Suppression and subjugation may seem similar, but the meanings they represent are entirely different.
According to Hoshimi Miyabi's description, the Hunter Andrew's tachi didn't just have an advantage over Wuwei; it was more like...
...a complete and utter curb-stomp.
This was a possibility Hoshimi Soichiro had never imagined before.
It must be known that whether it was suppressing Wuwei or subjugating it, for Hoshimi Soichiro, these were existences he had never before witnessed.
And the scabbard he had designed, when it came down to it, its function couldn't even be called suppression.
Hoshimi Soichiro was very clear that the scabbard he designed was, in essence, a maze-like Hollow, isolating Wuwei's frenzied killing intent within it, preventing it from coming into contact with any existence that might provoke it. One could say it used isolation to avoid the possibility of it going berserk due to stimulation.
But subjugation was a completely different concept.
Andrew's weapon itself could forcibly go up against a completely berserk Wuwei and subjugate it, while even a part of its scabbard could directly suppress Wuwei.
Otherwise, when Hoshimi Miyabi was clearing the Ethereals on the front line, Wuwei should have long since shown signs of an impending rampage from prolonged use.
But the reality was...
Until the battle ended and all the congregated Ethereals were annihilated, Wuwei's state had remained extremely stable.
This was some seriously good stuff.
Hoshimi Soichiro picked up the section of white carapace that Hoshimi Miyabi had temporarily hung on the scabbard—allowing the scabbard, which had basically lost its effectiveness, to continue being used—and began to examine it closely.
For some reason...
The moment he picked up this material, a flash of scorching scarlet light flickered across it and vanished. As the light flashed by, an inexplicable sense of an unknown crisis instantly swept over Hoshimi Soichiro's entire body.
But this feeling came as quickly as it went. The instant the light dissipated, the sense of crisis had already disappeared.
After confirming with his powerfully martial daughter that she hadn't had a similar feeling, Hoshimi Soichiro couldn't help but suspect that perhaps he'd had too much juice at the luncheon and gotten himself drunk.
He glanced around again, but still found nothing amiss, so Hoshimi Soichiro once more focused his attention on the material. Although he had no idea what this thing was made of...
Hoshimi Soichiro believed that as long as he researched how to combine it perfectly with the scabbard, the effect of the new scabbard he would develop for Hoshimi Miyabi would achieve a qualitative leap.
At that point, even if Wuwei showed signs of going berserk again due to stimulation, the new scabbard could suppress it, thereby forcibly maintaining Wuwei's stability.
This was a method he wouldn't have dared to even dream of before.
And with this, Hoshimi Miyabi's safety would surely be guaranteed to a much greater degree!
Although its usefulness had already been proven in the recent actual combat...
Since he was going to use this unprecedented material to create a new scabbard, a basic examination was unavoidable.
It would be even better if he could figure out the principle behind how this thing could suppress Wuwei.
Even if he couldn't, he still had to make a new scabbard for his daughter to use first. After all, for every second the scabbard's seal remained unrepaired, his daughter, Hoshimi Miyabi, had to endure another second of risk from a berserk Wuwei.
He carefully placed Wuwei, which had been removed from its scabbard, onto a sword rack in the lab that had been prepared long ago, a rack that could isolate almost all sources of stimulation that might cause Wuwei to go berserk.
Only then did Hoshimi Soichiro feel at ease enough to boldly detach that piece of material from the scabbard.
As for the original, almost-scrapped scabbard after the material was removed...
Hoshimi Soichiro looked it up and down, and after confirming that the data from its previous rampage had been backed up, he casually tossed it into the scrap pile on the side. After all, this scabbard had already been breached by Wuwei multiple times, and then it was used under strain throughout the Nineveh interception battle.
It was now completely worn out.
Compared to spending a great deal of effort to repair this thing, it was simpler to just make a new one.
