Chapter 126: Chapter 126: Seven Stars Enter the Body, Evolutionary Enhancement Effects
"Hooked the first one! Shove it in!!!"
With an excited look on his face, Qi Suian shoved a duped Sun Puppet into the Melting Furnace before it could unleash its high temperature.
"You’re really something else, AI Brain."
"Back then, if I’d had you, I could have put all those scam operations out of business by myself. Even the ’tea girls’ would’ve been reporting to me to make their quotas."
He really hadn’t expected to successfully trick a Sun Puppet. It just went to show how effective the pig-butchering scam really was.
It was only the second day, yet the Sun Puppet had shown up at his door, clueless as could be. And just as planned, it wasn’t emitting its usual high temperature.
The excuse was simple: it needed to ambush a "blasphemer." If it was radiating heat, the blasphemer would detect it from a mile away.
The reasoning was flimsy, but the AI Brain was just too silver-tongued. With a few extra sweet nothings, the already dim-witted Sun Puppet was completely taken in.
Qi Suian even suspected that all of the Sun Puppets’ intelligence had been concentrated in that one bandaged human face.
That one was full of schemes when it came to seeking its own death, but when the same tricks were used on these other Sun Puppets, one was caught by the very next day. It was beyond ridiculous.
[You flatter me. It was your excellent idea to begin with.]
The AI Brain was quite humble. If Qi Suian, this "outlaw," hadn’t suggested the plan, the AI Brain would never have executed it.
So, from the AI Brain’s perspective, the real credit belonged to Qi Suian. It had merely provided some support.
"How long does the Sun Puppet need to burn?" Qi Suian asked.
[The preliminary estimate is about half a month. A Sun Puppet’s energy is too immense. Whether it’s being burned, extracted, or converted, the process requires a significant amount of time.]
Qi Suian wasn’t particularly surprised. The reason was simple: ordinarily, a Sun Puppet wasn’t the kind of Extraordinary Creature he should be able to capture at his current level.
They were beings a whole tier above him. Being hunted to the brink of death—that was the normal state of affairs for survivors in the apocalypse.
His own situation was a complete anomaly.
And that wasn’t even getting into the Sun Puppet’s identity. Despite the "puppet" in its name, it was a direct descendant of the "Sun in a Bottle"—it might even be considered a blood relative.
In a typical fantasy world, it would be the equivalent of a True Sun Fire or a Golden Crow.
It was just that here in the Polar Day World, the circumstances were different, so they manifested differently.
Of course, the Sun Puppets certainly couldn’t compare to their counterparts in those fantasy worlds. The situation here was what it was.
BANG~
A loud noise suddenly echoed from within the Melting Furnace. The Sun Puppet that had been thrown inside was clearly trying to break free.
But that was just wishful thinking.
Once inside, there was no getting out.
Just because the Tai Sui God was a glass cannon didn’t mean the Melting Furnace was one too.
If it weren’t impossible to take the Melting Furnace out, Qi Suian would have already considered using it as a shield.
Though it was called a Melting Furnace, it didn’t actually "burn" things. The name was just a descriptor for a process that was more akin to decomposition and digestion.
Therefore, the Sun Puppet’s intense heat couldn’t stop it from being melted down by the furnace.
"AI Brain, make it behave," Qi Suian said bluntly.
It was true they couldn’t turn it into evolutionary energy right away, but they could certainly stop it from thrashing about.
As for its high temperature? The Melting Furnace wasn’t afraid of that.
The AI Brain immediately took control of the Melting Furnace, and the Sun Puppet was dismembered on the spot.
It was still alive, but it couldn’t move. All it could do was squirm continuously, a truly miserable sight.
Qi Suian couldn’t just stand there and watch. So he chose not to.
"See if you can lure a few more over," Qi Suian said. "Otherwise, with a Gold-devouring Beast like the Tai Sui God, we’ll be short on modules again before we know it."
Sun Puppets were ideal fuel, especially now that the Tai Sui God had entered a new stage and its resource requirements had become astronomical.
Only an Extraordinary Life of a sufficiently high tier could produce the desired effect.
Using anything not on the Extraordinary level would yield pitiful results.
If it had been that "reincarnator" from before, they probably would have discarded the Tai Sui God.
After all, that person had an X-rank hyper-evolution talent. In their hands, any system reward besides attribute points could be turned into SSS-rank.
They wouldn’t necessarily need a Gold-devouring Beast like the Tai Sui God.
Its peak of infinite evolution is SSS-rank, which would be redundant with their talent. They could do better.
It was only because Qi Suian didn’t have such luxuries; otherwise, he might have discarded the Tai Sui God as well.
[Another Sun Puppet has taken the bait. It’s on its way now.]
[The remaining five Sun Puppets are close to taking the bait. Barring any surprises, they should be hooked within three hours.]
"On its way?" Qi Suian looked confused. "Don’t they teleport to any sunlit area? Why is it traveling on foot?"
"You’re not the one being scammed, are you?"
It wasn’t impossible for a smart one to suddenly appear among the Sun Puppets, after all.
Extremes beget their opposites. It wasn’t an unheard-of phenomenon.
[This target is indeed overly human-like. The anomaly is significant, which is why I chose it.]
Qi Suian understood immediately. If it wasn’t a human in disguise, then it had to be a mutant variant of the Sun Puppets—which meant its quality would be top-notch.
