Blind Spot
Chapter 657 - 603 Research Three

Chapter 657: 603 Research Three

Empire’s White Tower.

As the largest and most iconic mage organization of the Empire, the White Tower represents the highest glory of the Mage Association.

The towering White Tower, with its one hundred and thirty-nine levels, houses the most powerful one hundred and thirty-nine mages of the entire Empire.

They are collectively known as the White Tower Mages.

And at the very moment, in the snow-covered forests of the Eastern region, two mages were completely slain by Li Chengyi.

Within the White Tower, an old mage on the thirteenth floor suddenly opened his eyes.

He glanced at the light yellow oil lamp hanging on the wall with six branches, each tipped with a flickering flame.

At this moment, two of the flames had been completely extinguished.

"Tyga and his team... are dead??" the old mage’s expression turned grim.

Tyga and the other were his disciples—although not particularly outstanding ones, they were apprentices who had served him diligently for years, assistants he had painstakingly trained over many years.

And now they were dead, and he would have to train new assistants... The loss incurred would be a most distressing number for him.

"Brian," the old mage pondered for a moment before calling out softly.

Poof!

Suddenly, a snowy white owl swooped down through the window.

The owl perched steadily on the windowsill, its large round eyes gazing at the old mage.

"What do you need, Master Mida?" it asked in a low, human voice.

"Tyga and the other are dead. They died in the Eastern region. Take some people to investigate; I want detailed intelligence and the culprit found," the old mage said with a heavy voice.

"Should we take action?"

"If the opportunity permits, yes," the old mage nodded.

Poof.

The owl flapped its wings and swiftly flew away, disappearing into the blizzard.

For mages, even the most powerful White Tower Mages, reliance on Magic Pets as combat support was paramount.

Thus, the more powerful the mage, the more powerful Magic Pets they nurtured.

So-called Magic Pets are special magical creatures that they cultivate and modify through various special means.

’The cultivation of Magic Pets requires seventy-two meticulous processes, involving gradual modifications. Transforming a common creature into a magical one is a project that requires long-term exploration and experimentation.’

Regarding this, the Mora Family’s Thunder Beast project was a prime example; after a century of persistent trial and error, they managed to modify countless animals of various types, ultimately ending in failure.’

’The transformation of magical pets, every aspect is the crystallization of innumerable wisdom and Good Fortune; it cannot be achieved overnight. It requires the joint effort of many mages. Currently, the Empire’s White Tower controls nine types of Magic Pet projects, with three being the most commonly used, which were initially conquered by the White Tower’s own collective efforts with the mages...’

Eastern Okra Territory, Black Fortress.

Li Chengyi gently closed the last page of the book and fell into thought.

The cover of the book he was holding was clearly titled: Introduction to Magic Pet Rearing.

This was a spoil of war he found on those two deceased mages. It contained no introduction to meditation, nor any magic-related spells, only this simple book filled with knowledge about the rearing of Magic Pets.

"White Tower..." He put down the book, deep in thought.

The mages of the Sola Empire were entirely different from those he had known before.

They seemed to rely even more on Magic Pets for supplemental combat strength.

Additionally, among the other items found on those two mages, most were a few small jars and bottles with various unidentified materials inside.

Perhaps they were some materials for casting research; Li Chengyi did not know, but the key point was that these things were useless to him.

"Next up, another one."

Locking the book away in the drawer, he then picked up an irregularly shaped, fist-sized deep blue stone lying beside him.

The stone had been extracted from a griffon’s body, the only thing inside the griffon’s body that had been flashing with tiny electric arcs at the time.

He recognized at a glance that it was extraordinary and had directly dug it out and taken it with him.

Now was the time for detailed study.

As he caressed the stone’s surface with his hand, the rough texture caused an inexplicable tingling in his heart.

It was like being zapped with an electric current.

Raising his hand, Li Chengyi looked at the skin on his arm, where each hair stood on end like a spike.

’Just touching it can produce an electric current? This thing seems quite unstable...’ he frowned.

Taking out a set of metal tools from the side drawer, he selected a sharp knife and began to carve into the stone.

But the task was quite difficult; the slightest friction caused electric sparks to occur.

This sparking seemed to be an enhanced version of static electricity.

Thus, Li Chengyi began to test other materials to find one that wouldn’t produce electricity through friction, one that could be used to split the stone.

After an afternoon of attempts, finally, he managed to scrape off a tiny bit of fine powder from this stone he termed ’Griffon Stone.’

This powder was stored in an exquisite crystal bottle.

Li Chengyi’s research methods were limited due to a lack of equipment; he could not perform detailed analysis on its characteristics one by one.

For the practitioners of Tian Ju Pavilion, the most convenient and direct research method was... burning.

Gurgle.

In his study, Li Chengyi swallowed down the powder mixed with water.

Inside his body, parts of the powder were completely enveloped by the power of the Primordial Spirit Sword Palace and then absorbed, transforming into wisps of dust smoke that flew into the enormous Sword Furnace suspended motionlessly within the Sword Palace.

As one of the Twelve Floral Languages, the Seven Spirit Holy Technique played a decisive bridging role in this process.

Due to its extremely high rank, the Flower Language Technique would not be entirely restricted in this world, so it could carry the tiny particles of dust wrapped in the wisps of the Sword of Wisdom from the Holy Spirit Technique into the Sword Palace.

