Chapter 946: Fusion Magical Crystal
Although the Elemental Dragon’s projected avatar had intervened, and made it impossible for Xiao Hua to completely become Lin Li’s summoned creature, the soul contact between the two was incomparably strong because of that wisp of Soul Brand.
It was naturally very difficult for Xiao Hua to assimilate the Soul Brand on its own, and it could even be considered impossible. However, Lin Li could protect Xiao Hua’s soul directly using soul contact. That would drastically increase the success rate. Lin Li might have just stepped into the Sanctuary-realm, but in terms of mental strength alone, perhaps even the three great arbitrators would not be able to compare with him.
Lin Li and Xiao Hua communicated a little through the Soul Brand, and Lin Li transmitted some of his intentions to it. Although Xiao Hua couldn’t taste the deliciousness of the magical crystal, and was not too clear about Lin Li’s intentions, Xiao Hua nonetheless swallowed its saliva and nodded out of trust for Lin Li.
Lin Li relaxed a little and slowly increased the output of his mental strength. Through the Soul Brand in Xiao Hua’s soul, he gradually connected their souls. Lin Li turned the entire space into his Magical Domain. While facilitating the soul contact with Xiao Hua’s soul, he also incorporated Xiao Hua into the rules of his domain.
Everything in this world, be it alive or not, was an aggregate of various Laws of origin. For mages, the Legendary-realm was about comprehending the World Laws, and then using or borrowing nomological power using the World Laws. Meanwhile, the Sanctuary-realm involved changing the Laws and truly making the World Laws their own. At the peak of the Sanctuary-realm, the mage would be at the stage of creating Laws. They could only leave Anril and enter the endless chaos of time and space to explore after reaching the level of creating Laws.
Lin Li was now the master of this domain, and had absolute control over all the Laws in the domain. After incorporating Xiao Hua into the domain, Xiao Hua became a portion of the domain in a certain sense, thus becoming one of the aggregates of the Laws. Although Lin Li could not really change the Laws on Xiao Hua, the insights and familiarity he had with those Laws were incomparable.
After Xiao Hua had completely integrated into Lin Li’s domain, it immediately released its mental strength under Lin Li’s command. Its goal was the Elemental Dragon Crystal that was floating right before its eyes.
Using the soul contact, Xiao Hua’s current mental strength had already reached a massive and unprecedented level with Lin Li’s help. It was more than 10 times stronger than an actual adult Elemental Dragon’s. The massive power surged into the Elemental Dragon Crystal, and began to mercilessly wash away the Soul Brand on every trace of mana.
Under Lin Li’s guidance, Xiao Hua was not washing the mana away with the aim to remove it, but to continuously erode and assimilate, replacing the Soul Brand that belonged to the Undead Elemental Dragon with Xiao Hua’s own Soul Brand.
That process would definitely take quite a long time if Xiao Hua were to do it on its own. In fact, it might even be subjected to the backlash of the Undead Elemental Dragon’s Soul Brand. After all, Xiao Hua was still an adolescent, and the other party might take the opportunity to take over its body. However, with Lin Li’s help, things were very different. The massive mental strength was like an invincible army that attacked all the way, continuously invading the enemy’s territory.
At the same time, Lin Li relied on his control over the domain to suppress the Laws in the magical crystal, and disintegrated the resistance of the Soul Brand of the magical crystal with an irresistible will to dominate. That also caused the speed of Xiao Hua’s assimilation of the Soul Brand to reach an extreme.
Hence, in the eyes of others, assimilating the Soul Brand was something that was impossible as it went against the World Laws, but for Lin Li and Xiao Hua, it merely took a minute or so to complete.
Soon, through the contact between their souls, Lin Li could clearly feel that Xiao Hua’s Soul Brand had completely received and accepted the magical crystal of the Elemental Dragon. From then on, there was no difference between the Elemental Dragon’s magical crystal and the tender Elemental Wyrm Xiao Hua’s magical crystal. It could be considered an out-of-body magical crystal of Xiao Hua.
