CHAPTER 43: CHAPTER 42: TEMPORARY ENERGY SOURCE

Zoe immediately placed her hand on the hilt of the sword at her waist, but didn’t decisively draw it.

She clenched her teeth, the rushing blood made her face flush. Even if the other party could be described as pure evil, she was not mentally prepared to take another’s life.

"I—"

"It’s okay, don’t let it burden you."

Li Ang counted carefully: "First, they violated the guild law, in such a case, taking action can earn you the guild’s reward.

"Secondly, in the adventures between the sky, what one seeks is a clear mind and an open heart. Returning their actions against innocent people is a method widely recognized by the public.

"Lastly, the guild laws also state that when attacked, there is unlimited right to self-defense. We are also villagers, they pose a threat to us, so eliminating them is reasonable, right?"

"Of course, if you can’t do it now, I’ll take care of it."

Zoe is Li Ang’s first new companion, and in the future, they may need to face various moments of decision together. From now on, he needs to take care of her psychological transition, ensuring she isn’t soft-hearted towards cruel enemies, but also not letting her become too reliant on solving problems through killing.

"I, I feel like we can’t let them go, but..."

Zoe looked up at the warships around Satus Island: "Won’t this affect our breakout? I, I mean, aren’t you worried about revealing our whereabouts because of my thoughts and fighting them?"

"Considering it thoroughly, very good."

Li Ang exchanged a glance with Eden and said, "Since we are breaking out, exposure is inevitable at some point. I think Lady Eden was planning to take action too."

The woman nodded, the furry animal ears on her head swaying back and forth.

She turned her voluptuous body, raising her hand forward, and as her wide sleeves swung, a mist of ice simultaneously formed.

The icy mist surged forward, immediately freezing the two soldiers who attempted to draw their swords, turning them to ice and instantly shattering them.

"Who goes there!"

The sergeant immediately shouted upon being attacked.

"Awooo—!"

Eden strode forward, leaning her body forward, and as her hands touched the ground, her body instantly expanded amidst a blue light. Her thick, dark blue fur rippled like waves, enveloped in ice mist, causing the temperature to plummet, and frost covered the grass in a blur, the Frost Heaven Giant Wolf revealed its form.

Its front paw swept across, the sergeant was immediately smashed into a pulp against a wall, and the giant wolf continued forward like a chariot, all soldiers in its path were either pulverized or turned into ice shards by the power of the frost.

Eden didn’t linger on attacking the soldiers because she noticed the distant warships starting to change direction. She immediately summoned Ice Blade Armor to cover her body, transforming into a death spiral, and crashed into one of the airships at the edge of the island.

Perhaps, in the original storyline, it was precisely because she defeated the soldiers sent to capture Zoe that she gained the young girl’s trust.

Li Ang withdrew his gaze from the giant wolf and directed his magic to condense the frost left by Eden into a Mage’s Elemental Arrow.

Ice is a special state of the Water Element, casters can usually choose the form according to their needs, Li Ang chose to use sharp Elemental Ice Blades to project at the soldiers, pouring Tier Two Magic into them, their armor was unable to stop and lives were reaped by the ice blades consecutively.

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

Li Ang asked, "Who sent you here to capture the children? Why?"

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

Li Ang knew a bit about interrogation methods.

All things have spirituality, and the thoughts and behaviors of intelligent races are complex precisely because their spirituality is extremely complex.

At this moment, one cannot manipulate it as one would with casting materials, it requires precise control.

The spirit of the strong is powerful, and Li Ang needed to spend more effort, but with the ordinary soldier before him, it didn’t take long for Li Ang to find the will-related spirituality in his mind.

After eliminating this part of spirituality, the sergeant answered.

"It’s the Emperor... I don’t know the reason..."

After trying several different ways of questioning, realizing this person was just following orders and didn’t really know the details, Li Ang disposed of him, walked to the side, and picked up the strange measuring instrument.

With its wriggling structure like a living thing, even through Iron Gloves, it made one feel nauseated.

Wrapping it in cloth and placing it in his bag, Li Ang turned away from the regrouping parents and children and walked back to Zoe.

Seeing the young girl looking a bit dazed, he smiled and wiped the blood splatters from his face: "Scared?"

"A little," Zoe seemed to force herself to stare at the blood of the dead: "But they’re bad people, so I think it’s okay!"

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

In the air, after destroying a warship, Eden swiftly traversed the sky, flew over the screaming villagers’ heads, and soared into the high heavens once more.

At the moment it soared, Li Ang and Zoe leaped up, grabbed onto its fur, and together ascended into the sky.

When the two climbed onto the giant wolf’s back, it had already left Satus Island, concealed in the blind spots of the remaining warships’ gunfire.

Zoe leaned over to look down, her gaze penetrating the thin clouds, reaching into the darkness and the sanguine red, extending to the far arc on the horizon. She raised her head again, the horizon in front and above was an infinite starry sky.

"Just like that... have we left?"

