Chapter 43: 42. Temporary Energy Source

42. Temporary Energy Source

Zoe immediately placed her hand on the hilt of the sword at her waist, but did not draw it decisively.

She gritted her teeth, the surging blood rushing to her face. Even if the other party could be called pure villains, she had not yet prepared herself mentally to take the lives of others.

"I—"

"It’s alright, don't burden yourself with this."

Li Ang counted off: "First, they violated the Guild laws; taking action in such a situation earns a reward from the Guild.

"Second, adventuring between the clouds is all about keeping one's mind clear and one's thoughts unblocked. Returning their behavior toward the innocent back upon them is a method recognized by the public.

"Finally, the Guild laws also state that one has unlimited rights to self-defense when attacked. We are also villagers; they pose a threat to us, so taking them out is perfectly reasonable, isn't it?"

"Of course, if you are unable to act for the moment, I will do it."

Zoe was Li Ang's first new partner. In the future, they might have to go through various moments of choice together. From now on, he had to take care of her mental transition; he could not let her be soft-hearted toward cruel enemies, but he also could not let her indulge in solving problems through slaughter.

"I, I don't think we can let them go, but..."

Zoe looked up at the warships surrounding Satus Island: "Won't it affect our breakout because of me? I, I mean, fighting them because of my thoughts, aren't you worried about exposing our tracks?"

"Considering the big picture, very good."

Li Ang and Eden exchanged a glance and said: "Since we are breaking out, there will always be a time when we are exposed. I think Ms. Eden was planning to act anyway."

The woman nodded, the furry animal ears on top of her head swaying along with her.

She turned her curvaceous body, raised her hand forward, and as her wide sleeves fluttered, a mist of freezing ice formed simultaneously.

The ice mist surged forward, immediately freezing the two soldiers who were attempting to draw their swords, turning them into ice before shattering them instantly.

"Who goes there!"

Under attack, the sergeant immediately barked.

"Awoo—!"

Eden took a large step forward, her body leaning forward. As her hands touched the ground, her body instantly swelled within a blue light. Thick, dark blue fur rippled like waves, stirring up a shroud of ice mist. The surrounding temperature plummeted, frost covered the vegetation, and amidst the haze, a Frost Sky Giant Wolf revealed its form.

Its front paws swept across, and the sergeant was instantly smashed into a pulp of meat against a nearby wall. The giant wolf continued to advance like a war chariot; all the soldiers in front were either crushed to pieces or turned into ice shards by the power of the frost.

Eden did not linger on attacking the soldiers, for it had discovered that the warships in the distance were beginning to change direction. It immediately summoned ice-crystal blade armor to cover its body, turning into a death spiral, and crashed into one of the warships in the sky at the edge of the island.

Perhaps in the original story, it was precisely because she defeated the soldiers who came to capture Zoe that she gained the girl's trust.

Li Ang withdrew his gaze from the giant wolf, channeled his magic, and condensed the frost left by Eden into a Shaman's elemental arrow.

Ice is a special state of the water element. Spellcasters can generally choose the form according to their needs. Li Ang chose to project sharp elemental ice blades at the soldiers. By investing Tier 2 magic, their armor could not block them, and their lives were harvested one after another by the ice blades.

In less than two minutes, the soldiers were wiped out by Li Ang, leaving only the person who looked like a sergeant.

Li Ang asked: "Who sent you here to capture the child? Why?"

"For the Empire!" The sergeant could only repeat this sentence.

Li Ang knew a few interrogation methods.

Everything has spirituality, and the thinking and behavior of intelligent races are complex precisely because their spirituality is also extremely complex.

At this time, one cannot operate directly as one would with spellcasting materials; precise control is required.

The spirit of a strong person is very powerful, and Li Ang would have to spend a lot of effort, but for the ordinary soldier before him, Li Ang did not spend much time finding the will-related spirituality within his brain.

After eliminating this part of the spirituality, the sergeant answered.

"It is the Emperor... I don't know the reason..."

After trying a few different ways of asking and knowing that this person was just following orders and truly did not know the underlying cause, Li Ang finished him off and walked to the side to pick up that strange measuring device.

Its wriggling structure, as if it were a living thing, made one feel a sense of nausea even through iron gloves.

Wrapping it in cloth and putting it into his bag, Li Ang walked back to Zoe's side with his back to the reunited parents and children.

Seeing the girl looking a bit dazed, he smiled and wiped the blood spots off his face: "Are you scared?"

"A little," Zoe seemed to be forcing herself to look at the blood of the dead: "But they are bad people, so I think it's okay!"

"Let's go." Li Ang patted her shoulder.

In the air, after destroying a warship, Eden sprinted and turned at high speed, skimming over the heads of the screaming villagers before flying high into the sky again.

At the moment it flew past, Li Ang and Zoe jumped together, grabbed its fur, and ascended into the air together.

By the time the two climbed onto the giant wolf's back, it had already left Satus Island from the blind spot of the remaining warships' fire.

Zoe leaned out to look down, her line of sight passing through the faint clouds, reaching into a darkness and scarlet that extended to the end of the distant arc. She looked up again; the horizon ahead and the sky above were an endless starry expanse.

"Just like that... we're leaving?"

