Soul Trigger

Chapter 159 Strengthening
The pillar of fire was only a thin line at first, but then it exploded rapidly due to the consumption of red matter, and its diameter instantly expanded to several meters.

In the instant that Ji Li swept his hand, countless steel walls and factory machines were torn apart in an instant, and the assembly line on the ceiling collapsed completely, with a rumbling sound continuing in the ears.

The exoskeleton of arthropods that was wrapped around from all directions also melted into pieces with a scream, and then a powerful and terrifying spiritual essence emerged:
"Damn it kid, I'm going to kill you!!!"

As a black shadow like a cannonball hit Ji Li, Xiang Yu, who had been silent all this time, finally roared:
"Be careful, old man!"

He suddenly curled up his body and protected Ji Li in his belly, then rolled forward like a ball.

Ji Li inside only felt a huge force coming from behind, and the man and the dog instantly crashed into a huge gap, which was exactly the gap that Ji Li had just destroyed after using the red matter explosion.

Just like sitting in an old bus that was about to be retired, Ji Li was wrapped in Xiang Yu's belly and rocked wildly.

It can only be said that there is no hard object on the dog's soft belly, and Ji Li's physique at the moment is different from that of ordinary people, otherwise he would at least be bruised and swollen and vomit up his overnight meal.

It was unknown how long the collision and bounce lasted, until the spiritual energy exploding behind them could no longer be sensed, and the two people who were moving at high speed seemed to stop.

"Hey, Gouzi! How are you?"

Ji Li quickly pushed open the soft dog fur and crawled out from under Xiang Yu to check on his condition.

Large pieces of flesh on his back were scraped off, revealing his white bones, and his body was rapidly shrinking back to its original shape.

Ji Li lifted up the dog's head and took a look. He found that the iron-coated gold eyes were piercing with a bright look, and there was a flash of orange-yellow spiritual essence inside. He didn't look like he was seriously injured. He immediately patted his head:

"You are a tough guy!"

Xiang Yu immediately revealed his true nature and smiled, but the moment his eyes met the back of Ji Li, the smile immediately froze on his face, and then turned into visible fear.

Although the soul trigger had not been triggered, Ji Li still activated the spiritual circuit on his body to light up suddenly, and turned around suddenly——

What appeared behind him was not an enemy, but a dim laboratory.

Unskinned dog carcasses were hung on the assembly line on the ceiling, with their heads drooping and emitting a foul stench.

And on those neatly arranged laboratory tables, there were also dog corpses.

Their skin is covered with spiritual circuits and stretched to the extreme by a skinning machine with long needles and many legs, looking strange and creepy.

Ji Li patted the back of Xiang Yu's neck comfortingly.

Before it was just speculation and hearsay, but now the bloodiest scene is directly presented to the dog.

The iron-coated gold eyes trembled, and the orange-yellow spiritual essence jumped and flickered in the beast's pupils. Some painful memories broke through the barrier and rose from there.

After being stunned for a while, it suddenly lowered its head:
"Boss, I finally remembered."

"I'm just a stray dog ​​that was caught for experiments. It was just my wishful thinking that I was the most special one..."

"I always thought I was the 'king' among dogs, that's why I was so special, with so many ectoplasm circuits and an awakened dog..."

Ji Li patted its head heavily:
"Dude, don't think about it, you're special."

"Lao Da..."

Xiang Yu raised his head with tears in his eyes and finally couldn't help sobbing.

"You are about to join Flash Street, and even become the first dog in Aurora City to negotiate cooperation with the Special Management Bureau face to face."

“It may even be the first in Silla, the first in the world.”

"And you now have the power of a master, although it's only temporary."

"But why don't you think about how many other dogs can reach your current level? Aren't you special enough now?"

"If you think what I'm saying makes sense, then say 'makes sense' and we'll keep going."

Xiang Yu raised his claws and scratched his face randomly:

"Yes... you are right. I am special. I am already very special..."

It raised its head, and Ji Li actually saw a look called "perseverance" on the dog's face. He didn't know if his chicken soup was too much:
"I want revenge. I want to destroy this place. I want to tear these unruly people who dare to treat me as a guinea pig into pieces!"

