STARTING FROM THE PLANETARY GOVERNOR

Chapter 829: Chapter 454, Machine Spirit Cleansing Chapter 829: Chapter 454, Machine Spirit Cleansing To repair and assess the condition of the freshly captured Retribution-class Battleship, the entire United Fleet was to stay an entire day within the Iron Dong II Star System.

Despite Gu Hang’s dissatisfaction with the need for such a long stop, Wang Zhaoran, the Dominant Bishop of the Mingyang Sect and the technical advisor to Flying Wing Star, didn’t mind.

He had explained the reasons to Gu Hang.

First, the shipbuilding technology of the Tianma Star Sector was already unmatched across the Dragonhawk Star Domain, but there was still no experience in manufacturing, maintaining, or repairing Retribution-class Battleships. Having never worked on a ship this big, taking a whole day to do this was already quite efficient.

Second, the level of Chaos corruption this ship had suffered was quite severe—a much bigger issue than the former.

In fact, when Wang Zhaoran initially told Gu Hang that he could get the ship back in working order, although he seemed very confident, he didn’t actually have that much certainty.

But…

“Teacher, aren’t we deceiving the Governor by doing this?” his apprentice inquired quietly to Wang Zhaoran while they worked.

One of Wang Zhaoran’s mechanical arms pushed the apprentice’s head back down, “Focus on your work and cut the chatter.”

Another apprentice then spoke up with a smile, “If Teacher hadn’t said it like that, what if Mr. Gu had given up on the plan to seize the ship? How else would we have such an opportunity to get our hands on such a big ship?”

Wang Zhaoran nodded slightly.

That was indeed what he meant.

Moreover, it was not just any Retribution-class ship; it was deeply corrupted by Chaos.

Chaos corruption was certainly not a good thing, but wasn’t it also a rare occurrence?

A rare Battleship plus a rare state of corruption, how could the Oil Heads not be tempted?

He was sure to come!

However, the current situation was slightly beyond his expectations.

If it were only a matter of mechanical issues, it would actually be easier to handle. Although Wang Zhaoran also lacked experience with Retribution-class Battleships, many of the technical aspects of naval vessels were universal. Most importantly, the damage to this particular Retribution-class wasn’t that severe to begin with—figuring out how to operate the ship would suffice.

But the corruption was different.

The Mechanical Cult Guild believed that every mechanical creation in the world, from super Starships as large as cities to the most ordinary gun, had a soul.

This was what they called the “Machine Spirit.”

Whether replacing a battery in a laser gun, lubricating the tracks of a Lion Tank, or blessing the Interstellar Warriors with incense and scriptures before departure, all were methods to soothe the Machine Spirits. Delighted Machine Spirits could make machines more stable and even perform extraordinarily; discontented Machine Spirits, however, could cause malfunctions.

Of course, although this notion was quite popular, it was mainly the Sect of Mechanics and its followers who took it seriously.

The concept of Machine Spirits was rather mystical, and a good portion of people did not believe in it, or rather, did not understand it.

In the present circumstances, Wang Zhaoran had confirmed that rescuing this Battleship would be exceptionally challenging.

Primarily because of the mutiny of the Machine Spirits due to Chaos corruption.

The corrupted Machine Spirits were violent and bloodthirsty, filled with a madness-inducing power.

To pilot this ship, if it was only for a short time, it might still be manageable; but if it was any longer than that, all the crew members would be at risk of infection and then falling into madness.

Crazed crew members, at the least, would begin indiscriminate attacks during battles with their starships, and at worst, might conduct evil rituals within the ship to call upon abyssal demons.

This problem couldn’t be solved just by repairing a few devices and components on the starships; it required a lengthy and complex technical solution to eradicate the corruption from the machine spirits.

Even Wang Zhaoran wasn’t sure if there truly was a method to soothe and purify the machine spirits.

At least he couldn’t.

After handing over the basic maintenance and repair tasks to the students, he spent the following day trying various approaches to see if any method of appeasing the machine spirits was effective.

He conducted fifteen attempts, each one failing.

There wasn’t the slightest sign of life, and during the process of communicating with the machine spirit, he couldn’t feel the slightest feedback from the Retribution-class Battleship’s spirit; all he ever heard was its violent roars.

Eventually, he even feared to continue trying. With each attempt to communicate with the machine spirit, he felt a tremendous psychological pressure. After all fifteen methods failed, although he had a few more tricks up his sleeve, the chances of success were incredibly low, and there was even a risk of falling into the abyss himself…

It just wasn’t worth it.

The following day, when he faced Gu Hang, he didn’t dare to keep anything hidden or make up lies; he simply explained the situation as he knew it.

At that moment, he was somewhat uneasy.

Before his arrival, he had claimed he could pilot the ship back.

Now… he hadn’t exactly broken his promise; he could definitely pilot it back. But what was the point of returning if the ship’s corruption issue wasn’t resolved? It couldn’t be of any use in actual combat.

Even merely parking it in a starport posed the risk of spreading the corruption.

But Gu Hang didn’t seem to care too much about that.

Smiling, he said, “As long as you can pilot it back, that’s good enough. There’s no time to delay, let’s return now!”

…

Unlike what Wang Zhaoran worried about, Gu Hang didn’t fear any chaotic corruption; what he feared most were significant, insurmountable problems with the ship’s mechanical systems.

Should such a problem arise, he would be at a loss, only able to admit a major setback in this operation.

Fortunately, with his careful precautions, such problems didn’t occur.

As for the issue of corruption, he had his ways to deal with it.

He didn’t quite understand the ‘machine spirit’ as defined by the Sect of Mechanics. To him, the concept had more religious overtones than practical significance.

In this universe, which was neither materialistic nor scientific, Gu Hang wouldn’t easily deny these mysterious notions. Their existence, widely acknowledged by many, could eventually turn fiction into reality.

However, for the current matter, Gu Hang had his own pragmatic solution.

He might not understand what a corrupted machine spirit meant, but he could tackle the problem in a very grounded manner: using thunder and Storm Divine Power to cleanse the ship, from top to bottom, inside and out, washing every part, even every screw.

With the divine power of storms and thunder, wash away the bloodline and divine presence that tainted the warship.

If washing it once wasn’t enough, then do it ten times, a hundred times.

When the warship was in the Real Universe, out of the reach of the ‘tyrant,’ and subjected over and over again to the cleansing ritual of the thunder divine power, there would surely come a time when it was completely purified.

At that point, the corrupted machine spirit should also be cleansed of its corruption, right?

Source: .com, updated on Novlove.com

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