"Our target has arrived."
Her Majesty Empress Wu's side profile had slightly parted bangs and a low, fluffy ponytail style. She embellished a full sense of elegance, but the impact was reduced a bit.
Compared to her breathtaking appearance, Her Majesty Empress Wu's voice was a bit calmer. It was a bit deeper, and she spoke a bit slower. Her enunciation was especially clear, and her tone fluctuated vividly. Combined with her smile, it made one wonder if there was some hidden meaning behind her words.
Luo Nan felt even more nervous!
He heaved a sigh of relief and turned his head to look at the foot of the hill. An ugly hairless monster had just appeared. Its shoulder height was definitely more than two meters, its body was fat, and it had long fangs. It was shaking its layers of thick skin and flesh as it silently rushed up. It was less than fifty meters away from them.
The scene suddenly tensed up. Her Majesty Empress Wu explained unhurriedly, "This is a pleated wild boar. It's a low-level Mutant commonly seen in the Wilderness. It has practically no research value, but its skin is thick and its blood is long. Its impact force is extraordinary as well. When it's in a group, it's quite irritating."
Her Majesty Empress Wu removed the portable electromagnetic rifle from her shoulder as she spoke. She didn't even take aim. She opened fire with one hand, confident and at ease.
The metal bullet accurately struck the head of the pleated wild boar, the thinnest part of its skin. It embedded itself deeply, but soon the flesh squirmed and the bullet fell off. Blood flowed like a fountain, smearing its face.
The pleated wild boar was a bit dizzy, but it shook its head. It still charged forward courageously, fully verifying the evaluation of its skin being thick and blood being long.
Her Majesty Empress Wu's figure didn't move. She continued with a smile, "Pure physical impact isn't that effective. The firearms of the military require a certain degree of concentrated fire in order to be effective. However, as ability users, we can do this …. "
The pleated wild boar's angry eye socket burst with blood just as her voice fell. This enormous Mutant let out an extremely disproportionate shriek from its throat. Its body staggered, and it nearly slipped.
Luo Nan looked at its left eye socket. A bloody hole had exploded there. It was badly mangled, and one eye was already blind.
Luo Nan was baffled. What just happened? He didn't see Her Majesty Empress Wu make any unnecessary movements.
The wild boar, which had lost one eye, became extremely manic. Even if there was a problem with the correct location, the speed of the galloping was even faster.
It was at this time that an excellent video clip appeared next to Luo Nan in the form of an AR. It replayed the moment just now in slow motion, helping a rookie like Luo Nan to reconstruct the process. Her Majesty Empress Wu gave a synchronized explanation.
The virtual screen clearly showed that when the pleated skin wild boar charged, translucent water droplets condensed in midair and pierced through the pupils, causing the fragile eyeballs to explode … but that was all.
Her Majesty Empress Wu also said, "I just unleashed a Dripping Sword, but the effect wasn't too good. The reason why I'm doing this is to show everyone one thing: In practical applications, you shouldn't overestimate its lethality. After all, this is only an Awakened level technique. If you don't use it properly, it will make the situation worse. "
It sounded very reasonable, but was it really not because of a mistake?
Luo Nan had yet to walk out from the shadow of losing face. He couldn't help harboring a subtle thought and made malicious guesses.
But in the next second, the other eyeball of the pleated wild boar, which was still twenty meters away, exploded.
The situation seemed to be similar to last time. The pleated wild boar roared once more, but its roar was cut off halfway. Its thick and sturdy body lost its balance. It simply fell to the ground and slid forward. It lost all kinetic energy when it was around five meters away from Her Majesty Empress Wu. All that was left was the instinctive twitching of its limbs.
Luo Nan gaped. This time he really didn't understand where the problem lay.
At this time, Her Majesty Empress Wu took two steps forward. She was like a field researcher. She knelt on one knee next to the pleated wild boar, allowing the dry red earth to stick to her hunting clothes.
Then, her slender fingers swiped through the air, and the head of the pleated wild boar that was as hard as iron was cut apart.
It was only this inhuman action that made people remember her identity as an Extraordinary. Oh, she wasn't one three years ago …. Luo Nan didn't know how many times he had been stumped by this train of thought.
The dissection scene was very bloody, but it helped to restore the truth. It was as if Luo Nan was at the scene. He took two steps forward and saw that the brain of the pleated wild boar had completely turned into a paste.
Forget a wild boar, even a giant elephant would be cleanly wiped out by this kind of damage. But why was the effect so different between the two times? Could it be that she was cheating?
Luo Nan sank into malicious conjectures, finding it hard to extricate himself. On the other side, Her Majesty Empress Wu had already given the answer. "In terms of destructive power, this is the effect of the Water Droplet Impact, which is enhanced by both sharpening and exploding. And in order to control it to penetrate the eye and enter the brain, there is also the enhancement of guidance." Her Majesty Empress Wu smiled as she explained the key points of this attack technique. As mentioned before, the Dripping Sword was called a sword, but it was actually an attack technique that interfered with the material plane of the mind.