"very good."

Ji Li patted the dog's head, glanced at the wound on Xiang Yu's back, and was slightly startled:
The huge wound that was so horrifying before has actually recovered a lot. Except for the skin which is still a little hideous, the muscles have grown back.

In addition to the fact that Xiang Yu has some restorative spiritual essence circuits, Xiang Yu's own spiritual essence seems to have increased to a certain extent:
"Xiang Yu, what is your awakening aura?"

"Huh? I don't know."

Ji Li had previously explained to Xiang Yu about awakening spiritual light, but this guy knew nothing about it.

"But seeing these lab tables reminded me of something..."

Xiang Yu's eyes swept over the skinned dog corpses:

“…I remember they were torturing me.”

"They cut off my skin and sewed it on with other dogs' skins."

"In order to test some spiritual circuits, they used various devices to cut my tendons, cut off my flesh, and injected me with various drugs to drive me crazy..."

As he spoke of this, Xiang Yu's teeth began to chatter.

Aura of "survival"? Or something else?
Ji Li couldn't figure it out for a moment, but he just asked casually and stopped dwelling on it:

"The most important thing right now is to continue collecting spiritual energy circuits so that I can get my strength back to its peak state and then meet up with Cool Girl and the others."

"After that, we can take down this place and catch the guy called 'Bone Picker'."

Xiang Yu nodded, and his mood and state improved a lot.

Ji Li took out the walkie-talkie, but Lingboyu caused abnormal interference to the walkie-talkie, signal transmission was restricted, and he could not hear anything.

After simply telling the person on the intercom about his current situation, he took Xiang Yu, who was recovering rapidly, deep into this place that was suspected to be a research institute.

Unfortunately, although these dog corpses were still intact, the spiritual circuits in their bodies had basically lost their effectiveness due to the decay of the corpses due to the overly inferior and rough methods used.

There is no way to allow Ji Li to use mycelium to graft onto himself.

Ji Li first found a small room that seemed relatively hidden. At this moment, Xiang Yu's body had completely stopped bleeding and he was recovering very quickly.

The man and the dog decided to take a rest here.

One is to allow Xiang Yu to recover completely, and the other is that Ji Li wants to check the biomass skin on his body and make some arrangements for the spiritual circuits he has seized.

The number of spiritual circuits will affect the upper limit of the strength that can be exerted in this spiritual prison. After Ji Li seized the spiritual circuits from the captain, his strength has returned to the dominant stage.

However, it is still very risky to face two pursuers at the level of sixth-order masters. If he encounters them again, he will have to use the precious red essence to escape.

However, there is room for exploration in the spiritual circuit itself, not to mention that it has achieved some kind of combination with the mycelium.

Ji Li sorted out the messy spiritual circuits in the biomass epidermis.

Most of them are spiritual circuits for physical enhancement, such as enhanced breathing, strengthened tendons, enhanced flexibility, and even some with overlapping functions.

He carefully controlled the mycelium and adjusted these spiritual circuits. Relying on his accumulated attainments and knowledge of spiritual circuits, he tried to eliminate the useless components in these circuits and piece them together.

……

A few minutes later, the spiritual essence in Ji Li's eyes stopped flickering. He raised his hand to wipe the sweat off his forehead, and grinned:

"Success..."

At this moment, the mycelium biomass epidermis on his body became much thinner, and the area covered also expanded.

But part of the previously chaotic spiritual circuits has now gathered together and is arranged on the biomass surface in a certain nested pattern.

It integrates all physical enhancement functions, eliminates the best ones, and optimizes useless circuit details.

Finally, it became a set of complex school spiritual circuits that can strengthen the body in all aspects.

The so-called all-round strengthening of the body means strengthening sensitivity, tendon output, skin flexibility, and even includes walking on walls, short-term underwater breathing, and super bounce, etc. -

These are the results of the fusion of the body-strengthening spiritual circuits selected by Ji Li.

He pulled out a dagger and stabbed his wrist, leaving a shallow white mark.

Then he injected spiritual essence and cut again, barely leaving a red mark.

Only by increasing the injection of spiritual essence could a thin blood mark be completely cut.

