Soul Trigger

Chapter 548 Promotion
During the day, Ji Li was sitting quietly in his room.

His eyes had changed back to a pale blue from their previous heterochromatic color, indicating that the aftereffects of using cyclic calculations had completely subsided.

More than half a week has passed since the port incident, and now the people from the Mediterranean Union's "Rizhao" have moved into the Yuanling Prince's Palace.

With Tengjun's approval, the Yuanling Prince's residence was used as a temporary diplomatic base.

Although it was somewhat troublesome, the Yuanling Prince's Mansion was large and powerful, and it was not impossible for them to support so many people.

The young man's father also had his own influence, so arranging for his subordinates to handle such diplomatic matters was not difficult for him.

While Shu's existence carries certain risks, it has also brought considerable benefits to the Yuanling Prince's Mansion.

Because of the constant arrival of diplomatic delegations of all sizes in Shendu during this period, the Yuanling Prince's Mansion has become one of the top three places they need to visit after landing.

Besides Yuanling King, who, as the King of the Tomb, was a political figure who needed to be visited, there was also the existence of Shu. All these people wanted to glimpse the power of the Eye of Truth.

From this perspective, Prince Yuanling could be said to have controlled considerable political resources.

Prince Fuling, who hadn't gotten along with him much during this period, was not happy.

Especially after he couldn't find anyone by trying to contact the diplomatic missions several times and had to come to the Yuanling Prince's Mansion for a meeting, he finally couldn't keep up his fake smile anymore.

After all, his son was eliminated by Ji Li in the Dragon Leap Festival last time.

Although the rules of the Divine Dragon Vein prevent direct death, it is said that some are still recovering from the shock.

As for Shu, the person who triggered the core conflict of the port incident, he is still asleep and shows no signs of waking up. Those who came to visit him could only leave empty-handed.

Ji Li opened her eyes and glanced at her phone.

This morning, the tombstone, which had been silent for several days, finally made an encrypted call. The caller said that he had boarded an international flight, successfully arrived at White Island, and safely escaped from Shulong. He asked Ji Li when he would go to the Tower of Babel headquarters as agreed.

Ji Li said that he couldn't leave because of Shu's presence, and the princess was still asleep, so he would likely have to stay until the multi-country visit was over.

The tombstone could only urge him to reach White Island as soon as possible, not because of the Tower of Babel, as the gatherings there were more relaxed.

More importantly, he now has an old friend of Ji Li following him around, chasing after him and going around hunting down and killing his dead followers.

The tombstone has now led people to the east side of the archipelago, where things are relatively peaceful for now, but they are urging Ji Li to come over as soon as possible to resolve the issue himself.

Ji Li found it strange when he heard this, wondering who was so powerful as to be able to chase after and kill someone like him in his complete form.

The tombstone sent an emoji, a system-provided animal avatar, a rabbit head.

Ji Li was very suspicious. Why would this guy go to White Island?

The phone number was disconnected. Yan Xiyu said that the rabbit people had lost contact with him after he left Silla. How could he hear news about her from the tombstone now?

[Odin: I'll handle this myself. Don't touch her.]

[Tombstone: You're so gentle... But I can't touch her for now. I sense other eyes watching that rabbit from behind, and I don't want to provoke them for the time being.]

As for Yan Xiyu, she hasn't lost contact with Ji Li recently. It's probably because, according to the Dragon Vein Convention Bureau's arrangements, she's been running around in various parts of Shulong as an international student dispatched by Sinlo, either doing spiritual quality training or mission assignments.

Perhaps because she was a member of the Dragon Clan, she rose rapidly through the ranks of the Convention Bureau, quickly passed the trials of the Divine Dragon Vein, and successfully ignited her Soul Blood to unlock her Dragon Armor.

His status rose rapidly after just a few missions, far surpassing that of his fellow trainees. This was likely due to a certain compatibility with the Wraith Dragon, which earned him the attention of the higher-ups at the Dragon Vein Convention.

Ji Li guessed that it was probably when they were in Silla that the problem of the pollution of the inner world of Cool Girl was cured by the Soul Mach.

After all, even the color of her spiritual essence changed after that. This guy was the one with the highest compatibility with the inner world that Ji Li had encountered among the human spirits.

Currently, she is partnered with a student from White Island to carry out the mission of suppressing Lingbo Prison in the southwest of Shulong. After the mission is completed, she will go to Shendu to meet up with Ji Li.

The reason was that the expansion of the dragon vein triggered a major diplomatic event involving visits from multiple countries. She was already under the attention of the high-ranking officials of the Convention Bureau. As a Silla national and a Shulong person, she was naturally assigned to participate in this major diplomatic event.

