Translator: Strivon

  Luo Nan confirmed that the connection between the soul and fleshly body still existed even though it passed through the void. It was just that the distortion was very intense. The connection was weaker than ever before. It was completely impossible to estimate the distance. Perception details also became problematic.

  Luo Nan was somewhat panicked about the sensation coming from over there. Nothing else mattered. He worried the most about his aunt and uncle coming home and discovering a corpse on the bed. He would be sent straight to the hospital.

  Even though Luo Nan had a thousand hopes to do a deep search in the cloud world and quickly ascertain traces of Snake Tongue being alive or not, his current life awaited at home. He had to kneel and give up right then.

  The psychic intent stirred, and within the core of the Condensation Ring, the new form of the external neuron broadcasted the corresponding signal. The soul cloak changed its manner of interference and the world changed in an instant.

  In the depths of the cloud layer, the Mushed Mouth Ape, that Luo Nan had been toying with for a long time, was hopping with fury. But the threat that was disturbing it for a while suddenly disappeared without a trace. It was as if the threat was never there in the first place.

  This Mushed Mouth Ape was stupefied. It circled around in place for quite a while before angrily leaving.

  Luo Nan returned to the normal world—back to a familiar place. It was exactly the same as last time. He was in the tree hole of the Withered Tree Sandbar a thousand meters away from the main building of Gear.

  Sure enough, there was a clear and deliberately set method of entering and exiting the cloud world. Luo Nan felt both astonishment and respect to his mother’s design from back in the day. Unfortunately, this son was unfilial, having casually thrown trash into the cloud world and causing an incident.

  The sensation with his soul and fleshly body was much clearer now, and Luo Nan knew that it was just a false alarm. His aunt and uncle hadn’t come home. Instead, his wristband was vibrating. Someone was trying to contact him.

  However, if it were his aunt and uncle calling him, it would be quite the headache.

  The wristband couldn’t compare to the HexaEar. It didn’t possess the telepathic function to answer a call from eighty kilometers away. Luo Nan knew that he had to go home. He made a circle around the tree hole, reluctant to part, and flew straight into the air. He felt Gear in the distance using his senses once more before soaring away.

  Luo Nan set a new record in astral travel speed on his way back. It took him only four minutes to travel eighty kilometers. This meant that he had maintained a speed of 1200 kilometers per hour. He was infinitesimally close to the speed of sound.

  Actually, it wasn’t impossible for him to reach the speed of sound. It was just that Luo Nan didn’t know what would happen to the external neuron if he were to break the sound barrier. So he acted with caution. He would experiment when he had the leisure.

  Luo Nan returned home and hurriedly checked the incoming call. His soul easily returned back to his body, merging with it as one. Only then did he realize……

  The external neuron!

  The thought barely stirred but only then did he discover that the external neuron had returned to the depths of his head. It had even transformed back to its original form of a long thread of lightning. It spiraled and wound, forming the vehicle for the God Gear structure. It supported the vast ocean of soul strength.

  How very automatic! If the Condensation Ring structure had come in instead……

  Luo Nan shook his head in a fluster, getting rid of the thought of water entering his brain. He stood up and shook his neck then looked at the caller ID on the wristband.

  It was impossible for Luo Nan to have picked up the first call. The caller had called two times before stopping. Luckily, it wasn’t the people he was most worried about, his aunt and uncle. Instead it was someone familiar but unexpected.

  Luo Nan blinked his eyes. It was actually Mo Han, also known as Sister Pomegranate, ranked 16th among the younger generation of his aunt and uncle’s family. Luo Nan dialed back, his heart full of suspicion. Mo Han picked up the phone quickly, saying, "Hello, hello." She was in a very noisy environment.

  "Pom…… Sister Han, I was taking a shower just now, so I didn’t have my wristband on me. Were you looking for me?" Luo Nan forcefully swallowed some dangerous words and smoothly uttered out some lies. He adopted the persona of a good boy.