However, that was only half of what Lin Li had envisioned. An external magical crystal was nothing to Lin Li. Xiao Hua couldn’t carry it in a battle. Besides, without the support of the mana circulation system, Xiao Hua wouldn’t be able to use the mana in it like it would with its magical crystal, even if it became the owner of the magical crystal.
The second step was the true fusion. Lin Li wanted to truly fuse the Elemental Dragon’s magical crystal with the one in Xiao Hua’s body to make it become an even more powerful magical crystal. Only then could Xiao Hua truly benefit from the magical crystal and gain an improvement in power.
Even if the fusion would allow both magical crystals to share the same owner, it was a very dangerous process, especially since the mana contained in both magical crystals was extremely different. Hence, the potential difference created during the fusion process was a problem that could not be ignored. If the process was not controlled well, Xiao Hua’s magical crystal might be damaged, and Xiao Hua’s life might be at risk too.
However, Lin Li had already thought about these issues beforehand. Without sufficient confidence, he would not bear to let Xiao Hua take the risk. He reached his hand out, and the debris of the stars, Nothingness, floated out of the Ring of Endless Storm. It then disappeared again and fused with the domain.
With the help of the debris of the stars, Nothingness, Lin Li had a more detailed and thorough control over the Laws of time and space in the domain. The magical crystal that was hovering in front of Xiao Hua had also flickered a little. Although there did not seem to be any change, one would be able to sense that the magical crystal actually no longer existed in that space at this moment.
Lin Li was not a surgeon, and even if he wanted to fuse the magical crystal for Xiao Hua, he could not slice its stomach open. Of course, that was only one reason why he used the Space Laws. Another reason was that he wanted to use the changes in space to balance the potential difference in mana between the two magical crystals.
Lin Li stretched out his finger, and gently tapped the Elemental Dragon’s magical crystal, which seemed like a balloon that had been touched as it slowly floated towards the tender Elemental Wyrm.
After Xiao Hua was incorporated into the domain, Lin Li no longer saw it as a tender Elemental Wyrm. The so-called physical body was just an aggregate made up of various nomological powers. In the eyes of others, the magical crystal of the Elemental Dragon had slowly disappeared into the tiny body of the tender Elemental Wyrm, but to Lin Li, it was moving from one composition of Laws to another.
Finally, the magical crystal of the Elemental Dragon had fused with the one in Xiao Hua’s body. However, due to the fact that they were each on a different spatial level, it wasn’t really a fusion yet. Then, under Lin Li’s manipulation, the characteristics of the four Elemental Laws of the space were instantly changed. Even the raging fire element had become extremely peaceful. All of the elements had the same feature, which was tolerance. The magical crystals of the Elemental Dragon also gradually returned to this world from another spatial level.
At the same time, the fusion of the two magical crystals also began. Under the help of Lin Li’s change of rules, the magical crystal in Xiao Hua’s body gained some virtual strength, and made up for the potential difference between the two magical crystals.
However, that was only the first step of the fusion of the magical crystals. Xiao Hua’s body was not an Alchemy Array, and it was impossible to string the two magical crystals together as a mana source. He couldn’t make them tolerate each other, either. True fusion was to make both magical crystals become one.
That fusion was precise to the smallest particle, just like pouring one glass of water into another. One would never be able to tell which part of water came from which cup. Only then would it be a perfect fusion. Otherwise, it would result in unpredictable effects on Xiao Hua’s future growth.
Lin Li was still hoping that Xiao Hua could become an existence like the Dragon Aspects. Of course, he dared not be sloppy at this moment.
However, magical crystals were not water, so it was impossible to pour them together and stir them up to mix them together. Although they had the same owner, they were still two separate entities, after all. That involved an intricate manipulation and change of the rules. Even with Lin Li’s mental strength, he still found it difficult to do so.
Fortunately, Lin Li’s mental strength had been refined by the Sky Castle when they first explored the Sky Castle. After stepping into the Sanctuary-realm, his advantage was even more enhanced. Under Lin Li’s meticulous control, every single mana particle in the two magical crystals became active, as if a spell had been cast. However, it was maintained in such a state while the nomological power could not be controlled.