[Ji Li: So, has the duration of the demonic transformation increased?]

[Cool Girl: ...I know what you're thinking, but demonization isn't for that kind of thing!]

[Ji Li: So you're saying you're going to break your promise?]

[Cool Girl: Yes, I'm going to break my promise.]

[Ji Li: That's pointless. Let's focus on completing the task first. There's no need to rush to see me.]

[Cool Girl: I'm going to do it anyway.]

At the Southwest Branch of the Dragon Vein Convention Bureau, Yan Xiyu's fingers flew across the keyboard as he replied to Ji Li with an unfriendly expression.

"Why is this guy still acting like this..."

Yan Xiyu sighed as he placed his phone flat on the table.

Once we arrive in Mirage City, the first thing we'll do is give him a good beating, and take the beating Jin Misha received with us.

The thought that Rabbit had no idea how many earth-shattering mistresses would emerge from that funeral made Yan Xiyu silently mourn for that guy.

If Kim Mi-sa had actually been at the funeral, given her silly personality, she might have burst into tears and tore your grave apart on the spot.

At that moment, a male voice came from behind her:
"Commander Yan, someone is looking for you..."

The moment he heard the sound, Yan Xiyu turned his phone upside down on the table, his expression instantly turning cold.
"I told you to remember to knock."

"I'm sorry, they're in a bit of a hurry. They're an Illuminati diplomatic mission heading to Mirage City, just passing through, so..."

"It's okay, Roy, I understand."

Yan Xiyu put away her phone and turned to look at her European-looking task partner at the door.

The other person had deep-set eyes, a handsome face, and a head of curly hair that hung down, giving him the air of a melancholic European male model. He was carrying a small gift box in his hand.

After their eyes met, he smiled.
"I just had the people from the Soul Bureau take me around the ancient city. Here's a little gift for you."

"Thank you, just put it in the entryway. Where is he/she?"

"Outside, although he's a member of the Illuminati of the Keton Federation, his background is that of one of the heirs of the High Star Conglomerate, I think his name is..."

Yan Xiyu's brows relaxed slightly:
"Cha Chan-ho?"

Roy was taken aback, a sense of crisis flashing in his eyes:

"acquaintance?"

"That's it."

Yan Xiyu and Che Canhao weren't very close, but she was still quite happy to run into an acquaintance while traveling around Shulong.

Watching Yan Xiyu leave with light steps, Luo Yi glanced at the small gift in his hand, tossed it with a hint of helplessness, and placed it on the counter in the entryway.

Then he quickly followed her out, naturally putting on a smile and saying:

"Should I make a reservation? The mission is progressing smoothly, so we can have dinner together. It'll be a good opportunity for us to get to know each other, and we can even invite the deputy director and the others..."

"Then you guys go ahead, I've arranged training for tonight. Do you want me to give you the day off?"

"Well... then I'll train with you. I happen to have some new questions about dragon armor that I need your help with."

"Row."

On Ji Li's side, after ending his call with Yan Xiyu, he turned off his phone screen and brought up his current 4D panel.
-
Willpower: 365 (+42)

Extrasensory: 129.8 (+6.4)
Creativity: 100 (+3.1)

Affinity: 413.1 (+36)

[Personality Entity: Death Star]

[Echoing Spiritual Network: Three-Layer Extension]

[Corruption Curse: Four-Striped Extension]

[Soul Quality: Immortal/Double Mark]

[Ringa: A disdainful echo, a rainbow's gaze, the brilliance of stars]
-
The port incident brought him a significant increase in cognitive and arrogance indices. After investing all of these into his current personality entity, [Death Star], his spiritual network advanced from "second-level divergence" to "third-level extension".

The runes have progressed from "the sprouting of three runes" to "the extension of four runes".

The suffixes here generally range from low to high, representing subtle progress in the spiritual energy channels and runes:

Germination, growth, diffusion, extension.

After the advancement of the spiritual network, this time the increase is not in the total number of Dragon Fireflies like last time, but in the operating speed of the Dragon Fireflies, with an increase range of [18%-27%].

After the Dragonfireflies are generated, their speed in reaching Ji Li's designated target location has increased, which is better than nothing.

After the rune was upgraded, the size of the Dragonfirefly was reduced by 44%-57%, which is quite significant.

Afterwards, the Dragonfireflies can be assembled into more sophisticated mechanical bodies in Ji Li's understanding, but they are still somewhat inferior to the floating cannons that were unlocked earlier.

At this point, Ji Li can basically conclude that the spiritual network can enhance the Dragon Firefly's own qualities, while the runes can extend the Dragon Firefly's functionality.

