Book 5, Chapter 180: Sky Armor
Chapter 180: Sky Armor
Within Gu Palace.
This time, Su Chen was being treated as an extremely valued guest of the Gu Clan.
Even though Su Chen had repeated again and again that he wouldn’t use the three curses to harm the Gu Clan in any way, just the mere fact that he could control the curses basically forced the Gu Clan treat him with immense respect.
In addition, the Gu Clan had placed all of their hopes onto him.
They believed that Su Chen was most likely the only person who could nullify these three curses.
That evening, the Gu Clan hosted a celebratory banquet for Su Chen, and even Crown Prince Chu personally attended — his main responsibility was to keep an eye on the Gu Clan, so he naturally preferred for Su Chen to not get too close to the Gu Clan.
Even though this was not possible due to Su Chen’s already existing relationship with Gu Qingluo, the Chu Clan could at least participate.
This was also another reason why Chu Jiangyu didn’t want to see Su Chen — his arrival meant that the Chu Clan would be very busy, and Chu Jiangyu would also have to follow Su Chen around again.
But no matter how closely he watched Su Chen, he couldn’t interfere with the matters between a husband and wife.
Chu Jiangyu watched Su Chen’s figure fade into Gu Qingluo’s room and sighed helplessly, as if he had been abandoned.
But what he cared about was the complete opposite of what Su Chen cared about.
Just what did Su Chen care about?
Did it even need to be said?
As a dutiful husband, what else could he care about?
Their honeymoon had been so short, and it was also rare for the two of them to spend meaningful time together. It was only natural that they would want to spend some quality time with each other.
Because Su Chen and Gu Qingluo were both strong cultivators, they could easily go at it for an entire night with no problem. However, they were forced to stop their activities prematurely due to the limitations of their bed.
Gu Qingluo’s eyes were filled with tenderness as she lovingly gazed at Su Chen, who was lying in her bosom. Her voice, however, contained a sliver of hidden pain. “So you were willing to give up everything for her?”
“Not everything, per se. I just made some necessary adjustments, is all,” Su Chen replied tactfully.
“You didn’t seem that eager when you were trying to marry me,” Gu Qingluo harrumphed playfully as she gently bit Su Chen.
Su Chen laughed.
He knew that Gu Qingluo was going to bring this up.
After a moment’s thought, he affectionately said, “There are still some differences between the two situations. I confess that I did make quite a few concessions for Zhu Xianyao’s sake, but there is a reason for it all. First of all, Zhu Xianyao’s dire situation was entirely my fault. I was the one who caused everything, so therefore, I needed to take responsibility for everything as well. Second of all, it was a life-or-death situation. In most cases, I can negotiate or push back, but not when the stakes are that high. I refuse to watch on as a woman of mine dies without doing anything about it. Third of all, this was…… an exchange, one that both Eternal Night and I agreed to. Since I couldn’t beat him, then it was only proper for me to submit and admit defeat. I cannot hold my head high if my woman would die otherwise. If it were you in that situation, I would have done the same.”
Gu Qingluo’s expression softened slightly as she murmured, “Well, you at least know how to talk your way out of a bad situation.”
However, she still felt a little uneasy about the whole situation.
When Su Chen saw her conflicted expression, he chuckled. “Don’t be mad at me. Here, look at the present I got you.”
“I’m not interested.” Gu Qingluo didn’t even lift her head to look.
“Wow, how incredible. Our Young Miss Gu is so transcendental that even Divine Tools can’t move her heart anymore?” Su Chen said a teasing tone.
“Divine Tool?” Gu Qingluo was stunned when she heard his words.
A fiery-red combat armor appeared before her eyes.
This armor was paper thin, and it seemed weightless as it sat in Su Chen’s palm. But when Gu Qingluo carefully sensed its features, she discovered that it was imbued with incredibly profound inscriptions.
“This is……” Gu Qingluo trembled slightly.
