Chapter 1037: Crazy Soldier Explosion

Level 14 Brain Core!

Unsurprisingly, the number of Soul Fragments it can create doubled again, reaching 65,536, and the Element limit that Soul Fragments can copy rose to Legendary High-rank!

Lei En's heart pounded wildly, and his breathing grew rapid.

"That's insanely overpowered!"

This means that from now on, any Thundercast Celestial Soldier it creates will already be Legendary High-rank, possessing the Elements it has at Legendary High-rank; if that also includes the Brain Core and the Ougulevi Creation Technique, then the Thundercast Celestial Soldier can also create clones!

"Let's try it right now."

Lei En sprang up impatiently, his mind leaping into the magical laboratory on the fourth floor of the Obsidian Tower, and stood before the operating table.

First he cut a small piece of flesh from his arm, applied the Ougulevi Creation Technique to it; when the spell finished, massive energy surged from the void, pouring into the flesh and causing it to grow wildly. Minutes later, a complete male body lay before him.

Lei En created nearly 30,000 clones; this process repeated 30,000 times, and he was more than familiar with it.

So far, nothing differed from before.

Next, he activated the "Brain Core", a sharp pain shot through his head, and the Brain Core leaf on the World Tree in the soul realm trembled lightly, coalescing into a sphere of light.

The light sphere began copying its own Elements; instantly, from the first to the sixth layer of the World Tree, the nineteen soul‑crafted branches swayed, and every rune leaf on the branches emitted a phantom that drifted into the hovering light sphere.

When Lei En was a Level 19 Wizard, he had 132 Elements.

At this moment, aside from Wish Spell and the mysterious Touch, the other 130 Elements had been copied by the Soul Fragments. He kept his focus on the branch of the Spirit-absorbing Monster's Brain, the rune leaf at its tip.

"Brain Core!"

The Soul Fragments created by the Brain Core can also copy the Brain Core!

Lei En was overjoyed; the speculation he had held for so long was finally confirmed. Watching the 130 Elements merge into the Soul Fragments, the MutatedPhone also condensed a Little Red Flower—this is a copy of the phone, which combined with the Soul Fragment to become a brain‑fragment crystal.

A fissure opened at his brow, and the brain‑fragment crystal flew out, gently landing in his hand.

The weightless brain‑fragment crystal looked no different from before, like a transparent glass bead with an eight‑petaled Little Red Flower set inside. Over a hundred specks of light, fine as dust, swirled around the flower, resembling a beautiful nebula.

Each speck of light is an Element rune!

"The energy consumption has clearly increased."

Lei En noticed this: the Soul Power cost of the Creation Technique remained unchanged, activating the Brain Core consumed stamina, but copying Elements with Soul Fragments and the phone copy both required energy. Previously it needed about forty units of energy; now it nears a hundred.

In this Soul Transformation, the phone's energy unit did not change; it still uses his Level 20 Wizard Soul Power as the standard.

One hundred units of energy is certainly a lot, enough for a Legendary Wizard to ascend five levels!

Lei En observed for a moment, placed the brain‑fragment crystal on the clone's forehead, and it immediately merged into the brow.

A few seconds later, the Thundercast Celestial Soldier opened its eyes, sat up, climbed down from the operating table, and stood before Lei En.

The two were like reflections in a mirror.

Beep!

An electronic tone rang in the Thundercast Celestial Soldier's mind; the phone powered on!

At the same time, massive energy surged from the void around him, an invisible energy storm flooded his body, his skin reflected a metallic sheen, muscles and bones hardened immensely, and strands of lightning wrapped his form; deep within his eyes a primitive gate made of worms appeared.

Lei En had witnessed this transformation tens of thousands of times.

The Thundercast Celestial Soldier's power skyrocketed wildly; from a freshly born ordinary human, within seconds it became a transcendent being, progressing from Initial to Mid-stage to High-stage, quickly breaking the bottleneck, ascending to Legendary, and the Elements in its mind rose one by one.

Soon, the Thundercast Celestial Soldier reached Legendary Mid-stage.

At this point it was no different from before and should have stopped, but this time it kept strengthening, more energy flooding its body.

Strength, defense, speed, resistance, spells…

The Thundercast Celestial Soldier's power surged again, breaking through in under five minutes to ascend to Legendary High-rank!

Only then did the energy storm subside.

"Hmm?"

Lei En's eyes never left the Thundercast Celestial Soldier; seeing the enhancement halt, he felt odd and muttered, "Why did it stop?"

The Thundercast Celestial Soldier was clearly still capable of becoming stronger.