It would yield even more evolutionary energy when he got his hands on it.
"Lure it over as fast as you can. We also need to make preparations, just in case it turns the tables on us," Qi Suian said cautiously.
He wasn’t going to let fear stop him. An opportunity this good was rare, and Qi Suian was determined to seize it.
As for the other five, Qi Suian wasn’t too concerned. The AI Brain hadn’t singled them out, which meant they were probably just run-of-the-mill.
As long as they didn’t all show up at once and create a Xiuluo Scene, he had nothing to fear.
He could handle one with deception, but if even one more showed up, he’d have to resort to a direct assault.
Let alone five at once. If he were to face that many, he could only reluctantly resort to disintegrating them with his Floating Cannons.
They would be dead, yes, but all his efforts would have been for nothing.
The fact that the AI Brain had cast such a wide net and only caught this many "fish" was a testament to the difficulty of the task.
The reason so few Sun Puppets had been fooled wasn’t that they were particularly vigilant or intelligent, but simply because they were too dim-witted.
They were the type that wouldn’t understand what was being said to them in the first place.
That’s why there was only one victim so far.
If they had normal human intelligence, he’d have caught at least a dozen by now.
Of course, if they actually possessed that level of intelligence, capturing them alive to stuff into the Melting Furnace would be a much greater challenge.
A sharper mind naturally comes with greater vigilance.
[Rest assured. I am monitoring the target in real-time and will report any anomalies immediately.]
Qi Suian trusted the AI Brain’s work. When it came to providing support, it had never once dropped the ball.
It was more likely for Qi Suian to mess up than for the AI Brain.
He then shifted his gaze to the Seven-Star Jade Vein Lotus.
’The absorption is complete.’
Qi Suian watched as the "Seven-Star" prefix on the Seven-Star Jade Vein Lotus vanished, leaving only "Jade Vein Lotus."
Its quality also fully stabilized, becoming S-rank.
Aside from that, Seven Elements Relief and Stellar Alignment also vanished, leaving only Jade Vein Transformation.
At the same time, the +3 and +4 enhancements on Qi Suian’s Celestial Fate: Profound also changed.
[Enhancement +3: Seven Elements Relief]
[Enhancement +4: Stellar Luminary]
’Huh... so they transferred to me.’ Qi Suian wasn’t particularly surprised. ’The names sound all high and mighty, but in practice...’
Qi Suian focused on the feeling. Since these were the complete versions of the abilities, they came with a summary.
Seven Elements Relief was similar to having strong luck, but with a different focus—it was more geared toward dispelling calamities.
Normally, the opportunities Qi Suian encountered were a double-edged sword of fortune and disaster. But with Seven Elements Relief, the calamitous and unlucky aspects would be diminished.
As for Stellar Luminary, it was the complete effect of the "Protagonist of the Heavenly Stars," the one with "seven manifest and two hidden."
In essence, it enhanced his growth, boosted his learning and research efficiency, and sharpened his focus and logical thinking.
In martial arts terms, it meant his innate talent and comprehension had become stronger, and his training speed had accelerated.
Because Qi Suian lacked the traits of Ancient Martial Humans, his Enhancement +1, Super Adaptability, had modified the effect to suit him.
Moreover, Qi Suian discovered that as he added more enhancements to his Celestial Fate: Profound, the previous enhancements weren’t static.
They grew stronger with each new enhancement. This meant that not only was his "protagonist halo" a growth-type talent, but its associated enhancements would also evolve.
This way, he wouldn’t be rendered obsolete by new Doomsday Worlds.
Exactly. The more powerful the Doomsday World, the more powerful the "protagonist halo" on its native protagonist.
It was like running dungeons: the stats of monsters in a level 1 dungeon were completely different from those in a level 10 one.
Qi Suian was someone who had started in a level 1 dungeon. The increasingly powerful Doomsday Worlds he would face were the high-level dungeons.
Therefore, he needed to constantly upgrade his level, gear, and skills to avoid being left behind.
The vast majority of his current abilities and equipment came from the Profound World, his "level 1 dungeon."
The Profound World itself might not have been weak, but the planet he was on certainly was.
If he had the power of the Profound God... no, the power of the Blood Moon, he wouldn’t fear this doomsday game in the slightest.
’As for this remaining Jade Vein Transformation... it should be the essence of the Jade Vein Lotus itself,’ Qi Suian muttered, wondering how to use it.
’This thing should be the source of Jin energy. If I could refine it, perhaps my Dragon and Tiger Primordial Force could advance to the next level.’
But that raised a serious question: how exactly was he supposed to refine it?
In any case, there was no such concept as "refining" in Ancient Martial Technique.
"Say," Qi Suian asked, "what if I just eat the Jade Vein Lotus, like you mentioned before?"
Without its first two special properties, Qi Suian really didn’t know what it was good for.
’His version of "refining" was, of course, the purest form of consumption: eating it.’
[You could, but you might not gain anything. After all, you have already obtained its core components.]
[I recommend you save it for now. Later, it could be combined with Jin and installed as a module on the Tai Sui God.]
To Qi Suian, the Jade Vein Lotus was currently useless. If he were one of the Ancient Martial Humans, he might have a use for it. But he wasn’t.
"Alright, we’ll do it your way."