“The Mother Goddess Sect’s Sky Armor. It’s incomplete,” Su Chen replied.
“Incomplete?”
“Yes. The completed item would be mind-bogglingly powerful,” he explained.
Because Su Chen had possessed this piece of armor for a while, he had gradually come to learn of its unique properties.
Its power as a Divine Tool was almost beyond comprehension. Even Su Chen, who rarely cared about the equipment he used, couldn’t help but feel slightly pained at giving it away.
This armor’s defensive capabilities were outstanding, despite its apparent lightness.
Earlier, Su Chen had tried to attack the armor in order to test out his strength after ascending to the Spirit Burning realm, but he hadn’t been able to even scratch the armor’s surface. The strength of the armor was obvious.
In addition, the armor could also provide the user with a special blessing.
This blessing directly increased the power of the user’s Origin Skills. In that sense, its effect was very similar to the Divine Power Scroll. However, while the Divine Power Scroll could only affect a single Arcana Technique per use, the Sky Armor’s powers allowed these blessings to be used at any time, and on any Arcana Technique or Origin Skills.
By this comparison, the Divine Power Scroll was a much worse tool. Even though it was also technically a Divine Tool, its capability couldn’t even measure up to one percent of the Sky Armor’s.
Apart from this divine blessing, Sky Armor also had a third, unique ability. It could unleash a large scale pressure wave centered on it. Any opponent would have to face the brunt of this pressure bearing down upon them.
This pressure could be more accurately described as an internal attack. Any person weaker than the user would be powerful and unable to mount any meaningful defense, and any person stronger would be unaffected — the user would suffer absolutely no backlash. Because the skill was effective against all targets around the user, it was incredibly effective in large-scale battles.
For anyone who possessed the Sky Armor, attempting to overwhelm the, with sheer numbers alone would be impossible.
Even though there were only three imbued powers in the armor, each one of them was almost heaven-defyingly powerful.
Unfortunately, the armor also had its flaws as it was still incomplete.
The biggest was the armor’s dependance on a source of Divine Power.
This source was necessary because all of the Sky Armor’s abilities depended on a constant supply of Divine Power.
The completed Sky Armor should have had its own source of Divine Power.
However, this source of Divine Power was to the Sky Armor as Sark’s Nucleus was to Sky City. It was both the most important component, and also the most difficult component to make.
Not only was the Sky Armor a Divine Tool, but it was also an extraordinary one. And it was precisely this power that made it virtually impossible to completely forge.
Without a source of constant Divine Power, the only way for the armor to recover after being used was to be placed within the Mother Goddess Statue, as it would resupply itself with the faith offered by the Mother Goddess’s worshippers.
And even then, the rate at which it regained its powers was very low.
“So…… without a source of Divine Power, it’s just an empty frame?” Gu Qingluo helplessly asked when she realized this flaw of the armor.
“Not necessarily. Even though the statue has been destroyed, the masses and their faith are still present. The Sky Armor can directly communicate with that faith. It’s just that the rate of recovery will be even lower than usual,” Su Chen replied.
If the rate of recovery with a source of Divine Power would be a hundred units per second, then the incomplete version while placed on the Mother Goddess Statue could recover divine power at around ten units per second, and the incomplete version by itself would recover around one unit per second.
“So while you can’t really use this armor under normal circumstances, it should be fine to keep as a trump card to be used in the most dire of circumstances,” Su Chen explained.
“This is already very good,” Gu Qingluo said happily as she beamed.
Her happiness wasn’t because she had been gifted a Divine Tool, but rather because Su Chen was still thinking of her.
Even though it was incomplete, this Sky Armor was still incredibly valuable.
Su Chen’s willingness to gift it to her had brought up all sorts of interesting questions.
For instance, did this mean that she was more important than Zhu Xianyao?
Perhaps this competition was one that most women struggled with.