As Hoshimi Soichiro skillfully operated the various instruments in the laboratory, constantly scanning the fragment, reports filled with dense data were printed out one by one.
But as he flipped through the reports, the very first item—hardness—had already exceeded Hoshimi Soichiro's expectations.
Although this thing looked unremarkable aside from being sufficiently white, its hardness data had actually surpassed the hardest Ether alloy currently in New Eridu by a large margin.
No, to be precise, it directly reached the instrument's limit.
It was obvious. The data on this report wasn't the material's limit, but the limit of the instrument used to test its hardness.
However, while surprising, this wasn't entirely beyond Hoshimi Soichiro's imagination.
After all, anyone with some knowledge of materials science knows that outstanding material strength is often accompanied by weight and density far exceeding conventional materials.
And this material was no exception.
When he had detached it from Wuwei's scabbard earlier, Hoshimi Soichiro had already discovered that the weight of just this small piece of material was already much heavier than the total weight of Wuwei's entire scabbard.
And it wasn't just physical hardness; its impact hardness was also strong beyond Hoshimi Soichiro's expectations.
As the strength data of this piece of material in the tests got higher, Hoshimi Soichiro found himself increasingly unable to see through Andrew's true power.
According to Hoshimi Miyabi, this piece of material was something the other party had broken off casually; at least, he didn't look like he was struggling at all.
After the report on its physical aspects concluded, the next test data on energy conduction was a real eye-opener for Hoshimi Soichiro.
This was no longer a question of whether it conducted energy or not.
As the instrument was connected, a black, ink-like, misty energy form began to surge out from within the seemingly pure white material.
Incredibly violent scarlet energy lightning coiled around it, relentlessly and indiscriminately bombarding everything in the vicinity.
And most importantly...
Whether it was high temperature, lightning, low temperature, or pure Ether energy, all energy transmitted to this material was despotically and forcibly suppressed by that violent energy, unable to even lift its head.
Even Wuwei's Fierce Frost, which was colder than ice, instantly became like a frostbitten eggplant the moment it was conducted to this material.
It was just like an incredibly overbearing tyrant, equally oppressing everyone.
If Andrew were here, he could tell Hoshimi Soichiro...
This situation was the so-called Dragon Attribute Anomaly, a completely unreasonable existence that could forcibly nullify all elements and status effects.
This energy was too unique; Hoshimi Soichiro was absolutely certain in his heart that he had never seen anything like it before. Looking at this energy's performance, Hoshimi Soichiro was absolutely sure.
Even without anything else, just by making some use of this energy, he could strengthen Wuwei's seal by another level.
But... how to use it? To start thinking about how to utilize an energy you've seen for the first time was simply too far-fetched.
Looking at this tyrannical energy, Hoshimi Soichiro was completely clueless.
Although it could suppress all types of elemental energy, because it was simply too violent, at least Hoshimi Soichiro couldn't find any good method to handle it.
But thankfully... under circumstances without special energy stimulation, this energy wouldn't actively emerge.
However, as Hoshimi Soichiro opened the final report from the electron scan of its structure, his pupils instantly contracted.
He flipped back and forth several times in disbelief, until he confirmed that he really hadn't misread it. Only then did Hoshimi Soichiro cry out in astonishment:
"This thing! It's... it's still alive! How is that possible?!"
Alive! This was actually alive?!
This wasn't some unknown natural or synthetic material at all, but the body tissue of some unknown creature!
This... how could this be?!
The reason Hoshimi Soichiro could be certain this was biological tissue was that this short section of material, or rather, carapace, had distinct layered marks that would only appear during biological growth.
And what surprised him the most was that this material had actually maintained such obvious activity for so long...
A small piece of a monster's body tissue could maintain such distinct vitality after who knows how long it had been since it was made into equipment...
Then just how terrifying was the monster that this thing was made from?
This instantly made him think of Wuwei.
Although the forging techniques of that era were long lost, and what material Wuwei was forged from was now unknown...
