Chapter 431: Minimum Security.
He suddenly remembered that he was standing too close to a ticking time bomb. His senses began screaming of danger as the energy pressure within her began rising.
To his senses, it felt as if she was a volcano about to erupt. So he thought it better to get out of the range of the explosion before it happened.
But before he could move away from her, the sensation disappeared. All that was left was Elder Storm Hawk smiling at the sight of his figure trying to move away from her. It was clear that she was teasing him.
She said, "Relax. I don't want to be assimilated by lightning, so I won't go off the rails. There are also the repercussions of breaking the contracts I signed and the oaths I swore when I joined the sect. So I'm not going to kill you. The worst that will happen to you from me is to be maimed."
Arthur said with sarcasm, "That sure sounds reassuring."
She nodded seriously and said, "It is. It is also the best that you can get from me, so don't ask for more assurance. It doesn't get better than this."
Arthur said, "Right. I forgot about the assimilation of lightning."
He didn't exactly forget. The threat of losing control and being assimilated by lightning is just something that he doesn't deal with at all and has taken a back seat in his life.
Unlike other cultivators, he has been able to cultivate two different types of cultivation techniques that are capable of taking him to the third mortal coil. And because these two cultivation techniques cancel out the influence of each other, he doesn't have the quirky nature of other cultivators.
He is being lenient when he calls the influence of cultivation techniques quirky. Especially when such a quirk can turn someone into a mad serial killer.
The influence of cultivation techniques is a serious matter if even someone like Elder Storm Hawk can go mad, kill everyone around her, destroy everything in her sight, and then become assimilated by the world.
So it can be said that she has tried her best for him in terms of the security that she can provide. But Arthur still asked for more security.
He said, "I'm afraid I have to ask for more security seeing as you brought me to this place for an unknown purpose."
She refused adamantly. "Well, you won't get more security because I have nothing left to give and because you agreed to this."
Arthur frowned and asked, "When did I agree to this?"
She replied smugly, "You agreed to this arrangement yesterday on the ship, remember?"
Arthur finally remembered after she pointed it out to him. What he remembered made his eyes light up as he asked, "Do you mean?"
She nodded and said, "Yes."
The two of them looked at each other and began to giggle like two crazy people.
She said to him, "Maybe I was wrong. Maybe you have the capacity to enjoy violence too."
Arthur didn't deny it. He also didn't pester her anymore and was willing to lay low silently with her.
For the next couple of days, the two of them didn't leave the house they were in. They mostly talked about cultivation experiences.
The topic she dwelled on the most was how to establish a foundation and how to convert the body into a proper host. The conversation was really enlightening, as it gave Arthur tangible and intangible benefits.
In terms of tangible benefits, it is that his Lightning Host cultivation technique experienced a 10% boost in comprehension. It meant that as soon as he becomes a foundation establishment cultivator, he would be able to mobilize at least 10% of all the life seeds he has together.
He didn't get more boosts than that because he wasn't a foundation establishment cultivator yet and couldn't test the ideas he gained during the cultivation. Those ideas are the intangible benefits that he gained.
His main idea is a way to create a schematic of an integrated circuit within him that draws power from every life seed and treats each life seed as a cell and turns them into one large battery.
With this idea, he can couple the cells together in series or in parallel. This is in case he is able to polarize each cell into opposing negative and positive terminals.
If he can give each life seed a positive and negative terminal, he will be able to combine every life seed either positive to positive or negative to negative. This will be a parallel connection or a series connection.
By his estimates, a parallel connection will lead to a higher current in his lightning output. But this will require that he have a very strong body to withstand the high current.
But if he can only achieve series connection between the life seeds, it will lead to a higher potential difference or voltage in his lightning output. This option will be safer for his body, but he will need a more powerful mind in order to control the high-voltage lightning.
And in the case he can't polarize each life seed into positive and negative terminals, he still has the option of assigning each life seed a voltage.
And by his estimates, if he gives every life seed a different voltage, a potential difference will form between them and lightning will flow from one life seed to another, thereby combining them and enabling him to mobilize them.
For example, if he gives two life seeds a voltage of +1 and +2, respectively, and uses them to power a cultivation technique of 0 voltage. Lightning will flow from the one with a voltage of +2 to the other one with a voltage of +1 and down to the cultivation technique to produce an output.
He doesn't have a foundation yet, so he can't test his ideas and know which one will be more feasible. But he is sure that both options will be very difficult to execute.