A/N
I know not everyone likes different POV chapters, but I think Wei Lin's cultivation thod is really interesting, I wanted to give a glimpse of its potential.
My Patrons loved this chapter and I hope you all do too :)
Wei Lin watched in stunned silence as Ke Yin vanished into the mist, the massive queen wasp and her elite guards shot through the air after him, leaving him and Lin i alone within the protective do of the Symphony Shield formation.
Well, not entirely alone.
Dozens of lesser Voidneedle Wasps still circled them. Most were at the third stage of Qi Condensation, with a handful of fourth-stage specins mixed in. Under normal circumstances, even one of those fourth-stage beasts would be a serious threat.
"He's insane," Wei Lin sighed, watching another wave of wasps test the barrier's strength. Their stingers struck the formation's surface in perfect unison, creating ripples of light that spread across the do like water. "Completely and utterly insane."
Lin i knelt down beside one of the formation's anchor points, feeding it qi. "Focus, Wei Lin. We need to maintain the formation."
Right. The formation.
Wei Lin moved to another anchor point, placing his hand on the glowing sigils. He could feel the steady drain as the barrier converted their qi into protective energy. With both of them working together, they could probably maintain it indefinitely against opponents of this level.
But that wasn't going to help Ke Yin.
"We can't just hide in here," Wei Lin said, watching another coordinated strike splash harmlessly against the barrier. "He's out there fighting a stage-six beast by himself!"
"Along with three stage-fives," Lin i added helpfully, which did nothing to improve Wei Lin's mood.
"Not helping, love."
A particularly aggressive wasp slamd into the barrier right in front of Wei Lin's face. Instead of bouncing off like its brethren, it pressed its stinger against the surface, trying to inject void energy directly into the formation's matrix.
Wei Lin stared at the pulsing darkness gathering around the wasp's stinger. Void energy. Actually, that gave him an idea...
"Cover for a second," he said, pulling his hand away from the formation anchor.
"Wait..."Lin i's eyes widened. "What are you doing?"
Instead of answering, Wei Lin carefully extended his right hand through the barrier. The Symphony Shield parted like water around his arm, maintaining its integrity while allowing controlled movent. Thank the heavens for Ke Yin's recent obsession with formations.
The nearest wasp imdiately took advantage, its stinger plunging towards Wei Lin's exposed hand. But that was exactly what he wanted.
Wei Lin activated his rchant's thod, creating a special "transaction space" around his hand. The mont the stinger made contact, he felt the familiar sensation of foreign energy being absorbed into his inner world.
Void energy. Real, genuine void energy.
In his mind's eye, Wei Lin could see his inner world responding. The spiritual marketplace that ford his core was already preparing a new stall, specially designed to handle this rare commodity. If he could gather enough...
The wasp pulled back, confused by the lack of effect. Wei Lin, not sure if he could handle anymore, quickly withdrew his arm back inside the barrier before it could try for a second strike.
"Are you insane?" Lin i demanded, dividing her attention between maintaining the formation and glaring at him. "What were you thinking?"
"I was thinking," Wei Lin replied, showing her his still-intact arm, "that void energy is incredibly rare and valuable. Do you know how much I would need to pay to get even such a small amount? These wasps are practically giving it away!"
Lin i's expression suggested she was seriously reconsidering their relationship. "We're in the middle of a battle, and you're thinking about saving money?"
Their argunt was interrupted by another synchronized attack from the swarm.
This ti, Wei Lin noticed sothing interesting – the wasps' coordination seed slightly less perfect than before. There were tiny delays between strikes, millisecond gaps in their formation.
"Look," he said, pointing to where two wasps had actually bumped into each other during their latest attack run. "Their hive-mind connection must have a limited range. They're starting to lose sync with their queen."
Lin i's eyes narrowed as she studied the swarm's movent. "You're right. Their attacks are getting sloppier." She paused, then added, "We might be able to use that."
Wei Lin nodded, already seeing where she was going with this. "The formation lets things pass through from the inside, like my arm earlier, so the sa should apply to our attacks, right?"
"Only one way to find out." Lin i gathered a small amount of qi, compressing it into a single drop of water. With careful precision, she flicked it toward the barrier.
The droplet passed through without resistance, expanding into a razor-sharp needle that caught one of the wasps by surprise. The projectile didn't do much damage – these weren't normal insects, after all – but it proved their theory.
"Well," Wei Lin said, grinning as he began gathering energy for his own attack, "this just got a lot more fun."
He focused on the void energy he'd managed to absorb, using his cultivation thod to process it. Converting foreign energy always ca with a cost – he'd lose so power in the exchange – but it was worth it for the versatility.
"Lin i," he called out, "can you create an opening in their formation? Sothing to break up their defensive pattern?"
She nodded, already moving her hands in a complex pattern. Water essence gathered around her, condensing into dozens of floating spheres. "Ready when you are."
Wei Lin closed his eyes, concentrating on the energy conversion. Void energy was tricky – it naturally wanted to drain and consu rather than be channeled. But everything had a price, everything could be traded.
In his inner world, the marketplace shifted and realigned. The newly ford void energy stall connected briefly with his fire essence shop, creating a unique exchange rate. Power flowed through the spiritual pathways he'd carefully constructed, transforming from one type of energy to another.
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When Wei Lin opened his eyes, his right hand was wreathed in purple-tinged flas.
"Now!" he called out.
