Above the mage!

Chapter 575 What about elemental particles?
A corner of the demiplane.

Leo sat cross-legged, his back ramrod straight, as upright as a javelin.

Half a foot in front of him, a palm-sized object floated: it was a dark brown crystal shaped like a goose egg, its surface covered with silvery-white runes.

Subtle, earthy-yellow light streams intertwined between the runes, like solidified vein patterns in the earth.

At the top of the crystal is a tiny "earth vein magic crystal" the size of a grain of rice, which is emitting a warm glow.

This is an extraordinary artifact prepared for Leo by his father: the [Earth Vein Rock Amulet].

The amulet's core, the "Earth Vein Crystal," is sourced from deep within the earth veins of Solon County and can slightly neutralize the destructive properties contained within the elemental particles.

From the outside, the silver runes on the surface of the crystal would flash with Leo's breathing.

As you inhale, the runes light up, as if drawing energy from the earth's veins, and a pale yellowish-brown light stream spreads from the crystal.

When wood element particles collide with the light membrane, they are instantly stained with an earthy yellow color.

The originally "corrosive" green light spots instantly became docile, slowly seeping into the gaps in the light film.

As he exhales, the runes darken, pushing the neutralized elemental particles around Leo.

"The extraordinary device my father gave me is even more effective than I expected." Leo felt the changes within his body, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but turn up.

Before reaching the half-rank, the mage Eldrin judged that, given his mage level, he could only cultivate for a maximum of six hours a day.

After being blessed by the Earth Vein Rock Amulet, his actual time available for cultivation was extended to eight hours.

He slowly opened his eyes, a deep green light flashing within them, along with an undisguised joy.

Because he found himself getting closer and closer to breaking through to the mid-stage of the third ring.

The thought of this made him feel excited.

"Elena, Elena, although you cultivate two cultivation methods and your tolerance to elemental particles far surpasses that of other mages of the same level, so what?" Leo muttered to himself, his tone tinged with resentment.

"With just one extraordinary artifact, I can make my cultivation time in this demiplane equal to yours. While there are advantages to practicing cultivation methods, making you stand out in the early stages, the drawbacks are even greater."

"I will prove to you that specialization is far superior to multi-discipline!"

Having a father with the rank of General of the Rockwind Guard, Leo always had high expectations for himself and was placed on his father's shoulders from a young age.

However, Elena, who suddenly appeared out of nowhere, immediately became the most promising rising star of Rockwind Guard.

Whether in terms of strength or military rank, he is far superior to others.

However, Elena still faces many controversies within Rockwind Guard.

One is that she practices two different spiritual methods.

Many people believe that this will give Elena a significant advantage in combat power in the early stages, but it will also make her lack stamina in the later stages, thus mortgaging her future.

This is not prejudice, but fact.

Practicing two different spiritual practices means that the time and energy spent on each practice must be halved.

In the early stages, you can use your talent to bridge this gap.

However, in the later stages, as mages level up, the progression becomes slower, and talents can no longer compensate for this deficiency.

The inevitable drawback of dual cultivation is that the higher the mage's level, the slower the mage's level increases.

Therefore, Elena's current strength is actually the result of her using her potential in the later stages of her life.

Another point is that one of Elena's two cultivation methods is related to the undead.

This means that she is actually proficient in necromancy.

While necromancy is not explicitly banned, there are indeed many spells that violate natural law and are strictly prohibited.

Even though Elena has never used forbidden magic, her "proficiency in necromancy" alone is enough to make her a controversial figure within the Rockwind Guard.

Not to mention that the Plantagenet dynasty was a traditional country that believed in classical doctrines and honor, so its prejudice against necromancers was even stronger.

Even his father, Karen Green, disliked Elena. Every time Elena was mentioned, he would frown and say, "She's a scoundrel; she'll never amount to anything."

Therefore, Karen Green had always placed high hopes on him, expecting him to outshine Elena.

Leo was also holding back this anger.

In his mind, the Third Ring Road was the beginning of his gradual overtaking of Elena.

Thinking of this, Leo felt even more motivated. He closed his eyes again, ready to go all out and break through to the mid-stage of the third ring.

Two flowers bloom, one branch each.

In another secluded place opposite Leo in the demiplane, Elena, dressed in the Rockwind Guard uniform, was also immersed in her cultivation.

Strands of pure wood element particles flowed into her body from all directions, making her magical power fluctuations stronger day by day.

Necromantic training and wood elemental training seem conflicting or even mutually exclusive at first glance.

But in essence, both are closely related to life energy.

Therefore, when Elena cultivates both skills, the resulting boost to her combat power is greater than 1+1.

