69novels Chapter 289 Creating a Pseudo-Dimensional Blade
Chapter 289 Creating a Pseudo-Dimensional Blade
Arriving at the underground competition venue with practiced ease, Long You squinted slightly beneath his face, which was covered by the Soul Guidance Mask.
He didn't care about the other things the steward had said, but there was one thing that made Long You feel a little depressed.
"Mr. Long's information channels are indeed extensive. It seems that you already knew about the information in this round of the competition. I was worrying unnecessarily. However, there is one thing that I have implicated you, and I must explain it clearly."
As mentioned before, a new person in charge has been sent from above, and this person has brought his own group of high-ranking Soul Masters. However, if we want to gain enough benefits in this competition, relying solely on these high-ranking Soul Masters is not enough.
No, to be precise, if these high-level Soul Masters can't oust the Soul Masters I've signed, then the benefits seized by the person behind the scenes won't be complete.
"I understand. In tonight's competition, those Soul Masters who parachuted in will go all out against me."
The conversation with Steward Zhuang echoed in his mind. Long You wasn't too afraid of confrontation; after all, he was a Soul Saint, and his safety was guaranteed. It was only the rare metals rewarded by the competition and those obtained through betting that were so tempting, otherwise Long You would have withdrawn from this power struggle vortex right now.
"Forget it, all the gifts were already priced. Since I signed a contract with that guy surnamed Zhuang because I was greedy for a bargain, and I did get some benefits, I should take the fall."
However, there are still some things to prepare. The pseudo-dimensional blade I designed needs to be upgraded again. Its power doesn't need to be increased, but I need to be able to create a small area of spatial turbulence using the power of spatial laws. As long as a safe zone can be created, it won't matter if the opponent uses area-of-effect attacks.
Having made up his mind, Long You's face beneath the Soul Guidance Mask returned to its expressionless state. He walked to his familiar Soul Guidance Workbench and began his routine check of the rare metal material reserves.
Since the organizers of the Mingdu Soul Master Elite Competition have explicitly stated that there are no restrictions on the use of soul tools, Long You certainly won't save rare metals for the Sun Moon Empire. If the rare metal materials in the materials cabinet are incomplete, Long You will definitely have to apply to the competition organizers.
After a thorough examination, Long You couldn't help but frown slightly. The Ordinary Alliance had really gone to great lengths to organize this Mingdu Soul Master Elite Competition.
Long You saw many rare metals unique to the Sun Moon Empire in the rare metal materials cabinet, such as spring copper and diamond gold. However, the properties of these metals were all general rare metals, which did not meet Long You's requirements for creating a spatial origin law soul tool.
"Although it's not impossible to switch to other soul tools, I don't want to miss such a good opportunity to take advantage of this. At worst, I'll just have to put in some effort during the competition later."
Soon, a list of six rare metal materials, including Flowing Silver Crystal, Spiritual Resonance Crystal, Silver Tungsten Spirit Essence, Void Quartz, Flowing Light Meteorite, and Star Obsidian, was handed by Long You to a servant who was patrolling the area.
The waiter immediately recognized Long You's location as that of a henchman-type Soul Master previously signed by Manager Zhuang. Although Manager Zhuang seemed to be losing power, there was still one final battle to be fought, and the outcome was uncertain. As a lowly soldier, the waiter knew that now was not the time for him to take sides; he needed to report the situation to Manager Zhuang.
Half an hour later, the competition officially began, and the materials that Long You wanted had appeared in the materials cabinet next to him.
The forging furnace roared as Long You poured in Flowing Silver Crystal and Void Quartz to forge the spatial crystal needed to create the core array of the target soul tool. These two materials, generally speaking, shouldn't be considered metals, as the flames in the forging furnace alone wouldn't be enough to melt them. To truly execute the forging technique, Long You needed to rely on his own power and precise control of his soul force to penetrate and vibrate the materials.
According to Xiao Yan's deduction, although the Flowing Silver Crystal is called a crystal, it is actually a solidified energy. This energy is neutral and balanced, possessing strong stability and exceptionally good energy conductivity. Void Quartz, on the other hand, is a material that truly contains spatial power, much like the core array material for storage soul tools. If the two can be perfectly fused at the molecular level, then Long You will obtain a spatial crystal that has never appeared in the Douluo World before, making it the best carrier for bearing the fundamental laws of space.
