Myriad Phenomena Prism

The two walked into the passageway behind the door.

"There's something I've always found strange," Zijin summoned several orbs of light that hovered beside her, their soft glow illuminating the dim passage, "You're clearly Galio's successor, so why are your mental traits more similar to mine?"

"You and Galio didn't have this problem?"

"I'm very different from him," Zijin replied, looking around. "That doesn't make sense. You should be closer to your mentor, not me, no matter what."

The outer warehouse was mostly empty, and what remained were mostly useless items; clearly, all valuable supplies were taken away during the evacuation.

But as you walk further in and push open the door to the library, you are greeted by a room full of books. Many are scattered on the floor, but most are neatly stacked on antique bookshelves.

Su Ming estimated that there were about a thousand books. Some were printed books, but most were handwritten parchment scrolls and mage notes, with the air filled with the old scent of ink and leather.

The room was very dry. Su Ming noticed a dehydration magic circle drawn on the floor. The remaining energy on the Magic Power crystal was very weak, but it was still working tenaciously to protect the books from moisture.

Su Ming found a candle, lit it, and placed it on the candlestick on the wall. Although the orb of light summoned by Zijin already provided ample illumination, the flickering candle flame allowed for real-time monitoring of air quality; in an underground facility, remaining vigilant was essential.

Zijin's slender fingers glided lightly across the spines of the books, stirring up fine dust with her fingertips, and she quickly pulled out several heavy tomes. Among them, a gold-embossed "Spirit System Handbook" stood out, while the others were notes personally written by Galio.

She added several more orbs of light into the air, surrounding the desk area, before sitting down and beginning to peruse her notes.

Su Ming picked up the "Spirit System Handbook." He quickly found the chapter on vengeful spirits, which was filled with densely packed handwritten text recording many characteristics of this special type of undead. The book revealed that vengeful spirits are a very limited form of undead; the cultivation process with suitable materials is lengthy, and their growth ceiling is not high.

Materials capable of accumulating powerful Resentment Power are extremely rare, and such individuals are certainly not ordinary people. If this kind of "resource" were used in a different way, its value would far exceed that of a vengeful spirit.

What makes it even more difficult to deal with is that most of these "materials" are already powerful beings. When a vengeful spirit master encounters them, they should not consider how to turn the other party into a vengeful spirit, but rather how to escape.

Then there are specific cases. The book records the story of a vengeful spirit transformed from a High Rank combatant, which, after being successfully detonated, almost destroyed half a city.

However, the concept of a city in this other world is completely different from that of a "city" in Su Ming's hometown. Su Ming secretly calculated that the "half a city" mentioned in the book was not even as large as some "neighborhoods" in his country.

On the other side, Zijin frowned more and more. "Galio chose the item-binding route." She pointed to a passage in her notebook, "Binding the soul of the dead to an item with the Psionic Power, extending the duration of the spirit's activity—this is completely different from the vengeful spirit route."

"Perhaps it's a dual cultivation?" Su Ming guessed.

Zijin flipped to the next notebook and quickly found the relevant record. "Galio did try the vengeful spirit route, but gave up because he found the process too troublesome."

Su Ming opened the "Spirit System Handbook" in his hand. "This chapter records the encryption methods of High Rank vengeful spirits. Is this it?"

Zijin leaned closer to read, her soft hair swaying gently with her movements, releasing a faint lavender scent.

Su Ming subconsciously moved aside.

"Do I smell?" Zijin asked, remembering that she had sweated a lot during the day.

"No, it's just the scent of shampoo," Su Ming explained directly.

Zijin brushed a strand of hair aside, twirled it with her finger to her nose, and sniffed it lightly. "This one, it's alright, isn't it?"

Realizing that Zijin had misunderstood, Su Ming had no choice but to clarify, "I stepped aside not because I disliked you, but because I felt it was a bit impolite."

As for the fact that he slept with the Zijin coin the night before last, he has decided to keep it to himself.

"Is that so?" Zijin tilted her head and thought for a moment. "Dragon Race have a very sensitive sense of smell, and most dragons dislike their own kind getting too close." She explained, "Sorry, I thought you were disgusted by me."

"How could that be? I really like it," Su Ming replied. "It's a lavender-scented shampoo, and I picked it out for you."

****

Zijin refocused her attention on the book and resumed reading, "Miao Xin's Nether Sea, cannot be restored?"

