"Uh, Xiao Bai, why are they calling me High Executor?" Leng Xiyue asked, puzzled by their form of address.
"The High Executor is the shared leader of the entire protoss race. Since you're the master chosen by this system, and you summoned them, they naturally recognize you as their High Executor," Xiao Bai explained.
"So that's how it is." Leng Xiyue nodded. Presumably, it was a rank equivalent to an emperor or something.
Leng Xiyue was in no hurry to tell them to rise. Instead, she reached out to the Spirit Network that had appeared in her mind, trying to connect to her new subordinates through it.
Just like when she had first acquired her armor and learned her moves, using the Spirit Network felt like an innate instinct. She needed no training at all. With a mere thought, she could freely switch her viewpoint to any of the metal figures before her, and direct one or even several of them to carry out whatever action she had in mind. Issuing an order took little more than a thought, and their responses were extremely swift.
Leng Xiyue also took a look at their skills. Their combat abilities were quite limited: ordinary Legionnaires only had "Charge" and "Psionic Leap," which barely qualified as skills. In practice, they were simply two basic actions-a sprint and a charged jump.
Even Kaldalis only had two additional skills, called "Solar Overload" and "Guardian Shield." The former allowed him to summon weapons such as greatswords, just as she could, while the latter provided a single, nearly invincible ultimate defense. Beyond that, he had no ranged attack capabilities either.
Then there was Psionic Shield. This shield recovered easily and provided a shield value equal to twice the user's own defense, making them remarkably tough.
Generally speaking, whenever their shields ran low, they could withdraw from combat and have the two Conservators quickly recharge them before rejoining the fight. This would avoid the awkward situation of their armor being damaged and Leng Xiyue being unable to repair or revive these warriors.
In terms of combat experience, each of them displayed considerable flexibility. Although they could not fly, a fully charged jump could take them dozens of meters into the air. Given a foothold, they could keep jumping higher, and they were incredibly fast as well.
In short, these Legionnaires had no real skills. They simply overwhelmed opponents of the same level through attributes enhanced across the board.
The two little flying saucers called Conservators, which could hover above the ground, served much like batteries. They could replenish the other warriors' psionic energy or shields, and could also cast a skill called "Protector's Shield," which weakened all ranged attacks, including those using mental power. Of course, this skill consumed a great deal of energy.
Once Leng Xiyue had finished familiarizing herself with all the units under her command, she put them away. After wrapping things up here, she intended to head to Suotuo City to gather information first. Parading through the streets with these protoss warriors would draw far too much attention.
With the Spirit Network, she could issue orders to them directly or control them no matter how far away they were. Thus, she planned to send them out independently, with no public connection to herself. That would also make certain tasks easier to carry out.
Seeing that Tian Meng still had not awakened, Leng Xiyue began examining her Second Soul Skill.
On the surface, it was a single skill, but it actually had three activation modes. Each mode differed in its energy consumption and effects. Which mode she activated was entirely up to her, and they were not mutually exclusive; she could switch between active modes at any time.
The first mode allowed her to enter a state similar to "Bullet Time." At its core, this was an application of mental power. Once activated, the flow of time she perceived would slow to half its normal speed, but neither her enemies' actual speed nor her own would change. Essentially, only her reactions became faster. The psionic energy consumption of this mode was on par with an ordinary skill and was not particularly high.
The second mode was considerably more powerful. Once activated, it allowed her to maintain her normal movement speed on top of the first mode's effects. It felt as though she were changing the flow of space and time, which was spectacular indeed.
Of course, its consumption was also much more frightening, with its active duration measured in seconds. At her current level, keeping it active for a little over ten seconds would essentially exhaust her reserves. However, she could turn it on and off as needed, with each use consuming only about a second's worth of energy. Whether for attacking or dodging, it was nothing short of a godly skill.
The third mode, meanwhile, truly stopped time. At present, she could only activate it for three seconds, and once activated, it could not be stopped. At her current level, using the third mode would reduce both her psionic energy and its maximum capacity to 8% afterward, an effect that would last fifteen days. That debuff was truly terrifying.
Still, three seconds of genuine Time Freeze would be enough to resolve the vast majority of predicaments.
Overall, the second mode was the true core of this legendary skill, while the first and third modes were bonus "budget" and "premium" versions. Both were quite useful in their own right, and Leng Xiyue was thoroughly satisfied.
After inspecting the skill, Leng Xiyue stood up and collected all the ten-thousand-year cold marrow around her, gathering a little over two hundred pieces in total. Tian Meng certainly would not need them anymore, and she did not intend to absorb them directly and convert them into psionic energy experience points. After all, she could store them first and use them whenever she wanted later. There would be plenty of opportunities, so there was no need to rush.
"Speaking of which, Xiao Bai, don't mineral resources like these usually form in some kind of treasure-rich land? This cave looks utterly ordinary. These treasures couldn't have appeared out of thin air, could they?" Leng Xiyue asked in puzzlement.
After she collected all the ten-thousand-year cold marrow, the chill inside the cave immediately diminished several notches, as though the marrow had been the sole reason it was so cold.
But that was also the strangest part. If the cave itself was not particularly cold, how could it have produced ten-thousand-year cold marrow, a resource considered top-tier throughout the entire Douluo Continent?
"That's because there may once have been a leyline beneath this place." Xiao Bai crouched down and touched the floor, then spoke thoughtfully.
"A leyline? What's that?"
"A leyline is a truly wondrous thing. It can easily produce treasures like this ten-thousand-year cold marrow, and it seems as though it never runs dry. It can effortlessly gather energy from everything around it and use that as nourishment. The energy it releases afterward becomes the finest catalyst, with the power to turn stone into gold. Higher-grade leylines can even produce high-quality minerals capable of supporting interstellar travel. This ten-thousand-year cold marrow before us may have been nothing more than ordinary ice at the very beginning."
"After binding a leyline, we gradually bring it under our control. Eventually, these leylines produce minerals corresponding to their attributes for us. Their vast, stable output can supply our industrial system continuously, preventing resource crises when our expansion reaches the edges of a star system."
"Later on, we even created similar devices based on the principles of leylines, collecting all the endless, otherwise useless energy in the universe and converting it into useful resources."
"That sounds amazing. Could we look for the leyline here, then?" Leng Xiyue asked, her face full of anticipation.
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