Module Details

"According to the rules for Travelers entering a dimension, you return to wherever you entered from."

"That traitor was gravely wounded. He didn't know what was happening in reality—or rather, he'd learned by some means that the attempt to seize the Dimension Key outside wasn't going smoothly."

"Once he returned to reality, he probably wouldn't be able to get away. That's why he chose to remain in this dimension by some means."

"Now that I think about it, we may need to be wary of him."

Lu Bai considered the various possible dangers, then began his rehabilitation exercises.

The Vitality in his body was a little depleted, but it was surging with vigor.

As he exercised, Lu Bai could even feel what seemed like a spring welling up inside him, with blood flowing out like water from a spring.

After exercising for a while, Lu Bai sensed something. His body shuddered, and a crimson aura burst from him.

It was like a lone column of smoke rising in the desert, shooting straight into the sky.

Lu Bai waved his hand above his head, but felt nothing when he reached through it, and his hand didn't turn red.

However, the crimson aura scattered as his hand moved through it. Earlier, when he'd been indoors, the building had blocked it as well.

The Vitality Smoke wasn't made of actual Vitality. If his real Vitality poured out like that, Lu Bai would have been a dried corpse by now.

He had no idea what the smoke was for. Surely it wasn't just a marker to help people aim their cannons at him?

The Martial Path of Vitality might exist in some dimension, where it had flourished. But for now, Lu Bai had to explore all of this on his own.

"There's no way to investigate this at all." Lu Bai felt he must still be missing something.

Earthlings belonged to the dimension of reality, where no supernatural paths existed.

Even if they used modules as a foundation to develop supernatural powers, that path was basically a dead end. To advance further, they could only rely on modules.

There was no way around it.

As for whether relying too much on modules would let the people behind them control him—

He only had to remember that Earth was just one of their many collectibles.

The Church of Thousand Dimensions, which held the highest position on Earth, was essentially just the collection management agency for the God of Thousand Dimensions.

It was a little too early to worry about all that now.

"Should I build my modules around the Vitality system?" Lu Bai wondered, then shook his head.

It wasn't something he could do just because he wanted to. It required many conditions.

"Besides, abundant Vitality is just as beneficial for cultivating Internal Force."

"With the huge amount of Vitality I have, once I form a proper cultivation technique and start training Internal Force, I'll probably accumulate decades' worth of an ordinary person's Internal Force in no time."

"I'm going from a pure bruiser to a magic tank!"

As he daydreamed, Lu Bai experimented with adjusting his modules.

The modules had been supplemented, and both of his current skills needed some fine-tuning to work better.

Lu Bai had quite a few ideas.

But as he experimented, he realized that he couldn't simply make skills however he wanted.

Some modules conflicted with each other. If he added them without thinking, they would only weaken the skill.

For example, [Excitation] weakened the effect of [Concealment].

"The internal logic has to make sense, and the modules need to be connected properly." Lu Bai realized that connecting modules wasn't as simple as placing them in the Skill Bar and linking them together with his thoughts.

The space inside the Skill Bar was infinite, but it could only be used to store modules. The distance between modules when linking them—and even their placement—mattered.

"When modules operate, they interfere with other modules. My thoughts can only guide them. If they're arranged poorly, they'll interfere with each other and reduce the skill's efficiency."

Before, he hadn't had many skill modules, so this problem hadn't been obvious.

Now, it was becoming a serious issue.

For example, the range and positions of the Meridians and Acupoints in [Combat Mode] had to correspond as closely as possible to those in his body.

He would have to build up experience little by little. Once he got the hang of it, he could arrange skills with ease.

After experimenting for a while, Lu Bai stopped. He still had too few modules.

For now, he could barely form two skills.

He tried building a third skill, Iron Shirt, but found that it also required a great deal of [Internal Force]. Without Internal Force to support it, the skill wasn't nearly as useful as he'd imagined.

With some modules conflicting, [Combat Mode] and [Iron Shirt] couldn't be combined effectively.

Since both consumed [Internal Force], Lu Bai chose to keep the optimized [Combat Mode].

He also decided not to assemble a third skill. If he insisted, he could put together a [Sound Localization] skill.

But that presented a problem: condensed modules had physical forms.

For now, he was using the third Skill Bar as a module warehouse.

Since modules interfered with one another, he couldn't just leave them lying around in the other two Skill Bars.

In that case, he had no choice but to abandon the useless third skill for now.

Otherwise, Lu Bai would have to get a cloth bag and put the modules in it. If he accidentally lost them, he'd lose most of what he'd gained from this dimension.

"Hopefully there's a way to deal with this outside." Lu Bai shook his head.

The Phoenix Flying Ladies didn't know much about modules either. They couldn't investigate this matter, and even if they did know something, they wouldn't tell Lu Bai everything.

"There probably is a way."

The Skill Bar was clearly meant for building skills. Using it as a module warehouse was only a temporary measure.

"Maybe it's because I'm progressing too quickly."

Ordinary Travelers might not have Lu Bai's strength. Even if modules were easier to obtain on their first trip into a dimension, Lu Bai reckoned that successfully combining their first module would already count as an achievement for most of them.

Few were probably like him.

"Of course, it could also be a problem with the Skill Bar." Lu Bai looked at the '3' after Skill Bar on his status panel and remembered something.

He then called over the servants waiting outside the courtyard and told them to find some people.

That evening, a commotion came from outside Lu Bai's courtyard.

Several people opened the courtyard gate and threw three bound men into the yard.

After cupping their fists at Lu Bai, they left without saying anything else.

"Bandit brothers, we meet again."

It was obvious that these bound men were the ones who'd tried to steal Lu Bai's Death Compensation.

Lu Bai had killed their leader, but not his underlings.

"Now we can have a proper talk."

Second update. Good night, everyone. If you have any free recommendation votes, please vote for me. Thanks.