Chapter 2851 – Mana Reconstruction

What an amazing bridge!

When s.h.i.+ Feng spread his senses across the broken bridge, he was astounded.

This was because this bridge was actually made entirely of Mana that had solidified.

Although this Mana was solid, it was akin to sand. He could walk on this bridge without it collapsing like a sandcastle only because of special Mana Constructs holding the grains of sand together.

After thinking up to this point, s.h.i.+ Feng promptly extended his Mana Domain to take control of these Mana Constructs and prevent the bridge from collapsing any further.

However, the instant he did so, he was stunned.

Manipulating solidified Mana is this taxing? s.h.i.+ Feng had plenty of experience manipulating Mana that had condensed into a mist or liquid. In fact, he could control liquid Mana as if it were his own arms.

Yet, when he tried manipulating only a small bit of solid Mana, he felt as if he was trying to move arms that had been injected with lead. Not only was the process incredibly strenuous, but even the slightest distraction meant immediately losing control of the Mana.

Meanwhile, the difficulty of maintaining the entire bridge’s integrity was akin to holding up a weight of tens of tons. Not to mention, he also had to have this solid Mana move according to his will to reconstruct the collapsed portion of the bridge.

Looking at the continuously collapsing bridge, s.h.i.+ Feng finally understood just how difficult this trial was.

Let alone reconstructing the bridge, just keeping the bridge from collapsing any further was already a monumental task.

As s.h.i.+ Feng racked his brain over how to prevent the bridge from collapsing, the phantom of a gigantic Dragon was quietly observing him in a distant cloud of mist.

“His grasp on Mana is too immature. Let alone three days, he won’t last even three hours at this rate.”

After taking a look at s.h.i.+ Feng’s understanding and control over Mana, the Dragon shook its head and wings, disappearing silently from the mist.

Time pa.s.sed quickly. Now, less than half of the broken bridge, which was originally over 20 meters long, remained. Moreover, the bridge’s rate of collapse was even accelerating as it grew shorter.

This won’t do. At this rate, the entire bridge will be gone in less than half an hour. I need to think of a way to stabilize a small portion of the bridge first.

s.h.i.+ Feng had a headache as he looked at the collapsing bridge. He gave up on manipulating the entire bridge and chose to secure only a two-meter-length of the bridge. This was also the maximum amount of solid Mana he could currently manipulate. Any more and the solid Mana would challenge his control.

Everything progressed just as s.h.i.+ Feng expected. In less than 20 minutes, the portion of the bridge he had given up on collapsed completely, and only the two-meter stretch under his feet remained relatively stable. Even so, this small portion was still disintegrating gradually. How strange. s.h.i.+ Feng stared in confusion at the drastically slower collapse. The Mana Constructs that had been keeping the bridge together before clearly had their Mana supply cut off and operations stopped after I arrived. However, the bridge’s initial rate of collapse was much slower than when I started controlling it. The rate of collapse accelerated afterward.

When he saw the broken bridge starting to collapse right after he appeared, he thought it signaled the start of his trial and represented his time limit.

However, when he began manipulating the solid Mana, he realized that he had been mistaken. The Mana Constructs keeping the bridge together had simply stopped operating, so the solid Mana would naturally try to revert to its original form.

Is there something wrong with my manipulation method? s.h.i.+ Feng couldn’t help entertaining such a question. However, he promptly shook his head and denied this thought. No, I was simply manipulating the solid Mana according to the original Mana Constructs. There shouldn’t be a problem with my manipulation method. Otherwise, the entire bridge would’ve collapsed instantly instead of breaking apart bit by bit. A Mana Construct was similar to a magic array. If one did not use the appropriate method to manipulate a magic array, it would not activate. This was also the case for Mana Constructs, except Mana Constructs were much more fragile than magic arrays, crumbling if manipulated incorrectly. Due to his understanding of Mana Constructs, s.h.i.+ Feng had to wonder what exactly he had done wrong in preventing the bridge’s collapse.

Due to the Eternal Energy surrounding him, s.h.i.+ Feng’s mind was operating with unprecedented clarity and activity. Numerous ideas came to mind, and he considered the issue from various perspectives.

When less than one meter of the bridge remained, s.h.i.+ Feng’s eyes suddenly widened in realization.

I see! I’ve been doing things wrong from the very beginning! I shouldn’t have tried to force the Mana! Whether manipulating my own Mana or the ambient Mana, I should guide it down the desired path instead of compelling it to do so. While forcing Mana does produce some results, Mana has its own operating principles. Not only is forcing Mana strenuous, but the bridge’s Mana will also conflict with my own Mana.