  Mo Han changed the environmental mode on her wristband and her voice became clear shortly after. Her mood seemed decent; she didn’t bicker about whether Luo Nan telling the truth or not. She giggled and said, "I just confirmed with Peng 17. I will be there tomorrow night at seven on the dot. Little Nan, be prepared to receive me."

  "Tomorrow?"

  "Isn’t it tomorrow?"

  Fuck, I forgot about this tormenting matter!

  Luo Nan gaped with his mouth, but the words of refusal never came out. Mo Han was a lively and swift girl. She was the middle child in the Mo Family, and she took Luo Nan to be a little brother to a certain degree. She even visited him in the hospital after the matter at Frost River Reality……

  Speaking of the last time at Frost River Reality, why wasn’t this sister even the least bit scared?

  Ah, that’s right. Their group of people were brought to the police station early on. Their impression of that night was merely that of a group brawl. There was a degree of separation when it came to finding out what happened through the news.

  And so, was Luo Nan the only one with a mental shadow?

  With feelings of absurdness, Luo Nan ended the call with Mo Han and gave Mo Peng a call. He hit Mo Peng with a question as soon as the call went through. "What the hell is with your endlessly expanding gaming team?"

  Mo Peng shrieked from the other end, "You think I want her to come? We’re clearly trying to get a group date going! Pomegranate coming along is the same as giving the rest of our family a pair of eyes to watch us! So you need to quickly find someone. Find a hot handsome man to distract her! You can’t let her get in the way of our brotherly plan!"

  "Plan your little sister!"

  "I don’t have a little sister. Find my older sister."

  Luo Nan thought about Mo Ya, who was just about to head away again, and he immediately shivered. He spoke without a hint of politeness, "How many people are you bringing over? Which idiot spilled the beans?"

  "Uh, you totally got me."

  "……"

  Luo Nan was so stupefied by the current situation that he wanted to cry. He simply hung up the phone and looked at the time. His aunt and uncle would be back home any minute. It was a bad time to go astral traveling again. He had to wait until night before making any further decisions.

  He had drawn his soul body back, but Luo Nan’s mind was still on the cloud area. He diligently pondered over how to quickly survey the geography and sky-shape to find Snake Tongue. He didn’t have a clue for a time.

  Luo Nan thought for a long while before changing angles. He remembered that there was a very important problem.

  Where in the world was the cloud area?

  Boundless thick clouds beyond common sense. A burning red glow that circulated between the cracks of the clouds. Powerful Mushed Mouth Ape flying back and forth…… Every element was extremely distinct, but they were like a randomly drawn mask when gathered together. They were hard to distinguish.

  These elements, which constituted a mask, went against the logic of reality. So much so that Luo Nan was even considering that the cloud area might be a place not of earth but of a fantasy world.

  Luo Nan decided not to think about this idea of a fantasy world; he had to ponder the question from a realistic and observable perspective. He wouldn’t mull over the thickness of the clouds, nor would he focus on the source of the bloody glow. He started from the Mushed Mouth Ape as he had observed it the most.

  The Mushed Mouth Ape was undoubtedly a Mutant species. They had the tendency to gather, and they possessed powerful strength. According to Luo Nan’s knowledge, high level Mutants’ territorial instincts were quite powerful. Only a few of them were this powerful and formed communities, and the area where they resided was relatively fixed.

  If Luo Nan could discover the real name of this species, there was a very high chance that he could determine where the cloud area was in this world.

  Luo Nan gave it a shot. He took the image of the monster, turned it into a telepathic signal, and searched for it on the Psychic Wave Network. But he wasn’t successful. There clearly wasn’t any publicly available information.

  Luo Nan had the idea of looking up classified information, but this would be much more troublesome. Right now the Xia City branch was gradually putting into practice a classified system. One must apply for permission to access classified material and use relevant resources.

  Aside from an extremely small number of special material, the requirements weren’t that high, but there would be access records left behind for future recourse.

