Chapter 97: Electromagnetic Pulse

Today, hunting enemies outdoors, mental essence was enough.

Ji Xinghuo feared an accident, so he waited until he returned to the Midpoint Fortress before he prepared to upgrade the Rotating Magnetic Field.

As the mental essence was invested, progress soared quickly.

Soon, it reached 1699/1699!

Ji Xinghuo felt a mental boost, and his body immediately responded. His own human hologram in the Wanxiang Star Pupils interface flickered, showing countless points of star force flowing like a visualized magnetic field, rotating around the brain, speeding up gradually.

At the same time, currents surfaced under his skin.

Crackling…

Ji Xinghuo’s hair stood on end, and his pupils also sparked with electricity. His hands, implanted with the Thunderbolt Hands, were now glowing with electric light, with electric arcs dancing between his fingers.

The room’s lights flickered, and the crystal lamp on the ceiling was unstable.

“What is this?”

Ji Xinghuo was surprised.

Upgrading the Rotating Magnetic Field from level one to two didn’t make such a noise, though it was still quieter than during the fusion.

The range of magnetic field sensing slightly expanded.

Previously, when the Rotating Magnetic Field reached level two’s peak, as predicted by Ji Xinghuo, the sensing distance reached 1500 meters.

Now, as it advanced to level three, the sensing area quickly expanded even more.

Centering on Ji Xinghuo himself, countless magnetic fields, big and small, were mapped in his mind, covering every room, piece of furniture, person, street outside, pedestrians, stores, items in shops, buildings, trees, and as far as crawling creatures – every matter-defined thing displayed its magnetic fields in his mind vividly!

“The magnetic field sensing is clearer now.”

Ji Xinghuo realized that his brain too was enhanced during the upgrade and could differentiate the strength and nature of magnetic fields faster.

In just a few minutes, the magnetic field sensing distance broke through 2000 meters!

His body also underwent a new round of strengthening; muscles, bones, internal organs, and cells, each part nourished by the star force-driven magnetic field energy, underwent a wonderful transformation, dashing towards surpassing human limits.

Ji Xinghuo couldn’t help but remark on the body-altering effects of this Rotating Magnetic Field upgrade, not unlike a life evolution.

Without testing, he felt his strength, speed, explosive power, and self-healing capabilities had all tremendously surged.

His physical quality rose to a new level!

Finally, the upgrade ended.

Ji Xinghuo looked at the Wanxiang Star Pupils interface, the ability information updated to 【Rotating Magnetic Field (Level 3, 1/8089)】.

“The next upgrade needs so much mental essence…”

Killing a first-order enemy only gives 1 point of mental essence, the second-order gives 3-5 points, and third-order less than 10 points; these over eight thousand points of mental essence would require hunting four to five thousand targets. He wondered when the next Rotating Magnetic Field upgrade might happen.

Ji Xinghuo shook his head helplessly, but that’s a future concern; he wouldn’t worry about it now.

He closed his eyes slightly, carefully feeling his enhanced body.

“So it’s like this!”

A look of delight appeared on Ji Xinghuo’s face.

During the Rotating Magnetic Field upgrade process just now, his mind had subtly comprehended something, but it was like looking through frosted glass, eluding his grasp. Now, he understood completely.

Looking around the room, he decided it wasn’t suitable for demonstration.

Ji Xinghuo left the inn and went to a privately-owned training field on this street, renting a practice arena alone and instructing not to be disturbed.

He stood in the center of the arena, focusing intently, a flash of electricity crossing his eyes.

However, nothing happened.

No sound, no lightning, no visible change; it was quieter than a sneeze.

No!

Actually, there was something; Ji Xinghuo noticed the practice arena walls and ceiling’s crystal lights flickered slightly, but they didn’t go out.

Yet, his star force dropped over 100 points in that instant!

“As expected…”

Ji Xinghuo shook his head, showing no surprise. He had just released an electromagnetic pulse.

It’s a type of transient electromagnetic interference, releasing high-energy electromagnetic radiation in an extremely short moment. It doesn’t cause much harm to humans or biology, but it can induce a high-voltage current in exposed electronic components and conductors, causing faults or permanent damage.

On Earth, electromagnetic pulse weapons, such as pulse bombs, have appeared.

Nuclear weapons also generate electromagnetic pulses.

But in the Star Realm, without electronic devices, there’s no use for them; after release, no phenomenon is visible.

However, Ji Xinghuo liked this ability.

From now on, he was a walking, anytime releasable electromagnetic pulse human bomb. Useless in the Star Realm, but extremely powerful on Earth and any tech world!

And electromagnetic pulses can indeed harm the human body too.

If the burst of energy is high enough and targeted, it can cause abnormal discharges in the brain’s neurons, leading to various dysfunctions, convulsions, headaches, and neural failures.

It just needs a stronger magnetic field and more practice.

“Another round.”

Ji Xinghuo focused, his eyes momentarily flickering with electric light as his star force dropped another 100 points.

This time, he sensed an invisible electromagnetic wave spreading outwards instantly, about three hundred meters, then vanishing almost instantly.