"It's far more outrageous than the Murphy structure that a mortal body can achieve this."

Ji Li commented and then prepared to see what changes would occur after the evil spirit transformation.

Since he has recovered to the dominance stage, the total amount of spiritual energy that can be mobilized allows Ji Li to briefly enter the evil spirit stage.

As the "Desperate" form was activated, the biomass skin on Ji Li's body became integrated with this form, and dense circuits appeared on his upper body.

Then, those body-strengthening spiritual circuits disappeared at high speed and began to merge into the form of the "Desperate Man".

The mycelium on the surface of Ji Li's body was boiling, transforming into a large number of dense tissue structures, guarding a large number of sharp barbs and exoskeleton armor groups.

When the spiritual circuit was completely integrated into the form of the Desperate Man, the entire spiritual circuit actually transformed into different shapes and appeared on Ji Li's body at this moment——

The toughness of the epidermis formed a tough armor group of dark gray and white interwoven on his body surface.

It is different from the hard light armor in the previous non-bone-melting state, and even the heavy armor of the Dark Ice Storm.

This armor group formed by the combination of mycelium and spiritual circuits has a flexible feeling of biomass. It will sink slightly if pressed lightly, and it seems to have a multi-layer structure inside.

The power-enhancing spiritual circuits turned into some kind of fuel tank-like biological capsules in Ji Li's wrists and feet, like a biological thruster, and were combined with the hardened mycelium armor like mechanical parts.

With every effort he made, the biological bag would roar like an engine, strengthening his power in his evil spirit state.

When the biological capsule explodes completely, the attack can be greatly enhanced, but spiritual essence needs to be injected to replenish the biological capsule.

Then, when Ji Li followed the spiritual circuit to activate the mycelium, a thick and heavy biological exoskeleton soon took shape on his body.

In this state, the scale of his barbs is even more exaggerated, with huge white bone spurs and black exoskeleton spikes guarding his upper torso and shoulders.

The mycelium armor all over its body turned dark, thick and hard, like a tank. Its body size also increased in all directions, and it also had a long and thick tail like a battering ram.

"Two transformable forms... and there are still many reality interference-type spiritual circuits that have not been integrated into it. There may be new changes by then."

Because the spiritual circuits were plundered using mycelium as a medium, after the integration was completed, these spiritual circuits acquired extremely high compatibility with the Aichen strain.

Speaking of variant forms, the Ai Chen strain also has a high-output mode of "overspeed division", which Ji Li has never used before.

When he fully recovers to his original peak level, he will be even more powerful than before, and his trump cards can be said to be nested layer by layer like a nesting doll.

In addition to these, among the large number of psychic circuits he plundered, there were also some that fell into the category of "reality interference".

For example, the flame ray that was used just now, the vibration circuit used by the captain, the circuit that turns spiritual essence into sharp threads, etc.

If these can be integrated and completely assimilated into the Aichen strain, I am afraid his strength and means will be further improved.

However, due to time constraints, if we continue to make improvements, the risks will increase, and the two overlords behind us may catch up at any time.

"…This is my first real adaptation as a spiritual circuit recorder… Ascension Protocol, help me choose a name."

Ji Li regained his human form and glanced at the biomass skin on his body.

The archival data of the Ascension Protocol danced in his retina, finally stopping at the name "Rune".

"It did confront Odin... Rune circuits, Rune school... Of course, if we talk about schools, it can only be considered a weird school now, but at least it's a composite circuit."

Ji Li thought of his introductory book on the school, which was about the guy who wrote "The Loop of Thorns" and his disdain for compound circuits.

Now that I have gotten started with compound circuits, does this count as being a heresy towards my mentor?
Using mycelium to control the spiritual circuit is completely different from the feeling of using engraving props before. Moreover, when removing and supplementing the engraving, it is as easy as moving one's arm. Even the mycelium itself can be used as part of the engraving material.

Coupled with the logical grid assistance of the Ascension Protocol, the calculation problems and technical loopholes are solved.

He realized that he seemed to have found a path as a recorder that was unique to him.

Ji Li looked at the dog who had fully recovered and was standing there on guard:
"That's almost it. Let's go."

(End of this chapter)