  It was said that this classification of the database was done after the branch exchanged large amounts of intelligence with the military. This was certainly done in accordance with He Yueyin’s style. No matter what other people thought, He Yueyin was slowly but surely changing the way ability users of Xia City did things.

  Luo Nan passively applied for the smart search service, but he suddenly came to his senses and canceled the application.

  He was being somewhat selfish. He wasn’t willing to divulge too much information about the cloud world…… After all, he himself had yet to figure out his mother’s legacy. Was it any good to make it known to everyone?

  The more Luo Nan thought about protecting his mother’s legacy, the more Snake Tongue’s existence became a thorn in his mind. In any case, Luo Nan had to find that witch as quickly as possible!

  Luo Nan nearly headed back to Gear filled with killing content, but reason ultimately prevailed. He couldn’t go and resolve these issues before eating dinner, and so he forced these thoughts back down.

  Luo Nan needed to adjust his mood. He thought for a bit, and applied for the privileges to access the database. He borrowed material, such as "The Great Encyclopedia of Mutants: Inner World Edition" and a few other resources in the form of images and writings pertaining to Mutants. He even fetched the video material of the mid-level training classes from last year. These were supplements to the teaching materials and notes that Papercut had sent him.

  Until dinner was over, Luo Nan had to stay at home and act like a good boy. Using the precise and flexible Dripping Sword was actually a great way to pass the time.

  Luo Nan didn’t deny it. He now had very special feelings toward the Dripping Sword. The Condensation Ring was truly a great achievement, let alone the Dripping Sword itself and its efficiency.

  It drew from the external neuron to form a backbone structure in converting soul strength to interference power, thereby forming the Soul Cloak. The Soul Cloak gave him the choice of applying the interference direction toward either the mental or material plane. It liberated Luo Nan from his frail fleshly body. Needless to say, Luo Nan had quite the feelings after entering the cloud world.

  Once a person develops an intimate attachment to a certain technique, they also develop an amble drive. At first, Luo Nan only practiced the technique as a way to pass time, but then he started really studying it, and his level was subconsciously rising.

  It was just that working on the core of the Condensation Ring’s structure was the same as perfecting something that was already outstanding. The few auxiliary structures also had to be carefully pondered. Speaking of which, Luo Nan was very curious. After the external neuron has a ’divine rebirth’ into the Condensation Ring, is it possible to add on auxiliary structures? If it is, then what sort of state and effects would occur?

  As soon as these thoughts formed, Luo Nan simply entered the out-of-body state, and the Condensation Ring structure manifested from the void of his consciousness with a slight stir of intent. The structure was carved into the void, while the external neuron leaped out to follow the structure and wind itself into the form, seeming to possess intelligence.

  Because the process was extremely short, Luo Nan found it hard to distinguish whether or not his consciousness was directly controlling the external neuron as it formed the Condensation Ring.

  There was more. Luo Nan was able to faintly sense a subtle feeling from the center of the hollow structure of the Condensation Ring. It was from the cyclotron acceleration back within the atrium of Gear. It was the structure of the key that opened the door to the cloud world.

  Holy cow! It had a memory function!

  Luo Nan was truly convinced.

  The structure in the center of the Condensation Ring was already below the nanometer scale. It was impossible for Luo Nan to study it with his current ability. Waves heaved in his mind twice before he returned to practicing the Dripping Sword.

  Luo Nan first experimented. He took the three auxiliary structures of guiding, distancing, and accelerating and probed their characteristics. He pieced these characteristics together to discover more about the structural design of the Dripping Sword.

  The distancing structure could be considered a regulator. It ensured that soul strength maintained continuity and stability in long-distance applications.

  The accelerating structure was like the nitrogen oxygen acceleration system of a modified vehicle. It was responsible for explosive acceleration in bursts.

  The guiding structure affected micro-operations. It increased the degree of sensitivity for operating the main structure.