Su Chen’s sacrifice for Zhu Xianyao had made Gu Qingluo quite jealous, but now, she was satisfied with his actions towards her.
Women sometimes needed to be comforted just as much as — no, even more than children.
Gu Qingluo put on the armor directly. The instant she did so, she was enveloped in a fiery glow, which gave her quite an imposing and heroic aura.
Gu Qingluo appeared delighted. Her eyes spun for a moment before she suddenly said, “Take this!”
She unleashed a palm strike in Su Chen’s direction.
Su Chen didn’t appear too surprised. Based on his current strength, he was able to ignore the attacks of even Thought Manifestation Realm cultivators. Gu Qingluo was only at the Light Shaking Realm, so he casually reached out to stop her attack.
Unexpectedly, Gu Qingluo’s palm strike suddenly began to glow with a golden color, and its might surged violently.
Su Chen’s hand trembled as it came into contact with Gu Qingluo’s, and he found that he was barely able to withstand her attack.
His expression changed drastically. “Hey, stop messing around! It’ll take that Divine Power a long time to recover!”
Gu Qingluo had utilized the Sky Armor’s blessing just then.
Gu Qingluo, however, carelessly replied, “I need to get used to it anyways. And I won’t be running into any trouble anytime soon, so it’s not like I’ll be able to use it anytime soon.”
She unleashed yet another palm strike, this one also infused with Divine Power.
Su Chen was beginning to get angry.
Once a Young Miss, always a Young Miss. It seemed that getting her to be careful was not possible. On the contrary, it was quite likely that she would pull it out to play around with every so often.
However, Gu Qingluo also had a point. The Gu Clan had the Bloodline of an Origin Beast, so they were kept under constant surveillance, and whether or not the Sky Armor was in Gu Qingluo’s possession wouldn’t really affect her day-to-day life. The only way she would actually be forced to use it would be if Empty Mountain had collapsed and the Gu Clan was in dire straits.
Only then did Su Chen relax his stance on Gu Qingluo’s behavior.
The two of them sparred for a little in the room. Gu Qingluo boosted the power of her attacks with the divine blessing, feeling out the limits and unique abilities of the armor for herself.
Even though the battle was quite fierce, the two of them held back enough that the objects in the room weren’t broken.
After a few moments, Gu Qingluo finally stopped.
Su Chen asked, “Why did you stop?”
Gu Qingluo pouted cutely. “The Divine Power ran out.”
Su Chen chuckled. “Of course you would insist on wringing it dry. It took me many days to store up all of the Divine Power that you just used up.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter. It's not like the defenses of this Sky Armor needs the support of Divine Power to work anyways. And it also looks quite nice!” Gu Qingluo twirled around, staring at herself in the mirror. It was clear that she was very happy with her appearance.
For a woman, the beauty of her clothes was almost the most important criterion it could fulfill.
“It is indeed beautiful. Unfortunately, once all the power is used up, it won’t glow as brilliantly as before,” Su Chen said.
“That’s true,” Gu Qingluo murmured. She had also realized that, once the Sky Armor lost all its Divine Power, it was no longer as dazzling. “It seems like I’ll have to conserve at least a little bit of the power in the future.”
Her attention was only on preserving the glow of the armor. Su Chen could only smile bitterly when he heard her words.
Now that she had played with it to her satisfaction, she finally decided to take the armor off.
At that moment, Gu Qingluo suddenly noticed a black strap protruding from one of the armor’s sleeves.
“What’s that?” Gu Qingluo tugged at the strap.
“It’s probably a pocket or something,” Su Chen replied nonchalantly.
Suddenly, the strap sprung to life, shrunk to the size of a needle, and slipped inside Gu Qingluo’s wrist.
“AH!” Gu Qingluo cried out in pain.
At that moment, the Sky Armor, which had dimmed earlier, began to glow again with brilliant intensity.
The light was as glorious as the sun, instantly blowing all the nearby darkness away.