Every two layers of spiritual energy/incantations should result in a significant improvement, so this improvement is slightly less than the last one. However, there aren't many major changes in the four-dimensional values.

His thinking attributes are now progressing steadily, his creativity has finally broken through the 100 mark, and his affinity has reached 400.

Following this trend, Ji Li speculates that once a single-dimensional attribute exceeds 600, one can reach the threshold of the Netherworld Illumination realm.

However, to truly reach the state of enlightenment, one needs to advance through the echo, which is conservatively estimated to be between 700 and 800 points.

Ji Li, who had figured out his own [Single-Dimensional Distortion] ability, had something to say about this.

As his eyes suddenly became cloudy, his pupils dilated like ink, revealing his heterochromatic eyes, one red and one blue.

At the same time, his entire body and soul fell into a strange tremor and distortion, and the fluctuations of his spiritual energy began to become extremely chaotic.

On the four-dimensional panel in front of him, the attributes of [Willpower] and [Affinity] began to jump rapidly.

Soon, his willpower dropped from 365 to 265.
His affinity, however, surged to 513.1; his affable demeanor was rapidly transforming, attracting a little bee that flew in from outside the window—

One-dimensional distortion, it's done.

As the abnormalities in his body gradually returned to normal, Ji Li smiled, a layer of fine sweat appearing on his forehead. This was the real highlight of this promotion.

The Trinity Distortion, originally a side effect of the cyclic calculation, has now become a [Single-Dimensional Distortion] ability that he can actively control to achieve the "attribute conversion" effect.

He gradually experimented in battle and initially mastered a certain degree of distortion ability.

Later, with the ability of the Eye of Truth that Shu gave him, he witnessed the changes in himself under the distortion more clearly, and thus realized the key to the distortion of the Trinity, which allowed him to successfully master it.

This can be considered as a preliminary experience of the wonders of the Eye of Truth.

Ji Li had already experienced the powerful allure of high affinity during the port incident.

In addition to this, the high affinity trait will also bring him better spiritual fluidity and spiritual adaptability.

This means that his spiritual output efficiency will increase, and when facing spiritual attacks, the spiritual reaction generated by the collision between his spiritual energy and the opponent's spiritual energy will be weakened.

Just like chemical reactions can be either "inert" or "violent".

This means that an opponent would need to expend more spiritual energy to shake his spiritual energy in the face of his attacks.

In addition, Affinity can tap into the potential of the personality entity itself, enhancing its three abilities: [Echoing Gaze], [Solidified Red Light], and [Starry Colors].

It can influence enemies who are stronger than oneself, or even far beyond one's current level.

The characteristics of [Starry Night] are to summon Dragon Fireflies and expand Arrogance Pollution, which can lead to some randomized effects under high affinity.

Affinity is arguably the most complex of the four dimensions. Under certain personality entities, it does not actually have the effect of directly increasing strength, but it is extremely powerful in creating chaos.

Not to mention that Ji Li's personality entity, [Death Star], inherently has affinity as one of its main attributes, so strengthening affinity can also strengthen Death Star's spiritual quality, which can be considered a win-win situation.

As for the reduction of the other main attribute "Willpower", this will directly lead to a decrease in Ji Li's spiritual density and quality, that is, a reduction in attack power. This is the trade-off that the [Single-Dimensional Distortion] ability needs to make.

Similarly, Ji Li can also convert the affinity attribute into the will attribute.

By sacrificing the allure and depth of the spirit abilities and the spirit output of Dark Star under high affinity, in exchange for the ultimate spirit density and quality, Dark Star possesses extremely high offensive capabilities.

Incidentally, willpower also affects the state of unity between body and soul, so the stronger the willpower, the stronger Ji Li's physical attributes and Death Star's physical attributes will become.

The reason for only discussing these two attributes is that Ji Li can currently only switch between his two main attributes, namely "Will" and "Affinity".

Therefore, this ability should now be called "two-dimensional distortion." Admittedly, it is still some distance from the "four-dimensional distortion" that Ji Li expected.

Perhaps we need to further utilize the power of the Eye of Truth to see how to distort the other two attributes, achieving the effect of frequently switching between the four attributes as the battle changes.

Besides, even when it comes to the conversion of dual-dimensional attributes, Ji Li is not very proficient, and the conversion efficiency is not high. He is not yet able to switch quickly in battle.

Otherwise, I wouldn't have sweated so much after spinning around 100 times.

In short, this ability allows Ji Li to switch between two extreme states: the ultimate charm and specialized spiritual abilities, or the ultimate offensive capabilities. It's all up to him to choose.