At this moment, the magical crystals were like steel that had been melted by the heat, changing from a solid to a liquid state. Of course, that was only a change in Laws, and they were not subjected to heat or other conditions. It was just a change of Laws purely due to the activity of the mana particles.
Under Lin Li’s control with his mental strength, the two magical crystals began to slowly fuse as the active mana particles penetrated each other. Lin Li still had to be mindful of the structure of the magical crystal. Every substance had its own stable structure, which was why it could exist in a certain state. Magical crystals were no exception.
Besides, the structure of the magical crystals was a sort of Magic Array made up of countless mana particles. That Magic Array was naturally set up when the magical crystals were created. The innate ability of magical beasts to cast certain magic spells came from that. The Magic Array contained in the magical crystal of every magical beast was different. They ranged from low-level to high-level, Master-level, Guru-level, and beyond.
That could be considered a type of aptitude of the magical beasts. For example, regardless of how a magical beast grew, it would never advance beyond level-10 if their magical crystals had low-level Magic Arrays. On the other hand, a magical beast with a Master-level Magic Array in its magical crystal would naturally reach the Legendary-level as long as it had enough time. Those with Guru-level Magic Arrays that might surpass the Guru-level would be known as divine beasts.
As an ancient wyrm that once dominated the sky of Anril, the Elemental Dragon was the most powerful existence amongst all the top creatures. The Magic Array in its magical crystal had already reached the peak of the Guru-level. What Lin Li had to do now, the so-called fusion of the two magical crystals, was not only the mixing of mana particles. There was also the fusion of Guru-level Magic Arrays. It would only be a true fusion if that was done.
Magic Arrays were not just building blocks. They were Magic Arrays that were formed by mana particles. They were interlocked with no mistakes at all. It was extremely stable, but that made it easier for it to collapse. Perhaps it might seem like a wrong arrangement of mana particles would cause the collapse of the entire magical crystal. That was what “too much of a good thing may be bad” meant.
With Lin Li’s attainments in creating Magic Arrays, dealing with a peak-Guru-level Magic Array was not beyond his means. However, the problem was that the Magic Array was too large and complex. It was like the difference between building a wall with bricks and building a wall with fine sand. The fine sand had to be piled up one grain at a time, and it had to be as solid as a brick wall.
Hence, compared to the assimilation of the Soul Brand, the fusion process of the magical crystals was much slower. It took three to four hours for both the magical crystals to be fully fused with each other.
In the process of this fusion, the body of the tender Elemental Wyrm Xiao Hua also underwent great changes. Although Xiao Hua’s body did not grow significantly, the color of its body and the patterns on it turned from a brilliant color to a deep one.
The thin pair of wings on Xiao Hua’s back which were as thin as that of cicadas were shrouded in a faint halo of light. If one were to probe them with their mental strength, they would discover that the halo of light was actually made up of countless extremely tiny magic symbols. Each mysterious magic symbol contained pure elemental rules that strangely resonated with the origin of elements in Anril.
Under the huge infusion of mana, Xiao Hua finally reached the peak of its growth, and was only a step away from reaching true maturity. That also meant that Xiao Hua’s strength was infinitely close to the Sanctuary-realm. Perhaps it only needed an opportunity to truly become an adult or Sanctuary-level Elemental Dragon.
Although it had yet to break through to the Sanctuary-realm, Xiao Hua’s increased strength was probably not inferior to ordinary Sanctuary powerhouses’. Besides, Xiao Hua had also assimilated the Soul Brand of the Elemental Dragon to allow its soul to grow tremendously. Otherwise, with the original intensity of its soul, it might not be able to handle such a powerful force.
Assimilating the Soul Brand meant that Xiao Hua had acquired a portion of the Undead Elemental Dragon’s soul inheritance. Although it was incomplete, it was, after all, from an adult Elemental Dragon, especially since it contained the battle experience that allowed Xiao Hua to save some time for accumulation.