With Ningguang busy with her own stuff along with setting up Keqings wedding two days from now... That left me with some free time alone for a change.
Well alone besides the immortal ghost that was haunting my house in Qiqi, but I tried not to think too much about her.
Either way, I was hard at work as I remembered Ningguang speaking about how potent the Titanfall Titans were in combat.
See... I loved the idea of making giant mecha that would be thrown down with the monsters this world was fucking flooded with.
So I had an... Idea as it were.
Seeing as that cultivator was able to synch up his beast riding and saber intent into the mech. That meant that I should make my mechs as human-like as possible to make them more compatible with martial arts and cultivation.
And in that vein, I had two paths I could go down. The spiritual biomechanical mechs in EVA's from Evangelion. Or the pure mechanical mechs from Pacific Rim.
Both had their pros and cons. First, the EVA's would require a fuck load more material, and eldritch flesh that I could compensate with using monster flesh to use. But the EVAs would be a powerful conduit for spiritual matters and would likely greatly amplify the cultivator's strength so long as they had enough spirit stones and power in the fusion batteries.
On the other hand, Pacific Rim mechs were purely mechanical and although much more powerful than the typical Titan from Titanfall they were still somewhat limiting.
Though... There was nothing saying I couldn't start mounting Warhammer 40k grade weapons on a Pacific Rim, Jeager.
'I think a mixture of both types would be the best play with the EVA's being assigned to the most talented and powerful.' I mused before I hit the next major snag.
Production of such things.
I was already getting enough raw materials to build the majority of the Yeagers at least from my first production plant. But for the actual production of the specialized materials and creation of the machines I needed two things.
First, I needed another production plant to make the specialized parts. Second, I needed a train line underground leading from the first mine heading to the production plant. Then lastly I needed a large... Very well defended area to begin the production of either mechs and their armaments.
As I utterly fucking refused to be mass producing weapons of mass destruction without at least a Nascent Soul cultivator or three watching that shit like a hawk what with the evil cultivators and abyssal monsters that had been sniffing around my plants.
"Hmm... Might be a good idea to have the mech plant built close to the Chasm. It would be right near Morax's Heavenly Mountain Sect and the army of Liyue and his cultivators would be all but watching the plant at all times."
That would also make things easier for me as my first mine/production plant was closer to that area anyway.
'Though... If I make an aircraft production facility anywhere that's not next door to Cloud Retainers. Cloud Refining Sect, she is likely to throw a fit with how obsessed she seems about my gunships.' I thought with amusement.
A soft thump on my door rang out and I looked over with my lips twitching as I saw Qiqi's head phase through the door with her looking at me blankly as she said. "Someone sneaky is on the property... They look to be looking for a quiet way into the house."
The house itself had metal shutters and blinds to keep the nightly Hellbats from getting into the house. So trying to break into and rob a house here in the middle of Liyue during the day was a fool's errand, to say the least.
I gave Qiqi a look and said coldly. "If they try to get into the house itself. Go ahead and eat them for all I care. Ningguang wouldn't have a fool who was supposed to be guarding me trying to break into my house."
To which Qiqi tilted her head to the side and asked curiously. "So I won't get in trouble for eating them if they come inside the house?"
And without a moment of hesitation, I responded bluntly as I continued working on my blueprints. "Nope, if they touch the house in general. You have my go-ahead to eat them, I will smooth over any issues if they have some form of backing with Ningguang."
I was the fucking golden goose of Liyue. If some dumbass wanted to fuck around, Ningguang would skin them alive herself and that wasn't an exaggeration. I already heard from Keqing how Ningguang used to be famous for using her earth-aligned spells to grind down higher-level monsters by stripping the flesh and armor from their bones.
Heaven forbid the dumbass was from another nation... That would get Morax and Cloud Retainer involved as now with my alchemy factory, I was a direct force multiplier for Liyue's most valuable resource in cultivators and martial artists who were fighting on the front lines.
But then Qiqi spoke with some amusement in her own voice. "Hmm... But I can't eat her. She is too strong. And even if she was dying, her soul and body are corrupted with abyssal Yang energies."
I froze hearing that and I slowly turned towards Qiqi and spoke bluntly. "Wait... How fucking strong is she? You are a Golden Core ghost?"
But instead of answering Qiqi's eyes widened and the door cracked as she left the physical plane entering her true ghost state as a soft velvet voice filled my ears along with a hand that had metal claws landed on my shoulder with a thud as a... A blood-soaked rusty odor filled my nose.
I slowly turned my head to the side and upwards from the barred and blocked-off window to see the cultivator who had obviously teleported into my fucking house and I felt myself die a little on the inside as my eyes met the cold bloody red glowing X-shaped pupils.
"My name is Arlecchino... I am here at the behest of the Council of Ice of Snezhnaya. We are here to trade with you Jake Bariss, not Liyue."
Arlecchino's presence was like nothing I had felt before... No, I had felt something similar when Ningguang warned the people of Liyue from messing with my gunship and gawking at me.
But Arlecchino's aura was... Just so fucking blood-soaked that her killing intent just seeming leaked out even as she stood there with a casual if even respectful expression.
I had to hold in my stomach as I could literally taste the blood in the air from her leaking aura. And I slowly nodded and spoke with what little confidence I had as Arlecchino carefully let go of my shoulder so she didn't snap it with a flex of her hands.
"Good... I am not here to harm you Jake Bariss, despite what Liyue may tell you. Snezhnaya does in fact trade with other nations with long-term thoughts in mind." She spoke while I gave a weak smile at that.
As honestly I didn't expect to run into... The 'not' Fatui of Snezhnaya anytime soon with how the Tsaritsa and the other divines of Snezhnaya kept the nation on lockdown due to her using her domain of ice to keep a constant brutal blizzard going that froze all weak monsters and abyssal monsters.
Next 10 chapters are on Patreon and Ko-fi
Hey if you like this and want daily uploads and to read early chapters please drop a tip in my Ko-Fi https://ko-fi.com/azazyel22926 or https://www.patr-eon.com/Azazyel and your precious energy stones, it keeps me working on it.
My commission rate is 15$ per thousand words.