"Haha." Li Ang touched her little head: "The first few times you set sail, you will always have this sense of melancholy. Remember this feeling; it is very precious. Later on, you won't even be able to reminisce about this greenness."

The girl smiled, reached out to take Li Ang's hand, pulled it onto her lap, held it tightly, and leaned the back of her head against his chest.

"You two, the danger has not yet passed." Eden reminded them with the giant wolf's low roar.

It increased its speed, and the headwind blew violently, causing the few strands of chestnut hair sticking out from the edge of Zoe's helmet to dance wildly backward.

"Ah, I know."

Li Ang found his balance on the wolf's back and stood up, turning to face the three ships that were pursuing them by activating their magic furnaces: "Just catching my breath."

"Li Ang, are you going to attack them?" Zoe asked.

"Yes, just running away is not a solution. The other side's speed is not low; we can't shake them off."

The three ships did not fire at Eden, presumably because they saw Zoe on its back and were afraid of hurting her, so they were just pursuing.

"How are you going to fight such big ships?"

Li Ang smiled at her: "Victory does not necessarily mean destroying the other side head-on. We are flesh and blood; we must use strategy."

At his feet, a dozen magic guns were stacked together, which he had just pulled over with his spirituality and brought onto the giant wolf's back.

"What should we do now!" Zoe saw that he seemed to have a plan.

"Like this." Li Ang grabbed a magic gun, skillfully dismantled its structure, and took out its spirit core.

The operating principle of magic technology is similar to an energy source.

Inside the spirit core is sealed a strong-spirituality mineral called Melt-Core Stone, collected from the special mines of Makaina Island. Its core will draw magic to heat itself, and after reaching a critical value, it will self-destruct.

The shell of the Melt-Core Stone is a magic-inert material, not easily affected by magic.

Normally, the self-destruction of a Melt-Core Stone might take several years, and they continuously bring active geological activity to Makaina Island.

But when the shell is opened, its self-destruction speed increases significantly.

Magic devices open its shell when needed, converting the drawn magic into the required energy.

When used as a weapon, this magic is guided into the barrel and converted into energy projectiles to be fired.

Zoe followed suit. She didn't dismantle them quickly, and when she encountered something she didn't understand, she just used the hilt of the Wind-Breath Sword to knock it open.

There were sixteen spirit cores from Tier 2 magic guns in total. Li Ang used his spirituality to make them hover around his palm.

In his adventuring years, ever since he started using high-tier equipment, he hadn't done this for a long time, and now he actually felt a hint of nostalgia.

Only a master of spiritual control like Li Ang could make things of the same spirituality overlap their spirituality with each other, aggregating them into a large spiritual whole, forming a temporary energy source.

[Multiple Magic Spirit Cores (Temporary)]

[A temporary energy source formed by temporarily overlapping multiple low-tier spirit cores using spiritual manipulation. Due to the large quantity, the magic output is quite considerable.]

[Tier: 2]

[Category: Energy Source]

[Magic Reserve Before Criticality: 310%]

[Critical Time: 10 seconds]

[Cooldown Time: 3 minutes]

[Magic Tendency: Generates Fire Element]

The disadvantage of magic devices is that every time they are used, a small amount of magic still heats the inside of the Melt-Core Stone, and it will still gradually approach criticality. If one does not stop using it to let the magic be absorbed by the inert shell for cooling, it may trigger an overheating explosion. This point is also reflected when used as an energy source.

Energy sources made with ancient magic, however, require a charging time.

Magic guns using these spirit cores can only fire continuously for 10 seconds, and then they must spend 3 minutes cooling down. Otherwise, soldiers holding these types of weapons would directly become spell turrets, and using magic technology would have long since conquered the entire sky.

The temporary energy source in hand can draw as much magic as three Tier 2 spellcasters before reaching criticality.

Even a low-tier energy source has a higher efficiency in drawing magic than humans themselves. The complex spirituality of intelligent races is mainly reflected in transforming the world through thinking, while various substances in the natural world are actually more pure in attracting magic, surpassing humans.

The ability that belongs purely to humans is professional skill. No matter how strong the magic is, it can only exert miraculous effects in the hands of a professional with superb skills.

Li Ang let Zoe hold the gathered spirit cores, then opened the switches on them one by one, revealing the Melt-Core Stone cores inside.

After all, it was just a temporary makeshift, and it was very troublesome to use.

Manipulating the magic of the energy source and adding a portion of his own magic, Li Ang directly performed two elemental summoning spells. Two Tier 4 fire elements appeared beside him, like two fire people with no legs, only lower limbs made of fire vortices.

Although he added his own magic, the consumption was very low. This is the effect of an energy source; if there were a high-tier energy source, it would be an even greater help.

But low-tier spirit cores still wouldn't do. After the two Tier 4 spells were released, the residual magic directly caused the dozen or so spirit cores to enter criticality, and they were on the verge of exploding.

Zoe felt the oppressive heat and nervously hurried to turn off those switches.

The two fire elements jumped directly off the wolf's back. Their bodies were entirely made of fire and were as light as nothing. The heat spewed out by the fire vortices could control the direction of flight, and they successfully flew along the wind onto the deck of one of the ships pursuing from behind.