Back at his home in Brooklyn Heights, Lin Hai went straight to his bedroom.
After taking off his shoes, he habitually sat cross-legged on the bed, then took out the pendant made by Mage Hamil from his pocket.
Holding it in his palm, Lin Hai closed his eyes and focused all his attention on the metal sphere in his hand. Following Mage Hamil's advice, he began guiding the Life Force within his body toward the black crystal inside the sphere.
To be safe, Lin Hai only used a strand of Life Force as thin as a hair to touch the black crystal. The instant the black crystal's energy came into contact with his Life Force, they produced a reaction violent enough to be called explosive.
However, just as Mage Hamil had predicted, it proved the old saying—talking about toxicity without considering dosage was just nonsense.
The strand of Life Force Lin Hai controlled was far too tiny, and the portion of the black crystal touched by it was equally negligible. Therefore, the violent energy clash remained confined to that minuscule point of contact.
At such a tiny scale, the reaction might have been intense, but it had no effect on either the metal sphere or Lin Hai himself.
Guided by Lin Hai, the strand of Life Force that had collided with the Dark Energy slowly retreated along its original path, flowed back through the hollowed-out runes into his palm, and rejoined the energy cycle within his body.
The moment this strand of Life Force returned, Lin Hai noticed that it was different from when it had left his body.
First was its color. Its originally pure, bright azure-gold hue now looked slightly dimmer. It had not become murky, but gained a restrained deep cyan undertone.
The more noticeable change was