The principle was to use soul strength to form a special circuit, to fully do work, to absorb the water molecules in the atmosphere, to achieve a series of blessings such as sharpening, exploding, amplification, acceleration, guidance, and so on. It was a technique that killed the enemy in an instant.
The core circuit structure of the Dripping Sword technique was known as the Condensation Ring. Only through this structure could water molecules be rapidly gathered. And on this basis, various effects such as sharpening, amplification, exploding, and so on could be realized.
For this reason, soul strength needed to be close to the material plane. It was sculpted and shaped. It didn't matter if it was rough, and it didn't matter if it couldn't be maintained for a long time. The key point was the suddenness and explosive power of the instantaneous shape.
"It's not easy to absorb water from thin air, and it will delay the battle. Therefore, the most ideal way to use it is through the enemy's eyes, mouth, and other places that are more moist. It is possible to compress the gathering time as much as possible, using food to feed the enemy, to achieve an instantaneous effect. "
Her Majesty Empress Wu's attitude was candid. She didn't hide the shortcomings of this technique when it was used in actual combat. "I'll repeat once more. Pure beads of water have no lethality. It must possess the five blessings of sharpening, amplification, acceleration, explosion, and guidance. Only then will it be meaningful. And these six structures are all independent. Aside from the Condensation Ring being the core step, the other effects will need to be increased or decreased according to specific circumstances. For this reason, one must maintain a high degree of calmness and clear-headedness in actual combat when using this technique. Unfortunately, quite a few people aren't able to do this. It has nothing to do with talent. It's just a matter of character. "
Wasn't character also a part of talent? Luo Nan really wanted to use the Root Receptacle, Root Nature, and Root Trigger division technique he just learned to fight against Her Majesty Empress Wu. Unfortunately, this was meaningless.
Her Majesty Empress Wu explained the six structural circuits one by one, including the Condensation Ring. She combined this with the magnified model on the virtual screen and a live demonstration. She explained the profound in simple terms and was very clear and easy to understand.
The clarity of the reality-level combined with the powerful playback function of the HexaEar created an astonishing effect. Aside from theory, Her Majesty Empress Wu condensed the structural circuits in a casual manner. Even if she deliberately made them visible for the sake of demonstration, the fluctuations and changes of soul strength could still be sensed by others. This was not easy at all.
No wonder the volume of the video file was enormous. How many resources would be consumed to reproduce such details!? And there was certainly the specialized technology of the inner world inside.
Her Majesty Empress Wu, who was in the reality realm, took the opportunity to sell her personal goods. "The current application techniques of the mental side are the art of structure. Ability users fully utilize the plasticity of soul strength to form functional structures with interference power. Then they can influence and control more effective material components to realize the extraordinary effect of the mind distorting reality... "
Luo Nan nodded over and over as he listened. He thought of the Wraith Sign. The Human-Faced Arachnid's offensive methods were often realized through complex and special structures. It was just that this fellow had no material foundation at all. It could only create shadows on the mental plane.
There was also the 'configuration' that Jack spoke of. It was the operational structure of energy and information. It manifested itself extremely clearly on the body of a Burner.
Her Majesty Empress Wu even mentioned the high-end application standards of the Dripping Sword on the topic of the art of structure. According to her, it was not difficult to make the water droplet explode. What was difficult was to condense it into a pellet, to be as sharp as a blade, to strike a vital point without injuring oneself. However, the sculpting and shaping of the Condensation Ring needed to be extremely precise in order to realize this point. The structure was stable, and it consumed too much mental energy. It was not economical enough, so there was no need to criticize her for seeking perfection.
The consumption was too great. It was not economical enough?
Luo Nan was very sensitive to consumption right now. His ears immediately perked up. Could it be that this small water droplet, which appeared and exploded in an instant, could consume a large amount of soul strength?
His interest rose by several levels in an instant.
Unfortunately, Her Majesty Empress Wu did not demonstrate this so-called high-end technique. This caused Luo Nan's malicious conjecture to erupt once more. Could it be that you couldn't do it back then?
The video ended, but Luo Nan was still unsatisfied. He had yet to look at the lecture notes that Papercut sent over. Just by starting with Her Majesty Empress Wu's explanation, Luo Nan already had his own understanding.
Control precision and improvisation were the core of the Dripping Sword technique, but the most basic thing was still precision. The basic requirement was to sculpt the relevant structure on the millimeter scale. A rough mold would be ineffective.
Precision was the best! Luo Nan was a precision-oriented mentally enhanced user. His mental senses were first-rate acuity, and he had a basic understanding of configurations. He had an enormous advantage in this aspect.
