Chapter 115: Breakdown

When Adrian and I arrived at the medical room, we were surprised to find it empty. Reed and Irene had already left.

As expected, despite being injected with a massive dose of anesthetic, Irene didn't suffer any side effects. She was completely fine, just sleeping longer than usual.

The military doctors were curious about the light elf's high drug resistance. They secretly took some blood samples but couldn't figure out why, probably because they didn't understand the properties of light elements.

We returned to Reed's place and finally met them.

"Have you been cleared of suspicion?" Reed asked emotionlessly, looking up from her book.

"Yeah, I guess so," I replied, glancing around the room. It was similar in size to mine, but I noticed Irene huddled in a corner, focused on something.

I went over and saw she was playing with a smartphone! It looked like a recent full-screen model - I was jealous since I'd never used one. She must have gotten it from the shopping street yesterday.

Like Earth kids her age, Irene was full of curiosity and couldn't resist the smartphone's appeal. She might have seen them before through Earth people.

Kids usually play games or watch videos on phones. Irene was completely absorbed in a short video app called "Tiki Toki". I wanted to warn her not to get too addicted.

"You should be careful..." I started to say, but then I remembered Irene would probably go back tomorrow, so I swallowed the rest of my words.

"Mm, I know," Irene mumbled without looking up. Annoyed, I rolled my eyes and went back to talk to Reed.

"Now that we have time, there's a lot I wanted to ask you about. Like when I met Camille in my neighborhood - she suddenly got much stronger. And we met Cyra from a parallel world. Isn't that crazy?"

Besides checking on Irene, Adrian and I wanted to understand the mysteries we'd encountered on Earth. We were eager to hear Reed's thoughts.

"Cyra from a parallel world? Are you sure you're not mistaken? Even if she is from a parallel world, why would she appear on Earth?"

These strange experiences quickly piqued her curiosity. The usually expressionless girl put down her book and listened attentively.

Reed couldn't explain the concept of parallel worlds. But when Adrian mentioned the abundance of Battle Qi in this world, I noticed a subtle change in her expression.

"Do you know why?" I blurted out.

"Battle Qi? No, I don't know why there's so much Battle Qi on Earth," she denied, but her tone suggested otherwise. She quickly clarified:

"But Battle Qi itself should be a very rare energy, usually released by Battle Qi Awakeners. If what Adrian says is true, I might have found out why the space tunnel hasn't closed normally!"

"Why?" Adrian and I were stunned, not expecting her to connect these two things.

The space tunnel has always been a concern for me. Normally, Galadra shouldn't make mistakes with the Cycle of Rebirth. Since she cut off the earth element supply for the Cycle of Rebirth, the portal connecting the two worlds should gradually shrink and disappear due to lack of energy.

But Reed said she had confirmed that the portal seemed to be getting extra energy from somewhere else and wasn't shrinking yet.

She thought it might be due to the Battle Qi on Earth.

Battle Qi is a fusion of all elements. It's energy, but very different from elements. In Eldoria Continent, elements dominate, so Battle Qi is extremely rare in the environment.

This means Battle Qi Awakeners can't enhance their strength by absorbing environmental Battle Qi like magicians can. Even if they could, it wouldn't be enough. 

The only way is to be self-sufficient and synthesize it themselves. This is a prerequisite for awakening Battle Qi.You need to fuse equal amounts of various elements together.

From Adrian's experience, the process sounds simple. Most of the internal energy synthesis happens naturally in the body. The only factor affecting speed is whether the Battle Qi Awakener can effectively absorb various elements from the outside world in a balanced way.

So ultimately, although Battle Qi isn't an element, it's closely related to elements. Because it's synthesized from elements, it naturally exhibits some special properties of elements under certain conditions. The most representative example is Adrian's word arrows, which have countless possibilities.

"Since the element ratio in Battle Qi must be very balanced, Battle Qi usually has a very stable structure and properties. If an external-type Battle Qi master releases Battle Qi directly from their body to harm enemies, this energy is generally difficult to break down into elements," Reed continued explaining.

"But what does this have to do with the portal connecting the two worlds? Could the Battle Qi on Earth have broken down into earth elements, providing energy to the portal again? But didn't you say Battle Qi is very stable?" Adrian seemed to have found the key point but wasn't sure.

"It is indeed very stable," Reed nodded firmly. "Normally, it would take at least tens of thousands, or even over a hundred thousand years for Battle Qi to slowly break down into various elements. But the problem is that not long ago, something unusual happened near this base, so I suspect..."

"Something unusual?" I was confused. The formation of space portals requires earth elements, so it can't directly use Battle Qi. The only possibility is as Adrian guessed - the Battle Qi around here broke down into elemental state for some reason. The key question is, what could make Battle Qi break down into elements, bypassing tens of thousands of years?

"Actually, when we first arrived on Earth, the H-country military consulted me about the monster invasion. They mentioned that when the portal first formed, several extremely powerful monsters attacked the base," Reed said hesitantly, as this was secondhand information. "Monsters are much larger and more defensive than humans. They said the monsters once almost charged into the portal under heavy fire, but were ultimately stopped on Earth's side."

"Tch, isn't that normal? Uh..." I scoffed, not surprised at all. I wondered why she brought this up, but quickly realized what she meant.

Of course! Although not purely made of light elements like angels, higher-level monsters have more dark elements accumulated in their bodies. Monsters that could pass through the space portal to Earth must be at least level five, with some even reaching level six! Once these monsters die, the large amount of dark elements in their bodies would spread across Earth.

Dark elements have properties opposite to light elements - they greatly activate matter and energy! The death of one or two monsters might not be enough to make Battle Qi cross the hundred-thousand-year gap, but if many die in one place, the concentration might be high enough...

Add to that the abundance of Battle Qi on Earth, and if decomposition does occur, with surrounding Battle Qi continuously replenishing, it might trigger a large-scale chain reaction!

Could this be where all those elements floating around the base came from? I fell into confused thought. I had previously assumed they all came from the other world through the portal, but now it seems there might be too many for that explanation.

After all, even though I'm near the portal now, I still can't contact Galadra. This can only be because the amount of elements seeping through the portal is too small. Even using the Spiritual Network to communicate with Elara in Edenmere is nearly impossible - not that we can't connect at all, but the "call" quality is so poor that I can't hear what she's saying clearly.