Douluo Continent: Starting with a Heavenly Fire Judgment

Chapter 498 Energy Issues

As the saying goes, "the authorities are fascinated, while the bystanders see clearly." Having been secretly observing for a long time, I basically understand the people in this Free Gate and can guess their thoughts.

This includes Gu Yuena, who seems domineering and disdains other humans, including Wang Dong'er, but treats Wang Qiu'er, Bai Xiuxiu, and Ji Lin differently. Of course, there's also Chi Yuan, but Chi Yuan earned Gu Yuena's approval through her strength and the novel, which is different from others.

If Wang Qiu'er was favored by Gu Yuena because of her status as an imperial auspicious beast, and Bai Xiuxiu was favored because of her status as a soul beast and her inexplicable affection, then Ji Lin is quite strange. He is neither a soul beast nor has he had much contact with Gu Yuena, but Gu Yuena has gone from initially disdainful of him to now occasionally secretly watching him, showing that she attaches great importance to him.

Although she couldn't figure out what Gu Yuena was thinking for a long time, it didn't stop her from imagining things. So she wasn't worried about resources related to soul beasts, but resources related to rare metals were a big problem. The original Douluo Continent didn't have many rare metal resources to begin with, let alone rare metals with life. If she could take over the legacy of the Heavenly Soul Empire and the Douling Empire, she could at least form a Molten Fire Knights Order of three hundred people!

Three hundred titled Douluo-level Molten Knights are enough to sweep across the world. Even if a powerful hidden sect were to emerge in the end, they could suppress it forcefully.

After a long pause, he looked at Xuan Ziwen and asked, "Master Xuan, when will you be able to produce the complete Molten Knight Armor? I'll figure out a way to make it out of the rare life metal. You just need to produce results as soon as possible."

Xuan Ziwen pushed up his black-rimmed glasses, shook his head and said, "The current Molten Knight Armor has entered the final stage, which is also the most difficult stage. Whether it is giving the armor life or engraving holy marks, we can already do it, but there is still one last problem."

Ji Lin frowned and looked at the silver-white humanoid mecha in front of him. The mecha was forged from Ice Extreme God Crystal and other super soul-guided alloys. Because it was an experimental product, Ice Extreme God Crystal with ice spirit was not used. It looked like a pure inanimate object. Ji Lin had a good eye and found several holy marks on the chest and waist of the silver-white mecha. Obviously, this experimental product had successfully implanted holy marks, and more than one holy mark. The mecha had its own soul skills. In addition, he also observed that the mecha's arms were equipped with small soul-guided cannons, its head was equipped with a detection soul-guided device, and its back could be equipped with a flight soul-guided device and a propulsion soul-guided device.

No matter how you look at it, the Molten Knight Armor is a finished product. However, Xuan Ziwen said that the research was stuck in the final stage and had not been successful. Seeing Ji Lin studying the Molten Knight Armor in front of him, both Xu Jiujiu and Xuan Ziwen remained silent.

Ji Lin stared at the silver-white mecha before him for a long time, then suddenly looked up at Xuan Ziwen and exclaimed in realization, "It's the energy source! Hall Master Xuan, you don't have the energy to power this Molten Knight right now, do you?"

Xuan Ziwen nodded and said, "That's right. The original Molten Knight Armor requires burning the pilot's life force and something called imaginary energy, but we don't know what imaginary energy is. When replicating the Molten Knight Armor, we didn't remove the effect of burning life force to drive the armor. Although this effect is not friendly to the pilot, this ability can become the pilot's trump card to fight desperately. We changed the original passive burning of life force to active burning. Whether or not life force needs to be burned is decided by the pilot. However, due to the lack of that so-called imaginary energy, piloting the Molten Knight mecha requires burning more life force. Even a Title Douluo cannot withstand this consumption. Although soul power can replace life force and imaginary energy, the efficiency of soul power is too low. A Soul Saint can only guarantee the Molten Knight mecha to fight at full strength for ten minutes with full soul power output. For a battle between Title Douluos, ten minutes is too little. Even if you equip it with a sealed milk bottle, it can only extend this time to thirty minutes at most."

Although giving a Soul Saint or Soul Emperor the combat power of a Title Douluo for thirty minutes or even ten minutes is already an amazing effect, it still doesn't meet Ji Lin's expectations. In his view, the Molten Knight should be able to fight for at least several hours and replenish its energy on its own. Ideally, it should be able to sustain long-term combat by simply changing the sealed milk bottle. However, the sealed milk bottle has only been around for a short time and has not yet reached the level that can sustain the Molten Knight mech's energy consumption.

Xu Jiujiu looked distressed. If it were a problem with resources, she could still find a way, but energy was really too difficult for her. She had no idea what to do and could only look at Ji Lin and Xuan Ziwen with longing.

Xuan Ziwen shook his head and said, "Unless we can make a level nine sealed milk bottle, we can sustain the Molten Knight mech for a long time. But the highest level sealed milk bottle we can make now is only level seven. Making a level nine sealed milk bottle is a long way off, and the materials required are also extremely expensive."

