A Dou Zhe's Second Heart: Dou Crystal! Please Keep Reading! Please Vote!

Danqizi? A flicker of doubt crossed Jiang Lin's mind, but he buried the name deep within his heart. Once he had the means in the future, he would find a way to search through the various regions and nations for this possible senior Artifact Forger from ancient times.

Thus, he spent several more days carefully polishing the Magic Core Fossil that was said to possess at least fifth-tier strength, bit by bit. In the end, what appeared in Jiang Lin's hand was a fist-sized, crystal-clear, pale-blue translucent crystal.

"This Sea Demon Beast's Magic Core is huge. And this is after polishing it. If it hadn't been polished, judging by the average ratio between the Magic Cores and body sizes of land Magical Beasts, a Magic Core this large would have belonged to something at least the size of a Blue Whale. And this is only fifth-tier? If it were even higher-tier, would there be even more terrifying colossal beasts?" It was said that the Dou Qi Continent was vast. The Jia Ma Empire, where Jiang Lin lived, lay on the western frontier of the Dou Qi Continent, while to the west of the Jia Ma Empire was the sea known as the Canglan West Sea.

It was not particularly strange for Wutan City to obtain a Sea Demon Beast's Magic Core Fossil.

The reason Jiang Lin wanted to polish this fifth-tier Sea Demon Beast Magic Core crystal was because Danqizi's inherited knowledge vaguely mentioned that, after a Magic Core lost its dou qi, it was still a top-grade material for carrying dou qi. At that point, it was no longer called a Magic Core, but something known as a Dou Crystal.

Besides Magical Beasts, dou qi powerhouses could also serve as a source of Dou Crystals. Of course, certain ores were also Dou Crystals. Well, Non-biological Dou Crystals.

Judging from this classification alone, ancient Artifact Forgers were a little brutal.

But the Dou Crystal in my hand is only a Dou Crystal Prototype. To refine it into a Dou Crystal that can serve as an external dou qi energy accessory, I'll need to wrap it in some material called "Source*" as an isolation layer, then nourish it with my own dou qi...*

To Dou Qi Cultivators, a Dou Crystal was like an external Golden Pill. A sixth-tier Magic Core could make a fifth-tier Dou Crystal, while a fifth-tier Magic Core could make a fourth-tier Dou Crystal. The Magic Core in Jiang Lin's hand, which was at least fifth-tier, could make at least a fourth-tier Dou Crystal. The effect of a fourth-tier Dou Crystal was that it could store the amount of dou qi energy a Dou Ling should possess. Dou Qi Cultivators could use Dou Crystals to rapidly replenish the dou qi within their bodies.

If a Dou Wang carried a fifth-tier Dou Crystal, then one could roughly regard that Dou Wang's dou qi bar as having two bars.

Naturally, the restoration speed of dou qi that even high-grade pills found difficult to achieve came with major restrictions. Dou Crystals required their users to inject their own dou qi into them during ordinary times. It had to be their own dou qi; only then could rapid recovery be achieved. Moreover, due to the quality of the Dou Crystal, the conversion ratio when injecting dou qi varied greatly. Poor ones could be one-thousandth, while good ones might reach one-tenth. The former might take a user two or three months to fill once, while the latter could perhaps be filled in one or two days.

It was precisely because of these limitations that the ancient Artifact Forger Danqizi had used Dou Crystals as a foundation to develop the Magic Core Crystallization Armor. It directly refined Magic Cores and, when facing Magical Beasts or dou qi powerhouses above the Dou Ling realm, could achieve the terrifying effect of sustaining battle through battle.

Kill someone, rip out their heart, refine it directly, replenish dou qi, remain perpetually at peak condition!

Jiang Lin naturally could not obtain the blueprints for that set of Magic Core Crystallization Armor. Altogether, he had gained only two things from Danqizi's inherited knowledge: some concepts concerning Dou Crystals, and Danqizi's Weapon Refining approach.

But if I can thoroughly master Dou Crystal Technique, then in the future, it may not be impossible to derive Senior Danqizi's "Chef's Armor." Looking at the smooth, jade-like Dou Crystal Prototype in his hand, Jiang Lin silently made up his mind.

After all, reality was not a game. Some powerful Dou Techniques required only a mana bar and had no cooldown. Equipment that reset skills by killing people or monsters would be absurdly overpowered anywhere.

"The material for the Dou Crystal's isolation layer is only recorded with one character, and I can't even be sure whether the name used by ancient Artifact Forgers is still applicable in this era. After all, the same material might have different names as soon as it crosses a border."

"So I have to start with the material properties." Having found a direction for his research, Jiang Lin began spending the following days sorting through and analyzing all kinds of materials in his stockpile.

"Though it's called an isolation layer, it's actually more like a cell membrane. When a Dou Qi Cultivator's body is brimming with dou qi, the pressure is greater, so the dou qi can easily enter the Dou Crystal. If the Dou Qi Cultivator's dou qi is exhausted while the Dou Crystal is full of energy, then under the effect of 'pressure,' the Dou Crystal can feed dou qi back to the cultivator."

"...Why do I feel like this is some extremely bloody biological material again?"

Aside from forging a few Dou Artifacts each month to keep his hand in, Jiang Lin spent all his remaining time researching materials for the Dou Crystal's isolation layer. His understanding of Dou Crystals steadily deepened.

"...There aren't any materials at the Qingshan Town market that can allow dou qi to pass through in only one direction. But come to think of it, many materials aren't valuable in the first place..."

"If two-way permeation won't work, then I'll use one-way permeation and add a valve. That's the only way."

"..."

One year later, somewhere on the outskirts of the Monster Mountain Range, the moon shone brightly amid sparse stars. A robust youth carried a heavy sword wrapped in tattered cloth on his back and moved slowly through the perilous forest beneath the cover of moonlight.

The youth was entirely shrouded in a black robe, his build imposing. If not for the moonlight falling across his handsome face and revealing a trace of youthful immaturity, outsiders might not have recognized him as a youth rather than a somewhat short, burly adult man.

Rustle, rustle.

The cold wind stirred the leaves, but the youth silently continued onward. Only when he reached a crack between the rocks did he crouch down, pick up a shard of stone by his feet, examine it before his eyes, and then bring it to his nose for a sniff. His brows suddenly rose.

This isn't the scent of an unfamiliar Magical Beast. Did someone feed me false information? Jiang Lin stared at the stone in his hand, thoughts churning within him.

Earlier that day, someone in Qingshan Town had claimed that an unfamiliar Second-Order Magical Beast had been discovered in this area. That Magical Beast possessed a strange ability: long-range Dou Techniques had no effect when they struck it, and instead seemed to strengthen its aura. Though it was only a Second-Order Magical Beast, even the Da Dou Shi captain of their group had failed to take it down. It was extremely troublesome.

The moment Jiang Lin heard the news, he made thorough preparations. That very night, under cover of darkness and without drawing anyone's attention, he climbed over the wall from the rear courtyard of the Myriad Medicine Hall, the side closest to the mountain forest.

Then, alone, during the most dangerous hours of the night, he headed into the perilous Monster Mountain Range.

Jiang Lin's movements even carried a hint of leisurely ease.