Part 1: The Anomaly
The air in the Celestial Gear Sect didn't smell like incense or pine, as the ancient texts of
cultivation usually described. It smelled of ozone, burning grease, and molten iron.
Kael wiped sweat from his brow, leaving a streak of black oil across his forehead. He stood in
the corner of the low-level armory, tightening a bolt on a massive, ugly gauntlet made of dull
scraps. Around him, other disciples floated cross-legged, their bodies glowing with soft azure
light as they mentally engraved Spirit Runes onto floating swords and delicate, clockwork lotus
flowers.
"Look at him," sneered Jarek, a disciple of the inner circle, hovering slightly off the ground on a
disc of humming jade. "The Mortal Mechanic. Still playing with scrap metal, Kael? You know
you can't activate a Spirit Array without Qi. You're just building paperweights."
Kael didn't look up. He couldn't. If he lost focus now, the torsion spring inside the gauntlet
would snap his fingers off.
Kael was an anomaly. A soul from Earth, dropped into a world where the Laws of Physics were
merely suggestions, often overruled by the Laws of Qi. In the Celestial Gear Sect, one's
cultivation base determined their engineering prowess. High cultivation meant you could fuel
massive mechs or telekinetically assemble thousand-part rifles.
Kael had zero Qi. His meridians were solid rock. In this world, he was effectively disabled.
But he had something else.
A translucent blue screen flickered in his peripheral vision, invisible to everyone else.
[SYSTEM: MACHINE GOD] [User: Kael] [Cultivation: None (Mortal)] [Strength: 15
(Human limit: 10)] [Agility: 12] [Intelligence: 18] [Current Quest: Silence the Mockery.
Defeat Cultivator Jarek.] [Reward: 5 Free Stat Points]
"I'm talking to you, trash," Jarek said, his voice laced with a sonic amplification technique that
made Kael's teeth rattle. Jarek waved a hand, and a glowing, rune-etched dagger shot from his
belt, hovering inches from Kael's throat. "This dagger is powered by a Foundation Establishment
core. It cuts through steel like butter. What does your heap of rust do?"
Kael finally finished tightening the bolt. He slipped his arm into the bulky, unpolished gauntlet.
It looked prehistoric compared to Jarek's sleek, jade artifacts. There were no glowing runes, no
floating parts. Just hydraulic tubing, high-tension springs, and a piston mechanism Kael had
salvaged from a broken crushing machine.
"It punches," Kael said calmly.
The workshop went silent. Then, laughter erupted.
"It punches?" Jarek cackled. "You're going to punch a cultivator? My Qi barrier can withstand a
falling boulder! I challenge you, right now. If you can touch me, I'll leave you alone. If you
can't, you leave the sect."
"Accepted," Kael said.
They moved to the sparring circle. Jarek stood casually, hands behind his back, a shimmering
dome of golden Qi surrounding him. It was the Golden Bell Cover, a standard defensive
technique. Against a mortal, it was impenetrable.
"Go ahead," Jarek yawned.
Kael took a stance. He didn't breathe in spiritual energy. He breathed in oxygen to fuel his
muscles. He triggered the release valve on his gauntlet.
HISS.
Steam vented from the side of Kael's arm. The Machine God System highlighted the structural
weak point in Jarek's stance.
Target acquired.
Kael lunged.
To the cultivators, Kael moved strangely. He didn't glide; he exploded forward with raw, violent
athleticism. His strength stat, pushed beyond human limits by previous hidden tasks, allowed
him to close the gap instantly.
Jarek didn't flinch. "Useless."
Kael threw the punch. Just before impact, he pulled the trigger inside the gauntlet.
KA-CLACK!
The compressed piston inside the gauntlet fired, driving the steel knuckle plate forward with
thousands of pounds of instantaneous kinetic force.
This was the twist the cultivators didn't understand. Their shields were designed to disperse Qi
attacks—energy meeting energy. They were excellent against fireballs and spirit swords. But
they were often surprisingly brittle against pure, concentrated, brute physics.