Xu Jiujiu's face darkened slightly, but she said unwillingly, "Then pack more sealed baby bottles, like dozens of sealed baby bottles for each mecha piece of equipment."

Xuan Ziwen stared at Xu Jiujiu expressionlessly without saying a word, his meaning quite clear. Xu Jiujiu blushed, realizing she was being delusional. Putting aside the cost of sealed baby bottles, even a humanoid mecha over two meters tall couldn't possibly carry that many baby bottles!

Xuan Ziwen sighed and said, "I had thought of this method before, but equipping the Molten Knight Armor with a large number of sealed milk bottles would affect the mecha's combat power. Moreover, the soul power output of the sealed milk bottles cannot keep up with the output of the Molten Knight Armor. When the Molten Knight Armor is fighting at full strength, it needs to draw a large amount of soul power in an instant to exert combat power comparable to a Title Douluo. The sealed milk bottles cannot keep up at all."

Seeing that Xuan Ziwen was helpless, she looked at Ji Lin with hope in her eyes after a long time. In her heart, Ji Lin was omnipotent and could not be stumped by any difficulty. It was time for you to make a move, Doraemon.

Ji Lin's lips twitched. His understanding of soul tools was only half-baked. Even a genius level nine soul master like Xuan Ziwen couldn't figure out a solution, so how could he possibly have one?

Seeing Ji Lin shake his head, he lowered his head in disappointment for a long time. Was it possible that he could only form a Molten Knights Order with only half an hour of combat power?

Seeing their long-lost expressions, Ji Lin felt somewhat helpless. Their efforts over the past few months were about to bear fruit, only to be told that while the results were in, they were a group of energy-consuming giants who could only fight for half an hour. What could they do in half an hour? Even for a titled Douluo, flying from Star Luo City to the battlefield would take more than half an hour.

Although the Molten Knight's half hour refers to half an hour of all-out combat, not half an hour of flight, it can sustain itself for a longer time if it is just simple flight or low-intensity combat. However, once it enters high-intensity combat, its energy will burn up rapidly. Unless the pilot activates the life-burning effect, it cannot last long by relying solely on the sealed milk bottle.

Xuan Ziwen suggested, "How about we reduce the combat power of the Molten Knight mech while maintaining the combat power of a Soul Saint? Even a Soul Venerable could pilot it, and the sealed milk bottle can fully support the armor in long-term combat."

From Xuan Ziwen's perspective, he didn't want to create a defective product that was even worse than a copy, but Ji Lin and Xu Jiujiu had sacrificed a lot to support his research. Moreover, he loved this place. Here, there were no annoying power struggles or other so-called nobles trying to win him over or disturb his research. Here, there was the Molten Knight mech that he was obsessed with, a wealth of unknown knowledge, and Xu Jiujiu was very supportive of his research. No matter what resources he asked for, they would be delivered as quickly as possible. To him, this place was paradise.

This period was the happiest time of his life. He was learning new things every day, and he was completely captivated by the perfect curves, smooth body, and hard shell of the Molten Knight mech.

Therefore, in order to repay Xu Jiujiu and Ji Lin, he was willing to lower his standards and produce defective products.

After a long pause, he pursed his lips and said helplessly, "That's all we can do. If there are enough Molten Knights with Soul Saint combat power, they can play a significant role."

Compared to the titled Douluo-level Molten Fire Knight, the Soul Saint-level Molten Fire Knight was completely unsatisfying for Xu Jiujiu. If she could only create Soul Saint-level Molten Fire Knights from the beginning, she wouldn't be so disappointed and feel so empty inside. But who told her that the current limit of the Molten Fire Knight was the titled Douluo level!

It's no wonder she was disappointed to see a titled Douluo-level Molten Knights order slip through her fingers.

Ji Lin stroked his chin, somewhat disappointed. He had prepared so much and put in so much effort, only to achieve this much. Although he could still fight against the Sun Moon Empire by building an army of tens of thousands of Soul Saints, he couldn't sweep across the entire Douluo Continent. Moreover, he preferred leading the Molten Fire Knights, who were at the level of Title Douluo, to an army of tens of thousands of Soul Saints.

Whether it's showing off or creating a shocking effect, the tens of thousands of Soul Saints, while impressive, are far less impressive than three hundred Title Douluos. After all, there aren't even three hundred Title Douluos in the entire Douluo Continent right now!

On the contrary, the Douluo Continent is not unable to produce tens of thousands of Soul Saints.

Ji Lin and Xu Jiujiu racked their brains, neither of them willing to give up the Molten Knights Order so easily. The Soul Masters around them secretly glanced at Ji Lin and Xu Jiujiu, their expressions somewhat troubled. They knew very well how many resources Xu Jiujiu had poured into them during this period. To put it bluntly, if their research failed, they wouldn't be able to recover all the lost resources even if they sold them all.

(End of this chapter)