[Hunting]

The Elemental Mainstream Path, as the mainstream Path on the Mana Side, actually doesn't consume many resources.

It mainly relies on so-called comprehension and elemental affinity, as well as a lot of time.

It took a very, very long time, because comprehending the forms of all elements takes an extremely long time, and it's not just a simple "enlightenment" but also requires an astonishing amount of calculation.

However, this Path still has the largest audience.

Because of lifespan.

Limit Breaker generally have long lifespans; without external influences, living for millions or even tens of millions of years is not a problem at all.

If you're proactive, it's quite simple to extend your life using other methods.

Dying of old age is a luxury.

In this terrifying timeframe, whether they live forever or not makes no difference to them, since they won't die of old age anyway.

Without considering external factors, the time cost for immortals is often zero.

Those who have neither lack of Talent nor time are happy to take this Path.

However, Su Luo comes at a time cost, and he also uses [Source Essence] as an element for advancement.

Generally speaking, the more common the elements, such as [earth, wind, water, fire], the more variations there are, and the more is required for promotion.

However, because of the vast number of people and the abundance of past experiences and models in the world, the actual difficulty is quite low.

The more niche the market, the less prior experience there is.

Others often choose a mainstream option from among the niche options, balancing the difficulty and intensity, and then take charge of the basic elements after advancing in the ranks.

[Source Essence] is no longer a niche or niche concept.

It's a very special kind... so special that only Su Luo can use it.

"Mana is the fuel, elements are the essence."

"All things perish, only elements endure, therefore I also endure."

Su Luo left Xiao Xiao Luo, the Number One of her Kin, to operate the experimental platform, while muttering the doctrine of "[Mana—Elemental Orthodox Path]".

In short, what Su Luo needs now is to exhaust all aspects of [Source Essence] and be able to generate [Source Essence] directly, bypassing Mana.

[Those who advance must be able to directly generate this element, freely switch between all states of matter, and construct an elemental Cycle independent of the world's natural Cycles.]

Su Luo's set of techniques is named the [Source Essence Circulation Technique].

They had the same idea, surprisingly.

"Scholar, I've never seen this element before."

From the outside world, [Chilie's ] voice could be heard from afar.

"The elements I created myself have almost no offensive capabilities; they're all focused on energy storage and conversion."

With her eyes closed, Su Luo began to activate the Lightless World that Evolution within her Dream World.

"It feels somewhat similar to high-energy-storage elements like [Crystal Essence] and [Astral Essence]. Would you mind if I extracted a sample?"

"Random."

Su Luo didn't seem to care much, and after a while asked again:

"Chilie, what are elements?"

"Special Mana," Chilie answered without hesitation.

"And how are those elements formed?"

"Mana is formed through the transformation of the world's underlying rules, and these underlying rules may not be the rules of this world..."

Su Luo closed her eyes and remained Jingjing, simply waiting for the [Source Essence] to Evolution.

This is precisely why Su Luo previously said that [Mana—Elemental Orthodox Path] has flaws.

The World Building-Block Theory posits that the world is composed of a single underlying reality, with World Rules and interactions piecing together a prosperous world.

The relationship between Mana and elements is quite similar.

"[Source Essence] is also transformed from the underlying rules of a distant, unknown world, as are the unknown elements born in those experiments. What if that World Destruction and the related World Rules disappear?"

"The corresponding element also disappears? But is the relationship between the element and the underlying rules of the world instantaneous action at a distance, that is, a non-local action?"

Chilie is a very good lecturer.

"I don't know, and what is the medium through which information is transmitted between the World Rules and elements?" Su Luo asked as well.

Chilie fell silent.

Neither of them had a clue about these issues.

Su Luo continued to explore the forms of [Source Essence].

The forms of uncommon elements are extremely rare. Su Luo currently possesses 170,000 forms of [Source Essence], and the total number of forms is estimated to be no more than 30 million, most of which are [Latent State] that one will never need in a lifetime.

Exhausting all forms is not difficult for Su Luo; abundant computing power, the might of Evolution, the flow of time... it's just a matter of time.

The data collected in the Laboratory mainly consisted of a large amount of data from the exhaustive process; there was not much difference between using experimental subjects and Su Luo doing it herself.

The real focus is on directly generating [Source Essence].

As long as [Source Essence] can be generated directly, skipping the intermediate transformation of Mana, the [Source Essence Circulation Technique] truly becomes the foundation of Su Luo's foundation.

After all, the core of the Inner Circulation is largely a structure of the mutual transformation between Mana and Source Essence.

At least Su Luo believed that removing this part would be enough to allow the [Source Essence Circulation Technique] to enter the golden realm...

"No, the Scholars have taken care of everything, but you guys are still on a spring outing, right?"

Yun Xiaoxiao made a comment.

The Baldy shrugged. "We don't know what's going on either. We filled out the research group application last night, and today we're already in the research group [hunting]."

Shang Yang also said, "You know what, [hunting] is actually quite fun."

The three of them are now walking on a dimly lit main road with several Work-Study Students.

The asphalt road beneath our feet had long since weathered and was full of potholes; walking on it felt a bit like stepping on a dried Strawberry tower from a dry toilet.

Scattered litter and large amounts of dried, unidentified stains stood out starkly against the desolate street.

Besides Yun Xiaoxiao, the [Adjudication], those present also included Black Cat from Shang Yang, and several Work-Study Students who also served as [Adjudication].

The Baldy hasn't Adjudication yet; he doesn't even have Vassals, nor does he have time to make any purchases.

Yun Xiaoxiao looked around at her surroundings. "I didn't know the specific details beforehand. I was ready to leave as soon as I jumped here... so let me give you an introduction."

Shang Yang opened a private chat with Yun Xiaoxiao and then began to introduce himself:

"This research group is primarily out here to capture test subjects for studying the Weird Side... In short, it's referred to on the official website as 'Ghost-Catching Operation'."

"The Weird Side?"

Yun Xiaoxiao couldn't help but think of [Blood Moon], who was still AFK in Su Luo's Dreamscape.

[Blood Moon] is undoubtedly outdated; its strength is negligible in today's meta.

The only reason Su Luo kept it in the Dreamscape was that she couldn't yet decipher its mechanism.

"Aren't there school janitors? Why do you students have to come out and catch ghosts?"

"It seems there's a shortage of school worker positions lately; [Joyce] didn't apply for one," Shang Yang replied earnestly.

I've heard that two major powers, roughly the same size as [Adrian Academy], have launched a formal war.

Even the neutral [Adrian Academy] will be affected to some extent.