Conversely, after completing a large number of transformations, his Death Star form will also undergo corresponding changes.

For example, in its previously uncontrollable one-dimensional distortion state, the Dark Star exhibited a powerful ability to control spiritual matter, namely, the effectiveness of long-range attacks.

So, once the will reaches an extreme state, perhaps Death Star will become an extremely melee-specialized personality entity with both great speed and strength.

However, now, Ji Li wants to see what the effect would be if he channeled all his will into affinity.

Because the combined value of Willpower and Affinity has reached 778, it is close to the 800 mark that Ji Li predicted for the Netherworld-level attribute.

Is it possible to acquire an extraordinary affinity at the level of a psychic?

His vision blurred again, the numbers continued to jump, and Ji Li gradually began to use his two-dimensional distortion ability purely.

This caused his only remaining blue eye to begin turning red.

Ultimately, both eyes turned scarlet, and then, at the instant the data stopped jumping, they transformed into iridescent colors.

Its magnificent radiance was interspersed with the splendor of red and purple, surging with endless enchanting charm:
Will: 0
Extrasensory perception: 129.8
Creativity: 100
Affinity: 413.1 + 365 —
Ji Li didn't know if there would be any problems with having a completely zero will, but if he hadn't felt something was off, he would have even been prepared to lower his will to a negative number.

The current level of friendliness, approaching 800, makes him feel as if the whole world has changed.

He could sense that the spiritual energy permeating the entire room was trying to please him, and the scents in the air were transforming into his preferred aromas.

Even the glaring sunlight outside the window became incredibly gentle when touched by his gaze, and it even brought a few chirping birds with it.

The environment has been affected?
Ji Li took out a dagger from his spatial artifacts and stabbed it into his palm.

No matter how hard he tried, the dagger was filled with the emotion of not wanting to hurt him.

It was as if, under his extremely high affinity, everything around him had acquired emotions and spirituality, becoming some kind of "spiritual object".

However, the room was still too small, so Ji Li decided to find someone to test it out.

Because of Rizhao's presence, the employees and housekeepers were quite busy, so Ji Li simply called Ji Ruoxi and asked her to send over some food, and specifically told her not to bother cooking herself.

Just then, Ji Li was also hungry. This kind of trinity-distorting ability, strictly speaking, not only distorts the soul, but also his body.

Therefore, it will greatly deplete his physical energy, like doing a high-intensity aerobic exercise without the blessing of the unity of body and soul, resulting in hunger in his stomach.

Just then, the little bee that had been perched on his shoulder suddenly jumped up as if in response.

Then, in front of him, he stabbed himself with his tail needle, instantly killing himself with a series of convulsions.

Ji Li: ?
Just as he was getting a little confused, a few birds outside the window flashed with iridescent light and flew right in.

An extremely bloody battle unfolded before him:

One bit its companion's neck like a ferocious beast, while the other tore off the first's wing.

The fourth one twisted off the third one's head with its claws.

In an instant, all four birds died, their feathers flying everywhere, and their blood soaked the carpet.

The strangest thing is that there wasn't a single scream throughout the entire process.

They acted silently and swiftly, like a quiet collective suicide staged under some extreme temptation, offering their flesh and blood to Ji Li—

It was all because he was "hungry".

Upon realizing this, Ji Li couldn't help but find it somewhat unbelievable.

This is almost equivalent to a wide-ranging brain manipulation. Under the influence of high affinity, it can produce such terrifying effects.

When Yan Xiyu arrives, won't he also cause a huge mess, with bird feathers flying everywhere?

This intense sense of curiosity instantly filled Ji Li's mind. Just as he was about to make another call to confirm Ji Ruoxi's food delivery status, hoping he wouldn't end up seeing his cheap sister's steamed thighs, someone pushed the door open and walked in:

"You've been lazy at home for so many days, now you even need me to bring you your meals..."

The moment their eyes met, Ji Ruoxi froze, her eyes instantly igniting with iridescent light.

After placing her plate on the table, she began to take off her clothes.

Ji Li was originally prepared to stop the other party as soon as she realized something was wrong, but seeing this scene, she couldn't move:
"What are you doing?"

"These are the leftovers from the refrigerator. If you're still hungry, you can eat me."

Ji Li: ? ? ?
Ji Ruoxi stopped halfway through undressing:

"Wouldn't it be bad to eat raw food? I'll go to the kitchen to shred the meat; it'll be ready to cook after I cut it off."

But I'm not a good cook, I'll go call the chef over..."

Ji Li grabbed her wrist:

"You called the cook to cook this, right?"
-
P.S.: The two chapters are now combined into one.

(End of this chapter)