According to the description in the "Spirit System Handbook," once the Nether Sea enters its unfolding phase, there is no way to reverse it. Only when its energy is depleted can it close again, returning to its reserve form to accumulate energy. "Su Ming shook his head, "Her bottomless Abyss hasn't shown the slightest sign of weakness for so long; it's definitely beyond the reach of this route."

"That's troublesome." Zijin continued reading, quickly finishing the chapter on vengeful spirits, but found no relevant solutions.

However, in other chapters of the book, Zijin discovers another method. "Honeypot Decoy!"

Su Ming quickly came over to check; this was a special strategy used by spirit-type undead to evade mental targeting.

According to the book, the activator infuses Miao Xin with resentment, triggering the vengeful spirit, which is a targeted release.

Spirits are a special kind of existence that can be superimposed. Utilizing this characteristic, the book details how to create decoy spirits that resemble the main spirit's fluctuations, and place them outside the main spirit to attract the attacker's mental lock.

"Have Miao Xin place a 'spirit' on herself?" Su Ming murmured, "To use as bait?"

This is somewhat similar to how, on Earth, a fighter jet is locked onto by an infrared-guided missile, and a heat decoy is released to lure the missile to attack the decoy. Both worlds, in some tactical concepts, arrive at the same conclusion through different paths.

"That's right, so if someone tries to ambush her, the protective spirit can take the blame for her," Zijin replied. "On the other hand..."

Upon noticing the anomaly in the cover spirit, they realized they had been ambushed!

Does it possess both protective and early warning functions? Su Ming stroked his chin. There was only one deceased person on Earth, Miao Xin, but she possessed a soul. Although these spirits would quickly lose their intelligence, they would still linger for a period of time before slowly dissipating.

"That's a brilliant idea!" Su Ming praised, and he quickly told Miao Xin about it.

First, we need to find the big, powerful spirit. Miao Xin decided to get started.

Su Ming also breathed a sigh of relief, as this would provide an extra layer of protection for Miao Xin's safety when she appeared at the negotiation venue two days later.

Continuing to the next page, "The Spirit System Handbook" also describes a concept for freeing vengeful spirits from their confinement, but since vengeful spirits lack autonomy, the author concludes that it has no practical significance.

But this wasn't the case for Miao Xin. Su Ming also made a mark on it and would study it later.

****

Zijin closed the book, stood up, and stretched.

"Su Ming, the power of the Nether Sea is a problem, but it's also protecting Miao Xin," she said to Su Ming.

Su Ming nodded, understanding the two layers of meaning in those words: the Nether Sea, as a massive source of energy, not only brought about a qualitative change in Miao Xin's power, granting her stronger self-protection capabilities; on the other hand, while the explosive nature of this powerful energy was certainly being exploited by the mastermind behind the scenes, it also served as a protective shield, forcing everyone to treat Miao Xin and Su Ming with caution.

Otherwise, it's difficult to say who poses the greatest threat to him and Miao Xin.

The two packed up the books and notes and headed to the last storeroom of the outpost.

The door was somewhat hidden. Following Zijin's instructions, Su Ming placed his hand in the center of the rune array. With the flow of Magic Power, the wall in front of him slid open with a low thud.

Zijin dragged the ball of light inside. The space was not large, with seven or eight boxes of materials scattered about, emitting an earthy yellow luster. Su Ming approached to examine them and found that some of them were alchemical materials called "Rock Core". This ore was in irregular block shape, with a rough surface, and emitted a faint earth-elemental Magic Power fluctuation, just like an earth-elemental magic crystal with extremely low purity.

During their last raid on Snail Island, they seized quite a few of these "Rock Core," which were particularly heavy.

Su Ming didn't recognize the other materials. Zijin explained that these were all rare materials that Galio had accumulated over decades of research, and none of them were easy to find.

But they weren't used often and rarely came in handy. Galio couldn't bear to throw any of them away, so they accumulated more and more.

He usually couldn't manage to declutter, but when he finally had to escape, Galio reluctantly left them here along with the heavy Rock Core.

Zijin picked up a petal from among them. "This one seems to contain the neodymium you wanted."

"Yes, I'll analyze them all with a spectrometer when I get back," Su Ming said.

He really doesn't have much of these things left. Often he has to dismantle equipment that he no longer needs to use as materials. There's no large-scale mining and use of these rare metals in the other world, so every bit he gets is extremely precious.

