Supreme Electromagnetic Tyrant
Chapter 396 - 281: The Second Ether Resonance

Chapter 396: Chapter 281: The Second Ether Resonance

"Huhah..."

Amidst the howling wind, Ji Xinghuo was flying at high speed in the sky. The biting cold wind was blocked by the Flow Barrier, leaving him unaffected.

Overlooking the land below, everything had become smaller.

Ahead, the towering snow peaks that reached into the clouds seemed within reach.

Shuttling between the clouds and snowflakes, he truly felt the taste of "freedom," and the exhilaration made him let out a loud shout.

"This is awesome!"

"This is what you call flying, what I did before was just floating."

Ji Xinghuo watched as the strong winds and mist sped past his field of vision and were left behind. He freely changed directions, accelerated, decelerated, climbed, and dived, thoroughly enjoying the thrill of flying.

Sometimes he skimmed close to the ground, startling hibernating wild beasts;

Sometimes he darted through tall forests, nimble as a swallow and swift as the wind, yet never touching a single tree branch. Suddenly, he would accelerate upward into the sky and whip up a fierce wind.

He could even fly backwards, fly lying down, and tried various flying poses to find the most aerodynamically suitable flight trajectory.

Whoosh!

In the midst of high-speed flying, Ji Xinghuo suddenly stopped, shifting from extreme motion to extreme stillness, and stood upright from his previously horizontal position, hovering in mid-air.

He opened the Wanxiang Star Pupil interface for a quick check and found that his Star Power was almost depleted.

"That was fast!"

Ji Xinghuo was somewhat surprised. He had been flying for less than half an hour, yet only a little over four hundred points of Star Power remained, less than one-tenth of his total.

If every flight consumed this much Star Power, endurance would be a problem.

"It must be because I was flying too fast."

He had felt it earlier; the faster he flew, the higher the consumption of Star Power, and this rise in consumption wasn’t linear but exponential.

Slowing down the flying speed should help him sustain it longer.

However, he hadn’t yet mastered the specific relationship between flying speed and Star Power consumption, and needed to experiment for it.

Ji Xinghuo looked around and realized he had flown over ten kilometers away from Peach Blossom Valley.

He randomly chose a spot to land and waited for more than two hours until his Star Power had fully recovered to a total of 3440 points.

"Recovering 20 points of Star Power per minute."

This was the recovery rate after advancing from Ether Affinity to Ether Resonance, incomparably faster compared to other Super Mutants or Fourth Rank Evolvers.

"Let’s fly full speed once." Ji Xinghuo roared and soared straight into the sky again, reaching a height of five to six hundred meters in seconds, where he drew an arc before leveling off to fly parallel to the ground. The magnetic field and Shock Wave Turbulence operated together, allowing him to fly at top speed.

His body sliced through the air, producing a thunderous noise.

The Star Power decreased rapidly.

Ji Xinghuo watched the numbers on the interface, and as his Star Power was almost depleted, he lowered his altitude and landed on the ground, using up the last bit of his energy.

He lifted his wrist to check the time on his mechanical watch.

"Exactly 5 minutes."

Ji Xinghuo could not help but shake his head. The Star Power consumption at full-speed flying was too great, averaging nearly 700 points per minute, while the concurrently recovering Star Power was negligibly small.

He looked back in the direction he had come from, estimating the distance at about 35 kilometers.

Quickly calculating, his maximum speed during full-power flight was approximately 115 meters per second, or about 415 kilometers per hour.

This was much slower than he expected.

Not to mention breaking the sound barrier in the Star Realm, even on Earth, it was far from supersonic.

And to fully recover his Star Power, he would need almost three hours.

Ji Xinghuo clicked his tongue, "It’s really ’charge for three hours, sustain for five minutes.’

Then, he waited in the same spot for his Star Power to fully recover before taking off again. This time, he slowed down his flight speed, maintaining various speeds for several minutes each to record the data; then he would accelerate slightly and calculate the consumption of Star Power, repeatedly experimenting with different settings.

Before nightfall, Ji Xinghuo finally reached a conclusion.

When he reduced his flight speed to around 35 meters per second, or 125 kilometers per hour, cruising at this speed, he would consume only 40 points of Star Power per minute.

With continuous recovery, the flight could last up to 170 minutes!

This duration was exactly the same as the time it took for his Star Power to fully recover when he did nothing.

If he increased the speed further, the endurance would plummet; on the other hand, if he slowed down further, although he could sustain longer, flight speeds below 125 kilometers per hour were slower than many flying mounts, making it meaningless for traveling, and he might as well just buy a mount.

Ji Xinghuo flew back towards Peach Blossom Valley.

As he flew, he pondered.

"There are only two ways to increase endurance. One is to increase the total amount of Star Power, which means cultivating faster and advancing to Legendary sooner; the other is to speed up the recovery of Star Power, so that it recovers faster while flying, naturally allowing for longer flights."

"The first method won’t show results in the short term."

Previously, Ji Xinghuo had estimated that upon fusing two or three Alien Species to reach the upper limit of Super Mutants, his Star Power could break through 12,000 points.

If he focused on cultivation and used the ’Ether Refining Solvent,’ based on his previous experience at Sky Falling Cliff, he could gain an average of 12 points of Star Power per Star Realm Day. By simple calculation, it would take him over 700 Star Realm Days to reach his limit.

This was equivalent to four years on Earth.

"It takes that long!"

Ji Xinghuo had never seriously calculated before, but now that he had, he was shocked.

Four years to move from a newly promoted Super Mutant to the threshold was actually very fast, one of the fastest in global history.

