Chapter 253: Struggling Forward in Self-Recognized 'Error'
"So what should we do now? Should we wait here for Hai Bodong to recover his strength?"
In the elegantly arranged courtyard, Xiao Yan looked up at the sun in the sky and then asked Jiang Lin, who was resting against a large tree in the yard.
"What's wrong? Are you worried? As long as his Dou Qi is weakened to below Dou Huang, I can still attempt to break through the defenses of his Dou Wang Dou Qi Armor," Jiang Lin replied lazily, his eyes narrowing slightly. The energy in the crystal core within his body was in a fully charged state. In a critical situation, he could unleash the strength of a Dou Wang, although his control might not be as refined as a regular Dou Wang's. However, as long as it doesn't affect his "up, down, left, right attack and roll" controls, suddenly unleashing a burst against Hai Bodong would undoubtedly cause the latter immense discomfort.
The reason why Jiang Lin rated the crystal core refined from a 6th-grade magic core as a 5th-grade item was that a regular 6th-grade magic core couldn't store as much Dou Qi as a 6th-grade Dou Huang. This was because a magical beast's body didn't store all its Dou Qi in its magic core—some of it was stored within its body.
Jiang Lin treated the crystal core as a "second dantian." Therefore, the crystal core refined from a 6th-grade magic core could only serve as an auxiliary energy source before reaching the Dou Huang level. Once the Dou Huang level was reached, the core could only act as half a dantian.
"The initial stage of the crystal core is one-star Dou Wang. I've been refining and compressing it with different elemental Dou Qi, gradually reaching three-star Dou Wang. With the energy explosion of a three-star Dou Wang, combined with my body at the fourth stage, as long as your Bone Spirit Cold Fire has an effect to weaken the opponent's Dou Qi, Hai Bodong, with his likely first-stage body and Dou Wang-level Dou Qi defense, could be hit mentally by an Eight Extremities Collapse punch," Jiang Lin explained. Physical defenses naturally had a slight discount against physical attacks, and when combined with the Eight Extremities Collapse, even Dou Wang or Dou Huang-level warriors could be mentally shaken by Jiang Lin's punch.
"Naturally, the teacher said the same. If Hai Bodong turns hostile, we can use a special method to trigger Bone Spirit Cold Fire within him. It may not kill him, but it will cause interference comparable to the Medusa Seal," Xiao Yan added, walking up to Jiang Lin and nodding. Yao Chen had already informed him that Jiang Lin could sense the little tricks in the Breaking Chaos Pill. Though Jiang Lin didn't understand the pill, he had seen Bone Spirit Cold Fire before and knew its aura. So, the moment Xiao Yan took out the pill, Jiang Lin sensed something was off.
At that time, Hai Bodong hesitated partly because he didn't trust Xiao Yan. What if it was poisoned? However, Jiang Lin's forceful intervention immediately dispelled Hai Bodong's doubts. Although he felt disgusted by Jiang Lin's pill-snatching actions, Jiang Lin's behavior had actually caused Hai Bodong to trust the pill, even with a slight modification, and willingly take it out, agreeing to exchange it for the map fragment with Xiao Yan.
"By the way, Lin, I found that the Qinglian Earth Heart Fire seems to be very effective in refining and compressing the crystal core. Teacher said my Dou Qi purity in the crystal core will soon break through to two stars." Xiao Yan shared some good news with Jiang Lin. The upper limit of a 5th-grade crystal core was nine stars. To reach this limit, one had to refine the core repeatedly with their own Dou Qi, gradually turning the foreign magic core into their own.
"The crystal core, once refined, will be similar to a regular magic core. Its internal energy will increase as the cultivator's strength improves," Xiao Yan continued, explaining the process. One must continually use their Dou Qi to refine the core, ensuring that the core could store more energy as the cultivator's energy quality improved.
"Not bad," Jiang Lin nodded. The Qinglian Earth Heart Fire itself was of very high quality, and it would start transforming Xiao Yan into a completely different person, no longer the weakling he once was.
"What do you plan to do next?" Jiang Lin asked. Now that the map fragment of the Lotus Demon Fire had been collected, if there were no other matters, Jiang Lin was actually planning to bring Xiao Yan with him back to the Gamma Holy City to forge a 4th-grade mystical weapon.
Regarding the crystal core, Jiang Lin had gained a new insight and needed Xiao Yan to be a part of an experiment.
The precursor technology to crystal cores, the Dou Crystal, was an external energy core. The difference between Dou Crystals and crystal cores was that Dou Crystals were external, whereas the crystal core was created by refining the Dou Crystal into an internal and external core that worked more effectively when integrated.
When Jiang Lin learned about Dou Crystals, he also learned the application of ancient refiners in using Dou Crystals, particularly in the creation of "Crystalized Magic Core Armor" or, in simpler terms, external meridian energy mechs!
Human Dou Qi cultivators were fragile mages hiding under Dou Qi armor, but no matter how fragile the mage, the energy pathways of the Dou Qi armor still had to pass through the mage's own meridians.
The Crystalized Magic Core Armor of the alchemists was designed to solve this issue. Jiang Lin had only a partial 6th-grade top-tier refiner's blueprint, but it had provided him with a whole new way of thinking: external dantian and Dou Crystal! External Dou Qi armor—Crystalized Magic Core Armor!
When these two core components were realized as external devices, it meant that a Dou Qi mage could be replaced in combat! The combat potential of this set of equipment no longer depended on the mage's Dou Qi cultivation but rather on the strength of the weapon materials!
"From a certain perspective, spirit artifacts have gone astray. Super 6th-grade mystical artifacts should be the true path," Jiang Lin thought, looking at the blue flame burning within Xiao Yan's abdomen, his golden eyes slightly dazed.
"But how can one confidently and eagerly move forward on a path they believe is wrong?"
(END CHAPTER)
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