Chapter 96: Advanced Mental Power Control, Apprenticeship to the Phantom Spirit King, Part 4

Your blueprint for the B9-LCE Detector has passed the system rating and has been added to the blueprint library.

Based on this blueprint rating, you have gained 299 specialization points.

—

With that system prompt, Jiang Chen’s accumulated specialization points once again broke past the thousand-point mark.

Originally, Jiang Chen had planned to use these points to exchange for a functional specialty that would accelerate his leveling.

The incarnation known as Urso was about to arrive at the headquarters of the Cosmic Mercenary Alliance, and when that time came, the free nutrient solution provided by the alliance would be impossible not to use.

But constrained by the level of the main body, the avatar would still be unable to advance to the ninth stellar tier even after soaking in the nutrient solution. That would be awkward indeed.

If it aroused the suspicion of the Cosmic Mercenary Alliance, that would be troublesome.

It would be best if the main body could raise its level in a short time. Even if it did not break through to the cosmos rank, at the very least it should reach the ninth stellar tier, so that the avatar’s level could rise with it.

However, as Urso drew ever nearer to the headquarters of the Cosmic Mercenary Alliance, the deadline given by Phantom Spirit King was also fast approaching.

Jiang Chen had already more or less entered the first stage of the secret method Phantom God Transformation, but there was still some distance between that and truly mastering it.

If he wanted to become a disciple under Phantom Spirit King, he had to redeem a specialty that would help him do so.

The two choices conflicted with each other. He could only choose one, and that left Jiang Chen somewhat torn.

The two specialties Jiang Chen had taken a liking to were Archmage of the Arcane and Advanced Psychic Control.

Archmage of the Arcane: when learning or researching knowledge and skills in the arcane system, you receive an additional massive enhancement. Each point of intelligence, spirit, and mystic attribute increases overall efficiency by 1.5 percent. When you use arcane abilities, their effect is increased by 40 percent.

Corresponding to Archmage of the Arcane were specialties such as Archmage of Alchemy and Archmage of Machinery. Aside from differing in field, their effects were basically the same.

Advanced Psychic Control: your control over psychic power is as natural as an instinct, born already at the perfect limit, and you may freely alter the characteristics of your telekinesis, including but not limited to object manipulation, soul, datafication, virtualization, solidification...

The exchange price for each of these specialties was astonishingly uniform: 999 specialization points.

If he redeemed Archmage of the Arcane, Archmage of Alchemy, or Archmage of Machinery, then given Jiang Chen’s current attributes, his efficiency in mastering new knowledge in the corresponding field would at least multiply several times over.

Even if the field of enhancement was relatively narrow, it would still allow Jiang Chen to rapidly raise his level in a short time, even to the third tier.

As for combat strength and improvements in other respects, it would also play a considerable role in the future.

As for Advanced Psychic Control, its greatest short-term value lay in allowing Jiang Chen to rapidly master the transformation of his telekinetic characteristics into those of the illusionist lineage, so that he could become a disciple under Phantom Spirit King.

Even if he were only a named disciple, he would still gain no small benefit.

However, Jiang Chen had limited specialization points on hand. Even though he had developed several blueprints recognized by the system over the course of the year, plus the rewards gained from leveling up, he could still only afford to redeem one specialty.

Should he choose rapid leveling and ensure that he would not be suspected after joining the Cosmic Mercenary Alliance?

Or should he take a slight risk, redeem Advanced Psychic Control, and enter Phantom Spirit King’s school?

After hesitating for a long time, Jiang Chen sought advice from Chinya and sent her an email, carefully probing whether, if the nutrient solution was obtained but not used immediately and delayed for a while, it would attract special attention.

Not long after, Chinya’s reply arrived.

After reading the email Chinya had sent, Jiang Chen no longer hesitated and directly redeemed the Advanced Psychic Control specialty.

—

Earth, within the ring world.

The instant the exchange was completed, Jiang Chen fell at once into a state of bewilderment and haze, as if he were dreaming, his perception of the outside world becoming distant and unreal.

If a strong expert had been observing Jiang Chen, they would have discovered that tremendous changes were taking place within his sea of consciousness.

However, this transformation was extremely swift; within mere seconds it returned to normal, as though nothing had happened at all.

Yet Jiang Chen, once he regained clarity, knew that he was indeed different now.

As his psychic power expanded outward, Jiang Chen felt that his telekinesis had become far stronger than before.

It was not that his telekinetic level had increased, but that his control over it had improved.

If Jiang Chen were to test it, he would discover that his telekinetic amplitude had risen from less than sixty points before to the perfect score of one hundred.

