Chapter 3: By consuming specific rare resources, conduct this large-scale ability awakening.
...
Su Xiao chose the second awakening method. As soon as he made his selection, an illusory scroll materialized before him. This scroll was about two meters long and fifty centimeters thick.
The illusory scroll unrolled itself across the ground like a carpet. Cold white smoke drifted out, forming a humanoid figure over five meters tall. This being wore a white robe, had no legs, and its upper body resembled a human's but was greatly enlarged. Its hair was dry, split, and casually scattered. Its skin was black, forming a stark contrast with the white robe it wore.
Its fingernails were sharp, like claws. In its left hand, it held a bone rosary, and in its right hand, a curved scythe made of bones, flesh, eyeballs, teeth, and other materials.
"Bowu xi di wei... (Unknown Language)"
This being, resembling a Grim Reaper, uttered sounds incomprehensible to anyone. It was both like a language and like an incantation.
With a clang, a massive warhammer made of soul energy crashed down behind the black-and-white Grim Reaper. The rosary beads in its hand began to glow with text, somewhat resembling cuneiform or the ancient script of the Void.
The rosary emitted a wave that made all living beings tremble. The wave suddenly expanded, enveloping the Sun Fortress and the surrounding area. Within this range, all the wild boar warriors let out agonized roars. Fluorescent green life force was stripped from their bodies. This was the most primordial life force. To stand up and resist, they would have to pay an equivalent price.
Four hundred and ninety thousand wild boar warriors had part of their primordial life force extracted. This life force converged toward the black-and-white Grim Reaper, eventually all absorbed into the rosary beads in its hand.
After receiving this life force, a mouth appeared on the Grim Reaper's blurry face. This large mouth smiled in a crescent shape, revealing jagged fangs. The black-and-white Grim Reaper was very satisfied with this harvest.
With a rumble, the massive warhammer made of soul energy split into hundreds of thousands of strands, each plunging into a wild boar warrior.
No matter how one looked at it, this seemed like a transaction. Su Xiao estimated that the War Lord's [War Skill Awakening] ability shouldn't be like this. It should be a more direct awakening ability.
Why was it like this now? Because what needed to be awakened this time was a 'wild' technique ability like [Heavy Hammer Mastery], which was a higher-level activation ability. [War Skill Awakening] couldn't awaken it directly.
The ceiling of [Heavy Hammer Mastery] was the max level of mastery. Therefore, in the judgment, this ability fell within the awakening category.
With this judgment, the problem arose. Using [War Skill Awakening], it was impossible to directly awaken this 'wild' technique ability. Yet this ability fell between passive skills and technique skills.
The Paradise's judgment wasn't completely rigid. Faced with this situation, it began a compromise replacement. This was why Su Xiao could summon the black-and-white Grim Reaper, paying it primordial life force in exchange for the soul energy it provided.
The mastery and improvement of technique abilities required soul energy. With soul energy, things became simpler. After that came the awakening of [Heavy Hammer Mastery].
Su Xiao looked at the newly transformed wild boar warriors. They all stood still, their eyes seeming to flash with light and shadow. Due to overthinking, the veins on their necks bulged.
The wild boar warriors had low intelligence attributes, meaning their mental strength and brain adaptability weren't great. Their life force, however, was exceptionally strong. Currently, the awakening of [Heavy Hammer Mastery] was seventy percent physical transformation, with the rest being combat knowledge and combat memories.
Su Xiao arrived before the Evolution Nest. His original plan was to have the wild boar warriors master [Heavy Hammer Mastery] before starting the war with the Vassal Alliance. Now, he had a more stable method.
Su Xiao took out the Fortress Core and opened this pocket watch-like ornament. At some point, the miniaturized [Sun Ring No. 2] had embedded itself into the tumor of the Fortress Core. Each beat of the core was like a heartbeat.
The flesh of the Fortress Core had turned fluorescent purple, the color of Jila's blood.
Why did Su Xiao set it up this way? In fact, he was using Jila's genes to create a collective consciousness receiver. To put it simply, this was like a 'server terminal' for a network.
Su Xiao intended to use the Fortress Core as the 'server terminal' and the Sun Faith as the 'network cable'. The question was, who were these network cables connected to? The wild boar warriors? No, they had self-awareness and didn't need this kind of 'networked' thought acquisition. That would reduce the wild boar warriors' combat effectiveness.
This 'server terminal' was made to connect to another type of allied unit. Su Xiao had long had ideas in this regard. Now that he had the opportunity, he naturally struck while the iron was hot.
