The Mech Touch

Ves did not believe that the Evolution Witch would prioritize Saint Isobel Kotin's recovery so highly.

It was a lot more probable for the god pilot to spare a small moment of her time on accelerating Isobel's torturous and complicated healing trajectory.

That was enough. If the god-like powers of Divine Lucie Miyazaki could shave several years from Isobel's normal recovery timeline, that was already good enough for Ves and the Larkinson Clan.

Ves hoped that giving the Transhumanist Faction a large favor by handing over Maikel Larkinson without a fuss would encourage the mechers to put more effort into helping Saint Isobel regain her full body.

As Ves resumed his normal design activities and spent a lot of time on developing the Two-Step Execution Crystal for the Instrument of Vengeance, he made sure to keep up with other developments as well, though not as diligently as before.

The news from the frontlines rarely sounded optimistic. The best outcome that listeners in the rear like Ves could hope for was no news, because that meant that red humanity's strongholds hadn't suffered another costly beating.

As far as the Red Collective was concerned, the organization was still in a rapid expansion phase.

Many plans had been formed in advance and were now being executed.

New plans had to be made once the old ones expired, but it was the job of the Lower Council to draft the new bills, propose the addition or removal of clauses and negotiate compromises between different lower councilors and power blocs.

It was not fitting for a senator and a leader at that to go down the trenches and participate in this political mud fight.

Ves just needed to keep track of major developments so that he would know how to vote when the time had come for the Lower Council to pass a bill to the Upper Senate.

His semi-regular virtual meetings with his chief of staff over at the Astral Octagon also enabled Ves to remain loosely connected to the gossip and trends that were proliferating in the Sapphire of the Red Ocean.

"The honeymoon period of systematic cultivation is about to end in the near future." Eliza Mo Ragadan warned her superior. "We have tried to prevent it as much as possible, but the first confirmed instances of demonic cultivation have already taken place here and there. Many individuals who have gained access to illegal cultivation methods have failed to suppress their greed and have preyed on their fellow relatives, neighbors and other humans in their desire to gain a large amount of power in a short amount of time. The pressure exerted by the Red Tide Offensive has driven more individuals to desperation than we projected."

Ves grimaced. "That is bad news. If they want power, they should try and become Carmine mech pilots instead."

"Demand still vastly exceeds supply, sir. The production of Yellow Jackets has become so extensively reserved that there is no possibility to obtain the Carmine mechs on the open market. People cannot wait for curated cultivation methods to reach the later stages or for a Yellow Jacket to become readily available for purchase at reasonable prices. When the people of our society have become demoralized, they lose trust in all institutions. They only trust the power that they can readily clutch between their fingers. This is where the more destructive but easier to practice demonic cultivation methods can find fertile ground."

This was an inevitable outcome. Red humanity was made up of a huge diversity of people. There was bound to be a lot of bad apples among the population.

"Can you give me a look at the confirmed cases?"

"Certainly, sir. I cannot transfer the complete files over the galactic net, but I can show you a number of still images."

She first transferred over an image of half-a-dozen comatose patients.

"All of them are brain dead without any immediate cause or explanation that can justify their conditions. Due to the abnormally heightened frequency of encountering comatose individuals, our investigators quickly visited the patients and confirmed that their souls have been extracted. They soon proceeded to analyze a large amount of log and observation data and tracked down every suspicious individual. This process of elimination quickly brought them to the perpetrator."

The image changed to show a clearly deranged man whose eyes displayed pure madness while his hair had fallen from his head.

"To his credit, the 'demonic cultivator' put up a mean fight." Eliza explained. "He had fed on more souls than the ones obtained from the braindead patients, and was able to suppress and manipulate the souls of our investigators. One of them almost lost consciousness while another was on the verge of becoming hypnotized."

That sounded like a much more serious threat than Ves thought!

The investigators had to be qi cultivators themselves, so they should have been able to put up a resistance. For them to be brought to their knees by a single demonic cultivator was a distressing occurrence!

"How did this incident conclude?"

"The investigators brought one of your Pacifier mechs along. This is standard practice, because as soon as they activated their glows, the demonic cultivator immediately lost access to much of his powers. As soon as he was no longer able to dominate the minds and souls of our investigators, it was child's play to put him into custody."

"I see. I am glad to hear that one of my old products can be of use."

The sales of the Pacifier mech line had definitely multiplied as of late!

"What else can you share with me, Eliza?"

The chief of staff displayed another image which showed a much more macabre crime scene.

This one showed a literal cult gathering!

Over fifty hoodwinked and likely brainwashed cultists had gathered in a large basement. The floor, walls and ceiling had all been carved with strange symbols and lines that the Red Collective had deliberately blurred in the image.

