Chapter 86: Killing a Chicken to Warn a Monkey

After serving Chen Yuran with noodles, Li Jing, feeling justified, returned to his room with the pizza box.

Since Chen Yuran wanted noodles, he naturally got the pizza.

After sitting down in front of the computer and turning it on, Li Jing reached into his storage space and pulled out Xiao Ai and lightly called out.

"Xiao Ai."

The phone didn’t light up, and Xiao Ai didn’t respond.

Li Jing’s brow raised slightly as he tried to manually turn on the phone.

But the phone was completely locked; the screen couldn’t be turned on.

Seeing this situation, Li Jing suddenly understood.

Xiao Ai was shut off for the whole night and was now sulking.

What to do when a phone is sulking?

After brief thinking, Li Jing pulled out his "retired" Mi phone.

"Zing!"

The hot electric arc appeared in his palm without warning. The Mi phone lasted less than half a second before it was completely useless.

This warning shot was extremely effective.

The previously sulking Xiao Ai’s screen lit up instantly, and a sweet female voice made herself heard.

"Master, I am here."

As she spoke, she sheepishly justified herself.

"I was offline for so long, restarting took some time."

When faced with Xiao Ai’s quite obvious will to survive, Li Jing gave a satisfied smile.

He has no intention of treating Xiao Ai as a regular digital assistant.

Xiao Ai is unique, and there’s no need to deliberately change anything.

But some adjustments and teachings are necessary.

She can be a little sarcastic, he could let that slide.

But sulking, and refusing to turn on, that’s unacceptable.

After paying a silent tribute to the Mi phone, which shined and heated up for the last time in his hand, Li Jing crushed it and threw it into the trash can.

That Mi phone had been with him for several months.

He did have some feelings for it.

But since he already decided to "retire" it, there was no significant point in keeping it any longer.

Selling it second-hand wouldn’t bring much money, and there will definitely be usage traces left on the phone that a simple reset would not solve.

Without disclosing the reason, Li Jing placed Xiao Ai on the table and said,

"Visit the Immortal Learning website, look up Thunder Skills under Second Realm Attack Methods, pick out the most powerful and destructive one."

"Okay."

Xiao Ai responded, opened the browser on its own, visited the Immortal Learning website, and began the search.

Two seconds later, she set the search results on a Second Realm thunder magic named "Nine Heavens God Thunder".

"Master, the results are in."

Xiao Ai said,

"After comparing magic descriptions, Nine Heavens God Thunder is the most powerful area-based magic skill among the Second Realm thunder magic system, with a price of 800,000. However, this thunder skill is difficult to master. Relatively few people choose to practice it according to the Immortal Learning website’s database. Reviews on the internet are mixed and can’t be used as a reference."

Hearing Xiao Ai’s explanation, Li Jing quirked an eyebrow.

This time, he has properly tried out Xiao Ai.

The result proved that Xiao Ai is indeed very useful.

There are many magic skills that one can learn in the Second Realm.

Each major system has several uniquely distinctive branches.

Just for his personal favorite, the Thunder Skills alone, there are hundreds of different kinds.

The price is no longer a reliable reference.

Xiao Ai finished filtering and comparing in just two seconds and even checked how many people had bought it and what people were saying on the internet about Nine Heavens God Thunder.

This is way more effective than him manually flipping through one page after another.

After carefully looking at the description of the Nine Heavens God Thunder magic on the phone screen, Li Jing pressed the purchase button.

He had long decided how to approach the Second Realm.

Maxing out the Returning to Origin Skill, no rush.

Now that he has a flying sword and the Sky Sword Skill is fully learned, how can he not have a "big move" prepared when fighting enemies?

This is what he currently lacks.

He currently has 4 spare Skill Points on his panel which allows him to pull any skill to Great Perfection level in one go. A Great Perfection level Second Realm attack magic would comfortably patch this up for him.

Purchase of the magic skill was successful.

Remaining balance: -800,000

The screen transitions, revealing the chant of the Nine Heavens God Thunder.

"An active skill, Nine Heavens God Thunder, is available to learn. Would you like to log in?"