"Haha." Li Ang patted her little head: "The first few times you set sail, there will always be a feeling of melancholy. Remember this feeling, it’s precious. In the future, you might long to recall this youthful longing, but it won’t be there anymore."

The young girl smiled, reaching out to hold Li Ang’s hand, placing it on her lap, and pressing her head against his chest.

"Both of you, the danger isn’t over yet," Eden reminded with the deep growl of the giant wolf.

It quickened its pace, and the wind blew fiercely against them, making the few strands of auburn hair sticking out of Zoe’s helmet dance wildly backward.

"Ah, I know."

Li Ang found balance and stood up on the wolf’s back, turning to face the three ships pursuing them with activated Magic Furnaces, "Just catching my breath."

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

"Yes, just running away won’t work. They’re not slow; we can’t lose them."

The three ships didn’t fire at Eden, likely seeing Zoe on its back and fearing they’d hurt her, simply continuing their chase.

"How do you fight such big ships?"

Li Ang smiled at her, "Victory doesn’t always come from confronting and destroying the opponent head-on. We are mere mortals, and we need to use strategy."

At his feet, a dozen Magic guided Guns were stacked together, brought to the giant wolf’s back using Spiritual Traction.

"What do we do now!" Zoe asked, seeing his apparent plan.

"Like this," Li Ang grabbed a Magic guided Gun, skillfully disassembled it, and took out its Spirit Core.

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

Inside the Spirit Core is a Seal containing molten soulstone with strong spirituality, mined specifically from a unique shaft on Makena Island. Its core would attract magic to heat itself, self-destructing upon reaching a critical value.

The outer shell of the molten soulstone is made of magic-inert material, making it resistant to magic.

Normally, it takes years for molten soulstone to self-destruct, consistently causing active geological events on Makena Island.

However, when the shell is opened, its self-destruct speed drastically increases.

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

As a weapon, this magic would be directed into the barrel and transformed into an Energy Bullet to be fired.

Zoe followed his example, though she disassembled slowly and resorted to using the hilt of the Wind Breath Sword to break open parts she didn’t understand.

The Spirit Cores of the Tier Two Magic guided Guns, a total of sixteen, were enveloped by Li Ang using Spiritual Traction, orbiting around his palm.

During his adventurous years, since he started using high-tier equipment, he hadn’t done this for a while, feeling a tinge of nostalgia now.

Only a Spiritual Control Master like Li Ang could superimpose spirituality among similar spiritual beings, consolidating into a large spiritual whole, forming a temporary energy source.

[Multi-Layered Magical Spirit Core [Temporary]]

[Utilizing Spiritual Manipulation to temporarily superimpose several low-tier Spirit Cores to form a temporary energy source, due to the large number, the magic power output is relatively considerable]

[Tier: 2]

[Category: Energy Source]

[Pre-Critical Mana Reserve: 310%]

[Critical Time: 10 seconds]

[Cooling Time: 3 minutes]

[Magic Tendency: Generation of Fire Element]

The flaw of the magic guided device is that each use still causes a small amount of magic to heat the molten soulstone’s interior, gradually approaching critical. If not halted to let the magic be absorbed by the inert shell for cooling, it may trigger a thermal explosion, which is also reflected when used as an energy source.

Energy sources crafted by Ancient Magic require charging time.

Using these Spirit Cores in magic guided guns allows for 10 seconds of continuous firing, followed by a 3-minute cooling time. Otherwise, soldiers wielding such weapons would directly become Magic Cannons, and the use of magic guided technology would have long conquered the sky.

This temporary energy source, in its pre-critical phase, can attract the magic equivalent of three Tier Two Casters.

Even as a low-tier energy source, its efficiency in attracting magic surpasses that of humans. The complexity of spirituality among Intelligent Races mainly facilitates altering the world through thought, whereas materials in nature are purer in attracting magic, surpassing humans.

The pure capability of humans lies in their professional skills, no matter how strong the magic; only with superb skills can a professional wield it to achieve miraculous effects.

Li Ang had Zoe hold the gathered Spirit Cores and then open each switch on them, revealing the molten soulstone core inside.

Being merely a makeshift assembly, its use was exceedingly cumbersome.

Manipulating the energy source’s magic, Li Ang added some of his own, directly conducting two Elemental Summoning casts, summoning two Tier Four Fire Elements beside him, shaped like fire beings with only flaming vortices for lower limbs.

Though he added his magic, the consumption was minimal; this illustrates the power of an energy source. If there were a High-tier Energy Source, it would be even more effective.

But low-tier Spirit Cores are not sufficient; after releasing two Tier Four Spells, the residual magic directly drove over a dozen Spirit Cores to the brink of critical, on the verge of exploding.

Zoe felt the pressing heat and hurriedly shut off those switches in a panic.

The two Fire Elements leaped from the wolf’s back; their bodies were all flame, light as air, and the heat discharged from the flaming vortices could control their flight direction, successfully soaring onto the deck of one of the pursuing ships behind.