Chapter 6148 An Underutilized Resource Ves made the correct decision by entering the System Space during a critical junction of the lightning tribulation. The pressure and urgency of the moment no longer weighed him down to the point of collapsing. Although it was just a temporary reprieve, Ves still cherished the opportunity to let out a deep breath and clear his mind. It was not always good for him to take a break in the middle of an intensive situation. Ves always performed at his best during crises. When his back was pushed against the wall, his imagination often went into overdrive, allowing him to develop many brilliant ideas that could turn the situation around. However, the eight challenge of the tribulation event required much greater effort in order to overcome. There was no way an ordinary improvised solution could drag Major Jankowski and the Elegant Rage out of the pit. The alien swordsman was simply too strong! Given the extreme lack of options that Ves could employ to quickly boost the Elegant Rage's effective combat power, he felt it was wise to take his time to develop a proper solution. As Ves silently climbed up the mountain steps, he did not bother to direct his attention to the side paths that led to the different facilities, but continued to mull over the strategy that he had decided upon. One of the biggest reasons why the alien swordsman was able to gain the upper hand was because he was a very effective qi cultivator. Although he was nowhere near as strong as the much more powerful lightning manifestations that showed up during the transformation of the Dominion of Man, the four-armed alien clearly dedicated a lot of practice in his techniques. It was not easy to wield two opposing elements. Examples such as the Renewer of Terra and his legendary Ouroboros were the exception rather than the rule. It took an insane mind or exceptional circumstances for a cultivator to be able to make concurrent accomplishments in two completely opposing and conflicting E energy attributes. Therefore, the alien swordsman became completely worthy to put the Elegant Rage to the test despite his relatively low absolute strength. "The scariest part of it all is that I don't think that the alien swordsman has exhausted his bag of tricks." So far, the powerful alien only pressed the Elegant Rage with rapid but fairly medium-intensity attacks. If elemental swordsmanship was anything like the traditional swordsmanship practiced by the Heavensworders, then the tribulation manifestation definitely held a few power moves in reserve! These powerful sword techniques were probably costly and time-consuming to execute, but their power should never be in doubt. The scariest aspect of a fire and ice wielder was not the fact that he could employ both elements separately, but that he could combine them to inflict far greater combination damage! The skilled enemy already displayed hints of this in some of his attack routines. The alien was not only able to prevent the two opposing elements from accidentally conflicting with each other, but could also purposefully bring them together to gain an even stronger advantage during a duel! At this time, the alien swordsman gained such a considerable edge over the Elegant Rage that it was unnecessary for the former to resort to any risky moves. It was completely logical for him to maintain a steady advantage and slowly grind down the Elegant Rage's defenses. If Ves did not find a way to pull a rabbit out of his hat, then the alien swordsman's strategy would undoubtedly succeed! He frowned. Ves understood that only overwhelming force could grant the Elegant Rage a chance to survive this bout. "I need power. Lots of power." It was not so easy to make up for the enormous gaps in energy absorption and energy utilization. Ves already determined that the only way for the Elegant Rage to make a comeback was by imitating the Emperor Tree by leveraging a huge amount of wood energy. The problem was that ordinary measures were not enough to meet the insanely high demand. "There is actually a lot of wood energy contained in the organic components of the Elegant Rage, but draining them to attain a temporary power boost is absolutely counterproductive." This was not the final test of the lightning tribulation. If the Elegant Rage was confronting the ninth and last punishment from the heavens, then Ves might see merit in a self-sacrificial attack. "If the Elegant Rage cannot afford to pay the price, then let others pay the price in her stead." This was actually his favorite way of tackling these issues. Ves always liked it when he could make a lot of gains without needing to pay the corresponding price. In fact, he preferred it when he was able to fool his enemies into making painful sacrifices! Sadly, the current situation made it difficult if not impossible for the Elegant Rage to land a powerful blow on the alien swordsman by exploiting the latter's strength. The most apparent source of additional wood energy was the forest and wildlife of the surrounding region. New Constantinople VIII may have been designated as the commercial capital of a thriving first-class port system, but the Devos Ancient Clan did not have the resources to convert the entire planet into an ecumenopolis. Even the first-raters valued the soothing and relaxing presence of nature. It was also a lot easier to maintain stable climates when the planet hosted viable ecosystems. There was plenty of nature to be found in the more remote and underdeveloped regions of the planet. Much of the development of New Constantinople VIII was concentrated in and around the capital city of Sandan. As Ves reached the top of the mountain and stepped into the grounds of the Sacred Temple, his eyes lit up as he made a profound realization! "Life is a resource, and New Constantinople VIII just happened to possess it in abundance!" Sure, the flora