Su Xiao signaled Amu to insert an oversized injection gun into the Evolution Nest. This time, what was injected was the gene fragment of the Insect Nest's [Cultivation Sac].
Su Xiao had long injected the Fortress with the gene fragment of the Insect Nest's [Cultivation Sac]. The last time the Fortress advanced to T0 level, it had the chance to transform into [Hothouse] precisely because of this.
Su Xiao was very dissatisfied with that Hothouse. This time, he simply mutated the Hothouse.
Just after the injection, the Evolution Nest began to writhe on a large scale, showing signs of invading the first layer of the Fortress.
The reason Su Xiao dared to attempt this was that this Fortress evolution had over a 95% success rate. He wasn't trying to make the Sun Fortress evolve new abilities or organs but to recreate a Fortress organ that could have evolved before but that Su Xiao didn't choose.
Semi-fluid biological tissue poured into the first layer, surging, coiling, and growing. In less than an hour, it occupied most of the first layer and nearly half of the second layer.
[Tip: The Sun Fortress has acquired a new organ: [Mutated Hothouse].]
[Mutated Hothouse: Can use biological samples to cultivate chaotic combat creatures that attack friend and foe indiscriminately.]
[Tip: Cultivating this type of combat creature requires consuming Living Ore + Biological Flesh (the flesh must have supernatural characteristics).]
[Warning: This Fortress organ has multiple instabilities and does not improve the Fortress's overall combat power. If too many combat creatures are cultivated, as they are indiscriminate, it will bring risks.]
...
It wasn't as perfect as Su Xiao had expected. Cultivating this type of combat creature required not only Living Ore but also the flesh of supernatural creatures.
From the looks of it, it was necessary to have a few small skirmishes with the Beast Clan. Killing a few hundred thousand Aberrant Beasts should be bearable for the Beast Clan, right?
Regarding the indiscriminate nature of the combat creatures cultivated by the [Mutated Hothouse], Su Xiao was already prepared. His earlier modification of the Fortress Core into a 'server terminal' was for this purpose.
When cultivating these combat creatures, he would adjust the [Mutated Hothouse] and infuse them with Sun Force during the cultivation process.
Using the Fortress Core as the 'server terminal' and the Sun Force as the 'network cable', he would connect each combat creature. At that point, these combat creatures would no longer be indiscriminate.
Relying on them to fight was impossible. Su Xiao didn't have Jila's mental control ability, but that didn't matter.
The sample for the combat creatures Su Xiao cultivated had long been chosen. It was a type of war beast skilled in long-distance running, with strong endurance, and a body size suitable for wild boar warriors to ride.
These war beast mounts all had Sun Force inside them. The Fortress Core, as the 'server terminal', stabilized them so they wouldn't attack allies. As for the 'network cable' Sun Force connected to them, there was plenty of room for manipulation.
The wild boar warriors also had Sun Force inside them. They could completely simulate this network cable. After mounting the war beasts, they could use the Sun Force to perform a one-on-one 'network connection' with the beast beneath them, controlling it. In this way, the wild boar warriors would become wild boar cavalry.
Su Xiao had used cavalry tactics to make many enemies doubt their lives or die on the spot. Now that he had the opportunity, he would certainly achieve it.
The reason Su Xiao implemented this plan was not only that he had long thought about this aspect but, more importantly, when he accepted this batch of pig-headed gladiators, besides the warhammer-type skills, he detected another ability on a few pig-headed gladiators. That ability was:
[Beast Riding (Passive, Lv.36): An ability mastered by a small number of pig-headed gladiators. After the Vassal Alliance audience grew tired of watching two pig-headed gladiators, or a group of them, engage in brutal combat, the arena innovated and cultivated riding gladiators. That is, two pig-headed gladiators each ride a tamed Aberrant Beast and engage in mounted combat (after mastering this ability, one can skillfully ride ferocious beasts, war beasts, etc.).]
It was precisely because he saw this ability that Su Xiao thought of reawakening the [Hothouse] and mutating it.
What Su Xiao ultimately wanted to create was not just wild boar warriors who had mastered [Heavy Hammer Mastery] but wild boar knights who had mastered [Heavy Hammer Mastery] and rode war beasts beneath them.
The bonuses from the Eight-Star War Lord + hundreds of thousands of wild boar knights + a scale of several hundred heavy tanks + over a hundred Sun Maidens — this was the final configuration Su Xiao was preparing to deal with the Vassal Alliance.