Techniques were created out of the combination of three different aspects.
The Qi, the pathway, and the Intent.
The Qi was the energy that would be the fuel for the technique, allowing it to be used.
The pathway was the route through the ridians that changed the Qi's properties to better suit the technique.
And at last, the Intent was the final touch placed onto the technique that gave it the instruction on how and where the technique was to be used.
Technically speaking, the Intent wasn't necessary to form the
technique itself. So long as the choice of Qi and the pathway it moved through was correct, it would appear outside of one's body.
It was just that without the Intent, there would be no instructions for the technique on how to function, and so it would usually fall apart imdiately.
The pillbug was sothing similar.
It could skip the requirent of Qi and pathway, as it directly emulated their aura right from the start. However, it failed to emulate the Intent that was placed inside the technique.
At this point, producing Wood aura at a distance was such a simple technique that Alex didn't even need to learn it. He could just perform it as it was since the Qi would need no changing at all.
However, the pillbug didn't work the sa way he did.
'It's an insect with no thought of its own,' Alex thought. 'It should have so Intent, but it can't think for itself what it is supposed to do. I have to supplent that part of it!
He needed to command it to move the aura beyond its own body.
Alex hadn't learned how to control the pillbug in that way, so he had to spend another week understanding the ins and outs of that specific type of command.
Once he was ready, he revisited the sa issue from before. The pillbug produced the Wood aura around its body, and this ti, Alex gave it the command to produce the aura at a distance.
It did so perfectly.
Bright green aura appeared about three ters away from the tiny bug, hovering in the air like a ball of fire, the aura dissipating into the air.
It was finally a success.
He changed his command from ti to ti, getting the pillbug to move the ball of Wood energy around. He slowly got a feel for the limits of what he could do with them, and to his absolute amazent, the bugs were no worse than an actual Immortal.
Their strength and range were about as limited as that of an Immortal, perhaps even more in certain cases. The only thing they were limited by was Alex's own commands over them.
In the heat of battle, he couldn't control these bugs constantly. Giving them such complex commands would be practically impossible, especially if he had to change the commands at each mont of the fight.
In that case, could he perhaps set it up in advance?
'Intent does present itself as an aura too, right?' Alex thought and imdiately got to work.
He retaught the Wood aura 'technique' to the pillbug, only this ti it included the aura of his Intent as well that caused the Wood aura to appear at a distance.
With the addition of a different aura, the complexity of the technique
increased sowhat, making the pillbug take more ti to fully learn it. When it did finally learn it, Alex tested it out.
With a simple command to use the technique, the pillbug imdiately complied. Suddenly, the Wood aura appeared a distance away from the bug without Alex having to command it further.
Seeing that, a wide smile ford on his face, along with a look of relief.
"So it does work."
There were still so issues to solve, such as the fact that the pillbug could only create the aura at a certain distance, which couldn't be changed on a whim.
Alex had already thought of ways to fix that, which mostly involved changing his Intent altogether. That would no doubt increase the complexity of the aura for the pillbug to learn, but it would be worth it if it could manage it.
He wasn't in a hurry to test that, however, and instead focused on the other tests he still needed to try out to fully understand the extent of
the pillbugs.
One of those tests was to see just how long the pillbug could continue. Since the pillbug gained its energy from his blood, he fed it again until it could eat no more.
Once it was satisfied, Alex made it emulate the technique again, producing the Wood aura. At the sa ti, he did the sa, copying the bug. He kept it up for a long ti, making sure the bug did as well.
After nearly an hour and a half, the pillbug finally stopped producing any aura. Comparing that with his own Qi reserves, Alex ca to realize that a regular pillbug could produce around five percent of his total dantian capacity.
That ant, with only twenty pillbugs, they would have enough energy to perform the sa feats Alex could-at least without considering his Qi replenishnt or his blood aura, which he could
convert back into Qi.
At that point, even a hundred pillbugs wouldn't be enough.
Next, Alex tested the pillbug's durability while it was in the middle of working. The pillbugs got into a defensive position whenever they acted, so Alex could only test their spherical forms.
He started weak before slowly increasing his strength in each attempt. His physical strength could barely do anything to the pillbug, even at an Immortal rank. The pillbug was unbelievably sturdy. Even as Alex's physical strength approached the Divine realm, it did not crack. Alex stopped in the end, fearing he might accidentally damage the pillbug. It would only be a waste if he did.
The sa was true of its elental defense as well. It could ignore
most attacks.
What it could not ignore, however, were Spiritual attacks. Those were the Pillbug's weaknesses.
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