  The three structures complemented the basic Condensation Ring. Every time a structure was overlaid, the Condensation Ring would find an increase in both controllability and explosive power. As for the sharpening and exploding structures, these could be considered attack modules. They mainly acted upon the coalesced water bead. Luo Nan had yet to experiment with them.

  Luo Nan was really worried that the Condensation Ring would reject these auxiliary structures after seizing a ’divine rebirth’. So he cautiously made room to try it out.

  The early stages went well. The new version of the Condensation Ring easily accepted the few auxiliary structures. Although there were differences between the new and the old, control went rather smoothly.

  But then right before he could feel delight, Luo Nan saw the Condensation Ring branch out with lightning. The lightning gushed into the three auxiliary structures and could only circulate for half a cycle before the auxiliary structure totally collapsed. It was hard for the structures to endure the lightning.

  "Huh?" Luo Nan actually didn’t feel any frustration when faced with this scene. He only felt a sense of familiarity.

  Wasn’t this situation exactly the same as when the external neuron first joined with the Condensation Ring? Luo Nan thought about the minute structure in the core of the Condensation Ring. Could it be? The new version of the Condensation Ring still had extra energy to also give the auxiliary structures a ’divine rebirth’?

  Luo Nan carefully sensed the entire process of the auxiliary structures’ annihilation. He knew the scene well, and he couldn’t let the external neuron take all the blame. Actually, these few auxiliary structures were quickly made in practice. They weren’t formed in careful polish like the Condensation Ring. The structures were far too rough, and their stability was insufficient. There was leakage everywhere as soon as the lightning channeled through them. There was no value to using these structures as models of reference.

  In other words, to let the external neuron be a pampering uncle, Luo Nan would need to take these auxiliary structures and carve them with the utmost care. He had to make them beautiful and bright in order for it to work.

  What defects these were!

  Cursing was cursing. Luo Nan more or less expected this. This sort of precise and delicate painting style was really in line with his aesthetics. If he could really do it, wouldn’t the end result be a Dripping Sword structure completely built from the external neuron?

  Metal…… Oh, actually Luo Nan didn’t know what strange material the external neuron was made of. It wasn’t really metal, but its pliable, tough, solid, and mailable constitution was like the sword-balls of novels.

  It would be great fun to bring it out against an enemy. The enemy would believe it to be merely a bead of water, when actually it was a solid kernel. Its penetrative and destructive power would be increased by tenfold, no a hundredfold.

  Uh, Luo Nan still needed to ponder over it some more. The external neuron was a very precious item. What if some almighty person takes it after he throws it out as a hidden weapon. Luo Nan would really find death to be preferable if that were to happen.

  Luo Nan began a new round of practice with his mind tangled in these emotions. The five auxiliary structures far couldn’t compare with the Condensation Ring in terms of their complexity. But to reach the required level of exquisiteness and precision was something that requires a large amount of hard practice.

  Luo Nan’s greater brilliance and fortune when compared to others lay here. His first step was to create the ’blue-grade’ or ’purple-grade’ Condensation Ring and use them as reference templates and as standards. The external neuron after a divine rebirth was the same as having a carrier and a test instrument that would never suffer from wear and tear.

  The few auxiliary structures were all lacking in terms of precision. None of them could pass Luo Nan’s subconscious standards. Even if one could fool past Luo Nan, the uncle that was the external neuron would feel that the quality of the housing was not enough. Lightning would burst forth from the structure, and the defective product would immediately disintegrate.

  This was a grindy process. Luo Nan original intent was to pass the time until dinner, but he never thought he would waste so much time on these structures. Except for dinner time, Luo Nan spent four or five hours all the way until his evening session trying.

  There was no other way. When one’s brain was excited, one’s focus was heightened. It wasn’t easy to reverse direction.

  And so, in this devil-like period of concentration, Luo Nan’s two days of closed-door cultivation drew to a full stop.

  End of Book 7

  Book 8: The Hunt