Being able to exert one hundred percent of psychic power was something many world leaders could not do.

Telekinetic amplitude, like bodily force output, is easier to improve when it is low. But as one approaches the hundred-point limit, every additional point requires immense effort.

But after redeeming Advanced Psychic Control, Jiang Chen needed no training at all and could directly unleash the full might of his psychic power.

“Let’s try changing its characteristics...” Jiang Chen’s thoughts moved, and the object-manipulation trait within his telekinesis rapidly weakened, transforming into a more ethereal quality, one adept at offense and defense on the soul and consciousness level.

In the terminology of the Devouring Star River universe, this was the telekinetic trait of the illusionist lineage.

In the next moment, Jiang Chen’s telekinetic characteristics changed again, condensing directly into a solid form that could be seen by Jiang Chen with the naked eye.

In this state, his psychic power possessed the characteristics of a physical body. If Jiang Chen’s flesh were destroyed, he could even use a body formed purely of psychic power to contain his soul and prolong his life.

Afterward, Jiang Chen once again reduced his telekinesis to the utmost degree of concealment, so that not only could it no longer be seen, but even ordinary detection devices or the telekinetic probes of other psychic masters could not detect the slightest trace of it.

Of course, in this state, the destructive power of his psychic force was also reduced to a very weak degree, useful only for ambushes or for detection in exceptionally special environments.

...

One by one, he tried the different forms, and Jiang Chen could not help widening his eyes.

What surprised him most was actually a telekinetic trait called datafication, which allowed his psychic power to integrate perfectly with the intelligence cores and optical brains of mechanical devices, enabling direct control.

He only needed to issue commands through the intelligence core or optical brain, without needing to carefully manipulate every individual component of the machine.

“This method of control might be able to prevent the mechanical legion from falling into a struggle over control rights...” A thought flashed through Jiang Chen’s mind.

The reason a mechanical legion is used so often only by the machine race in the universe is precisely because of the legion’s inherent nature: if the enemy possesses a higher-grade intelligence, control can very easily be seized, and the legion becomes a weapon used against its former master.

Only the machine race, whose own intelligence is already extraordinarily powerful and therefore need not fear control being stolen by the intelligence of other races, can make large-scale use of mechanical legions in warfare.

As for internal conflicts within the machine race, under its strict pyramid-shaped hierarchy, lower-tier machine beings would “acknowledge mastery” to those one level above them, so there was simply no possibility of infighting.

If other races used intelligent systems to control mechanical legions, then once they encountered a powerhouse from the machine race, there would always be the possibility of control being seized.

But if psychic power were transformed into datafication and used directly to control a mechanical legion, could some other, stronger intelligence still wrest control away?

Jiang Chen did not know.

In the universe, psychic characteristics were varied and numerous. Aside from the mainstream paths of controllers and illusionists, there were many other schools as well.

Such as beast tamers, potionists, and so on.

But psychic datafication, directly controlling a mechanical legion in this way, was not something Jiang Chen had ever even heard of.

Jiang Chen immediately used his psychic power to take control of an SCV, while at the same time ordering Jarvis, “Jarvis, try to seize control of this SCV. Use your full force, so long as it does not affect your other tasks.”

“Yes, Master.”

Jarvis immediately mobilized its vast computing power, pouring a massive stream of information into the SCV’s intelligence core in an attempt to seize its underlying permissions.

To Jiang Chen’s astonishment, in this information-based mode, his telekinesis could actually perceive the entire process of Jarvis invading the intelligence core with ease.

More than that, every attack, every line of code, every piece of data used, all appeared clearly in Jiang Chen’s mind.

Through his knowledge of information theory, Jiang Chen could also precisely judge which attacks posed sufficient threat and which were merely invalid data that could be ignored and left for the intelligence core to clear away on its own.

However, within Jiang Chen’s perception, he never found any possibility that Jarvis could seize control of the mechanical legion.

Even if Jiang Chen made no defense at all and merely maintained control of the SCV’s intelligence core, the most extreme outcome would only be that Jarvis piled up a great quantity of junk data, causing the intelligence core to exceed its load and lose the ability to keep operating.

But as long as Jiang Chen did not voluntarily relinquish control, no matter how terrifying Jarvis’s computing power might be, it could not seize the SCV’s operating authority from Jiang Chen’s hands.

A moment later, Jarvis reached the same conclusion and took the initiative to halt its attack, saying, “Master, I cannot seize control. The only thing I can do is use redundant data beyond the intelligence core’s processing capacity to burn it out.”

“That’s enough. This test ends here. Go on with your work.” Jiang Chen nodded in satisfaction.

