Chapter 250: Mo Ying Has Done It

"The seventh trial of the Bat Familiar Summoning technique is ready; we may begin." In the bright room, several figures too strange to be called human gathered together.

At the command, Bi Gelei held a talisman and spell nearly as large as a basketball, pouring her blue-bar mana into its core.

As the world's unique energy flowed through the massive integrated talisman and spell, Bi Gelei clearly sensed the movement pattern of every unit of energy; this process lasted roughly three seconds, until the energy finally reached its end.

With a puff of smoke spewing from the output end, a pink, palm-sized bat flew out from the front of the talisman and spell—yet it only glided a few meters like a paper airplane before suddenly dropping straight down with a splat, landing flat on the floor.

"Dead."

"Yeah, dead."

"Cold as ice."

"Need a portrait?"

"You four have had enough! Did it ever even live?!" Bi Gelei glared at Feng Xue and the other three… no, the Dragon-Ghost-Snake-God combo; her fair face reddened visibly.

"I was just making an observation," Feng Xue said, shrugging helplessly.

"I was merely confirming it objectively," Little Xiao Lingdang's virtual projection stated matter-of-factly.

"I… I just couldn't feel any heat anymore," Liu Yunxi said, uneasy under Bi Gelei's gaze—but then, as if remembering something, she stiffened her neck and insisted stubbornly.

"I just thought this little thing was kinda cute. You must've put a lot of effort into shaping it, so I wanted to give you a keepsake. If you don't appreciate it, fine," Mo Ying unexpectedly delivered a sharp retort, causing Bi Gelei's vampire blood pressure to spike.

Seeing the vampire about to burst a vein, Feng Xue cleared his throat twice, signaling Mo Ying to tone it down, then said:

"Did you notice any difference?"

"Just as I told you before, the element your talisman and spell produces lacks sentience," Bi Gelei took a deep breath, silently repeating to herself, "This is the debt I owe for stealing their technique," and finally calmed her blood pressure—only for Feng Xue to say:

"Then how does your normal skill work? I mean, under the constraints allowed by this world?"

"That's also what confuses me," Bi Gelei casually dropped the massive talisman and spell onto the floor, tapped a finger, and summoned another tiny bat identical to the previous one—yet this time, the bat flapped its wings twice, failed to lift off, and immediately smacked onto the talisman and spell with a pop, dissolving into dust.

"That's how it is in my original world: the elemental magic itself can be maintained long-term—as long as I don't actively dismiss it and the elemental power isn't depleted, it persists and acts autonomously under my control."

"But here, this spell only lets the bat execute one command—attack or otherwise—then it dissipates. Yet it's not without intelligence; it can understand precise instructions like plucking a leaf or snatching a letter."

"Interesting," Feng Xue frowned as he listened to Bi Gelei's explanation; in principle, he should have fully integrated the spell's command set.

After a moment's thought, he finally said:

"Are you certain this is the complete casting procedure?"

"You've asked this how many times now? I promised to cooperate—I won't renege, and I won't hide anything! Besides, I'm just as eager to know the answer to this preliminary trial; why would I sabotage it?"

"Then it's strange. The bat created under this world's rules, though fleeting, possesses sentience—meaning the energy converted by this world's system does carry sentience."

Feng Xue picked up the still-unvanished bat produced by the talisman and spell, pinched it lightly, feeling its bouncy texture as he muttered:

"The bat made by the talisman and spell can persist longer—this matches your original spell's effect. The ritual should be fine, yet it lacks sentience…"

Feng Xue frowned; this problem differed from previous experiments—it must stem from factors beyond the talisman and spell or the ritual.

His gaze turned to Little Xiao Lingdang; sensing Feng Xue's thought, Little Xiao Lingdang immediately shook her head:

"The casting speed under this world's rules is too fast to sample. Suggestion: Bi Gelei should cast at a slower pace to gather more data."

"So it's hard! This world's rules are a nightmare—they lock my ability to a fixed speed, no matter how much I train. Slowing down just causes failure. This is enough already; my world has spells that don't rely on elemental sentience. Let's switch to another one…"

Bi Gelei sighed. Though she couldn't fully unleash her power, if she could restore her combat strength to eighty percent, storming the capital should be feasible.

"No. In my view, the most valuable aspect of your technique is this elemental sentience. Since this world's rules allow it to appear, there must be a reason. Knowing it exists but being unable to obtain it is more tormenting than never knowing at all!"

Feng Xue firmly rejected Bi Gelei's idea of switching spells. Unlike these demon lords desperate to escape this world, his goal was to enhance his own combat power. If he lost the unique traits of each world, he might as well just stick to what he already knew and brute-force it! (Note ①)

Bi Gelei, lacking core technology, could only helplessly endure Feng Xue's stubbornness, silently vowing over and over that once she learned how to convert her blue bar into mana, she'd never tolerate this nonsense again—yet outwardly she smiled pleasantly and said:

"Even if you don't want to, we have no way to verify further, do we?"

"No, we still do," Mo Ying suddenly spoke. Feng Xue was puzzled—this ghost who couldn't do anything but draw, when had she learned this?

"Go on," Feng Xue gave Mo Ying an encouraging look. She immediately said:

"You've used it before. Don't you remember how you learned those resistance group's abilities?"

Hearing this, Bi Gelei frowned slightly, thinking inwardly:

"Resistance group? So Kidorah must've come from a more advanced world too. Of course—he even has AI. Ugh, I hate this stuff. If I go back, I'll fill my storage space with a supercomputer! No, wasn't someone else saying they'd build a mana computer? I'll sponsor them later and make them build me one!"

Bi Gelei muttered inwardly, while Feng Xue was surprised by Mo Ying's initiative—after all, even Little Xiao Lingdang, who was in charge of this, hadn't suggested it…

Oh right—Little Xiao Lingdang is a virtual god; she has no initiative!

Feng Xue sighed, realizing that because the previous civilization's IP design was so meticulously crafted, he'd forgotten: Little Xiao Lingdang was just an AI that wouldn't move unless given orders.

(End of Chapter)