“Only three hundred meters?”

“If there were electronic devices nearby, they should be damaged now.”

Before Ji Xinghuo could finish his thought, his magnetic field sensing caught a pedestrian on the street outside; suddenly sparks flew from his pocket, and he jumped as if electrified. The pedestrian quickly pulled out a smoking smartphone from his pocket.

Even devices not powered on are damaged by an electromagnetic pulse.

“Lucky my phone is hidden in Qinghong’s dimensional stomach, or it’d be fried too.” Ji Xinghuo chuckled quietly, feeling sorry for the pedestrian.

Next, he tried to minimize the electromagnetic pulse’s range and discovered he could do it.

The smaller the range, the less star force consumed.

The smallest electromagnetic pulse had an effective radius of about five meters, and only required about a dozen points of star force.

Conversely, the more star force consumed, the larger the range.

However, the direction of the electromagnetic pulse couldn’t be controlled; no matter what, it always formed a spherical field with himself at the center.

Ji Xinghuo repeatedly released electromagnetic pulses.

Once his star force depleted, he would wait for it to recover before attempting again, becoming more proficient at precisely controlling the pulse’s range with less than half a meter error.

Suddenly, a lightbulb went off in Ji Xinghuo’s mind.

“Why not release the electromagnetic pulse together with Thunderbolt Hands?”

No sooner said than done.

His inner star force spun, his hands gathered electricity, and his eyes sparked—almost simultaneously, he released them.

Crack!

A bolt of lightning burst from Ji Xinghuo’s fingertips; at that moment, an invisible electromagnetic pulse was also released. The two interacted like a spark hitting gasoline, creating a wondrous reaction—the lightning fused with the pulse!

Initially thick lightning dispersed into hundreds of fine electric arcs forming a visible spherical field.

This field was the form of the electromagnetic pulse!

The field, made up of electric arcs, lasted only for a brief moment, with a dazzling ring of electric arcs on the uttermost edge rapidly expanding before vanishing.

Ji Xinghuo saw it clearly.

The radius of the electric arc field was about ten meters, instantly sweeping through every inch of space within that range.

“What’s the use of this?”

Ji Xinghuo was greatly surprised but remained curious.

He tried a few more times and found that while the Thunderbolt Hands’ power got diluted by the electromagnetic pulse, it could affect all targets within range. Anything hit by the electric arcs would likely experience paralysis, and if it was a metal weapon, it would be attacked by high voltage current.

Overall, this spread-out circle of electric arcs had less lethal power than Thunderbolt Hands, but it excelled in group attacks.

And nearly impossible to dodge.

The combination of electromagnetic pulse and Thunderbolt Hands didn’t weaken the damaging effect to electronic components, nor did it shorten the distance.

The farther the Thunderbolt Hands struck, the larger the electric arc attack range.

Level three enhanced Thunderbolt Hands could now strike up to fifty meters away, but combined with the electromagnetic pulse to form pulse arcs, effective distance dropped to within ten meters.

“This move, let’s call it ‘Pulse Arc’!”

Ji Xinghuo thought.

Although Pulse Arc’s current lethality was low, only useful for slowing and paralyzing approaching enemies.

But in the future, as the level of Thunderbolt Hands increases, the power of Pulse Arc will inevitably grow, not to be underestimated.

So, he invested all remaining mental essence points into Thunderbolt Hands, progress became (Level 3, 32/743).

Compared to level three Rotating Magnetic Field, Thunderbolt Hands was much easier to upgrade.

For now, Ji Xinghuo planned to prioritize upgrading Thunderbolt Hands, then Golden Scale Iron Ridge, Qinghong’s Miniaturization, and Dimensional Stomach.

These abilities didn’t require much mental essence and had the highest upgrade cost-effectiveness.

If there’s enough mental essence, he could also upgrade Thousand Clever Hands and Ether Affinity to the next level.

Ji Xinghuo trained in the practice arena for ten hours.

Not until he completely mastered electromagnetic pulses and Pulse Arcs, able to release at will, did he return to the inn to rest.

In the afternoon, Ji Xinghuo couldn’t wait and left the city, ready to test Pulse Arc’s effects.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t find the opportunity.

With Ji Xinghuo’s current understanding of the North Luo Master Clan, they mostly snipe from afar, not allowing enemies to get close.

He didn’t want to let enemies approach just to test, risking his life recklessly.

Long-range was safer than risking close combat, which could potentially cost him his life.

Although he didn’t get to test Pulse Arc, the enhancement to his body was very apparent.

Stronger, faster.

His endurance and star force also recovered faster. Wearing the acceleration ring, Ji Xinghuo could run at full speed all day without tiring.

This expanded his hunting range to over a hundred kilometers, enhancing his mental essence harvesting efficiency.

Every day, Ji Xinghuo had significant bounties and points credited to his account.

Thunderbolt Hands also neared an upgrade.

Before he knew it, the last day of the Fire Moon arrived, and the bounty hall’s points board was ready for reward settlement.