Chapter 1682: Chapter 1682: Burning Incense to the Foot
Once everything aligns, the spatial ray becomes akin to the time ray. Now, in Xu Huo’s perception, it is also refined; however, unlike the time ray, the spatial ray within different objects is much more complex. Through manipulating more detailed rays, he can easily expand the influence range of spatial power, build sturdier barriers, and form sharper ray blades. Still, these are all based on what he originally knew, so they don’t count as progress.
After a simple adaptation, Xu Huo focused his attention on the object he was to manipulate. Spatial rays exist within any object, and refining rays implies that the number of rays perceived inside an object multiplies, dividing the whole into more parts.
He stood in front of a Divine Temple, spending just a little time controlling the spatial rays in the remaining half of the building. Then, pulling forcefully from hundreds of meters away, in that moment, the giant stone of the remaining structure split internally, collapsing into head-sized rubble!
Vast clouds of dust billowed in all directions, even colliding with nearby spatial bodies. However, the power of the stone was limited, plus it was rolling downward, so it didn’t spread too widely; the surrounding spatial bodies mostly just shifted a bit.
Half of the Divine Temple collapsed. From afar, the effect looked quite impressive, but this wasn’t the result Xu Huo wanted. Achieving ray assimilation or changing ray properties was his true objective in coming here.
Next, he started attempting from different angles. Yet, the more times he tried, the more he felt a sense of opposing direction. He had already refined the rays, and logically, the finer the controlled rays, the easier it should be to connect the spatial rays outside with those within the object, reducing control difficulty. But despite his attempts, the more complex rays inside the object seemed to complicate assimilation further.
Spatial rays should be identical or similar, but once placed within different objects, it’s like wrapping a fixed amount of rays in an outer coat. Trying to penetrate the coat to control the inner rays introduces a barrier of difficulty.
Suppose before, Xu Huo perceived a tree with just a few main branches, and now this tree has grown countless tiny branches, with leaves sprouting from these branches. Assimilating a few main branches might not be too difficult, but to start from a leaf and assimilate the entire tree’s branches, the workload seems to have doubled...
This shouldn’t be the case.
After repeated unsuccessful attempts, and having spent too much energy earlier, Xu Huo paused to rest and eat something.
On the gaming platform, whether it was the Special Defense Department or Nie Xuan, both had contacted him several times. He skipped the Special Defense Department, but Nie Xuan sent him a photo depicting a foot, which had an overall diamond-like appearance, as if the diamond and human foot had been seamlessly combined. Upon closer examination, one could see that diamond-like crystals covered the entire foot, appearing as though naturally born.
Xu Huo replied while tossing dried meat into his mouth:
"Your foot has a very technological feel."
Nie Xuan seemed to be waiting for his message, replying in seconds, "I’ve reached the end of the Nine Great Divine Paths, where are you?"
"There’s still some distance, how’s the situation over on your side?"
"Injured my foot; without these legs, I might have had to account for today."
Xu Huo had already seen the cracks and fine penetration marks in the photo, finding it somewhat intriguing. From his perspective on ray manipulation, time rays and spatial rays are generally unrelated, typically not interfering with each other. He even considered that both forces might have strengths and weaknesses under certain conditions. The potential consequences were hard to imagine, yet such a real-world example arrived so quickly.
He smiled and replied with two words, "Congratulations."
After all, Nie Xuan started spatial evolution because of such a unique experience.
Feeling a bit unsatisfied after sending it, he added a sentence, "Next time you want to burn incense, don’t go to the temple; just do it at home."
The response came swiftly, "I don’t believe in gods; if you need, I can lend you my foot."
The topic concerning "burning incense to the foot" was thus set aside; Nie Xuan had a probing intention in sending photos to Xu Huo. Since he could speak of time rays, it meant progress had been made, and it was time for them to start negotiating terms officially.
The goal of the Special Defense Department was to bring in a batch of Super Evolvers and reserve players, utilizing this special site to hopefully take a step further. Nie Xuan, with the help of instruments, had gradually discovered ways to avoid the deadly rays, but couldn’t accommodate too many. Bringing colleagues posed major risks, especially since those individuals were the top talents of Country X, losing even one would be unfortunate. Thus, it was optimal to choose Xu Huo, a relatively low-risk option.
"I can’t shoulder this responsibility for the Special Defense Department and the military," Xu Huo replied, "Besides, I think the people you’re bringing don’t have enough talent."
"There’s no choice," Nie Xuan said, "Due to previous events, some player organizations don’t trust the Special Defense Department much. Even if we tell them about this evolutionary site, they might not believe it."
In the community of players, surely some Super Evolvers have emerged, but with the current official credibility in doubt, let alone earlier, few dared expose themselves.
Nie Xuan also believed that there were certainly talented players like Xu Huo yet to surface, given Country X’s large population and abundant talent.
"Each counts for something; you can propose conditions," he said.
Xu Huo was waiting for this statement, "At least three High-Level Time Artifacts, if there’s Rank-A, maybe reduce one."
Nie Xuan hadn’t replied yet, naturally, as he couldn’t decide on his own.
After waiting a while without receiving a response, Xu Huo turned off his personal panel and continued controlling the spatial rays.
He conducted experiments into the evening, during which he reviewed notes and experiences concerning Super Evolution acquired from the two Rank-B players at "Midsummer Night’s River of Stars," which somewhat inspired him.
He had always wanted to achieve more with less because refining rays lowered the difficulty of controlling individual rays, so he tried connecting internal object rays using one or a few rays during operations. Actually, he could divide one ray into ten, increasing control tenfold, but achieving the desired effect required ensuring that more spatial rays were controlled in the same period.
Singular control reduces the burden, but with increased numbers, it isn’t much easier. The only consolation is that after extensive training, he can break smaller objects into very tiny fragments, though not to the extent of sand grains, achieving the purpose of "fragmentation."
Regrettably, he still can’t manipulate rays within objects as freely as Lady Palace, shaping them into desired forms on whim.
Of course, he was fairly satisfied with his current progress, and another delightful surprise was that he could now skillfully control the nested cube demonstrated by Lady Palace.