Master of the Stars

Chapter 374: Condensation Ring

Translator: Strivon

"Our target has arrived."

Luo Nan faced Her Majesty Empress Wu's side. He saw how well her parted bangs paired with her fluffy ponytail. It gave off a flavor filled with grace, but the impact was reduced.

Her Majesty Empress Wu's voice was a little flat when compared to her stunning appearance. Her voice was rather deep, and she spoke a bit slowly. She enunciated her words extremely clearly, her tone fluctuating up and down. When paired with her smile, it made one wonder whether or not there were hidden meanings behind her words.

Luo Nan felt like he was going to have a mental breakdown.

Luo Nan drew in a breath and turned to look down from the hill. An ugly hairless beast had turned up down there. Its shoulder height was definitely over two meters, its body was fat and large, and long tusks protruded from its mouth. It uttered no sound with its closed mouth as it charged over, its layers of fatty flesh jiggling around. It was only fifty meters away.

The scene suddenly turned tense, but Her Majesty Empress Wu explained in neither a leisurely nor urgent manner, "This is a pleated boar. A low-level Mutant common in the Wilderness. There's practically no research value to it, but its skin is thick and its blood is ample. Its charging power is decent. They are quite a headache in large numbers."

As she spoke, Her Majesty Empress Wu unloaded the light gauss rifle off her shoulder. She didn't aim. She fired with a single hand in a free and easy-going manner.

The metal bullets landed accurately on the head of the pleated boar, the place where its flesh was the thinnest. They burrowed deep inside, but with a ripple of flesh, the bullets soon fell to the ground. Blood flowed like a waterfall, covering its face with blood.

The pleated boar was a bit dazed, but it shook its head and charged straight over without regard. Its state sufficiently proved that it was thick-skinned and full of blood.

Her Majesty Empress Wu didn't move at all. She just smiled and continued saying, "The effect of simple physical attacks isn't great. Military firearms need a certain degree of focused fire in order to be effective. But as ability users, we can do this…."

The moment her voice fell, blood burst forth from the eye sockets of the raging pleated boar. This enormous Mutant let loose a sharp shriek inharmonious with its size. Its body stopped, and it nearly tripped over.

Luo Nan looked at the left eye socket once more. A hole had burst open from there in mangled flesh. One of its eyes had gone blind.

Luo Nan was baffled. What just happened? He didn't see Her Majesty Empress Wu do anything special.

Having lost one eye, the boar became extremely wild. Even if it had problems with its sense of distance, it charged over at an even faster speed than before.

At this very moment, a virtual screen opened up next to Luo Nan's body, the product of excellent video editing in the form of AR. It zoomed in on the instant the boar was injured, aiding the newbie that was Luo Nan. It restored the original sequence of events as Her Majesty Empress Wu explained.

The virtual screen clearly showed translucent drops of water coalescing out of thin air the moment the pleated boar charged. The water penetrated the pupil, causing the fragile eyeball to burst... but that was all that happened.

Her Majesty Empress Wu said, "I just executed a strike of the Dripping Sword. The effects aren't considered great. The reason I did this was to show everyone an important matter. In practical application, you shouldn't overestimate its lethality. After all, this is merely a skill on the Awakened level. Improper use would cause a situation to worsen."

It sounded quite reasonable, but weren't her true intentions to dissuade people from making mistakes?

Luo Nan had yet to emerge from the shadow of shame, so he couldn't help harboring some subtle thoughts, a negative guess.

But in the next second, the pleated boar had its other eyeball explode a good twenty meters away.

The situation looked the same as the last time. The pleated boar gave another roar, but the sound was cut off halfway. Its stout body lost balance, and it simple fell to the ground, sliding forward. It was now around five meters away from Her Majesty Empress Wu, its limb twitching with its remaining instinct having lost all its kinetic energy.

Luo Nan gaped. This time he really didn't understand what the boar's problem was.

Her Majesty Empress Wu took two steps forward at this time. She was like a field researcher. She bent on her knee by the pleated boar's side. She let the dry red dirt touch the head of the pleated boar.

Then, her long fingers streaked across, and the firm iron skull of the pleated boar was sliced apart.

It was only when Luo Nan witnessed such an inhuman action that he recalled her identity as an Extraordinary. Oh, wait, she hadn't been one three years ago…. Luo Nan really didn't know just how many times he had been pinned down by this train of thought.

This dissection scene was quite bloody, but it also helped restore the truth of what happened. Luo Nan was like an observer of the scene, and he walked two steps forward as well. He saw that the brain tissue of the pleated boar had completely turned into a mass of paste.

The way the boar was killed, even an enormous elephant would simply die. But why were the effects so different between the first and the second attack? Was Empress Wu cheating?

Luo Nan was trapped in malicious speculation. It was hard for him to escape these thoughts, but Her Majesty Empress Wu already said the answer, "In terms of destructive power, this is sharpening. The dripping attack's effect was augmented with dual bursting. And for the sake of controlling it to penetrate the eye and enter the brain, there was also another augmentation of guidance."

Her Majesty Empress Wu explained the essentials of this attack with a smile. As once stated before, the 'Sword' of the Dripping Sword was actually a sort of attack where the mental plane interfered with the material plane.

