Strengthening Star Motes

Mo Fan couldn't help but plant a reverent kiss on the little Loach Pendant. Damn thing had serious standards — whoever had brought a simple pendant to this level of sophistication truly deserved respect.

Back in his room, Mo Fan ran another check.

It was indeed a Spirit Essence — a Servant-class Spirit Essence.

A Servant-class Spirit Essence was still enormously valuable. Every Stardust Artifact required this rare commodity, which was precisely why demand for it never let up.

Just as Mo Fan was daydreaming about how he'd make his fortune through the Loach Pendant, he stumbled onto a very serious problem.

This Spirit Essence... couldn't be taken out.

"Loach Pendant, don't mess with me. If I can't extract the Spirit Essence, I can't take it to an auction house. No auction house, no money." Mo Fan could only manage a pained smile.

Finding gold was one thing — if you couldn't carry it out, what use was all that gold?

He studied the problem for a long while and confirmed it: the condensed Spirit Essence could not be separated from the Loach Pendant. At this rate, the Servant-class Spirit Essence he'd so laboriously extracted was nothing more than a display piece.

Had he gotten his hopes up for nothing?

Mo Fan refused to give up and kept toying with it.

He skipped breakfast entirely, racking his brain for any way to pry loose this hard-won treasure.

Using his Mental Intent, he probed at it over and over. The Spirit Essence seemed incapable of going anywhere except into his own Inner World — as though it bore some kind of soul brand, permanently bound to him.

*But what does that even matter? Even if it drifts into my Inner World, then what?*

After a long while of fruitless fiddling, a bored Mo Fan decided to try something different: he guided the Spirit Essence toward his Lightning Element Star Nebula.

The Lightning Element Star Nebula shimmered in deep violet-black, coiled into a vast whirlpool of nebulae that blazed with uncommon brilliance against the sweeping expanse of his Inner World cosmos.

As Mo Fan steered the faintly glowing Spirit Essence inward, its dim, firefly-like light began drifting on its own toward one of the Lightning Element Star Motes.

Before he could even process what was happening, that Star Mote suddenly unleashed a magnetic force — and swallowed the Spirit Essence whole.

"What the hell — you can't just eat that!"

A Spirit Essence was worth three to five million! Gone, just like that. How dare it!

And on top of that, the Star Mote that normally listened without complaint had suddenly thrown a tantrum and devoured a Spirit Essence — with absolutely no sign it intended to give it back.

Mo Fan stared blankly.

He'd only been experimenting. He hadn't expected the Spirit Essence to actually get eaten — and by one of the seven Star Motes he'd chained together into his magical Star Trail, no less.

Once again, reality had completely outpaced his understanding. Mo Fan hurried off to find Teacher Qiu Yuhua, desperate for some kind of explanation.

"A Star Mote swallowing a Spirit Essence?"

The old professor pushed his reading glasses up, a smile spreading across his face.

Qiu Yuhua had always loved it when students brought him strange, unusual questions. Being able to answer them proved just how well-read he was.

The question Mo Fan had posed was a tricky one — most books never documented this sort of thing. As luck would have it, the old professor had come across a few texts that touched on exactly this subject. He cleared his throat, launched into a lengthy and only tangentially related account of its historical origins, and eventually circled back to the main point.

"You should know by now that Spirit Essence is extraordinary — it provides immense benefits to a Mage's cultivation. Its greatest use is in crafting Meditation artifacts: both Stardust Artifacts and Star Nebula Artifacts carry tremendous value. But Spirit Essence wasn't always used that way. Before people harnessed Undead Element vessel-craft to develop Stardust Artifacts and Star Nebula Artifacts, Spirit Essence was used purely as a strengthening material," Qiu Yuhua said.

"A strengthening material — for what?" Mo Fan asked immediately.

"For Star Motes, of course. Why else would your Star Mote have swallowed it?" Qiu Yuhua blew out through his mustache.

"You can strengthen Star Motes?"

"Indeed. Before Meditation artifacts were invented, that's how Spirit Essence was wasted."

"If you can strengthen Star Motes, does that mean the spells those Star Motes form also get stronger?" Mo Fan pressed.

"Naturally. Strengthen the Star Mote, strengthen the skill."

"Then... isn't that a good thing?" A grin broke across Mo Fan's face.

So skills could be enhanced — this was excellent news.

He thought back to when he'd unleashed the Giant Shadow Nail under the Night Sovereign's Dominion and it had split into six, pinning a Battle-General-class Cursed Beast Demon like a specimen in a display case, with a soul-piercing effect to boot. The practical value of a skill enhancement was abundantly clear.

Qiu Yuhua shook his head. "I already told you — it's a waste."

"Why?" Mo Fan couldn't wrap his head around it.

"Spirit Essence is extraordinarily precious. If you've been to an auction house, you know how fiercely people fight over it. At every rank, there is never enough Spirit Essence to meet demand for Stardust Artifacts and Star Nebula Artifacts — who on earth would throw it at Star Mote enhancement? A basic-level spell has seven Star Motes. Every single one needs to be fed a Spirit Essence before the skill sees any meaningful improvement. And no Mage in their right mind would burn through seven whole Spirit Essences just to enhance one basic-level spell," Professor Qiu Yuhua concluded.

"Ah..." The expression on Mo Fan's face went decidedly stiff.

He was apparently exactly that Mage without a functioning brain. Five minutes ago, one of his Lightning Element Star Motes had swallowed a perfectly good Spirit Essence.

"So yes, spell enhancement exists, and Spirit Essence is indeed what makes it possible. But the cost-to-benefit ratio is abysmal — no different from burning money for kindling," Qiu Yuhua said.

Mo Fan nodded slowly, a faraway look in his eyes.

*Damn it.* If the Spirit Essences condensed inside the Loach Pendant couldn't be extracted and sold, his only option was to use them to strengthen his basic-level spells.

Seven Star Motes per spell. Feeding each one a Servant-class Spirit Essence would cost enough money to buy a Battle-General-class Spirit Essence outright.

And the so-called skill enhancement wasn't going to be some earth-shattering leap in power — it certainly wouldn't bring a basic spell up to mid-tier strength. Teacher Qiu Yuhua had said it plainly: no sane Mage would do this.

*I'll keep trying to get it out. And if I truly can't... then I'll just have to strengthen the Star Motes.*

Mo Fan could only laugh through his frustration.

At least it was better than leaving it hovering over some river as a glorified ornament. And besides, watching it just sit there uselessly was its own kind of torment.