****

Zijin carefully searched through the large wooden box, and a look of disappointment gradually appeared on her face.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm looking for the ' Myriad Phenomena Prism,' a very special gemstone."

Su Ming, closed his eyes and sensed carefully, and quickly found a hidden compartment in the corner of the room. He opened it, only to find it empty.

"It seems Galio has already taken everything that was easy to carry," Su Ming said. "Didn't you find it on him?"

"Yes," Zijin, slightly dejected. "I searched Galio died, and I turned over every corner of the White Bone Fortress, but I couldn't find the gem anywhere."

Su Ming suddenly had a thought, "Is it this big?" He gestured with his hand, "The surface is full of cracks, and the stones shimmer with tens of thousands of colors?"

"You've seen it?" Zijin curiously, but quickly realized, "Could it be on Earth, on that Little Spiky Head!"

"That's right!" Su Ming nodded firmly.

The scholar's expression immediately fell. "That bastard Galio! How could he bring the ' Myriad Phenomena Prism ' to Earth! Legend has it that this precious gem appeared about ten thousand years ago during a cataclysmic catastrophe in the Taya Plane!"

"Legend?" Su Ming said, "Meaning its origin is unknown."

"Let's respect the mystery," Zijin said, discontented. "I've never had a chance to touch this gem; I've been looking forward to it for so long!"

Her tone was full of resentment.

Zijin returned to the library she had just been in and took another of Galio's notebooks from the shelf. "This is Galio's research record. Like previous researchers, he hasn't produced many results, but he suspects it contains spatial power."

"It's understandable that Galio would travel through time and escape with the ' Myriad Phenomena Prism,' but why would he put it on a little skeleton?" Su Ming couldn't understand it either.

He glanced down at his digital wristwatch; it was already 9 o'clock, and the two of them had been away from the Youth Civilization for a full hour.

"Let's go back first," Su Ming suggested.

"Good."

Zijin used her Levitation Spell to move the materials out of the warehouse, but she discovered that Su Ming was already packing up all the books in the storage room.

"Bring all of these?" Zijin asked doubtfully. "Many of these books contain outdated and obsolete technologies with limited use."

"I know." Su Ming continued organizing without looking up. "I have a project coming up that requires a lot of magic-related data for training."

"Training?" Zijin, puzzled.

"Something that's both clumsy and clever," Su Ming said. "In short, the more books, the better."

Zijin thought for a moment, "If you want books, I have quite a few stored in my collection. I can arrange for the Blue-Eyed Chamber of Commerce to transfer and purchase some more that are available on the market."

That's great.

The snowmobile's cargo bed clearly couldn't hold all the items, so Su Ming set up a snowmobile before he could finally put them down.

"The books are heavy, Rock Core is even heavier," Su Ming complained. It took the two of them half an hour just to sort and move these things.

Zijin took out two magic crystals and cast a levitation spell on the snowmobile. The sled was now too heavy to be pulled by the snowmobile's power alone.

"It should be able to hold out until we get back," Zijin estimated.

Su Ming started the snowmobile, the engine emitting a dull roar. After starting, the speed was only half that of the snowmobile, but it was still moving.

Zijin had worked all day, and after all that, she was exhausted. As soon as she got in the car, she leaned her head on Su Ming's shoulder and fell asleep.

****

The snowmobile moved slowly across the snow-covered plain under the cover of night, its headlights casting long beams of light on the pure white snow. The leashes, suspended to reduce weight, left two parallel tracks behind it.

When Su Ming finally returned to the Youth Civilization, the magic crystals had already lost their luster. Unlike Magic Crystal Core, which could be recharged repeatedly, the Magic Power in these crystals could not be replenished once it was exhausted.

Magic crystals do indeed possess amazing energy density and convenient energy conversion properties, but their consumption is a one-time event.

It is expensive and relatively scarce.

Currently, the production level in this other world is sufficient for the use of Magic Power crystals. However, Su Ming has calculated the reserves of magic crystals in this other world, and the energy provided by the currently discovered and mined portion is roughly enough to refine steel in TS City for two or three years.

Coal may seem inferior, but it possesses a massive weight measured in hundreds of millions of tons, making even the scale of magic seem like mere fancy footwork in comparison.

This is one of the most primitive powers of Industrial Cthulhu.