In principle, the attack was a special circuit formed through soul strength. It utilized ample soul strength to absorb the moisture in the atmosphere. A series of augmentations of sharpening, exploding, distancing, accelerating, and guiding were realized through this. This was a technique that could instantly kill.

The core circuit structure of the Dripping Sword technique was called the Condensation Ring. Only through this structure could moisture be rapidly gathered. Sharpening, distancing, exploding, and all sorts of effects could only be realized upon this foundation.

To achieve this, soul strength needed to occupy a position close to the material plane. One had to sculpt the shape, but its roughness didn't matter, nor its durability. The important thing was to instantly form abrupt and explosive power.

"It's not easy to absorb moisture out of thin air; wasted opportunities are highly likely. Therefore, the most ideal application is via the enemy's eyes, mouth, and other places with some moisture. Using the enemy as fuel allows for an explosive result when compressing and gathering moisture to the extreme.”

Her Majesty Empress Wu held an honest attitude. She spoke of the shortcomings of her technique in battle without concealing anything. "I'll repeat once more. Pure droplets of water don't possess killing power. One needs to prepare sharpening, distancing, accelerating, exploding, and guiding—five augmentation effects in order for the attack to be useful. There are also six structures, each independent. Aside from the core step of the Condensation Ring, other effects are added or removed based on the concrete situation. Because of this, one must maintain a high degree of calmness and clear-headedness when using this technique in battle. However, it is very unfortunate that a considerable proportion of people is unable to do this. It has nothing to do with talent. The problem lies with one's nature."

Isn't nature part of talent? Luo Nan really wanted to use the subdivision technique of root receptacle, root nature, and root trigger that he just learned to debate with Her Majesty Empress Wu. Unfortunately, doing so was meaningless in this virtual world.

Her Majesty Empress Wu explained the structures of the six circuits comprised within the Condensation Ring. The virtual screen zoomed in on the model in sync with her explanation. It even showed demonstrations, explaining the matter in simple terms. It was very clear and understandable.

The clarity of the reality-level recording created astonishing results when paired with the powerful broadcast function of the HexaEar. Aside from theory, Her Majesty Empress Wu casually coalesced the circuit structure. Though this was for the sake of demonstration, it was a meticulous manifestation. One could perceive just how extraordinarily difficult it was to do from the fluctuations and changes of soul strength.

No wonder the file size of this recording was so enormous. Just how many resources was needed to recreate details on this level!? Special techniques of the inner world had to have been applied to it.

In this reality, Her Majesty Empress Wu even took the chance to do some marketing. "This is an attack that is slanted for mental use at the present stage. It is a structure of art. Ability users can fully use the plasticity of soul strength in order to form a functional structure through the power of interference. From here, ability users can control the composition of many more types of matter, realizing the supernatural effect of warping reality with the mind."

Luo Nan nodded over and over as he listened. He recalled the attack method of the Wraith Sign, the Human-Faced Arachnid. Its attacks were often realized through complicated yet special structures. However, that fellow completely lacked a material foundation. It could only cast shadows upon the mental plane.

There was also the so-called 'configuration' that Jack had mentioned. Configuration was namely the operational structure of energy and information. It was displayed extremely clearly upon the body of a Burner.

Then Her Majesty Empress Wu mentioned high-end applications of the Dripping Sword, continuing the topic of structural arts. From what she said, it wasn't that difficult to make water droplets rupture. The hard part was to coalesce the pellet, sharpen it like a blade, and attack the enemy without harming one's self. In order to realize this, the shape of the Water Ring had to be sculpted extremely meticulously. The structure had to be stable, making efforts to do so very taxing on the mind. Many people lacked the resources, making it so that they were unable to reach perfection.

The consumption was far too great. Lack of resources was the problem?

Luo Nan was sensitive to the topic of consumption. His ears instantly perked up. Could it be that this small droplet of water, that appeared and struck instantly, could consume large quantities of soul strength?

Luo Nan's interest soared by severalfold in an instant.

It was very unfortunate that Her Majesty Empress Wu didn't demonstrate the so-called high-end applications. This made Luo Nan's negative thinking explode once more: Were you unable to achieve such results at the time?

The recording ended with Luo Nan wishing for more. He had yet to look at the notes of teaching materials that Papercut had sent over, and he already obtained his own understanding just from starting with Her Majesty Empress Wu's explanation.

The core of the Dripping Sword lay with the precision of control and improvisation just before the fight, but the most fundamental part still lay with precision. The most fundamental requirement was to sculpt the relevant sculpture on the millimeter scale. A large mold would be ineffective.

Precision was necessary! Luo Nan was a precision-slanted mentally enhanced ability user. His mental senses were first-class in terms of sharpness. He naturally had the cognitive foundation for configurations. Luo Nan possessed enormous superiority in this field.

Papercut was right. It seemed that this technique was specifically created for him.

Oh yeah, he could also be considered an artist. Structural arts could be a type of visual arts in a certain sense!