Lin i's water spheres shot through the barrier in rapid succession, creating a complex pattern of movent that forced the wasps to adjust their formation, causing quite a few of them to crash into each other, their degraded hive-mind connection unable to compensate for the sudden chaos.
Wei Lin thrust his hand forward, sending a concentrated blast of void-infused fire through the Symphony Shield. The flas passed through the barrier without resistance, maintaining their cohesion as they streaked toward the closest fourth-stage wasp.
The insect tried to dodge, but its movents were sluggish without proper coordination from the hive-mind. The flas caught it squarely in the thorax, and for a mont, the wasp was surrounded by a corona of purple fire.
Then its carapace began to crack, void qi fighting against fire qi, destroying the beast from the inside out. The wasp's wings seized up as its energy channels collapsed, and it dropped down like a stone.
Wei Lin allowed himself a small fist pump. "Ha! How's that for—"
"Incoming!" Lin i's warning cut off his celebration as three wasps launched a coordinated counter-attack.
Wei Lin quickly put his hand back on the formation anchor, reinforcing the barrier just as the stingers struck. The Symphony Shield held, but he could feel the strain in the formation matrix. These wasps might be weaker individually, but they could still coordinate enough to be dangerous.
"We need a better strategy," Lin i said, her hands already moving to gather more water essence. "We can't keep dividing our attention between maintaining the formation and attacking. One slip and they'll break through."
She was right, of course. Wei Lin's cultivation thod was perfect for converting their void energy into sothing more lethal, but the process took ti. Ti they didn't have if they needed to constantly reinforce the barrier.
Unless...
"What if we take turns?" Wei Lin suggested. "One person maintains the formation while the other attacks. We can switch off every few minutes."
Lin i considered this, absently deflecting another wasp strike with a water needle. "That could work. But we'd need perfect timing on the switches, or they'll exploit the gap."
"Leave the timing to ." Wei Lin grinned, already doing calculations in his head. "If there's one thing I know, it's how to maximize efficiency."
They quickly settled into a rhythm. Lin i would maintain the formation while Wei Lin gathered void energy and converted it into various elental attacks. Then they'd switch, with Wei Lin holding the barrier while Lin i launched precisely targeted water techniques.
It wasn't a perfect system – they were basically fighting defensively, picking off individual wasps when the opportunity presented itself. But it was sustainable, and more importantly, it was working.
Wei Lin had just finished converting another batch of void energy into fire qi when he noticed sothing odd. The wasps' attacks, which had been growing steadily more erratic, suddenly stopped completely.
The entire swarm hung motionless in the air for several seconds, their wings beating in confused patterns. Then, as if responding to so distant signal, they scattered in all directions.
"What just happened?" Lin i asked, watching the wasps disappear into the mist.
Wei Lin lowered his hand, letting the flas dissipate. "Ke Yin," he said with certainty. "He must have defeated the queen. Without her controlling the hive-mind..."
"We should go find him," Lin i said imdiately, already moving to deactivate her side of the formation. "He could be hurt."
"Wait." Wei Lin caught her arm. "What if so of those wasps circle back? Or worse, what if we run into sothing else out there? This is still the beast grounds."
"So we just wait here while our friend could be bleeding out sowhere?"
"No of course not, I'm just saying we should—"
A figure erged from the mist, and Wei Lin instinctively gathered energy for an attack. Then the light fell on the newcor, revealing a familiar face.
"Ke Yin!" Lin i cried out. "Are you alright?"
Their friend looked... well, he looked like he'd just fought a stage-six spirit beast and its elite guards. His outer robes were torn in several places, but Wei Lin noticed sothing odd - wherever the fabric had been shredded, there seed to be a layer of thin, vine-like plants clinging to Ke Yin's body, completely covering any skin that would have otherwise been exposed.
The plant coverage was a little strange, but it could just be Ke Yin being modest. But more importantly, despite the disheveled appearance, his friend was alive.
"I'm fine," Ke Yin said, stepping through the barrier. "Just tired. How did you two fare?"
Wei Lin deactivated his side of the formation, letting the protective do fade away. "Oh, you know, just the usual. Fought off a swarm of deadly wasps, collected so void energy, probably traumatized Lin i..."
"He stuck his arm outside the barrier to let them sting him," Lin i reported, giving Wei Lin a look that suggested this discussion wasn't over.
"Really?" Ke Yin raised an eyebrow. "How much void energy did you manage to collect?"
"Enough for a proper void energy stall," Wei Lin smiled proudly. "Give ti. I'll soon be able to use it in battle!"
As Wei Lin took a closer look at Ke Yin, he noticed his friend was leaning rather heavily against the tree. "Maybe we should head back? Take you to the dical pavilion to get checked out?"
"It's just a scratch," Ke Yin assured them, which Wei Lin didn't believe for a second. Anyone who'd challenge a stage-six beast probably had a very skewed definition of 'just a scratch.'
As they began making their way back toward the beast grounds' entrance, Wei Lin found himself thinking about everything that had happened. The coordinated defense, the void energy collection, the synchronized attacks... it had all worked far better than he'd expected.
"Hey," he said suddenly, causing both Ke Yin and Lin i to look at him. "We actually make a pretty good team, don't we?"
Lin i smiled, slipping her hand into his. "We do. Though next ti, maybe we could practice with sothing a little less deadly?"
"Where's the fun in that?" Ke Yin asked, and Wei Lin couldn't tell if he was joking or not.
Knowing Ke Yin, probably not.
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