"The markings hold power in themselves." Eliza said. "It is dangerous to proliferate accurate images of them as others may be able to copy them, thereby subjecting other victims to their malevolent effects."

"How do these markings affect people?"

"This."

The woman transmitted another still image that showed the aftermath of the ritual conducted by the unwitting victims.

The entire basement had turned into a bloody sight. For whatever reason, the cultists had gone utterly mad and brutally fought against each other with their knives, fists, teeth and nails!

Many bodies got torn apart, and blood spilled in abundance.

Once most of the cultists had perished from the awful wounds they inflicted on each other, much of the flesh that spread across the blood-soaked ground had started to converge in the center!

A large amount of flesh amalgamated together around the cult leader and only survival. His body swelled into an ugly and highly asymmetrical flesh giant!

When Ves studied the exceedingly ugly and discordant shape of this monstrosity, he immediately made a conclusion.

"This guy failed." Discover hidden content at m,v l'e|m-p| y r

"He did. When our enforcers arrived on the scene, they were able to neutralize the mutated cult leader by relying on their firearms. They only needed to rely on their cultivation and defensive equipment to resist the mental pollution generated by the bloodied markings and the insane ravings of the perpetrator."

Getting gunned down by infantry-grade firearms represented a clear failure to these demonic cultivators.

The entire point with taking shortcuts by preying on other humans was to become powerful in record time.

"So how did this mess go wrong?" Ves asked.

"Two reasons. First is the lack of true comprehension by the cult leader. Many demonic tomes are difficult to read at best. No translation can properly convey the full context of their archaic meanings, which often reference concepts that cannot be described with modern words or deities that have long been forgotten."

"I have a feeling that this will become a recurring problem for many demonic cultivators." Ves guessed.

"The second is the lack of proficiency in executing instructions. Our investigation revealed that the cult leader had not been precise enough when he made those carvings. The power in the symbols and lines fooled him into thinking that he had done well, when in fact his work is so poor that cultivation deviation is a definite outcome."

Ves couldn't help but chuckle. "Even evil requires a minimum level of competency to succeed."

"Right. I can show you more examples, but the cases all start to look the same after a time. The fundamental circumstances always share similar patterns. A weak and susceptible individual is able to obtain a forbidden demonic cultivation method. He or she attempts to practice it in secret. If they are able to prevent themselves from getting caught straight away, they can usually drain power from half-a-dozen individuals before drawing too much suspicion. The local authorities or our specialized enforcers are usually able to subdue them quickly enough, thereby ending the selfish and destructive criminals."

"This can't continue to go on." Ves stated as he crossed his arms. You can't keep responding to incidents as the killings have already begun. It is too late by then. You need to figure out how to be more proactive and detect dangerous situations sooner."

The virtual projection of Eliza nodded. "This is one of the reasons why we are the strongest advocates for connecting everyone to kinship networks. It is not impossible to circumvent them, but they are sufficient to monitor the vast majority of cases that emerge from the bottom of our society. Before that can happen, our Red Collective must first complete the rollout our own kinship network to all of our members."

The mention of the Red Collective's kinship network put a smile on his face. He had played a role in the proposal and the preparation work of it during the time he led the Interim Leadership Council.

He was able to exert a sizable degree of influence over the decision-making process.

"There is no problem with using Lufa as the nexus of the Red Collective's exclusive kinship network, right?"

"There are still many detractors that strongly object to using this design spirit due to your extensive relationship with him, but… his influence has a remarkably good effect on many qi cultivators. He can help the practitioners of more demanding and extreme premium qi cultivation methods regain their sanity and reset their mental balance. The advantages that Lufa can bestow to our most powerful qi cultivators are too great, and he has directly played a role in saving hundreds of leader figures from getting corrupted or ruining themselves."

The strongest argument that Ves used to push Lufa into a central position within the Red Collective was that he could always save a cultivator gone astray no matter the time or place!

Even if the members of the Red Collective did not actively draw on Lufa's help, the kinship network would ensure the Angel of Tranquility would be able to respond to sudden incidents with minimal delay.

While Lufa sounded perfect for the job, there were plenty of paranoid or jealous people within the leadership of the Red Collective that advocated for a fresh and more importantly unbiased spirit to become the nexus of the Kinship Network.

There were a lot of pros and cons to each decision, but Ves was glad that the RC saw reason.

"Lufa will help the Red Collective more than most people can anticipate." Ves smiled in expectation.

"Well, now that the initial tests have proved that Lufa can provide important boons to individuals connected to the kinship network, we are currently working to apply it on an organization-wide scale. This is expected to take several months. I have heard that the timelines are roughly similar to all of the other major organizations. They are determined to confirm the loyalty of every member and root out any traitors in the ranks no matter whether they are cosmopolitans or members of other fringe groups."

Red humanity was no longer in the mood to play around!