BOOM!
The sound was like a cannon firing. The steel fist connected with the golden barrier. The barrier
didn't dissolve; it shattered like glass.
The piston-driven fist continued, carrying the momentum of Kael's 15 Strength, and buried itself
into Jarek's stomach.
Jarek's eyes bulged. He folded like a wet towel, gasping for air that wouldn't come, and was
launched backward, skidding ten meters across the stone floor before crashing into a tool rack.
Silence reigned in the workshop. The disciples stared, mouths agape. They looked at the
unconscious Jarek, then at the smoking, ugly metal gauntlet on Kael's arm. No Qi. No magic.
Just gears and leverage.
[Quest Complete: Silence the Mockery] [Reward: +5 Stat Points]
Kael exhaled, watching the steam rise from his arm. He mentally dumped all five points into
Strength.
He felt his muscles knit tighter, becoming denser, harder. The weight of the heavy gauntlet
suddenly felt like nothing.
"Anyone else?" Kael asked, his voice echoing in the silent hall.
No one answered. The boy with no Qi had just proven that in a world of magic, Newton's Third
Law was still the deadliest technique of all.
Part 2: The Iron Lotus Peak
Six months had passed since Kael shattered Jarek's ribs and the preconceived notions of the
Celestial Gear Sect. In the world of cultivation, six months was usually a blink of an eye—a
single meditation session for an Elder. But for Kael, and for the Machine God System, six
months was an eternity of optimization.
The landscape of the Sect had changed physically. To the north, where the mist-covered peaks
usually housed the silent retreats of the Core Disciples, a new silhouette had risen. It was not a
pagoda of jade, nor a cave of spirit crystals.
It was a smokestack.
Kael had been promoted. No longer a servant or an outer disciple, his sheer physical
dominance—garnered through relentless "quests" of hauling ores, physically wrestling spirit
beasts, and crushing arrogant challengers—had forced the Sect Master's hand. They gave him a
peak. They named it the "Peak of Silent Contemplation."
Kael renamed it Iron Lotus Peak.
Inside his main workshop, the air hummed not with chanting, but with the high-pitched whine of
a lathe spinning at ten thousand RPM. Kael stood shirtless before a workbench, his body a map
of dense, corded muscle that looked as hard as the celestial steel he worked with.
[SYSTEM STATUS] [User: Kael] [Class: Artificer of the Apocalypse] [Cultivation: None
(Mortal)] [Strength: 450 (Elder Realm Equivalent)] [Agility: 380] [Intelligence: 210]
[Current Task: Fabricate Delivery System for Project 'Sunfall'.]
Kael picked up a heavy hammer. It weighed four thousand pounds. To a normal human, it was a
monument; to Kael, with his strength stat pushing 450, it felt like a plastic toy. He brought it
down on a glowing sheet of black metal. CLANG. The sound was so loud it caused ripples in the
nearby cooling pool.
"Core Disciple Kael," a trembling voice called out from the doorway.
Kael didn't look up. "Enter, Junior Brother."
A young outer disciple shuffled in, holding a wooden box. He looked terrified. The rumors about
Iron Lotus Peak were gruesome—they said Kael ate spirit stones and sweat liquid iron. "The...
the Elders Council has summoned you to the Grand Sky Plaza. Today is the official bestowing of
your Core Disciple robes. And... Elder Jian is demanding an audience."
Kael paused. Elder Jian. The sect's master of aerial combat and a staunch traditionalist who
believed Kael was an abomination to the Dao.
"Tell them I'll be there," Kael said, wiping his hands on a rag.
"Y-yes! Do you need a spirit crane to fly you down? Since... you know..." The disciple gestured
vaguely to Kael's lack of flight ability. Cultivators learned to ride the wind at the Foundation
Establishment stage. Kael, being mortal, was ground-bound.
Kael smiled. It was a sharp, mechanical expression. "No need. I'll make my own way."
