Chapter 152 Walking into a Trap <TOC> Chapter 154 Dragon Roar
Translator: SumTLMan
Since the Soul Cult still needed to perform a ritual to bring the Divine Soil up from the Source Ocean, Li Mu decided to just imprison Lao and wait for his next move.
His top priority at the moment was to increase his strength.
The Ourobin Five-Eyed race’s secret technique taught by Li Piguang required the construction of at least five psychic energy pathways in order to begin cultivation.
Most of the time for a fourth-level awakened was spent on building psychic energy pathways.
The relationship between psychic energy pathways and psychic energy is similar to that of blood and blood vessels.
After constructing the psychic energy pathways, the awakened can manipulate psychic energy more precisely and greatly increase the upper limit of their output.
Li Mu’s body was more robust than that of an enhancer of the same level, but even so, excessively violent output of psychic energy could still harm him.
Constructing psychic energy pathways requires the aid of external objects. enhancers usually refine a Great Pill from a dozen heavy metals such as gold, silver, platinum, tungsten, and molybdenum in proportion. They then immerse and nourish this pill with their psychic energy day and night until it is completely transformed into psychic metal.
Afterward, they either swallow the entire pill or file a little bit of debris from it each day to be taken with wine. The stomach acid converts the psychic metal into ions, which are then transported by psychic energy to the route of the energy method.
Through persistent transportation, the cells along the psychic energy route will combine with the psychic metal and solidify into psychic energy pathways within the body.
The Great Xia Dynasty called this process Embracing the Elixir.
“Only when swallowing the golden pill and building the psychic energy pathways can one have the capital to venture in the Wasteland World.”
Since the psychic metal is transformed by the awakened’s own psychic energy, its affinity for psychic energy is extremely high. The awakened can circulate psychic energy within the pathways without any loss and control it more precisely.
Constructing perfect psychic energy pathways can greatly increase the destructive power of psychic energy, and the strength will rise accordingly.
However, Embracing the Elixir is also very dangerous.
First, the Great Pill is heavy, and when swallowed, it can easily press down on the intestines, causing the digestive tract to rupture, leading to internal bleeding and complications, and ultimately dying in unbearable pain.
Second, most heavy metal ions are toxic, even when transformed into psychic metals. If the body is not strong enough, it is very likely to be poisoned and die.
So, usually, only enhancer-type awakened attempt to build psychic energy pathways within their bodies.
Other awakened mostly inject psychic metals into their skin in the form of tattoos or simply inlay psychic gems in their skin. Their psychic energy is easier to control and leans more towards psychic energy, so there is no need to take huge risks in building internal psychic energy pathways.
Moreover, refining the Great Pill requires a large amount of precious metals and a very high purity of metal. This leads to a severe lack of money for fourth-level enhancer-type awakened at this time.
Impurities in the metal might either contain strong toxins or interfere with the transformation of the metal into psychic metal.
Even Li Mu was a bit troubled about how to gather the materials for refining the Great Pill.
In the Exile Realm, the Xianyin Mountain mining site produced mainly iron ore, as well as a small amount of molybdenum and tungsten. He also had no shortage of gold, with an astonishing amount of gold bars stored in the Exile Realm, ready to be extracted into pure gold at any time.
It was amusing that due to the abundance of gold bars, he was not lacking in gold but was short of silver.
However, other heavy metals would need to be purchased or exchanged. Li Mu’s energy method was far more complex than ordinary energy methods, and it might require three or four Great Pills to complete the construction of the energy pathways.
The demand for heavy metals was even greater.
Li Mu wrote a letter, came to the outskirts of Orin Town, and whistled.
A moment later, a blue lightning bolt flashed across the sky, and dust flew off the ground.
A huge falcon with gorgeous blue feathers spread its wings to slow down, landing lightly on the ground.
Its enormous wings blocked the sunlight, reflecting a metallic glow.
Fei Lian had grown into a massive creature over three meters tall, with a pair of sharp eyes shining brilliantly and steel-like talons.
Li Mu took out a hind leg of a white-bristled wild buffalo.
Fei Lian affectionately rubbed his head and swallowed the entire hind leg without much tearing.
It had been hunting mutated creatures in swamps and the Exile Realm for years, making its physique far stronger than psychic creatures of the same energy level.
Li Mu hid the letter in the feathers of Fei Lian’s neck, and the sharp and sturdy feathers tightly wrapped around the letter without fear of loss.
“Deliver this letter to Jiedu.”
The content of the letter was simple, indicating in a tactful tone that he had reached the fourth energy level and was working on the construction of the psychic energy pathway. It also listed the metals he had already collected.
There were many recipes for refining the Great Pill, and different recipes required different heavy metals and proportions.
As a survivor of the Human Intervention Army, Eastern Xia must have the best Pill formula in their hands.
Fei Lian nodded, spread its wings, and soared into the sky. With its speed, it would take just over an hour to fly to Eastern Xia.
Li Mu watched Fei Lian shrink into a tiny dot in the sky and turned to leave.
The brain in the vat, Lia, had already integrated the newly acquired energy method, White Elephant Great Strength energy, into the Dragon and Tiger Astral Specter method.
The psychic energy pathways of the Dragon and Tiger Astral Specter method had increased by three compared to before, and some pathways had been slightly adjusted. One of the pathways circled around the stomach area, which could work in conjunction with the previously acquired holy relic, Gluttonous Stomach, to greatly enhance the stomach’s digestive capacity and tolerance.
A powerful stomach could speed up the digestion of the Great Pill and reduce the pressure of the Pill on the intestines.
With Blue Blood Gang leader’s method, Li Mu took advantage of this superiority, making it much easier for them to build psychic power pathways than ordinary enhancer-type awakened.
Li Mu decided to wait for the response from the regional governor before attempting to go to Raginbeard to purchase heavy metals and acquire some new air techniques.
As a ladder to gain power, air techniques can only be obtained in Avonigarda City by joining various forces and schools, and even then, one must gain trust and make contributions.
If caught stealing air techniques, the punishment would be very severe. Usually, the offender’s hands and feet would be broken, and they would be hung on a cross to die from exposure.
However, things were different in the City of Marauders, Raginbeard. Although not cheap, items like air techniques that can be easily replicated can be bought with money.
Most defectors from various schools choose to sell the air techniques they’ve inherited from their schools to extract the last of their value after entering the Great Swamp.
With the backing of the controller of Raginbeard, the integrity of the air techniques can be trusted.
Even if they are incomplete, it doesn’t matter, as they are just materials for Lia, the brain in the vat, to calculate new air techniques.
According to Lia’s simulation, once the number of air technique pathways exceeds twenty, the difficulty of operation will increase linearly, and the power will decrease instead of increasing, making it unnecessary.
Chapter 152 Walking into a Trap <TOC> Chapter 154 Dragon Roar