The violent will contained within Wuwei's blade was itself a representation of it still possessing a certain degree of activity.
But no matter what, Wuwei's activity would only manifest under specific stimulation.
And at that time, the wielder would be forcibly controlled by the will within Wuwei, forced into a berserk state.
But this piece of material was different.
Although the energy it contained was incredibly violent, according to his daughter's description, that weapon was incomparably docile when Andrew used it.
It even took the initiative to protect its wielder from Wuwei's berserk foxfire.
This completely exceeded Hoshimi Soichiro's imagination.
Both were weapons with activity, so why was the Hunter Andrew's weapon so docile, while Wuwei was always so violent?
"Wait, then that sense of crisis I felt for a moment before..."
That fleeting feeling from earlier, it really wasn't an illusion, was it?
Could this thing actually distinguish between friend and foe?
As for why the energy within this material in his hands was so violent, yet it didn't display the same aggressiveness as Wuwei, Hoshimi Soichiro had an intuitive guess.
Although it was incredibly ridiculous, judging by its current performance...
It was because this material was proactively broken off and gifted to his daughter by the other party, so it behaved like an ordinary piece of material, allowing him to study it at will.
You could even say it was actively cooperating.
In that case, if it were to fall into someone else's hands, the final result would surely be somewhat unpleasant.
Although Hoshimi Soichiro had already used the instruments on hand to conduct as comprehensive an examination as possible...
As the test data gradually increased, the unknown secrets contained within this material paradoxically became even more numerous.
This made Hoshimi Soichiro unable to resist sighing softly:
"If only I could invite that Andrew to our home, so I could ask him about it properly in person..."
There were simply too many questions in his heart, yet there was no one who could answer them.
But based on this preliminary test data, Hoshimi Soichiro already had some ideas for improving Wuwei's scabbard. He had confirmed through testing...
That dark, tyrannical energy permeated every corner of this material; you could say this material was an energy aggregate.
Furthermore, the violent energy contained within this material could even forcibly nullify Wuwei's Fierce Frost and foxfire. Then, if he were to cover the entire scabbard with it evenly, wouldn't that mean Wuwei's entire blade could be completely enveloped by it?
Combined with the intelligent seal at the mouth of the scabbard...
With the two working together, wouldn't it be possible to completely eliminate the possibility of it going berserk?
At that point, even if it encountered an even stronger source of stimulation, under the dual guarantee of the scabbard's suppression and the newly upgraded maze lock seal, Hoshimi Soichiro was confident that Wuwei would never be able to stir up another wave!
Since he had an idea, the next step was to put it into practice.
Hoshimi Soichiro, who acted as soon as he decided, quickly used the materials and instruments already prepared in the lab to create a scabbard equipped with the latest maze data.
Next was the matter of how to cut this small piece of carapace into thin sheets that could cover the entire scabbard.
In fact, before he actually started, Hoshimi Soichiro wasn't confident whether the slicer in the lab could even cut it.
If the cutting failed, he could only resort to the clumsy method of tying it on, just like before.
But to his surprise...
Even though the hardness of this material completely exceeded expectations, it was unexpectedly smooth to cut and slice. Watching the scabbard before him gradually become covered in pure white, Hoshimi Soichiro's feeling that this material was actively cooperating grew stronger and more obvious.
Soon, a scabbard that looked not too different from the old one in shape, with only its entire outer shell changed from black to pure white, appeared before the two of them.
Because the material itself was limited in size, Hoshimi Soichiro had cut it very thinly when slicing it.
So after he covered the scabbard with it, the smooth, mirror-like outer layer of thin carapace was like a thin, porcelain-like glaze applied to the scabbard.
The scabbard, assembled from countless tiny fragments, gave off a unique, fractured beauty.
Like the legendary 'ice-crackle' glaze.
Adorned with these fragments, the originally plain scabbard now looked more like a work of art.
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