This "stiff state" caused by the buffering recovery from a consciousness shock depends on the opponent's Spiritual Power—the stronger the power, the longer the duration.
This "stiff time" might not matter against a common enemy, but if facing a true mechanician expert, it could become a fatal weakness for Lu Yuan.
Lu Yuan looked at the remaining attribute points he had on hand, a total of 4 points.
Even if he allocated all of them to the Intelligence Attribute, it would only increase his intelligence from 33 to 34 in the Second Limit Breaking stage, and his Spiritual Power would still be at level four. It might be better to save them for when he attempts the Third Limit Breaking.
"Devouring star thieves, however, is a good way to quickly enhance Spiritual Power..."
"There should be plenty of opportunities coming up."
Lu Yuan thought calmly to himself.
Although he had some resistance to devouring similar life forms, he felt no psychological burden towards the star thieves.
Most star thieves are vicious criminals, saturated with evil. Devouring them might as well be a form of waste utilization.
"Actually, even without relying on devouring, my Spiritual Power growth should not be slow with normal cultivation..."
[Bloodline] greatly developed the Duoling bloodline within Lu Yuan, upgrading his Star Map from the original eighteen Lifebound Stars to ninety-nine, all successfully opened.
With the fully lit [Light Hunting Falcon] Star Chart, Lu Yuan's efficiency in absorbing free Cosmic Energy was greatly enhanced, and during cultivation, the tempering effect of the Life Star Chart on Spiritual Power was greatly increased.
Along with his natural talent in Spiritual Power cultivation, things became even more exaggerated.
Had Lu Yuan been able to settle down and cultivate in seclusion, he would have felt the huge benefits brought by his talent.
Over the span of three days, Lu Yuan slowly devoured and absorbed the waste ore raw stones.
This batch of bismuth iron waste ore weighed over 4500 tons, and Lu Yuan devoured all of it.
The benefit was that his body recovered to about twenty-five percent, with slight growth in various attribute points.
He obtained more than 2700 tons of bismuth iron fines from devouring and extracting, and according to the current market price, the price of one ton of bismuth iron fines is about three thousand Duoling currency.
After deducting the costs of buying waste ore, transportation, and East Mu's share, Lu Yuan roughly calculated that if he sold this entire batch of bismuth iron fines, his pure profit would be around six million Duoling currency.
Six million Duoling currency!
In just three days.
Even having just extorted over a billion from Sonice, Lu Yuan was still slightly shaken by this number.
And this is just the first batch, with a relatively small amount of waste ore sent by the other party.
If he shows he has the ability to handle it all, future supplies will continue to increase, possibly even higher quality waste ores like bismuth silver and bismuth gold will be sent.
The profit potential then would be even greater.
"But unfortunately, sales here have to go through East Mu. I previously told him that the extraction rate is only one-tenth of the norm, so the sales volume naturally can't exceed one-tenth....
Moreover, consuming so much bismuth iron continuously is not something an ordinary buyer can do."
"I need to find a way to bypass East Mu and directly find a few powerful buyers...."
For Lu Yuan, who holds a crafting blueprint for a [Breath of Evil. Wind-eating Demon] Demon God Mechanic Soldier, a bottomless pit in terms of construction costs, no amount of money is enough.
The blueprint, originally estimated at over ten billion in cost, is already a simplified ultimate version, and with enough resources, he naturally hopes to get as close to the full version as possible.
"I'll hold off for some time and look for opportunities to sell later, to avoid arousing East Mu's suspicion..."
Lu Yuan contemplated as he looked at the bismuth iron fines almost covering the area within a few kilometers.
The quiet air around him began to flow, creating a surging wind that blew the stones and dust from the ground, burying the thousands of tons of bismuth iron fines completely.
This area belonged to his own mining district, so he wasn't worried about anyone discovering or mining it.
He had done the same when devouring the last batch of bismuth iron waste ore.
The Devouring Spirit Clan's unique physique allows them to temporarily store devoured metal substances within their bodies.
But this storage has a limit, and thousands of tons of bismuth iron clearly exceeded this limit.
Maybe only when Lu Yuan creates his own Demon God Mechanic Soldier space in the future can he store them without restriction.
During these three days, Lu Yuan hadn't been idle; using Alfanzo's memories, he pushed the [Blood Cry] Spiritual Power Cultivation Method from the original level 1 to level 3 in one go. Before his death, Alfanzo's mastery of [Blood Cry] had just entered the level 4 stage.
After activating level 3 [Blood Cry], although the duration didn't increase much, the amplification effect was significantly larger, enhancing the short-term burst of Spiritual Power by about twice, which satisfied Lu Yuan greatly.
Though the level of the Spiritual Power Cultivation Method isn't directly related to the level of Spiritual Power, improving the former can facilitate breakthroughs in the latter.
The grade of [Blood Cry] far exceeds that of the original [Zero Style], and from this transformation, Lu Yuan felt that his Spiritual Power, which barely reached level four, had become significantly stronger.
"When I fought against Alfanzo, because I could only suppress him and not break through his defenses, this guy didn't even bother activating [Blood Cry], resulting in him being directly devoured...."
"As the brother of Sea Wolf, the strongest among the Lilva Star pirates, this guy was too accustomed to smooth sailing and had no experience with adversity, making his battle awareness much poorer compared to Sonice, despite both being level-seven mechanicians..."
Suddenly, as Lu Yuan was contemplating this, his expression changed slightly.
He sensed that consciousness waves, seemingly calling him over, were emanating from Sonice, who had been transformed by the [Seed of Misfortune] for three days.
"It looks like... those guys are planning to make a move..."
"The timing couldn't be better...."
Feeling this wave, Lu Yuan's eyes flickered slightly.
He stood calmly from the dusty ground.
He'd been waiting for this moment.
Were it not for the Life Source Ore, he would not have wasted a [Seed of Misfortune] on Sonice. Otherwise, he would have long since devoured and absorbed her as nourishment to strengthen himself.
.....
Lilva Star.
Jade Territory.
True to its name, Jade Territory was once abundant with jadeite raw stones, bustling with prosperity for a time.
But now, all that remained were a few mountains, completely hollowed out and riddled with holes.
The wild vegetation that had grown unchecked dominated the entire Jade Territory, lush and green, still resembling "jade" from a high vantage point.
Currently, human voices broke the perennial silence of the Jade Territory.
A variety of small, oddly-shaped ships landed beneath the Jade Territory, hidden within the dense jungle, while shielding energy screens flared up intermittently, and people continuously entered the mountains through temporarily excavated openings.
Wearing a pink battle suit, Sonice walked through the winding, deep passage inside the mountain.
Behind her followed two tall figures completely encased in alloy armor, resembling close guards.
Sonice followed the passage to the deepest part of the mountain, arriving at a brightly lit large cavern.
From afar, one could hear the cacophony of harsh laughter, vulgarities, and the sounds of smashing, shouting, and clamoring.
Entering the cavern, Sonice stopped.
Looking around, she saw that several hundred figures were bustling about in the cavern.
Each figure here was a star thief.
Virtually every notable star thief on Lilva Star had gathered here.
The reasons for attracting so many desperate criminals to one place were none other than two—
A figure even more powerful and ferocious than them.
And...
An opportunity for immense profit that tempted them all.
Currently, both factors were in play.
"It's Sonice."
Sonice's arrival immediately caught the attention of many in the cavern.
As one of the few level-seven experts among the Lilva Star pirate community, and a woman at that—a woman with an appealing figure and appearance—she naturally drew a lot of attention.