Even in terms of resistance to wood element erosion, it is greater than 2.

The next moment, she arrived at a certain boundary.

Alina suddenly adjusted her breathing, her chest rising and falling slightly, and a faint gray light flickered around her.

As the gray aura spread, a layer of gray light film faintly appeared on her body, with fine patterns emerging on the surface of the film, resembling withered vines.

Yet it is enveloped in pale green natural energy, not appearing eerie, but rather exuding a peculiar rhythm of "life and death in symbiosis".

Subsequently, the surrounding wood element particles transformed into an energy whirlwind that swept in.

"Whoosh—" Elena opened her mouth and inhaled, and the energy vortex seemed to be drawn by an invisible force, rushing wildly into her body through her mouth, nose, and pores.

It rises again, and rolls up again.

Wood element particles continuously transformed into whirlwinds and surged in.

This process was repeated many times, resulting in a large consumption of the surrounding wood element particles. In fact, a brief vacuum of element particles appeared within a ten-meter radius around Elena.

The massive influx of wood elemental energy into her body instantly propelled her to break through the current barrier with unstoppable force.

Elena opened her eyes, her two gray pupils like dark clouds, both terrifying and deathly still.

She has successfully broken through the bottleneck that had been holding her back for some time.

Elena raised her hand and waved.

Pale green vines and pale gray energy claws rose from the ground simultaneously, the vines entwining the energy claws to form a bizarre yet powerful combination.

"Mid-stage of the third ring, finally arrived." Elena murmured to herself, the vines and energy claws at her fingertips slowly dissipating.

Not only her wood element cultivation method, but also her other necromancy cultivation method has broken through to the mid-stage of the third ring.

Although outsiders believe that she cultivates two cultivation methods simultaneously, exchanging her later potential for formidable combat power in the early stages.

After all, in conventional understanding, practicing two cultivation methods means spreading one's energy. At higher levels, the resources required for each level up are more than twice that of a single cultivator, which is tantamount to cutting off one's own escape route.

But only Elena herself knew that it wasn't like that at all.

Because her second training method, the necromancy-related training method "Heart of Bones", actually comes from her specialty "Resonance".

Unlike ordinary cultivation methods, the cultivation method brought by this specialty is bound to her own mage level.

As long as one's own mage level breaks through, this necromancy cultivation method will naturally break through as well, without the need for additional time and effort.

Simply put, she is essentially a single cultivator.

Of course, this specialization also has its drawbacks in the second method of practice:
It does not provide the additional abilities that the normal cultivation method possesses; it simply provides the additional magical power that the second cultivation method possesses.

Elena was a cautious person and never revealed this secret to anyone.

Even the higher-ups of the Rockwind Guard only knew that she practiced two different techniques, but they didn't know that these two cultivation methods were already bound together by her talent, so there were no drawbacks to practicing them together.

"Why does it feel like the concentration of wood element particles around me is a little thinner?" Elena, who had just broken through her limits, was about to continue her cultivation, but as soon as she entered a meditative state, she noticed the change in her environment.

Could it be that I absorbed too many elemental particles during my recent breakthrough?

That shouldn't be the case. According to the adjustment capability of the half-plane, the area with high element particle concentration will quickly move a large portion of the element particles to the area with low concentration, maintaining the balance of element particle concentration in each area of ​​the half-plane.

There is only one possible reason for the current situation to occur.

The number of elemental particles in the current demiplane has been greatly reduced.
However, given the theoretical amount of elemental particles stored in this demiplane, this situation should not occur.

Elena was somewhat puzzled.

The familiar bright daylight.

As the sound of shackles being broken came from inside his body, Gao De's body surface began to glow with a faint green light, and fine leaf vein patterns suddenly appeared on his skin.

A series of messages then appeared in his consciousness.

[Your body has been subjected to continuous damage from the wood element for a long time. Your body has begun to adapt to the presence of wood element particles, and your tolerance to wood element particles has increased by 100%.]

[Through the continuous immersion and assimilation of wood element particles, you have developed an extreme adaptability to them, evolving into a symbiotic body of wood element.]

[After evolving into a Wood Element Symbiotic Body, you will be regarded as a homologous entity by Wood Element particles, and will be completely immune to all corrosive effects caused by Wood Element particles.]

[Your perception and absorption efficiency of wood element particles has been greatly enhanced: You can clearly perceive the flow trajectory and concentration distribution of wood element particles within a 100-meter radius; when absorbing wood element particles, your efficiency is increased by 50% (you can absorb half again as many particles in the same amount of time), and no additional mental energy is required to maintain control during the absorption process. The particles will actively flow into the magic crystal through your pores and magical meridians.]