Papercut was right. This technique seemed to have been specially prepared for him.
Oh, that's right. He could also be considered an artist. Structural art, in a certain sense, could also be considered a plastic art! Luo Nan temporarily tossed his desire for the Heart Incineration Blade beyond the highest heavens. He couldn't help but want to put this C-rank technique into practice. Plus, he was ambitious. He wanted to come from a higher place.
He disdained that kind of short-term, unstable structure. If he was going to use it, he would use the most sophisticated kind!
Luo Nan immediately followed Her Majesty Empress Wu's suggestion. He turned on the air humidifier in the room, increasing the moisture content in the air. He followed Papercut's explanation step by step, attempting to sculpt the structure with his soul strength.
On one hand, Luo Nan was ambitious. On the other hand, he had a cautious temperament. He didn't want to eat a fatty in one bite. He wanted to completely grasp the relatively complex overall structure of the Dripping Sword. Instead, he temporarily ignored the five types of amplification structures. He stared at the Condensation Ring with all his attention.
This structural circuit was the beginning and foundation of the mental interfering with the material plane. If he didn't thoroughly understand it, he wouldn't be able to talk about the rest.
From the magnified microscopic model, the structure of the Condensation Ring was more like a smooth donut. The center was empty, and the overall rules weren't complicated. But many people would simply kneel if they wanted to accurately depict the three-dimensional curved structure of the inner and outer rings with soul strength.
This was the difficulty that Her Majesty Empress Wu emphasized.
However, Luo Nan only failed twice in the gradually damp bedroom air. He was able to make the relevant structure appear in the void.
The diameter of this Condensation Ring was only 0.02 millimeters. Just this one move was enough to crush the vast majority of Awakened.
Of course, the sculpting effort was a bit more in the beginning. According to the timer of the HexaEar and the time it took for the water molecules to gather and take shape, it was already close to ten seconds.
As for the structure of the Condensation Ring itself, it was hard to avoid roughness. The time it took for the water droplet to take shape after forming was pitifully low compared to the time it took to gather. It was only 0.4 seconds. It was completely meaningless in combat.
But what was that phrase again? Practice makes perfect!
Compared to the energy and information operating structure of the Human-Faced Arachnid, doing this kind of work, aside from being smaller in size, was the same as drawing a more complex circle. If one didn't care about the precision and details, then it really wasn't a big deal.
Luo Nan was a bit dissatisfied with this. Who said that the consumption was great?
But this was indeed convenient for large amounts of practice. Once one was done, there was no need to worry about it anymore. It could gather water molecules on its own and then break apart. Luo Nan only cared about the next one and continued to make adjustments.
He did it every three to five seconds. He did it twenty times in a minute. Soon, he became familiar with the structure of the Condensation Ring. He could compress the majority of the Condensation Ring's shape to two to three seconds. He did it thirty times in a minute.
Thirty repetitions in a minute, and most of them were substandard products. It was hard to be effective.
Was it boring? Was it frustrating? Perhaps some people felt that it was boring and frustrating, but Luo Nan didn't think so.
Everything depended on the details.
When he learned to sketch and sketch, he relied on large amounts of practice to slowly grind them out. When he sketched the outline, it seemed as if he was drawing lines that were all the same. It was repetitive and tedious, but in reality, his hand could clearly sense whether it was stiff or soft, rough or exquisite. A person's aesthetic sense could be accurately grasped, and the corresponding sense of accomplishment would inevitably follow.
Yes, only when one's thinking was exquisite could one touch upon a more subtle level. One could capture a little change, a little progress, and the sense of accomplishment.
It was as Her Majesty Empress Wu had said. The Dripping Sword technique was a kind of structural art. A slight transformation was a kind of plastic art. Luo Nan's perception and aesthetic sense could be judged. Therefore, Luo Nan could borrow his previous successful experience to know what sort of standard he needed to reach. He was mentally prepared for the dry and tedious practice in the early stages.
The distance wasn't too far. His progress could be seen. Why not complete it in a spurt of energy?
Luo Nan really did treat it as a painting. He followed the routine from back in the day. After a short period of brainless practice, he no longer casually used his thoughts to shape. Instead, he used his brain. He compared it with Her Majesty Empress Wu's example, carefully imitating and correcting it.
He first slowed down. After gaining some understanding, he began to speed up. Then he slowed down again. Then he sped up again. In the end, he sped up all the way. Luo Nan forgot how many times he practiced. In the beginning, he recorded it through the HexaEar, but how could he care about it later on?
Around two hours passed, and it was almost time for lunch. Luo Nan's mind suddenly lit up. The brush and carving knife of his soul strength were extraordinarily smooth and quick. He practically couldn't feel the process of carving. A strand of thought was like a seal. It firmly pressed down, and the Condensation Ring was engraved on the boundary between the mental and material planes.
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