“This is dangerous, have I also been affected by her Psionic magic?” Jin was slightly worried that everything that had happened, from the ‘kidnapping’ to letting her come into his store was all part of a plan she had made.
Peppers, who was slouching on a sofa in the Dungeon Maker whilst reading up on ‘City Management 101 for Dummies”, looked at Jin as he talked to himself. “Nope, I do not sense any residue Psionic magic on you, Master.” Peppers said nonchalantly as she continued to flip another page.
“Could she be so skilled in Psionic that she did not leave a trace?” Jin became a little paranoid despite Pepper’s assurance.
“Nah, even at Legendary Mastery of Psionic Magic, the magicians cannot fool my Demonic Sage Eyes as there will always be a trace of Psionic magic left behind. Let alone at Intermediate Mastery.” Peppers replied as she gave another glance at Jin before returning to read her book. It was a mystery how she got such a book, but Jin assumed the System got it for her.
Magic was similar to cultivation. As long as one worked hard on understanding it and if one was able to grasp the abstract concept of the given knowledge and fundamentals behind it, they could reach a high level quickly. However, whether they would have the ability to execute it, would depend on their training, on the expansion and usage of their Mana circuits.
Some were born lucky with high levels of Mana circuits, others trained it or consumed expensive catalyst to increase the complexity of their Mana circuits. Regardless, the Mana circuits were similar to the meridian points. In fact, both the chi points and Mana circuits run parallel with each other but for some reason, many were unable to practice both magic and cultivation at the same time. Even if they do, it was even more uncommon for a user to be extremely adept with both cultivation and magic.
Hence, with the crippled cultivation and with the Dantian point not producing any chi for Yang Ling, it actually enabled her to have a better grasp of her Mana circuits. Thereby, allowing Yang Ling to reach decent levels of mastery towards magic and of all magic, Psionic and Manipulation which was one of the hardest few to learn or master.
At this point, the System beeped via the Dungeon Maker console and issued out with a mission. “Create a feasible business partnership with Yang Ling. Rewards: Adaptable Immunity towards Manipulation and Psionic Magic.”
“Adaptable? What does that even mean? Will the profits in creating a partnership with her be included in my overall rankings?” Jin asked bluntly. Jin knew that the System would not give up such an amazing business opportunity with Yang Ling the moment she blurted out military research. After all, defence spending expenditures for almost every developed country was among the top few priorities in their budget despite the peace each country had. The problem was how ethical her military research was.
“I will explain this. It means that the System will assist you to filter the manipulation magic you would be affected with. For example, if Milk casts a spell to calm your nerves which is a positive manipulation magic, the System would provide you with the option to accept it or not. However, if Yang Ling casts mind control on you, you can also decide whether to accept it or not as well. If you deny both of their magic, nothing will happen to you.” Peppers said as she continued to read her dummy guide.
“Oh…okay. That sounds ridiculously powerful.” Jin said but Peppers looked up at Jin and shook her head.
“Not many in this world seem to really know how to use Psionic Magic well. You could say Yang Ling is indeed a rare talent in the art of Psionic Magic based on the System’s database that I previously read. However, if you cross over worlds… Perhaps that might prove to be a very useful trait to have.”
Within the Dungeon Maker, Jin took Peppers words into consideration and continued to watch the battle instance. With Shu still reeling from the betrayal of his mind controlled minion, he quickly tried to rein the rest of the minions into battle before they were brainwashed by Hui.
Hui, on the other hand, ran to a safer spot with Yang Ling in his hands while Ku Wai, the Great White Snake and Sandy battled it out against Ke Mi, Mr Hot, and Ms Cold. As Ke Mi did not have any mobility on her own, Shu assisted her with his roots and brought her to a higher ground where she could attack and support the ants.
Meanwhile, Yang Ling was enjoying the fluffiness of the NPC Panda. “Hmm, the fur is so fine and fluffy, I really wish to cuddle this to bed.” Yang Ling thought to herself seeing that she had done all she could for this current battle. Not to mention the fatigue she accumulated expending that much energy on the clone. However, Shu was not sparing Yang Ling nor Hui as it continued to spurt out roots from the ground to attack them but Hui seemed to be fairly good at evading.
Ku Wai slammed his Titan Fists onto the Ms Cold but her ice walls proved to be a nuisance against Ku Wai, not to mention Shu´s brilliant multitasking by counterattacking along with the ice wall. However, Ku Wai managed to evade the piercing roots in time with his new Gearbox frame and pressed on to counter attack. While Ms Cold was keeping Ku Wai busy, Mr Hot was preparing his fire blast that was accumulating at his mandible.
Unfortunately, Mr Hot was later interrupted by the Great White Snake which slithered with lightning speed towards him, causing Mr Hot to panic and shooting the blast prematurely, causing quite a bit of backlash to himself. The Great White Snake easily evaded the large blast and opened its mouth for the bite against the ant.
Poison seeped into Mr Hot’s body as the Great White Snake slammed his body to the ground but Mr Hot tried to retaliate back as it spewed fire from its breath. It was a battle of tenacity and time, to see who was able to last longer. A burning snake or a poisoned ant.
