Chapter 223: Second Celestial Stairway Promotion Duel
Lin Yuan had previously wanted to let the Source Sand consume a high-grade metal. Even if the Source Sand could only consume a small amount of high-grade metal, its burst damage output would be great.
However, after some considerations, Lin Yuan gave up on that. Be it the Silver/Fantasy Chimey or the Gold/Legend Acid Corrosion Queen Bee, they had terrifying singular burst strength.
Lin Yuan didn’t need the Source Sand to produce extremely powerful burst damage by itself. On the contrary, now that the Source Sand consumed the ferromanganese, it gave Lin Yuan immense overall strength.
When looking at the Source Sand’s second exclusive skill, Lin Yuan was already overwhelmingly satisfied. However, when Lin Yuan saw the third exclusive skill, he felt that the Source Sand was truly damn-straightforward in terms of what it comprehended from the two Willpower Runes.
Of the two types of transformation, one was related to life while the other wasn’t.
The third exclusive skill, Gravel Spirit Acceptance, allowed the Source Sand to consume a type of fey or dimensional lifeform. The kind of fey and dimensional lifeform that Source Sand could consume would be determined by the energy and genetic model’s complexity.
This made Lin Yuan carefully consider whether he wanted to let the Source Sand consume more types of feys and form a small army within the sand or consume just a single type of fey, allowing that single unit to reach the Gravel Spirit Acceptance skill’s limits.
Ultimately, Lin Yuan gave up on the first idea.
After some experimentation, Lin Yuan realized that if he allowed the Gravel Spirit Acceptance skill to consume Class 1 dimensional lifeforms, due to the different genetic models, the Source Sand could only contain around 10 to 25 feys or lifeforms.
If the Source Sand contained so many Class 1 dimensional lifeforms, its strength would be equivalent to a similar number of Bronze feys. Having such overall strength wasn’t really useful for Lin Yuan. It was actually inferior to the sea of flowers that Red Thorn could produce.
Lin Yuan realized that if the Source Sand consumed the Class 2 Horn Demon from the Abyss Dimensional Rift, it just so happened to be the Gravel Spirit Acceptance skill’s limit.
Furthermore, this Class 2 Horn Demon was an all-rounded unit and had the strength of a Silver X fey. Although it was still rather meaningless, Lin Yuan wasn’t reluctant to give up on the Class 2 Horn Demon.
Lin Yuan’s leaf-shaped fey storage box had all sorts of dimensional lifeform corpses. Just as Lin Yuan was looking through them, he suddenly noticed a dimensional lifeform that he had personally slain. It was the Class 3 alien insect, Heart-Penetrating Ironline.
The Gravel Spirit Acceptance skill’s limit was determined by that fey’s or lifeform’s energy and genetic model’s complexity. If there was a dimensional lifeform with the simplest genetic model, it would definitely be the Heart-Penetrating Ironline.
The Heart-Penetrating Ironline may have a simple genetic model, but it was a Class 3 alien insect that its mere mention would strike people with fear. Apart from its extreme ability to conceal itself, it also had terrifying penetrative power.
If Lin Yuan made the Source Sand turn into a sea of sand, it would be enough for the Heart-Penetrating Ironline to hide as it pleased. Every patch of yellow was the optimal hiding place, and it would allow the Heart-Penetrating Ironline to easily launch sneak attacks, just like an invisible assassin.
However, in Lin Yuan’s mind, the Heart-Penetrating Ironline’s best attack method was to wait for the target to sink into the sea of sand first. Once the target was struggling to get out of the sea of sand, the Heart-Penetrating Ironline could find an opportunity to penetrate the heart and complete the kill.
If the chain blade formed a prison and buried the target underground, the Heart-Penetrating Ironline could simply supplement with a fatal attack.
It was truly a hidden and invisible assassin that could take lives without any sound in the sea of sand.
Lin Yuan took the Heart-Penetrating Ironline out of the leaf-shaped fey storage box, which was equivalent to a Gold I/Normal fey. He then commanded the Source Sand to use its exclusive skill, Gravel Spirit Acceptance.