of the terraformed planet overwhelmingly consisted of young and relatively immature Earth-based plants and trees, but that did not change the fact that they functioned as natural reservoirs of wood energy! Of course, Ves could not expect the wood energy contained by these young and artificially cultivated plants to be high in quality. The density of wood energy in a young forest should also be incomparable to that of a forest on an untamed planet such as Reticula Corein V. Ves did not look down on it, though. So what if the wood energy of the local ecosystem was rather shabby in terms of quality and quantity? The Elegant Rage merely had to work harder and extend her reach further in order to absorb a huge quantity of wood energy! As long as the Elegant Rage amassed enough wood energy, she should easily be able to beat back the alien swordsman! "Life is a resource." Ves repeated. "I have spent so much time on trying to foster life in my products that I never thought about how it could be used as a power source." Ves initially felt repelled by the very notion of exchanging life for power. The fundamental goal of his design philosophy was to foster the growth of both mechs and mech pilots so that they could breach their limits and ascend to greatness. To put it in different terms, his work as a mech designer was largely centered around increasing the life states of his products and his clients. This was the definition of growth. The more powerful they became, the more energy they accumulated! This was why the idea of depriving a forest of all of its wood energy sounded so abhorrent to Ves. He did not consider himself to be a nature lover, but he felt it was fundamentally wrong to drain the wood energy of many trees just to give the Elegant Rage a temporary power boost. "An action like this will lead to a net reduction in life." Ves murmured. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎 He did not care about the lives of his enemies. Ves was not stupid enough to value their right to life when they were happy to kill him and the people he cared about if they had the chance. What made Ves hesitate was the idea of gaining power by harming third parties. Sure, the subjects in question only amounted to a lot of trees and plants that nobody really cared about, but it was the principle that mattered. Ves deeply felt that he was on the verge of crossing a significant moral line if he violated the principle of minimizing collateral damage. Ever since the Age of Mechs began, many mech designers had been brought up with the idea that their products were supposed to function as a safer and less destructive alternative to warships. How could Ves still claim that his mechs abided by this standard when they suddenly gained the ability to wipe out entire forests and destroy entire ecosystems? This was the sort of destructive practice that gave his mother and many other ancient cultivators a bad name! "Maybe this is the true reason why I am so hesitant about crossing the line." He frowned. Ves could already feel that the act of pursuing power through rampant plundering was forbidden in more ways than one. It was a universal taboo that fundamentally violated the will of the heavens. Just like how the creators of the Sacred Scrolls utterly ruined the Milky Way Galaxy by attempting to drain it entirely of its immense energies, any deed that benefited oneself at the expense of the environment would inevitably be met with punishment! The most common form of punishment was to silently accrue negative karma. Ves knew a thing or two about karma, so he understood how terrible it was for malevolent cultivators to plunder energy from others without restraint or justification. Even though these cultivators always managed to harvest enormous short-term gains, they imperled their long-term futures by attracting the ire of the heavens! Not only would they suffer inexplicable bouts of bad luck, these demonic cultivators also had a much higher chance of dying whenever they attracted a lightning tribulation! However… as much as Ves wanted to turn away from these unsavory methods, he could not afford to do so. The survival of his first Woodsap mech was far more important than his morals and principles. Although his design philosophy objected to his decision, Ves found that he did not really find it all that unbearable to break this particular taboo. Not only was he doing it for the benefit of his latest mech, he also did not take taboos all that seriously anymore. "This is a time of war. Desperate times call for desperate measures." Ves did not deny the possibility that his recently acquired darkness domain may have skewed his thinking on this matter, but so what? He was not being irrational when he decided to violate one of the fundamental principles of mech. He managed to come up with several logical arguments why it was necessary for him to take his work to the next level. "Am I beginning to resemble my mother?" Ves felt quite disturbed by the thought. His mother did not hesitate to treat others as tools to be used. She had no qualms about draining the vitality of others to fuel her growth and her powers. Though Cynthia frequently assumed a motherly guise in front of Ves, he had seen her true face. Cynthia Larkinson was a True God who embodied the cruel side of nature! Predation was her philosophy as well as the source of her power. She was incapable of limiting herself to mutually beneficial growth cycles like her son. As deplorable as she may be, Ves never doubted that she was weak. Whether it was her old self or her reborn self, the Lady of the Night undoubtedly stood out as a competent and deadly fighter among True God-level qi cultivators. If not for the fact that she remained stuck in the low-energy environment of the Milky Way Galaxy, she would have been able to expand her empire much further beyond the confines of the Nyxian Gap!