Chapter 29: The Second Heart of a Dou Practitioner: Dou Crystal!
Dan Qi Zi? Jiang Lin felt a hint of confusion, but he still buried the name deep in his heart. If conditions allowed in the future, he would find a way to search through various regions and nations for this person who might be an ancient blacksmithing predecessor.
He then spent a few more days carefully polishing the fossilized magic core, said to be at least of fifth-rank strength. Finally, what rested in Jiang Lin's hand was a fist-sized, crystal-clear, pale blue, translucent crystal.
"This sea beast magic core is huge... and that's after polishing. If I hadn't, going by the average ratio of land magical beasts' magic cores to their body size, a core this big must've come from something the size of a blue whale. And this is just fifth-rank? If it were even higher... wouldn't that mean even more terrifying behemoths?" It was said that the Dou Qi continent was vast. Jiang Lin's Jia Ma Empire lay at the western edge, and to its west was the boundless Canglan Western Sea.
For Wutan City to obtain a fossilized magic core from a sea beast wasn't particularly unusual.
The reason Jiang Lin chose to polish this fifth-rank sea beast magic core was because Dan Qi Zi's inherited knowledge vaguely mentioned that even after losing its Dou Qi, a magic core remained a top-tier energy-conducting material. At that point, it was no longer called a magic core—it became something known as a Dou Crystal.
Aside from magical beasts, Dou Qi practitioners could also serve as sources of Dou Crystals. And of course, some minerals were also classified as Dou Crystals—non-living Dou Crystals.
'Just from this classification alone, ancient blacksmiths were a little... brutal.'
'But the crystal I have now is just an embryonic form of a Dou Crystal. To refine it into a usable external energy source, I still need a material called "Origin—something" to form an insulating layer, and then I must nourish it with my own Dou Qi.'
To Dou Qi cultivators, a Dou Crystal was like an external golden core. A sixth-rank magic core could produce a fifth-rank Dou Crystal, a fifth-rank could produce a fourth-rank one. The core in Jiang Lin's hand could at least yield a fourth-rank Dou Crystal. A fourth-rank Dou Crystal could store the amount of Dou Qi typically held by a Dou Ling. Cultivators could use it to quickly replenish their Dou Qi.
If a Dou Wang carried a fifth-rank Dou Crystal, you could roughly consider that Dou Wang's energy bar to be doubled.
Of course, such rapid Dou Qi recovery—something even high-tier medicinal pills struggled to achieve—came with strict limitations. The Dou Crystal had to be personally infused with the user's Dou Qi over time. Only by using one's own Dou Qi could rapid recovery be achieved. Furthermore, due to differences in Dou Crystal quality, the efficiency of energy infusion varied dramatically—some as low as 0.1%, others possibly up to 10%. In the former case, it might take two or three months to fill it once; in the latter, just a day or two.
Precisely because of this limitation, the ancient blacksmith Dan Qi Zi upgraded the concept into the Demon Core Crystallization Armor, directly refining the magic core. In battle with magical beasts or Dou Spirit-level experts, this armor enabled a terrifying "battle-to-sustain-battle" effect.
Kill, extract the core, refine it, replenish Dou Qi, and stay in peak condition endlessly!
Naturally, Jiang Lin didn't have the blueprint for the Demon Core Crystallization Armor. What he gained from Dan Qi Zi's inheritance came down to two things: a partial understanding of Dou Crystals, and Dan Qi Zi's forging philosophy.
'Still, if I can fully comprehend Dou Crystal technology, it might not be impossible to eventually recreate Senior Dan Qi Zi's "chef armor".' Jiang Lin looked at the smooth, jade-like embryonic Dou Crystal in his hand and made a silent vow in his heart.
After all, real life isn't a game. Some powerful Dou Techniques only need energy, not cooldowns. So equipment that resets abilities by killing monsters or enemies is always absurdly overpowered.
"The insulation material for the Dou Crystal is only described with a single character… and I'm not even sure whether the ancient term still applies in this era. Even the same material might have different names across countries."
"So I'll have to start from material properties." With a direction now in mind, Jiang Lin began filtering and analyzing the various materials in his inventory over the following days.
"What they call an 'insulating layer' is actually more like a cell membrane. When a Dou Qi cultivator is full of energy, internal pressure is higher, so Dou Qi can easily flow into the Dou Crystal. But when the cultivator is depleted and the Dou Crystal is full, the pressure differential allows energy to flow back into the cultivator."
"...Why does this sound like some horrifying biological material again?"
Aside from forging a few battle weapons each month for practice, Jiang Lin spent all his remaining time researching the insulating materials for Dou Crystals, gradually deepening his understanding.
"There's nothing in the Qingshan Town market that can permit one-way Dou Qi transfer... though that's not surprising. Most materials here are cheap."
"If I can't achieve bidirectional permeability, then I'll go with one-way permeability plus a valve... That's the only solution."
"..."
One year later, on the outskirts of the Magical Beast Mountain Range—under a sparse, starry moonlit sky—a tall, sturdy young man moved quietly through a perilous forest with a heavy cloth-wrapped sword on his back.
The youth was cloaked entirely in black robes, his figure broad and muscular. If not for the moonlight illuminating his handsome but still slightly youthful face, one might have mistaken him for a short, burly adult.
Rustle rustle...
Cold wind rustled the leaves, but the young man silently continued forward until he arrived at a rocky crevice. He crouched down, picked up a piece of gravel at his feet, examined it closely, then sniffed it. His eyebrows suddenly lifted.
'Not the aura of a strange magical beast... Was I fed false intel?' Jiang Lin's thoughts spun rapidly as he stared at the stone.
Earlier that day, someone in Qingshan Town had claimed that a new, unknown second-rank magical beast had been spotted in this area. That beast was said to possess a bizarre ability—ranged Dou Techniques had no effect on it, and even seemed to enhance its aura. Though it was only a second-rank beast, even the Da Dou Shi captain of the team couldn't subdue it. A real headache.
When Jiang Lin heard this, he immediately prepared thoroughly. That very night, under the cover of darkness and without alerting anyone, he snuck out from the rear courtyard of Wan Yao Zhai, near the forest.
Alone, he entered the dangerous and mysterious Magical Beast Mountain Range at its most perilous hour.
And his movements... carried a hint of unhurried leisure.
(END CHAPTER)
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