Chapter 156
"... Stop."
When the insect-headed chess pieces are scattered, only the broken chess piece bases remain in their original positions.
The palace returned to complete silence.
Wen Jing raised his head and looked at the bronze cauldron that floated in mid-air, seemingly unchanging since ancient times, with an army of insect heads standing silently behind it.
At this point, there were no longer any obstacles between her and the core of this world.
With its Mental Vision unfolding, the little insect bit into the bronze cauldron without hesitation.
Chapter 156
From any perspective, bronze cauldrons have nothing to do with 'deliciousness', but the devouring in the Mental Vision has nothing to do with taste.
That's a conceptual acquisition.
The tiny insect began to gnaw at the edge of the bronze, and the places it crawled over were completely obliterated.
As she devoured, the Skill Points on the panel began to increase.
1122, 1124, 1126...
This time, unlike the previous times, Wen Jing, who possesses dual consciousness, was still able to focus on the changes in the entire Chess Game World while being devoured by "One Mind".
The Chess Game World is gradually collapsing, starting with the first palace, then the second, and all the way to the third one where she is.
When most of the bronze cauldron disappeared, the walls and doors around the third palace were like a canvas soaked in water, the lines and colors melting together into a Chaos, leaving only the chessboard on the ground being constantly eroded.
None of the remaining pieces on the board were spared, including the newly transformed insect-headed pieces.
Wen Jing didn't feel too much regret about this.
Between Skill Points and a group of subordinates, she will always choose the former.
To reiterate, what Wen Jing wants is absolute self-identity. These seemingly mindless pawns that can replicate her abilities are useful, but they are still 'others'.
However, through this collaboration of the insect-headed pieces, she saw the potential to further enhance the splitting trait.
If she could split into more Clone than she is now, wouldn't that be better than these pawns from the Ancient Wilderness ruins?
The power it can unleash will be an exponential increase.
However, this goal is obviously not easy to achieve. Wen Jing previously spent more than a thousand skill points to evolve his Consciousness Split, and it is unknown how many more Skill Points he will need to upgrade.
Just then, a notification appeared on the panel--
[Digestion VI]
[Gained Trait: Myriad Transformation Furnace (Can be transformed)]
Wen Jing was shocked and quite surprised.
Based on the imagery of ritual and music, class advancement, and the pursuit of power embodied in this ruin, she originally thought that devouring the bronze cauldron would grant her characteristics such as control or laws.
Unexpectedly, its core effect was ultimately 'absorption' and 'transformation'.
This also helped her Digestion level, which had been stuck at level five, finally improve.
However, Wen Jing realized in an instant why he gained this characteristic from devouring the bronze cauldron.
Although the ding later evolved into a ritual vessel with various symbols and meanings, its most original and essential function was actually... a cooking utensil.
Upon gaining this property, Wen Jing's entire body suddenly darkened, turning from pale to pure black.
This isn't because her body color has actually changed, but rather because her exoskeleton is slowly absorbing free energy from the surrounding environment, including light.
The absorbed free energy was transformed into nutrients that enhanced Wen Jing's physical fitness.
Even though this absorption and transformation is far less than her direct devouring of Wilderness Beast or rare treasures, and seems negligible, and cannot even be specifically displayed with two decimal places on the panel, the two are obviously not the same.
The former requires active searching, while the latter can be done at any time.
When Wen Jing was killing the Frost Spider King, he once thought that it would be great if his whole body was made of mouths.
Of course, it doesn't mean it has many mouths, but rather that its entire body can perform the function of devouring.
It can now be said that this has been achieved; the entire body can become an absorptive organ.
More importantly, in addition to passive transformation, this Myriad Transformation Furnace can also be used for active transformation.
The next moment, Wen Jing had a thought, and the same patterned phantom as the bronze cauldron appeared on his body.
The phantom image is not fixed, but can appear anywhere on her body according to her thoughts.
Any energy attack that lands on it can be absorbed and converted into its own energy reserves or temporary enhancement.
However, there is an upper limit to the amount that can be absorbed, which is roughly half of Wen Jing's own energy.
In addition, the conversion efficiency also varies. If it is an ice-type attack that she has a high degree of mastery over, she can convert 80% or 90% of it out of 10. If she has not come into contact with or mastered it, the conversion rate will be less than 5%.
Even with all the limitations, the resulting increase in combat power is still phenomenal.
It's important to understand that this means all the energy attacks the enemy lands on her aren't actually attacks, but rather healing her.
Wen Jing was confident that if he had obtained the Myriad Transformation Furnace during the assassination attempt, he could have easily killed the three imperial assassins before his teacher arrived.
"It wasn't in vain that I put in the past month's effort..."
