novelraw Chapter 98: Summoning
Chapter 98: Summoning
As he began cultivating with the soul and mind techniques, Wuyi realized another immense value of his cheats again. The statue of harmony and the statue of knowledge were particularly effective in tempering his soul and mind, channeling energies in a way that refined these aspects of his being.
At present, his cheat was quite balanced. Valor and Shadow were crucial in strengthening his body, while Knowledge and Harmony would aid in the cultivation of his mind and soul.
Wuyi wondered when he would unlock a new statue. But after the statue of Knowledge, there was no meteorite fall in the sacred chamber, no matter what Wuyi tried. But instead of wasting time on figuring out how to unlock a new statue, Wuyi decided it was more productive to spend time feeding the energy of this world to his present statues while he cultivated mind and soul.
The cultivation of the mind and soul proved beneficial for his most powerful ability, his hidden card—the ability that gave him the upper hand in any situation so far, the ability to summon the statues.
When Wuyi reached Qi master, he wanted to see if he could summon statues safely. With the Statue of Knowledge, he calculated that he could summon the Statue of Valor and the Statue of Shadow, one at a time or both at the same time for a certain time limit. However, he could not summon the Statue of Harmony without harming his Qi channels.
When he summoned Valor or Shadow, or both, his strongest statue, the Statue of Harmony, would take most of the burden so Wuyi could be free. But if the Statue of Harmony is summoned, the remaining three statues combined would have a hard time sharing the burden, so they would have to distribute it to Wuyi.
If compared by this world's cultivation level, the power of the statues was always ahead of Wuyi. All three statues—Valor, Shadow, and Knowledge—could almost challenge a Qi lord now.
While the Statue of Harmony, Wuyi felt, had gained a few more levels, it might be child's play for that statue of harmony to handle a Qi lord, if he could summon the statue.
He had to strengthen his mind, body, and soul if he wanted to bear the equal burden with the statues and summon the Statue of Harmony. In Lujingbao, when he summoned the Statue of Harmony, only his body was cultivated; his mind and soul had no growth, because of this, they could not bear much burden.
So, most of the burden was worn by his body, which led to severe damage to his Qi channels and body, which took him years to recover from.
After all calculations were done, Wuyi found that after reaching Qi master and cultivating his mind and soul, he could summon each of the statues, except for Harmony, for durations of around 30 minutes, while expending less energy.
After confirming that he wouldn't be hurting his channels, Wuyi started testing his summoning ability. The energy spent by summoned statues in thirty minutes was recoverable within a few hours. Then he could summon them back again.
It was not that they could not stay summoned for more than 30 minutes, but what he had learned from the Statue of Knowledge, after all considerations, was that if they were outside for more than thirty minutes, energy consumption would be doubled. The reason being, these statues were not summons in the true sense.
While they are out in the physical world, they had to maintain the persona of summons for the outside world. In general, they would not be noticed in the first thirty minutes, but after that, they might start showing as an anomaly in the fate of the world for really powerful diviners of this world.
Even Wuyi, who transmigrated to this world, was born in this world and was connected with fate in this world. The summoners of this world who actually practiced summons from another world, those summons were connected with the fates of other worlds which could be traced back, but the statues were not connected to any fate of any world.
To hide this, if summoned statues had to spend a longer time outside, they had to spend a larger amount of energy to keep their presence hidden..
Wuyi was still dependent on meditation and natural energy absorption to keep the statues growing. But that was not his only source of energy. Even in his estate, there was a steady supply of energy from bandits, rogue demonics, and Qi warriors that were caught by his followers.
Xuebi, whom Wuyi had sent with Merchant Zhu, upon his arrival in Huanghou, took the first step in establishing their influence by purchasing a building in the main city and founding the faction known as the 'Traders Vanguard.' Initially, the faction didn't attract much attention, except from Zhu Dexin, who hired them to protect his merchant caravans.
However, as time progressed, tales of the Traders Vanguard began to spread across Kaliyuan and Huanghou. Initially vague, these stories gained clarity and fame with the emergence of the New Demonic Ten bandit group
Rogue cultivators and bandits had terrorized the trade routes of Huanghou and Kaliyuan, typically targeting unprotected processions and avoiding those under the protection of Qi warriors, especially those associated with the five powerful noble clans. Among these rogues, the most well-known were the infamous Demonic Ten that had terrorized the area for the last twenty years.
Even the Demonic Ten avoided targeting caravans of nobles or powerful merchants
In the recent year, the Demonic Ten had become more active, and things had started to change. They targeted not just weak merchants but also caravans of nobles and powerful merchants. Most caravans employed normal warriors for protection, while those belonging to nobles and powerful merchants employed Qi Initiate warriors for added security.
The Demonic Ten were supposed to be a group of ten Qi Initiates themselves, so they were expected to attack traders and caravans with no or fewer Qi warriors to avoid brutal battles. However, when they began targeting heavily protected caravans, this surprised many.