It possessed all 130 Elements it had at Legendary High-rank except for Wish Spell, but through synchronized sensing, the Thundercast Celestial Soldier opened the phone interface and none of those Elements had reached the current rank's cap; most remained at their initial level.

For example, Titanium‑Extreme Golden Body was only at level one, the same as a Legendary Mid-stage Thundercast Celestial Soldier.

Even the Energy Furnace was also at level one.

Titan God Power was even stranger; Lei En had it at level three at Legendary High-rank, yet the Thundercast Celestial Soldier before him regressed to level one.

Strength level twelve, Swiftness level seven;

Thunder Slash, Titanium‑Gold Flying Feather, Devastating Critical, Thunder God's Spear and Thunderbolt Crash—these melee Elements were mostly low‑level.

Moreover, the number of spell rings mastered also dropped.

Electric Blast Orb, Wind‑Thunder Wings, Tim Kainan Magic Sword Art, Rainbow Light Cloak, Magic Burst Force Field, Space-Time Shock, Mind Blast, and so on—many commonly used spells fell to Seven Rings, the highest a Legendary Mid-stage Wizard can master.

Some spells even fell below Five Rings.

Only the most special Key of Doors remained at Eight Rings, and the selected "Creation Technique" also stayed as an Eight-Ring Spell.

Fortunately, the Lightning Form and Void Resonance Affinity Elements were unchanged, their counts remaining the same.

Lei En frowned.

A Legendary High-rank Thundercast Celestial Soldier, compared to a Legendary Mid-stage one, has more Elements but its overall power is not much greater. The gap from Lei En's own Legendary Peak is astronomical, perhaps less than a tenth of his strength.

"It's like the difference between an ordinary Thundercast Celestial Soldier and a fully‑formed Dark Angel," Lei En thought, "I should invest more energy to boost power."

The Thundercast Celestial Soldier cannot undergo Soul Transformation to ascend, but it can upgrade its Elements.

"Let's try."

The Thundercast Celestial Soldier instantly opened the phone interface; its Soul Power pool is shared by the main body and all clones, having just absorbed many Soul Diamonds and nearly full, and selecting any Element to invest energy would raise it.

It chose the "Brain Core".

The icon showed the Brain Core at level one, able to create eight Soul Fragments; as soon as he thought, the progress bar beneath the icon surged forward.

"It can indeed be upgraded!"

Lei En was rather excited, but a few seconds later his expression changed, "What's going on? Why does it consume so much power?"

The Thundercast Celestial Soldier did not stop; its brain-heart quickly rose to Level 2.

As power was consumed, the brain-heart climbed six levels, then could no longer rise because the progress bar beneath the icon vanished.

"Can it only rise to Level 7?"

Lei En shared perception with the Thundercast Celestial Soldier and observed carefully.

When the brain-heart reaches Level 7 it advances to a Legendary Element, capable of creating 512 sub‑souls, and it no longer can only create "blank" sub‑souls; it can duplicate pre‑Legendary elements. This is exactly the same as the situation when I first created the initial batch of Thundercast Celestial Soldiers.

Lei En shifted his attention back to his phone interface and only then noticed that the progress bar beneath his own brain-heart icon had also disappeared.

That means the brain-heart can no longer be upgraded; Level 14 is its maximum.

Level 7 is exactly half of Level 14!

"Could this be a limitation of some Natural Law?" Lei En speculated in his mind, "The brain-heart that copies the brain-heart has a ceiling only half of the original level?"

"But this restriction seems useless…"

A Level 14 brain-heart can create 65,536 sub‑souls; if each Thundercast Celestial Soldier raises its brain-heart to Level 7, it can also create 512 sub‑souls.

What is 65,536 multiplied by 512?

Lei En's mind instantly produced the answer: 33,554,432.

"Thirty‑three million five hundred fifty‑four thousand!"

He involuntarily inhaled a cold breath; although this is merely a theoretical ceiling and it's impossible to create them all, the sheer magnitude still startled him. Even the mightiest deity could not imagine possessing tens of millions of copies, could it?

In fact, thirty‑three million is not even the theoretical limit!

Lei En instantly thought of a way to break the ceiling: hunt the Spirit‑absorbing Monster's brain's demon soul and give it to his battle Wizard duplicate for fusion.

The freshly formed Spirit‑absorbing Monster brain is a Legendary Mid-stage demon soul; the duplicate's brain-heart only needs to reach Level 11 to allow the sub‑souls it creates to duplicate the brain-heart again. Even with the level cap at half, it can still generate over a million sub‑souls!