Although it's not the method she most needs to break the Spacetime Amber right now, reality doesn't allow her to get exactly what she lacks... Well, maybe Luck Aura like Dean Bai's could help.
In short, this characteristic is also a perfect match for Wen Jing.
After all, besides Clone, Digestion is also one of the core aspects of her evolution.
Compared to that, it's not worthwhile to directly exchange the [Myriad Transformation Furnace] for Skill Points now. It's better to find other targeted ways to rescue the Clone, since it's a 'fixed asset' anyway.
As the insect devoured the last fragment of the bronze cauldron, a strange shattering sound rang out, and the entire Chess Game World completely collapsed.
"Um?"
However, just as Wen Jing fell back into the material universe, he suddenly smiled.
It turns out that something deliberately came towards her when the world collapsed, then turned into light and disappeared, existing only in her consciousness.
It was the first piece of Wilderness Weapon she had lost in the past.
It seems that because this world disappeared, the bronze fragment lost its place, just like the strong magnet that attracted it disappeared, leaving only a weak magnet at the scene, which naturally attracted it.
The next moment, Wen Jing returned to the Ten Star Group's base.
The figure overlapped perfectly with the dummy left behind before the passage.
This time, besides the special feature, she gained an extra 300 Skill Points from absorbing the core of the Chess Game World, bringing her Skill Points to over 1500.
It was a very fruitful experience.
On the passageway leading to the command room of the underground base, Wen Jing was preparing to say goodbye to Yan Sheng.
The most crucial time for Dean Bai to seize the opportunity was on the first day of the assassination attempt, or even in the first half of the day.
The enemy was completely unprepared at that time, which allowed for a swift and decisive strike. Those who remained, upon receiving the news, certainly wouldn't foolishly wait in place.
The following days were more about deterrence and wrapping things up.
As early as the second day, through the Ten Star Group's external intelligence network, Wen Jing knew that even his 'legal return' would not affect the teacher's actions.
However, at that crucial moment, she chose to remain in seclusion regarding her strategy for conquering the world of chess.
Now that the goal has been achieved, there is naturally no need to stay here any longer.
Halfway there, Wen Jing paused, hearing the arguing coming from Yan Sheng's office.
It wasn't that she was deliberately eavesdropping; rather, her strength had greatly improved this time, and even with a distance and a metal hatch between them, the conversation sounded exactly the same as if it were being spoken right in front of her.
A strange voice, filled with anger, said, "... Yan Sheng, stop beating around the bush. Where did Heli take his men? His operation has been off track for five days now, and there's still no news."
"Old Zhou, Calmness down," Yan Sheng reassured him. "You know Heli's strength; no news right now is the best news."
Old Zhou wouldn't budge an inch. "He almost got caught in the last operation. If I hadn't intercepted the tip-off, would he have escaped unscathed? This time, he took all the promising talents in the organization without a word, and didn't give us any information. How can I Calmness?"
Yan Sheng sighed, "It's precisely because you intercepted a tip-off, proving there's a traitor among us, that Heli is even more cautious."
"His whereabouts this time are kept secret from everyone."
The man opposite, ' Old Zhou,' remained silent for a moment, then spoke again in a dry, listless voice. "A secret?... Even I have to be kept in the dark?"
Yan Sheng immediately denied it. "No! Old Zhou, there are only three of us regimental commanders in the organization, how could we not trust you? You have to believe Heli, he's just like you, he would never betray the organization."
Seemingly not wanting the other person to dwell on the matter, he quickly changed the subject, saying, "Speaking of which, you haven't met that 'guest' yet. I spoke with her before, and what she said has made me think a lot these past few days."
"We've been on the same path for too long. Perhaps we really need to stop and see if our approach was wrong from the start. Every action we've taken in the past seems to have only resulted in the loss of more comrades, without ever truly changing anything..."
Old Zhou across from him seemed to have heard the most absurd joke, "So you're now swayed by a few words from an outsider? You think all our previous bloodshed and sacrifices were meaningless?"
"Yan Sheng, have you gone mad from managing ideological education? The Ten Star Group has existed to this day thanks to the blood of countless predecessors. It wasn't built on wishful thinking. What we need now is power, Awakened. Without these, how can we talk about reaching the ' Other Shore '?"
He lowered his voice, steer the conversation back on track. "Tell me how to contact Heli... Listen, I don't need his information, but I need to get the information to him!"
"I must make sure he succeeds this time, and we can't let the failure of sixty years ago repeat itself!"
"I understand..." Yan Sheng said helplessly, "But he really didn't tell me."
After another moment of silence, Old Zhou slowly spoke, his voice sounding as if he had aged several years.