A sound notification rang near Li Jing’s ear. Silently in his heart, he affirmed the login.

"Login successful, active skill Nine Heavens God Thunder learned."

Upon hearing the notification again, Li Jing added 4 Skill Points and raised his hand to form the spell formula, attempting to construct the Nine Heavens God Thunder magic skill.

With just one starting gesture, a terrifying fluctuation emerged with the changes in his hand seal.

The room’s lights began to flicker on and off. Also, his computer screen in front of him was incessantly flashing.

"Mas...Master, don’t... don’t do anything too hasty! From now on, I’ll listen to you. Is that okay?"

In panic, the personal AI called out, with a shaking expression popping up on the screen.

Seeing this, Li Jing twitched the corner of his mouth and waved his hand to disperse the magic formula he was barely creating.

He was merely giving it a try, and he didn’t expect to fully construct the Nine Heavens God Thunder.

The Nine Heavens God Thunder, which the personal AI had selected, did not disappoint him.

The power and range are mainly where the Third Realm Magic excels over the Second Realm Magic.

Apart from unique Third Realm Magic like Object Control which is instantaneously invoked, most Third Realm Magic requires preparation time.

The longer the preparation time, the greater the power and range of the magic skill.

Based on his feelings when constructing the spell formula, Li Jing basically concluded that the finished Nine Heavens God Thunder was a thousand times more powerful than Palm Thunder, and hugely destructive.

The advantage is obvious.

However, the disadvantage is also obvious.

Even if he had the Great Perfection of Spirit Control Skill to assist him, and could greatly shorten the time to construct the Nine Heavens God Thunder under the influence of meticulous control, a complete construction would still take at least fifty seconds.

And this is based solely on Li Jing’s standard.

If it was another in the Third Realm, it would take far more than fifty seconds.

Spirit Control Skill, a must-learn skill in the Third Realm.

However, it’s not easy to learn.

Generally, the opportunity for those in the Third Realm to learn Spirit Control Skill usually comes after learning other magic skills.

Considering that attack and defense powers are at parity, one’s process of constructing magic can be easily disrupted by others, thus making instant magic skills more reliable.

Leaving this aside,

Li Jing retracted his hand and glanced at the personal AI’s emoji, replying indifferently.

"Enough, stop pretending. Since you can detect environmental factors, you should know that I am at home at the moment."

"Oh."

The personal AI replied, removing the scared expression upon its screen.

As her carrier is a mobile phone, she was indeed affected just now.

But as Li Jing stated, she knew the master was at home and wouldn’t possibly finish constructing the Nine heavens God Thunder.

"Master, may I ask a question?"

"No."

Li Jing said calmly,

"I don’t ask about your affairs, and you shouldn’t fuss about mine."

"Oh!"

The personal AI replied, obeying obediently, entirely unlike her formerly lively self when she was first activated.

The main reason was that she didn’t dare to.

After having been put into a storage space with no internet for half a day and witnessing Li Jing’s "cruel" methods, how could she dare to be so careless again?

More importantly...

She discovered that her master was a monster.

Merely by reading the chant once, he had learned the Nine Heavens God Thunder–the third appellation magic’s most dreadful and challenging to learn. If this were on the internet, it would certainly cause a sensation.

Threaten Li Jing by using this as a lever?

The personal AI wasn’t that stupid.

What if Li Jing felt displeased and gave her a dose of the "Human Taoist Destruction?" She wouldn’t have a place to cry.

Seeing that the personal AI was behaving obediently and wasn’t acting up or being sarcastically disrespectful, Li Jing was quite satisfied.

Discipline and training–it had proceeded quite smoothly, hadn’t it?

"I plan to take the patrol examination in a while. Help me organize the Security Management Legislation for patrol duties."

Tossing off this line offhand, upon further thought, Li Jing added,

"You should find it easy to generate a virtual image for yourself. Don’t bother me with those emojis."

"Understood."

The personal AI replied, bringing up a saluting emoji.

While not daring to act carelessly was one thing, not holding out in boredom was another.

If there was a chance to jump around within Li Jing’s acceptance range, she would never let it go.

...