Of course, it's best to let the battle Wizard reach Legendary High-rank before merging the Spirit‑absorbing Monster brain, which would increase the sub‑soul count by another thirty‑three million!

So in reality there is no limit; endless generations…

Yet however large the theoretical number, it's meaningless—there simply isn't that much power.

Lei En had just noticed that the Thundercast Celestial Soldier's upgrade of its brain-heart to Level 7 consumed three thousand power units!

He remembered it clearly.

When I first obtained the brain-heart, raising it from Level 1 to Level 7 used a total of 1,500 power units. At that time I was a Legendary Wizard, and five power units then equated to one power unit now, meaning the former 1,500 units equal today's 300 units.

From 300 units to 3,000 units—a full ten‑fold difference!

To know, a Dark Angel upgraded to a full form requires only about 5,000 power units.

That's merely raising the brain-heart to Level 7; the first duplicate created by the Thundercast Celestial Soldier also consumes power.

Lei En suddenly felt that his stored six million power units might not be enough.

While he was calculating, the newly born Thundercast Celestial Soldier had already stepped onto the operating table, sliced a small piece of flesh from its arm, performed the Augurwe Creation Technique, activated the brain-heart, created sub‑souls, duplicated elements, fused them into a sub‑brain crystal, and integrated it into the clone on the table.

The entire creation process was identical to Lei En's own operation down to the smallest detail.

A few minutes later.

A brand‑new Thundercast Celestial Soldier was born!

Lei En watched the whole thing, and when the Thundercast Celestial Soldier opened its eyes and stepped down from the operating table, for some reason he felt a chill down his spine.

The scene was like a robot creating a robot.

AI crisis, robot rebellion, artificial intelligence revolution… a series of terms flashed through Lei En's mind, prompting him to reflect on whether he should keep creating more Thundercast Celestial Soldiers and duplicates, and what problems might arise in the future.

He soon felt reassured.

"I'm not an intelligent robot; each duplicate is me, completely under my control," Lei En dismissed those thoughts, yet a seed of vigilance was planted deep within.

The Soul Eye observed the newly created duplicate's duplicate.

Like the earliest batch of Thundercast Celestial Soldiers, it possesses its pre‑Legendary elements, thirty‑four in total; although it is only a High‑stage Transcendent and cannot undergo Soul Transformation promotion, its strength is no less than a Legend, even far surpassing most early‑stage Legends.

Moreover, it can later practice the Star‑Lake Meditation, mastering more one‑ring to four‑ring spells, becoming a battle Wizard!

Lei En can also synchronously sense its thoughts; everything is no different from the Thundercast Celestial Soldiers he creates.

It's the best tool!

"Hmm…" Lei En stroked his chin while observing the secondary duplicate before him, thinking he should differentiate the two types of Thundercast Celestial Soldiers.

"The ones I create are called 'Thundercast Divine Soldier.'"

"And the duplicates created by Thundercast Divine Soldiers retain the old name, still called 'Thundercast Celestial Soldier.'"

Just now, Lei En paid special attention to the power fluctuation and found that creating a secondary duplicate—i. e., a Thundercast Celestial Soldier—requires roughly the same power as before. The earliest Thundercast Celestial Soldiers needed about 150 power units, equivalent to today's 30 units.

Current Thundercast Celestial Soldiers still consume 30 power units.

That's good news!

From his stored six million power units, raising the brain-heart to Level 14 consumed one million, leaving roughly five million. With these units, properly allocated, he could quickly create a Thundercast legion of fifty thousand units!

Fifty thousand Thundercast Celestial Soldiers require 1.5 million power units.

Additionally, a hundred Thundercast Divine Soldiers must raise their brain-hearts to Level 7, which also costs 600,000 power units.

At the same time, creating a Thundercast Divine Soldier consumes 100 power units; although their strength is comparable to a Legendary Mid-stage, one Thundercast Divine Soldier's combat power equals that of dozens of Thundercast Celestial Soldiers, so they should be produced as quickly as possible—the more, the better.

Lei En plans to create another 13,000 Thundercast Divine Soldiers, bringing the total up to fifty thousand.

That will consume 1.3 million power units.

His thoughts drifted outward.

There can be at most 65,536 Thundercast Divine Soldiers; the previously created 27,000‑plus have all been withdrawn from the production line, as using them as tools was too wasteful.

Earlier Thundercast Divine Soldiers could be patched up to Legendary High-rank, then infused with power focusing on different enhancement paths, forming several specialized legions, like the Extreme Legion and Dark Angel, each ranging from a few hundred to several thousand members.

