Star City, Crimson Base.
On the same day he returned to the Crimson Research Institute, Feng Qi began assisting Wei Wei in researching the jade statue.
Or rather, he was mostly observing—his presence wasn't actually needed for the research.
Within half a day, the institute's analytical instruments had fully identified the material composition of the statue.
A detailed report was generated, listing all the physical, thermal, mechanical (elastic modulus, tensile strength, impact resistance, yield strength, fatigue resistance, etc.), electrical, magnetic, optical, and chemical properties of the jade material.
Additionally, the report included data on spiritual energy content, energy quality, and other key parameters.
One thing was certain—this type of jade was not recorded in any existing database.
This was mainly because the Black Abyss Domain Field had not yet been classified as a primary conquest target by the United Battle Squad Association, meaning its local resources had never been cataloged.
However, the material itself wasn't the primary focus.
The main goal was to determine whether using this type of jade to construct a statue could help establish a faith-based mental connection.
After multiple rounds of testing, the conclusion was clear:
The jade was merely a standard spiritual material—it had no special properties beyond that.
Once the tests were complete, Wei Wei personally disassembled the statue.
The results confirmed what the Mist Lord had speculated in the previous Sacrificial Line:
Inside the statue, a blood-colored crystal was embedded.
This crystal was the key to faith collection—it was formed by a fusion of the Humanoid Tribe Leader's blood and condensed mental energy.
In essence, this crystal acted as a transfer station.
The faith energy contributed by followers was first absorbed by the crystal, then transmitted remotely through the Miracle Bracelet, where it entered the wearer's body, thereby establishing a direct spiritual link with the followers.
Based on this finding, replicating the statue seemed fairly simple.
The next morning, after breakfast, Feng Qi accompanied Wei Wei to Crimson Laboratory No. 11.
This lab was located on the western side of Crimson Base, covering an area of over a thousand square meters.
Walking inside, he passed by rows of outdated, decommissioned scientific instruments.
One of the devices immediately caught his attention—he had actually seen it in a textbook before.
It was a heavily rusted, ancient-looking machine, labeled as "The Light of Spiritual Energy" in the textbooks.
This instrument had played a pivotal role in the development of human cultivation science.
It dated back to the early days of the Great Cataclysm, when humanity's understanding of cultivation was still in its infancy.
At the time, humans were suffering devastating losses against Domain Fields—defeat after defeat, with no hope of victory.
That was when the Rune Modification Theory and Spiritual Energy Cultivation Theory were first proposed.
The first approach—Rune Modification—was deemed too dangerous, as modified individuals frequently lost control, leading to its eventual abandonment.
Thus, cultivation became the dominant focus.
However, there was a major challenge—
Although scientists had already detected the presence of spiritual energy in the environment, they had no idea how to absorb it efficiently.
Technically, breathing alone could absorb spiritual energy, but the efficiency was too low—it wasn't enough for rapid growth.
This led to years of relentless research, and eventually, the first prototype of The Light of Spiritual Energy was created within the Victory Research Institute.
The machine's purpose was simple—to collect and compress free-floating spiritual energy from the environment and transform it into "Spirit Bricks", turning invisible energy into tangible, consumable blocks.
Back then, early cultivators had not yet developed techniques for absorbing spiritual energy naturally.
Before they discovered internal energy vortexes, they relied on consuming Spirit Bricks for cultivation.
It could be said that this ancient machine represented humanity's first major breakthrough in cultivation science—a true milestone.
Even though teaching materials changed every year, this machine and its creators remained a permanent part of cultivation history—the first thing every student learned.
Following Wei Wei, Feng Qi arrived at the northern corner of Laboratory No. 11.
There, he saw a massive, five-meter-tall machine.
Unlike the rusted relics, this machine had a sleek, futuristic design, its entire exterior a glowing blue.
Through its transparent glass casing, Feng Qi could see a seat inside, with a brainwave interface helmet positioned above it.
He stopped in front of the machine and turned to Wei Wei.
"What is this?" he asked curiously.
"The Light of Mental Energy," Wei Wei replied with a smile.
"I've only ever heard of the Light of Spiritual Energy—what's this one?"
"This machine was also developed by the Victory Research Institute."
Wei Wei's expression turned serious as she continued,
"Just like the Light of Spiritual Energy, this device was created at a time when humanity knew almost nothing about the mental domain. Our understanding of spiritual power was practically nonexistent.
The purpose of this machine was to collect mental energy—then transform it into a physical form."
