Chapter 5: Linked Energy Manipulation
The pitch-black darkness of the narrow stone crevice offered a fragile, suffocating illusion of safety. Leon sat flat against the freezing dirt, his legs crossed tightly beneath him. All around him, the twelve remaining survivors huddled together, their teeth chattering in a frantic, uneven rhythm that sounded like a cluster of insects.
Outside the distant voices of screams dying down one by one could be faintly heard. For a moment it seemed the voices were moving away but then it turned out to be nothing more than wishful thinking.
The supernatural cold of the wasteland was actively creeping through the stone walls, threatening to freeze their blood where they sat. Without realizing it, one of the more anxious survivors had gradually inched closer to Leon. She only noticed after her shoulder nearly brushed against his, pausing in confusion before awkwardly moving away
Leon closed his eyes, pulling his awareness completely away from the shivering group. He focused entirely inward, attempting to use his vast hyper-intuition to grasp the invisible laws of the cosmos.
He quickly realized. I need a cultivation technique, his mind reasoned methodically. A manual. A foundational script. As his consciousness scraped against the brilliant, fused nucleus of the Universal Vessel inside his soul, a cold wall of reality hit him.
His talent was near-infinite, and his comprehension was unmatched—but he was still just a mortal with absolutely zero guidance. He didn't have an ancient text. He didn't have a master whispering secrets into his ear.
A genuine cultivation method was a complex, generational masterpiece built upon thousands of years of trial, error, and enlightenment. Even with his genius, trying to invent a permanent, flawless breakthrough technique out of thin air on the spot was an impossible, suicidal task. It would have been a different story had he been given more time. However in a situation where death was literally marching towards them time was the one resource they lacked the most.
I can't build a palace without a blueprint, Leon realized, instantly pivoting his approach without a single shred of panic. Fine. If I can't permanently elevate my realm right now, I'll just change the target. Forget cultivation. I just need to control the energy itself.
Instead of trying to permanently store the environmental Qi in a non-existent spiritual core, Leon focused his raw perception on the atmosphere leaking into the cave. The Universal Vessel acted like a powerful, magnetic siphon. The thick, raw Qi of the Spirit World didn't just drift into his body; it was violently dragged into his pores. But a mortal body with no cultivation can only handle a meager, pathetic amount of raw Qi before the foreign energy tears the muscles apart. Besides that small amount can not be be used effectively on its own.
To overcome this, Leon initiated a makeshift, dangerous solution: Linked Energy Manipulation. He forcefully drew the raw environmental Qi deep into his chest and deliberately smashed it into his own vital energy—his raw physical life force.
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He began to mix the two forces together, churning them like a violent vortex. By binding the foreign Qi directly to his own vitality, his mind gained instant, manual control over the mixture, compressing it into a highly potent, highly responsive internal energy.
It wasn't a true cultivation method. It wouldn't make him permanently stronger, and it didn't elevate his realm. In fact, it was incredibly inefficient; it was a desperate, burning trade-off that would rapidly consume his physical stamina and burn him out if used for too long. But right now, it gave a mundane mortal a loaded gun.
Leon slowly opened his honey-colored eyes in the dark cave. He held out his right hand, turning his palm upward. Let's see what this can do, he thought. He exerted a tiny fraction of the mixed internal energy through his fingertips. Instantly, a faint, translucent yellow halo of light flickered to life around his fingers, casting a soft, dim glow over the cracked stone floor.
A survivor among the group could not help but notice and exclaim "Is this magic? He's one of them! I only wanted to get some groceries, if I knew this would happen I would have stayed home." The energy felt raw and unstable, waiting for a command. With a simple shift in his thoughts, Leon began to alter the internal frequency of the energy, testing how its properties would adapt.
The yellow halo suddenly shifted into a soft, vibrant green. The air immediately around his hand grew warm, carrying a deeply soothing, nourishing property that began to combat the supernatural chill of the cave. He shifted his intent again. The green dissolved, replaced by a deep, pitch-black shimmer that felt violently destructive, humming with a small, corrosive hiss.
Intrigued, Leon rapidly cycled through the variations. He pushed his thoughts toward enhancement, and the halo flashed a brilliant, fiery red, making the muscles in his forearm twitch with temporary, explosive physical power. He shifted to speed, and the aura turned a sharp, neon blue, vibrating so fast it became a blur. Finally, he focused his intent on whatever else of the spectrum he could reach. The aura stabilized into a faded white. Leon tapped his white-haloed finger against a jagged stone beside him; the energy seamlessly phased straight through the outer layer of the solid rock before the energy abruptly cut out. That one made him raise his eyebrows. Penetration.
It was a versatile, lethal toolkit, entirely self-taught in the span of minutes. But the meager amount of Vitality in his body meant he only had a few shots before he got drained completely. Thud. A heavy, sickening weight slammed into the ground directly outside the narrow entrance of the cave.
The soft, colorful halo around Leon's hand vanished instantly, plunging the cavern back into pure darkness. The twelve survivors froze, their breath catching in their throats as a cold, terrifying shadow blocked the dim, red light filtering through the crevice.
A sickening, low-frequency hum vibrated through the stone walls, making everyone's ears ring. The floating purple eye had found them.