Chapter 134 - 115: LV3

Chapter 134: Chapter 115: LV3

RUMBLE!

The full moon hung high in the sky. A tiny figure streaked across it at three times the speed of sound, unleashing a thunderous rumble across the land.

Having eaten its fill and created some carnage, the Red Falcon King finally remembered it had a master.

Although its body longed for the vast, free world, its heart had already found its home.

And so, it flew toward home.

A dozen or so minutes later, it arrived back at Chris Tower, but unfortunately, its master was not there.

But that was no problem. It was a Red Falcon, after all. Following a mysterious connection, it found Chen Qi in just a few seconds.

’Just what is Master doing? The aura he’s giving off is terrifying.’

...

CRACKLE! CRACKLE!

Sparks flew from the giant metal ritual platform, and lightning occasionally arced out of thin air.

Chen Qi sat upright at the center of the platform, observing a one-versus-ten battle.

Not far in front of him, a small, silver-white snake formed from the Source Ore was locked in a fierce battle with ten giant purple pythons.

Those ten giant pythons were, of course, the ten pieces of Activated Metal created by Chen Qi’s Metal Manipulation Superpower.

Normally, forget a ten-on-one fight; even in a one-on-one matchup, a single Activated Metal python could have easily crushed the little silver-white snake formed from the Source Ore.

After all, they were on another level now—they were already LV2.

But right now, the combat effectiveness of these ten behemoths was abysmal. They were nothing more than big, clumsy brutes with no real power behind their size.

This wasn’t because they had grown weak, of course. It was because someone was not only rigging the fight and holding them back but was also actively assisting their opponent.

...

CRACKLE, CRACKLE!

Lightning flashed across the metal ritual platform. Clearly, it was operating at full power.

Although in the physical world everything appeared calm, with no major changes visible, on the level of the Matter Field, a vast, ultra-high-pressure Spirit Furnace was burning fiercely. Both the Source Ore and the ten metal pythons were battling inside it.

This was a battlefield Chen Qi had designed especially for them.

He had forged this Spirit Furnace using the Source Ore’s Spirituality as a guide, fusing it with the metal-based Matter Field in a 3,000-square-kilometer radius. The design was based entirely on his previous work refining Nuclear Iron.

Of course, with the Source Ore’s weak Spirituality frequency, it could never have achieved "ultra-high pressure" on its own.

But that didn’t matter. Chen Qi made a direct "investment," infusing it with his own Spirituality.

Their Spiritualities no longer conflicted in the slightest.

HISS! HISS!

The metal pythons grew increasingly feeble. This was because the Spirituality of the Card within them was being suppressed.

Even so, the Source Ore’s attacks still couldn’t inflict any significant damage on the metal pythons.

If this continued, the Source Ore would likely never be able to pull off the impossible feat of a snake swallowing an elephant.

’Of course, this is all completely within my expectations.’

He understood the gap between the two combatants better than they did themselves.

In fact, this situation was exactly what he wanted.

If the Source Ore had gone on a rampage, devouring the metal pythons one by one, then Chen Qi would have truly been in trouble.

According to experiments conducted by Jomoya Chris, if anything went wrong with a single one of the metal strings, the Card would become unusable for ten days.

’If all ten metal pythons were devoured, wouldn’t my Superpower be out of commission for half a year?’

After thinking it over and over, Chen Qi concluded there was only one way to solve this problem.

He had to advance to LV3 and merge the two abilities during the promotion process.

More precisely, he had to reclaim the Puppet Threads ability from the Metal Manipulation Superpower.

This way, not only could he make the Card spit out the devoured Source Ore, but he could also use the opportunity to complete his skill promotion.

Moreover, the spat-out Source Ore would have already been upgraded to the LV2 level, which would be an incredible boon for it.

...

’Everything is ready. It’s time to begin.’

Without hesitation, Chen Qi activated his own Spirituality and locked onto the Spirituality of the Card.

Just as before, the Card began to frantically devour the "interference force" within Chen Qi’s Spirituality.

But unlike his previous powerlessness, Chen Qi, having completed his Spirit Awakening, could now just barely resist the Card’s attempts to devour him.

He didn’t, however. If the Card couldn’t devour enough of the interference force, it would be unable to complete the skill upgrade.

But Chen Qi didn’t simply let the Card devour at will. He turned the tables, forcefully suppressing the Card’s Spirituality and changing the "devouring" into a "feeding."

By doing this, he gained complete control over the pace of the skill promotion.

Even better, since the Card remained suppressed by him from start to finish, there was no need to waste time establishing a new equilibrium.

’Body Control, at its root, is the manipulation of a Life Form.’

’In that case, the ability I want for LV3 is Spirituality manipulation.’

’I want to be able to use the Puppet Threads to influence and control the Spirituality of a Life Form.’

’It might seem unbelievable, but I’m convinced the Card can do it. Its fundamental nature is of a high enough order.’

Through this spiritual clash, Chen Qi had locked onto the Card’s Spirituality frequency: 16.72.

This didn’t seem particularly high, but one had to remember that it was likely just a fragment broken off from some greater entity.

Furthermore, Chen Qi was absolutely certain that with each skill upgrade, the Card’s Spirituality frequency increased rapidly—by about five points.

The small amount of interference force he allowed it to devour could not possibly cause a Life Form’s Spirituality frequency to increase so drastically.

There was only one explanation: the Card’s current Spirituality frequency had been suppressed by some game-like mechanism.

With every skill promotion, this mechanism loosened its suppression.

’If it keeps increasing by five points per level, then after LV6, will it fully recover its original Spirituality frequency?’

’And that value would be around 35.’