The Grand Sky Plaza was packed. Thousands of disciples stood in formation, their robes
fluttering in the high-altitude wind. At the head of the plaza, on a raised dais, sat the Sect Master
and the twelve High Elders.
Elder Jian sat at the center, stroking his long white beard. He radiated a pressure that made the
air heavy. "He is late," Jian scoffed, his voice amplified by Qi. "This 'Mortal King' has no
respect. He probably cannot climb down his own mountain without a rope."
"He is unique, Elder Jian," the Sect Master murmured, though he looked worried. "His physical
strength rivals a Golden Core cultivator."
"Strength is useless if you cannot reach your opponent," Jian countered. "If I fly ten meters into
the air, he is nothing but a turtle staring at an eagle. I intend to demonstrate this today. I will strip
him of that peak."
Just then, a sound tore through the sky.
It started as a low rumble, like distant thunder, but quickly escalated into a screaming tear, like
the fabric of the world being ripped apart. The disciples looked up, shielding their eyes against
the sun.
Something was diving from the clouds.
It wasn't a sword. It wasn't a beast. It was a blur of silver and fire.
Kael fell from the sky, encased in a sleek, exoskeleton frame made of ultra-light spirit alloys. On
his back, two massive, articulated thrusters roared, spewing blue flames.
[Item: Heaven-Piercer Flight Module (Mark IV)] [Fuel Source: Liquid Spirit Concentrate]
[Thrust Output: Mach 2]
"Braking thrusters," Kael commanded mentally.
The wings on his back flared open, metal feathers locking into place to create drag. The thrusters
pivoted forward, firing a retro-burn that shook the plaza.
BOOM-HISS.
Steam billowed out, obscuring the landing zone. As the white cloud cleared, Kael stood in a
three-point landing pose, the hydraulics in his leg armor whining as they depressurized. He stood
up, the mechanical wings folding neatly behind him.
The plaza was dead silent.
"Apologies for the delay," Kael said, his voice amplified not by Qi, but by the speakers built into
his collar. "Traffic was terrible."
Elder Jian's face turned purple. "You... what is this mockery? You strap fireworks to your back
and call it flight?"
"It gets me from A to B," Kael shrugged. "And it's faster than your sword, Elder."
Jian stood up, floating into the air. He hovered twenty meters above the ground, looking down at
Kael. "Arrogance! You rely on toys. Today, I will show you the difference between a trick and
true power. I challenge you, Kael, for the right to hold Iron Lotus Peak!"
The crowd gasped. An Elder challenging a disciple was rare.
[Emergency Quest: The Sky Tyrant] [Objective: Defeat Elder Jian without killing him.]
[Reward: Blueprint - 'Titan Mech Chassis']
Kael sighed. "Elder, I really don't want to do this. Repairs are expensive."
"Fear?" Jian laughed. He waved his hand, and the wind gathered. Hundreds of wind blades, sharp
enough to slice diamonds, materialized. "Die!"
The blades rained down.
Kael didn't dodge. He didn't even activate a shield. He simply engaged the Overdrive Servos in
his legs.
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG.
Kael vanished. He moved so fast the stone tiles beneath him shattered into dust. With agility
reaching 380, he was a blur that the human eye couldn't track. He appeared on a pillar, then on a
roof, dodging the wind blades with mathematical precision.
"You run like a rat!" Jian roared, flying higher, out of reach. "But you cannot touch me up here!"
Kael stopped on a rooftop. He looked up at the Elder, who was now a speck in the sky, preparing
a massive lightning technique.
"He's right," Kael muttered. "I can't punch him from here. Good thing I brought the new toys."
Kael reached into his spatial bag—a leather pouch he had sewn himself, lined with dimensionexpanding circuitry. He pulled out a small, spherical object. It looked like a metal baseball,
etched with glowing red circuitry.
[Item: Spirit Collapse Charge (Type: Frag)] [Core: Low-Grade Spirit Stone] [Yield:
Tactical Bunker Buster]
The Machine God System had analyzed the nature of Spirit Stones. Cultivators slowly drew
energy from them. Kael found that inefficient. He realized that if you broke the crystalline lattice
of a Spirit Stone instantly, all that thousands of years of energy was released in 0.001 seconds.