Considering the time limit in the competition, Long You dared not waste the time it would take to forge the rare metals in the furnace, so he turned and picked up the spiritual resonance crystal and the silver tungsten crystal. Because inscribing the spatial origin law runes was extremely energy-consuming, and fearing that he wouldn't be able to complete the soul tool array inscription, Long You simply chose to reduce his energy consumption by spending money.
As its name suggests, the Spirit Resonance Crystal has excellent compatibility with the transmission of soul power. As for the Silver Tungsten Crystal, it is the best object for spiritual power to attach to; this is the main material used by Long You to create the virtual sensing helmet. By purifying and grinding the two crystals into powder, and then completing the synchronization of soul power and spiritual power, Long You can use this mixed powder to replace the soul power and spiritual power he must mobilize when inscribing the soul tool array, thus indirectly reducing consumption.
The process of purifying the two types of crystals is basically the same as that of spirit forging, so Long You is very skilled at it. With the gentle tapping of the forging hammer, pure crystal powder that has already achieved soul power (spiritual power) synchronization is continuously mixed together under Long You's guidance.
"Ding!"
The forging furnace was preheating, and Long You had just finished processing the two crystals. Taking out the flowing silver crystal and void quartz, covered with countless molten red dots, from the furnace, Long You's lips curled into a slight smile. The timing was perfect; his management and operations research hadn't been a waste of time.
With a flick of his wrist, the forging hammer, already integrated into his flesh and blood through soul forging, appeared in Long You's hands. While the forging furnace melted the impurities in the flowing silver crystal and void quartz, Long You needed to quickly complete the material purification work. If he were to perform the melting and forging process with impurities still present, Long You feared he would collapse from exhaustion right in front of the workbench.
Of course, before actually removing the impurities from the Flowing Silver Crystal and Void Quartz, Long You didn't forget to throw the Flowing Light Meteorite and Star Obsidian into the forging furnace. All of these were preparations for the core array and energy conduction array; the actual soul tool body would rely on these two materials.
The rhythmic sound of forging echoed from Longyou's workbench.
In the territory of the Sun Moon Empire, due to the widespread use of Soul Guidance Workbench, few people still use traditional hand forging to purify rare metals. For a time, Long You's workbench attracted a lot of attention. However, because Long You did not want to reveal his advanced forging techniques such as fusion forging, spirit forging, and soul forging in the Sun Moon Empire, his virtual imaging Soul Guidance Device had already started operating. All the onlookers could see was a Soul Guidance Master, impatient to use the Soul Guidance Furnace and Soul Guidance Forging Platform, picking up a hammer and laboriously hammering rare metals, completely obscuring the subtlety in Long You's movements.
After a full hour, Long You, whose arms were beginning to tremble, finally managed to hammer the Flowing Silver Crystal and Void Quartz into a versatile crystal that could cause slight fluctuations in the surrounding space even without any treatment. Staring at the dazzling crystal, Long You exhaled a long stream of turbid air and plopped down on a chair not far behind him.
This wasn't Long You's first time attempting the fusion forging process, but he underestimated the difficulty of creating a vessel for spatial laws. Initially, progress was relatively fast, but the further he went, the more he felt an invisible resistance. This resistance felt like inscribing primordial law runes, a suppression from the world level. This meant that Long You's comprehension of the primordial laws of space had indeed reached the required level; otherwise, this fusion forging would likely have failed.
"Sir, although I know you are very tired, this is the competition venue, and there is less than an hour left in the competition. You need to hurry."
Gasping for breath, Long You listened to Bourne's emotionless, mechanical voice and couldn't help but sigh deeply. The difficulty and time required to create the space crystal had far exceeded his expectations. He wanted to continue now, but he needed to recover his strength.
With his right hand still trembling slightly, Long You took out a bottle of potion from his storage belt. It seemed to be infused with moonlight. With a hint of heartache in his eyes, he closed his eyes reluctantly before drinking the potion in one gulp.
"This is a really good thing that I just got my hands on. Apart from saving myself a little time, I've really lost out in every other way by coming to this competition!"
