Chapter 1682: Burning Incense to a Foot
Once one path is fully understood, space rays, like time rays, were now also refined in Xu Huo's perception. However, unlike time rays, which had little difference between objects, the space rays within different objects were far more complex. By manipulating these more refined rays, he could easily expand the influence of spatial power, build sturdier barriers, and create sharper ray blades. But all of this was based on what he already knew; it wasn't progress.
After a brief period of adaptation, Xu Huo focused his attention on the objects he wanted to control. Space rays exist within every object. Refining the rays meant that the number of rays perceptible within an object increased exponentially, and a whole could be divided into even more parts.
Standing before a temple, he spent some time controlling the space rays within the remaining half of the building. Then, from a distance of about a hundred meters, he gave a forceful yank. At that moment, the remaining massive stone blocks of the building seemed to split from within, shattering into boulders the size of a human head and collapsing down!
A vast cloud of dust surged outward in all directions, even colliding with nearby space entities. However, the force of the stones was limited, and since they were rolling downward, the impact wasn't widespread. Most of the surrounding space entities merely floated and shifted slightly.
The collapse of half a temple looked quite impressive from a distance, but this wasn't the effect Xu Huo wanted. His goal in coming here was to achieve ray assimilation or change the properties of the rays.
Next, he began experimenting from different angles. But the more he tried, the more he felt he was going in the opposite direction. He had already completed the refinement of the rays. Logically, the finer the rays he controlled, the easier it should be to connect the rays in space with those inside an object, and the lower the difficulty of control. Yet, no matter how he tried, the more complex rays inside an object actually increased the difficulty of assimilation.
Space rays should be the same or similar, but when placed in different objects, it was like putting a coat over a fixed amount of rays. To then control the rays inside through that coat created a difficulty barrier.
Suppose what Xu Huo perceived before was a tree with only a few main branches. Now, that tree had grown countless tiny branches, and leaves had sprouted from those branches. Assimilating a few main branches might not be too difficult, but starting from a single leaf to assimilate the entire tree's trunk and branches seemed to double the workload...
This shouldn't be the case.
After repeated attempts with no results, and having expended too much energy earlier, Xu Huo stopped to rest and ate something.
On the game platform, both the Special Defense Department and Nie Xuan had contacted him multiple times. He ignored the Special Defense Department, but Nie Xuan had sent him a photo. It was a picture of a foot, overall giving a diamond-like feel. At first glance, it looked like a diamond had been fused with a human foot. But upon closer inspection, one could see that crystal shards resembling diamond facets had completely covered the entire foot, as if they were innate.
Xu Huo stuffed some jerky into his mouth while replying:
"Your foot looks very sci-fi."
Nie Xuan seemed to have been waiting for his message. He replied within seconds, "I've reached the end of the Nine Divine Paths. Where are you?"
"Still a bit of a distance away. How's your situation over there?"
"I injured my foot. If it weren't for these legs, I might have ended up here today."
Xu Huo could already see the cracks and tiny puncture marks in the photo. He found it somewhat fascinating. From his experience controlling the rays, time rays and space rays didn't have much to do with each other. Under normal circumstances, they didn't interfere with one another. Of course, he had also thought that under certain conditions, one of the two powers would definitely be stronger than the other, but it was hard to imagine what the outcome would be. He didn't expect a ready-made example to come so quickly.
He chuckled and replied with two words: "Congratulations."
After all, Nie Xuan had started his spatial evolution because of such a miraculous experience.
Feeling it was a bit lacking, he added another sentence: "Next time you want to burn incense, don't go to a temple. Just do it at home."
The other side quickly replied, "I don't believe in gods. If you need to, I can lend you my foot."
The topic of "burning incense to a foot" ended there. Nie Xuan had sent the photo to Xu Huo with a certain probing purpose. Since Xu Huo could mention time rays, it meant he had already made progress, and both sides could formally begin negotiating terms.
The Special Defense Department's goal was to bring in a batch of Super Evolvers and reserve players, using this special venue to see if they could take a step further. Nie Xuan had now gradually figured out how to avoid the lethal rays using the instruments, but he couldn't take care of too many people. Bringing colleagues in was too risky, especially since those people were X Country's top talents. Losing even one would be a pity. So, it was best to find Xu Huo, a relatively lower-risk option.
"I can't carry this burden for the Special Defense Department and the military," Xu Huo replied. "Besides, I think the people you brought lack talent."
"Can't be helped," Nie Xuan said. "Because of what happened before, some player organizations don't trust the Special Defense Department much anymore. Even if I told them about this evolution venue now, they might not believe it."
There were definitely Super Evolvers among civilian players, but not to mention that official credibility was now questionable, even earlier, very few dared to expose themselves.
Nie Xuan also believed there must be talented players like Xu Huo who hadn't shown themselves. After all, X Country had a large population and wasn't short of talent.
"Every one of them counts. You can name your terms," he said.
Xu Huo was waiting for this. "At least three high-level time items. If there's an A-rank, you can reduce it by one."
Nie Xuan didn't reply immediately. Naturally, this was something he couldn't decide alone.
After waiting a while without a reply, Xu Huo closed his personal panel and continued controlling the space rays.
He experimented until evening. During this time, he also flipped through the notes and experiences on super evolution he had obtained from the two B-rank players in "Midsummer Night Star River." This gave him some inspiration.
Previously, he had always tried to use a small force to achieve a large effect. Since refining the rays reduced the difficulty of controlling a single ray, he had tried to use just one or a few rays to connect with the rays inside an object during his operations. But in reality, he could refine a single ray into ten. This control could actually increase tenfold. However, to achieve the desired effect, he had to ensure that he manipulated more space rays in the same amount of time.
Single control was less burdensome, but when increasing the quantity, it wasn't much easier. The only consolation was that after long hours of training, he could break smaller objects into very tiny fragments. Although it didn't reach the level of sand, the goal of "pulverization" was achieved.
Unfortunately, he still couldn't change the rays inside objects as freely as Ms. Gong, making them arrange themselves into whatever shape he wanted.
Of course, he was somewhat satisfied with the current progress. Another unexpected bonus was that he could now skillfully control the cube nesting dolls that Ms. Gong had demonstrated.
(End of Chapter)