Hearing this, Feng Qi immediately understood why Wei Wei had brought him here.
At this stage, they already knew how to construct the statue.
The process required his blood and a Mental Energy Crystal, which would be embedded inside the statue.
The problem was—how do you create a Mental Energy Crystal?
This was a question he had already asked the Narrator before.
The Narrator had explained that as long as one's mental energy was strong enough, it could be extended outside the body and compressed into a crystal embedded with one's mental imprint.
But this method wasn't applicable to Feng Qi—his mental energy wasn't yet strong enough for that.
However, he hadn't expected that the Crimson Research Institute already had the exact equipment needed to solve this problem.
Just as he was contemplating this, Wei Wei's voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Get inside first. I'll explain the next steps in detail."
Feng Qi nodded immediately and pushed open the glass door, stepping into the interior of the machine.
He sat down on the designated seat, and Wei Wei followed him inside.
With her assistance, he first put on a sensor-laden suit, then secured the helmet device onto his head, with two black electrodes attached to his temples.
"Once the machine is activated, just focus your mind. It will assist in extracting the mental energy you release."
"Understood."
Wei Wei stepped out of the Light of Mental Energy machine and walked over to the control panel, pressing the activation button.
Since the device hadn't been used in a long time, it trembled slightly upon startup.
A transparent projection panel appeared in front of Feng Qi, displaying the real-time feedback from the control panel.
As Wei Wei adjusted the settings, a progress bar appeared on the screen.
[Mental Synchronization Progress: 1%]
With her continued operation, the progress bar quickly climbed to 98%.
But the last 2% took half an hour of fine-tuning before reaching 100% synchronization.
Wei Wei then pressed the "Extraction" button.
The machine shuddered briefly, then stabilized into a steady hum.
A faint buzzing sound resonated from within.
"Focus your mind!" Wei Wei reminded him.
Feng Qi took a deep breath and concentrated, releasing his mental energy.
Immediately, he felt his mental energy draining rapidly, accompanied by a strange sensation of weightlessness.
"Keep focusing. If you feel a sharp headache, let me know."
Feng Qi didn't respond, simply maintaining his concentration and observing the feedback from the energy extraction.
For safety reasons, the extraction speed was relatively slow—
Far slower than the mental energy consumption he experienced when using telekinesis.
After half an hour, he finally began to feel a sharp pain in his head, followed by a slight dizziness.
Without hesitation, he spoke up:
"Wei-jie, I feel the pain now."
Wei Wei immediately pressed the "Stop" button.
The machine shuddered slightly, and the indicator lights on the control panel gradually dimmed.
The glass door swung open.
"The amount extracted this time isn't enough to form a complete Mental Crystal." Wei Wei estimated, "You'll need around three to four more sessions to complete it. How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine," Feng Qi responded without hesitation.
The headache and dizziness were just symptoms of excessive mental energy depletion.
He was no stranger to this feeling—when he first acquired the "Malice" ability, he had experienced this countless times.
After the extraction ended, he and Wei Wei left Laboratory No. 11, where the outdated scientific equipment was stored.
Feeling mentally drained, Feng Qi returned to his room and collapsed onto the bed.
Falling asleep was the fastest way to recover mental energy.
Over the Next Few Days
Feng Qi remained at the Crimson Research Institute, assisting Wei Wei in conducting mental energy extraction experiments.
By relying on the Light of Mental Energy machine, the Mental Crystal was finally completed on the third day.
Once the final extraction was done, Feng Qi removed the equipment and stepped out of the machine.
Meanwhile, Wei Wei took out a metal storage box from the side of the device.
At its center lay the fully compressed Mental Crystal.
It was a translucent pale yellow, shimmering with an inner radiance, and exquisitely beautiful.
The Narrator chimed in immediately:
[Why is it pale yellow? Are you thinking about dirty things all the time?]
Feng Qi's face darkened. "Shut up, dumbass system!"
Ignoring the Narrator's nonsense, he walked over to Wei Wei.
"Wei-jie, is this enough?"
Wei Wei nodded. "Yes, this will do. The next step is to mix it with your blood and refine it into a composite crystal formed from both blood and mental energy."
Feng Qi nodded in understanding.
Then, he followed Wei Wei out of Laboratory No. 11 and into her personal research lab.
Among all parts of the body, the blood in the heart was the strongest.
In cultivation studies, this type of blood was referred to as "essence blood", as every heartbeat diluted the essence blood, circulating it throughout the body before it returned to the heart once more.