Being able to withstand Jarvis’s assault was enough to leave Jiang Chen highly satisfied with the datafication ability of his psychic power.

As for whether intelligent life, or even the true machine race, could break through the defensive line Jiang Chen’s psychic power had built...

The latter could not be tested, but for the former, he could find a chance to have Babata help verify it.

Still, there was no need to rush this matter.

Having obtained the Advanced Psychic Control specialty, Jiang Chen no longer needed to cultivate the secret method Phantom God Transformation. Naturally, he had gained the ability to transform psychic power into the characteristics of the illusionist lineage.

The secret method itself was unimportant. What mattered was the result.

So long as he could transform the characteristics of his psychic power at will, it made no difference whether this was accomplished through the secret method Phantom God Transformation; Phantom Spirit King had no way of knowing.

This also meant that Jiang Chen had completed Phantom Spirit King’s test and gained the opportunity to become a disciple under him.

Even as merely a named disciple, it meant Jiang Chen now had a powerful patron behind him.

After confirming that the Advanced Psychic Control specialty was also effective on his avatar, Jiang Chen immediately sent an email to Phantom Spirit King under the identity of Urso, claiming that he had already mastered the secret method Phantom God Transformation.

—

Virtual Universe, within Phantom Spirit King’s estate.

“Use Phantom God Transformation for me. Transform your psychic power into the traits of the illusionist lineage, then launch a soul attack at me,” Phantom Spirit King said as he looked at Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen did not hesitate at all. He immediately followed the other’s instructions, turning his psychic power ethereal and allowing it to seep toward Phantom Spirit King’s consciousness.

Though he possessed no soul secret method and his attack methods were very crude,

with Phantom Spirit King’s strength, he instantly determined that what Jiang Chen was using was indeed the psychic power of the illusionist lineage.

“Good.”

Phantom Spirit King looked at Jiang Chen with satisfaction and asked, “Are you willing to become my disciple and take me as your nominal master?”

Jiang Chen bowed at once without hesitation. “Disciple Urso pays respects to Teacher.”

“Good, good!”

Phantom Spirit King gestured beside him. “Sit and speak.”

Jiang Chen obeyed and carefully sat down in the chair beside Phantom Spirit King.

“No need to be so tense.” Seeing Jiang Chen’s manner, Phantom Spirit King could not help but laugh. “You’re almost at the alliance headquarters now, aren’t you?”

Jiang Chen nodded. “Yes. It is still more than ten days away.”

“Just over ten days short of success, and you timed it this accurately. It seems you and I truly are fated as teacher and disciple.”

Phantom Spirit King was in an excellent mood and even began to joke.

After chatting casually for a while, Phantom Spirit King suddenly became solemn and said to Jiang Chen, “I do not like to bind my disciples too tightly. I only provide resources; as for the road you walk in the future, that is entirely up to you. But there is one rule: disciples under me may not seek a partner. They must remain single for life! If you cannot accept this, I will give you one chance to turn back!”

After a pause, Phantom Spirit King reminded him, “If you still insist on becoming my disciple and later seek a partner, then once I discover it, I will personally kill both you and your partner!”

“Uh...”

Jiang Chen was momentarily at a loss for words. After some hesitation, he tentatively asked, “Teacher, why is there such a rule?”

In the original story, this rule had been vaguely hinted to be related to Phantom Spirit King’s experiences in his early years, though it was never plainly stated.

Jiang Chen was still quite curious about it.

Yet Phantom Spirit King showed no intention of answering, saying only, “Rules are rules. Why ask so many whys? If you are unwilling to accept them, you may leave! But only today. After today, I will take it as your agreement to obey the sect rules!”

Jiang Chen hurriedly said, “This disciple will listen to Teacher! A partner is not as important as cultivation!”

That was, in truth, also Jiang Chen’s honest thought.

In the Devouring Star River world, once cultivation reached the later stages, setting aside the differences in strength and lifespan between powerhouses,

even the matter of body size alone was measured in kilometers, even light-years. Every powerhouse sought a greater divine body, yet the disparity between their divine body sizes was likewise astonishing.

A lifeform with a body tens of thousands of kilometers across and a lifeform whose body was measured in light-years having a romance?

Just thinking about it made that seem even more absurd than the old tale of Xu Xian and the white snake.

Besides, once one reached the level of an undying being, one would possess eternal life.

Since one would already be immortal, there would naturally be no need to carry on the family line.

With such a long life, why not do something worthwhile instead of wasting time on matters of the heart?

From the day he set foot upon the path of cultivation, Jiang Chen had never once thought about developing a romantic relationship with anyone.

The End.