The thirst Luo Nan had toward the Heart Searing Blade was tossed beyond the highmost clouds for now. Luo Nan couldn't help wanting to practice this C-rank technique. His ambitions were high. He wanted to start at a high place.

Luo Nan disdained this sort of short-term, unstable structure. He wanted to make a most sophisticated structure if possible!

Luo Nan immediately followed Empress Wu's advice and turned on the humidifier in his room, increasing the moisture content in the air. He followed the explanation step by step, trying to carve the structure with soul strength.

Though Luo Nan's ambitions were high, he naturally possessed a cautious temperament. He wasn't a fatty; he didn't seek to eat the entire complicated structure of the Dripping Sword in a single bite. Instead, he disregarded the five types of augmentation structures for now, putting his full focus on the Condensation Ring.

The origin and foundation of this circuit structure lay in mentally interfering with the material plane. There was nothing to be discussed if one could not open a channel.

Looking at the zoomed-in microscopic model, the Condensation Ring's structure appeared like a flat and smooth donut. There was nothing in the center. Its rules as a whole were not complicated. But to accurately portray the three-dimensional curvature inside and outside the ring with soul strength was enough to make many people kneel in defeat.

This was the difficulty Her Majesty Empress Wu stressed.

The atmosphere in Luo Nan's bedroom was gradually becoming more moist. Luo Nan tried and failed a mere two times before succeeding in manifesting the relevant structure in the void.

This Condensation Ring's diameter was only 0.02 millimeters. Just achieving this feat would crush the overwhelming majority of Awakened.

Of course, the effort required for sculpting was more than usual since this was Luo Nan's first time. The HexaEar timed him; it took Luo Nan 4.7 seconds. Adding the time it took for water molecules to accumulate, the time already rushed past ten seconds.

As for the structure of the Condensation Ring itself, it was hard for Luo Nan to smoothen it out. The amount of time the droplet lasted compared to the amount of time it took to coalesce was pitiful. It lasted only 0.4 seconds. It was useless in combat.

But what was the saying again? Practice makes perfect!

Aside from the scale being smaller, doing this sort of work was the same as drawing a complex circle when compared to the Human-Faced Arachnid's operational structure of energy and information. It was not hard at all if Luo Nan disregarded precision and detail.

Luo Nan was unsatisfied with this. Who said that its soul strength consumption was great?

But this was really convenient in allowing for a lot of practice. Once an instance was made, one didn't need to pay further mind to it. It gathered moisture by itself, then it would break apart. Luo Nan just paid attention to making the next one, continuing to adjust.

It took three to five seconds for each one, meaning that Luo Nan made twenty per minute. Soon he grew familiar with the structure of the Condensation Ring. He quickly was able to reduce the amount of time it took to shape most instances of the Condensation Ring into two to three seconds. In one minute, he could now do it thirty times.

Thirty repetitions within a minute with most instances being defective. It was difficult for Luo Nan to achieve results.

Was it dry as dust? Was it frustrating? Perhaps some people would feel that it was dry as dust, that it was frustrating, but Luo Nan didn't believe it was so.

Everything depended on the details.

When Luo Nan relied on a huge amount of practice when he learned speed drawing and sketching, he slowly ground it out. When practicing outlines, he pulled out lines of similar lengths. It required tedious repetition. But in actuality, whether the lines were stiff or soft, whether the lines were rough or meticulous, the hand was able to perceive their differences clearly. People had a sense of aesthetics, allowing them to accurately grasp these things. The sense of accomplishment soon followed.

Yes, only with exquisite thinking could one touch upon a level of greater subtleties, grasp the bits of changes, and get the sense of accomplishment from gradual progress.

Her Majesty Empress Wu had said that the Dripping Sword technique was a sort of structural art. Its subtle deformed shape was a type of visual art. Luo Nan's perception, Luo Nan's sense of aesthetics, was able to appraise this. So Luo Nan was able to borrow upon his experiences of success from the past to know what sort of level he achieved. Luo Nan possessed the mental preparation for the dry and dull practice in the early stages of training.

The distance wasn't that far. Progress could be seen. Why not just complete it in a single go?

Luo Nan really did take the action of forming the Condensation Ring to be like drawing. He followed his routine from back in the day, doing a short period of training with an empty mind. Then he no longer shaped the Condensation Ring in haste. Instead, he used more of his mental power in contrasting his work with Her Majesty Empress Wu's example. He carefully copied it, amending his work.

He was slow at first, but he began to increase in speed the moment he gained some understanding. Then he slowed again. Then he sped up again. In the end he was like a hurricane. Luo Nan forgot about the number of times he practiced. He had recorded it in the HexaEar at first, but later he didn't have the mind to do so.

Around two hours passed, soon reaching lunch time. Luo Nan's mind suddenly had a burst of insight. His soul strength was his brush. It was his carving blade. He moved it in an exceptionally fluid and quick manner. The sculpting process was practically nonexistent to him. A strand of psychic thought was like a stamp pressing steadily down, and the Condensation Ring was engraved on the boundary between the planes of the mental and the material.

This feeling was like a swiftlet taking flight from the water. It slashed out shallow streaks on the surface, instantly forming a beautiful scene that was captured by camera, forever retained.