A silent groan echoed in Long You's mind. Now fully recovered thanks to the potion, Long You felt pain all over his body, but the most painful pain was in his "conscience."
With a trembling heart and steady hands, taking advantage of the fact that the space crystal was still fresh from its forging and still retained the aura of its creator, Long You took out a carving knife and began to inscribe the core array pattern of the soul tool, which incorporated the secret patterns of the space origin law, on the crystal. He also used his mental power to guide the crystal powder that he had prepared in advance to fill the pattern.
Because no law power was invoked during the process of inscribing the law runes, Long You did not feel the resistance he had felt before during the entire process. His right hand, which had been trained for many years, was fast and steady. The newly formed space crystal was quickly covered with mysterious patterns, and at the same time, the space around the crystal also showed signs of instability.
"It still happened. The Douluo world has a really low tolerance for the power of laws."
Muttering to himself, Long You steadily increased the speed of his hands. With the virtual imaging soul tool providing cover, as long as the spatial fluctuations didn't spread to a certain extent or actually cause a spatial collapse, everything would appear fine to outsiders.
Therefore, Long You was well aware that after paying the precious medicine that caused him heartache, whether he could successfully achieve his predetermined goal and recoup some of his losses depended entirely on his hand speed and his ability to resist spatial fluctuations.
The effects of the "mock exam" began to show. Although the little voice in his mind was jumping up and down, yelling for him to go faster and faster, Long You's hand movements were completely unaffected. Each stroke was measured in depth and rhythm; each turn and twist was neat and orderly.
Soul power propelled the carving knife, thrusting and slicing, while spiritual power, carrying the spiritual powder of the spiritual resonance crystal and silver tungsten spirit crystal, covered and filled the space. The fluctuations in space became increasingly intense. Although they had not yet exceeded the limits of the virtual imaging soul tool's concealment, they were already becoming noticeable to high-level soul masters.
Fortunately, Long You's hand speed was indeed up to standard. Before the fluctuations of the spatial crystal could fully attract the attention of the Ordinary Alliance's resident soul masters, Long You used the carving knife in his hand to turn the spatial crystal into a hollowed-out work of art.
The remaining spatial crystal material, wrapped in a spiritual material composed of a mixture of spiritual resonance crystal and silver tungsten spiritual crystal powder, forms the core array of the soul tool that is dazzling yet uniquely beautiful.
Not daring to relax, Long You took advantage of the last bit of time before the spatial rift formed to merge his spiritual power and soul power into one, completely covering the hollow crystal that was only the size of an infant's fist.
The spiritual powder was activated, and the abundant energy transformed the spatial fundamental law runes that constituted the hollow crystal from mere decorations. The profound fluctuations released and then receded, smoothing out the spatial rifts that had been subtly forming around the hollow crystal. The extraordinary nature of the spatial crystal vanished in an instant, and the gazes of the Ordinary Alliance's resident soul masters fell upon it, seeing only a completed high-level soul tool core array.
"Is it just my imagination? Oh well, it seems to be the effect of the core array of the high-level soul tool."
The somewhat bored Soul Master muttered something and withdrew his gaze. Long You, sensing that the gaze had been withdrawn, let out a guilty sigh.
"While spending money saves effort, it's far too dangerous. Even if it doesn't attract the attention of high-level beings during the creation process, the spatial rifts alone are enough to seriously injure me. From now on, I'll stick to using my mental power to inscribe the law runes."
However, changing things up occasionally is actually quite nice; I can feel the fluctuations of the spatial laws becoming clearer in my perception.
Playing with the core magic array in his hand, Long You happily savored his gains. However, before he could fully immerse himself in the experience, Bourne's calm yet resigned voice echoed in his mind once more:
"Being able to perceive the laws more clearly is indeed good news, but sir, there is less than half an hour left before the end of the competition, and you have not yet forged the main body of the pseudo-dimensional blade!"
Furthermore, even if I've already completed the initial impurity removal for the Radiant Meteorite and Starry Obsidian, you won't have time for Soul Forging. In fact, if you don't start immediately, you won't even have time for Spirit Forging.
"Ah~ Ah! Ah———"
Hearing Bourne's reminder, the little figure in Longyou's sea of consciousness collapsed to the ground, letting out a mournful wail that sounded inhuman.