Lin Yuan discovered that this Heart-Penetrating Ironline, which was equivalent to a Gold I/Normal fey, actually didn’t reach the Gravel Spirit Acceptance skill’s limit. Through some experimentation, Lin Yuan found out that the Bronze X/Fantasy I Source Sand could accept a Heart-Penetrating Ironline with its Gravel Spirit Acceptance skill that was equivalent to Gold III/Elite.
Lin Yuan couldn’t help lamenting at the Class 3 Heart-Penetrating Ironline genetic model as it was too simple. However, it was truly useful for the Gravel Spirit Acceptance skill.
Even after the Gravel Spirit Acceptance skill consumed the Heart-Penetrating Ironline, the latter could be replaced. But now, the Source Sand was already in a hibernation state. It was memorizing the chain blade form for the Metal Consume Manifestation skill, as well as the Heart-Penetrating Ironline, which had the strength of a Gold III/Elite fey now, for the Gravel Spirit Acceptance skill.
As the Source Sand had to conduct a rearrangement to form the Heart-Penetrating Ironline, it would need to be in deep hibernation for a few hours.
At that moment, the Source Sand finally revealed its true strength when at its prime.
[Fey Name]: Source Sand (Amber Button)
[Fey Species]: Elemental/Sand
[Fey Grade]: Bronze (10/10)
[Fey Type]: Source
[Fey Quality]: Fantasy I
Exclusive Skill:
[Sand Control]: Increase the contractor’s control toward the Source Sand and also reduce the spiritual power consumption when controlling the Source Sand.
[Metal Consume Manifestation]: Consume a type of metal into the Source Sand and allow the Source Sand to possess characteristics of the metal that was consumed. At the same time, the Source Sand can rapidly condense the metal within the gravel, forming a specified form. (Ferromanganese/Chain Blade).
[Gravel Spirit Acceptance]: The Source Sand could consume a type of fey or dimensional lifeform. The consumption would be determined by the lifeform’s energy and genetic model complexity. (Class 3 Alien Insect, Heart-Penetrating Ironline).
Without Morbius’ Spirit Qi Condensation to condense the spirit qi crystals, Lin Yuan would probably have to go into another month of seclusion to enhance the Source Sand from Bronze X/Fantasy I to Silver I/Fantasy I.
Thanks to the Spirit Qi Condensation, Lin Yuan didn’t have to waste an entire month now.
At present, Lin Yuan’s precious time would be used to increase his strength. The most important thing for Lin Yuan was to increase his combat skills and spirit qi professional rank. He would then be able to make it into the Radiance Hundred Sequence.
A single spirit qi crystal condensed by Morbius’ Spirit Qi Condensation was enough for the Source Sand to upgrade from Bronze X to Silver I.
There were still two more days before the first spirit qi crystal would be formed.
After exiting his Spirit Lock spatial zone, Lin Yuan took a thorough shower and exited his room to have a sumptuous dinner with Wen Yu and Liu Jie. When the trio finished dinner, they had a casual conversation and started playing a rather popular game in the Radiance Federation—Fey Battle Chess.
During the time when Lin Yuan had been in seclusion, Wen Yu and Liu Jie had also been desperately increasing their strength.
Wen Yu was increasing her Creation Master capability, hoping she could be of better help to Lin Yuan.
After allowing the Insect Queen to consume and embedding the Hurricane Owlet Moth’s genetic model, Liu Jie’s Insect Queen acquired its Platinum ability. During the past five days, Liu Jie had been training with Bai Hao on the Star Web in order to perfect his ability combination and tactics.
Liu Jie wasn’t like other spirit qi professionals that only had to control a few feys. He was just like a commander and had to command five different species of insects, forming an insect army. Therefore, his tactics and strategies had to be very elaborate.
Liu Jie also hoped that by becoming stronger, he could better protect Lin Yuan.
It was already deep into the night. During the past few days of seclusion, Lin Yuan had maintained a tensed-up state when enhancing the Source Sand. Thus, he really required a good sleep to recover his energy.
However, Lin Yuan wasn’t in a hurry to rest, and he logged into the Star Web instead. He was preparing to fight the second Celestial Stairway’s promotion duel.