Chapter 156 - 111: Amy’s Marvelous Experience and Elemental Squeezing Method

Chapter 156: Chapter 111: Amy’s Marvelous Experience and Elemental Squeezing Method

Well, in reality, this was simply the story of a timid Alchemist with low combat power who had knocked out all the other apprentices with an unknown, mutated Plague—and even failed to spare herself in the process.

So the problem was glaringly obvious... She had only demonstrated offensive capabilities, but couldn’t even defend against the very thing she unleashed.

Some Wizards disliked such out-of-control scenarios, believing that it wasn’t a display of ability, but an accident.

However, other Wizards actually preferred the birth of such accidents, believing this to be the most fascinating aspect of Pharmacy and Curse Studies.

Thus, it was no surprise that her results were still under review.

"What about the Red Plague Ghost?" Chen Shang asked.

Amy lowered her head. "It’s still multiplying in the exam world. When the Protective Talisman triggered, I took one last look at it. It had already broken into several pieces and started devouring itself."

Chen Shang didn’t speak. He stood up from his chair, walked over to Amy, and reached out a hand. Amy looked up at him, her expression a bit dejected. "Senior, can I still pass?"

Chen Shang placed his hand on top of her head and patted it. "Of course you can. With the abilities you’ve shown, you won’t fall out of the top five. The current review is simply to consider whether they should give you a higher rank."

"Ah? Really?"

Chen Shang nodded. "Really. In my cohort, there were a few guys who cast meteorites. They were directly taken out later and didn’t make it to the end at all.

"However, their exam scores were quite good too, because they had successfully demonstrated their abilities.

"Go get some rest first. Just wait for your results with peace of mind."

Amy nodded and turned to walk toward her workstation.

After comforting the little girl, Chen Shang began to focus on his own affairs.

To increase the upper limit of his Magic Power input, the problem he needed to solve was how to improve his Manipulation Power.

Chen Shang immersed himself in the Celestial Net database for the better part of the day, flipping through dozens of articles on Element manipulation, before finally finding a suitable paper.

The title was "On the Nonlinear Relationship Between Element Manipulation and Spiritual Power," and the author was an Elemental Mage from five hundred years ago.

The core argument of the paper was very clear: Manipulation Power was not a subset of Spiritual Power, but an independent ability.

Spiritual Power determined how many Elements you could perceive, while Manipulation Power determined how many Elements you could mobilize. The former could be slowly improved through Meditation, but the latter could only be ground out through extreme, repetitive training.

The author wrote in the paper that he had created an extreme training method himself, naming it the "Elemental Squeezing Method."

The specific details involved forcibly mobilizing a large amount of Magic Power to cast spells in an environment with extremely low Element concentration, forcing one’s Manipulation Power into overdrive.

After each training session, there would be a brief window where Manipulation Power experienced a massive boost. It would then slowly fall back down, but long-term accumulation would permanently raise the upper limit.

Appended to the end of the paper was a line of handwritten notes. The handwriting was messy, looking as if the author had casually jotted it down after finishing the paper: "This method is only meant for Wizard Apprentices."

Chen Shang read the article in detail and recalled the specific steps in his mind. Then, he took the Teleportation Array to Elemental City and rented a laboratory with adjustable Element concentration.

The equipment here was indeed much more specialized in terms of Elements than in Star Fall. There was a type of vacuum chamber that could extract the free Elements in the air to near zero, retaining only the bare minimum concentration required for casting spells.

However, the price wasn’t cheap either. At three hundred Wizard Coins an hour, he swiped his card and pushed the door open to enter.

The room wasn’t large. Its four walls were grayish-white without any Rune decorations, empty like a cage. He walked to the center of the room, sat down cross-legged, and turned on the console to adjust the Element concentration to its lowest.

Although it hadn’t reached zero, it was at the critical threshold of just being able to ignite a tiny Flame. The Elements were as thin as oxygen on a high plateau. Under such conditions, every spell cast required using Spiritual Power to forcefully drag energy out of the Void.

He reached out a hand, and a cluster of Samadhi True Flame condensed in his palm.

Something that usually only required a single thought to mobilize in a normal environment needed three times the Spiritual Power to maintain here.

The Flame surged from his fingertips, a size smaller than usual, and its color had also faded from a bright gold to a pale Gold.

He began attempting to condense the Water-Fire Heaven Extremes. The Samadhi True Flame surged from the Second Magic Spring, and the One-Element Heavy Water surged from the Third Magic Spring. They flowed along two completely different meridian paths toward his right palm.

But in an elemental vacuum environment, the difficulty of these two Powers converging outside the body skyrocketed.

Their fusion no longer occurred on its own; instead, it required Chen Shang to use his Spiritual Power to forcefully crush and mold them together.

His palm began to heat up, accompanied by a burning sensation of his Spiritual Power overloading.

POOF. The Flame extinguished.

Chen Shang sat cross-legged and took a deep breath. No wonder this place was only suitable for Wizard Apprentices. This environment was practically equivalent to a Forbidden Magic Domain. However, First Level Wizards possessed a self-contained system within their bodies and could mobilize a massive amount of Energy. Only Wizard Apprentices would be enormously restricted in such an environment.

He worked hard to control his powers and continued practicing. Over the span of a single Hourglass, his Control Power collapsed more than a dozen times in a row. With every collapse, the Water-Fire Ball dissipated in his palm, bursting into a small cluster of out-of-control Energy.

By the twentieth-something collapse, Chen Shang felt the upper limit of his Manipulation Power loosen a bit, as if it had been forcefully stretched open.

He increased his Magic Power input from eighty degrees to eighty-five. The Water-Fire Ball took shape, but it only lasted for two seconds before dissipating.

Chen Shang continued practicing. On the fiftieth try, eighty-five degrees held for five seconds. On the ninetieth try, ninety degrees held for three seconds... He was covered in sweat, his scalded red skin peeking out from the burn holes in his sleeves.

After over a hundred attempts, he began chugging recovery Potions. Even with his Magic Springs, he couldn’t withstand such rapid consumption.

But the Elemental Squeezing Method had to be honed through bitter training. Even extracting attributes wouldn’t help him; someone else’s Control Power wouldn’t necessarily suit his Water-Fire Heaven Extremes.