As that battle rages on, Sandy fought head on with Ke Mi again. The roots helped Ke Mi to move around the battlefield but that did not stop Sandy. As long there was ground, there would be sand, soil and dirt, her powers would still be effective against Shu’s moving root platform that Ke Mi was on. The ground shook as two large hands formed from sand grabbed onto the roots and tried to tear them apart, while Ke Mi played a battle melody that shot out multiple sonic waves towards Sandy.
Thankfully, Sandy was capable of defending herself by creating sand shields that collided with the sonic waves. Shu knew that if he loses Ke Mi, he would lose a great deal of firepower and so was the same situation on his opponents as Sandy was probably the only one capable of fighting against Ke Mi. Hence, Shu demanded Ke Mi to use her stronger techniques against Sandy.
Ke Mi acknowledged and immediately changed her battle tune to a stronger, fiercer one to turn the losing tide against the cultivators. Razor Winds were flicked out from her zither, decimating and penetrating the sand shields that Sandy cast. One of the Razor Winds managed to slash off one of Sandy’s hands away.
Or did it?
Sandy transformed into Sand Form once again but this time, with a twist. A large sand twister was one of her Sand Form techniques to escape which she now used as an attack ability. She pushed herself forward against the continuous attacks of Razor Winds from Ke Mi until she was in close proximity to her.
The sand twister burdened Ke Mi’s eyes, nose, ears and mouth, causing her to stop playing and at this point, Sandy quickly returned to her physical form while kicking Ke Mi towards the direction of Hui.
“Manager Hui! Now!” Sandy shouted but she was unable to save herself as she was being aggressively pierced by Shu’s roots after she turned back to her physical form. Yang Ling did not waste Sandy’s effort as she used her Psionic magic to telekinetically grab the flying Ke Mi in case Shu snatched her back.
Hui quickly unveiled his eye patch and released the blood contract control from Shu, resulting in Ke Mi returning to normal. Shu got even more annoyed at losing one of his best mind controlled minions and roared loudly causing his sakura blossoms to rain on them.
“No, this is not good. Do not let the petals touch you! They are as sharp as swords!” Hui shouted as an advice to the cultivators. Yang Ling immediately used her magic to move them away but there were too many of them to focus on and Ke Mi was still giddy from the backlash of the forced removal of the mind control to aid them.
Ku Wai saw the falling petals and realised that Shu was indiscriminately attacking everyone since the remaining mind controlled minions were of no use to him. “But they are still petals right?” Ku Wai shouted at Hui, to which he nodded.
“If that’s the case, Intermediate Fist Art, Chi Tiger Face Rising Uppercut!” Ku Wai ignored Ms Cold and sprinted towards Shu and immediately jumped up to deliver an uppercut to the tree. Even though the Gearbox frame only covered his arms and not legs, his cultivation strength still allowed him to jump high.
As Ku Wai jumped up with his fist up high, an angry face of a ferocious tiger appeared through his fist. The chi induced tiger’s face became larger with each passing second, with its mouth biting at the bark of Shu and destroyed any petals that were in the way as Ku Wai continued his uppercut.
This was not just an ordinary uppercut. Especially when you remember that it was enhanced the mechanical abilities of his Gearbox frame since the frame had a small chi emission booster that caused Ku Wai’s attack to be more potent.
As the tiger face ‘crawled’ up Shu, Ke Mi finally stabilised herself and with a clap, her zither was pulled back to her side. A seemingly pre-made song rushed out of the zither as the petals continued to fall. But within a few seconds of the song playing, almost everyone saw that the petals were not falling towards them, in fact, they were beginning to gather. Yet, the gathering of the petals presented a huge strain for Ke Mi and she could not hold it any longer.
It was then a large blast of fire incinerated the petals and Ke Mi later realised Hui was beside her beloved Great White Snake that was grabbing onto the near dead fire wyrm ant. Apparently, the Great White Snake also had used the antidote in its fangs the moment Hui released Mr Hot from Shu’s mind control.
Shu, on the other hand, suffered a great deal of damage from Ku Wai’s attack but he was not done with the Ancient Treant. With the upper cut allowing him to be in mid air, he did propel himself with whatever that was remaining in the chi emission booster in the Gearbox frame and punched Shu’s trunk with his infamous fist technique.
“Intermediate Fist Art! The Ambush of the Terrifying Terrific Tiger!!!!!!”
With Ku Wai’s fist stuck within Shu’s trunk, Ku Wai shouted loudly as he expended all the Chi that he had within him and was hoping to melt Shu like the Praying Mantis. Unfortunately, the results were not spectacular as the ancient Treant was only partly melted. Regardless, once he saw that its branches started to fall and the roots on the ground became unresponsive, Ku Wai believed he managed to defeat this monstrosity.
Yang Ling and Ku Wai finally completed the Dungeon Instance with the entire Enlightened Troupe intact. (Well, somewhat intact.)