The grand halls of the Primordial Spirit Sword Palace were now even more refined and elaborate than before.

On the walls, on the ceiling, everywhere were the biographical records of the Human-Faced Spirit Swords.

A vast number of Origin Seals born of many characters were thrown by Li Chengyi into the Sword Furnace to be burnt, thereby strengthening the furnace itself.

This was one of the reasons why his cultivation level had so quickly reached the peak of Qi Fire.

At that moment, when the powdered Griffon Stone was thrown into the Sword Furnace, a surge of sapphire flames, carrying blue electric arcs, burst forth instantly.

Crack.

The blue electric arcs formed a large net, instantly covering the entire Sword Furnace completely.

Before long, the electric arcs dissipated, and the various properties related to them rapidly reverberated back into Li Chengyi’s consciousness.

This is the power of the Yin Canon. Why does the Creation Furnace burn everything? It’s the reason why the more the Taoists of Tian Ju Pavilion burn, the stronger they become.

In reality, Li Chengyi sat in his study, eyes closed in repose, feeling the various properties of the Griffon Stone echoed back to him.

During the burning process, a subtle power further reinforced the entire Sword Furnace.

This seemingly unimpressive Griffon Stone was only a bit of powder, yet it was equivalent to one-tenth of the gains he had achieved from burning an entire Star Spirit!

This discovery left him feeling somewhat shaken.

’That is to say, if I burn this entire piece of Griffon Stone, then the growth I will gain will be almost as much as burning more than ten Star Spirits....’

’This place... what kind of place is it...?’ With this thought, Li Chengyi’s heart grew even more somber.

If it wasn’t for his current progress being hampered not by the need to burn more, but by the need for extensive knowledge of the world’s structure, perhaps burning the Griffon Stone completely in one go would have been the right approach.

Thump, thump, thump...

Suddenly, there was a gentle knock on the study door.

"Who is it?"

"It’s me, Buck." The voice of Old Buck, the steward of Black Fortress, came from outside the door.

"Please come in, Uncle Buck." Li Chengyi put away his things and stood up.

Click, the door opened.

Old Buck stepped in, his attire a neat and finely cut black suit with silver trim, entering the room quietly.

He first gave a bow, then straightened up.

"There are envoys from the City of Mage here to inquire about the disappearance of two mages in the forest some time ago."

"Envoys from the City of Mage? Bring them in," said Li Chengyi, pondering the feedback from the powdered stone, and thinking about how to make use of this special material.

He observed that simply rubbing this material could generate a large amount of electricity. So, if he could fix it to a device that continuously slides and rubs, could it constantly generate a steady supply of electrical current?

What are the principles behind this phenomenon?

In modern science, generating electricity through friction fundamentally involves a transfer of charge, but the fact that this material could generate so much electric current—does it imply that the substances here have inner atomic bonds with much more charge than his former world?

Therefore, the electric fields produced after charge transfer would be much stronger?

Thinking this through, Li Chengyi jotted down these insights.

’So do all the other substances here also bind so much charge?’ This needed to be tested.

Soon, as he came back to his senses, Old Buck had already walked in with a middle-aged female mage wearing a blue robe embroidered with a six-pointed star pattern.

The female mage had a cold expression, with a faint sense of distance in her brown eyes.

She first gave a slight courtesy to Li Chengyi.

"Baron Okra, please allow me to introduce myself. I am Durvey, a messenger from the White Tower, here specifically to investigate the disappearance of Mage Tyga. Since it has been found that you previously entered the snow forest with Mage Tyga to search for griffins, I have come to ask you about the details regarding the disappearance."

"I don’t know them, nor have I seen them in the forest. Is there anything else?" Li Chengyi said simply.

"Then may I ask if you found any traces of griffins in the forest?"

"No," Li Chengyi said.

"Did you hear the roar of a griffin?"

"Yes, I heard it, but by the time I got there, everything had completely disappeared. Seeing no gain, I left on my own," Li Chengyi answered.

"Regarding Babit, had you seen him previously at the Salon of Viscounts?"

The female mage began to ask some irrelevant questions.

Li Chengyi answered each one seriously.

After a series of questions and answers, the exchange finally ended.

The female mage gave her respects and left the study.

Li Chengyi sat back down and pondered for a moment.

He had asked if finding Mage Tyga would grant him the privilege to purchase mage books, but she had flatly refused him.

This did not please him.

’It seems there’s no way through with the mages; I need to think of another approach... If the official channels are blocked, perhaps I should think of new ones.’

After the questioning female mage left, Li Chengyi became engrossed in his research again, the various properties of the Griffon Stone deepening his fascination.

Upon further study, he found that the source of the electric charge from the Griffon Stone wasn’t entirely due to the transfer of frictional charge; much of it seemed to appear out of nowhere.

When the Griffon Stone was rubbed, its interior faintly and temporarily generated a large amount of a certain by-product, which existed for an extremely short time, at most a few microseconds.

Without the aid of the Sword Furnace for burning and analyzing, he likely would not have been able to precisely detect it.

He named this substance the Griffon’s Heart, symbolizing the core of the griffin’s electrical generation capability.

After more than ten days of studying the Griffon’s Heart, Li Chengyi discovered the key reason it produced additional charge.