When you are in an environment with a high concentration of wood elemental particles (such as forests, ancient forests in demiplanes, or near wood-type magic springs), your body will automatically form an "elemental particle siphon field": wood elemental particles within a 5-meter radius of you will slowly converge towards you. Even without actively practicing cultivation techniques, you can passively absorb a small amount of particles, providing a trace replenishment to your mana pool.

After being stuck at the 99.9% tolerance threshold for a long time, Gaode finally managed to cross that threshold.

Gao De, having gained something new, had a slight thought and tried to activate his cultivation method once more.

The feeling of repulsion that required mental control when absorbing particles in the past has disappeared.

The particles flowed in as smoothly as water flowing into a river, surging along the magical veins all the way to the Wood Magic Crystal in the magic pool.

The conversion efficiency was nearly twice as fast as before the moment the magic crystal came into contact with the elemental particles.

In other words, the amount of particles flowing into the magic crystal was 50% more than before in the same amount of time, and it did not require any mental energy to maintain, just like breathing.

Is this the power of the [Wood Element Symbiotic Body]?
Judging from the description alone, its limitations are indeed very strong; it can only function in environments rich in wood element.

Furthermore, it cannot reduce a large amount of damage like a combat-type body, nor can it unlock new spell skills, and it provides almost no boost to combat power.

In the current Wood element demiplane, this is practically a divine skill.

What suits you best is the best!

Gao De opened his eyes and looked down at his hands, where the veins on his skin were faintly visible.

With a gentle lift of the hand, the surrounding particles flowed around as if wrapped around a finger.

He couldn't help but smile with satisfaction.

"bring it on!"

For Gao De, his demiplane cultivation journey officially began from this moment on!
He took a deep breath and said, "Full power."

In an instant, a green storm suddenly erupted from the wood element particles within a ten-meter radius centered on Gaode.

The pale green light spots no longer gathered slowly, but instead, as if drawn by an invisible gravitational field, formed a powerful energy flow that surged towards his body.

The sheer force of this particle absorption was unmatched, not even by an ordinary second-ring mage, let alone by Elena, who had already broken through to the mid-third ring and possessed dual-wielding magic, or by Leo, who was about to break through and had the help of the Leyline Stone Amulet.
More importantly, now that Gao De's spiritual power has broken through to the level of a third-ring mage, he can steadily withstand the massive particle flow, and his cultivation time has also been further increased.

With multiple enhancements, the amount of wood element particles he absorbs in a day is equivalent to the total amount absorbed by three or even four ordinary third-ring mages!

Gao De could clearly feel his whole body being nourished by wood element particles. On his wood magic crystal, point by point, light appeared, generated, and condensed into new magic patterns.

Before long, a new magic rune was formed.

Soon, the number of ripples on the wooden magic crystal reached 150, and it was still increasing rapidly.

One hundred and fifty-one. One hundred and fifty-two.
According to the normal cultivation process, after breaking through to the mid-stage of the second ring, the amount of magical power required to condense each new magic rune increases significantly. Therefore, the difficulty of condensing each new magic rune will increase slightly, and the time required will also be extended accordingly.

However, this logic does not hold true for Gaode Maps.

His current cultivation progress is even faster than the stage from the early to the middle of the second ring.

The buffs from the [Wood Element Symbiotic Body] are truly immense.

This time, he even managed to condense three and a half ripples in one go.

When the 153rd magic rune was halfway condensed, Gao De felt a slight dizziness.

My mental energy is finally starting to dry up.

Elena opened her eyes again, her two gray eyes sweeping around, her brows furrowing instantly, her face full of confusion.

This is because the concentration of wood element particles in the surrounding environment is no longer just slightly thinner, but much thinner.

Even more strangely, she could clearly feel these wood element particles flowing in a certain direction.

As a result, when she actively activated her cultivation technique, the particles flowing into her body became intermittent, making absorption several times more difficult.

what's the situation? !

Meanwhile, in another corner of the demiplane, Leo also interrupted his cultivation at this moment.

They both looked completely bewildered.

But his doubts were far deeper than Elena's.

Because his situation was far worse than Elena's.

The ley line amulet was now dull and lifeless because there weren't enough elemental particles to gather, and the amulet had entered a dormant state.

He tried his best to circulate his cultivation technique, but found that the wood element particles around him were pitifully sparse, and the element particles flowing into his body were even fewer.

"What about the elemental particles?" Leo suddenly stood up, looked around, and looked completely bewildered.

(End of this chapter)