By that time, he would be not yet thirty years old.

But Ji Xinghuo felt it was too slow. He had less than two years left to fulfill that informal pact he made with Ren Mian. Although it was just a casual promise, and there would be no harm in not achieving it, he still wanted to advance to Legendary within three years to utterly convince Sister Ren.

"I have fused too many Alien Species."

Ji Xinghuo felt somewhat helpless. If he had been any other Super Mutant, he wouldn’t have needed so much Star Power to reach the bottleneck of becoming Legendary.

The number of Alien Species he carried was several times that of an ordinary person, greatly increasing his strength but also slowing down his promotion speed.

In the long run, the benefits definitely outweighed the disadvantages.

It was a happy problem.

"Since I can’t increase my Star Power in the short term, I’ll have to consider the second method," Ji Xinghuo stopped flying and took out an irregular crystal from his Dimension Stomach.

Information about the Alien Species popped up before his eyes.

[Alien Species: Ether Affinity]

[Grade: Transcendent]

[Fusion Success Rate: 100%]

[Can be Upgraded: Yes]

Abilities related to Ether could be stacked, which had been confirmed by countless Mutants. Some Professional Templates, in order to increase Star Power and speed up Evolution, would deliberately fuse multiple "Ether Sensitivity" abilities, and "Ether Affinity" was even more coveted.

"I still have one chance to fuse," Ji Xinghuo thought. "If I fuse another Ether Affinity, invest in Spiritual Origin Ability to make it advance, and gain a second ’Ether Resonance,’ I can solve two problems at once."

It would speed up his Cultivation and help him advance to Legendary sooner, benefitting him for life.

Moreover, the recovery of Star Power was faster now.

If Star Power recovery could double, he could maintain cruising speed indefinitely, flying tens of thousands of kilometers without problems!

He glanced at the Wanxiang Star Pupil interface, which showed more than 38,000 points of Spiritual Origin Ability.

"That should be enough."

Ji Xinghuo no longer hesitated, changed his flying direction, and flew over a hundred kilometers away to the middle of a mountain peak, where he landed.

By now, it had gotten dark.

"Just right," he looked up at the night sky, "the night can cover up part of the Star Falling Phenomenon, making it less astonishing."

Electromagnetic induction spread out, encountering only some monsters and wild beasts within its range, most of which were hibernating, posing no threat.

There were also very few people active in this mountainous region.

Ji Xinghuo found a narrow ice cave and flew into it, pulled out the Ether Affinity Alien Species, and threw it into his mouth, swallowing it in one gulp.

He soon felt the change.

The fusion process was similar to when he had fused "Ether Sensitivity" for the first time, only more intense now. A vast amount of Ether Energy surged into his body, starting a profound transformation.

As time passed, his Perception of Ether Energy became sharper.

A moment later.

Ji Xinghuo saw extra information on his interface, [Ability: Ether Affinity (Fifth Level 1/35759)].

"Directly Level Five!"

He was pleasantly surprised.

Furthermore, by fusing this Ether Affinity, his Star Power surged by more than 300, reaching 3755 points!

Even without ranking up Ether Affinity, the Star Power recovery rate increased significantly.

Ji Xinghuo didn’t linger, pouring in Spiritual Origin Ability.

In an instant, the upgrading of Ether Affinity progressed to its end, becoming (Fifth Level 35759/35759), and in that moment, he noticed the changing scenery outside.

The already dark night sky turned stunningly beautiful, with countless stars and a reflection of the Galaxy emerging in the distant void.

"Star Fall Phenomenon!"

Ji Xinghuo walked out of the ice cave and looked up at the sky.

This was his third time seeing the Star Fall Phenomenon, all caused by himself.

Among the reflection of the Galaxy, a bright starlight flickered a few times, turning into a falling star, heading in his direction. Many of the wild beasts in the area were awakened; some fled in panic, while others roared at the sky.

Ji Xinghuo didn’t bother with them; he just silently waited for about ten minutes.

When the phenomenon faded and the ability advancement was completed.

[Ability: Ether Resonance (Sixth Level 1/182111)], he looked at the requirement of 180,000 points of Spiritual Origin Ability to rank up, and shook his head helplessly. Both of his Ether Resonances were Star Fall Abilities. Upgrading them would take an incredibly long time.

Ji Xinghuo carefully sensed the changes in his Star Power.

The stacking of two Ether Resonances heightened his Perception of Ether Energy to an extreme. With just a bit of Concentration, he could visually perceive Ether Energy.

Furthermore, he had a faint feeling he could directly manipulate the surrounding Ether Energy!

Yet he was missing some critical insight to do so.

"Never mind, I’ll study it later."

Ji Xinghuo soared into the air, and with a roar, took off like a cannonball, disappearing into the night sky.

After flying for just two or three minutes, he was already overjoyed.

While maintaining a speed of 120 kilometers per hour, the Star Power he used was reduced even as it was restored.

The Star Power value on the interface kept fluctuating but finally stabilized around 3750 points. This meant he could fly indefinitely at his current pace until his physical strength or mental energy was exhausted.

"With my physical condition, even without eating, drinking, sleeping, or resting, I can fly continuously in the Star Realm for ten days and nights!"

"Even, I could go faster."

With that thought, Ji Xinghuo immediately accelerated, zooming across the night sky like a fighter jet, swiftly returning to Peach Blossom Valley.

When he slowed down and descended, passing through spatial ripples into the Secret Realm, he saw Ren Mian sitting in the courtyard waiting for his return.

Confusion flickered in Ren Mian’s eyes as she asked, "Xinghuo, where did you go?"