It was, effectively, a mana-nuke.
"Elder!" Kael shouted. "Catch!"
He threw the sphere. With his 450 Strength, the ball broke the sound barrier. It flew upward like
a railgun shot.
Elder Jian sneered. "A rock? You throw a rock at me?" He raised a Qi barrier effortlessly. The
ball hit the barrier.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
The red circuitry on the ball flashed blindingly bright.
BOOM.
The explosion wasn't fire; it was pure, unstable spiritual turbulence. It tore through the sky,
creating a shockwave that flattened the clouds. Elder Jian's barrier disintegrated instantly. The
Elder was thrown backward, tumbling through the air like a ragdoll, his robes scorched.
He barely managed to stabilize himself, coughing up blood. "You... you use demonic arts!
Explosions of that magnitude... that was a Core formation attack!"
"That was a Low-Grade Spirit Stone," Kael corrected, his voice cold.
He reached into his bag again. This time, he pulled out a fist-sized crystal. It pulsed with a deep,
terrifying purple light. The air around Kael began to distort just from the object's presence.
The Sect Master stood up, his eyes widening. "Is that... a High-Grade Spirit Stone?"
"Indeed," Kael said, holding the purple bomb up. "Elder Jian, my system calculates that a HighGrade Spirit Stone contains roughly five thousand times the energy density of the Low-Grade
one I just used. If I detonate this..."
Kael looked around at the beautiful peaks of the sect.
"...I won't just kill you. I will erase the top half of that mountain. And probably the three
mountains behind it."
Silence descended. Absolute, terrified silence. The Elders looked at the purple light, sensing the
chaotic energy trapped inside the metal casing. It was a sun waiting to be born.
Elder Jian's face went pale. He hovered in the sky, trembling. He knew the theory. He knew how
much power was in a High-Grade stone. But to release it all at once? It was madness. It was
suicide.
"You... you would destroy the sect?"Jian stammered.
"I'm a mortal, Elder," Kael said, his finger hovering over the detonator pin. "I don't have a Dao
heart to worry about. I just have math. And the math says you lose."
The Sect Master flashed forward, appearing between Kael and the Elder. "Enough!" he shouted,
sweat beading on his forehead. "Elder Jian, concede! Kael, put that... thing... away.
Immediately."
Jian looked at the bomb, then at Kael's cold, unblinking eyes. He realized the boy wasn't
bluffing. He lowered his head. "I... concede."
Kael smirked and flipped the safety pin back onto the grenade. He tossed it casually in the air
and caught it, causing half the audience to flinch.
"Wise choice," Kael said.
[Quest Complete: The Sky Tyrant] [Reward: Blueprint 'Titan Mech Chassis' Unlocked]
[Bonus Reward: Reputation set to 'Terror']
The Sect Master landed beside Kael, looking at the mechanical wings and the devastating
explosives. "Core Disciple Kael," he said, his voice filled with a mix of awe and fear. "Your
path... is unorthodox. But we cannot deny its power. You will keep your peak. But please... do
not conduct tests of the High-Grade weaponry within ten miles of the main hall."
"Understood, Sect Master," Kael said. He engaged his thrusters again, hovering slightly off the
ground. "I'll stick to the small stuff for now."
As Kael flew back toward Iron Lotus Peak, leaving a trail of blue exhaust in the sky, the
disciples watched him with a new kind of reverence. He wasn't just the boy who punched hard
anymore. He was the one who turned their precious cultivation resources into weapons of mass
destruction.
Kael checked his system interface as he flew.
[Next Project: Titan Mech Chassis] [Requirement: 50 tons of Star-Iron.] [Objective: Why
fly when you can walk as a God?]
Kael smiled. The cultivation world thought they were gods because they could control the
elements. He was going to show them that a god wasn't made of flesh and Qi.
It was made of steel, and it was going to be fifty feet tall.