A legion also needs a Saint Rank strongman as commander; my few Holy Soul Wizard duplicates are suitable, as they are all battle Wizards.

Furthermore, the sub‑brain crystals installed in the Titan Engine, Electric Light Cannon, and Star Destroyer must all be replaced with secondary sub‑brain crystals. Many application scenarios don't require such high computational speed; performance is excess, and secondary crystals are sufficient.

65536 split‑brain chips, one short or one extra, cannot be wasted.

Fifty thousand Thundercast Divine Soldiers and fifty thousand Thundercast Celestial Soldiers!

Exactly a hundred‑thousand army!

Next year the first phase of the Title: Duke Guard's recruitment training will be completed, also one hundred thousand soldiers, equal in number to the Thundercast Legion, but the overall strength differs by more than a hundredfold.

Lei En suddenly shook his head.

"Had I known it would be like this, I wouldn't have created the Title: Duke Guard."

Thundercast Celestial Soldiers are all high‑rank combat mages, their power not inferior to Legendary, a single one can match ten fully‑armed Title: Duke Guard units.

Moreover, there is no concern about loyalty, and no training is needed.

However, the Title: Duke Guard is not entirely useless; later it will be converted into the Imperial Defense Army, expanded to over a million, displayed openly as one's public military force.

Even the strongest Thundercast Celestial Soldiers can only be kept hidden for now.

Otherwise, a super legion of tens of thousands suddenly appearing from nowhere would eventually have its secret discovered.

There are several hundred previously created Thundercast Divine Soldiers in the Obsidian Tower.

Lei En summoned a few to patch them, upgrading to Legendary High‑rank; one patch consumes sixty units of electricity, whereas the original creation used forty units, so together they equal the electricity needed to create a brand‑new Thundercast Divine Soldier.

All twenty‑seven thousand Thundercast Divine Soldiers upgraded require one million six hundred twenty thousand units of electricity.

"About five million units of electricity are nearly used up..."

Lei En thought for a moment, then tried to reinforce the Thundercast Divine Soldiers, raising all Elements to the Legendary High‑rank ceiling.

A moment later.

A Thundercast Divine Soldier almost identical to Lei En at his Legendary Peak appeared.

Strength Level 15, Swiftness Level 10, Titanium Extreme Golden Body Level 2, Titan Divine Power Level 3, Energy Furnace Level 2, Thunder Slash Level 7, Thunder God's Spear Level 5, Destruction Critical Hit Level 7, Dragon Roar, Infinite Frenzy, Truth Willpower, Rainbow Light Law, etc.;

Lightning, Arbitrary Door, Electric Flash Teleport, Mind Jump, Rainbow Light Cloak;

Electric Blast Orb, Anti‑Magic Field, Disintegrate, Electric Ray, Rainbow Light Ray, Mind Blast, Advanced Thunderclap Technique, Mirror Image, Rending Sky Sword, Phase Distortion, etc.;

The mastered spells have all reached eight rings or the spell's own limit!

Aside from Wish Spell and Mysterious Touch, this Thundercast Divine Soldier is Lei En's copy from his Legendary Peak, as if created by a true Mirror Image, yet it can exist permanently, its power comparable to a Saint Rank strongman, and even against a Holy Soul Wizard it would not be at a disadvantage.

This is the ultimate full form of the Thundercast Divine Soldier!

However, Lei En paid three hundred thousand units of electricity for this, which pained him greatly.

From an ordinary person he rose to Legendary Peak, the electricity he consumed certainly was far less than three hundred thousand units, not even a tenth. The reason for investing so much, evidently like the upgrade of the Core Brain's Heart, is a restriction of Natural Law, and can be seen as a punishment.

Three hundred thousand units of electricity for a single ultimate Thundercast Divine Soldier is certainly not worth it.

The cost‑performance ratio is far too low!

This amount of electricity is enough to create ten thousand Thundercast Celestial Soldiers or three thousand ordinary Thundercast Divine Soldiers, or to promote several clones to Grand Mage, or to expand the Pixel World.

"Create more when there is surplus electricity later."

Lei En shook his head; at present the most important matter is only one.

That is mass‑production of troops!

Extreme mass‑production, insane mass‑production, then the Thundercast Legion and the Star Destroyer together push the Empire flat, even the entire Prime Material Plane!

Tomorrow I will start writing the most important plot of this book.

Ao Rui En Se, your emperor has returned!

(End of Chapter)