her, and even the five with live weapons weren’t firing them.

Aya returned to the simulation to follow Siena’s fights. Flaming darts, electrical discharges, energy rays…all of the Elestrae’s channeling attacks had dissipated on the armor. The durastrium was well-known for absorbing various types of energy, which was why they used it to contain istrium cores in interstellar spacecraft.

Back in the present, it looked like Siena had either figured that out, or was too exhausted to channel more. She held the same stance she’d started with when fighting Ryu that first day.  Was the Ministry of Defense going to learn how to fight against the Elestrae people’s fighting arts, too? By recording and letting the AI—

That was it.

She’d studied the AI combat code from the Peacekeeper tactical suit. It was all algorithms. Algorithms that could be hacked.

“Ai, take footage of Kentaro’s Xingyi Fire Form, create a reverse-engineered second form that leaves openings for his form to strike the areas which Ryu damaged, and then create a third form that the second form defeats.”

Did that make sense? Would Ai be able to follow the commands? More importantly, would the combat code be able to come up with a solution?

The fox spirit bowed. Six million simulations run. Form with the best chance created.

Interestingly, it predicted the shocktroopers’ forms to resemble the Xingyi Metal Form, and the third to look like the Xingyi Wood Form.

Kentaro’s Fire to Temper Metal.

Which the shocktrooper would probably use in reaction to a Wood attack.

Metal Pruning Wood.

“Ai, what are the odds of this best form?”

One in three million, seven hundred thousand, two hundred and eighty-four chance of succeeding.

Near-impossible odds, yet still better than what they faced now.

First, she had to help Kentaro overcome the assassin.

“Ai, project a copy of Bodhi from the maglift bay, and prepare to attack the assassin high with a Metal Path technique on my mark.”

If the shocktrooper cameras saw the Wood Path technique, they would be prepared to use a Metal counter.

Then, she hacked into Kentaro’s ear dot so she could speak to him on a secure channel.

Chapter 37:

The Purebred

I f not for Keiko’s shots, the assassin would’ve finished Ken off by now. Armed with a gun and a knife, not to mention speed that rivaled Master Ryu, the wiry man had an answer to all of Ken’s attacks. Though the blade had sliced through Ken’s clothes, his Iron Shirt had only suffered the equivalent of a dozen paper cuts.

Which was to say, it hurt like hell, even if it hadn’t caused any major damage.

Aya’s voice spoke through his ear dot. “Ken-kun, this is a secure channel that only you can hear. I’m going to send Bodhi to engage the assassin. It should give you an opening. Whatever you do, don’t use Fire Path techniques until I tell you.”

Bodhi?

Right, the fake Transcendent. Would a holoprojection work on a Ministry of Defense assassin, with their cybernetic eyes?

He just barely dodged a slash of the man’s knife, but left himself open to a follow-up.

Then, the Bodhi holoprojection was there, robes flowing as it engaged with tenacious punches and kicks.

Wood Path attacks.

It forced the assassin to break away from Ken as the man avoided Bodhi’s onslaught with blinding speed. Apparently, the holoprojection had fooled the cybernetic eye.

“Not too fast,” Ken whispered.

Aya’s tone suggested she was rolling her eyes. “I know, I don’t want the assassin to learn it’s not real. Now go!”

Ken watched the exchange of blows between MoD goon and holoprojection, waiting for an opening. Neither landed an attack, but the holoprojection was circling. In half a second, the assassin’s back…

Ken surged in, stomping as he drilled a Xingyi Wood Form Fist between the assassin’s shoulder blades. Bone cracked and snapped, unable to withstand the changes that had come to Ken’s body from Advancing to First Rank in Metal.  The man went limp below his chest and crumpled down on flaccid knees. An Iron Palm strike to the top of the man’s head compressed his spine, and he collapsed, unmoving.

“Hurry, save Siena,” Aya said. “Stay a half-step behind Bodhi to his left, and launch your Xingyi Fire punches when he attacks with Xingyi Wood techniques.”

What? All Ken could do was keep up with the holoprojection. It darted toward the closest shocktrooper, who stood at Siena’s back.

Of course, just like Smith in the Peacekeeper