Upon thinking up to this point, s.h.i.+ Feng immediately began guiding his own Mana into the Mana Constructs holding the broken bridge together. He no longer compelled it to enter the Mana Constructs.

However, guiding Mana was much more difficult than he had thought.

This was because the Mana in the environment was heterogeneous. Even his own Mana was composed of various types of Mana. Needless to say, trying to guide all these diverse types of Mana to do the same thing was an impossible task.

This meant that he had to refine and separate the different elements of Mana in his body and have them do different things.

Originally, accomplis.h.i.+ng such a refinement would require a lot of time. After all, the disparate elements of Mana in his body were all intermixed. Just separating them would already drive countless expert players to despair.

To put this task into perspective, one could imagine a player’s Mana Body as a box filled with millions of marbles of different colors, and these marbles represented Mana of different elements. If players wanted to use a specific type of Mana within their bodies, they would have to sort through all of these marbles and take out the ones they wanted to use. Doing so would be incredibly difficult and time-consuming. Not to mention, a Mana Body was much more complex than a box of marbles, which would further add to the difficulty.

Fortunately for s.h.i.+ Feng, he had acquired a Saint’s Legacy. Although the Ice World Saint’s Legacy focused more on the ice element, the Legacy had provided an introduction to the other elements.

Thank goodness that Saint Legacy mentioned the various elements of Mana. Otherwise, I likely wouldn’t have any hope of completing the trial this time.

s.h.i.+ Feng couldn’t help smiling bitterly as he sensed the jumbled Mana flowing within his body.

Previously, when he made use of Mana, he did not bother segregating it at all. He simply used it as it was and didn’t find any problem with it. Now, however, he realized that his past actions had thoroughly mixed up the various types of Mana in his body and made them even more difficult to separate. Separating the various types of Mana in his body without knowing their basic properties would be akin to sorting a box of colorful marbles while colorblind—that would be mission impossible.

Immediately, s.h.i.+ Feng began cla.s.sifying his Mana based on the Ice World Saint’s introduction on the various elements.

Fire-type Mana was violent, scorching hot, and extremely difficult to control.

Ice-type Mana was quiet, cold, and hardly moved.

Wind-type Mana was free, refres.h.i.+ng, and spirited.

Different elements of Mana had their own habits and operating principles. If it were in the past, s.h.i.+ Feng would’ve found it impossible to distinguish them in detail. However, s.h.i.+ Feng was currently a Half-step Grandmaster Magician. While distinguis.h.i.+ng between the various types of Mana remained difficult, it wasn’t impossible.

One trick he thought of to facilitate this process was constructing a single-attributed Elemental Magic Array for each of the various elements. This magic array would act as a filter and capture only the specific element of Mana it was made to capture; the other elements would pa.s.s through the magic array unimpeded.

This way, whenever he wished to call upon a particular element, he could immediately use the corresponding Elemental Magic Array to gather the Mana he needed.

Originally, constructing these Elemental Magic Arrays within one’s Mana Body was a very delicate task. Even a Half-step Grandmaster Magician like s.h.i.+ Feng would need one or two days to construct all of the necessary Elemental Magic Arrays.

However, thanks to the Eternal Energy surrounding him, s.h.i.+ Feng spent only 15 minutes constructing all the necessary magic arrays. Immediately, the various elements of Mana in s.h.i.+ Feng’s Mana Body gathered at specific locations, no longer one big heterogeneous mess. Amazing! So, this is the effect of segregating Mana?

When s.h.i.+ Feng scanned the Mana in his body, he found that not only had its purity undergone a qualitative transformation, but his Mana Body also resonated far more powerfully with the environment. In fact, he also had a much easier time manipulating the magic array responsible for controlling his Mana Body.

Now, he could even operate his Mana Body with a threefold manipulation method.

So, this is why I couldn’t cross the 110% threshold despite my Concentration having reached the Tier 4 Peak standard!

Looking at the system notification that had appeared before him, s.h.i.+ Feng grew ecstatic.

Just a moment ago, his Mana Body’s Completion Rate had hit the legendary threshold!

His Mana Body had reached a 120% Completion Rate!

Meanwhile, the instant his Mana Body reached the 120% threshold, s.h.i.+ Feng sensed his physique improving significantly and his perception of his surroundings rising to a whole other level.

Most importantly, his Mana was not only much denser than before, but its quant.i.ty had also doubled.

Now that I’m done segregating my Mana, it’s about time I started taking on the trial!

s.h.i.+ Feng s.h.i.+fted his gaze toward the half-meter-long bridge underfoot.