For ordinary people, drawing blood directly from the heart was impossible.
But for Feng Qi, quality mattered far more than location, and cutting open his heart wasn't a problem at all.
After all, in his earliest Undead Form, his heart had been completely shriveled up, containing not a single drop of blood, yet he had still lived just fine.
To proceed, he activated his Combat Form.
This was the first time he had revealed his Combat Form in front of Wei Wei.
As she stared at his skeletal form, marked by glowing purple and crimson runes, she couldn't help but be amazed.
Click! Click! Click!
She eagerly took several photos, preparing to study them later.
Feng Qi rolled his eyes. "Wei-jie, enough already. Do you want me to break off a rib for you to study too?"
Wei Wei's eyes lit up instantly. "Really?"
Feng Qi: "..."
"I was joking! Don't take it seriously. I still need my ribs. Can we just move on to the next step?"
At that moment, the Narrator's voice rang in his head.
[Your ribs are definitely useful, so you shouldn't break them. But that other thing? It's just slowing you down when you draw your sword! Why not cut that off instead?]
Feng Qi: "Shut up!"
He mentally flipped off the damn Narrator and focused on Wei Wei, who had finally put down her phone.
She walked over, holding a scalpel and a specialized blood collection device.
"Do you need anesthesia?" she asked.
"No need. In this form, there's nowhere to inject anesthesia anyway."
"I was just asking for fun," Wei Wei said casually as she pressed the scalpel lightly against his chest.
Slash!
The specially designed scalpel was razor-sharp, capable of cutting through the toughest domain creatures' defenses.
This was one of Wei Wei's most trusted tools, frequently used in her research on domain lifeforms.
As the scalpel sliced across his chest, a thin cut appeared right over his heart.
Feng Qi felt a sharp sting, followed by dark red blood slowly oozing out.
The moment the blood touched the air, it began to evaporate, releasing a faint crimson mist that gradually filled the lab.
Wei Wei quickly collected the drops into the container.
However, after just a few drops, the cut on his heart instantly regenerated, sealing itself shut.
Wei Wei raised an eyebrow. "Your self-healing ability is truly astonishing… But we need more blood. I'll have to cut again."
Feng Qi remained completely calm.
"Go ahead."
Due to his powerful regeneration, it took Wei Wei three separate cuts before she was able to extract enough blood to create the Hybrid Crystal.
After sealing the blood container, she added, "Only half of this will be used for the crystal. The other half will be for my future research."
Feng Qi didn't mind at all.
Losing essence blood wasn't an issue—he could easily replenish it by hunting domain creatures.
However, after losing so much blood, he began to feel noticeably fatigued.
This was a sensation he was all too familiar with—the same exhaustion and weakness he always felt after deactivating his Blood Source Form.
Feng Qi remained at the Crimson Research Institute, while Wei Wei focused on creating the Hybrid Crystal.
At the same time, other departments within the institute had begun crafting his statue from jade-like spiritual material.
Compared to the roughly carved statue of the Humanoid Tribe's leader, the Crimson Research Institute's version was far more refined.
Even the facial expression and aura were meticulously sculpted to match him.
As for the statue's design, it had already been decided during a meeting with the Crimson Director.
The reference?
A sculpture from a previous timeline—one created by future humans to honor him.
The final statue depicted Feng Qi holding a book in his left hand and a sword in his right, exuding the majestic aura of a leader.
The back of the statue was also designed with a removable compartment, which would be used to store the Hybrid Crystal.
Two days later, Wei Wei successfully fused the Mental Crystal with his blood, creating a crimson Hybrid Crystal in her private lab.
After days of effort, everything was finally ready.
That day, a Crimson Core Meeting was held.
With high-ranking members of the institute gathered, Wei Wei carefully inserted the Hybrid Crystal into Feng Qi's statue, then sealed the compartment.
The statue was officially complete.
At that moment, everyone turned to Feng Qi.
The Crimson Director, an elderly man with white hair, was the first to speak.
"How does it feel?"
Feng Qi was honest.
"Honestly… I don't feel anything."
The Narrator's voice immediately chimed in:
[Of course you don't feel anything! The statue is finished, but you don't have any believers yet. No one is providing you with faith energy or forming a spiritual connection with you. So… what you need now is a devoted follower to kneel and worship at your statue with absolute sincerity!]
Feng Qi finally understood the missing piece.
His gaze slowly lifted, scanning the faces of the Crimson Director and the other high-ranking researchers.
Feng Qi: "..."